It is unfortunately far from the weekend and the weather here is hovering around the century mark which is frankly quite miserable. So here are a few things to distract you from the midsummer heat and not-yet-midweek blues.

Mike Mignola, creator of the incomparable Hellboy comics, did a one-shot story a few years back entitled The Amazing Screw-On Head. It was a fun, tongue-in-cheek story featuring the titular Screw-On Head as an American super agent, fighting evil during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. With Mignola’s blessing this steampunk adventure has been animated. You can see the pilot episode in its entirety here on Sci-Fi. The show features the vocal talents of Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce, and Molly Shannon. The show is quite well done and very funny in spots. They captured the look of Mignola’s art perfectly and the show had the mood that I hoped it would. I really hope they make more.

I’m not one to forward on silly emails. Once in awhile, however, something comes along that is too entertaining to pass up. If you enjoy Career Builder’s chimpanzee commercials, first featured during the last Superbowl, you’ll really enjoy their Monk-e-mail service. You can pick your chimp, outfit him or her with a number of outfits and accessories, pick a background, and get ready for your message. The message is the fun part. Choose “text to speech” and type your message. You can pick one of four voices. It is a computer generated voice program so the way in which it pronounces things adds to the hilarity. I recommend double spacing between each sentence. That way the program pauses somewhat and you can understand what the monkey is saying. Numerous people have already received Monk-e-mails from me and I apologize profusely, I just couldn’t resist.

Well, that’s it. Just wanted to give you a little something to occupy your day. If you happen to watch The Amazing Screw-On Head you’ll notice a similarity between the two time wasters: monkeys! Hope everyone has a marvelous Tuesday!

For all of you (Jeff) who expect a Friday Favorites art post every week I have to confess that the weird, holiday-interrupted week has left me too tired and worn out to concentrate this week and I’ll have to just do an extra good one next week. Feel free to look at the last several Friday Favorites if you need an art fix and forgive my fatigue.

Look for my Pirates movie review later this weekend and have a great one everyone!

The 4th of July celebration continued into the actual holiday today when we packed up our leftover fireworks and headed to James’ and Jules’ house.

(Greeted by Anjelia and her latest bug friend)

The girls were in full summer mode, swimming and clammoring to light more fireworks. We filled the neighborhood multiple times with rolling clouds of colored smoke.

You have to watch yourself around the D clan, they sometimes can get a little cheeky.

Continue reading Independence Day, smoke ’em if ya got ’em. →

The long weekend leading up to Independence Day found my parents visiting from Nebraska and my dad graciously accepting my request to help me build a bookshelf for our bedroom. I roughly designed it based on an idea I saw in a magazine and the need to get Red off the floor and somewhere less inclined to result in accidental destruction. After a morning trip to Lowe’s to procure the necessary materials my dad and I spent the better part of the 97 degree day outside working. My dad of course did the majority of the real work but for once I paid attention in the hopes of being able to do some work on my own someday. As proof that I helped some I offer photographic evidence:

That eventually led to this:

and after much wizardry…and a few readjustments…led to this:

I am really pleased about the results, its exactly how I imagined it. I will stain or paint it soon (the bedroom will also be undergoing a repainting) and post pics. Thanks so much dad, I really appreciate it. You can see that Red is happy in her new home. My dad also made us a bedside table based on some ideas I discussed with him the last time they visited. It too needs to be stained/painted and I will post before and after pics of that as well.

And though there is no photographic evidence to prove it I enjoyed more of the wonderful midwestern July heat and humidity on Monday July 3rd when I assisted Jeff in the destruction of a large wooden swing set/fort that the neighbors were donating to Jeff and Keri’s children. I will try to get pics of the reconstruction of said edifice when that time comes.

Continue reading Appetite for Construction…and Destruction →

How does one begin to post again on the triviality of the world so shortly after an unexpected death? That has been my dilemma over the past few days. I haven’t run out of trivial things to say, I just haven’t felt quite up to talking about things that don’t seem to matter. And yet, on this day when we join in spirit with those in New Jersey to celebrate Jenn See’s life I realize it is those little things that brought us together. The very idea of Following My Fish came from a line from the comic book character Delerium in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, an interest that, before blogging, I shared with only two other people. We (and I mean all of us who blog together) have come together, at least at my site, over the most trivial things: music, movies, comics, books, and art. These things that give our lives flavor, the interests that we have that we long to share with others. So what on the surface can look really trivial is in fact quite meaningful in that our interests reflect our inner passions. They are physical manifestations of slices of our personality and quite frankly it is the literature and art of this world in all its many manifestations (movies, music, photography, etc.) that make living that much more entertaining, interesting, and exciting.

Continue reading Remembrance Day →