“I do agree that it takes waay too long to choose a wallpaper.  We should organize a third-level subcommittee to fix this.”

Hopefully, a third level subcommittee consists of one guy alone in a room choosing the wallpaper.

Besides, the bench can’t be all that bad can it? I’d be willing to risk it.

A recent comment on one of my early Inkscape screencasts that I posted to YouTube back in the day:

…can u use this as photo-shop? cuz i have it? as well but im compleatly lost at it, like i want to put the background like of city view behind me, then just like make the smokes stand out if im smokin and all that, so if u got tips fo me or atleast somethin, hit me back, thanx , nice vid tho 5/5

I’m almost tempted to make an image based on this.

As an aside, I wonder if Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys has recently discovered the internets. (note: aforementioned link contains plenty of offensive, and hilarious language).

It’s clearly no surprise that SCTV had so many talented people rise out of it.

In the name of all that is good, can we just ban plastic-bodied pencil sharpeners? Please?

My daughter loves to draw. I have purchased several little sketchbooks and a multitude of pencils and pencil crayons to help feed her creative wants. Of course she also has the obligatory pencil case and a wide assortment of little plastic bodied pencil sharpeners. They come in loot bags, they find their way home from friends, they somehow magically appear in various places at various times. However I don’t think I have purchased a single one of them directly out of my own pocket. Why? Because I hate them.

Yes, hate is a strong word. The darn things are so colourful, they’re practical in that most of them provide a place for all those pencil shavings to go (although invariably they end up on the floor anyway when little one wants to empty them out). But still I hate them because they just don’t work.

Her own use of them always ends in frustration. She holds up the sharpener and the rounded, flattened or plain broken pencil crayon silently demanding some assistance. As the father-hero figure of course I try. I hold the pencil as squarely in that hole as humanly possible and slowly turn it. But it hardly ever ends well. The lead or pencil crayon core breaks off just inside the tapered wood end of the pencil or worse yet, a small piece of the lead gets stuck in the end of the sharpener itself.

If you’ve done this, don’t put it down to your own ineptitude. Yes, you were holding the pencil arrow straight. Yes, you were rotating it at a smooth enough cadence. Quit blaming yourself. The problem is not you.

I making a vow to fall off my wallet and buy ten metal-bodied sharpeners (maybe even Staedtler’s if I’m in an overly generous mood). I will sprinkle them throughout the house, and maybe keep two in the car (she’s got a sketchbook and pencil that stays in the car).

There’s even a good looking twin sharpener with a place to store and subsequently spill the shavings. It’s a Staedtler, so I’m assuming there are metal bodied sharpeners within it.

So let’s end the frustration and ban the plastic bodied sharpener once and for all. Let’s make the move to metal.

And listen, don’t even get me started on cheap pencil crayons…

I dare not show her the final product or she’ll be wanting to dress like that every day!

Here’s what I started with:

Now I’m no Microsoft fan. I don’t really think too much of Vista mostly because I feel strongly that Linux is the way forward. Technically, there is something wrong with an OS that carries such high technical requirements when it has been clearly shown that you can do more with less. Efficiency is an important concept in technology and it seems to have been completely lost on Microsoft (and much of the commercial software world too).

Anyway, I watched the ad, and it made me laugh. I don’t know if it’s going to start to accomplish what they wanted - I don’t really know exactly what it is they want to accomplish anyway. If the aim is to humanize Microsoft, then I think it’s successful. And maybe humanizing Microsoft is the tact they should take. After all, the Mac vs. PC ads do the exact opposite in a way. Would the general public feel so comfortable watching a company get repeatedly humiliated in the Mac ad if they had a more friendly humanized view of Microsoft? I don’t know.

And let’s not forget that people have always enjoyed Microsoft’s internal videos, their keen sense of wit and penchant for self-deprecation. If all those things are their popular strengths, then why not parlay them into real ads.

Bottom line, It made me laugh and it was smart and odd in a Seinfeld-ian sort of way. It wasn’t for everyone. But I liked it.

And don’t forget. They run tight.

My internet connectivity has been down for a little over a week now (crossing fingers that it gets fixed sometime today). As a result, I’ve had a little more “free” time on my hands lately. I’ve been thinking about drawing a comic for quite some time, but never seemed to find the time until now.

I was initially going to sketch something on paper, scan it in and use it as a base in Inkscape, but then just threw caution to the wind and started playing around with my Wacom Tablet and the freehand tool in Inkscape. I created the whole thing in about 90 minutes using just the freehand tool, node editing and some other really basic stuff. Adding the text and speech bubbles was very easy and flexible.

As I suspected all along, coming up with a good idea (not sure this one really was) is far harder than drawing it.

Like it? Hate it? Does nothing for you? Let me know what you think.

Hint: Ricky’s father was once a trucker..

If you are in need of a good and hearty laugh today, just browse that pool of photos. Especially this one posted by Chris Pirillo. Check out his dad’s ‘fro. It truly is a thing of beauty.

All I can say is thank God for flatbed scanners.