Saturday, March 30, 2024

Post 662 - A Leisurely Ride Down Lego Lane

Making some more animated GIFs, this one experimenting with simple stop motion.  The fickle flicker of fluorescent light is now supplanted by the consequence of time passing beneath diffused sunlight.  More notes, more notes...

@20fps

@10fps

 

And perhaps it moves faster without the built-in "continuous loop" command - oh that technology!


(c) 2024 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary

Post 661 - At the Station

 Int: The Ticket Office

ONE:  I can never read these train schedules. The last time I wound up in Duluth.

TWO:  I bet it’s hard to unwind after that.  

ONE:  And the food’s terrible on those cars.  

TWO:  It’s all in the timing.  Look, if you take an express train west, you can cross enough time zones so it hasn’t been cooked yet - that way it stays fresh.

ONE:  Is there a train that fast?

TWO:  Sure - I’ve missed dozens of them.

ONE:  I just need enough time to pack, repack, and still be able to lose my toothbrush.

TWO:  Well, you can always floss with some uncooked spaghetti.  It’ll be fresh.

ONE: Have you every tried to eat your weight in spaghetti?

TWO:  Naah, I end up wearing most of it.  But if you move fast enough, who needs clothes?

ONE:  I’m sorry, I missed something - is it that kind of a train?  

TWO:  No, but you can wear yesterday’s clothes and they won’t get dirty until tomorrow.

ONE:  And by the time you discover you need something, you’ve already used it.

TWO:  That's an idea - hey, everyone can just forget their luggage -- we’ll make a fortune with the lost and found!

ONE:  We can even get people back to the station before they know where they're were going.

TWO:  Sure - we can collect all that interest on their Daylight Savings.

ONE:  Or plan a party for tonight and have the hangover before we leave.

TWO:  Just think - we can put off to tomorrow what we put off for today, and still have two days left.

ONE: And you can finally achieve your life’s ambition - become the world’s fastest procrastinator.

 

(c) 2024 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary


 

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Post 660 - Shameless Self Promotion - "You Didn't Hear It From Me!" and other Performance Perpetrations

Including the "Classics"

You Didn't Hear It From Me, Laura Palmetto McGregory Toon, Thespian, Dual:Duel, The Battle Creek Idea, Graduation Speech, The Place: The Thing, Open Mike, Death of Diddy, and, as a bonus - another "Bedtime Story for Neurotic Children."  The mind reels.

In Paperback (124 pages, suitable for bedside or bathroom) and Kindle (suitable for eyestrain and who know what else) at Amazon, where novels vanish like spit on a hot griddle.   Not enough pictures, but that'll be the "second edition" ... now to find the masters for the 1907 Battle Creek tour guide...


I think this link will take you there, you poor, poor soul - You Didn't Hear It From Me - at Amazon

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Post 657 - Ink Blots in Reverse

 Some random doodlery...

Variations on the square root of 4.23

Sponge Man






(c) 2024 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Post 656 - One-Room Schoolhouses in Calhoun County - Slide Show from 2011

 Designed for elementary schools in Calhoun County, when local history was an actual subject thereon.

I had designed "BC Black Squirrel" in 2008, featured him in a mini-documentary about the area's "Mill Race" the following year, and then did some incidental sketches for this presentation, along with some "historic recreations" of school life of the 19th century.  

I am not sure how much use is it currently getting around that area these days, and only recently did I see a copy of this particular handout, ca 2011.  I thought the sketches I provided had never been put to use!