What the great Charles Schultz gave us with his "Peanuts" cartoons was to remind us of the joys of childhood. That included pet dogs, baseball games and good friends.
I improved my earlier version of Charlie Brown by giving him a smile, some better shoes, a T shirt instead of one with lapels, and of course, a kite. I may add Snoopy the dog later to make this childhood scene a bit warmer.
Drawing Charlie Brown is harder than it looks, but here is my first effort this year. Needs some tweaking. I usually come back to the graphic after a day or two and make improvements.
I get very tired of reading about the "Paestinians" and their rants and raves. Oh, the Israelis committed a "genocide" against the pitiful people of Gaza. Here is some facts they never mention:
1. The destruction of the Gaza viper's nest was payback for Islamic aggression, i.e. the October 7 surprise attack on Israel that murdered 1,200 innocent citizens for no other reason than that they were Jews.
2. The Gazans could have stopped the violence anytime by surrendering and agreeing to peace terms. They refused to do so and are singularly responsible for the destruction of Gaza.
Today i created a new version of my meme "Screw the Palestinians."
Here it is. I post it on X as a response to Gazan propaganda. Feel free to use it.
I created this graphic of a butterfly yesterday, a Tiger Swallowtail. It took several hours. This kind of activity is great for old guys like me, who need something to do to keep their minds active.
A bird, a bat, a bunny and a dog. Made in Adobe Illustrator.
In my Illustrator course we are instructed to draw some animals. I am having fun doing it.
In order to learn Adobe Illustrator, you have to practice.
Just fooling around and I drew this Spooky Bat. To make the wings bat-like, I used the Ellipse Tool. I drew a long ellipse, then smaller ellpses to cut out the flap shapes using the shape builder tool.
The head and ears were made with the rectangle tool and the polygon tool. I used the pen tool to draw the eyes.
To download the image, right click on it.
I am currently making a few "memes," that is graphics with a message. Here is one I just made, for use on X, Elon Musk's site that was previously known as Twitter. There is a lot of Yankee propaganda on X and ignorance of history and I see that memes of this sort are popular.
Karmelo's supporters, mostly black folks, were outraged at the verdict. Some have promised violence against white folks and a few have urinated on the grave of the victim, Austin Metcalf, who was also 17. Curious, their anti-white racism is so virulent that they take revenge on the corpse of Austin Metcalf. After all, it was his fault for dying when Karmelo stabbed him in the heart. No doubt this dying was a deliberate act of white supremacy. Or something.
In any case, these events tell me that there are some blacks who are violent and incapable of fairly assessing the events of the crime. They are tribalists who strongly identify with their epidermis and skin color, and that is primary and above all other considerations.
That's the bad news, but the good news is that YouTube hosts a number of black pundits and YouTubers, and they are conservative, articulate and fair. They are not fans of Karmelo Anthony and have accurately summarized the case and Karmelo's guilt. Some are critical of the black community for their lack of fairness and their anti-white racism. In a later post I will list and recommend some of these writers.
Kudos are also due to the black teammates of Austin Metcalf who were present at the scene and testified that the confrontation was provoked by Karmelo and opined that Karmelo was in the wrong.
1. They don't believe they need a driver's license unless they are driving commercially (like a taxi or delivery truck). So they frequently drive with no license or an expired license,
2. Similarly, they believe they do not have to register their vehicle with the DMV or carry car insurance. They often use fake license plates that say "PRIVATE" to avoid being pulled over for not having a an actual license.
3. When pulled over by police they claim they are not subject to state driving laws because they not driving, they are traveling, referring to some obscure law or court case to make the distinction. They often refuse to roll down their windows fully so police can talk to them more easily, or refuse to identify themselves as required by law.
4. Eventually the police decide to arrest them for these infractions but the driver refuses to exit the vehicle, rolls up the windows and locks the doors. After issuing several unanswered demands by the police to exit the car, the officers use a tool to break the window glass and physically remove the driver from the car, who is then handcuffed and carted off to jail, while his vehicle is towed away to a police lot.
5. There are numerous videos of these police interactions on YouTube; search for "sovereign citizens" and view the madness.
Here's the exciting details of my so-called life:
Physical Therapy;
My physical condition continues to improve with Focus Sports Therapy in Hollister, California. I can walk better and longer than when I first started back in March. I have discovered through experience that even a thoroughly decrepit body can react to exercise and improve greatly in many cases.
Learning Spanish:
My strategy for learning Spanish is immersion, sort of. I watch lessons, stories and examples of Spanish on YouTube, and do not write anything down. Once I have covered the same vocabulary, words and phrases as before, it begins to stick. I use Google Spanish to English translation for new words and phrases, which are translated instantly into English at no cost. This is a great tool when reading stories only, to learn new words and expressions.
I used to try and listen to Spanish broadcasts, songs, news, advertisements to see how many spoken words I could recognize. It wasn't very many at all. Then one day recently the fog began to clear and I could understand various words and phrases, a lot more than before.
