He's pretty badass, this character. I can see him doing a lot. He's got a couple incarnations, so far. His "Calavera" version ("hand drawn" pixel art skeleton), and his "Movimiento 2.0" version (glossy gradient vector art, like the style in my first book). I've got some AlienChola gear, too. Tho' the main brand is ALIENCHOLO. It hurts to give up like $20 off the base price, but hey. They ship it, buy the stock, take care of customer service...I'm just the lousy artist. I used to do a lot of art on clothes, and the clothes are pretty cheap if you buy in bulk. But then again, Cafepress does get some good stock to work on. It could be worse. Anyway, I guess this is my way of saying I wish I could charge less, but if I'm going to make anything from it, I really can't. [update: Here I'm mostly talking about the Tshirts, I realize. Not everything is priced the same.] Anyway, I have plans for this little green vato, and I may try to market the figures, once I draw them all out.

I also have more plans for designs and characters. But I'll have to hit them later, probably in July or August. And probably every Mexican holiday (the few I know, and the more I will learn of) I will add another character or two. I have some tongue-singeing plans for both the Statue of Liberty as well as La Virgen de Guadelupe. Stay tuned.

I will also soon shift the front page of the store a bit more away from my RECONQUISTADOR brand, and more to the ALIENCHOLO brand. But I put up the graphics from the store's first incarnation, as I don't have time to remake them all at the moment.

So yeah, this is mainly a post to say what's up with the move and such and to announce the Cafepress Store.

And to announce this blog, as I said. I don't know that JFH will be blogging the same way many of us do, that is being aware or in touch with the general "blogosphere," but what do I know. I find it interesting to read what he is saying more than I care to see him get mixed up in the mire of the virtual dialogue. No offense to cybernetic mire! Mmmmm.

However, the veteran@s chican@s are used to the worlds of zines, xerox flyers, woodcut, spray paint, mimeograph, print. You and I here in Movimiento 2.0 (zing, claimed) fuse the cybernetic with the chalk, the surfing with the walk, the coding with the talk. So they—JFH, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Dorinda Moreno, etc (you could pick many)—are a little less deep into those motions. (They come to us for help now). But you know what? I'd rather pick up on that oldschool feel a bit, not so much try to convince them to do it our way. There's so much to learn from our gente, from our antepasados, from nuestra veteran@s. They do their part, and we do ours, and together, la lucha y los sueños are upheld. A raza cosmica sort of meld, getting some adobe in the arc of your weld.

Which is also to say please don't get upset if you blogroll him or anything and he doesn't blogroll you. Because he doesn't even have a blogroll! But as I recently reminded myself, we all use these blogs in different ways. And that's a good thing.

Well, I very much appreciate a reader's advice to put up that Ladder of Challenge/Paypal notice for a week, because it did let people know what was up, and it did help raise some centavos and that is really, really great. In fact, those donations have bought lil 'nita the best type of car seat on the market. (Brittax?) So smile wide. She'll never need another one as far as I know, and it's an important purchase. I thank you for that.

A large part of the help actually came in the first day when a few people responded just from reading the original post I wrote "¿Donde Va?" and simply acted to offer help or work. I can't bear looking at that ladder every day, especially as it is now stalled for the moment. I don't think that's bad, just that we have to wait on some things before I could rightfully raise it, and I will keep you updated anyway. I'm hoping we have enough for the current plans, the adjusted and adjustable plans.

I don't think we'll make it to LA this hop. or to CA. I think it's too slim, especially since a deal down there fell through, someone whose mother had a place she might be able to rent, but turns out she is not. So, I think we will make a small hop to Eugene area. And save and plan from there to get abajo. Rent is cheap here as compared to califas zones, and I will be so happy just to get out of here that a place in Eugune that is not an intersection of five hundred families sounds like nirvana to me. (Bleach, not the newer ones. ;) I don't mean to imply I'm the Lone Honorable Protagonist and everyone else here is bad. There's just too many people here. And too many family dynamics that are like deep currents. You either just let go and end up wherever they take you, or you are struggling to walk your own way. And I'm sure everyone else feels the same. I think we dropped down in the middle of a bunch of dynamics that we are upsetting. And everyone will be happier when we are gone. I know I will.

And on that note, seems Prince Rudy is to show up this weekend, yay. And his girlfriend today. So...the small house gets more crammed again. And yes, I mean with stress. Crammed with stress. But as usual, I will spend most of my time working in my room/studio area. I have a lot of work to do. And at the same time, pack. I am really looking forward to packing. I don't think I've looked so much forward to packing in my life. Usually I dread it. But thinking about it now seems less like work, and more like wrapping presents.

You've sent me email, and are wondering if I even got it. Or if I'm being rude by not replying. Let me assure you, I am not. And I did get it. I have many that I've flagged and will attend to when I have the time to be fair to them. I'm laboring under a grindstone sun here. The flashes of light are not raindrops, but diamond dust.

AND OF COURSE, it may be darkest before the dawn. What's ahead of us for three weeks is lots of packing, a realllllly busy work schedule, us both taking care of lil 'nita while we both work, the stress of Prince Rudy's +GF's dramatic existences being in the house, finding a new place, getting moved, and just maintaining my sanity in the midst of all this turbulence. And the house (of six) is going through so much food at the moment that yesterday we had to go to the food bank to get some. So I'm wondering how it's all gonna work with two more mouths are here. Two very hungry mouths. Two mouths that don't chip in for groceries. Or mind what they eat. Last time even kids' lunches were eaten into. Where's the food going to come from this time?

At the moment, Rudy is in jail, and I guess he and his GF crossed somebody down in San Fran, the mother in law says that Someone is a SKINHEAD (so much for Skinhead solidarity?), and I guess he's been threatening them, telling everyone in town that they ripped him off, demanding they pay him back, or whatnot. The story here in the house is that this guy is just nuts, and lying, making all this up because he doesn't like them. Excuse me.

Okay, I'm back. Right, so anyway, they are coming up in a day or two, and just thinking about it I need a very deep breath. And a drink. Well. Welcome to my June of 2007. I say to you, with all sense of history rattling mi cuerpo, that it will be one to remember for a long, long time. No matter how it plays out.

It's been gray all day. The tallest bushes on the block have been trying to summon the lightning since morning. But the air is too thick, and their signals in halftime are only making the soil sweat.