The Blackheads of Lorenzini

I recently saw a close-up photo of a shark with very visible Ampullae of Lorenzini which sort of led to this. I wanted to draw them on the shark to make the point but it ended up looking like facial hair! Besides, you can't see them from this far away.

Evolution of the species as observed by The Shark

This was originally going to be the Evolution poster by itself and then I thought the dialogue between the cockroach and shark would be a pretty funny addition. I seem to have missed out a few characters! I should probably do a stand-alone poster and include the rest of my characters.

If evolution is supposed to make a species better than it was, humans should see if they could become more shark-ish. Why aim to be like those awful monkeys?  (or is it the other way around?). That would be kind of cool - as long as the primitive (un-evolved) humans don't start chopping up our limbs for soup. 

Mindless eating machine

I think I was craving burgers when I drew this. Or at least I was craving them after. It's a random sketch but I like it. 

This is another notion about sharks that people simply have - that they'll eat anything. I think it's all those film snippets showing sharks cut open and finding license plates, shoes etc inside their stomach. I've heard they're pretty fussy eaters. They'd probably like burgers though.

Anti-social vs Unfriendly

This is me justifying my statement "I was being Anti-social not unfriendly. There's a difference." Not many seemed to see that there's a difference. Now you do.

Fishbook.com - unlike, unfriend and unaccept!

Yes, I notice numbers on my friendlists. It's not that pathetic. I have this "phantom" friend on my facebook friendlist - one day I have x number of friends and the next day it's x-1 or x-2 and then it's back to x! It's annoying to not know who has unfriended you. If I had just 10 friends, I'd know.
It's hard to spend quality time with hundreds of people... I could only do about 5 per day (on one of those "happy mood" days). That's why I'm bewildered when I see people's friendlists with over a thousand friends. No! I'm not jealous.

ps - I know that "unaccept" is not a word.
pps - How had I missed using this particular pun before? Oh yeah, 'cause it's really bad.

Arthritic love

One of my favourite movies is "Head over Heels" with Freddie Prinze Jr and Monica Potter. I don't know why I like it - it's really cheesy but I've seen it about a dozen times. In this movie, when one's knees give way, it is apparently a sign for being in love. Cheesy and silly but sometime I suppose we'd like it to be true. Anyway, unrelated to all this zibber zabber, this idea came to during a conversation with a friend (as do most of my original and self-imagined ideas). For some reason, when she mentioned how nice it would be to have someone who'd make us feel weak at the knees, all I could think of was being unable to stand or walk when I'm old just because my stupid knees refuse to be strong. Gosh.

Note to the silly man who will marry me eventually: I seem to be losing all ties and notions about romance so please hurry up before cynicism replaces my nervous system.  

They should get squirrels to assemble gadgets instead.

I had to vent my anger and frustration about my not-yet-a-year-old Apple laptop crashing again and being told by the service people that it was just a software problem (which isn't under warranty, of course!).
I realised that I have to mentally prepare myself for the day when every gadget I own will collapse. It will most likely be the day after the warranty expires. I'm convinced that the whole "testing" phase of electronics is to find out how long (time=t) something works and then make sure product development people set the warranty as (t-x) days.

ps - the title could've also be used with a far more hilarious situation which only came to mind after I typed it. Squirrels assembling computers...hahaha. It's funny 'cos it's squirrels. So there.

Don't touch me!

I have a friend who does this. It's a very unpredictable action and hence I find it funny enough to draw. I was trying to think of a character that could be the recipient of this action and after much trial and error and processes of elimination, I came up with this. Much to my reluctance.

I started off with a different version which sort of seems more like irritability. I wasn't too happy about it but it seemed probable.

 

This is a policy that most people believe that I am in agreement with, by the way.  It's quite funny. I do find that, in excess, it can be a bit annoying.

ps - uh oh, I just realised that I have a "Don't touch me!" badge on the journal blog which I'd made months ago. So this is not really new then! But the squirrel is new. That makes it better, I suppose.

..and a Sharky in a pear tree!

I'm not really a scrooge. I must say that I can get annoyed at surprise visits from carolers. And if they sing jingle bells, things only get worse. However, I do believe that this little sketch was inspired by my mother. I'm not sure what I had said but she said something like "Maybe I should make you stand in the corner and decorate you for Christmas instead of a tree".

Happy birthday to me!

I was told that I must do a sketch to commemorate the birthday. And since I hardly had time, I didn't think I could. But there are times when you'll have sudden bursts of energy especially when you're dead tired - apparently that's why kids get all hyper around their bedtime. So, once all my party people left and it was still a few minutes before midnight, I started on this and was done by 1am so I am quite proud of it. I did have the "married or dead" drama sometime this year - it should be on the regular blog somewhere.
Someone hardly a decade younger than me called me auntie. I'm trying to convince myself that it was because she forgot my name. But on the whole, I had an awesome birthday... I felt so very blessed with so much (people-wise). I didn't have a surprise party and get fooled this year as well but I did have a wonderfully wonderful one. I have much gratitude in my heart today. Okay, will stop with the mush.

Public message #1 - One would think that all these people used to be Llamas

It really really pisses me off when people do that as if it's the most accepted thing to do on the roads. Don't even get me started on urinating. I would have drawn that if I was a daring comic book artist but I'm not so I'll just stick to safe spitting zones.

Again, don't ask how it rides the bicycle.

They ought to sell shark seeds

My sister actually got me one of those "Grow your own Millionaire" toys (check the 'Lost in Wonder' link for story) for my birthday and all of us at the party were very excited to see him grow. So we put him in a bucket and waited. They don't work as well as you'd expect.
Recently, a friend said she ought to give me a "Grow your own friend" so that I'd have company while she's away. Here's sort of how the chat session went.

Me: Hello! I'm the one who's emo about people liking me
A: Oh Gawd, here we go again... I'll bring you a "Grow your own friend" when I return
Me: x-(
A: you can talk to 'it', cry to 'it, complain to 'it'... awww...
Me: I'll smack it and flush it
A: Sure you will. It's not a boy so you can't become its best friend and fall in love with it.

I don't care how many times "you told me so"!

It's actually wearing one of those swimmer caps. It's details like that make all the difference. I can't decide whether to refer to it as "it" or "he" or "she". I think I just won't decide and use whatever seems apt for the moment. So much stress can be avoided by indecisiveness.
As one would guess, those are fishing boats out there. I couldn't decide if we were on a boat too or just sitting on a wall near the sea. Either way, my parents would probably scream if I sat on the edge like that.

I would probably never get a nose piercing. For various reasons. It took a lot to get me to get the extra ear piercings. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but I think I'll just stick to getting shots or getting random blood tests done.

And yes, one could get fish hooks in their nostrils if they didn't heed warnings and wandered off into places that seem like their turf but aren't.

Maybe we ought to start a matrimonial site and call it sharkdi.com?

Sometimes I wonder if I ought to try this tactic. It might work. Why can't people meet at cinema halls or book stores?

Drawing those movie theatre chairs was pure torture. I got so bored after I did one that I sort of scribbled through the rest. And I didn't want to draw actual detailed people so they ended up looking like zombies. Yay, Doctor Zombie!

I got the fish fry idea from something my sister said about the shark on some forum. I get most of my inspirations from my family.

Lost in Wonder link: For a more in depth, "grown-up" explanation...I'll put up the link soon.

Ps - We have a matrimonial site here called shaadi.com - for those who didn't get the title.

May you and your bicycle crash into a statue of James Starley

My contribution to the fish and the bicycle chronicles.

Don't ask how he manages to ride it.

The James Starley reference - Once upon a time, I attempted to ride a bicycle that didn't have much air in its tyres. It was quite difficult, as one would imagine. I tried to stick with it and make it to my destination but somewhere along the way, I passed out. When I woke up, I realised that I was lying at the foot of a statue that said "James Starley - Founder of the Improved Bicycle".

‘A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.’ - Gloria Steinem


ps - The last comment about the quote being actually from Irina Dunn is correct. I think I mentioned in another blog that this quote was wrongly attributed to Gloria Steinem. I wonder why I didn't correct it here! Thanks anyway, anonymous! :)

Can I atleast pretend to fish?

I used to really enjoy fishing. I'd still like to but I don't eat fish and I don't have a cat I can feed them to so it seems kind of pointless.

When vexed, whack cute things

I read that Stephan Pastis has this philosophy pinned on his wall - "When in doubt, kill cute things". I'm too much of a sissy to kill though. (Except for cockroaches. I love playing paintball with them and a can of Baygon).

I wouldn't be a threat to society if society wasn't so retarded

My bad movie theatre experiences are quite well known (vented too often). I haven't learnt from them and stopped going to the movies. Instead, my homicidal tendencies have become worse. But killing is wrong. Knowing my luck, using tranquilizers would be worse.