February 2007 Archives

I've just been busy trying my hand at drawing and tackling a suggestion John Ralston made yesterday, which was to make the same comic twice - once by hand and once using Comic Life. It's taken me a long time doing the comic once.

In between volunteering this evening at Cinequest (which was insanity tonight) and work, this is the pencil sketch I drew...

That was actually the less time consuming part. Admittedly, I'm far away from mastering the skill of consistency. I'm a lot skinnier in Panel 2 than in Panel 1. Plus my neck shrunk between the two panels.

Inking has taken the most time and I haven't even gotten to the lettering yet. It's very easy to see why there's the temptation to copy-and-paste or type the lettering. I'm not exactly looking forward to tracing letters, which leads me to believe it might be better to at least hand ink any wording before scanning in the strip.

Here is the inking so far...

Stay tuned to this entry, I will be updating it with the final inked version of the strip. I will also be adding the Comic Life version and a LEGO version when I get to it, likely tomorrow.

Final thoughts on Create-a-Thing-a-Day Month will have to wait another day. I'm in need of a shower and some sleep. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Update:

As promised, here is the final inked version of the strip. The lettering is awful, which leads me to believe it might be prudent to ink it before scanning next time. The strip has obvious issues, but it's a decent attempt. I'm pretty proud of it.

Here is the second version, the one where I copy and pasted the same art in each panel and typed everything using Comic Life.

Finally, here is the official last strip of my unofficial participation in Create-a-Thing-a-Day Month...

The Daily Brick is one day away from finishing its one-month run. Crazy. I'll be volunteering at the box office tomorrow evening during Cinequest's opening evening, so the last strip might be going up late like tonight's edition. Enjoy and I'll see you tomorrow.

John Ralston, an artist from Kansas, is blogging a year of his life in comic strip form. It's a great concept and I like what he's done so far. It's a true slice-of-life webcomic. Each strip captures tiny moments from his day - trying to fix frozen pipes, taking the dog for a walk in the snow, or playing guitar for his cats. It's hand-drawn and inked, which gives the strip an accessible, everyday quality. When there's humor, it's self-deprecating or found in the small things.

For the most part, the strip has been down-to-earth and good-natured, but on rare occasions, Ralston has adopted a harsher tone, like in his February 19th strip titled "Webcomic Product". If you didn't follow the link, here's the text...

Panel 1: Hey, look it me! I'm an inernet cartoonist! I have a webcomic!
Panel 2: You know what? This would be even easier if I just made one drawing and pasted it over and over.
Panel 3: It would be even easier just to type this. Why the hell not? Everyone likes to read a font that's easy on the eye, and since this is just a comic strip, it doesn't matter anyway, right?
Panel 4: I really fucking hate it when people make comics like this.

It's a scathing attack by an artist railing against what he sees as webcomic cheating. And the views he expresses are likely shared by a majority of cartoonists and serious webcomic artists.

Because of the nature of my create-a-thing-a-day project, his remarks affected me deeply. They cut right to the heart of the insecurities I have about my strip. His rant made me wonder if I've been cheating or if others would accuse me of cheating.

1. Am I cheating if I illustrate my strip with photographs instead of drawings?
2. Am I cheating if I reuse a photograph?
3. Am I cheating if I use a program like Comic Life to create my strip?

1. While it's easier to produce a photograph than a drawing, I would argue that photography isn't cheating, but only if one avoids mindless pointing and shooting. If one takes the time to construct the model, adjust the set and characters for each shot, adjust the lighting, and consider different camera angles, then photography is just as good as drawing.

2. Reusing a photograph due to laziness - being unwilling to rebuild a model, change the pose of a figure, or think creatively about a shot - is cheating, but I would say reusing a photograph purposely for a particular effect isn't cheating. Overall, I've tried to use a different photograph for each panel. I've slipped up two or three times, but on the whole, I try to avoid reusing photos whenever I can.

3. With Comic Life, anybody can make a webcomic. It's true. Even I can do it. And when anybody can make a comic strip, the world is going to see a flood of bad comic strips (along with a handful of good ones if it's lucky).

Comic Life removes the barrier that previously prevented the proliferation of bad webcomics. It has done for comics what digital cameras did for photography and blogs did for writing. It means there's a lot more bad stuff to sift through to find the good stuff. At the same time, though, just because one uses Comic Life doesn't mean it's cheating or the resulting comic strip is automatically bad.

To me, the program is an inexpensive formatting tool that helps me with panels and speech bubbles, but that's pretty much it. I still have to work hard to create the content. The program gives me more time to work on that, which I suppose some would consider cheating. Then again, serious webcomic artists have likely invested in drawing tablets and Adobe Photoshop where they can use handy templates, layers, and preset actions.

The Ralston phrase that stands out most in my mind is "this is just a comic strip, it doesn't matter anyway". Comic strips have an inherent informality about them. It's part of their appeal. But while a comic strip or webcomic should be light reading for the audience, it shouldn't be treated lightly by the creator.

As with anything worth creating, craftsmanship matters. For a webcomic, that means focusing on writing (whether it be story lines or punch lines) and illustrating (whether it be drawings or photographs). And while I can't prevent others from accusing me of cheating, I can try my best to set high standards and attempt to meet them with each comic strip I create.

This week, I've tried hard to make each day's strip self-contained while maintaining continuity. The two are difficult to balance. One wants a reader who stumbles upon a random day to still get a laugh (or some form of enjoyment) without having to read the previous day's strip. At the same time, one wants to keep readers interested by putting a hook at the end to entice them to come back tomorrow. I'm nowhere near mastering the balance, but maybe with enough practice I'll improve.

The printer at work sounds a lot like the printer at Starbricks. Whurrrclickclick doesn't quite capture it. Our printer sounds like a food waste disposal unit grinding away at lemon skins, except without the subsequent lemony smell.

Continuing the theme of "continuity". Today, I was trying to give a little background to Astronista Joe, but he didn't seem to want to cooperate. I haven't seen Billy Bob's The Astronaut Farmer yet. I don't know if I plan to either. I would much rather see Ioan Gruffudd in Amazing Grace, a movie about William Wilberforce, a British politician who unsuccessfully led a parliamentary campaign against slavery in the late 18th century.

Today's strip veers completely away from reality; unless magic (and unfortunate background magic) actually exists. By the way, I'm guessing the scuba diver isn't very happy to be unexpectedly holding a Goblet of Life. I know I would be if one were to mysteriously appear in my hand, but not everybody appreciates coffee the way I do.

I also gave myself an imaginary occupation. Like most kids, I dreamt of being a firefighter growing up. I didn't become one, but I thought it would be fun to live my dream vicariously through a LEGO minifig.

I'm hoping to transform "David" and Draco into unique characters with identities independent of their original pasts - real or fictional, whatever the case may be.

• Diesel Sweeties
• Lou's Garage
• Questionable Content
• Scary Go Round
• Sinfest

I've been reading daily updates and plowing through the archives. Fun reading and good sources of inspiration.

This week's theme is "continuity". I tried to pick a theme that would allow me to create a short story arc (a brief seven-day arc). Today's strip picks up the story from Day 17.

We'll see if this week's theme is a good idea. I have a feeling I've just committed myself to jumping off a diving board into an empty pool. Then again, this is the last week of the project, so why not experiment? The last thing I want is to regret not trying something and wondering what couldabin.

The rain the forecasters predicted would come yesterday came early this morning. It did a fine job of soaking those of us waiting for the train, all except the four or five huddled in the inadequately sized platform shelter (with their umbrellas open). I suppose I could have driven in, but I can see the freeway from here and traffic isn't moving. If I had to choose between the two, wet but moving sounds good to me.

I don't know how far south the storm reaches, but if the Cycling Gods have anything to say about it, the rain will stop just north of Seaside. That's where Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California, an 8-day, 700-mile professional cycling race, begins. Today's stage goes from Seaside to San Luis Obispo, along the state's coast.

The Cycling Gods were definitely with the race yesterday. There wasn't a spot of rain as the cyclists raced Stage 3 from Stockton to San Jose.

Streets in downtown were shut down due to the race. We could actually see the finish line from the office.

A small tent city appeared on the plaza of the city hall yesterday morning. It was part of the tour's Lifestyle Festival. There were dozens of vendors on hand, a stage with live music, and two giant television screens broadcasting the race.

I started paying attention to the race just after two o'clock. One can actually watch a live video feed online or watch the progress on a map with little cars or jerseys indicating the progress of the peloton and any break away groups. The top racers and key event vehicles are tagged so they can be tracked by GPS.

When the lead pack was about a mile away, I raced to the window to watch the finish, except I couldn't see anything because the rest of the office was already there. (I had been wondering why it had suddenly grown so quiet around my cube.)

The first pack that came through had about 15 or 20 cyclists. Jens Voigt, a German cyclist from Team CSC won the stage, but Levi Leipheimer of Team Discovery Channel (Lance Armstrong's team) retained the overall race lead despite coming in second. Leipheimer was less than a second behind Voigt at the finish.

I hung around to watch the main peloton come through. I was expecting to be blown away by a mass of cyclists coming down the stretch to the finish line. There are more than 140 registered riders, but the biggest group to cross was perhaps forty strong. The race summary attributes the breakup of the peloton to the strenuous climb up Sierra Road.

Now, of course, I'm interested in seeing how the race will turn out, so I'll be keeping up with race reports for the next few days. Today they race from Seaside to San Luis Obispo; tomorrow they're in Solvang; on Saturday, they ride from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita; and on Sunday, the race finishes in Long Beach.

Through it all, I hope the Cycling Gods are with them because I can only imagine how much it would suck to be out there riding in the rain.

I simply can't resist Lego-shaped food like the LEGO Fruit Flavored Snacks or LEGO Eggo Waffles.

Last month, I finished reading Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, the latest book by the prolific former president.

Instead of providing the reader with a dry historical retelling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Carter blends history with personal experiences and eyewitness accounts - from his first visit to Israel in 1973 through his last visit to the region for the Palestinian elections last year.

Throughout his account, he highlights the successes and setbacks of diplomatic efforts over the past thirty years. He then outlines a way for the peace process to move forward, which he sums up in one paragraph at the end of the book:

The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of its own citizens - and honor its own previous commitments - by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel's right live in peace under these conditions. The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories.

Since finishing the book, I've read a number of reviews and opinion pieces blasting Carter, claiming his book is unbalanced and lacks historical context. Some have gone as far as to accuse him of being an anti-Semite.

While I felt Carter was extremely critical of Israel, more so than he was of Palestine, I don't think it was because of some underlying hatred of the Jews. Nor do I think his criticism of the United States stemmed from a hatred of Americans. I think all of his criticism stems from a frustration with a long peace process that has seemingly gone nowhere.

It's a book written by a man who has played a role in that peace process, in one capacity or another, for thirty years. I don't know how anyone involved in such a longstanding and heated conflict could write an objective account of it. And I think what people expected was an objective account.

They expected him to be the peacemaker like he's always been and diligently navigate the diplomatic waters like he always has. When his book didn't meet their expectations, they bashed him.

Despite the charges of his critics, I believe Carter wrote this book with a genuine desire for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine with both nations coexisting in peace. Overall, it isn't a perfect book, but due to the subject and the author, it's a book worth reading.

Continuing the week's theme of "guilty pleasures". I love sushi, almost enough to have it any time of day (morning might be stretching it).

This strip would have been up much earlier if it weren't for the constant distraction of American Idol. While I'm still rooting for local boy, Paul Kim, my favorites from tonight were Blake Lewis (the beatboxer), Sanjaya Malakar (Stevie Wonder smooth), and Chris Sligh (he can sing and he's hilarious). Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an hour and forty-five minutes left to vote.

1. Guilt - The first time I wrote about them, I griped about the size of the place and the price of the coffee and I felt bad about it afterwards.
2. Convenience - When I need coffee and only have five minutes to spare, it makes sense to run across the street instead of down the street for a cup. Plus, they've streamlined the brewing so it no longer takes four minutes to make a cup.
3. Quality - The Bluebottle Coffee they serve is good stuff. It's better than any coffee I can find in a two-block radius.
4. Improved Ambience - Since my first two visits, they added sidewalk seating and a couple of tables and stools inside to make the place more hospitable. They also started playing some good music.
5. Lower Price - In the form of a frequent customer program. True, it's another card to keep in my wallet, but for every ten drinks purchased, the eleventh is free, dropping the price per cup from $2.00 to $1.80. I'm halfway to my first free cup.

Full Disclosure: The gushing you read above was unforced and uncompensated, but written under the influence of an eMocha drip coffee.

After four seasons,

Continuing this week's theme of "guilty pleasures".

This has been one busy weekend, which is why you're seeing yesterday's strip today.

On Saturday, I spent the day in Santa Cruz celebrating my dad's birthday. Yesterday was another family day as we celebrated Chinese New Year. We had Chinese food for dinner both nights.

I had the most delicious lop cheung (Chinese sausages) and fu gua (bitter melon) on Saturday. They were both special dishes my grandfather requested earlier in the week since neither is on the restaurant's regular menu.

Anyway, I better get hopping on today's strip.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows doesn't come out until July 21, 2007. That's still five months away. J.K. Rowling's books have long been a guilty pleasure and I'm eager to read the seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series. I'm trying to keep my expectations under control. This is likely the most anticipated book since, well, her last book, and I can't imagine the amount of pressure she must be feeling to deliver a story that not only meets her fans' expectations, but her own expectations as well. I hope she doesn't focus on the people she might potentially disappoint, but rather on the people who are rooting for her to give them a great ending to the tale of Harry Potter.

1. It features Draco Malfoy, or the person calling himself Draco Malfoy, as the main character.
2. Flashbacks. It was fun to drop in a few black and white panels.
3. A screen capture in the last panel. I wanted an actual screen on Malfoy's computer. It took some time to scale it down and get the right angle of perspective, but I finally got it to work.

Baseball is another of my guilty pleasures. This article about Barry Zito is the inspiration for today's strip.

Before I came up with the strip, I was facing writer's block, so I experimented and created this for fun...

I'm a fan of starting the day off with a smile and this quote on my coffee cup did the trick this morning.

Today has been the perfect commute day. The train I'm on has several miles to go before it reaches my station and my commute isn't officially done, but I'm going to be bold and call it perfect anyway.

The morning started off cold and foggy, just the way I like my mornings. I reached the train station with several minutes to spare and the train arrived on time. I took particular joy in the fact that I could hear the horn long before I could see the front lamp beams cutting through the fog.

The train wasn't crowded. The Bellarmine boys weren't there to be loud and boisterous. I took advantage of the quiet time to finish going through my Cinequest program guide and marking the movies I wanted to see.

By the time the train pulled into the station in downtown San Jose, the fog had gone, but the air was still chilly and the ground was wet. I made the mile plus trek to work on foot just to hear and see the sights and sounds of the city. I also walked so I could have an excuse to stop in at Starbucks for a grande cinnamon dolce latte, which is back in season.

I passed a few people along the way to the office. There were the two usual gentlemen smoking outside of The Caravan, one of two downtown bars I'm aware of that open at six.

Two elderly Japanese tourists stopped me in the middle of the street to ask directions to the nearest light rail station. Thankfully, the closest station was within sight. Their English was limited, but not as limited as my Japanese. Had the directions been more complicated than "It's right there, across the street," I would have felt obligated to walk them to it.

A block away from work, I came across a man in a business suit standing on the corner, smoking a cigarette. As I passed by, he suddenly yelled, "[Bleep] you! [Bleep] you! Get the [bleep] away from me. Get your filthy Catholic poison away from me." I didn't have any Catholic poison on me, but I heeded his words and got away from him as fast as I could.

Even with all of that, I still managed to get to work early, which meant I could leave early.

The afternoon walk back to the station was less eventful, but just as good. It was sunny and rather warm, but not too warm, which is just how I like my afternoons.

I took my time walking and even stopped in front of the HP Pavilion to admire the giant tennis balls hanging from the ceiling in the lobby. The SAP Open is currently going on there. By the way, the tennis balls were perhaps four feet in diameter and I wondered just how high one would bounce if somebody dropped it from one of the nearby high rises.

I reached the train station with plenty of time to spare. Once again, the train arrived on time and it wasn't crowded.

I'm sitting on the sunny side of the car and splitting my time between writing and staring out at the passing farms and open fields. The open space between San Jose and Morgan Hill is my favorite part of the journey. It's a wonderful buffer between work and home.

And as the train approaches the station, so ends my perfect commute day. I hope to enjoy another one soon.

Happy Friday, everybody. Also, Happy Chinese New Year. And look for today's edition of The Daily Brick later tonight.

This week's tentative theme is "guilty pleasures". American Idol falls in that category, as does Chris Daughtry's "It's Not Over".

This season's A.I. is down to the Top 24, which means the real competition begins next week. The guys perform on Tuesday; the girls perform on Wednesday.

I'm rooting for Paul Kim. He's a local boy from Saratoga, California. What's more, 8 Asians claims he's the anti-William Hung.

By the way, if you haven't seen the previous strips, they've been corralled into one convenient Flickr set for your viewing enjoyment.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. More importantly, yesterday was the halfway point of create-a-thing-a-day month. Fourteen strips down, fourteen strips to go.

1. The strip involves politics. I'm nagged by the conventional wisdom that says one shouldn't talk about religion or politics in polite company. Maybe if I pretended you (a.k.a. my audience) weren't polite company, I would be better off. Or maybe thinking of you as polite, but not easily offended, company would help.
2. I could have expressed myself more efficiently. It shouldn't have taken as many panels as it did to make my point. And even then...
3. I didn't make my point very well. That's because I had a vague idea of what my point was, but I couldn't find the right words to make that point. I wanted to say it's annoying when I pay more attention to the messenger than the message, but I didn't.
4. It isn't funny. Taking a cheap shot at the President is overdone and yet I took it. And I still managed to miss.

Those are four good reasons to yank the strip, yet those four reasons shouldn't matter because this is create-a-thing-a-day month and not create-a-classic-comic-strip-a-day month. If it were, I doubt I would have even attempted it. Sometimes it's easier to create something when there isn't the expectation of what that something should look like.

The point is to create, not censor or critique. Sure, yesterday's strip wasn't perfect or all I wanted it to be, but that doesn't mean I remove, reword, or replace it. I learn from it and try harder today (and tomorrow). And maybe if I keep that in mind, the next two weeks will be as fun as the past two weeks.

You can read the transcript or watch the video of the President's press conference here. The President actually uses the phrase in other words eleven times.

Today, I broke down and bought a seven-dollar cup of parts to remodel Starbricks. In other words, I spent the equivalent of two venti peppermint mochas at Starbucks to make a Lego version of the coffee chain. Although, I should note that Starbricks is an independent cafe owned and operated by Astronista Joe, who has been featured in the last few strips.

Continuing the theme of "things that annoy me".

I usually don't have an issue when people call me Dave, but I've experienced a few occasions where somebody with my name insists on being the only David present, which bugs me to no end.

On a separate note, I decided to rename the strip "The Daily Brick". It's one notch up on the creativity scale from "A Daily Thing". I'm open to suggestions for names, strip ideas, and possible themes for Weeks 3 and 4.

Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809. While his birthday isn't a federal holiday (George Washington is the only president with that honor), it is a holiday for state government and some local school districts.

Of course, the federal government isn't letting the day go by completely unobserved. There will be a wreath laying ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial and a special celebration at the Library of Congress sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, a fifteen-member group created by Congress to commemorate the former president's birthday in 2009. The celebration will include a "Lincoln-themed" lunch and a special appearance "by Abraham Lincoln*".

The lunch sounds rather suspicious. "Lincoln-themed" - what does that mean? Will people be eating what Lincoln normally ate for lunch? Or will they be simply having dishes with corny names like "Second Inaugural Spinach Salad", "Lincoln Linked Sausages", and "Honest Abe Apple Pie"?

And why is there an asterisk after Lincoln's name? Are organizers afraid people will believe the Lincoln appearing at the event is the real Lincoln?

• The White House's Biography of Abraham Lincoln
• Abraham Lincoln Online
• The Lincoln Museum
• Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
• A. Lincoln Blog

• January 29, 2007 (MLB.com)
• January 31, 2007 (MLB.com)
• February 11, 2007 (nydailynews.com)

Continuing the theme of "things that annoy me". This one has two of them.

The name parody isn't that clever, but I did think of it before spotting this Starbricks online. And I should give credit to professional Lego builder, Sean Kenney, for some Starbucks inspiration.

Continuing the theme of "things that annoy me".

This week's theme is "things that annoy me". It's time to convert the negative energy of pet peeves into something positive.

Downtown San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival returns in three weeks. It runs from February 28 through March 11. This year's theme is Revolution.

Earlier this week, the program guide came out online and in the San Jose Metro. I grabbed a copy of the paper on Tuesday and have been slowly going through the listings and highlighting the films I want to see.

This will be my fifth year attending and second year volunteering at Cinequest. While I'm looking forward to seeing a few movies, I'm actually more excited about helping out. Last year, I got a rush working in the box office. Normally, selling tickets does nothing for me, but add in the festival atmosphere and it gives me a buzz.

• Cinequest's Blog - the official one written by event organizers.
• Cineblog - festival film reviews by Ealasaid and Fred Crowe.

If I find any others, I'll add them to the sidebar.

I'm treating every seventh day like a Sunday, so here is my extended Sunday strip on a Wednesday. One week down and three to go. I better choose a theme for Week 2.

A couple of years ago, I wrote an entry about creative spaces after hearing a segment about them on NPR. And today, I found a cool Squidoo page on the topic.

On Friday, I went to Santa Clara University to see Leon Panetta, a former Chief of Staff (under Bill Clinton) and a member of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), speak. The event was part of the university's Ethics at Noon lecture series and was held at the de Saisset Museum on campus. There were perhaps two-hundred people in attendance - a generally gray-haired crowd with a sprinkle of university students.

Over the course of an hour, Panetta touched on a number of topics - his background in ethics and government, a brief history of our democracy, the role of ethics in policy making, the ISG, highlights of the ISG Report, and the future of Iraq.

• When our government sets policies, it should always be guided by two important principles: promoting the common good and improving the lives of our children.
• In the absence of leadership, we are governed by crisis.
• If we won't use diplomacy with our enemies, then what good is diplomacy?
• If we don't keep the diplomatic channel open, then the only alternative is force.
• Talking with the enemy isn't appeasement and it isn't a sign of weakness.
• Diplomacy is less about making the other side see things our way and more about making the other side see why it's in their self-interest to see things our way.
• The ISG made recommendations it thought would best support the stated goal of U.S. foreign policy towards Iraq: a country capable of governing, sustaining, and defending itself.
• The billions of dollars of aid going to Iraq needs to be better managed so there is greater accountability to ensure it reaches the intended people and efforts.
• The ISG felt it was essential our commitment in Iraq not be open-ended and our plans not be affected by the Iraqi government's failure to fulfill its commitments.
• Panetta believed it would be up to the next president to end this war.
• He also believed war with Iran was avoidable as long as we were willing to sit down and talk with the Iranians.

Panetta didn't say anything new or mind-blowing, but I didn't expect him to deliver any shocking revelations, which may beg the question, "Then why bother to hear him speak?"

I suppose I wanted to gain a greater understanding of the report and the situation in Iraq from somebody who was part of the effort and studied the subject. I also wanted to reaffirm my belief that the report was written by intelligent and reasonable people with a solid grasp of reality. Finally, Panetta is a Santa Clara graduate (like me, just 36 years earlier) and a well-respected political figure from the area (unlike me), so I was also motivated by sense of connection and admiration.

Yesterday, I noticed Keri at The Wish Jar was participating in create-a-thing-a-day month.

The idea is to choose one theme per week, for four weeks, and create something each day based on that week's theme. It can be in any medium. A crucial element of the project is to "prove to the world that you've made something new" by sharing it.

I suppose it's similar to National Blog Posting Month, but sharing doesn't necessarily need to take the form of blogging.

Even though I can't officially participate in the project, I thought I would give it a try anyway. It gives me an excuse to experiment and play around with some of the software on my iMac. It also gives me a reason to put off writing any posts I promised to write (at least temporarily).

Inspired by the Heroes graphic novels and Foxtrot and having a copy of Comic Life handy, my plan is to create a daily comic strip for one month. It's going to be tough and scary (and embarrassing), but also fun (I hope).

Tentatively, this week's theme is "starting something new". Since this is February 3, I'm few days behind. I'll be making up for the late start by posting my first three "accomplishments" after this post.

If you want to see what the official participants are doing, you can check out their work here.

As for me, let the unofficial creativity begin...

The first time I saw Jake Shimabukuro play the ukulele was four years ago on a PBS special. He was performing with The Makaha Sons.

I remember being extremely impressed with his mastery of the instrument and his lightening fast fingers. I also remember having the toughest time pronouncing his last name.

A year later, I bought a ukulele in Hawai'i and attempted to learn how to play it. It was a disaster. Give me a piano and my fingers have no trouble running across the keys. Give me a ukulele and my fingers trip and stumble over every string and fret. The frustrating experience made me appreciate Jake's skills even more.

Around that same time, I remember searching music stores for his albums, but I could never find a copy for less than $20, which was discouraging.

Every once in a while, he would pop up on television, blow me away, and inspire me to try my hand at the ukulele again. Usually, though, my hand would refuse to relive the humiliation. Actually, both hands would refuse, but that's not important.

I hadn't heard or seen Shimabukuro play for while, but yesterday, a video of him appeared on the Yahoo! front page. The video is from a year ago and it shows him playing an astounding rendition of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"...

After watching it, I stumbled across what I consider a more amazing performance. In the following video, Jake plays a song called "Let's Dance"...

According to his site, he'll be performing in San Francisco and Monterey next weekend. I've been longing to hear some live Hawaiian music, so I'm very tempted to buy tickets just to see him play.

Reeling from my horrible fantasy experience, I needed a good dose of reality. A report on Iraq seemed like a good place to find some. After unsuccessfully attempting to read the report online, I bought a bound copy of The Iraq Study Group Report by the Iraq Study Group, James A. Baker III, and Lee H. Hamilton.

The report provides an assessment of the current situation in Iraq (as of December 2006). It takes a look at the key players within the country (Shia, Sunni, and Kurds) and in the region (Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and others). After outlining the alternative courses of action considered, the group offers its approach to the problem in the form of 79 recommendations covering what needs to be done by those inside and outside of Iraq.

Inside Iraq, the group focuses on issues like performance milestones, national reconciliation, security, the Iraqi police, and oil. Outside of Iraq, the group emphasizes the need for strong diplomatic efforts and strong international support.

I was struck by the report's clarity, frankness, and common sense approach to an extremely complicated situation. I was also struck by how the bipartisan group didn't allow the report to get mired in what mistakes were made, but focused instead on the realities the world faces as a result of those mistakes and the positive steps that can be taken to address those realities.

Most of all, I was struck by the number of recommendations encouraging the administration to be more engaged and communicate directly with others - with Moqtada al-Sadr, with the insurgents, with the militias, with Iran, with Syria, with the international community, with our allies, and with our own military leaders. It's clear the group believes America should be shifting from a military role to a diplomatic and supporting role in Iraq.

Finally, the report has a number of quotable passages, but the most memorable one comes from the section concerning the U.S. intelligence agencies and their inadequate data collection and analysis of threats to our armed forces…

Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals.

It's a pearl of wisdom for policy makers or anybody who sets goals to keep in mind. It also gets to one of the fundamental reasons for the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Progress is difficult to achieve when one is more intent on aligning reality with one's beliefs instead of acknowledging the reality and adjusting one's beliefs accordingly.

For anyone interested in current affairs or a good nonfiction read, I would recommend this book.

On a related note, earlier today, I went to Santa Clara University to listen to Leon Panetta, a member of the Iraq Study Group, talk about Iraq and the report. I'll write more about that event tomorrow.

Every year, Rich challenges folks to create an end-of-the-year mix CD consisting of songs representing their year in music. Many accepted his challenge and a group of them met just a few days ago to swap CDs. A few posted their playlists, including Rich, who is the master with three mixes.

Inspired by their efforts, I made my own mix. You should know it's smaller and features more mainstream artists than the mixes I linked to above. This is because most of what I listen to is still radio-fed. I want to change that this year. I want a broader (if not better) musical experience in 2007.

What follows is the track listing of my 2006 mix with a note about each song. For a short time, you can grab a copy of the mix (zip file with mp3s) for your listening pleasure. The mix includes:

1. "Fanfare For The Common Man" by Aaron Copland: Last year, I rediscovered Copland and since Time's Person of the Year was you (and me, too, I suppose), this triumphant and hopeful song seemed appropriate to kick off the mix.

2. "Into the Ocean" by Blue October: This song has grown to become my favorite on their album. A sad message wrapped in a happy melody.

3. "Trouble Sleeping" by Corinne Bailey Rae: I like Rae's soothing, laidback sound. When I listen to it, I think of a leisurely bike ride in the country on a sunny day, which leads nicely into the next track…

4. "Another Sunny Day" by Belle and Sebastian: I love the song's imagery. You've got the attic window looking out on the cathedral / And on a Sunday evening bells ring out in the dusk

5. "Under The Weather" by K.T. Tunstall: Most people know her faster songs, but I prefer her slower, softer tunes.

6. "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" by The Decemberists: A love story of a Civil War soldier and the girl he left behind told in a song. Great subject and sound.

7. "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley: The most addictive song of 2006. I don't know what else to say about it.

8. "Bank Job" by Barenaked Ladies: The group's trademark humor comes through in this song about a robbery gone wrong from the point of view of the getaway driver.

9. "Crystal Ball" by Keane: An uplifting anthem by one of my favorite bands.

10. "Whatever You Want" by Vienna Teng: It's a song that stuck in my head the first time I heard it. It echoes how I feel at times.

11. "You Could Be Happy" by Snow Patrol: When I listen to this song, I imagine someone finding a jewelry music box in an empty house, opening the box, and being overcome by memories and emotions as the music plays and the ballerina turns slowly.

12. "Pancreas" by Weird Al Yankovic: I liked his entire album, but finally chose this song because it's a tribute and send-up of Brian Wilson's masterpiece, Smile.

13. "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi Trio: As with Copland, I rediscovered Guaraldi last year. I included it because this was the song I listened to in December and I wanted to finish this mix on a joyful note.

After reading a piece of historical fiction, I thought I would give fantasy a chance, so I read R.A. Salvatore's The Highwayman.

The book begins with a world that has warring religions, warring kingdoms, and a vengeful hero in black. The premise seems promising, but once the stage is set, the scenes that follow are predictable and disappointing. Instead of giving us a new hero, the author gives us a recycled one - a hero that is part Robin Hood, part Zorro, and part Spider-man. In my head, I envisioned the Highwayman played by Toby Maguire sporting the mustache of Errol Flynn and the accent of Antonio Banderas.

Halfway through the story, I realized I wasn't reading a fantasy novel; I was reading a comic book striving (and failing) to be a fantasy novel. But even as a comic book, it still lacks that one vital ingredient that would compel me to buy the next issue and that is originality.

It's February, which means I would usually write a post about the books I read in January, but since this is a new year, I wanted to try something different. And by something different, I mean I'm going to try Elkit's approach and dedicate one post per book. I'm also tossing the 0-10 rating system since last year's rater would either score the books erratically or outsource the job to a ferret.

Like last year, I intend to read at least 52 books in 52 weeks. As part of this year's challenge, I want at least two of those books to be poem collections. I already have one by Walt Whitman and I'm thinking of reading one by Charles Bukowski, a poet often quoted in one of my favorite baseball blogs, The Soxaholix.

I began the year by finishing Flashman's Lady (wiki) by George MacDonald Fraser.

This packet from Harry Flashman's memoirs finds the British anti-hero exhibiting the character flaws that make his adventures a joy to read. Pride, lust, jealousy, and cowardice all play a part as Flashy loses his wife, Elspeth, in a cricket match to Don Solomon Haslam, a wealthy, womanizing businessman; gets dragged into rescuing her from her suitor-turned-kidnapper and fighting pirates in the Far East by James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak; and desperately seeks escape from Madagascar and enslavement to the diabolical Queen Ranavalona I.

Like other Fraser novels, this one was thoroughly researched and entertaining. Two topics I'm curious to learn more about after reading this book: cricket and James Brooke.