Life In Austin Life In Austin The life and times of a family in Austin, Texas. We post about comic book art, photography, politics, family, humor, news and media. Articles
This is what I’m dealing with.
2007-03-30 21:40:00 145 / 468 (Kbps) (17.8 / 57.2 KB/sec) Compared to the average of 59 tests from suddenlink.net: * download is 93% worse More About: With , What , Hat , This , Deal
BONW Extended Edition
2007-03-30 16:36:00 So I left some things out of the Bits O’ Nothing Wednesday. The first being, Mrs. A got a gig shooting for CSPAN today. She’s not exactly sure what it is, but it’ll be at a high school. She got the opportunity because the paper she freelances for is owned by the main Austin newspaper, which is owned by Cox Newspapers Inc (which I think was formerly Cox Communications, which was bought out by a few cable and media companies like Time Warner.) So I think through the grape vine, Mrs. A’s never-say-die attitude and a willingness to shoot any job they send her way got her the gig. No idea what it is, but still. Also, to the person who bought a shirt, thank you. I don’t know who you are, but I appreciate the purchase. For those that don’t know you can buy a shirt from our store. I plan on getting more funniness and/or artwork up there in the coming months. Also, to take a cue from my friend (in the loosest sense I’m sure) Adam Koford... More About: Tend , Edit , Edition , Extended
Bits O’ Nothing Wednesday.
2007-03-29 02:58:00 Welcome to another installment of Bits O’ Nothing Wednesday . In as little as one week, the Avs have pulled within 5 points of reaching the 8th spot in the Western Conference before the playoffs, but then lost last night to Vancouver, lost an OT game to Vancouver on Sunday and had the Flames win two in a row over Minnesota. They’re now 7 back with something like 8 or nine games to go. Mathmatically still possible, just not likely. The 700 Thing s thing is still chugging along. 700 Robots is almost finished and Bunnies and Pirates are also very close. Hobo Cartooning legend ApeLad is now doing commission pieces of hoboes. You write him an email with a name, he’ll send you a personalized hobo postcard for $10. I was thinking of doing something like this with the Robots, but now it would look like I’m copying him. Dammit. I saw a think on Boing Boing about The 1000 Journal project. I posted it on Penciljack and got a bunch of people interested. We might do...
Missing Tooth Number Two
2007-03-27 05:11:00 Missing Tooth Numb er Two Originally uploaded by xadrian. Messed up a post written earlier, tired of this nonesense. So, enjoy the picture, yada yada yada. More About: Miss , Sing , Missing , Number Two
ISPeeved
2007-03-20 02:32:00 This poor bastard. Ah, the days I had crappy Time Warner. All I ever hear about is bad things from TW, but honestly, I had so few problems with their cable modem, Digital Cable, Digital Phone and DVR, that it makes my current issues with SeldomLink seem magnified. Where is this ISP/Cable TV utopia? No one is ever happy with anything. Just when you think you’ve got a good connection, someone a mile away says they have the worse luck with it. Just when you get a feature you think is worth the hard earned clams you spend on a brainless delivery of useless data, the technology fails and you’re unable to even catch the news. I want to switch with this guy. Four outages in six months? That’s a godsend. I have to cycle my router that many times a day. I have recorded shows on the DVR I can’t watch. Just watching TV sometimes it errors out. The speeds we get hearken back to the days when all your surfing was preempted by a 14.4 modem handshake ton...
The Brits are Fuckin’ Weird
2007-03-19 18:02:00 I’m all for British Humor, but there were just too many oddities in this video to simple pass off as calling it “British Humor.” I’ll let you watch it for yourself. I have no idea what the robot drink is, why all these old white people are actually up and dancing, why there’s an old midget lady dressed up like a boarding school child or jockey, why the wheelchair dude at the beginning is wearing a wife beater AND a bow tie, what’s with all the odd and uncomfortable camera pans and why The Proclaimers agreed to be on this thing in the first place. Good gravy. More About: Weird , Brits
700 Things
2007-03-16 22:08:00 See, it doesn’t take much, just an insane amount of motivation to completely invest your heart and soul into a giant time killer. Trick is, now I have to draw some of these. More About: Things , Thing
Bits O’ Nothing Wednesday
2007-03-14 15:27:00 A lot of sites do a “Link Dump Friday” where they post a lot of links or emails they’ve stumbled upon in the last week. Since I usually post randomly as it is, I’ll start a new thing where on Wednesday s I’ll post even more random and yet smaller tidbits of info, some links, maybe a picture of a Nessy or two. It’s been rainy the last couple days. Mrs. A’s been pulling weeds, so much so she bought rubber gloves to keep her hands from hurting. She’s allergic to most grasses and plants. The Avs are very close to not making the playoffs for the first time since moving to Denver. I’m on 619 of 700 Zombie names. I’m reading a lot about System and Network administration; big books. Our dog’s leg really hurts, we’re going to call around for chiropractors and see if maybe her hip is dislocated. It’s possible it was initially but the swelling kept it in place. I think Lil Miss A’s enjoying her spring brea... More About: Nothing , Thing , Bits
Get to know your neighborhood; lose your dog.
2007-03-10 05:39:00 We had a bit of a scare today. Our dog Chimaera got out. Last night our doorbell rang and our neighbor (the guy who helped us move) said our dog was out and another lady was watching her. So I got to meet another neighbor. Chimmy had chewed or clawed or dug a hole in the gate and sprung loose. Before you ask, Chim is a good dog. She’s loved, cared for, played with, well fed and well treated. She’s one of the friendliest, sweetest dogs I’ve ever met, but she’s a dog and dog’s just dig and want to go run around. So that’s what she did. After we got her back, I got some big stones and blocked the hole. I fed her, threw her toy around for a bit and then went to bed. Today about noon I get a teary-eyed call from Mrs. A saying that Chimmy’s gone and she has no idea how long she’s been out. She’s run away before when we do yard work and forget about the gates, but she’s always been found or always comes back. Well, this t... More About: Your , Hood , Know , Neighborhood
800 Complete
2007-03-09 18:27:00 767 Dr. Know Originally uploaded by Ape Lad. Adam Koford has successfully rendered all 800 hoboes from John Hodgman’s “The Areas of My Expertise.” It’s been nearly 18 months since the idea of illustrating the names of the hoboes was conceived over on Boing Boing, and in that time Koford (aka ApeLad) has been the driving force behind the projects moderate notoriety. I can’t praise this guy enough. I’ve learned so much over the last year and a half just by watching him post image after image of efficient and well crafted cartooning. I’m up to 72 hoboes. It’s taken me almost a year to get that far. That’s a hobo every six days. Adam’s work flow basically put him at 1.5 drawings a day. That’s on top of his Monsters, his Alphabet in an Hour drawings and any other commissions and Illustration Friday drawings we may not have seen. This is where I’d like to be, able to set down each day and draw something and at ... More About: Comp , Complete
Re: Correspondence
2007-03-08 16:16:00 I send a lot of emails to potential clients. I usually see a posting on craigslist or Digital Webbing about some needed illustration, cartooning, design, lettering, something. I also get a ton of emails from Guru, an online freelance group that allows you to bid on projects that companies or people post. The project coordinator then accepts a bid and there’s a whole escrow payment thing involved. Plus, the free account only allows you 10 bids a month. It’s terrible time consuming to create a bid proposal and fill out all the forms so I’ve only done it a couple times. However, in following the less tedious routes, I’ve noticed something interesting about people looking to hire artistic talent. They don’t respond to anything. Unless you are late or doing the job completely wrong, people do not respond via email. They just don’t. I think I’m going to start asking for phone numbers from now on because I’ve got a mailbox ful... More About: Pond , Correspondence , Responde
Play the Caption Game
2007-03-07 05:42:00  Here’s the game. So a few years ago I would play an online game with some friends. It was put out by Be[r]zerk and it was actually quite popular for a year or so. They tried to come out with another game called Acrophobia where you were given a series of letters and had to come up with the best acronym for them. Get The Picture was a caption game that pitted you against a several other online players as you submitted captions to random photos. You’d then vote on your favorite and the person with the most votes at the end wins. Well, I’ve found a similar game with almost zero traffic. My guess is people just don’t know about it. So here’s your change, get the word out. It’s a fun game. It’s a bit weird on the image loading and it times out remorselessly, but it’s a great way to chit chat and play a fun game at the same time. It requires an email address but no downloading. More About: Play , Game , Caption
Vajayjay Monologues
2007-03-06 19:48:00 Students suspended after saying “vagina” during The Vagina Mono logues. I love these stories. They make me all warm and soothed inside. I get a deep sense of commonality and understanding and appreciation for my fellow man. There are many things wrong with this. First, you have school administrators trying to spin a story so they don’t look like dragoons with a big scroll of decrees which they use to punish any student that so much as says ‘boo.’ I can understand disobeying a teacher or administrator, but if they agreed to take their lumps and go forward with it, that’s not discipline, that’s censorship. Which brings us to the next bit, it’s pretty much hearsay as to the exact order of events. The reporting is just sloppy enough to cause the reader to lean one way or the other. It’d be much simpler if the news outlet didn’t also spin it to make it bigger than it probably was. DID the girls agree to not say it then go ... More About: Monologues
Automation vs. Creativity
2007-03-05 19:50:00 Saw this today and realized that Mrs. A is definitely not out of work yet. I realize the skin tone improvement is a plus, but the facial reconstruction? Some of these people don’t even resemble themselves any longer. Why not just smear some Vaseline on the lens and be done with it. More money spent making people look better than they actually do, more development time dropped into techniques that create cover-memories that blur the lines of what is real and what is Memorex. The girl with the freckles? Adorable! Why take those out? Congratulations, now you look like everyone else. Well done. More About: Auto , Creativity , Automation
Unfortunate Turn of Events.
2007-03-05 15:59:00 I’m not going to offer any insight on this. I’d like to know what you think. More About: Events , Event , Tuna , Fortuna , Fort
Mommy, does China have power?
2007-03-02 17:42:00 Mommy, does China have power? Originally uploaded by xadrian. Taken from one of LMA’s witticisms. You can now buy a shirt with the saying. More About: Power , Mommy , Have
Moving Update
2007-01-23 02:54:01 The buyers have submitted a contract. We’re getting it tomorrow to sign. We’ll have to find out if the option period is 7 days from the time we sign or the time they submit. If it’s the later, we’ll know by Thursday. They’ve had an inspector come over and they’re going to have a structural engineer come over tomorrow to check out the foundation. That’s the only sticking point on this whole business. The house is nearly 12 years old, well within it’s “settling” phase. My only hope is the engineer comes back and says, “There’s problems, but nothing that a few years of just ignoring it won’t solve. You might have to repaint a few corners.” My big fear is they’ll find something horrible and either a) ask us to lower our price to a point where we won’t get any profit from the sale or b) they’ll back out of the contract in their option period and we’ll be stuck waiting for ... More About: Moving , Update , Ving
Hot Pink
2006-12-27 14:44:01 Tough Pink Originally uploaded by xadrian. Lil Miss Austin got her cast on today and there was nothing eventful about it. We were in and out in an hour. They had two choices in color. There was no doubt which she’d pick. My only concern now is she’ll figure out how cudgel like her arm has become and will begin using it on her brother. On an administration note, I’m still trying to figure out how to use the FAlbum plugin. There are virtually no instructions so I’m winging it best I can. If you see the site go funky, that’s me “learning.” Carry on. More About: Hot Pink
Merry Christmas 2006
2006-12-26 02:42:02 Snowstorm Originally uploaded by ashleyniblock. Happy Solstice. Merry Chris t mas . Happy Chanuka. Happy Kwanzaa. Merry Festivus. For those living in Colorado, I hope you get dug out. I sometimes miss the snow and I sometimes don’t. I can’t explain it. Even when I see the storm that hit last week, I long to be inside a warm house with seven foot drifts preventing me from getting outside. And yet I don’t want to have to drive to work in that mess. You don’t get that here in Texas. The weather crews always promise a Christmas snow, no matter what’s going on outside, but I mean it DOES snow in Texas. Amarillo, Texas. So this year we did our Solstice celebration on Saturday. Solstice was officially Thursday, but we hadn’t finished shopping and thought it’d be better to do it all on Saturday. And again this year there’s is an odd feeling on the two days. On our chosen day, there’s bustle and driving and people and news a... More About: Merry Christmas
What Next?
2006-12-25 02:41:02 Small Broken Finger Originally uploaded by xadrian. After a tense and uncomfortable ride in the car, the family heads to the mall for the express purpose of getting a picture with Santa. We’ve made it a yearly tradition to take pictures with Santa. Not just the kids; the whole family. Anyway, Mrs. A and I were on just this side of speaking to each other when we noticed Yogi became fascinated with the velvet ropes denoting the line for pictures. He eventually swung the rope just enough to knock the heavy pylons down and one crashed down on his little finger. We’re pretty sure it’s broken. The pictures I took don’t show it, but the whole fingertip is purple, almost black. The nail will probably come off as it’s severed pretty cleanly at the cuticle. Poor kid. So I felt doubly bad. I was in a funk most of the day. I was tired from being up most of the night trying to keep Yogi in his room. Mrs. A was up most of the night with a cough so I think Li... More About: What , Hat , Next
I?m in your car, jacking your ride.
2006-12-21 14:40:01 A bit of a scare last night. Mrs. A was out doing some shopping and meeting with a client. On her way home she was apparently almost carjacked. From what I can gather from the story, she was approaching an intersection about five minutes from our house. Not in a bad neighborhood, but it’s an industrial/tech area of town. As she approached the traffic light, she signaled, changed lanes and got in front of this car and stopped at the red light. A white pickup pulled up on her passenger side. The guy motioned for her to roll down the window. She did and he blurted something out in Spanish. She shrugged and said she doesn’t understand. The guys said, “Do you know how to get to California?” Mrs. A said, “Um, go west.” The exchange went on for a couple seconds during which, Mrs. A reached over with her left hand and locked her doors. Just then she checked her rear view mirror on the driver’s side and saw the the guy behind her, who’... More About: Ride , Your , Jack , King , Jacking
Broken Arm, Brooklyn Bridge and Broke As Folk
2006-12-16 14:36:01 Times Square Shuffle Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman. This may be the year end wrap for Life In Austin. Now that Mrs. A is back in town, the family is going to hunker down for the remaining weeks of the year and duke it out with what the universe is throwing at us. I’m going to be blunt, we’re going to lose our house. We just can’t fight it any more. It’s just too expensive for us to live here. We bit off more than we could chew sixteen months ago and we’ve just run out of luck and time. I’m sad about it because it’s a nice house, but it’s not a perfect place to live. One, it costs us 2k a month on just the house note, let alone the 600 for utilities and the 3-5k we’ll eventually have to sink into it to get the foundation replaced. Between Mrs. A and I, we make enough each month to cover that with 2-300 left over for the rest of the bills and groceries. It’s not a way to live. So we’re calling it a g... More About: Folk , Ridge , Brooklyn , Bridge , Broken
8 Bit Shiny
2006-12-15 14:35:02 You don’t know how torn up I am about this. On the one hand, it’s Firefly; arguably one of the best sci-fi shows in recent memory. I’m a fan of both the show and the movie, Serenity. On the other hand, it’s a MMPORPG (did I get that right?) It’ll undoubtedly have a subscription commitment and could end up sucking away more of my life. I’m already stuck playing Albatross 18 so I don’t know when I’d find time to play this. And honestly, this comes at a time I was considering writing and open letter to all game designers to bring back the Stand-alone Space Combat Sim genre of games. I don’t know what it is about these big online games that I can’t seem to play, but then I realize the golf game IS online, multiplayer and I’ve spent money on it even though it’s technically free. So what’s my hold up? Well, frankly, this. It’s the stigma of being and the time one has to spend to be a decent gamer. I... More About: Shin , Shiny
Time of Giving
2006-12-15 14:35:02 Greetings fine readers. Just a reminder that the Rollman Photography 2007 Wedding calender is for sale through Lulu. (see link to the right.) As well, I’m still accepting requests for commissioned artwork. Every little bit helps. More About: Time , Giving , Ving
Tough Kid
2006-12-15 14:35:02 Tough Kid Originally uploaded by xadrian. *ring ring* *ring ring* “This is Ben.” “Mr. Rollman?” “Yes?” “Hi this is Ms. C at LMA’s school.” “Oh hi! What’s up?” “Well, I’m calling to let you know LMA fell today on the playground and hurt her arm.” “Oh no.” “Yeah. It’s a bit swollen and we’ve got some ice on it so she’ll probably need to see a doctor right away.” That’s how it started. I’ll get right to it, she broke it. It’s a buckle fracture and is quite common among kids. There’s not that much swelling and she admitted it only hurt when she tries to rotate her wrist. (FYI, that pic isn’t of her.) So I quickly shoved Yogi into some clothes, made a quick call to her pediatrician to get some input on whether I should go to the emergency room or the doctors office first. They said go to the children’s hospital ...
Happy Holidays
2006-12-12 02:33:01 Happy Holiday s Originally uploaded by xadrian. 2006 Card. Some of you will probably get these in the mail. I’m going to print them tomorrow and rifle through my address list and probably make a few calls to verify that in the last year I haven’t lost any info. Peace on Earth, good will toward Men. More About: Happy Holidays , Days
Themes
2006-12-11 02:32:01 It’s my quarterly itch to change the way the site looks, so if you see a bunch of weirdness, give it a day or two and come back. I’ve added a few plug-ins and I want to do a tabbed layout that allows people to easily see more artwork, photography, writing and anything else we want to show case. Rather than having a cumbersome 3 column layout I’ve found a nice tabbed jobbie that should allow more navigation without much clutter. See you on the other side. More About: Themes , Theme , Them
What the hell?
2006-12-07 08:28:01 So I’m a big fan of mashups. But they have to be really well done. If you don’t know what they are, well, I’m sad for you. Here are some to start you off. However, I had never seen something so unnerving, so unsettling, so completely overrun with superbly executed bad taste as what I saw today. Prepare yourself (and set aside a few mintues) for… …Starlords! As I started watching it, I thought it was an interesting way to juggle between the two giants in the film world. Both have very classic story lines and very archetypal characters. Both have very moving and rich musical scores. Both are examples of what can be done with animation. Both have a huge following. But I don’t think I was prepared for what happened about half way through. You’ll just have to watch it. Carry on. More About: What , Hat , Hell , What The
Ho Ho HEEAARRGGGHHH!!!
More articles from this author:2006-12-06 20:27:01 Yeah, it’s that time of year again, when the funny pictures of kids screaming at Santa Claus resurface. It’s the same pictures every year, and I look at ‘em all every year and I have no idea why. I was pointed to this little nugget about a week ago by Mrs. A and she thought it was jolly hilarious. Normally I would be inclined to guffaw proudly at such displays, but my first thought goes to the kids and how horrible they must be feeling. They’re just kids, not dolls. There’s a line that’s usually crossed that goes from a startled or spooked child to a child so frightened or miserable they end up crying. Don’t get me wrong, I love scaring kids, especially my kids. But I know when to stop. What gets me are the people who think the crying part is either hysterical or annoying, like the kids are being miserable on purpose. I don’t know, I guess my heart bleedeth over on this one, but I can’t handle it when little kids are miserab... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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