First fortnight report

This is the end of day 15 of the 92 days of summer, leaving me 77 days - precisely eleven Monday through Sunday weeks - to travel that road of self-improvement outlined here. As Hizzoner Ed Koch used to say, how'm I doin'? Let's look at the e-scrubjaw:

I have been exercising regularly, but this was already a practice before summer.

The skip rope is still hanging on the shed.

I have been cycling as part of my getting about, but haven't made a habit of long rides yet.

I have not run at all, but I have taken a lot of walks.

I have been pretty regular about the ukulele, learning a few chords and trying to fit my stubby fingers to the little neck. I found an on-lone series of lessons that I think will be a good structure.

I have read just two books so far: The Ten-cent Plague and Thud!. I am currently in the middle of The Way of Zen.

Juggling is going a little more slowly than the uke; I seem to have regressed from the last time I practiced regularly (in grad school) and I can seem to get off the plateau. Kris-10 suggested a juggling school she ran across, but it doesn't work into my schedule very well. I found a new video, and I will keep at it.

Art has also been problematic: I switched from a daily cartoon to the full-bore self-contained course from Jessica Abel & Matt Madden, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. Then all heck broke loose with other commitments and distractions, and I haven't made much any progress.

Writing is actually the hardest to figure. Besides HKC and working on ideas for the comics blog, I have the GURPS scenarios, which actually take a lot of the same energy as creative writing, and I helped Sachet with an academic paper, which put me write back in school mode for a couple of days. All of that speaks to process and not product, however; I need to decide if I want to produce a story or a journal article or what this summer, and just do it.

As far as other goals:

I have seen three big-screen movies: The Incredible Hulk, which was great; Indiana Jones &c., which was meh; and, just today, WALL-E, which was moving, touching, multi-layered, and every bit as exquisite as Pixar has led us to expect.

We haven't seen any live performances yet, but as of last night we are making plans for the opera.

And the new Summer Humpdays project is off the ground; one down, eleven to go.

Considering the weather and the exigencies of life, I'll call this a solid start and just keep on truckin'. And hopefully have more to update!

Picture 1

I saw this photograph in an advert in The New Yorker for a gallery and I just loved the composition, subject, and effect; I thought it would be a nice inspiration for the first of my daily cartoons.

I use the word cartoon advisedly. What I have made (or attempted to make) is not an illustration, or a sketch, or a drawing; it is a cartoon. I have tried, unsuccessfully so far, to find a clear articulation of the differences among all those; all I know is that (a) we can tell the difference, as a look at the GIS for each demonstrates, and (b) there's something about using the least amount of lines to portray the essential reality of things that defines cartooning.

So, this was not an attempt to recreate the photo in any detail, but rather just to capture the essence of the moment in a different form and medium. My guy has a little bit of a lean away from the critter (who I made just a dog instead of a hyena), which is different from plantedness of the real guy, but I liked it, so I left it.

Subsequent cartoons will likely have less explanation.

Preliminary post

Day Zero.

Day One.

Day Two.

Day Three.

Day Four.