Chair with a Message

At the Youth Arts Collective, a mentored after-school program in Monterey for high school and college artists, a common project is to get a chair from the dump and paint it. This is one that made me laugh. What immediately came to mind was "Kiss my ass!" Hahahahaha! Conceptually brilliant.

ComicCon Envy

I'm experiencing ComicCon envy, so I'm posting some of my WonderCon experiences.

I had just switched from PC to Mac and discovered the joys of iPhoto and iMovie. I squealed in a most undignified way when I discovered music and sound effects in iMovie and then went crazy with the slideshow below.

Watchmen, the movie, was about to be released, and it was definitely THE big thing at WonderCon 2009, so I have some of that, then lots of costumes. I also wanted to capture how large the convention was, and noisy and disorienting, and of course there's a soft spot in my heart for Star Wars. After I'd taken his photo, the black Star Trek officer said, "Tell them I was your date," and disappeared into the crowd.

WonderCon 2009

I had been to large conferences, but never anything with thousands and thousands of attendees. I braved rain and a scary highway, driving about 2.5 hours (I got lost) to get to San Francisco to attend. I loved WonderCon. There was a sense of geeky, committed joy that was great after hearing people complaining about the economy. Besides, at a conference, it’s like everyone has escaped from the same asylum. I enjoyed that, even though that was only the beginning of my comics immersion.

Zillions of comics and comics-related merchandise for sale, artists’ and publisher’s booths, video-game booths, all in one enormous space. There were actors who had had single lines in famous movies, like the man who said, “These are not the droids we’re looking for,” in Star Wars IV or actors who had been guests in the original Star Trek series from the 1960s. There was even a band that played comics- and gaming-inspired music (www.kirbykracklemusic.com). It was interesting, too, to see a Christian comics booth with a mostly-nude female superhero on one side and something scary and violent on the other. I saw the actors from one of my favorite TV shows, “Chuck,” as well as Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill (Princess Leia and Luke SkyWalker) from the original Star Wars.

I saw some amazingly skilled and talented artists just casually sketching during various talks, people who were in art school. I hope they are programmers as well because programmers for video games are in high demand---there are games with individual target markets ranging from housewives to geeks, games meant to be played for hours at a time, and games intended for waiting lines at Starbucks.

There were people in costume everywhere and they were very hard-core. Two men standing behind me in line to attend a lecture called “The Anthropology of Star Trek” talked about their next costumes for a solid 30 minutes. They were dressed as Agent Smith from “The Matrix.” The short Hispanic one didn’t look as convincing.

Yoda Backpack

When I wear my Yoda backpack, believe it or not, a lot of people don't notice it!

When they do notice, they often giggle and smile. Others say, "Oh my God, I thought that was your baby!" To which I respond, "Yes, his father is really handsome!" A friend of mine suggested that I say, "Yeah, I drank too much during my pregnancy." Heehee.

If they say, "You've got Yoda on your back!" I reply with "Observant you are."

I love personality tests!

I love tests! I took one a while ago that was based on the Kabbalah. It said I was an emotional giant and an intellectual midget. Another said my IQ was below average. Hahahahaha!

I couldn't sleep last night and found myself on OkCupid.com taking tests. Are you ready?

Your result for The Intellectual Sexiness Test...

Hot Tamale

You have an intellectual sexiness factor of 73!

You're hot! You've read a lot. You've done a lot, and there's a lot you'd like to try in the future. You've got a sharp, sexy mind, and few inhibitions to restrain you from exploring all the pleasure you can get. You have few hang-ups, and there's not much you don't know about sex. You're open-minded and able to enjoy things that would make a lesser person squeamish.

You're an exceptional treat as a lover, appreciated greatly by those who know the differnce. You were probably bored with a few of the people you've been with in your past, feeling like you had to drag them along with you in the sexual adventures you want to have, and probably dumping them for the same reason. It takes a lot to stimulate you; you realize it's not just about bumping uglies. In the end there's gotta be a lot more to it.

Still, there is always room for improvement. Before you can graduate into a true sexual genius, there are a few things you've got to learn, to explore, to think through, talk through, and f*** through. A good place to start is in taking a look at the few things you're still a little hesitant to try. Break down you're last few barriers and discover the outer sexual frontiers, and you'll become a master.

Take The Intellectual Sexiness Test at HelloQuizzy

Marks for Adults

Shock, surprise, delight. I loved the first minute or so of this. Very clever. The music got on my nerves, though, and after awhile, I actually found myself tiring of the concept. P'rhaps if we'd seen the person's face or heard his/her voice . . . Still a fun video, though.

I'm embarrassed to say I used Babel Fish to translate the title of the video, which I've used for the title of this post. Forgive me, oh Translation Gods! "Adult Drawings" isn't quite right, either. I would've gone with something with the idea of "dirty mind," like my post called "Optical Illusions."

Entrollment

I'm translating a high-school student's transcript and trying to type "enrollment." Unfortunately, sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own as they fly across the keyboard. This time I typed "entrollment." Nifty, eh? You'd better be nice to me, or I'll entroll you, and you wouldn't look good as a troll because pointy ears don't work well with the shape of your face.