everything on this page is made from the keys on your keyboard. no scanner, no paint program: just slashes, underscores, parentheses and a lot of lunch hours. i draw them in notepad at my desk at work (i proofread law books for a living, so staring at small characters all day is apparently what i do for fun too) and post them to alt.ascii-art when i'm brave.

a new picture goes up every other sunday. the newest is on top.

#14  radiator cat
posted april 6, 1997

         /\_/\
        ( -.- )  z
    .---/     \---.   z
   (___.       .___)~
   _|__|_______|__|_
  | | | | | | | | | |
  | | | | | | | | | |
  | | | | | | | | | |
  |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
  ""               ""  nv

our building turned the heat back on for one more cold week, and the landlady's cat has been asleep on the hallway radiator ever since. she (the cat, not the landlady) does not move for anything. the stripes took four tries.

#13  tea, cold morning
posted march 23, 1997

       (  )   (   )
        )  (   ) (
     .-'''''''''''''-.
    |'-.............-'|__
    |                 |  \
    |                 |  |
     \               /__/
      '-._________.-'
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   '-.________________.-'  nv

the steam is the hard part. too many parentheses and it looks like the cup is on fire.

#12  split rock
posted march 9, 1997

             /_\
            |###|  - - - - -
            |___|
            /   \
            |   |
            | o |
            |   |
            | o |
     _______|___|________
    /  ,   ,   ,    ,    \
   /__,__,___,___,__,__,__\
  ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ nv

the lighthouse on the north shore, from memory, from a trip up there with my sister last october. the real one is yellow brick and sits a lot higher on the cliff. letters can only do so much.

#1 through #11 (the bicycle, the pigeons, the two versions of the stapler and the rest) are going on their own archive page. coming soon.

how i make them: notepad, courier new, and no tabs ever, because a tab is a different width on everybody's screen and it will wreck a picture. i keep them narrow so they survive being e-mailed and posted. if one looks crooked on your screen, try switching your browser to a fixed-width font.

can i use one? sure, in e-mail or in your signature or on your wall. just leave my initials (nv) on it.

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(counter started december 1996)

last updated april 6, 1997
next picture: april 20