Geek Speaking of Stockholm with a Side of Happy Music

Geek Speak: Stockholm Syndrome

I blame Die Hard for the overuse, and often misuse, of "Stockholm Syndrome" in the popular lexicon. Even so, that's what it sometimes feels like when my daughter insists on watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the umpteenth time. All told, I think Mildly Sensational and I have seen the three seasons available on Netflix a dozen times. Even as I write this, my daughter is in the living room with her mother working on making it a baker's dozen. 

To be fair the show actually its merits. The animation is consistently of very high quality, the voice acting is solid, even brilliant on occasion; and many of the songs are difficult to get out of your head once you've heard them. I'm particularly, and consistently impressed with the woman who gives voice to the characters of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. She makes the character voices so distinct you'd never assume they were voiced by the same person. She even gives them noticeably different singing voices, a feat that becomes especially amazing when both characters are singing together, and you still can't tell it's the same person. 

With that said. I really wish the girl child would find something else to watch, within reason. Caillou is a dick. For all of its merits the show's central message about friendship, while important, is delivered with all the subtlety of a bedazzled wrecking ball. 

Sounds like she's starting over with season one, episode one...again. Imagine me sighing as my shoulders sag.

"Friendship is magic," and my eyes well up with anguished tears, "friendship is magic." 

Random Thoughts

In the quest to find some music that would help to lull my infant son to sleep I pulled up some Pomplamoose on Spotify. He didn't care for it, which meant I had to change his white noise to something more...white. For the little bit that we were able to listen I discovered something about Pomplamoose. Their music makes me happy. It's a small but significant victory, discovering there is some music out there that can just make you...happy. 

Geek Speaking of Dragons and the Existential Conundrum

Geek Speak: One Should Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons

Usually that sentence would conclude with, "for you are crunchy and good with ketchup." In this case the usual doesn't apply as one dragon eats semi-precious and precious stones and the other is exclusively a fish eater; a piscivore, if you will. 

In our household we watch a lot...let me rephrase that a shitload of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Dragons: Riders/Defenders of Berk (it's one or the other and depends on the season of the show). "Ponies" is probably something that just goes with having a daughter who is right in the target demographic. The latter is the result of showing her the first How to Train Your Dragon movie (the sequel is due later this year) in the hopes that she would latch onto something, anything, for the love of God anything that wasn't My Little Pony. This will probably become a recurring theme in my one-off jokes, especially as my son starts to get older and finds shows of his own to watch until it makes his parents' eyes bleed. 

Dragon characters are featured In both "Ponies" and "Dragons," as they're referred to by our adorable little tyrant. It occurred to me, and not for the first time, that not all dragons are made equal. Some are meant to be adorable comic relief which can then be turned into lucrative merchandise, and some fly into battle annihilating enemies with well placed plasma blasts...and can then be turned into lucrative merchandise. 

Which reminds me, I was at Target today and forgot to pick up a miniature plastic "Toothless" for my desk at work. 

From there it was a natural jump to asking the question, "what would happen if 'Spike' from 'Ponies' encountered 'Toothless' from 'Dragons?'" I think of this as the dragon equivalent of Toothless saying, "kids these days."

If I were to take this one step further they would both be obliterated by fire from above and we'd pull back to see Smaug on his mountain proclaiming, "I am fire! I am death!"

Two Basic Choices

No matter what happens in our lives how we react can be distilled down to a choice of two things; we can cry or we can laugh. I know which one I would rather do.  

The context of the situation helps to determine which way our emotions take us. You would laugh at a funeral, for instance. Unless the funeral is for a clown, then yuck it up, especially if they bury that clown in a tiny car. 

Except in those times when the situation truly calls for tears, it helps to find something funny. This isn't as hard as it might seem. Life is always trying to make us laugh, we just have to be open to seeing the joke. 

I'll give you an example. Last week was a tough one for me and my family. I'm still going through the growing pains of adjusting to a new job and a much increased level of responsibility that comes with a more senior position. On top of that everyone in my family has been sick. This means I didn't get much sleep and my schedule at work was pooched because I had to be able to run home to care for my family. That's fine, I want to be there for them, but by the end of the week I was feeling beat and numb from fatigue and sleep deprivation. 

One afternoon late in the week I left the office to run an envelope to a nearby mailbox. On the way back I had to wait for a stoplight to change and I glanced over at the vehicles and drivers who were being likewise patient. That's when I saw her, and she was glorious. One of the lunch commuters waiting for the light to change was a very overweight woman who had to be at least in her mid-seventies. She was wearing a black track suit with hot pink accents. Her ride was a Harley Davidson and she was wearing one of those motorcycle helmets made to look like it might have been issued to German soldiers in World War II. The overall effect was a giant black and pink bowling ball of death (I am fire!  I am death!). Then the light changed and everyone moved on, but in that moment life gave me something to laugh about. 

Being a parent with very young children has helped to shape my...call it a working hypothesis that life is constantly trying to make us laugh. Babies cry because they need things, not just because they're sad or hurt. While crying might be the sound we come into the world making, think about this; long before they say their first words, the first expression babies learn to make is a smile and the first sound that babies learn to make on their own is laughter. 

Find the funny as much as you can, because it makes everything that much more bearable when the time comes for tears. 

Geek Speaking of Coffee for Cartoon Heroes

Geek Speak: Now That is COFFEE!

This strip isn't based on real-life experiences, yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. It's no secret that I have a deep and committed affinity for coffee. Coffee is something of a ritual in the morning. First I start twenty ounces of water heating in the microwave for five minutes, so that it's not boiling but still hot enough to brew. While the water is heating I measure and grind the beans. After the beans have been ground I add five slightly rounded scoops of fresh ground coffee to the bottom of my coffee press. By this time the water is hot so I pour it over the grounds in the bottom of the press, slowly so it evenly saturates all of the grounds. Then I put the lid on the press and set a timer for five minutes to let the grounds steep in the hot water. After five minutes I press down and the coffee is ready. It goes into a cup, no cream or sugar, just straight black nirvana. First I inhale the aroma, then I take a sip, then I sing "coffee" in a reasonable approximation of rich baritone. 

My not-quite-three-year-old daughter has started singing "coffee" back at me.

As young as she is she's picked up on my appreciation of all things coffee, and has started playing "coffee service" with a dining set she got for Christmas. She'll tip the pitcher over her little cups and hand them out saying "mommy coffee" then "daddy coffee." 

It's going to be a long time before she can drink any herself, but I take some pride in the knowledge that in at least this one small way I'm raising my daughter right. 

Heroes Taking Initiative

I discovered this group at Comic-Con this year, and have been meaning to write about them ever since. It's not the purpose of the blog to advocate for anything, per se, but when I find people doing worthy work I feel like it's worth sharing. The Hero Initiative is a 501 (c) (3) organization providing support to veteran comic book creators in the form of financial assistance and services. 

Many artists in the comic book industry may be recognizable names, and their work might be treasured, but many of them also worked for a paycheck from the publisher. Much like any job they were given assignments and deadlines, they had regular working hours and the occasional overtime, and they took home a paycheck. While many veteran artists and creators have fans, in most cases it's not the kind of celebrity that comes with fabulous wealth. In many cases appearing at conventions, while a fun part of the job, is still just that, part of the job. Like anyone else, when the job ends, so does the paycheck. 

When the money goes away, hard times follow. Comic book illustrators and other artists are especially vulnerable to this as many of them work on a freelance basis. Unfortunately life doesn't wait for you to find work to throw up obstacles in the form of health problems, overdue bills, or just buying food. This is the reason the Hero Initiative exists. 

The Hero Initiative is "the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need." To date they have allocated over $500k in financial aid and services to comic book creators in need. In addition to financial assistance the Hero Initiative also provides services in the form of financial advisers and assistance with finding a path back to paying work. 

From a fan perspective they also do some really cool promotional work. One such promotion was the "JLA 100 Project." When Justice League America reached its fiftieth issue D.C. published the book with a limited run of "blank covers." The Hero Initiative picked up 100 of these and commissioned artists to illustrate the covers. There's a lot of amazing work, and you can see all of them here. The commissioned books are then auctioned off and the proceeds go to the Hero Initiative to provide assistance for struggling comic book veterans. Very cool, highly collectible, and for a great cause. Everyone wins. 

It's more difficult for me to describe the work this group does than it is for the artists who've received their assistance, so I'll leave it with this: Hero Initiative's Success Stories.

As soon as I can work out how it's done I'll be placing a permanent link to the Hero Initiative on my blog. Take a moment to check out their website. They do great work for a community that created the characters and stories we all enjoy.

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. 

Geek Speaking of Doctor Dolittle's Whovian Collection

Geek Speak: Home at Last

I remember watching Doctor Dolittle as a kid in the same vague, conceptual way that you know you were once a two-year-old tearing around the house and driving your parents bananas. When I talk about remembering Doctor Dolittle I am, of course, referring to the original film starring Rex Harrison as the titular physician. My sibs and I must have watched that movie a dozen times, but I can recall only a few vague things. It seems like I thought Doctor Dolittle dressed funny. There was a scene at some point in the movie where Dolittle is making funny noises through a megaphone that he's floated on the surface of the ocean, and for some reason I remember him talking to a giant snail. 

It doesn't surprise me all that much that I don't remember much of the film. I was very young and my attention span was about what you would expect for that age group. What surprises me is that my brother and sister and I were able to sit through the movie even once, much less repeat viewings. Just to refresh my memory before posting this I pulled it up in Netflix and happened to glance at the running time. The original Rex Harrison film is two-and-a-half hours of an Englishman in goofy turn of the century clothes running around making burping sounds at trained animals. That's in the same general ballpark as the running time of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Admittedly there's more activity in Doctor Dolittle and the musical numbers are better. I still wonder how my parents managed to get me to sit through 146 minutes of movie. They must have drugged my juice.

We're going to be leaving Ted and Francis for a while after this. I have a few one-off strips I want to do, then it's back to some of our recurring characters.

Knock, Knock; Whovian's There?

When my son was born he was a few weeks early so he was required to spend some time in the neo-natal intensive care unit, NICU ("nick-you") for short. That it would cost us more as a result was something my wife and I knew without being told. What we didn't realize was five days in the NICU would effectively double the cost of our son's birth. The delivery itself was paid for by the time we left the hospital. The NICU stay, however, is another thing.

Around the same time I changed jobs, and there was a period of being between jobs where I didn't have any income. Money was tight. Between the holidays and no income we barely squeaked through the month of December and made rent for January. The hospital bill slipped as a result, and we received a letter from collections.

I'm not proud of it, but it happened, and it was something that needed to be addressed before our account went to an agency and caused our credit to be righteously screwed. To ensure that didn't happen I called the hospital's billing department and was put through to a lady to discuss our account.

The funny thing about being a fan of science fiction, and naming a child after a character in the long running British series Doctor Who is that you have a built in ice-breaker with other fans of the series. It's been long enough now since that phone call that I couldn't tell you how the subject came up, but while we were discussion my past-due account we also started talking about my son's name and where it had come from.

I asked the nice lady on the other end of the phone if she was familiar with Doctor Who.

"Oh, my yes," she said, and though I couldn't see her face I could almost hear her beaming, "I love that show. I've watched ever since it was in black and white."

I explained that my son is named for one of the characters and the actor who played him.

"Oh that's lovely," she said in a tone of matronly indulgence, "that show has been on for a long time hasn't it?"

Of course I agreed and said it had been on for fifty years. She joked, as people from her generation will, about how that dates her, and I laughed with her.

Eventually we conducted the business that had been the reason for my call. We managed to pull my account back from the brink of falling into collections, made arrangements to pay on a monthly cycle, and we parted on friendly acquaintance through a shared appreciation of a (if I'm honest) somewhat goofy British Sci-Fi drama.

When I spoke with Mildly Sensational afterward there was silence on the other end of the phone.

"How," she said and I could all but hear her hands being thrown in the air out of exasperation, "HOW do you do it?"

I really don't know. If it means getting exactly what I need at a critical moment, I'm not going to question it. 

Geek Speaking of Heroic Random Trek

Geek Speak - Heroic Poser

I don't know if I'm in love with these names, but I'm officially going with Ted and Francis for these characters. They were going to need names eventually, but I couldn't settle on one that A.) I liked, and B.) didn't sound like I was lifting it from another (perhaps better) comic. With no better options presenting themselves I have arrived at Ted for the guy who talks to animals and Francis for Captain Dum Dum. To be honest I do think Francis is a funny name for a superhero.

The process of completing the finishing work on these strips using Sketchbook Pro seems to be getting easier, though it does still take more time than if I were to do it by hand. On this strip I think it helped to do the finishing work using a brush with settings I had customized. Tweaks to the brush settings produced the cleanest lines I've made in Sketchbook Pro yet.

From the moment I created these characters I knew they were going to be roommates. The struggle was to find a reason for them to stay together. Every time I imagined Ted talking about his crazy superhero roommate, who also happens to be dumber than a bag of hammers, the only response that made any sense was, "Why don't you move?" If they're brothers it solves the "Why does Ted stay?" problem and it raises the stakes in the relationship. Me likey high stakes. They make for good comedy.

Star Trekking
A few times before our son was born my wife and I left our daughter in the capable hands of friends who volunteered to watch her, and went out on a date night. We didn't really deviate from dinner and a movie for our date night activities, but getting time together without the offspring is such a rare opportunity we weren't going to let a lack of originality be an obstacle to our enjoyment.

Our first dinner and a movie date was to see Star Trek: Into Darkness, which I covered in an earlier post.
It may come as a shock, but I really like Star Trek. I can barely remember a time that I didn't enjoy taking an hour or two to sit down and watch some episodes of Star Trek, Star Trek: the Next Generation, or one of the many movies (though some are better than others). I've even enjoyed several of the Star Trek novels. Every time [insert your favorite captain here] gives the order to go to warp speed and the action cuts away to an exterior shot of the Enterprise as its powerful engines send the ship hurtling off into the stars I get a small thrill.

My lifelong love of all things Trek can be easily traced back to my grandfather on my dad's side, a man I grew up calling Grandpa. He had an incredibly active and inventive mind and was constantly tinkering with things. His life was amazing. He was born in the early 1900s, moved with his family to Alaska long before it was made a state, became an airplane mechanic and pilot with is brother and flew charter passengers into South America, he was in the Alaskan Guard (not the mainland U.S. army) in World War II, and the list goes on from there.

Here's the thing, I was born in the late 70s, and he was already, admittedly, an old man by then. We were products of radically different worlds. He was one of the greatest generation, and I am marginally Generation X. His is the generation of flight, the space race, and many of humanity's landmark achievements. Mine is the generation of video games and MTV. Any chance of us finding something in common was pretty remote.

Then he introduced me to Star Trek, and we found it.

We would talk for hours about all things Trek. The movies, the shows, the latest episode of Star Trek, the Next Generation. He would tape episodes of the original series off of the TV and give them to me on VHS (these were the days before DVD, never mind DVR). I would watch them over, and over, and we would talk about them. He had a bookshelf full of Star Trek novels, and I read many of them.

We were Trekkers. Across a rift of years that constituted not one, but two generations the bridge of the starship Enterprise brought us together. I can't watch any Star Trek now without thinking of him, and how much I miss being able to share it with him. It's a bittersweet thing, but it's very special to me. 

Random Dumping of Dragon Coffee

Random Thoughts

Grapefruit is yummy...that is all.

We have to keep two boxes of Trader Joe's version of Cheerios™ in the house at all times...my daughter is a cereal killer.

Sketch Dump, some stuff I've Been Drawing

There have not been a lot of updates to the "Geek Speak" chronicles as I go through the spastic gyrations of trying to settle into both a new baby routine and a new job...at the same time. It should never be said that I ever did anything fucking halfway. 

Anyhoo. 

My pencil has not been sitting idle (I know how that sounds, moving on...perverts). I've been drawing quite a bit. Especially in the waning days of my time at SADA Systems, Inc. I can finally give a name to the company where I spent the last almost eight years, as I no longer work for them I don't really fear much in the way of reprisal. As the days wound down to my final departure there was less and less for me to do as my job duties were picked up by others, so I found a lot of extra time for drawing. Though, I won't be posting any of those here today. I am a tease.

I give you two of my recent drawings. 

Here I give you the Terrible Terror, one of the dragons that can be found in the forests and hills of the island of Berk. My daughter has fallen ponytails-over-tiny-pink-crocs in love with Dreamworks Dragons: Riders of Berk, and its follow up series, Defenders of Berk. The shows are pretty much what they sound like; a television spin-off of How to Train Your Dragon. My wife and I both really enjoy the show, but not nearly with the all consuming passion of an enraptured not-quite-three-year-old. To earn some cool daddy points (and because I really do like the show) I decided I should start trying to learn to draw the various dragons presented in the story. 

It's not really a secret that I love coffee. I can take that something of a step further and say it might ruin me if I were ever forced to give up sipping that sweet nectar of the morning. I've given up smoking, and that was tough but went ok. I still drink, but I've long since given it up as a daily ritual, and I think I could stop drinking entirely and it would be ok after a short period of sucking. 

The same cannot be said of coffee. I tried to go cold turkey once. I turned into something like Mr. Hyde meets Officespace. When I realized I was being an irritable jerk I broke down and poured myself a cup of Arabica Bliss. I found a pair of rose colored glasses in the bottom of that brew and my day turned right around. 

For all that I love coffee I am something of a caffeine lightweight. I can only drink coffee within a narrow range of potency. I need something between a medium and dark roast. Too light, and I shuffle around like the undead. Too strong and the results are...entertaining, if not pretty. 

If anyone is interested, the best way I've found to get coffee that is just right for me is to combine Trader's Joe's house brand coffee "Joe: Medium Roast" with their house brand dark roast "Joe's Dark." I use equal portions of whole beans and shake them in a container to make sure they're well distributed. Then I grind them together myself (until I burned out my coffee grinder, but my birthday is coming up (hint hint)) and make coffee as usual. 

The result is a brew that's stronger and more flavorful than a medium roast, but not as bitter as a dark roast. It's a nice balance in terms of its caffeine content. It gets me going better than a medium roast, but doesn't make me shaky, queasy, and weird like a dark roast. 

I think I should put this one on a t-shirt. 

Random Geek Speaking of Hobos Moving Up

Random Thought
One of the lessons I've learned as the father a brand new baby boy is this: when changing a boy's diaper don't bend too far over the changing table, and for the love of God keep your mouth closed. I didn't have to learn this the hard way, fortunately. All I needed was to see my son demonstrate his "golden fountain" technique a couple of times.

Geek Speak: Hooch for Hobos

It's been a while since I've posted, so I understand if this strip doesn't make a lot of sense as the context has gotten a little stale. To refresh everyone's memory, or for those coming to this for the first time, here are the several strips leading up to the one I posted today:

• A Boy and Some Old Lady's Dog
• Communication
• Wuffles!
• There are Worse Things...
• The Power of Booze
• Another One Rides the Bus
• Medicinal Uses
• Step Aside
• Heroics...?
• The Horror of Noms.

Wow. I've been milking this gag for a while. Not much longer, though. There are two more in this series, then I'll take a little break from the regular characters and post some one off jokes before starting up a new mini-arc.

The Delay in posting strips was the result of a number of things, the most significant of which was the birth of my son. I talk about that in another post so I won't go into it too much more, here. In addition to the birth of my son I also left my job of more than seven years for a new position, which I talk about in more detail below. Throw the holidays on top of the rest of it, and it's actually amazing that I managed to complete the finishing work on today's comic strip.

With so much happening in the last few months I'm hoping 2014 is a year of relative peace and stability. I've had enough life altering changes for a while, though I'll probably explore that a little more in another post.

Moving On...Moving Up?
On Friday the 13th of December I left my position as a project manager with the company for which I had worked for more than seven years. My departure marks the end of what is far and away the longest single stretch of time I've spent with any one company.

There is an odd, even portentous symmetry to my departure. When I started at my last job my first day was June 6th, 2006 (6/06/06). My last day at the same job was December 13th, 2013 (12/13/13). Perhaps a numerologist could tell me what, if any, significance this has to my current job prospects. Short of consulting one I'm going to interpret it as I'm leaving at a time that is right for me.

In my new position I will be working for a Fortune 500 company as a project coordinator with other project managers. The new company is very recognizable, but (for obvious reasons) that is about as specific as I can be here.

The first couple of weeks have been slow, which is understandable. Christmas and New Year's are a weird time to start a new job anywhere. Right now I have a new email address, a Microsoft Lync ID, a network password, and a computer. All that's missing now is someone to install the Windows image on the laptop I've been issued and I'll be off to the races.

Two weeks in the change is still both terrifying and exciting. Though for the first time in longer than I care to discuss I'm actually looking forward to going to work in the morning.

Geek Speaking the Horror of Noms

Geek Speak: Walk with the Animals, Talk with the Animals...

The problem with being able to understand the "speech" of animals is that you might not want to know what they have to say. Cats in particular. Cats are vicious bastards.

In any big city it's impossible to go anywhere without encountering some manner of local urban fauna. It could be anything from the much maligned city pigeon (in the event of the apocalypse remember; pigeons are made of meat), to the universal flea-bitten street cat, to even wilder critters such as coyote, raccoon, and snakes. For someone in our hero's position this makes the simple act of getting a cart full of alcohol home with so he can get obliterated like running the gauntlet on an episode of "Wild Kingdom: Los Angeles."

There were some interesting challenges in drawing this strip. We see the action at different "angles," from very wide, to very close, to looking up at the "hero" in a moment of horror. I'm starting to understand why Bill Watterson allegedly lamented backgrounds in comic strips as a dying art. It's difficult to draw backgrounds that enrich the world of the comic and add a feeling of authenticity. Most likely I'm going to need to take some time and go out into my community and draw some store fronts.

Down Time
This post has been a long time coming, and future posts may also be delayed. The reason is I'm adjusting to being responsible for not one, but two small people-pupae. My wife and I welcomed our second child on September 18th at 8:30 at night. He was born at 5 pounds, 13 ounces, 20 inches long...and two-and-a-half weeks pre-term.

He was born by emergency c-section after a friend rushed my wife to the hospital. I met them there after receiving a text message no one, but expectant fathers in particular, should ever have to read from someone for whom they care deeply. It was simple, and chilling, "Come home now. Bleeding lots. Hospital."

Mildly Sensational...needs a new handle. My wife is incredible, and there's nothing mild about that. Six weeks on I'm still awed by her courage and resolve in the face of something so deeply and personally frightening. She barely let on that she was scared through the entire event. Her strength gave me the resolve I needed to hang by her side and contribute in whatever small way I could.

The rest of that day is a blur. I can only hope that I actually performed as a husband and father as well as my extraordinarily hazy recollections would seem to indicate. It didn't hit me until much later how close I came to losing both my wife and our son; how close my world came to ending. I won't dwell on that. In the end our son is healthy and amazing, and mildly sensational is healing up nicely.

I'm left with the problem of finding a way to thank our very good friend Phoenix for all her help at what is, without question, one of the most critical moments of our lives. When we needed someone to step in and save the day, she was there. She put aside whatever else she needed to do that day, whatever else she was dealing with, and pushed through some personal boundaries to  be there for us when we needed someone the most. Words don't convey thanks in adequate measure for such selflessness.

Our son was early enough that he didn't get to come home right away, and ended up spending some time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). That is a scary experience. You're forced to place a tiny, extremely fragile new life in the hands of others, and stand helplessly by while they buzz around your baby in a smooth dance of professional detachment.

Since coming home we have been thrust hardcore into full-time baby-management mode. By full time I mean "around-the-clock." Our experience with our son could not be more different from the early days with our daughter. She always slept easily and deeply, and rarely fussed in her sleep. She fed easily without the need for a lot of coaxing. There was never a need for both of us to be up every time she needed to be fed, changed, or anything else. Preemies are...different...more demanding.

There is a space beyond simple fatigue that you reach after weeks of sleep deprivation. It's a place where you can operate at a functional level even when your head is buzzing from lack of sleep. I think it's a place only parents, and military personnel training for, or already in combat, ever come to know. Every fiber of your being is screaming for sleep, but there's stuff that has to be done, so you push those thoughts of bed and comfort from your mind and you wash bottles for the third time that day.

For all that we're not sleeping, and for all that the last few weeks have been a trial, I think it was worth it. I look into my son's eyes as he drinks in the world around him and begins to understand it, and I lose myself. Time flies by and it's just me with my baby boy in my arms.

Geek Speaking while Dungeoning the Dragons of Madness

Geek Speak: Next in the Mines of Madness

If this one looks a little rougher than my usual finished work, there's a good reason for that; it's not done. This is a much larger and more ambitious page than I usually attempt, and there is a lot of stuff going on that I want to try to get right. I'm not going to try to get it "just right." That could drive a person crazy. I'm aiming for "just right enough." 

I played Dungeons and Dragons over the holiday weekend. Tea Leaf had downloaded a module to play test the upcoming new edition of the Dungeons and Dragons core rules. I shit you not the cartoon above was what happened in the first five minutes of the game. Character death is a hazard everyone who plays these games has to deal with. Some people treat it like now big deal, others get really attached to their characters and can become...irritated...when their characters are killed. I'd like to say that I just roll with it. Alas, I fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

It was my character that was swallowed by a reject from "Dune" while taking a shit in the first ten minutes of actual game play. I've never lost a character that quickly.

It was hilarious. 

Background: Droppin' some context

For years I have played tabletop role playing games (RPGs if you're cool) with friends. The games have ranged in style and genre from dark and brooding science fiction, to tense and frightening supernatural western, to frivolous sword and sorcery. Some games take themselves too seriously by half, some not at all, but either way it goes somewhat beyond being an enjoyable hobby. It's a kind of constructive escapism. Problem solving with friends and playing out heroic fantasies in a way that lets the player decompress from the stress and strife of the world they occupy every day.

One of the biggest downsides to tabletop role playing games is they do take some time to play out. For the most part the adventures aren't like board games that can be played out in an evening. Very often the stories are complex with multiple threads that need to be resolved by the players, which means that playing out the entire story, usually called a campaign, can take weeks, months, even years. It all depends on how often the players can get together, and how much they stay on story and don't get either mired down in role-playing their characters or sidetracked into doing something unrelated to the major quest.

The ongoing nature of these games means that I don't get much opportunity to play anymore. My family needs me around to do various daddy things, like play "horsey." I don't mind. I want to be there for my daughter, and for my son when he arrives. My only real complaint is the bridle chaffes and my daughter throws a fit if she doesn't get to wear the spurs. 

Therefore it was pretty special when Mildly Sensational agreed to let me get in some game time over Labor Day weekend. I must have asked my wife a hundred times if she was absolutely sure that it was ok for me to go and spend a day gaming with our friends, instead of spending the weekend with her and our daughter, and that was only in the morning the day of the game. It's possible she let me go because she was tired of my asking if she was really, really, extra sure it was ok, and reminding her that it's ok to call if she needs me I can really just leave and come home. 

Confident that I had the blessing of my other half to go and get my geek on I got a ride with my friend ZeroPoint, and together we ventured forth on a harrowing trek of nearly five minutes to join Tea Leaf, his wife Celluloid Girl, and our friends Lendell Prime and Redbeard McFancyPants. I'm not disparaging that last person at all. He has the most amazing denim pants I have ever seen. Americans really don't appreciate how versatile denim can be.

Anyway, after a brief rundown of the rules we'd be using (this is a play test of the beta release of fifth edition, after all) we dove into the fray using pre-generated characters. The first five minutes were great, then my character was swallowed by a giant purple worm. Things pretty much got hilarious from there. That was not the last of my characters to die in the course of playing the game, nor were my characters the only ones. I want to elaborate more, but some of that will be content for upcoming comics like the one above. 

For the first time in I don't know how many years I was able to get my geek on for an entire day, and well into the night. It really felt good to delve into being a character in a fantasy setting for a day, and spend that time pretending to be someone other than me. Escapism is a funny thing. There's no getting away from who you are every day. Sooner or later you have to return to being the person you see in the mirror every day. Sometimes, just sometimes it's getting away and being someone else for a little while that can make being  yourself bearable.

Sketch Dumping and Slurping Lucky Aphrodite

Work a Doodle: The Three Day Weekend Edition

Fridays really do seem to be turning into my official day for sketch dumps. I've been jumping between casual doodles and more serious drawings of late, and I've started keeping a sketchbook next to the bed. I'll doodle for fifteen minutes to a half-hour before I go to sleep for the night. Aphrodite was drawn in bed...which...sounds weird in a perverse kind of way. I swear the pages of my sketchbook don't stick together.

At work I've been drawn (so to speak) into a series of recurring conference calls, which happens from time-to-time when you're a project manager. We're at a stage in the project where the client is interfacing with the lead developer and having fairly technical discussion to which I don't have much to contribute. This gives me some extra time for doodling in my notebook when I would otherwise be responding to email messages. Some of these drawings are a result of having that extra time.

Those who've been following Geek Speak will recognize Wuffles the Dog. It didn't occur to me until I picked this up to scan it that he's basically reading from one stereotypical doggy potty, while using another.

A scary-as-hell little boy that I drew during a meeting with one of my team members and the project manager of another. I have an idea for something to do with this character, so I don't want to say too much more here. I will say it's something that crawled out from the darker side of my imagination and chuckled with gleeful menace.

The office managers where I work are responsible for ordering all kinds of snacks for the office. They do a great job, and there is always a selection of fresh fruit, nuts, and other healthy options. Even so it sometimes seems like they get the kind of food the witch might have fed Hansel and Gretel to fatten them up.

One of the delectable and oh so sweet treats that is often available for us to guzzle one plastic tube at a time is "Gogurt." One morning a co-worker walked past by desk nursing on one of the plastic tubes and this thing popped into my head. For some reason I find it hilarious when my characters say something patently ridiculous as though they're angry enough to tear off someone's arm.

I overheard a co-worker call a sales lead, or prospect, or some such thing a "lucky duck" because he'd be on vacation soon. Had to draw this for her. This is the same co-worker who brought us the "awesome possum."

I knew I wanted to draw Aphrodite, but I didn't expect to draw this. I like how this turned out enough to sign my name to it. Initially this was going to be part of a larger project that I'm planning to do for my kids, but it turned out too real and too..."artsy"...I guess...to work for a preschooler. It is interesting that when I draw a mythological figure who is supposed to be no less than the personification of beauty, I draw her as a tall brunette. I wonder why that might be?

There are other drawings, but...damn it...I have to have something to post next week.

Geek Speaking on Opening the Night with Mark Crilley

Geek Speak: Open Mic Night

Every so often I'll come up with one of these dumb jokes. Usually I'll turn to Mildly Sensational and start with "hey, listen to this..." That's how this strip started. When we first got together Mildly Sensational would humor my terrible jokes with a genuine sounding laugh, but we've been together a long time. Now she lets me know I've left the arena of good humor and entered the wilds of cheap puns and terrible jokes by way of a mocking laugh and a derisive comment, "oh, ha ha hah. You are so witty."

Really, I appreciate it. It helps to keep my sense of humor on the high road, and I'm not talking about the "green district" in Denver (see there I go, I need a mocking laugh and a derisive remark).

While this is, admittedly a terrible joke. I like it enough to wonder what else could be done with it. The cadence of the joke seemed to lend itself to a three panel comic with a set-up, set-up, punchline framework. I might use the setting of the comedy club whenever I come up with these gems. Open mic nights are usually well past my bedtime. This way I get an outlet for some of my worst (or maybe best, who knows) jokes and a good night's sleep. Win/win.

How to Draw - With Mike Crilley

For a long time now I've been watching the YouTube videos of illustrator Mark Crilley. He has a decidedly biased approach to drawing that leans heavily toward manga, but to he does so as a choice, not out of some artistic limitation. Crilley's drawing and painting skills are indisputable, and the best part is that he does an outstanding job of breaking down the process of drawing into concepts that are easily understandable.

I don't remember how I found Crilley's channel on YouTube, but it was near to the beginning of Geek Speak. I was watching his videos around the same time I was drawing some of those first strips. It's more than reasonable to give his videos credit for some of the early growth in my style and technique. I incorporate a lot of his advice into my drawing.

The man does some really amazing things with a simple black PrismaColor pencil.

The videos themselves are fairly well produced. We never actually see Crilley himself, which is nice. The focus of the video is always putting the artwork front and center. His narration is relatively clear, particularly in the later videos. If his narration has a fault it may be that he has a tendency to try to be funny and fall a little short, but that's a minor complaint.

By watching his videos it's possible to learn about a variety of artistic styles and techniques, even though Crilley is really known for his manga series. In the library of videos available in his channel are tutorials on everything from chibi characters, to dragons, to super-realistic drawings of random objects.

Here are some of my favorite videos from the Mark Crilley channel on YouTube





Pretty sure this is one of the first of his videos I ever watched. Judging by the quality of the video it's definitely one of the earlier videos Crilley uploaded to his channel.



He's also a solid writer with two manga series and two volumes of instructional books for illustrating manga. Here are titles written and drawn by Mark Crilley:

• Miki Falls - published by Harper Collins. I have the first volume of this story, and I recommend it. 
• Brody's Ghost - published by Dark Horse. I've only read the first issue of this, but it's a fun story with some unexpected turns. 
• Mastering Manga - published by Impact. This is a great book to use as a resource for drawing, not just for manga. He covers basic drawing concepts in the book in a way that helps to create a foundation for people just starting out with learning to draw. If I were to rank books about drawing that I've read, I would rank this a close second to the essential tome that so many artists have used to get started, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. 

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.

Geek Speaking the Game of Rimming the Pacific

Geek Speak: The Game

The first time we played this game is lost in the winding, trackless, uncharted recesses of my memory. How it works is this: I will grab the bottom edge of my shirt and walk into a room where my wife is on the computer, reading, or doing something on her phone. I'll cock an eyebrow and wait patiently for her to notice me, like a cat stalking that spot on the floor, you know the one, the spot only cats can see. When she sees me I wait a moment then I lift up my shirt and I give her my best big, goofy smile.

She will then cock an eyebrow at me as if to say, "Is that how it is, then? I accept your challenge." Then my wife will lift her shirt and we'll stand there grinning at each other for a moment. Just before it starts to feel awkward the shirts get dropped back into place and we go back to what we were doing as though it never happened.

I have no idea how this got started. It doesn't matter really. This game always works. It's always fun.

Pacific Rim: Weeks Later and I'm Still Smiling

Mildly Sensational and I have a hard time getting out to see movies, which is a well established fact of parenthood. Any set of parents will testify that getting out of the house for time together for a movie and dinner is really damn difficult after you have a kid, much less kids. Now that we are expecting our second we're put in kind of a funny place in that we have to arrange for someone to watch our daughter so that we can go out. This is to get her accustomed to being watched by other people so it's less of a shock when someone other than her parents is watching her overnight. 

The first time we arranged for someone to sit our daughter so we could go to a movie and out to dinner we went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. That was in June around the same time as Father's day. Last month we arranged for our friends Gibbergeist and his wife to stay with Veronica and we took in Pacific Rim.

It's over a month later and I still smile when I think about it. Let's just say this up front, this movie is not American Beauty, nor is it any other Best Picture recipient you can name. This movie is one thing: giant sea monsters versus giant robots, and it is owns that shamelessly, even proudly! 

Honesty time, I freaking loved this movie. It has its flaws, and it has a couple of moments that were truly unnecessary, but the overall film was a fantastic and enjoyable surge of cinematic adrenaline. 

The thrust of the story is a war that is being fought with enormous extra-dimensional monsters who attack us from a rift deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. The giant monsters are called Kaiju, which is a Japanese word for "monster." To battle the Kaiju humanity pools its resources and develop Jagers, which is German for "hunters." The Jagers make use of a neural link between the machine and the pilot. The neural load is too much for a single pilot, so all Jagers have two whose minds are electronically linked. Through the link they move and fight as one person, and their movements drive those of the Jager. 

When the movie starts humanity is at a turning point in the war. After initial victories they've started to lose, and it's up to a small group of remaining Jagers from all over the world and their pilots to make humanities final stand, end the war, or die trying.

It's a simple plot, but the actors embrace it with gusto. The cast is an impressive grouping of international film and television stars including Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Idris Elba (Thor and Luther), Rinko Kikuchi, and Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy and Hellboy...oh, and he's the voice of the narrator at the beginning of all of the Fallout video games). 

Charlie Hunnam does a solid job carrying the film, but does seem at times to be out of his depth in scenes with Idris Elba. That's understandable. Idris Elba is an amazing actor, and he makes would could be a boring archetypal role something engaging and worthwhile. He delivers the movie's "Cripsian's Day Speech" (from Henry V) and he does so gloriously. Every one who's seen the trailers has seen a piece of this speech, "...today we are cancelling the apocalypse." There's more to it than that...see the movie...it's worth it. 

Rinko Kikuchi is charming as an eager rookie Jager pilot. She also serves as the movie's nominal love interest, but there's not much romance to be had in the film. In a way that's kind of refreshing. The filmmakers didn't bolt on some bullshit love story in a craven maneuver calculated to rope in female viewers. Rinko's character is unapologeticly tough, resourceful, and intelligent. She does play second fiddle to Charlie Hunnam which is a little unsatisfying as I would have liked to see this character given some more room to develop. 

The supporting cast is filled out with charming character actors who at times steal the movie, even from the great Idris Elba. 

There are some flaws with the movie. There are several plot holes that allow our heroes to escape an otherwise certain doom. Some scenes feel a little like filler between giant monster and robot battles. There are moments where performances come across a little flat. Again the cast does a solid job, so there aren't a lot of flat moments. 

My biggest complaints are in some unnecessary touches that completely removed me from the film. The biggest of which was the appearance of Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau. When his character is introduced it's on the eve of a major battle with Kaiju in the streets of...I think Shanghai. Hannibal Chau is built up as this major Chinese underworld figure dealing in black market merchandise. When the character is introduced Ron Perlman gets this major reveal with a fancy camera angle intended to accentuate how physically large he really is. The moment falls laughably flat. It should work. All of the elements are there, and yet, somehow, when we meet Hannibal Chau for the first time and it's Ron Perlman it just...fizzles. 

Perlman for his part delivers a fine performance, but seems uncomfortable in the role from time to time. Given how the character was built up and placed in a very specific setting I would have loved to see the role go to one of that region's major stars. It would have been great to  have Hannibal Chau turn around and it's Sammo Hung, or Sonny Chiba, or (best of all) Chow Yun Fat. 

The action of the movie is intense and it is underscored by a muscular soundtrack. Since seeing the movie the theme from Pacific Rim (covered here by LittleVMills) has become one of my favorite things to pull up in Spotify when I want to buckle down and focus on some menial task, like tracking my hours. From the first moment a Jager engages with a Kaiju the soundtrack thunders, and hammers, and plugs into your nervous system to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's great. I love it. 

On the whole Pacific Rim is a great action movie playing the part of a war movie where the combatants are monsters and robots. Not only would I watch this movie again, I'd pay the extortionist ticket prices to see it in the theater at least one, if not two or three, times. 

Verdict: Highly Recommended

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. 

Geek Speaking on the Heroics of Miraculous Sound

Geek Speak: Heroics...?

Running an elderly lady over with a bus? Not funny. Have the world's dumbest superhero throw her at a building so hard it breaks? Hilarious. Don't count the old lady out, yet. This may be it, or I might have more in store for her.

It turns out Wuffles has a little bit of a soft spot for his elderly owner after all. Now that she's no longer in the picture I have to wonder if the gruff little dog will put on the tutu from time to time just to remember her...probably not.

One of the ideas I'm looking forward to exploring is superpowers and superheroes aren't always what you expect. Even classic superpowers like superhuman strength and invulnerability aren't necessarily bestowed on the best people to have them.

Captain Dum-Dum is my prime example of this (for the moment). Here is a guy who is so strong he can pull battleships on dry land with this teeth. He's so near to complete invincibility that artillery shells just knock the wind out of him. He can travel miles in a single jump. He just happens to be dumb as a bag of hammers. Think the power of Will Smith's much (and unjustly) maligned superhero Hancock with the mental faculties of Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber. His heart's in the right place, his head just doesn't have the computing power to keep up.

He probably has a super-villain nemesis. I just haven't worked out who that would be yet.

Sounding off on "Miracle of Sound"

Those who play more video games than I do probably already know about the Escapist Magazine, a website dedicated to all things video game, plus some great news and reviews for movies and television. They also have a number of video features. I'm a fan of Unskippable and Zero Punctuation but I'm especially excited about new posts under Miracle of Sound.

Miracle of Sound is primarily a music series with videos instead of the other way around. The music and videos are the brainchild of Gavin Dunne who writes, arranges, and performs all of the songs. To be honest I don't remember how I stumbled onto it, I think I was just clicking around on the Escapist and happened to click the link to his page. What I found when I got there was the rock music equivalent of a candy store; all different colors and flavors of music. 

Dunne is one prolific musician. To be fair because his primary sources of inspiration are video games, movies, and television so he has a nearly inexhaustible resource from which to extract his raw materials. In addition to being a prolific creator his approach to the music is diverse and not chained to a single style or genre. He moves from blues, to rock, to abstract atmospheric pieces and manages to make it all sound good. 

If I'm being honest, the bulk of the songs available from Miracle of Sound are pretty cheesy; but so what? His raw materials are video games. What do you expect? When you get under the veneer or cheesiness there are genuinely well thought out, even provocative lyrics and good melodic work. The blending of styles over both of those makes for a genuinely pleasurable listening experience. 

Here area  few of my favorites.

The Joker's Song was the first one of Dunne's songs I listened to, and the one that completely hooked me. This song has a carnival motif and Dunne does a nearly flawless Mark Hamill that is a nice nod to that actor's work on both the recent Arkham games and Batman: The Animated Series.

After the Joker's Song I explored the website a little and eventually came to The Grind. This is a fast paced metal number that draws on the Gears of War franchise. I don't know what it is about this song, but it's one I like to listen to when I need to get pumped for something.

Finally, and the most different from the other two, is Legends of the Frost, which is inspired by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This has an element of heroic ballad to it that I really like, and it's melodic enough I can sing it to my daughter when I'm trying to put her to bed for the night.