My boy Avery is finally here!!!

 On September 17 at 4:46 am Mountain Time, my son Avery was born to very beleaguered and exhausted parents.  That is an ordeal that none of the parties involved will ever forget.

The adventure got underway at about 6:30 Saturday morning when my wife woke me up to tell me that her water had broke.  I knew that was a sure sign that the baby's birth was imminent so it was time to head out for the hospital.  There was literally no time for anything else.  We checked in and the doctors did their usual evaluation, looking at dilation of various parts and things.  We were initially sent home because we were told there were still hours to wait yet.  So we were back for for a small bit.  I took that time to have a shower.  Then, when her contractions were getting more intense and closer together, we were right back at that hospital again.

My wife assumed that this delivery would be quick because of previous experience.  When our daughter was born 14 years ago, there was only an hour between water breaking and full delivery.  She naturally thought that would happen again.  But nope.  This labour went on for hours and hours.  Of course, the maternity staff were busy with other babies being born at that time, so a lot of that time was just the both of us waiting on a bed in a room not knowing how any of this would go down.

When it was finally our turn, the staff was right there instructing my wife to "PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH".  I acted as a "human stirrup" in that endeavour by holding her leg up.  What else are husbands for?  Sadly, all of that pushing was to no avail.  All that came out was a small amount of poop, but no baby.  At that point, they used the dreaded phrase "C section".  We were both taken to another room full of big lights and beeping machines (none of which went PING to my disappointment).  I sat near my wife while they put a tarp over her lower part so that we couldn't see what they were doing.

In just a few short minutes it was done.  Little baby Avery was finally out of his mother's womb and amongst the rest of us.  It was a joyous and happy moment for me of course.  However, I really really felt so bad for Avery.  Upon being birthed, he was placed on a small bed surrounded by people wearing yellow gowns and face masks (me being one of them).  One nurse felt there was still too much amniotic fluid in his system.  So, to alleviate that problem, she inserted a hose very far into his nose in order to suck it all out.  Then proceeded to insert another hose into his mouth to catch what she missed.  To me, that looked like a nightmare scenario, especially for someone who has just entered to world having no idea what anything is.  Yes, I know that all of that needed to be done in order to ensure survival, but Avery didn't know that and there's no way he could've known.  He was having a miserable time at that point.

It didn't stop there either.  They let my wife hold him for a bit.  Then, while he wasn't looking, a nurse gave him a quick Vitamin K shot in his leg and slipped away before he knew what was happening.  I'll never forget Avery's reaction to that.  He didn't just cry.  He had gotten a lot of his crying out during the previous ordeal I mentioned.  No, this was more of an angry cry.  I was reminded of every Al Pacino performance I had ever seen.  Avery's cry seemed to be saying "HEY! WHO DID THAT?!  WHO STUCK ME?!  I WANT ANSWERS!!  WAS IT FREDO?!  THIS WHOLE SYSTEM'S OUT OF ORDER!!! ATTICA!!! ATTICA!!!"  That's my interpretation anyway.

Thankfully for Avery, things calmed down very quickly and he could finally relax.  That's when I was given a chance to hold him for the first (and definitely not the last) time.  The look he gave me was the greatest look.  For about half a second, his look seemed to say "who's this guy?".  But, it immediately changed to a "oh ok, I recognize him now.  He's good people."  I was at first puzzled by how he could've known me so fast.  But then I remembered something my wife kept telling me during the final few months of the pregnancy.  Apparently, while in the womb, Avery would always react whenever he heard my voice.  So, that's how he recognized me then.  He knew my voice.

I think Avery still has a memory of his tumultuous first few minutes of his life.  We were discharged from the hospital two days later after had deemed both baby and mom to be healthy enough to survive out in the world.  So, we went straight home and put little Avery into his new sleeping quarters: his bassinet. Just a few days after that though, a nurse came right to our house to check up on us to make sure Avery was still healthy and that our home environment was ideal for a baby.  After the nurse was done giving Avery a check up, I put him back in his bassinet while she gave my wife instructions about caring for newborns.  The look on Avery's face was not a friendly one.  He had a "get her out of here" kind of face.  He was NOT in the mood to be dealing with medical professionals at that point and I can't blame him.  No, I'm not going to help him with a vigilante quest to "punish" all medicos.  I'll simply say that Avery has already learned a valuable lesson about the world: there are people you cannot trust.  That's a lesson everyone should learn.

I'm ending this post with my first glance at Avery the moment he was born.  This is what he looked like to me:

Most parents get freaked out by this site and nearly faint.  They consider the baby to be "hideous" at this stage.  However, to me, he just looked cool.  If he stayed looking like this, I'd be fine.

If anyone out there reading this has a baby in their lives, keep being good to that baby.  To anyone out there who doesn't, I recommend it.  Happy parenting!

lol omg wut

 Last post I put up a small animated segment from something I'm working on.  This time I'd like to share one small image from it.  I can't even believe I drew that.  Yes, it's an in-between and it does work well enough within the movement.  But even still, it's such a twisted bizarre image that I felt the need to share it.

I really can't wait for my project to be done and shared with the world.

Something I'm working on

 This right here is a small cropped out clip of an animation piece I'm working on.  It's not for any big studio, or even a little studio for that matter.  It's just something I feel compelled to do for my own reasons.  I've completed 3 scenes of this video already, only 49 more left to go.  It's lots of work but it's also lots of fun too.  I know for sure that my son will be born by the time it's finished.  I can't wait for him to see it.

It's going to be a boy and Avery is his name-o

The wife and I had the big anatomy scan ultrasound just recently.  It is now confirmed that the baby developing inside her body as we live and breathe is indeed a boy.  As I mentioned in this blog's title, we've settled on his first name being "Avery".  He's named after the great animation genius Tex Avery of course.  Will my son live up to the amazing legacy of Tex?  Um......... geez! Way to put pressure on a kid before he's even out of the womb.  Back off a bit, you weirdo!

Based on what my wife has experienced so far in being Avery's portable incubator, we're sure he's going to a spry and energetic little man who will give us plenty of excitement and exercise.  I'm sure he can't wait to come out and meet us all as well.

"Thumbs up, doc! Thumbs up!"

See! He's already giving the world a big thumbs up.  He's ready for us, but are we ready for him?

Also, according to my wife, Avery likes to kick and punch a lot inside there.  All fetuses (feti?) do that to some degree.  But, that seems to be Avery's favourite activity so far.  So, in that spirit, I've created an artist's rendering of what Avery could look like when he finally out of the womb.

Is this accurate?  Well, he's due in September so we'll know for sure by then.  I'll certainly keep everyone posted when that happens.

A preliminary welcome to the world, little Avery. We can't wait to meet you.

Bill C-11 just became law in Canada. Get ready, folks!

 That's right.  As of April 28 of this year, the highly controversial Bill C-11 passed in the senate and became law.  Some are saying it's "great for Canadian culture" while others decry it as "the ultimate censorship tool".  "Which of those is it", you ask.  Well, let's talk about it here.

The pro-C11 side say that this new law is simply about boosting truly Canadian content on the internet including social media sites.  A noble goal indeed, but severely flawed from the outset.  Government meddling in entertainment and news media is NEVER a good thing.  At the animation school I attended, one of our teachers grew up in Soviet occupied Ukraine.  She told us that the only thing available on Soviet television was ballet.

this or nothing

In the USSR, the only shows you could watch on TV were ballet or nothing.  This was the country's government colluding with entertainment and blatantly telling the entire populous that "THIS is what our culture is".

I'm not saying this amount of suppression is happening here in Canada already.  There's certainly still a wide variety of shows and news available to Canadians made here and around the world.  Here's hoping it stays that way no matter what the government does.

This idea of presenting a "Canadian identity" on our airwaves is certainly nothing new.  It's a debate going back decades and decades.  For instance, back in the day when "Justin's dad" was the Prime Minister, there was a Canadian made show
called SCTV.  The "SC" stood for Second City.  The show was pretty much the main stage cast of the Toronto affiliate of Second City producing a TV show the same way they would create their sketches for the live stage.  After their first season, they were shopping their show around to various TV stations in order to attract a wider audience.  When they made their pitch to a station manager in Edmonton, they got some rather back-handed feedback.  "Your show is not Canadian enough", he said.  They didn't appreciate that assessment.  "We're already using Canadian actors, writers, producers and facilities.  What more do you want us to do? You want us to sit in front of a big map of Canada, wear toques and drink beer?"  That was their response. 

Well, the guy said "make it more Canadian" so that's what they did.  This is what brought about the MacKenzie Brothers.  Everyone in Canada (definitely those over 40) are all too familiar with these characters.  But, for those who aren't, I'll post a video below:

Watching this skit all those years, did you ever wonder why they had that long scroll at the end of their first few shows?  Well, that was their rebellion against the CRTC's guidelines of what constitutes "Canadian content" and against that weird jerky guy in Edmonton.  "Is THIS Canadian enough for you, hosers??!!"

Of course, now with Bill C-11 in place, it's not just "some guy in Edmonton" whose pushing for "a more Canadian feel" to this country's content, it's the current Prime Minister doing it.  He won't physically be in the writing room telling Canadian productions what to do and what not to do, which is how it should ALWAYS be.  However, he will have his finger on the algorithm that will determine what productions get artificially boosted online and which ones don't.  And the standards for which he and his cabinet will use to ascertain which productions will be boosted or not are................................... well, he's not saying so far. Whether Justin claims to make these decisions fairly or not, I will talk about a time not so long ago about another Prime Minister with a similar type of ambition.

That Prime Minister's name was Stephen Harper.  About 15 or so years ago, the Bill C-11 was known as Bill C-10.  PM Harper wanted to pass that bill so that, as Conservatives put it at the time,

"tax dollars should not be funding productions that some Canadians find objectionable".  I talked about much of that controversy here on this blog back in the day.  Here is an interview the CBC did about that topic back in the day.  I find it rather odd that many of the same people who were up in arms about Harper passing this bill are today all uproariously happy with Trudeau passing the exact same bill.  Of course, at the same time, some people who are outraged about the bill paying under Trudeau were hoping for Harper to pass it back in 2008.  I, for one, want NEITHER of these sides in charge of Canadian productions and I want both of them far FAR FAAAAAAAAAR away from any kind of social media regulation.  If the next Prime Minister to get in after Justin does not immediately take Bill C-11 and journey to Mordor to cast it the fiery lakes from which it was forged, that Prime Minister should receive a non-confidence vote instantly and then replaced by someone that WILL make that journey.  

No, master. You no takes my precious bill away.  I use bill responsibly. You see.

Well, ok Minister of....... Stuff.  Just don't let the bill be handled by any of these guys:

But, for now, the bill is now here and is not going anywhere any time soon.  But, I haven't given up hope in any way.  As with the example of SCTV I showed earlier, there's always rebellion to fall back on.  Anyone who's truly creative enough can find ways around draconian government rules no matter how many of those rules the government chooses to make.  Freedom always finds a way.

I'll end this post with a video from one of the best group of sketch comedians in Canada or anywhere else in the world: the Kids in the Hall.  I've embedded below one of their sketches that would surely challenge any rules that any Canadian government can dish out, even 30 years later.  Enjoy, and also, screw you. :P 

So, take off, eh!

Some more commentary with Anthony

 I did some more commentary on Anthony's channel recently.  You may recall the previous time I was on that channel.  I talked about whether a skunk was Pepe Le Pew or not.  In the commentary above, I add my 2¢ to an actual indisputably genuine Pepe Le Pew cartoon.  I come in at about the 10:49 mark, but I do recommend the dialogue of the entire video because it is good and well informed.

He mercifully cut out what I said about James Gunn.  That could be for the best because James it would've made him mad or some level of belligerent.  Meh, he's probably used to that by now.

Either way, enjoy the commentary, folks.  There's lots to take in.

There's a new security company in town...

 ...and I designed the logo for them.

There it is.  Aint that spiffy?

And here's the ad they put out in the local newspaper.  I helped design that.

Here's what they posted on their social media accounts.  Buncha goobers!

If you happen to be at the next career fair, watch for their table.  It will have this banner big enough for the entire convention hall to see.  We hope to see you there.

Mel Brooks stole a gag from Tex Avery

This being Tex Avery's 115th birthday, I'd like to use this time and bandwidth to point out a small observation I've made regarding Mel Brooks. It's in the video embedded below. 

 This is not accusatory in any way.  Mr. Brooks has done nothing wrong.  As the motto goes: "if you must steal, steal from the best".  That is all Mel has done here.  He has recognized that Tex Avery is a tremendous source of great and clever gags from which to steal.  There are many MANY examples of gags and concepts "borrowed" from Tex Avery.  It would be great to go searching for them on this day of his birth.......... and every other day of the year as well. 

I entered a TV show idea into a contest

 

Way back in June of this year (2022), I found a contest online hosted by the Ottawa International Animation Festival or OIAF for short.  The contest was for people to send in their ideas for an animated tv show series idea.  Only the best of the best of those ideas of course.  The deadline for submission was June 30, which I made with a few days to spare.  I had completely forgotten about this until somewhat recently.  That's why I'm posting about this waaaaaaay into December.

Anyway, here's what the criteria was for entry:

That's pretty straight forward.

It doesn't say so in that screen grab of the contest details, but I saw on their website that the winner would be chosen on September 23rd, most likely during the festival.

Well, September 23rd came and went with no contact from the festival in any way.  I'm guessing my idea didn't make the cut.  But, I am wondering how much "in the running" my idea was.  Could it have been a contender, or was it dismissed outright upon the first reading?  I have no way of knowing.

So, in an effort to gage how this entry of mine might have fared in that contest, I decided to post it up here on my little blog.  The reaction either in the comments section here or from any other social media platform I post this on should give me a pretty good notion of my shows performance under scrutiny.  With that, here's what I pitched:

Bears That Give a Shit or Whatever

As you can probably guess, this show is supposed to be a blistering send up as well as a complete 180 reversal of the Care Bears.  These are bears that most definitely do NOT care.  That one bear up there is named "Tender Dick Bear"........... because the "leader" bear of the original show is named "Tender Heart Bear"....... so now you know.  I won't explain the tummy symbol on that bear.  If you look close enough you can see what it is.  Oh yeah and also, if you're looking at him and asking yourself "what is up with that bear's freaky looking nose?"  Well, you see, the original Care Bears had little valentine hearts for noses.  So, my bears have actual beating mammal hearts for noses.  That's what that is.  Every bear's nose would have that pulsating KA-THUMP KA-THUMP KA-THUMP heart beating on their face at all times.

"What's the show's basic structure?", you ask.  "How could one go about conceiving of and writing episodes for such a show?", you also inquire.  Well, I'll just post what I intend to have as the show's opening narration.  It pretty much sets up who these bears are and why they've been brought together to do what they do.  It's posted immediately below.  To get the full effect, read it in Bill Burr's voice.  I would love it if I could get him signed on to be the voice of Tender Dick Bear.  Here it is:

Longline: A group of selfish dysfunctional idiots must, by law, do good deeds for others much to their revulsion.

Synopsis (as told by the lead character):

“Ok, maybe you remember some time ago that there were these bears that… I don’t know… did good deeds or some shit.  Yeah, they… fucking lived in the clouds and came to Earth to help people.  And they were all fucking sunshine and rainbows and ‘la la la’ all over the fucking place.  What were they called? Benevolent Bruins or some shit?  Whatever!  They’re fucking gone now.

But yeah, back then everybody thought that every fucking bear was like that… all happy and helpful with those shitty little fucking pictures on their guts.  NO!  Most bears were just ordinary nothing bears just living their lives and doing their own bullshit.

And THEN there’s us!  Holy fuck are we a bunch of fucking dicks.  Well, I’m not… well ok yah a bit… but not as much as those fucking guys.  One night we’re at this dive bar and it’s crowded ‘cause there’s a game on or some shit.  My bud had waaaaay too much to drink and then he starts getting into it with this guy and his girlfriend.  Bud might’ve grabbed her ass or some shit but I don’t remember.  I was pretty fucking wasted too.  Anyway, next thing I know, I’m trying to pull my bud off this guy.  The girlfriend starts kicking his balls.  So then the rest of my buds start beating on her, then her buds start beating on us.

It’s not long that we’re all piled in to the fucking paddy wagon and taken to the police station.  Everybody hauled in that day had done jail time before so we were all yeah fuck that shit.  I can only avoid a fucking shiv for so long.  So yeah, we all agreed to do community service instead.  But you know what community service they have us fucking doing??!!  It’s all the stuff those other bears did.  Yeah!  We gotta live on those stupid fucking clouds and go help people and shit.  Our parole officer is a little asshole too.  We hate him.  He hates us.  What-fucking-ever!

So that’s where we are.  We were all given our names and fucking gut pictures based on who we are and what we like to do.  I’m Tender Dick Bear.  I’m called that because I’ve had so much raw dogging sex with so many chicks that my fucking dick is too sensitive.  Getting an erection actually hurts like FUCK!!!  But enough about me.  Over there is Lazy Ass Bear, Dirty Slut Bear, Porn Addict Bear… um… what the fuck’s his name?  Oh yeah, it’s Hack a Lung Bear.  That fat fuck over there is Fat Fuck Bear.  Then there’s Never Bathe Bear, Gambling Bear, Brawling Bear, Dumb Ass Bear, Junkie Bear… and over there is Bare Bear.  He’s always naked and it’s fucking disgusting.  There’s a bunch of other bears here with other dumb shit names like that.  I’d be here all fucking day if I listed them all.  But yeah, you’ll probably see those bears at some point when we help some dumbass on Earth.

Altogether, we’re called the… um… Bears That Give a Shit or Whatever.

Of course we’re only doing this until some asshole judge says we’ve… like… paid our debt to fucking society or some bullshit.  The exact… like… micro-second that’s done we are soooooo fucking outta here.  But until then, yeah, watch for us in your neighbourhood helping out some snivelling little shit.

Okay, that’s enough right?  Everybody knows the premise now?  There are no fucking dumbasses out there like ‘duuuuuuuh what’s going on?’  Maybe a couple?  Aw fuckit!  I’m done.”

That's the basic gist of it.  It is now the internet's turn to give opinions about this project.  Could it fly or would it crash and burn?  Would you watch it or recommend to for someone else to watch it?  I anticipate the feedback no matter what it is.

It's pumpkin carving time again

 Here are "jack of the lanterns" I and my daughter carved up this year.

 This is my daughter holding up her creation.  That pumpkin looks very scared, doesn't it?  It's as if it's worried about something.  Well.......

...that's because my pumpkin is eating hers.   I've never known pumpkins to be cannibals, but of course science and nature are always full of surprise. 

Anyway, that's the seasonal festivities that we conjured up for this year. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I experimented with lip sync

 

 Above is some lip sync animation I just did as an experiment.  I took an old dialogue file that I used for this "series of videos" (which was really just one very long video) some time ago.  The main reasons I did this is be because I both wanted to see if I still "have what it takes" but also see what my current technology could help me accomplish.

Doing this lip sync was harder than it should have been.  I did finally manage to import the sound file into the Adobe Flash program ut for some reason I couldn't set it to what's called "stream" for the purpose of going over the dialogue frame by frame so as to insure accuracy.  So, what I had to do was put that dialogue file into iMovie and "stream" the dialogue there.  One shouldn't have to go back and forth between programs to complete a simple task like lip sync, but it's what I had to do.

So, anyway, here's my lip sync such as it is.  What are your thoughts?

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT???

The family and I were dining at a local restaurant the other day.  One feature this particular establishment has is that every table is draped in a large ream of newsprint paper that acts as a table cloth of sorts. Plus, since our child is still considered "of child age" (although, confidentially, I think she may be more mature than I am), we were provided with a few crayons to do with whatever we wanted.  Immediately, our daughter started doodling on the paper while I did the crossword puzzle on the kids' menu.

But, my wife (my daughter's mom) issued us a challenge.  She told us both to draw a creature with a specific criteria:

1. Its eyes are on its hands.

2. Its nose is on its giant horn.

3. Its mouth is on its chin.

4. It has four legs.

5. Its teeth are like thorns.

Thankfully there was no official time limit so we didn't have to rush. Although we did have to pause our drawing when the food arrived of course. That's why there's a few grease stains on it.

My daughter didn't manage to finish her drawing sadly. But she did make several other doodles that I thought were quite good. Unfortunately, my wife neglected to capture those with her phone's camera and so they are now lost to time and the elements.  Oh well, maybe she will start her own blog or post her artwork on whatever website would attract the most traffic. Who knows.

Anyway, my response to my wife's art challenge is the one above. Enjoy it if that's how you feel.

Victor Orban is a paranoid censorious twat-waffle jackass

 

Yeah, I don't like him at all.  Not one little bit.  Yes, that same Victor Orban that is the current leader of Hungary, I have a rather low opinion of this man.  I've never met his guts, but if I did I'm sure I'd hate them too.

And yet, there is a faction of people in the USA that laud this guy as a "saviour of the west" of some sort.  Last year, Tucker Carlson himself actually traveled to Budapest to have a sit down interview with this guy.

Ok.  That was a nice little ego stroking session there.

By the way, my beef with Victor is not simply because he's "right wing".  His politics are his politics and he's entitled to them.  My big problem with him has to do with how he treats the play/movie Billy Elliot.

He's actually banned this work from the entire country of Hungary because................... get this............ he's afraid it might inspire people to become gay.  He seriously thinks that.

When I first heard about Mr. Orban's objection, I had only heard of Billy Elliot.  I hadn't actually seen it at all.  So, I couldn't fully comment on what Victor was going on about.  But, I recently saw it so now I can make a much more informed statement about the whole thing.  For those who haven't seen it, I'll give a brief synopsis here:

Billy Elliot starts off the movie doing his boxing lessons.  But, quickly realizes that he's not so good at it.

However, he notices that in another part of the gymnasium there's a ballet class going on.  Billy can't quite explain, but something draws him toward that class and inspires him to get into dancing.....

...much to the red-faced disappointment of his gruff coal-mining father.

But don't fret because... SPOILER... his father does come around to supporting Billy and his desire to dance.  It's quite a well executed transformation on the father's part in my opinion.

But, Billy "dancing like a pouf (as many characters in the show call it)" is not the LBGTQ element that Victor Orban and his ilk are concerned about.

A small side story is Billy's friend who's gotten into cross-dressing.  He raids his sister's closet and tries on all the dresses of hers that he likes.  Billy's immediate reaction is to be taken aback and say "what are you doing?".  But, Billy's supportive nature quickly kicks in and he's very happy with his friend discovering himself.

Billy's so supportive that he even gives his friend a kiss.  That's his way of telling his friend that he'd make a very lovely woman someday.  Only the very best of friends would do that for each other.

Anyway, that little bit is too much for Victor.  Because of just that little element of the story, he wants to ban the entire show from his country.  All of the feel good "work around the obstacles and the stigmas dogging you to follow your dreams" story elements are tossed to the wayside just because of one little bit of gay acceptance.  That's just as bad as banning every episode of The Flintstones simply because that one character in that one episode was transgender.

The civil rights leader "Harvey Mammoth Milk" might have made a short appearance in this episode.

Rather than go into a lengthy diatribe about all the ways Victor Orban is wrong in this instance, I'll just very quickly list all of the Censor Monkeys he is being:

...and, for straight up banning the whole production outright, he is....

Wow! A whopping four Censor Monkeys.  It's time to dial back the tyranny there Victor. 

Of course, I certainly do sympathize with Victor's and even Tucker's objection to "wokeness". Yeah! Fuck wokeness.  Fuck wokeness back up the devil's asshole where it fell from in the first place.  But, Mr. Orban, in the process of that, leave Billy Elliot alone.  He's done nothing wrong.  He's certainly not a threat to anyone.  No government official should ever be in the business of deciding what movies, plays, tv shows, songs that his/her citizens can consume.  Let the artists do their art without harassment. Thank you.

I'll end this blog post with what I think it one of the best scenes from the Billy Elliot movie.  It's where young Billy openly defies his stern father by daring to dance right in front of him.  I find it very powerful.  Please enjoy!