I’m still doing the faces thing, despite never having mentioned it again on this blog or anywhere else. I downgraded it from 500 faces (10 a day within 2 months) to 100 faces (3 faces a day for a month). Perhaps I’ll share them here or on Tumblr. They’re not very good, which makes me reluctant to do so. The drawings are for helping me practice, and I’m not sure that needs to be publicized. A majority of the faces are copied from other sources. I’m still at a phase where I need to copy a lot before I develop my own style. Hopefully that end result will retain something from Chalkboard Manifesto.

In case I never get around to in-depth thoughts, I just wanted to create a record of things I’ve recently finished.

• Safety Not Guaranteed – This was new on Netflix. It had 3 different people from 3 different TV comedies that I like, so I gave it a shot. I told Stevie, “It has April [from Parks and Rec], Nick [from New Girl], and the mid-wife from Mindy.” I don’t have much to say about it. I was expecting a comedy, but I got something different, and I still enjoyed it. I was surprised that Mark Duplass was actually a good actor, since I’ve only seen him in The League and The Mindy Project. Aubrey Plaza was basically April.
• 3 seasons of White Collar – This show is really, really fun. There’s an escapist element with all the caper stuff. There’s also good chemistry between the two leads. They also created some nice emotional stakes in their season-long story-arcs. If you’re a girl or gay guy, there’s a lot of fan-service. The only real flaw is their blatant product placement for Ford. Seriously, there’s one scene where they’re in the car racing somewhere because I think someone was kidnapped, and they take some time to talk about how the car is eco-friendly.
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – The book takes you on an adventure told through the point of view of an autistic child. It does a good job making you empathize with the way he thinks.
• 2 seasons of Mad Men – This show is as good as people say it is. It is slow, so if you don’t like that, don’t watch it.
• All of Parks and Rec – This might be the best sitcom ever. Or it’s second to Arrested Development.
• All of Freaks and Geeks – This show is just as good as Mad Men, if not better. Amazing storytelling.

“As someone who just finished spending the majority of his life in prison, what happened with Legos? They used to be simple. Oh, come on, I know you know what I’m talking about. Legos were simple? Something happened out here while I was inside. Harry Potter Legos, Star Wars Legos, complicated kits, tiny little blocks? I mean, I’m not saying it’s bad, I just want to know what happened.” — Professor Kane, Community

I recently had a circus-themed birthday party. It was lots of fun; pictures will be on facebook soon. A few days later, there was a knock at the door, and when I opened the door, I found a mysterious package. It was labeled “Lego.” At first, I thought it was a mistake, but I checked the label and it was addressed to me. So I immediately — well, actually first I washed the dishes because they were piling up and I’m somehow amazingly patient with surprises — opened it up to see what was inside. There were several boxes of Legos along with a note from my friend who had missed the party. A sweet gesture. She works at a Lego store.

One of the sets was a Star Wars A-wing fighter. This was the first set I opened, and I was confused at first. The bags had numbers on them: 1, 2, 3. A look at the instructions solved the mystery. You opened the bags in order, building only with the pieces in one bag at a time. It made hunting for pieces less hard because you had a smaller set to look through. I remember how I used to dump all the bags into a pile and spend a lot of time searching for particular pieces. I don’t know if I liked it; a small level of difficulty adds to the fun.

The A-wing fighter was the first relatively complicated Lego set I’d built in a while. (Maybe since high school.) It was weird to see such a big change.