Thursday

So, I've been reading Invincible lately. I checked out books 5, 6 and 11 from the library since that was all the had. It's a very fun super hero story. I've put the first few books on hold after I read the first book that I had :-) I've never really been much for super hero comics, even when I was a kid. And there are some things that I just do not get. Like the obsessive focus on the characters costumes. I do find it very funny that one of the characters in the comic is a normal guy who runs a tailer shop that specializes in designing super hero costumes though.

Image comics publishes Invincible. You can read the first issue of a lot of their comics here which is about the coolest thing for a comic book publisher to have on their website ever. Invincible is there if you want to check it out.

Mice Templar is there as well, another comic that I really enjoy.

--Abe

Gone in the works

Well, I think I (we) have a solution for our photo problems. We got new phones that seem to take pretty good pictures. Good enough for the Web anyways. LG Neon. So we bought the $20 cord to transfer the pictures on the phone to our computers. And that way we won't eat through batteries for the real camera so fast. We bought it online today because the store at the mall sucks. So we should get it in the next week or so and then there will be pictures galore. Maybe more than you ever wanted.

Anyways, I really like the new phones. Some things bug me, like on my old phone, I could set the weekly recurrence for a number of weeks (like every 3 or 4 weeks), but on the new one, it is either every week on the same day or every month on the same date. Blegh. Oh well. Also, no games. And horrible ring tones. I think I might be able to fix that when we get the cord and I can put some ring tones on my phone. Maybe.

I started inking the Gone story. I am nervous and excited. I hope it looks good in the end. Abe likes it. I don't know what to think. I am really enjoying working with the nib pen. I had to go buy new stuff though because mine are all about 15 years old and rusty. Sigh. I feel old that I have 15-year-old rusty tools. Still. I got them in high school/junior high. The new ones work great. Really great. I have not had a drip since I got the new ones. I like the old handle better because it had a larger cork grip, but the new one is ok. It was only $3 at Dakota Art. I also bought three pairs of nibs, one pair of which does not fit in this handle. Doh. What an idiot. It would have been nice if the people at the store had pointed it out, but maybe I looked like I knew what I was doing.

I wish I new how to use Illustrator and Flash because Penny Arcade has a position open for an Associate Designer. Oh well. At least my boss is giving me a lot of graphics work lately. That is pretty fun, actually. I am pretty good with Photoshop, though I just learned about the effects for layers in the last month, so I am pretty unqualified for a real designer position like that. Still. It would be totally awesome to work for Penny Arcade, who are no more than a 15-minute car ride away. And that is bad traffic. Abe found that while job hunting this morning. He would have applied, but he is even less qualified for that than I am.

Speaking of drawing (though not really), I am also working on a funny one-page boxing comic. It is taking longer than I expected, but it is pretty fun and I think it will turn out great. I haven't decided on whether or not I will color it, which will add a lot of time. It is a pretty busy comic, even though it is such a simple idea. So far it will be three sheets (of tracing paper) already: the comic, the background, and the shading. I am doing the shading on Gone on a separate sheet of paper from the line inking, too. I just realized I am only half way done with the first page because I forgot I had to do the shading. My self imposed deadline for Gone is the 15th, but if I can't (and I don't think I can) I should be able to finish it up on Saturday (the 16th) if my friend doesn't call me to come up this weekend. Not sure what I will do with it when it is done. If I want to get it published, I shouldn't put it up on the Web anywhere.

Monday update

Angela stayed home friday because she wasn't feeling well. So we watched Buffy and Battlestar Galactica. We watched almost the entire second season of Buffy and most of season 2.5 of BSG.

On the economic front, I wanted to show you this chart which shows the percentage of the US population that is in the workforce. This includes the people that are reported in the unemployment rate. We're basically back to the percentage we had in the mid-late 70s and mid 80s.

--Abe

Economic stuff

I'm no expert on economics, I studied anthropology in college, but I read the news daily and I follow a few financial blogs that are run by people that really know their stuff. They report in much finer detail than more general news sources like CNN, NPR, or BBC do. Below is a sort of summarization from a number of different sources.

Today the government announced the unemployment numbers for December. According to their statistics 85,000 jobs were lost last month. They also revised November from a loss to a gain and October from a gain to a loss. The official reported unemployment rate sits unchanged at 10% for December. That only includes people currently receiving unemployment benefits.

2.5 million people were "marginally attached" which means they are unemployed and have looked for a job in the last 12 months but not in the last 4 weeks. In December of 08 that number was 578,000 people. These people are not counted in the reported unemployment number or percentage.

Between November 09 and December 09, the number of people receiving "Emergency Unemployment Compensation" benefits rose from 3.594 million to 5.143 million people, a 43% increase. And, those people are not counted in the reported unemployment numbers either.

Officially, unemployment is 10%, Clearly though the number of people without jobs is massively higher and is closer to 20%.

Things are just as bad in Europe too. Take a look at this article at the NY Times. Unemployment in Latvia is over 22% and Spain is over 19% In Spain, people 25 and under are 43.8% unemployed.

This is a huge amount of data to digest but there are some very interesting details in it. The numbers are in a wonky format though, if you see 207,000 read it as 207 million and 4,100 is 4.1 million. That chart shows quarterly data from 1999-2009 in both raw and seasonally adjusted formats. Annual numbers are in the far right column.

At this time, 73.9% of people age 25 and over with a bachelors degree or higher are employed which is down from 78.5% in 1999. 65.5% of people age 25 and older with a bachelors degree are employed, down from a high of 72% in 1999. 56.1% of people age 25 and over with a high school diploma are employed, down from 62.6% in 1999. And only 39.7% of people age 25 and older who do not have high school diplomas are employed, down from a high of 43.3% in 2007.

Sources are:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.bls.gov/

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

--Abe

Sherlock

On Saturday, we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. It was...good. :) I really enjoy the Sherlock stories (one of my grandma's got me the complete Sherlock Holmes for Xmas one year). This was not those. This was a more action-oriented Sherlock. As long as I reminded myself it was not meant to be a depiction of the books, it was good. He seemed to be on a bit more cocaine or whatever it was and was much more childish in the movie. Makes me want to watch the old British Sherlock movies, which just happen to be available for instant play on Netflix... Watson was even more different between the two than Sherlock. I think. He is cockier and more confident. I haven't read the stories in a long time, so that is just what I remember of Watson in my head. I did really enjoy it though, and I am glad we saw it on the big screen. It is a very pretty movie. And did I mention the sort of steam punk aesthetic? The actors all played their rolls well. I think Robert Downey Jr. could have (at least visually) played Holmes as a more serious, less wild-hair-up-his-butt character, too. He has the appropriate haggard look.

I think this movie was the start of a heap of Rock n' Roll Remakes. Not a new style, there just happens to be a whole bunch coming out at once. Clash of the Titans is another. And the original Clash of the Titans is also available for instant play on Netflix, so there is another one for me to watch. There is another Iron Man, Iron Man II, which is definitely one. The preview intrigued me. He makes Tony Stark look like such a cocky douche, which I find hilarious. I have never read the Iron Man comics so I don't know how appropriate that is. Maybe The Wolfman, but I don't think that one is so rock n' roll.

Wool washing is slow going. I might be a quarter done? Maybe a third? But it is a nice creamy color when it is all washed and carded. I have a grocery bag full of it carded. This batch is Suffolk. Can't remember if I said that in my last post. Mom though it was Shetland, but maybe the other bag of white is Shetland. I am really excited for the dark wool. It is really pretty. During carding I even get most of the vegetable matter (VM) out. There is almost always just a little left in, but nothing gross or huge. I think I am really getting a pattern down for the two stages, washing and carding. Drying sucks. Did I say I burned some of it? I tried drying 4 pans at once in the oven which meant putting some of it on the bottom rack and I totally burnt the bottom rack. But I can pick it off and it should be fine. I will probably bag those two together and use them separately from everything else because the staple length (is that the right term) will be a little off what with the burning. I don't know if I am carding it right, but it is still looking nice.

Anyone a fan of Big Bang Theory? Check out SheldonShirts.com. It has a list of where you can get the shirts and stuff that Sheldon and the other characters on Big Bang Theory wear. Totally awesome. Sheldon has a lot of great shirts. Though you can see from the Leonard lists that even though he wears great shirts they are covered with his coat.

I wonder where our camera is. I have stuff to take pictures of. Lots of stuff: Noro shawl, thick shawl, orange cowl, short green silk scarf thing, Sheldon's sick hat, Tidings of Joy ornaments (candy cane, hat, plum, cherry, and I started the lights, though they are all packed so that might be for next year!), lorna socks, the one finished striped glove, felted tea cozy, Brennan hat (mine and Abe's), and Penny's Xmas hat. And that is just the knitting stuff. I should also get a pic of the crazy mint. And I have a few drawings to scan, though Abe should be able to do that now. I should also get a pic of my ruined Queen of Blues sock (those are not mine, I just don't know where my pic is...)and then FIX it. I have to cut off the whole ankle part, but at least it will be easy to knit. Attaching it will be the tricky part since I am pretty sure it is an ankle-down sock, which means Kitchener stitching it back on or something.

Abe made delicious oatmeal maple bread. We used it for PBJ today. Yum. That bread is just ridiculous. So good. And he cleaned the apartment and wow. It looks great. So nice. I forgot what it was like to live in a clean apartment with vacuumed floors.

And in completely other news, I think I am going to knit hats to sell on etsy. I didn't see anything too similar on etsy. I think they will be about $25 each. And I am trying to come up with a single skeins worth matching fingerless mittens.

Jobless again

I don't want to talk about it. On the bright side there'll be a lot more posting here from me starting now. And our house will finally be clean again. I baked real bread last night. Not batter bread but kneaded bread. I made two loaves of oatmeal maple syrup bread. It is SO tasty. I sent a few slices to work with Angela so she could share with her coworkers.

I started playing Dragon Age Origins a few days ago. I got it for my birthday back in December but the controls really turned me off the first time I tried it. I tweaked with the controls and got them working a lot better for me and now I'm really enjoying the game. I made a lady dwarf warrior. I'm going with dual wielding. The story so far is more mystery and promises than story but I'm only like 2 hours in to the game. If it doesn't pick up a bit in the next few hours I'll worry but for now I'm just assuming that the developers are assuming I'm a moron and are consequently spending WAY too much time letting me figure out how to move, click buttons and watch cut scenes.

Unfortunately for them I mastered those skills over a decade ago . . . .

I spent a few hours looking for jobs this morning and I've spent the rest of the day cleaning up the Christmas decorations. Once that is done then I can start actually cleaning the house. LOL

--Abe

Happy New Year -let's see pics

Well Happy New Year. Abe and I got to ring it in sick. He played EQ2 most of the night. I watched Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale, and Step Brothers. Because we have Netflix and you can watch some movies instantly over your PS3! I love it. So very much. Both had me laughing out loud.

We also finished watching season 1 of Sanctuary, a Syfy series (what a dumb name...). It started out with a ton of blue screen action, but as the series went on, perhaps their budget got bigger or their ideas got smaller because there were less and less blue screens. The characters are fun. And the writing gets better as you go through the season.

I wish that instant play was available for Highlander. I really want to watch it but I don't want to have to wait for the DVDs in the mail. Oh well. Maybe someday.

So here are some pictures. I had intended to post this poem before Xmas, but our decorations are still up so I guess it still counts, right? I wrote this poem in 8th or 9th grade. I think 8th. My English class was making a book of xmas poems for the parents. I turned this in. My teacher said it was good but that the other parents probably wouldn't like this in their book of xmas poetry, so two more poems later I came up with something acceptable that I don't remember. I always liked this poem though.

Then we have a picture I drew of Abe's oldest character in EQ2, Denaso. It was fun to draw, though I don't know how accurate it is. I think she is one of Abe's first characters. I should really write more here to get Blogger to show the image lined up well with the text, but I don't really have much to say. It is Crayola colored pencils and technical pens. Fun, but it is hard to put together on the computer.

Next we have an ink of a chicken in electronic pants that are kind of out of control. I thought of this picture as I was going to sleep one night. I really do enjoy the hatch marks. They are fun. I have a book by Edward Gorey on hold at the library (Google images). My mom recommend I look at his work as a good example of hatch marks. I look forward to perusing his art. Mostly children's books, but I like that kind of art, I guess. Anyways, this was also done with a technical pen. My smallest for the whole thing. I probably should have outlined the pants in a thicker pen so they would stand out more.

Here is an ink of Nisa. I drew the pencil version a few years ago and then traced it a few weeks ago with a nib pen. That was an absolute blast. I really like working with the nib pen that you dip in ink. I plan to use that more often. It takes a little more practice because the ink doesn't dry as fast and can drip, which is why there is a big solid black spot on her left ear. I found my old pen and nibs from high school. I didn't know what to do with them then, but I am so glad I kept them. This is why I have a tendency to not throw anything away. I want to try it again many years later and will probably like it better.

Last we have a squirrel ink also using the nib. I realized I needed to practice with this pen and style, so I looked through my old drawing pads for pictures I liked so I could trace them with the ink nib pen. I think I drew this squirrel in pencil in high school.

All of these (except the xmas poem) are already up on deviantart. Someone already favorited Chick in Electronic Pants and someone else commented that the squirrel is cute.

Anyways, we had a good Xmas, even though it didn't snow this year. I was very lucky this year. Top of my list of wants, though I didn't tell anyone, was Umbrella Academy: Volume 2. And Abe got it for me. Totally awesome. He also got me Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, et al. That night we made lamb chops, onion potatoes, and brussel sprouts, so I made the Brussel Sprouts Braised in Butter. They were a little over cooked, but they were still really good. I can't wait to make it again. Very simple. Once you make it, you don't really need a recipe, so I was telling everyone about them. Haha.

Also, my mom and Jim got me 30 lbs of unprocessed wool!! And hand carders. I am in the process of washing about 10 lbs of the wool. It is going OK. I burned some when I was drying it in the oven (it is just too cold to try to dry it in the air). I started by throwing it all in the tub with hot water and a lot of soap, using a method I found on the Joy of Hand Spinning. That was a good start, but some if it is pretty dang dirty, so I have moved on to a smaller, slower, more precise method as described by the Yarn Harlot. I think this method of mass wash and then small wash is working well, but I have been sick so it is slower going than anticipated. Next time I will probably just do the small batches since I don't really have the time or space to wash and dry 10 lbs of wool at once. Anyways, I have 20 lbs of white wool to wash and 10 lbs of dark (black and brown). I very much intend to make a cardigan out of stripes of the natural white and dark. I think it will be very cool. I am not sure if I will use a cool pattern or if I will just do a basic cardigan from the Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. then all I have to do is decide on the number of rows per stripe, the shoulder style, and the neck style. This is very exciting.

I almost forgot to say that Abe also got me a cd by Imelda May and it is great. Rockabilly. The songs get stuck in my head and I don't mind. Abe heard an interview with her on NPR and then a song of hers and said she totally sounded like someone I would like. Very nice. Great CD. She's Irish. I don't know if she does concerts here, but I would love to go see her live.