IDLE HANDS...

It's been almost a full month since my last blog post. I get caught up in little projects and fixated sometimes and stay offline at times. I thought I'd share a few little things.

I dug out the Nintendo 64 and thought I'd take another crack at Donkey Kong. I played a few minutes of it years ago and couldn't really figure out the game and gave up but this time I got addicted pretty quick.



I spent over 60 hrs not only beating the game, but getting every single coin, golden banana, including all the secret ones. My problem with video games is I'm never satisfied with just beating them I have to get all the top scores and secret stuff. I haven't gotten hooked on a game for about five years for that reason. It's kind of like a good book you can't put down (more like a drug). It's better not to touch them as far as I'm concerned.

There was a guy who posted walkthroughs of the entire game on Youtube with commentary which I watched along with my play. By the time the game/videos were done I felt like I lost a nerdy friend which is pretty pathetic but totally me. I got used to his dorky humor and catch phrases. His Youtube name is GNRfan (Gun's and Roses fan?) he's done a lot of videos for different games and probably has about as many friends as I do.



Anyway, game has been beaten and done with. I drew a picture of Donkey Kong in my sketch book to seal the deal and remind me of those hours.



I'm too sentimental sometimes. Speaking of that, I was proud of myself for letting go of sentimentality the other day.
A lady I work with was collecting pop tabs for a donation to the Ronald McDonald House which I'm pretty familiar with as a cancer survivor. She had asked me if I had any cans I could pull the tabs off and immediately remembered the year 1997 when I decided just for fun to save the pop tabs off every can of pop I drank for an entire year. I was curious, and I know I drink a lot so on January 1st of 1997 I began pulling the tabs off every can I drank and sticking them in my back pocket. Before I went to bed every night I would stick them in a jug on my dresser. A year later on December 31 I dumped them on the carpet and counted them. There were 763. I strung them on a string and made a necklace which I've saved ever since.



So after a couple days I decided to donate my necklace to sick kids. I wanted to wear it for the last time and had my daughter Sam take a photo of me hopping around like an ape (too much Donkey Kong).



Not only did I neglect my blog/Facebook but I also try to do at least one drawing a day in my sketchbook to prevent "artist's block" and I was losing motivation. Usually when this happens I just dig around my studio for inspiration. One morning I heard a squeek and turned around to see my stuffed Gizmo doll from Gremlins fell off the shelf. He is from a mail-away from Gremlins cereal from 1984.





I decided to build some paper mogwais for a project and worked up some designs in my sketch book.







I wanted to make two brown/white furred mogwais and a black/white furred one based on an evil one from Gremlins 2.





It took about 6 hours to make the heads and another 6 to roll paper for the arms and make the bodies. The smaller they are the harder they are to cut, fold, and glue. They turned out just how I imagined they would.





I've got a couple projects on the shelf and with winter coming up I'm sure to be spending a lot more time in my studio.