Crap

Came home from an awesome day (to be followed up on by a post tomorrow) to run some errands with my truck (was driving the borrowed ever-present Camry) and found it had died.

Talked to the mechanic and it needs a new engine.

Not a new part.

A new engine.

Sometimes life rules.

This sets back the whole "Buy a new car" a bit since I was planning on keeping the truck when I bought a new car, since it's handy for many a thing, most especially grabbing the weekly shipment of comics for the shops.

*sigh*

Kyle Stevens Rocks

I left something off on purpose from my recap post yesterday because I wanted to spotlight it. Sunday night, The Comic Stop hosted a CD release party for Kyle Stevens. Here's a picture of Kyle rockin' out in front of rows of comics:



Having Kyle play at the shop (with TJ Sherrill opening for him) was a lot of fun and it's great to be able to host different kinds of events at the shop that aren't just comic-related.

If you haven't heard Kyle's music after a bazillion mentions on this blog, please check out his website or his MySpace and give a listen.

BTW, speaking of non-comic-related events, this Saturday at 8pm at The Comic Stop we're hosting the 2nd Annual Child's Play Charity Poker Tournament. It's a $20 buy-in and all the money goes straight to the Child's Play Charity. If you haven't RSVP'd, please do so, space is limited. Details are here.

Pie & Rock

The last week has been kinda busy, been getting a lot of odds & ends type work done, which has been eating up my time. So here's an update on the last week...

Thanksgiving was great, I had a small tryst with my old flame, Housing Market. I spent most of Thanksgiving morning and afternoon looking at houses with moderate success, I actually found one place that I really liked. Unfortunately, it was balanced out by a couple of big things that would be too expensive to fix and still afford the asking price, but I'm more encouraged than I was before as prices have dropped and I'm finding a better variety in the areas I'm looking at.

I also got to make some apple pie with apples grown on the trees in the yard, based off a recipe from Kelly Scales (thanks Kelly!), here's an un-devoured view of the final pie:



Friday I admit to spending a good chunk of time shopping, but it was totally worth it as I crossed many a person off my Christmas list (seriously, down to less than five at this point shopping-wise) plus picked up some cool techno-goodies for myself.

Friday evening a few peoples gathered at Paul's for a Dark-movie-a-thon (Donnie Darko, Darkman and Dark City). We managed to get through the first two, but called it quits before Dark City.

Saturday was pretty much dominated by a Rock Band party at George's. Tom has done such a good job re-capping that I will not even try to top him. He even has moving pictures! I will share these two pictures, mostly for the doofy expression on my face:



because if you can't look like a doofus on your own blog, where can you, really? Here's the full band line-up that was playing at that moment:



Sunday morning I watched the Hawks eek out a win, then hooked up with my friend Scott from San Jose who was up for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Went to Capitol Hill for grub and pool at the Garage.

Monday was Monday.

Tuesday night I did my first evening of tutoring at Meadowdale High School. I volunteered to tutor a student in History (one of my better subjects) once a week for an hour, every Tuesday through the end of the school year. Thanks to Quiana for hooking it up.

So, how was your week?

Hot Mascot Action

Looks like our neighbors to the north have come up with some kick ass mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics; specifically a sasquatch, a sea bear and a thunderbird:



Just the merchandising along should make the Olympics there a success (vinyl toys anyone? Huh? Huh?). Designed by Vancouver, BC-based Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy of Meomi Design.

Shirts and the Goon

Once again I've completed designing some text-based t-shirts and a cool messenger bag for Unshelved. Here are the final designs:

As for The Goon, I just wanted to give a HUGE thumbs-up to The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker.



Hands-down the best Goon story Powell has ever done, amazing illustrations and a story packed with emotion, if you're even a casual Goon fan, this is a must-buy. That is all.

Movin' and Readin'

Not much exciting has been happening these past few days. The weekend was spent primarily helping Deuce move (Saturday) and working, plus watching football (one more win for the Hawks, woo!).

I have been doing a bunch of reading lately, here's a list of books and graphic novels recently read, I'm doing the two-second version, no links, no graphics. Enjoy!

NOVELS

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A sci-fi book disguised as drama, lots of characterization and a very enjoyable read.

Snake Agent by Liz Williams
John Constantine meets Chow Yun Fat from Hard Boiled, cool detective book that takes place on earth and in hell.

Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Another gem from Pratchett, this time Ankh Morpork gets an upgrade in currency. Hilarity ensues.

Medicus by Ruth Downie
My continued fascination with Roman historical mysteries continues with this debut novel from Ruth Downie, whose main character is a doctor in ancient Rome that gets himself involved in a murder mystery. Good stuff.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories by Nicholas Gurewitch
If you don't read the Perry Bible Fellowship regularly, you're missing out. This is the first collection of the strips.

Casanova: Luxuria by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba
Still the best book Fraction does, this collection of the first seven issues is mind-bending fun. Art by Gabriel Ba is rad, check out his stuff on The Umbrella Academy, one of the best books out now.

Laika by Nick Abadzis
The story of the first dog in space. Quite informative and sad all at once.

Immortal Iron Fist by Fraction & Brubaker and David Aja
This is the hidden gem of the Marvel Universe, I never cared for Iron Fist and in just a few issues, I'm now a big fan.

The Professor's Daughter by Sfar & Guibert
Re-animated mummy Victorian love triangle action.

Mr. Big by Dembicki & Dembicki
One super boring book.

Garage Band by Gipi
I liked the art, but the story didn't do a whole lot for me.

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Volume 4 of the Scott Pilgrim series is no disappointment, funny through and through.

Tiny Little Division

In a move of coolness, Hallmark has let their employees share a blog where they get to post rejected card ideas, news dumps, comic strips, lists of things and all kinds of entertaining junk. Highly recommended. Here's my favorite recent image:

#69 - Shoot a gun at a shooting range

The trip down to Portland was a lot of fun, got to hang out with the Scales clan which is always a blast, went to the Portland Comic Book Show to do some ECCC work, had some great home-cooked food, played Guitar Hero and Track & Field, watched some TV (Dexter is a great show) and all in all had a great time.

As a late birthday gift, Anthony took me to the Clackamas County Public Safety Training Center to shoot his .38 and we ended up going through three boxes of bullets (150 total).

I hadn't been to a range in almost 20 years, so needless to say, my marksmanship was pretty poor, thought it got a lot better by the end of the session. I forget how heavy a real gun is, how much pressure it takes to squeeze the trigger, how much recoil force it expels, etc. It was a good experience to have again as an adult.

Obviously not the most exciting shot (no pun intended) but here's the proof of the deed:

Blue Shift / Portland

I'm off to Portland for the weekend to hang out with the Scales clan, plus hit the Portland Comic Book show, so I'll be back on Monday.

In the meantime, I want to give a shout out to my bud Brian Meredith for his new comic, Blue Shift, that he created with Gigi Edgley (best known as Chianna from Farscape).



I just read the ashcan preview last night, it's damn cool and I look forward to reading the series when it launches. If you're in the Lynnwood Comic Stop, bug Brian for an ashcan, or just bug Brian, it's all good.

You can read more about Blue Shift here.

Speaking of Gigi, another shout out to my man Kyle Stevens, who has been working with Gigi on a new album, check the two of 'em out performing live at the Farscape convention last week:



Rockity Rock!

Show me the Money(gami)

Moneygami - origami with money. Check it out.

Introducing "Sofos"

For a long time, I've operated as an independent contractor for most of the freelance work I've done. It's never been a problem, just fill out a W9 and you're set to go.

The thing is, as I've been starting to get more work, and the work I'm doing has gotten to the point that I've occasionally needed to bring in additional people to assist, it became clear that if I were to be technically an "employer," I also had to make sure all the taxes were paid. Thanks IRS!

I had always thought of naming my company Sofos and had registered the domain quite a while back. Since now creating my own company was becoming reality, I took one of the first steps and updated the logo (which I did a while back when I was in Canada):



It wasn't bad and was a definite improvement over the text logo I had before, but it still wasn't there yet, so recently I took some time and re-did the logo to this:



I'm much happier with the design, it's tighter all around and the face is both more expressive and also just as "statue"-esque as I wanted it. Plus, in thematically having the company name a palindrome, I also made the logo to be exactly the same on both sides of the face. I'm sure the logo will likely change again in the future, but for now, this is it.

That aside, I've taken the next step in my plans and crossed #64 off the 101 list: Register Sofos as an LLC. As of now, Sofos, is officially a Washington State limited liability corporation. Thanks to receiving my UBI number from the state, I also registered with the IRS and got my EIN number which allows me to have others freelancers work for me on a contract basis and everything will be run through the official channels.

Currently I'm working on a couple of projects that are directly under the Sofos banner, and as soon as I can talk about 'em I will, they're some fun projects and I look forward to sharing them with you guys!

#13 - Try 15 new restaurants (at least 10 local)

Another item crossed off the list is #13: Try 15 new restaurants (at least 10 local).

Originally it was 10 and no "local" qualifier, but then thanks to travel, I realized I was starting to add places that I wouldn't likely go back to, so I modified it so that at least 10 of the restaurants were local. Here's the list:

Philadelphia Cheese Steaks (Capitol Hill) - Not bad at all, one of the best cheese steaks I've had outside the east coast.

Spiro's Restaurant (Shoreline) - Great pasta and reasonably priced.

Hamburger Haven (Los Angeles) - Came highly recommended, but Dick's is way better.

Collins Pub (Pioneer Square) - Good beer selection, average food.

Grinders (Edmonds) - Amazing food, a little on the expensive side for a sub, but completely worth it.

Leena's Cafe (Shoreline) - All-around average, both food & prices.

Ryan's Daughter (Baltimore) - Irish dinner food, not bad.

Rialto Pasta Bar (Green Lake) - Great Italian food, tiny space but excellent atmosphere.

The Tap House (Downtown Seattle) - Awesome beer selection, average food, high prices.

Tu Casa (Redmond) - A solid Mexican restaurant, had my birthday party, great for groups, food was fine.

Jamjuree (Capitol Hill) - Above average Thai food.

Kyoto Teriyaki (Capitol Hill) - Plain-ass teriyaki, hit the spot at 2am though...

Pomodoro (Ballard) - Very good food, good prices, great cannoli.

Sacred (London) - Fun little cafe, two stories, high on atmosphere and the cafe, not as much on the grub.

To Steki Tou Mitsara (Athens) - A little Taverna in Athens, amazing food, super cheap (especially the wine), great atmosphere

Thanks to all my partners in crime who ate at all these places with me, you guys rock (you know who you are!)

#26, #32 and #59

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I'm officially crossing #26 (Visit Mycenae (Greece)), #32 (Visit Olympia (Greece)) and #59 (Visit Delfi (Greece)) off the 101 list. Here's one picture from each, you can see the rest at flickr:

Delfi:


Olympia:


Mycenae

Vacation pictures

Over the weekend, I finally got around to sorting through the 400+ pictures I took in Greece. I've narrowed it down to around 100 or so and uploaded them all to my flickr page.

I wasn't sure how to change them to be in order of when I took them, so they're in reverse order, first picture being from my return through Heathrow all the way to the picture of Adi & Tamsin I posted earlier.

Here's a few highlight pictures, some of the cool, funny or odd things I saw - all these pictures and many more are on the flickr page, and over there they're much bigger if you want to see some more detail on anything.

Me and my uncle partaking of one of the Greek national past times, backgammon:


At the music store, hip hop and rap are all put under one label:


The cute sign lets you know when the next baked goods are coming out of the oven:


At the grocery store, a lot of the price tags are digital:


Eggs sold outside, not refrigerated, yet there's never any problem with them:


This elementary/pre-school is decorated as a Disney castle:


Here is one small, small section of the woods that got burned in the fires earlier this year:


It's a ghost cow. 'nuff said:


My grandfather, who I was named after:


Tons of designer knockoffs to be had, all under the watchful eye of the Acropolis in the background:


This old guy turns the handle to play the music on this "laterna" for money:


It's Mr. Souvlaki. Needless to say, I never actually ate here, but I couldn't pass up the picture:


Mustard does come in plastic too, but this brand also comes in a couple of glass varieties:


All the newspapers usually come with some kind of add-in, like a book, CD, DVD, etc:


The sheer variety of olives is incredible:


I'm totally following!


Sex Shop & Spongebob: A match made in heaven:


While there, I was lucky enough to catch the Greek National Soccer team in a Euro2008 qualifier match against Bosnia (we won 3-2):


Ruins of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounio:


A cool statue of a philosopher (unnamed) in one of the museums:

Rise Up

This video was the most popular foreign video playing while I was in Greece. It's from a Swiss artist Yves Larock. It's actually quite catchy and the moves of the jump ropers are great. Enjoy!

An Awesome Conversation

"Hey."

"Hi."

"Find everything you were looking for?"

"Yup."

"Great. Oh, Jack of Fables, cool, I dig this book."

"Yeah, I like Fables, so I'm looking forward to reading it."

"You'll like it, it's a lot of fun. Anyway, your total is $68.37."

"Okay."

"Debit or Credit?"

"Credit"

"So, any big plans for Halloween?"

"Nope, none at all actually. How about you?"

"Nothing really, just working. Sign here."

"Here you go."

"Thanks. So, since neither of us have any real plans, would you like to get some dinner?"

"Um, I'm actually seeing someone right now."

"Awesome."

Bearz

Trip pictures are coming slowly, but this is actually a follow-up to the post about England. When Adi & Tamsin took me to Hamley's toy store, one of the things I found there that we don't have in the States is "Bearz."

These are little plastic figures (roughly 6" tall) of bears dressed up in Marvel costumes. There were a lot of figures to choose from, but being roughly $18 each, it was easy to show restraint.

From the Fantastic Four, they only had Reed & Sue, both of which were kind of boring figures, but they did have this:



Bear Galactus. Radness in plastic.

Tell me Fantastic Four 2 wouldn't have been a better movie if this what was attacking the earth instead of a cloud? Heh...