Harry Potter; Year 7

As Jack from CTU would say... I'm going dark.

See you guys after Deathly Hallows.

Café Sketch

A little over a week ago I needed to kill some time before a movie. Normally i would just go find a nice area to draw in, but this time I didn't bring my sketch book. I decided that I was going to check my e-mail and do some other web stuff, but to my utter dismay all the Wifi was password protected. There I was, 28 minuets to kill, and a semi-useless laptop. It turned out that a cafe in the area had open mic night, and I wanted some espresso (go figure). So I went in to check it out. It was really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. Some of the people who performed were really talented, and others not so much :P, but still better than most.

Now I wanted to draw, the one time I don't bring my drawing paraphernalia with me. I could have gotten up to get the supplies from the car, but I would have lost my prime seat in an all ready cramped cafe. I was lucky enough to find a lil red Bic Pen in my laptop bag waaaaaay at the bottom. Then I snagged some napkins and long story short Frankie was happy. :)

Brain Scan

A few weeks ago I went and got my brain scanned. It wad for a friend who does linguistic research at UCI. Here are the pictures from the scan. Look close at what they found.


(click for larger image)

While I was getting scanned in the fMRI it felt like I was slowly spinning around. I asked the guy who did the scan and he said that I was sensitive to the Magnetic Waves. He didn't mention it because not many people are sensitive to it. So yeah, I am basically Magneto. So watch out!

Wizards Ordinary Magic and Basic Aptitude Test (W.O.M.B.A.T.)

I am now a fully qualified wizard! How do I prove this you ask? Well why don't you take a peek at my credentials over there on that wall with my Grandfather clock with the overly specific clock-face information.

I am happy to have finaly finished the last leg of the W.O.M.B.A.T.'s. A little over a year ago, the first one sometime around April 6, 2006, J. K. Rowling occanily would put up on these "Wizarding Aptitude Tests" on her website. I had a lingering fear that I would miss one, because the door for these tests were quite literally only be open for a day or two at a time. If I missed one then my collection would not be complete. At first I was upset that all I got was able to get was an "Acceptable"., thinking that I really failed but this was a nice way to go about it. But suposedely that is not true because others have failed. After this last one I am happy to have gotten the "Acceptable". I am ready to move forward with my magical carrer.

My name is Frankie Franco and I am an...

Today I was at Starbucks while waiting for some friends to go see Fantastic Four I did some doodling. I
tried to draw a Fairy, but a Bloodelf came out... I think I have a problem.



She is a warlock.

Wicked

I am going to go see Wicked for the second time tomorrow!



I am looking forward to it.

The Lady

Right now I am finally finishing Perelandra, By C. S. Lewis. The second book in his Space Trilogy. I stated it last year but got distracted and never finished it. And if I put a book down it is very hard for me to pick it back up... I dunno why. I actually hate that about myself. What is frustrating and kinda funny is that I stopped reading it right before it got really meaty. It predominately a story of temptation to do something you know is against the will of God, or Maledi as He is referred to in the book. It's very much like The Screwtape Letters, and that is my all time favorite book. So I can't wait to finish this puppy.

Ransom, one of the protagonists in the story, is in a monologue where he is discussing temptation and its function and purpose it can have. There some lines that spoke wonders to me and is still echoing around in my head. It's something that I already knew but i guess I just didn't quite understand.

"If the Lady were to be kept in obedience only by the forcible removal of the Tempter, what was the use of that? What would it prove? And if the temptation were not a proving or testing, why was it allowed to happen at all?"

I needed to hear that like nothing else. When I think about temptation and the Lords hand in it, or lack there of, it is comforting, scary, challenging, and frustrating all at the same time. I already knew that the Lord allows us to be tempted and tested, but those few sentences somehow acted as a prism. They broke down the light/reality of it, and now I can see all the different colors/truths of this dynamic relationship we have with temptation. And the role it has in the Lords refining process for us. The Lord will take the bad things in our life and use it for His glory. Remember what Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [His] purpose." Now I wont be so foolish as to ask that temptation be removed from my life and walk, but be encouraged to be in word and prayer and be ready for it. That I might be proven.

And now a nice segway into art...

I am trying to draw The Green Lady. She is supposed to be beautiful, have confidence, but also innocent and "naive". I am having difficulty finding that balance. But it is a lot of fun trying!