My Little CrockPot of News and Thoughts

Today's regurgitated color selections (clockwise L to R): "Damn Birds", "Skinny and Angry, So Leave Me Alone", "I've Never Seen You Before", and "I'm Green and I Feel Sick" ... Working at an educational software company is pretty cool. When I work on storyboards, I get to read the script for that particular lesson and learn all sort of things I have either forgotten over time, or never picked up on to begin with. The downfall is that I do so many storyboards over the coarse of the day and see so many different scripts, that my facts get all jumbled up, leaving me in a worse state than I started off in. ... Here's a pretty funny site about all things confusing and stupid. It's called This Is Broken . ... Have you ever said to yourself, "My life would be sooo much better if only I could get my hands on a Action Comics #1"? Sadly, you can't get your hands on one, but you CAN read one online. Feast your eyes on this! ... I picked up a copy of Painter today. Hopefully I'll learn all sorts of wonderful things with it.

I forgot to grab the drawing I did today at work before I left for the day. I'll post it tomorrow. ... Do you love Superman? Do you live for Seinfeld? Well then you're in luck my friend! Today was the premiere for the Seinfeld-Superman-American Express short film, "A Uniform used to Mean Something". It made me chuckle. ... We went to College Station this weekend. While we were there we attended a birthday party for one of Casey's friends. I wanted to get the birthday boy a present, Casey said no. Apparently a Simon game just isn't as cool as it once was.

Today's undercooked ideas (L to R): "My Beard Itches" and "Death as a Bobblehead: Weird Things from Mike's Desk" ... Yaaay! It's Friday! Today at work, someone brought donuts. I resisted the urge of the sinful pastry all day. When I got home this evening, Amanda suggested that we go and get dessert for dinner. After driving to the grocery store, we casually strolled among the shelves, looking for anything that caught our fancy. I told myself that I wouldn't get anything... when it was all said and done we left with a half dozen donuts and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. I used to have a friend named Self Control. Apparently I made him mad and he left me. ... Disney's new animated short sounds cool. It's called Lorenzo and you can read about it here. ... Here's another cool website. It too is of a Pixar storyman. This time his name is Ronnie del Carmen. He also has a blog that he keeps. There he posts a lot of his drawings from his comic, Paper Biscuit. ... I inked some more on the comic last nite. Tomorrow we hit the road for the weekend. I don't know when I'll get a chance to finish it. At this rate it'll take me a year to get a book done... sigh.

Today's additions (L to R): "Jared, Amanda, and Daisy: Totem Number One" and "I dunno" ... Nickelodeon announced today their plans for their next batch of feature films. SpongeBob will get his own flick as well as a Might Mouse film directed by action director John Woo... hmm... that should be some intense animated violence. ... Right now, between the job and the other random things I do to fill my time, I've been working on a comic. Well, it's not really a comic. I mean, it is a single page... not a complete book. What I mean to say is that it's a series of one page comics... It's called "The Everyday Shaming of No One In Particular". It's about life and the little humiliating experiences we go through. I go through a lot... I should have a lot to write about... now that I've gotten that out, I'm exhausted. ... Hilarious and oddly amusing toy series here. Take a look and ask yourself Why.

I did these at work today. They are (from top to bottom): "Combover in the Wind", and "I'll Kick Your Butt". ... Today at work, I sat for so long that my butt started hurting really bad. I mean really, really bad. It started to go numb. Sad, ain't it? ... My friend Elisa emailed the other day. She has a new website up and is having the world over for Open House. Stop by and say "Hi"... tell her I sent you.

This is Piggy. He likes to be the center of attention. ... If you've ever seen the animated tv series Mucha Lucha , check out the creator's blog. It's really interesting. ... This weekend I bought The Cure's Greatest Hits . Today I spent a large chunk of my time at work listening to Robert Smith tell me that boys don't cry. Catchy song.

A month ago I was playing in the snow. Today I went walking among the cactus... only in Texas. ... This afternoon I caught a bit of Harry and the Hendersons on AMC. I love that movie. ... My website is coming together slowly but surely. I hate to admit it, but in all the excitement of the move, I kinda forgot about it. I'm gonna be a horrible parent, I just know it.

When his face gets like that, it means one of two things... neither of them are good. ... Friday's here. I have big plans this weekend. I'm gonna sleep through it. ... I'm not really sure what to write about today, so I don't think I will. Instead I'm gonna play parasite and send you to my friend Katherine Evan's blog. Read and think of me.

I awoke this morning to the most unpleasant feeling of absolute exhaustion. For the last several weeks I haven't had any problem waking up in the morning. My stint as an art teacher cured that problem quickly as I had to go to bed earlier in the evenings in order to function the next day. With the new job I've become quite lax in my evening retirement. Each night my bedtime gets bumped back a little later and a little later. I thought I had a hand up on it and would be fine until Saturday, at which point I would be able to repay the slumber debt I had accumulated. That wasn't the case though. Dreamland sent in it's goons during the night to rough me up, and brother did they. I have never looked so forward to the end of a work day like I did today in quite some time. Hopefully I've learned my lesson. I guess we'll see in the morning.

I did these at work today and yesterday respectively. No, I'm not a slacker, I just need to warm up. ... Jerry Beck of Cartoon Research and Amid Amidi of Animation Blast have joined forces to create CartoonBrew.com. Give it a view. It's pretty good. It's the least you could do. ... It was actually through Animation Blast that I learned of Pixar storyman Enrico Casarosa and his website. I've heard of Enrico a few times in the past, but this was the first chance I've had to view his work. It's pretty cool. Check out his Haiku 5-7-5 site. I love his way with graphic storytelling. ... We have company this week. Yaaay!

I took it easy this evening and opened up the old sketchbook. At times I tend to fall out of the habit of drawing. It's a bad thing, I know, and I hate to do it, but life happens and devours my time. For the past several weeks I've falling in a creative-free slump. Whenever I pick up my pencil and start up again, it's always hard. Everything that pours from the lead is illustrated crap, plain and simple. It's at time like these that I remember something Chuck Jones said in his book Chuck Amuck. In the book, Chuck talks about an old college professor of his who used to say that everybody has got 3000 bad drawings in them; the faster you get them out the better. I've heard that quote over and over for the past three years. It was a favorite of my mentor's. There's a lot of truth in it... I don't think I've made a dent in the 3000 yet. ... I downloaded Wilco's Australian EP yesterday. This morning at work I finally got the chance to listen to it. At first listen it's a nice little collection of songs. So far my personal favorite is "A magazine called Sunset"... it's fun. ... Speaking of listening to music and work, I've done a lot of it lately. Here's a small list of the cd's that have been in my constant rotation: Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco- Being there Uncle Tupelo- March 16-20, 1992 Radiohead- Amensiac Radiohead- B Sides Jimi Hendrix- Jimi Hendrix Experience Pixies- Surfer Rosa Pixies- Doolittle Appleseed Cast- Mare Vitalis Ben Harper- Diamonds on the Inside Ben Harper- Welcome to the Cruel World Ben Harper- Live from Mars Elliot Smith- X/O Bob Dylan- The Essential Bob Dylan A Might Wind- Soundtrack Jimmy Eat World- Clarity The Clash- The Essential Clash That's a sampling of what an average audible day or so is for me... There are lots that I've left off... maybe I'll add them later. I'm gonna have to hit the music store soon for a new supply... ... I'm tired. I'm going to go dream sweet dreams of cotton candy and pin wheels.

Today is our first official Saturday in Austin, so how did we spend it? Here's the run down: 8am Woke up 9am Watched TV 10am Watched more TV; Mom called; 11am Changed channels; continued vegetative state 12pm Ate breakfast; I took shower 1pm Got in the truck and tooled around Austin 2pm Stumbled across the most beautiful area of Texas we have ever seen; Unanimous vote that God must live there 3pm Went and ate at Cheddar's; I had the "Ragin Cajun Chicken Strips", they were good, but not the best 4pm Traveled up the road to the movie theater; bought tickets to see Secret Window 5pm In movie 6pm In movie; Discuss Johnny Depp's talent while driving home; Arrive home 7pm Clean kitchen; Capture day's adventures in official blog All-in-all it's been a full day. I can't wait to see what Sunday brings...

I just love Daniel Peacock. ... Today is my fourth day of work. Things have been going great so far. I've really enjoyed it. I've been animating, which is fun with a capitol "F". ... It's heard to believe that we've been in Austin for about a week. Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose... or stuck in traffic. It took me an hour to get to work this morning. It was crazy. I think I'm gonna start sleeping in my car in the company parking lot during the week and going back to our place on the weekends.

It's been a while since I've had the time to sit down an post something. To my faithful reader, I apologize. ... We're all moved into our new place in Austin. So far everything has been great... well, almost everything. Last night the electricity went out in the apartent complex for a few hours. It got a bit warm in our place, but it didn't bother us any, we went to sleep. I suppose that could have been the effects of a heat stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning, but hey! we woke up this morning! So I guess it wasn't that after all. ... I've had two days on the job and I've really enjoyed it so far. I haven't been able to animate anything yet. I've mainly just been doing story boards... and drinking coffee, but mainly storyboards. This afternoon I got to meet Neal Bush, brother of our President and owner of Ignite!. He was really pleasant and friendly. Needless to say, I will be voting for his brother based on this experience. ... We have cable, phone and internet. If you have trouble getting hold of me, it's probably because I'm enjoying all three at once.

Yesterday we waded through water in search of the perfect apartment. Well, we didn't really wade through water, but we did a bit wet. Thunderstorms accompanied us as we drove around and looked at different apartments all day yesterday. It was a long, repetitive day... everything started to look the same after a while, but alas we found the perfect one. We signed the paperwork today and we move in Saturday. Our Home Warming party will be Sunday afternoon. Bring a dessert.

So long East Texas! Hello Austin! We moved today... we at least not all of the way. We loaded down both our jeeps and make the trek down to College Station. We'll be staying with my sister for a few days while we locate a place of our own in the Austin area. The trip down here was an adventure. Amanda's jeep became ill about half way. I, being the mechanical genius that I'm not, am assuming that it was because it was overheating. We stopped a few times to let the old gal cool off. She did well for the most part... I know it was hard on her. I don't know how many long trips she has left in her. ... Tomorrow we start the first wave of "Apartment Searches". I hope we find something quickly... I'm sure we will. Maybe I'll post a few pictures of the place once we get settled in and all.