Life In Austin

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The IT Crowd
2006-12-05 08:26:01
Found this recently, and I also found that NBC picked it up. Hey, look! A US broadcasting company picking up a slightly innovative British show. Anyway, you can catch a few episodes online, here’s the main site. Good for a laugh, if you’re in IT. Carry on.
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Link to Ma Lou Part Duh
2006-12-03 20:24:02
More on this wonderful story. I had a feeling this would be perceived as such. Unauthorized linking could technically destroy the intarweb. The whole reason the web works as a web is because of the linking. You hit my site, see a link to an imdb entry for Nightmare Before Christmas which has links to Disney which has a link to an ABC show that’s offered for free on their site. You’ve hit 4-6 different links, the end result is content offered freely to the internet. All that is in the early stages of being threatened. However, before anyone gets too bent out of shape about it, check out the site that started this controversy. I spent a lot of time there yesterday and honestly, I didn’t notice that any of the videos actually went to the sites of the respected studios. Link s for 24 didn’t go to Fox, links for Battlestar: Galactica didn’t go to NBC or Universal or even Sci-fi. So as much as I want to side with folks thinking they are somehow being ha...
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Commission Questionnaire
2006-12-03 20:24:02
Robin Originally uploaded by xadrian. So, how much would you pay for a drawing like this? Please comment. This (and the other two newly posted drawings) were for a holiday art swap at a couple different comic sites. I was actually very happy with all three. I could push the backgrounds a little more but these were gifts and not commissions and I was running out of time. But it begs the question, are these worth money? Would you pay for a drawing like this? If so, how much? I have a friend who can ask for $100 which I think is on the low end. I know another guy that can ask for a lot more, and rightly so, he’s very talented. In fact, most of the people I know who work commissions for a good chunk of their income are very skilled artists as well as being very professional. I never thought I was in their league until I finished these. They’re not bad, right? But are they commission worthy? Would you pay for something like this? Would you ask me to draw somet...
More About: Question , Miss , Nair , Commission , Quest

Link to Ma Lou
2006-12-02 08:23:04
First off, damn my CTRL+C inadequacies.  If I add $100 for every time I wrote five paragraphs and copied it but then copied something else, we’ll, I wouldn’t be trying to get you mooks to commission me for a drawing. (HINT) Anycrap, this was an interesting read.  I won’t sum up, you chuckleheads can read, can’t ya? On one side I can see where Fox is coming from.  Their shows are copyrighted.  You can hear at the end of football games that the coverage includes rebroadcasting or retransmitting.  That sounds like what we’re talking about, but it’s not exactly it.  I can understand them wanting to limit viewership of even free media to their site alone because they can still make money off people from advertising or offering subscription level content.  It’s still ok in this country to have a desire and a structure in place to make money, is it not? And to be fair, this guy’s site isn’t linking directly back to Fox’s site wher...
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MySpace
2006-11-30 11:30:01
I have a MySpace page. Don’t get your hopes up, I’m not that deranged.  I created a page so I could get a newsletter for the golf game I play and so I could have a “presence” in the studio a few guys created. I’ve ignored everyone who’s sent me any requests.  I’m friends with virtually no one.  I only accept anything from people I already know.  I don’t keep anything up to date.  I don’t blog it, upload to it, use to store music or share neat YouTube videos. I don’t know why I feel the need to say anything other than if you stumble onto it, don’t judge me. Now that that’s out of the way, let me just say that MySpace is the junkiest page I’ve had the displeasure of working with since user created pages on Geocities back in 1997.  When I get notifications about “friend requests” and I go to summarily decline them, I have to sign in every time (Firefox AND IE, don’t get in a tizzy.)  Every 2...
More About: Myspace , Pace

The True Meaning
2006-11-29 23:27:02
Mrs. Austin just came back from running a couple errands and she did something not everyone does. She helped some homeless people. Now, I don’t mean helped as in reached out her hand with a couple dollars to some dude with a “will work for food God Bless” sign. I mean, she stopped by a group of them, asked what they needed, went to the store and got it for them. There will be two different reactions to this. The first being that she shouldn’t have done that because homeless people are crazed psychopaths who can’t work because they’re mentally unstable and just plain refuse to live in the society we’ve created. That’s completely understandable for you to feel that way. I did at first. My thinking was for her safety. She had Yogi with her at the time and the thought of her hanging out near a bridge was at first unsettling. But that’s her way. Each year around this time she either buys a couple extra turkeys and takes them t...
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Let the War begin.
2006-11-28 23:27:01
Making me proud, Colorado.  Keep it up. There are two issues at work here.  The first being the idea that a Home Owners Association has any kind of real power and does anything meaningful other than tell people to trim their trees and not put a car on their lawn.  The idea is to keep the neighborhood nice looking and safe, but in all practicality the HOAs are generally catty little groups who don’t do anything of importance.  For the money I pay, I’d love to see more things like an assistance program for home owners whose foundations are in need of repair.  The HOA could form a partnership with an independent contractor and offer discounts on repairs for being the sole contractor for the neighborhood.  They should use the funds to build a neighborhood recreation center that has more than just a pool.  How about a basketball court or tennis court or an athletic center that isn’t a World’s Gym?  There are a lot of things an HOA could be, but isn’t.  At le...
More About: The War , War

Slave to our passions.
2006-11-28 23:27:01
Please check out our side bar.  Mrs. A has put together some of her best freelance work in a calender you can buy for any occasion.  However, seeing as how it’s that time of year, what a better way to let that Austinite know you care then by giving them 12 months of spectacular images of the town they call home. As well I’m still available for commissions for comic style artwork, but I’m also going to take a cue from this guy and offer to draw any photo you send as a zombie, hobo, robot, pirate, shogun warrior, Tolkien character, superhero, Smurf or Bollywood star of your choice. So, with all these creative offerings to choose from, you can start your holiday shopping today.  Don’t wait.  Operators are standing by.
More About: Passion , Pass , Sion , Slave , Passi

Happy Thanksgiving
2006-11-25 23:24:01
Maybe we’re a bit odd.  Maybe because Mrs. A and I have both removed ourselves from the warm embraces of our parents - “parents” being as plural as you can make it - that we don’t have a strong notion of tradition.  Maybe it’s the idea of spending the first of four days off making a big mess of the newly cleaned kitchen that causes us to go insane. Whatever the reason, the four of us drove around Austin looking for a place to eat tonight.  We knew it’d be tough, but we were positive we could find a Chinese restaurant open, somewhere.  I kept having flashbacks to “A Christmas Story” when the family ended up at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas day eating duck listening to “jinger bers, jinger bers…”  Surely something like that could happen again, tonight. And before you arm your musket and take aim at our savage, war painted faces, we ARE going to be having a big familial feast…on Saturday.  Time constraints ju...
More About: Thanksgiving , Happy , Giving , Thanks , Ving

Go See ?Happy Feet.?
2006-11-20 23:18:03
I don’t care how old you are, you have to see this movie. The CG was really well done.  It wasn’t cartoony.  I was impressed beyond words.  If I have a hard time guessing if it’s real or CG, it’s good.  I think we’re officially passed the days where you are left wondering if that ice flow was captured on film or run through Photoshop After Effects (with the exceptions of such tragically bad CG cartoons as Doogal and Hoodwinked.) While I’m not one for casting screen stars over voice actors just so your marquee can have some $20 million power, I really thought this cast did very well.  For this kind of movie you have to find some people with pipes and I thought Kidman and Murphy did fantastic jobs.  Elijah Wood was almost painfully Elijah Wood, there’s really no mistaking him anymore.  Hugo Weaving puts on a nice brogue which disguised his identity well and Hugh Jackman played a passable Elvis type character named “Memphis,” again...
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?I find your lack of faith?disturbing.?
2006-11-17 23:12:01
Man, I love me some nerd activism. Now, I’m all for tolerance and kindness but I think even I would have to cross back over the dork line drawn by these chuckleheads.  At what point do you say to yourself, “Self?  I think I’m going to adopt a religion based on a movie.” Now here comes the REAL dork part.  (Honey, browse to another page.)  This religion, this Jedi Order, is a freakin’ joke.  Robes?  You want to wear robes and be tolerant of people?  I’m sure the Buddhists would love to have you.  If you play your cards right, you get to learn kung-fu on top of it.  What do I get when joining your religion, a battery powered light saber? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a geek.  I’m a big geek and a big fan of Star Wars.  In fact, jokingly, I have actually said in the past that I worship either George Lucas or Star Wars in general because of its basic ideals, multicultural society and the fact that most people were polyglots of some order. ...
More About: Faith , Your , Find , Lack , Bing

Marine Ball 2006
2006-11-14 23:06:03
I’m happy to report the Mari ne Birthday Ball 2006 was a much improved success.  Last year we ran with six people, three different computers, two cameras and we put all photos online for later purchasing.  We had a handful of credit card purchase, a couple cash purchases for mailing later, but for the most part they were from Print Room. For what we were expecting, it was an unmitigated failure.  We didn’t even make enough to cover our expenses. This year we had one laptop, a printer, two cameras and three people and we made the same amount in cash as we had total the year before.  That’s not to mention the people who said they’d order online and for those who paid up from to have them mailed out later. We ran small and lean and it was a complete success.  My only complaint is we weren’t able to print everyone’s pictures.  Next time, if we get a 2nd printer, we could conceivably have everyone’s pictures done.  Even with only me doing all the ...

Seperated at Birth
2006-11-14 23:06:03
This has probably been done.  It’s bad enough they have both Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, but after a few episodes of Studio 60 they bring in Christine Lahti, or the poor Sorkin’s Allison Janney. I don’t know, you make the call.   I don’t know, I guess I have too much time on my hands. Carry on.
More About: Birth , Seperate , Rate

Silver Surfer SOLD
2006-11-11 11:00:02
Silver Surf er Originally uploaded by xadrian. A fine gentleman in France has purchased a piece of my art. I can’t tell you how happy I am about this. This picture is a few years old and I had it posted on the nearly forgotten Comic Art Fans site. It’s one of those sites where you sign up early, when the place still has that new site smell about it. I uploaded a handful of pieces that were strictly analog. I figure, if anyone sees them and wants to buy them, they’d have to be mailable. So, this will of course spark me to find all the pieces I have and put them on there as well as probably some prints that can be sold on Lulu or Zazzle or something. I’m sure this’ll be the last odd and unprompted purchase for a long while, but it really gives me hope that I can pay for small odds and ends by doing what I like. Carry on.
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Lost Haters
2006-11-09 22:54:05
Look, people.  Lost IS answering your questions.  It really is.  You just don’t notice it and I think therein lays the genius. Take a long hard look back to the first few episodes.  In fact, I’d find a website that has an episode break down.  See if it gives you any ideas of what kind of questions have come up and then think to yourself how many of those have been answered. Remember, answering a question and then posing a new question is still an answer. For example.  What killed the pilot?  The smoke monster.  Good, question answered, the new question is, What is the smoke monster?  See?  Still got your original question answered.  If it was a bear that killed him, you’d ask “A bear on a tropical island, how’d that get there?”  Never happy, are ya? There aren’t many questions left, if you ask me.  They’re more of the overriding nature now.  We want to know who orchestrated the entire thing.  We want the big picture answers.  But keep ...
More About: Hate , Hat , Haters , Hater

Go Vote, Monkeys!
2006-11-08 22:51:03
I wish my wordpress and youtube got along better. Go vote. If you run into problems with voting, make sure to contact the National Campaign for Fair Elections or call them at 1-800-OUR-VOTE (867-8683) Either way you vote, just vote.  Let’s be an actual beacon for democracy by what WE do, not by what our elected officials do.
More About: Monk , Monkey , Vote , Keys , Monkeys

Webisode 15 ?Beergoggles?
2006-11-03 04:42:02
Webisode 15 "Beer goggles" Originally uploaded by xadrian. This is the latest installment of Awesome Storm Justice 41 penciled and inked by yours truly. Credits: Writing: AthenaRose Pencils and inks: Ben Rollman (Xadrian) Colors: Jorge Rodrigo (KaRzA) Letters: Amadarwin Cover pencils and inks: Franklin Dawson Jr. (Rocket37) Cover colors: Angelia Ong (Banshee) Editor: Richard A. Nelson (r_nelson), Brian Robinson (Vegeta)
More About: Goggle , Goggles

Reynard City Promo
2006-11-02 16:39:02
Reynard City Prom o Originally uploaded by xadrian. I did the lettering for the first issue of a web comic called Reynard City. #2 is now for sale, as well you get a yearly subscriptions for £16 ($30) which gives you access to all the online issues as well as some other tidbits. I’ll very likely be doing issue 3 letters as well. So here’s the thing, I’m getting paid on profits, so support the online web community and the creators who help create them and go check out the site and maybe buy a book. Thanks and Cheers.
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Trick or Treat!
2006-11-01 16:36:02
Trick or Treat ! Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman. Happy Halloween everyone.
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Hodgman Coulton Experience
2006-11-01 16:36:02
Well Met Originally uploaded by xadrian. Last night was the last stop on the “Areas of My Expertise” paperback signing/reading tour featuring the author, John Hodgman, and his troubadour/mountain man/friend/musician Jonathan Coulton. (I like slashes.) I’d originally proposed taking both out and treating them to a few drinks at a local pub (I was thinking either Ginger Man or the B-Side) but alas, they had plans with friends. So I at least had to shake his hand and get a photo and a signed book. The evening was pleasant. The duo arrived to oddly very little fanfare, carrying bags and looking like they were just dropped off by a cab from the airport. I can only assume with the tight schedule they had that all the flying must be torturous. After getting set up, they began in earnest, reading from the book and playing some songs. I won’t say the rooster bit was a high point, more a running gag. At one point, a basket of rooster puppet toys was heard on the...
More About: Experience , Gman , Peri , Erie

Return of The Crud
2006-10-27 17:30:01
Yeah, still coughing.  Man sakes, but it’s a wicked thing this chest cold. Monday I went to the doctor and got some cough syrup and antibiotics.  The cough syrup has codeine and is supposed to help you sleep.  The other part of it is supposed to shut down the part of your brain that makes you want to cough.  All this time I thought the active drugs in cough medicine were some kind of anti-inflammatory for your lungs which kept the irritation at bay and thus less coughing.  The idea that it actually turns off the “cough” button in your brain is unnervingly cool. At any rate, the codeine doesn’t put me to sleep either.  I get jittery around NyQuil and Tylenol PM so I knew this would be similar and it was.  I get restless and a bit hyper after I take it. The problem I’m having is the side-effects; specifically the ones listed that are the same reasons I’m taking the medicine in the first place.  I feel nauseous, feverish, dizzy, weak, dehydrated and ...
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Wes Craven?s: The Crud
2006-10-20 05:15:03
10 days ago I had my yearly puke. I got it out of the way so I wouldn’t have to have it hovering over me around the holidays when it would have been uncomfortable and untimely. I must have eaten some bad chicken at a local texmex eatery. Luckily I had the next day off thanks to AISD’s closing of schools for Columbus Day. It was sickeningly serendipitous. Believe it or not, I really don’t throw up much at all. I joke about it being a yearly thing because that’s about how often it happens, and it really has to be a bad case of food poisoning for me to allow myself the lizard brain reflex option. Some people throw up well; they’re quiet, quick and tactful. They can do it in between sips of wine or after a quick scurry to the loo to “powder their nose.” I’m not so fortunate. I’m nearly in need of leather restraints to keep my convulsing body from damaging itself or nearby parts of the house. I swear it comes out my ears. So...
More About: Rave , Wes Craven , Raven , Craven , Crave

Respective Respect
2006-10-19 05:12:02
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman. Mrs. A has a new friend. She met this lady at a preferred vendor networking shindig about three weeks ago. She works at a catering company, but she’s a studied photographer working with traditional equipment and in B&W. Mrs. A is in love with her talent and has taken it upon herself to help her out by getting her photography seen by galleries and other places you would find photography for display/sale. Mrs. A has run into something I’ve known since the first time I put pencil to paper: There is always someone better than you. There is in fact a corollary to that rule: Only you know how much better they are than you. For example, there’s a guy I “know” on penciljack that is a top notch artist, but when I show a piece of work that he’s done to Mrs. A her reaction is always along the lines of “I’ve seen you do better.” Here’s his latest. I just know there’s a level ...
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Trying to draw more.
2006-10-09 10:57:01
550 Douglas, the Future of Hoboing Originally uploaded by xadrian. I’ve got 2 sequential pages to do and then I think that’s it for my productive endeavors with hoboes or pirates or zomies or robots or whatever distractions I can find. See the problem is, I’m easily distracted and when I can do pictures like the one above in 20 mins or so, it doesn’t make me want to do larger or more complex projects. I don’t know that I can get more complex without really stretching things out over several days and that just doesn’t work with my brain. However, looking at some things on this latest quicky like my line quality and the arms of my guy and the clothing wrinkles and the overall lack of “oomph” I see, I have to make some time to get back to basics. I’m going to move back to more pencil drawings and practice sheets. I think I mentioned this before, just a reiteration. I don’t like the way my work looks sloppy and hackish....
More About: More , Draw

Polaris Comics is down
2006-10-08 22:54:01
I don’t know that anyone who reads this is relying on images or anything posted on my Polar is Comic s site, but it’s currently having problems. I registered the domain with Pepperjack web hosting.  I’m guessing (since it’s that time of year for our domains) that it’s up for renewal, but I never received anything via email.  When I checked on my domain via whois I found it was put on hold by the registrar (ie Pepperjack.)  But when I tried contacting Pepperjack my emails bounced and my ID didn’t exist in the client login database.  So then I had to contact tucows to figure out what was going on.  I’m afraid something happened to Pepperjack and they went under or something and they didn’t update people or couldn’t update people. Anyway, this may be the opportunity I’ve been looking for to move all of that stuff over to this domain.  I don’t use Polaris Comics for anything special, just hosting images I link on boards and...
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The Best Lighting Bolt I?ve Ever Seen
2006-10-07 04:45:02
Oh, and… How White and Nerdy Are You?
More About: Lighting , Best , Light , Ever , Bolt

Swallowed up
2006-10-06 16:42:09
Here’s a neat little tool that was bought by Microsoft and then left to die. Basically it indexes all your email in Outlook and makes searching faster and more in depth. Apparently Microsoft has nothing planned to implement something like this. So it was probably pigeonholed because it worked too well.
More About: Wall , Lowe , Swallow , Allo

Moo Cards
2006-10-05 16:39:04
Moo.com cards Originally uploaded by xadrian. Found this on Boing Boing last month. Company is moo.com and they print up mini business cards. The trick is, they also have a Flickr tie in which allows you to pick images right from your photostream, crop to fit and then edit information for the back. Unfortunately the promotion for the 10 free cards is over, so I’m glad I got it on it. But at $20 for 100 high quality cards, each with a different image, it’s not a bad price at all. I don’t know what I’ll do with my cards, I’ve only got 10 and it’s not like I’m gonna drop these in free lunch fishbowls or anything. I might hang them up in my office.
More About: Card , Cards

Foibles
2006-10-05 16:39:04
Foibles 1 Originally uploaded by xadrian. Mike Peterson (aka halcyonsnow) started a little strip project using hobo drawings. A couple other people have taken up the challenge and this is my attempt. Mrs. A just got me some more drawing materials. After I get two more ASJ pages done I want to get back to some good old fashioned pencil drawings. Not super heroes, not sci-fi robots and spaceships, but maybe drawings from photos of my family or do some gesture drawings. I need to get back to basics. I sat down with my sketch pad and a pencil today and realized how timid I was as my hand quivered above the paper. At some point I’ve lost my drive to be a good artist and replaced it with a desire to just have something to show people and quickly. So, I think I’m gonna be off the funny book type stuff for a while (unless it pays) and go back to learning about the craft and filling up my new sketch books with experiments and self tutoring rather than trying to make everyt...

Minimum Wage
2006-10-05 16:39:04
This and this are why artists aren’t retiring to a mansion in upstate New York. Not like anyone will ever see the results of these projects, but it just infuriates me to see people who think $25 equals a full weeks worth of work or $50 can get you 5 mins of animation. The problem is, someone will take them up on the offer and of course that leads to two catasrofucks: 1) The gig poster will get a really crappy piece of work because they’re going to get someone who needs a quick buck or a student with no experience to do it. 2) The person who takes the job will spend a heartbreaking amount of time working on these and then getting what amounts to a nice dinner’s worth of payment. Artists should stand up more for themselves.  I emailed both these futtlenucks and told them just how assclowny they were being for even proposing such outlandishly meager compensation for such in depth projects.  I of course will not hear back from them, but at least they know the community...
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