I'm The Cat In The Hat, Baby

My son, who is now 15 months old, insists I wear my hat all the time, even at home.

I know I shouldn't take offense at that, and I'm really not sensitive about my baldness at all, but part of me wonders about what he's thinking.

I guess he probably just associates it with going-out fun-times dad. Or maybe he just thinks it's amusing that I have this thing on my head.

Anyway, I need a haircut and plan to do it tonight, so we'll see if that's it.

I've Entered A T-Shirt Design Contest

A fellow designer at Cafepress issued a quick-design challenge this weekend, challenging all comers to come up with and submit a themed design by Sunday night midnight, US central time. (The site says CST, but I think they meant CDT.) Winner gets bragging rights and, if desired, a link to their shop on the challenge host's web site.

The theme is: Grilled Cheese

Yeah, that's right. We had to come up with a design with the theme of grilled cheese. I came up with one, with what I think is a strong concept, but I'm up against some seasoned veterans and I only started on mine mid-day today.

I can't show you the design since the voting is, I think, open to anyone and that would be cheating.

Anyway, here's the design challenge web site if you want to take a look. I haven't seen the other entrants yet. The site is supposed to automatically switch over to displaying the entrants and accepting votes after the deadline, and voting should go on through Friday. This is the first such contest the host has put on, so there could very well be a technical glitch here or there. He seems to be quick about fixing what has come up so far, though. So take a look, and rate the designs. And maybe if the host issues another challenge you can step up and enter too.

Enjoy!

Celebrating The Smile Emoticon's 25th Anniversary

I created this Original Smile Emoticon Anniversary Edition T-shirt to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the classic computer text Smile emoticon, created on September 19, 1982 by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman. Thank you Professor Fahlman!

It's available in several long and short-sleeve styles for men and women, and in kids sizes as well. Plain Smile edition t-shirts also available.

My Latest Design - Senator Craig - Gone Pecan

Down in New Orleans, and likely the region surrounding it, we had an expression: gone pecan. It means someone or something is doomed, on the way out, destined for failure.

Senator Larry Craig is being forced to resign today by his fellow GOP homophobes. For his hypocrisy in opposing gay rights, Larry Craig deserves to be a Gone Pecan. If you share that view, have a look at my latest design on Cafepress: Larry Craig - Gone Pecan.

Your Next Eatin' Out With The Guys Shirt

I'm not sure how I was struck with the inspiration to make this one. I think it may have been sparked after my wife and I had one of out occasional playful exchanges of numerous obscene gestures. Anyway, the concept came to me and worked as an eatin' out shirt so here it is: "Not An Obscene Gesture". The border around the text is a bread texture, and is not present on white shirts. The font was chosen because it looks a bit like it could have been drawn on in sauce squeezed from a bottle. (I may actually revise this a bit, adding some highlights to the text so it looks more like sauce.)

For The Bigfoot Lover In You

I was putting together a collection of sex feet designs (I believe they're "officially" called "happy feet") and was playing with the positioning of them. It occurred to me that it would be funny to do a bigfoot version. At first I had it without the text, intending to just say it was bigfoot in the product descriptions, but then I realized the large+small feet combination could be mistaken for a pedophilia design. I very quickly added the text.

The text is, by the way, in a font based on the title text in a Gamera movie. I thought it worked just as well for bigfoot.

Anyway, if you like it it's available on a variety of gift items and women's clothing: I Love Bigfoot t-shirts and gifts.

One For The Kids

Here's a silly little design I doodled tonight just for the kids. Well, playful adults can get it too. Who wouldn't want a ride in a rocket-powered monkey-driven car? Well, a shirt with one on it is the next best thing. This is already one of my favorites. :)

400th Design On Cafepress - and Another Gratifying Sale

My 400th design - Will Work For The Weekend just came online yesterday in the Cafepress Marketplace. The inspiration for it should be fairly obvious.

I also got my first sale of Untimely Ripp'd, on a toddler shirt. I knew someone out there would get it.

Thanks to everyone for your support!

For The Hirsute G.I. Joe Fan

Here is my latest design - an homage to the packaging of the classic GI Joe Adventure Team action figures - "Life-Like Hair And Beard". The perfect gift for that hairy child of the 70s. Also available in full-chest size.

Enjoy!

The Making Of Smuggling Basketballs

Smuggling Basketballs Maternity T-shirts

This is how I made them.

1. Get an old t-shirt, outgrown but not worn out.
2. Poke holes in it with the screwdriver I just used to tighten my glasses.
3. Rip holes wider by hand.
4. Shove basketball inside t-shirt, set on chair, and arrange holes & ball.
5. Set up camera on tripod.
6. Take picture. (above left)
7. Adjust brightness & contrast of image to make everything more visible.
8. Adjust color of ball to be a more bright orange.
9. Select t-shirt area.
10. Adjust brightness & contrast of t-shirt area to make area between holes mostly white and shadows grey.
11. Select hole areas and tatters, feather a bit, and crop, leaving the rest solid white.
12. Tweak & trim the shadows.
White version done.
13. Select white and tattered areas.
14. Carefully tweak selection.
15. Feather selection and adjust color to black with dark grey highlights. Forget about the shadows.
16. Select and trim away stray highlights beyond tatters surrounding holes.
17 Select all surrounding black area, reduce the selection, and delete leaving transparent section.
Dark version done.

Some of those steps took a bit longer to do than to write. :)
I don't think I've spent more time and effort on a design before. Feels good.

Been Busy Designing

I've been busy producing new designs since cafepress.com added maternity tees. So far, in addition to the Mad Gestating Skillz design I've had in the Yahoo blog's blast, I've come up with homages to Rosemary's Baby and The Mummy, and adapted an earlier homage to Shakespeare's MacBeth.

I've got ideas for a couple series of designs for these shirts too, but I think they would work best with one of cafepress' premium shops. I've been making enough to cover the cost of that and then some, but I'm thinking I'd like to stick a toe in the water with them first, and maybe build up a bigger collection of maternity designs.

If you know anyone who's "preggers" and who would appreciate my taste (or lack thereof) tell them to take a look-see. Thanks, and enjoy!

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

IVF Consult Today - and - A "Brief" Entry On Boxers (heheh)

IVF

We have an appointment this afternoon to talk with the IVF coordinator, or whatever they call her, to get everything explained & scheduled and have whatever questions we have answered. We've been trying to think of as many questions as we can beforehand, and this morning we had a brainstorming session in the car. We'll likely do the same on the way there. Aught to be able to think of a few more during an hour drive.

The critical thing is the timing. We're pretty sure we can get one try in right away, but they have a gap in their scheduling during the summer to give their machinery a thorough cleaning. (It just occurred to me: does that mean we get the machines at their dirtiest? Probably well within tolerances.) If the first try doesn't work (~40% chance of success per try with ICSI at our age, they say) will we have to wait a few months longer for the second? I guess if the first try fails and we can identify one or more contributing factors a delay could give us time to do something about them, so if there is a delay there could be a silver lining to it. My wife just wants to power through this thing and get it done, though.

Boxers

As part of an attempt to do everything possible to improve my sperm count & morphology, I've now switched to boxers after having worn briefs my whole life. I got knit boxers, so the feeling would be a little more familiar. It's still a different experience altogether, I can say. Everything dangles, with no support to speak of. The first couple days there was some definite discomfort in my left testicle as it hung unsupported, but that seems to have passed.

My wife picked up a couple pair for me. Merona, I think the brand is. Then we picked up some others - a couple Hanes and a couple Jockey, plus one novelty pair with Homer Simpson just for fun. Then my back went out on me. I have a bad back, an inheritance from my father, and every so often it hits me. I believe it's the muscles of the lower back going into spasm. It seems to happen more readily if I wear pants with a waistband or drawstring that digs into them. Lying on the floor seems to help a lot, if only temporarily. Anyway, I took a closer look at the waistbands of the brands I got, and while the Hanes look smoother & softer - puffy with no bunching like you normally see with an elastic waistband in boxers - the elastic seems like it's going to hug tighter in a narrow band at the base of the waistband. The others seem to have more even pressure distributed over the entire hight. Because of that, I've declined to try wearing the Hanes until my back gets better. Search Amazon.com for merona boxer

The button fly is a new twist for me too. It's hard to unbutton those things while you're dancing.