As of last Friday, I am finished with my teaching commitments at the private school I’ve been teaching my after school drawing program at since this past fall. And not a moment too soon. The whole experience kind of soured me on teaching in many ways. While I like to think I did some good, and I do honestly believe that I largely did make a difference on many of the students, it wasn’t a positive experience all in all.

The few rotten apples in the bunch really made things so much harder than they needed to be, with their constant mouthing off, interruptions, random outbursts, and general disobedience. Just getting them to sit down and be quiet was a chore, and after awhile they’d just forget about it and go back to their normal poor behavior. Usually I wouldn’t care. It’s their money and if they would rather goof around than learn anything, too bad for them. But the school had standards that I wanted to live up to, and it’s hard when bad behavior rubs off on everyone else and they all think it’s ok to act like that.

One thing that really got on my nerves is when I would be drawing something on the board, like the basic shapes of a standard human head, and someone would just yell out “IT LOOKS LIKE ICE CREAM!” or something like that. Then, someone else would have to yell out “IT LOOKS PIZZA!” or “IT LOOKS LIKE A BIRD!“, and sooner or later everyone would be yelling whatever nonsense they thought the simple shapes looked like, completely missing the point of the lesson entirely. I just hated that and I did my best to put a stop to it early.

Another thing was that the class took place in a room used as a high school English class during the day. The teacher who worked in their clearly despised me, clearly didn’t like the idea of his class being used for an after school drawing program, and barely said a word to me the whole year. He really hated the fact that I would, shock of all shocks, actually show up to work early. He actually expected me to just show up exactly when the class started, and didn’t care about the time to set up and prepare that any decent teacher should take before a class. I always left his room in excellent condition when I was done, but this didn’t matter to him one bit. On the last week of classes, I wanted to go in to the room a bit early to set up my laptop, and had given plenty of notice, but my request was refused the day before, due to some tutorial he was apparently holding. So I set up as much as I could out in the hall and waited until I felt it would be ok to go inside. Of course, once he opened the door to let me in there, the room was basically empty, meaning I could have gone in much earlier. I hope I never have to work with that jackass again.

On the bright side, towards the end I did some lessons I’ve always wanted to do. I did a drawing lesson using Spore, showing how to make creatures and having them draw their own. I would pick a drawing that the students did and make it into a creature in the game. It was fun. On the last day of the class with the older students, I brought my Cintiq and did a demonstration on digital art. Finally getting to do something like that was a great joy.

Anyway, for the most part I’m glad its over. I am probably being hard on myself, and it’s true that I’m never really satisfied, but still, it wasn’t a fantastic experience. I can take heart in the fact that I know for sure that at least one student in each of the 2 classes I taught got something out of it, and will likely be well on their way to a great artistic career if they choose. Maybe someday I’ll hire them.

I’m not totally done though. I’ll be back at that school for 2 special days this summer, and the other school I’m working at finishes up next week. It’s been a pretty busy year teaching-wise and there’s still the potential for more. It’s what I’m good at doing so, despite my complaints it’s not like I want to quit or anything, but that doesn’t mean I gotta like it all the time.

Sayonara.

So, Anime North is finished for another year. It was a good weekend all in all.

My panels seemed to go well from what I saw, except for one that I didn’t get to be in due to being mistakenly double-booked. Another panel I was on was scheduled against Anime Hell, which is one of the main reasons why I go to the convention in the first place. So I was very unhappy about that since I specifically asked for that not to happen.. But, apart from all of that, it was a good time. Got to see some friends and talk to new people. I quite enjoyed speaking on the How to Draw Manga Workshop, since I haven’t been able to get into that sort of thing with my teaching in a long time.

I saw a screening of a movie called “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” and it was an amazing film. Everyone should see it, whether you like anime or not. It’s a about a girl who, strangely enough, has the ability to leap through time, as if the title wasn’t enough of a give away. It’s a very well done, entertaining film. What’s really funny, though, is that while watching it, the DVD somehow glitched and skipped backward to an earlier part of the film. It took awhile before the audience realized what had actually happened. The movie itself had leapt through time! That’s meta. That’s way meta.

I bought the 3 hardcover volumes of Tezuka’s Black Jack manga. So glad to have found those. I was afraid I had missed out.

It’s a good thing that I don’t write convention reports any more because I only took one major picture.

Pretty awesome! I wonder if I know any of them.

Anyway, there you have it. Anime North. It’s pretty good.

I have been quite busy, but after next week things should slow down a little bit.

Sayonara.

So, here’s what’s been going on.

I have a new teaching job. It’s through an art studio for kids situated in Toronto. They have been wanting me to come in and work for them for quite some time, but nothing has worked out except for one special appearance during March Break. I was told that I would once again not be able to teach for them for their spring session, but then at the last moment a class they run for a private school near the studio had filled up and they wanted me to teach it. I had actually finished working on the TFCon comic the night before and had just woken up after a much needed nap when I got the news. It was supposed to start on that day, but by the time I found out, there was no way I could make it on time. So I started the following week and it’s been going fairly well despite the disorganized start. The kids run a wider range of ages than I like to have at once, and there are a few really young ones. It’s not ideal in that respect but it’s worked out fine thus far.

My other teaching job is winding down this month. It’s been tough. I’ve dealt with some challenging students with some bewildering quirks. I’ve had my patience tested quite a bit this year, so much so that I’ve come to question how much I want to do this. I’ll probably always be teaching in some form or another, but I don’t want that to be the only thing I do. I liked it much better during the days when I’d be getting serious students who are interested in the material. I felt like I could really build something and give them some more interesting, advanced lessons. Alas, those days are gone, in favor of teaching little kids watered down “cartooning” lessons. And when the kids who aren’t quite so little start mouthing off instead of taking advantage of the opportunity they have to draw, well, there’s only so much a guy can take. So, basically, after a string of particularly stressful lessons, my eyes were opened. As much as I like teaching, I figured that I didn’t want to be in a position where I absolutely had to take a teaching job because I had nothing else to do.

So, I started looking into possibly going to school again next year. I didn’t really have the best of experiences last time I was at school, and I hurt my wrist in the process, but times change and maybe there’s something else out there. However, it hasn’t been easy to find. My situation is a little different than the typical student looking to get into college. I looked into one school that has a comic book illustration program, and I have signed up to a summer weekend workshop, I just didn’t think things would work out for me in a full time program there. I’ve also looked into a 1 year digital arts program at another school that looked quite appealing. I had a portfolio review there this week and the results were somewhat surprising. The teacher looked at my stuff and said that there would be no problem letting me into the school, but that my work was quite advanced based on what he usually sees and so I might not like it there or get much out of it. Didn’t expect to hear that!

So, not really sure what to do right now. It was recommended to me at the portfolio review that I should be getting my stuff out there, and possibly submitting to Marvel. But, I look at my work and compare it to what I feel is professional, publishable caliber and I think I still have a few pieces missing from the puzzle. Maybe there’s nothing else I can do but keep moving ahead as best I can until the pieces fit. And I’m sure they will fit someday, no matter what. There is always more to learn. I guess the real question is, where do I fit? Judging by the past 28 years of my life, maybe nowhere. I’ll have to create my own place in the world for me to belong. It is not in my destiny to fit in a be gear within a pre-existing machine.

And that’s fine by me. I’m a ninja. I forge my own destiny.

Sayonara.

Who is this? I do not know. So I call him Garage Door Opener Man.

How do I have his picture, you may ask? Interesting story. Gather ’round and I shall tell you a tale.

I just bought an 8 gig Micro-SD card. the device I need it for uses Mini-SD, which is harder to find, not as commonly used, and a little more expensive than Micro-SD. I figured I’d just get a Micro-SD and a Mini-SD adapter. I went to an electronics store to find a suitable adapter, but they did not have one on its own. They did have a package that included a 2 gig Micro-SD card and several adapters, and it just so happened to be on sale. The clerk I spoke to said that if I wanted to buy one that has been opened and returned, he’d give me a further discount. So, thinking that having an extra Micro-SD card handy wouldn’t be such a bad thing, I took the offer. When I got home, I plugged the card in to see if anything was on it, and along with a bunch of pictures of houses, I find this guy. Whoever bought the card before me did not erase it before returning it.

Somehow I knew something like this was going to happen, but I was hoping for something at least a little bit more exciting. Though, if it was something more exciting, I’d probably keep it to myself instead of posting it here.

And so now, Garage Door Opener Man shall become a legend throughout the Internet. Feel free to take this image and desecrate it however you see fit.

I hope you’ve all learned a lesson from this.

Sayonara.

I have just been so tired after the past few weeks, but it was worth it. Yet another TFCon is in the books, and it was not only the biggest yet, spanning two days with many new events, but it was also the best. I had a lot of fun taking in the show and seeing my old pals. Despite the expansion from one day to two, just about everything went smoothly, and the only major trouble was the lack of Air Conditioning during the Hasbro presentation on Saturday. It was HOT in there.

Well, there was one other thing. I missed out on the Friday events that precede the convention itself. I had to teach that day and I immediately set off via public transit as soon as I was done. I knew exactly what I was doing and where I was going, but it took so bloody long that by the time I arrived it was almost time to leave. That was the only major hiccup and I’ll never let that happen again.

We got a screening of the Transformers Animated episodes “Human Error” parts 1 and 2, and it was a total blast watching it with the other fans, especially since these episodes were full of in-jokes and references that only fans would get.

On Saturday evening there was a new event called Faction Feud, basically a cross between a Transformers trivia contest and Family Feud. I joined a team, promptly took over as leader, naming us the “Ninjamasters“, and pledged to dominate the other teams. Although my squad seemed to be comprised of jokers, causing me to know exactly what Megatron and just about every other 80’s cartoon villain felt like, we ended up winning it all, and moving on to the lightning round. The four of us had to collectively list off 20 toys with the name “Prowl“, one at a time, with only 5 seconds to answer. One wrong answer and that member of the team was eliminated. Eventually it came down to just me and I managed to pull it off in the end, claiming final victory for the Ninjamasters! I probably could have kept going and spent all night dreaming about all the different Prowls that could have also been named.

The prize for winning: Tickets to an early screening of the new Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, in Toronto. Oh yeah.

It was an awesome, tough competition, and our team pretty much rocked. We covered each other’s knowledge bases really well. Even though we really knew our stuff, it was a grueling ordeal to win it, and it felt like winning was just as much a product of hard work and guts as it was about remembering largely unimportant factoids about Transformers.

On Sunday there was the How to Draw panel, hosted by myself and Ninjamaster-underling Guber. The room was full and everyone was super-quiet. I was slightly taken aback by the response. We went a little overtime and I had to be somewhere else, so I let Guber finish the lesson off after I left, but afterwards a lot of people told me how much they enjoyed it. I’m thinking it will happen again next year and if it does, I have a lot of new ideas on how to make it even better.

Here are a few pics.

TFCon Costumes. Sideways, Vector Prime, Sari and Unicron. Excellent! There were others besides this as well. So cool to see this many cool costumes.

Ninjatron hearts Vector Prime.

My haul. All my collection is packed up and I haven’t thought much about buying new Transformers in ages. But this was a special occasion and it was high time for some new stuff, so I went for it. Universe Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Hound, and Prowl, Japanese Henkei Hot Shot and Cheetor, and Classics Mirage. I really wanted Henkei Dinobot but it sold out pretty much immediately, so I bought one online as soon as the show finished.

All in all, a great weekend. TFCon is rightfully gaining and earning a reputation with the Transformers fan community all over the world, and I’m happy to be a part of it and proud to have contributed in some small way.

In other news, I started a new job. More on that later.

Sayonara.