Easter Afternoon

by on April 8, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Posted In: Test

Well I hope everyone had a great Easter. For the most part this was just a typical Sunday for me and I pretty much the usual routine which consisted of going to University Friend’s Meeting and helping out with lite lunch. The good thing about this was that I’ve finally gotten the chance to enjoy the weather. This year (Last year now) I had made a resolution not to wimp out on riding my bicycle everywhere once the weather got bad. This paid off. I’ve saved a fortune on bus fare and I am in better shape than I have been in years. However that did not stop it from being an ordeal. With spring finally coming out in force I’m happy to say I’m finally able to ENJOY my bike rides again.

So once I was done my responsibilities. I decided this was the perfect day to commune with nature and go walk in the  Arboretum..I hadn’t gone for some time and it was worth it. I did the Marsh walk as well as some of the other trails (To be honest I didn’t do that much. In fact I dozed off on a park bench for a half hour) All in all it was quite pleasant.

On the way home I decided to do one of my experiments to avoid some of the more annoying hills. This time it involved cutting through Ravenna Park. Just as I was about to cut off to get to take the trail that would take me to the street I wanted I heard a strange bird call I didn’t recognize. This was followed by a loud hooting. Now obviously this last one was an owl but the call was so clear and loud and in the daytime I briefly thought it might be some of the LARPers, who like to use Ravenna park for their games, doing bird calls. Someone who was passing by said that the Owl had been heard a few times for the last couple of times but no one had seen it. Though it was clear that the local crows new where it was.

I started walking closer to the noise. Trying to see if I could see either one of the birds. The first call I heard turned out to be a Cooper’s Hawk (okay I confess it could have been a Sharp-Shinned I wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart in a police line up.) It appeared to be mobbing the Owl. Finally the Owl appeared. It was a Barred Owl, and a big one and, with it’s feathers fluffed up in a threat display, strangely cute. I’d seen one in a zoo before but for obvious reasons never in the wild.

The hawk finally gave up and flew off. I continued watching the Owl until a Humming Bird showed up and apparently drove the owl off. I went home having definitely gotten my money’s worth for the day.

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Friday Museum Sketches

by on April 6, 2012 at 10:17 am
Posted In: Art

Today’s sketch is another one from the Louvre’s Roman Sculpture collection that was on tour four years ago at the Seattle Art Museum. This piece is from a marble alter consecrated to the Goddess Seline in the second century AD in Italy. The Moon-goddess Selene accompanied by the Dioscuri, (Castor & Pollux)  or Phosphoros (the Morning Star) and Hesperos (the Evening Star).

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Emerald City Day 3

by on April 1, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Posted In: Test

Well it’s done.

And while I’m relieved and exhausted I will admit to have had a good time and despite the final day being utterly insane I shall chalk it up as a success. It started with not being able to reach my assistant. I hadn’t gotten a comfirmation from him the day before and had left emails and messages for him but had not gotten any reply. I tried to call him (and frankly it’s hard not to feel like a jerk calling someone at seven o clock in the morning) and only got his mother who didn’t seem to understand what the situation was. I had no choice to go to the con on schedule though I made a point of traveling lite as i had a bad feeling I’d be the only person carrying my gear home. When I arrived at the convention center I waited downstairs by the fountain on the off chance he had received my message but had just not gotten back to me… no luck. I tried to call a few other times but still no luck. I had no choice but to get on with the day.

All in all the day went well considering Sundays at a con tend to be a bit slower I had lowered my prices a bit and ended up having three sales. This means that this was my most successful con yet relatively speaking. Unfortunately I was unable to get out and network being stuck at my table all day. But i still passed out a whole lot of cards and think I got the word out fairly well. Thankfully I was able to get everything home on my own even though it was tedious at best. (a backpack full of five foot long plastic tubing is… comic)

In hindsight I have a few things to think about for future cons. I need to come up with merchandise items besides the books and they need to be cheap so people will buy them on impulse. I’ve been thinking of a few poster ideas and am still considering stickers and buttons. As for the book the one thing that had become painfully obvious was that the only title that was really selling was the first book. Which is kind of embarrassing for me as the art shows it’s age pretty badly. Still I can undersatnd that and because of this I think I should focus on a new addition rather than newer volumes.

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Emerald City Day 2

by on March 31, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Posted In: Test

Well to start with, it was raining and I hadn’t slept as well as I would have liked. I had a touch of sore throat, probably a bit of the so called “convention crud” the day before and had gone to bed early to nip it in the bud. Easier said than done and I woke up way too early… But at least it mostly took care of the cold.

So anyway I was up by six with two hours to spare and caught my bus right on schedule. Regrettably my assistant for the day, Raven was not quite as lucky and was late… Very late. It was the bus’s fault but it still had me waiting and worrying way too long. By the time Raven finally arrived there was hardly enough time to do all the things I like before the show starts. The main reason I like to get to the con ridiculously early along, with sucking up the bad luck, is getting to meet and talk to potential colleagues before we all have to start working our own tables. I was also finding myself torn between pessimism and optimism as the countdown began. I had decided to make due with my current stash of petty cash rather then get more from the bank. Because of this i was a little worried if I would have enough five dollar bills and I might want to get more before it was too late. (of course this concern was based on the assumption eight people would give me twenty dollar bills before the bank closed at one.

Any way it was certainly a busy day. With more fun watching all of the different fans and all of the costumes they wore. It was extremely crowded to the point the fire marshal closed registration for a couple of hours. Frankly it kept reminding me of the time I was in Venice during Carnival. On our end we did good selling two books thus making this convention a much bigger success than last year (and still a day to go!) The biggest thing I’d noticed is that my biggest seller is the first book. Id’ been wanting to retire the title as the quality of the art is a little bit embarrassing compared to what I’m producing these days but it looks like everyone wants to star at the beginning. Something I’m going to have to look into perhaps I’ll merge the first two books together.

Thoughts?

Anyway the day left me quite drained and I think I will sleep well tonight.

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Emerald City Day 1

by on March 30, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Posted In: Test

Well the first day of the Emerald City Comic Con is done and I’m still alive. Other than a few tiny panicky bits It was a good first day. The panicky bit included being my assistant being a little late. While it wasn’t any big the deal since I always like to get to these things early as i enjoy watching set up, it’s the best time to network but first day jitters make my imagination come up with every conceivable worst case scenarios and a few new ones as well. The second one was entirely my own fault. I had bought a soda at Bartel’s mainly to make change for the bus and I forgot a simple rule… don’t carry a bottle of soda in your jacket pocket. They have a tendency to explode when you open them. Fortunately I managed to contain the worst of it and got most of it on me and the floor and none on any product. Still it was a pain to clean up and left me sticky for the next half hour.

Other than that things started out well there was quite a decent crowd for a Friday and I sold one book (so I’ve already done as well as I did last year) and I got to talk with several colleagues most notably Clint Wolf the creator of Zombie Ranch.
I’m looking forward to the busiest day, Saturday. And to function properly i better get to bed. I found myself having a touch of post nasal drip and I’m trying to nip it in the bud.

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