My pal Chris Dlugosz came up with a fun challenge. He generated some random clouds and had people fill in the things they saw. Here’s mine:
Before 
After
December 28, 2011
December 26, 2011
#Musicmonday – The World Goes Boom – DJ Earworm
United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom) – DJ Earworm
Here’s a mash-up of all the top hits of 2011. I listened to about half of it and only recognized a single snippet of Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People and Born This Way by Lady Gaga. This barely registers to me as music, but I can tell DJ Earworm did a good job of cramming it all together.
December 25, 2011
It’s that time of year again!
12 Daze of Christmas – Fay McKay
A Vegas showroom classic.
Drummer boy by a robot drummer and a printer
The future is now!
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
I loved this song as a child. How could I not? It was inescapable!
Feliz Navidad
It’s not Christmas until I hear this song piped in over a retail establishment’s sound system. I cannot help but howl along in the middle of the frozen foods aisle.
Pogues – Fairytale of New York
This song has the most depressing intro of any Christmas song. “It’s was Christmas Eve, in the drunk tank…” whooof.
December 23, 2011
Fifty Seconds of Fart Noises
This has been the soundtrack of our morning. It’s been going on for a least an hour.
December 22, 2011
30 Characters Challenge Accepted. Part 2: 12-20
Here are some more characters from the 30 characters challenge hosted by these guys.
12. Fat Duck – Sharpie and colored pencil
I can’t remember what inspired Fat Duck, but I can see him in a casual flash game. He probably bounces around smashing things.
13. One-trip Hunt and Johnny Catpants - Sharpie
True story, bro!
14. Dance-pop Majoriz – shitty near-death ballpoint (hence the scribbles) and grey maker
This character was inspired by a captcha security phrase. My pen was dying through the whole thing >:( Majoriz looks like she’s having fun but would be a pain in the ass on a long bus trip.
16. Garglebargle – Sharpie and Crayola markers
Garglebargle looks like the sort of crap I used to craw on my charactersheets when I was bored playing D&D. Garglebargle is a half-fire giant with yellow skin and two swords.
17. Flurp – Sharpie and colored pencils
I remember phoning this one in during Regis and Kelly, but then it got a lot of response on Facebook. Flurp is a gelatinous ectoplasmic entity that travels through the universe gobbling Dark Matter. Flurp’s eyes are the size of red-super giant stars.
18. Creegis of the Beegis – Ballpoint pen
I drew this during Regis’s final episode of Regis and Kelly. Creegis loves volleyball!
19. Dream Woman – Sharpie and hi-lighter
Dream Woman is a benevolent interstellar traveler whose eternal cosmic imprint on our brains directly inspired the creation of My Little Ponies. Or whatever. These are starting to sound like Balderdash answers. 
20. Flappa Bird – sharpie and red pencil
Flappa Bird was named after a bird with hinged legs Jonah and I built out of Tinker Toys. I think Flappa Bird should be the lead character in his own plastic battery-operated board game for kids.
December 21, 2011
Work in Progress Wednesdays: Column Quote Caricatures
I just finished my second full year of weekly Column Quotes and am preparing to start on my third. Here are all the caricatures that ran with the puzzles in 2010 and 2011 (though there might be some stragglers from 2009 that I’ll have to dig up sometime). You can follow the pics to my Flickr where you can look at a larger version.
2010
2011
Do you know who everybody is?
December 18, 2011
30 Characters Challenge Accepted. Part 1: 1-11
I took the 30 Characters in 30 days challenge presented by these guys and drew a new character from scratch every day in November. I usually start these things and trail off by the end but this time I got through the whole thing. Here are my characters in order:
1. El Bib – Red Ballpoint
Bible backwards, El Bib’s name was already scrawled in my sketchbook. He seems like a good supporting character in a Western RPG.
2. Dr. Sword – Mechanical Pencil
Jonah came up with Dr. Sword when we were playing with his toy stethoscope and a paper towel tube. Dr. Sword can wield his blade with surgical precision. Damn, you can tell I haven’t been drawing much lately in this one.
3. Warrior of the Purple Sands - Illustrator
The warrior of the purple sands was inspired by this photo of Jonah at the Michigan Ren Fest. I liked the way the sifter looked like some weird yellow weapon and how his squire cut bangs reminded me of He-Man.
4. Mr. Munch – Sharpie and grey marker
I stand and stare out our kitchen window that overlooks our apartment complex’s parking lot, often with a bag of snacks in my hands. This is what I picture the neighbor kids calling me if they saw me there too often.
5. King Chicken of Book Mountain - Pencil
Inspired by the wire chicken whatever it is that sits on a pile of books near our couch. Jonah and I pretended this chicken was an evil King that required his Duplo people to perform degrading tasks. Seems like good storybook fodder to me.
6. Sparklebeard the Pirate - Illustrator
Sparklebeard’s fuzzy beard is coated in gold dust, causing it to glitter in the sun.
7. Nobot – Sharpie and grey marker
The other day I envisioned robots that were designed only to destroy themselves upon being turned on. This is the first design. I’d like to do a whole series of these and maybe build a couple of them. Any robot builders out there interested?
8. Hippy Hat Harold – Sharpie
I left my sketchbook out and Jonah graced it with a neat scribble. I turned it into Harold, a slumpy hippy fucker with a sweet hat.
9. Maniac Mike and his Magic Meat Skateboard – Sharpie and hi-liter
This one got a lot of attention when I posted it to Facebook. I’m not sure why Mike is a maniac or where he got his magic meat skateboard, but I’d play his video game.
10 & 11 Long John Creme-filled and Cranky Crueler – ballpoint pen
More pirate characters. These Donut N’er-do-wells plunder the sweet seas for SPRINKLES! Guess who went to QD for donuts this morning
December 16, 2011
Friday Five: 12/16/11
The least efficient census taking robot
Happy Computer from Yo Gabba Gabba. This mobile counting robot loves to take inventory of neighborhood populations… too bad he has to count through the whole quantity every time he adds another person. four thousand two hundred and eighty six! four thousand two hundred and eighty seven!
Louis CK Outtake
Funny bit about evolution, ide ages and animal rape. you know… standard Louis CK stuff.
Trampoline in a wind storm
This may be the perfect internet video. 1) It’s short. 2) There’s a person yelling trampoline in a Scottish accent. 3) A trampoline gets blown down the street by the wind.
Pokemon if it was on Adult Swim
This is pretty funny, but goes on for a little too long. sNSFW for language.
Timescapes 4K
TimeScapes 4K from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.
Some dramatic and beautiful time lapse shots of the night sky in the deep dark desert, plus some random concert footage.
December 3, 2011
45s haul #2
Yesterday Corey and I went on a date day into Lansing. We did a hard dig through one of our favorite thrift stores and then got burritos at El Oasis (the closest thing you can get to a San Diego burrito up here and better than any of that crap they used to try to pass off in Richmond).
Then we drove to campus to go to Flat Black and Circular, a fantastic little record store with fantastic selection.
The first thing I saw when I walked in was a box that said: $2 box of 45s. I held one up. “Two dollars a piece?”
Nope. Two dollars for the box. I bought it sight unseen. Here are some highlights from the pick:
Chicago – Wishing You Were Her
The Troggs – Love is All Around
James Taylor – Fire and Rain
CSNY – Our House
Carpenters – Superstar (covered by Sonic Youth)
Molly Bee – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
The Partridge Family – I Think I Love You
Bread – Everything I Own
The Monkees – I’m A Believer backed with Steppin’ Stone
John Denver – Sunshine on My Shoulder
She’s a Lady – Tom Jones
And a bunch more that I know the band but not the song… and then a shit ton or ones I’ve never heard of that I’m eager to check out. I’ll report on any gems!
December 2, 2011
Friday Five: 12/2/11
Redneck Pride
A collection of redneck ingenuity and jackassery. I must be missing Virginia slightly to think that some of these look like pretty good ideas.
Time Displacement
This is one of the first internet videos that I found back when I was thinking about collecting videos for a blog. I love the creepy soundtrack and how weird and liquid the lady’s body looks.
60 second thought experiments
Revolutionary thought experiments presented in 60 seconds. Informative!
Dr. Tongues Evil House of Pancakes
This is how i still feel about ALL 3-D technology. Instead of looking for the best shot for a scene in a movie, now it’s all about the best shots to make crappy shit fly at the audience. Bleh.
Beautiful animation in bike spokes
Animation in bike frames. Pretty cool!
