203 - Day 2 of Personal Retreat

Today was my full day for a retreat and I ended up doing a lot more than I expected. I also learned a few things throughout the day.

  • I miss the family. I think three days is too long.
  • I completed my 1:12 scale "Wrestlefest" arcade cabinet. The remaining things I need to do can only be done at home: drill the holes, glue in the joysticks, and glue on the panel. That's it!
  • I drew a picture of myself.
  • I watched the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie.
  • I watched the Assassin's Creed movie.
  • I watched the John Wick 2 movie.
  • I watched the Ghost in the Shell movie.
  • I drew a picture of a Game Boy.
  • I completed, cleaned up, formatted, and put up my 24-page how-to-draw book. This took up most of the retreat to be honest. Turns out formatting something to look nice in a book is, well, a lot of work. There's over two dozen things to draw, both big and small.
  • I put together the The Lego Batman Movie Joker Brickheadz set.
  • I ate a lot of delicious food, including: fish taco, shrimp nachos, 3-egg omelette, and a giant cheesesteak sandwich. I also had more beer than I planned to.

Looking forward to going home tomorrow.

202 - Day 1 of Personal Retreat

I arrived to my personal retreat place in Half Moon Bay this afternoon. I checked in and started working on the different items on my creative hit list.

  • I've drawn about 10 pages of my "how to draw" book.
  • I've written about 1,000 words in my story.
  • I've primed my 1:12 Wrestlefest arcade cabinet.

Admittedly, I miss the family. To have all of this time to myself feels strange. I'm not sure if it's because there are no distractions and I feel "on the hook" to produce work otherwise this would be a waste of my time. Maybe I'm supposed to use it to decompress and do nothing too? I don't know.

199 - Sadie Cat Outline

Just writing a story with little to no outline is rough. Decided to work out the outline of this special "Galaxy Pen" she finds that enables her to draw things into reality. While the whole "magic crayon" idea is fun, I think I'm going to rework the universe.

I want her to solve problems and mysteries with her smarts, her skills, and an ever-changing toolset. I also want her to be around helping others, vanquishing evil monsters, and basically being a super dog.

A traveling salesdog is my first thought. Mythical goods she knows about, knows how to use, and answers to cryptic puzzles. You know that box of crickets from the movie Constantine? Stuff like that.

The below will likely be scrapped.

“Sadie Cat and the Galaxy Pen
Book 1

Synopsis
Sadie Cat, a dog who happens to also have the tail of a cat, stumbles upon one of the pieces of an intergalactic weapon on her way to the grocery store. She is then thrust into the middle of a galactic war between two races of aliens from thousands of light years away. These aliens are fighting over the Galaxy Pen, a device that is able to turn any drawing into reality.

The piece she finds is the Galaxy Pen tip. It holds a very tiny amount of the special ink in the end, but it is enough to draw things the size of a large marshmallow.

Outline
1. There is a big explosion in the sky above the town. The Galaxy Pen is in the center of an explosion and is thrown five directions across town.

2. Sadie Cat is introduced. She wakes up and wants to make pancakes. She doesn’t have milk.

3. On her way out of her house, a car drives by and splashes her with water. She is soaked.

4. She tries to get back into the house but realized her keys are on the table. She’s locked outside of the house.

The End and What happens afterwards...
She finds herself cornered by one of the each alien race. They have 2 pieces each. They want the final piece and will fight her for it. When asked about things, we learn that this war for the weapon has wiped out most of the planet and both races. Upon reflection, we learn that the war needs to end and the two alien races leave peacefully.

The Galaxy Pen itself can not be destroyed, the ink being made from elements of black holes and stars. They leave the Galaxy Pen with Sadie Cat, seeing her to be the right kind of being to be the guardian of the pen. It’s because she’s a dog with a cat’s tail, the perfect balance of what is considered two enemy species.

She promises to keep the Galaxy Pen safe and to only use it for good. Here she is entrusted in helping others so the mistakes of the aliens can be rectified by the good deeds that follow.”

198 - Sadie Cat Story

My personal retreat is coming up and I want to go in with the right framework for my story about Sadie. I wrote this, but think it may not be the right direction. This intergalactic fantasy stuff is great and all, but I think it pigeonholes me into something I may not want to explore further. Anyway.

“There once lived a dog that had a tail of a cat. She wasn’t a cat in disguise. She wasn’t a “confused dog”. She was a normal dog that just happened to also have a tail of a cat. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Her name was Samantha Adelaide Catrell, but her friends called her Sadie Cat. This is one of her stories.

Prologue
The night sky was brushed with a few clouds and dotted with a handful of stars. It was a very typical night. Suddenly, two of the larger stars began to glow brighter and brighter. They danced around in circles, chasing each other, and then in an instant decided it would be a good idea to smash into one another. What came next was an explosion of rainbow colors and sparkles. At the center of the explosion there was a low rumbling and then five lines of light streaked across the sky in opposite directions.

Unfortunately, Sadie Cat missed this once in a lifetime beautiful display of color. She was, instead, busy drooling in her sleep and snoring the night away. She was likely dreaming about pancakes as that was her favorite breakfast food.

Chapter 1
It was 5:45am. The day had already started without her. Bread was being baked somewhere. Garbage was being collected somewhere else. She could even the birds singing their favorite songs for all to hear.

”KEEP IT DOWN!” Sadie Cat yelled out her open window. “There are animals that are still sleeping!” The birds across the street closed their garage door and stopped their band practice.

”Sorry!” one of the birds yelled back. “We’re just eager because tonight is the...”

She shut the window and dropped out of bed. While her room wasn’t that big, it was still amazing that she was able to get to her bathroom from her bed without opening her eyes. She walked a curvy line around a chair, stepped over a lump of dirty clothes, and ducked underneath a model spaceship that was inconveniently hung right next to the bathroom door.

Sadie Cat splashed some water on her face.”

196 - 1:12 Scale Arcade Cabinet - Sunset Riders (COMPLETE)

Had a chance to finish up the 1:12 scale arcade cabinet for Sunset Riders. The screen is a little too high, so I'll print out a new one on Monday to lower it a bit. I may also go over the buttons with some paint. I'm liking how these V2 cabinets are shaping up with the thinner panels.

Currently looking into a small digital photo keychain (they average at 1.5" for the screen). It may be a weird fit in there as it's a 2" opening, but we'll see. May be able to decorate it with a bezel of sorts, like the Dig Dug, and make it really nice.