www.ericfleck.com

Well, the year is almost over.

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Well, the year is almost over... heck, the decade is almost over!

And I'm going to be 30 next month. I'm not looking forward to being 30.

Anyways... lots of changes this year. After spending a year in Virginia,
I'm back in Reno. Also, about two months ago, I sold my VW Bus, and
finally got my long hair cut off after 8 years of having long hair...

Before:

After:

I'll probably have long hair and a VW Bus again, but right
now, I've come to realize that right now, I have more important
things to worry about...

...like the fact that I'm a poor slacker living in little basement
room in a rooming house. While I don't mind it too much, I'm sick
of never having any money, and never living up to my ideal of being
an independent person who can survive without help from anyone else.
My lifestyle is fine for someone who is 20. But I've been "The Dude"
for way too long. I gave away my rug when I left Virginia, and exchanged
my green 1977 VW Bus for a charcoal gray 1991 Ford Taurus.

Plus... I want to own property, and get my own little place somewhere.
My current way of life is not getting me anywhere. I'm going to be
30 next month... I don't want to spend the rest of my life living
this way... I haven't reached any bigger goals during the last ten
wasted years of my life.

The job market has really dried up for unskilled people like me.
NO, I have TONS of skills... but not anything anyone would hire me
for... unless I had a piece of paper explaining what I was TRAINED in;
apparently, self-education only goes so far, and I'm self taught in lots
of things. (I do have a AutoCAD certification from 1996, but that
was in AutoCAD 12... see earlier entry... my certification means
nothing now, plus, I don't want to go into any careers that would
require AutoCAD skills, at least not right now)

I could spend the next five years struggling with life some more
while going to college, or racking up ton of student loans, but I've
come up with a better plan...

I am going to get a CDL, and be a long haul trucker.

I dream of the open road... driving all over the country.
When I drove my VW back from VA, (and when I drove out there)
I spent a lot of time going from truck stop to truck stop.
I loved it. All of the stuff I had to put up with at all
the jobs I've had since 2004... not a worry anymore. No more
jobs that were dependent on my being physically fast... no more
jobs where I quickly learn to dread what I was doing. I need
to do something I love... driving. I figure, I can take some
online classes, and work towards getting other skills while
driving... or maybe I'll like it so much, I'll do it until I
retire. Who knows. If anything, there's tons of jobs that
require a CDL. If being a long haul trucker doesn't work
for me, there's tons of local jobs too.

One thing for sure is... I'm not happy with the way life is
currently going for me.

Oh yeah. I was going to make a flash cartoon this month.
It ain't going to happen. I have more important things to
worry about right now. Plus, with the way my life is going,
I am having a hard time focusing and being creative. I need
to take care of my problems right now. I spent way too long
living with depression. I know why I'm depressed, and so it's
time to take care of my problems.

A plug for someone...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Someone very dear to me, Amanda Hamilton, drew this
and posted it to her blog tonight...

(click to enlarge)

She's got her own blog... go check it out!

http://voodoochild9.blogspot.com

I was once trained in AutoCAD.

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:37:00 +0000

When I was about 9 or 10, I had this idea that I would
become an architect when I grew up...

I would soon start gluing sheets of graph paper together,
and start drawing floor plans of buildings I planned on
living in as an adult.

When I went to McFadden Int School in Santa Ana, CA for one semester,
I took a drafting class... after that first semester though, I transferred
to Irvine Int School in Garden Grove.

Then at Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, I took drafting
and architecture classes with Mr Lopez... anyone who took those
classes would remember Mr. Lopez... man, what a teacher he was!

I also took after school AutoCAD classes when I was 16... this
was back when AutoCAD 12 FOR DOS was still PRETTY CURRENT,
and ran perfectly fine on the 486s in the class. (well,
the computer I used was one of the better ones... a Pentium 1
running at 90mhz... I thought it was great back then! ...it
was better than the 486-33DX I had at home)

ANYWAYS... here is my final for my first semester in that class...

(click for a PDF version of this)
(thanks to AutoDesk for the free DWG viewer that converts to PDFs)

I was a whiz in those classes... I would complete my projects super
fast, while other people struggled... then I would sit around most
of the time screwing around with AutoCAD while people struggled
to figure out how to complete their assignments... or using my
access to a somewhat better computer to do stuff in PSP 3.1.
I also picked up tons of skills from some weird teenaged boy who sat
next to me... a guy who called himself "Fox", wore a Star Trek logo
on his bag, and told everyone he was a vampire. (this was 1996)
Weird kid, but in a good way... he was fun... we ended up hanging out
sometimes at school... haven't heard from him since...

ANYWAYS...

Eventually, I figured out that AutoCAD was good for something else...
DRAWINGS. Cartoony drawings... like this one I did back in March 1996:

(click for a PDF version of this)

Soon, I would lose all interest in being an Architect or drawing
engineering drawings or anything... I wanted to do something CREATIVE!
I soon go from taking Architecture classes, to being the cartoonist
for the school newspaper, and taking photography classes.

(I will say though, ever since I stopped doing engineering type
drawings... my habit of drawing cartoony drawings all the time
kind of went downhill though... of course, I can still do it.
I just fell out of habit.)

SO..............

Eventually, I had AutoCAD 12 running on my own computer at home,
and used it for some vector art... ALL THE WAY UP TO 2005... :P
Even the flower in my Birthday flash cartoon was created in
AutoCAD... all the way back in 1998. Even the "Lurch Poiuyt"
logo was created in AutoCAD in 2004... I used AutoCAD for vector art
that I would end up using in Flash.

I haven't used AutoCAD in about five years... to use the version
I have, I'd need a computer with Windows 98 installed. I might get
it to work under XP, but I doubt it... back in 1996, everybody
thought that it was IMPOSSIBLE to make it run under Windows
in the first place... until I discovered that there was some
Windows driver I could use to make it work. But these days,
if I even make vector graphics... I can just use Flash to do it.
Flash MX. That's what I use for Flash cartoons. But now that
I have a scanner, it's easier to just do drawings the old way...
Pencil and paper. (well, for me, it's sharpies and copy paper)
Then I just scan, and color with my old favorite... Paint Shop Pro 7.
(I know how to use all that Adobe CS3 bloatware, but I still like my
old standbys... even Flash MX... who needs bloatware?)

...speaking of which, I have a deadline I should try to live
up to with this Flash business.

Drawing of the day for October 20th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Oct 20 drawing give you tri-color shine...

...not all of them have to be fancy or elaborate.

Drawing of the day for October 19th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:26:00 +0000

Concept art for a new character I might start using...

I will design more characters soon for the idea I have been tossing
around in my head for years. I'm still thinking of a name for this one.
I know one name I won't be calling him. :P

Drawing of the day for October 18th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Here we go, might as well, ya know?

Drawing of the day for October 17th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:47:00 +0000

Drawing for Oct 17:

Drawing of the day for October 16th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Today's drawing... it's Super Chicken!

Super Pollo is a hole in the wall Mexican food joint near where I lived in
Costa Mesa for many years long ago... it's good stuff! Their big fat sweaty chicken
burritos are delicious.

Here's a review of the place...

EDIT: I later colored my drawing... here it is:

Drawing of the day for October 15th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:44:00 +0000

Drawing for October 15th: Random cartoon cats

These cats are pretty generic, although the style is somewhat like
what you'd see in an old Looney Tunes Cartoon. Not perfect,
but I kind of have the style down a certain degree. I need to
practice drawing bodies though... I've been drawing these silly cats
for at least five years. (I have some saved from long ago)

Drawing of the day for October 14th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Here's my drawing for Wednesday, October 14th.

Thanks to VXO.

Drawing of the day for October 13th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:34:00 +0000

And finally, to catch things up... October 13th!

It's a drawing of some girl... YEP.

Drawing of the day for October 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:33:00 +0000

And here's October 12th...

I'll let you all figure out what inspired this one. :P

Drawing of the day for October 11th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:27:00 +0000

Ooops... posted before I entered anything here...

ANYWAYS!

It's based off a back cover from an old issue of Mad Magazine...

Drawing of the day for October 10th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:24:00 +0000

Here we go with October 10th...

It's that little devil from this cartoon...

Drawing of the day for October 9th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Here's my drawing for the 9th...

This is based off a photograph I took of someone dear to me. :P
I could have done a much better job, but I need to practice.
Maybe later, I'll redo it. I hope she doesn't have a problem
with the way I drew her... especially since it was her birthday
that day... :P

MY NAME IS ERIC, AND YOU CAN COUNT ON IT!

Drawing of the day for October 8th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:13:00 +0000

I was out of town, and couldn't upload these until now...

Yeah. That's what happened. YEP.

NO, that's not completely true.

I was out of town, and I was having trouble uploading stuff,
PLUS I didn't have access to my scanner, and using a digital
camera to capture these was just too much trouble...

So either way, I fell behind.

Either way, here's my drawing for October 8th.
I have a bunch of drawings to put up... I will make
separate posts for all of them.

I was inspired to draw this because one of my friends thought
it was funny when I said this... "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!"
And then one of us suggested making a little mouse
character who says it...

Drawing of the day for October 7th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:10:00 +0000

I'm going to leave it at that for now...

Drawing of the day for October 6th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:15:00 +0000

...because I just don't feel all that great today.

I was going to draw a Type 34, but I'm not up for it right now.

Drawing of the day for October 5th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:38:00 +0000

Today's drawing, since it's October 5th now...

Drawing of the day for October 4th

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:16:00 +0000

Here we go...

It's from this...

Drawing of the day for October 3rd

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:04:00 +0000

...sloppy still life? It's just a quick rough of what I could
see from where I sit on my desk... the edge of my laptop
screen is outside the right edge of this drawing.

Drawing of the day for October 2nd

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:59:00 +0000

Today's drawing...

I wasn't too inspired, but I thought "we'll, I should draw anyways,
since I do need to practice more", so I TRIED to draw Lil' Haze from Devin Flynn's
"Y'all So Stupid" animation series...

You can see the character in this cartoon... (mature content)

Drawing of the day for October 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:34:00 +0000

Since things are now in my favor to start doing this...
(my own place, my own desk, place to put scanner,
enough free time, web hosting issues resolved, etc)

...I'm going to start drawing a new drawing every day,
like I did for a few weeks in 2007.

ANYWAYS... here's my drawing for October 1st, 2009.

For the most part, they are just going to be simple cartoon
type drawings... nothing elaborate. I might clean them up
and color them later... which is part of why I'm not going
to shade them by hand... my shading sucks anyways. :P

Server issues:

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:54:00 +0000

Due to unannounced configuration changes imposed by my webhosting company,
most of the links on my website to files on my server "fifthandraitt.com"
don't work. I will be fixing that shortly. Unfortunately, I use Clearwire
for an ISP... I don't feel like uploading a bunch of files over it right
now out of fear that they will choke my bandwidth due to what they may
perceive as "excessive use". We'll see what happens.

Possum Living

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Fleck) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:33:00 +0000

When people ask me about future plans, I sometimes
end up talking about a book I used to own called
"Possum Living".

It's a book full of lots of great ideas. While I wouldn't
ever be able to follow everything suggested in that book,
it's a great resource.

However, it's a rare book... that's been out of print for
almost as long as I've been alive. It usually sells for at
least $40. (that's what I got for mine... right now, a
used copy is selling for almost $50 on Amazon)
How did I get my copy? PURE LUCK... and I didn't
even have to pay for it... the person who was getting
rid of the book had no idea what the value was... I also
got a bunch of Foxfire books from this person to.
(they are in my dad's possession)

Up until recently, the original text could be found
on a website... but now that link doesn't exist anymore.

HOWEVER... I went to archive.org, downloaded the copy
on their servers... and uploaded it to mine:

http://www.fifthandraitt.com/users/ericfleck/possumliving.html

NOTE: If anyone has issues with that book being on my servers,
PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'm completely willing to cooperate.
But for now, it's a rare out of print book.