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January, 2005

  1. Fun way to spend a lunch hour.

    January 31, 2005 by Collin

    I linked to this at my junk drawer, but I did a bit of work on it myself, so I’m posting it here:

    Boing Boing: Katamari Damacy made from paper

    I went ahead and rebuilt the image they have for printing at the originating site. I have it saved as a 156K PDF, however my image hosting service won’t allow me to put up PDFs, nor will it allow PNG files. I finally had to go with a 344K JPG to link to here:



    Click for larger version

    But it won’t print as sharp as the PDF will. If you are interested in getting the PDF, I’ve sent one to Cory Doctorow – who posted the original story linked above – so it may show up at boing boing. Or, you can drop me an email or a comment here and I’ll send a copy to you.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 3 Comments

  2. I’ve fallen under my baby’s crosshairs.

    January 31, 2005 by Collin

    In response to her challenge, I offer this.

    Random 10

    1. “Path of Least Resistance” – Modest Mouse

    2. “Tortoise And The Hare” – The Moody Blues

    3. “The Script For My Requiem (Live)” – Blind Guardian

    4. “Home” – Iggy Pop

    5. “ohh what fun” – The Apartment

    6. “Down To The River To Pray” – Alison Krauss

    7. “Are You A Visionary” – The Kleptones

    8. “Minstrels Song” – The Moody Blues

    9. “House In Motion” – Talking Heads

    10. “Spiderwebs” – No Doubt

    Total # of music files on computer:

    I’m on my work computer and it has far less than I do at home. The total is: 2504 songs = 6 days of music = 9.54 GB.

    Last CD you bought:

    - “The Dresden Dolls” – The Dresden Dolls, just yesterday in fact.

    Last song you listened to before this post:

    - “Half Jack” – The Dresden Dolls, surprise.

    Name five songs you often listen to or mean a lot to you:

    1. “Accidentally In Love” – Counting Crows

    2. “Mouth” – Merrill Bainbridge

    3. “Once in a Lifetime” – Talking Heads

    4. “Artists Only” – Talking Heads

    5. “Red Sweater” – The Aquabats

    My 3 Victims…..

    Jenn

    Rasgal

    Andy

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  3. The Gift – Part 5. : The Finishing

    January 31, 2005 by Collin

    Thank you everybody for your comments. I’ve decided to use both across four different shirts. I have them set up at my store, and you are welcome to check them out and see what they should look like.

    Now the thing that came to mind as I was finishing up was, “Do I actually have a legal right to make these shirts, or might I get sued by the School District?” I honestly have no idea. I would think that for a limited run that isn’t being sold for profit I might be okay.

    Therefore I’ve considered two options to avoid getting sued. The first is the shirt will only be available for a limited time (up until I get mine ordered and in my hands) and the price is set to the minimum level required by CafePress to cover their costs so I won’t be making a dime from them.

    The second thing I’m going to do is, after my son’s birthday, I’m going to offer to give the school the artwork – with slight modifications to the color so my son’s remains unique – on disc and the rights to use the artwork for any fundraising purpose they want free of charge for the next three years. After that point they will have the option to buy the artwork outright or stop using it.

    Anyone have any other suggestions or advice?

    —

    Since the eyes were remarked upon in the comments, here’s a close-up of the eye by itself:

    The convenient thing is, because of the way I built it, it’s very easy to change around to suit my needs:

    It’s still not quite as good as I would like – it needs to be a bit more random, and less patterned in the lines – but it’ll do for now.

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  4. The Gift – Part 4. : The Textening.

    January 28, 2005 by Collin

    Okay, a few things. Derek reminded me that the artwork on the t-shirt through Cafe Press can be up to 10″ x 8″ or 8″ x 10″. So I’ve put together two designs based on those dimensions. I would like opinions on which design to go with. Or perhaps I should do two shirts? Let me know what you all think.

    You’ll no doubt notice that I messed a bit more with the colors. I decided to have the school colors more as a background element and changed the eye color from blue to green.

    Here are the choices.

    Choice #1:

    Choice #2:

    So, comment away.

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  5. This is pretty important

    January 27, 2005 by Collin

    so give it a look: Boing Boing: Tell US Copyright Office to let you use orphan works!

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  6. The Gift – Part 3. : The Coloring.

    January 27, 2005 by Collin

    I called Justin’s school this morning and found out that their colors are red and black. Ugh. And After I finished with the first stage of coloring the trim on the helmet was silver, rather than gold. That, combined with the red, reminded me horribly of Magneto’s helmet. That wouldn’t do. So a bit of revising later and here it is:

    The project still isn’t done though. I have to drop in the text and find out if Cafe Press can print it large enough. So what do y’all think?

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  7. The Gift – Part 2. : The Inkening.

    January 26, 2005 by Collin

    So yeah. It’s inked. Next step, coloring it. I probably should find out what his school colors are.

    Opinions on it so far? I should note that not only do I fail to do thumbnail drawings when putting something together, I also nearly never use references. Unless it’s something that I have no idea how to draw. Two very bad habits that I can’t seem to shake.

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  8. Searching

    January 26, 2005 by Collin

    For the longest time nobody has been finding my site by way of (especially) odd searches. Finally there are a few that amuse me:

    7 people found there way here looking for “the fizzle dance” and 2 more by just “fizzle dance” and 2 looking for a “fizzle bar” (What the Hell is the “Fizzle Dance”? Is it something you do at a Fizzle Bar to impress “Fizzle Chicks”?)

    Actually, there are a whole lot of “fizzle” type searches, including 2 for “fizzle sticks.” I like the sound of that. Fizzle sticks! It sounds like something a confused granny would shout after being cut off in traffic, “Aw! FIZZLE STICKS!” Heh.

    2 visitors arrived via a search for “alice duke” (I had a link to her art site, but it’s now a dead link. Alas.)

    1 came for the “nipple pop” (and stayed for the “funny”, I’m sure)

    1 came for a “large picture of a skittle wrapper” (Sorry to disappoint you on that)

    1 was looking for “derek knight hockey” (Wrong blog, he’s next door.)

    1 asks “why is the sky blue calvin hobbes” (that’s a good Calvin strip – where his dad is giving him totally wrong answers to his questions – hope you found it, o’ seeker of mirth)

    1 randomly seeks “short stories cold snow quiet man 10th grade” (uh. no. I have no drugs for you. g’wan ya bum!)

    And lastly a possibly dangerous person was seeking “a barrel that has springs in it and when you open it they pop out”. (I wonder if he* would have found me if he had added “knives on springs”?)

    So. Nothing really great, but then I’m rarely found by searches. I’m too ninja-like.

    —

    *And you know the searcher was a “he”. Likely a teen “he” that likes to dress all in black and be moody at stuff. “He” no doubt has a shirt that reads, “I angst therefor I am…”

    If “he’s” still around and visiting all I can say is, “Hi! I hope you enjoy the site. Drop a comment sometime!”

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 1 Comment

  9. A gift in progress

    January 25, 2005 by Collin

    For my son’s birthday I’ve decided to make a custom t-shirt for him to wear to school (for gym or what-have-you). He’s getting other stuff too. I’m not that lame. He’s getting books! Heh.

    To keep me on task so I have a chance of getting it finished and to him before his birthday in mid-March I’ve decided to post the stages as they are completed here. It also gives me something to post about. Win-win.

    On to the art… stuff.

    His school mascot is a Viking, so I’ve been kicking around various layout ideas in my noggin’ – I’m horrible when it comes to thumbnailing layouts – and sketched out the viking head that I’ll be making the centerpiece of the design. Here that is:

    This is a very rough sketch, and I have a few ideas to make it more dynamic, but it’s a start.

    If this goes well I’ll apply the same process (posting the stages as I go) to the projects that I told Mark I would do for him about… um… two years ago now. Yeah, I suck, but I’m trying to fix me.

    Oh yeah, and don’t let the boy know about this or you’ll spoil the surprise. Fortunately, he never reads my site.

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  10. Gouranga!

    January 25, 2005 by Collin

    I just received the following email and I didn’t know what to make of it:

    —–

    From: NitaiGouranga@aol.com

    Subject: Gouranga

    Date: January 25, 2005 11:13:50 AM MST

    Call out Gouranga be happy!!!

    Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ….

    That which brings the highest happiness!!

    —–

    A Google search turned up the following:

    1 - a Grand Theft Auto News & Resource Site

    2 - an entry at Urbandictionary.com that reads:

    —

    1. gouranga

    A word that appears on moterway bridges in north west UK. It’s only purpose to annoy drivers who are left with a nagging curiosity for the rest of their day until the next day when it ceases to become important ever again.

    for god sake why did they have to colour it in. Now it’s more noticable and more annoying

    -

    2. gouranga

    A feeling of happiness stemming from running down an entire column of Hare Krishnas in your car, as first invented in GTA1.

    Splat! splat! splat! splat! splat! splat! splat! GOURANGA!

    -

    3. gouranga

    is a word that is used by Hare Crishna monks meaning be happy!

    EG 1.

    happy monk guy- how are you today friend? are you happy?

    guy- no! now go away!

    happy monk guy- say gouranga it means be happy it will cheer you up

    Guy- humph! gouranga…………… hey you’re right i feel happy already!

    EG2.

    when you play gta 1 you can usually find a line of monks (the orange guys) if you kill them all at once gouranga apears in big letters across the screen

    —

    3 – An article at “Richard’s Dish” from 2001 commenting with a trace of annoyance on the appearance of a bunch of stickers in Scotland reading “Call out Gouranga and be happy!”

    4 - A post from a few days ago at “theOTHERblog” talking about the same email I just received. I’m closing in on an answer, I can feel it.

    5 - And finally, an answer of sorts that seems to tie it all together here.

    I had totally forgotten about that “event” in GTA1. I didn’t know they were monks at the time. I thought they were joggers in orange jumpsuits that ran in a line. Now it makes more sense. I got quite a few GOURANGA!s back then, but it was tricky. You couldn’t even let one get away and they ran like the dickens.

    So if you find this odd bit of spam in your email, this should give you some idea what it’s about. Also, in the last link they mention the Scottish branch of ISKCON as possibly being behind the spread of Gouranga, and Rockstar North (the devolopers of the GTA series of games, and originally named DMA Design) is based in Leith, Scotland.

    I’m still not sure if the email is the result of one lone loopy spam punk, a viral ad campaign – which would be odd since the GTA games since GTA3 haven’t mentioned it (that I’ve found) – or a concerted effort by the Hare Krishnas. But whatever.

    Gouranga! (doin’ a dance of happyhappy)

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