Ride With The Yellow Bus

Christmas Jammie Designs

2010-12-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Temple Painting

2010-12-24T17:38:00.001-08:00

Days of Halloween, 9-14

2010-10-14T11:25:00.001-07:00

I usually don't do backgrounds. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I saw a similar background and wanted to try it out. This one has a Halloween feel. You gotta know that person in the middle is gonna get got by something.

We did some alternate Wizard of Oz sketches in 2005. This was the Scarecrow showing that he didn't have a heart. Then I realized it was the Tin Man that didn't have a heart. The Scarecrow didn't have a brain. So this is just an interesting Halloween sketch now.

This was a watercolor I did for Aaron in 2006. It also isn't Halloween related but it is kinda creepy. It is from a poem or something describing some internal conflict as Kafkaesque fight with oneself in an old greasy cardboard box. I think it was called Lute dos Intestinos (Fight of the Guts).

A 2005 sketch of the Mad Hatter from some Alice in Wonderland concepts.

This guy is from a nightmare I had a couple years ago. I sent the original to Aaron but I still had the watercolor and pencil sketch so that I could put it together again for this post. The background was watercolored by Mylie. The pencils were scanned and photoshop colored.

I did this quick sketch of Andi and then decided to add a little Halloween in the background. What a cutie. Andi is pretty darn cute too.

Days of Halloween, 7-8, more heads of Halloween

2010-10-08T14:18:00.001-07:00

Here is another sketch page from 2009 of Halloween heads. I think the paisley one would make a nice t-shirt. I can't find my page of many skulls - I had a great time doing skull studies.

This one isn't really Halloween related. It is a sketch of still shots from a video by a band called System of a Down. It is a great song and I have seen the band members in other places and they seem like regular guys, but they freak me out in this video. I thought this sketch had a halloweeny feel to it.

Sorry that some of my sketches from work are on the back of old used paper so that when I scan it, you can see the print from the other side.

Oct. 6 - More heads of Halloween

2010-10-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Scary Pac-Man by Mylie.

I had to have a black and white picture taken for our company website a couple years ago. Since I sometimes feel like a corporate zombie, I thought I would take a stab at looking like one. If you ever see me like this in real life, please don't hesitate to hit me in the head with a shovel, because I'll do likewise if I see you all zombified.

Oct. 4 - 3 more days of Halloween: faces, puppets and gorillas

2010-10-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

This was another follow-up sketch I did for Aaron last year.

Another sketch for Aaron in 2009 of Gretchen the Puppet Master. I don't know the story behind this picture.

I am most afraid of gorillas. I don't know if it is because I consider them to be powerful and intelligent or if it is because of that Donald Duck cartoon I saw when I was 5 years old where a gorilla gets loose from the zoo. I remember living in Prescott, AZ, during my kindergarten age and never having the courage to push open the blinds on my window at night for fear that a hulking black gorilla would be millimeters from the other side of the window, staring at me with bloodshot eyes, like the one from the Donald Duck cartoon.

What animal are you most afraid of?

Oct. 1 - First Day of Halloween Month

2010-10-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna try and post something Halloween related every day for the rest of the month.

This first one is a sketch I did for Aaron last Halloween.

CD Cover - Scurfalicious

2010-09-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Andrew did this picture in school. It is a line contour study he did as a self portrait. I have it on my wall in the office. I thought it looks like he's a DJ so I added some turn tables and decided to turn it into a CD cover. DJ Scurfy Budoo, aka: A. Larry Stones, aka: Scurf Cube, aka: The Scurfmeister, aka: Drew Badoo.

Self Portrait - more light study than shadow

2010-09-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

This one isn't the self portrait. I was copying the skull off some album cover that I can't remember now. It came up on Pandora when I was at work and I wanted to see if I could reproduce the same kind of shadow/light effect.

This is the self portrait. I didn't have my wacom on both of these so they are kinda rough. Who am I kidding ... they would look just as rough with the wacom ... it just would have taken half the time.

Aaron and Shadows

2010-09-02T09:41:00.001-07:00

I've been studying shadows lately and did this sketch of Aaron. I did it at work without my wacom so it is a little rough.

Poem of Perseverance

2010-09-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not normally a poetry lover, but because I have been thinking a lot about adversity and because I recently read the Ballad of Yukon Jake and The Cremation of Sam McGee, I ran across this poem and liked it.

The Quitter, by Robert Service

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,

And Death looks you bang in the eye,

And you're sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle

To cock your revolver and . . . die.

But the Code of a Man says: "Fight all you can,"

And self-dissolution is barred.

In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .

It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

"You're sick of the game!" Well, now that’s a shame.

You're young and you're brave and you're bright.

"You've had a raw deal!" I know — but don't squeal,

Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.

It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,

So don't be a piker, old pard!

Just draw on your grit, it’s so easy to quit.

It’s the keeping-your chin-up that’s hard.

It’s easy to cry that you're beaten — and die;

It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;

But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight —

Why that’s the best game of them all!

And though you come out of each gruelling bout,

All broken and battered and scarred,

Just have one more try — it’s dead easy to die,

It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

Job - integrity and character

2010-08-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

I taught the book of Job in Gospel Doctrine on Sunday and I never appreciated Job's example of kindness to others. It was the Apostle Paul who said to lift up the hands that hang down (Heb. 12:12) and again these words were used in a latter day revelation (D&C 81:5). President Monson asks members to hold up the hands that hang down. But I think the first place this was used was by Job's friend to describe Job's compassion and charity (Job 4:3-4, "...thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.") I also really enjoyed hearing about his service to the poor, the fatherless, him that had no help, the widow, the blind, and the lame (Job 29:12-16).

Here is a depiction of Job by Gustave Doré (1832-1883). He is one of my favorite artists.

Bad Wizard

2010-08-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is my take on Michael David's antagonist for the book he was writing before his mish. He is an evil wizard. I drew it in 2007 and colored it last week.

Mission

2010-08-24T12:21:00.001-07:00

I got this message from one of my companions from serving a mission in Brazil. He got it from one of the people we taught. I love his testimony. The translation is below:

Spear sou um rapaz de 5 irmãos que voçê e E. Stones batizaram em 1996 na ala de Parque Albano. Lembro muito de voçês e sou grato por voçês terem me ensinado o evangelho. Eu fiz missão de tempo integral aqui no Brasil no ano de 2002-2004. Casei-me no templo em 2005 e tenho uma família muito linda. Hoje eu sirvo no bispado de minha ala e estamos crescendo muito. Espero mais notícias de voçê e sua família. Estou bem feliz em ter lhe enconcontrado. Como voçê está? Quando vem a Fortaleza? Voçê lembra de mim? Obrigado por seu trabalho aqui no Brasil, sei que voçê e Stones foram guiados por Deus para nos encontrarem. Na época de meu Batismo eu tinha 14 anos. Hoje eu tenho 28 anos e sou muito grato por aquela época. Espero que sempre sejamos amigos agora. Cristo vive! E este evangelho é de luz e verdade. Joseph Smith foi realmente um Profeta de Deus.

Translation:
Spear, I am a young man of 5 brothers that you and E. Stones baptized in 1996 in the Parque Albano ward. I remember you two very well and am grateful that you taught me the gospel. I served a fulltime mission here in Brazil from 2002-2004, got married in the temple in 2005 and have a beautiful family. Today I’m serving in the bishopric in my ward and it’s growing a lot. I hope to get more news of you and your family. I am happy to have found you. How are you? When are you coming to Fortaleza? Do you remember me? Thank you for your work in Brazil, I know that you and E. Stones were guided by God to find us. When I was baptized I was 14 years old. Today I am 28 years old and very grateful for that time. I hope that we can always be friends. Christ lives! And this gospel is the light and truth. Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God.

More Turtles

2010-08-24T10:53:00.001-07:00

Two more turtle sketches of Michaelangelo and Leonardo

Ninja Turtles

2010-08-24T10:36:00.001-07:00

Two weeks before Aaron died, he and I were working on our ideas of what the ninja turtles would look like now (no longer teenagers but 35-45 year olds). I took the stance that their mutations didn't slow down either. Here are my sketches. I'll find Aaron's and post them later.

Raph
Raph again
Donny
Don again, working on a robo ninja babe.

50 things you may not know about me - or care about at all

2010-08-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

1. In addition to a cup collection, I also have a monster collection. I have almost 800 images of monsters, ghouls, hags, dragons, demons and zombies. Some are cute and some scare the bejabbers out of me.
2. Me and two other guys in my high school math class told our substitute teacher that we were going to the library to study for another class. We went to the Conoco down the street instead and got caught by our real math teacher who didn’t get us in trouble because she was ditching too.
3. I am afraid of gorillas and I never watch shark week on the Discovery Channel.
4. I have been scuba diving 58 times but never in the ocean.
5. A guy was picking on me and a couple other kids at school. I punched him in the chest, broke his sternum and we were friends after that. He’s the only guy I’ve ever punched.
6. I won first place in the long jump in my fifth grade track and field day.
7. I did over 100 pushups within 5 minutes last year. I can only do 22 now.
8. If my last cell phone ever shows up, I plan on seeing how many times I can skip it across a lake.
9. Regardless of how lame some of the characters and acting were in the new Star Wars movies, all 6 episodes will remain my favorite.
10. In my college writing class at Ricks, my professor asked if my fictional story on a seductive witch that lived next door to us was true.
11. My worst bicycle crash ever was halfway through a 50 mile ride for the bike merit badge. I finished the bike ride.
12. I can’t beat the last level of StarCraft Brood War.
13. I have unlocked every character in Mario Kart Wii (I prefer Peach on the Dolphin Dasher).
14. I can write beautiful HTML code without a GUI but my cursive writing stinks.
15. I am 20% done with my squirrel book, 10% done with my space cowboy book, 9% done with the Return of the Canafantines (which is actually part two of the story), and 100% done with the outline for a book on Charlie Conway (Aaron and I collaborated on this about 2 years ago). I have ideas for 6 other books that I refuse to start until I finish one of these first.
16. The squirrel book was originally intended to be a graphic novel and still might be.
17. When I was 9 years old, Cindy, who lived in our basement took me to a burger shop and bought be 8 $.25 hamburgers, that I ate and then rode my bike home with her.
18. My record stands at 14 pancakes and 9 waffles.
19. For a while on my mission I practiced lucid dreaming and became good at it. I can’t do it anymore.
20. I wrote in my journal almost every day from the time I was 17 to the time I was 22, now only once a month.
21. I am good at Dance Dance revolution, but I would rather drop a bowling ball on my tongue than actually dance in public. Although Andi and I took a short latin dance class a while ago and I liked it.
22. While messing around on top of Mount Audubon, I was chucking rocks at the ptarmigans that ran from us about 50 feet away and actually hit one and broke its neck. I feel bad about that.
23. I’ve never smoked, drank alcohol or coffee but enjoy the occasional diet coke.
24. I’ve tried to be open minded and listened to country music with hopes that it would grow on me, but it hasn’t. I like every other kind of music.
25. I think Andi has the most beautiful hands of anyone I have ever met. She could be a hand model.
26. I knew I wanted to marry her on our third date and we started talking about marriage after dating for two weeks.
27. If I could be any nationality, I would be a tall bald black man or a large Samoan. Those guys have some serious biceps but they always seem so gentle.
28. If I could design the scariest monster for a pet, it would be a smart gorilla with a shark head and bat wings. Man that would scare the pants off any burglar.
29. One of my guilty confessions is that I like reading Dilbert comics and haven’t missed a comic in 7 years. I also maintain my geekhood by reading Slashdot.com and I’ve installed and maintained multiple Linux operating systems for fun.
30. I’ve never had a tattoo. I just can’t think of anything worthy of the canvas.
31. I’ve never had a piercing unless you count the lawn chair that went through my waist while camping at Lake McConaughy or the rock that went through my shin while mountain biking.
32. I have a deep distrust for pharmaceutical companies, but a lack of faith in homeopathic (placebo) meds.
33. The Kindle E-reader, Amazon.com and I-tunes were my ideas. I told one of my old bosses about them 17 years ago and he thought I should do it and would make millions. He was wrong. I would have made billions.
34. I don’t mind that I’m getting some grey hair on the sides, going bald or getting wrinkles around my eyes. I think the wrinkles make me look cool.
35. I’ve had the same picture on my drivers license since I was 18.
36. I’ve shared a home with my son Andrew just as long as I shared a home with my brother Michael David.
37. I have 5 thriving plants in my office that were all cut-offs from dead or dying plants.
38. After working with Grandpa Baker for multiple summers at the nursery and working construction jobs the other summers, I decided at a young age that I was going to get a college education to avoid manual labor jobs. Now I want to go out and dig ditches, plant bushes and prune trees. I don’t miss piecing together sprinkler systems though.
39. I drove a big red dump truck when I was on a construction crew because all the other workers had DUIs.
40. I’ve always had a hard time getting interested in college or professional sports.
41. I rode my bike over 1000 miles during the last year. In 2005 I rode over 3000 miles.
42. I eat oatmeal mixed with low fat cottage cheese, peanut butter and Splenda almost every morning for breakfast.
43. I never took a single art or music class in college.
44. I like olives now. There really isn’t a food I don’t like.
45. I fall asleep really easily at night and I frequently have dreams that I’m flying or happily breathing under water.
46. I consider myself a fast food hamburger connoisseur. Here is how I rate them: Carl’s Jr., In N’ Out, Burger King, 5 Guys, Wendy’s, Fat Burger, McDonalds. I don’t have any experience with Jack in the Box. I also really like the Peppercorn burger at Chili’s, but they don’t serve it anymore.
47. I still draw pictures and color with my kids during sacrament meeting. It actually helps me listen.
48. I’ve had three speeding tickets, but none within the last 8 years.
49. I use hand gestures when talking to people on the phone.
50. I show no mercy to people when playing nerf. I’ll walk right up to my own daughter and pop her in the head with a nerf dart. Oh, your eye hurts now? Well boo hoo! Then I shoot them again in the forehead. But I’m a huge pacifist outside of nerf.

Wacom - Bamboo

2010-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

I got a Bamboo Wacom pad for my birthday yesterday. Here are the sketches for the first 45 minutes of me getting a feel for it.

Friday - Shepard Fairey

2009-12-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

Shepard Fairey is following Andy Warhol as the next big pop culture artist. I used one of his prints as inspiration for the one's below. I was trying to create a repeatable pattern. This is done in Gimp. I learned a lot by doing this. I'm not a big Warhol fan, but I like Shepard's work.

Ambigram - Sister Erica

2009-09-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ambigram - Brother Aaron

2009-09-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Ambigram - Reck

2009-09-08T16:21:00.001-07:00

Reck, well if you don't already know her, she is a good friend. Here is her ambigram.

Philo Thursday - Ambigram refined

2009-09-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Tyler's ambigram refined to a logo. He is turning 15 and I thought it would be cool to give him his own skateboard company. It doesn't cost anything to create an LLC in CO and I got him a free website. Don't tell him.

Wednesday Drawing - Tyler Ambigram Sticker

2009-09-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just love making ambigrams. I'm sure my nephew Tyler doesn't follow my blog, so I think it is safe to post this. I'm going to print a sticker of it for his skateboard as a birthday present.

Monday - Logo

2009-08-31T15:31:00.000-07:00

Just a temporary new logo above. Yellowbus is a hard ambigram. I'd love to see anyone elses suggestions on how to make it better.

Weekend update: nightmare, sleep paralysis, pansy

2009-08-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

So for anyone who hasn't already poked fun at me for screaming like a little girl the other night, here is the story. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't move. I looked up and I saw a guy standing over me.
I knew he wanted to kill me but I couldn't do anything. This is when Andi woke me up because she said I was "screaming like a little girl."

At the same time, Mylie woke up in the middle of the night and happened to walk in on me screaming like her. When I finally moved and saw her black silhoette standing by my bed, I almost punched her through the wall if not for Andi holding me back.

The next day I got to work at read my usual geek news and here is one of the articles that I read about Sleep Paralysis. Here is a pic from the article. It says that I'm not the only one who screams like a little girl ... or at least I'm not the only one who has terrorizing dreams of someone standing on me in my sleep.

Let me know if you have ever had a similar experience.

Writing Friday - Ambigrams again

2009-08-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here is an ambigram for Andrew's blog, Scurfy Budoo. Don't flip your monitor upside down. Just trust me it is the same both ways.

Philosophy Thursday - Ambigrams

2009-04-30T13:02:00.001-07:00

I read Angels and Demons a while back and loved the idea of ambigrams. The title of the new movie in the promo posters is an ambigram. Ambigrams read the same updside down. I thought it would be fun to try it out. Here are my first two attempts and the one from Angles and Demons and then one more just for fun.

Friday - another movie review

2009-04-10T12:48:00.001-07:00

Twilight – better than expected because it was better than the book. (running through the forest and climbing trees was a little lame). I read the book and would rather ram a wooden stake through my own chest than hear one more gooey account of Edward’s beauty. Plus, like most people out there, I try to identify with the main character. Since I’m a guy, I naturally try and identify with Eddy. I thought they did a lousy job casting Edwardo and thought this would be a better promo poster.

Friday Movie Review - Australia

2009-04-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

Australia – boring. There are many movies that have two or three themes: rascism, religion, social class prejudices, history and war. And then, to make those themes more interesting, they throw in some romance and action. The problem with Australia is that the romance and action aren’t enough to make it interesting. They should have taken my long standing advice and intertwined some other twists: instead of herding cattle, they could herd velociraptors. Instead of the Japanese attacking in WWII, it could have been the midget cyborgs returning from Uranus. Instead of the Aboriginal king using mystic abilities, why not give him a magic wand and a talking kangaroo sidekick. I wouldn’t even mind if there was a brief disclaimer by the director at the beginning of the movie declaring that his movie is based on true events and people, EXCEPT for the raptors, midget Uranian cyborgs, magic kings and talking kangaroos. I’d go see that movie twice. Here is my personalized promo-poster.

Philosophy Thursday - Mountain Biking in Fruita and Moab

2009-04-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the list of trails we rode last weekend:

Kessel Run in Fruita
Joes Ridge in Fruita
Zippity Do Dah in Fruita
Horsethief in Fruita
Porcupine Rim in Moab
Mack's Ridge in Fruita

You can find Youtube movies of all of them. Here are two:

Joe's Ridge

Zippity Doo Dah

Moab is the meca of mountain biking, but I honestly think Fruita is just as good if not better.

No one got hurt. Here are some extra photos.

If you want to see all the photos and a couple movies, go here.

Drawing/Art Wednesday - Cartoon Sylar

2009-04-01T10:47:00.001-07:00

I've been inspired by a couple people I know to dabble in caricatures. Where do you draw the line with how far to accentuate their traits? Here are four different sketch tests of Sylar from Heroes. Below is the reference.

Philosophy Thursday - Scurfy Budoo

2009-03-12T11:57:00.000-07:00

Andrew created his own blog: ScurfyBudoo.blogspot.com.

Here is a quick sketch of the little scurf in his honor. He is the coolest little chip ever.

Scripture Study Monday - Omni

2009-02-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm sad that we miss two hundred years of history during the 30 verses of Omni. I'm thankful that Amaleki was so faithful.

The population growth rate in the year 2000 was about 1.5%. I tried to find the population growth rate of the Nephites, Mulekites and Lamanites and ran across a bunch of essays written by BYU professors. I thought it was interesting that they explain such explosive population growth by not assuming that the seed of Lehi and the Mulekites were the only inhabitants of the promised land. If you consider the process of assimilating other cultures into the Nephite culture, it can open your eyes to the importance of continuing revelation, missionary work and friendship among societal classes.

Art Wednesday - I'm not a Pollock

2009-01-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

Jackson Pollock paintings are only slightly interesting because they are expressive depending on individual beholder's mood. This goes back to a previous post on Pareidolia - the tendency to find order among chaos. This is why we can see animals in the clouds. I think people are predisposed to see things according to their mood: If I'm happy I see a teddy bear, if I'm angry I see a skull, if I'm ornery - and I am - I see a desperate beatnik attempting something avant-garde so he can afford his next bucket of paint to splash at the amusement of the 1950's socio-elite.

It might appear that his style of art isn't art at all. Just an orchestrated accident. Maybe that was his goal - so that each sorry sap looking at his mess could see what they want to see. It is like a choose-your-own-adventrure book painted on a single canvas.

I'll tell you what, you give me a large pizza, two liters or diet coke, a canvas on the floor and a spoon to gag myself and I can make you a choose-your-own-adventrure painting.

I'll never do this again, because I think it is a waste of time, but here is my hommage to Pollock, minus the chunks of pepperoni. (By the way, I think the painting on my previous post on pain were done by Pollock).

Another Art Wednesday - Another Painting by Andrew

2009-01-16T10:56:00.001-08:00

I call this one the schizo-eyeball. It hung on my wall at work for the last four months since Andrew painted it in art class. I noticed that it has an angry mood, but when you turn it on its side, it mellows out a little bit. Maybe I'm the one with the schizo eyeball.

You can download this and his other paintings here for use as a desktop background. And like his other paintings, this one starts at $300. Bidding closes at noon tomorrow.

Art Wednesday - Andrew's Paintings

2009-01-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

Andrew was trying a new technique at school and painted these three killer pictures. I think they are really cool and they get the paradolia fluids pumping in my brains. I have the originals hanging in my office and I'll auction them off to the highest bidder starting at $300 a peice. I also have high resolution pics that are awesome for computer backgrounds if you want me to email them to you (about 2mb each!)

Baby

2009-01-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the ultrasound of kid number three:

Writing Friday - Canafantine Research

2009-01-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Why is power so lustful? Is it because people in power can create wealth for themselves? Is it only desired because of greed? Or is power even more than money? People with money can have power. But people with strength can influence and influence is also power. People with strength can take down people with power.

It is hard to build a bad guy. Here is one one of the bad guy's henchmen. The main antagonist is named Horvil (horrible+evil). The henchman is Master Crandall. He used to be a college professor until he helped Horvil develop the serum that in addition to being addictive, gives extreme strength (both muscular and skeletal). Master Crandall is better known by his nickname: Callous. Anyone with the serum addiction who has the musculo-skeletal deformities is called a Faker-Body. The Faker-bodies make up the armies of Horvil in his pursuit of power.

So much more to explain. I guess you'll just have to read the book.

Art Wednesday - Skateboard

2008-12-30T13:03:00.001-08:00

Here is Tyler's skateboard we painted for Christmas. I used a $10 deck from Target - sanded down and sealed with a white latex and rubbed with blue watercolor on the edges. The rest is painted with black enamel and orange water color - sealed with clear spray paint. Also included is the vector rough of the Triano logo. Note the signature on the right girl's boot.

Art Wednesday - Vector Art

2008-12-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Bit Maps (most digital photos) are made from a grid with location and color values for each point. Vector diagrams use mathmatics that goes over my head and are mainly used for logos and large graphics. I use the open-source (means free) tool called Gimp to photo-shop my digital photos. But I just discovered Inkspace (another free opensource tool) to make vector art. Here is a sample:

Music Tuesday - Eagles of Death Rock

2008-12-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

I listened to a couple live recordings of Eagles of Death Rock, and they stink when they play live. The only good songs I've heard: Wannabe in LA and Cherry Cola. One of the guys is from Queens of the Stone Age. Actually most of their other music that isn't live stinks too.

Art Wednesday - Eddy in the Sun

2008-12-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

I’m ¾ of the way through Twilight. Eddy just showed the damsel what he looked like in the sunlight. (I can't yet give a full critique of the book, because I’ll probably get hung, but at least I’ll say I wish there was more action and less gushy, mushy, cruddy discussion of their immature relationship.) Here is Eddy from the film and the way I think they should have made him in the sunlight.

Music Tuesday - One Word

2008-12-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived.

So we were driving east on County Line Road in Littleton on 12/04/08 at night and I saw a fireball blaze through the sky. I checked the clock - 8:42PM. The fireball was heading east towards Parker but looked like it would impact somewhere between I-25 and Parker. But there was no rumble, explosion or even a flash or light. I checked all the news sites and googled fireball sightings and couldn't find anything related to that specific night. However, I learned that there are tons of meteorites that hit in Eastern Colorado.

Here is a quick sketch of what it looked like:

I also saw this drycleaning truck in the area. No drycleaner has that kind of money these days to warrant a uhaul sized delivery vehicles. This is the most obvious undercover CIA UFO detection vehicle I've ever seen. You gotta know there are millions of dollars of computer hardware in that delivery truck. Coincidence that I saw both in the same area?

What this all has to do with Weezer? I don't know.

Scripture Monday - Agency

2008-12-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

In legal terms, an agent is someone who acts on behalf of their client. For example a real estate agent acts on behalf of the home seller. Perhaps an alternative way of thinking of divine agency as freedom to choose, you could think of it as acting on behalf of the Lord. We get to chose how we serve our client, who is ultimately the Lord.

Maybe this isn't a new concept for everyone, but it was a fresh idea in my studies yesterday.

Two great agents and then one more great agent (I'll have to do a painting of the first picture sometime):

Mountain Biking in Fruita

2008-11-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

Rode two trails on Saturday in Fruita: Horse Thief and Troy Built. I rate all the trails I ride on a scale of 1 - 10. Horse Thief demoted all my previous 10s to 6s. It was awesome. First Picture shows one of my riding budies. Then I walked over to the little rock sticking up on the right side and took the next picture to give you a sense of the size of the cliffs. Shortly after taking these pictures, I took the movie below. Shortly after I took the movie (like 2 seconds after taking the movie) I dropped the camera onto a rock and smashed the front end to pieces. Shortly after realizing I destroyed our family camera, I remembered I was in Fruita and forgot about the casualty and rode merrily down the same trail. Fun times. Sorry camera.

Art Wednesday - Tibetan Monk

2008-11-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

I actually took this picture with my scanner since I dropped and destroyed our camera on the last mountain bike trip. This is a statue of a Tibetan Monk holding a baby that my brother-in-law brought back from Afghanistan. It is the statue of prosperity and it glows in the dark. I keep it in my office to help me remember that in order to be prosperous I will need to ... grow a fu-man-chu mustache and wear a Mickey Mouse hat upside down.

Music Tuesday - Pink

2008-11-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

I can't get Pink's "So What" song out of my head. I heard it twice yesterday on the radio and that is all it took to infest my brains. Listen on Seeqpod if you dare.

Here is a quick sketch of Pink:

Nanowrimo Update - Finishing In November?

2008-11-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

If I have an hour to sit and type, I can knock out at least 1,000 words in an hour. The problem with Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) is that it puts all my attention on how fast I can type crud. The idea isn't quality, it is quantity (50,000 words). I just can't devote that much time, pride and hopefully passion into something that is too embarrasing for anyone else to read. If I was doing this purely for myself, then I'd just leave it up in my nogin.

I re-read what I have already written in the Canafantine Story and now re-written most of it so that it sucks less. Despite the depressing reality that writing a novel is harder than I originally thought, I'm having a really fun time. Here is a list of the other novels I already started or outlined:

Rob and the King (Squirrel Story)
Rob and the Queen (Squirrel Story II)
Quantum Cowboy (Space Cowboy)
Communiphrenia ('crazy' adventure of Charlie Conway)
Transporphrenia (more 'crazy' adventures of Charlie Conway)
Canafantines part I (I'm writing part II first)

Nanowrimo Update

2008-11-20T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm at 8,000 words. I don't think I'll hit 50K by the end of the month, but I'm having a blast.

Here is an odd site someone sent to me. It lets you make your own little sound widgets. Here is mine:

Nanowrimo - Updated

2008-11-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

I'm up to 5000 words. I'm supposed to be around 25,000 words by now. I hope to make up some of that ground this weekend.

Quick research question: out of our 5 senses, pain is obviously felt the most with our sense of touch. But what does pain look like? Or what do your eyes see when you are feeling intense pain and your eyes are closed? Does pain have a smell or taste? Does it have a sound? Are there any other sensations or feelings associated with pain?

I wrote one section about a Canafantine Warrior who learns to deal with pain. I'll have to post it sometime, but I don't want it to influence anyone's response to my questions above.

I did see these pictures on the net and I thought they were good representations of what I think pain looks like.

Nanowrimo update

2008-11-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

1,435 words down. 48,565 words to go.

There are no such thing as "absolute" magic in the Canafantine universe. So if someone makes magical armor that will resist all other weapons, and then a magical weapon is made that will cut through anything, what happens when the unstoppable weapon hits the impenetrable armor? Since the armor was first, I think the weapon would go through the armor. If the weapon was first, it wouldn’t go through the armor. Does that make sense? Does that still follow the rule of no absolutes? Does it matter?

The only reason it would matter is if two warriors were dueling and you wanted to place bets on who would win. You'd have a good chance at winning the bet if you knew what infallible tool was created last.

Scripture Studay Monday - Helmets

2008-11-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

D&C 27:15-18 discusses the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-20). Verse 18 mentions the helmet of salvation (see also Isaiah 59:17). I feel like the scriptures discussing the helmet of salvation are referring to clarity of thought related to an understanding of the plan of salvation. If I study and understand the gospel, that understanding will act as a protection to me.

In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) we don’t fight flesh wars. We fight to cast down “imagination”, everything that exalts itself above the “knowledge” of God, and bring into captivity every “thought” to the obedience of Christ.

Our daily spiritual battle includes living in a physical world, acting, serving, and doing, but these scriptures point out that a large part of the battle is in the mind.

Writing Friday - Nanowrimo starts on Saturday

2008-10-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Nanowrimo starts tomorrow. I'll keep a link to my story. Is it wierd that I am writing part II before part I?

Being a Canafantine warrior can create a lot of difficulties in your personal life. Faker bodies ignore the difficulties.

Philosophy Thursday - More about Angstish

2008-10-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Being anti-establishment is stupid if you’re only doing it for anti-establishment’s cause. I also don’t think extremism is valid anti-establishment behavior. They think if you aren’t with them you must be against them. They say there can be no passion in the middle ground. Why not?

Passion fruits are ugly.

Art Wednesday - Angstish

2008-10-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

No legitimate art today. I’m too disgusted by the prevailing false philosophy of modern artists who claim a right to the freedom of established art because of the absurd conclusion that developing beauty must be avant-garde. Their hypocritical extremism is supposed to uphold their new dichotomous metropolitan bohemianism as if they could conform to some standard of nonconformity.

Here is my satirical attempt at their style. I call this picture angstish: a beautiful combination of anger, and anxiety (I made up that word by the way).

Music Tuesday - Never Mentioned

2008-10-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

I never mentioned the Caesars, Dr. Octagon, Muse, Powder, and Subtle (all on Seeqpod)

Classics: 311, Beck, Blur, Gorillaz, Chump, Fatboy and Skank (Brazilian)

This looks like a halloween helmet I may have made. I didn't make this one.

Scripture Monday - Babylon

2008-10-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

People of one heart and one mind are named after the ancient city of holiness: Zion. Todd D. Christofferson says the antithesis and antagonist of Zion is Babylon, named after the ancient city of worldliness, sexual sin, decadence and spiritual bondage (decadence is having excessive money with no sense of responsability).

We have instructions on how to build Zion among Babylon.

Ride With The Yellow Bus

2008-10-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Seldom has someone with so little to say said so much to so few people as I have said on this silly site.

Say that ten times fast.

Music Tuesday - Disney vs Looney Tunes

2008-10-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

If I ever get hired by Disney to write the screenplay for Fantasia 2010, I will propose Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The movie would depict loveable Disney characters carrying hammers, pick axes, and baseball bats in pursuit of Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Who would win: Mickey or Bugs, Donald or Daffy, Goofy or Foghorn Leghorn? I’ll take a tip from Over the Hedge and feed Chip and Dale and Scrooges nephews some redbull and I’m sure they could catch up to The Road Runner. I'm not quite sure Tink could take on Tweety though.

But just when you think Porky Pig will be the last one standing, out pops every villain Disney ever created: Maleficent turns into a dragon and cooks the little ham. Then you see the whole WB cast including Batman, Pinky and the Brain, Michael Jordan and the Aliens from Space Jam pop out of a little black hole in the floor. The watcher of this short movie would surely panic when every single Disney Character from every single animated Disney cartoon pops on the screen. There would be a new world record for the most anvils thrown in a 9 minute short movie.

That is such an inspirational song.

Scripture Study Mondy - Hope

2008-10-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

I read Elder Uchtdorf’s talk on Hope. Hope is hard for me to define because the definition seems so similar to the definition of Faith. I think that Hope is a feeling that you are on the right track based on meeting qualifications. I have Faith that I can be saved by the atonement of Christ, but I have no hope of being saved without qualifying myself first. The qualifications include faith, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and being obedient to the end. Faith is relying on Christ, Hope is qualifying yourself and Charity is helping others qualify.

Art Wednesday - Sleeping Watercolor

2008-10-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

It took me forever to find this painting by my brother-in-law. I love the form and texture of the watercolors.

Music Tuesday - Arctic Monkeys

2008-10-14T13:33:00.001-07:00

Come on! Couldn't they have come up with a better name? Decent music. Lousy name. With so many different primates and cool locations, couldn't they have called them selves the Polar Simians or the Permafrost Baboons. Seeqpod - Arctic Monkeys Flourescent Adolescent.

Scripture Monday - "Come What May, and Love It"

2008-10-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

A great conference talk by Elder Wirthlin: Come What May, and Love It.

Writing Friday - More Absurd Mood Changers

2008-10-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

3. OLD ABSURD MCDONALD: This fit of absurd rage requires ample stretching so that you won’t pull a muscle. Find a place that is full of people and jump up on a table or ledge and un-tuck your shirt. A chair is too small unless you have two chairs next to each other. Once you are standing on top of your platform, spread your legs a little farther than shoulder width apart, point your toes out and bend your knees about half way. Then lean forward, and look up. Next, drop both arms strait down from your shoulders and make fists. Start rocking from side to side by bringing one foot about 8 inches off the platform, then rock back and bring the other foot about 8 inches off the platform. For each rock, you will need to bring your arms up and down like you are pumping up a bicycle tire. Make sure when you bend your elbows that they are as far forward as possible. Another important part of this dance is the smile. You should always be showing as much teeth as possible at all times and never let your teeth close in your mouth. It also helps to rock your head from side to side in rhythm with the pumping of your arms. Once you have the dance down, start into a loud rendition of “Old McDonald.” The first animal Old McDonald has is a mule, with a loud “HEE-HAW” here and a “HEE-HAW” there… then, don’t finish the song. Just stand up straight, step down from the platform and walk off.

4. ABSURD ALTER EGO CAT FIGHT: This is a short dialog between you and your alter ego. Prepare by having a towel tucked into your back pocket and a glass of water:
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” you say to yourself in an annoyed tone.
You turn around looking shocked that someone would talk to you so rudely in such a public place and point to your self as if you are confirming that your alter ego is talking to you and not someone else. It is okay to look around at the other people in the room with an innocent expression, as if you don’t know what your alter ego is taking about.
You turn back around and your alter ego says, “yeah you, pinhead! I heard what you said about me yesterday!”
You turn back and your look of shock turns to a look of disgust as you reply to your alter ego by saying, “Yeah, well I meant it when I said you look like a warthog. So what’cha gonna do about it? Huh?”
You spin back around and your alter ego looks disgusted at your other ego. You take the cup of water and begin to throw it at the person in front of you, but before you let the water go …
You spin around and throw the water in your own face. You gasp because the water is cold and you look with the most contemptuous glance you can at your alter ego and storm off out of the room, but about five feet away, you turn around, point at your alter ego, still standing there where the fight broke out and you yell, “this isn’t over honey. You better watch your back. I know where you sit.” You give a menacing smile and turn around to leave.
But instead of leaving, you take one step to the side, pull out the towel from your back pocket dry off your face, look around at everyone else in the room and say apologetically, “I’m sorry, they have both been going through a lot lately, with the new medication and all.” Then turn and follow the wet alter ego through the door.

Philosphy Thursday - Work Worth a Crap

2008-10-14T12:23:00.001-07:00

I've heard the term used to describe glue, computer software, baking products. It goes like this: "this remote control doesn't work worth a crap". Most people would undervalue their daily bi-product and would likewise correlate other objects that are equally useless and fetid, like my cell phone.

Instead of leaving a present for the next guy at work, I ended up flushing three times and said outloud, "this toilet doesn't flush worth a crap." I almost laughed, because it didn't actually work with a crap.

Art Wednesday - Purple Zord for Myles

2008-10-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

I'll mess around with coloring this later. This is for Mylie's coloring book.

Music Tuesday - Queens of the Stone Age

2008-10-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Queens of the Stone Age - good songs: 3's and 7's, Make It Wit Chu ... they are all pretty good.

Actually, they aren't that good. I just happen to listen to them last week when work turned my brain to applesauce. I just don't have the musical prowess to know if something is good or if it is just a catchy tune. Good. Good? How would I define good music?

Scripture Study Monday - Zion Theme

2008-10-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

I always look for themes during conference weekend. A couple weeks ago, we studied about Zion in the Joseph Smith manual in Elder's Quorum. The lesson discussion centered around how at the time, Zion wasn't established because there wasn't enough unity, righteousness and consecration among the early saints (Moses 7:18). It seemed like that was the theme for this conference: Unity, Personal Righteousness and Service.

This will probably be a topic of study for the next couple weeks. Almost completely unrelated: here is a picture of Zion National Park.

It isn't an Alien, its an Octopus

2008-10-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here is yesterdays ultrasound of kid #3.

Here is the ultrasound for kid #1.

Writing Friday - Small Collection of Absurd Mood Changers

2008-10-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

I wrote this collection about four years ago for my sister. I'm only posting 2 of the 13 so that you'll have something to look forward to:

1. SEXY GIRAFFE ABSURDITY: One way to really cheer your self up is to do something completely absurd in front of a bunch of people. For example, you could walk all sexy like up to a pillar or a wall or something and start kissing and caressing the wall then say, "Oh, I've always wanted to meet a really nice giraffe, but I never thought I'd meet one that was so handsome." Then spank the giraffe (wall or pillar) like you are whacking it on the fanny and whisper, "We'll finish this after work." Give it a wink and a seductive smile then go get a cold glass of water.

2. 007 ABSURD RAGE: Run down the hall on your tippy toes, and right before the hall comes to a "T" do a running summer salt and stop on your haunches with your pistol fingers pointing down the hall as if to shoot a bad guy. Then quickly turn around and aim the other way, just in case the bad guy is behind you. If you see him, make a gun noise. Then pretend you are out of bullets and dodge a couple of the bad guy’s shots. Now comes the fun part, smile really big at the bad guy and pull your machine gun off your backpack and liter the walls with bullet holes. You have to make the machine gun noises. When you are done, laugh, wipe the spit from your mouth (sometimes making a lot of machine gun noises makes you slobber) and say, "Yeah, you like that? Well I got more were that came from, sucka" (you gotta say it as if you were a black lady with attitude.) Blow the smoke off you machine gun, put it back in your back pack and walk back to your desk whistling the theme song of the Andy Griffith Show. If by chance you run out of machine gun bullets, don't worry, you still have your rpg launcher (rpg = rocket propelled grenades...they sound like missiles.) Some people's hand guns sound like lasers. Andi makes horrible gun noises. Your gun is not a laser, it is a semi-automatic 45. Oh yea baby, that thing has got some kick to it, so make sure you recoil after each shot or it won't look real. And feel free to be spontaneous. You never know when the bad guy might through a knife at you and you will have to catch it and through it back.

Philosophy Thursday - Police Shootout

2008-10-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

A friend who is a cop thinks cops shouldn't have to wait till they are assaulted in order to pull and fire a gun. Give them more freedom to shoot who they want and you will have two outcomes, more cop killers, vigilante cops and innocent people killed by a cop who acts as the plaintiff, judge and jury. I guess that was three reasons.

Also, I think warfare is a different story.

Art Wednesday - Ride With the Yellow Bus Train

2008-09-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Music Tuesday - WolfMother

2008-09-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

More frequently lately I've been enjoying late 70's punk and rock. I've also discovered a more contemporary band with a similar sound: WolfMother (good songs: Love Train, Women, Tales, Pyramid...)

(edited for modesty)

Scripture Monday - Andi is Great!

2008-09-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Andi rocks! I just read this conference talk yesterday for my scripture study. It affirmed my confidence, amazement, and veneration for her. Here is another quick sketch in commemoration (I still need to work on this).

Writing Friday - Nanowrimo is coming up!

2008-09-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

If you don't know what Nanowrimo is, look it up. But I'm doing it! The rules say I can't have already worked on the piece. Since I have 4 of my pieces already underway, I'm going to have to resort to work number 5 of 14: the Canafantines! Stay tuned for outlines (your allowed to have an outline before the event).

Philosophy Thursday - Mercy and Justice vs ???

2008-09-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

In the Spring 2008 General Conference, Elder Lance B. Wickman said, "Mortality is the battlefield upon which justice and mercy meet. But they need not meet as adversaries, for they are reconciled in the Atonement of Jesus Christ for all who wisely use Today."

If mercy and justice are on the same team, I wondered what their adversary is: Tyranny, cruelty, ignorance, procrastination, unforgiveness, apathy, deceit...?

It also made me think of this quick sketch of Lady Justice standing on Death's robe.
Is it depicting reality or is it depicting how society acts?

Art Wednesday - Shadows

2008-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

I listen to Yahoo radio at work and three of these faces showed up in the corner of the screen. I think the shadows are pretty cool on these faces and I had to see if I could duplicate the effect with Gimp. So below are my versions. (some guy from a band called Aiden, a guy from Oasis, some other guy named Springfield, and Gilbert).

I just use a black background, paint the general shape with a wide, fully open air brush, then black in some details, and I use an almost shut white airbrush for the highlights. This simple style only takes about three minutes for each sketch.

Music Tuesday - Clean Beat

2008-09-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

My search for dinosaur footprint beats, concrete grinding guitar and lyrics that don't leave me feeling like I need to take a shower lead me to two words (you won't believe it): Beastie Boys.

They aren't known for having the most kid-friendly lyrics, but they do have two albums with no lyrics at all. They usually have two or three lyricless jazzy hip-hop beat songs on each CD they release, and they collected all these songs and put them on one CD in 1996 called "The In Sound From Way Out!".

Last year, they released another collection of fresh sounds called "The Mix Up".

Scripture Study Monday - Method

2008-09-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Two lessons at church influenced the way I study the scriptures. One teacher asked if we regularly check the news online at work. Of course. Then he asked why we can find 15 minutes to check the news and find it difficult to find 15 minutes to study the scriptures. So I made a goal that when I go to work, before I check my personal email, before I check the news and before I do anything to this blog, I spend about 15-30 minutes studying scriptures.

The other lesson that influenced the way I study the scriptures was a guy who simply printed a page from his own scripture study notes and handed it out to the class. I base a lot of my scripture study on his method of note taking.

I have a list of topics to choose from. I also have a template for new topics. I create a new word document for each topic. When I am reading the scriptures and find a verse or section or conference quote that seems interesting, I copy and paste it into the appropriate word doc (adversity example). All of my scripture study is done online and my notes are stored on my thumb drive. (The links above are saved on Google Docs. I don’t save all my notes on Google Docs, because sometimes I don’t have an internet connection)

I like studying online because I can copy and paste into my own notes without retyping, and I save a lot of time by clicking on the links instead of manually looking up cross references. I also really enjoy looking up special topics in the conference talks and Ensign articles. I find that writing down my thoughts, questions and testimony as I study is a huge benefit.

Music Tuesday - Audacity

2008-09-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Bands of the week: Muse, The Raconteurs, Switches and the Aliens. You can check them out on Seeqpod.com.

There are usually three things going on in the back of my mind's stage while I listen to music: 1) mentally, I'm getting down like Michael Jackson on cold pavement with my accompanying zombies and ghouls, 2) I'm mountain biking downhill through trees like Luke on Endor, 3) I'm lounging into a deep seat at a shady cafe, sipping hot cocoa with a swirl of cream on top, not paying attention to the designs of the rising smoke from other invisible listener's cigarettes, mildly bobbing my sun-glassed head in synch with the tune.

Then, out of left field comes a swear word like a piano falling on the stage from the cat walks. The music keeps going, but the stage is cleared. I seem naive to let a single swear word ruin a song. Swearing is a different topic of debate.

So, I export the song into Audacity, find the swear word, take a sample from some other place in the song and paste it over the swear word. Audacity is an open source music editor that keeps the back of the stage jamming.

News Flash - Stones' Shenanigans

2008-09-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

Check out the Stones' Shenanigans blog for the latest news and additions to the family.

Scripture Study Monday - Armor of Righteousness

2008-09-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

President Brown, the Denver Temple President, visited our ward last week to teach us about the temple. He mentioned that the veil of the temple is a symbol of Christ.

This last week, I studied about the armor of God: 2 Nephi 1:23 says put on the armor of righteousness. Romans 13:12 says put on the armor of light. Then in verse 14 it says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our armor. I think there are so many ways that Christ is a shield and protection to us in as much as we do not defile that armor.

Splenda Packet Super Power

2008-09-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Heroes' new season is starting in a week and I just wanted everyone to know that I am coming out of hiding. I have a super power! For the longest time I thought I had this crazy knack, but then I realized after watching this show, that it is really a super power.

My power helps me to choose the right amount of splenda packets and excedrin tablets. Seriously!

Every morning at work, I sweeten my oatmeal with Splenda and every time I reach for the bowl of splenda packets, I think in my head how many I want to grab, maybe 4, maybe 8, maybe 17, depending on how much fake sugar I think I need, and to my astonishment, that is how many packets I pick up. I have never had to put packets back because I picked up too many and I've never had to pick up more because I didn't pick up enough.

Even crazier, when I get a headache and open the bottle of excedrine, I just say to myself, dude, this is a bad headache, but still, you only need two pills. Then I give the bottle a little sidways shake and bam, only two pills fall out. Never more! Never less.

This power doesn't seem to work on Nutra Sweet Packets or Ibuprofen. There may be other countable items that would trigger my powers, but I haven't found them yet.

I've been racking my brain to try and find a way the producers of Heroes could work me into their story line with no success. It is hard to find a way to make the precise quantities of Splenda and Excedrine work into a plot to save the world.

Philosophy Thursday - Fortune Cookie

2008-09-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

I don't believe that a fortune cookie really tells your fortune. But still, it is a shame that the little slips of paper only contain good advice instead of real fortunes.

So I walked into the kitchen at work and someone had Chinese take-out but didn’t eat their fortune cookie. They just recklessly decided it was better to ignore fate in order to save those calories and left it on the counter for anyone to take. This brought up a couple questions about fate, fortune and weightloss:

Was that cookie meant for the buyer of the food?
If I ate it, would I be stealing their fortune?
Would the fortune change according to who opened the cookie?
Or would that fortune have been fatefully intended for me from its creation?
Do I have to eat the cookie to adopt that fortune?
Or do I just need to open the cookie and read it?

Well, I grabbed the cookie off the counter like a kid in front of a busted open pinata. Now I feel jipped that it didn’t say anything good or bad. Here is the front of the paper. The back taught me how to say banana in two different languages:
And reading a fortune cookie that doesn't tell me how to make a million bucks is frustration.

Art Wednesday - The Mighty Yam High School - School Bus

2008-09-10T07:30:00.001-07:00

It isn't art, but it was fun. Here is the progression of the Mighty Yam Bus Logo. People kept telling me it wasn't short enough. Listen, if I shorten it any more, the wheels will rub and it would do a summer-sault at a quick stop.

Scripture Monday - Spiritual Warfare and the mother of abominations

2008-09-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

My scripture study for the past couple days has been on Spiritual Warfare. 1 Nephi 14:13 mentions "the great mother of abominations". I found this article, "Warring against the Saints of God", by Stephen Robinson, to be a pretty good explaination of the whore of the Earth.

The article from the Ensign in 1988 didn't have the illustration included from the original publication. I looked up the artist, Robert T. Barrett, and recognized a lot of his work. I don't know what illustration they used for the article, so I chose this one as an example of his work. It is titled "Christ The Creator".

Music Tuesday - Hip-hop beats

2008-09-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

A Plan B song called Missing Link feat. Radiohead says "why is it that everyone who does drugs thinks they knows everything there is to know about life already?" Is this true? Do they know more about life than people who aren't addicts or experimenters? Is their knowledge something to be proud of?

I like the hip-hop beats of El-P, but I hate it that he swears so much.

I like the scratch-hop of Mix Master Mike, but it tends to get a little stale.

There needs to be more funky, real, hip-hop beats with scratching and grinding guitar: Roots, B-boys, Nerd, Fatboy at one point.

I don’t really identify with the lyrically illustrated lifestyle of hardcore thug rap, nor do I need some ego punk telling me why he is so much better. But I really like the beats.

Seeqpod is good for making a quick long playlist for the day of new artists to try out.

Pics

2008-09-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Finely crafted mind chocolate should include pictures.

This is the older Santa Cruz Blur that Greg wants me to get. $2000 on Craigslist? A little pricey. I could talkem down to to $1500...if I had $1500.

Writing Friday - Clementine

2008-09-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have folders filled with folder saved on my hard-drive filled with years of stupid things I've written. I used to think that stuff was good. Anyway, every once-in-a-while on Writing Fridays, I'll post some old crap.

One of my old favorite past-times was to write quick character sketches for books. I would create a character - sometimes stock, sometimes original - and write about them. Usually a circumstance that would illustrate their personality. This one is about Clementine:

People sometimes associate names with personalities. The name Clementine might be associated with a whooping and hollering cowgirl with a smile and a lasso for a belt. But this Clementine, or Clem as she began correcting people, was not a cowboy. She was the exact opposite, dressed in a long black dress with a slit right up the front so you could see she was wearing dark maroon self-dyed jeans underneath. Her pail round face smathered with black makeup resembled a cold chiseled statue, and her short and spiky hair was meant to resemble the patience she wanted people to think she had. Her tendency to act like an anti-people-person came from her history of constantly changing orphanages and schools in her youth. But, there was that one foster family that bought her new bright colored clothes and enrolled her in a special school were the other kids didn’t know she didn’t belong. But that only lasted a couple months. Now she works in the plexi-glass cage on the night shift at the gas station downtown off of 16th. She brings her laptop, so when work isn’t busy, and it rarely is, she can keep in touch with the two or three people who commented on her poetry from her website. Her poems are occasionally about places she’s been, but mostly focused on the emotional trauma every person she comes in contact with inflicts upon her. The poems don’t rhyme. They are mostly just adjectives and metaphors. And sadly, the adjectives and metaphors feel overly used and unmotivating. Her poetry is stale – except the one about her landlord who she described as a moldy, sweaty donut with a face and armpits.

Clementine’s two cats understand her and actually like her. Her true personality glows through the cracks in the emotional stone walls she put up around her when she is talking to her cats. One cat is black and his name is black. The other cat is named Mo, but if she ever had company, she decided to tell them his name is Despair. One time Mo escaped from her apartment and climbed the tree into the unit above hers. Clementine shot up the stairs and knocked on the door to rescue Mo. The man, roughly her same age, answered the door and gave the cat back to Clementine. He commented that in all of their comings and goings, he had never seen her wear anything but dark colors and that her canary yellow T-shirt looked cute. She of course wrote a nasty poem about the jerk upstairs. A person’s underwear and pajamas say a lot about their superego. Clementine’s were sky blue, and yellow.

Philosophy Thursday - Pareidolia

2008-09-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

The linoleum in my bathroom, the ceiling tiles at work, the clouds, the wood grain on my desk and the shadows from the leafy trees are all Rorschach inkblot tests to me. Pareidolia is when your brain finds patterns in random information. My brain is doing this all the time. I mostly pick out faces, bodies and sometimes hands. I’ve never seen any religious images in grease stained pizza boxes or pancakes.

Supposedly, what you see in these random images is a reflection of your mood. When I’m grumpy, I usually see dragon heads, devils or trolls. When I am happy, I see cartoon bears, handsome people and rough shapes of physical activities, usually running.

And no, I don’t think this is a sign of insanity. I would only be insane if I started acting on connections between pareidoliate images and things going on in the real world. (I’m not going deep enough to contemplate the meaning of “the real world” and perception).

What do you see?

20 Wishes

2008-09-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

My Mom and Dad are reading a book about 20 wishes and came up with lists for themselves. Here are my 20 wishes (not necessarily in prioritized order):

To know Christ (currently doing)
To wake up every morning and see Andi next to me (currently doing)
Have my kids get married in the temple
To always be a humble, willing, honest and charitable servant of God (striving towards)
Be healthy enough to always run at least a 10K (maintaining)
Publish a book (working on it)
Own a motorcycle
Go skydiving more
Go scuba diving more
Learn to play the piano (took a lesson with Grandma Baker in 1991 – I need to work on this one)
Sell a screenplay (working on it)
Learn to sail
To have a warehouse sized garage to store toys and build stuff: bikes, cabinets, airplanes, cars, motorcycles, boats, tree houses, cyborgs (I currently have a cardboard box in the laundry room)
To be the world champion of Super Mario Cart (I don’t even own a Nintendo)
To find a dinosaur bone
To drive a European sports car on the autobahn
To always play with legos, ride bikes, watch Star Wars, play card games, and go camping (currently doing)
To have time to read at least one book per week (I barely have time to read one book per month)
To be able to eat anything I want and as much as I want without physical consequences (I think I would need to run a lot more than a 10K every day)
To never say or do anything that would make people hate me and to make sure that everyone knows, no matter what they’ve said or done to me, that I don’t hate them. I don’t even hold a grudge. Even if I think of the most villainest, ignorant, vitiating, senseless, selfish things people have done to me, (I can’t even think of anything off the top of my head) I wouldn’t hold it against them. My wish is that they know that.