Tyler (T-Pac) Pacana

  Finished reading Physics of the Future (2011) by Michio Kaku. This is a neat look into how current science could shape the world over the next hundred years or so. And considering the book itself is more than 10 years old at this point, it’s interesting to see how the “near future” predictions have or haven’t come to fruition. One of the most fascinating areas that Kaku’s book dives into is the future of energy. He sees us moving from the current age of electricity into the age of magnetism, given that we can find a solution for creating room-temperature superconductors. The result could revolutionize everyday experiences like travel and stimulate a positive effect against climate change. Although, I have my doubts about first-world willingness to scrap our current electrical infrastructure no matter how great the benefits of a new system would be. There's also a nuance look into nuclear energy - the benefits it proposes as an alternative to fossil fuels, as well as the dangers

Finished reading Silas Marner by George Eliot (1861). Silas Marner is the story of a high born family and a reclusive weaver, and the colorful overlap of their lives in the old English town of Raveloe. As a young man in a religious order, Silas Marner is framed for a crime his best friend committed - and he runs away to live in seclusion as a weaver on the outskirts of a rustic, insular village. The community there views him with trepidation as a miserly outsider, since he largely keeps to himself and finds joy only in his hoard of gold. It is his only consolation after the betrayal robbed him of his brotherhood, his fiancee, and his faith.That is, until his money is stolen and he becomes the foster father of Eppie, an orphan who seeks refuge from a snowstorm in his home at the stone pits (where her mother died of an opium overdose). In his new function as a caretaker, Silas turns to the Raveloe townspeople in an effort to raise Eppie well, subsequently indoctrinating himself into the

Ink-tober 2023 Every October, my friends on a retro-gaming forum pick classic pixel-art characters for me to draw as cartoons. Lines are done in ink, but I color digitally. 00 - My rendition of the Henchman from Mappy [Nintendo Famicom - 1984]. Reference image in the top-left.

Finished reading Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900). At its core, Sister Carrie is a novel about the transience of fortune. Dreiser explores the concept through three principal characters, who each mingle in complicated relationships and find themselves drastically trading stations on the social ladder. Carrie, a rural migrant into the burgeoning city of Chicago (and later New York), emerges from the clutches of poverty into financial security through morally-taxing relationships, then ultimately finds stardom and success as a Broadway actress. Conversely, Hurstwood (a high-standing manager and once the pinnacle of Carrie’s infatuation), falls into extreme poverty by a series of missteps perpetuated from an ill-conceived theft and subsequent flight from his secure, rich life in Chicago. The proposition of regaining his status from scratch in a new city proves too much for a man so complacent in his old fortune - and his motivation atrophies to the effect of driving away Carrie an

1-minute and 3-minute marker sketches from a safari-themed gesture drawing session.

My dad's 1964 station wagon.

5-minute sketches from a "warrior-princess" themed gesture drawing session.

The Chancellor.

Finished reading A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens. This is a highly symbolic, theatrical take on the French Revolution, where Dickens’ language makes for uniquely poetic passages, but has the side effect of dehumanizing crucial moments of the story. Readers can feel distanced from the more visceral events by his telling them through personified concepts rather than his characters. That being said, this augmented lens by which he presents the Revolution is an effective translation of its horrific, confused fervor. The people themselves, like Dickens’ writing, lose their humanity for the sake of muddled ideals, and even the principal characters are symbolic of larger components within the revolutionary landscape (Darnay as the blameless victims of an uncompromising holocaust, Lorry as the self-preserving establishments floundering around national allegiances, Madame Defarge as the ruthless conviction blinding a revolutionary tide, etc.) The novel’s emphasis on characters as

Running bronco.