finalmente!

Yikes! it's been over two weeks since the last post.  I have been drawing though, so I'll post as regularly as possible from now.

So, between then and now, what have I been doing?
1) designed and ordered promo postcards
2) wrote "query"/cover letters
3) put envelopes together
4) MAILED my portfolio samples!

Here's a picture before a trip to the post office.

Based on the volume of file folders, envelopes, labels, paper clips and papers lying around, I could have opened a small office supply store. It's funny how all that matter condensed into these seven envelopes--they're considerably less meaty than I anticipated. (A good thing I hope.)

To sum it all up in one word: RELIEVED.

I don't know why I put off the mailing for so long, but I feel way better now that it's out of my hands. There's nothing to fret about. Well, the fear of complete rejection looms, but I can worry about that 3-6 months down the line if/when it happens... and fortunately I have good coping skills.  

For now I'm more than ready to resume a normal schedule and work on the stuff that's been put aside. 

Eurethra!

Scientists in Wake Forest have "grown" urethras from bladder cells. In the study, the engineered urethras were implanted into five boys with urinary tract damage.  The results are promising. Science changing lives-- I love it.

Read more:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/08/134340350/scientists-grow-parts-for-kids-with-urinary-damage

Here's the paper:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673610623549/fulltext

Unnatural Disaster #1: The K-JIL syndrome

Kim Jong Il is either nuts or very savvy. Or maybe both.  It's easy to laugh at him and his shortness, his jumpsuits, his haircut...  but the scary thing is that people actually believe he is god. He essentially is. He has the ability to determine life or death for the citizens (though mostly a slow and painful death through overwork and undernourishment).  I wonder if he believes it himself?

I don't even know how I'd characterize the K-Jil syndrome-- selfishness? indulgent? delusional? capriciousness? being a big baby? 

 

February 22 2011: Christchurch, New Zealand

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck one week ago.

There was an article in the LA times that contained really evocative descriptions of the aftermath. As I read the article, what I was seeing in my head were those pictures of bombed out European cities during WWII. This is some of what I imagined. Reality probably has a lot more rubble. I wish the people much fortitude as they rebuild.

Hurricane Baby Frank

It all started with my nephew, Franklin's double cowlick. My parents and grandma fawned over it. I'm not sure if this is the case with all Koreans, but in my family a double cowlick is a sign of stubbornness (or persistence depending on how you see things).  

To me, it looked like a hurricane. Naturally.  Because in addition to babies, weather is one of my favorite things. I have much respect for weather and energy after revisiting the content as a teacher. If you think about it from a conceptual standpoint, you can't help but be awed at how infinitely interconnected everything in the natural world is...  

Here is an excerpt from the Tropical Cyclone Report for Hurricane Frank (source: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-EP092010_Frank.pdf): 

The tropical wave that eventually became Frank was difficult to trace from the west coast of Africa. It was first identified on 15 August when a large area of showers, accompanied by a low-level cyclonic wind shift, was noted near the southern Windward Islands. 

Hurricane Frank ended up off the southwestern coast of Mexico, as a category 1 hurricane. Yet, it started off: 1) halfway around the Earth! 2) as a wave!! It's mind boggling! 

I could go on, but I won't.  Without further ado, here's what I came up with this week.

Any old hurricane in Los Angeles would be freakish and miserable. Hurricane Baby Frank however, would be the cutest hurricane you've ever experienced. Lemon cupcakes and baby bunnies would float down from cowlick clouds. 

The Champ of Champs Snoozer

Franky Smalls Lee is the champ of champs snoozer;

Logs- a distant second, Princess Aurora-she's the loser. 

The glasses may clink and the dishes may clatter, 

But Franklin sleeps on- noise is no matter.

He slumbers boldly, while the vacuum drones,

while the dishwasher runs and people chat on iPhones. 

Through sirens, alarms, bells, whistles and roars,

In nap-dom he stays, with the sweetest of snores.

But there is one sound that he always can hear-

the mutterings of his gut transmit loud and clear,

"Hey Smalls, Guess what? You're running on low!"

(in a voice that sounds like Tony Soprano).

So to show who's boss, Frank wakes and eats,

practices punches, 

then goes back to sleep.

*This poem is entirely FACTUAL.

Aardwolf

The curator should have just let the aardwolf nap in the pickup truck. (He's also looking like a cross b/w Dr. Weil and Celine Dion's husband this week. )