Rek Bell

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2024-09-19 Shades of Bacchus!

Hello all! In the 1934 film It's A Gift, a brat drops grapes on a man's face, after which he shouts "Shades of Bacchus!" Bacchus is the god of wine in Roman mythology. Dev & I heard this said in the 4th season of What we Do in the Shadows, said by the energy vampire Colin Robinson in a moment that doesn't involve wine or grapes, merely to express surprise, but we loved this saying so much that we have since adopted it. And now, your life too has been enriched by having learned that this expression exists.
Now on to the updates of the month!

WEBSITE NEWS. This website now has a light mode! I should have implemented this ages ago, all of my other websites have a light/dark mode, but now it's done! If your browser preferences are set for light mode, you'll see it. The default is still the dark mode, because it's what my eyes prefer.
In other website-related news, I wrote a post called keeping teeth healthy. I was hesitant to share it publicly because I was embarrassed to admit of being bad at taking care of my teeth, but I got a lot of support from others who suffered the same problems. Body maintenance is difficult, I ought not to be embarrassed about it, I will likely continue to learn how to do things better till I die.

SAILING. Pino is back on the Victoria docks. I was looking forward to it this year, I was glad to have access to water on tap again. In the summer, water in the Salish Sea is a rare commodity, we have to use it like the precious resource that it is. This translates to not doing laundry, and by not taking quality showers aboard for 5 months. The water in our tanks is for drinking, and for cleaning dishes only(when water is especially low, I usually use a pressure sprayer and do the dishes in the cockpit). After a summer of hard sailing, Pino is a damn mess. I've already cleaned the gunk out of the quarter berth and galley, but each space needs a good exorcism.
Being back near a city also means that Dev & I can ship stickers again! I've put items in my store back online(still selling some mushroom drawings). Devine found a spirograph set for 5$ at a thrift store, we now make intricate patterns on all of the letters that we ship!

ART. I bought myself a set of coloring pencils! I got them specifically for the Rabbit Waves project, for illustrations that need a touch of color. I am creating content for it almost everyday! The project is not released yet, but it'll be out before the end of the month.
The bird in the drawing below is a long-billed murrelet, a bird that hangs around the east coast of Russia and Northern Japan. I have never seen this particular type of murrelet, but I have seen Kittlitz's murrelets while sailing in Southeast Alaska. They are such beautiful, tiny birds! They are like small compact auks, measuring about 25 cm (9.8 in). Yes, rabbit waves will have rabbits, but also plenty of seabirds.

FONT. I fixed a few issues with the font for hakum. Had bad kerning between n & l (the word only comes up a lot). I also moved the apostrophe, hyphen, and the plus sign higher. The font is still not 100% perfect, I fix it when I find the time. I'd also really like to add glyphs for french(é è ê) at some point. See making a font. I didn't have time to work on hakum at all this month, I am sad about this, but I'm prioritizing rabbit waves at the moment.

BOOKS. I finished reading Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. I did not expect to like this book so much, the Martian was ok, but this book isn't only about solving problems in a hostile environment(space), it's also about camaraderie. It is difficult to explain why I loved the book without spoiling it, but I will say that the main character's encounter with Rocky really makes this book shine.

MOVIES. I learned that Boots Riley, the director/screenwriter of Sorry to Bother You, a film that I loved, had also recently directed the series I'm a Virgo. I finally got around to watching it, and holy crap...it is very, very good! The characters were well-crafted, the world was fun and created with purpose(to talk about corporatocracy, oppression and exploitation). Then there's Parking Tickets, a fictional animated TV show within the I’m a Virgo universe. Parking Tickets is dark, it grips you and doesn't let go. I enjoyed reading about the show within a show in this article.
I watched Yintah, a CBC documentary following indigenous land defenders in a decade-long fight to keep fossil fuel companies from building pipelines on their traditional lands. Watching this I was completely disgusted at the hypocrisy and barrage of lies coming out of the mouths of Canadian Government officials, pipeline workers and the police/RCMP. Their eyes are set on resource extraction and nothing will keep them from achieving their goals, Indigenous people know that better than anyone.
Reconciliation is a word that is thrown around to appease voters, it's an illusion, behind the curtain the Canadian Government is still using century-old tactics to remove Indigenous people from their lands.

"I want to buy your horse," an American settler says to an indigenous man. "No, I want to keep my horse," the indigenous man says. Dissatisfied with this response, hellbent on getting the man's horse, the settler goes to another indigenous man, "I want to buy that horse," he says, asking permission from someone who doesn't have the authority to give that horse away.

This short skit illustrates well how land was seized in the past, and what is still done today when governments want something from Indigenous people. A few weeks ago, I finished reading I Will Fight No More Forever by Merrill D. Beal, documenting how the American settlers displaced the Nez Perces from their lands. Back in 1877, Chief Joseph too was suffering the lies of government officials: "It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises." Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.

QUOTESI have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few while the white men were many, and that we could not hold our own with them. We were like deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had a small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not; and would change the mountains and rivers if they did not suit them.A quote by Chief Joseph

MUSIC. I am head over heels for the techno mix BEHEĀDER - LA FORZA. I have a strange relationship with music, songs affect me deeply, beautiful voices and arrangements have the power to bring me to tears. Devine sent me an article called Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music, which sets out to explain how certain individuals have strong emotional reactions to music.

CALL TO ACTION. Given and C.C., two bright stars are struggling to stay afloat. Circumstances have compelled them to live nomadically. They lack a legal residence anywhere and have neither pensions nor access to banking, social support or medical services. They make due with meagre finances and fend off the increasing pressures of age (C.C. turns 70 this year) and chronic illness. I have donated to their cause many times, but support from many more people would help them ensure that they can continue to get prescription medicines, medical care, as well as the basic requirements of keeping an old boat — their home — afloat for a longer chunk of time, which in turn will help alleviate some stress. Give what you can.

ARTICLES I READ AND LIKED

GREAT WEBSITES

2024-09-19 September musings

I'm going to try something new this month, a long-form, highly detailed journal, which chronicles the projects I've done, but also things I am interested in, what I've read, etc. I share a lot of this stuff on Mastodon, but it's a shame that it isn't also present on my website. These thoughts will now live here too. Here we go!

SAILING. Where's Pino now? We are anchored on Galiano Island, comfortably nested in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We spent time in Melanie Cove earlier this month too. We wanted a taste of summer weather, we got it. Some days were very warm, too warm to hike. Pino will be returning to the Victoria docks in the fall, I look forward to it. I really miss using our sewing machine, I have many projects in mind!

I started to transcribe the entries of the Victoria to Sitka logbook digitally, I've already published the first two weeks. As promised, the log features many silly doodles. Silly doodles are my lifeblood. People who have already read through the log told me how much they liked the black-headed gull syndicate, I am glad of it, it was a recurring joke on that trip. Gulls on logs were a common, and welcome sight. I have many more weeks to transcribe, it will take a long while to go through it all!

ART. I've been doodling one of my older OCs Shane "Shock" Evans a lot. I used Shane when roleplaying with a friend in the pokemon universe. I'd love to "recycle" this character into another story, albeit with some improvements, because his current personality requires some considerable finessing. I become very attached to my OCs. I always end up reusing them in other projects, although sometimes they're so different that it is impossible to know who they stemmed from. Lupen, from my story wiktopher, actually shares Shane's haircut (although Shane wore it first), but they're nothing alike.

BOOKS. Earlier this month, I finished reading Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I really enjoyed it, while being familiar with the character — I think most of the English speaking world is — it was my first time reading any of his stories. I love Watson’s constant amazement of Holmes’s observation and deducting skills. “My dear Holmes!” He’d often say, awestruck, after hearing Holmes detail the life a client he’d just met with great accuracy. I recommend it, although the fact that he casually takes cocaine was a bit jarring. Taking cocaine was a "hip" thing to do in 19th century England, but mostly because it wasn't well understood. When the dangers of cocaine became known, Arthur C. D. adapted the story, with Watson helping to wean Holmes off the drug. I love that he didn't double down on his character's use of the drug. The author used words that were at times surprising, like saying "he ejaculated" after a character speaks in a sudden manner. The definition of the word when used with speech reads like this: "To throw out, as an exclamation; to utter by a brief and sudden impulse; as, to ejaculate a prayer." Using it to illustrate something said swifty and suddenly is brilliant, I love the image that it summons in my mind(not the one you're thinking of, you silly rabbit). Unfortunately, its use for anything other than "ejecting semen" will forever be strange in modern times.

I am still reading through Don Norman's book The Design of Everyday Things. I've become more observant, and critical, of the objects around me. It is a wonder that so many terrible products end up in people's hands. I learned about The Toyota Way, which is a set of principles that focuses on reducing waste, increasing productivity, and maintaining a high-quality standard, such as Muda (無駄) and jidoka (自働化). I created a page on my website named good enough arithmetic, coined by Don, to remind myself that precision isn't always necessary. When I shared my notes on Mastodon, someone linked an amazing blog post on how to use your hand as a measuring device to take approximate measurements. I LOVE that idea! I included some fun ASCII art in the documentation to break the monotony. Drawing hands in ASCII was not easy, but it was fun to try! The book is dry at times, but the lessons are invaluable.

As a last mention of books, I will say that I've been reading Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary aloud to Devine every night. The casual format makes it difficult to stop, we are enjoying it so far, although Ryland Grace, the main character, sounds and behaves exactly like the star of Weir's other book Mark Watney (The Martian). I suspect that he injects a lot of himself into his characters.

RABBITS. I've got rabbits on the brain. Last August we went walking on a trail on Cortes Island with our friends Rik & Kay, they sent me photos from that walk, which of course, ended up becoming part of the wunderland rabbits project. I am especially pleased with this one. Rabbits in the ferns!

What I am most happy about is that I found another way to do the dithering. I used to have a local copy of Dither-it, and used the Atskinson algorithm to get the look I wanted, but when I switched from vincent to obi I forgot to clone the repository, when I was working on this picture I didn't have good enough cell coverage to download it. I ended up toying with Krita, and found an option under Filter>Artistic named Index Colors, which does EXACTLY what I want! I can change the colors under Ramps, and the results are just as good as those produced when using Dither-it. Of course, Dither-it is a really neat tool and I will continue to recommend it, but it is neat that Krita can produce similar results(I haven't found an equivalent in Gimp).

Also, maybe it is a bit too early to announce it, but in rabbit-related news I registered a new domain named RabbitWaves for a very special project. The site doesn't have much on it yet, it will soon!

MUSIC. Voidxwitch released their new single The Beast of the Black Hill and it is excellent! This song is dominating my life, I cannot persuade it to leave my head. Give it a listen!
Falling in Reverse's Prequel is also highly addictive. As on the commenters on YouTube so rightly said, "Falling In Reverse is no longer a band, they are an experience."

TRICKS N THINGS. I learned that it was possible to use the terminal as a calculator this month. I really wish I had learned this before! I am constantly doing conversions, being able to do it via the command line simplifies thing! Of course, one cannot just type equations in the terminal, it is necessary to summon bc first. BC was already installed on Manjaro, handy!

CALL TO ACTION. As you may have heard, Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was arrested by Danish police. "Danish authorities claim that the arrest was made due to an international arrest warrant issued by Japan, related to his anti-whaling campaigns in the Antarctic more than a decade ago. Paul faces the possibility of extradition to Japan, where he could spend the rest of his life in prison." Protection nature ought not to be a crime. If you can spare some time, sign this petition.

Also, if you can, buy prints/or commmission a human artist that you like. With the use of AI becoming ubiquitous, they need your support right now, more than ever.

ARTICLES I READ AND LIKED

QUOTEThe productivity myth suggests that anything we spend time on is up for automation — that any time we spend can and should be freed up for the sake of having even more time for other activities or pursuits — which can also be automated. The importance and value of thinking about our work and why we do it is waved away as a distraction. The goal of writing, this myth suggests, is filling a page rather than the process of thought that a completed page represents.

Sourced from Challenging the myths of generative AI. I thought this was worth sharing, especially considering what has happened with Nanowrimo last month.

GREAT WEBSITES

  • Marcus the Visual, and his well-crafted The Last Airbender fan fiction The Legend of Abioye.
  • Anna's Archive, since most mirrors of libgen are now down, Anna's Archive is fighting to keep the lights on.

2024-08-25 Room for thought

Pino and crew arrived back in familiar waters on August 11th, a bit earlier than we had planned, but after many grey months, we were both looking forward to experiencing some form of summer-like weather. We anchored in Von Donop inlet on Cortes Island, a good place to chill out and to get things done.

My mind has been occupied with weather and currents of late, now that we are still, I have room in my head to tackle some difficult problems.

I finished a new comic sequence for Hakum named Smile.

2024-08-05 Grey Days

A month of upwind sailing, fog, and motoring painfully slowly over still waters, the way back south through northern Canada has not been easy. We had to do short hops between anchorages, and often had to stay for 2-3 days at each stop to wait for favorable weather to keep going. obi has not seen much use, grey days, lack of solar power, make working on the computer difficult, so I've been drawing, mostly, and writing in my logbook.

I drew the cast of hakum, when they're a bit younger, and then older with some new members. I also completed a very short vignette comic named Shoes, Dae spends all his time in the forest, never wears shoes, and never rode a bike before.

Otherwise, Devine & I have resumed work on markl. We hope to publish it on the Playdate along with oquonie. The Playdate has been a good source of entertainment for me while at anchor, I especially enjoyed the game Saturday Edition by Chris Makris.

2024-07-10 Waves

Pino and crew have sailed back to Canada 2 days ago, landing back in Prince Rupert. We'll slowly make our way back south now.

We've traveled many miles, we completed a loop through Southeast Alaska, passing close to the mainland through Wrangell, Petersburg, and then through Frederick Sound to Sitka, then down down down on the outside waters of Baranof and Dall Island, through Dixon Entrance and into port at Prince Rupert. Sailing in outer waters was lovely, especially on the first day, the sea was smooth, as was the wind, I saw a ton of wildlife. I saw black-footed albatrosses, the last time I saw them was on our Japan to Canada sail in 2020, they are large brown birds with dramatic markings around their eyes, locking their expression into one of constant mourning. As Pino sailed by the Hazy Islands, I saw my first puffin! The Hazy Islands are far offshore, away from traffic and human encroachment, boats can't land there, neither can planes, it's a perfect place for birds, they have a world of their own out there.

The second offshore leg was not as lovely, with big waves at our stern, strong winds, too. "Don't take me again," I said to the sea, "please don't." I kept one hand on the tiller, the other gripped the frame of our roll cage, ready in case the waves decided to misbehave. Further into Dixon Entrance the waves diminished along with any threat of being taken, I was relieved.

I write in my logbook everyday, I don't have creative energy for anything else right now. I draw once in a while, not as often as I'd like. Hopefully, once we get nearer to Vancouver Island, we can find a place to stay put for a few weeks. Yes, weeks, a place with good hiking nearby, a quiet place for deep thinking.

This trip has challenged my strength. I am a human windlass, a haphazard diesel engine mechanic, a nervous wreck at times... but like our strong little ship, I too can weather storms.

2024-06-05 Alaska

Just a short update to say that Devine & I have been sailing since May 1st, leaving from Victoria, B.C. We arrived in Ketchikan, Southeast Alaska(US) on June 2nd. We spent all of May moving, taking every weather window we could to make as much progress north as possible. It is tiring, but now that we've arrived a bit higher north we can it a bit slower.

May and June are good months to spend in SE Alaska. It's been very rainy and windy since we've arrived, I'm not sure what nice looks like in these parts... I look forward to it, though. We find cell reception here and there, permitting for updates like this. We'll explore the area, and start making our way back down late July.

I won't be updating this site much in the meantime, maybe just small improvements or notes here and there. Like today, as we are waiting for bad weather to pass in Ketchikan, I worked on the finic language. I've got plans for another wiktopher book, so I'm just jotting down ideas. Because I am away, my store is closed, I will put the vancouver island mushrooms series back for sale when I return in October. See you then!

2024-04-05 Kaizah

I finished the hakum sequence kaizah. I'm pleased with the result! I also went over a lot of the comics in the hakum archive, as I've said before they are no longer canon, but I did update some of the text anyway to bring them more in line. The handwritten text wasn't easy to read, so I updated all of them with the font I made(see making a font). I also published an older short sequence I had finished named aftermath that follows night terror, a short comic to show that Dae and Seir have a really difficult relationship.

I released a new Wunderland Rabbits image. Spring is here on the West Coast of Canada, camas plants are in full bloom. We are getting ready to depart for northern waters, filling the boat with food, gathering e-books, etc.

Because I am learning modern standard arabic on the side, I've started keeping notes! I will append to this page as I go.

2024-04-04 Splash

My website now has a splash page! Hovering the cursor over characters reveals little speech bubbles, it's possible to click on those and it'll take you somewhere on this site. If ever clicking/hovering on the image doesn't occur to people, I also added a re-direct that kicks in after 10 seconds.

I am still working on the new comic sequence for hakum. Unlike previous releases, where I would publish pages as I finished them, I will publish them all at once. Here is a sneak peek.

A few months ago I bought some mochigome(sticky Japanese rice) with the goal of learning how to make mochi. It took me a long time to try because I wasn't sure it was possible to do by hand on the boat. Most tutorials require the use of powered appliances. I've seen Japanese do it by hand by rapidly beating the dough with a mallet, I knew I couldn't do exactly that, but I had a pestle. I cooked the rice, transferred the rice to a bowl, crushed the rice with a potato masher, then went to work beating the dough using my pestle. It's hard work, it took me around 15 minutes of constant beating to get it to a sticky, cohesive mass. Then, I used plenty of cornstarch to separate the dough into 10 balls. Devine & I later cooked the balls with roasted sesame oil in a pan. The result was rice cakes that were crunchy on the outside, and soft and sticky on the inside. We'll make mochi again for sure, maybe next time we'll try to stuff the sticky dough with sweet red beans(anko). See the result.

I made another small rope mat for pino earlier this month. The little black mat was even featured in the latest hundredrabbits newsletter(without the flemish coil). If you're wondering what Little Ninj is doing in the image, he is trying to flatten the mat. When a new mat is finished it won't be comfortable to step on because the ropes are still round, but if the mat is set on the floor, time and the passing of feet will flatten it out. Stamping on a mat repeatedly is a quick way to flatten it, it's also possible to use a rubber mallet. Generally, we tolerate the initial discomfort and wait for the material to settle on its own.

In the interest of conserving useful articles about boating/sailing, I mirrored two articles on my website: defensive boating and gunwale and hull cushioning.

2024-03-09 Knots

I added instructions on how to make small rope mats, the images are at the end of the post. I also shared instructions on how to make a good friction hitch. Yep, I've been getting back into knotting lately! I documented some of the knots that Dev & I use the most aboard pino on the 100r website.

I improved the look of the hakum page, adding small graphics and trying to space out the content better to make it more pleasant to read (I have a tendency to pack a lot of text in a single page *sweats*). I started a new comic sequence but progress is slow because Dev & I are preparing for a big sailing trip this summer. We hope to make it to Northern B.C., near the Alaskan border. I spend my days studying guide books and charts, trying to understand how the wind and current behaves. This coast is not easy to sail, but we want to get better acquainted with it, even if it means getting uncomfortable for a short while.

2024-02-17 Network of Trust

February 14th marks my 8th year living aboard pino! The boat is doing well, although Dev & I both suffered a cold these past few days. We are two disgusting snot fountains.

Because it is becoming harder and harder to find good information on the internet by way of search engines, I overhauled my list of bookmarks, documenting my favorite websites and resources to try and combat AI garbage generators and websites that spin content. Building lists of trusted links written by experienced and well-meaning humans, and hosting them on your website, is a good way to create a network of trust.

I completed Ruler of the Taiga. It is annoying how even if I just completed night terror, I already dislike a lot of the art. My hand and my eye keeps improving, it's a good thing but it makes it difficult to appreciate work now that I was proud of at the time of completion. The spell wears off so quickly. I am glad I am improving, but I hate being this inconsistent. I've always assumed that once I learned to draw that I could only get better at it, that regressing was not possible, but if there are too many long lulls between drawing sessions(months, years...) I realized that it is possible to lose it. The skill isn't lost entirely, but the work can appear stiff. Drawing will always make me happy, but I hope that my work eventually stabilizes. Note that this 'regression' is only true when drawing characters with realistic proportions (projects like hakum, and circa), errors are more apparent in designs like this than with a project with a cartoon style like mindbird.

I did a few sprite commissions, see Alex P., Benji and family(1), and Benji(2).

I made some modifications to rope mats, so that intructions are clearer. I made a tiny mat out of red paracord for a friend this month for v-day, I missed making mats, I plan to make more this month.

2024-01-21 New old art

Wahoo! Night Terror is finished! Currently sketching a new sequence which I look forward to sharing :>!

I did a few sprite commissions this month, see Alex, Squid, and Sofia.

I added a bunch of new(old) production art to uno and wiktopher. I'm trying to gather all of my art on this website, even the really old stuff (see old art). I logged into DeviantArt the other day and saw how they had fully intergrated AI into their platform, which makes me so, so sad. As HelveticaBlanc said so well in a recent toot(Mastodon): "I don't wanna see AI in any form, even as a joke. It's a nightmare for labor and the environment, an insult to the spirit of art, and I'm fully on the side of the Butlerian Jihad." Yes, me too. AI art is hollow, it is a grotesque parody of what it is to be human.

I've had two accounts parked on DA for the longest time (@esserawks and @mintenko), I kept them for memory's sake, but after seeing what DA has become I've decided to deactivate them. All of my art lives on this page now.

2024-01-06 Yearly review

I wrote my yearly review for 2024. It's been a busy, but generally good year for me.

The reupholstery in Pino's saloon is DONE! I learned a ton of stuff doing this project. I started working on the quarter berth cushions, and I am finding that despite having some practice I am still making a lot of mistakes. Thankfully, the cushions are still usable—let's just say that they have "character", they scream "I am unique." Yes, yes you are dear cushion.

I released 6 new pages for Hakum for Night Terror (pages 11-16). Initially, I had put the total number of pages at 17, don't know how I arrived at that number because I still have 5 more pages to do(lol). Some of the pages I've added are a bit violent, so be warned. It just dawned on me how different that project is from Wiktopher, this contrast makes appear very fickle, but there are many facets to a person. I like violent comics(Junji Ito, Blade of the Immortal) just as much as I love wholesome films like Omoide Poro Poro. What can I say, I'm versatile.

2023-12-21 Wiktopher on paperback

Wiktopher is now available on paperback! It's possible to get it here. I've already received my test copy and was very pleased with the result!

I released 3 new pages (hellooo productivity!) for Hakum, see page 8, 9, and 10 on Night Terror.

As a Christmas present to ourselves, me and Dev purchased a Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ sewing machine! We tried one for the first time in 2016, having borrowed one from a friend to repair our sail cover—we've wanted one ever since. We had another machine aboard Pino but there's a lot of materials it can't handle, we're sick of breaking needles, damaging fabric and wasting thread. Right now I am working at reupholstering Pino's interior, a good machine will help speed up that process. I'd also really like to learn to make clothes, because it would lovely to have clothes that fit properly for once.

Aside from that, I've updated my bookmarks, I've also added a bunch of drawings to a number of pages on this website to make things more fun.

2023-12-04 Wiktopher release

Wiktopher, a story I've been working out since 2017, is finally out! So far, it is possible to read it as a PDF, as an EPUB, and as a mobi file, (available on Itch.io). I'm waiting for a test print for the paperback version, if everything looks great then I will add that as an option soon.

I released a new page for Hakum, see page 7 on Night Terror.

I wrote down some notes on mine and Dev's first summer of cooking with the sun.

I added original art(my Vancouver Island Mushrooms series) for sale in my store. I had some pretty large dental bills recently, so any purchase will help on that front!

2023-11-20 Hakum font

I've added pages 4,5, and 6 for the Night Terror comic sequence. This month I also designed a font based on my handwriting for this same project. It was my first time ever making a font, and I really enjoyed the process, so much that I made a short write-up about it.

Devine & I worked at translating Thousand Rooms into Solresol. Devine translated the text from English, but I put the text to a staff as notes.

I drew a small illustration for Wiktopher.

Otherwise, I spent time repairing a bunch of things! I replaced the zipper on my winter jacket(see latest entry), and finally replaced the keyboard on Obi. It is so nice to have a functional keyboard again!

2023-10-24

I've released the first two pages of the new Hakum.

concept. I'm also testing a new technique. My goal is to use the computer less to make this project, so the frames are drawn and shaded by hand in pencil. I add the text digitally (for now). The new sequence is named Night Terror.

I made two new wunderland rabbits images. One at the botanical garden, the other at a pommeraie.

I removed a lot of the old CSS of this website, and cleaned up the html to make it more readable. I'm very pleased with the result! It was a long time coming, but I needed a bit of sit-down time (as well as some motivation to do robot work for a day or two).

I got Cee and Viktor tattooed by the amazing Lizbeth, see it here.

August 2023.

Forgive the lack of updates for July and most of August. I've been in a crazy drawing mood and been mostly doing that. I've also sailed a lot this summer, took many walks and enjoyed time outside.

I've been working hard on the story for hakum. It's changed... a lot, haha. A lot of what I drew the doesn't work anymore, but that's what worldbuilding is, things change. I'm working on a new sequence now, and it's looking amazing... i can't wait to show it!

Devine & I finished the first pass of corrections for Wiktopher, I am now revisiting specific parts, moving chunks of text around and overall making sure that there aren't any mistakes (story, grammatical, or typing errors).

June 2023.

The month of June has passed me by entirely! I've been traveling with pino, seeing some new places! It's been nice. As usual, I'll be quieter this summer, focusing instead on drawing, new projects, etc. I may not reply to email right away.

May 2023.

What to say about May? So far, I spend my days making food runs to the grocery store to prepare for a summer at anchor! Devine & I are also busy closing some projects on the boat. I worked on an illustration for a school manual (will announce here when released).
I made a page for the merveilles community I share with others online, featuring an illustrated version I made of the community logo.

Some cool things found this month:

April 2023.

A lot of updates on this site this month! I added a lot of new pages, but also moved some content around. For instance, there is no more "illustration" section in the header overtop. All of the illustrations previously featured there are now scattered across 3 sections: games, books for children and projects. I put all personal and client games together, and added images of some of the children's books I've worked on since 2008.
I have so many backups of projects that I've never listed anywhere, thought it was time to add them to kokorobot. Added some old comics(2009-2010) I've done(pcbc and tdc) in stories. They are very silly comics, but I like them. Previously, these comics were all hosted on DeviantArt only. I think it is safer to host these here, I don't really trust websites that offer free hosting of data anymore.

Some cool things found this month:

March 2023.

February 2023. Two days into Feb, and I've completed the event comic sequence! It has 14 pages total, my longest one yet! These days I work on Oquonie until dinner time, and spend evenings on the comic. I rather like this way of doing things. I also sometimes have to cut into my comic hours to study for my Basic Amateur Radio license, I re-dove into Morse Code and my brain is dizzy with dits and dahs. Learning to recognize sounds as letters is an interesting and brain-wrecking process. To practice, I use LCWO.net (it's pretty good).

January 2023. devine & I are still re-wiring our beloved pino, we are tackling the AC side of the system, see AC electrical refit. Very exciting things are happening this month, Devine & I are finally ready to try and port oquonie to uxn. We made Uxn because we wanted a way for our games to live longer on a variety of devices, new and old. We had many puzzles to solve, but we're happy to say that we've arrived at a point where making complex games on this system is within the realm of the possible. If we succeed, this will be the culmination of many years of hard work.

December 2022. So far, December has been a month of boat work. We are currently re-doing all of the electricals on pino. Our home is a mess, but it must be done. I released my yearly update(2022dec31) for 2022, talking about the hightlights of the year!

November 2022. I spent the start of November working on assets for Kanji Study, a kanji-learning Android app developed by my good friend Chase. I will share the project assets here when the app update is released. Otherwise, I'm working on hakum, cleaning up pages in my free time. I also added an index containing all the pages published on this website.

11.11.22. I have finished another comic sequence for hakum called chase. Because I've had a hard time sticking with comic as a format, I've basically decided to just finish the bits that I like, in the order that I like. It will be weird for others to read, but that's how it's going to be (haha). The story will come together in the right order overtime. Anyway, I've got a good rhythm going on and I am truly in love with inking these comics with a dip pen, it is a game changer for me. I've spent the last few weeks working on some artwork for Kanji Study, a Kanji-learning app developed by my good friend Chase Colburn, I'll link the art here once it is released. Enjoy.

17.10.22. Pino is back in Victoria, to our usual winter spot. Although these days Victoria doesn't feel autumny at all, temperatures are still in the mid 20's and there is still no sign of rain in the forecast (the island as been dry for months). The air is thick with wildfire smoke, so these days we're staying indoors to avoid the worst of it. I found a used CanoScan LiDE 20 scanner in town and I've been scanning art with it for my upcoming free-form comic project hakum. For those who followed the project circa, you'll see that Hakum uses some of the same characters, that is because Circa was a sort of pilot project, a way for me to explore what sort of comic I wanted to do (a way to flesh out the story/characters). Many of the characters have changed, in both appearance/personality (its why I've nuked all the character profiles, I'll add new ones soon). The story and its focus has changed too! Because it's somewhat different, I've changed the story name. I've a sketchbook-full of art to paste together, something that will occupy much of my time this winter. I've inked, scanned and processed a short segment called reunited.

26.07.22. Hello Kid Rek, we haven't talked in a while. I wanted to tell you that the last two and a half months have been my most productive, drawing wise, since when I was your age. We used to fill sketchbooks so fast that we started numbering them, remember? That was a great time. But I'm sad to say that as we got older and started to draw for a living our output of personal works lessened, and was almost brought to a complete halt. Me, now-adult Rek, hasn't owned a sketchbook in years, relying instead on stray pieces of paper, small notebooks and digital sketches. I've never stopped drawing entirely, but I've stopped diving into the worlds that we'd made together, and loved. The characters were always on my mind, but I could never put them to paper. I'd resigned myself to the idea that they could only live in my head, and that somehow it was enough... this is all I could get. I did try and fill other new, blank sketchbooks after that, but never felt the same drive as back then, and the sketchbooks ended mostly unused, and eventually turned into objects of guilt. I've always assumed that drawing with such energy and passion was something I could only ever do as you, Kid Rek, that this time was over, gone, and that I could not get it back. But this year, I'm not sure why I did it, but after a 12-year gap I bought a new sketchbook. I did let it sit on the shelf for a time, with some trepidation, wondering when it too would start to throw guilt my way. I drew a commission on the first page, and hoped that it wouldn't be the only drawing that would ever populate its pages. I became superstitious, as if the mere act of thinking that I would not fill this sketchbook would turn into another 12-year long curse. Devine and I left the dock with pino in early May 2022, and now, I'm delighted to say Kid Rek, that this same sketchbook, after a few weeks, is already nearly filled with drawings from cover to cover.

What happened? I've always felt guilty spending my days drawing comics that are destined primarily for me, for us. "It's not productive," I'd say to myself, "you love it, and it animates you like nothing else, but it's not going to earn you money." For that reason I've long ignored my wants, in favor of supposed self-imposed 'had-tos'. In the summer, we lie at anchor full-time and don't have moorage to pay... and so somehow, I feel the guilt less. (I live on a boat Kid Rek, you would have never guessed that, right?) This is also my first real Pacific Northwest summer on the boat (you've left the cold Montreal winters too, impressed yet?), with no destination, few projects or concerns. This is free time, and because it is my mind is unbothered by thoughts of money and is free to roam and play... all day, like we used to to do. I did feel some guilt in the start, but it slowly ebbed away... and with every passing day I felt its pull less and less until it was gone almost entirely. Now I realize how much I need this in my life. I spend my days having sometimes pleasant, sometimes difficult conversations with fictional characters, with myself. I look to the conversations of the previous day with satisfaction. Playing out situations, different characters with different motives, backgrounds and beliefs, is nourishing my mind, I've found it to be a good way to digest information, and to develop empathy.

I've always enjoyed making free-form comics. By free-form, I mean not bound by timelines, or borders. I illustrate the moments I want, withhold others. This is what I want for my wiki, to share a story across different mediums. Some bits are better by text, other by comics, or maybe animation (this is me getting ahead of myself). For now, I am filling pages, inking them as I go with plans to digitize them in the fall/winter. When I draw, I catch myself smiling, laughing a lot. I am having a very good time right now, Kid Rek, you'd be proud. Some sketches: [1],[2] and [3].

22.06.22. The video I worked on about image optimization for the Photographer's Gallery (as part of their Green Hacks video series) is out! Watch it here. I am currently anchored in Melanie Cove in Desolation Sound. It is quiet here, and we have *some* internet (it is shit though). I have been drawing a lot by hand, more than I have in recent years. I think I needed to have this little trip up north. Having shit internet and little power to use a computer means that I turn to drawing more. It feels great. I've started a short series of drawings for a project about a rabbit and character sailing on a Turnip-shaped boat (see fsf talk). I came up with the idea when working on the FSF talk, and I want to keep making more! Devine is helping me review wiktopher at the moment, I've read it so often that my eyes are completely blind to mistakes (ugh).

22.05.16. I worked on a little video on image optimization for the Photographer's Gallery as part of their Green Hacks video series, the video isn't out yet but I'd encourage you to watch the ones that were already published (they're very good and informative, especially the one on how to install open source software on a camera). Pino and crew have left Victoria Harbor (May 10th) and we are now at anchor, slowly making our way north. Because we have less power I've switched to using obi, my low-power workstation. I'm also finishing up corrections for wiktopher.

22.04.15. Finished a commission of a lovely pufferfish, see it in its natural habitat. I am still editing wiktopher, the text is 300 pages and making sure there are no mistakes takes time. I hope to release it before summer.

22.04.03. The video for the FSF talk is out, watch it here. I was so eager(nervous, rly...) to start talking that I started talking before I was supposed to! Anyway, hope you enjoy it. I drew Varvara on a Sinclair bicycle for Devine. Otherwise, been working on a few commissions, which I will share here soon (they are not yet finished).

22.03.22. On March 20th 2022, devine and I gave a keynote talk for Libre Planet 2022. I drew some illustrations (see fsf talk) for the slide show presentation. I think the talk was recorded, I'll include the link in the project page description when it comes out. I also put together a set of Uxn stickers, I am super pleased with how they turned out.

22.02.20. I got my first-aid certification! I've always wanted to have that. As for projects, I've been working on the print copy of wiktopher, mainly. I am getting better at working with pandoc and LaTeX and I am really pleased with the look of the book so far! I asked for Devine's help to make up a game for the Iridi people, my rough idea was a mix between Domino and Go, and Dev came up with Hako. Dev made sonobe origami boxes and we played it together on the boat! Now we have a new game we can play aboard pino, and to enrich the world of Wiktopher.

22.03.03. Made a new illustration of Uxn and Varvara together. Rostiger(Mastodon) drew some amazing art of Uxn, and I realized then that I had not drawn a sideview of the character yet, so I did!.

22.01.27. uxn is turning a year old tomorrow! SO I made a little illustration to celebrate this. I finally finished adding ALL 137 drawings to the page of my 2012 hitobito project, the files were previously hosted on Tumblr. We have released 3 new languages for thousand rooms: Serbian, Hungarian and Polish. All books are now available as both PDFs and ePUBS. We also re-built the whole project, it was previously written in Ruby and was converted to ANSI C.

22.01.23. Devine & I submitted yufo to the Virtual Pet Jam. Yufo likes rock, paper, scissors, and ramen. It's a simple game that you're meant to keep on in the background as you do other tasks. Yufo has a short lifespan, and depending what you give/withhold, and how often, their appearance changes as they age..

22.01.29. I've completed transcribing the Polish, Hungarian and Serbian translations for thousand rooms. I'll add them to out itch.io page soon. I also finished a little walrus pixel logo for the website Le Morse, made in Nasu.

22.01.15. I've been working on thousand rooms this month, adding some new languages like Polish, Hungarian and Serbian. I've also been making text corrections to wiktopher. Added project page for catpot (older project I still didn't have a page for).