online comics

So I've been having some fun with my comic strip lately, experimenting a bit with Fractal Painter, figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'll probably finally settle into one style and format eventually, but there are no guarantees. I do this for fun, after all. :-)

Do any of you regularly check out online comics? If so, which ones? Here are the ones I'm reading on a regular basis now:

• Dilbert: I can appreciate this much more, now that I've had my own corporate experience.
  
  
• RealLife Comics: Updated weekly, and author has an online journal on the same page.
  
  

For those interested, you can find a massive list of online comics at Big Panda.

For those interested in starting up a Blog (an online journal format), try checking out BlogSpot, a free hosting service.

Went to the Paramount with Parki and Jeff last night to see "The Dish", a film about the Parkes Observatory's role in the first moon landing. Enjoyed this movie MUCH more than I expected. The cast was excellent.

Today's Blatherpics:

A childhood photo of my friend Parki.

children's own museum

Hey, BoingBoing mentioned my comic strip yesterday (thanks, Cory!).

And check out this Globe Technology article about me and Inkspot.

I took Sara and Annie to the Children's Own Museum yesterday. We had lunch at Le Marche with Jeff first, a restaurant in the BCE place near our apartment (those of you visiting from out of town on FKO weekend might consider going there). It's a marketplace-type of environment, where you go around to different booths and pick what you'd like to eat and drink. Most of the food is cooked right in front of you, and you give a card to the person behind the counter to stamp. At the end of the meal, you take your card to the cash register to pay. It's fun to just wander around and look at the different produce and watch chefs prepare meals. There's even a little sushi booth!



I had a lot of fun, far more than I expected. I had figured that I would be exhausted after an hour, or that Sara and Annie would get bored and want to go home. But there were so many different activities, and the girls were enjoying themselves at each play station so much, that we ended up staying until near closing time.

The toughest part of the trip was learning how to not "hover". I have a tendency to be overprotective, especially when aggressive children were playing nearby, or invaded what I considered to be Sara's and Annie's space. The girls seemed to cope just fine, however. I realized that this was normal and good, and had to exert enormous self-control a couple of times. How do you parents handle this? Good thing I'm not a parent...I think I'd drive my kids crazy by being too smotheringly-protective.



One thing I've learned about spending time with Sara and Annie is how to slow down. Not in terms of activity, but in terms of the task-oriented process I'm used to. I've trained myself to focus on speed and efficiency, to multitask and make every second count. I do still make every second count, but in a different way than before.

Take a short walk to the corner grocery store to pick up some bagels, for example. By myself, I would tend to go straight there, buy the bagels, come back. With young children, however, the trip itself becomes much more of the focus. A walk that would normally take five minutes might stretch into half an hour or more while we explore an anthole near the sidewalk, play a brief game of hide-and-seek around a tree on the way, watch a few sparrows hunt for food in the grass. I find myself seeing the world differently when I'm with children.

Anyway, I consider my first solo outing with Sara and Annie to be a tremendous success. After Ruth took them home, however, I crashed for a few hours and took a long nap. :-) Parki came over in the evening and we watched a few episodes of The Sopranos. Scott Murray and lent us his DVD collection of the first season. Jeff and I are now hooked. :-)





Today's Blatherpics:

Sara and Annie on the Toronto subway system, on the way to the Children's Own Museum.

Annie and me in the "dress-up" area, which was packed with all kinds of hats, dresses, cloaks, shoes, and other costume accessories. You could also get your face painted by a volunteer. This photo was taken by Sara.

At a music play station at the Children's Own Museum.

pocari sweat

Sorry, I couldn't resist using that phrase as my topic header today. What is a Pocari, you ask, and why would one want anything to do with its sweat? The package in today's Blatherpic was purchased at Tokyo World, which is a small Japanese goods store adjoining Wow Sushi, a place we have lunch every week with friends. I bought this package to add to my collection of Bizarre Packaged Foods (I'll have to put up a Web page of my collection so far). Check out the "Body Request" text halfway down the package front...what the heck does this mean???



Anyway, I did some research online. Apparently Pocari Sweat is a sports drink that is popular in Japan, manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. The word "Pocari" has no real meaning, but was chosen because it sounds "relaxing, easeful, light". "Sweat" has connotations of diligence and effort, at least that's how the English word seems to people in Japan. Here's some more info.

Anyway, had lunch at Wow Sushi yesterday with Jeff, Bryan, Greg and Scott from One Trick Pony. After, we picked up some Pocky and other stuff from Tokyo World. My new favourite Pocky flavour is White Chocolate Mousse, by the way. Yummmm.



Allison and Jodi came over in the evening for a practice. We had planned to have dinner at the Swiss Chalet down the road but were horrified to discover that it was gone, the windows covered in paper. Or at least I was horrified, since I like Swiss Chalet (especially the Chalet Sauce) and it was one of the few reasonably-priced semi-"fast food"-type of restaurants left in this neighbourhood.

We recorded a new song to donate to Interfilk (mystery song, identity to be revealed at FKO) as well as taping a rough version of the Titanic song (the one I heard Joey sing at Consonance) with Allison's and Jodi's vocal parts so I can try to figure out a third harmony part if I can.

Only one week left until FKO, woohoo!

Today's Blatherpics:

Pocari sweat.

Bryan (foreground) and Greg.

Allison and Jodi at UT practice last night.

jockette

So I'm trying out a new piece of equipment at my gym called an "elliptical trainer". I generally stick to the rowing machine and stationary bike, but Jeff and I are going on a 10-day backpacking trip with some friends later this year, and I figure I need all the help I can get. :-) On a canoe trip, my least favourite part are the portages (where you have to hike on land between lakes, carrying your canoes and other supplies/equipment), and I figure the hiking trip is going to be like one long portage.

I'm back into a regular workout schedule, finally, and am realizing that a large part of the motivation is having a clearcut goal in the shape of an event coming up. Getting in shape for our canoe trip on the Nahanni River is an example. I've never been on a real backpacking trip before, so am a bit nervous about it. We'll be going with our friends Alison and Jeff. We've been on a canoe trip with them before; they're great fun.

Anyway, my typical workout schedule is going to the gym 3-5 times/week these days. I do cardio for about half an hour (gradually increasing this) on the elliptical, rowing machine, or stationary bike. Then stretches and crunches, followed by weight training for about 20-30 minutes. There are days when it takes tremendous willpower to get to the gym. There are days when I can't wait to get there and work out because I need a stress outlet or am just feeling antsy. I usually take my Walkman or MP3 player, so use that as an opportunity to listen to more music. These days I've been listening to Jeff's and Maya's new CD, "Retro Rocket Science", and some Ookla The Mok.





Today's Blatherpics:

T-shirt that my friend Scott Dixon sent me from Ireland (he's a history prof at the University of Belfast) for my birthday, which is next Thursday (Katy's birthday is the same day, by the way!).

I get tremendous amusement out of Scott's drawings, and he knows it. This one came with the following inscription:

C. Scott Dixon as Robert DeNiro
A special birthday sketch by the master impressionist
on this
Your Birthday
(and there is a shirt in the envelope as well)

lissa's baby!

The photo above is an ultrasound picture of Lissa's baby. Looking forward to seeing Lissa next week at FKO!

Spam

As some of you already know, I've always hated spam. Having had many e-mail aliases, I tend to get a lot of it. Yesterday, I counted 118 pieces of e-mail spam offering everything from printer toner to having my penis enlarged by four inches. Now that I'm not doing Inkspot anymore, my daily e-mail load is much less, but this means that picking out "real" pieces of e-mail from the growing amount of junk is becoming more and more difficult. I used to look forward to getting e-mail, back when the Internet appealed only to academic geeks. Now, however, the spam "noise" is getting highly annoying. Not sure what to do about it...I've tried filtering, changing e-mail addresses, changing my mailto: links, all to no avail. I've given up and am just trying to ignore it.

Blatherings now available in PDA-friendly format!

For those with Palm Pilots, I've created a Blatherings page with no left navigation bar and no graphics. Those interested should add the following channel to their Hotsynch schedule: http://www.electricpenguin.com/pda/blatherings.html.




Copyright (c)2000 Ruth Ohi.

Today's Blatherpic:

Lissa's baby!

Illustration from one of Ruth's books, "Into My Mother's Arms". Ruth used Sara as a model. I've been gradually revamping Ruth's Web site. Do check it out!