Quote of the Day now powered by Tumblr

Yes, I shamelessly ripped off my own artwork. What of it?

You may remember that when I originally created my Twitter account, I also set up a “Quote of the Day” deal that automatically sent quotes I had hand-picked and collected. This was powered by CoTweet, which in the past I wholly and unreservedly recommended. If you’ve been watching my twitter account, you may notice that these quotes stopped on February 18

To keep it simple, CoTweet doesn’t exist anymore; ExactTarget Inc. discontinued it on February 15 of this year (they did finish sending the quotes I had scheduled – even those that were for after February 15 – that was nice of them) in favor of a paid alternative. I, of course, barely have money, so switching over was out of the question. I had to look for another, free alternative, which is where Tumblr comes in.

Sketchdumps are for WiPs

Drawing I was trying to finish for last year's Thanksgiving.
Obivously, I didn't make it in time.

One of the thing that irks me about the school year is how little time it leaves me to use the computer for art. On the one hand, because I take a bus that 90% of the time gets stuck in traffic, I have a practically guaranteed drawing session every day. On the other, if any of those drawings requires a little touch up in the computer to be finished (say, to add color), it most likely never will be finished.

A merry Christmas in spite of all

[Making-of video]
Pinecone is CC by Menchi

Every year, come December, I do the same thing: I greet or say goodbye to people with a cheerful "Merry Christmas." And every year I find the same sad reality: less and less people correspond. (Two people total gave any sort of answer this year.)

The thing is, they don't say anything at all! They either completely ignore what I said, or are so taken aback by the the unexpected greeting, they can't even utter a grunt in response. Clearly, no one else has wished them any form of happy holidays before me, seeming to support what Bill Watterson wrote 20 or so years ago:

"This season gets less and less merry each year."

Filmed in front of a live audience

…not exactly because it's the season to be jolly.

You probably noticed my new avatar, which I made yesterday. If you saw it used in one of my comments on someone else's old post, you'll be wondering how I managed to use it before creating it. But the interesting thing about this avatar is not that I've been wanting to make it since July, it's that I created it while Livestreaming.

Fridge Logic

Originally drawn for
I hate long weekends

There are some things that just leave you thinking. Take my Independence day post for example. Very nice, very poetic, but a couple of days after posting it, I started wondering if the clothes I had chosen had other implications.

These kinds of considerations have long been known in the movie industry, and in 1958, they were given the name "icebox logic" by Alfred Hitchcock. In his own words, it's a scene [that] hits you after you've gone home and start pulling cold chicken out of the icebox. Of course, few people today call it "the icebox", so modern terminology refers to it as "fridge logic".

Indentured Servitude

(Or “What’s been keeping me busy, part 2”)

You may have noticed that, recurrently, the little box in the sidebar titled “My current situation,” not only displays the courses I’m taking, but also a cryptic “indentured to the library.” Today, I want to explain to you what on Earth that means.

When I originally started working for the library, I was given a contract that basically said “I agree to everything I have been told verbally.” I was told that I had to do 6 hours a week (for a dollar each) and that, if I didn’t do all of them, I could always do them next term. I was told that I would be paid per hour worked, and that, for the university’s accounting department, I would count as a TA.

In Memoriam

To the brave souls who gave their life to save so many others, that fateful Monday, 10 years ago.

God Bless America

— source*

I'm pretty sure I can't be much more explicit than this. Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Associated avatars

*Note: when this was originally posted, the video was an embedded flash player. Now that flash has been discontinued, it has been replaced with a YouTube fan edit

Father's Day Special

Huh, I was so sure I had set this up to be posted automatically on Sunday. C'est la vie.

Avatar Story: Winter's End (Part 1)

⇤ Origins | ⇦ Previous | Text-only version | Latest ↠

Seeing as it's already June, I really should shed those winter clothes, shouldn't I? But to do that, I need to finish telling the Winter story, so let's get this show on the road.

Avatar Story – Winter's End Part 1: Gift Horse

This was supposed to go up on the day of the Epiphany (January 6)

Stresssss!

I haven’t felt stress –at all– for a very,very long time.

3 new avatars

Take a good look at this image. Okay, I know there's not much to look at, but try to guess what it reminds you of. I'll give you a hint: it's something on this blog.

After 22 years, I finally saw it

Text-only version

On Sunday, I finally saw Don Bluth's All Dogs Go To Heaven (henceforth ADG2H, because I'm in a bit of a rush). I had never seen it before: whenever it was in stores, I never had the money, and on TV they only ever showed All Dogs Go To Heaven 2^*. Since I "got" the jokes in ADG2H 2, I had, until now, considered my knowledge of that part of pop culture complete. After all, you're supposed to know what the first movie is about to "get" the second one, right?

But recently, Rick Griffin started a story arc explicitly referencing ADG2H on his webcomic Housepets!. Of course, there were many things I didn't get.

A watch from Heaven, WTF?

Taming the tweeter

Some of you have noticed that I've created a Twitter account. It's really nothing too elaborate; I mainly made it to be able to reply to tweets (up to now, I've been following several accounts by searching for the username every odd day). I did set up two "services": a "quote of the day" and a "twitter feed"

What's with the package?

Today is my birthday.

The Web Standards

Two weeks ago, I got a commission to design a website.
What? you do that too?
Oh, hush up.

I learned to do web pages back in the year 2000, when everyone thought frames and Flash™ would rule the web. The only other widely-known method to structure a web page was putting all the text in a table, and using its columns to put your stuff where you wanted it to be.

In January 2009, in one of my courses, we were assigned to create a website as part of a project, and asked to make sure the website was compliant with the web standards. This was the first time I had ever heard there was such a thing!

The Japan relief effort

Text-only version

To make things simpler

Text-only version

Ye Irish facepalm

St. Patrick's Day ended, and I was unable to make the last image for my St. Patrick's avatar. My schedule, my sleep debt, my phone, and certain callers all got together and "decided" to make this impossible.

St. Patrick's day avatars

Text-only version

Usually, this kind of joke would be explained by me saving over an old file, but that's not the case.