On drawing
Penny Arcade today is quite funny and entertaining, as usual. Scroll down on the front page, however, and you see the following as written by Gabe:

Growing up I used to watch Commander Mark on PBS. He had a show called the Imagination Station that was on right when I'd get home from school. He used to show kids how to draw things in 3D and I'd sit there in front of the TV with my sketchpad just eating it up. I was even a proud member of his Draw Squad.

I read this and immediately when all "OMG! Commander Mark! Imagination Station!" because I totally dug that series too. He had it all: a mustache, suspenders, a list of Renaissance words (they were very complicated, like PERSPECTIVE), the strange habit of getting enthusiastic about something by dragging a thumbs-up across the screen and going "yeeeeeeeeeeeah!" and of course, the drawing. The show was on at something like noon, a time that simultaneously restricted my viewing to the summer, as well as get me hooked on The Price Is Right.

Anyways, the following paragraph made me crack up today:

Years later when I was just starting High School Mark did an assembly at the elementary school my mom worked at. I took my sad little portfolio over and after the assembly I stopped him and asked him to look at it. He told me I was doing really good work and he ended up asking if he could buy us dinner that night. We talked for a couple hours about how I had watched his show since I was little and how some day I wanted to be a comic book artist. then I sat there and watched the man I'd grown up idolizing chain smoke cigarettes and stuff himself with pie. It was like seeing Mr. Rogers doing lines in some filthy bathroom.

It's hard trying not to laugh at work, because it's pretty obvious that you're not doing work. System diagrams and operational processes are only so humorous, and it's not the kind of humor that makes beverages vent out your nose.  ¶ 5:58 p.m.