Thanks, Papa!

Well... Looks as though I can't sign off for the year (or even the evening) just yet...

Papa Bear has nominated OTS for a "Stylish Blogger Award." (Now proudly added on the Right.)  I would like to extend my sincere thanks, as well as execute my duties as a recipient.

In accordance with the rules, one must state seven things about themselves, and then nominate three other blogs for the award. So here goes:

1) I write a comic strip about my two sons, who have autsim. XP
2) I have a love of baseball that borders on mental illness. (Go Red Sox!)
3) My favorite filmmaker is Akira Kurosawa, though admittedly this is a very recent development. (And I'm close to being torn between him and Masaki Kobayashi.)
4) I have a Border Collie-Cattle Dog mix named Haley who didn't make it into the strip for almost two years.
5) I'm an engineer. (Which some people seem to think might explain a thing or two...)
6) I don't watch televison, but couldn't live without movies and anime. (And, of course, the occasional baseball game!)
7) I'm much older, balder and fatter than the "Dad" character who's drawn here!

And for the blogs I would like to nominate:

1) Kicking Kittens

Autismherd, has already been picked, in the exact same post as OTS was as a matter of fact, but I want to strongly "second" that well deserved nomination by nominating Kathleen's other Blog. (The one with the deliciously evil name!)  It's probably worth mentioning that Autsimherd was the first blog that started syndicating this one, AND that she put me in touch with the good folks over at Autisable, so I owe her for a lot publicity. But personal gratitude aside, Kathleen is a really cool blogger and both her personal blog ('herd) and her compilation blog ('kittens) are totally worth checking out.  (And I agree 110% with PapaBear: I can't imagine having four kids, let alone three on the Spectrum.  So, yeah: She deserves an award...  So here's a second one!)

2) Squidilicious

Was is it with these awesome names?  I can't believe I actually thought "On the Spectrum" was somehow clever at one point!  And what adorable kids!  If it weren't for my Michael and Jacob, I could SO see those two in a comic strip!  The love and affection in that family really comes through in their blog in a way that I can only hope ours does in mine.

3) A Life Less Ordinary

I hate to admit it, but I'm usually not a huge fan of reading people's personal blogs.  And that's rather a bit hypcritical, seeing as how I want people to read mine! LOL. But sometimes I read people's anecdotes and take on things and think, "They just... get it." (And surprisingly, NO, that doesn't happen just because someone else happns to have autism in their life!)  This is one of those blogs.

So congratulations!  Make sure to keep the chain going, or I'm sure something terrible will happen! LOL

Merry Early Christmas Everyone!

Unfortunately, due to our travel schedule, and preperations, yesterday was the only day I had to do an update.  And I had really planned on doing one! (Really!)  What I didn't plan on was getting sick as a dog, falling asleep at 6:00 PM Friday evening and waking up at 6:00 AM this morning, with only one break in between to see the Doctor... who charged me a $20 co-pay for the timeless advice of "rest and stay hydrated." (Um... You don't really need to tell a guy who just slept for 16 hours strait to "get some rest." *roll eyes*)  In any case, the 36 hours I lost kind of shot up my weekend schedule a bit.

And, since we will be out of town for the hollidays, OTS will not be updated until we get back. I might be able to sneak one in mid-week, before the new year, (and I'd really like to,) otherwise, the next update will be on the Second of Januray, 2011.

And since it's more than likely this this post will close out the year here at OTS, I just want to make sure I give a sincere and heartfelt thank-you to everyone who has left coments, not only here, but over on Autisable and at the Autspot as well, and I wish that you all take care, and have a safe and happy holiday!

So give your kids a hug from me, and I'll make sure to pass on all of the kind words, good feelings and warm wishes that you've sent our way over the past year to Michael and Jacob.

On the Spectrum #98: A Subtle Difference

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Sorry it's just a 2-panel one this week.  I didn't update last week as I'd originally planned and we had a family outing planned today as well, so I was still short on time.  In any case I didn't want to miss yet another week, especialy with Christamas coming up (which will also mean a missed update or two) so here you go!

To make up for it, here's something that I haven't shared before: Pictures of the kids!  These are from out trip to DC over the Thanksgiving holiday - the reason that two of the last three updates were missed. (Last week I was just being lazy!)

Here's Michael in front of the Capitol Building:

Here's one of Jacob, in the Air and Space Museam, in front of the plane he tried to touch last year, as depicted in #88:

Just around the corner from where we were standing is the opening in the fence that he went into the exhibit though.  (Which is how we were able to be sure that this was in fact the correct plane! LOL)

And yeah, fair enough, I didn't draw the plane quite right, or the fence.  But hey: I was going from memory!  One thing to add, in addition to the fact that the opening is still there...

It's a CANVAS plane.  Fairly delicate, I'd wager, as least as compared to pretty much any of their other exhibits, which are typically constructed from either Aluminum or Steel.

Anyway, I hope this make up for just getting a 2-panel after three weeks without an update. 

See you next week!





Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

There will not be an update this week or next , as we will be travelling, visiting family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.  OTS should be back in business on December 5th. Until then, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

On the Spectrum #97: Daylight Savings Time

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So... Einstein was right: time is relative... just not always in the way he suggested!

Are anyone else's kids' schedule thrown off really badly when the clocks change?

It's seems especially bad in Michigan too because in the fall we down get much sun anyway, so by 6:00 it's pitch black out.  But becuase we're a flat state, on the westen edge of our time zone (or so I surmise,) in the summertime it's lik broad daylight out until about 9:30 at night.  It's crazy!

And yeah... they really don't care what time it is, do they? LOL

(And I have no idea where they get their 'morning-person' genes from!)

On the Spectrum #96: The Wonder-Michael!

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There was supposed to be a joke about him being "impervious to cold" in there as well, but I couldn't fit it in.  Oh well. ;)

On the Spectrum #95: The Wonder-Jake!

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I had a lot of fun drawing this.  : )

Hopefully I'm not dating myself too much with this one.  I assume most people with grade-school aged kids remember the Super-Friends growing up, right?  And the Wonder-Twins, Zann and Jaina?  Well, if not, you can Google it.  ; )

In any case, Jacob has a tendency to go into what we call "puddle mode," usually when when we're walking in a public places, parking lots, malls, etc... Very frustrating, and sometimes not very safe.  Anyone else get this sort of thing?

Oh, and... HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone!  Hope everyone has a fun and safe time trick-or-treating!

Comic delayed due to pink-eye

Ugh.  This is awful!  Michael got it first (presumably brought it home from school), then DW got it and now it's my turn.

BTW... Why on earth do they even give you eye-drops to use on an Autistic Child when there are oral antibiotics you can take instead?  What the heck?  Has anyone else had trouble administering eye-drops to their child? Autistic or otherwise I guess, but come on!  They may as well hand me two sticks and some duct tape and ask me to build an airplane.

Wikio / Autism Blog Ranking

Whoever sent me the Wikio / Autism Blog Ranking email, can you  PLEASE re-send it? 

It tripped the spam filter in my e-mail and and when I hit the "Not Spam" button, the program went and deleted it anyway!

So if you're seeing this, I'm not ignoring you.  Just having software issues!

On the Spectrum #94: Issue #1 / #1 Issue Redux

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This is a updated version of issue #1 of "On the Spectrum" because the final push is on, in Michigan anyway, to address one of "On the Spectrum's" #1 issues:  Autism Insruance Reform!

As readers in Michigan may already know, autism insurance reform legislation passed the Michigan House last year and for the past several months, the legislation has had seveal hearings before the Michigan State Senate. Compelling testimony has been provided by those who attended, describing the incredible burden placed on families trying to provide treatment for their loved ones on the specturm. In addition, a strong case has been made that the state of Michigan’s economic health and recovery depends on this much needed reform.

What all of my readers in Michigan need to do now is contact Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's office at (517) 373-2417, ask him to move the Insurance Reform Legislation forward now, and ask at least ten of your friends to do the same! Remember to be courteous when you call, and ask for his leadership on this issue. Let him know that autism insurance coverage means a great deal to your family and is the fiscally responsible thing to do for Michigan. 

There are 23 States down, and 17 to go.  To anyone reading this in one of those 17 States:  If you send me the info on the appropriate State Legislators, I will gladly run this again for your state once the time comes to step up the effort. And,m as always you are more than welcome to download the image above and use it in your own campaigns of mailings, if you wish to.

It's been a long road to get this far in Michigan, but progress is finally being made, both here in my home state and all over the country.  Let's keep up the presure!

For more infomration, go to AustimVotes.org

On the Spectrum #93: Who's Your Alpha, con't

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You know how I mention last week that Michael had learned not to leave his food unattended where the dog could get it?

This was how he learned. LOL.  (And yes, that's exactly what he said afterwards.)

Tried a little mock-impressionism with the emotional panels.  Might do that some more, might not, we'll see.  Let me know what you think.  (Be gentle though - first time! LOL)

On the Spectrum #92: Who's Your Alpha?

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I assume we're not the only ones with a wanderer at meal time?

Jacob has a habit of getting up about fifty-seven times a meal.  So he's always the last one finished.  He's also the ONLY one who ever leaves food unattended (Michael's learned) so Haley pretty much knows who to camp out near at dinner time.

You'd be surprised how often this still happens. LOL

Oh, and... first appearance of Haley, our dog.  We've had her since Michael was about one and a half, before we knew he was autistic, and just after Jacob was born.  She's a Border Collie - Australian Cattle Dog mix.  She's a good dog (apart from her table manners) but she hasn't really figured into any of the stories so far, so I've never drawn her in.  (Also because she's kind of hard to draw! LOL)

On the Spectrum #91: A Woman's Work...

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No, I'm sure he didn't understand the irony in what he'd said.  He is pretty good at making vacuums though!

As for me, I'vs still got a lot way to go before I'm used to this new software.  For one thing, I don't know how Michael ended up so much darkwer in the right hand panels.  I'm pretty sure I was using teh same colors.  Oh well.  I'll keep practicing! LOL

Yep. Finally took the plunge and got a tablet and some decent drawing software! Unfortunately, while there are some amazing tools available, figuring them out and getting the hang of the tablet itself isn't as easy as I thought it looked.  Oh well.  So I don't have a full comic this week, but once I get a few things figured out, regular updates will resume. 

Oh yeah... and just so you know, I didn't realize that Blogger was moderating everyone's comments.  So yesterday I stumbled (purely by accident) across about two dozen comments (not including the spam) that were pending approval.  It should be back to unmoderated  commenting now, with a spam filter, so we'll see how that goes.  In any case, if you've left a comment in the past month or so it's now been posted, along with my responses.  I really appreciate everyone's feedback and stories, so thanks a bunch for your support.

On the Spectrum #90: Family Geography

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Just in case it's unclear... No, we're not related to Barack Obama. :) Oh, and my apologies to anyone who doesn't think what I drew looks much like them.  This is harder than it looks. LOL.  ;)

Needless to say, we end up doing a LOT of traveling on the holidays.  Luckily the kids are really good in the car and on the plane.  Getting through security... not so much, but they are really good considering how far we go.  (We live in Michigan, and this doesn't even mention anyone up in Massachusetts!)

First apperance of Nana, Grandad, Uncle Mike, Aunt Lorie, Baby Cousin Paige, Auntie Lauren and Uncle Dave.  (And Barack Obama.)

On the Spectrum #89: Jurassic Lark

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Poor Jacob! 

This is the last of our trip to D.C. (Natural History Museam, if you couldn't tell!)

On the Spectrum #88: National Treasures

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A word of advice to the curators at the Smithsonian: If you’re going to secure a National Treasure with a fence that has an opening in it large enough for a small child to fit through, at some point a small child is going to cram himself through that opening!

“It is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness… and exploit it.”
~ General Taage

Now how my wife got through that same ‘small, thermal exhaust shaft’ I’ll never know.

One more thing... To better understand the little joke in the first panel, please see #71.

On the Spectrum #87 - The Washington Rocketship

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Well, I'm back.  This is probably the longest it's been between updates. (Sorry!) I don't have any plans to stop anytime soon, it's just been an incredibly busy summer, so it'sbeen hard ot find the time (and energy) to do these.

This is the first of at least three strips from our trip to Washington D.C.  D.C.'s a great city for the kids, because there's a lot to see, pretty much everything's free (except parking) and, after all the walking around, by the end of the day they're pretty well worn out.

Oh yeah... and I did a little experiment, trying out doing it in color. Im not sure if I like it, or if I'll stick with it, but we'll see how it goes.

On the Spectrum #86: Neologism

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On the Spectrum #85: Following Directions... EXACTLY

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Well... I didn't say to PUT IT ON upstairs!  It's about a month early for a 'Michael's Birthday' one. In any case, this is from his Birthday Party LAST year. (Boy how time flies!)

BTW... If anyone didn't get what was gonig to happen here, check out #29.  Basically, Michael HATES being wet.  One drop of water on his the cuff of his sleeve and he'll take off ALL his clothes, down to his socks and underwear.  He'd take off his HAT if he'd been wearing one!  And he doens't really care where he is either.  No inhibitions, that one.

Also, that being the case, I'm curious to see if PhotoBucket censors this one like they did the last one that had Moonie's naked back-side in it.  If they do, I'll re-post it ASAP from another host.  (I just realized... We seem to have a LOT of naked butts in this strip!  Yeah... there's a lot of naked in our life. LOL)

And I'm sorry it was so long in between udpates.
One more thing... In case their Mom's or Dad's see this, this marks the first appearance of Michael's friends Caleb and Dylan as well as Caleb's Dad, Mike.  (Hopefully they can figure out which one's are thier kids! LOL)  (And Sorry Ty, Trent, Caden, Nicholas and eveyone else. There's only so much room in one panel and so many people I'm willing to draw in one night!  Maybe next time! LOL)

We had a really great 4th

I hope everyone out there had a fun and safe 4th of July.  We're down in Flordia visiting my folks.  We were having a cookout on the beach when a really strong rain came in off the coast.  Between that and the strong wind, we were absolutely soaked.  But we stuck it out, and the rain passed and we had a nice cook out despite.  Afterwards we took the boys swimming.  The gulf was really rough after the storm, and Michael and Jacob (and us) had a wonderful time swimming, and getting bowled over by the waves as they crashed on the beach as the sun went down.  It was a profoundly normal, and wonderfully blissful time.  And unlike last year, they were OK with the fireworks after sunset.

I hope everone else had a great time.

A note to my readers

As I mentioned last week, we’re out of town, so there won’t be an update this week. I did have a story I wanted to share with you though. Last week I was cleaning up my desktop, moving files into archive and deleting ones I no longer need. And I happened to have my jump drive plugged in at the time, and I didn’t notice that all of THOSE files were still highlighted – including the file where I keep all my ideas and notes for this comic strip. And as I hit delete, nothing goes away from my desktop, but my jump-drive got completely erased. And if you don’t know, unlike on hard drives, when you delete a file from a jump-drive, it’s gone forever, instantly, with no possibility to “undo” or “restore.” I figure I lost about the next eight months worth of strips (about 32, pretty much completely scripted out, IIRC.) I seriously thought I was going to cry. LOL

So I frantically set about writing down SOMETHING, from as many as I could remember, so I could recreate the file. I think managed to remember about 29 or so, so in the end I guess I only lost 2 or 3, but wow… Lesson learned: MAKE REGULAR BACKUPS OF YOUR IMPORTANT FILES! (I actually HAD a backup of this particular file, but it was at least 6 months old, and only went up to about issue #60 or so and I’d long since posted all of the strips that were in it.)

On an unrelated note… Some of you may have noticed that a certain troll using the handle 于庭 has been regularly leaving comments with links to sites that are a bit *ahem* inappropriate. Since I’d prefer to continue let everyone else comment as they wish, I do not plan to start moderating comments, or limit who can comment. (And THANK YOU for all of your comments, BTW!) So instead I’ll be looking in Google to try and find out how to ban just that one profile from commenting. In the meantime, hopefully he’ll take the hint and just knock it off. I apologize to anyone who followed any of his links and came accross any objectionable content.

Again, I hope everyone has a happy, safe and fun 4th of July, and I'll see you next week!

On the Spectrum #84: Fun with Pronoun Reversal

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Ok, so... file this one in the "I'm going to hell for it" folder. :)

BTW, sorry about missing the udpate last week.  And also sorry to say that there will not be a comic next week either as we will be out of town.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July! See you again on the 11th!

Amazign story on ABC News last night

For anyone who missed it Diane Sawyer had a really inspirational story on ABC News last night. Pretty powerful stuff. Check it out:

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How do you get dirty even when you don't GO anywhere?!

On the Spectrum #82: Careful...

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Yeah... Of course that's not what she meant... LOL. 

Most of the time the kids write this stuff, but occasionally we do as well. ;)

BTW: THANK YOU to the folks over at Autisable for pickling up the strip and agreeing to syndicate it.  Anyone who hasn't checked them out should do so, they run a lot of different blogs and get posts from a wide range of people within the autism communtiy. There's always something new and interesting being put up from somewhere.  So take a look!

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers, family-friendly version

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I got a response back from photobucket, but it was just thier standard form letter - the type of generic replay that would be vaguely appropriate for just about any question. 

I did take a look at their 'terms of use,' however, and as far as I can tell this particular comic must have set off someone's 'kiddie-porn' alert or something. Which is funny, sicne the first and third panels were recycled from earlier strips that didn't have any problems! :)

So I've modified the strip, using Photobucket's own red-sticker to censor out the offending image.

I don't know... somehow it almost looks worse now! LOL

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers (re-posted)

For some reaosn the wise folks over at photobucket decided there was something offensive about my last comic, and the blocked it out.  I'm going to wait for their official explanation as to why - or for the image to be reinstated - before speculating about it here, but I think I've got a pretty shrewd idea what the problem is.

Moonie's naked butt, perhaps?

Funny thing though - even as I was writing this reply, it seems that the image was reinstated in my blog, below, even though it's still red-lined over on their site.

Well whatever, we'll see.  Despite any "terms of use" my edgy, controversial artwork might have violated, they do not have the authority to censor my blog.  So just in case the offending image ends up going in and out intemittently, or if anyone still can't see it, I linked it in again, this time from a different source.  Hopefully this will all work itself out, and I'll just take this second post down.  Shouldn't really be necessary - you know, FREE SPEECH and all.  Hilariously, this is actually the SECOND time I've run afoul of some organization's censoprhip.  Can you believe it?  THIS STUFF?! Seriously?

(The other time involved issue one, which a Michigan-sponsored Mental Health community newsletter had agreed to run, sans the tag at the bottom, only to have their editor axe it at the last minute saying it was 'too controversial.'  Ah, politics.)

Well, whatever. I'll send them an email.  Depending on how amusing their reply is I may post it here.  LOL. We'll see.

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers

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Sorry, no snappy punchline with this one.  I just felt like contrasting Michael and Jacob and drawing (and recycling) some cute stuff.  This IS sort of a part 1 of 2, as it kind of leads into next week's.  It's not the same joke or theme, just that the last panel of this one is the first panel of the next one.  (But can you see the posts on the trampoline this time?  Yeah, still not sure what happened to them last time! LOL)

I'd like to say something about last week's... As with everything here, it's autobiograophical, and based on things as they happen in our lives.  But I decided to run THAT ONE, as it was, as kind of a nod to another strip I'd read YEARS ago, from what I consider to be the greatest comic strip of all time. (Hopefully Mr. Watterston won't mind me sharing it with you here):

And while I was searching for a copy of that...

...I came accross THIS, which I just thought was really cool. (They really nailed the style, no?) And yeah, it goes without saying, but this is TOTALLY not mine! LOL  I think it evokes up a pretty wide range of emotions though.  And while Watterson was famous for not merchandising or liscensing Clavin and Hobbes, and he never wanted to let anyone else get involved with it or use his work, for fear that they would alter the spirit and innocence of it, somehow... I think he'd approve of this one. :)

On the Spectrum #80 - Excuse you!

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Sorry, this one's a bit... indulgent.  Couldn't resist though. LOL

BTW - in the last one, at one point in the drawing process there were two posts holding up the safety net of the trampoline.  I'm not sure where they went, or at what point they disappeared, but somehow they didn't make it into the final version, and I didn't notice tehy were missing until about Friday when someone mentioned that, from a distance, it looked like he was up against a fence.  I'll have to fix that at some point. LOL

On the Spectrum #79: Elec-tricity, Elec-tricity

Apparently this worked. 

On the Spectrum #78 - Look before you leap...

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He knows "spilled" now. :)

On the Spectrum #77 - On-a-man-a-pee-ya

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This was not the comic I was planning to do this week, but we've finally had a few successes with Jacob actually USING the potty the past couple days, so it kind of jumped ahead in line.

On another note, this is the second strip I've done with the new Microsoft Paint and I HATE it. HATE HATE HATE it with a passion that only language unsuitable for a family-friendly blog can express.  I seriously have no idea what these programmers at Microsoft were thinking!  Let's make it really horrible?  Let's make it so NO ONE will enjoy using it?  Let's take everything that could be done simply in the OLD verision of Paint (and let's face it: simplicity was about all it had going for it, as it was) and make it complicated instead?!  It's intolerable.  So if I miss a post at some point in the next couple of weeks, it's possibly because I'm trying out new drawing software.  This version is bloody AWFUL.

On the Spectrum #76 - Steppin' Out...

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It might be worth mentioning that he practically LIVES in his underpants.

BTW, got a new computer, which means a enw version of Windows (7) and a new version of PAINT.  And while there're some thing sI like about it, you can only set the line width on the auto-shapes to 1 pixel and, like, 4 pixels thick.  And I'm think those thick-lined speech balloons are just intolerable!  So, yeah... maybe time to invest is some better drawings software. LOL.

On the Spectrum #75: The History Channel

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Never can tell when they're really paying attention, can you?

THANK YOU!

I would like to extend a heart felt THANK YOU to Kathleen over on Kicking Kittens and Autisherd for her really positive feedback and endorsment of "On the Spectrum" and the addition of my blog to hers.

For anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, Kicking Kittens is really neat.  It's a collection of stories that people have submitted with the same kind of positive, optimistic and joyful message that I try to convey with this comic.  I think she sums it up best in her intro: "One of the misconceptions that I have run into is that because I have children with disabilities-I am not allowed to have joy-nor are my children allowed to be joyful. Some of the comments I have received after relaying a funny story or anecdote...well you would think I had been kicking kittens." 

There's certainly no shortage of grief and stress and frustration that we can all share, and it's definitley important to do so.  But I've always felt that it's just as important to sieze upon those positive moments, those rare times when everything just works and that make us smile.  We must remember to take the time to enjoy and celebrate those moments, and hang onto them.  And there are some really great stories there, so check them out, and submit one or two of your own!

On the Spectrum #73 - Can't fix everything...

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This was pretty much how it happened. You see... he's always bringing me toys that aren't really broken, they just need to be re-assembled.  So I didn't think much of it at the time.  But when he put a TOOTH in my hand... Well, at first I wasn't even sure what I was looking at!  Then I finally look up at him, and he's got his mouth open like that.  It was really cute.  It was his first tooth to fall out too. And the second one - the one right next to it in the front? Fell out as well about five minutes later. LOL

I had a slightly different one of these, featuring Michael's first lost tooth, planned for awhile. But this just happened last week, so I figured I'd put it up.  Michael's wasn't quite like this.  I might do his next, kind of as a flashback maybe.

On the Spectrm #73 - April is Autism Awareness Month!

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Don't worry, they were fine!  At least they watch where they're going now.  Thats a little bit of 'increased awareness' anyway.  That's what this month is all about, right? ;)

I have no idea what this is, but I'm still pretty proud of it!

This is just a little bit of bragging.

I really appreciate all the comments and emails I've gotten from everyone out there.  I'm glad that you've all enjoyed the 'strip so far and that it's been so well received.  BUT, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, while I'm not completely hopeless with a pencil, the artwork in OTS is... shall we say... average, on a good day. LOL

So I've been studying a lot of anime and manga style artwork lately, to try and improve my own drawing in OTS.  The pic to the left was just something I was doodling on a post-it note while I was on the phone (on hold) with someone.  It's no one and nothing in particular, but I was pretty psyched at how it came out.  This was the first time I think I got even close to getting the style right, and I really kind of surprised myself.  So I just felt like showing it off a little.  Pathetic really, I know, but what can I say?  I just really liked how this came out!

Of course now the pressure is on me to improve the level of artwork in the 'strip... Yeah... We'll see about that... LOL.

On the Spectrum #72 - Literality

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On the Spectrum #71: EXCELSIOR! ...For Science!

The third panel was actually drawn by Michael, last year, at his great-grandmother's house in Boston, after our visit to (you guess it) the Museum of Science.  And yes, yes some of the exhibits are depicted in his picture: The pneumatic tubes; some air-blowing, floaty-ball thing; a periscope and a couple others.  (It was a year ago, what can I say? I don't remember everything either!)  But the one thing that's in EVERY picture he drew?  ELEVATORS and ESCALATORS!  And it was the same last Thanksgiving in the Air and Space Museum in Washington: Whatever else we did, he had to ride the escalator about a hundred times. LOL.

He was even starting to draw the elevators in perspective.  That was pretty cool, odd though it may be!

On the Spectrum #70: The Pepsi Challenge

Wise guy.

It's OT, but I wanted to let everyone know about a wonderful movie we saw over the weekend called Music Within.  It's about the life's story of Richard Pimentell, a Vietnam Vet who lost his hearing and became an advocate for the disabled.  He wrote Tilting at Windmills, which became one of the earliest blueprints for diversity and jobs training for companies to hire, train and work with disabled people.  Really interesting story, and a really moving and FUNNY movie.  I highly recommend everyone see it.

On the Spectrum #69: LOOK AT ME!

Any guess which one of the two brothers is the bigger mischief-maker? LOL

On the Spectrum #68: God Bless the Pronouns

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Before anyone says anything, YES, I do cover my nose & mouth! I'll let you in on a little secret: I was running behind (again) and feeling lazy to boot and found some artwork from about a year ago that was about 90% exactly what I wanted. So I recycled. (Hey, YOU recycle too, don't you? LOL) Just had to update to Michael's new clothing style (which I didn't do when I did the same thign last week! Whoops!) and the background to match the new room layout and Viola! New strip! Only problem was, in THAT strip the joke was a little different, so I wasn't covering up.  And since I want to try to get back to weekly updates, I took a little shortcut with this one.  (Cheap, cheap. I know. LOL)

Anyway... With regards to pronoun reversal, I'm sure you've all heard stuff along these lines. Michael didn't do this TO often, except when he got scared or nervous. (These days, you can tell he's getting upset when he refers to himself in the third person, "Michael," instead of "I.") But this was his pat response to a loud sneeze, every bit as reliable as someone else saying, "Bless you." I thought it was cute. LOL.

On the Spectrum #67: Positive Reinforcement!

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It's ALWAYS important to give positive reinforcement, right?

On the Spectrum #66: Kiss my..., Part Two

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*phew*
FINALLY, we're back! Sorry for the delay. My first post of 2010 came a week later than I'd planned, but we're still here with lots of good stuff to share.

OK, I'll admit that I was not really feeling the art on this one AT ALL. Drawing two people wrestling is VERY, VERY HARD. Everything's overlapping, arms get too long, legs get too short... what a mess. I'll have to work on that before getting into my Super-Hero / Action Comic! LOL. And it's a shame too, because I was REALLY happy with how the the background turned out. Oh well. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Oh yeah... And, NO, I don't know if Michael was being a smart-alec or just unintentioanlly funny there, but given my exagerated reaction, now he ALWAYS asks me to kiss a stubbed toe or a bumped foot or whatever.

And I STILL don't KISS FEET! XP

LOL