josie

Keep them sympathy votes comin' All I can get.

Then this may be for them. Puns galore. Don't play with your food, kids.

Now I'm worried.

Absolute truth. A good friend has nothing more than a GED and makes bank doing cyber security and other related fun things. He flies around the world, buys nothing but designer goods, and eats lavishly when he's not wasting said money on some paramour. He's 23. The stuff that kid could do pretty much made me certain that nothing virtual is safe, ever.

Seconded. (grow it back pleeeease)

Dude! I always hated that thing. I know who his voice is, I just couldn't remember the name of the snowman. If he had one. However, Yukon Cornelius... That guy's awesome. So is Bumble. I just have never found snowmen cute or whimsical. Always creeped me out. Oh yes. Went through that this time last year. He told me I could get the points taken off if I took an online driver's safety course. I did. Still paid a ton. Ended up in a wreck before I even had that thing completed (wasn't my fault). "Failure to obey traffic signals" was mine as well. I was speeding up to the mph listed on the sign that I could see. But that was still technically over whatever stupid mph speed trap was on the road leading up to it. I wrote it off as "even if this one is stupid, I've deserved it before and not been caught." But man, the process of paying it and all made me feel like a horrible criminal. I can only imagine what it's like if you are.

My best friend back home has had a rough go of it recently. In short, she's had a string of jobs/firings, her husband is in med school/never home, she's back in school, trying to open her own business and is barely keeping the bills paid. I saw her over Tgiving the day after she'd been fired again, and the house was in this sad state of half bare, half furnished. So with my xmas card to her this year I gave her money to a store she likes to help cozy it up. Got a voicemail a few minutes ago with her crying in happiness. I know it wasn't much, and I bitch endlessly about being poor myself, but hearing how damn happy she was gave me all the Xmas spirit fuzzies.

He looks like he's on Christmas furlough from the Great War. Seriously, the hair cut and boyish face- he looks like a doughboy from 1916. I wish. d4rk ain't got no time for that. There's hockey to be discussed and politics to research.

I hear ya. Just instead of cookies (ok, in addition to cookies which are happening for a white elephant thing tomorrow), make it xmas cards and last minute illustration requests and end of semester grading. If anyone's in JFK, in the jet blue terminal (i think terminal 4), look for the Coatchex kiosk thing. I did illustrations for them a few weeks back and now I'm doing a big 6 foot tall one that's due.... tomorrow. It'll be up the 29th, with a hole for your face should you want to take a picture with it. (not sure i get their reasoning but hey). They've been a great client but holy crap, Week Before Xmas Can You Do This Massive Thing In 2 Days requests should be effin' illegal. You know the song "silver and gold" from Rudolph? The weird snowman dude sings it. Well, I've been singing it as "deadlines and guilt... deadlines and guilt..." If I don't kill myself by Xmas I'm going to kill someone else.

At least finding presents for you is easy.

And slammed her face into a flat screen TV. If anyone signs that man (and I hope it doesn't happen, I don't think it will), I could never root for that team again. My opinion of the Kings has already plummeted with their little "sneak him onto the ice for practice" stunt. Lombardi, "''My biggest concern is that if he is charged with a felony, this one incident could jeopardize Slava's entire career.''" Oh, poor baby.

I agree. I'm not in Edmonton, but you gotta wonder if anyone would be effective when the franchise is onto their 6th head coach in 7 years. Head coaches quickly become scapegoats up there. Goalies get the rap for terrible defense, and kids can't lead kids in an NHL environment. What a mess. So uh, Torts, you wanna take a shot? MacLean?

Dallas Eakins has been fired by the Oilers. Multiple sources rolling in. As Adam Proteau (@proteautype) said, "Oilers fire chef, retain suppliers of bad food ingredients." Wonder what it would take to clean sweep that front office.

So yesterday some snow hit Rochester. I left the downtown office at 430 to get to my 6 pm class at RIT and grab some donuts/coffee at Timmy Ho's on the way for our final class. Traffic was abysmal. Just a 10 mph crawl, no plows, and I realize bitching about crappy weather is a moot point after the Buffalo snow cannon last month, but it sucked major balls. On the final leg of the journey, a police car stops my lane. "Whatever" , I think... "I still have about 20 minutes before class and I'm about 2 minutes away". Well, I felt like a dick getting angrier and angrier as the minutes ticked by since some poor person in a jeep was getting winched out of a ditch, but the last class? 6 pm comes and goes. ######, those kids are gonna leave. I don't want to reschedule. Wrote 'em a quick email explaining the situation. A bit later the cop lets us go, I'm late. Kids all cheer as I walk in, but then, college age kids will cheer anyone bearing donuts and caffeine. Class went well, got some silly comics/thank you notes. Check my email today, and saw they'd sent me this in response to my pissed off "i'm stuck" email. Warmed the bitter cockles of my heart. I'm gonna miss those guys.

Crit- critique. Put up the project, everyone discusses it, basically. They can be pretty interesting sometimes. Some people do NOT handle critique well. It can be tough to run one when you get a student who reacts poorly. Gotta really watch what you say... Yeah, I'm glad I'm teaching college. It's more rewarding- I can really help them finesse their style rather than just tell them about the basics. Should my full time job ever not work out, I would consider going for a Masters to do it full time, despite knowing that it's a nightmare to deal with (tenure track, politics and all of that. all of my former profs told me not to go that direction if I could help it).

That's a sign of a ###### professor. I'm sorry but that's complete bull. What the hell do you learn from a situation like that? Tonight is the final crit of my first class. I love those kids (except for the one girl I've discussed in the complaint thread). This is something I never knew I could or would do. My students have already told me that they plan on visiting me next semester, and my class is full (and beyond) already for Spring. I think they have me signed in for next Fall already, as well. So although I'm stressed and depressed (god i hate the holidays), it's good to know I did something right. Their work has come so far- they've all improved so so so much. I have to select about 6 works from the class for a display case and I'm happy to say that the 6 I plan on grabbing are all really great pieces that I'm proud to have overseen. A couple of those pieces are professional level. It's awesome.

In case you want to watch it yourself, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0dWt9X9hIs Also, I found this video the other day. A fan's POV on the situation. I know the Sabres have been a struggle bus for awhile, but I'm not sure anything compares to the dumpster fire that is Edmonton.

White Stripes will always hold a special place in my heart. They're from Detroit, and I remember when I was in 7th grade going to a local Toledo divebar/stage to see some friends play. It was some amateur battle of the bands competition, and then these two kinda grungy kids were up at the end as judges or something, and played "Fell In Love With A Girl". They'd started to make it by then, having just released White Blood Cells. I decided I loved them then, bought all of their albums and was rather heartbroken when they broke up. And I'm not really a huge solo Jack White fan. Black Keys also hold love for me- they went to high school with some of my cousins/friends from college. Here's one of my original favorites:

The Rolling Stone article mentioned made me physically ill to read. Yes, I have many thoughts about this, but I think this thread is very much focused on Ferguson today and I will rant about this at another time. I'm also afraid to discuss many of my feelings on the matter in most places. I've been informed many times in my life that my fears are unsubstantiated and any problems I have had were my own doing. This article reminded me I'm not alone, nor are my friends who've been through similar experiences described and were told it was their fault. Admittedly, my experiences were more in the line of the doxxing/online stalking variety, which is another can of worms that's sprung this year, but I think it all boils down to the same culture. Carry on, I will lurk and read and learn today.

Sabres on a STREAK yo

Emergency Van Halen!

WOOOOOoooOOOoooooo

First Sabres game in awhile that I've gone "Aw dammit" at a goal against instead of shrugging apathetically.

Got some fast illustration work comps approved today- If any of you happen to be in JFK's jet blue terminal this thanksgiving, look for the Coatchex kiosk- there should be some posters up illustrated by yours truly. Also, haven't nailed down the perfect design yet, but I'm working with a gorgeous international plus size model on a children's book concept. Celebrities- they sound the same as anyone else on the phone. I'll shoot her a text and not hear anything for awhile, then get a "oh my god, hey, I'm so sorry I didn't respond, I was just flying to Amsterdam". Her schedule just blows my mind. Not awesome- my piled up to do list, because how do you say no to a job like that... I can't wait to for it all subside so I can get back to the stuff I have backed up... and maybe even paint for myself. I'm not even going to be able to make my own Xmas card this year.

I'm sure there'll be more stories of collapsing roofs with time, but the rescue I volunteer at is trying to raise money for a farm whose barn collapsed. I guess it killed one of their horses and has another pinned, and also collapsed with all the hay for the winter inside, which they cannot reach. We're trying to raise about $700 for them for replacement hay, so far we've raised about $500 in the last 18 hours or so. I'll probably end up donating to several more places before the week is out- if anyone there knows of other ways I can help, do let me know. I may be in Rochester, but we're neighbors too.