Month: June 2009

Driving a Classic Mini

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Bruce

Why is it that it seems everytime I drive Tink any long distance something goes sproing and I realize just how much I don’t know about cars?  Sunday morning I started out thinking what a beautiful day! Everything was wonderful then I started driving on some roads that were less than exemplary…  Thank you State of Illinois.  Why is it that when driving in England I couldn’t find a single pothole yet here every road seems filled with them?  One thing you might not understand as you drive your car with the cushy suspension- the roads are falling apart in this country.  Just drive a little in a classic car of any vintage and you’ll discover that.  Enough, I obviously took a bump too fast and something has started to rattle. I don’t think it is much but it makes me wonder about what could happen and now every little bump makes me flinch should I have just driven home? Is it nothing?  Remember I have a wild imagination- I have a stuffed monkey bent on world domination.  How many times do you drive past a car that rattles and wonder if the person will ever get it fixed?

So I started with the negatives- since that is what is on my mind right now. The positives are wonderful.  Yes, the issues with driving a classic re: old car. The up side is that you really do get the feeling you are special. When the new mini first came out everyone wanted to talk to you about your car. Asking questions wanting to sit in it at stoplights you couldn’t pull away with some comment or at least a stare. Now the bloom is off the rose. Rarely do you get a glance smile or wave even from other MINI owners!  In a classic car that changes.  On this trip I can’t count the number of double takes or smiles multiple thumbs up and still I get questions.  I think I might have even caused a fender bender between two SUVs in Munster!  It doesn’t matter, young or old everyone seems to smile when they see Tink.  It is neat to just be a part of that since it is the car not me (or the monkey) drawing attention.

Mini Meet will officially start tonight and tomorrow will be the show and shine. Tink is all shined up and ready to be admired.  Yes, I did get the bug guts off…

Tink & Cecil get ready for Mini Meet 2009

So how do you do this?

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Bruce

When I first started on this odyssey I happen to discover this video of Dave Kellett going through the process on his comic strip “Sheldon” having read and listened to Dave for years (back on the Blank Label Comics Podcast days) I was curious as to how he does it. I am not creating my comic the exact way he does, but I have modeled my process after his.

How the Comic Strip “Sheldon” is Created from Sheldon Comics on Vimeo.

Confronting fears…

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Bruce

I have been working on confronting those little things that I’m just unsure about.  Like confronting fears… and this project has definitely got me doing that.  I’m still not going to deal with spiders, but I’m a little more confident about drawing, I still have lots of room to improve, but I am at least getting something done.  The other part of the project deals with Mini Coopers, and my lack of knowledge about the car.  I have learned a lot (with a lot more to learn), but in the past I have been scared to death to do even the most simple repair.  While it isn’t much I did replace the turn indicators on Tink (the classic) yesterday and they worked.  Baby steps, I’m not ready to replace a clutch or steering rack anything like that, but I’m a little more confident that I can do the simple things- of course I need to order parts and it might be helpful to have tools.

MINI United did help me on the parts front (at least I know where to go).  When I first bought the classic the one thing that was annoying was that someone over the years had removed the headrests.  I contacted a few parts suppliers in the US since then and basically received not much help.  While a number of them do restorations of classic Minis most of them replied with a “Wha Huh?” response.  I get to MINI United and the first person I speak to replies with “What’s your Trim Code?”  This was my chance to do a “Wha Huh?”  It seems that on a plate (that was removed around the same time as the headrests) is a code that tells you what the interior trim is so you can get a match.  After some digging I have figured out that the trim in Tink is “Monaco” so now I just need to order the parts from England and install them.  I have also discovered that some of the badging was removed so I’ve got a few little things to do.  When it comes to mechanical stuff-  Tink is running fine and once I plot out the trip (looking at about 200 miles a day) I’ll be off on the next adventure.

Arrrgh!

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Bruce

I do apologize to anyone trying to see my comics… it seems that I messed up and upgraded the software quickly, without checking to make sure everything was compatible and that I had backed up all my files.  I’ve guess I’ve been on a Mac too long and trust that software just works, this time it isn’t and the tweaking I need to do is a little beyond my expertise- or at least I can’t find the files I need to tweak.  I’m hoping that ComicPress comes out with an update soon since the one they came up with yesterday only kinda sorta worked.  Again, sorry for the technical difficulties.

The Process Redefined

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Bruce

As I start working on next week’s strips I figured I should take a few minutes and go over the process. First, of course, comes an idea… sometimes this is just something I saw that I thought was amusing, sometimes it is a commentary on the day, sometimes it is an idea that I’ve had for a long time. This gets drawn out in pencil- I use Prismacolor Verithin non-photo blue. I have created a template to draw on that has been copied onto card stock. It consists of the rectangle and the type. I use a ruler to draw the lines needed for text using the top third of the rectangle keeping this a more traditional comic strip for now. After drawing out what I want I ink it all in. I am presently using a set of Copic pens with a varied with including a brush. I’m still working on my inking which I hope will improve as I continue. Once the comic is inked and the text and speech bubbles have been drawn I scan this into my laptop to finish it all. I start with a 600 dpi scan and clean up anything I need to (erase the lines so that the individual panels are defined) I tweak the brightness and contrast and then save the file for my archives. I then go back and resize the stripe to 850 pixels wide at 100 dpi and then save it for the web as a .gif file. From there I upload that file to the website using the Comic Press plug-in in Word Press and type a short message telling the story in a little more depth. I hope you are enjoying the journey and as I continue to grow as a cartoonist I am hoping that not only my artwork but also my storytelling will improve.

I may be back from England but I still have a bunch of observations during that portion of the trip along with other ideas that need to be published.  I’ve even been asked to chat about the trip next week at our local MINI dealership (Dreyer & Reinbold MINI) and show some of the photos I took (that alone should make an interesting strip).

Logging caches when you are tired… not a good idea.

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Bruce

Well as Cecil got his 600th find yesterday I thought I had everything planned out to make the run… except for logging when I was half awake and needing to comeback a relog a few this morning! We started in Greenwich and I had a pad with my countdown on it so that the virtual cache at the Prime Meridian would be #600. This was the plan and it was a pretty good one. I know that I can be forgetful at times and can even be called “random” so I was trying to make sure that everything worked out. That was until I back to hotel and started to log the caches. I pulled up the map and just started logging from the caches on the map… not my carefully orchestrated list. I suddenly came up with an extra cache! so I tweaked my logging order so it worked out and tried to get some sleep. Well, Sue comes along this morning (being all concrete/sequential) and reminds me that we skipped one of the Greenwich gate caches that I had logged! SO I go back and fortunately only need to delete a couple entries. I am not changing the map for the tracking coin… I’m an old Boy Scout, but its trail is close enough. My plan worked perfectly- I just didn’t. Cecil did get his 600th at the Prime Meridian and I bought a baseball cap to celebrate. As Cecil would say “ook!”

Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.
Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.

The "Disneyfication" of England

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Bruce

OK, I know I started somewhere with how I really like the way that England has stayed almost humble about a lot of different things.  As I have been motoring along in the heart of England it is difficult to find a Starbucks, McDonalds, or any kind of fast food.  Sue and I have commented that the only thing that seems to be franchised is the “Red Lion” since we have seen numerous pubs with that name in various towns as we travel.  Yesterday proved to me that capitalism is not dead in England… Sue and I (after a quick stop in Hook Norton) went to Blenheim Palace.  Well having visited world heritage sites before this was the first one that was in the process of setting up for the Blenheim Triathlon (sponsored by Mazda) and the first one that had animatronic displays.  The house itself was lovely, and the artwork was spectacular (though I get the impression the 1st Duke liked to have his picture painted- a lot).  I think I was let down by the admission price (around $28 per person) and that since the triathlon was being set up many places on the grounds were closed to visitors.  I don’t think the drizzles (only the second time since we have been here) helped my viewpoint, but if you have seen my Flickr gallery you hopefully have noticed that I like to take photos.  I couldn’t find a shot of the house without some company logo in frame!  We did take a very nice tour which really helped me to appreciate everything that I saw, but then we decided to view the second portion of the tour which dealt with the history of people and the house through the ages with the help of technology.  At first it was amusing… then it was sad.  Finally I tried to figure out why anyone with such a lovely house would devote part of it to a knock off of an A ticket Disneyland attraction.  The answer came at the end when the latest Duke appeared on a screen thanking us for visiting- I almost thought he was about to tell us about the books, DVDs and t-shirts available at the gift shop “and don’t forget to quench your hunger on some Blenheim Bangers and Mash- Just like Winston used to eat!”.  So my idealized version of England has been brought crashing to reality, which isn’t too bad- as we head off to London then home.

Exploring our "neighborhood" through Geocaching

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Bruce

The past two days have been relaxing, but interesting as I continue to find out more about normal life in England. On Sunday after visiting the local castle (Broughton Castle) Sue and I decided to go roving… Wandering along using the footpath system which runs throughout the country. A fantastic idea which really makes it easy to go for a walk since there is a trail fairly close to everywhere. We took the “Shutford Circular Walk” which (shockingly enough) had a series of caches placed along the route. About 4.5 miles later we had found 10 caches and were sitting at the local pub thinking about food. Unfortunately, we discovered that while pubs are open and serve beverages, no food is serves in pubs (or at least the small local ones) on Sundays. Slightly different than Indiana where you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday, but can buy as much food as you like! After that we headed back and Sue made a wonderful salad.

Today it was time to tick off another thing on the list… a visit to the Swindon Pressing Plant. This is where all MINI body panels are produced. Again (he says with a shocked tone) there was a cache nearby (called MINI). If it wasn’t for the cache I doubt we would have even known where to look. I dropped off my Mini Cooper Rally Car- the green team. in the cache and we headed off away from Swindon and back to the Cotswolds and quaintness. After a stop in Burford- lovely needlework/knitting shop… I assume it was lovely, Sue bought stuff. We headed off to another cache this one located near an old church that once was the place of worship for a medieval town that died out from the Black Plague. No one returned to the town, so this small church is still there and being used by the locals (no town, but some wonderful homes nearby. After walking around for a while we started to get tired and decided to head back to Swinford Gower. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but it was nice to get one more little thing off the list as date to return home gets closer and closer.