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Friday, November 20th, 2009
Hey gang, I wanted to announce that I'm now offering custom websites made in Wordpress.
Here's some of what you'll be able to do with your Wordpress account and custom theme:
There are lots of web designer and developers out there with varying degrees of experience, and I've found when it comes to choosing one, you really get what you pay for in terms of quality, attention to detail, and professionalism. Here's some info about what I offer in terms of my own personal process and philosophy, as well as my ten-plus years' experience making websites.
Rates: Please contact me for my rates for all of the above. manning@manningkrull.com Beyond Wordpress: Of course, I'm still available for all the other types of website projects I've always done, including traditional self-contained websites, Flash-based websites, custom Blogger templates, etc. Please contact me for further information! manning@manningkrull.com Thanks! - Manning 16 Comments | Comment on this
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
I received something amazing in the mail a couple days ago! ![]() ( Lots more pictures! )
Friday, November 13th, 2009
I had swine flu! For real! It was really awful, but not at all interesting enough to write about. (I didn't even tell my family; they're going to be furious. Hi Amanda!) I've actually been better for a few days, but after being cooped up and stuck in bed for a while, I had nothing interesting going on and nothing to write about here on LJ. I've finally been tentatively going out, wandering around Paris, taking pictures, etc, and life is pretty much back to normal. This morning I walked to the Arènes de Lutèce to take a few pictures for Cool Stuff in Paris. I'll put 'em here for now, but the article will come a little later, as I've got a million other articles half-written right now that I need to finish. ![]() The Arènes de Lutèce is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating things in Paris, and most Parisians have never even heard of it. It's a real-ass Roman arena dating from the first century, built during the Gallo-Roman period. The place got destroyed during a barbarian invasion in the third century, eventually people mostly forgot about it, and modern French scholars knew that it had existed but didn't know exactly where until 1858 when it was accidentally discovered during some construction project. It was eventually restored in 1917. It's now a sort of park, hidden behind big apartment buildings on all sides, and you could walk by any of its three entrances without even noticing it's there. It's absolutely amazing for me to stand in this place and know that ancient Parisians hung out here for sports, shows, etc, almost two millenia ago. ( A few more pictures... )
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
My religion: Every morning, think of the tie I want to wear, reach into a dark closet to the rack of fifty(-ish) ties, and pull one out. If it's the one I wanted, it is an Awesome Day and I am the Chosen One. Today is an Awesome Day. Black with gray flowers. Amen.
Those of you who checked out my photos from the D-Day beaches in Normandy the other day might recall my mentioning a place called the Pointe du Hoc, and how I didn't take any pictures there because it was pouring rain. Well, Marjorie's dad sent me his pictures from the whole weekend, including some from the Pointe du Hoc, and there's this great, ridiculous one of me, Marjorie, and Jenny in a huge hole left by an Allied bomb in 1944. We're all wearing identical windbreakers; they were promotional items from M's dad's company, which he brought to protect us all against Normandy's notoriously rainy Autumn weather.
![]() Haha, I wish you could feel the wind and rain we were studiously ignoring in order to have fun out there. I'd brought my good umbrella but the second I opened the thing it immediately turned inside out and broke! At least in the bomb hole there was a little less wind. Immediately after this was taken, Marjorie an I climbed out of the hole as fast as we could, stranding Jenny; the sides were a lot steeper than they look here, not to mention slippery with mud. I think she's still there. In other news, I have a bunch of fun new stuff up on Cool Stuff in Paris: Recent articles:
Recent blog posts:
I've also created a LiveJournal syndication of the Cool Stuff in Paris blog if you'd like to add it. It's here: How're you?
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
... and he knows it. ![]() Kyubi is actually named after some sort of Japanese fox demon, and I think it's a pretty accurate label. This guy drives me up the wall.
I have a new illustration up on the splash page of the site for FreeMarket, a new game that's in the works at Memento Mori Theatricks. ![]() I've actually done about a half a dozen color illustrations for this project, and I'll post the rest of them here once the game is out; I'm pretty excited about a few of 'em.
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
![]() SILVER KNUCKLE DUSTER Silvertone-plated brass skull knuckle duster with Swarovski crystal detail. Sits at the knuckle. Size 8. $550.00
For Halloween weekend, Marjorie's dad happened to be visiting Paris from La Réunion, so he and Marjorie and her two sisters and I rented a car and drove up to Normandy to see a bunch of historic sites from the D-Day invasion. We saw Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery there, slept in a hotel where President Eisenhower himself stayed after WW2, played in some real Nazi bunkers, saw a couple D-Day museums, and enjoyed a tremendous amount of good Normandy food (and drink!): seafood, crepes, cheese, wine, calvados, et cetera. Here are some pictures from the weekend... ![]() A nice Spanish fellow offered to take our picture. That's me, Pascal, Marjorie, Jenny, and Deb. ( Tons of pictures; Omaha Beach, museums, bunkers, etc... )
Haha, this is great. You'll remember last week when I asked everyone to post pictures of whatever they'd like to give me for my birthday. ![]() Coincidence??? (Thanks, Ben, Corri, and Lily-bird!)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Did you know I drew a whole lot of short Halloween comics back in the day?
Hey, I drew this! ![]() It's another logo for a game by Memento Mori Theatricks, like the Action Castle logo I did for them a while back. I'm working on some folio art to go along with it now. It's on its way soon, Jared, if you're reading this!
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
A lot of folks have been asking me what I'll be doing for Halloween this year, and the answer is: not much! And: A lot!
As you can see, I've been super busy getting the Cool Stuff website up and running in the last couple weeks, and as a result I've been very quiet on LiveJournal. As I'm finally getting enough content into the site now where I no longer feel embarrassed at how empty it is, I'll soon have a lot more time to write here. I'll definitely have some D-Day beach photos to show by early next week, at the very least. Happy Halloween, everybody! Wish I were there!
Monday, October 26th, 2009
![]() I was taking some photos at the Cimetière de Montmartre just before sundown this evening, when suddenly a small murder of crows (wow, how often do I get to say that?) alit on some tombs right next to me! Talk about creepy! Finally, there's the Halloween vibe I've been desperately searching for over here. Unfortunately the photo's no good with the sunset in the background, which I realized at the time, but I couldn't resist at least trying.
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Thanks for all my great jpg-formatted birthday presents yesterday, everybody! ![]() Here's the first picture of me at age 34, last night just before heading out to the Mysteries of Paris Ghost Tour. It was fun!
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Today I'm 34! This year my birthday wish is the same as last year's; please Google Image Search something you'd like to give me and post the picture in the comments. Thanks in advance! You shouldn't have. I mean, I guess, you shouldn't.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Today on Cool Stuff in Paris I've started a gallery of weird public art! Several of the pics are things you've seen here on LiveJournal, but there are a bunch of new ones, and I'll be adding more as I run across them in town.
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Hey folks, today I'm unveiling a new project I've been working on for a few months now, a tourism site for cool, weird, and unusual things in Paris. It's called, simply, Cool Stuff in Paris. ![]() I'd been wanting to make a site like this literally for years, as I realized I was becoming a sort of expert on a lot of Paris stuff that's not in the guidebooks. I answer a lot of e-mails from visitors to my LiveJournal and photo galleries who have questions about Paris and other places I've traveled, and I've found that I really, really enjoy sharing this kind of information with people. I personally try to find the weirdest stuff everywhere I travel, and it's a great feeling to be able to help other people who're looking for the same sorts of things. Of course there are a zillion guidebooks and websites about tourism in Paris, but they all cover basically the same stuff, and I wanted to do a project that focuses on the lesser-known things that appeal to weird people like me. All the e-mails I get tell me I'm not the only one! The website is still very much a work in progress, and I'm currently working on tons more articles that I'll be adding every day for, well, for a long time, really! The site feels pretty empty right now and that's giving me tons of motivation to fill it up quickly. Today and all this week a lot of little things will be changing, like some formatting tweaks, addition of lots more photos, etc. I promised myself I'd launch the thing today no matter what state it was in, so this is it! I think it's in pretty good shape, I just desperately want to get a lot more content in there as soon as possible. If you happen to notice any weird layout errors, I would be eternally grateful if you'd e-mail me at manning@manningkrull.com. I'm on a PC and have had limited chances to check the site on a Mac, but so far so good. Please feel free to send the link to the site to anyone you know who's going to be visiting Paris any time in the future! And you can subscribe to the blog and or Twitter to be notified of all new articles as they go up. Enjoy!
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Friday, October 16th, 2009
I just finished an unusual rush illustration job that was kind of a fun challenge. One of my regular clients hires a lot of different illustrators for their magazine covers, and along with all the normal jobs I do for them, once in a while they've hired me to re-do someone else's illustration that they weren't happy with. This time they came to me with an illustration that they simply wanted me to fix up a bit; they were happy with the thing overall but didn't like the facial features on the central character. I suspect they asked for a fix rather than a total re-do just because it would save them some cash; understandable. I was happy to give it a shot!
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