My First Hole

That first time.

These are experiences in every boys life that become a touchstone of going maturity. Sometimes it's scary or awkward, as first times usually are, but they become adventures that he'll remember for the rest of his life.

On a family vacation when I was about 10 years old I experienced my first time with one of the wonders of Mother Nature. I took my first trip into a cave.

We were driving from Michigan to Florida down I-75, and once you cross into Tennessee you're hit with a seemingly never ending barrage of billboards for 3 big tourist attractions: Rock City, Ruby Falls and the Lost Sea. I had picked up a brochure for the Lost Sea, and became quite curious about the "world's largest underground lake."

Front and back of old Lost Sea brochure

Look at that tiny little boat floating in that vast underground chamber. To our super advanced futuristic 2008 eyes that picture of the boat looks pretty suspicious. But to the eyes of a kid back in the day before the internets it looked totally real, and a amazing adventure. Who knows what kind of strange cave creatures could be swimming in that water?

I suggested to my parents we should see the Lost Sea, and surprisingly with no resistance they agreed.

Here's a funny note for future travelers to the Lost Sea. I don't know if this is still true, but once you exit the interstate there are Lost Sea signs directing you that read, "15 minutes to the Lost Sea" and "5 minutes to the Lost Sea." None of the signs gave you the actual distance. Maybe they thought listing the actual distance would be off putting to motorists. All I know is that these signs frustrated my father because it took a lot longer to reach the Lost Sea than the signs had told us.

Inside of old Lost Sea brochure

Once we arrived at the Lost Sea me and my father bought tickets (my mother decided to wait for us spelunkers above ground). Once inside the entrance building there are glass doors to the ominous entrance tunnel.

The mildly hypnotic entrance tunnel to the Lost Sea

Seeing that entrance tunnel for the first time was a little intimidating as kid. The thought quickly went through my head that maybe I didn't want to see the Lost Sea after all. But before I had time to give it a second thought we were quickly ushered down the tunnel to our waiting tour group.

Front and back of a newer Lost Sea brochure

Well I won't go into great detail, but my experience at the Lost Sea was awesome and it started a lifelong fascination with caves.

Inside of newer Lost Sea brochure
(If you didn't notice they dropped the misleading tiny boat pics)

During my adventure in the Lost Sea it never occurred to me that the picture of the boat on brochure was grossly exaggerated. It was just cool to take a boat ride in a cave - even if I didn't discover any strange new cave creatures.

Holiday Lights

To ring in the New Year, I present to you the holiday animation I made for 2006. Here's the text I sent to friends to setup the animation:

Dear friends,

I've been doing holiday illustrations for a while now, but recently I've received numerous requests to do a special animation for the Christmas season. So in the spirit holiday giving, here it is - an animated festival lights.

If I may say so, I think it's quite a thing of beauty which perfectly captures the illuminated holiday displays of the season. But isn't not just a spectacle for the eye, oh no, the music for this animation was carefully selected for it's emotional impact. Extra bonus points to anyone who can identify the rich orchestrations I used in this short.

It's my sincerest hope you'll enjoy this celebration of electrical wonders, and harmonious sounds of the season. So without any further adieu, please join me as we visit a serene and picturesque winter carnival where the magic unfolds...



Not to belabor the joke, but here's an explanation in case my animation left you scratching your head.

So the "joke" was what you could call a switcheroo. In the setup I made it sound like I was animating elaborate holiday light displays, and I start the animation with fancy orchestra music and the winter carnival setting. But I then start pulling away from the carnival, and switch to wacky animated neon and illuminated signs that have holiday themes edited to the music from the closing credits of the Bullwinkle show.

But you probably knew that didn't you?

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #7

I discovered Microsoft Publisher in 1997, and thought it would be a great tool for creating my cards (I'd barely even heard of the Adobe's Photoshop or Illustrator back then). Kinko's told me they could print my Publisher file directly on to card stock. Great news! This was going to be my best card yet, but, unfortunately, due to some odd quirk my artwork printed in B&W. So I had to settle for some weird colorized look...

Front

The colorized look sorta works since my card was supposed to resemble a poster for an old cartoon. Still I would have preferred my artwork to be in full color, so for the first time ever here's my original art...

Original Art

On the inside I made up a fake news clipping about my fake cartoon...

Inside

And finally my fake company name for the year...

Back

Well this completes my homemade card posts for the season. Thanks to everyone who left comments, or emailed with some kind words. I truly appreciate it.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #6

I used a paper cut-out technique for the art on my 1996 card. This wasn't my attempt to copy the look of South Park (South Park didn't premiere until 1997), but to copy the look of Mary Blair. Mary's art is very cute and charming, and I wanting my elves to look cute even if they were doing something very weird.

Front

Head cheese has to be one of the grossest food products ever, and about the strangest thing I could think to substitute for gingerbread. On the inside I didn't have any clever text, it just said "Happy Holidays."

Here was my fake company name for 1996...

Back

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #5

In 1995 I got a little religious, but it was a geeky kind of religious with the three wise men depicted as robots.

On the inside it read...


On the back is my fake card company name for the year...

Holiday Spirit

Here's my Christmas gift to the world, or at least the handful of people who visit this blog each day.

Instead of sending out cards each year I've stated doing short holiday animations. This years animation is about a cute bell ringing elf, and the holiday spirit that possesses him. Enjoy...




I'm planning to do a few more homemade Christmas card posts this coming week, and one last special animation to ring in the New Year.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #4

We're now up to 1994, and I decided to place something disturbing on the front of the card.

Front

On the inside it read...

Inside

As you can now see it was disturbing, yet highbrow at the same time (hey isn't that Hooters' slogan?) with my idea of how old Pablo Picasso might have drawn Old Saint Nick.

Also I put another fake card company name on the back...

Back

You may have guessed by the company name I do like using a thesaurus from time to time.