Anything and Everything

I was compiling a playlist for my revised cardio sessions and stumbled across a handful of recordings I did several years ago. One song in particular is a mashup of spoken word wrapped in a singing hook of encouragement. Ironically, it was just what I needed today.

There’s nothing like hearing your own voice give you a swift kick in the pants to push forward.

Until next time.

Podcast: Play in new window

This entry was written by Fave, posted on 17 August 10 at 9:26 am, filed under Life, Thoughts and tagged motivation, mp3. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.

Why We Need the Black Weblog Awards

At first I was going to write a post about it. Then I thought I would go in my element and create a small podcast. I finally decided to go out of my comfort zone and record a video to capture my thoughts on why the Black Weblog Awards are needed.

This entry was written by Fave, posted on 23 July 10 at 6:52 pm, filed under Life, Thoughts and tagged black weblog awards, fave, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.

It Don’t Feel Right

I don’t let much get to me. Especially on the internet. There’s enough going on IRL and, in the midst of leading a family and living my dream (which are intertwined), who has time for the drama?

But when I read this post on Why I Stalk a Sexy Black Woman on Twitter, I couldn’t click away in silence.

I encourage you to read it and then come back to the rest of this post.
(more…)

This entry was written by Fave, posted on 15 July 10 at 7:45 pm, filed under Life, Thoughts and tagged black women, bullshit, gizmodo, stereotypes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.

The Legend of Mike Gudeman

I was mowing the backyard when I slipped on a patch of mud and fell backwards — slightly pulling the mower towards me. My foot went under the fast-turning blade and the tip of my sneaker was sliced off. Surprisingly, I didn’t panic as I reached into the bloody mess of what was left of my shoe. My toes were still intact, but the blade had cut through the underside of the first three of them. I thanked God right then and there.

I hopped into the house, removed the shoe and began rinsing my foot off in the bathtub. The pain was a combination of the lacerations and the force of the shoe being ripped at the tip. I figured it was just a nasty nick that could be treated with some soap, peroxide, gauze and tape. My wife was able to get a better view of the damage. “You got meat hanging out,” she cringed. I needed to go to the emergency room.

I went to the hospital where the doctors cleaned me up and closed my wounds with 16 stitches (10 in my big toe, 6 in my second). The only real discomfort I had was when my stomach and ankle muscles decided to cramp as they were threading the needle into my flesh. Being the social media enthusiast that I am, my iPhone was in full effect throughout the process (it was a good distraction from the pain and procedure).

I spent approximately four hours at the hospital from admission to release. I looked at my surroundings in between chapter readings of REWORK (which is a good book, btw). People were literally wailing in pain with the fear of death in their eyes. What impacted me the most is that this is the scene in thousands of emergency rooms worldwide. I thanked God again that it could have been much worse.

The experience got me to thinking about faith and I captured those thoughts here:

So what does all this have to do with a guy named Mike Gudeman? He was my college roommate my freshman year. He lost 1/2 his foot in a farming accident as a kid — but it didn’t stop him from playing football, running track and riding motorcycles. I imagine the pain of having my toes grazed by a mower blade (as an adult) is nothing compared to losing skin, muscle and bone (as a child). But life goes on and GOD is truly in control.

Until next time…

This entry was written by Fave, posted on 8 July 10 at 11:14 am, filed under Life, Thoughts and tagged accident, emergency room, hospital, laceration, mike gudeman, motorcycle, toe. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.

The Growth of a Webcomic

I’ve spent the past few weeks preparing to launch my new webcomic, A Pug Named Fender (APNF). What started as a coping mechanism for the sudden loss of my dog, has evolved into a project that has resurrected my love for drawing and elevated my web design skills. Creating this webcomic has also uncovered talents within my inner circle and opened my mind to a wealth of new information, kindess and growth.

The Platform
APNF was initially built on a ComicPress (CP) wordpress theme in which I was never totally comfortable. The developers and user community seem cool – and the majority of webcomics out there use this platform – but the vibe didn’t seem right for me. I was getting discouraged because it looked like CP was the only show in town. . . until I discovered Webcomic plugin, developed by Michael Sisk and friends. The documentation, video tutorials and accompanying Inkblot theme was so comprehensive and easy to learn — I stripped my APNF configuration and started from scratch. The process of installing Webcomic onto the APNF website allowed me to be more creative in my design approach in addition to sharpening my CSS skills more than I could have imagined. Now the site is exactly how I pictured it in my mind.

The People
My online presence is deeply rooted in my affinity for music (i.e., indie, soul, progressive hip hop, etc.) through my podcast and musical endeavors. I’ve been borderline obsessive in my tweets about this pending webcomic, but only because it’s been so helpful in processing my dog’s death while retaining so much of his character and environment in this webcomic. My wife is a dynamic photographer and the first person to hear my crazy ideas and sit with me during my sketching sessions. She lets me know when I’m going too far or if no one will get my jokes. Maurice Cherry has been my “brother-in-blogging” for many years, yet we never connected on the comic tip until now. He continues to share great background and thoughts on the webcomic world as a consumer and creator.

Philip Clark, whom I share a connection with musically, has been very instrumental in sharing his knowledge / resources as a professional comic letterer (who knew?). My musical partner-in-crime, Todd Kelley, is my go-to tech guy in all matters, but he’s been great in checking out my sketches and bouncing ideas via IM. There’s also a myriad of webcomic sites, tutorials and communities in which I’m immersing myself via RSS and forum comments.

With the official launch coming soon (June 21), I’m confident that I will contribute to the webcomic community with a concept that is unique, fun and representative of who I am as an artist and dog lover. I’ve entertained the possibility of merchandising, book creation and developing a strong distribution of APNF, but my main goal is to celebrate the life of my dog in way that keeps his memory in the forefront of my mind. It’s exhilarating to build stories around him, and the other animals in his world, to create personality traits (e.g., his love for Lalah Hathaway – which I’ll get into in another post) and infuse my musical tastes. APNF is and will continue to be, my therapy and expression of love for the coolest dog ever. I encourage you to subscribe to what I promise will be witty, music-based humor dipped in chocolate & hardened to a crispy shell of artistic goodness. . .

Until next time.