A Pixelated Mind

Hourly Comic Day 2010

Pixel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:21:22 +0000

I think I’ve improved a bit since last year.

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Two Top Ten Lists… sort of

Pixel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:46:12 +0000

I love having my own blog. It means I can publish things that I want that will in no way benefit nor make complete sense to anyone. You’re reading this, so it’s pretty much your fault.

The lists aren’t in any order. This is on the advice of my No. 2 favorite person in the world.

Top Five Favorite People

Jess Levy
Bre Kerchner
Andrea Marston
J-P Vessel
Adriano Truscott

I wanted to make a top ten list, but it felt more contrived than this list. People in my top ten list would include my friends Alicia, Daniel, T-Rob, Anson, and probably Sandy. But while I really like all of those people, I have personality crushes on the top five. … that’s probably just going to hurt feelings, but I really mean it in a nice way.

Top Fifteen Favorite Huggers

Suzi Artiss
Niki Rhynes
Alicia Cardoza
Leonore Fleming
Jess Levy
Monica Sifuentes
Felicia Racke
Sara Bertelsen
S. Elizabeth Price
Karla Mariscal
Claudia Mariscal
Jessy Salinas
Liz Gomez
Sarah Bartel
Melissa Tullio

I’ve noticed that the top huggers list is overrepresented by women that want to jump my bones. ¹ I assume it’s because people that want to jump my bones are also people that are willing to give themselves fully into a hug for as long as it can last. Or it might just be coincidental because most people want to jump my bones.²

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NOTE: THIS IS NOT ALL OF THEM!! It is very important that you not think my lesbian friends, married women, or my cousins want me in naughty ways. Also, about a third of the list would probably never hug me again, as things ended on bad/awkward terms.
I assume.

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It is not the case that it is both To Be and Not To Be

Pixel — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:32:29 +0000

By the way, I’ve declared the Year of Living Creatively a total failure. I just haven’t had the time, motivation, nor inclination to do even challenges that I want to do.

Also, I feel like I’ve gotten lazy in my graphic designing in the three years I’ve been away. Here’s something I did for a friend of mine last week:

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Dear Pixel, age 23,

Pixel — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:40:16 +0000

The trope is to say something like,

“I wouldn’t skip any of the adversity I had to face, because that made me who I am today. And I like myself.”

Luckily, I don’t have that problem. I don’t like myself. I’m a tool. I’d love to do whatever I could to change that. Only I don’t know if the problem is that I’ve been through too much adversity or not enough.

Seeing as how I don’t like the things you’re about to do, I might as well take the ‘more pain’ route to future happiness. Who knows? Maybe next year I’ll be able to write that silly trope to you.

So here’s how to really mess up your life in just one year. This includes lots of stuff you will do and some stuff that you just might do.

Plan to live with lots of people, even if you don’t know who they are or if this will happen. Money is just a silly fake thing anyway, right?
If you find a girl that cares about you a lot, act aloof and ignore her. This will only bring about positive, reasoned results.
If, however, you find a girl that is distant and pulling away, pay as much attention to her as you can. Forget all past wrongs, just focus on not losing her now.
When you think things might hurt people, keep them hidden and lie about them for as long as possible.
Don’t wear a seat belt: it chafes your mentionables.
Sign up for every interesting class you can regardless of how much free time you think you’ll have. This will let you succeed wildly.
Stick it in crazy.
Start lots of projects
Pleasure and business go well together.
Play video games. You know, to relax.
Even if you really can’t do something, fake it for a long time until someone calls you out on it.
Be nice to strangers.
You can trust yourself. Your convictions will never waver, no matter how tempting something is.
Drink, like, all the time.
Don’t meet people from outside the department.
Get attached quickly and fiercely.
Punch an elderly person.
Go abroad as often as you can.
Let things get weird between you and the people you care about.
Never give up.
Rob a liquor store.
Just admit it, you’re probably gay.

Good luck with that. Seriously.

… I hate you,

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February, the month of Pencil & Paper III

Pixel — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:15:23 +0000

Creative Challenge 7: (Drawing)

Catch up with your previous challenges. Also, draw a really nice hand.

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February, the month of Pencil & Paper II

Pixel — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:09:37 +0000

Creative Challenge 6: (Drawing)

Draw 250 pairs of eyes

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Spring 2010 Schedule

Pixel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:24:21 +0000

Almost forgot to post this so that you and yours can stalk me.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Wake up	Wake Up, Bike to West Campus	Wake Up	Wake Up, Bike to West Campus	Wake Up, Bike to West Campus
Go to Gym		Go to the Gym		USP Graduate Mentor Meeting9:30 – 10:30
Read for A Priori Biology	Read for A Priori Biology	Read for A Priori Biology	Read for A Priori Biology	Breathe
				Play Squash 1:30 – 2:30
Ancient Philosophy 2:50 – 4:05	Evolution and Genetics 2:50 – 4:05	Ancient Philosophy 2:50 – 4:05	Evolution and Genetics 2:50 – 4:05	Bike back to the Office
Go home	Bike back home	Go home	Bike back home	Bike back home
Internet time, prolly	Read for Ancient Philosophy	Internet	Internet	Die
Read for Evolutionary Genetics	Lost Night	Read for Evolutionary Genetics	Hungry Thursday

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February, the month of Pencil & Paper

Pixel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:56:24 +0000

Creative Challenge 5: (Drawing)

Take part in Hourly Comic Day.

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January, the month of diagnostic tests IV

Pixel — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:29:49 +0000

Creative Challenge 4: (Photography)

Make a short photographic essay of five pictures. With a theme. ¹

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This is purely diagnostic: To be repeated at the end of the year.

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Back to Square Zero

Pixel — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:49:06 +0000

I was told to never apologize for my gross failures in life. So here you go.

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January, the month of diagnostic tests III

Pixel — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:04:55 +0000

Creative Challenge 3: (Music)

Record one minute of yourself playing/singing something you wrote yourself. Label it “January 2010.”¹

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This is purely diagnostic: To be repeated at the end of the year.

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You’re supposed to fail diagnostic tests

Pixel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:05:59 +0000

Traynor and Well worked at Well’s dad’s copy shop after school. Traynor thought that he owed it to his foster family and Well agreed, but his parents thought that he had to work anyway. “Maxwell, adversity builds character,” his father would say. Well thought he had enough character, what he really wanted were plot and setting. In this chapter, Well’s wish would not be granted. Instead, Traynor would be the one to develop a plot and setting. They don’t know that yet, though, so shh! Don’t say anything.

Traynor worked the register and answered questions whenever customers came in. Well didn’t concern himself with such details. He instead would sit in the corner and quietly do his homework, occasionally pausing to correct one of the many errors Traynor would inevitably do when left alone.

“Well, quit reading dirty magazines and help me! There are too many customers.” Traynor would often say. Well had managed to coordinate his schedule so that it was identical to Traynor’s because he was the only one that could supervise him. Traynor only listened to people he respected and he respected Well because Well was not afraid of Traynor. He knew Traynor was only a kid from a f—ed up¹ family. He knew there was nothing weird or special about him.

Traynor was a good worker, but he always seemed to miss things that were very obvious to Well. He once forgot to lock the back door, for instance. Nothing happened, but Well never let him live it down. Additionally, he was an hour late in April and then again in October for some mysterious reason. Also, there was the time he forgot to bring pants to work.

It was a late Friday in September and the boys were at the shop after school. The shop was peculiarly empty on account of the hurricane warning that had been all over the news since the morning. In fact, they’d been let out early by a panicked, yet somehow still monotonous Mrs. Gorf in the middle of third period. She’d been crying about how it was the storm of the century and she’d lost her daughter in the previous storm or century or something.

So, obviously, when they showed up for work, neither Traynor nor Well had any clue that there was a storm going on in any way. Traynor thought it was strange that no customers came in all evening. He also felt it was odd that his hair stood on end and the cloud coverage was total. The letter O in the Quick Sto- across the street was swinging wildly. Traynor feared it might fly off in the same way the P of had vanished the previous year. That time, the P had been ripped off by a storm destroying the Cut & Paste store next door. PQuick Sto- changed its name the next week.

The news outside was bleak, but as the net was shut down and sheltered in the wake of the storm, Well and Traynor would have had to have already known why the net would be shut down in order to understand why the net was shut down.

“Seems like a really bad storm is coming,” Traynor said. Well ignored him, he was running system diagnostics on every device he had. They were from a poor family, so all of his devices were several generations old: his great grandfather had been the last generation able to afford the machine Well was using.

Would you like to update? The machine said. Well did not. Actually, he did, but he could not. He viewed this as a tragedy.

“Did you hear anything about there being a storm tonight?” Traynor asked, his hair entirely on end now. Well ignored him.

Just then, the door burst open and a girl Traynor’s age stumbled inside. She had dark auburn hair with golden brown eyes. She had light skin and a heart-shaped face and a permanent half-smirk that lit up the room whenever she smiled. She had delicate hands and an athletic build that came from years of soccer. Her name was Jixa and she was to become the major quest of Traynor’s life. Traynor, of course, doesn’t know this yet.

“Oh my gosh, thank god you’re still open!” Jixa exclaimed. “I have to get these posters out before the storm gets any worse!” Jixa held up flyers specifying instructions in the case of an emergency.

Traynor’s jaw dropped. She was, in a very real sense, the girl of his dreams. He stared at her and she looked back. It was hard to tell who looked more bewildered. It was not at all a romantic sight. Not sexy in the least.

Well, who usually only stood up to go to the restroom, sprung to his feet to relieve the non-sexual tension. He took the sheet away from her and moved to the nearest copy machine, “Well, then we should get to the newest, most expensive machine. How copies would you like?”

“A thousand! These have to go everywhere. There’s a hurricane here!” Jixa responded.

Traynor’s eyebrows shot up near his hairline. Well merely stumbled in his step. “Hurricane?” Traynor asked.

“Yes, it’s hurricane Aleph! They’ve been talking about it for weeks. It’s going to destroy this city and it’s right over us!” Jixa exclaimed.

“Oh.” Well had wondered why he had 117 missed calls from his parents that afternoon. He turned to Traynor and mouthed the word Oh. Traynor understood. After all, Well had just said “Oh” one second earlier.

At this exact moment, the O in the Quick Sto- across the street flew out and destroyed the entrance to the Copy Shop, trapping the trio in the path of a hurricane.

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the censored word is ‘fucked’

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January, the month of diagnostic tests II

Pixel — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:24:37 +0000

Creative Challenge 2: (Writing)

Write a short story/chapter. Fictional, non-fictional, sequitur or non. Length is up to you. Content is free.¹

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This is purely diagnostic: To be repeated at the end of the year.

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January, the month of diagnostic tests

Pixel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:37:49 +0000

Creative Challenge 1: (Drawing)

Draw the best drawing you possibly can of a scene involving at least one human. ¹

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To be repeated at the end of the year.

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New Decade Resolutions

Pixel — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:35:37 +0000

We’re turning a new leaf, folks. I remember ten years ago, I was a little kid who’d never so much as kissed a girl. I spent New Year’s with my mom’s older sister and her family. We danced and ate and had fun. At midnight, we drank wine and ate grapes. (Redundant? Who cares.) Then, an hour later I wandered around the block in Mexico city. I didn’t have resolutions or resolve. Now, at least I know I have one. But I didn’t make 10-year resolutions. And I wish that I had. That way I’d be able to feel disappointing to my past self. So I’m going to make some this decade. Maybe in 2020 I’ll look back and laugh at how silly I was. But if I do, then I will have at least kept the fifth resolution here:

Get a Ph.D.
Upload all of my archives (there’s…. a lot you guys aren’t privy to)
Write a book/novel
Publish something original
Not die
Have a successful relationship with another human
Draw a comic book or at least a lot of comic strips
Learn to play an instrument
Stay in shape
Have a job/career I’m happy with

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A Pixelated Mind

Hourly Comic Day 2010

Two Top Ten Lists… sort of

Top Five Favorite People

Top Fifteen Favorite Huggers

It is not the case that it is both To Be and Not To Be

Dear Pixel, age 23,

February, the month of Pencil & Paper III

Creative Challenge 7: (Drawing)

February, the month of Pencil & Paper II

Creative Challenge 6: (Drawing)

Spring 2010 Schedule

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

February, the month of Pencil & Paper

Creative Challenge 5: (Drawing)

January, the month of diagnostic tests IV

Creative Challenge 4: (Photography)

Back to Square Zero

January, the month of diagnostic tests III

Creative Challenge 3: (Music)

You’re supposed to fail diagnostic tests

January, the month of diagnostic tests II

Creative Challenge 2: (Writing)

January, the month of diagnostic tests

Creative Challenge 1: (Drawing)

New Decade Resolutions