Monthly Archives: November 2008

Lesnar is no Kimbo

So last night PPV didn’t want to sell me anything (error code PPV-168… does that mean I haven’t paid my bill? who knows…) so I found a free stream of the live fight on justin.tv and watched it there instead. I had been on hold for an hour with Rogers to try and deal with it before I gave up — I figure I earned watching it for free after making more than a good faith effort to get it the normal way.

As I expected, Lesnar destroyed Couture, and I assume he’ll hold onto this belt for a while, although it won’t surprise me if there’s a hiccup along the way as he’s still learning the sport. He did get cut, so maybe a scar, since we now know that chicks really do dig scars!

Yeah, stories like that make me miss modblogging.

Well, here’s a fight video… I’ll take down this entry when the video dies.

 

An awful lot of big pictures

Nefarious has become quite completely obsessed with the level creator in Little Big World and is ignoring me… It’s really amazing how quickly a child progresses — be it swimming, reading, gaming, or any other inspiring form of play; it develops incredibly rapidly if they enjoy it. So I do my best to keep her targeted on things that have productive value in developing her overall potential (the gaming also helps with reading and motivates her to learn to do it better), and encourage her to play at them.

Last night I sketched out “The Cure of Folly“, based on a Hieronymus Bosch painting that I’m sure many recognize. I’m quite thrilled with how it is going so far (shameless plug: buy my 2009 art calendar or my bod-mod calendaror a t-shirt — if you like my art).

It’s totally overcast and rainy today so I couldn’t get a good shot of The Opium Den, but here’s a photo of it with a flash — you can see that it’s quite luminous in the right lighting and perhaps the difference between this and the previous photo show you just how tricky it is to capture. This picture is actually probably closer to the real thing than the previous one.

Another morning of trapeze class today… I think Nefarious took them by surprise when she scampered up the rope nearly to the ceiling — our time rock climbing has paid off. Or maybe it’s our less-encumbered-by-safety-gear climbing at the park? In terms of physical education, I’m hoping to nab some of the other parents at her school into taking judo with us… Judo I think would appeal to Nefarious, who of course loves tumbling and fighting (yeah, I think I might watch the big PPV tonight).

And as someone else pointed out when I mentioned it before, judo really teaches you how to take a fall, which truly is an invaluable skill when you find yourself needing it! I remember once as a child (my parents forced me into judo after I strangled some kid on the school bus after he called me a ‘kraut’) slipping and falling on an icy playground, doing an instinctual breakfall, and realizing “wow, this really works!” Plus joint-locks are an equalizer, and I think everyone should be able to defend themselves.

Caitlin went to the Royal Winter Fair yesterday, so maybe I’ll do that today still, but I think more likely we’ll just go swimming. She brought me back some delicious maple tarts, adding to my enormous girth, especially since I also bought a cake earlier in the day. Haha, well, hopefully now that I’m back at the gym I can get back to eating anything I want without consequences.

Oh, and isn’t this the ultimate phone booth? (Chatting with mommy).

Feeding the birds

The ducks were very happy to see Nefarious today and get a bit of a slice of old bread. The geese, not so much, although one of them was brave enough to eat out of her hand which surprised me. Then some school friends stopped by the park and we played for a while and explored the forest…

“The Opium Den” completed

I’ve spent the morning finishing off The Opium Den and have posted it (you can click through for a better quality and high res shot) on my gallery site. Because I ended up glazing it a few layers deep with a series of red, yellow, and brown polymer layers, it’s quite subdued and both very dark and very glossy, so I had to take this photo in quite dim lighting and a four second exposure. While I still think it’s a pretty good project, I’m least happy with this of my latest works, so if you want to make me an offer on this (snowrail@gmail.com) now is the time to low-ball me! I’ll try and re-shoot it though, because it does look better in real life and the colours are definitely off.

And if you like it, check out my 2009 art calendar (or the 2009 weekly body modification calendar as well)… Both would make great Christmas presents, hint hint!

Imagining Lighter Than Air Animals

Wow, this “fish blimp” is amazing… It really makes you think about what could have evolved on this planet had lightning struck differently, or perhaps what currently lives on some gas giant planet. Very beautiful and fluid. There’s also a few other blimp-fishes, as well as flying jelly-fish and manta blimps and more if you browse various video sites.