Random Thoughts on New Layouts in the Dad Zone

Random Thoughts

You live, you learn, and you learn to live with regret.

What? Not all of my random thoughts are going to be happy and/or funny.

Tales from the Dad Zone

Since my son was born I've learned a few new things, like how much I can really get done on less than six hours of sleep a night (hint, it's not as much as you would like to think). I've also learned that changing a boy's diaper has an entirely set of do's and don'ts, like don't lean to far over your son while changing him and do keep your mouth closed at all times. Most of all I've learned one seemingly strange, random piece of information. It's this: boys stink. Here I'm  not talking metaphorically like, "raising a boy is hard tiring work that should be done by...someone else." No, I mean the literal olfactory sense of the word, "stink," as in "smells bad." Let the boy go two or three days between baths and you can smell him coming. My son has this tangy acidic funk. The first time I noticed it was in the kitchen, and I thought I'd accidentally got some balsamic vinegar on him after fixing dinner. Turns out it wasn't vinegar. When  my son gets funky he smells like salad dressing.

New Layout

I'm experimenting with a new layout, and I'll probably be tweaking it as I go. I'm not wild about displaying the full text of every post, but this layout does give me some flexibility that Blogger's dynamic themes do not. Most importantly it lets me add custom items to the sidebar. Like the "Donate" button, which I'll explain a little more, below. Until I settle on a look and configuration I like there will probably several changes over the next few days, weeks. Bear with me. It's my hope that it's leading to bigger and better things.

That Money Thing

A notable new addition to the sidebar is a "Donate" button. I'm a thirty-something lefty so I believe in net neutrality, and I believe that content on the Internet should be free, and I will do my best to continue to provide free comics, commentary, doodles, and...don't-les (for lack of a better non-word). What I've found over the lat couple of years of doing this is there are soft-costs associated with providing "free" content (with what Internet Service Providers charge it's more like paying for a monthly pass). Some of those costs include art supplies, getting a better website for Geek Speak, upgrading my digital capabilities, buying and learning new software, getting a better and/or second monitor, and (yes) my time. Further down the road map is merchandise like shirts, mugs, books, and prints, but a donate button is a step I can take right now. If you've enjoyed Geek Speak, sketch dumps, and my commentary, please think about pitching in the price of your favorite coffee drink at Starbucks.

Sketch Dump

I'm not going to leave this post there like some kind of public broadcasting pledge drive (but seriously, I support public broadcasting). Here are more doodles from my notebooks at work. 

This handsome fellow is me taking a stab at drawing the character of "Gluttony" from Full Metal Alchemist. I don't watch a lot of anime, but I got hooked into this and Attack on Titan as a way to pass the time while feeding my son. In Full Metal Alchemist I really love the idea of equivalent exchange; the idea that you can't get something without giving something in return. The concept of this balancing force is a huge theme in the story of the Elric brothers. 

One of my projects required daily email notifications to go out to a list of users. To spice up the daily email to my co-worker on the communications team I started adding some of my drawings. After a while the text of the email messages started to reflect the theme of the drawing. 

Something that will probably become a recurring theme in my sketch dumps is "drawings I can't freely share around the office." This is one. It's not really "NSFW," but she is showing a lot of leg and some side-boob, which is...less than professional. In a way I couldn't help myself. I love the classic femme fatale in her elegant gown, perfect hair, holding a gun, and killing you slowly with a smoldering look. 

Nothing much to say about this other than the obvious; I took a stab at drawing Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes. 

Started this out going for the titular character of the amazing Battle Angel Alita manga series. I didn't quite get there, but ended up liking the result nonetheless. 

Mugging for a Gonzo Sketch Dump

Mugging for Gonzo

Where I am working now it is apparently a kind of tradition for managers to buy a company-branded mug for their new hires. In most cases the new employee doesn't get a say as to which mug they end up with. My manager, in her infinite graciousness, let me pick one for myself. When I selected a "Gonzo" from "The Muppets" she and my co-worker exchanged a look and said, "I knew that was the one he was going to get." I really wonder what that says about me.

Gonzo was always my favorite of the characters on The Muppet Show. He was always doing something interesting and crazy. Gonzo was always swinging on a trapeze, or riding a motorcycle through a burning hoop, or firing himself from a canon, and he was always surrounded by chickens...oh...the chickens. Gonzo was always doing something and it was usually something exciting. 

I liked the other muppets just fine, but they never really appealed to me in the same way. Kermit is the one designed to be everyone's favorite, the one you're supposed to like. I like Kermit just fine, but he's so gosh-darned straight-laced and likable that he bores me a little. Ms. Piggy, well, I just never warmed to her. I don't hate the character, but she just never grew on me. Maybe I just find her shrill. Fozzy is funny but kind of pathetic. It goes on like that. I just never felt like the other muppets had the same pizazz. 

Sketch Dump: The Final SADA Installment

As my time at SADA Systems wound to a close I found myself with extra time, and with a little bit of a "devil may care" attitude. It's understandable. In the last couple of weeks I basically had one foot out the door at all times. I took advantage of the extra time to do some extra doodling. Here is some of what I came up with while I was counting down the days to when I could punch out for the last time.

Venting

This is such a bad pun, even for me, that I am absolutely sure it was drawn to break a creative log-jam. Kind of like the cartooning equivalent of writer's block. I had a brand new notebook, and I'd already accepted the offer from what would become my new job, so the last thing I was going to do was use a notebook to take notes.

Banana Split

This may have been a little inappropriate, but it's hardly the most risque thing I've ever doodled at my desk. I liked the over-the-shoulder pose, but thought it would be fun to put a mischievous twist on it. 

I Make My Own Friends

In this case I don't have anything really funny or glib to say. It doesn't happen very much, but every so often I draw something sweet, or sentimental. In this case I think I wanted a sense of nostalgia for the simple joys of growing up, but also a kind of melancholy loneliness. The child is building the snowman alone. 

"Dur Sync"

That was depressing, I think it's time for another stupid pun.

Microsoft "Directory Sync" called "DirSync" for short is a tool that synchronizes data between an on-premise Active Directory system and a number of hosted systems. What it's used for aside, this is what goes through my head every time someone calls it "DirSync."

Said the Bugbear to the Beholder-Kin

This is where I fly my geek flag and make a reference to two classic monsters from Dungeons and Dragons. For those who may not know the game or its assorted ghouls and goblins (both of which are actual monsters with their own unique stats) a bugbear is related to goblins and orcs, but they tend to be bigger, tougher, and more savage. Beholders are, usually, giant floating eyeballs with teeth. Some have smaller eyes on stalks that protrude from their bodies, and each eye has its own excruciatingly painful way to kill an adventurer. 

In all likelihood that's the last thing the bugbear said before the beholder vaporized half his body with his eye-beam, then devoured the other half. 

Random Sketch Dumping on Blog Announcements

Random Thoughts

Coffee metaphors for life: Sometimes you're the grinder, sometimes you're the bean.

Work-a-Doodle: Another Friday Edition

Introducing some more of the doodles from the notebook I keep at work. When I look at all of these together it looks like I've been playing around with some different styles. I assure you that wasn't deliberate. Mostly I just draw whatever sounds like fun at the moment. I am kind of proud of the drawing of French lovers on a Vespa. There's a bit of a story behind that one. 

 

The Adventures of Normal Guy will be taking it a little slower

More like "The Vigorous Evening Walks of Normal Guy" than "adventures."

This is kind of a short blog post today as I'm running out of time in the day. There never seems to be enough of that does there? For the foreseeable future my posts will probably run a little short as I'm going to be working on something for the career I've landed into. I need to take things to the next level, which means a lot of time hitting the books. I will still be posting, but I may only manage one or two a week. At a minimum I want to try to post a new Geek Speak every week.

Sketch Dumping on Ten Weeks to Baby 2

Work-a-Doodle: Sketch Dump Friday Edition

Work has been really difficult lately. With one thing and another August is shaping up to be the most stressful month I've had in a while. To try and preserve the last battered remains of my sanity I've been doing a little more doodling in my notebook than usual. Out of the pages of drawings filling a notebook that, honestly, should be full of notes here are a few of my favorites. 

  

T-Minus Ten Weeks

In just a little over two short months everything in my life is going to change for the second time. Mildly Sensational and I are expecting our second child in mid-October. The baby'll be a boy this time around, so we'll have one of each. 

As I sit here typing this, Mildly Sensational is asleep on the sofa behind me. Sometimes it's surprising to me that she can sleep through the vigorous pounding my martial arts strengthened fingers deliver on our innocent keyboard. It's somewhat less surprising when she's pregnant. Her first pregnancy with our daughter wore my wife out on a more or less daily basis. This time around I can tell she's fighting to stay awake by the time I get home from work.

Part of that is being pregnant while taking care of a two-year-old and all the demands she can unleash on a daily basis. The other part of that is this pregnancy is just different. 

Our daughter was always a quiet baby, even before she was born. She moved and squirmed, but didn't ever really fidget or kick. Our son subjects my wife's internal organs to a rigorous daily pounding. As she snoozes quietly on the couch I can see him moving around, kicking, and squirming. I watch and wonder, is he bored and just repositioning because staying in one place gets old, is he demanding attention form his mommy, or is it something else entirely? Some pre-natal struggle known only to babies still in the womb that they will forget immediately on being born? 

At some point during every pregnancy you get to a point where you start wondering what the new little person is going to be like. Are they going to be a happy, quiet, mild child, or a dervish of cries and poop who won't let anyone in the house get a wink of sleep? It's a short hop from there to more frightening questions like, "will I be a good father to this new little person? I think I'm doing all right with the first, but what if I can't handle two and I screw them both up?"

On moments like that I take a deep breath and assure myself that I'm doing everything I can. I'm doing the very best to ensure I screw up my kids just enough to be interesting, but not so much that they spend their lives living in a dumpster with eighteen cats and negotiating peace treaties between the banana peel pixies and the discarded fast food gnomes. 

I'm looking forward to meeting my son in October, but not without a certain degree of apprehension.

I take some small comfort in knowing that probably means I have some common sense. 

Work Sketching the Foglios of Comic Con

Work-a-Doodle: Sketch Dump

I'm doing the finishing work on a new Geek Speak, and while I'm doing that I would like to share some of what goes into my notebooks at work. These are some recent drawings, mostly done between taking notes while listening in on a conference call.

 

 

The first drawing, of a young witch on a broom, is me experimenting with drawing a pin up. It does occur to me from time to time that my notebook at work may not be the best place in the world for me to be drawing even mildly racy content like this, but when it turns out relatively well I convince myself it was worth it for the experience and practice. 

The next one is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin and one of the major villains in both Spider-Man and Daredevil comics. For this drawing I actually pulled out my Prismacolor markers to do the shading. That's not something I can do a lot of at work. It takes time and attention that I usually don't have time to spare. On this day I was mostly doing time sheet updates, so I had a minute here and there to spare for coloring in a little bit. 

The third one is kind of a play on the song by Shakira. I had the thought, "if hips don't lie, what would they say?"

Finally, I drew Batman holding a toy from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. For those not hip to the MLP, that's Fluttershy he's holding. That's right. Batman's a Bronie. Deal with it. 

Comic Con - Day 2 - Continued

When I left off last I had waited in a long line (though not the long line) only to be shut out of getting into the Korra Panel. On the one hand, it sucked not being able to get in and get a look at what lies in store for the titular (snicker) Avatar in The Legend of Korra: Book Two, but if I had been able to get into that panel, it would have radically changed my entire day. 

As I said last time, after being disappointed at the doors to ballroom twenty I headed to the floor. Once I got to the floor I knew the author and artist of Girl Genius, my favorite webcomic, would have a booth in with the rest of the groups who were promoting webcomics. On my way to their booth, however, I got side tracked by another artist's display. The Noah Fine Art booth featuring works, conveniently enough by, Noah had amazing paintings featuring Disney characters. His work has a whimsy and a lightness to it, while maintaining solid technique that grabbed my attention and held me at his booth, even as I saw Kaja Foglio (who writes Girl Genius) walk past on her way to something elsewhere in the Con. I would like to have lingered over Noah's work a while longer, but I did want to try to catch one of the Fine Foglios while I had the chance. 

When I did make it over to the booth it was to find that both Phil and Kaja Foglio were elsewhere. I had a great talk with the lady holding down the fort for the absent professors. We talked about her being a preschool teacher by trade, but helping out in Studio Foglio, and about the comic in general. Then she mentioned that Phil was drawing for donations to the Cartoon Art Museum in another booth just a little distance from where Girl Genius was set up. I thanked her and headed over. 

I didn't actually get a picture of Phil, but he looked pretty much exactly as I had pictured him. I started talking to him and asked if he would mind drawing a picture of my daughter holding a lightsaber from a photo my wife had taken and modified (she added the lightsaber). He was happy to oblige for a fifteen dollar donation to the Cartoon Art Museum, which I was happy to hand over. This would be the best money I spent at the entire convention. 

Phil is a gracious, fun person, and he chatted with me while he drew, which he certainly didn't have to do. On a slight digression it's always interesting to watch pros work. They make it look easy, and every one of them has a different approach to starting a drawing.  At one point Phil asked me what I do and I said something marginally witty like, "I'm a project manager by day and a cartoonist in what little free time I get." The comment was innocuous in and of itself and he went on drawing and talking, but somehow the conversation swung back around to my drawing.

I don't really recall how we got there, but something was said and it opened the door for me to ask if he would like to see a drawing I had been working on of Agatha, the main character in Girl Genius. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Sure, let's see what you've got." I can understand the momentary hesitation. In his position, especially attending events such as ComicCon, and presumably Emerald City Comic Con in his hometown of Seattle, he must constantly get people running up to him and saying "I'm a a cartoonist, would you like to see my sketchbook." Still, he invited me to pull out my Nexus tablet, open it to the drawing I had been working on, and hand it over. 

Whatever reservations he had appeared to vanish in another moment's hesitation before he said, "hey, I like this! This is really good!" Which he didn't have to do. He could have politely handed it back with something non-committal such as, "that's very nice," or, "nice, keep up the good work," or "is that it, whatever, NEXT!" The latter would not have been too unlike my experience in auditions. Not only did he not do that, but he took it a step further; escalated the awesome, if you will. He asked if I had comic strips up, which (if you've been watching this blog at all) of course I do, and he asked me to send him a link. 

Phil Foglio, an artist whose work I respect and follow, whose regular comic is a bright spot in my day every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, asked to read my comic strip. I never understood the expression "you could have knocked me over with a feather" until that moment. Honestly, I felt so light that a feather might have done me grievous bodily harm. 

I immediately went to the car to put his drawing of my daughter away. While I was down there, away from most prying eyes, and safely away from either of the Foglios, I immediately did an exuberant happy dance. I don't dance, at least not well, but I made an exception on this day. 

In its own way this was another authentic Con experience; making a connection, no matter how brief, with someone who creates work you admire. It occurred to me after the fact, in the midst of the glow from talking with Phil and while sharing the experience with Lendell Prime as we walked over to lunch, that if I'd been able to get into the Korra panel, that whole experience with Phil would likely not have happened. I probably still would have met him and spoken with him, but it wouldn't have been the same. 

I ultimately did send a link to this blog and, by extension, Geek Speak to Phil and Kaja through an email address they share. I haven't heard back from them yet. Whether I do or not, and whether he really intended to do so or not, that talk with Phil made my day. 

Sketch Dumping on Comic Con in San Diego

Work Day Sketch Dump: I Do The Weird Stuff

I was in a sketching mood today. One of the things I took away from ComicCon had nothing to do with the other artists at Con, the panelists, or anything else. On the last day of Con I was walking through artist's alley and chatting with the exhibitors there when I stepped up to a booth where an artist was drawing something for a boy who could not have been more than ten or eleven years old. The artist had the boy's sketchbook open in front of her and she was drawing one of his creations. His sketchbook caught my eye. There was no theme, no structure, no single character drawn over and over again. He was just drawing whatever was in his head and it looked so...free. So when I picked up my pencil to doodle at work today I thought of him, and I thought, "fuck it, just draw, don't try to make something that looks amazing, just do what feels good."

When I look at that last sentence and then at these drawings there's only one rational conclusion. I need serious professional help.

Comic Con Day 1 (Continued)

The Witty Women of Steampunk was really good panel where the creators talked about their work and the role of women both in steampunk, and in fiction in general. They broadened the discussion to talk about what steampunk is in general, and personalized it by discussing what it means to them. My notes form the panel are fairly incomplete but the moderator of the panel was nice enough to put the panelist's websites on the screen.

After the panel it was more or less lunch time. None of the four of us really know San Diego at all, so we ended up in a parking lot where Fox had set up some kind of big event for Axe Cop, their new animated series. Free pizza was part of the event, and we were both hungry and sleep deprived so we decided that not paying for lunch was a good idea. The lesson of today's story is this, don't make decisions about meals when you are hungry and sleep deprived.

After lunch we parted ways again. Some of us had panels to go to and some of us were going to the floor.

Not sure how I forgot to mention it, but during my wandering around the convention floor I wandered across a booth where a sculptor was selling his wares. In the collection of scantily clad gorgeous heroines I found this good looking fella. Friends and readers of this blog will know I'm a huge fan of the Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen. I saw this, found it it was sixty dollars, struggled with myself for basically three seconds, and bought it. Money well spent. I know it's a sixty dollar statue of a comic book character that's nowhere near as well known as Spider-Man but it's money. well. spent.

The sculptor signed it for me as well. There was a rumor circulating around the booth that Erik Larsen was at the con and might sign it if I could find him, but I was never able to prove that for a fact. 

Back to "current events"

The next panel on my list was "Advanced Digital Inking Techniques" with Brian Haberlin, co-creator of Witchblade and the artist and co-writer of Anomaly. After a lengthy plug for Anomaly, which is the longest graphic novel ever produced, Haberlin got down to dropping the digital inking knowledge. 

I've started working with digital illustration tools which is why I attended the panel in the first place, so I was looking forward to getting front loaded with some serious techniques. Not wanting to fuck around I sat in the front row. No hiding in the shadows like a timid shrinking violet for this eskimo. Haberlin set up, picked up his stylus, looked at the panel attendees leaning forward in their folding chairs, yearning for knowledge on brushes and opacity controls and said, "we're going to focus on Photoshop today." Fuck. 

I use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, not Photoshop, so this was going to have almost nothing to do with me...and I was sitting in the front row. What followed was basically a painfully dull look into how great Photoshop is. To be fair the content was great, if you use photoshop, it was only particularly dull for me because I don't use Adobe's program, and I can't afford to buy it. With that said, Haberlin is a good instructor and I'm going to keep an eye on his site www.digitalarttutorials.com. He mentioned there might be tutorials coming for other illustration software packages like Manga Studio and Sketchbook Pro. 

From there I headed back to the floor where I picked up a copy of Battlepug and the Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus edition, volume 1. Lone Wolf and Cub is a very famous samurai epic about an assassin and his son that may have been one of the inspirations for The Road to Perdition. The other book, Battlepug, is a hardcover collected edition of the webcomic by the same name. It looked like a fun read, and the book was beautiful so I picked it up, which would not be the last of the impulse purchases for the weekend. 

Around this time I met up with Lendell Prime and we made our way over to artist's alley. While we were over there we met Philip Moy who was selling original panels from his run on G.I. Joe and Samurai Jack. Lendell Prime's face broke into the widest smile I've ever seen on him when he found the G.I. Joe original artwork. I'm pretty sure that smile stayed for the rest of the convention.

While we were wandering artist's alley Tea Leaf and Celluloid Girl called Lendell Prime and asked if we were ready for dinner. By then we were starving so Lendell Prime and I met them and we headed into the Gaslight District to find a place to eat. We finally settled on a Mexican Seafood restaurant. 

Something you may not know about guys when they hit their thirties, some foods you've been able to eat your whole life suddenly don't break down all that well. This means you get to be more prone to gas. Mexican food is one of those things that's a no no unless you live alone, or you've been married so long you've given up keeping track of who's farted on who. When we sat down I raised this indelicate subject as a gently as I could.

"Let's agree here and now," I said, "that since we're having vaguely Mexican-ish food for dinner (it was really more of a Mexican fusion type place), there's no judgement tonight. Even if one bed sounds like heavy artillery is shelling the city; no judgement." They laughed, but I don't know for sure if there was any judgement. I'll get to that in a minute.

After dinner we wandered the Gaslight District and ended up in the Chuck Jones Art Museum. I want to go back to San Diego for this alone. The walls were covered with the most amazing original paintings by Chuck Jones and others. The collection included iconic moments from some of the most memorable of Looney Tunes animated shorts. I looked at them and was transported back to the first time I saw many of his cartoons on Saturday morning television while staying with my grandparents at their Kansas farmhouse. I wandered the smallish space soaking in the artwork and reliving moments I thought I'd long forgotten when it occurred to me that my friends were waiting outside. With no small amount of reluctance I made my way out to the street and we headed back to the convention center.

The next thing on our list was the Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog sing-along. Tea Leaf, Celluloid, and I were really excited about this so we made our way to the huge conference room that had been set up for it. We arrived early, and there wasn't a line yet, so we were able to go right in, where we caught the last half of the Spike and Mike Twisted Animation panel. 

By this time all of us were beyond tired. Tea Leaf and Celluloid both looked as if they might happily sleep through the sing along, and Lendell Prime was looking grimly determined that he would not fall asleep until he was horizontal on something resembling a bed. I made the call and suggested that we didn't have to stay if everyone was getting really tired. There was a short debate, and just as everything was getting ready to kick off the sing-along we decided to head to the hotel. 

That first trip to the hotel was one of the most difficult drives of the whole weekend. It involved navigating surface streets in downtown San Diego so we didn't have to go through the Gaslight District, driving four different highways, then finding somewhere to make a u-turn when we found our exit in El Cajon. 

Exhausted, sore, and happier than any of us have probably been in months we checked into the hotel, got to our room, showers happened, and beds were staked out. I excused myself to sneak in a phone call with Mildly Sensational. By the time I got back the lights were out and all three were already sound asleep. I made my way to my side of one of the two queen sized beds (I was sharing with Lendell Prime), climbed under the covers and...did not go to sleep. 

Not right away, at any rate. Some asshole's car alarm went off about every five or ten minutes for an hour before I finally managed to drift off. When I did, it was the soundest, best night's sleep I'd had in a long time. I'd let go of being a square peg in a round hole for a day, and it had done me good.