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August, 2006

  1. Illustration Friday: Run

    August 30, 2006 by Collin

    And oldie, but… an oldie.

    Having no time for something new, I thought this would be a good old drawing that fits the topic well enough.

    Needless to say, since this was drawn about 12 years ago – and it isn’t terribly complex – there will be no breakdown of how I made it.

    And, even though I haven’t had time to create anything new*, I did manage to find a few moments here and there to color some line art that a few people submitted to the Flickr group “Zombie Army”. I feel they also go with this weeks IF topic as being something to run from:

    Zombie Kid-color

    M-80s

    ExtraLife's

    ExtraLife's

    Again, I didn’t draw any of those zombies. I just rosied up their cheeks a bit. And that’s nowhere near as difficult as making something from scratch. Heck, since you all were kind enough to visit, here’s the adventurer in color:

    That took about 13 minutes but you guys are worth it.

    Oh yeah, before I forget to mention it, all of the images are clickable to view at a larger size.

    Have a great weekend everyone.

    * Okay, I probably COULD have made something new, but I just didn’t. I have too much on my mind right now to design new thingies. But I can still color. There should be something new in a bit over two weeks.


  2. The "hard" part is done…

    August 28, 2006 by Collin

    Now all that’s left is the easy bit of moving and combining two apartments into one house. I’m tired and sore right now just from the small amount of moving that we’ve been able to do so far. A huge thanks to Derek, Squatchy, Jess, Karen and Kevin for all their help this past weekend.

    Anyhow, I’m now a home owner. Eventually (I expect by the end of the month or so) I’ll be able to return to being an “artist” for my site. Until then, mind the tumbleweeds. They have sticky fingers and a taste for expensive women and cheap wine.

    My internet connection at my apartment decided to crap out some time yesterday. After 37 minutes on the phone with tech support this morning (I love now having a home phone that lets me know how long I’ve been talking) we were able to determine that something is wrong. Perhaps the modem has crapped out. I don’t know. They don’t know. Nobody knows. Is it going to be fixed? I don’t know. They might know. I hope so.

    Utilities are straightened out for the house, but I still have to call Qwest, inform Earthlink once I know if my phone number will be accompanying me on the move (and once I have internet again), arrange a truck for the 8th & 9th, get change of address forms for the post office, notify my bank, notify my credit card companies, and God knows what else. I’m sure there is more, but I’m just too tired to really think much beyond that. It’s going to be a busy lunch.

    Have a great week everyone! I will at least have something “old” up for this weeks Illustration Friday topic “run”. Probably on Thursday.


  3. Changes #3… 4? I don’t know.

    August 21, 2006 by Collin

    Once again, as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve changed my header. I was tired of the old one and felt that it was time for something new. So, there it is. I apologize to anyone viewing it in a tiny window, because it will cut into the sidebar. As time goes by I’ll try to find out a way that it can be auto-scaled, or perhaps change it to a template that uses the whole top for the header.

    I’ve also dug deep in my archive and found the first post (I think) where I mocked some spam. I pulled it up, dusted it off, corrected a few errors, and added some new bits to it. You can find it at Spam-A-Polooza, our new community-style blog that explores and makes fun of some of that unwanted, unsolicited email that goes by the popular name of “spam”. Right now the content is a bit lean, but we have four contributors so far so it should improve before long. We are also open to anyone else that might be interested. Just let me know in the comments or send me an email.

    And, if everything goes well, we should be closing on our new house this Friday. With luck that’ll mean the migraines will stop. Or at least lessen.


  4. Happy Happy Fun Spam #1

    August 19, 2006 by Collin

    Originally posted on Fizzle and Pop 4/26/2004 and modified slightly.

    This arrived in my mailbox with the subject line of “Dont Blame Ur Bro Being So Small, Try This Out harvey cerise”.

    We have a building wide spam filter in place (hah), so this is some clever stuff to make it through the laser fence.

    Below I will dissect it piece by piece because I can and want to.

    “The world most–effecctive male enhance-ment pi11″

    Okay, I’m sure that spelling pill and enhancement “pi11″ and “enhance-ment” is an attempt to slip this past spam blockers… However this whole spam arrived as an image file, and I don’t think spam blockers use OCR technology. Too clever for their own good.

    -

    “100%. natural botanicals gathered from every corner of the world, only 2 pi11s daily”

    I can think of more than a few corners of the world that I wouldn’t want botanicals from. And I mean botanicals that I wouldn’t put on a windowsill, much less in my body. A dandelion from New Jersey for example.

    -

    “Increase the length of your DICCKY by 2-5 full inches”

    None of that half-inch or quarter-inch crap! They offer FULL inches!

    -

    “Thicken ur DICCKY and make it much fuller & harder”

    “Fuller”? Is that a major selling point for a guy’s DICCKY? Do women check out a man’s groin area and think to herself, “That doesn’t look quite full enough. Gotta pass.”? If so how do beer-bellied cowboy types ever get a woman? I mean, if you put a grape next to a straw and an orange next to a watermelon, the grape may seem fuller by comparison.

    -

    “———————- We ship to all countries ———————-”

    They ship to all countries! THANK GOD! It’s good to know if you are in Borneo and find yourself needing a fuller DICCKY, help is just an email and VISA payment away.

    -

    “WEEK 1-3: Your DICCKY will experience greater and longer lasting erec–tion and a noticeable increase in thickness”

    This would be after 14-42 pi11s. Noticeable to who, exactly? Physicists can notice some awful small stuff and stopwatches can measure milliseconds. To me “noticeable” is pretty much dependent on what you can be bothered to notice.

    -

    “WEEK 4-8: Your DICCKY will have grown in lenngth and will possess much more thickness in both ere–ct and flaccid states”

    56-112 pi11s later. Now, believe it or not, thick WHILE flaccid is actually very important. It helps with the impression of fullness you give off while walking around, AND it gives the guys something to fear while standing around the urinal. It also gives a man a rolling gait, and if you want to be a cowboy that is key. Plus you can use your thrusting hips as a way to terrorize nuns.

    -

    “WEEK 9+: Your DICCKY will have taken on a new body, not just longer and thicker, but much harder & healthier.”

    126+ pi11s. Before this point you might want to consider stopping the pi11s, because, from what I gather from this, your DICCKY will have become large enough and strong enough to rip itself from your body and wander off to find someone else. Someone “harder” and “healthier”. Or, it may go terrorize Tokyo. You know, whatever. It’s a DICCKY. It does what it wants.

    -

    “Booost ur confidennce level & selff-esteem”

    While chemically killing that part of your brain that can spell and form sentences. It’s those New Jersey dandelions I tell you! You’ll be walking around confident and secure in yourself, and possess a fuller groin, yet you’ll be forced to communicate in grunts and whistles. It’s a bit of a trade off.

    -

    “Screw ur lover like never before”

    Take her to a nice secluded spot, far from civilization, have her close her eyes and then release the 11 week old doom DICCKY that you’ve been having to contain in special titanium caged underwear. Hang on for the ride of your life. A warning though, there will be screaming and not the good kind. There’s also a very good chance if she lives, she’ll leave you.


  5. A wee tidbit of info, yet still no art.

    August 17, 2006 by Collin

    My interview is up at Bella Rossa’s home on the web. You can go directly to it here: Interviews With Bloggers Part 19. Afterwards check out her site. It’s pretty cool.

    Here’s a story from this morning. I was zoning too much after dropping my son off at school, thinking about how he’s in his last year of middle school and about moving. Basically thoughts about the future. And I passed right through a red light. Not fast. Just moseying along at about 30 mph. Out of the corner of my left eye I saw that a truck was barreling toward my driver’s side door. I guess he didn’t have time to honk because I never heard anything, but he also didn’t hit me. When I wasn’t hit by the truck I was expecting to get nailed on my right side because I hadn’t even looked that way yet.

    I got real lucky.

    So the lesson there kids is don’t give too much thought to the future or you might not have one. Also, look both ways before crossing the street, even if you are in a car. If you see a vehicle that isn’t stopping, hit the brakes.


  6. Update

    August 15, 2006 by Collin

    Of sorts.

    The house buying proceeds. I just got past the inspection and there aren’t any major problems. My realtor is going to put together a list of things that need fixing and he will pass it along to the seller’s realtor. The closing is still set for the 25th. Whee.

    The downside is I’ve been more stressed than usual, and I haven’t been sleeping that well lately. So I’m starting to feel really run down.

    Also in the pot, I’ve created something that might be great, or it might flop like… something very floppy. My mind isn’t working well right now.

    Anyhow, it’s Spam-a-Palooza, and while there isn’t much of anything there right now, with some time, sunshine, water and manure it just might blossom into something wonderfully stinky, like that corpse-flower in New York. To really make it grow though, I’m going to need help. Thats where you people come in, if you want. Be my manure! Or water. Sunshine? Whatever. My head is thumping in a bad way right now.

    Until later, take care.


  7. Welcome to "Spam-a-Palooza"

    August 15, 2006 by Collin

    I hate spam, yet at the same time I love it.

    I hate it because, much like zombies or the blob it can become overwhelming and can quickly destroy you and those you love.

    Yet I love it because once in a while it can be some of the funniest stuff I’ve read in days.

    And I’ll admit from time to time I enjoy playing with it. At my “home site” I take spam that I’ve received and either play along with it, alter it or outright mock it. It’s fun and it takes something annoying and changes it to something… if not “entertaining” than at least differently annoying.

    I’ve been thinking lately that it would be a good idea to pull all of my old “Spam” tirades onto a single site, and add any new ones as time goes by.

    I’m also opening up “Team Membership” here at Spam-a-Palooza to any other bloggers who have an account with Blogger and some spam they would like to make fun of.

    Just email me* or leave a comment and I’ll add you. The only requirement that I have is anything you post must be in some way about spam without actually being just spam. Be serious, be funny, be profound or profane; it’s up to you.

    That’s it. Sounds like fun, huh? I’ll start adding my posts next week.

    *collin @ fizzleandpop . com


  8. Now why can’t I get spam like this?

    August 8, 2006 by Collin

    Spam for weird bottle opener.

    But no, I just get the same old spam about penis enlargement, mail-order viagra, replica watches, hot stock deals and bargain software.

    Oh, and spam for fatties. Some of you who know me might be thinking, “Well that one is pretty well targeted” and I’ll admit, I can stand to lose some weight. But really, who in their right mind would buy diet pills over the internet?

    Diet pills like these (my additions are in red and I changed the names because I’ve gotten enough cease-and-desist letters, thank you. All typos not in red are theirs):

    Flab-B-Gone — The newest and most exciting fat loss product available – As scen on Oprah

    The show? Or the woman? We’ll let you decide.

    Did you know obesity kills more and more people every year? It’s the massive killer that moves on surprisingly nimble feet. We know you hate the extra pounds, the ugly look on your stupid face and the social stigmata attached to fat people. Not to mention the occasional candy bar you find wedged in one of the many crevasses that criss-cross your gigantic bouncy self. Moreover, you can barely do anything about the addiction to high-fat foods. Just shutting your mouth doesn’t work because, let’s admit it, you have the self control of a locust in a cornfield. This all sounds familiar, fatty-fat-ball-of-lard? Then we have something for you!

    Introducing Flab-B-Gone, the ultimate product for weight loss. Nothing works better at shedding the weight except death, and that’s an option best saved for later. The greatest thing is that Flab-B-Gone improves the quality of your life, making you crave food less, giving you better mood lighting and eliminating the extra weight. It will also do your taxes, walk your dog, read to your children, take out the garbage, satisfy your spouse, overthrow a neighboring country, turn your feet green, slay your enemies, hide your cocaine, talk to the animals and so much more! Read what real people really say about this real product:

    “This is wonderful! Instead of watching TV and stuffing myself with food I became more interested in exercise. I didn’t actually do any, but now I can enjoy watching it for hours on end. Flab-B-Gone got me on the right track. Amtrak. I am more fit now, and there are lots of men around me! Where the hell did all these men come from and why are they eyeing my goodies?

    Big Mac, New York

    “I tried some passive weight losing, you know, like thinking myself thin, but with little result. This terrible appetite for destruction would just kick in and spoil everything. Once I heard about Flab-B-Gone in the media, and I rather liked the information. I thought to myself, “Gosh, that information sure is spiffy. It would look great on the wall next to my paintings of sad clowns.” I tried using it although it was a bit hard to open. I finally had to gnaw through the plastic. Luckily I’m pretty good at gnawing. So I started taking the things, and my wife said I’m a different person now. Apparently they alter your DNA. Now I look like Ross Perot and I think I’m lactating. Here it is, 4 months later. 30 pounds off and I keep losing them! At this rate I should be dead by Christmas. And you know, the bedroom thing is cool, too.”

    Some Guy, San Francisco

    Flab-B-Gone helps your brain understand you don’t need that much food. Some times your brain just needs a bit of help with these things. It improves your mood, gives you energy and attacks obesity with teeny-tiny flamethrowers. All thanks to its combination of natural ingredients like iron, plastic and petroleum!


    UPDATE: I just recieved this spam again today. Almost the same, down to “scen” in the headline. The only things different were the names attributed to the quotes. Hmmm.


  9. Why I’m not posting

    August 5, 2006 by Collin

    I’ve had this week off and I decided to find out if I could buy a house. Turns out that I can. Most likely. So I’ve spent the last several days going through the financing, consolidating my student loans and checking out houses in my price range. We looked through 10 today and are going to see another 13-15 tomorrow. We’ve found three we like so far, with one narrowly in the lead. So, needless to say, I’ve been far too busy to draw. I’ll be back at work on Monday, but I still have no idea when I’ll have time again for drawing.

    Have a great weekend everyone!