Yesterday I went looking for a document from before I got this computer and went into a whirl of looking through old files and deleting and moving them around, merging files from this computer, my old work laptop, and the computer I had before that, as well as CDs of backups from years past.

One of the things I came upon was this picture Jeff took of me and Neil Gaiman at Penguicon 2.0. It was in with my files on that year's Penguicon instead of being with my pictures from it (which were in my netmouse.com folder and not in with the rest of my pictures, anyway), so I hadn't seen it in a while. The rest of my pictures from that year I have previously only shared with a few friends, partly because there are pictures of me in a bikini and I used to feel more negatively about my weight and form at the time than I do now. Now you all get to see them.

Other people featured in the set from Penguicon 2.0 include Pete Abrams and his then-assistant Trillian, Neil's son Mike, Chuck, Rennie, and the rest of the gang who joined us for a pool party that Saturday night, followed by a "massage Trillian" party that was even more fun.

The set includes two of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken, this picture of Chuck and Rennie curled up together at the party and this one of Neil at breakfast on Monday, finally looking rested and ready for his drive back home (he drove here in the Mini Cooper that spring, partly I think to show it to Mike). During the time that Chuck and Rennie were together it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to have given them an image of their closeness that they both liked. Even though they're no longer together, I hope they still like the picture; I certainly do. I also found it a powerful example of the way the noflash version of a picture can be so much better than the same picture with the flash on.

"Scud"
The newest song from the great Luke Ski,
Download the free MP3 now at the Funny Music Project,
http://www.theFuMP.com

This is a song about what is in my opinion, the greatest comic book ever, "Scud The Disposable Assassin", created by Rob Schrab.

Rob and I used to take improv classes together in Milwaukee. Rob is one of the original members of "The Dead Alewives", giving him the distinct infamy of being 'the Mountain Dew guy' in the world renowned "Dungeons & Dragons" sketch. During Scud's original mid-90's run, he moved to L.A., where his growing Hollywood workload made him decide to stop "Scud" at issue #20 with an armageddon-implying cliffhanger. Rob went on with his comedy partners to create such cool things as the pilot "Heat Vision And Jack" which starred Jack Black and was directed by Ben Stiller, "Robot Bastard", "Channel 101", "Acceptable TV", "Monster House", "The Hell O'clock News" for Tenacious D, he directed a video for Death Cab for Cutie, and he is the co-creator and director of "The Sarah Silverman Program". A decade later, Rob felt it was finally time to finish what he'd started, and created issues 21 through 24 of "Scud", which at long last finishes the story. Image Comics released them over the summer, and today released "Scud The Disposable Assassin: the Whole Shebang", an 786 page Omnibus containing all 24 issues, available at your local comic shop now. Rob also announced a Scud fan film contest at his website, RobSchrab.com, and has already gotten some great entries.

I have been wanting to do a song about "Scud" ever since I started making music in '94. The song's time has finally come. Many of my fans have told me that they would have never seen a movie or started watching a TV show if I hadn't done a song about it that peaked their interest in it. My "Scud" song is my ultimate expression of attempting to achieve that desired effect. The comic book "Scud" is the coolest thing in my life that most other people don't know about. So as well as paying tribute to something that has meant so much to me over the past 14 years, I hope you'll go pick up a copy of the Omnibus and get sucked into the world of "Scud". And FYI, I am going to attempt to make a music video for this song before the end of the month for the Scud fan film contest.

The opening and closing music for the song is by Chris Mezzolesta of Power Salad, with vocals by Chris and Carrie Dahlby. What else left is there to say about it, other than... ...It's cool to be a robot.

~ Luke Ski, July 22nd, 2008