Wednesday, October 31, 2007

HallowTeen


Witness the neighborhood teen in his Halloween costume. A year ago, when he was 12, he had a proper costume on -- SpiderMan or similar. This year, a year older, a year cooler, out with his 13-year-old buddy, he was our first trick-or-treater.

His friend at least put on a white t-shirt and greased his hair back and called himself a 'greaser'. This guy had his middle school gym tshirt, a pair of jeans, a pillow case, and an air of entitlement.

My wife and I have long been upholders of the certain Halloween rules:

1. All trick-or-treaters must say "Trick or treat" and/or "Happy Halloween." "Hello" and "how are you" are nice but are not acceptable replacements for the real deal.

2. A trick-or-treater must demonstrate, if not creativity, the willingness to go beyond a goofy hat, or in this guy's case, the extremely ordinary. [Note: While in mid sentence here a group of 12 and 13 year olds arrived. 2 were held aside for claiming to be 'pimps' because one had a hat on with a feather. The 2nd one didn't even have a hat on. A young lady was held aside because she was claiming to be 'goth'. I asked her if she was 'goth' every day and she claimed she wasn't (though her friends disagreed).]

3. If a "Thank you" is not provided, they are provided a reminder.

A trick-or-treater failing Rule 2 may opt to do a trick in order to gain their treat. Tricks are evaluated, especially in the case of teens, on the ability for a teen to embarrass themselves in front of their peers. In the case of the 13-year-old, his 'greaser' friend showed me that he could move his eyebrows up and down independently. PASSED. The plain-guy borrowed his friend's bike, did some wheelies and proceeded to fall off the bike, twisting his friend's handlebars in the process. PASSED. [The pimp boys and the goth girl noted above performed cartwheels on the dewy grass.]

Memo to myself: distribute a 'rules of Halloween' throughout the neighborhood the weekend before Halloween next year (and probably get the house egged next Mischief Night as a result).






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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

mcglinch-o-lanterns

We cut it close this year but spent our Mischief Night carving up the pumpkins. Usually we're done a week or two ahead of time but busy social, sports, and academic calendars kept us tied up down to the wire. I came out of jack-o-lantern retirement after several years and went right in for the kill -- foregoing the normal family procedure of drawing up a design on paper and then tediously transferring it by pushpin onto the pumpkin surface. This is usually followed by frustration of trying to figure out what needs to be cut and not cut.

[Side benefit of all the cutting, scooping, digging was that no one complained tonight about being cold and looks like I will finally reach my goal of not turning the heat on til after Halloween for the first time in about ten years.

Here's the finally family results via slideshow. Kick back, crack open a fine fall microbrew (I went with Victor Storm King Stout) and grab some toasted pumpkin seeds.

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Wheelie Clown and Dog


Finally had a meeting and a doodle. It's been a long time.

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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Front Yard Football

Finished cutting the grass, watched the Eagles win - finally - so time to toss the football around.

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Waterfowl

Drew this while watching Surivor:China. Some survivors had to eat balut. The balut look much more fetal than this creature and my son made a point of telling me that if I was trying to draw the balut that I got it wrong. Very blunt that boy is.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Choppers

Took a photo of some realistic model teeth on the counter at the dentist today. Thought they would come in handy for a drawing. Sketched up this geezer tonight.

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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Toothy Bird Creature

Had a dentist appointment yesterday and am still "conscious" of my teeth.

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Monday, October 22, 2007

Dracula Outside the Mausoleum

Tiny sticky-note style Dracula outside the mausoleum after a night out on the town.

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Witchie Poo


Saw in my site stats that someone had searched unsuccessfully for a witch. So here is a witch with apple a'la Snow White. Drew it in a darkened living room while watching some tube -- wishing I had gone darker around the gums and tongue -- it looked dark in the dark room. So turn off the lights.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Scaredy Worm


Scaredy Worm, originally uploaded by mcglinch.

Found this guy when I was digging up the turf alongside the driveway this weekend. He was none-too-happy to shown the bright sun and drying wind.

Think I've been looking at too many of VK's grub pix and Chowderhead Bazoo's Ballad of Wormboy.

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Pumpkin Head


Pumpkin Head, originally uploaded by mcglinch.

Drew this at the last job but don't think I ever posted it and since it's costume month there you go.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

McSquidly McBurger McSeaCreature

Wishing I had time to do backgrounds and environments for creatures like this thingie.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Rambling thoughts & nightmares


Not even sure what this is all about. Just wanted to go to bed and I wanted to draw Frankenstein but he wasn't turning out right so I moved on to Stinky Cheese head robot creature and then so on and so forth.

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Halloween Costume Safety

Make sure your costume is worn correctly: you may not be satisfied with the results of your trick-or-treating.

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Trick or Treat?

The weather has finally turned October here in the Northeast. That's the best time to draw up costumes for Halloween. Is this wee fellow horrified or elated by what's in his sack?

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Beware All Ye Who Enter

I had a colonoscopy today. On the way home I joked with my wife that I had thought of making a temporary tattoo to put on a butt cheek that said, "Beware All Ye Who Enter" to give the gastroenterologist and staff a little chuckle and surprise after they knocked me out. The Mrs. said that sounded like a good blog entry.

I was wary of the post-procedure anesthesiologist instructions that included -- along with the usual "don't operate machinery or drive" -- the foreboding "Don't make any important decisions for 12 hours." I thought blogging about an invasive procedure in 'the most private of areas' required an important decision.

Decide I did.

My father died just short of his 54th birthday from a two and a half year battle with colon cancer. Even 25 years ago early detection probably could have saved his life or given him a better shot. He was old-school from Ireland and ignored all the early warning signs. Eventually it was diagnosed, he went through some surgery and spent the next two years going through various treatments while the cancer spread to other areas. He died at home on a warm May evening with Mom and my brothers and sister bedside.

The National Cancer Institute estimates there will be 112,000 new colon cancer cases in 2007 and 52,000 deaths. Colo-rectal cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Prevention and screening is key to nipping any cancer potential in the bud. FightColoRectalCancer.org has a nice, clear and understandable primer on prevention.

Along with my father's good nature (and sometimes quick temper), my siblings and I inherited the 'better' odds of getting colon cancer. This was my second colonoscopy; my first was five years ago. Mom stays on top of us all to get them done. The colonoscopy is easy, especially when they knock you out for it.

So, end of PSA -- read up and sort out whether it's something you to need to check on. Get it done, have some fun -- feel free to print out the mcglinch doodle above to tape to your butt when you get your colonoscopy.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Easy on the overcoat - It's not winter yet

There's a wind of change blowing through the East these days -- an end to the dog days of August that just didn't want to go home. It's not quite the verge of winter but that didn't stop the neighbor from getting geared up this morning. We're still in the 70'sF so let's not get the rubbers and mittens out yet.

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Monday, October 08, 2007

Little Green Army Men: Who Wins?

When you are down to your last two army men -- the radio guy vs. the fixed-bayonet guy -- who wins? Does the bayonet guy rush forward and take out the seemingly defenseless radio guy? Or does the radio guy get a call in for mortar or air cover before bayonet guy does his worst to him?

This is not a metaphor for our current real-world situation. I'm just wondering how you would play it out -- or turn it into a metaphor, go ahead.

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Housefly

Sketched this tonight but wanted to create my fly without legs but then didn't really like him without legs but didn't want to just add them on. So he has his legs with him -- just not attached.

That got me to thinking about a guy in 7th grade that showed me how to catch a fly, remove its wings and then tie a 'leash' around its neck with a hair pulled from his own head. Then he'd have a pet for the day -- a fly on a leash.

Same guy showed me how he liked to let the butane from his lighter soak into his jeans leg and then light it under his desk. A big whoosh of flames would blow out from beneath his desk top.

I wonder what happened to him.

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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Pain in the neck

You can only bend your neck so far before it's gonna hurt.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Tshirt Model


Me, just in from a hard day's work, modeling my Sharp-stick-in-the-eye tshirt. Shown here in dark blue. It rocks.

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School Pictures

It's that time of year for the kids to get their school pictures taken and a few weeks later we get them back and we don't like out how they came out because inevitably the photo is taken right after gym class and they are red in the face, sweaty and in their gym shirt. Then we get a refund or schedule a retake and, eventually, they still end up looking like some strange child that's not our own -- combed hair, forced crooked smile, cheesy bad backdrop.

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