Aby-a-Day – 2 April: Welcome to 2021, the year of the silly memes (Photoshop Friday)

2021 seems to be defining itself as the Year of the Meme. First, we had Bernie Sanders and his mittens, and then, last week, we had , an enormous container carrier ship the size of the Empire State Building stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking all other carriers and stopping roughly 10% of global trade. So, of course, “Boaty McStuck-Face” launched a fleet of silly memes. Of course, I had to make one…and a cat sitting on top of a bunch of boxes with the ubiquitous “If I fits I sits” caption. I posted this in the Facebook group This Cat is PHOTOSHOPPED, and so far it’s had almost 2,000 (!) reactions.

And then, I did this. Because of course I did.

Aby-a-Day – 12 Februari: “I’m here live…I’m not a cat” (Photoshop Friday)

The meme of the week has been the Texas attorney who accidentally turned on a kitten filter during a Zoom court proceeding. And of course, once it got out, the jokes and memes followed.

Inevitably, that woman showed up to yell at the poor kitten lawyer.

So, yeah. You knew this was going to happen.

Aby-a-Day – 5 Februari: One more Bernie meme (Photoshop Friday)

I know it’s been a while, but I literally woke up with this idea in my head…and here it is.

Aby-a-Day 29 Januari: Meow to the Chief (Photoshop Friday)

There’s a famous photo of Socks Clinton sitting at the Resolute Desk. After four long years of no pets in the White House, the Bidens have brought their two dogs to live with them. They are also bringing Winston the cat.

Apparently, Winston hasn’t moved in yet, so I thought Alfred could keep his seat warm for him.

Aby-a-Day – 22 Januari: Feel the Bern! (Photoshop Friday)

The best thing to come out of the Presidential Inauguration on Wednesday (apart from the obvious, of course), was this image of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in full-on New England winter gear, including mittens made from recycled materials by one of his constituents. The minute the cameras turned on Bernie, Twitter and the internet went berserk (in a good way).

When I saw Bernie, the first thing I thought of was Logan in his coat. I thought maybe Bernie just needed some company at the Inauguration.

But then I realised that the real meme is more about putting Bernie in places, including practically any place on Earth. So…Here’s Bernie sitting in my front yard, watching Jacoby and Olaf.

Bernie loves him some Social Democracy, but maybe Sweden’s a little too far away for him to commute from his day job. Better keep him in New England. He seems like he’d enjoy Rolling Bridge Park. And if you were wondering what Bernie’s reaction is to all this, Seth Myers asked him about that, and here’s what he had to say.

Aby-a-Day – 20 Januari: Wordless Wednesday (History has its eyes on you)

Aby-a-Day – 15 Januari: Looks like 2020 doesn’t believe in a peaceful transition of power, either (Photoshop Friday)

So, after the last two Wednesdays, there hasn’t been a whole lot to laugh about…but this meme resurrecting Smudge and the yelling woman, 2021-style, really did make me LOL. Just one thing bothered me about it…the crap Photoshopping. I knew I could do better.

Yep. I think that’s better. And, I learned a little bit more about painting realistic fur, touching up the “shaman’s” coyote-tail headdress.

Aby-a-Day – 31 December 2020: 2020 hindsight (Thursday Things)

So. 2020 is almost over. And what a year it’s been.

Think about it…one year ago today, would you ever have dreamed of even one of the things that happened? Let alone ALL of them! From the pandemic, to the fires in California, to the rioting and unrest in the cities, to the hurricanes, to the antics of the American “president,” to the absolutely bizarre events following the election…Just because I live in Sweden doesn’t mean that I am not affected by what happens back in the States. I just hope things get better in 2021, with a new President and a Covid vaccine.

2021 cannot be worse than this year, can it? Let’s hear it for 2020 hindsight!

Aby-a-Day – 24 December 2020: Från oss alla till er alla, en riktigt god Jul! (Thursday Things)

Well…it’s been a memorable year, that’s for sure.

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a year that so globally interesting.

But enough of that…time to watch Kalle Anka and eat and drink too much. Happy Christmas and God Jul.

Aby-a-Day – 4 December 2020: #tinydesk (Photoshop Friday)

On Thanksgiving, the current president held a bizarre press conference sitting behind an odd tiny desk. Naturally, #tinydesk trended on Twitter, and the photo launched a thousand memes.

So, of course I had to make one, too.

Aby-a-Day – 24 November 2020: Izaak Bar Sinister (Cartoon Tuesday)

This is one of those ideas that seemed better in my head. I was going to work on my Dashiell as Hamilton piece, but the meme of Rudy Giuliani looking like villian Simon Bar Sinister from the old Underdog cartoons…and I had an idea.

I thought I’d try to draw Izaak as Simon, adding the whatever it was that was dripping down the side of Giuliani’s head last week…but meh. Not sure I like how it turned out. I think I need to go back to the late 1700’s.

Aby-a-Day – 22 November 2020: Remember when we travelled? (Cat Show Sunday)

Today Björn posted a memory from this day last year, with the comment, “It’s a year since the last cat show we attended, and when we could travel like so many times before. How things can change in a year…”

This was the train to the ferry to a Turku, Finland, where Izaak and Lorelai earned their International Champion titles. We haven’t been to a show since then. A whole year without a cat show…hard to believe. And I haven’t been anywhere at all since July! Because of my asthma I stay in as much as possible, especially since the health officials in Sweden are still saying masks don’t help against the coronavirus…especially on public transportation.

“We don’t see that we are at a point where we might recommend general use of face masks on public transport,” Karin Tegmark Wisell, head of the Public Health Agency in Stockholm, told reporters on Thursday. “Face masks shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to keep a distance.” That’s a direct quote. Yeeeeaaahhhh…I’m not going anywhere by train for a while.

Aby-a-Day – 13 November 2020: Make America rake again (Photoshop Friday)

Okay, so the US election happened, Biden won, Trump won’t accept it. Even so, the goofiest, quirkiest, most surreal news story of the past week is the press conference that Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, held in Philadelphia on Saturday at the Four Seasons…Total Landscaping. It’s the event that launched a thousand memes…

…So, yeah. I had to do this.

Aby-a-Day – 10 November 2020: Izaak and Major (Cartoon Tuesday)

Just an idea that popped into my head this morning…Izaak as Pixie, and Joe Biden’s Shepherd Major as Brutus. I used a Pixie and Brutus fan art by DiviantArt user Space Meme Stardust as my reference for the first rough sketch.

Because my new MacBook Pro hasn’t arrived yet, and because I hated the hand-drawn speech bubbles, I turned on my laptop for a few minutes just to add them (and my signature) in Photoshop.

I also saved the video of my drawing process, just for fun (ie, because Procreate lets me). Click on the image to watch it on Flickr.

Aby-a-Day – 4 November 2020: Wordless Wednesday (Speechless)

#pethatestoys

Aby-a-Day – 31 Oktober 2020: A most memorable Halloween

This being an election year, I am especially reminded of Halloween 2012, the day Jacoby and I were interviewed by the local NBC affiliate and the Boston Herald.

Meg messaged me first thing Thursday morning…OMG, she said. Jake is on the front page of the Herald. Okay, I figured, he was in a little sidebar photo. Nope.

Here’s the online article (the actual newspaper article was too big to scan).

Not only that…there was a second story and yet another photo of me with Jake.

The crazy thing was…it was most definitely not a slow news week. Besides Wednesday being Halloween, that Sunday, the Patriots has just played a game in Wembley Stadium in London, the worst of Hurricane Sandy hit Boston on Monday, and there was also some sort of election thingy happening the following Tuesday. But yeah…Strollercat was the Herald’s Page One story on Thursday, 1 November 2012.

It was, hands down, the most surreal week of my life. As the Boston Globe’s Michael Morisy so aptly described it, “It’s stuff like #StrollerCat that keeps me simultaneously in love with & terrified of this amazing city.” Yeah, I may have grown up in California, but Boston is my home.

Aby-a-Day – 9 Oktober 2020: Pretty fly for a white guy (Photoshop Friday)

As you probably are aware, there was a Vice Presidential debate on Tuesday. The thing that has the media and the internet abuzz, though, is the fly that landed on Pence’s head and stayed there for two whole minutes. As you might imagine, the event inspired a swarm of memes. So I thought I’d wing it and make one, too…so here are Izaak and Lorelai doing what cats do when they see a flying insect.

(I posted this to the Facebook group This Cat Is PHOTOSHOPPED, and it’s already gotten over 900 reactions…and someone is now using it as their userpic! I feel so honoured!)

Aby-a-Day – 22 September 2020: National Voter Registration Day (Cartoon Tuesday)

Tonight, on a very special episode of the Daily Abyssinian…

Today is National Voter Registration Day in the States. I may be living in Sweden now, but I am still an American and I still vote as a Massachusetts resident. In fact, I am filling out my ballot right now.

If you are living in the US…please vote. That is all.

(Sidenote: the image I posted is available as a T-shirt…)

Aby-a-Day – 12 Juni 2020: Chris lost his head (Friday Flashback)

Bear with me, here…I am sad and not just a little bit angry. Sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the Christopher Columbus statue in Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park was beheaded. It will now be going into storage for an undefined period of time.

I have posted about this statue back when I lived in Boston. Politics aside, I have always admired the workmanship on this statue. It never felt like a “white man’s burden” statue to me (unlike so many other racist statues). Made or marble imported from Carrara, an ancient quarry in Tuscany, and erected by the Knights of Columbus, an organization dominated by Italian Americans, the statue (which is in Boston’s North End, the Italian neighbourhood), always seemed to be more about being of Italian descent than about Colonialism.

We didn’t go to Christopher Columbus Park very often, as there were closer parks along the Harborwalk, but I always liked going there with Jacoby.

It’s Boston’s oldest waterfront park. I wish we had gone there more often.

But I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the unconditional trust I had with Jake. I could put him anywhere and he’d pose for a photo.

Aby-a-Day – 2 Juni 2020: “Face masks in public spaces do not provide any greater protection to the population” (Cartoon Tuesday)

I have been very frustrated at the fact that Sweden doesn’t think masks work to control Covid-19. The State Epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has said repeatedly that “masks don’t make sense” and has literally scoffed at the very idea of wearing a mask in pubic.

So, since I have been using my Izaak Baby Yoda and Zak Toothless as my Facebook userpic and cover photos…I took out a little of that frustration by putting masks on their faces.

Didn’t work. I am still frustrated. And I am still wearing my mask.