Looking For Group

I have no idea what's going on in the world this week. No, not like "THE WORLD HAS GONE CAH-RAAAAZY!" but like "I haven't been paying attention." Most of this week has been focused on finally getting the Eighth LICD annual out the door (finally) so my nose has been to the virtual grindstone while my ears have been filled with old podcasts to catch up on and Star Wars movies. There's been some personal stuff, nothing earth shattering. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only cartoonist who hasn't suffered a traumatic childhood.

My mom is moving into a retirement home. I'm strangely un-melancholy about this. While it was the only home I ever knew growing up, and my folks continued to live there after we were all gone (47 years) I've lived longer away from there as a married man. My home is now here with my wife and daughters and cats. My mom is healthy and happy for the move so I'm happy for her. My siblings and I have been making trips into the old house to help her clean stuff out or cart stuff away and it's sure to sell well. I also went for my annual blood work. It's an old man thing. Results next week. Sohmer has promised if I get breast cancer he'll laugh at me. What a pal.

So there were more primaries, more Trump, more criminals posting their crimes on Facebook and then being all surprised when they got busted....

Seriously, children. Aren't you supposed to be the technical generation? Dumb as a bucket of hair the lot of you.....

About the only thing that really caught my attention this week, aside from formatting errors and typos in InDesign, was the re-discovery of Mona Lisa's twin!! Yes, the famous painting by daVinci has a twin in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Now there are hundreds of copies of the Mona Lisa in the world but conservators have determined that this particular one was painted AT THE SAME TIME by one of daVinci's students. The really exciting thing is that the painting, having been ignored in a basement vault for many years, is in remarkably good condition. Unlike the Mona Lisa, which has suffered the touch of clumsy art restorers over time and has darkened due to bad varnishings, the copy is reputed to be very vivid and detailed. It will soon be on loan to the Louvre for a special exhibition.

And speaking of clumsy artists (and clumsy segues!) tonight is another Ustream! Just as I have no idea what's going on in the world I'm not sure what I'll be loading up on the drawing board just yet. Why not drop by and we can all be surprised together! The preshow music starts about 7:45pm with the stream starting properly about 8pm ET. The mods will be spinning their own fun in the chatroom so why not log on and make some new friends?

See you at 8pm!
http://tinyurl.com/9eukhm

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Lots of light news this week. Between the Chinese New Year (year of the Dragon, which is cool Dragons are cool) to Robbie Burns day for the Scots, and a new Republican debate every night apparently, it's hard to winnow out anything interesting.

Well of course there is Lindsay Lohan news, but it's kinda old. She's getting sued for nearly running over a toddler a year or so back. She's been behaving herself lately, doing her probation stuff so I hope this is a good sign for her. And of course, she still looks terrific for a 45 year old Palm Beach socialite. It's a shame she's only 25...

SOPA/PIPA has been momentarily shelved in the USA, while ACTA, a bigger badder global version got passed by several European countries. However this didn't stop the FBI from exploring the possibility of 'scraping' information on citizens from social media. I don't honestly know why they'd bother as it seems that unless terrorists start a meme, the smart ones don't use social media and the stupid ones aren't bright enough to use the Internet. Overall though, it wouldn't be a bad time to re-evaluate your personal security settings on Facebook, Twitter etc.

And yes, I got to meet Harley and the crew from EpicMealTime but if you want to hear that story you'll have to tune into the ustream tonight.

HA! Not a segue but a damn fine lead in!



Yes, I got to hang out with Harley and his crew along with the members of the band Down With Webster Sunday night. If you don't know what EpicMealTime is there's still time to go check them out on YouTube before I go live at 8pm EST. Along with fresh stories of a night of fezzes, beards and cheese, the mods will be keeping the banhammer ready in the chatroom so all may have fun without fear of capslock or spammers. I'll be doodling and babbling until midnight so I hope you'll find time to drop by for bit this evening.

See you at 8pm!
http://tinyurl.com/9eukhm

[ustream][/ustream]

In addition to being a fantastic fantasy author, having a beard that (almost) rivals that of our own Lar (but doesn’t. No worries there), my buddy Pat Roothfus does a great amount of work with his Wordbuilders foundation, which was created to support Heifer International.

In Pat’s own words:
[i]
What’s that you say? You want to make the world a better place while simultaneously winning fabulous prizes?

Well today is your lucky day.

Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. All over the world Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry.They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat.[/i]

To that end, we’ve decided to pitch in this year by donating some books to their giant prize pack.

And, what I think is even more exciting, we are auctioning off the opportunity for you to be in a page (possibly more) of LFG.

This is something worth supporting, and something fun. It’s a win-win.

Check out the auction here for more details, and over to the Wordbuilders site for the full scoop.



Thanks to everyone who takes part!

-Because I Can.