Brian Headlee

This past year has been amazingly successful for me at work. It did not come without a cost however. Over the past few years I have spent countless hours outside the office programming and researching work related items. However sometimes you just need a break. Many years back now during my High School days, I used to be the president of the school Art Club. My career has taken me very far away from that line of thought for many years. Personally, I can tell my skills have diminished in a major way over the years. To that end, I have decided that since drawing is so different than programming that this would be a great hobby to spend a few hours at now and then as a break from work.

A few weeks ago I picked up a moleskine notebook and found a few drawing pencils I had stashed away down in the basement and started distracting my brain with drawing. For some odd reason, I have an interest in drawing funny cartoon characters right now. I’m pretty sure this is because my main line of support in this endeavor are my kids. Not to mention, learning how to draw a crazy character does not take too much time and fits very nicely into my schedule.

It’s been years now since I have drawn and the creative side of my brain has shriveled to a small lump of gray matter the size of a raisin. Needless to say, this cute dragon did not spawn from my creative mind. No, I decided the best way to get my skills back was to start from the beginning. I have found a quite a few beginning drawing websites online, but my favorite has to be “How Stuff Works: How to Draw Cartoons“. This is where I will start my adventure. I plan to practice on a few of the cartoon characters that can be found on that website. I have also been looking over my “1-2-3 Draw Cartoon Aliens” book too. Matt got me this book a few years back and both Emily and I have been enjoying making the funny little alien creatures.

Just for the fun of it, I thought I would post a few articles about the different items that I draw. I’m just getting started so I’m sure my methods are not the best and I will continue to refine them over time. For this dragon, I actually started with my moleskine, a pencil, an eraser and a pen. I could not sleep one night so I followed the steps on the above website and I drew out this little dragon. The next morning Emily and Mary saw him and they liked him a lot. So the next late evening that I had free, I sketched him again but this time on the computer. I thought it might be interesting if I described the steps I went through in order to make him.

First off, I have a wacom drawing tablet that I picked up from Best Buy a while back when this drawing idea was festering in my head. The tablet allows you to draw on your computer as if you had a pencil in your hand. There are many different grades of tablets out there. I didn’t go crazy with my purchase, but I didn’t buy the cheapest one either. I think I have a 4″ x 6″ tablet that allows for 1024 levels of presure. The later item being the most important to me. For drawing cartoons it probably doesn’t make any difference at all. I hope to do a ‘pencil drawing’ 100% on the tablet later and that will become important then.

The tablet came with a program called “Corel Painter Essentials 3″. This program works really well for sketching and painting. I’m sure a true artist could make that program sit up and beg, but I am not that person yet. I use this program to sketch out my drawings. It supports layers so I can try different items over the top of things that I have already completed. When you draw with pen and paper you do this by drawing a rough sketch and then erase the lines you don’t want. You can do something similar with layers where you can ‘move on’ without risking the work underneath that you really like.

Once I have the sketching all done, I then capture a single picture of the image and move it into a program called ‘Skitch‘. I’m sure there are many fancier programs out there in the wild, but Skitch is free and it works really well for making the deep dark vector lines that make up the final drawing. When I draw in Corel, it’s just like pen and paper. If I can’t hold my hand steady, then the line won’t be steady. With Skitch, if I draw a line it will automaticlly smooth it out for me. This allows me to create a professional feel to the drawing. Once I’m done outlining the drawing in Skitch, I can throw away the part that I was copying and then move it back to Corel.

Corel is great for painting! I just love their water color, pencil and colored pencil utilities. It looks just like the real thing without all the mess. I think water colored cartoons are really cool, but there is no way I’m going to try and water color for real. At least not at this point in time. So with Corel, I am able to color in my dragon with an effect that looks like water colors.

So, attached below are the ’steps’ that my dragon went through as I created him on the computer. I plan on posting a few more sketches as I relax with my drawings. Check back again and see what crazy thing I’m drawing next.

Aye Aye Captain! There be treasure at the bottom of the sea last Sunday when me matey invited sprogs over for some swashbuklin’. (How to talk like a pirate)

translation: Hey everyone, last Sunday Emily had a Spongebob Birthday party to celebrate her 7th year. She invited a few friends over to the house and they all had a great time playing games.

Seven years! Can you believe it? I know I can’t. It seems just like yesterday that I was gingerly driving home from the hospital with his little one snugly strapped into her car seat.

Now she is all grown up and very much a little person all her own. This year to celebrate Emily’s birthday we had a Spongebob themed party. She was hoping for a horse themed party, but PartyAmerica didn’t have any cool horse decorations so we talked it over and Spongebob got the green light.

Emily invited a few friends over to her party this year and they had a lot of fun playing game like “Pin the Spongebob on the poster”, “Keep the jelly fish in the air”, “noodle toss” and “frisbee roll”. The weather was beautiful and I think everyone had a great time. In true Headlee fashion I did my best to send all the kids home with an amazingly obscene about of candy too.

Mary loves to make cakes for the kids birthday parties. As you can see from the picture above her Spongebob cake turned out great. Emily got lot’s of really cool things from family and friends. She got a great Cranium game from the Dingmans and she got a ‘Hair Bead Tool’ and some ‘Littlest Pet Shop’ toys from her friends. Thanks Everyone!

The number one gift from the family this year was a tether ball. Mary really wanted to get the tether ball for Emily but I had not heard her ever talk about one before. Like usual, Mary was spot on with that one. Emily was so excited when she opened up that gift.

Happy Birthday Emily!

It’s Spring time and that means GARAGE SALE! You might remember from last year, we held our garage sale in order to fund a new trampoline for the family. If not, let me recap that adventure for you. We had a garage sale and we took the proceeds and purchased a trampoline for the kids. It was a beautiful trampoline. It was huge, very bouncy and took a whole weekend to assemble. Fun to be had by all. Then, less than thirty days later disaster struck. No, one of our kids did not break a leg or anything like that. Rather a gust of wind picked up this 400 pound trampoline and proceeded to ‘wrap’ it around our pine tree and fence. There was nothing left that could be salvaged. It was a disaster. If you think putting a trampoline together is hard, try picking one out of a tree!

Well, Spring time has come again and we had our next garage sale. This time however, we put the money towards a gym membership for the family. A gym opened up down the street called VillaSport. It is a HUGE gum that caters more towards families. We signed up last week and we have been going as a family ever since. What great fun and I’m already starting to feel better!

Now you might be thinking, it’s just a gym. How could everyone be excited about a gym? Well, Mary has been wanting to join a gym for a very long time. Kelly is just the right age now where she is interested in getting into shape too. Me, well I could live with being a sloth for a bit longer but I’m having a good time too. Emily, being the youngest, is honestly having the best time of all of us.

First a little bit about the gym. I can’t tell you much about the weights yet. They have free weights as well as machines. I do like lifting, but that would distract me from doing cardio which is what I need the most. The cardio section is pretty impressive. They have about every contraption that I have ever seen in a gym and then a few I have not seen either. The nice part is that every machine has a built in TV with cable. I have to tell you running is not all that bad while you are watching Family Guy. Not to mention working out on a treadmill right next to your spouse is pretty awesome too.

Then there are the pools. There are two pools inside and three outside. The outside ones are not yet open for the season, but we can’t wait. They are built like a water park on the outside with huge slides and a water play ground. That is going to be so fun! On the inside, they have a lap swimming pool which I use every night. I love swimming. There is also a ‘warmer’ smaller pool that you can get into as well. They have ‘family’ times every day so you can bring the young ones in to play as well.

Then there is the spa, coffee shop, internet access in the lounge, pool table, jacuzzis, steam rooms, basketball courts and the list goes on and on. That’s just the stuff I haven’t messed with yet. The most impressive part is the kids area though. Emily’s section has it’s own gym (short basketball hoops), classrooms, climbing area (like McDonalds but cooler), outdoor playground, movie room, computer lab and craft area. When you drop off the kids, they are put into their age group and then every thirty minutes they shift positions. I don’t think Emily has done the same thing yet at the gym but she has a blast every night.

So, there you have it. That is what I have been up to this week. I have to tell you, I’m pretty darn tired at night after working out on the treadmill and swimming laps. Lots of fun though. Emily is excited because Saturday is the next family swim time we are going to attend. She loves the water too. See you at the gym.

Last but not least, our travels took us to “Plow in the Oak” park in Exira Iowa where we witnessed a tree that had eaten a plow. Yes, that is correct. The tree had eaten a plow. The tree is a burr oak and popular legend is that a farmer left his plow leaning against a tree when he went off to fight in the civil war. Over time, this tree grew around the plow and today you can only see the handle and the blade of the plow sticking out of the tree on either end.

The interesting tale here is that while we were planning our Roadside America adventures for the day, I kept telling Emily that we were going to see a ‘Tree that had eaten a plow”. I explained that over a very long period of time, a tree would grow around things that it could not move. When we finally arrived at the park we showed Emily the plow and sure enough the tree had eaten the plow. I then asked Emily to go stand next to the tree so I could get a photo. She looked at me like I had just asked her jump into a pit of rattlesnakes. She slowly edged her way to the tree keeping a wary eye on it the whole time. Soon as the camera had snapped the picture … zip … she shot away from that tree like a rocket.

People always say you can learn a lot from a kid. I think I’m on Emily’s side on this one. You shouldn’t really trust trees that eat things.

Our next stop on Roadside America was the “Tree in the Middle of the Road“. This landmark is located near Anita Iowa and is actually near the interstate where I travel every time I return to Iowa to visit family. The directions on the website were very good as long as you were trying to find the location of this tree starting from the interstate. We were not. Armed with our Garmin Nuvi GPS we set off to find this tree.

Due to the outrageous gas prices as of late, we managed to cram our family into our “Blueberry” for this road trip. That would be our 30 mpg city car also known as a Scion Xa. This little guy has never seen gravel roads in it’s entire life and I have to say I think we scared it a little bit with this adventure.

I was not really sure how to setup the GPS to create a path that would take us by all of the roadside attractions we wanted to see, so after a while we threw caution to the wind and we decided the tree was our goal. When the pavement ended, we had a choice to make. The street signs said that we were in the 200 block. Now mind you, I have learned that a ‘block’ in the country is really a mile so if you are on 200th street and you want to get to 350th street you have about 30 miles to go. Oops. Thirty miles on gravel road in the blueberry is not advised and the drive was a bit freaky at times.

Finally, after about 15 miles or so, we decided it was time to give up and head to the next attraction. We just didn’t know where the tree was. Just as we were about to bail, we saw a sign at a T intersection. A picture of a large tree, an arrow pointing left and a reassuring ‘9 miles’ was scrolled across the bottom. Our exit was to the right and it was time to make a decision. Of course we went for it. It was not long until we found the next sign that said ’straight ahead ‘6 miles’. Yea, we are almost there. Then we came to another T intersection. No sign this time to help us on our way. So we tried left and we headed off into the wild country side.

About this time I started playing with the GPS again and using the ‘address’ that we printed off from the Roadside America website, I was able to locate the intersection where the tree was located. We were near it, but oddly not really all that close. A few more false turns and we finally found this elusive beast!

This tree is worth the drive. I have not seen many trees in my life time that are this impressive. It was just massive! The legend goes that in 1850 a surveyor cut a cottonwood sprout to use as a walking stick. He later plated the stick to mark the corner of this intersection where it still grows today right in the middle of the intersection.

No, this is not a fairy tale, but I tell you that it is true. I have seen this with my own eyes and have lived to tell the tale. This monstrosity towers over 10 feet tall and rotates at a fair clip clockwise. For those of you that do not know my history, I feel I must let you in on a little joke. This oddity of nature is actually part of a billboard inviting travelers on highway 141 in Iowa to stop by and enjoy the small town of Coon Rapids Iowa. It’s funny because I grew up in this little town for eighteen years of my life and this rotating ear of corn has been old hat for a very long time.

Recently, Mary has found a website called ‘roadsideamerica.com‘ that features such oddities all over America. Mary was quite excited about the idea of stopping and seeing some of the crazy items we have seen on the list. As you can imagine I experienced a range of different emotions when I found my hometown on the list for their ten foot tall rotating ear of corn. This was an oddity? A freak of roadside America? Well, despite the fact I had seen it for almost eighteen years of my life when I thought about it, hell yea it’s a roadside treat. You won’t see that anywhere else.

So, where better than to kick off our quest to experience roadside America other than my hometown of Coon Rapids Iowa. Sure enough, the rotating ear of corn was just where I left it back in 1992 and it was still chugging along. You had better move quick on this one, the rumor mill in town says they are thinking of ‘modernizing’ the entrance into town and the rotating ear of corn may be on the move. Catch it while you can!

I am very sorry to report that Scabber’s the Rat has passed away of old age this past week. For those of you that don’t know, Scabber’s was Kelly’s pet that she has had now for about three years. Scabber’s was a super cool pet and had a great life just lounging around and nibbling on is favorite treat of Yogi’s. He was a great traveler and logged many road miles as he visited family in Iowa and Missouri.

For parents out there that have kids that really want a pet they can take care of, I’m going to guess here that a rat is not high on your list. I’m here to tell you that it should be. Scabber’s was a hooded rat. They are very curious animals and they are fun to watch explore. The best part about hooded rats are that they are very friendly. There was just no fear that Scabbers would bite … well unless you teased him with a Yogi. As far as I know, I’m the only one that every did that though and he never bit hard.

Bottom line, if your child wants a pet and they have their heart set on a small mammal then you should be considering a hooded rat. They make great pets.

UPDATE: Oops, I was totally wrong about type of rat Scabbers was. Apparently there was a late breaking decision on the day of purchase. Scabbers was a Chocolate Rat, not a Hooded Rat.

This past week I finally managed to squeeze one full gallon of blood out of myself. Ok, so I had a little help. The lady’s at the Memorial hospital in Colorado Springs would probably argue that they had a major role in the extraction. That’s probably a very good thing, because if the technique was left to my own accord I would probably not have survived.

I started my blood donation efforts back in September of 2006 when a coworker named Chuck talked me into donating at the traveling blood bank as they passed through our office. To my surprise it just was not all that bad and it really felt like it’s something can you do to really help people in need.

So, this being my 8th extraction, you would think that this would be old hat by now and nothing new and exciting could be learned. You would be wrong if you thought that however. Every time I donate blood the attendant, Jennifer this time, will ask me if I have preference in the arm they extract the blood from. I normally just chuckle at this because it just always seemed a bit ridiculous to me. Well, Jennifer started poking at my left arm and she quickly found the large vein that I have in that arm. It does not matter who I get for the extraction, they are always happy when they start poking my left arm. Apparently I have a very large vein in that arm and it makes inserting the needle easy for them.

Well, as Jennifer was poking at my left arm, I started having flashbacks from the last few times I donated. The last few times, my left arm really hurt afterwards. Not so bad that I would not come back, but enough to leave me with an uncomfortable feeling about the process. I mentioned this to Jennifer and she extracted blood from my right arm this time. While we were waiting the ten minutes or so for the extraction to complete I learned something interesting about my arms.

Apparently, while I have a large vein in my left arm, it is located deep in my arm. Thus, when they extract blood from my left the needle must travel further into my arm. The vein on my right is much smaller so it’s more tricky for the attendant to insert the needle, but it is very close to my skin so the needle does not travel as deeply in my arm. This made ALL the difference. My blood donation this go had no pain or bruising afterwards at all. So, the next time I’m asked if I have a preference. “Right or Left?” My answer is a resounding “right”!

Hey everyone! Things have been so busy at work that I have just not had time to write as of late. Well, not just write. I haven’t had time to game, read or go geocaching either. I was hoping my next blog entry would be about what I have been doing at work, but alas the project I was working on was pulled at the last minute on Friday so I guess I can’t write about that today.

However, last Sunday Mary decided that I needed to take a break from work and actually see my kids again so we took the day and decided to have a family outing. We decided to go to Denver to the Museum of Natural History. We have been there several times before, but this is probably the first time we have been there since Emily was old enough to actually remember it. On the drive to Denver, we talked about all the different things each of us wanted to see. Emily wanted to see the Dinosaurs, Kelly wanted to see the Egyptian mummies, I wanted to visit the planetarium and Mary wanted to see the gnomes.

Um, see the gnomes? You might be wondering why in the world we would go to a history museum to view a mythical creature. That is a great question! While Mary was doing research on what we should do for our family outing on roadsideamerica.com she came across a little tidbit of information about the Denver Museum. Apparently, the artist that painted the backgrounds for all of the dioramas in the museum likes to add hidden gnomes to his artwork. It is basically his signature. So armed with this knowledge we set off to find some gnomes in the museum.

Ok, the museum is a very big place and we did cheat a little bit. When we first arrived at the museum, Mary got a pamphlet from the visitor enter that disclosed the location of the seven gnomes hidden in the museum. It was broken down so that you knew which diorama a gnome could be found. If that was not enough help, you could dig deeper into the description and they would try to talk you through finding them. Oh what fun we had trying to locate them all. Some were VERY challenging to find. Even with the full description to the exact location of the gnome, we still struggled. Are we at the right diorama? Which is the tree that looks like the letter “C”? Is that the ‘light’ colored tree? These are just a few of the questions we struggled with on our gnome hunt. Oh what fun it was. It was like “Where’s Waldo” on steroids.

Word of advice? Take a small pair of binoculars with you for your gnome hunt. Gnomes are only about two inches tall and when you add in the perspective of the landscape they can get very tiny. In fact, the last gnome we were hunting for was only the size of a nickel. I think we saw that one, but I’m not 100% sure. Binoculars would have been helpful for that one. Here are some photos of the gnomes we did find.

Some of you might have seen the words “Sent from my iPod” at the bottom of an email you have received from me. I know I have gotten a few questions about it so I thought I would explain what is going on.

I have recently purchased an iPod touch. What is an iPod touch you might be asking? Well it is like the new apple iPhone but without the phone. Like most new iPod’s it will play your music and videos. One of the big differences is that the whole iPod is a screen. There is no more wheel to contol the iPod. Instead, you contol the device via the touch screen. That coupled with some very smart interface software and you are left with a device that I feel will revolutionize the way people interact with mobile devices for years to come.

If you own an iPod you might be thinking “Hey, I really liked the wheel on my iPod” and yes I even miss it sometimes too. However, now that you have just a touch screen there are a lot of other things that you can do now. One of the biggest features that made me salivate right from the beginning was WiFi access and the Safari browser. Yes, that’s right. If you have access to wireless Internet you can get online and browse the Internet. Oh, the geek in me really liked the idea that I could have a pocket computer that was not some stripped down husk of a computer, but something real. Now throw in an email client and some note writing software and you have a very nice device that is ready for just about everything.

So, why an iPod touch and not an iPhone? Well, for me it all came down to the service provider for my cell phone. The iPhone for the first five years of its life can only get service on a carrier that I do not have. My family members all have cell phones and we can talk for free between us. If I were to get an iPhone then I would have to start paying for calls to Mary and Kelly and that just sounds silly. I guess we could all switch providers if they had such a deal too but even then I would be giving up my discount from where I work. All in all I get a very good deal on cell phones and mucking with it just a little would be foolish at best.

With that said my geek sense always tingles a little when I think about having Internet access where ever I go and not just at wireless hotspots. When I do have access to the Internet I use my touch to read and send email and to read rss news feeds. When I am offline I can write notes, listen to music or watch videos.

I think the best way to drive this home is the fact this article is “Sent from my iPod”. Yep I wrote and posted this all from my iPod.

Sent from my iPod.