I'm currently learning to build some really fun websites and blogs using Wordpress. I tried once before and ended up frustrated that I could not get the code to do what I wanted. Today, with CSS, I am able to much more than before so I'm trying it again.

On top of the Wordpress code I am using a great theme called Thesis. I have enjoyed learning everything this combo can do and they can do bunches!

My first website is taking shape. It may not look exactly as it does now but it should stay pretty close. I'm combining my love of web design, amateur photography and entrepreneurialism to create my latest venture.

I am uploading many of my funnest and best photos, along with a collection of vernacular photographs, and will be offering low resolution images for free use on non-commercial websites and blogs. High resolution images will be available for print with just the click of a button.

Check out the site and give me some feedback! As I stated above, it is currently a work in progress... Life's A Photograph (www.lifesaphotograph.com).

Labels: entrepreneur, Internet, make money, niche, Photo

Yikes! Life keeps getting in the way of my blogging! I guess that means I'm out living it rather than sitting here reporting on it which is a good thing.

Of course my goal for 2010 will be to post more often. I hate to miss out on what the girls have been up to and all of those fun memories from the 70's that keep popping up in my mind.

Here's an old photo we ran across of me, my sister and my great-grandmother Ethel Valentine Erwin. The photo was taken by my crazy uncle Richard who, at the time, was going through a photography phase in his life.

The second photo is an up-to-date photo of me and my two little crumb crunchers. More wacky antics on the way! Stay tooned!

Labels: Curtis Tucker, Daughters, Photo

The year was 1993 and I was portraying Michael Jackson at a Halloween party. During the festivities each guest at the party was asked to lie in the casket for a photo. Was this me foretelling the eventual death of Michael Jackson in 2009?

How could I know in 1993 that he was going to die 16 years later? If this photo had been released sooner could Michael have been saved? There are many questions left to be answered. Why did I choose to be MJ that Halloween? Why was there a coffin at the party? Why did I get into the coffin as Michael Jackson? Why am I wearing a single white glove?

We may never know the answers to these questions so the mystery remains. Did a young cartoonist in central Oklahoma know something that the rest of the world did not? How could I know that Michael would eventually die while others were completely oblivious?

Now I don't claim to be psychic but the facts do speak for themselves. I understand how shocking this photo may be to many MJ fans. Please believe me when I say this is not a TMZ photo of Michael Jackson today. It is a photo of me in 1993. I know it is hard to tell but as you can see my skin is darker which is proof that I was imitating an earlier version of Michael.

This could also explain my obsession with zombie movies. Did Thriller effect me so deeply that I am now addicted to the zombie genre? Am I destined to become a zombie? I once saw Vincent Price in Stillwater while I was attending school at OSU. I'll leave you with the words he told us live during his talk...

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighborhood

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller...

Disclaimer: This post is meant to be a light hearted look at the media frenzy over the death of Michael Jackson. This photo is not meant to be morbid or disrespectful to the loss of Michael Jackson. In fact this is my tribute to MJ. He was a bit twisted but a great performer. RIP Michael Jackson.

Labels: 90's, funny moment, Halloween, Photo

News 9 did a story on the filming of "The Killer Inside Me", tonight on their 6 o'clock newscast. I was asked if they could use a few of my photos for the story.

This video was shot off of the TV and is a little stretched..

Labels: Curtis Tucker, Enid, Fun Events, funny moment, Photo, Sneakers

Labels: Daughters, Photo

Labels: Daughters, Fun Events, Photo, Road Trips, Sisters

It's been almost exactly a year since the Hot Wife and I ran off to Las Vegas. That trip was for nothing more than site seeing, eating, shopping and hanging out. If you have not been to Vegas or it has been a long time you might find some fun photos in this bunch.

Vegas has come a long way since the old Elvis days but if you look hard enough you can still find many of the old strip reminders. Being a kid of the seventies I really wish I could have seen an Elvis show in Las Vegas.

While there, our morning exercise was to walk from the Venetian, almost in the middle of the strip, to either end of the strip. In two days of morning walking we pretty much walked from one end of the strip to the other. Many of these photos are what you would see walking along the strip and many things in between.

Las Vegas 2008 Photo Album
(Just click on a photo to move to the next)

Labels: Fun Events, Hot Wife, Photo, Road Trips

Remember back in the day when you wanted a photo? We're talking back when I was a kid, in the 70's. We'd either pull out our slim, black 110 camera or if we were lucky we'd pull out the bulky Polaroid Instant Camera.

Taking pictures has come a long way baby. As kids we could get instant Polaroids with the funky colors and funny border around them like the New Years 2009 photo above or we would have to send our 110 or 35mm film off to be developed. A week or two later it would return and we would gleefully rip open our envelope to see our dozen grand photos.

If you were like my friends and I, you would find a stack full of blurry photos mixed in with a few shots of your friends with their heads cut off. At that age it didn't matter much, that the color was bad, the composition was horrible and you just shelled out eight bucks for twelve bad pictures.

Fast forward to 2009 and my how things have changed. Polaroid camera you say? 110 film you ask? Those days are long gone. Today we have micro cameras that take pictures big enough for posters and they're digital! That means you get to take as many pictures as you want and you can delete the bad shots. Wow! What a deal.

No more film, no more waiting, no more photo albums... what!! No more photo albums? That's right. With the ease of today's photography many people are accumulating thousands of digital pictures without ever taking the time to get them developed and stuck into photo albums. We've all got a zillion pictures but we can't ever look at them. Wrong! Read on...

I'm guilty of not getting digital photos developed and now have a good thousand pictures taking up space on my computer. Today there are great sites like Flickr and Facebook that allow us to post our photos online. This is a great way to share photos with people a world away.

I've also recently discovered a great software called Jalbum. This software builds your albums for you and helps you upload them to their site or your own site. It's great!

I recently uploaded the photos from our 2008 Disney World trip. They are now online for the family and the world to see. Take a look and see what we were doing exactly one year ago today. Just click on the main photo and it will transition to the next. Enjoy!

The Tucker 2008 Disney World Trip

Labels: Daughters, Family, Fun Events, Hot Wife, Memories, Parenting, Photo, Road Trips

It's my sister's 47th birthday and she is now officially older than me. You see we've both been 46 years old for the last 23 days. My sister and I were both born in 1962 and we are not twins. Huh?

My sister was born in January and I came along later that year in December. Growing up, many people thought we were twins. We even looked a bit alike at a very young age (see photo below).

Luckily we outgrew the look alike thing and I ended up with the good looking gene while she ended up with the mediocre gene. Sad but true.

My sister and I grew up in the 70's when there really wasn't anything to do. No video games, no iPod, no cable and no VCR. My only hope to find adventure was to terrorize my sister.

My favorite terror plot was taking the talk thingy out of here phone. In those days we had to hold a receiver that was connected to the phone by a cord. You could unscrew the receiver and remover the sound making device. My sister would run into her room and answer her phone only to hear the person on the other end repeatedly say, "Hello? Hello?" I would normally be under her bed laughing my butt off.

Listening under the bed with an old cassette tape recorder was another fun activity. My best friend and I would sneak under the bed and listen to all of her boring phone conversations. We would usually hear something like this, "Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You've got to be kidding me? Are you kidding me?"

Eventually we would get bored and spring out from under the bed, leaving my sister screaming for mom at the top of her lungs. We had many more good times pulling pranks on my sister which I will detail later. I just want to end this post by saying happy birthday sis and beware, there might be Saran Wrap stretched over the toilet seat next time you sit down!

Labels: 70's, Family, funny moment, Memories, Photo, Sisters

The live trees come from Wisconsin and make perfect Christmas trees. We strap the tree on top of the SUV and take it home. The girls can hardly wait to decorate the tree and ask ten thousand times when we can drag the decorations out of the attic.

Tonight we get to drag the totes out of the attic and will decorate the tree while watching Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Happy Holidays!

Labels: Christmas, Daughters, Memories, Photo

When the associate editor of Midwest CEO Magazine went looking for the latest professional to feature in his December issue, he went straight to the Internet. Dayne Logan was looking for a cartoonist to feature in the magazines Goatlocker section.

Each month a person is selected and their unusual or unique working environment is focused on in the magazine section. Logan ended up on MY blog and found several photos I posted showing my fun cartoon studio. I was contacted by email and agreed to a short phone interview about Curtoons and an in-studio photo shoot.

Midwest CEO Magazine is a regional magazine and can be found in most large book stores. From Denver to St. Louis, Kansas City to Oklahoma City, businesses in the Midwest all face a similar set of challenges and can learn from each others solutions. These solutions, tips and articles are what you will find in each issue of Midwest CEO. Visit their site.

Read the short article here.

Labels: Curtis Tucker, entrepreneur, Photo, Press

I am very proud of my two daughters. They both put in time and effort walking on their own to qualify for the Kids Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa. The run was only 1.2 miles but the kids felt like true runners.

Both girls completed the race well ahead of many others and received medals for their effort. It's never to early to get your kids physically active. Our girls loved walking and want to continue. Get your kids outdoors and keep them active!

Labels: Daughters, Fun Events, Photo, Sisters

Hot Wife and I attended our first murder mystery dinner with the tennis crew and a few other close couples. The event was a celebration of a couple of birthdays.

We each received an invitation with our names and a description of our characters. The setting of the party was a country club awards dinner loosly based on Caddy Shack. We had to attend the dinner in character. I was picked as the dainty Lee Wong, an unlucky gambler that swings both ways, if you know what I mean. Have you picked me out of the crowd?

The evening began with a stretch limo ride around town where we all got our first clues and introduced ourselves. After a few drinks we made a pit stop to see one of the tennis crew couples that was unable to attend. From there it was back to the dinner and more clues.

We all enjoyed a great time and made our guesses as to who the killer was. The killer turned out to be Mow, the assistant grounds keeper. If you get a chance to attend a murder mystery I would suggest you do it.

Thanks to Sugar Rush in Enid for doing a great job.

Labels: Dining, Fun Events, funny moment, Photo

Labels: Daughters, Fun Events, funny moment, Halloween, Hot Wife, Memories, Photo, Sisters

Every now and then I get a Flash of Genius. One Flash of Genius came when I needed to create a homemade Halloween costume several years back. I had no idea what I wanted to make but somehow started piecing together one very unique costume.

I don't even remember how I started the design but I had a crazy idea that I could create a coffin and somehow cut a hole in the bottom in which I could slip my body. I figured I could make it look like I was in a coffin and use my legs to move the coffin around. It didn't take long to figure out that I could create another body on the outside that looked like it was carrying the coffin.

I made everything on this costume from things I had around the house. The coffin was made out of cardboard and the legs in the green sweats were even made out of rolled up cardboard. I even made every finger of the monster hands carrying the coffin out of rolled paper which I made look bloody.

I would slide under the box through the hole and into the coffin. My head at the top of the box is what would actually keep the costume on. My hands were free to move around which really added to the effect.

I actually wore this costume to some Halloween contests and won a few prizes. From time to time I'll pull some idea out of the air and it turns out to be a Flash of Genius. Now, if I could only figure out how to repeat that at least once a week. That would be a real Flash of Genius.

Labels: Halloween, hobbies, Memories, Photo

Labels: Curtis Tucker, Photo

Labels: 70's, Curtis Tucker, Photo, Sneakers

I've often wondered if I'm an entrepreneur. As a kid growing up I never really thought about it because I had no idea what an entrepreneur really was. When I look back on the things my best buddy and I did I see that we had a hint of entrepreneurism all the while.

We both happened to be interested in magic and began doing magic shows in my garage in the sixth grade. We would charge a quarter a person and one time might have actually had five or six kids at one show. We eventually ventured into doing birthday parties and added a fun guitar/singing puppet show to the act. I did the puppets and he played guitar and sang. We did shows for our church (picture above) and other interested places.

We also had Kool-Aid stands, raked leaves, pulled weeds, cleaned garages and many of the other kidpreneur type businesses. We even put together a haunted garage every Halloween with a fun maze inside. We didn't charge money for that but it was quite an operation to put together.

As we got older we formed a garage band and became very famous for only playing in the garage. Again, it was not a money making venture but did teach us about buying equipment, organizing schedules and working together.

It was around this time, which was high school, that I began to doodle cartoons. When I went off to college I was doodling enough that I began to do small cartoon and logo projects. I also designed and had my first line of greeting cards printed, which I sold mainly to friends and relatives.

Once I started freelancing I never stopped. Even with full time jobs out of college I always looked for freelance projects on the side. Because of the portfolio and knowledge I was able to gain I eventually turned my freelancing into self-employment.

Self-employment freed me from working 8 to 5 but if I wasn't working money wasn't being created. That's when I turned to the Internet looking to become an entrepreneur.

As of today I am all three. I am self-employed as a freelance cartoonist. I earn half of my income from cartooning, web design, graphic design and a few other side things. I earn the other half as an entrepreneur. I have created a group of web sites that generate money whether I am in my studio or on vacation. I have also created a small greeting card company that sells itself online.

My goal is to eventually drop the freelancing all together because of deadlines, collecting money headaches and dealing with complicated clients. I will then be a 100% entrepreneur running multiple money making web sites and a growing greeting card business that will one day have a large number of employees.

Labels: Curtis Tucker, entrepreneur, make money, Memories, Photo

Labels: Daughters, funny moment, Photo, Sisters

I hope the mixture of my posts on blogging, making money online, working from home and being a dad will be a good enough mix to keep everyone coming back for more tips, ideas and stories.

I guess I had better describe my daughters as I see them today. Both girls attend a Montessori school and have never had to stay at a daycare. I've watched them practically every day of their lives. I take them to school, have lunch with them most days and pick them up from school. They are very active and currently are involved in dance, gymnastics, piano and tennis.

My oldest daughter is now six. She is very bright and can read practically anything that is placed in front of her. She's kind, quiet, shy and a bit reserved. She loves bread and butter but hates ice cream. She doesn't so much like to be hugged or kissed but she's becomes very sad when we are away. She learns quickly and remembers everything. She rarely get into trouble and knows that doing certain things will get her in trouble. She does not push the envelope.

My youngest daughter is four going on twenty four. She is happy, lovable, outgoing and very rambunctious. She's smart but is not so much interested in learning. She loves to play, make up things and collects everything. She wants everything now and becomes very clingy to a new item until a replacement comes along. She loves to hug and kiss but has no problem waving good-bye to us when we leave. She loves sweets and is picky about everything else. She pushes the envelope on everything and gets into trouble daily.

Today was a great example of one of my four-year-olds memorable quotes. We were driving home from picking up Hostess Cup Cakes for breakfast, (her favorite at the moment) and we began talking about the clouds and the rain we had just experienced. Without ever having heard her use this word before, my four-year-old says, "I'm assuming the water that comes from clouds is pee." I chuckled like I always do and thanked the Lord again for giving me such wacky girls.

They bring a smile to my face every morning and I greet them with a big hello and a morning hug. They are by far the coolest things I have ever created.

Labels: Daughters, funny moment, Parenting, Photo