On the High Seas of Lake Michigan

On Tuesday, I took a little cruise with my crew at Morningstar aboard the Tall Ship Windy, followed by libations and comestibles at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at Navy Pier. Good times -- it was a very pleasant day for it. Several intrepid photographers numbered among our crew, and the following pictures were among those taken.

Preparing to batten down the hatches, or shiver me timbers, or something.

Me trying to help raise the sail without elbowing poor Mindy in the face.

Chris, Andrius, Andrey, myself, and Cliff. Yarrrr.

Drawing, 2006-07-26

Green Lantern! Actually, I think this is my best work yet. The shading could use some work, though. And man, it took me a good four or five tries to get the head and face anywhere near close to right. Also, sorry about the glare from the lighting, making the shiny pencil all glarey and crap. Damn, I need a scanner already!

Anyway, this one's for you, Dad. ZAP!

Older than Dirt

Did you guys know that Haley Joel Osment, the cute little kid from Sixth Sense and other movies, is eighteen freaking years old?! Man. I feel old.

Drawing, 2006-07-24 part 2

Behold: Cap! Again, still needs work on proportion. You can see the guidelines I drew, in accordance with the age-old eight-heads-tall rule. I need to get used to that; I have a tendency to draw characters too short, closer to six or seven heads.

Also, let me say right now that my complete lack of 1337 coloring and shading skeelz is not the point of this drawing! I need to work on form first. The coloring was more of an afterthought -- really, it's an excuse to try out my expensive new colored pencil set. :)

Drawing, 2006-07-24

Here's a little pic of Superman I did yesterday. The musculature and proportions are a little off -- they're my #1 sticking point right now. Practice makes perfect!

Pumping Iron, 2006-07-24

Here's what I managed today. All weights are minus the weight of the bar, which varies. Anyway, it's not the absolute weight that's important, so much as the relative weight between sessions; if the numbers are generally going up, I'm happy!

(Also, "e" means the empty bar. Generally used for warmup sets.)

Squats	e x 12, 100 lbs. x 9, 7
Pullups	1, 0.7 (not quite all the way up!)
Bench presses	e x 12, 55 x 7, 6
Deadlifts	e x 12, 90 x 7, 8
Military presses	e x 12, 35 x 6, 4
Bent-over rows	40 x 11, 10 (on these, my legs were all a-quiver near the end of each set...I'll have to be careful.)

Starting over

Needless to say, I have been extraordinarily derelict in my blogging duties! This isn't surprising to me, but I think it is good for me to get some writing in. So, here's what's going on:

1. Birthdays! I turned 28 on July 16th, and Laura turned 23 just two days ago. Happy day of birth to both of us!

2. Dieting. I certainly don't consider myself fat, really, but I do have a little somethin'-somethin' that I could stand to lose. So - all aboard the low-carb express! I'll start probably Thursday, after I get some groceries.

3. Exercise. I just got back from the gym, in fact. Been lifting the weights -- a good idea whether you're trying to build muscle or lose fat, since in the latter case, it reduces muscle loss, which is important! Maybe I'll start keeping a log here.

4. Drawing - I'm getting back into it. I don't have a scanner - I need to get one - but I do have a nice digital camera. I'll post some of the work I do here, so you have pretty things to look at.

Let's see if I can't keep this going. On your mark...get set...