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So, in amongst all my studying for the WSOP, I am in fact still drawing. As a matter of fact I spent the last morning of my very-short vacation hanging out at the cafe making a sort of skeleton that I can just take and change the detail to make different characters. So here’s the first character on that skeleton, Yo Yo Neko. She reminds me ever so slightly of somebody, I just can’t place who…

ETA Here’s another one:

I played in a ladies-only poker tournament at the local casino tonight, and I took it down for eight hundred bucks and a buy-in to the ladies tournament at the World Series of Poker! I’m going! It’s really happening!

It was kind of a lark to play, I almost didn’t go. I’m so glad I did. I made exactly two bonehead mistakes- one was that I thought somebody raised and I folded my big blind. It didn’t hit, so it was more embarrassing than anything else. The other was a too-big raise on a marginal hand out of position, and the girl was hitting cards like crazy. Anyway I made up for it. I knocked out maybe a third of the feild (which was 27 total), and I had a big chip lead when we got to the head-to-head. The other person said “so, I can’t go to Vegas- I have kids and can’t get a sitter- can I just forfeit for 2nd?”

Wait, what? Seriously? Yeah, seriously. And that was it. So they took my information, and they’re sending me a check and a hat and a t-shirt, and I’m going!

OMG!!

I got myself a laptop (finally!). Nothing over the top, as a matter of fact it’s just slightly more powerful than my desktop, but otherwise very similar. The idea is that I spend a lot of idle time that I could use to be productive, like when I hang out with Brad at his radio show, or when we’re sitting around watching tv. I like to kid about not having done anything with it other than surf the web from bed but I have been drawing for the last two days (and I’ve had it for two days). I’m going to try to do the drawing jams at the drawing board- it’s good practice. So here is sexy Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr…in progress.

Look at how wide my screen is! That might be my favorite thing about the new laptop. That and the 4 gigs of ram. Yum.

Technorati Tags: drawing, green, miranda kerr, model, victorias secret, works in progress

It’s a lonely life being a yeti. One day, he encounters a bunny in the forest and asks him “Bunny, you have a big family. What’s it like to love and be loved?”

Poor yeti.

I have no idea where this came from. I was doodling and I thought it was cute and funny and kind of sad, so I put it on tshirts.

Technorati Tags: bigfoot, bunny, forest, love, nature, rabbit, sasquatch, trees, yeti

I love Aardman so very very much.

Yes, I’m still reading Megatokyo. I’m as shocked as you are.

Let me make my apology first, because it leads to what I want to mention. First of all, the story has picked up in the last couple of chapters, and second author!Piro has gotten a lot better about posting on time. Not 100%, but getting closer.

Anyway, author!Piro mentioned several years ago that we’re going to hate character!Piro by the end of the story. I wonder if he’s changed his mind, because right now, I like him better than I ever have. Over the last couple of chapters, he’s had some serious growth, which is great because the pace was so. agonizingly. slow. before that that I almost gave up reading. I was bored with the story (or lack thereof), and with the characters who never really did anything. But Piro has changed, become a little less of a nitwit, and he’s starting to really be able to empathize with other characters, particularly Kimiko (who is his romantic interest, so of course it’d be her first). Good on you, Piro.

So I’m making a recommendation to pick Megatokyo back up if you haven’t given it a look in a while. You might be pleasantly surprised!

You’re probably asking yourself when I’m finally going to commit to one of these new projects. Well, the problem with how to draw animals was twofold. First, it was very labor intensive to produce a post. Second, I was getting very little feedback.

I’ve been working on snooglezoo and trying to give it direction for some time, it’s no longer just a cafepress store, because who cares about that? Here’s the deal- you send me some words, and I’ll draw a picture to go with it. Sort of like exploding dog, only not so stick-figurey, and probably more cute animals. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.

Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Mass. (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

My dad always says he remembers this time period in black and white, because the old photographs are the only reinforcement of that time he has left. What a wonderful gift the Library of Congress has given us by putting these on Flickr!

See the whole set here.

Technorati Tags: flickr, interesting, photos

Holidays are over, back to the ol’ grind. The good news is I got to sit around and draw pictures all day for an ad. The bad news is I’m taking a children’s classic and co-opting it for commercial purposes. I think I did a good job, but I still feel dirty.