Dra Studio.com - Design & Illustration

Me in a Dash (uploaded by DRA Studio)

( listening to The Polyphonic Spree )

While enjoying an amazingly relaxing and fun-filled day with visiting family today (love you guys!), I realized it has been a while since I used my sketch blog to write about anything in-depth. About life … about tech … really, about anything at all. Hopefully, you have been enjoying the more frequent sketches I have been posting (how about those 365, eh?), as well as those few del.icio.us links I try to add daily.

In addition to all that wonderfulness, why not add some good-intentioned thoughts about life? For now, why not start slow with my world as it currently stands in terms of the “meta”. Because of the vast amount of things I am currently trying to accomplish/do/intake/etc, I have been experimenting with different methods and mediums for staying current on news, art, learning, and all those other things I see on my pretty 1280px by 800px screen. Not too long ago, I had come to the point where it all just felt like overload and time mis-spent … and just opening my computer was such a chore and neglecting it felt like 20 missed deadlines. I am guessing that many of you (with the absolute bloom of Web 2 o’s out there) have been feeling the same way.

Here’s the happy compromise I have come to with my news feeds, emails, blogs, photos, articles, artists, music, dates and so much more … listed via an ordered list … well, because I am an XHTML designer and it just makes sense, right? Here we go:

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Quandary – Bite a Zombie (uploaded by DRA Studio)

So here’s the question at hand … What happens when you bite a zombie?

Everyone knows the simple facts about zombies; that if you are bitten by a zombie, you become a zombie. If you want to kill a zombie you must destroy its brain. And if you want to keep your brains, you must kill zombies. Got it. Done. Reactive policy confirmed. Now what say we play like good soldiers and go on the offense. And not just the usual shotgun-to-the-head approach or the more UK cricket-bat-to-the-head approach. I’m talking about going toe to toe with a zombie, straight up eye for an eye. What happens when you give back to them what they have had coming for a long time? Give them the ol’ one-two neck bite? What happens?

Sound off in the comments and lets get this mystery quandri-zed!

So I am starting a new tag section here at the Sketch Blog, and I am calling it “quandary”. This will be for those posts where I will bring to you the reader some of the many curious life-altering wonderings I come across in my day-to-day.

Most will be frivolous in nature and they all with be completely void of real meaning, but my saying so is by no means permission for you to not base your life upon their conclusions. Especially since I expect your input in solving their mysteries; and frankly, if you are so willing to force the big yellow bus that is your opinion upon me, if I am walking down Main Street next week, and see you, it had better be behind the wheel and in the foam-padded driver seat of that bus.

Yes, yes. Things look a bit different now and if you happened to be checking throughout the day, you probably noticed all kinds of wonky-ness. Just hit the “Refresh” and enjoy some new dainties here on the Sketch Blog.

Probably the biggest reason for the change-up in look and feel of my blog is to get me a bit more excited about wanting to consistently keep a journal of my daily sketches and thoughts, but there were plenty of secondary reasons … namely, K2. With their ease-of-use improvements to the standard Wordpress environment, ability to add tons of features via plugin, and AJAX slick-ed-ness, it was a no-brainer to give it a go.

So while I have only made small adjustments to the default look and plan to make it all custom-fancy-beautiful, go ahead and definitely check out some of the additions:

• Nifty “Archives” slider that lets you look at past entries, without reloading the page.


• Flickr photos in the sidebar, along with my soon to be growing list of “Books I Just Read”


• Instant Searching


• Recent comments left by you, in the “Look Who’s Talking” sidebar


• Another beautiful background, courtesy of SF

**For all of you wanting to break your brain on some seriously cool, but totally in-depth and algebra-esque CSS style selecting, check out the W3 article I found.

… a.k.a. We’re back online! Go ahead. Join me in a nice sign of relief. AHHHHHHH! That’s better, isn’t it?

After three days too many, the Dra Studio, Illustrative. and this weblog are finally back online. “Why were we down in the first place?”, you may ask. You know, it was the usual “technical difficulties” … mainly related to the fact that we have some great people that offer us free hosting … things were just in transition for them. But now we can return you to your previously scheduled browsing. Enjoy.

Photo of the FCC Beach Retreat girls in the shirts I made … whoo hoo!

Blogged with Flock

Looks like the cools guys at Naive Clothing and DownTown Rivals have updated theirs stores. Excellent! I went ahead and got a sweet Forever Changed tee for me and a beautious Naive girlie tee for the Jodie. :)

Blogged with Flock

A quick logo I did for the Junior Class’ upcoming Christmas Banquet, Ritzmas! Once Tyler Perkins updates the video trailer on YouTube, I will post a link.

By the way, if you’re ready to get in the holiday spirit, check out this fun “christmas lights” widget for your mac (you can even customize it with all different types!). Nothing says Christmas like big and bright holiday lights!

**Update: As promised, here is the link to Tyler’s YouTube video.

Blogged with Flock

Take a quick trip over to the iTunes Podcast Directory and subscribe to me and Jodie’s first ever podcast, ”Twizzlers at the Movies”!

We are hoping to add more episodes soon, but for now it has our review of the newly released Superman Returns film, which we enjoyed this past Saturday. Feel free to make comments and suggestions about our inaugural episode.

In case you are interested in starting your own podcast, be sure to wade through all the resources and instructions available at Apple site dedicated to podcasting, as well as find a good RSS feed creator like Cast Life.

Blogged with Flock

It was Friday night, I was bored and I had this really big piece of posterboard just sitting on my drawing table … so … here is KittyGirl, in all her brush-applied ink glory! Whatcha think?
By the way, if you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed that I have been doing all my recent blogging using that sweet new Mac OS X browser, Flock. And since it is so pimp, I have also switched most of my RSS feeds over there too. It has some great options (faster loading, double columns, snippets bar, etc.) that put it way ahead of Safari in me being able to keep up-to-date on all the sites I visit.

Here is a quick Flock blurb from their site:

Flock is a free web browser that makes it easier than ever to share photos, stay up-to-date with news from your favorite sites, and search the Web. Take our tour to learn what’s different about Flock, then download the beta to get started - and please tell us what you think.

Blogged with Flock

I really cannot say enough how much I enjoy the work that comes out of Bloo Empire. It is pop and fun and wacky … if it isn’t making me giggle or cheer, it will usually at least make me smile. Hope you enjoy.

Blogged with Flock

Looks like Warner Bros. and Apple have stepped up their united promotion of the upcoming Superman movie. You can now download a free Exclusive Premiere Scene from the move. Be sure to check it out … you know it’s downloading onto my Mac right now!

If you’ve missed any of the trailers, view them here:
Apple - Trailers - Superman Returns - HD

Blogged with Flock

The time of summer is a upon us and if you find yourself with lots of free time like I have, you will need some distractions. Allow me to recommend the following:

• Find your local library and check out some books, movies, and DVDs. Seriously. It’s free and fun!


• Buy a Mac. Okay, so this one isn’t really practical for everyone, but if you got the extra cash it is the perfect way to spend days and days of your free time.


• Flash games and animations. O yeah, these are great time-wasters. My personal favorites include Homestarrunner.com, Orisinal games by Ferry Halim, and animations by Jared Chapman. A brand new fun time I just found out about is Vectorpark.


• Drawn! … one word that will keep you busy for weeks.


• Online home vidoes. You know the ones … crazy people doing crazy things and then posting them online. Get yours at either YouTube.com or Google Video.


• Purevolume.com … enough free music to fill a Bavarian-flavored dump truck … or something else more music related.


• Quicktime Movie trailers. There are plenty and it will get you all set for the great movies coming in the fall.


• And finally, GameHouse.com, where the fun never ends. They have one of the best solitaire games you will find for the Mac and my new personal favorite, Super Collapse. They have the version 1 for free, but if you can’t find it on the site, just get it from my iDisk (the file you want is called ‘CollapseFree.dmg’).

Have you ever arrived at that moment in life when you know that you have wanted to do something important; to get it done and feel good about it; to diligently stive to complete a task, both consistently and on schedule? Have you ever just wanted to start things over again and try once more to succeed?

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Chihuly at the V&A
Written by Dale Chihuly
Edited by Jennifer Hawkins Opie

A great book about many of the works of Dale Chihuly, especially his exhibit at the London V&A. Well written and full of colorful photographs, it is an extraordinary journey along the path that is the life of Chihuly. There are several pages of his preliminary installation sketches and notes, as well as multiple viewings of his painted creations, from which his final glass-blowing is derived.

The text within this book will answer the many questions you probably have about Chihuly - whether they are regarding his initial introduction to glass-blowing, what caused the loss of one eye (thus resulting in his separation from actually, physically, working with the glass-blowing), or simply what provides the inspiration and feeds the style that is so distinctly, Chihuly.

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