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. :)

Flesh Eating Bacteria On My FACE

That face.
That face.
That beautiful face.

A few weeks ago I got a bacterial infection of the skin on the right side of my face. It was so swollen, that it hurt to eat, smile, laugh and talk. This picture is when it was at it's worst. I went to the urgent-care doctor the previous day and got an antibacterial shot and a prescription for the "Mercedes" class antibiotic pills. I went to my doctor a couple days later and he said I could get the "Ferrari" class drugs if I wanted faster results. I said I was OK with Mercedes. (Always liked German cars better...) This type of infection is called "cellulitis" but can, if left untreated, evolve into the flesh eating bacterial infection. (Like this isn't scary enough already!) It starts out as superficial, but it can get to the deeper skin and then your skin just starts falling off.
NEATO!

Anyways - having this picture and an image editing program on hand, I made a couple "fun" but scary images of what I might look like with a few more pounds - or a few less.

Fattie-JASE

Anorexic-JASE
I am all better now, but that side is still a little more flushed than the other. Go ahead and poke fun at the pics - I won't wish a flesh eating bacterial infection on you... and karma won't cause it to happen to you either!

Los Gatos walk-about

Last weekend we went to Los Gatos to walk around town with Chu, Grace & Bryan. It was fun to get out on such a nice day. We got some gelato and window shopped a bit. Here you see Bryan enjoying being served in his stroller.

Los Gatos downtown is nice - if a little full of itself. I am always drawn to the Lamborghini shop, the Bentley shop and the Ferrari shop. I don't get into cars much (driving a VW bus is more about the "character" of the car for me) but one can't help enjoy the graceful lines of those extremely expensive automobiles.

Too bad they get such crappy gas-mileage!

Lotus: 24/29 mpg - not too shabby for this little speedster! (Pretty much what my '77 VW bus gets...)


Bentley: couldn't get close enough to see the tag.

There was a Rolls Royce as well, but that gets 13/19 mpg. BAH! I scoff at you from my Pius. I mean, Prius.

Anyways - that was last weekend. Automobile shape appreciation day... and gelato with friends. :)

Hellboy MUNNY

HEY - I'm back! It has been over a month since I posted last. I've been working a ton lately. I've got a few things to post about and this is the first... because it's the most exciting to me right at this moment.

Work has been down-shifting a bit now so I've been getting home a little earlier. I try to do something creative to unwind and this was my latest adventure. A Hellboy custom MUNNY.

I added clay to the MUNNY base model and then sanded it down. Then I primed it with gesso and sanded again. I painted the color with acrylics and put a matte varnish on top.

He has some minor issues, but overall I'm very happy with the way he turned out.