Bob Flynn

Psychic duck

Fish family tree

Night at the Pocket Monster museum /

I have a Movink and picked up an alternative stylus or two that work with it. The pen that comes with it is indeed not great.

But the Movink is excellent!

The new Gorillaz video is truly a gift. I've watched it a few times now and the thought I keep having is, "thank you, truly, thank you for this."

Wow, Snoopy ears right there. Really fun naming.

A chart that shows the number of Google searches for each Pokémon. The text says: In honor of Pokémon Day, ACE.com, the free-to-play social gaming website, has analyzed Pokémon-related Google search data across the United States over the last 36 months to determine fans' favorite characters. Rank Name Generation Monthly searches 1 Pikachu Generation 1 685,100 2 Flamigo Generation 9 374,600 3 Charizard Generation 1 310,900 4 Charmeleon Generation 1 250,400 5 Squirtle Generation 1 215,800 6 Eevee Generation 1 214,500 7 Mewtwo Generation 1 209,100 8 Snorlax Generation 1 207,600 9 Gengar Generation 1 192,100 10 Ditto Generation 1 175,500 11 Bulbasaur Generation 1 171,600 12 Charmander Generation 1 169,400 13 Grafaiai Generation 9 166,900 14 Gardevoir Generation 3 149,800 15 Lopunny Generation 4 144,900

“Hey boss, are you sure Flamigo is more popular than Charizard, and people aren’t just misspelling ‘Flamingo’ on Google?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course Flamigo is more popular than Charizard, Mewtwo, Eevee, and Snorlax. Send the email.”

I really need to stop reading and watching what the news sites put out on this topic.

I don’t buy into any of this at all, but I struggle listening to Anthropic dude talking about significant growth in national GDP as a means for funding unemployment and retraining programs … like, are the handful of winners gonna share their wealth with the government to enact policy?

A lot of the best character sheets (and a lot of the best character directors) spend just as much time on the X's of what to avoid. Often comes from giving repeated notes to artists when they draw things a little off.

Best example in the set is this box here. All the ways *not to draw the mouth.

That's an honest question. The "work" here is more about explaining how *not to draw the characters. Avoiding conventions from other modes of cartooning. More a study in the characters than a new design.

Wow I love the mouth chart do’s and don’ts in particular.

We’ve been digging tunnels, sledding. Trying to make the biggest piles I can in my small yard. Worth every bit of shoveling.

Oh, you’re way ahead of everyone else? Do we have a power-up for you! It’s a vacuum that sucks up all the power-ups on the track (all yours!) and gives everyone else a Flintstone car: barefoot locomotion.

Ever notice how the world operates on reverse Mario Kart item-weighting logic?

Nice work! Hats off the art/design team too. Looks great.

This is a tough one. I’m tempted to say it’s uniquely Smurfs.

Plenty of kids books and shows use professions, costumes, and props to help show an interest or what they do.

But nothing comes to mind where they are nearly identical otherwise.

The Care Bears had their belly symbols, performing a similar purpose. But they also got a color change.

When iconic characters avoid the 'traded-by-lawyers puppet-corpse fate' it seems largely because their creators have done all they can to protect them.

'Calvin and Hobbes' comes to mind. What are some others?

Characters who have cultural longevity without being exhumed and redone each generation.

I sometimes worry that iconic cartoon characters are doomed to a zombie-like existence. Living well beyond a reasonable lifespan.

A benefit of creating characters that are more 'of a moment' is that they can rest when that moment is over.

Trump Administration Announces That We Don’t Know Where the Sun Goes at Night After deciding carbon dioxide does no harm, it was the logical next move.

maybe a beetle carries it off

First, I probably know tens of dozens of progressives who are happily using Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.

But as for fascinating tech I’m excited about:

mRNA vaccines
Gene therapy
Particle colliders
Solar energy capture
Space telescopes
Planetary rovers

Tech that expands knowledge and saves lives.

I've only seen the movie (The Castle of Cagliostro), the series is generally kid-friendly?

There are so many to choose from!

Made it to Industria but it got too scary for him.

@acollierastro.bsky.social another one admitting to the world what they did.

No joke.

Love to see it!

Working on naming some characters now and my brain is hyper-attuned to any object, phrase, or word that could be the missing puzzle piece. It’s an exhausting way to experience the world and the internet.

I don’t do this a lot, so I don’t have a proven approach. Combined with being very very picky.

Oh this is incredible. I skipped to a random part with a frog and the forest animals assembling for a meeting. The dub voices are fantastic haha.

I’m definitely watching this even if my son doesn’t, thank you!

Moomin is an interesting thought. As is Thundercats. Thanks! Sherlock has such a nice blend of detective storytelling, action, humor, and weirdness. A funny villain. A reassuring format. Which I think is why he likes it so much. It’s nutritious!