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
100 Artists Project Update
2007-04-11 07:34:00 We’re up to 75 artists now and yesterday got a plug from the folks at Comic Book Resources. Easily one of the biggest projects I’ve helmed and I’m not afraid to say it, I’m a bit freaked out. I could easily have this published on Amazon using their proprietary on-demand publishing and have it hit some pretty big numbers. Not only that, if it’s successful, we’ll be able to do it in rotating groups. Once one phase is done, start another one. I’ve got a couple guys helping me build a site too, so hopefully this won’t be sitting on a message board forever. It’ll be so much easier to get information to people and get their contact information without having to check 2 email accounts and dozens of message boards/community sites. Still, it’s all for a good cause, so who am I to complain about publicity. If anyone’s got information about non-profit or charitable organizations and how to run them, by all means let me... More About: Artist , Project , Artists , Update , Artis
Laptop Thieves Photos Automatically Sent to Flickr
2007-04-09 16:52:00 Photo 137.jpg Originally uploaded by TOPSHOP. I wonder what kind of precedent this will set. To recap, someone’s laptop was stolen. The culprits used the laptop to take pictures of themselves. (It’s an MacBook with a built in camera.) The laptop apparently has some software and scripts that automatically send any image captured by the onboard camera straight to Flickr. These photos are the result. So now there is a group of photos showing four, possibly five people acting completely retarded (as most people with this camera technology do) and being captured for legal posterity. I’m wondering, when they’re caught, who’s the star witness? I mean, there will be informants and people who call/email and say they know these people, but is the MacBook the actual witness? Would that be allowed in court? Committing a crime or not, these people had their images unknowingly transmitted, I’m sure some legal eagle will try to get this thrown out on some ... More About: Photo , Photos , Laptop , Auto , Automatic
Happy Easter
2007-04-09 05:51:00 My bluebonnet picture totally beats your bluebonnet picture! Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman. You can’t beat a family picture in Texas on East er in a field of Blue Bonnets, with a couple bunnies. You just can’t, don’t even try it. Happy Easter. More About: Aster
Figures
2007-04-08 18:35:00 I had just made up my mind that I’d be moving this whole thing off my web server and back over to Blogger when I stumble upon a way to get it working again. al·ba·tross     /ˈælbəˌtrÉ”s, -ËŒtrÉ’s/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[al-buh-traws, -tros] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun 1. any of several large, web-footed sea birds of the family Diomedeidae that have the ability to remain aloft for long periods. Compare wandering albatross. 2. a seemingly inescapable moral or emotional burden, as of guilt or responsibility. 3. something burdensome that impedes action or progress. So now I’m torn. I don’t want to lose all the writing I’ve done (some of the posts I could do without) but I also don’t want to keep this up. I like the idea of being able to save images to my own server and then display them wherever and whenever I want. I don’t like that I have to circumvent the port blocking an... More About: Figures , Figure
Bits O’ Nothing Wednesday (late)
2007-04-05 18:25:00 Sorry, missed out of the weekly BoNW post. I’ve been a bit busy this last week. My job this last week has been hectic and stuff at home isn’t getting any easier. I don’t know if my request to the Q Continuum has been received but so far we still only have 24 hours in the day, which kinda sucks. So let’s get started. Another plug again for Len’s Monsters by Mail. I would have plugged Adam’s Hobo request project, but it finished so fast it didn’t need any extra help. Another plug for the Robot Portraits. The 100 Artists Project is up to 50 artists. We need more. If you know an artist, send them my way. I’m running out of message boards to post to. I’ve hit all the comic boards of which I’m a member, some just barely and it hasn’t apparently caught on. It’s funny what changes in a week. It’s not that I’ve ditched the 700 Thing s project, but somehow I railroaded myself into a bunch of oth... More About: Nothing , Late , Wednesday , Bits
Robots
2007-04-05 16:12:00 Because I’m scared of uprooting this site and committing to a host, AND because I can’t get paypal buttons to work over here, I’ve created a quick Blogger site just for the Robo t Portraits. The buttons should work ok there and I should be able to post the drawings easier. Sorry for the run around…all one of you that’s tried to place an order. More About: Robots , Bots
Monster by Mail
2007-04-05 01:55:00 Confused Originally uploaded by jawboneradio. HURRY! Len from Jawbone radio is doing a limited edition run of custom monster drawings. Head over to the Mons ter s By Mail site, sign up, send him 20 clams and get a nice drawing for your troubles delivered right to your doorstep. Act now, he’s only doing 150 and there’s only about 50 spots left. Carry on.
SILVER XADRIAN
2007-04-04 01:46:00 SILVER XADRIAN Originally uploaded by eduardo.delabarra. I did a few robot sketches based off my Flickr contacts. One of the more prolific cartoonists Eduardo Delabarra returned the “favor” and did a quick return. I think it’s awesome. It also shows I’m a fat-ass superhero. Hehe. Thank you, Eduardo. Carry on. More About: Silver , Adrian
Project Gemini and 100 Artists
2007-04-03 04:50:00 Project Gemini #1 cover Originally uploaded by xadrian. I keep forgetting I’ve done a comic book. Someone off Penciljack sent me a message saying they wanted a copy and it’s been almost two years but luckily I still have a few dozen. So while I had a copy sitting out on the counter, LMA picked it up and started reading it. My baby girl read my comic. She took it to bed with her and red it to herself. If that doesn’t make you want to do another one, absolutely nothing will. So, once I get a few other things done, I’m going to do Project: Gemini #2. I have 6 to do so I’ll just get these done and then we’ll see. I still have copies of this available. If you’d like one, you can send $3 via paypal to ben.lifeinausitn@gmail.com with your mailing address and I’ll shoot you a copy. Limited to about 20 because that’s all I have left, but I’m not worried about a run on them. On another note, I’m organizing a truly ... More About: Artist , Project , Artists , Mini
Robot Portraits
2007-04-01 17:23:00 Taking a cue off some friends on Flickr, I’ll be doing robot portraits for just $10. Each image will be drawn on a 5×9.5″ bristol card stock. You can email me with your request. If you want to include a photo or a link to a photo, I’ll turn the lovely person into a robot. If you don’t have a picture but would just like a random robot, that’s ok too. Turn around time shouldn’t be a problem unless there becomes a huge rush of requests. Expect at least 10 days until you receive it (at most.) The easiest method is Paypal. If you include the name of the robot, or a link to an image you want portraitized, you can just follow the button. If you need to send an image, feel free to use the link below (the one that says “Make payments”, for some reason I can’t get the button to show up) and then email me. Thanks for looking! More About: Robot , Port , Portrait , Portraits , Robo
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
More articles from this author: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 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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