Woodpress

This is a painting of a pumpkin in openCanvas. It’s not finished, but it’s been in this state for about a week, so I figured I’d post it.

I drew it without reference. (Not bragging. Just documenting.)

I have a confession to make. A while ago I looked at every single “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?” picture, and I enjoyed it.

I drew this in openCanvas.

I’m making friends with my Pentax Optio W30, and finally learning how to get decent macro shots. I think for clarity this one may beat anything I ever got with my Sony DSC-T1 (my previous pocket camera). In my opinion, that’s a major milestone.

Here’s a closer crop:

Today I ate at Sizzler with my friend Thom. This particular Sizzler has hearts of palm (mmmm), which are the only reason I ever choose to eat there. Today a waiter named Jeff (or so he claimed, and his name tag looked pretty darn official) walked by and saw us playing Banqi.

He was interested in what we were playing, so we explained the game to him. I recently bought 12 sets online from Game Center Online and have been selling them at cost (about $6 after shipping), so when he asked where he could pick up a set, we decided to give him the set we were playing with.

We gave Jeff the URL for the Wikipedia article and Woodpress so he can get detailed instructions and print his own board if the one we had with us wears out.

Now that I’m posting a link to where I bought the sets, Jeff will also know where to get additional sets. (Hi, Jeff.)

There were some issues with the previous Banqi board I posted, so I revised it. This one isn’t quite as artsy, but I fixed some technical errors with the pieces, and used more of the available space for the play area.

I intend to continue to improve this board, so I’ll probably post updated versions from time to time.

My four year old daugher is having an art night tonight. She started by drawing a self-portrait. Then she drew pictures of some other family members.

Here’s her self-portrait, and a photo of her (taken just a little while after the drawing). She cut out the self-portrait before I got it to the scanner.

After a few drawings, I asked her if she’d draw a dragon. She said she didn’t know how, but I asked her to try anyway. About a minute later, she came back with this:

She also drew a butterfly and a flower. She draws butterflies all the time. Sometimes she draws them with chalk on the driveway, and once she drew one on the garage door.

My wife asked my son to draw a dragon so we could see how an eight year old draws dragons. Here’s what he came up with. He’s not really satisfied with it, and said he might try again.

He says it’s in a crystal ball, and that people are looking at it.

Here’s a video of my son when he was five years old. Other family members make brief cameo appearances.

It’s not very carefully edited.

Last night I had a nightmare that I enjoyed thinking about after I woke up.

I was living in a future dystopia, and I broke some sort of law (entering a park without paying admission or something — I don’t remember) and got arrested.

After being arrested, I was processed and sent down various sorting chutes at high speed. That part was really fun, like a roller coaster.

At the bottom of the last chute was a lady in a nurse’s uniform. She held a pair of shorts in front of her face and said “put these on immediately.” They were white with a mesh pattern, and I could see her face clearly through them.

As I put on the transparent shorts, she continued to examine me. She looked at my feet and said “it looks like you’ll need a pedicure.” That kinda made me happy, so I commented “yeah, my feet are in pretty bad shape.” She said “not as bad as mine” in a tone that indicated her irritation with the fact that as a government worker she didn’t get the medical care I got as a prisoner.

Next, she glanced at a monitor and said “you’ve been here before. You’re signed up for rebirth.” I knew what that meant. My memory was to be wiped, then I’d get re-educated and released. I had just started to think about the life I was going to lose when she pulled out a hypodermic needle. I blurted out “wait!” because I wasn’t finished reflecting on my life, but she stuck the needle in my arm. That’s when I woke up.