You should be. I pretty sure we are on the verge of world war 3/the apocalypse. Or was that when Israel or Lebanon were fighting? I can’t remember. It seems like every few months the media finds some news event that is legitimately terrifying and then fear mongers us into being so scared that the only thing we can do to prepare ourselves is stay informed. But staying informed makes us more scared! I wish i could say that I was better than all this, that I was able to maintain rationality admist the chaos, but when I see something like this, I get scared. Especially considering I go to school right next to the place that would probably be the number 1 target in tokyo. Well like maybe 3 kilometers away from it, but still effed from a 15 megaton blast, which actually is not that big considering what the US and Russia have. However they aren’t h-bombs, but most likely plutonium making the fallout probably a bigger problem than the actual explosion. So even if I survive the initial blast i will lose my ability to have childern and get 10 kinds of cancer that will all metacystize to my brain. It doesn’t help that  all they show on the news right now is North Korea, made worse by the fact that all I can understand is the scary music. All I know is, if Japan tries pre-emptive attacks (which would violate their constitution, but I think they are looking into ways to get around it) I am getting the eff out of Japan.

Please, do sit down.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about something very near and dear to me, that is, the state of Iowa. Now, I’m sure you think you know all about it and what not, but lets just stop for a second and talk things through.

Did you know Iowa was the world’s number 1 producer of methane gas last year?

You didn’t? Well, that’s because it’s not true.

That’s right, I just made it up. Why? Because I can.

Now that I am certain that you trust me and every word that leaves the dank hole in my face that I call my mouth, let me again tell you many words of truth that I intend for you to ingest via your ears where it will reside in your auditory complex until such time that you deem it utter gold, and follow me into the brave new tommorrow.

Confused? DON’T BE!

Everything will be just dandy as long as you continue reading these words. Like this word over here. I call it “Superlativetacularness”. Pretty sweet, huh? I’ve got lots like that. One of which (though I shouldn’t tell you as I’ve yet to copyright it) is “convincement”. I know, I know, you’re saying “those aren’t real words”. Techincally you’re right, but they will be and once I’ve got the copyright for them, I will be sitting in giganticularamous piles of sweet coin. I’m gunnin’ for quarters, but I’ll settle for dimes. Or half dollars. Oooooh or Sacageweas! Now that’s some shiny currency!

Where was I?

Iowa! A state! A place! A place in which you have a state of mind!

Many of us on the Shambot can remember what it was like growing up in the urban part of rural states. It was confusing! I’m sure all of us can remember getting Guff from some sophisticated suburbanite when upon the parlaying of background information. Distinctly upon the very moment we revealed that we were from a predomniately agrarian society. But forlorn was I! I grew up on no farm! I was a city boy, raised amongst the automobiles and elderly; obviously more akin to the robot than the moo-cow. Of course, this didn’t mean I didn’t spend my summers on my grandmothers farm picking pickles (or cucumbers, if you prefer the latin!) slaving away in the hot sun for a respectable wage (she was my granny after all).

Yet upon our many journeys from here to there, upon saying the very name of my homeland, I could see in the mind’s eye of my partner in conversing a switch, a snap, an unstoppable reflex that would soon be sputtered forth, “What, the place with all the corn?”.

“Yes. The place with all the corn.”

Dashed are the dreams! Squashed are the fantasies! Now I am but a farmlad in their eyes! A “cow man” (as I’ve heard them called) done up in denim and plaid, hoping to rope me a cow, and find me a pretty lady upon completion of the 8th grade to be my Mrs. In truth though, that would not be the worst. The worst would be the response, “What, the place with all the potatoes?”. I can understand the need for a quick stereotypic memory by which to describe certain aspects of the vast continental US. But please, oh sweet lord above, help them remember that Idaho is good for potatoes, Iowa, for corn, and if not corn, Piggies or Quaker Oats.

I wish I had something important to say, but I don’t. My iPod just shuffled off it’s mortal coil, and I just thought I’d write a lot while on the job.

Enough ludicrousness, here’s the haps in the IC:

Sam and I have finished filming our new pilot. We have to edit the first episode, finish the next script and summarily shoot it in the following weeks. Joy!

I’m not really sure how this semester is going to turn out grade wise. That’s a touch scary.

Steven and I are going to go see a rediculous horror film this week (an insidious “prequel” to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or TCM). I am excited!

Hope all have a lovely week!

But it was really really easy. And I really only climbed half because I took a chairlift halfway. Irregardless the view was amazing from the top, there was not a cloud in the sky. You could see all of tokyo. It was really cool. Then on the way down we stopped at a little soba restaurant that had really famous soba. I guess they go there all the time in the tv dramas. It was delicious.

Yesterday I went for a really long bike ride in koganei kouen , which the park in my town. I had been there once before but I didn’t go very far inside it because I was afraid I would get lost. This time, I felt more confident so I went all over inside it, and got tremendously lost. They had maps, but I never really found my way to the exit, I took this shady side road. Anyways, it’s sooo huge! I probably biked around there for almost 2 hours and I think I saw a little over 1/2 of it. It’s also pretty famous, people come from all over tokyo to do hang out there. I would say it’s like central park, but it’s really not downtown, and I also have no idea what central park is like. However, this park has EVERYTHING! It even has a unicylcing area for crying out loud (unicycling is popular here for little girls, but no boys for some reason pre-1850s). It also has an open air museum that re-enacts the edo period (before japan was open to the west). Apparently the town in Princess Mononoke is based on this museum. Miyazaki really like it for some reason. I have yet to go, but plan on doing it before it gets too cold. I almost have the technology to upload pictures. I forgot to install a photo editor before I left for japan so I have no way to compress them for the web. I don’t even have iPhoto =(. However, when I get this technology you can expect me to start a flicker account and put the url here right away!

i just posted my bird comic from last semester (finally finished it), but i dont feel like repeating it here so , go here instead:

http://manyfishes.livejournal.com/25251.html#cutid1

i couldn’t come up with a name for this one, but it is by far my favorite combination.

OKAY GUYS. My mood just amazingly and darastically improved because (1) the Apple Store at the Mall of America found my cellphone (big kudos to Brendan, who found it) that I left there while playing Kidpix and (2) I just completed the most complicated website I’ve made to date in the portfolio website class Alli and I are taking. I kind of like making websites. It’s almost like printmaking – you do a lot of work beforehand and then in the end it turns out somethign kinda neat.

Today (after retrieving my eepoad) I am going to work on illustration 3 homework and then maybe start on monstercards. Should I make them individually, or should they be digital printouts that I affix to other paper? What do we think?

More from Japan!

Today was possibly the worst day yet on the trains. I told you earlier of the people pushers, well they were always there but didn’t have to be used until today. My hand was literally sandwiched between two salarymen’s asses. Somehow when everyone pushed in it got stuck there and I was unable to move it because it was also holding my bag. I got off my train early and took a much less crowded line (but had to wait like 15 minutes for that train). Consequently I was late to class. POOPLEBERRIES! Then later when I was coming home the train was not crowded at all and I was able to get a seat! However, the salaryman next to me fell asleep on my shoulder. That means I shared what would normally be considered an intimate moment with 3 random salarymen. Thus is the commuter’s life.

I have started my classes and it seems like Japanese here will actually be really hard. There are vocab quizzes everyday, which cover 40 words! There is a test like every two weeks. I dunno it’s strange. Also I don’t remember if I already wrote this but I have 3 classes tomorrow, but two of them are 2 periods long, and at 1.5 hours per period that equals 7 hours of class with 3.5 hours of them being lecture, and the profs here are really worried about their english so they usually just read their powerpoints! AGUH! sooooooooo booring. Most people email on their cell phone during class.

 In bad news, I learned that the film special topic class I registered to take next semester changed from Film Noir to Sci-Fi! It goes from B.A. to Nerd central! I am very sad. I might switch classes now. We’ll see.

Anyways, Let’s learn Japanese! Stuff I bought this week edition-

Ketaidenwa- Cell phone. It was free with the plan, bilingual, and yes it does have more features than my american phone. ￥０

Jitensha- Bicycle. I only paid for 1/4 of this, my host family paid the rest, because the dad wants to use it after I leave. It is bright red, has a light, a lock built in, and I LUVS it! ￥8000 (2000 to me!)

Kyokasho- Textbook. I only bought 1 textbook, but I think I have to buy another one, but I couldn’t find it in the book store. ￥2400

so i guess i just had a major crisis (my digital illustration homework decided it was corrupted and would not open) that was minorly solved (brought in an awful pixely .png version and traced over it in illustrator)? I mean, it looks pretty much the same, but when something that took you over an hour takes you a half hour to recreate, it’s kind of disconcerting. Also I am tired and still upset about file corruption, EVEN THOUGH TECHNICALLY I STILL HAVE THE HOMEWORK I NEED TO TURN IN TOMORROW? Why am I so lame.
I’m thinking for the art sale: monster cards! Monsters saying get well, monsters saying happy birthday, monsters holding a sandwich saying “for you”. The latter was the inspiration for this idea. Maybe it would be better if all the cards were celebrating random events? MAYBE. And I’ll sell the original prints, too. And they will sell just as well as all my junk did last year, which is not very good. Once I have marketable skills (like sewing or bookmaking) maybe I will make the doughs. Here is a monster I drew once (it’s supposed to be me drinking red berry iced tea, which is my one true lurv):

Today I watched Brick and I liked it. Siggggh Joseph Gorden Levitt. SIiigghghghgh.

I’m still upset! I don’t even know WHY I am upset! It’s just upsetting. Files being corrupted are like ice creams being dropped. Maybe you get a new cone, but you still dropped the other one.
This week marks the beginning of Emma Works Less But Maybe Gets Paid More (Maybe). I like this plan. I also get a name tag that (GASP) has my own name, rather than “Usher” on it. This is a new thing and now maybe smarmy fathers who think they are so funny won’t go “Usher? Wow, what a coincidence that your mom named you that!” or “I love your music.” You are. so. funny, sir. No one has ever told me that.

since i didn’t already post enough art to make you crap all over yourself,
HERE.

this is a poster/book cover for the legend of sleepy hollow (also for illi 3). i am currently having a HUGE FIGHT with the epson over what colors it’s supposed to be. me and the epson may have to end our short courtship. it’s just not working out. but the nice guy working here is going to let me use some of his paper. what a guy. i love people like him. maybe i’ll dump the epson for sb annex guy.

today in illi three we had the infamous DAY ASSIGNMENTS. for those of you non art school folk, that is illustration teacher speak for “do what you would normally do, except FASTER and MORE and RIGHT NOW, THAT’S RIGHT, IN CLASS!”
this is usually followed by groaning and students throwing things at the aforementioned teacher. needless to say, it’s usually my favorite class of the semester. what could be better?
surprisingly (or not?), i tend to turn out my favorite pieces of the semester in these class periods–a little disturbing when you stop to think about it. whatever. i had fun making these. i tried to hold them together as a series by using the same family of collage materials for them. these are all cut paper, pencil, and watercolor. carrie (le prof) gave us prompts to pick from, so don’t think i just enjoy randomly drawing these things.
first we have: child looking at her reflection in water

and then, dog on the moon

finally, polar bear roasting marshmallows over a fire (i know. i know. i’m sorry too.)

the end of my fatty art post.
hopefully you all can see these ones.
love and kisses.