Diary Comic 28/11/2011

It was easy to reference this comic, as I was drawing it in that position at the time. I draw a lot of comics this way when I am at my parents' house. Someone get me a drawing desk for Christmas.

Diary Comic 22/11/2011

Another diary comic. The woes of big feet. #firstworldproblems

Diary Comic 04/11/2011

Originally I had the teenagers saying some common 'young person' phrases, then I figured it really didn't need it.

Diary Comic 31/10/2011

Sometimes when I listen to songs, a montage of other people listening to the song plays out in my head. Or I perhaps construct a music video for the song while I commute with my headphones in.

All of the images up there are what I have imagined while listening to "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey which I am sure everyone ever has heard by now.

BUBS: The Handstand

I have not happily transitioned into my new house and, bar a few teething problems, am back on track to Build Upper Body Strength.

This week cheer has focussed mainly on going over what we learned at FCC last month (more on that here and coming soon) so keeping tight in the upper body and core has been essential for hitting motions precisely and with speed. We have also been pumping our gymnastics, I've been taking it easy since doing my back in at pride a week or so ago and so have been mainly working on leg flexibility simple lower body stretches. I conceed to have been focussing on the handstand perhaps a little too much for my back to get better, but I am determined to hit a hand stand for over a minute.

Guys, don't underestimate what a handstand can do for you. There are tons of examples I can give of the value to your shoulders, arms and core given by a simple hand stand. It's quick, easy to learn but hard to master. One thing I have kept up with at practices is a few handstands here and there.

As far as I'm concerned there are two things to think about when performing a handstand: strength, and balance. You'll find people perform the handstand in different ways but it is usually a combination of the two working harmoniously to get the most pleasing handstand. Notice I used the phrase most pleasing and not the word best. This is because you may be performing a handstand for a different reason from the next guy, it really has a lot of utility.

For example, like I said before, the handstand is a great tool for building upper body strength, particularly those muscles we use in cheerleading when we are lifting the flyers to shoulder height and above. Our core, our biceps, our deltoids, they all engage to keep us rooted and balanced when we are standing on our hands. 

Sometimes you might see a guy perform a handstand with his arms much wider than his shoulders, his back arched, his legs open and leaning forward. I call this kind of handstand a Muscle-handstand, because you are basically engaging all of your core and arm muscles to sublimate your lack of equilibrium. This is not a 'bad handstand' and nor is any handstand where you are actively engaging your muscles. In fact this is usually the type of handstand someone might do if they were using the handstand to build muscle in the first place i.e. handstand push-ups. Your basically using brute force to push your lower body off the ground and hold it there.

Other times you will see someone put their hands on the floor, shoulder width apart and quickly kick their legs up one at a time until they are vertical, they will then stay there. Lucky gits. These are more Balance-handstands, where the performer quickly finds their equilibrium and only engages their arms and core muscles to steady themselves, relying mainly on posture and balance to keep them up. They are still engaging their muscles, but it is taking them less effort to keep up because they are also thinking about balance and coordination. this is a more energy efficient handstand which is more suited to gymnastics and is the base of a few tumbles you might use in a cheer routine; handstand to forward roll, walk-overs, lumbers, handsprings can all be improved through proper handstand technique.

Now, I'm still learning a decent handstand, but the technique is what is important. There are things you can do to speed up the process of hitting a good handstand a length of time you can support yourself with. If you are totally new at handstands and want to utilise this fantastic method of strength and coordination building, here are a few tips.

- Start small if your scared

I hear a lot of people when they want to do handstands say '...but I'm afraid I will fall'. There is something about being the other way up with inhibits us and I think it has something to do with our head. Any time our head goes through a motion which is completely out of the ordinary, it tends to freak people out. With the handstand, you might be thinking 'My head is very close to the floor here and there is only the strength of my arms stopping it from being crushed under my own weight.' Well start small! I know we are all generally taught that our head is glass and we aren't allowed to touch it ever, the skull is actually quite a solid thing; But this is besides the point. If your concerned you can't hold yourself up without hitting the floor, don't go vertical just yet. try holding more and more of your body weight on your forearms, something like this:

This position is fantastic for giving you the right feeling of muscle and balance. Start small at first, maybe just tuck your knees to your chest and lean onto your forearms, see how long you can hold yourself up. As you gain confidence, be a little more daring; keep your knees tucked by bring them over your hips so that your torso is vertical and your knees are crouched. You can do this using just your muscle for now, do it against a wall if your still unsteady or unsure how far you want to go. That reminds me...

- Walls are your friend

You don't want to hit anything when you try your handstands? That's fine! Remember in school when some kids would do a handstand on a wall for fun? That's exactly what you need. Place your hands maybe 10cm to 15cm away from the wall and kick up. The trick is to try and guess how much power you will need on the kick-up so that your legs stop short or on the wall without going into it. You should have your fingers spread apart, your hands under your shoulders and your upper body should be engaged at the time you kick up. When your legs reach close to where you want them to stop, engage your abdomen and your arse and keep everything tight. Think planking from the chest down. Then you use your upper body strength to gain your balance and hold you up.

- Kick-ups work!

If you can't get your balance, don't be discouraged. You'd be some kind of mutant gymnast god if you could do it perfectly on your first go. The goal is to keep kicking up until you find just the right amount of force which gives you 0 momentum when you reach the vertical. Don't rest too much, if you kick-up and don't make it, use the rebound to kick up again. Just don't spend too long bent over because you might get a little light headed, and make sure to take a break when your frustrated because you might channel your anger into your legs and kick the wall with the force of a thousand suns (can you tell I might be talking from experience?)

In the end, it all depends what you are handstanding for. It works wonders for building strength, and getting you mental for other more difficult tumbles further down the line, but each handstand can have a different approach, hell, many different approaches for the best results. Here are a few decent video tutorials, notice the different ways people do their handstands, and the results are positive in any case. These videos are by the guys behind the Strength Project, they have a great collection of videos so make sure you subscribe to their channel...

(All about the muscle baby)

(Hand-balancing)

In the end, someone who can do a really good handstand will probably tell you that their way is the best way to do it, and the only way if you want to get it right/build strength/look good. You need to cherry pick the tips they give you and create your own style, whatever works for you is the right way to do a handstand. Just remember that you have a goal in your head, if your working on your handstand technique to improve your gymnastics, or upper body strength, or using them for break dancing to look good. If you have that goal in your head, you will stay motivated.

The results will be worth it, don't give up!

Czech Republic and FCC Camp 2011 Part 1

Last year the girls decided it would be a good idea to get away and practice cheerleading in a foreign country. A weeks intensive cheer training in Czech Republic at a sports hotel. I was invited, but unfortunately I could not afford to go. At this point I was still dead set on learning to drive during the summer and foolishly withheld most of the years finances for that. As you might know, in the end I bought this sweet ass PC which on the whole has served me well, although I do not know how it compares to a driving liscence, at least this thing doesn't have recurring bills.

However, I saw on their return that they had this fantastic bond, and clearly they enjoyed themselves while they were away as the pictures and the stories attest. I decided this year that I would join my team mates, bite the bullet and head off to Czech.

The arrangement this year was somewhat different. The plan was to travel out on the eighth (a Monday) and spend the evening in Prague. Our arrival time would have been rather late, so we had little choice but to stick around in Prague city until transport became avilable to take us to Kitlice, where we were to spend a few days before camp started. The plan was to stunt early morning in Prague, when it was light enough to take some decent pictures, but quiet enough as we would not be disturbed. From there, the morning after, we jump on the train to Kitlice where we spend a few days at the cottage where our gracious guide, good friend and squad captain's mother takes her holiday. After a few days in that beautiful remote village we would catch the train again and land at Machovo Jezero (on the Thursday) where the camp is located. Check in to the hotel, then the camp started in the afternoon on the Thursday and ran right till the afternoon on the Sunday, where we say our goodbyes and leave the hotel. We will have a little time to go swimming at this point and there is a lake nearby, so hopefully we could do that before leaving for Prague by bus later that afternoon, to catch out flight later that evening and arrive back in Manchester in the wee early hours of Monday the fifteenth.

So we flew out on the eighth. I'd never flown before so this was a fantastic experience for me. We had no trouble at the airport and borded the plain in a pleasant and timely fashion. Taking off is awesome! They lull you into a false sense of anti-climax by taking their sweet-ass time maneuvering the plane into place, and then BAM the engines kick in and the plane shoots from naught to eithy eight in the blink of an eye. Taking off is a rollercoaster, landing is torture. I like the whole turning and descending thing, but my ears are so painful when it comes to dropping so quickly. Going up doesn't hurt, it's just a weird sensation. Going down is very painful indeed. Luckily in a single plane journey you only have to do it once.

Touch down in Prague, we caught the bus to town centre and wandered aimlessly before finding a big pretty church which we decided to stunt infront of...



From here we wandered aimlessly again in search of the famed Charles Bridge which we found, and promptly turned into a slum...

The plan to stunt in the wee hours fell through. Unfortunately with us avoiding to pay for a hostel for the night in the hopes of saving a bit of money and under the assumption that we wouldn't need it we inadvertantly tired ourselves to the point where most of us believed that stunting would be dangerous. We went to the train station and tried to kip on the floor for a bit until two warm-friendly looking security guards came to move us on. No matter, at this point it was soon to be time to jump on the train.

Now, this is where the holiday takes a dramatic turn for me. It's a slightly long story but I'll shorten it for you. When I took my money to the post office to exchange it for Czech Corona it was my first time doing so and I admit to the person serving me that I didn't really understand the whole exchange rate thing. I gave her £150, she gave me 1200¢ and I went to Prague safe in the knowledge that I had enough money. Turns out that she'd only given me about £50 worth of Czech money, and considering I still had to pay the equivilant of £60 to the FCC people for the camp, it was at this point in the station that I found out I had come to a different country without so much as my camp fees in cash. Luckily my dad is a genius and gave me £60 to bring with me 'just in case', well, that should read 'just in case, and if not, get me some fags' but I'm still glad the man is on the ball. I changed that at 30% commission at the train station (I know right!) and jumped on the train to Kitlice feeling thoroughly depressed.

Luckily my squaddies saw this and were able to make me laugh, and not feel sorry for myself (though I think unfortunately until we arrived at the village I was adamant on that.) Funny thing the effect the countryside has on a person. I mean I genuinely love travelling on trains anyway, but Czech is so similar to england in it's countryside it was a pleasant journey. That is apart from the fact that at this point most of us had gone a full day without sleeping. I can't sleep on trains, so while a few of the others could catch up, I remained unfortunately vigilant (not through lack of trying.)

Our arrival in Kitlice was a welcome relief from an evening and a mornings worth of travel. Many of us were ready to wash, change, or simply to lie down for five or ten minutes. The cottage was still under construction, though you could see even without carpets or a door for the toilet it was a labour of love, and would be stunning when completed. Our hosts were very gracious to let eight of us stay in one room, even more gracious on the second night after finding how loud we can be in the evening. We waste no time that day, and later in the evening after resting and washing, which was an event in itself; the shower directly faced a large window, and had no door to the shower room (I'd luckily showered in the train station that morning and managed to avoid it) we went to a local pub for a meal. The food was fantastic! Easily something a fine diner would serve here and yet a three course meal with drinks cost no more than the equivilant of £8. I think eight of us had three courses and drinks and the total came to just over £25 or so.

The choice of cuisine was not particularly varied for vegitarian/herbivore types such as myself. I usually had to choose from fried mushrooms, fried cheese, fried coliflour... you get the point. Still, fried cheese is something of a high end delicacy here, something you might find as a starter in an expensive resturaunte; having it as a meal with rice or chips in is a welcome turn of events, even afer the third time eating it in a week.



On the second day we went horse riding. I'd never been horse riding before, something which I romantically held as the unattainable in my head. I live in Wigan, even if there were more than one or two schools which offered such a service, the price would take the shine off of the experience. We spent a few hours taking turns on the horses while we walked through the amazing Czech forrest and countryside. It was a lot like Wales (Angelsey, to be particular) with thick forrests of large Redwoods and sprawling green valleys, and rain; Only a touch of rain mind. The rain in Czech Republic is not like the rain here. It is predictable rain; you know when it starts, no matter how heavy it is, that it will last no more than an hour or two. This was the case on a few days over the week but the weather didn't effect the holiday at any point, apart from when it was beautifully sunny, which was wonderful! On our way back to the cottage at this point we walked by a small lake which we decided to explore with our feet. Posing for pictures became a given on this holiday and all of us (even the ones who usually object) obliged and indulged. The water was freezing.


Later that evening we went back to the same eatery as in the afternoon and had a wonderful evening meal which was fllowed not too soon after by one of the most funny nights I have ever shared on holiday. Everyone in the room together might not have been the most comfortable of evenings (I spent the entire holiday sleeping either on the floor or on an air-bed on the floor) it was made perfect by the company. I don't think I've laughed so much or had so much fun with my squaddies in my whole time as a cheerleader as I did when I was with them in that room. My holiday to Czech was an amazing experience, but it wouldn't have been half as good without the people I shared it with.


On our final day in Czech we went for a long hike up a rather large hill. It took us through some rural roadways (at which point we found a camp called U Skaly which caused hours of amusement) and on through a dense, sprawling forrest, over a couple of railway tracks and up a steep gradient which led to a charming little eatery at the top. There was also a high, round tower which we payed to ascend giving us a wonderful panoramic of the vista which seemed to go on to eternity. I am romantic when it comes to places of natural beauty and awe-inspiring views, perticularly if you work to see it such as a hike up a hill. The journey was as wonderful as the destination; we even found an old WWII bunker (Czech was occupied by Nazi Germany during the war) which we poked around before heading back to the cottage.


That evening we tried a different resturaunt, well... it seemed like there was a choice of two pub's in town, so we chose the other one in which to dine on our last night in Kitlice. We enjoyed our food, our host was very warm towards us and we even stayed a little later to enjoy some drinking games. Of course jocularity continued to a lesser scale that evening as we were all feeling the strain of getting such little sleep the past few days. The next morning we awoke bright and early to catch our train to Machovo Jezero and to begin the FCC training camp. Our time spent in Kitlice was a wonderful break but now we all knew, there was hard work ahead.


Stay tuned for part two...



Steven #2

The second one in the series 'Steven the Gay Storm Trooper.  A few notes I think I should make at this point...

• It's a little joke within the joke that you can't tell the Troopers apart when they are in uniform. I know they are supposed to be clones, and so they really should be the same size and everything, but I am using the Troopers from the original trilogy as a base model, and at this point the world didn't know the origins of the Troopers (artistic licensing meets my private sense of humour)
• I'm still learning the ins and outs of specific panel, word bubble and colour conventions for printing, normally I publish on the web where I can be as creative with the above as  I like, but for print there are certain rules I'm finding important. For example, I can't have too much text per panel, I can't go overboard on the art work (as I seem to have in the last panel, derp) and the text/important stuff needs to contrast highly with what isn't important so that the eye goes where I want it to.
• I'm avoiding textures, I don't want the reader to be distracted.
• I'm using colour because I can, I know most printed comics are either heavily desaturated or black and white. Both can be effective, but if I can have lots of lovely colour, I will do. However the colour might be a little too distracting in the last panel, your thoughts are welcome.

I can report on the situation regarding having Steven published however: They loved it!  The magazine (Out On Campus) are offering me a regular spot on the features page for Steven. However, there was a mix up with how often they will publish. See, to regular Joe's like me (and probably you) bi-monthly means 'twice a month' but to publishers, it pretty consistently means 'every two months.' You've guessed it already I can tell, that means the magazine only needs six strips for the entire year, two being published digitally.

Still, published is published. I will be popping them on the website and hopefully I'll have time this year to do more than what they will be needing. I have idea's for about four or five now besides the two I have already done. I've no doubt I can produce at least one a month, so whatever extra I do I shall just publish online.

Stay tuned gang, more to come!

(As usual, comments and critiques welcome)

Steven: Pilot

This strip took a little too long to polish, I think if it is going to be a regular thing (as I hope it will be) I will need to be more economic with my time and effort. Comments and critiques welcome!

GIFts

Here's some choice GIFs for you, if it's not animated, click it!

Hang on a second...

After finishing my kinda-tutorial on css, I quickly checked to see how I've been doing in terms of traffic. Typically I've been pretty much zero, which is fine, I'm used to it. There is a feature on Blogger which shows you how people are finding their way to your web site, and what search terms they are using to find you. Here is from today...

Seriously?

First of all, who is searching for that?

Second, why the hell is google sending them here!

[Mental note: Need more practice]

Web Design Project: Salford Sirens Cheerleading Squad and CSS mini-tutorial.

It was just over a week ago I think when I managed to get hold of the access information for the Salford Sirens mini-site. For those who are unaware, I am a cheerleader, coach and committee member of the Salford Sirens, which are Salford University's cheerleading squad. I'm also sort-of the unofficial web-administrator, though I do so voluntarily and happily (if you know me at all you'd probably already know that I love to sink my claws into a project.)

Check it out: Salford Sirens Cheerleading Squad! but also stick around, because I am going to discuss a few things about it.

As the Sirens are a part of the USSU, they get an 'activities' mini-site on the Student Union's home page, which are to be created and updated by members of the activities clubs and societies themselves. So my task for the past week has been to turn the Sirens' page from a one-page information sheet with a few scraps of what cheerleading is about and some measly pictures to...  well, something presentable.

The format is similar to that of a single blog entry, anyone familiar with the likes of Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr or any similar blogging platform will know what this means. You are given a white box, and some meta buttons over the top to 'help' with designing the page. I tend to write everything in code, that way I know exactly how it's going to look and I don't need to worry about the design being incompatible with different browsers (which is a particular issue considering most of the browsers at university run on an older version of IE.) I'm the same with blog posts or other data entry which offers 'advanced' HTML help in the format of a font or colour drop down box, I just don't trust em...

Anyway, back on topic. As you can imagine, setting up a multi-page mini-site was no small task thanks to this little lack of functionality. For the other non-code/design literate groups it's fine to just pop some information on a one or two page mini-site, I'd imagine not many clubs or societies have a web designer as a member (unless there's a Web-Design society I don't know about, there's an idea...) so I can't really blame the other sites for their simplicity. Fact is I had a lot of time on my hands and I'm a stickler for detail, and making things look pretty.

It went from a simple five pages to a slightly more complex seven pages. The news page is probably one of the first times I've really hammered the social network connectivity on a site which is non-blog related. It's much more difficult on a web-site than a blog, as most modern blogging software offers the connectivity in the form of widgets or plugins, whereas this is just straight up code (iframes and the like.) A few more hoops to jump through but otherwise I am pleased with the result, it means that there is a little bit of dynamic content on a page which may end up neglected if I get too busy with Uni work (or I don't manage to teach the others how to update it.)

Another thing to note is the menu bar. I am particularly pleased with this as it is all done using image sprites. I'll try and explain a little about the process, but there are plenty of tutorials online that go into more detail about it such as this one and this one (and maybe even this one.)

For the uninitiated, CSS is a method of separating style from content in web design. You can use CSS to control elements such as background colour, height, width, alignment blah blah, basically you can adjust a LOT with CSS without effecting the actual element itself. So if you have a table with a CSS class, and you adjust the class, it will adjust the table (and all other tables with the same class.) I'm possibly not being very clear, so here's a picture...

...very helpful. The reason why CSS is so useful for web designers is that not only can you manage the style using any number of attributes, but those three tables can be on three seperate pages. Say you have a table on three different pages with your birth certificate, pin number and home address, and you want those three tables to look the same on every page? throw a class="AllMyPersonalInformation" in a style sheet and link it to those web pages (again, not going into detail here, google it if you wanna' find out how) and BAM, those three web pages will have the same table on each one. I don't think I explained that very well, oh sod it...

...I think that makes even less sense, I'm not very good at explaining things I suppose. The software on the mini-sites did NOT come with the sort of interconnectivity I am used to using so having the pages link to a single cascading style sheet wasn't possible. As such, I had to insert all the code that I used to make the menu and image sprites work individually on each page (which is a ball ache when it comes to editing the menu later on.)

BUBS hiatus and other nonsense.

I have been eating like a pig lately. That has nothing to do with BUBS of course, I am not too bothered about putting on weight with University looming just around the corner. I am confident that once uni kicks off again I will lose any extra I have gained over the holidays (and proceed to put it back on the following holidays.)

Unfortunately there is this issue with gym access, or lack thereof. I know that you do not necessarily need a kitted out gym to build strength. I could hammer push-ups and jack-knifes along with my cheerleading, but it just doesn't motivate me like a good workout room does. I am not the sort of gym bunny to swan around in a vest, gingerly clutching my protein shake while admiring my fake tan in the strength room mirrors. Anyone who regularly attends a gym will tell you the same thing, it's all about being in a different place with a bunch of other people who share your goals of fitness.

When I go to the gym, I have my gym head on. I get there, I get ready, I cardio, I work out, I swim and then sauna and wind down. That is my gym life. I don't go every day like some people, I don't hog the weight room like a muscle Mary. I do a little of everything, keeping in mind my goals from BUBS (which I am regiment with, while at the gym.) When I am here, at home in Wigan, I just cannot enter that frame of mind. I know there is a lovely wooded nature area across the road ideal for jogging, or cycling (which I have been considering) but I just don't seem to have the motivation when I am here.

What I do find odd is that I have been drawing and updating the website all summer. I haven't given working out much of a thought outside of cheer practice, but I have been drawing or sketching almost everyday. Yet when I am at uni, I don't make a single thing. You can guarantee I hit the gym at least once a week though.

Maybe I have yet to find the balance between the two. In the gym I feel like I am working towards something, a firmer body with less loose skin and the ability to jump higher, lift girls for longer, clear concise goals. When drawing I am working towards bettering my technique to produce higher quality work in less time, so that I can get them online and (hopefully) entertain the masses; not to mention fill a portfolio which might get me work. I think I need to strike a balance between the two, I shall have this as my goal for the next academic year.

So BUBS is on hold until I return to sunny Salford, at which point it may not just be build Upper Body Strength, but also Lose Summer Fat at the same time! On an unrelated note, here's a sketch of a dude (work in progress)...

I could ink this in Photoshop as is, but there is something about it which I don't like, so I'm going to keep working in colours, then try the pencil/inking method I suggested in my previous post.

Until next time!

More mass GIFs

Wouldn't want you to get bored now would I. Click on the image if it doesn't animate in this window...