no fear new year

happy new year, everyone.

here's to good health and good wealth,
and to a new set of opportunities.

let the new year bring no fear.

other people's xmas gifts

i have been designing and hand-making my co-worker's gifts for their children, who happen to be about my age...but, i've got nothing better to do at work, so why not.

my one co-worker bought her son tickets to a basketball game, reservations for a hotel room, and a gift certificate to a restaurant. and since everything was just paper print outs, she wanted to make a book to put everything in. this way, her son would have something to open. and i liked this idea. so she asked me to design it.

these were some things i found while doing some research:

i immediately fell in love with that second poster when i saw it.

so this is what i made. this is just the cover, i am not posting all the pages. that's just for her son to see.

i've decided i like designing in a way that looks like a silk-screened poster. i love the layering, and the transparencies, and the masking-off of areas to use blocky/chunky elements. i use the computer to make my things look as lo-fi as possible...

hot fuzz: the greater good

-intro personality description*
-certificates on wall
-400% ↑ arrest record → badass**
-moved to sarg but gets transferred
-always suspicious
-underaged drinking vs the greater good
-detective andrews
-swear box
-"you've got a mustache"
-neighborhood watch alliance
-living statue
-side-kick: dumpy, dumb
-notebook: "the most important piece of equipment you'll ever own"
-side kick steals Angel's thunder :
        "b/c we just sat thru 3 hours of acting and the kiss was the most convincing part"
-can't switch off & doesn't get it
       → the dynamic duo**(+)
-curious to know what movies they watched as research. seems a little long, not sure why.
-only way you can win is to not play by the rules
→...but the consequence is: you go crazy.
-also, ride bad-ass horse, if available
-kicking in doors
-firing guns whilst running
-police chase, shoot out
-a considerable amount of paperwork
-explosions


*dialogue went too quickly to catch everything. meant to find it online, but can't.
**no longer sure what i meant by this note.
(+) i think this meant that if you reduced the 2 characters down to a phrase, you have the main character: named "can't switch off", and the side-kick: named "doesn't get it"

well, this one wasn't exactly fair because i really like simon pegg and crew. but i don't know why the few times i've watched it, i either fall asleep, or resist the urge to. it just seems a little too long...but i can't figure out what could be taken out. it's like, you already know going in how it is going to end for the most part, and it just takes too long to get to that point. it's well done though, and it's funny. and compared to the others i've watched and have yet to watch, i know this will be one of the best. i just get bored a bit.

it gets an A-

merry merry

here's this year's x-mas card.

enjoy the abundant left-over cookies, cakes, and sweets
brought in by your lovely co-workers.
and have a good one.

seasonal depression, cure for

roughBM

i've been running through old work files,
killing time at work,
and came across these.

it was for the first big project i worked on.
a case about a guy
who was in a car accident,
and the seat belt caused
a perforation in his intestines.

but, the doctors weren't able
to find the tear right away,
they just knew blood was coming
from somewhere.

anyway,
feces,
or poop,
ended up leaking from this tear
and cementing his intestines together.
and i was lucky enough to draw
this whole process.

so these sketches,
is me trying to
figure out how best to illustrate:
intestines floating in blood,
intestines floating in stool like fluid,
and intestines cemented together.

it's a pretty silly series of drawings.
what's even funnier are the file names.

revisions

i am starting to get some work together for a show i'd like to have,
hopefully in the spring sometime.
this is a draft of one of those pieces i'd like to include.
it's all the revisions for a project i worked on, minus the text.
i'd like it to be tapestry-esque.
either a large scale print,
or if i get ambitious enough,
a fabric piece of some sort.

screwed the hooch

-exercise equipment
-ocd
-carl otis winslow
-"the key to the entire system"
-glasses
-suit jackets
-badge
-2001: a space odyssey soundtrack
-anger issues, yells a lot
-leaving for new job in 3 days, stays b/c old dude murdered (spoiler alert)
-hooch woulda been shot in a second
-hanks likes being in his undies
-dog is an alcoholic
-radiator
-drugs
-no warrent

bad bad movie. painful to watch, in fact, got up and made dinner during last 20 minutes of it. didn't have to be a cop movie about an ocd fella, and a crazy dog. the only thing saving the movie is tom hanks' yell talking...which made me laugh every time.

if this movie was on tv...would i watch it: no
rating: D

dirty notes from harry

-sunglasses...holders(?)
-note pad
-ransom note (...possibly done in kid style sgraffito with crayons...)
-no nonsense personality
-sweater vests (?)
-"211 in progress"
-"just wait til the calvary arrives"
-wrist watch
-leather elbow patches on suit jacket
-gun hostlers
-helicopter noises
-type writer
-coffee maker
-dixie cups...with handles (see drawing)
-ambulance noises
-possible names: harpo renzuli, groucho rodriquez
-map of county
-wood paneling
-binoculars (?)
-shotgun noises
-photos of victims
-plants: either fake or dead
-coat rack
-portraits of family members
-scotch tape...to tape awesome weapons to legs
-"...the girl dies." phone calls from killer
-bus pass from when killer makes them run around
-...and inhaler (?)
-ripped pants from climbing fences
-button up w/ bullet holes thru sleeve
-hospital bills
-wallet id badge

chico...not in the movie very much
harry callihan: badass
scorpio: too weird of a killer, wasn't believable, too sloppy. weird facial expressions

did enjoy 'didn't get a warrent, so he walks' route, and that scorpio then tried to use that to his advantage and had someone beat him up to make it look like harry did it.

overall solid: B+

research

movies

die hard 

lethal weapon

catch me if you can

seven

beverly hills cop

police academy

glengarry glen ross

turner and hooch

tango and cash

dirty harry

robo cop

nypd blue

macgyver

cop rock

miami vice

cape fear

reservoir dogs

cagney and lacey

hans delbruck

i drew this at work yesterday to kill some time.

not totally convinced i truly captured the creepiness of igor,

or how proud of himself he is for finding hans delbruck's brain...

but, considering this was the first portrait i've drawn in some time,

i'm pretty pleased.

i drew this because

i've been craving this movie,

and i figured if i thought about it hard enough,

my wish would come true. 

layers: work in progress

i got so bored at work today,
i started highlighting all
the answers in my word search book
on tracing paper,
and layered them together
to make these:

i'm only 4 puzzles in.
this will continue.

friz

this is beautiful.

funky butt lovin'

i guess i can post these now
since the case is over
and the guy didn't even use them!?!?

clean up

i was so tired at work the other day,
i decided to clean up
to keep moving,
so i would not fall asleep.

and i found these
little forgotten about
doodle gems


i remember writing this down
after reading an article
back when i first started 'working.'

this was a more recent cure-for-boredom.
although, i don't remember doing this.

this.

i remember 

dressing myself for work half-awake.

and not realizing until i got into work 

that i had put socks on 

over a set of tights i had on.

and my brain felt the need to draw this,

instead of taking one of the pairs off.

i've ripped one

every time i sleep for an unusually long period of time, i think of rip van winkle. so i did some research because the last time i read the story was back in gradeschool.

so.
here are some images:

and here's the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_Van_Winkle

rock island line

i'm going to have this song stuck in my head all day.

twist and shout

i have been lovin' some timber timbre laterly.

is it possible to give multiple thumbs up to a song on pandora?
this one'd get 7 thumbs up.

dennis and tim, amen.

i hunger

brickah brackah

niagara falls, frankie angel

i was watching the santa clause with my aunt this morning.

she asked me what my favorite christmas movie was.
after some thought,
the answer was clear:

bowling

my company is having a christmas bowling party this evening. 

getting pumped up

resistance

i'm stalling right now.

i've been working on these
electrical drawings for work.

based on the blueprints,
i have to make a
3D isometric view,
add in all the
outlets
switches
and lights.

and then figure out the
path of least resistance
for the wires to travel
back to the breaker box.

and the longer i work on this,

the more times i sing this song

over 

and over

and over

and over.

it's break time.

lessons in futility

i'm learnin' 'em left and right.
but it's not worth getting into.

i was walking home from work last night,
and passed this woman who
was shouting at someone up ahead
saying,
"listen to me!
my real name is patty la-bell!
stop walking,
i've got other things to tell you!"

the meters

i am slightly frustrated at the moment, but it's a little difficult to be when listening to these songs. 

problem. 

solution.

ding dong, mkay

after 36 hours at the fair this weekend,
and listening to non-stop christmas music
all i can think about is this:

they played this song quite a bit.
fortunately, i do enjoy it
but when it's sung by these people.

craftin' market!

i have some pictures to share of the market i've been in for the last 2 days, and will be going back to today.


this is michael resetting our display from the day before.

here's a picture of ricky ticky, lookin' cute sitting in the back. he had been keeping me company the day before.

but then, i had a brain thought...why not add him to the front!

so, this is michael...re-resetting up the display.

 thank you mikey.

and this is kim's stuff. we are sharing the cabin. she makes the amazing ceramic pieces. mostly all by hand, not many wheel-thrown. each piece has a really unique look and feel. 

and here is a panorama from the inside. i got a little bored.

alright back to work back to work back to work.

turkey day

happy thanksgiving, everyone.

dragonzord power

pumped up and ready to go.

30 helens agree...

jason segel is perfect for me.

during my lunch break at work, i usually watch something on hulu. although because yesterday was monday, there wasn't a new colbert or daily show posted yet, so i had to look for something else. and since i've liked jason segel for quite some time, and he hosted snl this weekend...and i've been hearing pleasant things about this season of snl (...like it's actually funny again), i decided to watch that.

but 5 minutes into it, i realized just how deep my love for jason segel was, and that i had been giggling...even at the jokes that were't that funny. the monologue wasn't even over yet...

my love for jason segel goes back to high school when i would watch freaks and geeks on tv.

"can't wate for tonite. w.a.t.e"

although to be honest, i am more in love with this guy from that show.

and then i forgot about jason for a while, until i saw forgetting sarah marshall. and i found out he had a love of puppets as well.

and now, to find that he's making a muppet movie?!?! forget about it!

i am very excited about this movie, because i trust that he understands the muppets. i read an article a little while ago about about him, and this. and he stated that the best thing about the muppets isn't how silly they are, it's that they deal with some serious and sad things.

anyway, i had to stop watching snl. and instead had a text exchange with my sister:

"i think im in love w jason segel"

"That is understandable, for sure.

I think too, that if you met, he would 'get' you and you would sweep him off his big clompy feet."

"ha, yeah, i think that too."

"So make it happen"

"i think that i'd just giggle the whole time if i ever met him"

"oh man, don't do that."

i can't 'wate' for this movie.

spoiler alert: finkle IS einhorn!

this movie came on tv last night.

i forgot how funny it was.

i was hoping this clip would include the bubblewrap part...because i don't know about you, but whenever i see that stuff lying on the ground, i do that bit. or at least think about doing that bit.

cheddah! ooooooow!

oh memories.

handmade arcade!

i am slowly trying to collect all of the pictures and videos taken of the event this weekend, so be patient.

but man, i don't think it could have gone any better.

when we were trying to find the convention center and a place to park, i noticed people looking at me and laughing. i was still in serious mode, and said to myself, "what the heck is so funny people?!" and then i looked in my back seat and remembered the giant balloon costume, and then i laughed at myself. my brother michael and his girlfriend heather were in the car in front of me. heather had put on one of the helmets and was riding around like that for who knows how long.

here are some pictures of my brother michael, heather, and myself. we got there a little early, so we started playing around...i mean..setting up...

i couldn't figure out why no one was stopping by. i thought it may have been because people couldn't figure out what they had to do. so heather and i started demonstrating.

 teamwork.
 (...it dawned on me later that the doors hadn't opened yet..oops).

since we weren't selling our toys this time, i made these balloon business cards to pass out. in order to get the contact information, you have to blow it up. and for an added bonus, i drew a monster on them. i had michael video tape it....anything to get people to come over and play. (i edited the footage to go in reverse first, because that entertained me)

the doors finally opened and there was a sea of people, which was equally overwhelming and incredible.

you can see the giant pizza in this picture. starting from the top, there's the dough, the cheese, a pepperoni, an olive, and a banana pepper.

we never had enough people at one time to have 3 people to a team and race. instead, we would get one or two people and they would pick which costume they wanted to wear, and would race against each other. and that worked out just as well. it kind of turned into whatever the kids wanted to do. some of the time, it was just a free play area, because the kids were fixated on making a pizza over and over again. and other times they wanted to put on the balloon costume and pretend to fly away. and other times it was just a dance area.

some of the kids were too young to understand what they had to do, so we would change the game around to where they picked a costume to put on, and would have to catch all the pizza pieces like a ring toss. but no matter what version people decided, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and that was awesome to see.


this little girl was great. she ran up and jumped on the pizza, and made a bed out of it. she was there for a good half hour.

a lot of people asked if we were a performing group, and if we did kids parties and stuff. michael and i looked at each other and said, "....uh...we do now.."

there was a lull for a hour or so in the middle of the day, so i danced to the music.

i brought my monster coat too, which drew a lot of attention. it was entertaining to see which kids were terrified/confused and which one wanted to tackle me.

we have some videos of kids doing the race, but i'll post those tomorrow (hopefully).

it was pretty cool to see a lot of adults getting involved as well. it's always a challenge to get them to let their guard down enough to put on a costume and act silly for a few minutes. but that's why i love working with kids so much. they don't have those walls up yet, and they don't know what embarrassment feels like yet. that is something i try to keep in mind, and something that inspires me.



there is more to come to this post!