Mike Kloran Illustration

I've started working on images of various countries around the world to add to a gallery of people and countries. And I'd like to feature YOU and YOUR countries on My English Images. 

To get in on the fun, just leave a comment below or mail me directly and I'll illustrate your country for use on My English Images. 

It's one of the most time consuming aspects of making those kinds of materials. Primarily because of testing. What's testing? Testing is what I call running something through the whole process from start to finish to see how well it works.

In this case I made a plus symbol for a page in a text book I'm working on and dropped it into the page. Then shrunk it down to the appropriate size and placement and printed it out. 

Looked terrible.

So back to the drawign board I went, again and again. Don't worry I didn't kill any trees doing this. In order to save time, money and paper and ink I simple printed up a number of variations on a sheet to see what they looked like and picked out the best one. 

Does all that hard work pay off? I sure hope so. In a month or so I hope to be able to post some great images of what those pages look like, so stay tuned for that!  

The other day I got this nice jpeg certificait from Nike about my run. If I hadn't been working that day I would have been glad to have run even more. Great fun and a great way to raise money all over Japan.

Thanks to everyone who ran and let's look for more great chances like this. 

It's easy to lose the deeper philosophy of a guy like Bruce Lee in the highly intense, kick you in the face, way we usually see him. But who was he really? 

In what little time I have to do things for myself I'm working on five eBooks and shopping a vocabulary book around to publishers. Then there are my three blogs, and my main website and Holy JEESE I need a vacation right!? 

No way. I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. I don't feel I have enough time because there will never be enough time to do EVERYTHING. So I make the most of what time I have. Always pushing forward, making, drawing, creating!

I LOVE IT!!!!  

What I loved about Destro was how we all just accepted him. He's this bad ass African arms dealer with a metal face. At least that's what I thought. Turns out he's actually some sort of a Scottish lord and had a castle with a monster under it that his family kept locked up for centuries. And the metal face is actually a mask he wore because one of his ancestors was wrongfully accused of witchcraft by the authorities at the time and his decendants have all sworn to destroy the justice system.

WHAT?  Seriously. I saw this on an episode recently. It's some seriously wacked out stuff. It's what I would call "The Marvel School of Story Telling." Which means go for the most "out there" story elements you can come up with and use them and don't worry weather or not your audience is actually engaging in or buying your story. 

Anyway, check out the episode below so you can see it for yourself.

This weekend a friend of mine is going to a small business tradeshow being held in Tokyo at the Tokyo Big Site. The show will have representatives from a number of cram schools and other businesses. I just found out about this yesterday though, so when asked, I quickly made up this simple introductory flyer regarding my educational illustrations. 

Nike is sponsoring a pretty interesting effort this year on the first anniversary of the March 11th Tohoku earthquake/tsunami. 

So rather than "Pray for Japan," why not do something for Japan instead? 

This Sunday, March 11th, strap on your running shoes and hit the road. For every kilometer you run Niké will donate ¥500 to "Architecture for Humanity," Architecture for Humanity  working to rebuild here in Japan. Not only that, but for every like you get on Facebook connected with your run, Facebook will donate one yen. One yen, really isn't a lot of money, about a penny, but the enormous potential to collect "likes" means the enormous potential to raise funds is in your hands. 

Doing something for Japan might be harder than doing nothing, but it's the right thing to do.

So join me this Sunday in running for Japan!  

Find out more here!

I really want to give a huge shout out of thanks to everyone for all the love and support in trying to run the 2012 Tokyo Marathon this year. This was a huge challeng for me and my legs are screaming at me to never do this again, though I'm already thinking ahead to the next race. 

The race started off really well and was a lot of fun for the first 20km or so. I've regularly run 20K+ in the lead up to the race, or at least I had been until the weather turned really cold. At that point I just couldnt' run. My legs DO NOT work in the cold. 

This became a real problem for me on Sunday when, after about 20K, my legs locked up and I had to walk a bit. The more I walked the colder I got and the harder it became to run or even walk. I managed to finish the race but it was absolute torture for most of the time. 

My time for the first 20K was about two hours. But nearly twice that for the second half. The disheartening thing was that I wasn't tired or winded at all. My upper body felt great, but my legs just wouldn't move. Well, my upper body wasn't entirely alright, my hands swelled up and were painful and hard to open and close and my back was sore.  

This is a famous guy in Japan, though I've seen him on TV a number of times, I'm still not really sure what he's famous for except that he does some sort of comedy. 

My number and my medal for finishing. I think everyone gets a medal, but when I got mine I was thrilled because I actually finished. 

At the finish line. 

What really amazed me was how many people there were. 35,000 runners, plus I don't know how many volunteers running the show, plus the tons of family, friends and onlookers who came out to watch the race.

This was without a doubt the biggest sporting event I'd ever been to and was really lucky to have been able to have taken part in it. What a great experience. I'm REALLY grateful to everyone at the race and to all my friends who sent messages of support.

And especially to Etsuko for coming out to the race and following me all along the way. That was the best part of the day. 

Right now, and for a limited time, this aweseome worksheet on articles is waiting for you and your students. Get it before it's gone!