Toes in the Water

Well, another Columbus Day has passed, and so has another trip to Chincoteague Island, VA, with my friends. This house was the biggest yet rented (and probably the biggest house we will ever rent- it's the biggest on the island!) and filled with much happiness and good food. Here are some sights from the trip:

The Chincoteague Lighthouse. We visit the island every year, and this is the first I've been to the lighthouse in... a long time. Didn't go inside, but I'm old now and have trouble with all the steps.



Here's a lovely view from the back of the house. In spite of the weather forecasters' doom and gloom, it was all in all a great weekend.



Yeah, that's right. The house had an ELEVATOR! aka, kids'-attention-getter. Okay, I rode it twice.

That's all for now. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so there most likely won't be a post Friday, but I'll be back Monday. Oh- extra credit to anyone who has a suggestion for a Halloween costume for me.

Music: "Toes" - Zac Brown Band

Sightings and Homecomings

First:

Unintentional Hilarity, or Brilliant Cross-Promotion- You Decide:

Second, and perhaps somewhat more relevant, I've finally become an honest citizen again:

It's good to be home.

Have a great weekend everyone- I'll be back sometime next week, hopefully with some sketches or some more photos.

Music: "Home Sweet Home" - Motley Crue (yeah, I said it, Motley Crue)

Self Portrait(s), Hand(s)

This is the start of an idea I'd had a while ago. Apologies for the lack of a truly finished product, but I think it works interestingly as is. Note that the paper is blank.

Apologies as well for the lack of any real update. Life has been, as they say, interesting. Up, down, most points in between, it only proves the says "Changes aren't permanent, but change is". Also, "Expect the unexpected". Hopefully I will have something at least marginally artistically-inclined to post next time, or else I'll subject you to the oft-threatened written post. Perhaps about music. Or perhaps set to music.

Anyway, to the Land of Nod with me.

Music: "When The Day Met The Night" - Panic! At The Disco

Blue Barchetta

I commit my weekly crime, with nary an alloy air-car in sight...

And yes, this is exactly where it stopped, first time.

Music: Duh...

Walking on the Moon

Or at least, walking on the beach.

Here's but one of many pictures I took on this past weekend's annual trip to Chincoteague. Taken with my phone, no less. When I bought it, the first thing I asked the clerk was "which phones have the best camera?" This one is surprisingly good, with an actual physical zoom and focus.

I was walking on the beach, since that's something to do on the beach that doesn't involve lying in the sand. I thought it would be cool to take some pictures, and thought of my footprints in the sand. Of course, it made me think of that poem/greeting card saying about how God will carry you, which is why you only see one set of prints. Made me laugh, so I took the picture.

Well, as I was looking at the picture tonight, I saw there was a second set of prints.

And they were walking away from me...

-sigh-

Anyway, that's about it this time around. I have some sketches that need scanning and cleaning up, not to mention all the other pictures that need work on. I just connected my computer to my TV, so everything looks MUCH BIGGER now- so hopefully less squinting as I work on the pictures one pixel at a time. But we'll see.

Cheers for now!

Music: "Be" - Neil Diamond

Praying for Time

Spotted while out in the Yard at work.

Although I often feel like I'm moving from one task to the next with my head down, I'm glad to know I still stop to look around me every once in a while. I never know what I'll see. This was amongst our racks of our barstock inventory. He was very patient with me.

Sorry nothing's getting posted with any regularity or clarity. Especially as to the lack of anything 'artsy' on here. It's not for lack of ideas, or even lack of work (though that's been suffering, I have some stuff I'd like to get posted by 2010). However, life has just been beating me severely about the head and shoulders. Nothing horrific, mind you- just life. Hopefully I'll be able to get some semblance of control to it, and will be able to get to work on some (hopefully) cool artwork. Anyway, thanks for stopping by. See you soon.

Music: "Hallelujah" - either Leonard Cohen or Jeff Buckley; they're both amazing.

And you thought YOUR job was scary...

Yes, I actually took this picture at work.

No, those aren't my pants.

Might not be a post until next week- big-time fun this weekend means much running around this week. Hopefully something fun to post when next I post again!

Music: "Dirty Deeds" - AC/DC

cloud mirrors my mindscape
shape, reshape, cirrus to stormcloud
flows like my feelings

See you soon.

Magic Hour

Nope, not what I planned on putting up here, but when Nature presents such a scene, who am I to refuse?

This was taken last Friday, when the family and I went out to celebrate my niece Emily's 16th birthday- woohoo! A good time was had by all, even though her silly uncle destroyed her musical birthday candle contraption. Seriously, the thing was all clever, playing music and sparkling and burning, but the damn thing would not shut up... at first...

Today was my Mom's 72nd birthday, and though there was no big party, I left work a little early and took her and the ubiquitous Emily to dinner at 'The Park', a 50's-style Eat 'n' Park. Good stuff, and nice to see them, as I won't be able to for the next two weeks or so (nothing bad, just lots of stuff going on). For 72, Mom's doing really well- though, as she tells me, "it's hell getting old". (That's also the first time I ever heard my mom swear!) Of course, she's also the one who tells me she's a "tough old bird", so I think she's doing just fine.

No promises as to when the art-type thing will get posted, but hopefully soon. There's some technical issues I need to work out, and some general tinkering. But we'll see.

Music: "Happy Birthday" - The Beatles (though neither Emily nor my Mom like them)

2k1cen digital boy

Sunset

Nope, no drawing today. The long weekend made for a short week... so to speak. It was a fun and eventful weekend, with plenty of twists and turns. Mainly, I was able to spend plenty of time with my family AND my other family, the Weavers. Best of all, on Monday both families got together for some good food, fun games, and great company, courtesy of Clan Weaver. My nephew Kevin dropped by Saturday night (from 6 hours away) to spend a little time with the family and to pick up some equipment: He's studying to become a diesel mechanic, just like his grandfather. Needless to say, we're all very pleased and proud of him. No doubt Dad is smiling down on him... Also, I was able to help out my niece Emily with some drawing tips. Drawing runs in the family! It's only a matter of time before she's set up on DeviantArt!

Oh yeah- I got myself an HDTV.

And a PS3.

It's good to be gainfully employed ;)

One of the things I'm really looking forward to is hooking up the computer to the TV, so I can finally work in a scale large enough so I don't have to keep zooming in and out to look at the picture in Photoshop. Well, that's the plan, at least.

Anyway, that's my weekend. And, that's why there's no drawings to post here today. That doesn't mean there are no drawings coming, though. Thanks to some drawing time during the weekend, I hope to have something posted mmmaybe this Friday. We'll see.
Here's a hint:

"In Blackest Night".

I know- what a rubbish hint ;)

Music: "Analog Kid" - Rush

Always Darkest...

Cameraphone picture of an oncoming storm at my Mom's house.

Yeah, sorry, I did mention something about posting on Wednesday, didn't I? Well, technically it still is Wednesday, so...

I do apologize for the lack of actual art and updates. If you've been following along, you know this past month has not been a good month for me and my family. One of the unexpected side effects has left me just about completely without energy for anything other than going to work and coming home. I've been here for a month now, and most of my apartment is still packed in boxes. Now, there are some legit reasons for that, but mainly it comes down to the fact that my brain just will not function the way it did before. There's really no creative connections being made in there- for the most part, the few scribbles I've done have not been worth noting.

However, I am taking some slow steps to turn that around, and hopefully correct the problem. The last thing I want to do is give up on this. But, please bear with me- the posts will be much less frequent than before, and will probably tend more towards written posts than any drawn pictures. So, hope you like reading!

Come back next week, we'll see what's cooking.

Music: "Mercy" - Duffy

Blogs from the Edge, Final

Carnegie Museum of Art/Natural History, entrance.

Well, I'm back.

Music: "Tom Sawyer" - Rush

I can see for miles and miles...

Here's a camphone shot from my friends' yard, taken Saturday evening. That's the kind of view you can't just ask for...

No art to post today; I'm up here in PA on some family business, but I didn't want you regular viewers to go thinking I'd slipped and forgotten about it. Hopefully I'll have some more arty stuff to go up here Wednesday. If it's what I think it is, there will probably be a bunch of words to go along with it. If not, expect more of the same!

Hope everyone is doing well, and continues to do so.

Music: "My Father's Eyes" - Eric Clapton

Sick and Tired

So you get a photo today... aren't those colors awesome?

Off to bed wi' me now, sorry...

Music: "Six Foot Town" Big and Rich

Now THOSE are some colors...

Driving home from work, January 9, 2008.

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." -Aristotle

We Travel on the Road to Adventure

Or at least the road to home...

Nothing to post today other than Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, and there's a new poll to the right...

I'm headed home later today and won't be back until Sunday, so no posts Friday. Come back Monday!

Song: "The Thanksgiving Song" - Adam Sandler

In the Camera(phone) Eye

I've noticed recently there are a lot of pretty skies out there. I don't know what it is that is suddenly making me aware of this fact; it's not like there were no skies before now. Maybe it's that I'm not listening so closely to my audiobooks (I apparently have a sliding scale of bad books- if they take long enough to get bad enough, I'll stick it out and finish it), maybe it's just that I'm looking out while my mind wanders. Whatever the reason, I've been seeing a lot of beautiful sunsets and skies like the above, and the one below.

The other thing I've noticed is, given half a chance, my cellphone's camera can do a pretty decent job of capturing an image. I wouldn't try using it for passport photos, but it's not bad. Regardless, I now have the ability to hold these skies whenever I see them, instead of just trying to hold onto them with my so-fallible memory. I think I'm lucky, to now finally be able to see the skies, instead of constantly keeping my eyes on the ground.

So yeah, these pictures are really serving two purposes: 1) to share some of nature's beauty with anyone who happens to stroll by and 2) to avoid actually posting any art. I'm at a point right now where I don't like much anything I've got in the pipeline here, either due to trouble with the computer or just really not liking the sketches I've got here. Things are... less than optimal for me, artistically-speaking. I have a couple things I really like here, but they're not really where I want them to be just yet, and I have something coming up that I really hope I can put together. But, the ideas just aren't rolling out like they had been. The couple times I've wanted to pick up the pencil recently, I've not been in the position to do so. I hope this will all pass, and I'll go back to the artistic powerhouse I was before, dazzling you all with my dead on renditions of those so-popular comic book and science fiction characters. Or dazzle myself, at least.

Okay, for those of you who struggled through that last paragraph, sorry about that. I know some of you read this to actually see what's going on with me, so there you go. For everyone else, wake up! I'm done whining for now.

Hmmm... let's see...

Music: "Prime Mover" - Rush

(Yes, I know that these beautiful sunsets are created in part by all the pollution in the air. Thanks.)

Sunsets

I'm not up for writing a lot tonight- I'm feeling a bit under the weather. So, in lieu of more scribblings and ramblings, I thought I'd take a minute to post some real-world stuff. These are two pictures of sunsets at Chincoteague this year. These were taken off the deck of the rented house. I pretty much walked outside, held up the camera, and pressed the button. All the rest of the work was not done by me.

Hopefully I'll have something else to post later on, otherwise you're stuck with whatever pictures I can find on my camera or my phone. Or god forbid, more writing.

Oh- new poll to the right.

Music: "Lakeside Park" - Rush

What I Did on my Fall Vacation

So, here's where I went over the past weekend. Chincoteague Island, VA, land of the ponies, and Misty of Chincoteague, and about a billion mosquitoes. It's a pretty nice place in the off-season, giving us all the chance to sit back and relax and enjoy the weekend, and each other's company.

Not to mention the sunsets.

This shot was taken Saturday off the back deck of the house we rented. You know how I spotted this sunset? I looked out the huge freakin' windows in the living room. Talk about a gorgeous view! It was pretty easy to just stare out the windows and watch the sun set. I have an easy dozen photos of two nights' worth of sunsets, and could have taken a hundred more. Sunsets were quite popular with the photographers amongst us. This photo was color-corrected slightly to bring out the sky, one of those things where I might be the only one to notice.

And yeah, we got shows like that every night.


This is April, one of the 'Chincoteague Ten'. Hanging out on the edge of the dock that came with the house. No alterations to the picture.

We also celebrated a big event for one of our friends. We had cake and balloons. It was a nice little party, though today is his proper birthday- Happy Birthday Thaddeus Maximus! I'd post pictures of the cake and card, but blogger has apparently had enough of me for tonight.

That's about it for today's non-drawing post. I should be back tomorrow with the second half of Tuesday's double feature, time willing.

Music: "Two Step" - Dave Matthews Band