arcadiax

Originally published at inkyblack.net. You can comment here or there.

Obligatory sock shot!

This is that yummy Koigu that I mentioned in my last post.  I couldn’t help casting on.  They’re going to make a wonderful pair of Yule Socks, methinks.  I’m just turning the heel now (toe-up), so we’ll see whether I got the measurements right soonish.

New feature on ye olde blog: a link to a new page labelled “lifestream”.  For those who aren’t aware of what a lifestream is, it’s the feed of information generated when you use microblog (Web 2.0) applications like Facebook or Twitter or Flickr or whatever.  It may seem somewhat egotistical, but I include it as a stream-of-consciousness page for folks who would like to see what I’m prattling on about when I’m not blogging.  Since it takes comparatively less time to twitter or upload a photo to flickr, this includes the generated content in a relatively easy to follow format that keeps it all in one place for thems who are interested.  Those who aren’t can just overlook it and keep on going.  No harm, no foul.

I checked out a few Firefox addons today, as I realized that there was a potential to get rid of some of my various windows and/or extraneous applications.  Well…to make a long story short, out of a bunch of applications, I pared it down to a feed reader called “Feedly” that presents the sites I want to read in an attractive, easy-to-follow format.  Much better than Google Reader or bloglines (ah, how I disliked bloglines).

So yeah.  Slowly, but surely, the windows are coming under control.

cliochiang

http://cliobablio.blogspot.com/2009/11/drawing-biped-rabbits-really-stumps-me.html

quirkybird

Soon we’ll back to regular updates and I’ll roll out the new website, but in the meantime, here’s our third week of art devoted to some of my favorite comics online.  This week we move away from longform narrative comics and head for strip land, with Arthur (duck) and Flaco (lizard) from Dave Kellett’s Sheldon.

There are many strips online that I enjoy deeply, but Sheldon is the only one that makes me feel like I’m a little kid again, pressing my nose with delight against the daily newsprint funnies while I wolf down a bowl of Rice Chex before school.  Calvin & Hobbes was a strip at the time which, even if I didn’t get every joke, was so exuberant that I loved every panel.  I think 9 year-old me would’ve felt the same way about Sheldon.

As it is, 26 year-old me happily returns to Sheldon every day, snerking at the obscure “grown-up” or pop culture jokes and quietly enjoying the sheer silliness of it all.

Dave Kellett is also a bonafide funnybook scholar and a stand-up fella.  Bless the internet for bringing him to us in this day and age!

hawkstone

Originally published at Mikeintosh.net. You can comment here or there.

Jeremy draws Sleepers’ Mom somewhat differently than I did.  (Mine’s the one on the left.)

Michael explains that Sleepers is imagining his mom in the Black Whip’s costume, whereas in the new issue we get to see her as she actually appears.  Which would mean that Sleepers is crazy and has a reverse Oedipal complex.  Maybe he’ll snap and start Dextering the other characters!  I’d read that comic.

quirkybird

My maternal grandfather died a couple of years ago.

We were very fond of each other – he took me to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (a full day and a half drive) from 7th grade through my high school graduation, a gift of immeasurable impact.  He was a bright, curious, caring, and endlessly enthusiastic man. He reacted with genuine joy whenever his didactic little granddaughter held forth on erudite topics.  I still remember his delight upon hearing me tear apart the production of Romeo and Juliet that was one of the first productions we saw together at OSF.

I didn’t ask for anything of his after he passed away; my mother knowingly brought me a few things that meant a lot, but all in all my memories were the most vivid token of our relationship.  Recently, however, his last wife sent my mother a number of his old files.  Including one entire manila folder full of every letter and picture and document I had ever sent him, or that my parents had sent him relating to me.

So I’ve rediscovered verything from short stories I wrote in second grade to novellas I wrote in middle school to graduation notices and e-mails and silly cards.  I haven’t quite had the strength to go through all of it yet, but one thing I did find:  the poem below.  I remember this odd, apocalyptic little poem quite well but had no record of it myself, so knowing that he had it all along is very touching.

And, now that he’s gone, the poem – being as its topic is a girl with a fondness for the departed – takes on a sweet poignance.

Anyway. Here it is.

Annie stayed.

Annie McSalva stood that day
but no one was there to enjoy her stay
only the ghosts had not gone away

Annie remained for the ghosts.

Annie McSalva walked down the streets
her feet tapping sidewalk to various beats
She looked in the theatres, all empty seats

Annie played Hamlet for ghosts.

Annie McSalva read all the books
out loud, in the library, and none gave sharp looks
the ghosts listened well in their crannies and nooks

Annie read on for the ghosts.

Annie McSalva swam in the pond
that led to the gutters and sewers beyond
but nobody stayed to drink that which was fond

to Annie, who swam with the ghosts.

Annie McSalva lay in the sun
and thought that the world had only begun
but the ghosts whispered back that it almost was done

Annie survived with the ghosts.

photo by Nocturnal Bob