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Some little girls learned to cross-stitch

Me, I was murder on a Heathkit.

That’s the pen to my original old Wacom graphics tablet, which has been back and forth across the Atlantic many times, was chewed to bits by a teething kitten and finally heaved a sigh and stopped responding a couple of months ago. I have a newer, spiffier tablet for my desktop machine upstairs, but it’s been a pain in the ass not having a graphical wotsit to go with my laptop.

Turns out, a replacement pen is more expensive than buying a whole new rig on eBay, so I decided to try to Frankenstein this one back together.

See those two little wires? Yeah, the ones in the circle with the arrow pointing to them, Einstein. They lead from the coil in the tip back to the circuit board, along a hard piece of plastic. So every time the innards shifted in the outards, it crushed those poor little buggers until they finally broke.

Just a spoonful of solder, and I’m back in business.

Speaking of graphics, meet my new BFF. No, not Hillary — Jason Seiler (pronounced “syler”), the guy who drew this. I sent him a fan letter, and he wrote back and said “thanks” — so there you go!

I saw his illustration for this Weekly Standard piece and had to Google it. Turns out, I’ve seen (and lusted after) his stuff before.

Seriously, take a few minutes and browse through his main web site. He’s got some amazing work in there (at least hit the entertainment and political galleries).

Dude kicks multiple kinds of ass, including a couple of kinds of ass I didn’t even know existed.

 

Comments


Comment from Allen
Time: March 3, 2010, 1:04 am

Weasel, I think you ought to try your hand at the poltical cartoonist gig. I think you have the talent for it, as much as some of the others I’ve seen.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 3, 2010, 1:17 am

Thank you, Allen. I have thought of it. I spent my first few years as a freelance illustrator. I have two big flaws as a pencil for hire: I’m slow to create polished stuff, and I’m inconsistent (I’m proud of my best work; I don’t do my best work often enough).

One huge reasons this merchandise thing appeals to me, even though it’s down in the shallow end of the commercial art pool: I do whatever I want whenever I want, and people either buy it or they don’t. I’m not trying to realize the picture in somebody else’s head, you know?

Jason Seiler teaches a course online I’d love to take. It’s like ten video teaching sessions, plus homework assignments. You send in the assignments, and he does a video critique with paintovers.

You’re seeing a lot more of that in art, often with some very big names.


Comment from Nina from GCP
Time: March 3, 2010, 1:44 am

If only I could draw!


Comment from Randy Rager
Time: March 3, 2010, 2:50 am

Damn, Weas, you’ve hit the big time! People are wearing your t-shirts to T.E.A. parties and everything!

http://bigdicksplace.com/2010/02/27/right-winged-extremist-bastard.aspx#Comment


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 3, 2010, 12:50 pm

ZOMG! I’m a part of history! Thank you for the link, Randy!


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 3, 2010, 3:20 pm

Jason Seiler teaches a course online I’d love to take.

I wonder how much. I didn’t look at everything, but didn’t see any prices.


Comment from Mrs. Compton
Time: March 3, 2010, 3:48 pm

Your work is getting worn by us and I would love to have more and more and more and more!! We are taking our Nobel Prize buttons to Stockholm and Sweden in July and we’ll be wearing them every where!!!!!! My son loves his Zombie Reagan shirt (loved that link) and the hub was sooooo pleased with his carbon footprint shirt! Hmm, I think I need a nice tits shirt. 🙂


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 3, 2010, 4:00 pm

Mrs C, you are helping to feed a poor immigrant weasel. (Bread. I pay for the bread in this house).

PnB, the full course is just under $1,000. You can also do a self-directed version for just under $500. I think that means you get to see all his videos, but you don’t get the personal critique.

There’s also a course by Mort Drucker (Mad Magazine) and the comic artist Alvin Lee. Among others.

ConceptArt.org is going down this road, too. Though they have some neat 1-hour videos for a more modest $10.


Comment from David Gillies
Time: March 3, 2010, 4:12 pm

Anyone have Michael Foot in the Dead Pool? As far as dead Labour leaders go, he’s not the top of my list, but he’ll do in a pinch.

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY IT IS FREEZING HERE.


Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: March 3, 2010, 5:06 pm

I remember driving all the way to Pittsburgh to get a 8086
computer from the heathkit store.

My friends all wondered if I’d lost my mind.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 3, 2010, 6:28 pm

I can remember loading programs from a cassette recorder. And making backups to same.

A fucking cassette tape recorder. And it was Flash Gordon-Jetson level awe-inspiring.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: March 3, 2010, 8:43 pm

JW, do you remember that radio station that used to broadcast games over the air? You would record them on your cassette and play them on your Tandy, or whatever you had?


Comment from Gromulin
Time: March 3, 2010, 9:29 pm

I don’t know if they have it in the UK, but there is an aerosol rubberizing spray, used to put rubber-grips on tools. Wrench handles, etc. Comes in a small paint can, sold in almost every ACE hardware. It works pretty well for ad-hoc insulation on small wires. Better than tape.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 3, 2010, 10:16 pm

JWP – and wasn’t the sound that made fabulous? It just epitomised ‘The Space Ship’!

And a quick ‘rats!’ to Scubafreak ‘cos we didn’t get that here 🙁


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 3, 2010, 10:24 pm

Aerosol rubber. Say, that’s kind of…hot.


Comment from AndyOH
Time: March 3, 2010, 11:09 pm

The crack scientists at the University of Utah are way ahead of you on the subject of spray wire insulation

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/vaginal-condom-puts-women-control-while-prevening-pregnancy-hiv


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 4, 2010, 1:07 am

Scubafreak: NO, never heard of it, but that would have been Teh Awesome!

UB: I bet the sound would have been even more Teh Awesome!


Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: March 4, 2010, 4:47 pm

I totally remember that tape recorder! Remember the blazing fast 50-baud modem?

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