Sketch Dump: The Asia Notebook 3: Asia Girls 3

It gets worse.  The one of the left is uninspired.  The one on the right is a screwed up 3/4 view.

I can draw profile shots, but the near-profile pictures are hard.

This page is just a mess.  I like the coloring on the hair on the one on the left.

I like the weird hair coloring on the left.  On the right, I can see where I was on a downward slope and the drawings were getting worse and I couldn't figure out how to fix it.  Asia's anime-style isn't how I draw, so I'm doing things out of proportion unintentionally trying to draw like her.

A little better, but not very confident-looking.

Sketch Dump: The Asia Notebook 2: Asia Girls 2

This one was ambitious.  The figure proportions are at least close, but not quite.  The cats are disappointing.

 

Classy (except for the hands, which aren't real good on most of these).  

Little wonder she looks so unhappy; she's badly drawn.  The figure is okay, but the colors are lousy and the face looks like an afterthought.  I don't know how that happened.

Sort of okay.

The fox needs more work.  He got jammed into the corner there.  The kitsune fox girl is too angry-looking for my tastes.  I probably started doing the pencil sketches in frustration after the unsatisfying ink and color ones.  They look nice.  I keep inking and coloring because I think it helps my penciling. 

Sketch Dump: The Asia Notebook 1: Asia Girls 1

 

I bought three artbooks last year: Ilya and Pernille and this one of Asia Ladowska.  This one was an easy buy at the time.  It's bright and colorful well-done manga-style art.  However, while the style was clean and straightforward, I had a terrible time sketching a lot of these drawings.  After going through the first two artbooks, I thought that I'd do better.    

It started right with the first page of my brand new sketchbook at the time.  It's just a complete goof.  Asia is also really good at 3/4 views on faces.  I'm miserable at them.  

I felt like I redeemed myself a bit on the next drawing on the left.  I did a decent 3/4 view on the one on the right.

She's a bit thin, but I like this one.  She's way more punk in the original.

This is nice.  Interesting hair coloring.  

Then the wheels came off a bit.  The figure is okay, but I muffed the face.  It might have happened in the inking.

Sketch Dump: The PO Notebook 20: Final Post Grab Bag

We've hit bottom on this notebook.  Maybe, or maybe not, in terms of quality, but this is the last post for this sketchbook.  (Don't worry.  There's a whole another sketchbook of crummy sketches ready to go.)  I wasn't sure how to categorize these, so they all got lumped together.  

The one on the left is a anime-ish drawing I found on the Internet.  That's the DC character, Dolphin, on the right.  I prefer the classic hot babe look for Dolphin, but the new fish-girl version was a little more interesting to draw.

   

Here's two poor attempts at drawing Projekt Melody.  I really like Mel, but these turned out terribly disappointing.  Maybe I'll try again someday.

Starting at the top left, that's Gamora, Oracle, an unidentified girl from the Legion of Superheroes, Tara from the Herculoids, and another character from Future Quest.

Supergirl on the left and Jade from Future Quest on the right.

And Viper (top left) and more of Supergirl finish this series off.  This sketchbook had some ups and downs in it, but it felt like a good learning experience.  I really unexpectedly enjoyed working from the Pernille Orum artbook.  I recommend it.  

Sketch Dump: The PO Notebook 19: Supergirl

I reviewed Supergirl: Being Super and wasn't kind to it, but I did like the artwork by Joelle Jones.  These aren't the greatest sketches, but they're pretty good for me.  (No, she's not in costume in this comic.)

More Supergirl on the left.  I think that's Rose from the Legion of Superheroes in the top right.  I don't know who the other sketch is of.

Starfire, obviously, on the left (unless your only exposure to the character is the Titans live action TV show).  Supergirl on the right.

Supergirl on the left.  The tiefling is Tisha from Jon Rogers' D&D comics.  I really loved those.  They might not be epic fantasy, but they are fun fantasy.  Unfortunately, those comics were produced during the 4e era and the wonderful characters all disappeared with advent of 5e.  (And they were replaced with Minsc and Boo, another reason why I hate them.)  

Sketch Dump: The PO Notebook 18: Rose and Sabrina

These first three pages are sketches from a comic called Rose.  I bought the comic at a convention and it was signed by the author.     

The four sketches on the left are from Rose.  The two on the right are from something else.  The one at the top might be a co-worker.  Shortly after this page, I started labeling my sketches.

  

I like the Rose sketch on the right.  The simple sketch of the model on the left helped.  It's not that great, but doing a decent figure drawing sketch gave me some confidence.    

That's a Pernille Orum sketch on the lower right.  The other sketches are of Sabrina from this trade paperback.  I really liked the artwork in it.

I did a terrible job on drawing Salem the cat.  Adding him was a last minute afterthought and it shows.

Sketch Dump: The PO Notebook 17: Raven, Roxy, Rainmaker

The sketch on the right is the only worthwhile one here.  She's Raven's mother from the Teen Titans.  Here's the comic where it's from.  On the left is Rainmaker from Gen 13.    

That's Raven from George Perez's first Teen Titans trade paperback, which I reviewed here.  The other color picture is from Grimm Fairy Tales, reviewed here.  The other two are from the manga Marionette Generation.  

  

A couple of more Teen Titans sketches.  On the left, is a character from the newer issue above.  The other is Raven from the classic trade paperback. 

It's Roxy from Gen 13 and her and Rainmaker below.  Obviously, these were all from the same  issue featuring the girls in swimsuits.  I do like this Roxy one here.

NM State Aggies vs Gonzaga Bulldogs Soccer 9-19-21

I usually don’t have such mixed feelings about going to an Aggie game.  I really wish I hadn’t gone, but I feel really bad about saying this.  There was stuff on TV I would have rather have watched, regardless of the outcome of this game.  I certainly didn’t want to spend my Sunday night writing a recap.  However, I can’t shake the feeling that my days of going out to see Aggie sports are very limited.  Since there wasn’t a good reason not to go, I felt compelled to do so.

 

Ron had bowed out of going to anymore soccer games when I had talked to him earlier in the week.  He’s doing better after his back surgery, but doesn’t feel like he can sit on bleachers without backing for a couple of hours.  This also lets him out of going to any football games.  I have a neighbor, who just got cleared to play on the team.  I’d like to go out to a game to support him, though I may have to go by myself. 

 

On that matter, to digress a bit, the Aggie Football team did win on Saturday night.  They beat South Carolina State 43-35.  SCS is a lower level FCS team.  The score wasn’t that close just after the half with the Aggies up 43-13, but obviously there was a bit of a defensive breakdown.  The Aggies were using their third-string walk-on quarterback, Dino Maldonado, for the game, but he came through pretty well.  Last week, after an injury to the starter, he’d kept the team in the game in a loss to the UNM Lobos.  The team has already been blown out by the UTEP Miners, so the season has been a disaster with these two rivalry losses.  (20,000 people did come out for that game though.) 

 

I have to mention the weirdness of the TV coverage of the Saturday game.  No local blackout here.  I was also listening to the radio call, because I was flipping around between a couple of other things on the TV.  I’d flip back to the game when the Aggies were making good plays.  But if flipped over late, there was no replay.  This was worse than actually being at the game, where they’d at least show plays again on the big video board.  I was talking to a friend on the phone at the time.  I told him the lopsided score at halftime, and he said, “Are they playing (local high school) Mayfield?”  I kept watching during halftime, but there were no highlights shown.  Even after the game, there were no highlights.  Perhaps there was an explanation for this before the game, but I didn’t see it.

 

Back to today, my first indication I’d made the wrong decision to go was at the ticket booth.  The exhibition game I’d went to last month (8-12-21) was free admission.  The Volleyball game I’d went to earlier this month (9-3-21), had a $7 ticket.  I thought it was because it was a tournament game.  No, the soccer ticket price had gone up from $5 to $7 too.  It’s still a cheap ticket, but it’s harder to justify going given I’m not much of a soccer fan and it’s usually uncomfortable being out in the stands.  I’d already written off Women’s Basketball, but now especially since they’ve probably raised their prices too and their games were already $6.  (And every fast food place I go to has raised prices and is asking for a tip, even when I’m just doing carryout.)  Forget the Aggie Country Pass and any other season tickets given that the season can be totally cancelled at any time.

 

Also, I think the girl selling the ticket was that girl I’d met selling tickets for Softball a couple of years ago (5-29-18) that I’d tried to ask out.  It was hard to tell, since she was wearing a mask, one of the few people doing so, I guess because she was in the ticket office.  (I wouldn’t have thought to go if that had been a requirement for everyone, certainly not in 90 degree heat.)  I can’t believe she hasn’t graduated by now and is still working for the university.

 

I don’t think Concessions raised their prices.  I still avoided them.  There was a water barrel at the courtesy table, but no cups.  So much for that.  The weather was very warm and sunny with a light breeze.  This is less pleasant than you’d think while sitting exposed for a game.  I was under an umbrella for basically the whole time.  By the field, there was a merch pavilion.  I was really tempted by their “Guns Up” shirts with someone like Rosie the Riveter on them.  I’ve seen the design before, but they’ve enhanced the image.  It looks very sharp.  Disregarding whatever the price was, I don’t need any more shirts.  This design has also always seemed too girly for a guy to wear. 

 

The crowd turned out to be pretty good.  It was mostly students and parents of players, though.  A lot of people were under the trees on north end of the field for shade.  There were three pavilions set up in the parking lot for tailgaters.  Once again, there were no ball kids to run down out-of-bounds balls.  This must be a policy thing.  During player introductions, I found I didn’t recognize many of the Aggie starters.  A few came in later in the game.  On the field, the teams didn’t look mismatched in size or height. 

 

Then I looked at the program and saw Gonzaga’s record, 8-1.  Several of those wins were also lopsided.  They’re pretty good, just like their Men’s Basketball team.  For the Aggies, they started off their season with four straight wins (including the exhibition game), which was a program record.  Since then, they’ve been run over by Texas, beat Incarnate Word, lost a heartbreaker in OT to UTEP, and lost 1-0 to UNLV.  That was all part of a six-game road trip.  It probably took a toll. They returned home to play under the lights against UNM, but were crushed 3-1.  It was 3-0 until a late goal.  There was a decent crowd and, for the first time, they sold beer in the stands.  They didn’t do that today and probably won’t for the conference schedule.

 

First Half

I know that voice.  As soon as the game started, the number one Aggie fan started yelling.  Tom was back.  I thought I saw him at the volleyball game, but this time for sure.  I’d been a bit worried about him all this time.  And that didn’t take long in the game, as the Zags rushed the Aggie box and scored in the first minute.  It was pretty much a point blank shot in front of the net.  I was caught unprepared and didn’t get the scoring player’s name.  The PA sort of muttered something, also in shock.  (It was Erin Healy.)  1-0 Zags.          

 

I’m going to go with “Zags” for the rest of the post.  They are the Bulldogs officially, but the parents were calling their team, “Zags.”  41’ left in the half, we have our next indignity, as Shea O’Connor went for a header.  A Zag player behind her got it first and headed it into the back of Shea’s head.  She was fine.  40’ Makenna Gottschalk in goal for the Aggies made her first stop with a block.  Unfortunately, I’ll be naming her a lot here in this post.  Unlike the last post though, I’ll be spelling her name correctly here.  Sorry.  I don’t know where I got that other spelling.

 

A couple of football team-looking types came in.  One of them was wearing a Prince Purple Rain t-shirt.  Style points there, man.  Tom was still going with his cheering non-stop.  37’ Makenna made a diving one-handed stop.  I don’t know if the ball was for sure going into the net or going wide, but the move looked cool.  35’ Makenna caught one in the gut.  I could hear Coach Baarts screaming across the field.  He was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, a baseball hat, and sunglasses.  Seemed like Casual Day at work, but he wasn’t wearing flip-flops at least.

 

32’ the Aggies got a throw in on the Zag side of the field.  A Zag player stopped an Aggie shot with a header.  Impressive.  30’ the Zags counterattack.  There was a great downfield pass to a player right in front of the Aggie goal, but the shot was chipped high over the net.  29’ Shea was brutally pushed into the ground.  This got a reaction from the crowd, but not so much from Shea.  28’ Makenna made another flying block.  The crowd then got on a line judge on a call.  26’ Makenna scooped up another shot.

 

25’ hydration break . . . for the players.  I had a water bottle in my truck, where it did me no good.  Meanwhile, Tom explained himself to another fan.  “I don’t hear very well!  I can’t hear how loud I am!”  24’ Hannah Draper made a great pass to Corey Kizer at the Zags’ net.  Goalie Lyza Bosselmann made a great save on the shot.  23’ on the other end, Makenna made a stop with her knees.  20’ Makenna punched away a corner kick. 

 

There was another vocal Aggie fan sitting beside me.  Him and Tom started working together cheering and stomping on the stands.  I noticed one of the Aggie players on field, Bella Garcia, was wearing a big cast on her arm.  This is one of the few sports were you could get away with playing in that condition.  The thing was like a club.  I kept kind of hoping somebody would start something with her, so she could finish it. 

 

What have I said about back passes to the goalie before?  15’ the Zags made a couple of them in a row.  Lucky for them, the Aggies weren’t able to capitalize on the sloppy play.  It was contagious.  14’ Makenna had to corral a loose pass and briefly faced a one-on-one with a Zag player.  This led to a Zag corner.  10’ a Zag player made an impressive no-look kick in front of the Aggie net.  Makenna stayed with it to stop it.

 

9’ Zag Maddie Kemp fired one from the top of the key (wait, that’s basketball) and put it in the top shelf.  Nothing much anybody could have done about that, except maybe guarding her better.  2-0 Zags.  5’ Katie Martinez bulldozed a Zag player.  Tom loved it.  Him and a Zag mom seemed to be competing in cheering.  1’ yellow card for a Zag player, Payton Stiles, took out Grace Olson at midfield.  With under a minute left, Makenna made yet another save on a long shot.

 

Halftime

The game reset on the scoreboard was a bit brutal.  2-0 goals Zags, 7-1 shots on goal Zags, and 8-1 corners Zags.  (I don’t know why they bother with that last stat on the board.)  No need for a bathroom break for me; I’m dehydrated.  A couple of songs played on the PA.  The last one was a really weird disco song.  Some of the Zag girls were dancing to it.  (No accounting for taste.)  A cool breeze came through before play restarted.  It was heavenly.

 

Tom walked by on his way out and said, “Hi,” to me.  When he came back to the stands, he stopped and showed me his Aggie Baseball hat.  He handed it to me and said, “You’re the best fan I’ve seen out here taking all those notes during the games.”  (Obviously, he hasn’t read my blog.)  He’d also caught me while I actually wondering if I was going to come back for any more games.  So, I felt bad.  I couldn’t take it anyway, since I noticed it was a nice, new hat, but he insisted and said he’d gotten several from Aggie Baseball.  When I looked at it more closely later, I realized it was an actual team hat.  Yikes!  A little later, I suddenly worried that Tom was sitting in the sun without a hat.  No problem, he had his usual floppy hat on when I went to thank him after the game.     

 

Second Half

I don’t do this for praise, so I was properly embarrassed when play resumed.  A couple of butterflies crossed the field to start.  I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately.  I don’t know why I’m suddenly noticing them.  41’ Mya Hammock spilled a Zag Kate Doyle while defending the Aggie net.  The Zag trainer and then the Aggie trainer had to come out for her.  Makenna went over and gave the girl her water bottle during the care.  Eventually, she was helped off field and had to be driven off on a cart.

 

40’ back to play, Makenna made a dive stop, but Haley Archuleta made a follow up attack in front of the net.  She got past a defender and rolled one past Makenna.  3-0 Zags.  Makenna had to make another dive block right after in the same minute.  34’ Lece Aviles made a hard tackle at midfield that sent an attacker to the turf.  That turned the ball over for a free kick.  Tom yelled out, “That’s right out of drama school!”  (Okay, that one was good.)

 

32’ Makenna had to come out on the wing to defend by herself.  That was risky.  31’ the Aggies put up a ferocious defense in front of their net as the ball passed around the box.  Thankfully, there was a whiff on a kick in the middle of the attack.  Tom shouted, “How’d they get the ball?”  By this point, the Zag parents had kind of figured Tom out and were just amused by his comments.  29’ Corey took a good shot on the Zag goal.  Lyza has to make a great save on it.  24’ Lyza seemed okay after that, but their coach took her out for a backup, Lauren Towne.  After the hydration break, Makenna came out for Mia Montano.  There seemed to be an acknowledgment that the game was functionally over.

 

If I thought the disco was weird earlier, the break music sounded like a kid’s show tune.  I don’t know what it was from, but the chorus was, “Into the thick of it.”  The guy next to me was enjoying it.  He started yelling along with Tom again.  He caught himself and said to his wife, “He’s been a bad influence on me.”  21’ there were mass Aggie subs.  This led to Erin Healy firing one from outside the box just under the crossbar for her second goal.  4-0 Zags. 

 

19’ Katie took long shot on goal that was caught.  18’ the Zags made mass subs.  Mia caught a long shot after that.  Tom then gave the girls a discourse on soccer.  “Get the ball!  We can’t do anything without the ball!  Step 1, get the ball!  Step 2, kick it into the goal!”  (I am not making this up.  That is verbatim.)  12’ Mia fell on one for a save.  8’ Shea made a good shot outside the Zag box forcing the goalie to make a save. 

 

5’ after going back and forth for several minutes as clouds passed in front of the sun, I finally put my umbrella away.  By this point, nobody was grateful for the shade.  I’ve been watching the game clock since 20’ waiting for this to end.  3’ the Aggies made a concerted attack.  The Zags countered, but Lece broke it up by herself at midfield.  Under a minute, the Zag goalie had to make one more save.

4-0 Zags was our final.  9-2 Zags shots on goal and 10-1 Zags on corners.  This was a thorough beating.  I’ll take Makenna Gottschalk for my Aggie player of the game.  She was certainly the busiest.  Erin Healy, for Zags, with her two goals gets the other gameball.  Afterward, the players of both teams mingled on field.  (For this volleyball this season, the teams just wave at each other across the net.)  Brooke Schultz on the Aggies seemed to know some of the Zags and hugged a couple.                            

 

I’ve gone the whole post without saying something I usually do.  I haven’t mentioned any pretty girls at the game.  On the field and in the stands, there wasn’t much to look at.  I’m saying everybody or anybody was hideous, just nothing to get excited about.  The Ticket Girl was very attractive, but not in a mask.  There was one hot girl with the team in some capacity that came out on the field near the stands to deliver balls before the game.  She was wearing a tight black tank top with little black tight shorts.  Unfortunately, that was all I saw of her.  Perhaps the lack of eye candy was my real dissatisfaction with this event.

 

Afterwards, I went to Dominos, of course not for their overpriced, pedestrian pizza.  I’d been wanted one of their Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwiches for a while, but hadn’t been able to make it happen.  I called Ron while I was waiting for it to come out of the oven and told him he didn’t miss anything.

 

At home, I devoured the tasty meal too quickly to really appreciate it.  I watched some of the NHRA drag race that I would have watched all of if I’d stayed home.  It was a really interesting-looking event (including a near fight between a couple of drivers), just to make me feel worse.  I only saw some of the postrace for Indycar, which was also on.  They were at Laguna Seca, one of my favorite tracks.  If I’d remembered that I wouldn’t have gone.  Because of Tom, I feel almost obligated to go to Soccer at least one more time.  I’d also kind of like to see a night game there, since they’ve got the lights up now.  This isn’t the end of my soccer posts, but I can see it from here. 

 

Sketch Dump: The PO Notebook 16: Spider-Woman

I did some Spider-Woman drawings based mostly on a comic I reviewed earlier.  I didn't like the comic, but the artwork was pretty good.  I liked these sketches at the time, but they're mostly terrible now.  I really do love the costume design of the character.     

This was based on a Frank Cho drawing from his Avengers run.

Magazine Review: Captain America--The First 80 Years

This is technically a magazine because it was on the newsstand, but at over 190 thick, slick pages with a stiff cover and selling for $20, you could have put this in the trade paperback section.  The last time I bought a $20 magazine (5-7-21), it was an art magazine that I highly questioned the price of.  This time I felt better about the purchase and didn’t mind the price.  I actually asked my dad for this for my birthday.  This was only to keep him from buying me something useless.  He disregarded my suggestion and bought me a kid’s artbook for the same price.  Sigh. 

Upper left: Cap in drag.  I'm sure that was one of his proudest moments.  Bucky looks equally embarrassing.

Lower left: Cap smoking?

It’s an odd anniversary tribute.  This isn’t promoting the MCU Captain America.  He’s mentioned, along with the 1940’s version from the Republic serial, but this only focuses on the comic book version.  It isn’t like they killed him off or replaced him definitively in the comics to trigger this commemorative edition.  The publisher, Titan, has produced other Marvel books and magazines, which are mostly MCU productions, but nothing else like this.  In other words, I don’t know why they made this. 

Upper left: I owned that issue.  Elsewhere, Cap declines running for president.  Reagan thanks him later.

Upper left: Cap and Falcon confront Kissenger.  Upper right: I think this was the back cover to the treasury-sized Captain America.  I owned that one.

Regardless, it’s really nice.  Maybe it’s a test to see if a specific character comic book tribute would sell before they make a full line of them.  That’d be nice.  It seemed like the Barnes & Noble where I’d bought this had sold some copies when I went back later.  Seeing this on the magazine rack was a bit of a shock.  Am I really seeing this cool thing here?  This is like a comic book fanboy mirage.  I’d only ever had a couple of Captain America comics when I was collecting.  Strangely, two of them are pictured inside this, including the giant 1976 Bicentennial treasury edition. 

Upper left: Cap smoking again?  Across the top: Some great Jim Steranko artwork

The presentation is bright and colorful.  The artwork of the series takes center stage.  There are insets of full pages, full page splash pages, and even double page spread blowups of pages.  The inset pages were barely readable, occasionally not.  I had my readers on for those.  Text notes hit all the highlights of the Captain’s career.  There are sidebars about the various writers and artists.  This is a hardcore historical about the character.

Upper right: Cap quits.

So in concept, I’m thrilled with this purchase.  My review of the actual contents is more mixed in enthusiasm.  I wanted to love this so much, but it wouldn’t let me.  It’s not even the presentation of Captain America’s history that’s the problem half as much as, it’s his history itself.  Cap is an actual man (albeit a fictional character), Steve Rogers, and nobody is going to be able to live up to being a living symbol.  Unfortunately his story is too often, Steve becoming disillusioned with America and quitting the role.  He’ll continue fighting in some other guise and then be forced to retake the mantle.  Honestly, the character seems to have a lot of self-loathing for the part he’s playing. 

    

There’s little sugar-coating that this character is highly political.  He’s very patriotic in the hands of Jack Kirby, but asks some hard questions about the country.  In other hands, he’s punching out Nixon, who was running a secret plot to discredit him as Captain America.  There’s some stuff in the middle, but that leads to stories where Cap is getting turned into a werewolf.  The commentary doesn’t help, as it’s highly slanted towards Captain America rebelling against America (at least when a republican is president). 

In any case, I did learn a lot about the character from reading this.  I didn’t even know about Captain America’s 1950’s career as the “Commie Smasher.”  This forgotten chapter was later explained as a borderline psychopath, who took over the role for the government during that time.  (Of course, both Captain Americas end up fighting each other.)  This also highlights the dichotomy between Steve Rogers and him being something of a government-sponsored superhero.  Steve tries to be independent of the authorities, but the government views Captain America as an exclusive asset.  This leads to the title and costume passing into other hands on occasion. 

Pages from Civil War.  I never read this, but this part is powerful.

Is Steve Rogers Captain America?   Is Captain America Steve Rogers?  Are these relationships exclusive?  You’d think, since it always reverts back to that in the comics (maybe not in the MCU), but it would actually seem to be undecided.  There’s always a tension between the man and the role.       

Bucky dies impressively on these two pages.

This is getting too psychological and political, especially for a superhero comic book.  The unfolding story of Captain America’s career in this magazine is a great read.  Sometimes exciting, sometimes disappointing, sometimes just weird.  Steve’s personal relationships with his various girlfriends are explored.  There’s a whole lot about his superhero partners, Bucky and Falcon, and others, like Rick Jones.  (Boy, has that kid gotten passed around the Marvel Universe.) 

Hail, Hydra

There are villains, too.  The Red Skull gets most of the attention.  Hydra shows up a couple of times.  Then there’s the infamous “Hail Hydra” scene near the end of the magazine, where Cap is suddenly revealed to have been an agent of theirs the whole time.  His fights against the Red Skull where only an internecine battle for control of the organization.  Thankfully, the book doesn’t end on that note and does have an decent explanation for how it happened.  Batroc the Leaper gets a short shrift in this and he’s a seminal Cap villain.  He was even sort of in an MCU movie.  Baron Zemo only gets a passing mention.  Cap is actually part of the guy's villain origin story.

I’d love to do a section by section recap of this whole thing, but it’s big and too detailed for that.  I’m only posting a small sample of the pictures I tagged for scanning.  There were too many.  Buy it and read it yourself for all the details.  I guess this means I’m recommending it, but with some reservations.  You may be disappointed at times, but you won’t be bored reading this.