No Touch Monkey!

In the journal's 28 September 2007 issue, Science, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, is pleased to present the winners and honorable mentions in the fifth annual Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The articles linked on this page describe the accomplishments of the creative and gifted scientists, artists, and others who put the winning entries together, as well as an online slide presentation that showcases the competition's winners and honorable mentions. In addition, in a segment of the Science Podcast, one of the competition's judges talks about what goes into a winning scientific image. All material is freely available for all site visitors.

via Slashdot

Check out the animation for Nicotine in the bloodstream. Its very cool. Also of interest: Physics Education Technology at CU Boulder

Labels: Gosh_Wow, Visual Thinking

Now that I've got a couple of pens, post it notes, a highlighter and a black swingline, I've been given a To Do List. Essentially I'm rebuilding an entire site...by myself.



Sure it looks scary, but I'm looking forward to the challenge, the experience and a major portfolio piece.

Click the image for a modest photoset.

Labels: work

How odd to be working full-time for a "Corporation". Sure I've gone in "Business Casual" for a few days here and there, but full-time? I had to buy some new clothes: 4 shirts and two pants. I hope everyone likes brown because they are all variations (excepting the black shirt). So with the clothes I have now that means I have all of 7 or 8 shirts to wear, half of those short sleeved. Perhaps no one will notice that I wear the same outfits every week but switch up the days. One shouldn't blow all the new income on fancy threads if I'm gonna be piloting a cube.

Cubes. Yep, there are lots of them. Small ones with tiny in rows, all of them with monitors visible to all passers by. Luckily for me I don't plan on goofing around (because soon as I'm broken in...think avalanche). So I will be able to maximize my productivity because...most websites are blocked!

This is a potential problem because I often need to access message boards for information and help, but all message boards are blocked, are all chat applications. So for the first time in 8 years I am cut off from the friendly presence of my wife. This is the only thing that bugs me. We don't constantly chat all day, but it's nice to know she's there.

So that's the deal for now. I have a feeling that soon I'm going to be tossed into the deep end of the pool, so I've got to be on the ball.

Labels: work

Today I was offered a job as Web Developer for a web travel company. I was recruited by Kelly IT who found me on Monster.com. Oddly enough, this is the first time I've ever heard of anyone actually getting a job through Monster. This company wanted me because I am a Graphic Generalist and know a little bit of everything with the capacity to go deeper if needed.

I will be a department of 1 working in conjunction with a dept. of 3 in who work for another branch of the office, directly under the CEO and 2 VPs.

I'm certain I will be doing these things: Formatting documents to work on the web, creating websites within certain design parameters using CSS, photo-retouching, text editing and correction on the website, creating Flash animations.

Things I will most likely be doing later on: learning some scripting code for web and Flash, editing video/audio, creating e-learning modules so the sales reps can train on-line.

Right now there is a huge backlog of work to be done, and they want me to be the guy to do it. I suspect the work will be challenging enough to keep me interested at pay level I would call, "Getting there," but still more than I've made previously. It's not an issue. I do, however, have to dress business casual, i.e. no T-shirts (blank or otherwise), no shorts or jeans. So I did a little shopping today, I refuse to wear collared "golf shirts" (have BAD associations with those, and look doofy in them), so I'm gonna snazz it up a bit, and wear button downs.

I really don't want to make a big deal about it, because I'm going to go in, sit down, make nice and do the job in front me to the best of my ability.

Thanks for the warm wishes and support.

Labels: personal, work

Not nearly as tasty. Kind of gross actually. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

I was at Whole Foods today when I noticed this:



Being the Chocomonster that I am, I bought it. Let me tell you, it's pretty damn tasty. It tastes like a chocolate-covered pretzel but with more smoky bacon chips in it and creamy smooth. I've only had 2 nibbles because it's outrageously priced and it's 32% saturated fat per 3 square serving, but you know what? I LIKES it.

Labels: The Cap'n

Michelle, Wodensdag, St. Disgruntled, Carolyn, Tatiana, Holly, Valaria and Dulce. Remember ladies. When suckling a monkey, the monkey should always go on the left, which is "sinister" as opposed to "dexter" where YOUR child goes. That way when zoo finally gets around dropping by, you don't give the wrong one up.



Woman feeding her child and a monkey cub, A photograph on display in an exhibition organised by Photo JournalistsAssociation of Ahmedabad at Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur on Saturday.

viv Monkey Filter

Labels: Nothing to see here folks-move along

I started it last night and I couldn't put it down. It has a Noir Spy vs Spy quality to it, but with 3 dimensional characters with motives and hearts. I highly recommend it.



I worked with Matt Kindt Artist and Writer of Super Secret Spy. He's deep in the tedious grind of button making along with myself this week. He said the hand I drew (below) looks pretty good. Cool!

This looks like a pretty neat book, and the I like the illustration, so I'm going to pop down to the local comic shop and pick up a copy. If you want, you can read it on-line, but as you can imagine, Matt would be happy if you bought it.

Labels: Comics

Last week my friend Jon asked me if I wanted to go to this Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. Billed as "Drinking & Drawing" with Burlesque Dancers at a local coffee house/bar I figured it was some sort of art gallery-exhibit, and I ducked out of my neighbor's Washers Tournament.

Much to my surprise it was a frisky half-nude Burlesque Dancer figure drawing session. Luckily, for not knowing what was going on, I did have my drawing marker with me. So I bought a sketch pad for 2 bucks and started drawing.



Ok, Ok. It's been 13 years since I've drawn any kind of figure and only what? 3 weeks since I actually started drawing. Her Lola van Ella's ass is not that proportionally big, and that stuff above her butt is lingerie. I think the shadows are in the right place.

Of course the place had about 25 folks all drawing away and drinking martinis and beer. Lola also sang a torch song and prizes were given away. I did not win a prize for "Add Lola into another environment." Jon's aliens were much better. The Dr. Sketchy gig will be once a month, so I plan to attend again, and since Jon won a free pass to the next one, I'm sure he's gonna go too.

I don't think the drawing is too bad for my first foray out. Like I've said before and will say again and again: It's gonna take a long time to get "good", and it's the journey that's interesting. I think I'm already above "suck" and heading towards, "ok,it's not perfect, but I don't hate it."

Labels: on the refrigerator door

I doodled this ear today from a picture I found on line. This is my first successful hatch shading.

Labels: on the refrigerator door

Alessandra and I have been watching Slacker Cats on ABC Family. I think it's hilarious, but sometimes I have to wonder about myself. Like most good shows, the funniest characters are the secondary ones. Like Tabitha.

Labels: Ahahahahaha

Orenthal James (was a mighty bad man)
Listen

Orenthal James was a mighty bad man
He killed two people last night
Chopped off their heads in West L. A.
Musta been a mighty sharp knife poor boy!
Musta been a mighty sharp knife

One was his X-wife, the other one her lover
Orenthal was a very jealous man
He hid in the bushes and began to mutter
If I can't have her nobody else can

He flew to Chicago, two cuts on his hand
Two bodies discovered too fast
his outa town alibi gone up in smoke
Now we find out 'bout his wife beatin' past
find out about his wife beatin' past

They threw him in jail, they brought him to trial
Orenthal hired million dollar turkeys
Told so many lies, I almost went blind
If he didn't ddo it who did? Poor Boy!
If he didn't do it who did?

Orenthal had the motive and opportunity too
He planned it all and tried to escape
Wrote a suicide note but wasn't man enough
To speak the truth and seal his fate. Poor Boy!
There was blood in the car and blood on his clothes
Thou they never did find that knife
He smiled for the cameras and bought him some justice
And got away with killin' his wife

When the foreman returned and said not guilty
I couldn't believe my ears
Orenthal James is a mighty bad man
Ought be in jail for 400 years
Servin' tme for 400 years

Orenthal James killed his bimbo X-wife
The mama of his children, too
Been in Hollywood so long
He starts to believe the big lie
Don't let it happen to you

Orenthal James is a very bad man
Killed two people last night
Chopped off their heads in West L. A.
Musta been a mighty sharp knife, Poor Boy!
Musta been a mighty sharp knife.

Karma is a bitch.

Labels: Insanity, Worth your time

LIMA (AFP) - Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday.

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.

Good thing this occurred in a remote village, it's morally easier to nuke from orbit than Main Street USA, when the villagers turn into Flesh Eating Ghouls or Body Snatchers.

Get well soon.

Labels: WTF

My wife told me recently about a guy from my homeland, England, who has such powers of mind control that he can pay for almost any item with blank sheets of paper. I laughed it off. Then I saw the video and was quite amazed by the power of the human mind.

The video shows you how he does it, but it basically revloves around the idea that the mind sees what it expects to see. No-one would dare pay for an item with blank paper, and because Mr. Brown keeps your mind busy your primal brain kicks in and concentrates on language rather than something more obvious. The result is that Mr. Brown can pay for almost anything with nothing. Quite a trick.

I haven't watched this yet, but I fully intend to.

God damn it!

Labels: Fuck The Man, Musical Media

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

So what happened? Read On.

I was bullied in HS, it sucked. Even kids who were my friends the year before pushed me around, I mean it sucked hard.

Read the story and smile.

Lots has happened, but nothing has happened so I'm going Stream of Consciousness because I think of things that would fit in a post but have no place.

I've been busy learning to draw. I have 3 books I'm working from to upgrade my skills. Drawing for drawing sake, Drawing to communicate, and design. They all use different parts of the creative brain. My dreams have become extremely vivid. A few days I woke up beginning to scream because a witch was chasing me. A few after that, I woke up laughing because I was in a Simpsonsesque cartoon, and the night after, I woke up in a panic because I didn't get into Grad School (???) Odd.



It's gonna be a looong process, but for a change the path is more important than the destination.

Thank you for donating to my MS Bike Ride. This year, with minimal training I blew through 40 miles the first day and with proper hydration, 40 miles the second day. Next year, for certain 75 the first day.

After the ride while I waited for friends at the Traditional Lunching Place, I could feel by body eating itself.

...I'm freelancing a place this week where me and a couple of other guys have to make 4500+ buttons for a marketing website, by Friday!

At the same place I'm waiting for the elevator up to the 5th floor. A young woman arrives at the elevator with me.

She: fixes her hair in the Employee of the Month frame and applies lip gloss. She looks at her watch.

I stand there.

Elevator arrives, she checks her her cell phone and smooths her outfit. I stand there.

Door opens, she fixes her hair and smooths her clothes again before exiting. I stand there. She's hot, so it's ok.

In the same elevator is a flyer for a company game day on Friday. Teamwork building fun day. The illustration of the team members has them all holding giant puzzle pieces and assembling them. I look closer, if it were Real Life, the pieces wouldn't fit.

...yesterday I saw a Grungy Biker with Harley help a teenage girl with stalled Pink Scooter.

..."A Hate Powered Love Machine."

Running to Stand Still. I'm out of blog time already. Its nearly time to mediate and go to bed.

Oh yeah, I'm meditating too.

Labels: Nothing to see here folks-move along, The Cap'n

Sung to the tune or REM's It's the end of the world as we know it.

Labels: Ahahahahaha

20 years between then and now.

Every time I come to Columbia, Missouri I get punched in the stomach. The gestalt overload of the memories seems almost too much. This was the first place i ever felt at Home, the first place I had real friends, found love, lost love, smoked a lot of weed and formed a lot of memories which kind of blur together, that leave me with a throbbing knot of longing and loss.

As you all know, memories are funny, and are definitely an interpretation of the truth of the event. Built up by the romance of time, the memories of your youth are baked by the inner fire of that time and then polished by the grit kicked up from your daily grind. Things were so much better then..." Sigh.

That's just the memory, and not the truth of the matter, of which it makes no difference what actually occurred, but how you remember it.

Check out this picture taken in 1987.



I was in the process of transforming from Preppie to Hippie. Forget the helmet, it was a friends, but see I had the hippie bracelets going on. It was a slow transformation. In another picture, I'm wearing a gigantocrystal in a woven hippie sack, and oh look, I have an earring hole.

Embarrassing story time: At the time of this picture I was waging Scent Warfare on Eileen (who now swings by NTM from time to time...I think). You see, I was with my mom once and for some reason she took me to Saks 5th Ave. And she thought I should have a cologne, so Mama said the ladies would like Fendi, but I didn't much care for it. The Very Hot fragrance counter lady said she liked it ($$$) so I had Mama buy it. In case you've never smelled it...it's STRONG, and probably smells like ass. So I would wear this shit all the time, especially when visiting Eileen's room. Perhaps that's why she smoked so much (I smoked too, it was a regular Smokatorium that Summer.)

When she was out of the room, I would rub my neck on her pillow, and then one day she told me she had a dream about me, so I "knew I was in." and eventually we started dating.

Getting back to the main story, here I am in Columbia, Missouri. This time, for the first time, I walked around the campus and tried to reconcile some personal highlights, and I see that they've added some new really large buildings, but it's all pretty much the same. Weird.

Tomorrow, me and the other team of folks I know down here will be getting some pizza at Shakespeare's Pizza where I used to work as a driver during the Magical Summer of No Responsibility, a Steady Girl and lots of Legos. Hopefully this time they won't be playing music from the 80's station like last year, because that really freaks my shit out, and I start looking around wildly for people I know to walk in the door. Then I get to go back to my wife and work on forging more memories, so when I'm older still, I can look back and say, "Ah, those were the days!"

Labels: The Cap'n, Too Much Information

Whelp, my last team mate, Sappo has flaked out, so it's just me as a team of one. On the plus side, he has a job interview on Saturday so I can't fault him. Rock on Sappo!

I have stuff to post but I want to get some drawing done tonight.

Here, watch something funny.

Labels: Fun Stuff

It's that time a year again where I solicit strangers and friends alike to donate to my MS Bike Ride: Donate Here



This year, the team of Cap'n Marrrrk and the Scurvy Dogs consist of Cap'n Marrrrk and 1 Scurvy Dog (my friend Sappo). Without a $5k donation from Hooters this year, it will be more difficult to raise the required 500 bucks. So could you please kick in some green?

Thanks!

Labels: Worth your time