Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Captain Slake



Here's a wee sketch that I managed to salvage over Easter. It was pretty crappy before - but I dialed back the far-slung sci-fi and turned it into more of a steam-punk thing. After the sketch was saved I put it through photo-shop, where I experimented with different levels for highlights and shadows. It could do with a background - but hey, don't look a gift post in the mouth !

So ... Captain Slake. Yup - he is a fish. A fish in a mind-linked battle chassis. He's the head of the security detail protecting the ambassador from the technocracy of Atlantis. I imagine that Captain Slake is the hero of many adventures above and below the waves ... and the suit chassis is legendary piece of ancient technology from before Atlantis sunk beneath the waves.

There's a story that deserves closer investigation here somewhere ...

Friday, March 21, 2008

Critical Mass 4 - Litter



Finally ! This took a long time to finish, I'm not sure why - not as many text boxes in this one for a start...

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Did you bring enough for everyone ?

You may ( or may not ) know that I work at a special character school. While I hold no especially strong religious views - it's no bad thing to work at a religious school. In a lot of ways it's pretty nice. There are times when it sticks a little in my craw - Christmas is a good example. There are days when I want to run through the school screaming "Christmas was stolen from the pagans ! Nowhere in the bible does it say when Jesus was born ! Don't even get me started on the Council of Nicea !".

Easter is another time.

Our school holds an important Easter assembly / chapel service kind of a deal. The students have to wear there formal uniforms all day - which, considering the bizarre mirco-climate of the school ramping temperatures into the 'please-someone-scoop-out-my-brains-through-my-nose-with-a-soup-spoon-so-I-don't-have-to-endure-this-miserable-HEAT!' range, is far from a pleasant thing.

Also, not only is it a day on 'assembly' times ( where the normal timetable is hacked into a tattered mess, which sucks - because students never remember the NORMAL times ), but the times are extra-mangled because the assembly had to be at the end of the day ( kids have NO freaking idea of what's going on ). So - yay for that.

Anyways - the assembly. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

As I was saying - the Easter chapel service is supposed to be a fairly serious thing. This one was off to a fairly deep start - with reflections on the nature of sacrifice, scenes from "The Passion" ( man - I am NEVER watching that movie ) and various other spiritually uplifting things.

And then one of the student leaders was talking, and pulled out a medium sized easter egg. It's the size of, oh, half a rugby ball. Y'know - not huge.

This student says he going to break up the egg and hand it out to SOME students - because there isn't NEARLY enough for everyone ( which really - should have set off warning bells in this student's mind RIGHT THEN ). Maybe he thought this was a brillo way of demonstrating the nature of sacrifice. If so - this theory was severely flawed.

So - as there school captain comes forward, two seniors start to hand out these bits of chocolate.

What happens next ? Oh - I saw it coming. I think you do too !

Pande-FREAKING-monium !

Students are crying out, some literally screaming, for a miniscule amount of diary milk ! ALL over the auditorium ! And it wouldn't stop ! The Chaplain growled at the school over the microphone, with the principal scowling his disapproval at his side. "This is an important part of the school calendar ! Show respect for your fellow students" and other such platitudes were fired into the assemblage , but with NO change to the chocolate-infused frenzy !

"Give me some chocolate!"
"Hey! Over HERE!"
"Gimmie !"
" I WANT SOME !"
"MEEEEEEE !!! Some for MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

So much for Christian sacrifice !

Seriously - I've never seen anything like it happen in an assembly in my ten years of teaching.

In the end the remaining chocolate had to be removed FROM THE AUDITORIUM for them to settle down again. It was insanity !

I tell you - BEST. Assembly. EVER !

Monday, March 10, 2008

Firmer than expected

Not that I have the weird fetish that so many other people have about touching pregnant women's tummies - I have, no occasion, done so with my wife. Mostly to try and feel the little punk move. It is quite a sly little creature - it will move a whole bunch ( apparently ) and as soon as I get there it will stop straight away.

This can only mean trouble ahead.

Anyway - the real thing I wanted to say it I was surprised how ... hard, for want of a better word ... the pregnant tummy was. For some reason I just had it in my head that babies were kinda squishy ( they're not supposed to have bones for crying out loud - that sounds pretty squishy to me ! ).

So all those times we were in the gym when I was in secondary school, and I would stuff a basketball up my t-shirt and go "Hey look at me - I'm pregnant ! Haw haw haw !" - I was, in a tactile sense at least, more correct than I could possibly know.

Believe me - I'm as surprised as you are.