Author Archives: admin

SantaBot

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This is for Mrs. Grady.

When I was in grade school at Maine Memorial Elementary, I did a lot of custom holiday decorations for certain teachers. I don’t think I ever did one for Mrs. Grady. So, here it is…about thirty five years after the fact, but here just the same.

The writing above is my “hand” at cursive writing. This is one pass and no erasing. I wanted to see what it would look like. I thought it appropriate, since I think that’s the age I learned how. I’m sure if I were being graded on it, I would get about a seventy five percent. I made the paper look old to give it an aged look, as if it lives at the bottom of a cardboard box that holds the family tree ornaments.

By the way, when is the correct time to start wishing people a Merry Christmas? I officially started yesterday.

Muskrat

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It’s been about three months since myself and corporate America parted as friends. I’m still eating well (possibly, a bit too well), I have heat, and my bills are paid. One aspect that I am still struggling with is the constant sense that I am not doing what I’m supposed to be doing to survive. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anxious at all. In fact, it’s the lack of the familiar anxiety and stress that feels foreign – even three months later. What I currently do for income doesn’t feel anything like what I’ve done for the last fifteen years of my life. I have to keep reminding myself that this is exactly where I am supposed to be and doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. I just have to get over the fact that I feel like I’m on vacation.

I just read a great article regarding Doing what you love and starving. At the bottom is some key points to doing what you love:

Remember that, in the end, the key to career contentment is a job that:

— isn’t too hard or too easy

— has a boss who’s kind and helpful

— involves an ethical product or service

— requires a reasonable commute

— pay reasonable well and offers benefits

— doesn’t require 70 hour work weeks

— offers opportunities to learn and grow.

Xmas Maus

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We finally got a tree today.

Woohoo.

I am getting into the spirit of Christmas.

This drawing started off as a simple candle on a desk. The Christmas mouse was an afterthought. I didn’t want to “over-campify” the drawing, so I made it a skeleton.

 

Uk

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In my world, their are assassins so mysterious, they are thought to be ghosts by some. They’re known as Uks. I know it’s a very strange name. The legend is that their name is actually a lot longer, but the only man to dare say the full name out loud was assassinated before he could utter any more syllables of it. After hundreds of years, people stopped saying the name for fear of swift death and the name was lost forever.

I left this sketch very loose to give the illusion of camouflage. Not the pattern, but the actual blending in with the environment. I meant to keep the focus on the eyes, therefore, I spent most of the time on the detail.

Sunday Afternoon Potluck

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This sketch was inspired by just about every family in our congregation at Union Center United Methodist Church.

I knew some real characters. One of the most notable, I shall call him “GP”, always had our attention. One Sunday, he brought his sister’s gold confirmation necklace to Sunday school to show us all a cool trick he had learned by accident.

He leaned his head back, snaked that whole thing down his nostril, snorted and hacked a couple of times, opened his mouth, and there it was on his tongue.

That was probably the most bizarre human trick I have ever seen in my life.

Play Time

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I have discovered that I love crunchy peanut butter. This is a recent discovery for the sole reason that I only buy smooth. Why, you ask? Because, that’s what I ate growing up. That’s what my mother bought then, therefore, that’s what’s in my house now…that is until about a week ago when I had a spoonful at a friend’s house.

Crazy, huh? What have I been missing all these years. I wonder how many other “pre-conditioned” products there are in my house.

I read a story once about this woman who had visited a friend on a Sunday after church. She was in the kitchen preparing a roast. After some idle banter, the woman noticed her friend had cut two inches off the end of the roast and placed it in a bowl. Curious, the woman asked what was the purpose. “I don’t know. My mother always did it this way.”

The obvious conclusion was to make a call and find out once and for all.

Turns out, mom’s roasting pan was a small one an didn’t accommodate a full roast, therefore, she cut some off and put it in a bowl for stew later on in the week.

Flight of Fancy

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I had one of those days when I work like mad and hardly get anything accomplished.

Holy crap.

I am really amazed at the level of dependency I have on this magic whirring box of wonder. I had an assignment today that involved 3D. Well, I don’t have that software loaded on this computer and it’s not compatible because of a versioning conflict, so I had to load it on my laptop. Well, it decided to crap out on me – totally, so no more laptop, says my buddy, Matt, who graciously helped me out tonight.

But, alas, no 3D software and no closer to finishing the project.

If I had a two pound rock hammer and a chisel, I could do it faster at this point…Hehe..Actually, I wouldn’t mind at all.