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Friday, March 28, 2008 Some more websites! Listening to: Animal Crossing OST - K.K. Bossa Orchestrated 
I was lucky enough to have a little thing posted about the Daring Diver Donnie papercraft toy I made recently on the Toys 'R Evil blog. I think it's going to my head. 
I was also lucky enough to have a post about my recently revived project of the Little Woodbot toys over on the Bot Junkie blog. Much of the "flak" I've gotten is that people say it's just a few blocks of wood and Sharpie. Little do they know that it's actually paint. Wood would absorb and spread Sharpie like a poorly made tie-dye shirt. Luckily the new ones for Series 1 will be a bit more involved. There's a reason why it was called "Series 0" after all. 
And of course, the two sites that started all of this Little Woodbot commotion to begin with: the io9.com blog and notcot.org. And today's comment of the day goes to "lalo9652": "jajajajajaja!!!! you are really good at jokes!!!! jajajajaja" posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:18 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 It's Tax Season! Listening to: Nothing. 
That's right everyone, it's tax season! I actually never have many qualms with doing my taxes. Since I don't make nearly enough or own enough things (property, cars, etc.) to really make it a difficult process, I find it something that just has to be done once a year like going to the dentist or getting a physical (all of which I haven't done in three years or so). When I sign and fill out my W-2 forms when I start a new job, I always make sure the government takes out the most to ensure I get a return. I figure I'm not in dire need of cash at the moment, so all's well that ends well. I'm sure there's some kind of thing I could put on those forms to maximize the amount of money returned or kept from Uncle Sam, but the risk and trouble I feel is too high and I'm much too lazy of a person to really care. Anyway. When I file my taxes in the amazing software known as TurboTax (kisses), I always pretend I'm trying to max out the stats of my RPG character. Each form or new tax break from the government (like investing into a traditional IRA or something) is like adding new armor and stats to my character. Sometimes I see a really awesome piece of weaponry, like trying deduct my income because I recently moved, only to find out that I don't meet the requirements to get the tax break. It's like saying this Sword of Vampires requires 25 Strength points, but I only have 17. I know, it's nerdy. However, in the end, it makes it all for a more enjoyable experience. That and drinking while listening to music from Animal Crossing. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:32 PM Permalink | | Friday, March 21, 2008 Show This Saturday! Listening to: Nothing.  I'm the "music".I'll be playing two new songs that I wrote. One is called "First Touch", which is about the first time a woman ever touched my body and the second is called "There's No Love In The Club (If You Can't Dance)". Then we'll get a tasty and ugly cover medley... like always. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:48 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Paper Craft Exposure! Needing to do: My taxes. 
The loving folks over at PaperKraft.net put me on their front page for a feature today! It's a really great honor to be able to have my work shared with a great community such as this. Thanks folks! 
The folks over at Papercraft X also put Daring Diver Donnie on their page after a brief stint in their forums. This is the kind of thing that keeps me motivated to make more. It sends chills down my spine and blood out my ears. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:54 PM Permalink | | Sunday, March 16, 2008 An Interesting Weekend Listening to: Nothing. 
This has been quite the interesting weekend! I've got quite a lot of creative work done in addition to being able to spend time with some of the people closest to me. The work you see above is my first ever paper toy. I illustrated and designed it this weekend after a binge of paper toy research. If you click on it, you can find more information and build it yourself. Saturday 
On Saturday, I went to go see some friends perform with their improv troupe (Hobofish) with Josie. It was quite something else because it was at a house party. And I don't mean your typical Kid 'n Play House Party, it was hosted by some people who work at Google and it exhumed an air of snobbery and extreme intelligence. Anyway. Before the improv troupe started, Josie and I headed to the backyard to take a look around. A few moments later, a man also walks into the backyard holding a wine glass with about 1.5oz of wine in it (possibly grape juice, I'm not sure). He then proceeds to talk to us, uninhibited by the natural laws and rules of social interaction, on a non-stop verbal tirade of his "work". I felt like I had opened the man's brain and was swimming around in it like Uncle Scrooge and his vault of money. Pretentious isn't even a word that scratches the surface of how this man sounded. Josie and I felt like we were being surrounded on all sides by this project. Luckily, the improv troupe started soon after (after the 25 minutes of listening to this man talk, that is) and the remainder of the night was smooth sailing. Sunday 
Josie and I went to the Palm Sunday service and headed out to meet one of her good friends for lunch. Afterwards, which included one of the slowest sandwich making restaurants in the world and being a few feet from grazing cows, Josie and I went to Fry's because I wanted to see what was on sale. At one particular moment in time, I found myself reading a magazine about illustration and digital effects that can be applied in Photoshop. While being totally engrossed with the article, I hear a man ask me, "Excuse me? Do you know high tech?" I was confused at first but then realized that he was asking if I knew about computers and if I could give him an opinion on some he saw in a magazine. He then proceeded to make small talk while being suspiciously friendly, asking about what I do for a living and so on. It almost felt like me, trying to make small talk with a girl at a bus stop or something. 
Then, for no reason at all, he proceeds to raise his leg and put his foot on the bottom shelf of the magazine rack. He looked like someone in the old black and white films trying to show that they have class, that they have money, and to be able to allow the viewer (me in this case) a very good look at their groinal region. I came to the conclusion that this man was hitting on me. After continuing to show my disinterest, he eventually came to the concluding line, "Well, it seems like you're busy," in which I quickly replied that I was, "so I'll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing," which was reading a magazine, "and thank you for your help on this computer stuff," in which I accepted his thanks, quickly took out my phone and started calling Josie to see where she was in the store. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 8:24 PM Permalink | | Thursday, March 13, 2008 Emergency Underwear Listening to: Kylie Minogue - All I See 
I have this one pair of "emergency underwear" that I keep in the back of my underwear compartment in my closet. It's basically a pair of underwear that's way too large and has a poorly screen printed crab on the front of it (I needed to test out a screen and it was the only "junk" cloth I had around). When I get to that pair of underwear, I know it's time to do laundry. Sure, I could always just look at the laundry basket and determine that it's time to laundry because it's overflowing, but where's the fun in that? I'll tell you where: nowhere. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:16 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Mr. Shen Meets a Pokemon Feeling: Under the weather. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:18 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Some Like It Hot Listening to: K-Ci & Jojo - This Very Moment 
I recently watched the movie Some Like It Hot. It's one of MGM Grand's "classic films" starring Marilyn Monroe. It's interesting to see these actress idols from yesteryear. You notice how what would now be considered imperfections make them all the more real, thus possibly attainable, and thusly more alluring. I tried my best to render Ms. Monroe. It was done on my tablet in Corel Painter IX. The below is the original line work I did in Alias Sketchbook. 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:46 PM Permalink | | Technology! Listening to: Michael McDonald - Love T.K.O. 
I was using the restroom yesterday and took out my Blackberry 8310 to do a little toilet-internet surfing. After reading a few pages worth of Wired.com's mobile version site, I started thinking to myself, "Wow, I'm sitting here on the toilet and I'm reading about a woman's battle with autism." I remember roughly over a decade ago that I was secretly using a 14 pound laptop in 16-color Safe Mode (the only way I could connect to our ISP, Netcom, for some reason) to access the internet so I could download some low resolution hentai off some random website, getting blazing internet speeds on a 9600 baud modem. Now I find myself in a restroom, staying up to date with technological advancements across the world and in speeds I couldn't even dream about back in my adolescent days of yore (what in the world is a 14400?). Technology has truly come a long way and it's only in these quiet moments of solitude do I ever properly acknowledge that fact. In a completely unrelated note... Here's a vector image I did for Kick Face Design this week: 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:46 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, March 4, 2008 Dig Dug is Sorry Listening to: Michael McDonald - Heard It Through the Grapevine  He really is sorry about everything. He just, you know, has to do this. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:41 AM Permalink | | Monday, March 3, 2008 Mr. Shen's Giveaway Officially Online! Listening to: Hall & Oates - Rich Girl The Mr. Shen Weekly Giveaway is now officially active! Check out that wonderfully colorful banner above this text! Just click on that bad boy and you'll be able to enter yourself into a completely "no strings attached" contest/raffle to win some neat stuff. For those who came into the site from some other link, feel free to check out the giveaway by following this link: Mr. Shen's Weekly Giveaway. Good luck! And here is a picture of myself sitting on furniture made for giants... 
posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:55 AM Permalink | | |
       
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