http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:cloudmonet&section=today deviantART RSS for by:cloudmonet en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:05:26 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28534330/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28534330/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:39:24 PST
If you want to know how to tell them apart, should they ever be wearing similar clothes, Sara has large blue eyes with some sort of eyelash enhancement, Paris has small brown eyes and kind of a long straight narrow nose. Paris is taller. Her hair is coarser. Sara has paler skin and hair. Sara's probably about 7 years older. Their bodies are slightly differently shaped. From a distance, these distinctions aren't very obvious.


I got the Teen Titan DVDs a couple years ago, but only now got around to watching the whole series in order. I'm somewhere in season 3 at the moment.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28305855/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28305855/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:05:54 PST
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]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28076855/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28076855/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:32:44 PDT
1. Inuyasha. The manga publishing schedule got speeded up from about 4 a year to one a month in July. Currently, it's still just a little farther through the story than the new anime, Inuyasha the final act, but one episode a week will pull far ahead of one manga book a month very soon. So far, it continues to be a good story, better than the plot summaries made it appear.

2. Full Metal Alchemist. These manga books keep coming too. I haven't been paying much attention to the new anime yet. With my online connection, I need DVDs or broadcasts to follow that.

3. Zot. Scott McCloud's superhero appeared in a black and white anthology, which covers issues 11-36. For some reason, only issues 1-4 of the color series were ever collected. I managed to find five of the other six issues used from Amazon. McCloud evidently doesn't think as highly of the first 10 issues, but I like them just fine.

4. Zenozoic Tales. A "tribe" of urban criminals in the drowned ruins of New York City, a hinterland full of dinosaurs, a Cadillac mechanic with an eco-terrorist's protective instincts, and an ambassador from the Washington DC area (Wassoon) who
seems to have gotten converted to the mechanic's beliefs, as well as developing a crush on him. Sad to say, only 14 of these were ever drawn, and for some reason, only the first 12 have ever appeared in book form, even though the second anthologizing was done years after the appearance of 13 and 14. I hate when people can't or won't finish stuff. I have no idea where this was gonna go.

5. Turok Son of Stone. Speaking of dinosaur comics, OMG! Dark Horse has suddenly taken to reprinting the original Dell Comics volumes. I still have issues 11, 13, and 16 through about 30. Within my experience, this started great and sorta fizzled. I ordered the first three volumes, including issues 1-18. I'm very curious about this. Talk about price inflation. At 10 cents an issue, these would have cost me $1.80 if I'd been to the Memphis Sweet Shoppe in Cleveland when these were newly released. Now they cost about $34 for each six-issue volume. True, the paper and binding will be much better, but let this be a lesson to you. Never throw out your comic books!

6. The Friendly Ghost Casper. Uh, yeah. Dark Horse also did a 480 page book of Casper stories from 1950-1965. Issue 1 of the second series, with the shippiest Casper/Wendy story ever, is among the issues included. Why did I ever think this wasn't important enough to hang onto? I still remember the cover, with Casper dreaming of Wendy dreaming of Casper dreaming of Wendy ad infinitum, and the magic spell, "Hasper! Sasper! Change into the image of Casper!" used by the witch sisters to disguise another ghost for their nefarious purposes.

Between all these discoveries and drawing those Halloween pictures, I've gotten a bit out of rhythm with Molly Blue. In the name of my frustration over Xenozoic Tales, not to mention The Great Tale of Earendel, which Tolkien never got around to writing, I will finish Molly Blue, however long it takes. But my subconscious is still working on the best way to disarm those piratesses so we can have a real fight!

I'm a bit disorientated. I need Steve to splash the water so I can wiggle my armored tail and scoot back into in, but alas, there's no more Steve either. I almost wrote the correct form, "disoriented," it's been so long.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28047379/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/28047379/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:29:47 PDT
So let's see.

Nadia turns 15 late in the show, doesn't know she's Atlantean, much less their princess, and the more she learns about them, the more she hates them.

Kida's several thousand years old, though she looks about 25, and has been an active leader of her people since birth. Not too much similarity there!

Jean is a young French boy about Nadia's age, who designs boats and flying machines with his uncle. He has a very positive, go-get-em attitude.

Milo is a shy linguistics professor, probably about 25-30 years old, with a personality far more like songwriting Roger from 101 Dalmations than anyone I've ever seen in any anime.

The relationships may have some similarity, in that both Nadia and Kida are (sometimes) impressed with Jean's and Milo's practical skills, but the Nadia show has so much more time to develop the romance (too much time, perhaps). And both Nadia and Kida can lose their wills and personalities from augmented mystic amulet overdose. But the situations where this happens are very different.

The Atlanteans in Disney's Atlantis are an isolated tribe, more or less helpless against 1914 American adventurers.

The Neo-Atlanteans from Nadia are a bunch of evil world-conquerers, against whom the Earth of 1890 is pretty helpless. Kinda the exact opposite.

The submarine crew of Nemo's Nautilus in Nadia are pretty much your "straight" anime crew, as opposed to crew of misfits (about equally common). The three jewel thieves take on the misfit roles.

Disney's submarine has a crew of misfits, though they are a pretty tight unit. They're all hyperactive jive-talkers like Aladdin's Genie! That's right, a whole crew of Genies! How much comic relief can you take, seriously?

Nadia kind of reminded me of a older Disney movie, at least until she started bathing onscreen, but Atlantis shows just how far Disney had diverged by this time. The tendency toward wild personalities that begins with Cinderella's stepsisters and Cruella DeVille, got accentuated by Genie, Timon and Pumbaa, and kinda goes a little too far in Atlantis. No wait, I have seen this in classic Disney! Alice in Wonderland!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27931231/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27931231/ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:23:43 PDT
Well, Wikipedia's article on the series points out that the director (better known as the Neon Genesis Evangelion guy) had some trouble producing the series, and gave episodes 23 through 34 to an assistant.

I'll admit the episodes produced by this assistant are somewhat erratic in quality. Adventure took a back seat to comedy and romance for awhile. All the other characters behaved more or less consistently, but poor Nadia herself was stretched this way and that to the limit and maybe further. I'm torn between interpreting some of what she does as the result of a lot of stress (a vegetarian marooned on an island without fruit?) and just saying, okay, the assistant director took her out of character.

Her random crush on a native dude in episode 32-33 after the intense bonding with Jean (the inventor boy) in episode 31 is especially hard to explain. It's as if Katara's crushes on Haru or Jet happened after "The Crossroads of Destiny" rather than very early in the show.

The main director says of this stretch, he'd just keep episodes 30-31, the one stretch where the main story gets advanced. I think this is a bit harsh. There are moments in the 23-29 stretch that are really touching, though some that are kinda cringeworthy.

You may, however safely skip episode 34. They did a freaking musical episode?! Yeah, they did, and it's mostly a clipshow. It does kinda show what various characters are thinking and remembering on the eve of the five part finale, and there may be some value to this, but it's not required. Most of the songs, at least in English, and gloriously, stupendously BAD! Oh my god! Funnier than any of the comedy, but maybe not intentionally.

Then we come to the five part finale. Okay, it kinda rehashes the idea of Nadia being captured and used by the evil Prime Minister again. I so wanted to see her pwn him, somehow, even if this was totally against her ideals. It takes repeated pwning to end this dude, and his scheme, and come to think of it, Nadia does deal him the final pwn, unintentionally, while trying to revive Jean.

I don't think it's too much a spoiler to reveal that almost all the good guys have happy endings— this is a suffiently old-school show for that to be expected, though it certainly was hard to achieve.

Favorite shippy moment: Jean gets hugged by a nude Nadia in episode 31. Gasp! I totally wasn't expecting that. She tells him to close his eyes. Somehow she went through a wall and her clothes didn't. I guess these things happen. But then she tells him to open his eyes and just hugs him.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27842354/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27842354/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:51:20 PDT
I'm deep into Nadia now, episode 20. The villanous Neo-Atlanteans have set another cunning trap for the Nautilus. On one hand these guys all wear sinister masks, wear black Ku Klux Klan robes, and give their fearless leader Hitlerian salutes— seriously, how many WE ARE EVIL markers do these guys require? Their behavior alone is plenty! But I've gotta give them credit. In addition to doomsday weapons, they've cornered the wool trade, and control 2 or 3 percent of the world's currency. If you're serious about conquering the world, economic warfare helps.

And we've got a boy who wants to grow up fast to impress the girl who calls him a child, but wait a minute, she doesn't want to grow up at all herself. Kind of like the Aang/Katara sitch in reverse.

The amount of death shown is slowly ratcheting up— we're out of the Disney range now, though the story still feels Disney-esque. Well, except for the part where Electra, Nadia, and little Marie all take a bath together. Yeah, okay, it's an anime after all. Nadia, hate to tell you, but if you don't want to grow up, it's too late. Really, really too late.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27761575/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27761575/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:03:55 PDT
Page 217 of Molly Blue just got inked last night. I alternate between printing the pencils in cyan or magenta to stretch the color ink cartridge as far as possible, 217 was in magenta. After I scan the inked pencils, I use photoshop's "hue/saturation" to make the cyan or magenta go to white.

I finished watching the first season of Genshikan, a relatively new anime about a college club devoted to collectors of anime, manga, games, and models, that';s really quite hilarious.

Now I'm watching Nadia, Secret of Blue Water, an old anime show from 1989/1990. So far, episode 5, it's very like either a Disney work or an early Hideo Miyasaki film. Nadia herself, with her brown skin and blue eyes, and tough but basically sweet disposition, reminds me a lot of Avatar's Katara. Captain Nemo himself prefigures later anime angsty ship captains like Last Exile's Alex Rowe, or Glass Fleet's Kleo. So far he hasn't said much, and his face is deeply shadowed by his captain's hat, but he's obviously angsty. It's his body language or something.

Meanwhile John Fogerty randomly decided to do another bluegrass album. Half the songs sound like the sort of love and cheating stuff you'd expect from any kind of country stuff, but the other half is protest songs and oldies from the fifties, as well as one new Creedence-type song about global warming and hurricanes. My favorite is Haunted House:

Still I made up my mind to stay.
Nothin' was gonna drive me away.
Then I saw something that give me the creeps,
had one big eye and two big feet.

Yeah, that song, with its saxophones replaced by fiddles and banjoes. I never could quite understand all the words in the original, didn't get that the guy sitting on the stove in the second verse was supposed to be a devil, never understood that the singer was holding a hunk of raw meat because he was cooking dinner. Say yes I'll be here when the morning comes.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27489699/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27489699/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:23:48 PDT
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]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27112965/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/27112965/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:19:35 PDT
So do I have an excuse or reason for the slowdown? Okay, I'll admit I haven't been in the greatest of moods for awhile, though drawing Molly helps improve my outlook.

I was this slow when I was working on the jailbreak series— those backgrounds inside the jail were a nightmare, and I had trouble with the police cars too. I think it took a few months, then I suddenly uploaded about 12 pages.

And again for the battle between Molly and Lord Kurath— I had to design him, and prepare backgrounds of the street where they fought from several directions.

I guess similar things are happening now. Drawing a mountain or cave or stream valley is easy for me. Dealing with street scenes or funky apartments takes me longer. Just a matter of what I've already had more practice drawing, I suppose. There could be gunfights between the pirates and cops, or other altercations.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26934727/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26934727/ Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:36:01 PDT one page of pirates, and now the start of more John Churchill business. I'm really not sure how long I'll follow that before cutting back to either the pirates or Molly. But I've been doing 4-page groups ever since page 101-104, so I think I'll stick to that.

I just finished an anime called Welcome to the NHK, about which I'm tempted to go on and on about, but I think my son wants the internet, so I'll cut it short.

The main character, Sato, takes agoraphobia to a whole new level. He does regain a bunch of old friends, but they're all crazed in one way or another. Even Misaki, the girl who's trying to help him, has world-class self-esteem issues. Weirdest love story ever, and yet it's a really good one.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26781675/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26781675/ Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:35:42 PDT
Either she, or some third party, somehow added "Plplpm" to my deviant watch list. How is this possible? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26510928/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26510928/ Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:25:13 PDT
What can I say? I'm drawing and coloring them as fast as I can as the story rushes toward another battle, even while occasionally experimenting with new coloring techniques. I particularly like the closeups of Molly and Rupert in the water, and the two half-page panels at the top of 186 and bottom of 188.

Big landscape backgrounds are so much fun, and look nice, too. Sometimes I have fantasies of writing a short comic with instructions on how to put backgrounds together with figures. It really isn't hard to build an outdoor scene. If anyone's interested, let me know.

Buildings are a different issue, not quite as much fun and a bit trickier, but a lot of stuff happens in rooms. I was just watching the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon, which takes place at Versailles. Talk about spectacular rooms! I don't think Hugo's archipelego kingdom has anything that fancy, but still, I imagine the palace is pretty special.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26319241/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26319241/ Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:56:16 PDT
This is also delaying the NEXT four pages, because at least one of them already had a scene of Harry reloading the cannon by hand, which needed the same changes. I'm done with that now, but I'm still coloring page 183, and haven't started 184, which is getting close to the next change of scene, so I'm not even sure what this page will be about!

Meanwhile, I just cut down a 27 inch douglas fir tree which was leaning slightly toward my house. It only took ten hours to bring it down, and now I'm sore, tired, and overslept. Oh well. It did land exactly where I wanted it to, after being stuck in a madrone. It fell just a little too slowly to smash its way to the ground, till I finally got the chain off.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26262273/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26262273/ Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:12:55 PDT
This was one reason I held back on releasing the jail escape series till there were about 15 pages. I don't want to do anything like that again.

I'm also cutting firewood for next winter, since my stamina to do this has gotten limited compared to even a few years ago, Rather than completely burning myself out in late August and September, I'm doing small amounts every day, a bit early.

I just finished watching Escaflowne, and I'm not sure which one is next.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26149430/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/26149430/ Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:27:19 PDT
What's it gonna be like when I have a palace to deal with, and a much larger capital city on Mukala Nai?

At least there's nothing on this world like New York City or Ba Sing Se!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25779036/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25779036/ Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:43:14 PDT
Okay, what else was I gonna say? This upload pushed the new Kim pictures off the front page, so, hey, there's new Kim pictures in the gallery. Thanks to the folks who faved them and commented.

I finished watching Gurren Lagann, which pretty much is as good as the hype. Now I'm watching Glass Fleet.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25778589/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25778589/ Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:18:17 PDT
]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25736659/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25736659/ Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:11:16 PDT

1. Your Name:

2. Age:

3. Single or Taken:

4. Favourite Film:

5. Favourite Song or Album:

6. Favourite Band/Artist:

7. Dirty or Clean:

8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:

9. Do we know each other outside of dA?

10. What's your philosophy on life?

11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?

12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?

13. What is your favourite memory of us?

14. What is your favourite guilty pleasure?

15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:

16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarkey) - what are they?

17. Can we get together and make a cake?

18. Which country is your spiritual home?

19. What is your big weakness?

20. Do you think I'm a good person?

21. What was your best/favourite subject at school?

22. Describe your accent:

23. If you could change anything about me, would you?

24. What do you wear to sleep?

25. Trousers or skirts?

26. Cigarettes or alcohol?

27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?

28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25608241/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25608241/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:52:03 PDT
Meanwhile, Molly and Rupert continue demonic sword practice.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25377446/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25377446/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:17:52 PDT
I've noticed some artists here occasionally note of how long a particular picture took them to make. Well, drawing, modifying, and assembling the pencils of Molly Blue 164 took about 4 hours, the balloons took about another hour (why so long? No clue. I guess I'm just fussy.) Printing the pencils (in magenta or cyan— I used magenta this time) took almost half an hour (I blame my printer). Inking took another hour. Scanning and processing the inks (to get rid of the magenta, among other things), another hour. About an hour for basic coloring, and three more for details.

What really varies the most is how longh the basic drawing takes. This can be as little as an hour and as much as several days, depending. And I didn't count writing as a separate process because it wasn't this time, but sometimes it is.

But all that really matters is looking good and reading well.

UPDATE! 34997?! Holy @#$#!! I almost got it myself!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25258443/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25258443/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:33:43 PDT
And have four more pages of Molly Blue.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25131162/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25131162/ Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:42:02 PDT
]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25001680/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/25001680/ Thu, 28 May 2009 17:00:29 PDT
I just finished watching KURAU PHANTOM MEMORY, another Bones anime series. This one's built around the loving relationship between two globs of yellow light who are imbedded in a 22 year old Japanese/Swiss crime-fighter named Kurau, and her 12 year old clone, Christmas, and the Global Police Organization (GPO) who keep harassing them for, um, existing.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24791993/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24791993/ Sat, 16 May 2009 18:15:11 PDT
]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24636336/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24636336/ Thu, 07 May 2009 14:21:00 PDT
I got the new Bob Dylan and I've listened to it a couple of times. His voice is hoarser than ever, but he still manages to make it an expressive and emotional instrument. This one doesn't have the regular fast song/slow song alternation of Love and Theft and Modern Times, and the horns and accordian add a new character to what are mostly blues tunes. Robert Hunter helped out with the lyrics this time, but Dylan seems to dominate. Except for a line or two, it all sounds more like Dylan lyrics than Hunter lyrics. The songs are a bit shorter, mostly in the 3-5 minute range, so the album's also a bit shorter.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24589544/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24589544/ Mon, 04 May 2009 18:05:52 PDT
I got a Paul McCartney DVD last week, "The McCartney Years," featuring almost all of his post-Beatle music videos.

I have two new favorite songs, the first, "Mull of Kintyre," which was Paul McCartney's best-selling single of all in Great Britain, but totally obscure in America. It's a sentimental song about his home in southwest Scotland, featuring the local town's bagpipe band. The video shows the coast, kind of like Oregon or Washington, and all his neighbors.

The other, "C.Moon," probably isn't the greatest of songs, but it's got a funky sorta reggae sound. I've heard this one before, but never realised what it was all about, till in the commentary Paul explained that "L7" means "square," in the beatnik sense of "un-hip," and "C-moon" was his own invention, meaning "round," thus logically, "un-square" or "hip."

Songs probably shouldn't require footnotes, but at least now I know what

All the people older than me
never seem to understand
the things I want to do.
It will be L-7
and I'll never get to heaven
if I fill my head with glue.
What's it all to you?

is supposed to mean.

Not being able to hear or understand the "L7" line originally, It kinda sounded like the oldsters were telling him he'd never get to heaven if he sniffed glue or something, but now it's clear that by "glue" he meant the sort of knowledge that gets people stuck in their ways. Not real well expressed, but the melody and funky sound are irresistable, and now I've got it in my head half the time.

Actually most of the songs I've never heard are pretty good. Paul was at his weakest when he tried to do disco, although some of these have the most entertaining videos, so it's never really a loss.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24540939/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24540939/ Sat, 02 May 2009 00:58:34 PDT
Somebody once did a graphic-novel version of "The Hobbit," which would have been great (it was loyal to Tolkien and the character design was good) except it just tried to cram too many words in to every panel to the detriment of the art. In Molly Blue, I try to tighten the dialog as much as possible, to say the most with the least, if you will. It is kinda like writing poetry.

What I've got feels okay, even has some nice dramatic moments, but I've gotta figure out what matters and what doesn't.

Sometimes actually drawing the scenes tightens things up. It did at Evan's breakfast table, and in the branches of the big tree.

Up on the hilltop, the drawings came first.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24482581/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24482581/ Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:21:29 PDT
Okay, I think I can calm down now. No, I can't! Squeeee!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24396096/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24396096/ Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:08:43 PDT
- - - - - - - - - -

Seems like more than a few artists I'm watching are going through existential bummers right now.

1) People fave without commenting.

Well, duh, it's easier to just say "I like this" than to play critic and try to figure out why. Either one is positive feedback. Quit being so grumpy.

2) A variant of this, which may be rare but was expressed quite vehemently was, Why are these people faving half my gallery? Humph! Anyone who does this gets blocked.

WTF? Does this make any sense at all? Anyone who wants to fave my whole gallery, go right ahead. I may be just that awesome.

3) Nobody hires me to do commissions.

Well, many of us are artists ourselves. I know if I want to see some drawing that doesn't already exist, I'll just try to draw it myself.

4) I hate my fans.

Oooh- kay, stepping away slowly.

5) My art sucks.

It's seldom people whose art actually does suck who say anything like this. Never let your inner critic get ahead of your inner artist. It won't make you greater, just unhappy.

- - - - - - - - - -

I could offer my own complaint— journal entries so overloaded with thumbnails and avatars that they take forever to load unless I'm at a really hot hotspot, but you'll just tell me to shut up and get high speed.

- - - - - - - - - -

It's a bright sunny day, not too hot, not too cold. The wind chimes are ringing. The sprinkler's going out in the garden. The California Blue rhododendron bush is blooming. I wouldn't quite call the flowers blue. Purple, maybe. Okay, my present girlfriend situation is a bit on the lame side, but—

I'm happily wrapped up in what I'm doing for now. No real bummers at all.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24300458/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24300458/ Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:20:32 PDT
According to various internet voices, John Lennon was just playing with words when he wrote "Dig a Pony," but some of the phrases from this seem bumper-sticker worthy:

You can celebrate anything you want.

You can penetrate any place you go.

You can radiate everything you are.

You can imitate everyone you know.

The third verse's analogous phrases, "You can indicate anything you see," and "You can syndicate any boat you row," really are pretty random.

But while I'm talking random, some of the lines from Revolution 9 seem strangely resonant recently:

Everyone had the view that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a little bit slower.

and, prophecizing The Great Recession:

Industrial output!
Financial imbalance!
The Watusi!
The Twist!
El Dorado!
Take this, brother, may it serve you well.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24260139/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24260139/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:25:20 PDT Kim Possible fanfiction writer and fanartist Commander Artist has died in a bicycle accident sometime since his last appearance here. Here's Grandpa RD's obit at Ron Stoppable's Really Neat Page: [link]age=1

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24182311/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24182311/ Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:33:30 PDT
]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24115097/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/24115097/ Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:07:02 PDT
What's really amazing is it's only been a week since my last submission, but by the deviation numbers, there's about a million more pictures here since then! A million deviations added every week?! No wonder rule enforcement seems random. How could it possibly be otherwise?

But I am contributing more than my share.

Molly-Blue-100-112916218
Molly-Blue-110-115561868
Molly-Blue-118-117403424
Molly-Blue-124-118467279

As of page 118, one out of every million deviations is a page of Molly Blue, and the proportion is slowly rising. It can't get any higher than 1 out of every 250,000 though, unless I speed up or the overall submission rate drops, neither of which is very likely.

I've been doing almost four pages every 7-10 days for awhile now. How the manga artists manage 18 pages a week, even with assistants doing backgrounds, mystifies me. Even working full-time, like every hour I'm AWAKE, it takes me a whole day to write, draw, ink, and color one of these. Unless there's barn rafter trusses or some other complicated indoor background problems.

I drew the inside of Evan and Kela's hut from at least five different angles, all the way around the circle. I found this considerably easier than all the rectangular rooms I've had to deal with before, like the mayor's living room, or the guard's room at the jail, probably because I live in a house with lots of (nearly) round rooms— I usually work either in the 16-sided polygon or the decagon.

I've been pretty sick the past several weeks with chest congestion or whatever, not real able to do much of anything but draw. I think I'm getting better now. Inspired by Kela's superior housekeeping, I vacuumed the floors.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23937776/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23937776/ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:52:57 PDT
As for Molly Blue on my own server, I'll try again, but I have the feeling this problem won't get solved till Monday.

(somewhat later) Ooh, hey, I made the cmp server work too, added the new pages, updated the navigation system, all that good stuff (/somewhat later)

I hope DA survives the Great Recession okay— I notice they've come up with all kinds of new ways to tell me they'd really like me to pay for a subscription. Uh, with what? That's the trouble.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23935096/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23935096/ Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:58:38 PDT
The servers are not serving.

- - - - - - -

Well, at least it let me post this.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23767423/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23767423/ Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:47:36 PDT
I'm still feeling bleech! and can't think of much else to talk about.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23641296/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23641296/ Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:08:30 PDT
I'm kind of wrecked, with a sore throat and cough. What a time for the poetry reading this Monday to be missing its usual mike and amp! My voice rose to the occasion, but I'm completely hoarse now.

I guess I should upload the new pages to my own website now, read some news, maybe have a cup of tea.

----------

Update, about an hour later. Know what I discovered? I forgot Freud's croaks. It's not an absolute thing, but usually a frogman will say "Croak!" when beginning to speak. It's been quite awhile since Freud's had anything to say. Well, I'm fixing this.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23517274/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23517274/ Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:20:28 PST [edit] I just noticed the DA Molly navigation page only had links through page 100. I fixed this. Sorry bout that.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I missed the Brendon Frasier Journey to the Center of the Earth in theaters, but just recently got the DVD. Well, it pretty much covers the same territory as the 1959 movie— caves, sand traps, mushroom forest, beach, underground ocean, and a volcano on the other side that takes you to Italy, though I think this time we get belched out Vesuvius instead of Stromboli. Completely different characters, though. Understandably, since it's more than 150 years after the expedition in Jules Verne's book. This plays more like a sequel to the l959 movie, though. Parallel to that, we still have a geology prof, a Nordic babe, and, instead of a young lab assistant, a kid. And this movie's Icelandic woman, Hanna something or other, is every bit as feisty as Carla Goettenburg from the 1959 movie.

So these people just want to find out what happened to the kid's father. If you're not willing to walk for several months to get to the deeply underground Mushroom Coast, you have to fall in. Okay, the explanation for how they managed to not go splut is vague, but I guess terminal velocity into a deep enough pool of water just might be survivable. At least in a movie.

The mushrooms were gorgeous! And we have glowy blue hummingbirds, or something, one of whom acts as a wise animal guide to the kid when he gets separated.

No 45 foot long dimetrodons this time— real dimetrodons only grew to about 10 feet long, by the way— but there was a school of pleisiosaurs chomping on some flying fish pirahnas, and a theropod, both comparably oversized to the earlier movie's dimetrodons. What the hell, they've had 65 million years since the asteroid hit to evolve even bigger, so why not?

The theropod did rather resemble a Tyrannosaurus, but with a head more than 10 feet long, I'd estimate body size at 80-100 feet. And it was hyperactive, too.

But the biggest one of all was the 15 foot skull they used for a boat to ride the steam and lava to the surface. You couldn't use a real theropod skull of any size for a boat— it's way too full of holes! But these were as conveniently as solid as mammal skulls.

And there were new thrills, like floating rocks, and giant Venus flytraps. This place is like the deep sea— almost everything's a carnivore! I don't know what the trophic basis for this ecosystem is. And if it periodically gets so hot in there that all the water boils, how the heck do the dinosaurs survive. This was kind of thought through, but not quite enough.

Beautiful scenery and creatures, though, and the characters eventually outgrew their stereotypes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The complete Molly Blue story is now uploaded at my personal website!

You'll have to click twice to get there, because you'll be interrupted by DA's new annoying "You are leaving Deviant Art. Here be monsters!" warning. If they'd just let the bloody links show as they are instead of displaying as "link," you'd KNOW where you're going without this annoying delay!

Here's the beginning of the story: [link]
And here's the navigation page: [link]

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23426489/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23426489/ Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:00:00 PST
You'll have to click twice to get there, because you'll be interrupted by DA's new annoying "You are leaving Deviant Art. Here be monsters!" warning. If they'd just let the bloody links show as they are instead of displaying as "link," you'd KNOW where you're going without this annoying delay!

Here's the beginning of the story: [link]
And here's the navigation page: [link]

The pages will load in pairs side-by-side, the way I designed them to be seen, unless your screen is too small, in which case just scroll. This should make it much quicker to load and read. Even on my awful remote rural dialup, each pair of pages loads in about 35 seconds, so it should come in pretty fast for most of you.

Enjoy!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23353867/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23353867/ Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:23:43 PST
(Though there is something wrong with the brand-new blowup of Molly and Rupert dancing— and I haven't figured out just what yet!)

So a number of the earlier pages have been repaired. They haven't ended up looking very different than they did before, just, uh, better.

And then there's page 105 and beyond, which I'm pretty excited about.

Drawing Molly is one of the least expensive ways I can spend my time, and economy is getting important. A four dollar ream of paper will get me pencils and inks for about 45 pages, apparently. 500 sheets of paper for 45 pages? Well, a six panel page can easily have separate drawings for each figure, and backgrounds, which sometimes have multiple layers. The whole story to date is a box of papers 5 inches thick.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23298382/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23298382/ Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:18:16 PST
- - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, Molly Blue has reached a couple of potentially life-changing moments. Have you been waiting for shipping? Was the mayor's affair with his marroed secretary not enough? Kohimu's no longer requited love for Molly existing only in his dreams? Molly's occasional flirts with Rupert no more than an ambiguous shippy shoulder touch? Well— ships are starting to sail now, and as you can see, not just with the traveling car thief and the farmer's daughter!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23202201/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23202201/ Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:22:50 PST
Meet Earlene, the eldest, Eleanor, with hair like Kagome or Lina Inverse, Emily, who looks like a preteen Molly, and little Ethel, who looks rather like Lil Orphan Annie or Harpo Marx. There's two more to come.

- - - - - - - - - -

I'm working on having a version of Molly Blue at the Carl Miller Poems/Cloudmonet website, for easier and quicker reading of the whole story. This may be finished and online in a few days or weeks, depending on how busy I get drawing pages 101 and onwards.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23155865/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23155865/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:58:44 PST The Voyage of the Beagle, when he leaves Brazil for the last time on his way home. Anyway, since I'm sure the most attention's going to Lincoln, I'll offer this poem in Darwin's honor:


Charles Darwin Facing Innocence


On an island of dreams, a large iguana
was methodically digging a burrow,
clawing away the hot afternoon dust.

When a curious man who was watching
pulled its tail to drag it out of its hole,
it slowly turned, flapping feet on the dust,
raised its forelegs and looked into his face
as if surprised, indignant, and confused.

He looked at the bright eyes blinking sunlight
on its crested, scaly head, thinking how,
having no instinctive fear of humans,
it responded with curiosity
instead of programmed threat or flight.

The lizard returned to digging its hole;
the scientist verbalized its reaction
in his notes as, “What made you pull my tail?”

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23060788/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/23060788/ Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:25:27 PST
But the idea that tracing itself doesn't involve artistic ability?

Why, if you believe that, try letting a non-artist ink your pencils!

That's what I was thinking of as I was inking Molly Blue page 95, a couple days back. Hey, I'm tracing! And it's really not that easy a thing to do well! A lot harder than, say, taking a photograph— and there's several sections of Deviant Art devoted to photography! Not to mention museums.

And then, shall I mention the patron saint of tracing himself, Roy Lichtenstein? He's the guy who blew up pages from comic strips to mammoth size, even hand painting all the little color dots! His work's in real museums.

When I was a kid, reading Batman or The Flash (Marvel hadn't been invented yet) or Turok and Tarzan, it made a huge difference which artist drew the panels— not that they were always credited back then, but it was easy to recognize different styles. It also mattered who did the inks. This could also alter the appearance of the panels. Inkers are credited in comic books today, right beside whoever drew the pencils.

------------

Of course there is new technology to consider. If inking with Illustrator's bezier curves and all is art, what about tracing bezier curves with bezier curves? (Am I spelling "bezier" right? Unsure.) That seems kind of like taking a photo of another photo. If the original photo is someone else's work, they certainly have the right to complain!

------------

Even Roy Lichtenstein eventually silk-screened the little color dots! Or used some mechanical process to make it easier, anyway.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22945781/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22945781/ Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:41:23 PST
Before she wakes up again, I have to make up names for Lady Ellesmere and their six giggling daughters.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22892938/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22892938/ Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:33:42 PST
Rules: Copy to your own journal, erase my answers and enter yours. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real... nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Carl
2. A four letter word: cute
3. A boy's name: Cedrick
4. A girl's name: Celia
5. An occupation: checker
6. A color: chartreuse
7. Something you wear: corderoy
9. A food: chop suey
10. Something found in the bathroom: cold water faucet
11. A place: California
12. A reason for being late: car won’t start
13. Something you shout: Come here!
14. A movie title: Casablanca
15. Something you drink: cider
16. A musical group: Crosby, Stills, and Nash
17. An animal: cougar
18. A street name: Cedar Street
19. A type of car: Camry
20. The title of a song: Can’t Buy Me Love

Well, it wasn’t harder than it looks.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22732288/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22732288/ Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:25:56 PST
I like the journal history feature. Okay, it's almost all previews for that Kim Possible Africa story right now. But writing that is pretty much all I did in November and December.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22719217/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22719217/ Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:37:57 PST
]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22456611/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22456611/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:55:41 PST
Here's the cloudmonet website version: [link]

and here's the FanFiction.net version: [link]

It has 10 roughly 5000 word chapters— posting it here would mean 10 deviations, so unless there's special demand, I think I'll pass. If you're a DA member but not an FF member, I've got "guest" review enabled. Or you can just comment here if you prefer.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22363634/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22363634/ Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:48:02 PST
Everybody loves her, too. The preteen daughter of her late mechanic; and her new mechanic, a redhaired boy; and the femme fatale assassin/school nurse (you don't need leotards to have a secret identity, I guess) who has a lesbian crush on her. But the one she likes the best is of course the mellow alien guy.

The world's run by a bunch of third-eye people known as the Third. Honoka has a third-eye too, but hers is the wrong color. And they thought she was defective. Stupid Thirds!

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22130780/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22130780/ Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:27:37 PST
If I wasn't writing this story, I'd spend more time raving about what a wonderful anime Solty Rei is. It's a heartwarming show about family bonding and bounty hunting in a crime-ridden city. Uh, yeah, I'm not kidding, and this actually works.

----====----====----====----====----
----====----====----====----====----

“Really?” said Kim. “I think that’s a great idea! What do the rest of you think?”
“Booo yaah,” Ron said, slowly and emphatically.
“I’ll go with booyah,” said Maria.
“Ya, I t’ink we don’t object at all,” said Hans.

-----

“Ron, you’re hopelessly naive,” Kim said, pulling him down onto the sleeping bags and snuggling into his arms. “Most guys aren’t like you at all.”

-----

“Oh yeah?” Wade asked. “Do you know who she set on me? This is THE Kolya Dragonov, author of the Leonardo virus, the Viennese Waltz virus, the Sally Hemings Loves Thomas Jefferson virus, the Pope Leo VIII worm, the Soyuz Capsule worm, the Sparkling Nematode, the Kofi Annan Trojan, and possibly the Blood of the Martyrs virus.”

“Nyet,” said Kolya. “You are mishtaken. I would never write shuch primitiff worm as Shparklink Nematode, and did not write de Blood of de Martyrs.

-----

“You put your hand on your heart and promise us right now,” Ellen repeated, raising her blaster.

“Ellen!” Stephen said sharply. “What would Jesus do?”

“He got betrayed,” Ellen replied.

-----

“How many do we have left?”
Ron counted them twice. “Uh, five.”

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22023492/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/22023492/ Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:03:57 PST
The preview moments have to get shorter and shorter to avoid being spoilers.

1.
“What?!” Kim exclaimed. “Give me just a moment. I’ll be right there! Kim out.” She put the kimmunicator face down, pulled on her uniform shorts, and yelled, “Ron, wake up!”

2.
Stephen and Ellen held hands while they carried back their bowls and spoons, and hugged before separating to go into the boys’ and girls’ tents.
“When did that happen?” Kim asked.

3.
“We never should have done anything,” Kim said.
“I agree, but what do we do now?” asked Luther Tully.

4.
“You realize SNN has people who can hack you back,” said Kim. “Let her come. We’ll deal with her somehow. Oh, no!” The image on the screen was suddenly replaced by a series of progress bars and spinning clock faces.

5.
“T’at’s okay, we mmph—”
“Dude, don’t try to talk and kiss at the same time,” said Ron.

6.
“Sorry, we ran out of nubile hostages,” Maria said.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21906230/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21906230/ Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:46:37 PST

5 teaser moments from Chapter 5!

1.
Now that the weather was clear, Wade had a much clearer view of the airport and the rest of Kitanga. There were 123 troop carriers parked on the runway, and eight others prowling the streets. Gangs of soldiers were going house to house, looting and occasionally taking prisoners.

2.
Ron snatched the kimmunicator. “Chill, Monique,” he said. “We’re all working hard here. Kim and I may be eating dinner at the moment with Bones, Marsha, and Ellen, but other folks are busy cutting and welding, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it. Don’t bug us about stuff in the middle of a mission unless you can tell us something about the enemy we don’t know, ’kay?” Ron gave the kimmunicator back to Kim.

3.
“So, do you know what it is?” Kim asked Wade. “Should we open it here or try to roll it back to camp? I’m supposing everything here, including the packing, could be of some use.”
“For now, let’s just call it an anonymous donation, and no, I don’t know exactly what’s in it,” Wade replied. “If you can drop it from a jet without a chute, I suppose you can roll it, that is, if it’s not too heavy.”
“I guess it weighs about a ton,” said Dieter. “Let’s give it a push and see.”
It took a few moments to organize everybody into positions where they could all push or tug on the bundle, and it moved more easily than they expected. Slowly they rolled it toward the fence, slightly downhill, but not steep enough for the package to roll on its own. The sky brightened toward dawn as they got it inside the gate, like a group of worker ants wrestling some awkward food item back to the colony.

4.
“Uh, well, okay,” Stephen said hesitantly, offering Rufus a spoonful of beans.
“Yum,” Rufus said. “Thank ’oo.”
“Sometimes I almost think I can understand what he’s saying,” said Ellen.
“Yeah, well, that’s the problem,” said Ron. “There’s molerats living under the roots of the tree near Bones and Marsha’s tent, but they can’t understand him cause he speaks English and they just speak molerat.”
“Blah blah blah, blah blah blah,” Rufus said, and shrugged.
“He can’t figure them out,” said Ron.
“Ron’s kidding, isn’t he?” Marsha asked Kim.

5.
“I guess. Wanna unsnap me?”
“Kim, it’s still totally daylight.”
Dot dot da-dot!
“Oh, for—” Kim muttered, and grabbed a black tank top and pulled it on. With a careful eye on where the kimmunicator’s camera lens was aimed, she said, “Hey, uh, ooh, Mom. What a surprise! What’s happening?”

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21849150/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21849150/ Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:04:35 PST
I was down on a frown
when a messenger brought me a letter.
I was raised by the praise
of a fan who said I upset her.
Any girl in the world
could have easily known me better.
She said, "You're strange, but don't change,"
and I let her.
—Neil Young, "Mr. Soul"

Ah yeah, those were the days!

FORTY YEARS AGO NEXT MONDAY?!!!! How can this be? In my head, it's still 1968, when it's not either 1964 or 1972!

What substitutes for the greatness in music that was then is the present-time greatness in anime and cartoons! Oh yeah, Eureka 7 is so filled with the sixties— and so is Futurama and Kim Possible! Not really surprising, given that many of the guys behind these shows are about my age.

--------

The new Kim story's nearing the end of chapter 5. I'm thinking 6 or 7 chapters should do it, but a week ago I thought 5 would be plenty, so don't believe me.

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21791051/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21791051/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:42:25 PST
Kinda like Molly Blue. I kinda had to let the next pages of her adventure gestate for awhile— or maybe hibernate, since this Kim story's gotten so long.

So have a preview of, uh, chapter 4. This is getting harder to do without giving too much away.

=================

The next day three trucks arrived with new drivers, full loads, and UN guards, who exchanged pleasantries with Hans and Dieter. The villagers looked warily at the four peacekeepers, and none of the children dared approach the gate till Kim appeared.

“Who are these soldiers?” Nanano asked Kim.

“They’re UN soldiers,” she replied.

Nanano translated this to the two men who came with her, who discussed this with each other.

“Why are they here?” Nanano asked. “I’m wondering this, and so are the men.”

---------------

“Ron, that’s brilliant!” said Kim

“I’ve done things kinda like that myself a few times. There’s this new game, Junta General Two, and—”

Kim laughed. “Well, it sounded brilliant.”

“I’ll have you know that a lot of strategy and simulation games have pretty sophisticated scenario models behind them,” Ron said defensively.

“Well, if you were playing this game as Matombe, what would you do next?”

---------------

Every now and then, Kim would stop in response to some rustle or other sound, and shine the light around the trees. Most of the noises led her light to the shining eyes of some small mammal on a branch, but one loud noise proved to be some kind of long-legged spotted cat, smaller than a leopard or cheetah, which quickly lept out of sight.

---------------

Both this most recent discussion, and Ron’s own bad dreams, had him enough on edge that he snapped awake the instant Kim moved out of his arms. Gloomy daylight filled the tent, and it was raining hard. Kim was adjusting the straps over her shoulders.

“Morning, Kim,” said Ron.

---------------

The side road was in slightly better shape at first, probably from having less traffic. Then there started being ditches, sending water across the road. One of them was three feet wide and two feet deep. The rain had stopped, but it was still half filled with water.

“I can’t see driving across this very easily,” said Kim. “I guess no one’s been in and out since the rains started two weeks ago.”

]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21673386/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21673386/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:45:38 PST l-o-n-g ways off! I'm amazed by this thing. I just hope I can guide it toward an ending worthy of what's already written.

I can think of a number of KP fans I know who probably won't like this at all for religious reasons. Some won't like the M-rated romance. Some may think it's boring. I know I'm not writing for everyone here.

I thought I'd already done everything I could do with Kim and Ron— but I know I've never done anything quite like this! It's gonna be different, very serious and pretty funny.

Am I gonna illustrate it at all? It's sort of a summer vacation story. Kim and Ron could have taken pictures of themselves, and some of the people they're working with.

Kim's parents have a cameo appearance, as do Monique and Hope, but this story is pretty much all Kim, Ron, Wade, and a large cast of original characters. Two have appeared in other stories of mine— Reverend Luther Tully, the black minister from "Wedding," has a starring role here, and Brigetta Maelstrom, who someday will become Hank Perkins' legal secretary, seems to have worked for the UN in Africa before that.

===============

Meet Luther Tully:

It was still raining when the breakfast bell rang. Several large tarps hung over the picnic tables, but this was less than perfect, and there were plenty of leaks. Much of the ground was trampled into a muddy mess, and many of the volunteers were noticeably less perky than usual.

Not Luther Tully. As everybody sat wherever they could, trying to keep their bowls of oatmeal from getting splashed, the reverend raised his hands and spoke in his most booming, oratorial voice.

“Do I see some of you-all looking glum? Are you uncomfortable and unhappy? Now what’s the Lord gonna think of us if we’re unhappy when he answers our prayers? The famine is caused by bad harvest. The people can’t grow enough food to feed themselves. And why not? Because the land is parched and dry. It hasn’t been raining enough here in the heartland. Well, now it’s raining! I don’t know how long it’s gonna rain, but it’s raining! Hallilujah! So thank you, Lord, for this blessing, and bless this food which we are about to eat. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

“Amen,” the voices chorused.

---------------

Meet Maria:

“Since you got here, it’s been so much better. You’re a breath of fresh air. You’ve added so much love to our distribution process, and I don’t know how you do it. When was the last time you went to Church?”

“Do I have to answer that?” said Kim.

“Only if you want, but it’s been a while, right? Maybe last Easter?”

“Well—”

“So why do you know as much or more about how to be a good Christian activist than our preacher and leader?” Maria asked.

“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe I— uh— learned my Sunday School lessons very well and don’t need refreshers?” Kim joked, and chuckled nervously.

---------------

Meet Nanano:

Nanano said something in Hurendu to the woman.

“This my mother,” Nanano explained to Kim. “She is still sick, but she is better than before thanks to the medicine.”

“Kim?” the woman asked. “Hi, Kim. How are you?”

“I’m fine. How are you?” Kim replied.

“I’m fine,” the woman replied, though she clearly wasn’t. All the English she knew was this scrap of ritual conversation. She said a bunch of stuff to her daughter, who translated.

“She wants you to know her name is Ruma, and she wants to thank you for helping our family with food and medicine and being my friend. That’s all. Goodbye.” Nanano chuckled. “My mother is funny.”

----------------

Meet Hans and Dieter:

“We did not know t’iss assignment would include protecting two such beautiful girls,” Hans said.

Much to Kim’s surprise, Maria seemed flattered by this hokey come-on.

Kim said, curtly, “I’m glad the UN sent you both here to help Ron and I protect this place.”

“Ah, you already gots a boyfriend,” Dieter said. “Looks like t’ere plenty ot’ers here t’ough.” He smiled and waved at the volunteer girls who were walking toward them.

Kim rolled her eyes. “So what’s your mission, besides cruising chicks?” she asked.

---------------

And you already know Kim and Ron:

“You remember this stuff better than I do,” said Kim. “When I started high school— no, I was probably still in middle school— I just wanted to forget ever being a drippy-nosed, freckle faced, funny little girl.”

“Yeah, there are certain incidents you told me I must never ever ever bring up again if I want to keep being your friend.”

Â... ]]> ~cloudmonet http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21566749/ http://cloudmonet.deviantart.com/journal/21566749/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:48:09 PST
Okay, I never really post unfinished stories, but the Cloudmonet publicity department put together a movie-preview style teaser of what happens in the first 15 pages, so since it may be awhile before I'm done, just imagine this as a bunch of random scenes with dramatic crossfades!

——————————————————————————

“Let’s not waste the whole summer, Ron,” Kim argued, as they ate dinner at the Middleton Bueno Nacho. “We could be doing so much good in the world.”

- - - - -

I can’t believe I’m so hung up about this, Kim thought to herself as she repeatedly walked past the window of the Elizabeth’s Secrets store in the Middleton Mall.

- - - - -

For about 15 minutes, they drifted through about a quarter of an orbit. Kim was talking to Wade the whole time, getting updated orbital correction and landing coordinates to bring them into the Kitanga airport.

- - - - -

“I deeply appreciate what you both have come here to do for the people of my unfortunate country,” Lawunda said, “and sincerely regret that regulations require me to do all this paperwork.”

- - - - -

“So why did God— assuming there really is a god— put us in houses with different religions?”
Ron laughed nervously. “Kim, I have no idea.”

- - - - -

The big trucks arrived not long after breakfast. Maria gave Stephen, the other two Marks, Kim, and Ron, inventory lists and told them to check the packing number on each box. The items were listed in numerical order, but packed in the trucks completely randomly, which caused the six of them to constantly be in each other’s way.

- - - - -

“They’re bad, nasty and evil,” said Nanano. “But every country has soldiers. That’s what teacher Nicole said. They killed her. Soldiers killed her.”

- - - - -

After a few moments of quiet in the deepening dark, Ron hesitantly spoke. “Uh, Kim, could I say something personal?”

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