Blogwithfeet: The art/rant blog of Renee Lott

New Year’s bloopity bloop.

2009… The year of the Ox!

This week has been pretty good so far. I got the rest of Star Trek: TNG in the mail (used=good deals), Don’t Disturb My Waking Dream mini-comics, some hard to find Hannari Tofus, and the rest of my David Sedaris audiobook reserves at the library.

For New Year’s, since Kyle and I don’t drink or like parties, we ended up babysitting my landlord’s kids. When we got there they had already been put to bed, so thankfully it was a pretty uneventful night… but not really a quiet one. The fireworks around here are always so loud, so there was no way to not know when the New Year arrived. We rung in the occasion with Star Trek: TNG episodes and Kirby Super Star Ultra. We had ordered a pizza on New Year’s Eve and brought the leftovers to snack on that night. When we got home, I found the 2009 New Year’s Hannari Tofus that I thought I’d missed for sale. Not a bad start for the new year.

I have to say, this new year seems already filled with excitement. Not only will this year mark my quarter century of life, but the release of my first book. Plans have already been made to attend SDCC ’09 and SPX ’09, so I look forward to the opportunity to travel around a bit more. I know that 2 years ago, I would have never thought I would be where I am today (although it’s probably more correct to say I had no idea where I’d be at all).

2007 was a big year for me. Not only did I graduate from college and get my BFA, but I got my contract with Oni Press for Festering Romance. I was also able to visit New York, San Diego, and Japan for the first time in my life, got my first Hannari Tofus, and moved into a new apartment. In general it was a pretty exciting year, but it was also a year of waiting for things to get started.

In 2008, I finally was able to get started on the script for my book after planning and planning and waiting and waiting… I finished the pencils the same year and got a bit of a start on the inks. It was also the first year I ever exhibited at a convention (SPX ’08), which was a good learning experience.

But, another of the biggest things this last year was something of course unexpected. Kyle and I ended up adopting our first cat, a little ruffian named Madame Gingersnap Firecracker III — “Ginger” for short. We found her living in a hole underneath our house and she instantly made good pals with us. She was about 5 months old at the time, dealing with fleas and a terrible case of ear-mites. We were always very hesitant about getting a cat, but after we saw her, we couldn’t leave her outside for the winter, and I think she had the same idea. A few days after meeting her, she tried to stroll into our apartment with us and has been spoiled ever since.

In honor of Ginger’s first year with us, I have composed a poem:

I think that pretty much sums up the Ginger experience.

Well, I guess we’ll all see how this new year goes for us. It really seems like a year of abundant possibilities and opportunities, so hey, let’s all make the most of it!

Hope everyone has a great 2009!

This picture depressed me.

a Hannari Tofu, counting its change...

Ever since I visited Japan last year and discovered the mascot characters in the “Hannari Tofu” line, I became a fan of their anthropomorphic-food-like ways.  These little guys are shaped like blocks of tofu and come in a variety of “flavors,” although now it’s like they’re just dressed up in whatever looks the cutest, tofu-related or not.

2nd Hannari Tofu picture book

During my stay, I picked up a few of the smaller cushions (they look pretty much like plush dolls) and my sister gave me a few more.  Later that year, I started collecting the little fellows in earnest and now have a pretty sizable collection.

Recently, my sister picked up a copy of the second picture book for me.  It contains pictures of the tofus in various situations and cooking instructions for different types of tofu.  Also, there are photos of the plush tofus in real life settings.  However, it’s the picture at the top of this post that particularly interested me…

I guess I just thought about it too much, but this picture just made me depressed.  It doesn’t seem that sad at first; it’s just a picture of a block of grilled tofu counting its change to see if it can buy a new carrot to make a new carrot flower for the top of its head, right?  Well, like I said, I thought about it too much.

I started thinking, what if the tofu doesn’t have enough change?  All it wants in its meager heart is to look a bit fresher with a new head decoration.  It really wants so little.  But WHAT IF THERE’S NOT ENOUGH CHANGE? The thought of this block of tofu in poverty was very sad and pathetic…  but what made it even worse was when Kyle added that, “It’s probably counting its change over and over, and every time when it finds out it doesn’t have enough, it starts over, counting it again, thinking to itself, ‘Oh maybe I made a mistake, I must have just counted wrong…’” and so it just counts the change over and over… never having enough…

O_O

I was obsessed with this thought of this tofu, a meager being living a rather simple life, unfortunately trapped in dire poverty.  Faced with hopelessness, its simple mind cannot accept its insufficiency of funds…

In reality, the Japanese text may actually alleviate my concerns (since I can’t read Japanese), and the pile of coins counts to over 200 yen, enough I’m sure to buy a single carrot.  But still, these are the things I obsess about when left to my own devices…

But anyway, I just felt like sharing this picture with you all.  Maybe you’ll feel the same way about it as me, or maybe you’ll just wonder why I’m so batshit crazy insane.

Also, keep an eye out for a brief Hannari Tofu cameo in Festering Romance!