Now that I’m travelling to various locations around the city for work, and riding various elevators, I’m noticing something: Most elevators don’t have cameras in them. The elevators of my own building have had cameras for most, if not all, of the time I have lived here. I have a tendency to talk to them when I’m riding, for my own amusement. Now that I’m in all these other buildings and I don’t get to do that, riding in elevators has become sad and lonely. If I can’t mug for a camera, how am I supposed to spend my time? Not being weird? Psh.

Haiku!

A watermelon
is coming to my table.
It will not leave whole.

Since I am confident that everyone everywhere is curious for updates on my shaving situation, here’s the scoop: The Three-Blade Razor I was using at last report has turned out to suck. The blades seem to have dulled after not even a month of usage (shaving about once a week), which does not compare well to the actual disposable razors I’d been using for some time prior, which got through at least as much time without giving me problems. I haven’t thrown out the three-blader just yet, because I might be able to get more use from it, but I did open up the fabled five-blader to finish off the half of my face when the three-blader couldn’t cut it. I don’t feel justified giving a review to the five-blader until it does a full face-job, but it looks good so far. And if its blades can endure, five blades may be the next thing PDR is willing to endorse.

In other news related to PDR’s jaw, my jaw has been sore all day since I woke up. My theories are thus: Either I slept on it funny, or I was attacked and punched in the face by some manner of Dream Demon. In the more likely case, the latter, the fact that I only suffer a sore jaw proves that I bested the Dream Demon because I am kickass awesome.

Bludgeonak

There is dimension called the Bronze Zone where there is a world ruled by an evil, powerful warlord called Oppressar. Oppressar holds power with the help of an army of pseudo-mechanical henchmen created from a cosmic-energy factory on the planet’s moon. But during a time of special celestial alignment one of the henchmen was created with more energy than was intended, making it smarter and stronger than its brethren. That henchman, designated Bludgeonak, saw Oppressar for the evil he is and escaped. Now Bludgeonak sides with the scattered rebels who live in the underground tunnels of the Exiled Gods of the Bronze Zone.

I was definitely going for a Jack Kirby vibe with this one (specifically his later crazy cosmic stories). Obviously as I am, at best, a reluctant artist, I don’t think I am fit to hold a candle to Kirby, but I couldn’t commit to a year of superhero creation without visiting his style. Bludgeonak was a character made up on the spot at the time of sketching, and his story made up on the spot again at the time of writing this. I don’t know why I decided to go with the headless torso kind of design (maybe I was thinking of Arnim Zola), but those circles on his chest are supposed to be his eyes. For the record, I’m picturing a color scheme of bright oranges and red mixed with black.

Brain Pain

When J. Paul Dean was born, he seemed like an ordinary child, but as he grew older it was clear that something was wrong. While his body grew rapidly, surpassing a normal adult size by the time he was ten years old, his head never changed from its original infant size and appearance. And apart from the physical aspect, there was something else: he could read minds. In his late teens, he was contacted by the Mind Set, a loose community of mind-powered individuals who gave him a home and helped him adjust to society.

Now, as an adult, Brain Pain has become an adventurer working with the Strange Squad. He’s something of a celebrity superhero, appearing in television interviews and getting book deals. Perhaps most importantly: when he goes into dangerous situations, he wears a helmet.

Brain Pain is one of the characters I thought up as a kid (which is also my excuse for the name). The whole tiny head and massive muscles thing was supposed to be a twist on the frail telepaths with big heads that are the more common formula. It’s just clever enough that it stuck around in my memory.