I’m going camping! Sorry I haven’t posted most of this week! I’m in a big hurry to get out the door! Be back Monday if the bears don’t eat me!!!!!
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Author: Cynical Woman
ACW Episode 158 – Move It Mama!
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We’re running a little late today. Sorry! The kids have spring break, so my schedule is a little out of whack.
Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve done a “Move It Mama! Monday” post, and thought I’m no longer writing those as a regular feature here, I did recently come across something fitness-wise that would be perfect for that topic. Last week I bought a Wii jOG. The jOG is a little device that clips to the waist and counts steps like an ordinary step counter would, but this one hooks into the Wii-mote and the nunchuk as well. The idea is that you have to keep moving (I jog in place) in order to power the nunchuk, so if you’re playing an RPG that requires you to use the nunchuk to move your character around on screen, this thing is IDEAL!
I’ve been playing Rune Factory: Frontier for ages, and I love it. It’s a very lengthy game that involves farming, dungeon crawling, character interaction (my character has to woo and marry one of the village girls), etc. There’s a pretty interesting story line, and so I enjoy playing it. But I could never find the time to just sit on the couch and play, so the game has just sort of been languishing on my bookshelf. Now that I have the Wii jOG, though, I have an excuse to play video games. I’m not just killing time, I’m exercising!
This gets back to what I love about Wii Fitness games, which is that they are games, and the good ones don’t just run you through the standard exercises, they also entertain. The Wii jOG transforms just about any RPG into an exercise game, ala Walk It Out (another favorite of mine). Unlike Walk It Out, though, the Wii jOG and Rune Factory now give me a story to explore as well as a landscape to run around in. I’m loving it!
The only downside is that the company that made the Wii jOG went out of business last year. I don’t know what the problem was, because the product is terrific, but they’re no longer around. However, you can still find the Wii jOG for sale on Amazon.com for a very reasonable (i.e. liquidation) price. I got mine for $5, and that included the shipping. And another company has come out with the UMove, which combines both the pedometer and the nunchuk into one device. The cost is more (this company hasn’t gone out of business yet), but the idea is the same and I’d recommend giving it a try.
So that’s my fitness update, which I know you’ve all be longing for all these months. On a few last notes, I just wanted to let Rebecca know her husband did exactly what she asked him to do at the InterventionCon meet up on Saturday, and he also made my day by telling me how much he enjoyed the webcomic. Moments like that are gold to a webcomicker. And to a writer. And to a podcaster. And to anybody who produces creative content for the masses. Seriously, we live for feedback. And cheese. Cheese is very important. But complements and feedback are even better 
Rats! Episode 88 – Rank Hath Its Privileges
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When I was a cadet, it used to be that only a couple of seniors had to show up to formation at any given time – usually whoever was selected to run the company during formation that and anyone else awake and hungry enough to bother marching over the Shultz dining hall. But that changed my senior year.
My senior year, EVERY cadet had to show up to formation unless they had a good excuse (a signed good excuse) not to (see last week’s Rats! for more on that topic). Seniors, however, now had the privilege of leaving their ties untucked from their shirts. Why the heck that even mattered to anyone is beyond me.
I should point out when this particular comic strip was drawn, a second student newspaper started up at Virginia Tech, and yours truly was invited to submit Rats! for publication there. I got a phone from the editor and everything, and let me tell you, I was thrilled at the chance to publish in TWO newspapers. The strip above was the one and only strip I sent them, however, because they never printed it and when I stopped by their offices to ask them what had happened, I got told that Rats! was not wanted for their paper after all.
I don’t recall the name of that newspaper, and I don’t know if they’re even still around. If they aren’t, then all I can say is, “GOOD! You didn’t deserve to survive after turning down my masterpiece!”
Not that I’m bitter.
ACW 157 – Come On, Baby! Light My Fire!
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Just when I thought I was done busting my butt with Girl Scouts for the year…
Actually, I knew this camping trip was coming up and I knew I was “the adult in charge” for our troop (thankfully, I do have two other moms helping me out this weekend, but I’m the sucker who’s staying for the full trip). I also knew getting ready for this weekend was going to be a lot of work. I have to pack not just my stuff but also Princess’ stuff and Pixie’s too, plus I have to pack all the food the entire troop will be eating that weekend, plus all the equipment we’re going to need. And I have to figure out how to feed everyone!
Fortunately, my years in the Army Reserves come in handy in such situations. I was a Food Service Officer. I know quite a bit about what’s involved in feeding large groups out in the field. However, I was only the fool who signed off on the paperwork. I never actually had to cook anything.
In preparation for this trip, I had Hubster buy me a charcoal grill on Saturday. Saturday evening, I tried grilling burgers for the first time ever. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to get the fire going and the coals heated up, but I got it done. Sunday morning, I got up early with both girls and spent even more time trying to cook breakfast on the grill. We did “Breakfast-In-A-Bag” – bacon and eggs in cooked paper bags over the grill (you lay down a few sheets of foil first so the bags don’t catch on fire). That experiment was… edible. Then Sunday afternoon I had the Brownie troop come over so we could inspect packs, make swaps to exchange with other troops, and try more cooking. This time, I had to have someone with Outdoor Cooking 2 training on hand. I’ve only got Outdoor 1 training, which means I can cook, but I’m not allowed to light a fire on my own without supervision. So while our Outdoor 2 person watched, I somehow miraculously got the fire going quickly this time and we had hot coals ready very soon after. We made kabobs with the girls and I am amazed at how smoothly it all went. And once everyone finished cleaning up and left, I went and collapsed on the couch for a few hours because I was DEAD TIRED.
Anyway, the camping trip is in two weeks. Be prepared for an interruption in the comic then. I’ll try to have one done ahead of time, but I’ve got a lot to do between now and the trip, including more cooking practice (which I can do on my own so long as the troop isn’t around). If you’re interested in how these experiments go, follow me on Twitter or on Facebook. I’ll be posting the results of these experiments there. Even the ones that go up in flames!
Flashback Friday – Phoenix in Oil Pastels
“Phoenix” by me, age ??
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a Flashback Friday post. Sorry. Girl Scouts, as always, is the reason why. First it was cookie season, then it was training, and now I have to take 10 little girls camping in a couple weeks. So I’ve been a bit busy.
Anyway, about the drawing above. I don’t like it. I did this in college, I think. I remember I took a course on creativity and the teacher urged us to draw mandalas whenever we had the chance. This was my version of a mandala. It was circular, at least, and colorful. But looking at it today I also think it’s blurry and messy and I really could have eased up on how much oil pastel I ground into the paper. I used to do the same thing with pencils and crayons too, until I learned better. Shading and coloring take patience. Color has to be built up slowly over time. I’m learning that lesson all over again as I work on a digital painting for a client. Easy, slow, take your time building up the layers of color. I’m sure I’ll keep learning this lesson many times before it finally sinks in.
Current WIP – Working with Digital Paints
This is a screen capture of my current commission. It’s far from finished yet, and I can only see now, after having spent a couple hours slaving over it today, how badly I need to fix this guy’s chin. Seriously, did he just have a root canal?
Anyway, this piece is a bit of a departure from me. In the past, I used DAZ Studio or Poser to set up 3d models of people, which I then rendered and Photoshopped to make this kind of artwork. Since both DAZ Studio and Poser work like crap on my system these days (no, I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s because they’re both bloated all to hell with features I don’t need), I am making the move to straight up digital painting. It’s a slower process, but I think the results will be better.
I’ll post more updates as I go. This piece has been interesting to work on.
Rats! Episode 87 – Fall In!
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For those of you non-cadet types, BRC stands for Breakfast Role Call. This is the first formation of the day for the VTCC, and all the companies are supposed to head out onto the VT on the upper quad for formation before marching over to Shultz dining hall for breakfast. Or at least that was how it worked when I was a cadet. Now Shultz dining hall is becoming a bit of history, and I don’t know what the requirements are for who forms up when. Back in my day… (Jeeze, don’t I sound old!)
Anyway, back in my day, I believe the battalions alternated days for early morning formation, unless there was a special event. And depending on what you had going on in your personal calendar, you could get excused from formation. I missed plenty of morning formations due to the Army ROTC physical training schedule. We were usually finishing up a 2 mile run just as formation was ending, so we had an automatic out for that day. And if I had a test I really needed to get up early for, or a project I had to work on late the night before, I could get an excuse for those, most times.
But there were the occasional mornings when I got out to the VT and I was only one of a handful of cadets present. Nothing seems more ridiculous than having only 20 cadets out of an entire battalion forming up at the crack of dawn for first formation, but we did it anyway.
ACW Episode 156 – Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Drudgery
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I keep telling myself I’m going to take a day off soon, but it hasn’t happened yet. I spent all day yesterday working on taxes. I spent all day Saturday in Manteo, NC, attending a Girl Scout training class on Techbridge. And I spent the entire week before that catching up on work and cleaning the house. I’ve accomplished quite a bit, but I can’t wait until I get a day off. Unfortunately, it’s looking like that won’t happen until some time in late April.
Anyhoo, I somehow managed to find time to crank out today’s comic. Sorry about the spottiness of the background color on this one. I thought I had covered it pretty well, but once I got it into the computer, I saw I had not done so at all! I’ll work on fixing that in future eps. For now though, enjoy!
Rats! Episode 86 – Clean Uniforms
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Yes, I was one of those cheap people who refused to take their uniforms to the cleaners. I did everything at the laundromat down the street from Rasche Hall. And yes, over time my uniforms did shrink. At least that’s my story, and you can’t prove otherwise!
ACW Episode 155 – It’s Over! Or Not…
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I apologize for being late with today’s comic, and for missing Friday and Wednesday’s posts entirely. I knew it was going to happen, and there was simply no way to avoid it. We were down to the last few days of Girl Scout cookie season and yours truly was pretty much buried in paperwork and bank deposits. I have never been so sick of cookies and money at the same time in all my life.
Fortunately, cookie season is over. We got everything turned in on time, all the cookies sold, and now I don’t have to deal with this mess again for another nine months. Yes, I will be cookie mom again next year, unless some fool-hardy soul decides they really want the job instead. The fact is, cookie sales is how a troop earns money to do things like go camping, participate in community events, help with charity projects, etc. Keep all that in mind the next time you see a Girl Scout cookie! Those cookies do an awful lot, and not just for the girls but the community at large as well!
Princess’ Brownie troop will be using their cookie money for a couple of camping trips coming up, of which I am in charge of one. I’ll be taking 10 little girls out to the woods and trying to keep them fed, safe, and occupied for 3 days and 2 nights. Thankfully, I won’t be out there on my own. The entire service unit is participating in this encampment and I’ve managed to team our troop up with a troop of older girls and more experienced moms. I’ve had camping experience, but that was with the Army Reserves, which I understand is very different from camping with Girl Scouts. We’ll see which one I enjoy more!
Pixie’s troop will also be at this encampment, and I’m sure that’s going to be interesting. I don’t envy her troop leaders. Those Daisies are quite a handful.
Anyway, I’m working to get back on track with the blog and the rest of my life this week, so you should see both Rats! and Flashback Friday posts here at their usual times. As for the color in this week’s comic, let me know if you like it. I’ve developed a serious fondness for markers, and may continue to color the comics if I can work it into my schedule. It is extra work, but I like the results. Let me know what you think, and as always, enjoy!