Click on the thumbnail above to see the full-sized cartoon!
Yes, this actually happened. Normally this would not happen, as the girls usually wake up before Hubster and I can get started. When that happens, he takes them downstairs, feeds them breakfast, and turns on Sponge Bob Squarepants. The moment I hear, "Are ya ready, kids?!" I sit up in bed and shout, "Aye-aye, Captain!"
Sponge Bob = Best. Aphrodisiac. EVAAAAAAAAAAH!
The Christmas holidays are here, and my parents have arrived with it. Naturally, I'm eating more and exercising less, and it's not good for me. I've already got a massive headache that I think is related to drinking too much caffeine (my mom loves to go to Starbucks and my dad loves coffee and hot cocoa). And my stomach doesn't feel so hot, because of all the high fat food I've ingested in the last couple days.
Obviously, I need to cut back. Doing so will be a bit of a challenge. The good news is, I did manage to get in a workout yesterday - Gold's Gym Cardio Workout on the Wii, followed by a ten minute yoga podcast I bought from iTunes as a way of squeezing in a little extra stretching and toning over the week. But I'm going to have to step it up a bit more, and I don't know how I'll do that yet.
Maybe I'll make it out for a bike ride this week. Or maybe I'll do more Wii games and sweat it out. I dunno. But I do know I need to lay off the coffee and the fruit cake, 'cause my head and gut are killing me!
Welcome back to Freak Friday Flashback Edition! This sketch is pulled from the same notebook as last week's, and looking at it gives me a pretty good idea of where both sketches may have been drawn. My dad owned land in Arkansas, and one particular summer in my early teens we went down there to camp for a week or so. I'm pretty certain I did NOT see this deer, but I probably did see the trees and dead logs I drew. I may even have a picture somewhere of me bent very intently over my sketch pad, drawing furiously, probably wishing a real deer would stop by so I could say I drew it.
Let me know what you think of Freak Friday Flashback Edition. Do you think it's a fun idea, or are you bored to tears with my pathetic teenage artwork? I've got some even older stuff, and lots of it, so there's plenty more I'm going to post, whether you like it or not!
Normally, I post the cartoon and then I offer the commentary. Today I'm doing it the other way around, and I want to explain why. On Thursday, Officer Deriek W. Crouse was shot and killed at Virginia Tech. I was horrified to hear this news. His death, at the time of this writing, appears to have been completely senseless, and it's made even more tragic in light of the fact that Officer Crouse was married with five children. I'm having a hard time understanding how something like this could have happened at a campus I remember as being peaceful and laid back during my college days so many years ago.
The cartoon below was originally on December 8th, 1990. The very next day, I would go to a party and kiss my future husband for the first time. It was one of the best times of my life. It was about a week before the start of exams, and during that week, the VTCC instituted 23-hour quiet time. There was no talking in the hallways, no music, no horsing around, just 23 straight hours of studying. Until 6PM, that is.
From 6PM until 7PM, the hallways in Rasche and Brodie were a riot. We pulled out water guns and shaving cream pies, we blasted our stereos until the glass in the dorm windows started to shake. We threw water balloons and ate pizza, sometimes doing both activities at once. Then at 7PM we would return to our desks and get back to studying as hard as we could.
When I pulled this cartoon out of the pile last week, I clapped my hands with glee. I couldn't wait to post this. Now, it seems so sad to look at. My heart goes out to Officer Crouse's family. I cannot begin to say how heartsick I am over this man's death. My thoughts are with his family.
Click on the thumbnail above to fiew the full-sized comic!
Both Princess and Pixie have become quite the negotiators at dinner time, and it's driving me nuts. For years now, I've had to argue over how many spoonfuls of vegetables equals one dessert. It doesn't help that I myself am picky about the vegetables I eat. Only my best friend, Mary, knows how to cook brocolli in such a way that I will actually eat it, stem, flourettes and all!
Things are getting busy here at Cynical Woman Central. I've been working on more t-shirt designs, including the Zombie Goth Mermaid. I'm hoping to do a series of goth/steampunk t-shirts and prints, so you'll be seeing signs of that in the not-too-distant future. Right now, I have two t-shirts for sale in the Cynical Woman Zazzle shop, along with cards, postage stamps, iPad cases, jewelry and other goodies. If you're so inclined, feel free to visit the shop and browse. All proceeds from that shop go right into paying for more graphics software and hardware so I can produce even more cartoons and cool stuff.
Have fun this week, and don't forget to eat your vegetables!!
To quote Pepe Le Pew, "Le sigh!" I've gotten back to playing my fitness games on the Wii now that the weather's turned cold, and I've come to a sad realization. One of my favorite games, Walk It Out, has no follow up game to play. And I'm really kind of bummed about that.
Walk It Out, if you haven't seen it, is probably one of the simplest Wii fitness games out there. Using either a DDR mat, the Wii balance board, or the Wii nunchuk tucked in your pocket, you walk along to music while exploring a virtual island. That's it, period. Well, you do accrue points as you walk, which you use to unlock various items on the island, like trees, buildings, a cafe, farmland, and even a giant airship, but basically, you just walk around the island. And I really love that.
I'm the kind of person who loves being immersed in video game settings, but doesn't particularly care to hack and slash or shoot my way through a scene. Rune Factory is one of my favorite video games, even though I rarely play it, because I can spend an hour or two just running around talking to people and digging up farm crops and such. Of course, Rune Factory doesn't require me to get my butt off the couch, but Walk It Out does, and that's part of where my love for the game comes from.
I'm about 75% of the way through Walk It Out at this point, and will probably finish it soon. When that happens, I don't know quite what I'll do next. Konami, who released Walk It Out, apparently have no plans for a second game, even though I've seen rumors that the company who developed Walk It Out would love to do another one. I would love a chance to explore another virtual environment, and had hoped a new version of Walk It Out would include more exotic settings, either from around the world or straight from imagination. Can you imagine how cool it would be just to walk around on a space station on Mars? Or explore a steampunk city in Victorian England?
But it appears this is not to be. So what will I do when I've completed Walk It Out? Play it again from the start, most likely. That's what a lot of fans seem to be doing. Just starting the game all over again from scratch. But I will keep my eyes out for a new game. After all, I do get bored, and I like to be entertained with new things.
I wish Konami realized that.
I haven't done a Freaky Friday post in a while, mainly because I haven't had anything truly freaky to post about that wasn't already showing up in WIP Wednesday or the Cynical Woman webcomics. However, I think I have finally found a topic freaky enough for all of us to enjoy. Enter...
Freaky Friday Flashbacks!!!!!
Okay, enough with the dramatics. While digging around for some drafting supplies in my art bins, I came across several old sketchbooks, some from waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. I thought it might be fun to show my really, really old artwork here. And you know, I don't do nearly enough scanning in of stuff during the week, so why not scan in my old scribbles and doodles? Anyway, here's the first drawing in one of my oldest sketchbooks.
Freaky, huh? I think I was about twelve when I drew this. Possibly younger, I can't really say. Obviously I had access to colored pencils and books on druids, because I drew this very colorful shielf with a sickle wrapped in what I think was supposed to be mistle toe, and a bloody sword beneath that. This was pre-Princess Bride, so no, that is not Inago Montoya's sword. I just came up with something fancy on my own. Or maybe I cribbed this from an old D&D manual. I don't really know.
I do know I used to want to be a druid because I thought it would be cool to have magic powers. Then as I got older, my philosophy on that changed. First, I came to realize that wishing and casting spells did not make things happen, no matter how badly I wanted them to. Second, I also began to think that magic was cheating in a way. I have talents and abilities that I can use, but I have to work to be good at any of them. But doing that work leads to wonderful things. So why not sweat a little over a drawing or a writing project and earn money by the end results? Because honestly, all waving a magic wand ever got me was in trouble (mainly because I accidentally poked someone in the eye when I did it).
What other horror lie in the pages of my old sketchbooks? You'll find out next week!
And don't forget, the Cynical Woman Zazzle store has much more recent art that I worked very hard on, so go visit and see if there's something there you like!
Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized cartoon!
If there was one thing I hated wearing as a cadet, it was cross belts and overcoat. Especially if it was overtop the wool blouse (did we wear the overcoat overtop the wool blouse? Or am I just mis-remembering how tortured I was by the VTCC uniform?). It was like being in Storm Trooper armor, only not nearly as cool. In other words, I couldn't lift my arms above my shoulders because I was so restricted by the uniform.
I still have the brass breastplate for the cross belts though, and probably a brass rat buckle too. I spent many an hour polishing those things, and I can assure you, wherever they are hidden in my closet now, they look like crap! That's what happens when you don't polish your brass over the course of twenty plus years ;D
Don't forget to visit the Zazzle shop! I'm selling weird stuff!
"Zombie Goth Mermaid - WIP, 4 December 2011" by Helen E. H. Madden
You might recognize this beautifully bizarre lady from this PerCaDraMo post. She's one of the characters I drew by hand over Thanksgiving week. I thought she turned out so nicely, I decided to take her into Illustrator and see what I could do with her. So far, I've converted her into a Live Paint object and have been playing with color. Eventually, there will be brush strokes added, and maybe some fun text, like "Red sea at night, Mermaids delight..." We'll see how this works out.
I've got other gothy, creepy-cool drawings in the works, and they will be making an appearance here as I put them together. Hubster has promised me an "art binge" weekend next week, meaning I'll get to lock myself into the office and just go nuts putting together fun artwork for myself. I'm allowed to pull as many all-nighters as I want in 3-4 days, so I'm hoping to have some stuff put together for t-shirts and prints by the end of it. If there's something you've seen on the site that you're very in love with, let me know. I might be inclined to set that up for an art-binge weekend to make a nice, finished product you can have for yourself ;)
*****Don't forget, the Cynical Woman Zazzle shop is open.*****
I've got a few products in there now, and obviously am planning on adding more as time goes by. Take a gander now though. I've got a couple holiday cards and postage available, plus t-shirts, a print, and other delightful items you can purchase. Remember, support your local Cynical Woman and help her conquer the world! RARRRRRRRR!!
Click on the thumbnail above to view the full-sized cartoon!
Oh yeah! Mama's got a new do! It was high time, too. In spite of all the fabulous color in my hair, it was looking pretty sad. Yeah, I know, it was at least partly the bleaching that I did. But it was also partly the fact that I've hit my mid-forties, and my hormones have gone all wonky, and wouldn't you know it, that affects my hair big time too.
So I went to my hairdresser and told her to lop a bunch of it off. I had recently been watching Farscape and had noticed how much I liked Chianna's hair style, so I told her I wanted something similar to that. And yes, geek gal that I am, I did bring in a big pic of Chianna to show my hairdresser exactly what I meant. She didn't even bat an eye.
What she did do was say, "No, I'm just going to do whatever I do," and then she sat me down in the chair and started cutting. This ended up working out pretty well. She took off a good four inches, cutting based on how my hair curls, waves, and lies on my head. When she was done, there was this huge pile of pink, purple and blue hair on the floor. It looked like someone had shaved a punk version of Lassie. But that was okay, because I was left with a light, breezy look that I am now thoroughly enjoying.
Apparently this was such a drastic change that Pixie did not recognize me at all when I went to pick her up at school. This despite the fact that I am the only parent who shows up with pink, purple and blue hair. But she finally accepted the change and went home with me, so I guess we're okay.
Now onto other, important news...
We have a Steampunk section in the Zazzle store!!!!!
Yessirree! I finally finished the steampunk themed artwork I've been slaving over all month and posted it in the Zazzle store. It was so good, I made it into Christmas cards, prints, stamps, a t-shirt and more! Plus all the other stuff is there too, including my Zombie Santa card! So pop on over and take a look. Zazzle offers sale codes on a regular basis, just look at the top of the page and you'll see what the current special is. Support your local Cynical Woman and help her conquer the world of merchandising! Yay!
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