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Posts authored by leems

Planning out the challenges

Planning out the challenges published on 1 Comment on Planning out the challenges

Dunno if you’ve noticed, but I like to commit to crazy creative challenges.  I keep finding out about ones that have just passed without my knowlege (like hourly comics day).  So in an attempt to miss as few as possible, I’m planning.

Inktober – an ink drawing a day throughout October:  no pencils, no erasers.

24 hour comics day – registration open in June.  This was a crazy day to get through the first time I did it, but I ended up drawing a story I probably would never have come up with otherwise.

NaNoWriMo – November writing challenge.  I’ve signed up every year since I first heard about it in 2008.  I have only won twice.  There is something magical about having a quest, a goal, a crusade to throw yourself into the moment you get home from work.

Jason Turner Project or Page 100 – where you make a comic of the 100th page of a favorite book.  I was so excited about this I rushed to my book room to grab one of my childhood favorites and realized that I’ll probably have to re-read the thing in order to get it right.

Allison Lehman’s 30 Day drawing challenge – I was looking around for more challenges and I found this.  I like the list and the idea of compiling a challenge of one’s own.  So the months outside of October and November are prime for this.

Dickens World – Dickens’ Birthday

Dickens World – Dickens’ Birthday published on 3 Comments on Dickens World – Dickens’ Birthday

So, the Google banner tells me it’s Dickens’ birthday today.  Back in ’07 I was dreaming about visiting  Dickens World.  All my previous writing may be stripped from the web, but I still have copies of it.  Allow me to resurrect:

 “Maybe one of the most innovative ideas for a theme park is opening May 2007 just outside of London in Dicken’s childhood home of Chatham. Dickens World is based wholly on the stories and characters of Charles Dickens. Costumed characters will walk among the park goers to populate the fantasy city. Rides, themed restaurants, and cinemas will entertain during the day with a burlesque show at night offering naughtier entertainment.”

I have both been terribly bored and amused by Dickens; regardless of my literary experiences, a park built on classic literature is like a happy dream.

Hey! speaking of Dickens World there’s also Dickens World!  Wiley Blackwell publishers are putting on a free online conference March 7th and 8th to celebrate Dickens.  If Dickens scholarship is up your alley then go!  Go and enjoy!

Random Sketch

Random Sketch published on No Comments on Random Sketch

This is an art site you know.  I give you:  Jackelope.

Dallas Travel Map

Dallas Travel Map published on No Comments on Dallas Travel Map

I just finished a kind of map/diary of my trip to Dallas for ALA midwinter (and a little field trip through my childhood).  Each highlighted location will open pictures from the trip.  It has it’s own page on the machine so check it out and then come back and tell me how much you like it.  🙂

Compulsion

Compulsion published on No Comments on Compulsion

At some point in time I read/heard this story.  I’m not sure where and I’ve been looking for it since, but it goes like this:

“a great and dedicated scholar dies and finds himself in a large and beautiful library.  He nearly faints in happiness as his eyes grope over the shelves before him, but when he reaches for a book he finds that he cannot dislodge it from the shelf.  Every book he reaches for is the same and eventually he is an exhausted mass of disappointment and frustration.  It is at this point that God appears to him and asks him how he is getting along.

He says, ‘This is more like a hell than heaven.  These are all the books I ever hoped to find but I cannot look at them.’

God nods knowingly and says, ‘that is because these are all the books you were supposed to write in your life.'”

Or something like that.  I’m not sure if you know, but I’m not really a very schmaltzy character and yet I have never been able to get this little story out of my mind.  Once I finished and bound a book of my own and mixed it into the other books on my shelves, the deal was sealed.  I suppose it may have been sealed long ago when stories constantly ran through my child mind and I first put some of them to paper.  Sigh–don’t have any of those anymore.  I was a paranoid little brat; destroyed them all.  Now, I must get the stories out, whether writing or drawing, but for everyone that is finished two more spring up in its place.

Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt – Stonyfield Farm

Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt – Stonyfield Farm published on No Comments on Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt – Stonyfield Farm

Honey Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt is the most fabulous of all the fancy organic greek style yogurts that I have tried after they flooded the market a year or so ago.  Seriously, it was so good I had to advertize for them.  The honey was underneath!

Global Chokepoints | Global Censorship Chokepoints

Global Chokepoints | Global Censorship Chokepoints published on No Comments on Global Chokepoints | Global Censorship Chokepoints

Did you know that one of the original purpose for copyright was to safeguard the users right to use material in order to encourage creativity and scholarship?  I think a lot of people are forgetting this now a days.  So we have and need organizations like this:  Global Chokepoints | Global Censorship Chokepoints.

A little bit of working professional

A little bit of working professional published on No Comments on A little bit of working professional

Yo,allow me to insert a little horn blowing and ‘serious job’ stuff here.  I am now the Assistant Editor of the Journal of  Interlibrary Lending, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve.  If you just happen to career along the same lines I do and you have an article or article idea on the subject, you can find instructions for authors here: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=wild20&page=instructions.

Changin and fixin (i.e. Contact me!)

Changin and fixin (i.e. Contact me!) published on No Comments on Changin and fixin (i.e. Contact me!)

I was toolin around for some plugins that would make commenting a little easier from the Bean home and found some other plugins that didn’t do that thing I was looking for.  Long story short, I have a contact form now that will make it easier to hit that contact link under the about section in the nav bar–you know the one that wants to open an email application because it was just an email link.  Well, now you don’t have to be on a computer with your very own email application in order to contact me with an email.  Just fill out the nifty form.

I also added some more info to ‘About’ and realized that I hadn’t updated the ‘Site map’ I had made.  I am a bad webmaster.

Anyway, I didn’t find a way to make commenting on posts easier or more obvious without a plug in that did a bunch of stuff I didn’t want–you still have to hit the date and/or comment link under the post title to get there.  I’m sure all wordpress savvy folks already know this.

Code Year

Code Year published on No Comments on Code Year

A fabulous colleague of mine referred me to Code Year.  If you sign up, then every Monday you will receive an ‘Interactive Programming Lesson.’  I don’t know about you, but this is one of my pet and applicable to the job hobbies that I feel I just don’t have enough time for.  If I had had an inkling in school, maybe I would’ve directed my study to more systems related stuff, and I have at times looked for classes and programs that would supplement this Code Year is the the most time efficient I’ve found. Dude!  Just did my first lesson.

Reflections on Dallas

Reflections on Dallas published on 3 Comments on Reflections on Dallas

Yo kiddies.  I was up in Dallas for the ALA midwinter convention.  Whenever I travel I notice the weird little things that are totally different from my home city.  Well, Dallas was my home once too and I got to stew in some memories while I was there.  Here are just a few little observations (comic to the right from the Drawing Board – just a little peek into my ALA experience).

    • Everything’s bigger in Texas – yup they say it ’cause it’s true.  For example, in Tampa you can go into a CVS and get a 3 Liter bottle of Carlo Rossi wine; in Dallas you get a 4 Liter.  Everything’s bigger except for the traffic lanes and parking spaces, that is.
    • The coffee downtown is too expensive.  I know this may be just a downtown phenomenon shared by cities all over the world–but hey, I don’t get out much.
    • Either people in Dallas have more common sense/the courts just don’t entertain stupid law suits or they’d never put such dangerous looking cactus on the sidewalk.
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  • Dallas is always under construction. When I lived there we used to make a joke that the Texas state bird was the Crane.  One tiny problem with this is that signs you would normally rely on while driving aren’t necessarily there for you.  Yeah, I drove past the airport.  On the other hand, the exits were labeled much more clearly from the other direction.
  • This signage thing, and the narrow traffic lanes thing would’ve been a lot more scary if Dallas people weren’t such great drivers.  I mean, they know how to merge (one car from each side like a zipper), they let you in the lane when you have your signal on, they slow down and stop when the light turns yellow and red.  It made not knowing where I was driving a lot easier.  I didn’t even witness any jaywalking that wasn’t perpetrated by my librarian brethren (aka not Texans).  I mourn for the Texan who drives in Tampa, I apologize for all of us.
  • Of course you know I would go out of my way to visit some of the food establishments that were treats in my childhood.  So, what do you suppose would happen if you baked some biscuits, real buttery ones, and while those were in the oven, you fried up an egg in a plain old fry pan next to some bacon and then combined all those things with a square of processed cheese?  You’d have a Grandy’s breakfast sandwich is what would happen.  There is no standardized shape or pre-assembled/most likely frozen business going on here, it was like it came out of my kitchen–except for the cheese.  Why oh why are Grandy’s not all over this country?
  • Does anyone else have a cemetery in front of their convention center?  — really, I’m asking ’cause it seemed both weird and wonderful to me.
  • And finally, Dallas is big on big sculpture–which made getting lost downtown kind of nice, until I started running out of time before my meeting.

That’s all I got.  I’m sure there’s more that I took for granted, ’cause I used to live there too.  Dallas, I enjoyed you big bunches.  Thank you, LeE.

Festival International de la Bande Dessinee – angouleme english

Festival International de la Bande Dessinee – angouleme english published on 1 Comment on Festival International de la Bande Dessinee – angouleme english

 

By now I’m sure you realize that my home life is currently revolving around comics.  It’s a new/old way to feed my art and illustration addictions.  One day maybe I’ll get to the comic conventions that I drool over today.  I would love to spend some time at the Festival international de la Bande Dessinee.

HINABN: 4th Dimension Entertainment

HINABN: 4th Dimension Entertainment published on No Comments on HINABN: 4th Dimension Entertainment

 

Ok, so you know how I mentioned that Hanna is Not a Boys Name was awesome and then disappeared and then I found it for sale.  Well, did you get the message?  HINABN volume 1 is for sale!  Go buy it you dummies!  Go make it the first link that shows up in that darn google search!  Go:  4th Dimension Entertainment :: Product Details.

10/19/2012 – link correction

4/7/2014 – another link correction:  http://shop.4de.com/franchises/hanna-is-not-a-boys-name

 

The worst part of web comics

The worst part of web comics published on No Comments on The worst part of web comics

is that they can sometimes live hard and die too soon.  The ability of any story teller to put up their stuff as they spin it and countless web hosts to help them means that a lot of stories die half lived…forever frozen in history and the internet archive and destined to frustrate eager readers in perpetuity.  This is a whole heck of a lot different from published comics that generally have a proposed story line and map to completion before presentation to potential readers.  Webcomics are like swimming in comickers head soup–right there inside the ideas that make the stories, ideas that sometimes have no ending in sight.

As far as I can tell, this is exactly what happened with Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name.  I stumbled onto it late, maybe a year or so from its first page and long after a devoted following had erected a facebook page for it.  I bookmarked the site, subscribed to the RSS feed and checked back often as it continually did not get updated…not even a news item from the author.  I wanted more, damn it!  So I checked back again just as I was gathering my best of webcomics list and found out that the site had completely vanished.  It was gone…I could not even scroll through the pages I had already seen, and as I fumbled through Google results I found it for sale!   Oh my luck!  Volume 1!  I had wanted to possess it anyway…I am so giggly.  I am waiting for the mail to arrive.  (UPDATE:  arrived and I am so ecstatic!  Can’t wait for more.)

Ok, but not every stalled and deleted idea has a happy ending; case in point:  Gjerde Sha:  Part Time Zombie.  It is markering genius!  It is beautiful!  It is not updated since June!

And, somehow even sadder, the comics that are killed…by an announcement that they will not continue.  I was just getting all sewn into Will Work for Blood and now it is over.  It was so promising, it was mysterious and bleak, it is over.

PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide | District Dispatch

PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide | District Dispatch published on No Comments on PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide | District Dispatch

PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide | District Dispatch.

Here is a handy guide to the above acts made librarian style.  I wish I had more time to keep track of rights and privacy movements, but I think it might just stress me out.  I encourage knowledge though!  Knowledge encouraged!

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