From out of the University of Calgary comes an analysis of Gerobatrachus hottoni that strongly suggests it is ancestral to both frogs and salamanders. Cool hey? Mostly I like the painting that looks a little like both.

Fanart Friday: Who else?
Than the State of Indiana!
My favorite Indy art of all time is this one by Leoleonardo:


And these ones are cool too:


By J Scott Campbell, grantgoboom(x2) and verucasalt82.

All I do is work all day! So here are some pics instead of words.



In real life the shovel dwarfs the truck, which dwarfs you. See?

Fanart Friday: Darth Vader

Vader made entirely of boldface. From the Star Wars blog, and they got it from Ironic Sans. How cool is that? So here are some more fun Vaders for you. Because the Dark Lords of the Sith are all about fun!






Artwork by: jbrant047, Michael Paul Bowen, adventurevisual, biztech3000, Lord Mesa and joefreakinrocks.

Have you heard about the mysterious deaths of over 40 cownose rays at the Calgary Zoo this week? We went and looked at them a couple of months ago, they were beautiful. I took this video, kind of sad to think they are all now dead. On Sounds Like Canada this morning the Zoo's Chief Veterinarian said all but three died, and they don't yet know why. Deliberate poisoning hasn't been ruled out but isn't IS considered the most likely cause thus far.
Here's the initial report and the latest update.
(Sorry if you can't see the Flickr video- I tried uploading it five times to YouTube and for some reason it failed every time.)

Happy Mother's Day!
Apparently I look like a father, because the cashier at the Esso, seeing the picture of Michelle I keep in my wallet, said, "Oh is that your daughter?"
I guess I'm going gray faster than I realized. After I explained that she is in fact my wife and not really that much younger than me, the cashier said, "Well if you can believe it I'm almost 30."
"I DO believe it," I said, and left.
A petty revenge, but still sweet.

Chapter 8- Rana's story concluded (Back to the beginning)



Ree was contemplating mischief again. What else was there to do in the rain? Earlier while hunting she had come across a freshly-molted tarantula exoskeleton. It was kind of creepy at first, coming face to face with a looming, motionless arachnid in the gloom of the forest floor. Ree giggled at herself as she remembered how she had assumed the defensive posture of poison frogs- up on all fours, plainly visible so that her coloring could do the work of warning away predators. After an embarrassingly long time frozen in that position she realized that it was not a spider before her, but rather its "ghost". Which is when the ghost of an idea began haunting her brain.
There were logistical problems, of course. Not to mention the general ickiness of wearing a spider skin. But imagine Roar's reaction when she crept up and jumped out in front of him! Again, though, the yuck factor was a little high for comfort. Reluctantly, she told herself that wearing animal parts, even just cast-off outgrown skin, was just too morbid. not really her style. Oh well.
It stopped raining. Time to make her way back to her mate. She had last seen him to the north. Casually she wended off in that direction, keeping an alert eye out for tasty snacks and edibles along the way. As always, there was no shortage of bugs and worms emerging after a rainfall. Hopefully Roar was also enjoying a post-rain treat. He got a little grumpy if he went too long without eating.
She waved absentmindedly at a pretty orange toad who must have just woken up from a nap, judging by the groggy expression on his face.
The clean, serene silence of the freshly washed rainforest was abruptly broken by a familiar voice singing a dreadful song. Roar was sounding a Frog Chorus alarm. A second voice, one she didn't recognize, could also be heard. Clearly something was afoot. Ree abandoned her casual stroll and broke into a frog gallop, enabling her to cover the remaining distance startlingly fast. She emerged into a clearing and saw Roar rushing about, and more of those orange toads, and a flock of green toucanets. It was chaos. And it was carnage. All this Ree saw in a glance, and she also saw immediately what she had to do.
Without slowing she veered directly towards the most urgent crisis- one of the toucanets was swooping down on a lethargic toad. For some reason the toad was not doing anything to avoid the bird. Why were all these toads so dopey? It didn't matter. She needed to help. If she timed it right . . . yes! The bird was on the ground, lazily regarding its intended prey with casual arrogance. It didn't see her.
With a mighty heave of her fatigued leg muscles she leapt aboard the green pirate. Even though she was expecting it, it was still a shock when the bird took to the air. The way the wings were fluttering, the speed of the launch, it was more than she had anticipated. Ree held on tight, committed now to an action she hadn't really planned out in detail. Grasping hold of the iridescent plumage she pulled herself along, fighting vertigo and trying not to look down. She had to hurry.
The toucanet was squawking and trying to stab at Ree with its great beak, but it couldn't reach. Ree waited until the next thrust, concentrating fiercely to get the timing right, and grabbed hold. Her stomach lurched and the rational part of her brain kept telling her she was crazy. Crazy! But it worked. She was atop the bird's beak, with nothing the bird could do. With regret but not hesitation, she swiped at the toucanet's eye. The poison on her fingerpads killed the bird instantly. It plummeted to the ground. Ree jumped away and fell too. She landed without dignity, but also without injury.
Breathing heavily, she looked around. The remainder of the flock had flown away at the commotion. The surviving toads, finally shaken from their hazy daze, looked at her in astonishment. They began to sing a song of thanks.
Roar came up to her, hugged her, and said, "I hope you're the last frog to rain down out of the sky today because it's just weird."
_________________________________________________________________________

Since I couldn't think of a good song about birds and frogs, I will use a song from the new Raconteurs disc instead- it's called The Switch and the Spur and has a cool poem in it that sort of fits this chapter:

Any pour souls who trespass against us
Whether it be beast or man
Will suffer the bite or be stung dead on sight
By those who inhabit this land
For there's is the power and this is the kingdom
As sure as the sun does burn
So enter this path, but heed these four words,
You shall never return...

Anyways, I'm not entirely satisfied with the action sequence- the description of it at any rate. Action is not my strong point as a writer. But I can practice and get better and this is how I do that. But overall I'm happy with how this turned out.
Dedicated to Taymin who just turned 1 last week and is getting a stuffed froggie from me as a present. I'm sure she'll like the frog better than the chapter, at least for a few years!

Fanart Friday: Iron Man

I haven't seen it yet but I'm glad ole Shellhead is enjoying some overdue popularity.
We Are Iron Men!




Images by Lord Mesa, Skulljammer, the Aphex, Walrus boy, Gattadonna and Wind Lord of Suldor.

New Clone Wars trailer is gonna be on TV tonight, at 7:58. And then someone will put it on the internet at 8:02.
And Grant Gould is showing one of the hundred sketch cards he did (officially) for the release, this one of Asajj Ventress.

Against my better judgment I took an overtime shift at work. I haven't worked an overtime in three years- since before I got married. When you spend four days of every week 300 kms away from your wife, you don't really ever want to voluntarily extend your time away from home. Even for time-and-a-half pay, which works out to close to a trillion dollars a day, more or less. I might exaggerate. But recent events have forced my hand. First I hadda buy a new (used) car, then I hadda buy a garage to put said new car in. Total cost : a trillion times a hundred dollars, I think. The math is a little fuzzy. But however you add it up, it equals me spending less time at home for the next little while. But don't start feeling too weepy for me- I still get three days off this week.
Anyways my friend the rebel penguin started a blog, so go say hi.

Chapter 7- Rana tells a story (Back to the beginning)

It was an unusual day. It was raining. That in itself is not very unusual in a rainforest. But usually it rains . . . rain. Little drops of water. What made today's rainfall stand out was the fact that it was raining frogs. Dozens of orangey gold frogs were falling from the sky.
Roar watched this in amazement from his perch on an aloe leaf. He saw some of them land more or less upright, and were able to hop, albeit with dazed and stunned expressions. Others, though, landed awkwardly and didn't move. Recovering from his surprise, he was just about to go down and help when he was knocked off his leaf and into the mud with a plop. A half second later he broke the impact for the little golden cousin who had slammed into his frond, causing his fall in the first place.
“Are you okay?” asked both frogs at once. There was a brief cacophonous moment as each of them strove to assure the other that he was indeed unhurt. Roar backed away a few paces, to give the other space and to be safe- he didn't want to poison this new-found friend who seems to have had enough misfortune already today. As he examined the cousin he realized it was not a frog at all, but rather a toad. Roughly his own size.
“What's going on?” Roar finally thought to ask. In the chaos it was hard to think straight. Too much going on.
The toad looked around as if noticing his surroundings for the first time. He blinked his dark eyes. He puffed out his caller once or twice, tentatively. He looked bewildered. Finally he said, “I don't know what's happening . . . we were all gathered for . . . and then . . . now we're here.”
Roar grunted as if that made perfect sense. He knew now was not the time for detailed explanations. What was needed now was someone to help these poor creatures out while they were still too lost and confused to think for themselves. In his most soothing voice, he said, “Okay. It's okay. What's your name?”
The toad blinked again and seemed to snap out of his near-trance. “Rico. I'm Rico.”
“Okay, Rico. Good. My name's Roar. What we need to do is get these frogs out of the rain, and see which of them are hurt or, you know . . . “
“Toads.”
“Eh?”
“We're toads, not frogs. But you're right.” Rico drew in a full breath of air into his caller and let out a huge, authoritative blap.
Nothing happened. At least the rain- both of the hydrous and amphibious variety- had stopped. Roar told Rico to keep calling. As his voice carried his kin would hear and draw near, and then they could come up with a more long-term plan. Roar started singing too, a song of comfort. Ree would hopefully hear and come help. She always knew what to do, even if raining toads was outside of her area of expertise.
Still very few toads were responding to Rico's call. Roar decided to approach them and point the way, and offer words of encouragement. That way he could get some inkling of how many were hurt. He had no idea what he would do about those who hadn't survived the fall.
With care and patience Roar went among the . . . what? Victims? What do you call a toad who has fallen from the sky? How does a toad become rain? Could anything become rain? What if some day spiders rained down? Or snakes? Or even himself? Weird.
His idle daydreams seemed to burst to life as suddenly the sky was again full of creatures. But there was nothing unusual about these. Birds! Roar had never paid much attention to birds before, as even the predatory ones left him alone. So his stomach lurched in shock when a beautiful green bird landed and casually scooped up one of the stunned toads with its long yellow beak. Roar realized the toads had no defence against this aerial assault.

______________________________________________________________________

I always have to remind myself that this is just the draft. Like an animatic or storyboard, it doesn't have to be totally polished just yet. Because in all honesty I don't really know if this is really going to be all that much about the Frog Chorus. I can imagine Rana finishing the story and Dart saying, "But what does that have to do with the Frog Chorus?"
"Not really anything but it has raining toads!"
Anyways, the toads are of the species Bufo periglenes, sadly thought to be extinct, but I hold out hope that there are yet some survivors. And the bird is an emerald toucanet, Aulacorhynchus prasinus.
Soundtrack: Singing in the Rain
Dedicated to: For the second week in a row, a Travis. This time it's Travis Hanson, creator of the ever-inspiring Storyteller print, and maybe a Poison Dart-related art too, soon.
Next Chapter

Fanart Friday: A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Iron Man is opening today and I want to see it for sure. But what you might not know is the director, Jon Favreau, was slated to direct A Princess of Mars but then wound up doing Iron Man instead. So in an alternate universe, everyone would be lining up to see John Carter, Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas thundering across Barsoom today. But this will have to do instead- Jerry Carr and Ssava give us their versions of said trio:



Then we have a couple by George Sellas:


And my friend zimeta08 is one of the biggest ERB fans I know, here's a pair of her arts:

Happy Miner's Day! What makes it really happy for me is that I'm not mining today. Apparently we're having a Miner's Week later this month, but I have no idea what that entails. Presents and prizes every day as we go out to the pits maybe. Anyways, I created a new Flickr Photoset called Derelicts since I've always found twisted metal, old iron and ghosts of the machines to be fascinating, and beautiful in their own way. Some highlights: