Very tired

Working a lot. Want you to see this. Be sure to press play. The darker the color the higher unemployment is in that area. It's divided by county.

Scary stuff.

--Abe

Post

God, I'm beat. Been getting up around 5 am all week for work. And now it looks like my next day off is going to be wednesday!

I don't really have anything to say other than I wish I did lol

That's my new pet in WoW. Isn't he cute? Like OMFG squeal like a teenage girl cute.

Have I mentioned how tired I am?

--Abe

Pics for Art by Committee

James Gurney, the guy who did Dinotopia, has a blog. And on that blog, he hosts "Art by committee" where once a month he posts a quote from a sci-fi or fantasy story and people send in pictures drawn from the quote. This month the quote is "He is shorter than I remember, and thin. His fur is grayed to white in a fringe around his head, just below his ears. His coat is dull, thinning, and coarse. His eyes, so bright I…" It was due on the 12th and I just got it in last night. This first one is the pencil I sent him. I think he liked it, which is so awesome. Made my day.

The pencil was really fun. Google is a nice help for reference pics. I had to scan it and such to do that and it was amazingly difficult. I think it shut the power down three times and we had to flip the breakers. Then it freaked out the scanner to be shut down like that so it took a good 20 minutes to get the scan done. I think the "power drain" from changing the size of the image in Photoshop killed the power again.

So then after I had that scanned and sent, I decided to try inking it. This first one I used a few different size technical pens from Faber-Castell. I only have three sizes: S, F, and M. I got them as a set for less than $15 from Fred Meyer's. Not quite sure what the equivalents are, but I think it is like 3, 5, and 8 or 10. I did the outline of the character in F, the inside lines with S, and the shading with M. It was fun. I wish I hadn't colored in his eyes with the hatching, but whatever.

This next one I did with a (slightly blunt) brush pen that came in the same little kit as the three technical pens. I really like the set. They are easy to use and a nice solid black color. I don't know which of the two I like better. I think parts of each. So I will probably use the brush for skin outlines and the technical pens for everything else. I had trouble with the shoes. Also had help from Google.

This was really fun. My favorite of the three is the pencil drawing. But I can't wait to find out the next quote on the 15th. This also inspired another image that I will draw. It is a more sarcastic version because the character is still quite rotund even though the quote is about the character being thinner than remembered. Maybe I will do that tonight.

Also, in the mail I have a drawing board with a translucent center on the way from DickBlick.com. So now I will have a better (and more ergonomic) place to draw. That will be nice. My current place is curled up on the couch, but I am having some problems with my right shoulder because of my posture (I think). I actually started physical therapy for it a few weeks ago and I was right, my right shoulder is...was...really tight. It is already a lot better. Speaking of, I better go do my exercises. Hooray. They are actually really easy and take probably 20 minutes.

Wormwood Good

This weekend, Abe and I went to the library and got some comic books. I read the first Wormwood book by Ben Templesmith and I really like it. Funny, dark, weird, and pretty in a gross way. I like the art style. The main character is a magic maggot or something in a reanimated corpse. They don't come right out and say that until probably half way through that book, but you get the gist. Abe got that quicker than I did. I found it in another section of the library that has graphic novels. We thought it was just the one section in the Teens books, but those are mostly superheroes and other lighter stuff, so I was very pleased to find this other section. We also got a Conan one for Abe, and Harley Quinn and Pigeons from Hell for both of us. I am not interested in Conan at all.

Now I am reading Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (which I keep spelling Bathman...). I am liking it more and more. My favorite Batman, I think, will always be Michael Keaton. He was just everything I thought Batman should be. I think that I would never have picked Michael Keaton to play Batman and that is what makes him so perfect. He is an unassuming height, but not too short. He is polite and quite and refined in his tux but not boring looking. He has a twinkle in his eye that shows his intelligence and wit. But in his suit, he is powerful and serious. Strong and purposeful. This is what I think of Batman, not Michael Keaton, who I would guess is a bit of a weirdo but cool. Anyways, I am still enjoying this comic. Not quite my favorite art style, but OK. I did a tracing of a one page comic and I think it turned out well.

I also listened to Animal Farm on my commute last week. That book is a bit of a downer. Not what I was expecting. I think I was thinking of another book of his when I got the audio book. And now I am listening to Dubliners. I can get a complete short story or two in each way. I am not enjoying it as a car ride listen as much as I enjoyed Eragon. I actually really liked that one and need to put the next one on hold. The weird thing is that the last four or five books on CD I have gotten have been read by someone with a British accent.

Anyways, after the library we went to a cafe. (I almost wrote cage. Wouldn't it have been weird if we had gone to a cage?) They had a little bucket for donating to the businesses that were burned down in Greenwood a few weeks ago. Since then (Oct 23) and including then there have been a total of 10 fires in the area, most if not all apparently arson. Crazy! I don't know what is going on in Greenwood. The businesses that were destroyed in the first fire (which was so huge that the sirens woke Abe and me and it smelled of smoke at our place a 20-30 minute walk away (5 or less in the car) - well, none of them had insurance. They were all small, so not shocking. But the Greenwood area seems to be really pulling together to get the Green Bean Coffeehouse back going again. I think they help women in need get jobs there as jumping off points.

Uh, anyways, the cafe we went to was nice, though very small. I have no idea what the name is. I had a glass of milk. :) Abe and I sat there and read the comics we had just got at the library. Fun stuff.

Sweater!

My cardigan is done (a while ago, but I have been busy)! I messed up a little, but I learned a lot. (That was my new haircut, but I have since had it cut again. And yes my hair is black instead of reddish now, thanks for noticing...)

1. The sleeves are a little too tight, but not so bad. They have loosened with use and are quite comfortable, now.


2. I forgot I would need to make the two front panels a little longer than the back. Oh well. Perhaps blocking can save me. (It didn't really.)


3. I learned how to sew a shoulder seam. It looks alright. I think it could look better. Perhaps I need to pull the yarn a bit tighter.


4. I learned how to sew a side seam! I love it. You can't even see there is a seam. Though I now know why you need the two spare stitches at each sewn edge.


5. I also successfully picked up the collar. Looks pretty snazzy.

From this, I learned that the Knitting Book of Answers is completely AWESOME. That is where I learned all the new techniques from. Dumb me, I have had it forever. It was already my go-to book for cast ons and bind offs. Now it is just getting better since I have actually started using it. Strange how that happens.

I also learned, that when Ernie is content, he makes a wonderful pattern holder...

Now I have also started the striped gloves from Knitting and Tea. They are a bit fiddly with 16+ stripes of vertical intarsia, but I think they will look great in the end. I have a method down. Here is how I started. That did not work.

So I put them on cards (Addi Turbo packaging cardboard), and that is working a lot better.

I also had to rip out Abe's Ganomy hat because the rat bastard just wasn't working. It ended up too small. So I wrote down the changes I need to make and hope to have it done before the middle of December. We'll see.

I actually also finished a knit pickle that was part of the Holiday Joy kit I got from Knit Picks. I am not kidding, I filled it with dill! Well, maybe a teaspoon of old dill and a bunch of stuffing. It is so awesome. Abe was going to take it to work today (but I think he forgot) and I will take it to work tomorrow (if I remember).

A few weekends ago now, I met my mom and aunt Carol at my grandma's. They played some domino like game with numbers while Abe and I watched because we were late and missed out. (Jim was there too.) But while we were there, I got back the Phat Fiber kit!! Phew. I love it. Since then, I have spun up this: the Munchkin Punchkin "Briar Rose" colorway in a 3ply lace weight. I think it looks really nice. This was a pleasure to spin. Soft wool and lovely colors.

I also spun this: My Fair Yarn "Ogre" colorway. (I think this is it - I have two greens, so I might have grabbed the wrong picture...) Actually, this might be wicked. I think I spun Ogre in a single ply lace weight and this is a three ply. Yeah. That's it. Shoot.

Finally, I have to show the world this picture of what happens to Abe's hair when he wears his headphones. We recently cut his hair and this had me laughing for a good five minutes before I thought to go get the camera.

No joke.

Belated Halloween

Happy Halloween just a few days late. We spent the weekend doing the Halloween events in EQ2 and watching movies.

In one of the events you get turned in to a werewolf!

In another, the last boss is a giant version of yourself!

The goblins were giving out a buff that changed your appearance every time you zoned.

We had a great time.

--Abe