A - Z Challenge: A is for Ailuromancy and also for Robert Aspirin

 

is for

AILUROMANCY

List of people in the A-Z Challenge

Aaand there they go!  Almost.  My first post goes up at 1800 with the other ones coming online at 0600 over April.  Because I'm nice I'll even put them in order for you.

Good luck to all 1600 of us!

The blog lives! The blogger? Not so much

Hello.  I'm not dead and here are some words that prove it.

ITEM THE FIRST:

The art course is going great.  Last week we were told that the reason for making paper towers was so that we could get an idea of how different materials worked together [1] This week we've been informed that the big project is going to be us making a Rube Goldberg Device.

For those of you not currently in the know a Rube Goldberg is a very geeky way of making the simple complicated.  If, for instance you wanted to move an egg from point A to point B the Rube Goldberg would involve all manner of items being utilised [2]
Conceivably a marble might roll down a slope which turns a screw, which tightens a string, which lifts a gate......

......which turns on the flamethrower, which burns the house down, which infuriates the flock of giant chickens and so forth.  [3]
Seriously speaking though it should be fun.

The poster assignments were knocked off easily enough and the reward for doing such good work is "make another poster"  which seems to be a rather circular argument but what do I know?
 I'm tempted to steal a Monet and submit that but already know that if I did I'd certainly be asked why I did so.
"we needed the Monet" I'd insist "because we were baroque" [4]

I know it's a bad joke but A) it's a rule that whenever anyone discusses Monet someone has to make this joke and B) I've been working on the Alphabet Challenge postings and all my good material is tied up in alphabet related humour.

The other poster from the project.  This one was mostly done in Photoshop, mostly.

ITEM THE SECOND:

The A - Z Challenge looms over us like a giant looming thing.  I'm number 1240 since all this time I've been working hard at the posts and didn't actually remember to sign up!

But now I have done so and I've also had a bit of an epiphany.
"What all these posts need is a question at the end" I proclaimed to myself and everyone else in the library at the time "something that people can click upon and I can work into a detailed report at the end of the challenge!"

Thankfully my list of 5 separate questions about each of the posts got whittled down to a singular important question.  It is written below in white text so that those of you who don't want spoilers can rest easy and those of you who do can walk around with inscrutable looks on your faces [5]

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE THE QUESTION AWAY JUST LIKE THAT!  

YOU'D BETTER COME BACK EVERY DAY IN APRIL JUST TO CHECK IF THE QUESTION IS THE SAME EACH TIME.

<TWIRLS MOUSTACHE> "NYA HA HA"

/END SPOILER ALERT!

NOTES:

1. It turns out that cardboard is stronger than paper!  Amazing!
2. Rather than have you exhaust yourself by simply picking the egg up and moving it.
3. If you already saw that the real joke was that Monet isn't a baroque painter then take ten points from petty cash.
4. I kid.  The flamethrower attachment is rarely used and the giant chickens don't come cheep.
5. Presumably while twirling your moustaches and going "Nya ha ha"

Tattoos and Tables (TNT? thats an explosive!)

I say, I say, I say whats all of these pictures doing here just lying about the place in a rather messy and possibly copyright violating way?

Its for two reasons actually.  The first group of images are part of a small homework (1) and the assignment was to come up with a pair of posters.  One done in Adobe Photoshop and the other done in Adobe Illustrator.
Now that I've completed the first poster I'm having a coffee and taking an official break before I tackle the second (2) I thought that I would post these here because I haven't done a proper update in ages which, I might add, totally destroys the myth of the lazy student; only to replace with evidence of the lazy blogger.  Methinks I should quit while I'm ahead.
For the record (3) Sunmoon was an attempt at a comic I did ages ago.  For these posters I've tried to get the look of a really old photocopier that's one paperjam away from the scrapheap.


The second group of images are there for an entirely different task.  Now that I am a student once again I find that my bank accounts have been filled with that lovely lucre from my last pay.  More specifically my tattoo account has finally being filled.

The outline on my arm has been looking horrible and homedone for far too long and if I can at last cover up my dragon then it will be money well spent.


I've made the apointment for Friday the 13th of April (4) at Tattoo Hades on the recomendation of one of the guards that I used to work with who had a large tribal on his arms and was forever thinking about getting a sleeve done.


I was up late enough for it to be early last night collecting images and this post is the easiest way I can think of to send them over to the artist.

Insecure Writers Support Group - Character Descriptions II

A little while ago I posted a number of character descriptions and in continuation of the theme I'd like to present you with a few more.  As before the images are all taken from Dragon Magazine online and hopefully they inspire someone out there.

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE 

The old man cut a battered figure as he moved slowly through the taverns crowd towards his accustomed spot The regulars got out of the way quickly enough, they'd seen the results of getting caught in his bad eye many times before and likely would do so many times since. It throbbed painfully but everyone knew that a scar remembered the weapon that made it, even so his seemed to be putting extra feeling into the job. “Evening Boss” for once he made no attempt to hide his educated tones that betrayed a noble ancestry unmatched by anyone else in this rat infested fleapit “Yer late” the overseer grumbled as he always did. “I had some business to take care of” His employer spun on his heal, a graceful movement for one so fat “You work for me you don't got no business less I say you do!” “You forget who I am” he kept his tone respectful “I forget nothing! It's you who forget your place” his heavy hand swung through the air but the old man caught it with a skill that hadn't been his since his youth and with a single movement he cast the overseer down amongst the rabble “The rules have changed I think” the old man settled into the comfortable chair that had served as the overseers throne and looked out upon his new kingdom.