A Child Of Atom

Nope. I don't know what happened.

Nope. I can't promise it won't happen again.

Yep. I'm back.

So what have I been up to?

• I learned to snorkel, and actually enjoyed the beach for the first time... ever.
• I completely redid a year and a half worth of a work in 8 weeks to rescue a project.
• I designed a couple shows.
• I was offered a teaching position, which I turned down.
• I assisted on the set for a television series.
  
• I started running and completed a 4 mile race.
  
• I've had four months of running (roughly) 2 to 4 times a week.
  
• I lost about 10 pounds.
  
• And last week... I was laid off.
  

Yeah... that last one probably deserves a bit more of an in-depth look. After 4 or so years of working for the firm, they've hit a few financial snags, and... I was laid off. I had been considering going back to freelancing for a while, to get back to my own work again, but of course I probably would have gone about it in a different way.

So... today is the beginning of my return to freelancing. For now at least. Which means, a redesigned website, a return to paying attention to the job listings... a lot of things.

I also have a few other interesting projects up my sleeve, a potential Etsy store, and some returns to a few past, currently ignored, projects. We'll see how it goes.

I'll keep you up to date.

Today was my 37th birthday. And this very post is the 1000th post to this blog. Coincidentally interesting, huh?

I had a weekend of birthday festivities, a dinner, a brunch, some shots at a bar after derby last night, lots of fun wishes and presents and joy from all around.

It's a good day to be us.

Interestingly some pr firm has gotten it in their head that I would be a good resource for getting word out about their products. So far I have been asked to discuss a photography contest, and a group that sends inner city kids to summer camps. I suppose those aren't TERRIBLY off the mark for things I might discuss, but... it just seems strange to me. I don't feel like I've built up quite enough of an audience to be being targeted for that sort of information. It sort of makes me feel like I've "made it." I will note that they haven't offered to PAY me to write about anything yet, so I guess I haven't "made it" that far.

So... I didn't too well with my Blog A Day goal. Looking at this chart I started strong, going over the daily post schedule for the first two months, then hitting 100% in March. I had THOUGHT that my worst month was July when suddenly I had some Blogger problems that then mysteriously righted themselves. I never have gone back and tried to fix the missing posts there or I probably would have done better. It seems thought that September was actually my worst month... I was traveling quite a bit in September, in and out of Connecticut in the later part of the month. Maybe that was the issue? I can't really remember. I am trying again this year to do a post a day, so I'll see you back here at the end of the year to see how I did.

2007, 2006, 2005

I've spent all day wading through HTML that I barely understand, (well... not ALL day, but a good chunk of it) in order to try and get my new template ready to roll out. Alas it isn't ready. I can't get the date on the thing to display properly, that is my last conundrum. So... for now you'll have to look at this one for a bit longer. Hopefully I'll have it resolved and be able to get it all set up soon. Which did I choose? Well... none of them. Notepad seemed to be the most popular, but when I went to download it I saw something better. Along the same lines as Notepad, but more customizable for me, which is what I have been trying to get finished. It is looking pretty spiffy. Hopefully I can get this date thing resolved and get it up.

Okay... It's time to redecorate. Below are links to several new templates that I am considering. None are exactly right as they are presented, I would have to dust up the HTML in all of them, but have a look, tell me what you like, what you don't like, and help me pick the new look for this site in the coming year! There are thumbnails below, but if you click the name you'll get a full window preview of the template. Thanks for your help!

A few more... interesting... Christmas performance for you:



"Silent Night/Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" by Tom Waits



"Christmas Time Is Here" (Vince Garaldi's Charlie Brown Theme) by... some guy playing a harp.



"Once Upon a Christmas Song" by Geraldine McQueen



"Little Drummer Boy" by Bing Crosby and David Bowie.



"Winter Wonderland" by the Del Rubio Triplets, (with a cameo by Pee Wee Herman and Lawrence Fishburn!)

And Finally...



"Jingle Bells" (of a sort) by Varla Jean Merman.

Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday, whichever it is that you are celebrating.

Blog update: I restored my template tonight to a stored version that I have. That seems to have cleared up the problem of allowing me to make new posts, images and all. Now I just need to get the 4 posts that I have in limbo unstuck and I'll be back on track...

Okay... so it has been brought to my attention that I haven't posted in a few days... which came as a surprise to me, because I HAVE! It seems that when I started the new blog and made the requisite changes to my profile, etc. I must have messed something up. Any post I make that has an image in it (sort of an essential for me) shows up in my archives as posted, but doesn't show up online. I have a note in to Blogger tech, but no reply beyond the automated one yet. For the time being I am still posting them as usual, and hoping that they will eventually make it out to the web as per normal. I am also considering doing a restore of the blog, pasting back in all my old settings and things that I have stored... Sorry.

ITEM! I have started another blog. It will all be explained on the first post over there, but it has to do with this post that I made a few months ago. You can find my newest endeavor here.

ITEM! I was mentioned on io9 (the science fiction blog from Gawker) today. One of their writers spotted my tour of the Marvel Universe shots in my flickr feed, the ones that I made back when I was writing for MetBlogs and wrote the article about the real world locations of Marvel Buildings.

ITEM! Artwork to follow shortly, (in case you wondered where it was.)

When I fall off the horse I fall hard, so I have to get back on just as spectacularly. That's why I am declaring July as Art month. For the next month not only will I get back to posting every day but I will post artwork everyday. Some will be work related, some will be the minor backlog of subway sketches, some will be random doodles from meetings and sketchbooks, but it will be an art filled month. There will still be 12 of 12 photos, and Photo Phridays, after all, photography is art too, but every other day you can expect something I've drawn to be posted. So, I'll see you back here tomorrow for Day 1 of Art Month! It's gonna be good.

Wow. When I fall out of the saddle, I do it HARD, huh? Sorry about that, I'll do my best to get things moving again here before I get too terribly far behind in my year long promise. The move just took a huge chunk of my life away, and the day after that I went away for a three day marathon of roller derby, and then when I got back to the city I had to deal with all these... boxes... and furniture to put together, and... stuff. Not a lot of which got dealt with frankly. All of the furniture has finally been assembled, minus my desk, which has been partially done, but since it is a Frankenstein (Ikea-stein?) of several components I can't complete it until it is in place, which is currently occupied by other belongings. But we are getting closer. The old sofa is gone, there is a bookcase leaving tonight (hopefully) and we have posted several other things at Freecycle and in the Free section of Craigslist to try and get rid of them. We're already sick of boxes and cardboard and not being able to move in the apartment. Hopefully this weekend will be a big push to get past most of that though.

I'm going away this weekend. I'll be in Northern New York, up the Hudson at the Mills/Norrie State Parks. It is the 2nd Annual Kid Flash Is Out Of School Camping Trip! Yay!

So... that means I can't post for the next few days. Sorry guys.

It DOESN'T however mean that I'll be breaking my (already broken) daily blogging pledge. Blogger has introduced "Scheduled Posting" that allows you to create posts in advance, post date them and save them. Then when the time stamp you chose rolls around the posts appear on the regular feeds. I haven't tried it yet, but I've created 3 posts, enough to cover the weekend, and set them to appear on the sight at 5 PM each day. Hopefully they will actually appear when they should. If so, I'll be blogging by remote control, from the woods up upstate NY. If they don't... well, I apologize in advance, and I'll post them when I get back. Here's hoping that isn't the case. Have a great weekend guys, I know I will!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I know I promised a sketch for you guys today but I forgot to scan it at work, and I went to Kid Flash's place rather than home for the evening, so you'll have to check in tomorrow. In the meantime click the above pic to see it animated.

One of the great joys of getting publicity is that other people who have this peculiar hobby of mine (the subway one... not that OTHER one...) contact me and give me the chance to see their work as well. So, meet Gerri, a fellow subway commuter who sketches on the Q line. There have been a couple others who have contacted me also, I'll dole them out as the week continues.

A sketch of my own will be posted tomorrow.

The article ran this morning! You can read the text better here, but I wanted to publish the article because the online version doesn't have images. Yes, they got my name wrong... I have no idea how, the reporter fact checked the article with me, and I seem to remember him calling correctly by name, but maybe not. Oh well!

For those of you coming here because of the article, thanks and welcome, you can check out all of the subway sketches here, or by clicking the link to Flickr in the sidebar. I did a FAQ about my sketches last year which you can find here. And of course you can buy the book here or by clicking the link in the sidebar! The book contains 99 sketches from a gallery show that I did in December 2006. Again, welcome, and I'll see you on the trains.

UPDATE: Well, I got an email last night from the writer that had interviewed me warning that the article might get bumped for space, but that it would run eventually. Turns out that he was correct, it did not run this morning, but keep looking, I'll update you when it does run.



In the morning, on your way to the subway, pick up a copy of the Metro (the freebie give away paper) if you don't normally. I was interviewed last week by their city blogs column!

(For the rest of you I'll update this page with a link to the article tomorrow morning.)

I was doing so well. I posted every day for 31 days.

Yesterday I sat down at work and wrote a new post because I knew I wouldn't have time to do it before I went to bed. I was set, I was on the road to 29 more days of posting.

This morning I received a comment on my previous post, "You jinxed yourself!" At first I wasn't sure what it meant. Jinxed myself in regards to what. I went to the blog to post a reply to the comment and realized... my post from yesterday wasn't there! That's what they meant... they thought I'd broken my streak, but I hadn't... had I? I reloaded the page hoping it was just a "refresh" issue. But it wasn't... the post was gone. (Also for some reason my graphics at the top of the page are missing...)

So I logged into Blogger. The post was visible in my edit feature... but as a draft, not as a post. I had pressed the wrong button! I didn't press "publish" I pressed "save now." The post sat in my control panel all night... accomplishing nothing. Drat and blast! So, I've published the post. That problem is solved... now I have to solve the issue of where my graphics got to....

Forgive me?