When I was cleaning out the garage (my favorite spring break activity!), I came across this Korean story that I translated and illustrated for one of my classes in college. This is a little longer than my normal post, but bear with me. It's the Korean folk tale of Han Seok Bong.
Long ago in a small village far from here, a boy named Han Seok Bong lived with his mother. She sold rice cakes for a living, and their family was poor. Because of their poverty, they could not afford to send Seok Bong to school. He stayed home by himself all day.
Sometimes Seok Bong would amuse himself by writing his letters in the dirt in front of their home. One day, a gentleman happened to pass by and praised the boy's talent at calligraphy. From that point on, Seok Bong worked hard on writing his letters.
Seok Bong's mother saw her son's diligence and skill. She determined to send him to the temple so he could improve his skills by studying with the masters. Seok Bong was happy for the chance to go and learn, but the thought of living away from his mother made him sad.
"The art of writing is more than just talent," his mother told him. "Practice is essential. You must study and work hard for ten years, and don't give a second thought about home."
Three years passed by. Seok Bong worked hard and studied diligently. He determined he had learned all that he could, and decided to leave the temple and return home to his village.
When he reached the mountain near his village he began to run. We he saw the gate to his house he ran even faster. He burst though the gate, and with a loud voice he cried, "Mother!"
His mother was busy cutting rice cakes. She looked up at him and said, "Has it been ten years? Why have you come back so soon?"
"There is nothing left for me to learn at the temple," he replied. From now on I will take care of you."
"I don't want to be taken care of," his mother replied. "What I want most is for you to become an outstanding young man of character."
"Let's see how well you have learned," she said. "We will have a contest. I will cut my rice cakes, and you write your letters. We will see if you are yet a master."
They each assembled their materials. Seok Bong began to write, and his mother began to cut her rice cakes.
Then his mother blew out the lamp. The room was pitch black.
After a while, she lit the lantern again. The letters Seok Bong had written in the dark were crooked. Some were big, some were small. However, the rice cakes his mother had cut were each exactly the same size.
Seok Bong gathered his materials, stood up and bowed to his mother.
"I am sorry," he said. And he returned straightway to the temple.
After seven more years of study, Seok Bong returned home. His mother greeted him with joy.
Han Seok Bong's skill as a calligrapher became known far and wide, even as far away as the courts of China.
People always wonder what it was like at the bottom of Noah's Ark. Probably pretty nasty, I suppose. But I think at least someone was wise enough to take advantage of the situation!
Long ago in a small village far from here, a boy named Han Seok Bong lived with his mother. She sold rice cakes for a living, and their family was poor. Because of their poverty, they could not afford to send Seok Bong to school. He stayed home by himself all day.
I found one more of the Morning Calm cartoons. It's funny that it seems to be along the same lines as the Good Heavens cartoons that ran last week and this week.
We didn't have Webelos this week, but this isn't why - although my theory behind scouts is that we need to blow stuff up as often as possible! No, it's spring break and we had too many folks who needed to take a break.
For some reason, this just makes me sad. I also think it's a little creepy that he's eating potato chips.
Zach leaves from the Missionary Training Center at 5 a.m. to go to his mission assignment in Tempe. He's pretty excited!
For those of you who may have missed it, Twilight is now out on DVD. I think they planned the release to coincide with the NCAA Tournament so they could reach their target demographic while the other group is distracted.
March is just chock full of special events! Today is Daniel's birthday. This is the cartoon I drew for his birth announcement. He's an awesome young man! Hope you have a good one, Mr. D!
I shudder to think of some of the stuff I had for meals as a college student!
This wasn't the original caption for this cartoon. It was going to be something topical, like a reference to Bernie Madoff or a dwindling IRA. Then Ben came in when I was coloring and said, "It looks like he's holding a big nacho chip!" And it just kind of evolved from there.
It makes sense to me... But I'll bet Laban's soldiers would have taken their iPod as well.
It's our anniversary today, so I thought I'd drop in a drawing that I did for the thank you notes for my wife's bridal shower all those years ago. Happy anniversary!
In the past few days we've gone from snow to sunshine and back all in the course of a matter of hours. I know that's not unique to Oregon, but it does make it a challenge to get everybody dressed appropriately for the day.
The whole idea of caveman-era aliens cracks me up. Kind of an anti Erich Von Däniken thing, you know? Instead of ancient alien astronauts influencing advancements in earth's early civilizations, maybe the visitors just made our guys stupider.
OK, I know I ran a rooster-themed cartoon just a few days back, but I like this one!
One more indulgence about getting Zach ready to go on his mission: We got some shoes for Chris when he went out that the salesman guaranteed would last his entire mission and beyond. No such luck; they fell apart a month or two after he went out. 
Way back a million years ago, when family trees were much shorter, my family used to spend our summers doing genealogical research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. And when I was a Boy Scout, the folks at the council office told my scoutmaster that I was the first scout ever to earn the Genealogy merit badge. I don't know if that's true or that they keep a record of such things, but I hold on to that as my Boy Scout claim to fame.
This was the very first strip of Explore Provo, the comic strip I did for the Utah Department of Transportation a few years ago. OK, several years ago. It was part of our public information/public outreach for a project that replaced the road surface right through the heart of downtown Provo during the spring, summer and fall. We worked with the city and the downtown business alliance to come up with a public information campaign, which included ads, posters, signs PSAs and lots of other materials (this was in the days before Web sites, blogs or podcasts - I told you it was a while ago!).
One thing that makes me feel good as a cartoonist is when I feel like I got the timing right on a joke. I think I hit it on this one, so to speak.
Since Zach is heading out this week, I thought I'd run a few cartoons that remind me of him. Although he's not really a Trek fan, this one seems to be his type of humor. He's got kind of an alien brain, I guess.
Zach is pretty good about getting up in the morning, so his companions won't likely need to resort to anything like this. I had a few companions, however...in fact, I had a hard time coming up with a name for the slumbering elder because I didn't want to implicate anyone.
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