The Flying Cat Blog

SOPA & PIPA Blackout

2012-01-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

As an internet addict, person with more than forty two brain cells and a librarian, I find the proposed PIPA and SOPA bills abhorrent. I'm not even in the US and they've managed to scare me from clear across the world. There are at least a hundred good, lengthy, expert explanations of why all the various bits of it don't work, so for now I'm just going to link to a few of the major sites that

Greenpeace: Toilet paper, fish and oil. And money, please?

2011-11-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

I got a phonecall from Greenpeace a couple of days ago. They've been on my mind a lot recently, partly because they've been quite active, and I wanted to share. They're probably my favourite charity/activist organisation (Amnesty International is a close second). I get them ringing me once a year, because I donate to them, and they call up to remind people they exist - and to ask for a bit more

WTF John Key Quote of the Week

2011-11-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

"And Act has been very stable so Act returning to Parliament is something I would like to see as opposed to something I wouldn't like to see." From this NZHerald article: Greens vote could put Labour in Government - Key Seriously? Act? Stable? A party that imploded, suffered a hostile takeover, and now only has two real members, both of which are completely opposed to each other, and are

Sketches from Armageddon 2011

2011-11-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

I do have a lot of photos and things, but I'm still going through those. So I'm posting up some of the many sketches I did instead. Will be scanning the best ones and maybe painting them. A steampunk hot air balloon for my sister Warming up by drawing faces Marceline the vampire from Adventure Time NARWHALS Practicing cute. From life, evening between convention days, inked at

Nationoil: Painting New Zealand Black and the Rena Saga

2011-10-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Nationoil: Painting New Zealand Black This is a collection of research, rants and facts about the response to the Rena oil spill. If you don't know what that is, or much about what happened, there's a pretty good overview here and a timeline in the Herald (which is reeling from having actual news to talk about). It is officially 'the worst maritime environmental disaster in New Zealand’s

Sketchblog: The Book of Women

2011-09-27T04:31:00.000-07:00

Finished the sketch from the last post. Finally. The Book of Women

Sketchblog: Yinyang Women & Adventure Time

2011-09-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

I bought Terry Moore's How To Draw Women, and it arrived a couple of days ago. I read it cover to cover three times. He's the creator of the amazingly good Strangers In Paradise graphic novels and one of my favourite artists. It's only part one, but it's good, and it's actually useful. And it's already affecting my drawing - this is a sketch I was doing to explore that. The face of the woman on

Pukeko Chicks

2011-09-08T23:10:00.000-07:00

There's a small pond round the corner from my house, and the first baby birds of the year can be found there. Currently there are three little pukeko (Purple Swamp Hen) chicks, being looked after by eight other adults. More Pukeko Cards Mooooooooooom! by NZPhotography Pukeko and Chick Splashing by NZPhotography View more Pukeko Mousepads

I SOLD Something on DeviantART

2011-09-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

Wow. First sale on DeviantART in two years (minus one month) It was a print of this. ...I am currently 10c from getting a payout (my first and only payout). Ten. Cents. Actually, my Zazzle and RedBubble offerings tend to be slightly more finished. The one on Zazzle has a customisable background colour, which is quite fun. Firebird (Little Phoenix) by Flynn_the_Cat

Sketchblog: Wonderwoman

2011-09-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Random sketch of her old crown and her new costume and lots of hair. Testing stuff.

Sketchblog: Random Redhead

2011-08-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Just playing in ArtRage - she was part of another picture, but didn't work with the composition. So I carefully edited her out from all the layers and gave her a save file of her very own.

I Love My Kindle: A Review

2011-08-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Pearl Display This is my Kindle. Isn't she pretty? I'm reading Vorkosigan books. I've been wanting to talk about my awesome Kindle for a while, but I wanted to actually explain what it was like to use, not just regurgitate all the same old 'AMAZING TECHNOLOGY' blurbs. And come up with an angle worth reading. So, I looked at what I used it for the most. And that was

Sketchblog: The Oaks Grove Book Cover

2011-08-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished a book cover (well a podcast image - a virtual book cover!) commission for The Oaks Grove, the sequel to The Spiral Tattoo, which I also did the podcast cover for. The Elanore & Gurt novels are a fantasy murder crime series (it looks set to be a series, anyway, it'll need a name after a couple more books!), it follows two very mismatched characters - the huge, scary, and

A Devilishly Good Lensrank

2011-08-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

Was just heading to bed after a nice few hours painting in ArtRage again (after downloading all the updates - I'd been putting them off for ages, and it had jumped from 3.0.2 to 3.5!), and I cast an eye over my Squidoo lensranks (it updates in the middle of the night for me). If only I'd had four more likes on it! It would have been six sixes in a row :D

Three Amazing Portal Fanvideos

2011-08-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

Gary Hudston wanted to propose to his girlfriend in a very special way. How did he do it? He hired two Portal level designers to develop a custom level designed to propose to his special lady. He even got Ellen McLain to do GLaDOS’ voice! The sound effects near the end are from Pinball! A stop motion short film about Doug Rattman after the end of Portal as he rescues Chell. A real life

Two Amazing Videos About the Environment

2011-08-22T04:44:00.000-07:00

MUSIC PAINTING - Glocal Sound - Matteo NegrinAn arrestingly beautiful story of birds and flowers and industrialism and the environment. It's drawn around the notes as they play. Astonish Me - a short film for WWF (Woohoo - that's the Albert Natural History Museum. I visited it when I was a kid, and again when I went back to the UK a couple of years ago - still one of my favourite places.)This

How To Save Yourself From Children With ArtRage

2011-08-22T03:40:00.000-07:00

I went to a primary school today (kidnapped by family) and was forced into close exposure with small children. I'm still traumatised. Luckily, ArtRage has amazingly hypnotic and soothing properties upon the savage child. Oh, that's pretty much what I was there for. To promote ArtRage to people and show them how to use it (fairly casually and unofficially). They had the free version (though

New Snuff Excerpt With Vetinari!

2011-08-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just found an excerpt of Terry Pratchett's upcoming book, Snuff - I guess it's recent, but there's no date on the site. Featuring a conversation between Vetinari and Drumknott, a book about goblins, and hints at plot. Read it here or here on the Terry Pratchett site.An excerpt I transcribed previously, featuring a Quaint Village Holiday, and an encounter between Vimes and Lord Rust.Read it here

Sketchblog: The Truth Behind Squidoo Glitches

2011-08-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

Lolcats. Or more accurately, wandering little Lolkittens. They are to blame for everything. Not that you can really blame them - eight waving fishy-smelling tentacles? How could they not chase them? Don't worry, they'll get distracted by a Twitterbird or fall asleep soon enough.

When Should You Link To Other Sites When Writing Online?

2011-07-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

Slightly random thoughts on external links and content when writing lenses, blogposts, etcetera. (This was an email to a friend, and then I realised it was worth tidying a little and posting. I gave up on the 'tidying' part, because my hands are cold.) On linking to other sites and stuff, shuld one do it? Yes, if it's valuable/helps the reader, but my (acquisitive and greedy? XD ) policy is to

You were all mean to me so I'm leaving for Fiji in the morning

2011-07-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

A FISH That's right, you heard me. Too late to change my mind. I'm going, going, gone. Actually I lied (you knew that, right?), I'm not going to Fiji in the morning. I'm going the day after. And there will be... no... internet. For a week. Oh gods. I'd cancel, but I'm dying to try out my underwater camera and snorkel and maybe go diving. SO THAT IS WHAT I WILL DO. And if you're wondering why

Shooting Blind Featured on the RedBubble Homepage!

2011-07-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

One of my t-shirt designs was just featured on the RedBubble homepage! There's an archive screenshot here and the original t-shirt is here! I like the red and the black versions best, but she comes in lots of colours. And a sticker. (I love the RedBubble Stickers, here's a batch I ordered last year - actually sold a couple at Overload yesterday, which was pretty good going, considering how

On Itching a Scratch

2011-07-11T05:12:00.000-07:00

I'm off my meds. This is fair warning. My antihistamine meds, that is - I believe it has now been a week. I am torn between waiting to see what happens when they wear off entirely, and running back to my nice, nice little white pills. (That do not taste at all of frogs. Just want to be clear on that). Weirdly, they seem to be taking much longer to wear off than they used to - whether that's

BookDepository Bought by Amazon

2011-07-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

This makes me sad because: 1. I love the Book Depository because it has free shipping, usually cheaper to New Zealand than Amazon's bigger discounts 2. It let me use Paypal 3. I am emotionally connected to the site I don't care much because: 1. Amazon is probably more interested in owning the business (which offers alternatives in places Amazon isn't very successful) than changing it. 2, I

Sketchblog: Pirate Nymph

2011-07-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Experimenting with the DA Muro app. Tis a sea nymph. WITH AN EYEPATCH. Seapirate on DeviantART