Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy your visit. Here are a few links to things that may interest you:
Yesterday my brother took my son Bay to Arroyo Seco Weekend and one of my all-time favorite bands, The Pretenders played! 🎸 I’m so jealous of Bay… Anyways, I saw that they played my favorite Pretenders song, “Kid”. I wish I could have seen that live! BTW, the album cover above is Pretenders II, the first record I ever bought. I remember riding my 10-speed bike home from either Licorice Pizza or The Wherehouse trying to hold onto the bag and not crash. 🚲😨
Here are my top Pretenders songs, and a convenient Spotify Playlist 🎸🎤🎶 for your listening pleasure. 😝
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today after work I went to Costco to buy some butter and pizza but came across some poké! I knew the other Costco location sold poké but this is the first time I’d seen it in our store. So I had to buy some and have it for dinner. It was pretty good! I haven’t had poké and rice in a while now so it really hit the spot. 😊
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today after work I went to Kinokuniya to browse the stationery and books. It’s actually a great opportunity since I am alone – I don’t have to hurry and can take my own sweet time. 🙂 I was primarily looking for more illustration/art books to find inspiration and get some pointers to improve my own illustration skills and found a great compilation of artists. This Illustration 2018 book is huge – over 300 pages! There are so many great illustrations and each one has a little info about the artist, including their websites, email, or social media links. I went thru about a third of the book already and marked pages using the stickies that I also bought from Kinokuniya. I’ve bookmarked so many pages already!
I think it’s really useful to look at the illustrations in printed format, rather than just onscreen. You can really see the detail and technique a lot better. It’s weird to me because I thought that a digital format would be advantageous because you can zoom in and the colors are more vibrant, but the printed book is way better. Not only is the “zooming and panning” natural (moving your head and eyes closer), but it brings the artwork into the physical world and tangible reality. The only thing better would be to have the full-size print. It’s the reason that galleries and museums still exist. I highly recommend spending your money on art, illustration, or photo books. Skip a couple dinners out, and buy a book!
The bookmark sticker set I bought is pretty neat. I love the designs of these, but this is just one of several different sets, and they are great. I wish I could have all of them, but I’ll just stick to this one, which I liked best. There are 375 total stickers so it’ll last me a while.
I have a couple of Pilot Hi-tec-C Coleto multi-ink pens, and I’ve run out of ink in a couple of the cartridges. Happily, Kinokuniya has a big selection of refills. Now I just have to decide if I should change up the color combinations of my pens, or just get the same colors… ah what a dilemma! 😝
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
She doesn’t like the camera? (Actually a big yawn)
After a long day at work, it’s nice to come home and relax with a nice drink. Although the glass says Saké, it was actually some white wine. 😄 Cheers!
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today I dropped Koa off at Baylor so he could start his week-long band camp. It’s about an hour and a half drive from our house to Waco and the music school there on campus. After a quick registration, it was time for Koa’s placement audition. He didn’t think he did very well, but it turns out that he made First Band! Way to go, Koa!
After auditioning, I helped Koa get set up in his dorm room, which mostly involved putting sheets and bedding together. Koa seemed pretty happy and said I could leave… it was a sad farewell for me because I would be going home to an empty house on Father’s Day, but I could tell Koa wanted me out of there so he could have fun with his friends who were arriving at the dorm. 😫
Out in California, Bay was also checking in to his summer program at USC. My brother’s family and my mom helped him get set up on campus and from the few messages I received from Bay, everything seemed great. I’m excited to learn how his architecture classes are – I hope they are interesting and valuable to Bay!
So now it’s late and I need to rest up for a busy week at work. Yay!
And I just realized that this is the first time that the four of us (Mariko, Bay, Koa, and I) have spent the night all apart! Exciting and sad at the same time. But before I think about it too much, it’s time for bed.
おやすみ！
Hey there! Today was just Koa and I, but it was a busy busy day. Here it is in list form:
Tonight’s sketch is from a photo from 1996 when I first met Mariko. It was a fun sketch to create!
I hope you had a nice Saturday!
またね～
