Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy your visit. Here are a few links to things that may interest you:
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
“2017.09.18 Sketch” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How was your Monday?
Tonight I decided to do a little research into how people sketch out facial proportions, but my first attempt at following the directions turned out horrible… so I adjusted the system and I really like the results. Basically, I shortened the face a bit which is a bit more unrealistic, but it’s kind of the style of drawing that I like to see others do.
After I sketched it, I erased a lot of the guidelines and then realized that I should probably keep them for reference. Whoops! Anyways, I went back in with my ruler and measured out some of the distances. It’s not as easy to remember or calculate as the systems I found on Youtube but I am going to try to replicate it if I can.
Also, you can see in the photo that I used a compass. That was to draw the first circle, but what is more interesting is that this compass belongs to a set which I borrowed from my Dad when I was in high school and kind of kept it all these years. It is kept in an old leather case which smells so nice. Kind of old metal, lubricating oil, and felt… I don’t know, but it’s a smell that takes me back to when I was a kid.
Lastly, here’s a photo of my workspace, which I rearranged a bit by putting the scanner in the corner after we moved our printer to another room. It looks a bit cluttered, but normally the desk surface is clear.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/120 sec, ISO6400
“Workspace” Cedar Park, 2017
おやすみ and take care!
🎶 I’m not a huge Rod Stewart fan, but I’ve always loved this song. Young hearts be free tonight!
Young Turks
Billy left his home with a dollar in his pocket and a head full of dreams.
He said somehow, some way, it’s gotta get better than this.
Patti packed her bags, left a note for her momma, she was just seventeen,
There were tears in her eyes when she kissed her little sister goodbye.They held each other tight as they drove on through the night they were so excited.
We got just one shot of life, let’s take it while we’re still not afraid.
Because life is so brief and time is a thief when you’re undecided.
And like a fistful of sand, it can slip right through your hands.Young hearts be free tonight. Time is on your side,
Don’t let them put you down, don’t let ’em push you around,
Don’t let ’em ever change your point of view.Paradise was closed so they headed for the coast in a blissful manner.
They took a two room apartment that was jumping ev’ry night of the week.
Happiness was found in each other’s arms as expected, yeah
Billy pierced his ears, drove a pickup like a lunatic, ooh!Young hearts be free tonight. Time is on your side,
Don’t let them put you down, don’t let ’em push you around,
Don’t let ’em ever change your point of view.
Young hearts be free tonight.
Time is on your side.Billy wrote a letter back home to Patti’s parents tryin’ to explain.
He said we’re both real sorry that it had to turn out this way.
But there ain’t no point in talking when there’s nobody list’ning so we just ran away
Patti gave birth to a ten pound baby boy, yeah!Young hearts be free tonight, time is on your side.
Young hearts be free tonight, time is on your side.
Young hearts be free tonight, time in on your side.Young hearts gotta run free, be free, live free
Time is on, time is on your side
Time, time, time, time is on your side
Is on your side
Is on your side
Is on your side
Young heart be free tonight
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, yeahSongwriters: Carmine Appice / Carmine Jr Appice / Duane Hitchings / Duane S Hitchings / Kevin Savigar / Rod Stewart
Young Turks lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
“Instant Coffee” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today I spent the bulk of my time working on my wife’s blog. She bought a new theme and it needed a lot of TLC to get it set up, and actually still needs a bunch of tweaking. But it’s up and running and functioning fine. I think it’s ready for her to take over and get used to using the new recipe widgets.
Thankfully I had a lot of coffee to keep me going! The photo above is of a big jar of instant coffee that my mother-in-law gave me. She knows I love coffee, and when we visit her house in Japan, I usually have one or two cups of instant each morning. So I guess she remembers that and always sends a big Nescafe back to the States for me. 😄
I don’t think instant coffee tastes so good, but it’s something I drink while on vacation so it gives me a good feeling! I’ll happily drink it anytime.
I hope you had a nice weekend and let’s have a great week!
おやすみ
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
“Making Eggs” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today’s photo is of the uncooked late breakfast I made for my son and his friend. My son likes to have green onions in his scrambled eggs (ever since my Mom made them for him a few years ago) and we now keep a Ziploc bag of chopped scallions in the freezer. It’s so convenient to just grab a little bit and throw into the eggs! I highly recommend doing this. 😀 Oh, and I also add a bit of heavy cream into the mix to give it a little extra richness.
This evening, my 16-year-old and I went to watch the Canelo/GGG boxing match at the movie theater. This is the second time we’ve done this and it’s pretty fun! It’s nice because the action is on the big screen and you can talk during the show! Also, the theater we went to serves beer, which is an extra plus. 🍻
But now, I’m very tired, and it’s actually 00:33 Sunday morning so I’ll say good night.
おやすみ
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO2500
“Journal” Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
This evening was a busy one for me. I dropped my son and his friend off at a concert downtown, which meant a lot of driving! They had to be at the venue at 6:30 pm for a VIP meet-n-greet, then, of course, the concert lasted until after midnight, so I made a second trip to pick them up. But, the kids got to meet the band, saw the show from right in front of the stage, and had a great time. An hour and a half of chauffeuring is a small price to pay to give them a nice memory that will last a lifetime.
After I dropped them off, I stopped by BookPeople again and bought a few more small notebooks. I am planning on using them for my daily journaling. I started using a larger notebook recently for the journal, but since I decided to switch to the small notebooks, I cut out the two days I wrote in the large one and taped into the small one. It’s not pretty, but who cares? ☺️
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
“Ink Doodling” Cedar Park, 2017
Back at home, I did some quick sketching using my LAMY Safari broad nib and Noodler’s Bulletproof black ink. It’s fun, although I don’t think I like any of the faces except the two in the bottom-left corner. But at least I did work on some eyebrows, and practice is good, right?
I also did a sketch looking at a reference sketch by @cyarine, who is an amazing artist. I love her work! I think drawing from reference photos is fun and helpful. It’s almost like getting into the mind of someone else… maybe not that much, but something like that. I guess?
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
“Reference Sketch” Cedar Park, 2017
I hope you had a nice evening!
おやすみ
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/50 sec, ISO6400
“Cat on Toast’ Cedar Park, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Tonight’s photo is yet another one of our cats. But this one is a little different because Yuzu is relaxing on a giant piece of toast! It’s actually a really soft pillow but the illusion is really convincing, isn’t it?
This evening I spent some time working on a drawing on the computer. Specifically, I concentrated on using the pen tool in Photoshop to make smooth selections, then filled them with black. And then I had a little fun by making the skin a bright pink.
“Pink’ Cedar Park, 2017
The original sketch is one I did a few weeks ago, so if it looks familiar, that’s why. 😀
I hope you had a nice Thursday!
おやすみ
I wanted to post this little PSA in hopes it helps save someone a bit of frustration.
We recently switched our ISP (Internet Service Provider) and needed to buy a new router. We went with the ASUS RT-AC1200 router, which isn’t gigabit, but since our service’s bandwidth caps at 100 Mbps, we didn’t need the extra throughput.
For the most part, the router works great, but we did have some trouble with getting our Google Chromecast to work with the router. It had trouble keeping connected to the ASUS router. Even the setup via laptop or smartphone was difficult and wouldn’t finish successfully. Sometime we’d be able to see the Chromecast from other devices, and the Chromecast even indicated that it was connected to our network, but it we couldn’t cast with any reliability. I tried many things, and finally figured out the correct setting for the router.
Make sure the 2.4GHz access point is set to “Legacy”. Also, you may try disabling IPv6.
After setting this, and rebooting the router, the Chromecast stays connected to the network and we can cast from all devices without problems!
