Month: June 2021

Once upon a time there was a huge dude in Kenya who played rugby for their national team, and ended up getting signed to a linebacker position by the Indianapolis Colts for half a million dollars.

He never really dialed into the position, but he was pretty cool to watch during the offseason when I had nothing better to do, kind of like now. Anyway, several years ago when I was still hype on the Grigson-era Colts (mistake), Daniel Adongo said the above stuff in an interview, and he’s right.

The bad music you listen to, the snacks you allow yourself to have, the nonsense you read on the Internet, all of it matters when you’re trying to make yourself improve. Even if it doesn’t seem like a lot.

Inversely if you listen to good music and read good books and follow good people online and I dunno back Graham’s Patreon so you can access his more gooderly things, you’ll do better. You’ll probably even look jacked like Adongo up there. Worth a shot.

Last year doesn’t really count because the WuFlu screwed everyone out of a traditional awesome American summer. I’d really like to remedy that in ’21.

There’s plenty of stuff out there telling you to be miserable and grumpy and angry at the world, and you know what? It’s horse crap. All of it. Humanity’s problems are largely a matter of scale because A) there has never been a higher population of people on Earth before, and B) those people have never had global access to one another’s thoughts and impressions, making them C) susceptible to manipulation by faceless entities on the other end of a digital screen.

So don’t feed bull crap to your brain. Get out and have an awesome summer like you did as a kid. Get stuff off your slate. Simplify. Go outside. Hike. Eat watermelon. Have fun. Single peeps? Fall in love. Married peeps? Go on dates and shoot the breeze for a change. Get in the pool. Get the grill going. Change jobs, read books, watch movies, whatever. Just…have a damn good summer, ok?

For those who’ve been following the release schedule for Adventure Hour, you know I’m currently working on GUILD. The cover art is underway, just slow going.

As you can see, I’ve got the basic poses down and stuff. The detailing takes longer and the coloring is relatively quick.

Episode 1 is already up, and I’ve got 6 more scheduled.

After that I’ll do a short story that doesn’t have a title yet, it’s just a spoof of a certain YA paranormal romance that you’ve probably heard of and did not enjoy. You’ll enjoy mine. That’s why you’re here.

That’ll just be one episode, maybe as long as two hours, and then the next serialized adventure will pop up, called ENGINES OF MERYKA: HOWLING WILDERNESS.

Stay tuned, from now until the end of time.

Could always use another backer or two though. www.patreon.com/dreadpennies

…for the 4th of July. So I am. Just consider Engines of Liberty to be my overwritten culinary blog, and this is the menu that you skip ahead to read.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got lined up for 2021. It’s gonna be an all-day thing. Links are for the recipes I’m using.

Grilled Balsamic Brown Sugar Steaks

A little bit of Grilled Shrimp

Mexican Street Corn

Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Cake (This image is from someone having made it themselves, the actual post is a video on Pinterest.)

The usual staples of fries and fruit will be on hand, as well as the weapon of choice, Dad’s Root Beer.

I web-searched this image and it came up as a Twitter account image that got suspended…so you can search it, but you can’t see the tweets. LOL AF. Remember that Twitter is un-American and you shouldn’t be on it unless you’re a GA reaching out to the people who need it.

Anyway, what are you having for ID4?

…give me something to draw “in my style.”

This one was fun. I don’t think I finished every one of them that was sent in (I still owe someone a Phantom, and I think a Harry Dresden too). I’d like to do it again though.

So if you’re reading this and you aren’t a spampornbot, comment below with a character you’d like to see me draw In My Style.

This is just one of many videos put together by Jake Westbrook on YouTube. I found his stuff back in the fall, he has awesome Autumn tunes, Halloween tunes, Thanksgiving music, Winter tunes that aren’t Christmas, Christmas tunes that are old school awesome, and more.

Dunno what he went to college for, but I’m glad he did, because he keeps finding excellent music from the past. Check it out.

Last year I drew puns of all 45 presidents, from Washington to Trump. Here’s just one of them.

I’ve considered doing a whole artbook of the elections from 1789 to 2020 and if there’s literally any interest in it at all, I’ll greenlight that beast.

Just one comment. One comment that isn’t a spambot or porn virus from India. Do it. I freaking dare you to do it. You yella? Bet yer yella. Comment on this post for Graham’s take on each American election, illustrated with punnery and punditry in unequal measure.

I started trucking in 2013. One of the worst days I had that year was in May, when I got stuck in the dirt in California, just over the border from Arizona. Can’t remember the town, I think it was Blythe.

The guy who loaded me told me to drive into the field, but I got stuck in soft soil and ended up needing a tow. He also rammed into the back of my trailer with his forklift, damaging the doors so I couldn’t close them properly. Then when I went to refuel the truck in Ehrenburg, I spilled diesel all over my good gym shorts.

I’ve definitely had worse days in trucking, but that one was still pretty bad. Nevertheless, I set it aside and did what had to be done in order to finish the job, because that was the only way to get away from all the BS that happened to me. Sometimes that’s all there is to it.

Humans are emotional creatures. That can be a delight, and it can also be a hindrance. You’ve got to know when to just…be a computer and not care, because you can’t feel better until you’re away from what’s making you feel worse.

Simple and plain, yet we lose sight of that. Because we’re emotional.

Get back to work.