RIP Evel Knievel

Iconic daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.


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Having grown up in the '70s, Evel was one of my heros when I was a kid. I still remember seeing him jump on ABC's Wide World of Sports.



While Evel may have been a drug-using, womanizing, boozer-thug, he was constantly aware of being a role-model and he was always throwing out inspirational sayings.



This is one of my favorite: A man can fail many times, but he's never a failure unless he stops trying.



One thing I miss from my childhood is the sense of rugged individualism we had back in the '70s. Nobody embodied that more then Evel Knievel.

Digital Iron Man

Wacom is releasing some sort of new digital pad thing and looking at it has got me thinking about working digitally lately.

The idea of a digital sketchbook you can carry about and draw on seems pretty cool.

So I busted out my Wacom and painted and drew this. It's pretty rough, but I kinda like it.

I kept my blue line layout so you can see the process.

Obviously, I've got a long ways before I'm going to put away the pencil & paper, but this is something I'm going to keep working on.

Maybe by the time the technology is to the point I can buy a 'Digital Sketchpad' my skills will be up to the task!

My work on television

The other day I saw a new commercial for a local hospital and I realized it was the first storyboard job I drew over a year ago. I had kinda wondered why I hadn't seen any commercials I had storyboarded.

I figured maybe I had done such a poor job they didn't sell the concept. I guess really I didn't realize how long it takes to make a commercial. Since I draw the concept boards (instead of shooting boards) I am at the very front of the process.

I really enjoy drawing the storyboards, almost as much as I enjoy drawing. I'm not sure which I enjoyed most about this job, the actual work or the fact in one evening I made enough garbonzos to pay for my trip to the San Diego Comicon in '06.

New Orleans

Some Photos:


Looking up in our hotel lobby.




Next door was a hat shop.


Across Royal street was The Pearl.




Just up Canal street was the Ignatius J. Reilly statue. When I first went by the statue, it was night and there were some guys in suits looking at the statue. They couldn't fugure out what it was for (despite the plaque). When I told them, one guy said he had always thought it was a tribute to the homeless!


Typical French Quarter architechture.



Night falls on Burbon Street.










"It seemed like an ordinary day... until I had coffee with Jesus at the Cafe Du Monde."


Michelle looking angelic at the Cafe Du Monde.


Statue at cemetary.

Houston, we have a problem!

Well, I believe things tend to go in cycles.

(Problem #1)
A few days ago at work, we moved downstairs. One thing about moving downstairs is we now have carpet and are on the route of the costodians. Which is cool, now I don't have to empty my own trash, which was mostly filled with used teabags.

Except, the second day downstairs I arrived to find my headphone cable wrapped around the wheel of my chair. After I unwound it, they were dead (Jim!). No big deal, except my day is loooooonnnnnnnggggg without aid of an audiobook or podcast. I played jazz low on my speakers, but it wasn't the same.

(Problem #2)
Last Thursday evening, the night before leaving for Nawlins, I was trying to download a podcast onto my phone. My pc locked up and when I restarted it, it rean really slow. I monkeyed with it until 1 am (we were getting up at 3am) and finally gave up in exhaustion.

(Problem #3)
Monday morning, after coming home, Michelle woke me up with the dreaded phrase: Well, it seems we have a problem!

Now this could be anything from whiskers in the sink to the roof is on fire, either way it's not good.

Yesterday, this signaled a leak in the waterbed. This is very bad as our waterbed is upstairs and this could be a huge disaster.

Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong!

Well, Michelle talked to Dell and the figured out it was the hardrive. So I've installed and new one. And she got a new mattress, which we've put on the bed. And tonight, I picked up new headphones.

One thing I've learned is sometimes you gotta roll with these things. And some times thes things work out better.

The new hard drive was a 320 gb on sale. It cost me $80, but it's much bigger then my old one. And I seem to be mostly working, I just have some kinks to work out.

The mattress cost $35, but we got it installed just in time. Last night, the bed was still pretty cold, but our house was pretty warm. Tonight, it's turning cold and the bed should be fully warmed up by the time the weather turns. If it'd happened a day later, we'd have been sleeping on the floor!

My headphones cost $14, but my new ones were black, instead of white. And they came with a nifty zipper pouch, so I'll bring them home with me.

I guess the moral of this is sometimes things are gonna break and bad things are gonna happen. But the best thing you can do it to keep on going, fix the problem and make the best of it.

And who knows, you may end up with a bigger harddrive; you may even end up with a nifty zipper bag!

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I should have posted about Nawlins. It was awesome. I'll post about it next time!

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Dallas!

This weekend Michelle & I went to Dallas for her to take a test to be a Certified Lighting Consultant. Actually, we went to Arlington, but to me the whole Dallas/Fort Worth area is Dallas.

On the way down we stopped at the Gainsville mall and I saw this:

Marvel Team-Up with Superman and Batman? Wonder if this is a counterfeit?

Then we went to the Grapevine Mills Mall and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but I love the theming. I love eating in a fake jungle!

The one in Orlando really puts this one to shame, but hey I was in Dallas, not Florida!

Before Michelle took her test, we went and ate at a Chinese Buffet. Actually it was the Jumbo Super Buffet. It was a HUGE buffet.

They even had octopus!

And I did not try it! I try and be careful what I eat when I'm traveling, but to be honest, I'm not sure i would have tryed it at home.

I saw them building the new stadium for the Cowboys. I'm not a NFL fan, but the construction was pretty cool. The photos don't show it, but it was HUGE!

I also hit a few half price books & a comic shop down there. I got a books on Googie, Milton Caniff and Chris Ware. I also went to an art store in Arlington where I hung out and shot the breeze for a while; everybody there was pretty cool & I bought a couple of pencils.