This man taught me how to draw.

Dave Cockrum died on Monday. This is particularly sad for me because as the title states, Cockrum taught me how to draw.

X-men was one of the first comics I really got into that wasn't of the 'kiddie' variety. It was also the first one that I knew all about, as in I knew the history of the characters and followed it the closest until it got too ridiculous, or I grew out of it. I don't remember which. Cockrum was my all time favorite X-Men artist, and his creation, Nightcrawler, was my all-time favorite X-Man character(followed closely by Longshot and Art Adams). Some time in the '80s, there was a four part mini series about Nightcrawler going to a parallel universes with Kitty's pet Dragon Lockheed. I read this series about a million times, and must have drawn and re-drawn every panel of every page. His art became the foundation for everything art related I have ever done since, no matter how hard Art School tried to beat it out of me.

He had a relatively short tenure with the X-Men, but his character and costume designs persist to this day. I followed his career pretty closely for a long time, and I remember that on the list for my hold slot at the Mile High Comics in Buckingham Square (slot 32. The lower the number, the cooler you were) I had written down "All Dave Cockrum".

He will be missed.

Any ethnic food will do.

Man. Holidays for latch-key kids, especially if they marry another latch key kid, involve a shit-ton of driving. This year wasn't so bad, but the whole mom's house in the morning, dad's in the evening, Denver for one holiday, Tulsa for the other, see these sets of people, then go across town to see the other.... Oh and if you are the first ones to offer up a grand-kid? Forget it. Even distant cousins want a piece of you.
So that being said, I have decided that now that I have my own house and my own kid and my own Christmas tree, the rest of you can piss off or drive to my house.
I racked up a lot of mileage in the last few decades, and now it's your turn. So come on down. I'll be the one sitting comfortably on the couch, half drunk by noon.

Okay. So despite all the driving, we had an awesome weekend. Thursday was spent in Enid America(the worst city in OK, according to many of it's own residents), At Jen's Aunt's house. There were stairs there which must have looked almost exactly like a jungle gym, because all Jack wanted to do was climb up and down them the whole day. He was also really into getting olives. Not to eat, but to squish, then feed to the dogs. There was lots of yummy food.
Friday I had to freakin' work, but I came in late, and left early. I spent the time in between decorating the internet marketing area for Christmas in the most obnoxious ways I could think of, eating the free pizza they provided for us, and watching downloaded movies on my computer. That'll show 'em! Then I drove to Tulsa, and helped prep for feast #2. We watched "the break-up", and although I generally like Vince Vaughn and I think Jennifer Aniston is a cutie despite myself, the movie was a let down.

Saturday was a giant pile of food with us having to eat our way through it. Lots of family and kids and running and yelling and then more food. After we watched Bedlam and had naps, Jen and I went on down to Arnie's for Larkin's CD release party. That was a blast. I love drunken Irish parties. I can't help but feel like I'm fulfilling the wishes of my forefathers. When Indian people participate in traditional dances and rituals, they must get the same feeling I get when I am in an Irish pub, with a Guinness, belting out drinking songs. It's a connection to your past.
Sunday was spent putting up Christmas decorations and getting the house ready for the holiday party we are throwing next week end.

I want Chinese food.

House (not MD)

We had a working weekend of sorts. Friday was spent not doing much of anything, and I think we went to bed early in another of our rockin' Friday night extravaganzas, involving me watching Doctor Who, and Jen Watching What Not To Wear. We may have put a load of laundry in after Jack went to bed. We're crazy like that.

Saturday, Jack went to the Grandparent's house to stay the night and to help in the yard as part of chore deal we have worked out.
Pictured is him in his favorite Elmo fleece hoodie, and his extremely small and therefore extremely cute Converse All-Stars.
His visit allowed us to paint the living room that we've neglected since we moved in. It is now a dark toupe color that really makes the fireplace pop, like you give a crap. I also reinforced the new shelves, and put the rest of my books on them. Our house is finally coming together like we want. Yay.
The real fun was Saturday night, when Cookie came over for dinner (we had Steak), and we actually were able to go to the bar. It was awesome fun to sit and drink Newcastles, ogle the college kids, yap endlessly, and watch drunks try to play pool. Frat kids, bikers, women of ill repute, and the best players were the Asian physics majors. They stay sober, and know all the angles.
Sunday, after realizing there was nothing resembling breakfast food in the kitchen, we went to iHOP for breakfast. Small town family restaurants are always a treat on Sunday mornings, and this one did not disappoint. Mixed in with the old people, hungover college kids, and church-goers were these two kids, about 15, who were right out of Rushmore. They were both dressed a little too nicely, and the one in the blue blazer was reading the paper and talking on his cell phone, while having a deep discussion with his friend about WWII. In response to these two old-before-their-time kids, Cody and I went and played video games the rest of the afternoon.

Cody is master of the X-Wing.

Shelves!

Finally!

Lookkit dem shelves!--->

We sold some of our old shelves in a garage sale over the summer, and gave the others to cousin Preston after we repainted the room, because the red stain didn't vibe with our new guacamole colored paint. So all our (read: my) stuff had been sitting on the floor ever since. We had been waiting for some extra cash to build new ones and never seemed to have a spare $200. That is until we found the brackets we wanted on sale for $2.50 each, and found some really cheap wood. The third and most important piece was Mr. Dopps. He came over on Sunday with a mad fat pile of tools, and helped me put them up. They look really awesome. Jen had an idea of what she wanted, that I turned into something much more elaborate and expensive in my head. When we got all the stuff together, the whole thing ended up being under $75. So that was even cooler. Jen smart.

Friday I spend a good deal of the night looking for cousin Ryan's dog Roscoe who ran off earlier that day. We looked and looked until about 10:00 when we got a call from his roomate stating that Roscoe had showed up on the back porch out of the blue, whining for some food and smelling like a rotten creek. Crisis solved, I went back home and crashed out watching Doctor Who on the Sci-fi channel. Saturday we cleaned the house, raked the leaves, washed and detailed the Xterra, put it up for sale on the corner, did laundry, and bought the lumber for the shelves. Oh, and played with the kid. A lot.

Monday and today were work days, and as work is kinda slow, I spent most of my time watching my new love(thanks again, Cody!): The Mighty Boosh. I love those guys. They have a talking Ape as a main character. They break into elaborate musical numbers at odd times. They had mod wolves. That's what sold me. I also will have a new NGV5 page up by tomorrow, if the stupid scanner at work is functional.

um... That's it.

I voted

And I couldn't be happier. Finally the country has realized that letting any person or party have absolute power is dumb, because being able to do whatever you want without impunity always leads to bad things. The "value voters" have realized that no one party has a legitimate or singular claim to morals. People realized that making a living wage is better for business. When people make more, they spend more. They have realized that they want a health care plan that doesn't pander to big pharmesutical companies. They have realized that they like clean air and a pleasant landscape, and that they don't really want Florida or Manhattan or London under water. They don't want their civil liberties trampled on any more. And finally, they have realized that they want peace in Iraq with a viable exit strategy, and that they want to know what that is.
I have to give Bush a teeny bit of credit for realizing this as well. At the press conference yesterday, in addition to seeming pretty peeved, more at the party and Rove than anybody else, he seemed pleasantly open to the fact that he was going to have to change how he does things. And starting with replacing Rumsfeld was the best first step we could have hoped for. Maybe now some civility will return to Capital Hill. Maybe now the politicians will return to the center, where all of their constituents are. Maybe now the arrogant posturing will leave one side, and some confidence will enter the other. I doubt it, but maybe. It will be really interesting to see how '08 goes, because you know that shit's gonna start really soon.
Yay for change!!

Go Vote!

If you don't, then the terrorists really win. What they hate most about America is our freedom, and voting is the very basis of that. Also, If the current people stay in charge, even though they spout freedom in every speech, they are slowly taking it all away. So go vote for whoever is not the incumbent, so we can get some new decision makers in there. If the Congress goes Democratic, I'm not sating everything will be gravy, but change is sorely needed at this point. Checks and balances have to be in effect for this system to work, and there aren't any right now.
Voting is not so much a right as a responsibility, and a civic duty.
Enough of that.



A stern boy-->

We helped Grace and Lonny move into their new house in the sub-urbs of OKC this weekend. We moved everything from their storage until that they have been living out of while staying with an aunt for the past few months, and they seemed relieved to have their stuff back in a home of their own. Nancy stayed at our house with the boy overnight Saturday(and took this pic), so we got to go out that night. We visited Derrek and Caroline, and had a lot of fun. I didn't drive, so I drank a little more than I should have. Chris told the story about the time he got shot in the leg during a dispute in a parking lot that he was not involved in. There is now a spot on his leg where no hail grows, to his dismay, but I reminded him that pain is fleeting, and chicks dig scars.

Yesterday, we did jack shit. The only time we left was to look at an old Volvo that we are thing of buying. Jack played in a bird feeder while I test drove it. The guy only wants $300, so I think we're gonna get it.

And now I am at work, wishing I wasn't.