Strange sights so far this month

As far as number of posts go, I'll try to make this a record-breaking month... although I'll certainly avoid breaking this one!

And that was the highlight of the Jones's vacation.

As you can see, I have a few pretty photos for this post, mixed with some ugly ones, like this one of Arcrylic Patintering #2 that I did at the Treehouse Lounge. This time, I tried black and white, with an indigo undertone for the crows, and a sepia tint for the background.
` Didn't come out the way I'd wanted -- brushes can be so unwieldy! -- but I still think it gets the job done:

The baby crow says: "With death out of the picture, what are we going to do for food?"

As far as pretty photos go, I noticed some kind of pink, fluffy life form that's slowly creeping over the fence:

Every day, it inches closer to the door.

On April 3, I was walking by the yard waste truck, watching the robot arm as it picked up and turned over each bin, and began thinking about how easily this is accomplished.

The arm just reaches out and grabs bins...

It really wouldn't be a huge step to go from that to picking up people, kicking and screaming, and dumping them into the back...

I have my eye on you, yard waste truck! Don't think you can hide from me!

Later on, I was scrounging for just enough cash to make it 'til tomorrow, and remembered that I had a box that is full of foreign or otherwise strange-looking money that I'd collected as a kid. I'd already been made to spend some $35 of it already, but there was at least one fiver left.
` I immediately left the house and spent it, but not before taking a picture, as I didn't remember what five dollar bills used to look like, and so didn't understand why I would have thought it looked unusual:

Upon showing this photo to Dr. Hypno, he said, "Wow, a 1950 silver note, that must be worth thirty dollars now!"
` And that's when I remembered why I had been collecting these bills in the first place.

I've just looked back at my 'money collection' and see that the only one I have left actually reads, 'SILVER CERTIFICATE" and "ONE DOLLAR IN SILVER PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND".
` I don't know how much that would be worth now, as compared to 1935, but I'm certainly not going to bother spending a dollar bill that is actually worth much more than a dollar!

On April 4, I spent four hours producing a really cool logo for a local company, although sadly, I am not at liberty to post it on the internet. I am, however, at liberty to show you bits of wax I had molded after my front teeth about five years ago or so.

Why the hell would I make molds of my teeth? Well, during the years of 2008-9, my teeth moved around a lot, especially while I was asleep, when they would fight with my tongue. My teeth would hurt and move noticeably even after taking a bite of food, and sometimes the pain would shoot through my entire face.
` When it got out of control, I wouldn't be able to touch my upper front teeth to the lower teeth, no matter how I moved my jaws around. This also once happened in 2004, when I accidentally dissolved my retainer. I fixed this by lying facedown with my wallet under my teeth, and the weight of my head pushed them back in over a series of days, no problem.

This time around, I thought I'd do the same thing, but as I lived with several crazy people -- first in the room shared with people who destroyed my homework, then the crazy landlady condemned house, then the house that I live in now -- I was given a hard time for this.
` Despite photos that showed otherwise, I could not convince anyone that my teeth were moving. Since the pain was so bad that I couldn't even bite into anything, I tried, once and for all, to prove that my teeth moved around. So, I grabbed some soft wax from the candles melting in the defunct fireplace and pushed them into plastic molds I had made over three days.
` Later on, the casts broke, so there isn't much left to show, but that is my story.

The tooth that I was focusing on in the three-day span between these casts was the second right incisor. In this cast, the second right incisor is the one farthest to the left, as the rest of the cast had unfortunately broken off just past that. As you can see, that tooth lines up with the rest of the incisors in a neat curve.

In this other cast, the same tooth in question is the second from the right -- as the cast had broken straight down the middle of the first right incisor. (I tried to glue it together, but it didn't work.) Even so, it is easy to see that the second right incisor is not in line with the teeth on either side of it.

Yes, really.

For the longest time, it was the first right incisor which was causing all the problems, but after making a really crappy plastic-and-paperclip "retainer", I managed to accidentally wedge the first right incisor behind the protruding second. Because the first incisor can no longer move so easily, and because the second one never got all that 'gushy', both teeth have now "set" into a position where they don't noticeably move.
` So, despite my teeth feeling as though they were about to drop out of my gums at some times, I am now able to bite normally. (If you like that sort of thing...)

As for these pictures, I only took them just to show that I'd made these wax casts before chipping them up and stuffing them in a giant pinecone for use as a fireplace starter. As it should be.

Although wax teeth are nothing to gawk at -- not compared to my awesome logo -- I'll tell you what is hard to ignore... a helicopter hovering nearby for some time. Apparently, there's something going on at Boeing.

And, I bet you're still wondering who painted that Kraken attacking the ferry. His name's Dave Ryan, and he's got a display of so-called "Low-fi" painterings going on at the Mind Unwind gallery. And what is "Low-fi"? Well, it's almost like sci-fi, but not quite...

Oar-fish succumb easily to the Force, evidently, but State Troopers seem strangely resistant to it...

Exterminate all geese! Exterminaaaaate!

Seen such a sight I have not in many years!

Kryten is apparently at a loss of words upon noticing C3PO's underwear failage...

That's impressive, but does it have attachments?

And, if you don't know who Kryten is, I recommend seeing for yourself.

Just above the gallery, in the Treehouse Lounge (where I paintered the crows), were Dave Ryan's stencil-painted records of doom. Here are some decorating the stairway -- notice the Michael Jackson/ET one, and the Chewbacca/bigfoot one.

Upstairs were depictions of many different trippy musical artists...

Can you tell which one is supposed to be Kurt Cobain? (Hint: he's the one most affected by drugs here.)

My question is, where did Ryan get all those records for paintering on? What records are they, anyway? Perhaps I'll find out next time I go back...

Speaking of painterings and painterers, just after this (on April 6), I heard word that Matthew Skenandore was in the hospital having extensive surgical removal of a MRSA infection. Ouch.



Luckily, he's improving greatly -- including his mood -- so let's hope this continues! Especially since I was going to ask him to teach me how to paint betterer. Before he moved up closer to me, I actually saw a lot of his painterings and pictures of painterings, and have decided that this stuff is for me!

Because you know my painterings would be just as crazy if I could paint betterer...

But for now, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather and play with my cats, and hope that Matthew makes a full recovery.

Oh, and continue working on the garden, just as soon as more starts appear on store shelves...

That's enough of my blathering for today, do hope you've enjoyered my world of kookiness and pretty pikshers.

[Update: Matthew is continuing to get better. Yay!]