Christmas card for 09: feel free to download and use it...

L. Carroll

Jabberwocky 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! and through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

It was in the year 2341 when he decided to take a survival-holiday-trip with his friend into the Jurassic period. The trip was offered by the Time-Travel-Corporation TTC, which had the monopoly on time travel for already quite a while. 

Unfortunately his friend got stepped on by an enormous Brachiosaurus twelve minutes after arrival. This traumatic experience made him realize that a time period with smaller species would be the way to go for the next survival-trip. So he choose the rather unpopular Devon-period-trip offered by TTC at a 'Special-Super-Summer-Sale'.  Two complimentary gifts were handed over to him by the TTC salesman: a pocket knife and a loin-cloth 'fits-all-sizes'.

He arrived in the Devon-period in the early afternoon. Earth and nature, being in their infancy of genetic development, didn't seem to offer the survival-challenges he had wished for.

Little did he know...

A couple of illustrations I did for an online page to inform about hearing loss.

Captain Alistair Quickaboonip

The book I did the cover for, is now available on amazon.de:
http://www.amazon.de/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/306031263X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1245317977&sr=8-2

My view from my apartment in Seoul. Its my first digital landscape painting.... woohoo! 

"No, I think that you look perfectly fine and this coat does NOT make you look fat! It is the same thing every year! I buy you a christmas present every woman would be happy with and the only thing you can do is to complain. I sometimes wonder if you love me at all anymore..."

After getting off the bus, he tried to find the museum of 'Paranormal Studies', which his city-guide praised as one of the best in the country. The book mentioned, that the permanent exhibition in the museum had rare footage of sightings of unicorns, the legendary Sirrush as well as el Chupacabra and many others. Having  frequently heard stories about the museum by his friends of the Paranormal-Science-Society-Group PSSG, which he fully supported with a monthly membership and a subscription of the magazine 'IT DOES EXIST', he was so excited to see the exhibition of the museum, that he couldn't stop biting his lip, which already had a tiny little bloody spot on it. He took a tissue out of his backpack and wiped the blood away.

The streets gleamed in the heat of the day, the concrete boiled and warped underneath his melting shoes  and his skin was beyond sticky. He wanted to find the museum, but there was no trace of it... he had already searched the whole block and all the blocks surrounding it, but there was no museum to be found. People he had asked on the street had never even heard of it. Again he looked at the map in his city-guide, compared street names and hoped to find a clue somewhere, which would help him to sight the museum.

Friends of the PSSG had told him its been said that the museum even had body parts of a sea-serpent in formaldehyde, proven by scientists of cryptozoological studies to be absolutely genuine. To study those sea-serpent parts would be enough to make this trip for him a success. The sea-serpent, which he was especially fascinated by, since he had read Olaus Magnus's book 'The history of the northern peoples', was described by Magnus as living in a cave outside of Bergen in Norway and being of 'fearsome size, 200 feet long and 20 feet wide'. How exciting!

He sat down in a nearby park, studied his guide again and tried to make sense of the map it provided, where the museum was marked with a little x. He felt already the sweat running down his back into his pants and probably leaving a moist spot on the park bench.

All the streets on the map were correct, the buildings it showed were at the right place, but the x was placed so vaguely that it was impossible to locate the exact spot of the museum. 

He put the book aside and sighed, still his head full of mythical creatures and paranormal sightings, when he became aware of his surrounding. The park he was sitting in was filled with Magnolia trees in full bloom and huge and dark pine trees were throning above them. The magnolia blossoms were unusually big and beautiful and beams of sunlight fought their way through the foliage and painted little carpets underneath the trees. The air smelled heavily of pine, so sweet and strong that it made him dizzy. Everywhere in the park was life and nature seemed to have a heart-beat in this place. He thought by himself that this is a beautiful park to be in, quite unreal indeed.

After he had left the park he felt strangely uneasy and found himself pondering about the existence of this museum. Could his friends have been wrong? Could the guide also be wrong? There was the possibility for that... his lip started to bleed again, but he didn't notice it.

Every year Mr. Caprio, head of an accounting firm in Padua, reenacted a scene of the popular motion-picture 'Titanic' on the Christmas-party of his company. Everyone was looking forward to this rather courageous performance of Mr. Caprio, usually a very propper boss. What no one knew was that their boss never played the part of Mr. Leonardo diCaprio himself, but the part of Mrs. Kate Winslet. How naughty...

Dreams are for fools!

Herr Conrad always wanted to go to Egypt and walk on the path of history, but whenever he thought of it, he told himself: 'Dreams are for fools' and took a cold shower.