Yup. Ashley is driving. She loves it, too. Last night she even drove us on the highway so we could go shopping at Costco.
The benefits are two-fold.
First, it’ll take some of the responsibility off of Mom and Dad during next school year as she’ll be able to drive her sister and herself to school. Second, I have a whole new muse for comics!
I do worry, though. There’s more distractions and traffic than when I was her age. I guess part of her growing up though is trusting her not be that person playing Wordle on their mobile phone while weaving through traffic.
Oh, wait. Thats me…
Stay healthy. Live life. Put the mobile phone down.
I don’t know what property management company approved of this, but it definitely made me stop in my tracks before following my ravenous family into the restaurant for dinner.
The sushi was actually pretty good ( although the restaurant closed a few months later ). I imagine the bait was even better because that shop is still in business.
Good-bye, 2025, you were a good year. I guess I am in the minority as 25′ seemed to have a bad rapport amongst a lot of my friends and family, but for me it was good.
I’ve seen my girls grow up a little more and become their own not-so-little people.
I’ve started playing music with a new, smaller, group of people with the hopes of doing some open mics next year.
I’ve been happily employed at Poway Unified for the better part of a year now. It was a nice change of pace compared to the last couple of employers I had. The people are great, the workload is manageable, and for the first time in a long time, I believe in the product ( education ).
I’ve now been working as a Programmer Analyst with the school district for seven months ( The Coolest ) …and the difference is night and day. I feel like a valued human again – not a cog or number. The work is all on-site – so no more treadmill, but I’m also not walking 14.6 miles daily in frustration, either.
Happy as I am – it’d be a waste of a good comic to not post it, so here ya’ go!
September was prostate cancer awareness month. For me, and every other person that’s ever had, known, or loved someone that’s fought cancer – every month is.
Like Star Wars? ( Hate cancer? ) Me, too. Here’s another one from almost four years ago : That’s no moon!
Take care of yourselves, people. And please, get checked.
-Scott
P.S. I’ve posted ( and drawn ) a lot on my cancer journey over the last six years. If you want to know more go here : Prostate Cancer
The Rubber Band played for the neighbors’ of Chieftain Court at their Labor Day block party this weekend. We kicked it off with a set of songs from 60’s through early 2000’s. In a little over a month ( October 11th ) we’ll be playing at Rancho Beer-nardo for Oktoberfest, so it was good to get in some stage time.
John Hatcher, our bassist, mastered the audio, combined it with with video we captured using a GoPro, and posted it on our new Rubber Band YouTube Channel. Here is just a few of the videos….
And that’s all, folks! Thank you, as always, for your continued support. And….if you could subscribe to our YouTube channel, that’d be great …..m’kay.
Originally, I named it “Scott’s Jewels” and used it solely to showcase programming projects that I had been working on. Over the last ten years, however, it’s become a platform for showing off my illustrations, comics, musings, and more recently – music. I guess my interests have changed over the last decade – or, more accurately, I’ve finally decided to let them out of their respective cages.
Like any teenager, Drawn and Coded – specifically the logo – needed what my daughters call a “Glow Up”.
Here’s what I came up with…
There were, of course, some “failed” experiments. At first, I was kind of caught up on the whole “computer” thing. Keeping with the new direction I’ve taken, however, it didn’t make much sense – I haven’t posted anything technical for over a year.
Next, I wanted to emphasize art and music, but having a guitar fretboard front-and-center didn’t jive with the name, “Drawn and Coded”. Then there was Jodie’s remark, “You don’t paint. Why do you have a paintbrush?”
So, there it is – all glowed up. Now I can finally get back to drawing comics!
My dog, Chip, has developed a taste for rocks. This is addition to his eclectic taste for other household items including crayons, pens, Lego, and toothbrushes. Up until the rock everything had passed through with flying colors ( yes, even the toothbrush ). The rock cost more than I’d like to admit to extricate. Let’s just say I paid as much for his rock, as my wife’s.
While picking him up at the vet I was told there are many repeat offenders, one patient even consuming the same rock that was just extricated. For several months afterwards Jodie and I would only walk Chip with a “Hannibal Lecter”-esque muzzle on. This of course concerned other people we ran into while walking him.
May is bookended on one side by Mother’s Day and on the other by my wife, Jodie’s, birthday. Throw in Memorial Day, busy kiddos, and a new job and I was surprised to get this comic done. Well, almost done – I’m posting it now ’cause I didn’t have time to color it when I gave it to her on Sunday!
The New Job
I guess it’s probably time to make an official announcement. Before I started working as an “Artist in Residence” at Rancho Bernardo High School (RBHS) I had applied for a Programmer Analyst position with Poway Unified School District – and was subsequently turned down. Well, about two months into assisting in art class I got a call from the district office to see if I was still interested in the programming position.
Honestly, I had to think about it. The art position I held was part-time, without benefits, and had very little chance of being renewed for the next school year. Compared to a full-time position with benefits at a much higher pay the decision should have been easy, but it wasn’t. The problem? I really liked teaching art and working with the kids. It was very fulfilling.
I ended up taking the programming position, but made it clear that long-term I’d want to be back in the classroom. My new supervisor seemed to be on board. She’s the executive director for Poway’s CTAAE Department, a mouthful of an acronym that translates to : “Career Technical Adult Alternative Education”. If you live in Poway and Rancho Bernardo and get the “Adult School” booklet in the mail, that’s one of the things my department does. My department is also in charge of CTE, or “Career Technical Education”, which spearheads a lot of the “alternate” classes that I used to like so much when I was in high school so long ago. My daughter, Ashley, for example, took a Computer Graphics course last semester at RBHS which was sponsored by CTE, and loved it!
It’s only been a few weeks, but I feel like I made a good decision. I like the work, the people are great, and for the first time in a long while I feel like I can make a difference. And who knows? Someday I might get to teach one of those CTE classes myself!
On a more personal note, I’ve yet to have the any of the anxiety attacks that used to plague me while working as an Application Development Manager at my last job. I’m beginning to realize just how unhealthy that place, and my manager, really were.
drawnandcoded.com 