I'll get off my soapbox now

I actually voted for McCain/Palin.  I was extremely conflicted about that vote, but I did
think McCain was an American Hero. I was profoundly wrong about that.
'nuff said, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Up here in Minnesota, we're about a half hour away from the start of a blizzard - they are
seriously predicting 10 - 30" of snow before this is over. (no, I'm not kidding). I had been
planning on going to the "Live at the Met" Opera at our local movie theater tomorrow. 
I doubt I will be able to go now, and I am very disappointed. But, YOU CAN STILL GO!

the Opera is broadcast LIVE from New York in HD on the big screen, and several movie
theaters around the country offer this special screening -it costs about $20.00 (because
it is so much better than that Hollywood garbage) and it's only once  month -so you have
to go tomorrow (Sat) or your SOL until next month.  "Don Carlo" really is about
5 hours long, and for us Verdi fans - oh, I want to go, I so want to go, but there
are several intermissions where you can watch behind the curtain as a vast crew of
stagehands set up multi-million dollar sets in a matter of minutes. The singing is of
course amazing, the music as literally written by a genius, the sets are staggering,
the acting is fantastic, the gowns are (hopefully) oh so pretty, there are subtitles,
so you will be able to figure out what's going on, and if you go -nobody will laugh
at you - they will think "look at that intelligent young man, choosing Verdi for his
first Opera, very sophisticated".  So if you could go and post a comment about
the show to poor Samantha, stuck up here in her igloo -that would be lovely.

if you're an American and you get this cultural reference:

I'm so sorry

PS - Jennifer thank you so much for your comments -I've got a hand drawn sketch
that I'm planning on colorizing and sending to you at Rachel's Haven (I won't be
able to post that one here -alas).  I won't get to it until Wed or Thu though, but I
do appreciate your taking the time to leave such nice comments.

A Girl could get Hurt this way

Anyways up in Minnesota, the wind whipping through your jeans can make
your skin really dry this time of year, so I've started to wearing snow pants
which makes me look like a Pillsbury doughboy - I looked in the mirror and
had to laugh -I mean I've spent months losing 35 pounds and now I'm dressing
so I look exactly like I looked before -well at least I  have stuff that fits again.

The other side of that is that I thought I'd start using a lotion on my legs, and make
a ritual out of it - the whole smoothing the lotion on your legs, all that, and it does
make your legs and "back parts" feel smoother, which is pretty cool, but the first time
I did this, I put the lotion on the bottom of my feet, and stepped into the shower, slipped
and almost fell, I mean you could really get hurt that way -  That was actually the most
dangerous thing I've done in months -Boy, have I changed over the years.

PS - I'll post again Friday if I can

PPS - I got my driver's license back! - yeah!!!  They cleaned up the whole mess, so it's
not on my record or anything either - so that's that - it's like it never happened
"Oh, but it did Auntie Emme!" (That may be the only "Wizard of Oz reference I ever
make in this blog, so enjoy it Wiz fans) -I'm so happy I took a break from studying to
do another caption. But I have a couple important tests this week and next, so I am
not going to be on updating again until Friday, and this time I mean it. No, really.

I found a photo of Berta Beeson!

I wrote in an earlier post that I'm pretty seriously considering
writing a play about Frank "Slats" Beeson, a famous female
impersonating wire walker for Ringling Brothers circus,
who performed under the name Berta Beeson.
Anyways - in one of my circus books, I stumbled on this
photo of Berta Beeson performing -and this is the only
actual photo I've seen of him performing - so I'm really
excited about this -the photo is black and white so I did
a quick colorizing of it and turned it into a caption -
but it's the black and white photo that I found that I really
like - partly because it does confirm that this wasn't a farce,
he was an attractive, talented performer -the book goes on
to say that the program notes include the tag
"Expect a lot, and Boy, oh Boy you get it"
Yes, we get it - as I said in my earlier post, Ringling Brothers
were savy enough to market an act to attract gay men to. I'd go. 

PS - I recognize most of you don't share my enthusiasm about

the Circus, and Berta Beeson, and play writing.

Bear with me, I'll post some more captions in a day or two.

I Haven't Forgotten You All

I didn't do a lot in Photoshop this weekend, but I figured I could take an hour or so, and
come up with something for you all.  So the top two captions are new, the third is the
last of my secret stash of captions that I haven't posted, so everything from here on
out is "hot off the presses" - if you have a set of Red-Cyan 3-D glasses, try them out
on the third image -pretty cool, huh!  I explained in an earlier post how I make these.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these,  I do want you to keep coming back,

PS - Hi StaceyKay

Samantha's Flag Football - new for PS3

Obviously I ran into some problems on this

PS3 cover, but I did finally get it done.

I’m still learning Photoshop, and it’s going to

happen occasionally.  Anyways, let’s not talk

about how long this actually took, OK. Thanks.

"Sam" is so cute though.

Why I wanted to do a PS3 cover is because I want

to talk about the game “Heavy Rain”, and see if

someone can help me out. Back when I was working,

I bought a Play station 3 (PS3) system, partly

because I wanted to play at being Ringo (which is

fun, and I love the music).  But a significant 

factor in choosing PS3 over the competitors was a

game called “Heavy Rain” which is a role-play game

that is supposed to allow some freedom of choice,

and yeh, you’re way ahead of me, one of the four

characters is a woman.  So I get the game, put in

the Disk, and find out that before I can play the

girl I have to be a guy first (you do see the irony

in this). So the game starts out with me being some

guy getting out of the shower and walking around in

my bedroom, in my underwear trying to figure what

I’m supposed to do (and no, I don’t mean it like that). 

But I’m at a total loss,  I’m just walking around,

aimlessly in my bedroom, in my underwear, clueless,

and this goes on for a half hour, forty-minutes, and

I start thinking if someone walks in on me and see

this I’m going to die of embarrassment. 

Picture it:

“What’s Sam been up to?”

“Oh he’s pretending he’s a guy walking around in his

underwear,he’s been doing it for a couple hours now.”

“He does know he's still a guy, doesn't he?”

They'd be laughing, my face would be beet red,

it would be horrible, seriously. 

So if someone can be so kind as to help a slightly

dopey damsel in distress, and step me through this

game to get to the good part, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks.

The PS3 game was the genesis of another idea I had,

and this one is a beaut.  Picture you are a guy,

and you go in the store, and you buy a new PS3 game,

and it’s a fighting game called

“Knock the Living  $#*@ out of Him!” or some similar

clever title – but you put the disk in when you get

home, and one of the options is the Champs girlfriend:

Miss Kitty, so you enter in  "play Miss Kitty", and

when you play her role, she kisses the champ, says

“Good Luck tonight, I’ll be at the mall”, grabs his

credit card, puts it in her purse and goes out shopping

for shoes! I mean that’s the whole game – you’re at the

mall shopping for shoes.

The Boxing game, the cover art, everything is a front

so that guys who’d be too embarrassed to buy some girly

game, can still enjoy play at being a girl shopping

for shoes. Now, I’d pay money for that, and I don’t

think I’m the only one (it’s a whole lot more fun than

playing you’re some guy walking around in your underwear.

I swear, someone sees me playing that, they’ll lock me up.

PS - Thanks Rachel for the laurels - very nice

     Haven Laureate - oh, very exciting!

     Thanks Rebecca and Jennifer for linking to me

     (right now, I won't be linking to anyone, but

      I do appreciate your link and apologize for

      not reciprocating, email me, and I'll explain

      my rationale).

PPS - I should have gone back and redrawn the guy, rather
than try to correct the drawing problems in Photoshop.
In the end I abandoned that effort, and just went back and
colorized  the initial drawing, but I got a little
flustered - but: Sam, girl, it's cool - it's not perfect,
but it's just for fun, and it is a fun cover. Anyways,
"Sam" in heels is so cute I had to add her to the post
all alone.  One more, just because I'm on-line:

The Dog ate it, honest

No really, the dog ate my project, honest... OK, the real story:

Part of my Transformatial plan includes changing careers, which for me meant saving up
enough money to go back to school for a year.  My last job paid really well, but there
was an enormous amount of stress, a lot of driving, too much travel, etc.  So I wound
up really feeling trapped and stressed out by the time I finally pulled the plug, and went
back to school this fall semester.

Anyways, why I am telling you this, is because yesterday, when I wrote that I would
be finishing "Touch Football" , I knew that I didn't have a morning class today for a
change, so I could use the time on this project.  Alas, something came up, and I do
have an afternoon class, and I take my dog to her Agility class tonight, so it's safe
to say that I will not be finishing "Touch Football" today - I did think up the line for
underneath though:
Play with the boys the way Sam does - in heels!
But so that you don't think me a complete scoundrel, I'm going rummage in my
secret stash and dust these "new" chestnuts off (new to you, old to me)

and for promising you all, something and not coming through, I guess I have this coming:

PS - I learned my lesson about saying when I'm going to post next - but I'm going to aim for
two posts a week, and see how that goes.
PPS - (4) followers, oh, very exciting! - Thanks
Hi Rin, Rebecca, Jennifer, and of course Helen!

A Rare Behind the Scenes Look at Transformational Honeymoons

I thought that you might enjoy a rare "Behind the Scenes" look
at how the artwork at Transformational Honeymoons is created.
OK, you caught me - yeh I took on something too ambitious, and
I'm not going to be able to finish it until tomorrow.  I'm taking an
old sketch of mine and colorizing it. I'll finish up tomorrow, and
then turn it into a fake PS3 cover for a "new game" called:
Samantha-1
Touch Football

There will be other gags on the cover of course, but I don't plan that
far ahead (as you've figured out I'll bet).  I'm not a total ditz, really,
it just is taking longer than I thought it would.

I found another old caption that I haven't posted so I'm adding that
too - it's pretty funny I think.

Hopefully, Samantha-1 Touch Football will turn out good tomorrow,
but stay stuned -I hate to let you boys down, you know that don't you?