I know I need to have my shit together for Zinefest by Saturday morning, but I just can’t finish painting the color comic.  I have a problem with painting- I start it, I take a break, I NEVER GO BACK.  I don’t know… I think it intimidates me.  I’m afraid that it won’t look right when I finish, but if I never finish then I have not yet failed.  Sad.

I drew a page last night that I am really proud of, so that got me pumped, but it wasn’t for anything I’m planning to use on Saturday… so sort of a win/lose.  The muse does what it wants, convenience be damned.

I love the fall weather, but my hands get so damn cold… gotta get my fingerless gloves out so I can keep warm while I work.

Usually at this time of year I have the cash to make a Halloween costume but can’t decide what to be, but this year I have the exact opposite problem.  Perfect costume idea, NO MONEY.  I’m invited to a costume party with a contest too!  It isn’t fair!

Zinefest:  Sept 22, 12pm-6pm, Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis.  BE THERE!

So I got laid off from my job as a receptionist and had to take a temp job to make ends meet.  Now I am frantically searching for a long-term position to take once the temp job ends.  Not the best environment for creativity, but surprisingly I have made a few new pieces that I am quite proud of.  I really need to upload those to my portfolio.  And probably change the front page drawing again.  Gotta keep it fresh.

I have decided to knuckle down and rediscover Japanese.  Happily, I haven't forgotten as much as I thought.  It all comes flooding back when I look through my textbooks.  My goal is to get back to the level I was at in college- but with better grammar skills- and then take a proficiency exam so that I can put it on my resume.  Translating is a job I would really enjoy.  Birdy and one of her co-worker friends have agreed to start a Japanese study group with me, so I have high hopes for this goal actually being reached.

I can't seem to stay focused on any one project long enough to finish it, as usual.  I'm still drawing the characters from Little Artists, as well as characters from another project, but they're just that- doodles.  Nothing is actually getting done.  I'm having more luck with fanfiction than my own work right now.  It's all practice, right?

Also experimenting with writing topics for cracked.com.  My name is littledino if you want to look for me.  And planning my table for this year's Zinefest!

Two posts in one day?  Gross!  I had a backlog of stuff to say. 

Adding a new segment to the blog: Things People Need to Shut Up About

With the endless number of things one can find annoying, we should be a little more creative with our complaints.  To that end, here is a segment dedicated to things people need to STOP complaining about and why.  Move on to new things, you guys.  Some of this stuff just isn't going to change.  Our first subject?  Greenday.

Any time Greenday is mentioned in conversation someone inevitably complains that they have sold out or gotten pussified because they don't write songs about weed and masturbating anymore.  The members of Greenday are MARRIED ADULTS now.  They have children and mortgages, you guys.  When you grow up and have to pay bills and take care of kids you tend to have more serious issues on your mind.  If you're a musician, you're gonna write different songs.  Greenday's old work is still fun to listen to because it reminds us of when we had easier lives and time to burn, but we can't be angry that they've moved on.  Wanting your band to be remembered for something other than jizz jokes and marijuana references is not selling out.  It's growing up.  You don't have to like it, but stop acting like the guys betrayed you because American Idiot sounds nothing like Dookie.  Why would you look down on a band that actually DIDN'T make the same CD over and over?  Would you want to be stuck in your first job for the rest of your life?  Flipping burgers or scooping dog shit or whatever it is you did when you were 16?  No?  Then kindly shut the fuck up.

Our third cat is getting a new home soon!  An old school friend is going to take him, which is a good thing.  He will get more territory and attention and the girls will have less stress.  They tend to argue a lot right now.  I am happy it is all going to work out, but I will miss the little guy!  He is such a cutie and so affectionate.

It's time again for Happy, Sad, Weird!

Happy:   Better medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Instead of having to remember the precise time to take 40 different pills, they can take just one now.  Hope it works, because that would be a lot easier to remember.  Kind of strapped for happy news today, but I just found out that dark galaxies exist and I think that's cool as hell, so maybe it counts?  Whole galaxies made of black holes and dark matter that you can't even see.  That is pretty freakin rad, okay? 

Sad:  The country of Syria no longer exists. In its place is a giant lake filled with the blood of the innocent. Annan is pretty pissed off, but as usual no one cares what he thinks because he's a pacifist.  It's not like he's gonna bust your door down, wave an Uzi in your face, and make you do something.  His opinion means about as much to the G20 as mine.

Also, every single species of lemur IN THE WORLD now shares a patch of rainforest the size of your backyard because Chinese people want hardwood floors and have cut the other trees down.  Or rather, they have paid the people who live on Madagascar less than $2 a day to cut the wood down for them, which they sell for a million bucks a pallet.  This money is not shared with the natives, so the natives also hunt and eat lemurs to survive.  It is not news that China is run by soulless automatons.  What depresses me about this is that the multi-film franchise Madagascar is capitalizing on the cuteness of dancing lemurs while doing NOTHING to educate people about their plight.  Not only are the movies an affront to aesthetics and indeed human intelligence in general, but they will probably still be making sequels even after THERE ARE NO LIVING LEMURS.  Because Hollywood is just about as heartless as China.  (Note: I have no problem with Chinese people in general, just the powers that be in that country and the extensive black market that thrives there.  The Chinese people are kept ignorant of many things by their restricted media and I don't blame them for not knowing what's going on, or for supporting their government.  Who wants to believe the people in charge are using them like so many batteries?  People embrace nationalism because the alternative is too depressing.  I get that.)

Also, SANDUSKY.  Not even going to elaborate.

Weird:  Hollywood is thinking about making an Aliens vs Dinosaurs movie, where the aliens are stand-ins for European settlers and the dinosaurs are stand-ins for the Native Americans.  Only they both lose?  They must because hello, mammals.  The aliens look like evil squid insects, by the way.  This guy has more details:  http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/

Let me tell you why I take so long to add new art to my websites!  I have a tendency to not scan my pictures into my computer for ages, so that I have a backlog of art I have not shared.  It is because I hate setting up my scanner.  First, I have to clear off my desk, which is basically where I leave every single object that I own, so it takes a long time to make enough space for my 13-in laptop to rest flat.   Then I have to untangle all the cords so that I can plug the scanner in to both the laptop and the wall outlet.  This is all the easy part.  Then I spend the next 30 minutes trying to get my computer to actually communicate with the scanner.  It knows the device is there, but because HP is a BRILLIANT company there are about 5,000,000 different applications and pathways that open the scanner and ONLY ONE ACTUALLY WORKS.
Finally, I perform the correct incantations and ritualistic dance choreography and the scanner warms up.  Then I spend another hour scanning in my pictures, because each one inevitably gets jostled, bent, or coated in dust and has to be re-scanned three times.  The final step is to load everything in Photoshop C2, which Adobe created for the sole purpose of overclocking computers and which I cannot afford to upgrade because I am out of school and don't get the student discount.  I clean more dust spots off and make sure everything is web sized.  Some pictures are combined.  I have to take lots of breaks because it hurts my eyes so bad, you guys, because I have a nystagmus.  Look it up.
All of this before I can upload the pictures on to my website, or blog, or deviantart gallery.
Now do you understand?

And don't recommend me other scanner brands.  I've used everything.  My EPSON failed in a most epic fashion.  They all suck and I just don't care.  I doooooon't caaaaare.

Oh wow, is it actually going to let me post an update?  That would be so cool.  (copied almost verbatim from my new Tumblr, that I made with Blogspot wasn't letting me log in.

Planning to start posting a weekly-kind-of summary of current events called Happy/Sad/Weird.  In it, I would summarize all of the news that I have read over the week into a few blurbs and invite commentary.  Like so.

Happy: The reproductive revolution.  Women choose not to be baby factories, ALL OF EARTH’S PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED.  Eventually, guys.  The effects aren’t gonna happen overnight.  

Sad: Google Syria right now. Result: Syria is a nightmare hellscape of blood, screaming, and the tears of the innocent.  Weapons go in, tanks with children tied to them as shields come out.  Russia and China don’t care.  They just want to sell guns.

Weird: Giant spiders attacking people in India.  They aren’t poisonous, but would you want a giant spider flinging itself at you, fangs out?  Apparently, unlike most gentle arachnids who would rather flee than bite a being hundreds to thousands of times their size, these guys get enraged and attack anything that moves near them.

This is just a sampling of what caught my attention in current news.  Any thoughts?

I also want to feature an extinct animal on my blog in every post.  I love extinct animals.  Especially dinosaurs and marine reptiles.  I think we should start with my favorite dinosaur, Troodon.  

When I was little, I drew my first comics, starring human-sized, bipedal, omnivorous dinos that relied on intelligence to outwit a bully tyrannosaur.  I had seen them on a tv special, but did not remember what they were called.  The dino was never mentioned in books, so I for a long time I figured I must have been thinking of ostrich or raptor dinosaurs and drawing them wrong. Later I found out that the oft overlooked animal was Troodon! 

This roughly man-sized, feathery little predator captured my heart because it was one of the smartest- if not the smartest- dinosaurs of all time.  Of all time!  I have always preferred bipedal dinosaurs, and meat-eaters at that, because the big plant eaters remind me of cows.  Few things are more boring than cows, you guys.  Seriously.  Troodon was a little guy compared to other dinos, meaning it probably lost kills to enterprising Tyrannosaurs and had to be careful at all times to avoid becoming a meal itself. This might seem silly, but the idea of tough little Troodon making it in the big scary world of dinosaurs gave me confidence in facing the big scary world of public school.  

Things That Are Trying to Kill You, Part One:  Teflon

Specifically, Teflon cookware.
Are we so afraid to scrub a pot that we would rather ingest foul-tasting toxic film with every meal?  Also, the scratches your cooking utensils gouge into the flimsy Teflon layer will harbor bacteria, mold, and allergens like wheat gluten.  In short, Teflon is trying to kill you.

There are alternatives.  People have been cooking in cast iron since the day it was discovered all those millenia ago. We have fashioned it into the lighter and more durable stainless steel.  And we have revived the very first cooking vessel: ceramic.  All of these are non-toxic cooking options that do not get gouges or peel.  You may be surprised to find out that they are incredibly low maintenance and durable!  Let's review.

Stainless steel pots are actually quite easy to clean.  Boiling water is fast an easy because steel is a metal and conducts heat very well when not layered with weird chemicals like Teflon.  Used as a skillet it must be greased in some fashion, and if forgotten on a skillet food will burn and leave a stain, but this is easily removed. Just spray the mark with oven cleaner and wait a day.  Then you can rinse with dish soap and the marks will wipe off easily.  If one application doesn't work, two or three will finish the job.  Oven cleaner is magical. Superficial scratches on steel do not harbor filth like the deep gouges that Teflon acquires.

If that still seems like too much work, get a ceramic pot.  Nothing sticks to ceramic.  It takes a wee bit longer to heat up, but it cooks very evenly and almost never burns the food.  Ceramic is a breeze to clean and you likely won't ever scratch it because you won't have to scrape anything off of it in the first place.

I just want to point out that I am writing this simply because I hate Teflon.  No one paid me anything, I just like ranting.  Speaking of ranting, it really should not be so hard to find a pangolin stuffed animal.  Pangolins are awesome.  Pangolins, for those who don't know, are real live animals that live in Asia and look like the pokemon sandshrew.

Maybe you saw me at Art-A-Whirl?  I forgot to say I would be there.  Shame on me.  But I will be at Minneapolis Zinefest this year!  You should go.