Desert Island Strike #cubecat #webcomic #3rdwall #cattober
Migraine yesterday. Bodysurfing today.
Why am I standing on the railing? I don’t know. Where is that? I don’t know that either. I do know I miss that hair.
The rough drafts of comics can result in some interesting artifacts. Even if editing decisions go elsewhere. #brushtober
Quickietober!
New Bot Day! Zambot 3 (ザンボット 3) is from a 1977 anime tv show “Super Machine Zambot 3.” It’s not a giant robot I knew about as a kid. The show is considered a precursor to Gundam-style science fiction stories: it has life and death stakes. Many characters die by the end of the 23-episode series. Here’s to serious robotic drama!
We used to carry on and drink and do the rock and roll #coffeetime #goodmorning #webcomic #cubecat #inktober #inktober2021
Abstractober, Experimentober
As I got closer, past the breakers, ugh.
Cube Cat Webcomic #webcomic #cubecat #artlung
“You need the prompt then?” asks Cube Cat out in the surf. #inktober #inktober2021 #cubecat #webcomic #imaginarypal
“Funny animals” a #webcomic for #webcomictober
Wetsuit First Use. It’s different. More buoyant. Less flexible. More hydrodynamic. Less able to judge how long it takes to get from A to B. Warmer. I felt a bit like a cat the first time you put it on a leash.
Surfline says the temp between 60 and 62 F. Ever closer to needing wetsuit. Lots of seaweed churned up with recent weather and surge. But always a balm to get to go in the water.
A redraw of a group of sketch party doodles. #doodletober
New Bot Day! Cranky—a Kikkerland wind-up robot—was designed by Chico Bicalho – its “hands” can hold paper. Wound up, Cranky dances, drawing attention to the paper. Here he’s in the maelstrom of projects on my drafting table.
I went to @sketchpartysd last night and it was delightful to do some drawing, drinking, and reconnecting. #inktober #inktober2021
Water brown with churn, waves large and chaotic, wore me out quick. But very glad I took a shot.
This is not the first or the last time I’ll draw Cube Cat driving a mech. #mechtober #cubecat #cubecat2021
I’m so known to my pals as the “robot guy” that when people imagine they see robots in the world they send me photos. And with @procreate I can make that robot visible! See magic everywhere you go! Thanks @leahblooms for the excuse to #robotober! #robotdrawing
Windy as hell. Brought out EVERY kitesurfer.
Long time no comic. I was in the water trying to take pictures. #webcomic #californiasealion #sandiego #photography #stoke #comictober
Sunny Sunday
Catch a wave #stoketober #cubecat2021 #cubecat
“Waterman” is a word I see written and said as a compliment about people who play, relax, and work in the sea. I dislike that it’s gendered in the same way “craftsman” is but I like the idea of the word. The ocean is getting colder by the day. I haven’t tried out the spring wetsuit I bought but I can tell I’ll be using it in the next few weeks. Playing in big waves might be foolhardy for a person my size and age but I’m having fun and am strong. So far: surviving and I always come out of the water smiling, even if I get stung by a stingray, gash open my heel, lose my phone, wrench my shoulder, or bang my head on the sand. And so, onward. #stoke
What does one do with the shells and toys and a candle (?!) one finds on San Diego beaches? If you’re me, you modge-podge them to a canvas and then do multiple layers of beach sand, adhesive, and gloss varnish. It’s not much of a painting but I have the beach on the wall. And I love the beach. #beachtober #sandiegoart
My recent San Diego beach shell acquisitions have made me quite happy.
#oldwhiteguytober
PLEASE SHOWER BEFORE
New Bot Day! Awika! was designed by Chico Bicalho for Kikkerland and was released in 2004. His walking power comes from a constant force spring that is tightened. He also makes sparks! I believe @chrisgreazel & family also gave me this one.
Pelican in the lineup. #pelicantober #surftober #stoke #Windansea #surfing
Tide at 0.1 feet.
One of the first manga I read was “Urusei Yatsura” published by Viz in the late 80s and early 90s. The hilarious farcical melodrama features Lum, impish troublemaker and “magical girlfriend.” For #Lumtober, here is my slightly zaftig take on Rumiko Takahashi’s wonderful iconic character! #lum #rumikotakahashi
#crayonwaxtober
I went to the beach today after a little drizzle and before rain thunder and lightning. These are the craters from the drizzle.
New Bot Day! Welome “GR-2” aka Torazon who is an antagonist in the Giant Robo manga and tv series (in the USA: Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot). On top of his head? Electric Head Boomerang. Everyone needs one of those. Have a great week!
a sunday session
sunny down snuff I’m all right
gwen and her blankey /sketch
Behind a wave / In a wave #stoke
it’s not inktober.
bonus pic from a great lunch sesh
take off / to the great white north / take off/ it’s a beauty way to go
New Bot Day! “Le Pinch” are wind-up robots by Kikkerland that I’ve had for a number of years, I’m pretty sure it was my pal Chris and his kids Diana & Zac who gave these two to me. If I’m misremembering I’m sorry! They’re cute and charming and can walk on their yellow or green feet. I look forward to when I can see all my friends in person again!
roiling
Locked out of laps by kids swim team in one pool, geriatric folk in the other. Gotta learn the new pool schedules.
New Bot Day! BMO is a multipurpose robotic game system originating in Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” (2010). Adventure Time is a multilayered epic and “Beemo” is a prime mover in the tales of Finn & Jake. Even though I have not delved into the whole show, I had to add charmer BMO! “Be more!”
Flu vaccination line time!
I play with found shells and sand molds and crayons and beach sand and paste and adhesives and heat guns and it’s all play for the sake of play. I have remade the workbench I had when I was 15 again where play is the thing. I’m lucky.
Midday chlorine laps
I occasionally take photos on land.
Shadowing
“It’s just a flesh wound.” Seems like I stepped on a barnacle or rock or something like that. Doesn’t feel like stingray. I know exactly what that feels like.
Every day is different.
New Bot Day! ASP-704 was a 1997 digital insertion into”Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.” He’s one of many additions many regard as unnecessary. Star Wars was rich with texture and realistically dirty already in 1977. I’m happy to have lived into an era where vivid Star Wars stories are being told again. Welcome ASP-704! You are superfluous but all Star Wars droids are dear to my heart.
I spy with my little eye: an ultralight! Add it to the list of surprising things seen while bodysurfing at Jetty.
“Garbage Beach” there is the name of the beach below.
Exquisite, bouncy bodysurfing session. And it’s Friday.
It was a real good morning.
Big swell 8am saw dolphins took some on the head. Excellent morning. #stoke
Morning session on this latest swell damn good.
“the waiting is the hardest part”
New Bot Day! Sparks is from 2010’s Toy Story 3 and voiced by Jan Rabson, who also appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! Sparks was initially a goon for Lotso’ Huggin’ Bear but reformed in the end. He’s here with my last and current notebook. Have a great week!
Concert tonight! Outdoor! @rodrigoygabriela
Floating
1993. The attacks on WTC and Pentagon were terrible and traumatic. Decades of occupation and killing innocents was an incredible unjust waste. The US must change how it interacts with the world. And the word “terrorism” is crap. Through that lens any action can be justified. Be skeptical of that word.
The water this morning was clear and perfect. It was my first time to bodysurf at the Jetty in the early morning since the Stingray Incident on the early morning of July 19. I’ve been cautious and have tended to go to the beach in the late afternoon and evening sessions. And shuffling my feet more diligently. Getting stabbed in the foot definitely affected my responses—how I carry myself in the water. I have felt myself relearning the ocean. For many weeks nearly everything in the water set off a fight-or-flight response which I had to manage and learn to process anew. “That’s not a stingray, that’s a bunch of kelp. That’s not a stingray that’s a rock. That’s not a stingray, that’s some trash. And even, that’s not a stingray I’m looking at, that’s my own shadow.” The fear didn’t keep me from swimming, but it reminds me that as a kid I saw Jaws at age 6 and I remember imagining sharks in the water then. I had moments in the water where I worked up a fear based on imagined threats. It’s been an incredible opportunity to experience that again, and learn to manage those feelings and emotions in a way that’s proportionate to the threat. There are definitely critters and currents that demand respect and attention in the water, but like learning to walk in a city or drive in traffic, it can be learned. I consider this all in the category of “know thyself.”
My cousin @jonnysnow16 gets his #stoke with a snowboard on his feet, I get mine with fins. Same difference! He got me this keychain and I love it. Thanks Cuz!
7:04. Shut it down for the night.
This butterfly was face down in the water on the glassy tide. I scooped it up. Let it dry on my finger. It batted its wings and and was back in the drink. Scooped it again and held it in my cupped hands. I blew on it. We hung out. It made a break for the shore. It flew toward shore beyond my aging vision. I like to think critter made it safely somewhere good.
New Bot Day! Elektro is my first bot from the 1930s. “Elektro the Moto-Man” was 7 feet tall and could walk and talk, differentiate colors, and “smoke” cigarettes. He appeared at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. This is a giveaway pin from the fair, to my knowledge no actual toys were made of this bot. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company was by then a 50 year old industrial concern. They were there showing off several technologies, among them the new tech of television. Surprisingly, Elektro was not their first promotional robot: that was 1928’s “Herbert Televox.” “Robot as sales and public relations tool” is yet another use of the idea of “robot.” It seems to me we put a face and body on technologies to make them more palatable, more understandable, less threatening.
The swell has brought both shorebirds and surfers to the water.
I did not buy Marvelous Mike but I wanted to. Mike is another reason my robot rules exist. This is the budget rule. Oceanside, yesterday.
The two shells I brought from Orange County yesterday.
They’re not shooting the pier this morning but it’s prettier than any music lyric anyway. Huntington Beach.
Playing at @ink_and_drink_lb tonight. Feels good but I’m out of practice.
Guards
lunchwaves
New Bot Day! Vegan Bot is a beautiful product of @chompton_ stoodios and I’m pleased as punch to have this artful robotic vinyl creation join my collection!
Even the birds are chilly tonight.
Home beach. Water getting colder each day, feels like.
I met this critter in my parking garage! Golden lizard! Salamander? Gecko? Dinosaur? No idea but beautiful.
Saturday
Sunset sand castle spied while walking.
My shoulder hurts so no bodysurfing today. Make due with this sunrise from this morning looking east from the Jetty parking lot before my walk. Gonna get myself some naproxen now.
Walking back to shore tonight I saw a stingray in the shallow water scurrying away from me. My shuffling habits are more diligent. Safety first.
Sun sets earlier every day now.
Weekend session with @hellokellykuhl
bird foot overcast
Looking toward PB Point
I make Mom’s salsa. The pickled onions are mine.
Flat tar cakes like this can form from oil that’s spilled and congeals over time on the ocean. Here some small mollusks made it their home. I’m going to keep voting against people who think more drilling is a good idea.
Del Mar today
My favorite of the Italian surrealist comedies.
New Bot Day! Perserverence is a semiautonomous robotic rover! Launched by NASA July 2020; landed February 2021. “Percy” is a scientific explorer, testing the environment of Mars, seeking evidence of former microbial life, collecting rock and soil samples, and testing oxygen production to prep for potential future crewed missions. Go Percy Go!
Beach visit 2 of 2. OB.
