Comix Step-by-Step

Step by step from pencilling to inking to the digital-coloring

Really cool site for design

This site I think really exemplifies the close link that exists in all the creative disaplines.

http://iso50.com/iso50.html

This guy is really expressing himself in many mediums and the feel of the music while you peruse his visualls is really cool.

a complete world, a really good job at creating a harmonius enviroment.

Teh Drubbing

Noun 1. drubbing – a sound defeat

Noun 2. drubbing – the act of inflicting corporal punishment with repeated blows

synonyms: thrashing, trouncing, walloping, whipping, slaughter, debacle

We lost 4-1 to Chivas Rayada. It was a horrible, horrible drubbing. As if a drubbing can be anything but horrible.

Sitting On Balls

One of my office-mates is considering trying out an exercise-ball instead of a chair as his main sit-on-thing at work. I had never heard of this practice and am now intrigued, partly because I am a terrible sloucher, but also because it would be funny to see an office full of big orange exercise-balls instead of office-chairs. Also, of course, there are all kinds of jokes to made….

multiple keyboards - Google Search

multiple keyboards - Google Search
A quick Google search reveals that most people want fewer keyboards rather than more, but after I read this blog post's comments I started thinking about how cool it would be to have more than one keyboard.

Basically, screen-sizes are getting so that you can permanently keep more than one application in the foreground. However, most operating systems only allow one application to have focus at a time. For example, even though you have Word and Excel running side by side on the screen, you can only type into one or the other.

I think it would be cool to be able to have a second keyboard that was tied to a specific application. Right now I have a bunch of iChat windows on the right-hand-side of the monitor. I change focus to write in them, but I'm not changing the screen very much. Because of this, sometimes I get confused about what app I'm really in and hit command L to write a URL in Safari, which accidentally logs me out of AIM in iChat.

I would like an input manager preference pane that lets me designate a second little keyboard just for iChat, so instead of changing focus to that application, I can just type in a quick note on a different physical keyboard.

Dinosaur Comics

This is one of my favorite online-comic series

i made an icon set.

and there it is! i am working on a UI project which keeps getting more and more interesting. i spent today reworkng the grid that i built the first comps on and making the icons.

right now the only thing i am happy with (besides the icons) is the color palette that is developing. i also got to sit in on a meeting between the client and developers. it was interesting, but it seems like a good professional team.

one thing i heard a lot of was scope protection on the part of the developers. i think i can learn a lesson from those guys.

If you played Zork, or anything like it, then this is even more funnier

Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure

FINALLY - last week's comic - Character Development

i would really like many many responses on this posting
because there are a few things i am troubled with
and i'd like to see if anyone else is surprised or troubled by them

OK - some background

i wanted to post this on Friday for the Stripfight contest but missed the deadline completely - and unfortunately not because i was having trouble making the url (ok - don't make fun of my computer-speak)
the theme was jealousy
and my main concern - at the time of making this strip - was depicting jealousy in the office
SO
this is what came out

also - you'll notice a startling difference with this post
i did it in pen
that was QUITE a change and quite a challenge
it's pretty hard to do in ink
but I read THIS GUY'S notes and he does it in pen
well
maybe i'm using the wrong pen (this is what i'm using)
and i know i'm using the wrong paper
but that's neither here nor there

i am so excited
i just sent off for one of my many university transcripts so i can get back in school!

U of H
Here i come!

Houston. Wonderful Namer of Names.

The name for the Houston MLS team has been decided upon. We can now all cheer for the Houston 1836!

Because we sure as heck aint going to cheer for FC Dallas!

So what does one call a Houston 1836 player? A Houston 1836er? a 36er?

Got to go to the mountain

Last saturday I went snowboarding.
It was a nice solitary trip.
Just me.
Got to pick and choose where I went and at what speed with no consideration other then the few feet that was in front of me.

after going up about once a year for the last six years, I finally am starting to feel just as comfortable as I do on my skateboard. This is a wonderful feeling. Like having a true love reborn in a new form and finding out that what you love has nothing to do with what form it comes in.

It is like when I was recently using plaster to carve some heads. The first two looked like odd attempts to recreate African primitive simplicity while using my feet to do the carving. but about the fifth one, my understandings of how to let myself express myself had finally woken up, had it's coffee, and come over to offer much needed advice, and upon seeing the state-of-affairs, quietly took over.

It is such a feeling, when the work of something melts away and I can become lost within an activity. To be able to see the landscape open for exploring.

What's that?.......Oh.....Uh... no sir, Yes this is work related, yes sir, right away sir. It will be on your desk in ten minutes.

sheesh.

So Cool A OS Setting, Why Don't You Click It?

macosxhints - Modify the system-wide interface scale factor

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.5

Safari Is Growing Up

One of the reasons why I keep Firefox around are the web developer extensions. Safari has something interestingly similar or better called the Web Inspector. After downloading the nightly build of Safari (or WebKit), I started to look at other updates and it looks like Safari has picked up a very Firefox-like JavaScript Console. I'm not certain if Firefox's console has the ability to act as a method of window, but in Safari you can window.console.log('I think therefore I code!'); to message the console. Very neat!

the weekend

so last sunday i met a few of our neighbors and rescued a roof-stuck kitty. i was doing laundry, minding my own business when i swore i heard the elusive cat-bird. looking up (where cat-birds generally are) i realized it was just a plain ol’ cat that was stuck on the roof of the carriage house where the washing machine lives.

“what?” i said in responsive to it’s plaintive mewing. “it’s not my fault you can’t get down. you should have thought of that earlier.”

the cat blinked. the cat mewed.

“fine.” i said and set about figuring out how he got up there in the first place. enter the neighbor Summer emerged from her apartment and told me that kitty had been on the roof all night. enter the neighbor/neighbor’s sister Treasure likewise emerged and confirmed what her sister had told me. by this time i had sized up the stiuation and knew what i had to do. besides put my wet clothes into the drier.

i displatched Summer to fetch a pillowcase, and clambered up the fence to make friends with kitty. Summer returned with the pillowcase, and held it up old-school fireman trampoline style because she would not be tall enough to grab the cat from me directly.

after petting kitty and making happy noises at it i quickly grabbed it firmly by the scruff of its neck and yanked it off the roof. the cat found itself dangling in mid-air, unable to scratch my face off as it so desperately wanted to. i then lowered him into the pillowcase and Summer bundled him up and got him to the ground safely for both parties. kitty, looking unimpressed, licked himself a few times before sauntering off and mewing demandingly at his food bowl.

i hate cats. but the neighbors seem nice.

i made a flip book

it was FUN
see HERE

Geely

I was trying to find information about Geely, the chinese automaker, and I came across this sweet page about The Beauty Leopard.

The infinite vital force and the excellent driving feeling heats up your endless enthusiasm in your blood vessels.

I also came across GS Motorworks. Looks like they sell some pretty swell scooters. The Sinclair Scooter strikes me as a pretty good deal for a 4-stroke, 49cc, two-seater…

Treats

Today, Adolfo was especially good at school today so carol and i took him on a date. We drove him to the Galleria and had a chicken nugget dinner at McDonalds, complete with apple juice, milk and slices of apples (rather than the french fries). After he gobbled that down we spent the rest of the night in the larger than life video arcade at the back of the food court. For those of you from houston, it's where the theater used to be - incidentally, the site of my first kiss. Then, on our way out, we took him to Dylan's where he got a bag of yogurt covered pretzels and daddy got a bag of sweedish fish. yum.

...And Now I Can't Hate on Her

Alright here’s the sh*t. Every Thursday I go to the same fricken spinn’n class ‘cause the teacher of said class is a freak and I can’t help myself but to go because I’m afraid she’ll beat my ass if I don’t show.
She’s Australian and a hoot but the point of this little anecdote isn’t her at all, but one of my fellow cyclists…
Mindy has a problem, namely me. She’s a tiny little waif of a woman, Asian and altogether cute. She never has anything bad to say to anyone and is polite to everyone she comes across, asking about people’s kids. “How’s your new job going?
I can’t stand her. She has this habit of screaming…the entire class she screams. Here I am trying to get ZEN with it, and she’s beltin it out like she thinks she’s Xena er something. It’s really pissing me off ‘cause I’m trying to get one with my universe and Hello Kitty over there is Yodeling for ¥en. Every time she did it I would drift off to some place that allowed me to lift her off the bike and launch her into the far wall. I know I’m a bad person for thinking it, it’s just that that was my time and she’s intruding on it. I was pissed because I was spending too much energy focusing on hating her and not on my performance.
After class, I get off my bike and stroll on over to say something to her. She has done this in EVERY class and I’ve had it! What I didn’t see was that the chick just to the side of her had dropped the bottle cap to her water on the floor. I’m so focused on ruining Hello Kitty’s day, that I didn’t see measly little bottle cap. I step on it and then immediately connect with floor with a none-too-gracious thud.
That SUCKED! Good one JP! Truly Intimidating! Dumb-butt.

Mindy: “Ohh baby are you okay? I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”
Dumb-butt: "Yeah I’m okay (not okay). Just ate shit is all."
Mindy: "You really went down hard (I've heard that before). You need some help?"
Dumb-butt: "Naw…I got it. Thank you for offering. I appreciate it."
She put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me like she was truly concerned with whether or not I was okay. Then the dropper came a’lookin for her bottle cap.
Dropper: “Oh this was my fault. I dropped this on the floor. This is all my fault.”
Dumb-butt: “Yeah…It’s okay.” I handed her the cap, humbled and sheepish.

And that was it. Totally disarmed. Now I have to endure the battle-cry for all future spinnin classes. The stupid bottle cap dropper foiled my plans and now I’m forced to take the high road…You can truly tell that Mindy is one of these people that has a genuine soul. I’m glad divine intervention stopped me from snarking all over it. I’ll learn to deal with the screaming.
Y'all have a great weekend.

Staring into the face of God

The computers should be coming back to us from IT tomorrow.

i feel like a commercial.

you know, the one with an aerial view of a downtown area with arrows saying the office is here, but what if you want to work here with an arrow pointing to a park.

i say that because, i am currently sitting in the little park just outside of Pennzoil Tower with a nice strong wireless signal so i thought Why don’t i fire up Paper Lantern and fire off a post?

i can’t really say just yet why i find myself downtown in a park, but suffice it to say that it involves a nice little job that i am excited to be doing.

Ricky Gervais ... Like You've Never Seen Him before

Who is Seona? Why is she dancing? Does anybody care?

Link

White Out

Today is Thursday.
It is snowing in Denver.
Denver. Snow.
Why didnt it snow last week when I was ski-ing?
Why now? In Denver.
I am thankfull for some facsimilie of winter.
I come home tomorrow, to high's in the 70's.

Hacendado Sorensen

Starting on February 4th I will be embarking on a 5 Hacienda tour in Mexico till the 17th. Late in 1997 Starwood (Westin, W, St. Regis, Sheraton hospitality managment and holding company) bought and renovated 5 dilapidated 17th century Haciendaa in the Yucatan.
Hacienda Puerta Campeche
Hacienda Santa Rosa
Hacienda Temozon
Hacienda San Jose
Hacienda Uayamon
Killy and Meagan (sometimes Adolph) used to rib me about being a little too "La Raza" back in the day but I am seriously very excited about this trip and it's convergence of my interests. Considering how much money I spent and time spent to learn about Mexican Colonial history I have done very little with it or nurtured this interest since college. Other than visiting the Hacienda outside of Guanajuato I have been to no others. The plus side is that I get paid and will be coddled in the lap of luxury. The other bonus is that they are very close to a spattering of Mayan Ruins such as Chicen Itza. I get giddy thinking about it. I am going to spend the next few weeks polishing my history of Mexican Hacienda, Encomienda, and Cast systems.

Paper Lantern 1.4 Is Ready For Download!

The brave and adventurous can find it here.

New Features

• Support for the Atom protocol. This means that posts to Blogger.com blogs will have proper titles!

• Textile formatting. Textile formatting makes it a snap to add bullet-points and other fancy stuff to your posts!

Tips For Chairjockey Users

• set the protocol to: atom

• set the rpc url to: https://www.blogger.com/atom/4105774

Enjoy!

textile testing

this should be bold text. this is my first post with the Paper Lanter Power Blogging Suite. it uses Textile which does some real slick markup stuff that is nice to use. right now i only know how to make stuff bold.

this should be in a new P tag because i put in two carraige returns.

“good work there Pablo!“

Barbara, Intern

Barbara just called me, out of breath. She got a summer internship at PaperCity in Houston. She also got her first (test) assignment from the Daily Texan. I tried to calm her down. I think she's drinking a lot of coffee these days.

Congratulations Sister!

crazy perspective art!

this link is for everyone but i think adolph will dig it the most.

and when is the latest Paper Lantern going to be available for download?

LED Lights and Stirling Engines

I am totally fascinated by LED lighting and Stirling Engines

A follow-up.

There was a buzz all weekend. Should I go over and say hello? Should I not? Should I go over and say hello? Should I not? Saturday afternoon, in the midst of tearing down wallpaper, (which, by the way, is the most disgusting home improvement project ever and thank God for my brother-in-law, who has much stronger arms than me or my sister) another note came through the slot telling me that the "party" (her quotes) was "on" (my quotes) and Bubbles and Chomps, another recent addition to the block would be in attendance as well!

Mindy and Juan said that I had no choice, two notes meant to had to go over and say something, but still I hesitated. What if the family was sitting down to dinner or the woman writing the notes wasn't even there or, worse yet, was plain old insane and would not remember that she had invited me to a party? What would I say then?

So Saturday passed without a word between our houses.

Sunday came and I had a band to interview, so I left again without saying a word, knowing the party would be nearly over by the time I returned. I picked up Brian from UH and told him I'd made up my mind, it was time to go over and say hello. And with the party surely soon to be over by the time we arrived home, it wouldn't be a big deal, we could just pop in and pop out.

Brian wasn't having any of it and refused to go over. He's like that and, well, it's not one of his better qualities, but at least he doesn't hunt or clip his toenails in front of me.

I hesitated twice on the fifty-foot walk between our houses. I rang the doorbell. People were chattering and no one was answered the door until someone said, "someone's at the door!" and this young, fat guy answered. He looked puzzled and I had to explain that I lived next door and he said, "prove it," and I laughed like I wanted to punch him. He let me in and I asked for the woman who was writing the notes and everyone kept saying her name, but she was bent over a little Chinese girl who was nattering on about her mail and how no one else was going to give her any more mail. Finally, someone got the woman's attention and I explained who I was and she screamed with delight and said, "oh! oh! add her to the list!" because there was a diagram of the block on posterboard that showed who lived where and she told me who everyone was and where they lived and, I swear to you, I don't remember any of their names.

She asked what I did for a living and I told her and she told me about all of the people she's not related to that she's raised. Apparently, this woman is a saint. A high-strung saint. She showed me pictures and introduced me to her daughter, who wouldn't look me in the eye when I shook her hand (but that's ok, I used to do that too). I was also introduced to the guy who smokes in his backyard next door and hacks until 1 a.m. He's got a combover and he reminded me of Dwight on the American version of The Office. She told me I had to get a dog! That everyone has a dog in this neighborhood! But I shook my head firmly and said, "I have two cats," and she said, "oh! We've got another cat lady," and pointed to the woman with the sexless haircut and mock turtleneck. "She feeds all the strays."

Everyone was very poorly dressed, but I loved that about them.

I left about ten minutes after I'd arrived and now feel I've made a good first step to being a really adequate neighbor.

who knows anything about mac tablet

tell me what i need to know
if you know anything about it or what

like how come there are tablet PCs and no macs yet
and does anyone know when mac will get it out there?

looks like it's made for draw-ers and artsty types

so whattya know

share share share

Nineteen-seventy-one was the Year of Spaghetti

Thinking about spaghetti that boils eternally but is never done is a sad, sad thing.

I am cooking spaghetti and I am reminded of a short story written by Haruki Murakami called The Year Of Spaghetti. He has had several spaghettis published in the New Yorker. I have enjoyed them all.

Between You And Me

Holy smokes I think that this short, made entirely from still-shots, is fantastic...

At The Shooting Range

Went to a shooting range out past Manor with Thomas, Ryan and Todd. It was fun! Thomas brought an AR-15 , a.22 rifle, and a Sprinfield Sub-Compact pistol. I shot the least poorly with the .22 and the most poorly with the Springfield. Todd was an absolute ace the the pistol. No duels with Todd is my new rule...

Big Shoes to Fill

MacBook Pro iSight

MacBook Pro iSight
Originally uploaded by Pxl3000.

It sure is tiny!

When I was last in Tokyo..

I saw the most outrageous character on the cross walk doing Samuel Jackson impersonations.

Had to take a picture.





I heard that later he stripped off the briefs.

Cell Phone Belly Button Lint Detail

Cell Phone Belly Button Lint Detail
Originally uploaded by Amber & Adolph.

I think that one of the reasons why cell phones shouldn't have cameras is that the camera acts like a belly button of the phone and collects pocket lint.

There goes the neighborhood

Ok, so I moved into this neighborhood, right. It's a nice place, there are families around and dogs and old people. Modest houses, you know, but the kind that people take pride in.

But Brian and I aren't so much, you know, neighborly. We just want to be left alone. But today we come home to find someone has slipped a note through our mail slot. It's on duck-themed note paper. It says welcome to the neighborhood and would you like to come over on Sunday and we will invite everyone else over from this end of the block and we'll get to know each other! Love, Jean and Bob. Here's our phone number! Can't wait to meet you!

What the hell do we do now? We just want to be left alone! Call and explain this? Ignore it and become "those people"? Go when it would likely kill us (especially since one of us is going to be indisposed and unavailable)?

Advice appreciated, as always.

I remain,
Antisocial

Photoshop and Illustrator Help

I need Photoshop and Illustratror help. I would like to do the following more efficiently:

• strip out the background (make the background transparent)
• turn into vector drawing

D3 said something about using ‘Alpha Channels’ to separate the drawing from the background. Does that make sense? What does it mean? Any tips?

Posted with version 1.4 of Paper Lantern using its sweet Textile support

LUNCHTIME

number 3

Steve Jobs keynote live from Macworld 2006 - Engadget

Steve Jobs keynote live from Macworld 2006 - Engadget: "12:48 PM -'Hi, I'm Steve and welcome to my weekly podcast, Super-secret Apple
Rumors.' (huge laughs) 'I have some pretty good sources inside Apple, and the next iPod is going to be
HUGE, like 8 pounds ... See you next week.'"

Amazing.

So Liverpool played Luton Town in FA cup match this Saturday. They were losing 3-1, a near insurmountable gap in soccer, when, just as they did last year against AC Milan in the most amazing comeback of all time, they came back to win the match 5-3.

What is also amazing is that the Liverpoolian spaniard Xabi Alonso scored the fifth goal from his own half of the field- a 60 yard shot.

What is even more amazing that than that is the fact that at the beginning of the season a Liverpool fan had bet 200 pounds that Xabi would score a goal from his own half at least once during the season:

A Liverpool fan has won 25,000 pounds ($43,880) after betting that midfielder Xabi Alonso would score from his own half this season, British media reported on Monday.

link

Battlestar Galactica

I do not know how many of y'all have been watching BSG, but the season started up again on Friday. I was unable to watch the episode because I was drinking a bucket of Coors and watching Smokey and The Bandit at the Alamo Drafthouse. But luckily for me and the rest of you BSG fans, you can download the new episode from iTunes. Apparently the download takes no time at all and the video-quality is just fine. Nice!

Consider this...Lightroom!

AdobeLabs has released a pretty cool image sorter/processor. I've been tooling around with Lightroom this morning, and i'm pretty impressed with it. Even some minimal batching abilities. Give it a whirl and post some feedback. The best part, of course, is that you can import and edit Photoshop documents - something that you can't do in iPhoto.

UPDATE: It's sweet.

UPDATE2: I forgot to include a link to the download

UPDATE3: Lightroom, by default, creates a library in your Pictures folder similar to iphoto, but you can change that to anywhere including external drives. Plus you can choose to either copy them to a new library or referece them from their existing location. It gets sweeter and sweeter as i use it. Performance seems pretty fluid as well even with these larger psd's and my tiny laptop.

UPDATE:4 Todd, check out the slideshow export options. It will export a flash gallery, html, etc... Taggart, check out the printing options.

Broken Link

btw, Paul, I just thought you should know that the reason why no one responded to "Beardasaurus" was because the link seems to be broken when you click to post a comment ...

I liked the drawing and it made me wonder if you have grown a beard and if you are in fact a beardasaurus now yourself!

I LOVE UNITED AIRLINES

WELL, IF ALL WORKS WELL, YOU CAN SEE FROM THE ATTACHED FOTO THAT THE AIRLINES SENT BACK THE PRESENT I MADE FOR LAURA. NOT A BONE OUT OF PLACE. THANK YOU UNITED AIRLINES.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Last night I watched a couple of episodes from season one of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Holy crap its funny. And painful- in the oh my gosh I am so embarrassed sort of way, not the ¡yikes! an umbrella just poked me in the eye while I was dashing across the London Bridge on my skateboard kind of way.

GQ Prof

So, has anyone heard from Dr. Gordon these days? Is he a dad? Is he still bald? I miss his dreamy-eyed soliloquies and dramatic gesturing and his passion for teaching. He inspired me and was maybe the best prof I had at SWT. Why? Because he made me think and re-think my basic assumptions about life, the soul, the universe, etc.

MAKE MAGAZINE

IF YA'LL HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MAGAZINE YET, IT IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING I HAVE COME ACROSS IN A WHILE.
IT IS LIKE TAKING THE READY-MADE MAG AND ACTUALLY MAKING IT INTERESTING .
ALL KIND OF REALLY TECH STUFF

http://www.makezine.com/current/

THERE IS AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SEGWAY CREATOR.
HE GOES INTO A BIT OF THEIR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY AND PRESENT THE IDEA OF A "SOUTH POINTING CART"
AN INCREDIBLY INTRICATE WORK OF ENGENIERING FROM CHINA'S WAY BACK PAST THAT HELPED THE PEOPLE PULLING IT NOT GET LOST ALONG THEIR WAY, IT HAD A POINTER ON IT THAT WAS CALABRATED TO POINT SOUTH, AND AS THE WHEELS TURN, THEY ARE LINKED TO DIFFERENTIALS THAT ADJUST TO KEEP THE POINTER ALWAYS POINTING SOUTH.
HE THEN SPOKE ABOUT HOW THEY ALSO HAD THE USE OF RUDIMENTARY COMPASSES, A VERY SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO NOT GET LOST.

HE SPOKE OF THIS BECAUSE, THERE IS A TENDENCY TO GET LOST IN THE LOVE OF A TECHNOLOGY AND GET BLINDED BY THIS AND SPEND LOTS OF TIME AND MONEY ON A SOLUTION THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ANSWERED MUCH MORE SIMPLY AND ELEGANTLY WITH ANOTHER APPROACH.

IT IS A GREAT MAGAZINE WITH LOTS OF HACKER-DO-IT-YOURSELF MAKE COOL SHIT KINDA STUFF. ALOT OF ELECTRONICS
BUT NOT SO OUT OF REACH AS TO ALIENATE THE UNINITIATED.

comic number two

OK
i'm a little late on this one
will catch up with this next one

what do you think of this title?

New Frontiers in Spam

I just got an email at work that looked like a reply from a registration confirmation, only it came from an sbcgglobal.net email address. I wonder if spammer's are harvesting information from email receipts sent to typo-ed email addresses. For example

1. Sam mistypes his email address sam@sbcgglobal.net
2. Receipt email goes to the spammer server set up at sbcgglobal.net instead of the intended sbcglobal.net.
3. Spammers now have name and other information, like address, to go with the email address (since they know things that come to sbcgglobal.net are intended for sbcglobal.net).
4. . . .
5. Profit!

UT Victory!!!!

I caught the 2nd half of the UT-USC Rose Bowl game last night at the Tavern with Taggart, Liz, Todd and Dianna. The place was packed, of course, and appropriately loud. When UT won the place erupted in pandamonium. It was fun to be amongst such tribal energy.
Special thanks to Taggart for the marathon 7 hour 7 pitcher save-everyone-a-seat mission he performed.

Those of you who know my darling boyfriend

Will be interested in this story.

Marketing Part II

Okay, so I've been working on Ant's website and it's much improved -- we put in his hand lettering for the page titles, and I took out the numbers on the portfolio page and put in thumbnails, instead. We also put guestbooks on both our sites (thanks Todd and Adolph for the rec) so we can get feedback from people.

I've also been working the blog circuit -- I got Anthony listed on drawn.ca, as Carol posted earlier -- and on Illustrationmundo, another very cool website for art. It was actually very easy to do, since his work really did all the talking once I got the blog editors to the site.

So in just 3 days he's gone from 300 visitors to nearly 1,000 -- not too shabby...

And, internet marketing is kind of fun, after all...

Check out the improved site:

www.anthonyfreda.com

A Resolution Accomplished

I downloaded SuperDuper!, bought a license and have backed up my computer every night this week. It has been a resolution for a while now, not just a New Year's resolution, but I am pretty happy about it.

I also moved our family iPhoto album to the external drive so Amber can dock in with the iBook to use it. Next step is to move the iTunes library over to the external drive too.

Beardasaurus Rex!

Beardasaurus Rex!
Originally uploaded by Pablo Mercado.

No one is sure how to classify the Beardasaurus. Is he a rodent? maybe. Is he a furry dinosaur? perhaps. Is he abominable? certainly!

HELLO HELLO

HEY EVERYONE,

BEEN A BIT SINCE I POSTED ANYTHING.
ALWAYS FEELS THAT I HAVE COMMUNICATED WITH EVERYONE BY JUST READING THE POSTS.

WELL PORTLAND IS, SUPRISE, RAINING AND COLD, THE GOOD SIDE IS THAT THE MOUNTAIN IS GETTING LOTS OF SNOW.
WENT RIDING UP THERE THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS, IT WAS GREAT. DEFINITLY ONE OF THE PERKS OF LIVING UP HERE.

WORK IS WORK, I AM THERE AS I TYPE, MAKING MORE GROUND BREAKING DESIGNS TO PUT ONTO T-SHIRTS AND JACKETS AND OTHER STUFF TO FEED THE HUNGRY SPORT FASHION BEAST.

GONNA PLAY SOCCER TODAY, FIRST TIME IN ABOUT 4 MONTHS....... HAS IT REALLY BEEN THAT LONG, GEEZE OH PETE, TIME HAS A WAY OF MOVING ON.

GONNA SUIT UP AND HIT THE PITCH AT LUNCHTIME. DURING THE WINTER WE PLAY ON AN ARTIFICIAL FIELD, SO I WILL SEE HOW THAT A(E)FFECTS MY KNEES. NOW THAT WE ARE ALL OLD I CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT MY PHYSICAL AILMENTS AND FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT BEING IN COMPANY THAT UNDERSTANDS.

I WOULD PUT A LINK TO MY DISSERTATION ON THE WORKINGS OF MY DIGESTION AND IT'S OUTCOMES BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO ONE OF THOSE FANCY BLUE HIGHLIGHTED LINK THINGS. SO YA'LL WILL JUST HAVE TO IMAGINE.

OKAY, HERE IS A STORY.

LAURA LOVES TO COLLECT ALL THINGS NATURAL.
THINGS SHE PARTICULARLY LIKES ARE THE MADE THINGS OF BIRDS. THE OBVIOUS BEING NESTS, WHICH SHE HAS A BUNCH OF, BUT ANOTHER ONE IS OWL PELLETS, OR HAWK PELLETS. THESE BEING THE REGURGITATED MASSES OF TINY RODENT THEY HAVE CONSUMED. IT IS JUST LIKE IT SOUNDS, A PELLET OF BONES AND FUR.
THERE IS THIS PARTICULAR STAND OF FIR TREES THAT HAS THESE PELLETS IN ABUNDANCE. THEY ARE EASY TO SPOT ON THE NEEDLE COVERED GROUND BY THE WHITISH BONES THAT PROTRUDE THROUGH THE GREY FUR. MOST OF THE TIMES YOU WILL SEE A PIECE OF A SKULL.

WELL WE HAVE COLLECTED ABOUT 25 OR SO OF THESE THINGS, AND THEY CAME IN HANDY THIS YEAR ROUND CHRISTMAS.

WHILE THE GIRLS WERE IN WEST VIRGINIA, BEFORE I WENT OUT TO JOIN THEM, I TOOK SIX OF THESE PELLETS AND SOAKED THEM IN WATER OVERNIGHT, THE NEXT DAY I GOT AN X-ACTO KNIFE AND SOME TWEEZERS AND SET TO THE BACK BREAKING TASK OF SEPERATING THE BONES FROM THE FUR. NOW IF YOU IMAGINE THE SIZE OF AN OWL OR A HAWK MOST OF THEM ARE A DECENT SIZE, HOUSE CAT SIZE, NOW PICTURE THEIR MOUTHS, THESE LITTLE RODENT HAVE TO BE ABLE TO GO DOWN THAT HATCH, SO THE LITTLE FURRY MEALS ARE NOT VERY LARGE.

THERE WAS A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF HOLDING VERTEBRAE, THAT WERE QUITE A BIT SMALLER THEN AN ERASER ON THE BACK OF A MECHANICAL PENCIL WHEN IT'S OF NO USE ANY MORE, AND PUSHING WET TUFTS OF HAIR OUT OF THE HOLLOW THAT USED TO HOUSE THE SPINAL CORD. TINY TAIL BONE, LEG BONES, RIBS, AND OH THE BEAUTIFUL JAW BONES.
NOT TO MENTION THE DELICATE AND METICULOUS SKULLS COLORED BY THE LIFE THAT AT ONE POINT HOUSED THEM IN FLESH FUR AND BLOOD.
NATURE HAS A WAY OF CRAFTING THINGS SO DELICATE AND PURPOSEFUL THAT TO HOLD THEM IS TO ONCE AGAIN BE IN AWE OF ALL THAT GOES UNNOTICED.

AT THE END OF TWO LONG EVENINGS AND 10 CDS OF THE AUDIO VERSION OF GREAT EXPECTATIONS, I HAD AMMASED ENOUGH MATERIAL TO START THE PRESENT I WAS TO MAKE FOR LAURA.

I HAD PURCHASED A SHADOW BOX FROM THE LOCAL ART STORE, 8 X 5 X 4DEEP
I NOW SET TO THE TASK OF SUPER-GLUING BLACK SPRAY PAINTED TOOTH PICKS TO THE BACKS OF THE SKULLS AT VARIOUS ANGLES. WITH A PAIR OF TINY PLIERS I SUNK THE TOOTHPICKS INTO A PIECE OF BLACK SPRAY PAINTED CARDBOARD.

THIS WENT ON TILL I HAD A ROW OF SKULLS DOWN THE CENTER OF THE BOX, ALL AT DIFFERENT ANGLES. I THEN MADE SHELVES ON EITHER SIDE OF THE SKULLS AND ARRANGEDS THE SMALLER BONES.
THE RESULT WAS AMAZING. IT WAS ONE OF THOSE TIMES YOU STEP BACK AND ARE FLOORED THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO BE A PART OF WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED.

WELL NEEDLESS TO SAY I CRAFTED A SPECIAL BOX TO HOLD THIS IN SO THAT I COULD TRANSPORT IT TO WEST VIRGINIA.

ALL WENT WELL. I GOT IT THERE AND GAVE IT TO HER, AND SHE CRIED IN DISBELIEF AT OPENING AN HONEST SUPRISE.

WELL WE PACKED IT BACK INTO IT'S BOX AND STARTED OUR TRIP HOME.
CHARLESTON W.V. IS A SMALL AIRPORT AND THE PLANES THAT FLY OUT OF IT ARE GENERALLY SMALL, THE KIND WITH TWO SEATS ON EITHER SIDE OF AN ISLE. WELL MY SEAT WAS ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK ACROSS FROM THE TOILET.
SO EACH TIME ONE OF MY FELLOW TRAVELERS FELT MOVED, I GOT TO GET TO KNOW THEM IN THE MOST PERSONAL OF WAYS.
SO WHEN THE PLANE LANDED, I WAS READY TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT FUNK. SINCE I WAS AT THE BACK I WAITED TILL ALL OF THE WALKING SHIT FACTORIES GOT OFF BEFORE ME.

TRAVEL IS TOUGH.

AND AS WE BOARDED THE PLANE IN CHICAGO TO GO HOME, IT OCCURED TO ME.

MY PRECIOUS PARCEL WAS NOT IN MY POSSESION. IT WAS STILL QUIETLY SITTING UNDERNEATH SEAT 13B ON FLIGHT 6868 FROM CHARLESTON TO CHICAGO.

AFTER 400 MESSAGES ON THE O'HARE LOST AND FOUND ANSWERING MACHINE, THE AIRLINES LEFT A MESSAGE TO SAY THEM HAVE IT.

WE'LL SEE. I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE FED-EX THAT THEIR MESSAGE SPOKE ABOUT.

DONE.

Major League Soccer Coming To Houston!!!!!

One more reason to move to Houston!

Too bad the proposed names are so lame-o:

Apollos
Americans
Bulls
Buffalos
Eagles
Generals
Gatos
Houston 1836
Lonestars
Mustangs
Stallions
Stars
Toros

The Houston Americans? WTF?

Anthony Freda is on Drawn!

CHECK IT OUT!

3rd Hand Support System - Duluth Trading Company

Can anyone tell the difference between this 3rd Hand Support System and a tractor-trailer load-lock?

boy, i have not worked in a long time...

...or posted for that matter. hello everyone!

so, after a nice trip to san antonio to see the sights and the fam, diana and (with a lot of help from taggart and killy) moved our meager possesions from the slacker town of austin to the hipster town of houston. we have (in comparison to our previous place) a ginormous new apartment. we still get 'empty apartment' echo even though all our stuff is here. i would post a few pictures but our camera is broken.

diana is feeling a little puny after a whirlwind trip to seattle and back for a huge new year's salsa party. but she made it back safe and sound and is all hyped up to start her residency at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

amberF; i think adolph's suggestion of a survey of some sort is an excellent suggestion. i think it is vitally important to figure out how you got the clients you have and hear their input on how they would look for services such as yours.

and i will end this post with a question : did JP go shopping at the kroger on west gray on tuesday, january 3, 2006?

It was warm today.

It was warm today.

Not a nice warm, but a creepy warm- as if some sweaty asteroid was breathing on my atmosphere.

I, for one, do not like to be cold. But I also don't like it to be hot in Texas in January. What's going on? ABC news says that 2005 was the hottest year on record. link Should I have purchased a year-long pass to Barton Springs?

Geocaching

Geocaching

One of the fun things I did over the holidays was geocaching.

Geocaching is an outdoor activity that most often involves the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS") receiver or traditional navigational techniques to find a "geocache" (or "cache") placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually trinkets of little value. Participants are called geocachers; those not familiar with geocaching are called geo-muggles or just muggles, a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series.

I went with my sister's husband Aaron, who has been into geocaching for a while. He got a new GPS unit for Christmas, and we tried it out by looking up 5 or 6 caches that were within a 10-15 mile radius of the house. The GPS unit gets you within a meter or so the cache, and then it is a matter of just looking around for the hidden container type cache-thing.

A couple of the caches that we looked for were really well hidden; the toughest to find was hidden inside the pole at the end of chain-link fence- you had to unscrew the top of the pole and the cache was rolled up inside.

Typically the caches include a log-book that you sign to verify that you found the cache; they often contain found-items as well, little trinkets that geocachers have left behind.

It was good times. I think it would be fun to get a GPS device (do you have one Adolph?) and search out a few of the zillions of caches that are hidden around Austin. It would be a great bicycle-riding type trip to do on a lovely 70 degree winter day...

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass

I had been meaning to read the Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series for a while, but something always held me back. But after reading an article in ¿The New Yorker? the other day I decided to give the series a shot.
I have been well rewarded for my effort. I bought The Golden Compass on Saturday and finished it last night. I loved it (armored bears!!!!). I recommend it. I cannot wait to read the next book...

... think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Anybody want to volunteer their resolutions/goals??? I'm still trying to figure mine out...

I know that I definitely hope to:

• Figure out how to use punctuation, especially commas and semicolons.
• Learn some basic geometry and trigonometry
• Learn some basic statistics

Old Standbys

• keep in touch better
• write more love-letters