Took me a while to finish it, particularly because of the design choice I made for the mouth structure, but it paid off in the end. I wanted the plant to look as if it really existed and the Mario version was a simplified cartoon version based off of it.



I have a step by step look at the process of making it here.

For those who have already seen it (it has spread quite a bit around the net this last week) there is one more element to the piece that I will be showing soon. It's a baby version - not just a mini but a cute, itty bitty one with only one tooth (it's got that all gums baby look).

After the baby is completed, I will be selling them and I am leaning towards ebay, so stay tuned if you are interested in owning either.

First in a series of Odd Tombstones. Get used to it.

Up on eBay if interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=320348465338

After working for so long sculpting Niko, I thought I'd do something a little easier between projects. I decided to give the whole custom figure thing a try.

I took an old Todd McFarlane The Maxx figure, did some experiments and alterations, then added a new layer of paint. I tossed in an Isz, just for fun.

Check out the step-by-step gallery.

For the most bitter amongst us, getting into a meaningful relationship can feel like an insurmountable task.



It may seem like it all comes down to having certain things.



Some think there are ways around it, but the end result may not be what you hoped for.



Some do a quick fix, which often leads to more trouble.



You may feel like you've made a mistake, but there is no way out.



And it's true, as someone once said, a successful marriage is one where you or your loved one sees the other die.



So just enjoy where you are, because The Suck will reach you, single or loved.

(thanks to Kotaku for the pics)

My sculpture of Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV, measuring at about 8 inches, is finally done. Basing it off the familiar promo shot, I used Sculpey clay, a metal skeleton made of screws (needles for finger bones) and acrylic paint. I have more shots and a step-by-step making-of in my Niko Bellic album.

I was building towards saying something, considering how upset I was that while we pat ourselves in the back, calling ourselves an open-minded nation, a substantial amount of Obama voters voted to put discrimination in the State Constitution, to take rights from people rather than give them, and took a step away from equality.

But I'll let Keith do it.



If your only intent is to "protect marriage" and have nothing against gay people, BAN DIVORCE FIRST.  And just so you know, I would vote against such a ban as well, despite my lack of interest in marriage.

It is a mystery to me how anyone could go to the polls and vote to strip someone of their happiness, then go home to their family, blind to the misery they have caused, and have a good night's sleep.

It's simple math.

(Obama-is-a-muslim-email) + (Pallin'-with-terrorists-bullshit) + (Who-Is-The-Real-Obama?) =







Oh, but there's more!



To sum it up:



So thank you, John McCain. Now, when Obama ends your Presidential bid, we'll be worried about one of your crazies ending his.

I was gonna write some more on this but NYT's Frank Rich said it best:


If you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.

Some voters told reporters that they didn't want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.

"I've got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying," Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.

Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of "Treason!" and "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

All's fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers's Weather Underground history dates back to Obama's childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it's not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that's going on here. Don't for an instant believe the many mindlessly "even-handed" journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign's use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign's hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist." He is "palling around with terrorists" (note the plural noun). Obama is "not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd "Who is the real Barack Obama?" it's no surprise that someone cries out "Terrorist!" The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama's middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers's Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That's a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. "Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family" was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed "patriotic" martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.

Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers's behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and Palin can try to take some responsibility for the behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What's troubling here is not only the candidates' loose inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step in promptly and strongly when someone responds to it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena. Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed concern last week that "a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that." To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires.

Sit down in a coffee shop and gather around a few strangers to discuss politics. The topic will inevitably shift towards Sarah Palin. The conversation will take place as follows:

"She won't answer questions because she actually does not know the answer rather than being uncomfortable with the proper response."

"Yes, she can. It's the damn media and their gotcha-style journalism."

"She made rape victims pay for their own rape kits."

"No she didn't... did she?"

"Who cares, I'd totally tap that!"

"Eww".

At some point, in the interest of independent fairness, someone will come out and say "Well, you've gotta admit it, this is an important moment in women's history".

And this is the part where I would like to step in with: "No, it is not".

Hillary Clinton's campaign was a significant moment. She clawed her way up and then ran her own attempt to be the first female US President. Sarah Palin was sitting on her ass in Alaska when an old white man gave her a call. They needed to rally their base with a She-Bush, one that could get the attention of those still waiting for a beer with the President, a ticket to historical relevance McCain needed against Obama's, and maybe even get some of those depressed Clinton voters. It was a decision based on winning an election, not on running a country for four years.

That is in no way, shape or form an advance in women's rights, it's simple exploitation. It is no more a sign of progress for women than a billboard depicting a sexy woman holding a beer.

Unless it covers McCain's ass for his entire adult and senior life.

The editorial board of the Des Moines Register asked Senator McCain this question: "Throughout your adult life, am I right, as a veteran and a member of Congress and now someone over sixty five, throughout your adult life have you been covered by a taxpayer-financed health care plan?"



Yes McCain, go ahead and tell us we are better off dealing with private insurance while we get the bill every time your poop looks funny.

We're supposed to be just dandy to let a private health plan take a chunk out of our paychecks just so we can say we're covered. Then, when sick, we won't have enough money to pay the co-pay, thus discouraging us from using any coverage until we start to bleed out of every orifice. That's a healthy America!

I would rather put that money into a national health care fund. That way, if I never get sick, my money will go to help someone who needs to see a doctor, not some asshole getting rich off of our fears.

(here's a link if the video doesn't work)

After an extended hiatus from my above-average consumption of news media, I decided a few weeks ago to finally try and get into it again. With my computer being about as functional as a brick, I gave the ol' cable news networks a go. For some odd reason they were all talking about pig cosmetics... and had multiple panels of experts discussing the subject. I had officially re-entered the circus spectacle of politics and the ass clowns were out in full force.

Senator John McCain, who abandoned any sense of free will to become a GOP puppet, was attempting to sell himself as the "Maverick" the media he now despises once held him as. The GOP, which has no intention of changing their unpopular approach to government, believes we cannot see the elephant in the room. Barack Obama addressed this by saying "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig".

The Republican Party then pretended to be stupid enough to misunderstand it as an attack on Palin, despite McCain himself using the common phrase when describing health care proposals... by Hillary Clinton.

This was a non-story that should have died the moment McCain was shown on TV saying the then non-sexist comment. But it was dragged out throughout the week and repeated ad nauseam as if to find any substance, because at least close to half of the public chose to feel a connection with McCain's newfound feminist side.

Which means that in such a unique and important election, the squishy core of political bullshit still remains as people will use and believe in anything to root for their team. This is why it is so hard to keep any level of consistent maturity in politics: this is not an honest ideological debate, it's a sport.

When Barack Obama's rising popularity became an official threat to the Republicans, they accused him primarily of being inexperienced (Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have been around forever, it doesn't change the fact that they are major fuck-ups). Experience then became unimportant when talking about Sarah Palin, someone who is so clueless, the GOP is afraid to let her open her mouth in front of the press.

When John Kerry ran as a war hero, his experiences in Vietnam were called irrelevant to the presidency. Now that McCain uses the letters P, O and W about as often as Giuliani uses the numbers nine and eleven, it's a vote getter.

Early on, while Hillary Clinton was the presumed Democratic nominee, many conservatives, now re-energized over Sarah Palin, wondered out loud if a woman ought to be president when she might nuke someone during a bad period.

Barack Obama used to be labeled as nothing but a celebrity with no substance. Now the Republicans have a manufactured celebrity who's shining moment was a somehow inoffensive joke about hockey moms.

They have had to flip on their entire structure of talking points in order to put up a fight against Obama, in effect becoming what they so fervently accused John Kerry of being back in '04.

A divided nation loyal to its team and ego rather than the well being of its people can only lead us to where we are now. Back in '04 the conservatives extended the Bush legacy out of a hope that their team would be vindicated and a fear of gay marriage. Today we desperately await that vindication... and gay people are getting married anyway.



I, for one, hope that Obama wins, not just because he's the first candidate I genuinely like and not just because the GOP is choking the country, but also because the Republican Party deserves to get their asses handed to them for being so shameless. But if McCain manages to turn his downward momentum and we end up complaining about the same crap 2 years from now, we'll only have ourselves to blame. It's time we grew up.