41/100
?
*
*
? is the founder of The Anonymous Kindness Society. She formed TAKS after an unknown benefactor paid off her student loans. Not knowing who it was has made her view everyone as a potentially kind-hearted person. This is a feeling she thinks we could use more of. Members of TAKS pledge to perform at least ten acts of kindness a month for which they may take no credit or make their identity known. The kindnesses may be large or small and must come from the heart. Many TAKS members obscure their faces or wear disguises when they do kind things out in the physical world.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
40/100
Jana
*
*
Jana hangs out at her grandma’s once a week. They play gin rummy and scrabble and watch Law and Order reruns. They usually make dinner together. Her grandmother’s kitchen is big and open and dancing regularly breaks out while they chop and stir. During these dance breaks is when her grandma’s flatulence presents itself. And when it does, her grandmother never acknowledges it, she just keeps on dancing. If Jana asks, ‘was that you?!’ she pretends she doesn’t hear the question. This has been going on for years.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
39/100
Henri
*
*
Henri is an actor. And a waiter. ‘And a cliche,’ he jokes when people ask him what he does. When people ask him what he’s been in, he usually says, ‘nothing lately, just been taking classes.’ Every week he goes to casting calls and auditions but mostly there are no bites. Two weeks ago, he quit smoking. Since then he’s had six auditions, and has been called back for the 'anxious and maladjusted serial killer,’ a ‘deranged gunman with a high IQ and a thick or husky build,’ and ‘a twitchy bank robber from a dysfunctional family.’ Things are looking up!
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
38/100
Moira
*
*
For most of her life, Moira has been in active hatred of her own body. She has made up stories about what kind of person she is, having a body like hers. A bad person. A weak person. A disgusting person. An unworthy person. But these last couple of years, she has felt the hatred soften and become more like a simple noticing, ‘oh, look, there’s my thigh, it is roughly the size of an eight week old bulldog puppy.’ ‘Who’s a good boy?’ she asks her thigh. It makes her feel friendly toward herself, imagining being made of puppies.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
37/100
Eve
*
*
Sixteen years ago, Eve badly tweaked her back when her roommate let go of the couch they were carrying up three flights of stairs to their new apartment. She’s had problems with it off and on ever since. She sees her chiropractor Marci once a month as part of her healthy back maintenance program. Every time Marci adjusts her neck, Eve mentally prepares for this to be the time Marci cranks her head too far and fatally snaps her neck. Every time Marci pats her shoulders and says ‘see you next month,’ she is grateful to be alive.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
36/100
Benji
*
*
Every morning, before the rest of his family wakes up, Benji goes out to his backyard and checks for slime trails on the pathway from the house to the garage. He believes that slugs are leaving silvery secret messages during the night. He traces the trails with different colors of chalk until his mom calls him in for breakfast. So far he has not been able to decipher the messages, but he is developing a theory.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
36/100
Nadine
*
*
Yesterday, Nadine got really sunburned at a work picnic. In the evening she took a cool bath and felt sorry for herself, and then mad for not wearing sunscreen or a hat or getting out of the sun sooner. Later, she ate popsicles in her underwear and watched Amélie again, while trying to keep her dog from snuggling against her. She gave up eventually and suffered his warmth added to hers. That night she dreamed her mom was there holding cold compresses to the back of her neck. It was a nice dream.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
34/100
Zofia
*
*
Zofia works at a Polish bakery run by her 94-year-old great aunt, Irena. Zofia keeps urging her aunt to let her run the shop, but she is stubborn, like the Taurus she is. Being in the bakery everyday gives her purpose, she says. While Irena is at mass every morning, Zofia reads astrology books, of which her aunt does not approve. ’That stuff is rubbish!’ she scoffs. Zofia’s latest horoscope said, ‘keep your feet loose and your wheels turning around.’ She does not know what this means, exactly, but she keeps pondering it.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
33/100
Rose
*
*
Rose lives at Mallard Manor Senior Living. Every Thursday at two o’clock, she leads a half-hour of dance and movement in the rec room. Her grandson gave her his old iPod and some speakers and she sets it up on the ping pong table. She ends every session with Let’s Go Crazy by Prince. At the ‘let’s go crazy, let’s go nuts’ part they all do vigorous jazz hands while Rose shouts ’crazier, everybody!’ and at the end they all do air guitar. She’s a minor celebrity ever since her grandson put a video of her leading the class on Youtube.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
32/100
Matt
*
*
Matt is a researcher on a late night comedy talk show. For the last year and a half most of his time has been spent watching and reading presidential campaign coverage. All of it. Everyday. About six months ago, he started having what turned out to be a full-blown existential crisis. His therapist strongly urged him to take a break. He has 47 unused vacation days. He booked a yurt in Northern California near the Oregon border for two months. No internet. No cell service. Total news blackout. He feels much better.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
31/100
Banaj
*
*
Banaj is a child and family social worker. He knows he’s helping, but some days pummel his heart. On those days, he knows he should go running or meet up with friends, but he often stops at the corner market on his way home and buys a pint of whiskey and big bag of onions. He pours himself a drink and starts chopping. When the tears come he puts down the knife and sobs until he feels a little better. He thinks of Mrs. Chang, the social worker who worked with him when he was a kid and wonders how she coped with the hard days.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
30/100
Sigrid
*
*
Watching 60 Minutes with her grandma every Sunday made Sigrid want to be a television reporter. During journalism school, she discovered that anytime a camera was pointed her way, she blushed. Which made her anxious, which made her a wreck on camera. She switched to radio. She has her own podcast on which she broke the story of a group of professors trading grades for sex. As a result they were fired and are now facing charges. The piece got picked up by NPR. She has been practicing her ‘Sigrid Frisk, NPR news.’
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
29/100
Ame
*
*
Ame is a geriatric nurse. Eight months ago she learned that one of her patients, Mr. McGuire, who had no living family, changed his will two weeks before he died, leaving her three million dollars. One of the last conversations they had was about the beach and how he regretted not spending more time with his feet in the sand. She is taking a year off visiting the great shorelines of the world. She scatters a little bit of his ashes at each one.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
28/100
Elaine
*
*
For 32 years, Elaine and her husband Dave ran their locksmith business, All Keyed Up, near Fenway Park in Boston. He handled homes and businesses and she took care of vehicle lockouts and police requests. Her mom did the bookkeeping and answered the phones. Last year, they sold the business to their son and retired to Tucson. Elaine always carries a locksmith kit in her purse. Whenever she walks through a parking lot she checks backseats for kids and dogs. In the last month she has saved two babies, four dogs, and a chicken from hot cars.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
26/100
Garber
*
*
Jenny Garber was one of seven Jennies in her fourth grade class. She’s gone by Garber ever since. Every time she cracked a joke in class, which was often, Mrs. Langley would say, ‘This isn’t a comedy club, Garber.’ Sometimes her jokes would get her sent to detention. She was proud of those. Garber is a comedy writer and performer now. She’s currently working on a sketch about a woman who sends off a saliva sample to a DNA testing company and learns that Donald Trump is her father.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
26/100
Richard
*
*
Richard met his husband David eighteen years ago while riding the bus. When the bus went over a big pothole, David, who was on his way to visit an elderly friend who wasn’t feeling well, spilled a quart of chicken soup down the front of Richard’s shirt. David apologized profusely and then asked Richard out. They went shirt shopping. A year and a half ago David was hit by a car while out for a run. He died at the hospital. Life without David has felt dark and difficult and lonely and muddled. But today, for the first time, Richard felt the light trying to shine through. He’s going to ride the bus and see what happens.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject #thankyoulyndabarry
25/100
Hector
*
*
When Hector was little he was terrified of the dark. His mom worked nights and was not around to comfort him. His dad told him to stop being a crybaby. Hector promised himself when he had kids he’d do better. And he did. When his daughter developed a fear of the dark he told her how he was the same way when he was little. He covered her ceiling with glow in the dark stars and planets. And he showed her how to take deep breaths in and out whenever she felt afraid and to sing ‘I am safe here in my bed, in my house, on my street. If you really stop to think of it, the dark is kind of neat’.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
24/100
Dani
*
*
Dani fronts The Blackhearted, the only Joan Jett tribute band in Wisconsin. She’s also a middle school gym teacher. Her three bandmates are teachers too. They spend their summers touring the Great Lakes county fair circuit. Two summers ago, while playing in Oshkosh, a drunk guy threw a bottle at her when he realized she wasn’t actually Joan Jett. Dan, her bass player and the sixth grade civics teacher, dove off the stage and tackled the drunk guy. As he was in mid-air, she realized she loved him. They’re getting married on September 22nd, Joan Jett’s birthday.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry
23/100
Tammy
*
*
Tammy is a cashier at Price Slasher during the day and a bartender at The Ticklish Pig at night. She also babysits, housesits, and pet sits whenever she can. She’s saving money to buy an old school bus which she’s going to turn into a mobile library and bookstore. She’s been buying used books and collecting donated ones for years. Her grandparents let her store them in their shed. When it’s ready, she and her dog Bowie are going to hit the road for a year brining books to out of the way places all over the country.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons #the100dayproject #thankyoulyndabarry
21/100
Earl
*
*
Earl was born two months early. From the first moment his mom saw him she called him Early Boy. When Earl’s parents retired, he converted the restaurant they had run for forty years into a soup kitchen and cooking school. On the weekends, he and his students run the Early Boy Dumpling Truck. They use his mom’s recipe. Which was her mom’s recipe. And many mothers back. Earl was recently invited to a non-profit innovation summit at The White House. Some days, his mom is so proud of her early boy she feels faint.
#100daysofcartoonheadshots
#madeupbiographies
#pamtoons
#the100dayproject
#thankyoulyndabarry