Monday, June 25, 2007

Dragon


Dragon smoke, originally uploaded by Joe_13.

Here's my latest attempt at drawing a japanese style dragon. It's definitely a challenging subject, but I feel more confident every time I draw one. Drawing smoke properly is a mystery to me, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough.
So, so far most of my drawings are straight black ink, but I intend to go back and work on my coloring skills once my Wacom tablet arrives. Screw going out to buy colored pencils (which cost major duckets) when I can buy a Wacom tablet and color til my eyes bleed.

Also these black pieces could be an awesome tattoo-styled coloring book once I compile 20 or so.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

KOI


KOI, originally uploaded by Joe_13.

I drew this a couple nights ago.
Using lots of references, I finally feel comfortable drawing the waves and the scales. It seems that I need to draw stuff a couple times before I feel competent drawing them from memory.
My pen and Ink confidence is growing, and I feel my inking is improving.
The next challenge is to color some of my images. I think I'll use my recent drawings as a coloring book to practice my color skills.

In other events:
Spent the weekend in Lake Tahoe for SamD's bachelor party. We did the usual required bachelor party activities; of course strippers and massive amounts of beers. There were Patron shots at one point. Also a lot of dude bonding: some non-gay sauna and hot tub sessions, a boat excursion, and tons more beer. We also managed to play a bit of poker and blackjack at the casinos. We also ate like kings all weekend. So all-in-all, a damn fine adventure.
Congrats to Sam.

Friday, June 08, 2007

BIG stakes poker

Check out high stakes poker player Brian Townsend's (sbrugby) blog.
The world series of poker is going on right now, and he's there playing some fucking ridiculous stakes with the high rollers at Bellagio.
He can be frequently found online playing against the likes of Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, both of whom play the highest stakes poker in the world. Some of the pots these guys are in can literally buy a house (or houses, plural, in some cities).

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Back to the grind

I'm back to the daily grind at work. It's sort of depressing to be power lounging on a weekday afternoon drinking a cold one, while all my cohorts are slaving away for the man. Then Sunday comes and you cringe at the thought that you're going to go back to slaving away for the man. Then, you go slave away.
Back to work. Nothing's changed. Suddenly that week off seems like an eternity ago. Ancient history. May as well have been last year.

Bigger news:
I bought a house.
Amy and I are going to officially be Livermorons in one month's time. Last week I spent some time finalizing paperwork, doing inspections and all that other mumbo jumbo associated with buying a house. What a pain in the ass. Of course it'll all be worth it in the end when we get the keys to the place.
Anyway, it's a very exciting development. Much will change once the move happens. Most of all, we'll be homeowners. And almost most of all, we'll be getting the fuck outta downtown San Ho. Thank the lord.

Poker (bad beat stories ahead):
The last poker night was disastrous for me. The first game, I got knocked out pretty quickly after being cold-decked. Luke was on a tear. He readily admits being one lucky mutherfacka. One one ridiculous hand, a player goes all-in for about 40x the big blind. Luke makes the call for most of his chips. All-in player flips over AQ (or something like that). Luke flips over K2h! The flop has a deuce, and the turn and river blank, doubling Luke up. "You just got LUKED!!!"
The second game, Luke literally knocked out 5 players by bad-beat. He was making horrendous calls for all his chips with the shittiest of shitty hands.
My final hand looked like this.
I'm in mid-position with A9. I'm pretty shortstacked. An early position limps, I limp, Luke limps behind me. Flop comes AJx. EP checks, I go all-in. Luke thinks a bit and calls, EP folds. I show my pair of Aces. Luke shows J10 for second pair. Turn blanks, and the river hits his five-outer. A ten. I just got Luked.