Years ago, a former LJ-friend chastised me about my super heroes, stating that I didn't include any bears of color. While I didn't care for his approach on this or other things (note the "former" adjective in the previous sentence), I can't deny that he was right. It wasn't an intentional slight on my part, but probably a subconscious fear of offending anyone.

I remember reading other LJ entries from other artists and cartoonists about their being cautious about drawing minorities for fear that people would think you were lampooning certain features, essentially coming across as a racist. It's silly to think that, but in a world that has become more politically correct, it is something to consider.

When putting together the current group of bear heroes, I wanted to inlcude a bear of color. I modeled him somewhat off of a handsome guy I've seen on a commercial and a power lifter guy who works in my office, a former marine who could tear my desk in two. I finished the design and colored the cartoon last night.


Monolith

Monolith has the ability to draw power from contact with the Earth, which allows him to grow in size while transforming to stone. His costume design is relatively simple, mainly to make it easy to draw, but I liked the way the lines fit the form.

So all the new characters are in place, now I get to start writing the next issue.

Softball games were canceled last night due to rain we had earlier in the day. It seemed like it would have warmed up enough to play, but I'm guessing that they couldn't recover one or more of the four fields my league plays on. Boo!

So after a much needed nap after my first day back to work, I revisited a drawing I'd worked on the night before. This character is based on a friend who wanted "healing powers." Sadly, such powers are dull by themselves, so I elaborated on it as giving him control over a human body by touch. He can amplify the senses, drain or increase energy, cause or control muscle movements, and exert other controls over the body's normal functions (yeah, there are some cool possibilities there).

I searched the web for cool superhero names but none seemed to stick, so I tried for one energetic, yet non-descriptive. "Dynamo" isn't the best, but it's slowly growing on me.


DYNAMO

Happy Wednesday!

I've had this character looming in the sketchpad for some time, but just haven't had the chance to ink and color it. I finally managed to get it done last night. It's the superhero cartoon character of Chris (kybigstew).



The Flying Scotsman

I wanted a hero with fire/solar powers and coming up with a name was hard. I didn't want it to be "Flaming" anything. A Google search came up The Flying Scotsman on Wikipedia and I thought the name was a good match.

I've got two more characters in the works and then it might be time to start writing the next Bear Patrol comic issue.

I woke up very sore and tired. So after getting my sea legs again, I decided to head out to the movies for an 11 AM (i.e., cheap) showing of Chernobyl Diaries.

The film is predictable. It begins, as many a horror movie does, with an extremely bad decision to go visit someplace that college-aged people shouldn't. Those co-eds always go to the condemned house, the abandoned summer camp, and/or the forbidden ghost town. In this case, they're going on an "extreme tour" of Pripyat, a Russian city just outside Chernobyl where the residents were evacuated without any belongings, leaving a ghost town behind. The radiation levels supposedly are low enough to visit for a short time. While the Russian authorities keep the town sealed, the tour guide knows the "other way in." The usual gang of idiots take their pics and the tour only to find that their means of leaving has been tampered with and they're stuck. Night falls and the bad things begin to happen.

The movie stars teeny-pop singer Jesse McCartney who looks like a 14-year-old kid. Seeing him smooching and hugging his "fiance," a smoking hot lady who appears to be in her mid-20's, made me want to call "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen and report her. The acting may be a *little* better than the average horror flick and the scenery is actually kinda cool, but it doesn't save poor writing and a surprising lack of gore and nudity for an "R" rated film. Seriously, no nudity, very little blood, and nothing really graphic, so the R-rating is a mystery to me. And the worst sin of all is that it just isn't scary.

Save your money folks. It's not even good for escapism.

Last week, I noticed that my work had slowed down considerably. Strangely, given the upcoming holiday, no one had called dibs on taking the week, so I jumped on it. Having no specific plans though, my days have been oddly empty of plans.

On Monday, I headed down to visit family, which always seems to involve drama. Some of it is understandable considering what is going on, but the rest is unneeded icing on a very bitter cake.

As I've written before, my older brother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's spread from his colon and liver now to his lungs. He's been doing chemotherapy with no success and the bulk of responsibility for his affairs and transport has fallen to my sister. I can't sugarcoat it, he's wearing her out and my mother isn't helping because she can be just as demanding on her. We found out Tuesday that my brother's chemo has been ratcheted up to three days a week every other week. My sister is currently unemployed and she's not been looking for a job because there's no way she could work and handle my mom and brother with a job.

I feel guilty for not being able to do more from a distance. The twin tries to help, but mom won't call him for help and my older brother doesn't seem to want to either. The situation will be even worsened when my sister has to go to the hospital next month for a hysterectomy. We will manage, but I'm not sure how yet.

On the lighter side, I had a double-header softball game Tuesday night. We won both games, the last one by a single run, but it felt good. I had some decent hits, so I was happy.

Now I need to do a bit of yard work and such. Looking forward to some good movies this weekend.

This weekend, aceofspace was visiting Dayton, Ohio for a ham-radio convention. So Saturday, I drove up to Dayton to hang out with him and visit the National Museum of the US Air Force.

Normally, I'm not much into planes and such, but the museum does an amazing job weaving the history of the airplane along with the history of the time. We walked around for three hours plus through three giant hangers and still didn't see everything.

While aceofspace is more interested in planes, I was fascinated with the artwork on the planes, particularly those from WW II. It's a good time and there's no fee for anything, which surprised me a great deal.


WW II's Strawberry Bitch -- click above for the full photo set

The joys of taking off a Monday is always counterbalanced by the feeling of it being "Monday" the next Tuesday morning. And it started off this morning with typical Monday weirdness.

The first event was my waking up and staring at the mirror to get ready to shave at 5:30 AM only to heard scratching at my closet door. I opened it to find Murphy the Cat in there who had apparently spent the night with my clothes. Last night around 10 PM, I last went into the closet to hang up a new pair of pants I'd bought. The little monster must have snuck in behind me unnoticed. I accidentally shut him in for the night. The 7.5 hour lockdown in cellblock C didn't seem to hurt him much, but he was very loving the rest of the morning. I've heard when you do hard time in solitary that prisoners are often more affectionate. Luckily, he seems to have "held it in" for the night as I didn't smell any presents in the closet and he went to the litter box before his morning treats.

The next thing was that the papasan chair pillows didn't find new homes it seems. The blue one was leaning against my garbage can this morning. It was heavy and I figured the kids weren't strong enough to drag it home. However, as I came up to the stop sign, I saw the green one next to the garbage can two houses down. The frames were no where to be seen. I can understand that a parent might not want the kids to bring things like that into the house with the current bed bug issues running about. Still, I was hoping they'd have gone to people who would have used them.

Finally, I won our Survivor competition without even trying. In the office, everyone draws a name before the season starts and if your person gets eliminated, you have to bring in donuts for the rest. I signed up because the coordinator needed another person. I don't even watch the show, but my gal managed to outlast the rest. So I don't have to bring in donuts for the masses and they have to take me out to lunch at some point.

Now I'm back in the office and staring at the looming piles. Softball tonight! I have the 8 and 9 PM games. Ugh. I'll be napping after work if I can.

No, the Papasans are not neighbors, friends, or the like. They are a pair of chairs I bought when I first moved into my house some 11 years ago.

I bought the Papasans in 2001. I always liked the style of the chairs and a friend in college had one in her dorm room. While I was happy to have them, I soon realized that they were not the most sturdy of seatings. My fat butt often caused creaks and cracks. Also, the chairs were a bit awkward and took up a lot of space.

Over the years, they basically became cat seats, or places to catch my coat when I came in from work. One guy I dated saw them and said something like, "Wow, I've stepped into the 70's." As part of my spring cleaning this year, I decided it was time for them to go.

Tomorrow is trash day, so I put them out on the curb a bit ago. Before I even got both cushions out, three boys about 10-years-old came up and asked if they could have them. I told them that they could take them as long as they asked their parents if was okay first. Funny, I thought, my style appeals to kids.

In five minutes, both chairs were gone. Hopefully, they've got to good homes where they'll get used better than in mine.

I was in DC this past week, from Monday afternoon to late this morning. The training covered the Freedom of Information Act. While it's obviously one of the most powerful tools for transparent government around, it is also the subject of the most boring training classes every put together. The instructors tended to be relatively dynamic, but it's like listening to someone be enthusiastic about wallpapering. The class is just a necessary work evil.

On the flight back, I was seated in the exit row next to a slender, older lady who was likely in her sixties. The flight attendant stopped to ask if we were aware we were in the exit row and whether we agreed to perform exit row duties in the case of an emergency. We both agreed.

After the attendant left, I looked at the exit door to see how it was supposed to be opened and noted the weight of the door was 42 lbs. I then looked at the lady and thought, based on her overall appearance, "I doubt you could heft 42 lbs. so easily."

I wondered if airlines shouldn't be more considerate of who sits in these seats. I can lift 42 lbs with no problem, one of the perks of working out (even at hotel gyms -- see Shameless Comment Whore photo to the left). However, if I were not there, I wondered if this lady could have handled the door on her own. These are choice seats for economy class. You get more leg room, so you can stretch out, which I'm sure is one of the reasons why she sat there.

Luckily, we didn't need to find out. The flight was pretty much routine and unremarkable, which is how I like it. No screaming children, no panicking passengers, no smelly person next to me.

It's good to be home.

Last night was the conclusion of this season's "RuPaul's Drag Race." Overall, I was very impressed with the show, being done in an auditorium stage versus the usual set. It was good to see all the queens again, hear the bitchiness in some parts, etc. We got to find out why Willam got booted... finally. And one of my favorite parts was seeing the families of the top three. As much as I despise Phi Phi, his mom is adorable (and looks really young!!) I'll put my individual comments behind the spoiler tag below to save those of you who haven't seen the finale yet:



I'm really liking that spoiler function here. Happy Tuesday all.