Newton's Apple

I thought it had been a while since I had written about any of my superheroes from the City of Heroes, so I thought I'd share another one. This is Newton's Apple.Newton's background:

Isaac Cutler is a native of Seattle, WA. He was born with green hair, and was made fun of throughout his school experience. He learned to deal with it with humor and an easy-going attitude, along with small practical jokes. In his teenage years, he developed gravity control powers. he also became adept at disguising his appearance through make-up and costumes; his green hair really did make him stand out.

In his early adulthood, Isaac took the name ‘Newton’s Apple’ and became a locally-based hero in Seattle and Vancouver. Shortly after the Rikti War, Newton moved to Paragon City, RI.

==Paragon City==

Newton and the powers that be did not get along very well in Paragon City. He spent a lot of time in the Hollows fighting the Trolls.

He also spent a great deal of time in Independence Port where he made irritated the Family, and ran into their bribed police officers, and manage to get himself arrested.

His irreverent attitude and tendency to ignore the chain of command brought him into conflict with the heroic [[Blue Steel]] and the corrupt [[Judge Wonker]]. He called Judge Wonker a wanker, and then made the judge float in the courtroom. The judge was not wearing pants beneath his robes, and it was caught on court television. Newton received a contempt of court charge from Wonker and was put into community service, assigned to the Two Six.

==The Two Six==

Newton’s Apple was one of the first heroes to appear at the Two Six. He arrived shortly after the leader [[Mystic Inferno]], [[Coolant System]] and [[Poison Sting]] did, and the four formed the nucleus of the original Two Six team.

Newton has a lot of stories tied into him, but for more of those, you can check out his full character description here:

I've also drawn a few pictures of him for a class, actually. It's kind of fun to draw what I like drawing for an assignment. I've got a bit of work to do on him yet, but I'm really beginning to have fun with him.

Skeletons and Muscles

I have taken a couple classes on human anatomy. The first time round, I did really quite well. I was focused and patient with what I was doing. The second time round...well, not so much. I had that terrible attitude of 'I've done this already.' I didn't put in the effort and time that I needed to. It was a little frustrating and embarrassing. That's the sort of thing that I've always fought, and I'll continue fighting. I needed to put my full energy and effort into it. Here are a couple examples of the work I've done for both classes.

If you take a look at both these arms, done several months apart. I think overall, my first run at the arm was better. The second one isn't too bad for the skeleton (except the hand is a third again too long), but the musculature shows signs of carelessness.

This was a mild example. Here's the one I'm really embarrassed about: the Rib Cage. Here is where my carelessness really shows. The lack of consistency really shows. I've got to pull my head into the act again.


Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Time to make a real change.

Off To St. Louis

Well, friends and neighbors, I'm off to St. Louis for the annual MAEOPP conference. MAEOPP is the Midwest Association of the Educational Opportunity Program Personnel. It's the combination of the TRiO workers from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and of course Iowa. It's one of the few places in the world I get to go and say 'I work with Upward Bound,' and I don't have to explain what Upward Bound is. It is really nice to visit with people who know where you are coming from.

The real downside is that I'm going to be away from home from today until next Wednesday. I'm not excited about leaving Kath and Moira for that long. I don't have everything set up to do Skype yet either so they can't see me on the computer. Bummer. I've really got to get that up and going.

Art Institute of Pittsburgh On-Line

I know something I haven't said yet...

I am actually accepted into the program I wanted to be in - Media Arts and Animation. It's honestly a big relief. I would have hated going through all the classes I've taken so far without really being able to do what I wanted to do!

I have taken many classes now - Drawing, Perspective, Anatomy, Color Theory, Design Theory, and now I'm taking Anatomy for the Animator.

I thought I'd continue sharing some of the drawings I had to do for my Perspective class, which I thought I had done already, but oh, well.

The first that I'll share is one of my living room in a one point perspective. I actually had to go and Photoshop this one because I had troubles with the floor connections.

The second one is of our house in two point perspective. I could tell this was early in my classwork here: I made it much harder than it really needed to be. Everyone else did a really simple house, and I had a porch and so forth. Oye.

The last two pictures are from the 3 point perspective - left, right, and either up or down. These were just kind of fun. I did the Whitmoore Apartment building (from my City of Heroes game) and then a version of ACME Labs, just because it makes me laugh.

I hope you all enjoyed these.

Election Day

Election Day

Everyone had better vote. I know who I’d prefer you vote for, but everyone who is of legal age better vote. If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about anything the government does in the next four years. No matter who is elected, I will be complaining.

Election Day is such an honor and responsibility. There are those around the world who are unable to vote. We Americans are so blessed to have a say in who is representing us. It is difficult to find someone who matches up with how we feel about the issues, so we pick the candidate who is closest on the topics that are important to us. The important thing is to not make it a ONE issue choice. Take a look at the overall picture. No matter how hard the politicians try to make it a one issue crusade, we always have to look at the big picture.

The other wonderful thing about Election Day is that it marks the end of those @#$@#$ political ads. Gawd, I am soooooo sick of them.

P.S. Writing this last bit at 11:28pm. President Obama does have a nice ring to it...

Moira's Birthday Weekend

Moira’s first birthday was quite the event for her. On her birthday itself, everyone at daycare dressed up in costumes and paraded around Sunflower. All right, all right, so it was because it was Halloween, but it’s still fun to say that. She got to wear a birthday crown.

On Saturday the first, Grandpa Dave and Grandma MJ came to visit. They brought an outfit that made us all laugh. They wanted to make sure the liberal, hippy-ish training that I had received in my upbringing transferred over to her, so they got her a very loud tie-dye outfit. It was very cute, and I can assure you that we will be a certain amount of that ‘darn liberal thinking’ being taught in our household.

Kath and I have been saying all through Moira’s first year

that it takes a village to raise child, and on Saturday evening, we gathered our village at Mabe’s and celebrated Moira’s birthday. Moira does like pizza and chicken. My sister and brother-in-law made it in as well and brought a pumpkin shaped cake. We also discovered that Moira really likes chocolate cake. No surprise there.

Tanya and Marius (my sis and bro-in-law) stayed overnight and through the afternoon. They had gotten her a Green Bay Packers jersey, and we got to watch a very good game. The ending wasn’t that great (with a loss in overtime), but we had a great time visiting with everyone. Moira was exhausted at the end of it all and slept a lot of Monday. Of course, getting her down on Monday night was a trial, but she doesn’t like going to bed; she’s afraid she’s going to miss something.