Author: Teel

I believe the link is courtesy Scott McCloud, but what do I know? I’m all over the web tonight.

This comic is fantastic. Well, it looks like it’s a series, and I have no idea about other instances of said comic, but this particular one (you’ll know it’s the right one because of the sun and the flower, trust me) just blew me away as I patiently waited for the images to slide down my low-bandwidth line. I mean, fantastic use of panels, and of layout actually being an integral part of the story, and and excellent use of the “infinite canvas” of the web. How big a sheet of paper would this have to be printed on? But here it is as it is meant to be enjoyed, on the infinitely flexible canvas of the web.

Enjoy.

Ah, having a phone on-hand with me, literally everywhere I go.

So, first today, while it was still raining, I went out and pulled some weeds. There’s a particular type of weed my grandfather is allergic to, so (unless other weeds are in the way of my getting to the weeds I am after) I am seeking out and only pulling these weeds. To save time and effort, and to try to get all of this type of weed removed before they go to seed. Or even blossom, really. Anyway, pictured at right is a leaf from one of these plants, with it’s distinctive five-point leaves. I tried to get a good image of the bud of one that was about to bloom, but it came out blurry. Anyway, while I do not seem to be allergic to this plant, I have been pulling it for several days and my hands are quite unhappy with the activity. So, I wanted to ask any burgeoning horticulturalists out there if they happened to know what the name of this particular plant species is. So that I can have a name for the object of my attentions. A link to a website with a photo and description would be neat, too, if you could find one. I just don’t know where to start.

Next up is a picture of a snake I accidentally ran over with the lawnmower. An hour or so after the rain let up, the grass seemed dry enough to mow, so I proceeded to mow. Which took a while. Just before I was done, I accidentally ran over the snake, pictured at left. I noticed it after I passed over it with the lawn mower and before I stepped on it. I immediately shut off the lawn mower and crouched down for a closer look. The snake was moving a bit at first, but then wiggled slower and slower and twisted itself up slower and slower and stopped. For a while, I thought it might be dead. There was a spot of red on its face, and as it was slowing down, I saw that red blossom out into a copious amount of blood (well, to scale, it seemed copious; it was probably only a couple of drops). After the snake was still for a moment or two, I reached down and grabbed it just behind its head and picked it up to take a closer look. I immediately knew it was still alive. I supported the rest of its body with my left hand, and it sure held on pretty good, twisting up around my hand. It had both its eyes, it could open and close its mouth, and it could stick out its tongue pretty good. It seemed to have stopped bleeding profusely, too. I set it down, it wriggled around some more, into the configuration you see, and stopped again. I photographed it. I tried to offer it live bugs to eat, and I guess I selected the wrong sort of bugs, because it turned and slithered away. I tried a different kind o fbug, and I guess that one was wholly offensive, because it slither away quite fast indeed, right under the house, which I hope is where it lives, rather than where it went to die. Anyway, same thing applies. I don’t know much about snakes, but maybe you do. Tell me what kind of snake that was, and whether you think it’ll be fine. Silly thing probably just shouldn’t have stuck it’s head up under the mower; the rest of it’s body was totally unharmed. (As far as I could tell under close inspection.) Again, a link to a webpage with a photo and description of this type of snake would be appreciated. Thanks.

Finally, we move on from a weed and a snake to a chicken. I don’t have much to say about this chicken, except that yes, they are giving away free chickens. They used to give out free kittens from that same cage, and they went like hotcakes. If you know how and are interested in slaughtering and preparing a live chicken for food (or if for some reason you want a fully grown chicken for a pet) it’s available right here in Pine at the Old Settler’s Shops, 3972 N. Highway 87. If you don’t see the chicken on the porch, ask Gary or Becky in the 1882 log cabin; last time I was at their place they had quite a few chickens. Some were polydactyl. Now, I don’t care what kind of chicken this is, but if you can give some sort of understanding about people who, when visiting a small town in the Rim Country, and an antiques/collectibles store in that small town, one would take home a live chicken, I would be grateful.

Not much else happened today. Well, I mailed off that Perspective drawing to my corespondence school this morning. That’s good. I’m a little behind on some of the things from the chart, a little ahead on others. Nothing to be too worried about. That Mouse Project interactive thing-a-ma-whatsit took up a lot of time I simply hadn’t budgeted for. I’ll have to make up the difference some other day. I’m beginning to have ideas for screenplays I could write, and I have to do this novel first. I need to have creative ideas about the novel, and do the screenplays later.

Oh well, time for bed.

Are we on our way to SCOPAS suits?

I should already be asleep by now, but I don’t want to keep putting off things I want to post about until they never show up.

First, a product available through CafePress (Not my design, just one I like) which is wonderful, disturbing, encouraging, and clever all at once. Maybe more. Click here to see it.

You either love it or you hate it. I love the idea, but hate that it wasn’t mine.

Second, earlier today I helped my grandfather a little with moving a very heavy thing, pictured on the right. If it seems a little blurry, it is because it is a paint shaker in the act of shaking that can of paint. Look at the design of this thing. At the various colors of peeling paint. At the layers of built up grease and grime that give it character. Appreciate the way they don’t make things anymore.

OR

Enjoy the photo on the left. There’s been a lot of clamoring for photos of Mo looking less than cool at or around the Comic-Con in San Diego. As it happens, Mo was having some sort of seizure the single time I came across him in San Diego. As you can see here. Sorry I didn’t get it up sooner, but I hadn’t plugged in my laptop until today.

Let’s see. This evening, after dinner and before the rain, I spent an hour or so pulling weeds. Not all the weeds, but one particular type of weed my grandfather is allergic to. Well, when other weeds were in the way of me getting to the weeds I was after, I pulled them too. Many of these weeds were only a foot or two tall, but there were many that were taller than me. Many over seven feet tall. I figure that when the weeds get to be seven feet tall, it’s probably time to think about cutting them back. Of course, after about an hour of this (after a day running the store, after a too-short night’s sleep) in the heat, I started to get a little confused and stopped. How confused? Well, there was a tree a little over seven feet high, maybe two inches thick at the base, with leaves somewhat similar to the weed I was looking for. And I attacked it. And mutilated it, trying to pull it, and then… well, it’s still in the ground, and may survive, but when I worked out it was a tree, I decided it was time to call it quits for the day. Oh, but somewhere in my delerium I shot a few pictures with my phone. Thus, the new Virtual Webcam shot.

I’d been building up to it slowly, but last night I took a big … well, it isn’t a whiteboard exactly, but … the concept will suffice. I took this big, re-writable surface which happened to be broken into six major blank sections and labeled it to represent the six weeks of my calendar. And then I filled it in with the things I’d like to get done, and when. Setting tangible deadlines and scheduling time for the different activities that are priorities for me. I have several hours every day in which I can do my own thing, and some days there are more, but I haven’t been accomplishing things at an acceptable rate. So now I’ve got this chart. And I’ve color-coded my current priorities: ‘Art’, ‘Writing’, ‘Comics’, and ‘Movies’ each have their own color of dry-erase marker. At a glance I can see that each week has all areas addressed (or not) or that (for instance) in weeks 2 and 3 of next month (month 4, for those of you who haven’t quite worked out my dates yet) I’ll basically be working solely on finishing the re-write of my novel – those weeks are almost all red. I can see that I don’t have enough ways to work on building toward making movies yet, so there isn’t much green on the chart at all. So I made a note to myself to start special-ordering books on the subject at the library, but I want to get this novel re-written first – that’s my primary, time-sensitive priority. I want to get the novel ‘finished’ by mid-August at the latest so I can send out some advance copies (probably electronically, maybe one copy to myself bound) to be proofed before I launch it publicly. I’m babbling now? Fine. But I’ve got a plan and I’m going to stick to it, and it means a whole set of new stuff should hit the site September 1st. Or 2nd.

No, probably the first.

So, I just watched Gattaca again for the first time since it was in theatres, and I must say, it has a sad ending. Sadder than perhaps I remember. Oh, and dad, I was wrong, M2 does come out on DVD in mid-October. Though… I think I may instead of buying that, sell my copy of the Matrix and buy the inevitable 3-pack when it comes out.

I’m trying to go to bed earlier and get up earlier lately. See if I can get some of my own stuff done bright and early in the morning… or maybe do Grandfather’s stuff earlier and get an early afternoon start on my own stuff. Extend the useable day, anyway. Less of this staying up late, sleeping in business. Early to bes, early to rise, makes a man … something… I just can’t remember what. I’m too sleepy.

Did I mention that I’ve begun work on my stangnated correspondence Art class? Yeah. If I do at least one unit every two weeks (I may be able to get up to three units done a week if I apply myself … and do less of everything else) I should be to the unit on “Cartooning” in … just under six months. (Or at the above mentioned extreme rate, a month. Ha! They don’t mail stuff out that fast. Must be two months. Ha!) On the chart, I gave myself until the end of the week (on my calendar; ie: until the end of the day Monday) to get the Perspective unit done. For today I was supposed to start the Perspective unit. I hadn’t opened it before today. An hour or more before I closed the store today, I’d read the entire unit, done all the Self-Check mini-tests, all the drawing assignments fit to do (there were a couple where they were basically repeating themselves into tedium, which I skipped… then again, I learned all of this in elementary school) or about 90% of them, and had even done a rough sketch of the final “Examination” assignment. I’m supposed to draw a building from a real building, showing construction lines and using proper perspective. The only requirement of the building is that it have a slanted roof with parallel edges so I can use a Trace Vanishing Point. So, like an hour tomorrow afternoon. 20 minutes if I only want a ‘B’. But now I’m off to bed. In the morning I shall see how I feel and what time I wake, and either do the drawing in the morning or … lemme check the chart … work on a comic… which I shall not specify the nature of at this time, but which, according to the chart, you should see online no later than the end of next week (8/2/03 on your calendar).

Oh, and anyone who can provide me with a satisfying explanation of David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. gets a special prize. If you can get a clear, satisfying answer from Mr. Lynch himself, your prize will include something extra special.