Out for a week or two...

Going on business to SCAD and then down to visit the Sox's.
Should be FUN!

See ya in a couple weeks!

Oil Painting #3 - Flowers

A few weeks ago I went to the office next door and asked them if I could have one of the bouquets they have in the office. They get a new awesome bouquet every week and they let me have one. At first I painted on it a couple hours every day, but then I lost interest and had to really make a point of sticking with it. That meant that the flowers died off and I was still painting - so a lot of the painting is made up from what I think flowers "ought" to look like. In the end I think it came put pretty nice considering I've only painted with oils twice before. It was fun. I learned some things.

VodkaBear

Here's a neat little animation I found while Googling for images at work. Yes I was working. Yes I took a moment to watch this. Yes I used Google as a verb.

Watch it - it's cute.

Growing Things

Since this is the first time we've ever had a yard, I thought it would be neat to try and grow things.
It's been a learning experience - and gardening in the bay area is different than I remember it in Michigan. It's super hot during the day and really cold at night and not humid at all in comparison. I have been able to grow frost hardy plants from November like brussel sprouts, cauliflower, scallions & onions since the winter here only gets down to ~32 degrees or so.

Everything else here was planted in March.

The picture above shows the largest part of the garden. There are smaller areas of soil around the house where I have cilantro, parsley, sage & oregano.

I'm having fun learning & growing. The cats like it too. Mike rolls around in the dirt and Maddi suns herself among the plants.

The Third Stage

Conspiracy theories abound about this nation's leadership.
I don't know anything really, but sometimes I really feel like leaving the country for a few years again. Just to take a break... but then I'd just get tired of where-ever and have to come back.

The Third Stage

Watch when you have 20 minutes to spare.
I know it's one sided, but these days, what isn't - deal with it. If you don't like getting info from anywhere but your own side, then oh well. Whatever - close your mind to whatever you like. Don't tell me I'm one sided, either - I watch other stuff when it's presented to me.

I have a hard time deciding whether humans are inherently good or evil.
Maybe when I'm rich I'll buy and island somewhere and not deal with all this crap.

It will probably be an atoll used for nuclear testing at some point...

AJ @ SFSU

Just a quick note - AJ got her acceptance letter from SFSU. (San Fransisco State University) We've been waiting to hear for a few months now. This is pretty much the only place to get a counseling masters in the bay area. This means we'll be here for at least another 2 years. Maybe we'll move up to SF so she doesn't have to commute 1/2 hour for classes... but then I'd have to commute to work!

Hmmm...

Anyways - congratulations AJ! This is a big life change and a new direction for her. She's a natural in counseling anyways, but this will give her the education to back her intuition. We're all kinds of excited.

Monte Bello Hike

We went on a 5 mile hike in Monte Bello Wildlife Preserve yesterday. It was great. The park goes along part of the San Andreas fault line and you can see the epicenter of the 1989 earthquake. Most impressive to us, however, was the amount of nature we saw. We really like animals and there were so many to see!

We saw deer and vultures - they're pretty common. AJ saw a rabbit bolt across the path ahead of us and when we got up there, he was still there! He was still as a rock and hoping we wouldn't see him. When I got close enough to shoot this, he crawled in deeper.


This newt was the only little guy who ventured out of the stream among about 20 others who were lazing around in the water. He wasn't afraid of me and I got close enough for this nice shot. Look at how bumpy his skin is!


As we were leaving the parking lot, I noticed this coyote entering the parking lot across the road. We went over and I got a couple shots of him. He was really scraggly and looked kinda beaten up.

It was a great hike - I can feel the sore comin' on!

Wondercon 2007

The day before I got my face bacteria we went to the Wondercon with Kaan and Muge. I went in to work in the morning and then hustled up to catch the latter half of the day. I got to go to a couple discussions that were interesting. Then we went down to the floor to check out all the weirdos. OK OK, if I had $600 to spare I'd get one of those Stormtrooper outfits too. It would be an outward acknowledgement of the redundancy found in an artist's attempts to be original - it just doesn't happen. We're all clones now. Rehashing what has come before and thinking we can stand out and change the world...

Anyways, there were troopers galore, and all kinds of people dressed up as other things for the costume show at the end. Here's a Robin and Green Lantern.

... and a super-deformed Alien.
I saw Two-Face, a group of Boba-Fetts, Sailor Moon, Obi-wan, Pirates and Ninjas too.

I bought a print from Mike Mignola and had Art Adams sign a couple old comics of mine. AJ was too scared to go meet "Apollo" from the old Battlestar Galactica. LOL I had Gene Yang sign a copy of American Born Chinese for me - then I sent it to Eric DeSantis. He likes Monkey King stories and this one was good. If you see it - pick it up. It's a light, humorous look at Chinese acculturation in American society.

Wondercon is fun - I'll go again next year. :)