2026-11-07 Drawtober - a
Getting reacquainted with life on the dock. I get to play squash again, yay! I really missed it. Being near a city means I can attend local events too, like DWEB events, or Softer Computing meetups. October has been unseasonably warm, not a ton of rain, permitting for many bikes rides and walks along the waterfront(to be fair, I go even in bad weather). Most of my creative energy this month went to drawtober, it's my first time doing it and am glad that I was able to end it with 31 drawings.
WEBSITE. I updated a page about making pixel art in Gimp. When I first started hakum I would scan my inked art and shade it digitally with screentones I'd made. The screentones weren't quite right, but they served their purpose. I also re-ordered some of the pages on the site, I used to arrange projects alphabetically, but I didn't like how the entries were ordered so I dropped that system. New projects won't necessarily display on the top, what is at the top is what interests me most at the moment.
COOKING. I cooked some vege pate in a cast iron a few days ago and damn is it ever good! I also updated the Nutrition page on GrimGrains with the following: added a mention of misinformation about seed oils(with references), re-worded a few sentences, updated iodine information(people in north america are becoming iodine deficient because of misinformation about iodized salt), added RDA's and checked for dead links.
ART. I finished drawtober with 31 entries. I also finished a new comic page for rabbit waves.
MUSIC. Many years while sailing down the west coast of the US, Devine & I wandered into a store and walked out with a C diatonic harmonica. We'd pick it up now and again, messing around with it. This year I decided to try and learn to play it properly. I keep the box next to my computer, whenever I feel the urge to waste time on the internet I reach for the harmonica and follow a few tutorials, or practice a few grooves for a few minutes instead. So far, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I hope to one day show you what I can do, but it'll take a while... I have way too many basic things to learn.
MOVIES. I saw the Odyssey in theaters at the local Imax. I read the beginning of the book prior to seeing the film to get a sense of the story(I learned the meaning of the word hecatomb). I didn't have time to finish, but Devine read it in its entirety and described some of the themes and major plots points to me. The excellent music in the film is by Ludwig Göransson, the same person who made the music for Sinners. I really enjoyed the film and the many practical effects employed to reduce the amount of digital VFX in the film. I love that they built a 60-foot puppet for the cyclops.
I also went to see Wildwood. The animation is completely insane, I've never seen such smooth stop motion animation before, throughout the film I kept wondering if my eyes were deceiving me and if what I was seeing was actually 3D-animated. I did not love the story, but the amazing sets and models were enough to keep me interested.
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.Homer, The Odyssey
GREAT FINDS OF THE MONTH
- Radio Taiso Follow-Along
- Cul de Sac, discover some cool sites.
- Juzzie Smith, a good harmonica player I've been learning from.
- 56K: The full 1997 dial-up experience
