298 - The Curse Of The Pharoahs

The crisis in Africa worsens.  In December, the Tunisian people rebelled and forced their President Ben Ali to quit is office.  In the recent week, related violence has escalated as Egyptian Presisent Hosni Mubarak clings to power.  

Some analysts are comparing these events to the "Velvet Revolution" of Czechoslovakia of 1989, when most of the country's population showed up to protest on the streets and successfully removed their Communist government.  Others are comparing recent events to the fall of the Berlin Wall, also in 1989. 

Perhaps there are some similarities when viewed generously.  Images of massive crowds of Egyptians roaming the streets and ignoring curfews are compelling.  In an effort to control the people, President Mubarak ordered his tanks to mobilize.  A tank is only good for one thing, which is shooting.  The Egyptian army has so far refused to fire upon the people, who clamber all over the tanks as if they were playground equipment. 

The Egyptian lower class has little to lose.  President Mubarak has used many strategies to hold onto his status.  Some sources refer to him as "a Pharoah come to modern times", hinting at Mubarak's despotic uses of power.  Others mention an undercurrent of Muslim fundamentalism within the rebellion.  And it's not difficult to see that the weapons being pointed at the people come largely from the United States.  This is a very complex situation.  While it may be best that Mubarek resigns his Presidency, Egypt could continue to feel critical aftershocks from this week's events.

I decided to come up with some kind of political statement montage.  After all that work, though, I'm not happy with the composition.  The idea was that Mr. Mubarak would hover over his people like some kind of angry gilded god, spewing forth armour, riot police an tear gas.  Gilding President Mubarak into the likeness of a pharoah turned out rather well, and it was easier to accomplish than I thought.  I should have stopped there.  Instead, I added the tank, the cops, and the crowd.  I wanted to add some darkened televisions and computers to simulate how the Egyptians were cut off from the Internet. 

I guess political statements shouldn't be montages.  They should be focussed on the point at hand. 

The background is from the video game "Serious Sam" by Croteam (bad Jeff!).  I pulled the images of the police and some protesters from public domain Wikipedia sources.   The M1A1 tank is from a US Government website and was also public domain.  Mr. Mubarak's portrait and the Tutankhamun mask were taken from wire press sources (bad Jeff!).  I gilded, scrubbed, and repainted a bunch of stuff using Corel Painter in an effort to unify the look of all the elements. 

The writing on the tank I applied myself: it should read "Imagine Peace".

297 - Classical Japanese Eroticism

Today's JSVB entry deals with sexual subject matter.  However, the drawing is suggestive only in a very narrow context and shows no nudity.  The text, on the other hand, deals with some adult topics. Only if you can view mature content should you scroll down to see today's post.

Yesterday's JSVB post involved the Japanese art of ukiyo-e, which is a woodcut print.  These prints caught on with wealthy urban Japanese called Edokkai (people who lived in the prosperous city of Edo) during the 17th and 18th century.  The woodcut designs could be printed off hundreds of times, allowing the artist to reach a broad audience with high quality work that was also relatively inexpensive.  I'm no expert in the field of ukiyo-e, but I have studied them a little.  I imitate some famous ukiyo-e in yesterday's post; please click here to see it.

Japanese woodcuts made it easy to create artful pornography, which was popular with the Edokkai.  One common erotic statement was to show a woman chewing on a strand of her own hair, or with a bit of her clothing in her mouth.  Since upperclass Japanese women strove to attain iki, a sort of idealized national aesthetic perfection, they would break from their strict sense of style only when experiencing great emotional turmoil.  The lady would be so transported by her inner thoughts of erotic pleasure that she would lose herself in thought and fixate orally. 

The image of a woman chewing on her hair or clothing was highly sexually charged without being explicit.  Compared to today's pornography, I find this statement to be subtle and yet still powerful if you know what to look for. 

Of course, there are many examples of Japanese woodcuts that show a lot of nudity and many forms of sex in full detail.  I just think that this particular form of eroticism is interesting, as many Westerners will miss the visual cue. 

I made this fictional "Erotic Edokkai" magazine in Photoshop.  I took a Tokaido ukiyo-e and redrew it and repainted it by hand (a weak imitation of the original).  I think the poster is actually of a male actor pretending to be a woman, but I am not sure, and in this case it doesn't matter.  I added text and composited the cover image onto an old magazine.  I added some shine to the staples and dumped the image onto a texture file of a sheet of wood.   Note that the spine of the magazine is on the right, as Japanese books are meant to be read from right to left. 

296 - Holy Shiitake, Yuki!

Carrying on from yesterday's earthquake-based excitement (please click here to see how I fared with the 1st Annual Great BC Shakeout), I realized I was missing an important piece of information.  The Shakeout is a province-wide earthquake preparedness drill.  It takes place on the 311th anniversary of the last Magnitude 9.0 eathquake to strike British Columbia.  Well, here is what I missed: how the blazes did anybody from the year 1700 know there was a 9.0 earthquake? 

There was a thriving native society on the North American west coast, but their traditions were passed orally, and not written.  They speak of a great earthquake in the past, but do not specify the date.

As it turns out, the advanced Japanese civilization did have a written record of the quake.  More specifically, they had record of a massive tsunami (a large ocean wave created by an earthquake), but without mention of any earthquakes in their region.  Paleobotanists used forensic science to uncover evidence of ancient destruction, pinning the event to a roughly 9.0 size quake occurring on January 26, 1700.  A 9.0 quake would be strong enough to push a wall of water all the way from B.C. across the Pacific Ocean and onto the shores of Japan. 

The art piece I have created is a compilation of several Japanese woodcuts.  The most famous is The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai.  I also took pieces from ukiyo-e (Japanese woodcut prints) of Shinie and Tokaido (actors), as well as from Hashiguchi.  I composited them together in Photoshop, then traced out all the lines by hand to make a new picture, including a goofy facial expression for the fellow whose afternoon tea was forcibly diluted by a mass of seawater.  I painted in many new colours and patterns digitally. 

I think the kanji text is for a tsunami warning.  I got a translation from Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Online Japanese Dictionary, but I have no way to know if I wrote it out correctly. 

The shiitake reference is my own take on a very obscure joke based on material that was cut out of the motion picture "The Abyss" (1989). 

295 - All Shook Up

Today at 10:00 in the morning, we had our First Annual British Columbia Shakeout.  Timed to coincide with the last Magnitude 9 earthquake in the Lower Mainland, which rocked and rolled us precisely 311 years ago, the Shakeout is a large-scale public eathquake preparedness drill.  Some local radio stations played a cheesy sound effects clip to simulate the quake, and we as citizens had to take cover as best as we could. 

Afterwards, in a fit of nostalgia, I decided to paint a re-creation of a famous scene from "Earthquake" (1974).  Here's Lorne Greene heroically trying to save the life of an anonymous stuntman:

I tried for hours to find the name of the stuntman, but with no success.  He's even a featured character in an episode of "Quantum Leap" (1989),  but "Chad Stone" is a fictional name.  

Mostly, I wanted to illustrate some forced perspective, make a cartoony painting (to somehow make an eathquake more fun, if that's possible), and to draw those kickin' vertical blinds flying into the air. 

As for the guy hanging there... unfortunately, he falls out of the skyscraper before Lorne Greene can rescue him.  However, budgetary concerns dogged the Earthquake production, so they did little to hide the very large, soft airbag that the stuntman eventually lands in.  If you ever watch the film, the airbag is totally obvious.

What I learned from the Shakeout earthquake drill: you don't have a lot of time to make a good decision once the shaking starts.

• Try to get as low as possible under cover: a table or a desk.
• If that's not possible, curl up on the floor with your back to an inside wall.
• Cover your neck and head with one arm.
• If you can, try to hang onto something solid.

I learned not to grab too low to the ground: a bed leg could jump up and land on your hand, pinning you.  Heading for a doorway won't help much: you'll get battered by the door.  Our houses are built to withstand a strong quake, so we shouldn't worry about structural collapse.  If the shaker is big enough to collapse homes, you're just playing dice with God anyways.  The biggest immediate danger is to avoid debris that may be flying around.  After the quake stops, count out a minute before getting up and evacuating the building (if possible).  Grab your emergency kit and get out of Dodge. 



294 - The Blue Goon

I spent the afternoon goofing off and I had an appointment for the evening.  Aaargh!  I need something to post!  Good thing I keep a sketchbook.  The Blue Goon (or "Der Blaue Schurke" in German, as there's nothing like a European language to make my art sound important) is yet another barely-realized character concept that never got used.

 

293 - My Personal Sunshine

Today, my wife joined me on my almost-kind-of-daily walk to the grocery store, which in our gloomy weather, has become a grim, grey march for munchies.  

"It looks like we're living in a black and white movie out here," I comment.

"Well then, look at me," she says.

I do.  She's got an apple red umbrella and a vivid orange macintosh coat.  She looks like an advertisement for Technicolor™.  Under the overcast clouds, she's my own personal sunshine. 

292 - Opposite Days

Bleargh.  The past while, I've been living in opposite days.  I've been wide awake at night and absolutely thrashed when the sun (in theory) is up.  I'm not alone in this.  It's been well over a week since I've actually seen the sun.  Maybe more, as I keep wanting to sleep in the day.  So much for my tan. 

Documenting this resulted in a wierd picture.  I was inspired by a cartoon I saw, but pairing the day and night visages makes the character look like he's suffered a stroke, which is not what I had in mind.  Adding the dotted line may have helped make the drawing be a little more readable.  If I had more better sleep, I would have saved this for Ungood Art Day, though. 

291 - Crystalline Entity

A fascinating close-up photo I took of a small forest of ice crystals. Many of these crystals are about an inch tall, and resemble quartz.  Until now, I had never seen ice do that in nature.  For a related photo, please click here.

290 - Rocking The Catrock

What haven't I been doing for the past while?  Working on my mountain lion painting.  It's time to work on the mountain part of the picture.  I need to work out a method of rendering rocks.  I did rock work in my Hyde Creek painting, but I need more rugged rocks for the cat to walk on.  Today, I worked on underpainting the rocks. 

"I'm an artist, l you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catrock

Yeah on the catrock, on the catrock yeah

I do my little turn on the catrock"

Please click here to see my Hyde Creek painting.  Please click here to see my last successful post on the progress of the big cat.  There's nowhere I can suggest for you to click to explain why I borrowed the lyrics from Right Said Fred. 

289 - Love Those Gloves!

I have another unsolicited product placement for JSVB.  This time, for kitchen safety, I am reccommending these Starfrit oven mitts.

These are heatproof oven mitts that are the best I have seen.  On the outside, they are coated with flexible heat-resistant silicone.  Silicone is an excellent material for handling hot food utensils.  Not only does it shield against heat, it's durable, flexible, leakproof, easy to clean, and inert, so it's hypoallergenic and it won't get permanently stained.  If you touch food with these mitts, silicone won't soak up liquid, won't react to the food, and won't leave any taste or residue on the food.  The silicone is grippy, and is moulded with a rugged tack pattern to make holding onto hot dishes even easier.

Silicone has a soft, rubbery tactile feel to it.  Silicone gloves will make your hands feel hot, sticky, and sweaty with prolonged use.  These gloves are lined with padded cotton on the inside, much like ordinary oven mitts.  The padded cotton greatly adds to the comfort factor while providing another layer of thermal insulation.  According to the Starfrit website, these gloves will resist up to 240º C / 464º F, which is a lot of heat.  I've actually dipped my hand into boiling water while wearing these gloves to pull out boiled eggs (think of the 1982 movie "Blade Runner").  I can say that I felt no heat at all, and my hands stayed perfectly dry. 

Finally, these gloves have tough protective gauntlets that cover your wrists and protect them from exposure.  If you've ever burnt the inside of your wrist by accidentally touching it to the hot inner door frame of an oven when reaching inside, then you will appreciate the gauntlets. 

Large Canadian retailers such as Sears carry these mitts, but they are hard to find as they sell out quickly.  This Christmas, I just ordered more mitts directly from Starfrit.  Since Starfrit is Canadian, shipping was very inexpensive.  These mitts are worth it!

288 - Egg Snobs

The other day, my wife and I disovered that we are egg snobs.

What this means is that we've become fussy about the eggs we buy, and we demand quality.  Through miscommunication, we not long ago ended up with a carton of ordinary eggs, when for a long time we've been accustomed to free-range eggs.  The ordinary eggs were watery, smelled of sulfur, and were unappetizing. 

An acquaintance pointed out that she couldn't tell the difference between ordinary eggs and organically-grown eggs.  From what I know, the difference can be small.  The quality of an egg depends partly on what the hens feed on, but also on the quality of their life.  The colour of the shell has no bearing on the quality of the egg.

Organic eggs come from hens that are fed organic feed without hormones or pesticides.  Sometimes carotene is added to make the yolks more deeply yellow.  However, if the chicken lives out her life in a tiny metal cage as is often enough the case, she'll still produce low quality eggs, albeit a greater number of them. 

Free range chickens are allowed to roam a yard outside of a cage.  Again, there are varying degrees of freedom.  Some operations only let the chickens out for a couple of hours a day, others may keep the chicken run entirely indoors.  We feel that only a chicken that has complete freedom to leave her coop and run around a yard outside will give the best eggs. 

Fortunately, in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, there are many egg farms that encourage this kind of free running.  Our favourite eggs come from a family farm where the chickens are actually loved.  They even get upset when they try to eat one of their birds for dinner. 

Today's image is lifted from the famous "New Yorker" magazine cover.  The inaugural New Yorker featured the fictional dandy "Eustace Tilley" drawn by Rae Irvin in 1925.  I redrew the image by hand and repainted it from sampled colours.  I copied the masthead font and altered it to make the pun.

It turns out that The New Yorker has an annual Eustace Tilley contest.  I'll submit this image, although a lot of the entries are more creative and compelling than mine.  Still, I had fun re-creating Irvin's work.  By copying another's design, an artist learns more about visual tradecraft. 

287 - The Invisible Wall

"So that's what the invisible wall looks like..."

-Time Bandits (1981)

"Time Bandits" isn't the greatest film ever made, but it does have one of my favourite throw-away lines when the characters all run into an invisible wall.

Recently, Blogger, the service that hosts JSVB, sent me a propaganda piece in mail about how stable and reliable their product is.  For a free service, Blogger is very good, but like Time Bandits, it isn't perfect. 

I look to be hitting some "invisible walls" soon, as frequent posting with custom graphics on every page may fill my Blogger space and its attendant Picasa image host to its limit.  Probably around post #300, I may hit a wall, and if not that, then maybe #400?  For a service that prides itself on quality relations with its clients, I am finding it difficult to find answers in Blogger regarding these limits. 

If I hit a wall, then JSVB might have to be put on hold while I figure out how to fix the problem.  At the worst, I might have to open up a new blog space.  We'll see.  I just thought it would be a good idea to bring this topic to light.

286 - EAMSA #6

EAMSA stands for "Earl's Mad Science Adventures".  It was a comic strip written and produced by my friend Earl, about himself.  I drew one episode as a guest artist, all the rest are by the talented Michael Gushue. 

So, for anybody tuning in late, every thirteenth of the month is designated as "Ungood Art Day" on JSVB, where I try to showcase some of my more dubious stuff.  Any artist will tell you that most of the stuff they do is not all that great (I like the term "Ungood"), and although I show a lot of mediocre art on JSVB (such as yesterday's bit, please click here if you want to see that), there's a sub-set of my ungood art that is at least a bit entertaining on its own terms.  If I had gone to art school sooner in my career, all the faces on this strip wouldn't be melting like hot butter every time a character changes poses. 

I drew this years and years ago, not long after I did a Star Trek piece for Earl (please click here to see what I mean).  In fact, I see now that I re-used Earl in  a Trekkie uniform in the front right row of the audience.  Strangely, Earl and his wife Sylvia also seem to appear left front row of the audience as they look now.  Coincidence. 

I should also mention that a lot of my work seem to be based on Earl.  EAMSA is the story of Earl, but please be aware that in no way should Earl be considered so egotistical as to demand multiple biographies.  He's just very interesting as a person, and someone who is fond of bad puns.

Lastly, I suppose I should thank Earl, who archived EAMSA #6, who made excellent scans of my drawings, and who provided them very kindly in time for Ungood Art Day. 

285 - Angry Captain Sketch

"The Angry Captain Sketch" sounds like a funny bit from Monty Python or Kids In The Hall, but in this case, it's just an anonymous drawing from a long-forgotten, abandoned chracter design project in my sketchbook: 

Great animation director Chuck Jones once commented that it's always easy to make people look good when you draw them in profile. 



284 - A Petunia For A Hat



The other day, my wife found a picture on the Internet of a hamster.  Someone stuck a flower on its head.  Who knew that a petunia made the perfect homburg for a hamster? 

I thought the idea was very cute, so I made my own version for my sketchbook. 

283 - "Bottle Dropper"

I thought that since yesterday's post was an old photograph of myself, that I can afford to pull out another one from the archives.  This one requires a bit of explaination.

I am dressed up as the superhero character "Bottle Dropper".  He's one of dozens of such characters that inhabit the "Order Versus Chaos" universe, where there are many, many hyper-abilitied folks who have created polarized alliances with either Order or Chaos.  These characters are  the work of my friend Earl, so I can't take much credit for them. 

Bottle Dropper's talent was that he could make bottles of any kind appear out thin air, and then the bottles are immediately dropped.  Bottle Dropper was a not very subtle comment on how I once gave Earl a bottle of Coke which I fumbled and which fizzed up most violently. 

Order Versus Chaos dispenses with a lot of plot and character development and cuts right to the point: these super heroes and supervillains are here to fight it out for our entertainment.  It's mostly silly.  If you are familiar with "The Tick", then you get the idea, although to my knowledge, Order Versus Chaos got its start sometime before Tick.  It's that old. 

Recently, the topic of the ordinary citizen transforming into a superhero has been very popular on television.  Look at "Heroes" on network TV, or the movies "Hitch" and "Unbreakable".  The recent "Spiderman", "X-Men", and "Iron Man" movies reinvigorated the superhero genre, featuring Stan Lee's typical protagonists with flawed personailities.  This Order Versus Chaos picture predates all of that by around ten years. 

Obviously, there is some Photoshop  involved with the picture, but maybe not as much as you would think.  The bottle and the special effects flash are Photoshopped, as well as part of the door.   All of the crazy light and shadow are natural, though.  It happened that the sunset was being reflected into the room from outside.  The light was very intense, so I decided to get the camera.  I threw on as quickly as I could an outfit that I thought Bottle Dropper would wear (as I recall that despite being based on me dropping bottles on Earl, BD's character was African-American, and he wore a typical spandex superhero suit) and I  struck the Bottle Dropper pose in front of the camera on a timer.  After a minute of this, the sun moved and the dramatic lighting diminished. 

I added the special effects flash and the bottle of champagne later.  Experts in trivia will want to know that the bottle was a 1992 Dom Perignon, which was a very good year.  Also, some sharp-eyed JSVB readers have already spotted Bottle Dropper in a previous post.  To see it, please click here.  The Superman "S" Logo is the property of DC Comics. 

282 - Jeff Shyluk: Cultural Icon

I've been nominated by the Mayor of Port Coquitlam to serve as a Citizen Advisor on the Committee for Cultural Development! 

Well, I made that sound as pompous as possible.  In reality, I asked if I could join the Committee, and even after making a mashup out of the paperwork, they still let me in.  I won't be setting policy or anything, as there is already a talented group in place who have done much of the initial work.  Judging by how rough it was for me as an artist last year, I feel I can offer good advice on what not to do.  Since the the nature of the CCDA is fairly technical, I doubt that I will make mention of it very much in the future, if at all. 

Above is an old photo of me being cultural.  That's my wife-to-be looking regal on my arm.  Unfortunately, it's just a Hallowe'en costume, and not the dress of high rank or priviledge.  Worse still, the Prince Charming outfit does not even come close to fitting me anymore.

I cannot take credit for snapping this picture.  We were at a big, fun dance party with some friends.  If I had to bet, I would say that Earl took the photo; I borrowed it from his blog to put into JSVB - thanks, Earl! 

Wow... were we ever really that young?!

281 - Frozen Flow

Another nature walk photo.  Temperatures are cold enough to form ice on the Pitt River.  The water is clear and beautiful.

280 - Eagle Eye

When we went on a nature walk this week, we brought along the camera. This time, we discovered eagles in the forest behind our house. This is one of three juvenile bald eagles that have taken up residence nearby. He's probably two or three years old. After three years of age, bald eagles develop their characteristic dark-and-white plumage.

If eagles are moving in, this would explain why the owls seem more upset (lots of hooting and screeching), plus the relative inactivity of the neighbourhood squirrels.

This photo reminds me of an earlier post I made, please click here to see it.

279 - Buddy, Can You Spare Me a Light?

January 1, 2011 brings in new changes and a new low for our B.C. Provincial government, at least for those of us who wish to remain enlightened.  Many months ago, the Liberals decided to enact legislation to make light bulbs illegal in British Columbia.  Yes, you read that right: the light bulb, perhaps one of the most evolutionary and practical inventions of the millenium, is now a black market item in B.C.

The Liberals introduced their anti-bulb legislation along with a flurry of other motions.  The official opposition, either not sensing any political gain for themselves, or maybe just not sensing anything at all, let this baby pass with minimal to no debate.  Fast forward to 2011, and all of the sudden we have to find a way to live with this turkey.

To be clear, it's not illegal to own an incandescent light bulb in B.C., it's just illegal to sell incandescent light bulbs in B.C.  The idea is that we are all supposed to convert willingly to CFL bulbs (Compact Fluorescent Light).  The advantage the CFL has over the incandescent bulb is that a CFL will typically draw less power if left on continuously. 

However, the CFL has some drawbacks that the government has either been unwilling or not caring to address:

• CFLs cost much more to purchase than regular bulbs, and they cost more to manufacture. 
• CFLs cannot easily be dimmed.  Many people use dimmer switches in their homes.  Think of home theatres, for example.  A CFL cannot be used with a dimmer switch. 
• CFLs work poorly in the cold.  Cold temperatures cause CFLs to produce less light and draw more power.  Cold also greatly reduces the life expectancy of the CFL.  It's not like we have all that many cold days in Canada, though...
• CFLs are stroboscopic.  They tend to cycle on and off at around 60 times a second.  This is faster than most people can see, but over time with use CFL cycles become slower, while prolonged exposure to fluorescent lights makes people more sensitive to their cycles.  The immediate perception is that a CFL puts out a "cold" light, whereas incandescent lighting is usually regarded as "warm" light, closer to what we get from our Sun. 
• Finally, CFLs all contain mercury, which is poisonous to the environment as well as to human health. CFLs can be recycled, but it is costly and dangerous to do so. As it happens, the government supplied to this date precisely and exactly zero facilities for recycling mercury from the CFLs. The media are reporting stories of people throwing the bulbs out in the trash, breaking them up, and using their household vaccuum cleaners to suck up the mess.

Premier Campbell (03-02659, please click here to see more) has handled this situation in typical mittenhanded fashion.  He could have just taxed the bulbs, rather than outlawing them.  The idea is that we can save a bit on our energy bill by switching to CFLs.  Fine.  Why not let us choose to do that on our own?  How much energy will we save driving to the States to get our bulb fix?

Now, along with guns and bud, B.C. will become a haven for ruthless light bulb racketeers in the underground economy.  In the market for a black market black light?   Someone will have to mule them in from Alberta, Washington, or some other distant municipality where you are still freely allowed to screw a bulb into a light socket.

It's not like we can do much about repealing the new law.  The Liberal Party promptly disintegrated, which I guess does us citizens something of a favour.  Trouble is, the opposition New Democrats also scuttled their own party, meaning that there is nobody left in office to complain to. 

In an almost completely unrelated topic, my wife and I travelled to Victoria, B.C. for a brief visit.  Victoria is the capitol of our province; there you can find the majestic Legislature Building.  That's where the Government sits to pass its laws.  Oh, and by the way, the Legislature building just happens to be literally covered with (you guessed it!) incandescent light bulbs:

Most sources cite that the building features over 3,000 exterior incandescent bulbs.  Provincial tourist sources suggest the number is 3,333.  I can't wait to see what happens when one of them burns out...


The picture here is a rotoscope I did of a public domain photo from an official B.C. government tourism brochure.  I do have some of my own photos of the Leg at night somewhere, but it seemed easier to make up a custom piece than to go hunting for something I may have lost. 

Foreign JSVB readers ought to squirrel away some extra lightbulbs for us.  We need everything from the lowly 5 watt baby peanut bulbs for landscape lights, to your standard 60 and 100 watt workhorses, all the way up to the brilliant 300 watt klieg-like monsters we use in our torchieres (which have dimmer switches, naturally!). 

278 - New Year's Babe

Happy New Year 2011! 

Today is the one year anniversary of starting JSVB.  I am pleased I have been able to keep JSVB going for a whole year.  See the last post of 2010 to read my retrospective on my last year's worth of blogging by clicking here.

My wife is working Maternity at the hospital for New Year's.  I made this infant graphic to help the new mothers celebrate their special day.   It seems to have been recieved well; folks are busy colouring it in all the colours of the baby rainbow.