Confident.

I feel good today. Validated, confident, non-asshole-like. Also, other words containing hyphens. Anyhow I'm sitting here waiting on the little brother to finish lunch and get over here so we can move some stuff. 

After that, I'm gonna take advantage of this new found confidence and put it to some use. 

Be excellent.

Guess who's an official selection at the Bare Bones International Film Festival? Yep! Jazzed!

Bad Movie Night and Boner Time.

I am baking cookies. Having baked cookies, all I can say is I need more practice baking cookies. They're not ruined, but they're not mom's, either. 

That's all there is to say about that.

I watched part of the Oscars tonight and for the first time since I've been watching the Oscars I was only about half interested. This is the first year in a long time that I hadn't seen any of the movies that were nominated. I'm going to have to watch them, though. I'm just going to wait until they're out on dvd. Out of all the nominees this year there wasn't one outside of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that I really wanted to see in theatres. Everyone I thought would win did. I will admit though that since there weren't any movies I had seen, there wasn't one I was particularly rooting for, either. 

I also realize that there's a recession going on but the presentation was the lamest one I've ever seen. How about having a pulse, people? I did like the end credits being a long trailer orgy for almost every major movie coming out this year. I hope to be seeing a lot of these flicks. 

I like going to movies by myself. It's a lot more fun that you'd think. I don't mind seeing them with other people, but if you can't find anybody to go with, or you just want to blow through an afternoon watching matinees, you really can't go wrong by yourself.

Which brings me to last night, which was Bad Movie Night. It had been far too long since we'd had one so I was already pretty jazzed to be meeting up with the Circle and watching some good old fashioned crapola. 

We started off with Buster's selection, Mulva, Zombie Ass Kicker. There were some zombies, and there was some humor, but there was very little actual ass kicking. There was chocolate syrup addicted Mulva, her friend the London Whore, and some kind of Don King anime guy in black face. We had no idea if the Don King anime guy was really ironic and hilarious or just really racist, but it was a fun little flick. I no longer feel bad about my camera work or production values. If Mulva, Zombie Ass Kicker can get a distribution deal, I feel kind of good about my chances.

Jeremy's selection was a hunk of shit called Demons at the Door. The ending was hilarious, but to get to it you had to sit through an awful lot of meathead posturing by the lead doofus in the bad toupée and obviously bad special effects. Though there was naked shower chainsaw, which was pretty swell. We decided it was disqualified for the naked shower chainsaw, and the ending saved it from bad movie hell. 

We rounded out the night with my movie, The Devil's Nightmare, which didn't get finished because the kid woke up. We spent most of the time trying to guess which of the seven deadly sins each of the seven stranded tourists represented and trying not to stand up during the rock hard boner inspiring lesbian scene between Lust and Sloth. The women they got for those old Gothic Italian horror movies were ridiculously hot. Face meltingly hot. I don't know where they found them because you just don't see women that hot in movies anymore. Anyhow I don't know if my movie won but it did go directly into the spank bank.

It's important to remember, however, that I have nice hair.

Confessional Farting.

So it's Friday night and I'm sitting here alone listening to iTunes. I made some really fantastic shredded beef burritos earlier and I have a hell of a lot of leftovers. This always happens because I never learned how to cook for any less than six people. Still, I'll be working on the leftovers for days. I'll probably freeze the rest and I can have some jazzy burritos whenever, no fuss. Maybe I'll take some to the folks as payback for always sending me home with food.

Point here is, I cook for six and I'm just feeding one. Not counting the dogs, they don't eat people food. Lou used to be really bad about begging, and I don't even want to get Charlie started. That there's a tangent, and it's been known to happen, people. Anyhow, I am sitting here alone on a Friday night and I am absolutely sure I bring this on myself. Though Primus is playing and it's pretty swell.

You'd think Charlie was the one that ate the burrito, with the frequency and stink of his farts lately. Man that dog farts a lot. I'm not just blaming the dog, my farts have a sort of spicy aftertaste, where Charlie's farts are more earthy. I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know.

Okay, I think it's safe to say I'm not going to be coherent tonight.

My problem is I'm not outgoing and I have trouble starting conversations. When I do get going, when I'm really building a rapport, the insecurities kick in and I switch into Don't Fuck It Up mode. Which just spirals straight down into failure. See, I have a nasty habit of saying really stupid things, mostly in front of an audience. I remember this flaw of mine at the most inopportune times, therefore making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

There's one of my farts. Light, not unlike a nice vinegary pea soup. I think I've made my point, here.

I'd really like to think this blog will show up on Google searches other than for panty-sniffing. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Anyhow, the solution seems pretty simple. Go out, meet people, don't worry about being stupid. Putting it together though, there lies the problem. I'm not very comfortable around people I don't know well. I've tried to force it, with varying results, but there's always the feeling that I'm forcing it. I always end up eventually spazzing out. Then I feel ridiculous and like a coward.

I'm the only one of my circle of friends who isn't domesticated. One morning I woke up and realized I'm the fuck up of the group. Granted, it's a tiny group, and there are a lot of people a lot more fucked up than I am. I don't want to spend the rest of my life being the fifth wheel, though. I need to make changes.

Of course I've been saying I need to make changes for years and haven't changed anything. Not permanently, anyway. I always end up falling back into the same old rut sooner or later. At some point, though, I'm not going to have a choice, and that's going to be way more uncomfortable than it would be changing without being forced into it. 

I also refuse to give up on the old dreams I had when I was a kid. Even though there are days where I have no clue what I'm doing and I feel like an idiot for even trying.

Here I am writing a fucking confessional and I'm not even drinking. If I was drunk I'd at least have an excuse. 

Here we have a picture of me. Please enjoy and think of dog farts.

Wait, that came out wrong. I don't want you to associate my face with dog farts. Unless you're into dog farts. That's kind of weird but if it gets you going by all means, enjoy the dog farts. 

Which brings me to a story. *My brother apparently obsesses over my sister-in-law's farts. He listens for them and keeps a chart of what they smelled like and how long they lingered. 

Anyhow I think I'm going to stop now. Be excellent.

*Oh yeah, that part about my brother obsessing over his wife's farts, I made half of that up. I don't know if he keeps charts about the smell and duration. I just thought it would be funny.

The Infamous Octopus

And here it is, the infamous octopus. The shadowy areas are where the pad wasn't lying flat on the scanner. 

Update, my scanner here at home is officially dead.

Enjoy the photo, and be excellent.

Octopus

I went back to the killer octopus this morning and I've got to say, he looks pretty grand now. Only problem is, you can sort of tell where Fat Charlie slammed into the table when I was inking the tip of one of its tentacles. I added some subtle stripes and some background and it made a hell of a difference. 

I needed a break from the comics for a while. I think I'm going to sketch around another day or so before I jump headlong into the sequential art again. I need to build my confidence up some more first. 

My scanner is dead. I'm gonna see what happens when I reinstall the software, and if it works, I'll post the octopus tonight or tomorrow. If it doesn't, I'll have to use my dad's scanner. Which means I'll have to figure out his computer. I don't want to figure out his computer. My parents have that Vista shit and every time I look at it I see a jumbled mess that leads to nowhere. I'd much rather use my Mac, where everything's set up logically.

I'm pretty sure my scanner's dead, though. That thing is ancient and way past warranty. 

Be excellent.

I make some good ass tuna salad.

Missing Limbs

So I drew one of Oklahoma's very own mythological killer octopuses and I was really pleased with my line work. The color wasn't half bad, either. While the contrast could be a bit better, the ink was strong and confident and the colors I used complimented each other very well. I will, however, need some new brushes soon as my old ones don't hold a point very well anymore. 

The comics are coming around, as well. The work is slow right now, I only got through the pencils on a couple panels today before frustration caused me to put it aside for a while. Anyhow the pace will be picking up and it's only a four page story after all. 

At any rate, I'll be pulling out the old reference books and refreshing myself on the basics as I go along. 

I really should never have stopped. It's like I re-grew a missing limb and I'm having to learn to use it all over again. There will be no giving up this time around.

Be excellent.

I'm Still Fairly Good.

So the art is coming along nicely. I'm still not completely confident with it, but I still know where everything goes and what it's supposed to look like. I'm also happy to report that I'm still fairly good at drawing. Though I'm going to need a bit more practice until I'm at the level I used to be. 

Who knows what would have happened if I'd never put the pencil down. Ah well, what's the use in what ifs?

Anyhow so this guy is not a new drawing, but he's a drawing, and I'm pleased with the detail. Although he is a bit creepy. That was probably the point, though.

Be excellent.

This sucks.