The Art of Tim

Time to move. I won’t be posting for about a week, at which point I’ll upload any sketches I’ve had time to do inbetween now and then, as well as pictures of the move, the new apartment, etc.

Over the course of Thursday and Friday I managed to get six comics scripted, drawn, colored and assembled. This means that I’m totally in the clear for the next week. I have comics drawn to last me until October 6th.

Friday night I hung out with Melissa. Things went really well and we had a great time.

I spent most of today working on smaller projects. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon working on my car. I pulled apart the center console, and painstakingly removed the stock ECU, swapped over the harness (of course the very last screw stuck, and I ended up threading it) to the new KL36 ECU and got that installed. Put everything back together and she ran great. I headed over to AutoZone and picked up some new headlight bulbs, and put those in, since one of mine has been out for a while. No point in getting pulled over for something as stupid as a headlight out.

I get to spend the rest of the evening relaxing a bit, and tomorrow I start packing for the home stretch. I’m going to pack up everything but the bare essentials. I’ll probably try to wait until Wednesday to take my computers down.

Been too busy to make journal posts. Didn’t even have time to sketch yesterday. Just some random crap.

Went out to dinner with Rob last night. Was going to be a quick dinner… met him at 7:30. Got talking and didn’t end up leaving until 10pm.

Saw Anna earlier in the week. She came over and I made dinner. Things didn’t go as bad as expected. She hardly mentioned the move at all.

Going out with Melissa tomorrow.

I’m really under the wire right now. I have to finish six comics by Saturday night. I have one drawn and inked.

Picked up X-Men legends and Guilty Gear X2 yesterday, both very cool games. Looking forward to getting into them once the move is over with.

Took Amsterdam to the vet today. He hasn’t been feeling well. The move next week is really going to stress him out, and he hates traveling. I get to spend 8+ hours in a car with him.

Also picked up the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, and have been watching it here and there whenever I’m in the same room as the TV. The transfer is incredible. I never would have thought that movies that old could look so good.

Well, I’ve got plenty of work to do, so I’d better get to it.

I just drove my car home. I don’t even know what to say. It’s like a whole new car. At idle, the engine is as quiet as a whisper, but as soon as I floor the gas… it’s incredible. I love this new engine. I’ll get some pictures up tomorrow probably.

Unfortunately the new clutch is being a serious pain in the ass, which is preventing me from really letting her loose yet. The clutch is grabbing right off the floor, which is making shifting a big problem. It is a new clutch, so I’ll put about 3-400 miles on it, and see if it’s broken in by then. She’s just going to be a difficult drive for a while.

Definitely not a car for the faint of heart.

Just practicing wardrobe today. Armor and clothing.

Well, today starts the week of goodbyes. I’m seeing Anna for the last time on Tuesday night. She’s coming over and I’m making dinner. On Wednesday I’ve planned to drive up to Alexandria and go out to dinner with Rob. It’s not so much goodbye, because Rob and I are friends and we’ll hang out at conventions, but we’ll no longer be able to hang out so easily. This weekend I’m going out with Melissa (girl from the post office) which will be both the beginning and end of that relationship.

Inbetween it all, my main focus is getting comics drawn. That’s the only major thing that needs to be prepared for the move. I’ll have to take my computers down to pack them, and it will be a few days with moving, and unpacking before they’re up and running again, so I need to be sure the comic is updating on its own.

I beat Fable once over, as an evil bastard. I may play through it again sometime in the future as a good guy, but I’m in no rush. I figure a few more days of messing around, buying towns, killing people, and I’ll get bored with Fable and move onto something else. This week I’ll pick up The Sims 2 and X-Men Legends. The Sims will keep me occupied this week, but X-Men Legends won’t get much play until the weekend of the move, when Toby and I hook it up on the new apartment for some co-op.

Sketches today are of the stars of the movie I was watching. Not going to tell you what movie, because the likenesses didn’t come out too great. The Sims stuff was an afterthought.

I’ve gotten myself into a little bit of a situation. I was talking to Hawk about it last night. See, there’s this girl that works at the post office I do all of my shipping out of. She works in the back, doing sorting and whatnot. She’s about my age, and she’s drop dead cute. I’ve wanted to ask this girl out since I first moved down here in January. The thing is, I’ve never had occasion to speak to her. I always saw her in passing, so it was all smiles and “hello” stuff.

But the other day she was out on the loading dock when I drove up to drop of some packages. I finally got to talk to her for a bit one on one, and before I even thought about it, I was asking her out on a date. She said yes. So here’s the problem obviously… I’m taking this girl out later this week, and in two weeks I’ve moving back up to New England. So now I get to explain that to her. I’m sure THAT won’t be uncomfortable or anything.

I swear, the situations I get myself into. *sigh*

Two sketches today, because I sketched yesterday, but didn’t manage to make a post here. First one is a silly sketch of my Fable character, second one is just some loose figure work, mostly poses out of my old Lifeguard handbook which was lying around.

No car until Monday now. The engine is in the car, it’s running, the car is on the ground. However, right under the radiator cap, there is a little plastic piece that has a tiny little crack in it, which is causing the radiator to leak water. They had to order the part from Mazda yesterday, and they were told it would be there by today, except now it won’t be there until Monday. Once they get this stupid little piece, it’ll take five minutes to install, but I have to wait until Monday. God damnit.

I’m going to go slaughter a town in Fable now.

Busy day, didn’t get to sketch until late at night.

Rented a car again today. Another Suzuki piece of junk. This one is worse than the last one. I just keep telling myself… Friday I’ll have my car back.

Two weeks from today I’ll be loading the truck to move to Connecticut. I better get moving.

I picked up and watched Man on Fire tonight. That movie was fucking awesome. Granted, when it was in the theaters, Toby and I cracked endless jokes about a two-hour film about some guy on fire, screaming away. The title just begged for it. But the movie itself really moved me, and that doesn’t happen often. I thought the style of the film was amazing. The use of cuts, blurs, shakes, and text gave it a really unique feel.

And of course, Fable. Well, what can I say? It’s pretty awesome so far. Starts off kind of slow, but it picks up. Need some more playtime before I go into it too much.

God damnit. I just talked to the mechanic, and in the process of putting my engine back into the car, they realized a part of the drivetrain needs to be replaced. They had to order the part from Mazda, but it will take a day or two to arrive. This means I’m looking at not having my car back until Friday. Fucksticks.

I think I’m going to have to rent a car again. I won’t be able to make it to the end of the week without transportation. Fucksticks.

I got the shipment from UPS yestderday after all… but the one item I was waiting on most wasn’t in it. Instead there was a note saying that it was being shipped separately at a later date. Fucksticks.

Maybe I will make a Jesus Christ Monkey Fucker t-shirt, just to piss people off.

Today’s sketch is going to cause issues, I’ll bet. I’ll get an angry email, or comment from SOMEONE who’s taking me too seriously. At any rate, there’s an interesting little backstory to the sketch.

One of the curses I use most frequently is “monkeyfucker”. Occasionally, when I’m really upset at something in a surprised sort of way, I’ll say “Jesus Christ Monkeyfucker”. Well… I’m sure you can figure out the rest.

Well, tomorrow my brand new ACT performance clutch will finally arrive at the mechanic. This is the last piece we were waiting on to before putting my car back together. So with a little luck, I’ll have my car back on Wednesday.

Once I get it back, the engine is going to be running rich for a while, because I’ll still be using the K8 ECU. I have a KL36 ECU on it’s way from Malaysia, but I won’t have it until next week. Once the new ECU is in though, the car will be running pretty well. Swapping out the ECU should be a quick operation. I just won’t drive my car very much until then, because it will guzzle gas like it was going out of style.

Nekocon had asked me to design the T-shirt for their Security Staff, which I finished today. They let me use Ethan on the front, which is pretty cool. They’ve also asked me to draw the artwork for their Video Game Room Staff badges, so that’s next up on my list. Should be pretty simple.

UPS sucks my ass. I payed for 2 day shipping on this item, and it was supposed to be delivered last friday. They couldn’t find my apartment (they’ve been here before) so they said they’d deliver it today. Now they say it will be here tomorrow. I swear, if they tell me they can’t find the place tomorrow, I’m going to scream.