Ahoy there, mateys! Did anyone here celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day today? There was a special event at the Cartoon Art Museum, not unlike the comic jams I've attended. For this event, the goal was to draw a hundred pictures of pirates. We used 8.5 x 11 sheets cut into quarters. My friend Brian organized it, and some cartoonist friends were with me. The event was open to anyone who visited the museum, and we did get some guests drawing pirates. There was one 15-year-old who was very talented, and his mother showed us his sketchbook. Brian also teaches cartooning to kids at the museum, and at one point, had to go teach his class. He came back with a brace of pictures contributed by his students. I myself cranked out nine pirate pictures. I even worked on a few personal projects in between. In the end, we made the goal of a hundred and then some! It was quite a bit of work, but I had a great time!

Got some family news for you all. My sister had her second baby today. It's another boy, named Carter Donald Young, at eight pounds, fourteen and a half ounces. I'll be going down to visit her soon, and I can't wait to see my new nephew! I hope I can get a picture of myself with both Simon and Carter!

Current Mood: chipper

Well, gang, another San Francisco Zinefest has come and gone. Let me tell you about it...
The Zinefest weekend began on Friday night for me. The Cartoon Art Museum hosted a reading of autobiographical comics called "Look At Me!" It was a fun event, with readings by such artists as Joey Allison Sayers, Melaina Eller, Tessa Brunton and hostess Mari Naomi. The event was well attended! I'd have liked to have read something, though...
Saturday was the first day of the Zinefest. Things were pretty brisk that day. I was sharing my table with Louis Morton, who does a comic called "Pet Rock." And I was selling a lot of my comic, "Happy Freak Show." I managed to take a break and take in the sights at the Zinefest. I took my walk around. I made some trades. Didn't make many purchases, but one booth was selling cupcakes, and I couldn't help but get one. Afterwards, I had dinner with some friends at a local hofbrau called Pluto. Anyway, Saturday put a smile on my face. It put me in a good mood, and I was really looking forward to the next day.
Sunday was rather slower by comparison. I think it was about two hours before I made my first sale of the day. I figured things might pick up later in the day. They did, although not by much. I found that I wasn't the only one who made about half as much yesterday as I did the day before. Then there were some who actually did better on Sunday than they did on Saturday! Anyway, the slow business gave me time to do sketching, and think about stories for future projects. Some stories I hope to put in the next issue of "Happy Freak Show." Met some interesting people, a few familiar faces too. I even saw a fellow I went to art school with! In the end, I managed to make back what I spent on my table. Afterwards, I joined some friends for Indian food. It wasn't my best Zinefest, but I did better than last year!

Well, my friends, I've come back from Suzy's house. I went back to Hillsborough with my parents, then I'll go back to my place in San Francisco tomorrow.
Anyway, it was nice being at Suzy's. Mind you, it wasn't all rest and relaxation. My dad was putting in new shelves in the closets and a new garage door opener in the garage. So I was helping out there. The toughest thing was the garage door opener. When we tried to install that, we found it was too long and it went up against a beam on the ceiling. So Dad took it apart to shorten the long part. Then when we tried to put it back together, we had a problem with one little part. We had to push a spring down on a bolt, and keep it in place with a little kind of nut. That was too difficult for us! We finally gave up and put the old garage door opener back up.
As for Simon, we had a nice dinner on his proper birthday on Monday. Brian brought in a load of barbecue from a great New York-style place called Ribs On the Run. (Funny, I never associated New York City with barbecue!) Anyway, Suzy baked a birthday cake for Simon: a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and decorated with M&Ms. Simon got plenty of presents. A lot of them were "Thomas the Tank Engine" items. (He loves that show!) Mom gave him a few "Thomas: toy trains. I gave him a set of nesting and stacking alphabet blocks.
Anyway, I didn't really want to leave, but it's good to be back. Suzy will be having her second baby in September. Mom and Dad will be at the house for when the baby comes, and Brian said I was welcome to be there as well. If I'm free at that time, I'll be there!

Current Mood: cheerful

Toda we celebrated my nephew Simon's second birthday party! We went to Zoomars Petting Zoo in San Juan Capistrano for the party. They gave us a nice picnic area. There were cowboy hats, bandannas and sheriff badges as party favors. Plus everyone got tokens for pony rides, train rides and carrot baskets. We brought trays of food, sandwiches, salads, fruits and vegetables. Plus, we had ordered tiny cupcakes decorated with farm animals and the digit 2. I helped decorate by blowing up balloons. So a lot of friends came, a lot of little kids. I got to see some of my cousins, and that was nice. There were plenty of animals there: ponies, goats, sheep, a cow, some llamas, emus, parakeets, geese, pigs, bunnies and guinea pigs. There were little baskets for feeding the animals, filled with carrot sticks, lettuce leaves, broccoli florets and diced apples. I want around giving tidbits to as many animals as I could. The emus were aggressive when it comes to getting food, the goats were even more so. So Simon enjoyed a few rides on the ponies and the little train. Eventually, we packed up and went back to the house. But we all had a great time!

Hey gang! I'm at my sister's house in Laguna Hills now. My nephew Simon will be celebrating his second birthday this weekend. So I came down with my parents today. First, my dad picked me up at my place this morning. Then I was with my parents as we drove down in the afternoon. We decided to go later instead of the morning so we'd avoid the traffic going through San Jose and Los Angeles. We had a nice drive down, and we made pretty good time. I'm certainly looking forward to the party on Saturday!

Yesterday was the Fourth of July. Usually, I go to Fisherman's Wharf to catch the fireworks. But this year, I did something different. I'd found out about an event at Space Gallery on Polk St., so I went there. Space Gallery is an art gallery with a bar, like 111 Minna. Anyway, the event was called Bazooko's Circus. There were a lot of art on the walls with a circus theme. And there was a DJ, plus live entertainment. Burlesque clown Dottie Lux was the hostess, and she performed some of her sexy antics. One of the exhibiting artists, Hassan Said, showed a short film of his, "It's a Strange World", with live musical accompaniment. It was a nice change of pace, and I enjoyed myself!

Last night, I went out and saw the musical "Spamalot"! When it came to San Francisco, I just had to see it, being the Monty Python fan that I am. I'd purchased my ticket already, and I went last night to the Golden Gate Theater where it was playing. So it was a great show, every bit as funny as I thought it would be. I liked that it wasn't just about "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," but had other Monty Python references as well. (F'rinstance, God was represented by two cutouts of that huge animated foot and the voice of John Cleese!) There were lots of great scenes, and if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the one with the Killer Rabbit. Best musical number was "You Won't Succeed On Broadway." I'm very glad I went!

My search for employment has taken me here and there. Most recently, I applied for a clerical position with the U.S. Army Recruiting Center. I even got an interview today (my first one in a helluva long time!). But I found out I'd pretty much have to join up if I was to get the job. That includes basic training! Well, that didn't appeal to me at all. No member of my family was ever in the military, so why should I break tradition? The staff sergeant interviewing me did try to persuade me with some good arguments: a decent benefits package, job security, training for new skills, plus for someone my age, breaking into a new career won't be easy anywhere else. So I said I'd like some time to think about it. I got some brochures to look over, and was told to call back tomorrow morning with my decision. So I'll just tell him thanks but no thanks.

Current Mood: stressed

Ever had a power outage at your house? How about having a power outage in your whole neighborhood? That happened to me today. I had been out shopping earlier today, and when I got home, there was no power in my building. The elevator wasn't working, there was no lights in the hallways, and no power in my apartment. I wanted to do the laundry, but as the washing machines didn't work, I had no choice but to wait. I caught up on some art while I waited. I couldn't turn my drawing table lamp on, but the sun hadn't gone down, so I had adequate light. After at least an hour, the power came back on. So I went right down to the laundry room to wash my clothes. In the laundry room, I found out what had happened. A transformer nearby had malfunctioned, and even started a fire. Anyway, I then went back up to my place. The power didn't stay on, unfortunately. It went out again. And I knew the washing machines were still running. Had to wait a bit longer. The power flickered a moment at a point or two. Finally, the power was restored. The machine holding my whites was still full of water. I had to wring them out before I could put them in the dryer. I remember when San Francisco had a huge city-wide power outage back in December of 1998. This incident reminded me of that!