Another Drawing

The second finished TabletPC drawing.

Available here on DevArt.

Deviation

It's pretty simple, but my first finished tablet PC drawing is up on DeviantArt.

I'm definitely hoping to improve.

Finally! (or, How I entered a new era)

It finally arrived!

From even before a heard about them, I wanted a tablet PC. Drawing on the Koala Pad back on the Commodore64 was great fun! As I'd started to see the benefits of drawing, or at least shading on the computer, I really wanted to try a pen-input device again. While I was at Vans, I often pined over the various tablet devices, but eventually I found out about the Wacom tablets, and I bought one of those instead. Time went by, and I forgot about the tablet.

But then I was browsing around the net and I found the one tablet I'd always admired most was now to be found on discount and refurbed. A little more digging and I found several of them on ebay. Kim convinced me that the purchase was a good idea (though probably as much to calm me down as anything), and now it's here.

(Actually, it's been here since Wednesday, but I'd hoped to draw up something spectacular before posting. As the learning curve for this style of input is about as steep as it was for me originally with just the Wacom, I'm instead posting a group of practice sketches:)

Update on the house, or lack thereof

We've reached the eye of the house-buying storm - the brief series of weeks where no-one's emailing every few minutes asking for a new signature and faxback. It's pretty much smooth sailing from here to the closing table, unless something unexpected pops up. We still need to get homeowner's insurance, and the lawyer needs to produce a survey, but neither of those should be a problem. We're really exicted! Kim and I have been buying housy-things - mostly small pieces on clearance at Pier1, and mostly Kim buys them and brings them back and I say "Good choice!". We did get a breakfast nook set that she picked out, though, and that was a bit of an investment, but still less than the worth of the set, and it will do a lot to brighten up and fill out the kitchen. "Good choice, honey!"

Two weeks from this Tuesday is the closing date, and week after that we move in!

Star Wars, as Christmas, is upon us

Today I was reminiscing about this excellent Star Wars rap. ("'What is thy bidding, my Master?' / 'It's a disaster, / Skywalker we're after...'" If you follow the link, make sure you turn your speakers up!) Anyway, I was rapping in my head, and I happened to say aloud, "To all you player-haters out there, I'll blow your planet up!"

Kim overheard and admonished me: "Shh! That's not very positive!"

Ha-ha!

More from the Bible: Evil

The version of the Bible I'm listening to is the King James' version. Granted, the English language has changed a bit since then, but I've started noticing (again - I was noticing this before in the Pentateuch) that the term "evil" doesn't have quite the same meaning as we tend to think. Evil is not necessarily sinful or hateful or destructive, it's just bad, or unpleasant, or contrary to how they should be. For example, in Jeremiah 24, Jeremiah keeps talking about good figs and evil figs, and the evil figs are so evil, they can't be eaten. Ehh?

I think the concept that we usually think of as "Evil" is instead called "Wicked" in the King James Version. I wonder when this change happened? I wonder how realizing this might recolor earlier passages?

Two movies

Between the house and the mismatch in our schedules, Kim and I haven't been able to see a movie for a few weeks. So, since we had almost a whole day together Saturday, we saw two movies.

First we saw Robots. Of course, I would be out of line if I weren't to mention the previews first. Robots is the first movie to show the new Revenge of the Sith trailer - the one they slapped onto the end of the OC in a vain attempt to draw nerds into the prime-time soap opera scene. Of course, most nerds either are entirely above the board and have a subscription to Hyperspace, or they dabble below the board and found the trailer on a file-sharing network a few hours later. The trailer is fantastic - I already had high hopes for the movie because of the word of mouth (despite Lucas' assurances it's wonderfully dramatic just like Titanic), but seeing it full-size on the big screen was a real treat. I'm really excited about the space battle and the showdown between Mace Windu and Palpatine. But, all we can do is wait.

Onto Robots. I've come to expect quite a bit from the animated movies these days. Pixar and the crew behind Shrek have set an incredibly high bar, and when it comes to the visuals, Robots doesn't disappoint. The story-line was reasonable, too, though there was nothing particularly original or surprising. But where it failed (to my mind) was in its delivery - where most of the previous animated movies had two levels to the story - one for adults, and one for children - Robots was aimed squarely at the kiddies. Additionally, or perhaps in support of this point, was Robin Williams. You could say he stole the show, as they say he did in Aladdin. This time, however, once he had it, he dropped it. Like Jim Carrey after The Mask, Robin Williams seems to have a hard time controlling himself - he has to keep doing more and more and more to top whatever he did before. A little bit of this might have been funny, but the director seems to have let him do whatever he want, for as long as it took, and just animated the movie around it. Too bad. I really like Brad Bird's The Iron Giant.

We also saw Be Cool. Like Robots, it was entertaining, but like Robots, the storyline paused whenever one of the characters wanted to grandstand for a bit. With all of the big names in the movie, and everyone wanting some time of their own, there wasn't too much storytime left. But, the actors are all good a their job, and they all have the potential to be cool, so the time's not wasted. The Rock is really funny; I haven't seen Standing Tall, but all of the movies I have seen him in, I've enjoyed him in. (I'm not counting The Mummy II, since he was largely animated the whole time.

Correction: Brad Bird isn't associated with Robots, he did The Incredibles, which was a terrific movie. Nobody I have any emotional investment in wrote or directed Robots, so I don't feel bad about my above comments. Thanks to Craig for correction!

Another Walk

I had some time alone today, so I went another walk, more or less through the same place I went before. I'm out of shape and thoroughly citified, so every once in awhile I try to get out and walk on uneven, unpaved surfaces, where trees and bugs and leaves and streams do what they like without a second thought for whether or not I might sprain my ankle.

Before I got started, I took a few pictures of clouds, because, gosh darn it, I like clouds!





I like to go down to this stream because it's so close to Wood's and Mom's apartment. If one is going to go through all of the trouble of getting away from sidewalks and benches, it's nice not to have to go too far to do it.

This is the path where they really want us to walk:


But this is where I like to go:


I got a few reasonable pictures this time. Since it's the tail end of winter and we're only just getting our first spring rains and spring temperatures, it's not very green yet. But it's still a lot prettier than the Los Angeles River/Flood Control.




Besides the idea of going someplace not many other people go (though someone else goes there, to judge by the trash), all of the little miniature landscapes set my mind racing. I don't know if it's leftover imagination from my StarWars Men days, or if it's my eyes looking for good movie backdrops, or what, but there are so many cool little holes and coves and inlets and root structures.






I also really like trees:



I found one particularly interesting tree:

It's difficult to tell from that angle, but there are two lips of bark that wrap around an empty space, as though it were hugging another imaginary tree. Here's a top-down view:

Yup, that's my pants leg, and yup, it's drenched at the bottom. I misjudged a jump across the stream (you have to keep jumping back and forth, since the stream wanders and undercuts tall banks on alternating sides) and made quite a splash!

The camera goes where my head doesn't, so some things I discover later. It looks like the tree's missing his imaginary friend so much, it's eating away at him.

When I got here, I decided I'd come to the end of my journey upstream. Maybe someday I'll see how far I can go downstream.


Springtime's not far away!

Right now I'm watching...

...The Hulk, for something like the 7th or 8th time since I bought the DVD. It's still great! I still like it. I really regret that the chances for a sequel are pretty much nil.

Solomon

I've made it through the histories, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and now I'm into Isaiah, the first of the major prophets.

There wasn't too much surprising or new in the last few books, though I always enjoy the Psalms. I'm typically not a fan of poetry because of how dense it is, and how much effort it usually takes to extract any real meaning. Poems, to me, are kind of like Brazil nuts. But the Psalms have never really seemed that deep to me - rather they're pure and real - they're the hymns you sing when your a kid and you're idealistic and you can feel the emotion tingling down your spine.

But Solomon is, I think, becoming one of my new favorite characters. I may try to work him into the Ohida storyline. What little is in the Bible is enticing. That the same man produced Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon is intriguing. But I recall hearing that there is a lot of Solomon mythology out there - that he is responsible for fighting devils and creating the djinni, that he is a big character in old Arabic stories. I'd really like to look into this.

Does anyone have any recommended reading they know about? I'm sure I can find something on Amazon if not.

Congratulations, Wood!

Wood got his pilot's license on Thursday.

Congratulations!

House update

We're under contract! After a bit of going back and forth, we came to a price and stipulations, and I think everyone's happy. I go into the office on Sunday to sign the final offer and to schedule the inspection, but now things are starting to roll!

(Maybe I'll get to take some more pictures on the inspection day. I like taking pictures of the house, in case you couldn't tell....)

My current favorite other blog

(Family blogs do not qualify, of course)

Dave's Catholic Blog

I came across this by hitting the "Next Blog" button a bunch of times.
Then I came across Dave's blog - he had a half-dozen or so really well-written Catholic apologetics with no comments on them - I couldn't let that stand!

I ended up commenting on each of his posts, and began a fairly involved engagement of Catholic theology discussion. He's very polite and thorough in his replies to his comments, and he hasn't gotten mad that I pretty much hijacked his blog with all of my questions.

Kudos to Dave and his blog!

Sorry - no more pictures

The lady who lives at the house was home with her daughter, and it's poor form to take pictures when the current owner is at home. So... the pictures from before will have to do for now.

But!

We made an offer on the house. Cross your fingers for us.

Time for some more pictures!

First, the promised pictures of Kim's cool new (to us) PT Cruiser (it gets good reviews!):

From the front:


From the side:


From the rear:


Kim's car is very spiffy, but I still love my Focus. There's room enough in my heart for two cars.


I love clouds!



Here are some of the pictures I took of the house Kim and I are seriously considering. A few I took today as part of a drive-by, and a few I took on Wednesday during our 9-home grand tour. Hopefully I'll be posting more tomorrow after our return visit.

A few angles of the front:




The deck in the back, with the tree growing through it:


The Work Room has track lighting - not pretty, but very good at its job:


The Master Bedroom has a nice green paint and a tray ceiling:


A Garden Tub!



Don't forget to tune in tomorrow!

Ong-Bak, The Thai Warrior

I went to the theater by myself today, while Kim was at work, just to watch this movie. The last few times Kim and I have been to the theater, the pickin's have been rather slim (it being in the dreary months between January and May), and so I usually say something like, "We could see Hitch... or Because of Winn-Dixie... or... Hey, Ong-Bak is playing..." You can imagine the response that gets.

The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are what convinced me to see the film. I didn't expect much in the way of a story line or character development, and wasn't disappointed. I didn't expect much in the way of acting, and I wasn't off the mark there, either. The movie was really just a showcase for Tony Jaa, and on that level it was worth the price of the matinee admission. Like Jet Li or Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, Tony Jaa develops this amazing screen presense because of his moves, his body control, and his amazing athletic abilities. I don't believe there was any wirework in the whole movie (the special effects crew weren't really good enough to take out wires anyway, I'd imagine) but the fight scenes and chase scenes were terrific.

Jackie Chan has his running up trees and the corner of walls and squeezing through tight spaces; Tony Jaa's tricks were his ability to hurdle (he hurdles cars!), spin, flip, jump, and "levitate" (I'm borrowing the term from a review) - he seems to be able to run over a crowd on heads and shoulders without ever really putting his full weight down on either foot. While Jackie's abilities are pretty much gimicks in his movies now, Tony's moves were more basicly athletic and because of that, a little more incredible.

Tony's fight scenes, especially in the last half of the movie, are the centerpiece of the film. He has the body control of Jet Li, the lean power of Bruce Lee, and a uniqueness in that he does Muay Thai instead of Kung Fu. (Yes, I know Jean Claude Van Damme is a kickboxer as well, but comparing Jean-Claude to Tony Jaa is like comparing Pierce Brosnan to Sean Connery (or even perhaps Leslie Nielson to Sean Connery).) Where Kung Fu is lithe, supple, and probing, like a snake bobbing and choosing when to strike, Jaa's kickboxing is direct and forceful, full of interrupting strikes, elbows and knees, and taking hits rather than slipping out from under them.

A couple of times during the movie I wanted to rewind and watch a scene again - I think that means I'll at least rent the movie when it hits DVD. Hopefully there will be some better subtitling by then.

Don't see this movie if you're just looking for a good-fun film. Only watch it if you like Martial Arts films because of the Martial Arts, or if you like the early Bruce Lee movies.

We've decided!

After driving around Cobb County on Wednesday and looking at 9 (count them, 9!) houses, and looking through countless more on the web, we've decided one to focus on. I took some pictures inside, but I didn't have the flash on so they're dark and blurry. We're trying to set up a second visit, and I'll take some more then. In the meantime, here's what's posted on the realtor sites.