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Generally speaking, my father was not what I would call a brave man.
My father suffered from several phobias. He was afraid of heights, which dictated that after I turned 12, everything to be done on a ladder would be handled by me with him nervously looking on.
I’ll never forget when "we" painted the house when I was 17. "We" sure spent a lot of time by myself. Oh, and my favorite part was when it was time to paint an area of the house unreachable by the ladder, and my father tied a piece of clothesline around me (to - HA! - catch me, just in case) as I went out on the roof. It was only better when, after I finished, I came in the window to find my father had left the room and TIED THE CLOTHESLINE TO A DOORKNOB.
I’m sure that the clothesline was strong enough to catch me from falling two stories, and that doorknob would’ve held. Yep.
Where was I?
Oh, yeah. My father was also afraid of bees and hornets. Actually, with good reason, since he was allergic to bees. The hornets? Well, hornets are just mean, you know? Still, it is something to see a grown man run into his home, and LOCK THE DOORS (because, you know, the bees - they can work the doorknobs), abandoning his family (’cuz the doors are locked, you know) to deal with the angry insects on the outside.
And, there was also the claustrophobia. Closed in spaces drove my father into near fits of madness. One time, my father went through a huge mall in less than 15 minutes on the day after Thanksgiving, just plowing through until he got out the other side. But, that was nothing compared to our trip to the Smithsonian and the National Zoo... in one day.
No, I never really considered my father to be brave... until sometime in the last couple of weeks.
I was thinking about some things, and I realized that my father, at the age of 47, after avoiding it for 30 years, surrendered to God’s call to the ministry. And, then, being unable to be ordained in his home church (as a divorced man that remarried), he had to seek out a different denomination, and, with no connections or support (other than God and his family), he entered the ministry.
Looking back on it... wow. That took guts. That was overcoming fear. That was stepping out in faith.
It was brave.
I can only hope that somewhere in me I have that. I need that.
I’ll type at you later.
This is so biased! When they asked about my dream car, buses or subways weren't even mentioned! Well maybe you'll fare better than I..
I just had one of the most confusing conversations... ever. I’d try to explain it, but I’m afraid my head would explode.
I hate when that happens.
You know, you are going along, thinking everything is normal, and someone walks up to you, and you think they are normal, and then, suddenly, you are trapped in a conversation you are sure is being spoken in Tolkein’s Elvish language or Sanskrit.
So, you find yourself kinda squinting at the other person, more watching their lips move than listening (because there is NO chance that will help), and maybe praying just a little bit for the sweet release of death before it comes time for you to have to formulate a logical response to a question born of the chaos of the other’s enigmatic mind.
Then, invariably, the creature in front of you stops speaking, obviously awaiting brilliance from your own mouth to flow out. You try to formulate the response, walking that fine edge between saying "I have no idea what you are talking about" and "I’d rather drive a pen into my own ear than continue speaking with you."
And, in appreciation of your effort of trying to be tactful, what do you get? You get a questioning look and are required to try to translate what you just said from English (your native language) to Crazy (their native language).
I have an expression I’ve come up with. I know it is completely original, for it was born of these situations where you are trying to explain something and the other person does not quite have the grasp linear thought to catch on.
It is like trying to teach a horse to knit.
It just popped into my head one day after an exchange with a coworker. I don’t know why I picked that turn of phrase, but it seemed to fit my feelings at the moment quite well.
Now that I’ve vented a little, I just need to relax and desperately try to stop replaying the conversation that inspired this rant in my head. Because, there is still a chance my head could explode.
And, as I said, I hate when that happens.
Type at you later.
This the software that I use to color my art. I find it very very easy to use compared to photoshop 3 elements which I also have but still have not figured out how to color with. Despite it's simplicity I find that I can mimic just about any color technique/ style that you would see in a professional comic done by Marvel or DC.The software also comes with a handy pullout manual and 50 other pieces of art in which ( in PLAY EVENT MODE ) you can see first hand how the art pieces were colored.The only drawbacks that this software has , is that it does not enable custom SHAPED brushes. Sizes- YES. SHAPES- No.And the biggest drawback is that it only works in RGB. Which is perfectly fine for printing at home on your home printer and also posting on the web for your My Space page or webcomic.But to have your work printed at a real print shop you would need software that saves your art in CYMK ( the standard four color mode ).But since I'm not doing any printing this software is perfect for me. If you feel it may be perfect for you , you can visit www.akadotretail.com to purchase it. Akadot retail is a webstore for manga supplies and tones and software.But be forwarned they also sell yaio and similiar style manga. I haven't come across any cuz I'm not looking for it, but they do have banner ads for them.This software usually retails for $125. But the site has web specials very often. I snatched mine up of $65. A great deal if you watch for it.Anyways just thought I would share for those of you who may be starting out. This software is perfect for novices and pros. And No I do not work for this company.LOL
It has been a busy week, so this is just a random thought kinda day here at Earth G.
I recieved some software this past week that should help me build my website for The Crimson Scarab webcomic. It took me a while to find a good and reasonably priced program, and it took longer than that to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to take my limited knowledge of page building and do it myself. If you have visited www.crimsonscarab.com, then you’ve seen pretty much the extent of my abilities. Hopefully, with the help of the newly arrived software, you’ll start to see a more dynamic page soon.
I’ve also recieved an amazing book this past week. How To Make Webcomics is the product of four authors, all of whom have successful webcomics of their own. I almost didn’t bother picking up this book, since I’ve been disappointed with the other books on the subject matter I’ve purchased over the last year. Luckily, the site I order my comics from was offering it at a discount, so I bit.
I’m glad I did.
This book actually gives me a lot of information I need. Technical questions I had that I couldn’t find answers to are addressed in the book, as well as questions I didn’t even know to ask! It is also a straightforward kinda book that reads easy. I’ve only had it for a couple of days, and haven’t gotten deep into it yet, but I can already tell this is going to be a valuable book for me over the next year.
I have to buy a scanner. My current one has... well, some sort of "burn" mark in the image scan. I suppose, given that it is about 10 years old, it has done its time. Given the cost, along with some other purchases I have to make, it won’t be something I can pick up this week. May be a few weeks away. So, there is a new tentative starting month on the Crimson Scarab... but I’m not saying when yet. I don’t want to say "May" and miss it, and I don’t want to say "June" and procrastinate... so I’m just holding off until I can firm everything up.
Wizard World L.A. is taking place this weekend. So far, nothing I’ve been interested in has been announced. Spider-Man stuff, but I dropped that book.
Alright, that’ll do for now. I’ll type at you later, hopefully not letting an entire week pass!
