so . . . tired . . .

Welcome to all the visitors from Talk About Comics forum. I've been busy at school trying to teach freshmen how to draw or I would have written something earlier.

Thanks to James Kochalka for linking to my blog. It was nice to meet you, and my niece devoured your book in two days. Then she wouldn't let me read it.

So far I've had my students try some Mona Brooks exercises, done blind contour drawing, made them draw with their non-dominant hand, and done an upside-down drawing as recommended in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

On Monday I'll be visiting Chloe and Cletus in HEB and I get to see their 3 year old, and of course baby Mary.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Dr. Horrible meets Bad Horse

The coolest(?) My Little Ponies ever.

Busy

Posting will be sporadic for at least the next week, as school starts on Monday and I'm nowhere near ready. Wish me luck!


Here's two photos of James Kochalka from the SDCC, drawing his version of Warlock from New Mutants for a friend of his.

Ocean Beach (in San Diego)

This is the street at the end of the Ocean Beach Pier. It was about 10pm. We stayed at a little B&B on Narragansett Street. Very cute place.
Unfortunately, Ocean Beach is under the takeoff path for the planes at San Diego International. At 6am.


















I wanted to try to use my camera in manual mode. It's a Minolta Dimage*, and I've had really good luck with it. Except that the battery cover's about to break, it's a great little camera.

This is my brother and my niece as we walk toward the ocean.

















Here I rested the camera on the handrail and pointed it toward Sea World. I love the sky in this one.


















Walking back down the pier. I like that all the photos have a different color.



















I had the camera strap around my wrist because the ocean was a loong way down, but it was resting on the railing. I accidentally pulled the strap as I pushed the button.










* I bought it in 2003 and I've taken it on all of my trips. It can take some really good shots, and almost all of the photos that I post are from this camera.

Even More Costumes from ComicCon

Aldrea, my niece took these at the convention.



These Predators look great. I don't remember seeing them at all. It's weird what you notice and what you don't.





















I know Xena's a bit blurry, but look at that awesome costume.






















I have no idea.
Cool, though.




















Link and ? I'm not a giant Zelda fan like Aldrea, so I have no clue as to the identity of the bandaged person.



















Love this Zelda costume.

Little Mary (IKYDA)

My sister had a baby on the day we flew to San Diego. She tried to schedule the birth on Friday, but these things never work out that way.

Here she is. Named after my mom, with I'llKickYourDamnAss as a middle name. Not really, but it would be cool.

For My Siblings

Hope this makes you laugh:
The Ack Attack

Writing Prompt #01 (v. 2)

From Writer's Digest:
You're a stand-up comedian having a good night on stage except for one loudmouth in the back of the crowd who keeps heckling you. As your set ends, you storm off stage to confront this person, only to discover it's (fill in the blank). Write this scene.

That sucks. Mine does too, but I'm not a professional.

Describe your car. Use all five senses and some metaphors. Also, give your car a name in the description and make it fit the car.

I'll post mine in the next few days.

Memory Lane

I was just reading some of the backups I made of this blog afterI decided in a fit of pique to delete it and blog under another name. I was MEAN!

Here's an excerpt:
I go to an afternoon teacher's meeting and don't get back to my desk until after 4pm, and see the message light on my phone. Hoping that it's the doctor's office, I call and listen to the message, but it's the nurse, and this is what she said, "Kate, this is Kristen from Dr. Patel's office. First, I need you to understand that I'm just a temp, I'm another Kristen and I just got here today. I'm trying to help you. I need to talk to you to find out what you need called in. Please do not get upset with me, this is a different Kristen. I need you to return my call at 555-5555. I'll try to help you the best I can."

I tried calling back at a little after 4, and got the following response, "You have reached Dr. Patel's after-hours voicemail. Please leave a message."

So, here's a message to Kristen: Kristen, get the fuck off your ass and do what you're supposed to do. Look at my chart and then the fax that the pharmacy already sent your dumb ass and fax it back with the authorization. Then, take that fax and shove it in your ear to clean out the shit that passes for your brain, and NEVER, EVER, temp in a doctor's office again. Then, have the doctor call me so I can tell them that they have hired a monkey passing for a human, and that not only will I never be going to their office again, but I'm also going to place a full page ad in the Dallas paper telling everyone what my experience was so that no one else pays $180 to be subjected to impersonal treatment and the idiocy and incompetence of the Kristens* of the world.

*If you are a Kristen, work at a doctor's office and are not a moron, please, please tell the rest of them to quit being so stupid.

Also, I've been blogging since July of 2004. I had no idea that I'd been doing this for four years. And mostly in the same place. As I recall (with some help from archived files), I started keeping this blog to do writing exercises and try sticking to my goals and to record my experiences with online dating. Those haven't been a priority for quite some time now, but I think that maybe I'll get back to some of that stuff. I've been spending way too much time with Google Reader and not enough time entertaining myself.

Maybe it's like a little kid with a cardboard box.* I had this a cardboard box, refrigerator-sized as all kids know any decent cardboard box should be, and I put imagination and pieces of myself into it and played. It was whatever I wanted. But now it's not just a cardboard box, it's some fancy toy and I've lost the fun of just having the container. I'd like to get back to that.

Now, as with most things, I am a procrastinator and honestly a bit lazy. If it involves anything more strenuous than using a remote on-button, not for me. We'll all see.

*Not the best metaphor, but it conveys what I feel.

More Costumes from ComicCon

Old school Cylons. They wouldn't let me take a photo of my niece with them, and went into the exhibit hall right after I asked. I'm sure that it was just a coincidence and they had important business.










Bat-villains. Lots of those, actually, including an awesome Ceasar Romero style Joker with an fabulous purple brocade suit. Who I didn't manage to get with my camera.











Four huddling Indianas, with one Willi and one Marion.

















Power Girl posing with my niece, who shall remain anonymous, but was dressed as film X-Man, Rogue.

Costumes from ComicCon

Many people dressed in costumes. An astonishing range of subjects too. The most numerous, The Joker. Next most, Indiana Jones. Also lots of manga/anime characters.

Here's a few:


I'm guessing some dude from 300, though I've still not seen the movie.




















I have no idea, but I'm loving the detail on this costume.





















Ash, how we love you.


















Is the skirt the correct Wonder Woman bottom? I remember Linda Carter's outfit wasn't a skirt, but almost all of the Wonder Women at the Con wore a skirt.

Love the Phoenix costume, too. I guess the middle one is Alice from Resident Evil? Not sure, but if you know please tell.

San Diego Convention Center

San Diego Convention Center is 'uge! I took a panorama of it, and here's one of those photos. This is from the first full day, Thursday.













This second image is from the last day of the Con, Sunday, as we waited for the trolley.

One of the days, Saturday, the trolley was so full that we had to ride on the steps at the door, which technically you're not supposed to do.

Sea World Part Two

On the second day for Sea World, we left the house quite a bit earlier, but we still (sniff) missed the flamingo parade. The first show we saw was Shamu "Believe," which, while slightly cheesy with its inspirational message, still had some good tricks. In the best trick, the trainer rides the Orca's nose while it jumps many feet out of the water, at which point the trainer leaps off and into the water right before the whale does.










They also did a few beaching tricks, and one time they had a small boy feed the whale some fish and scratch it. We sat in the "soak zone" but too far up to get wet, even through the "shamu, shamu" chanting.

After the "Believe" show, we went to see the dolphin show. I kept my camera in my purse, unfortunately, because only my feet got wet and the the dolphins did some really good tricks.


During one of the tricks, a helper from the audience "fell" into the tank and got the dolphins to carry her around. She's a trainer, but it was still pretty funny and I wish I'd gotten photos.

Apologies

We had a wonderful trip to San Diego, but not much free time, especially after the Con started. I'm sorry for not posting some of the wonderful (and occasionally scary) costumes. Also, I met Joss Whedon.