New Book?

So I had to go to court this morning (which I have some truly hilarious stories about, which hopefully I will be in a position to tell one day) and it seems that at my last legal appointment the valet in the parking lot lost my front parking lot! Assuming the plate (which says “BMEZINE”) wasn't stolen, the valet must have lightly bumped the front bumper and knocked off the holder… I was all paranoid that I was going to get pulled over and be late, but as it turns out I was quite early.

Anyway, to kill time while I waited — there was a lot to kill — I read the new WIRED magazine, and there was something in it about on-demand printing… It got me thinking that I should republish the interviews that I've done for BME, and maybe a handful of things from ModBlog as well, and lay them out into a file that could be printed that way. As much as I love doing online publishing, I really like books, and personally prefer reading print than computer screens.

If anyone reading this wants to handle the grunt work of doing the layout and putting everything together, I'd be more than willing to split the profits… Write me if you're into the idea (snowrail@gmail.com).

City Beasts

Nefarious and I have done a total of four hours of “hiking” in the last couple days — taking really long walks through the forest and climbing trees and so on. It's amazing how much wildlife we've seen… Today we were walking and saw a big brown rabbit in front of us, about the size of a large cat. It wasn't scared of us at all, and wasn't injured or acting strangely, other than being effectively tame which was strange to say the least. It hopped away leisurely and we walked behind it for about ten minutes… I actually think it might have been a pet rabbit that someone dumped in the forest, because I've never seen a wild rabbit behave like that.

We also watched geese stomping around in the half melted ice which was pretty funny, and they were really worked up in general and we saw quite a few violent fights between them also… Tons of birds were out, as well as the usual downtown beasts like ducks and squirrels and all that. Other than that, the yaks in the park really liked having their heads scratched.

I hope people enjoyed the Pig Latin on IAM this morning and didn't get too upset — I saw a couple pissy posts about it, haha, seriously, have a sense of humor and don't be so serious. The April Fools article was sort of last minute and I didn't predict just how hard it would be to Photoshop off a nose! I was kind of surprised anyone was fooled! Well, time to finish off the update I'm uploading tonight, play some five-button guitar, watch BB9, and go to bed.

I forgot my camera unfortunately… Of course I took that random picture at a different park in much warmer weather…

Niagara Falls Photos

Went out to Niagara Falls today as I'd promised Nefarious that we'd go in the tunnels behind the falls, and Caitlin wanted to visit her mother and go to the butterfly conservatory… I really love the Falls in the cold weather a lot more than in the summer (other than I always enjoy the Maid of the Mist, but it doesn't run in the winter).

 

Can't go wrong with Saturday

I went to the park today with Nefarious and after kicking her boots off from the swings, she stomped around the park in her bare feet for about ten minutes before putting them back on… Haha… I remember when I was a kid, my brother and my favorite spring game was playing in the creek behind the barn. The top half would be frozen, and the bottom part was open (that is, there was still ice on the top half of the creek, and the bottom was completely thawed). We'd run along the frozen part with our sleds, and then right before it turned into water, jump on the sleds, and skip along the water, eventually sink into it… Totally soaked, sitting in icy water, over and over. So I'm not too concerned.

She's asked to come swimming in the winter, which I know is safe because plenty of kids around the world do it, but mostly because of how far the water is from our house I don't think it's a good idea and haven't agreed. Very brave little girl!

We all did a bunch of painting as well… You can see what I'm working on below, and I posted a couple closeups of the progress on my art blog as well. Well, now Nefarious is in bed, and Caitlin has gone out with her friends, so I have an evening of trying to complete my far-too-difficult mission of getting five stars on every song on Rock Band on expert.

World’s Wisest Future Hot Dog

Nefarious, Caitlin, and I spent a couple hours painting… Three new projects are well on the way. Here’s where mine is at so far. I figure it’s about half done in this photo. As always, it involves my secret to life in art: just add snakes!”

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Edit/Update: I actually changed the picture a bit since then… Added some foreground, and changed it from night-time to day-time, and changed my mind about the eyepatch, as I don’t really want the boar to be quite that “mean” looking. Still lots more to go though.

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