Rocket Science

I just got back from my daughter's science fair at school. There was a sheep heart, and some worms, and solar panels, and catapults - one of my drawing students used one to shoot a piece of cereal into my shirt that I think is still there. Anyway, it was cool. I know there's a lot of concern about getting kids interested in science, but I think anything that's applied to the real world is inherently interesting to a kid. Also, anything that's in story form is inherently interesting to a kid. And, as was clear from the cookie tasting experiment, anything that involves eating cookies is inherently interesting to a kid.

Anyway, it was great fun. And as an offshoot to my earlier rant about art here, I think the same goes for science - showing how everything in your world came from invention, and experimentation, and knowledge of the properties of materials and DNA and mechanics and all of it, is very much like showing how everything is designed. It's all the result of creative thinking and investigation. I think kids get that - if it's shown to them in the real world. Kids are sort of the ultimate reverse engineers - they see something and want to know how it got that way. And it helps to have cookies.

Stealth Ipp Strip!

Last time I uploaded some Ipps, I actually loaded two strips - but only blogged about one of them. Here's the other one! The Ipps are diving for prizes in this one.

Rockosaurus.

This dude just got uploaded onto Flickr. Haven't had time to put it on the website yet, but here he is. The scorpions just love him.

New Ipp Strip!

Anybody who's ever observed two kids and a noisemaker from their most recent birthday party will recognize this one. Click to see it bigger on Flickr. And feel free to comment!

BTALD: 100 calories of what?

What a great idea, putting little 100-calorie packages of food together. I mean, you can just grab em and you know what you're getting, and that's really cool. Except, whenever I'm at the store I look at those things, and they're all - well, gross. Like, 100 calories of weird little Oreo-like cookie things shaped like parts of a soccer ball. Or, 100 calories of strange fig bar things with sprinkles on them. What is this stuff? I mean, could you do 100 calories of something recognizable? Maybe I'm shopping at weird stores.
I know, 100-calorie packages of hummus. That would be neat.
I realize that if you did 100-calorie packages of foods we usually eat for snacks, it would get pretty ugly - I mean, 5 crackers or a piece of bread or a single chip in a package is not going to work. The reality of it would be hilarious and sad at the same time.
But I have to say, I do love the "eat crap and still lose weight" idea that our food industry seems so bent on selling. They make so dang much money off this stuff. Putting a little sign in the 100-calorie snack shelf that says "go pick out an apricot or apple" would lose some big important business people lots of money.
But soon, it will stop raining and we can all go outside and run around and then calories won't matter so much.

New Ipp Strip!

Here's how the Ipp Strip is shaping up. I think you can start to get a feel for their personalities. There seems to be the one with the little mohawk and the one with the three horns. I think there will be others shortly. They behave pretty much like your standard comedy duo so far. Click on the strip to see it bigger on Flickr.

Hello, all you artists.

We went to the SF MOMA today. It was great. It's kind of like visiting with friends. You know, those good friends that you don't see that often, but when you do, it's like no time has passed.
I also especially enjoyed the footwear. I seriously saw shoes that could have come from any of the last five decades. I saw those scrunchy flat-heeled elf boots, and retro bowling shoes, and big clunky Minnie Mouse shoes. I saw cruel looking pointy things too (see "Cruel Shoes" by Steve Martin.) There was much fabulous footwear to be seen. How does someone walk through a whole museum in 3-plus-inch heels? I have no idea. It makes the balls of my feet ache just to think about it. I'm a runner, and my knees say, "you must be nice to us in order to run. Which means no tipping us up on heels." Fine with me.
Everybody was lined up all up and down the stairs to see this exhibition by Olafur Eliasson, which we didn't get to see but I think we'll go back for.
Anyway, it was nice to say hi to Matisse and Picasso and di Chirico and Magritte and Diebenkorn and Miro and everyone. My daughter kept saying, "Are these the ACTUAL paintings?" and I kept saying, "Yep, every one of them. Step back from that one, honey." This made the docents smile.

A New Experiment!

Okay, so this whole Web 2.0 thing is really cool, don't you think? You can have online profiles splattered all over the whole Web! With different logins and files that you've uploaded in three formats and social networks that may or may not have the same people in them... wheeee!

No really, it's great when you're a publisher of original content like me. Because all this collaborative tagging, and searching, and profiling, and the lot of it mean that my drawings go on even more fabulous journeys then they ever could have as mere email attachments.

I'm having great fun putting artwork all over the place, experimenting with what I can accomplish with the accounts at all these sites, and deciding what's best for what kind of work.

Which brings us to my next experiment. You see, the Ipps really want their own feature. And I want them to have it. So I went looking for the best way to let them express themselves. I didn't want to plunk them in a Web page somewhere. So... I'm going to put their strips on Flickr! They'll have their own section called "Ipp Strips." That's right, I'll put new work here, and then archive it over there. That way the Ipps can have their feature and people looking for them can find them. Even people not looking for them can find them. What fun! Let's see how it goes!

Soon I will run out of storage space over there and then we'll figure out what to do next... better keep those files small!

Packaging is the Enemy.

And not just because it's a needless waste of resources that we're never gonna get back.

Here are the things I am good at doing with packaging:

1. Going to pour that unexplained liquid out of the hot dog package and in doing so dumping at least one hot dot straight into the garbage disposal (thooop)

2. Ripping that re-closeable ziploc top right off the bag of shredded Mozzarella cheese (reseal THIS!)

3. Cooking packaging into things, like what's that bit of plastic in the marinara sauce?

4. Generally flinging cheese everywhere

And this is just with food packaging. I won't get into what happens when I try to open toys. That's a separate issue.



I will say, though, it's pretty fun to dump cranberry sauce or creamy soup out of the can. It makes a very nice noise. Then I can wipe it up after I'm done pouring it on the counter or having it slide into the sink or under the toaster.

More About Ipps

Well, it's about time the Ipps got their own page on my site. Because they're starting to get their own stories, in addition to their own t-shirts and stuff.
So watch the Ipps' page for new sketches and stories. I'll post here when there's something of note in the Ipp Universe as well.

BTALD: Gadgets!

I know we're all supposed to heave a collective sigh of disapproval whenever we see some kid with his little game-playing doohickey... but I have to admit, I love gadgets.

I love little electronic things. I love my TiVo. I love my shiny phone.

When I was a kid, i figured out a way to NEVER lose at Space Invaders. I could actually play the game indefinitely. Or until I starved to death.

The fact that all today's gadgets work differently just makes them that much more entertaining. For me. I realize that makes a lot of other people want to dump all their remotes in a bucket of water and leave it at that.

I do have the TiVo problem, though. The one where you try to pause and replay things all the time. I try to do this with the radio in the car. If I miss something, I think, "no problem, I'll just rewind and hear it again." It's like looking for the instant replay when you're actually in the stadium at the game. Oh, I try to rewind live sports events too.

It doesn't work.

Anyway, yay for shiny gadgets. I know that they're all kind of screwed up and they break and are confusing and all that, but for people (goobers) like me, that's all part of the fun. It's the actual games and shows that you get when everything is functioning properly that could use some work.

BTALD: Weird Poofy Stuff!

This post is in honor of Memory Foam. Because, it's really weird stuff.

I used to have two pillows made out of Memory Foam. They got all sort of weirdly shaped after a while. And, I never got used to the way you put your head down, and then it slowly migrates into some other position/altitude while you are asleep.




Anyway, it is pretty fun to smash down and then watch it poof back up again. Kind of like earplug races. What are earplug races, you say? Why, that's where you take two earplugs, put em on the table, smash em flat and then see which one poofs up first.

Which is like Peep jousting. What's Peep jousting, you say? Why, it's where you put two Peeps armed with toothpicks into your microwave and then nuke em until they poof up

to many times their normal size and then stab each other. Tip:

Put em on a plate. That melted Peep is murder to clean up. We like to do this around Passover. That's another story.

Anyway, all hail weird poofy stuff.

BTALD: Earthlings Attack!

I know there are lots of movies about aliens coming to Earth and attacking us and people running scared in the streets and having bad experiments done on them and all that.

But, what if we turn out to be the ones who freak out other civilizations? What if we look like we're hurling big metal probes at people every time we launch a new satellite?

Never mind that nobody can come land on our planet anyway because they'll get pelted with space garbage.

One other question: On that golden record that we sent out into space that introduces the human race and has Beethoven on it and all that great stuff - why are the people in the little picture naked? Isn't that a little confusing? These are things I want to know.