Thursday, May 25, 2006

The Falling Axe and The Drowned Rat

Those of you who follow such things may've noticed the absence of two of the comics I'd linked previously on my sidebar. One, No Room For Magic, was in danger last time I mentioned this and has since run out my patience.

So, *poof*.

The other, Hopscotch, was moving so painfully slow BEFORE Levi decided to put it on indefinite hiatus that I decided, "Screw it" and dropped it, too.

If you know of a comic that you think I'd like, based on what I have on the sidebar, go ahead and leave the address in my comments. I'll check it out and, should it fit my tastes, I'll give it a link. Don't feel slighted if I don't link it, though. I'm rather particular about what I link, moreso at some times than others, mind, but still...

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Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Not Quite The Man...

When I wake up in the morning, I usually watch the Today Show. I'm not really sure WHY, but that's become my habit. This morning and last, they showed exerpts from an interview with Prince Charles and his two legitimate off-spring.

What?

Anyway, as I ironed my pants I noticed a few things. First of all, Big Willie and C-Note did all the talking, so apparently the Queen threatened to beat Harry within an inch...I mean a decimeter (they use the metric system there) of his life if he opened his Nazi boot-licking mouth, or they cut the part of the interview where he tried to "cleanse" the reporter who'd played Motel in a high school production of Fiddler. Second, I began to wonder if maybe Charlie-boy doesn't cry himself to sleep listening to Tom Petty's "It's Good to Be King" as Camilla P.B. (or as the royal family calls her "that ugly hussy we 'traded' Diana for", except William and Harry who call her "the family dog") mocks him because "mommy" won't ever let him have the crown.

All that got me thinking...is there any group of people more useless than the British Royal Family? I mean, they have Parlaiment there. They've got a Prime Minister. They have a government that is almost completely divorced from the "royals" (kinda reminds me of the "supers" in The Incredibles...). So what's the point? Who could be more useless?

Then I walked outside and saw Rednecks.

Well, there ya go...

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Thursday, May 18, 2006

It's the X-Men!

Yeah, that's Gambit and Nightcrawler in today's update. I would say it's in anticipation of the new movie, which I do have a great desire to see, but actually, I've just been trying to get things flowing again. The last few weeks have been kinda hectic around my house (my wife's involved in a LOT of stuff which all had events in the last month of the semester) so I kinda fell out of my groove. So, I started by drawing some superheroes already in existence to kinda get the feel back. In the next couple weeks (or at least next week...I don't know how long this'll go) I'll be posting my sketches. So far, they've all been Marvel characters. In fact, with the exception of one, they've all be X-Men characters, too. Anyway, after I get a good feeling back, I'll be jumping back into drawing the new comic, which means I'll probably disappear for a while, again. Hopefully, I'll be able to start posting the comic very soon. Thanks for bearing with me...

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Monday, May 15, 2006

Going "there"

I have never been the cool kid.

Actually, I take that back. There was that time when I was the coolest kid in my mother's womb, but it's gone downhill since then.

It should be noted that I was not a twin.

I went to my 10 year high school reunion this past weekend. It was against my better judgement, but my better judgement has always had it in for me, so I listened to my wife instead. I was surprised how many of them remembered me, considering how hard I tried not to be memorable. In classes, I was always the one not in the back, more off to the side, not paying attention. I spent my time drawing and so social interaction was pretty low on my list of priorities. This was mostly because what I had in common with the more popular kids was precious little beyond the number of homologous pairs in our chromosomes. Well, that and most of the more popular members of my class, oddly enough, also happened to be in the same "gifted" classes that I managed to get into.

Don't be fooled. It was all a sham.

Anyway, the flip side of that surprise was how few of them knew O'Neal, Zaene from the now-dead forum. This has a lot to do with the fact that his once-full-head-of-hair went through extensive deforestation while he spent time in Northern Japan.

It was odd who was there and who wasn't. Within the week leading to the reunion, I ran into a handful of people who were far more "in" than I'd ever toyed at being, none of whom were in attendance. Contrast that with my appearance, in spite of my lack of desire to spend time with these people I'd been just as happy to forget, and you end up with an odd population at the gathering. While there, I spent the majority of the time in the company of two fellows (and my wife, who was forced to attend because I wasn't going alone...especially since it was her idea) that I didn't hang out with much during high school. One goes to the U of O, where I work, now. He's a decent fellow and we probably would've been better friends back in high school if I'd been more social. Or not. Who knows? The other had been a closer friend during grade school, but as these things go, we grew apart.

By the by, he's now a doctor and he says his workplace resembles in no fashion the environment put forth in such hospital dramas as ER and House. He did list some disturbing similarities between actual doctory (probably not a word) and Scrubs, however.

Also there was a friend of mine who I see infrequently around town on odd Sundays. Oddly, he spent most of his time with the jock crowd (the cliques were alive and well after these many years), which he was not a part of, so we actually spoke less than I'd intended. After I overcame a bit of trepidation (he is but one of several friends who, while on the list, never received an invitation to my wedding...something I regret and have since danced around because I don't know how to broach the subject) we spoke for a bit. It made me wonder how, exactly, we stay close to the people we stay close to and, in a sense, lose the people we lose. In my case, it would seem that, besides proximity, my continued relationship with O'Neal versus my distant-at-best relationship with Graves is due, largely, to the fact that O'Neal would wake me up at 5am when he had downtime in Japan and Graves was never in the military. Not that I was, but the isolation from "home" made O'Neal a bit nostalgic, I imagine.

It's worthy of note that I am an awful friend. I never learned to keep in touch with people. Only the most stubborn people will stay close to me, almost solely due to their own efforts.

On the whole, the experience was educational. One the one hand, few people had experienced a full-scale degradation, though some had noticeably less hair or some such. On the other hand, superficial changes, as with hair and weight, were also the extent of the maturation of many since those days long gone. Too many seemed to have peaked at 17. I almost preferred the regard I held some in beforehand to the way I view them now. Before, I had some lingering vestiges of angst due to some long-forgotten slight. Now, all I feel, in all too many cases, is pity.

This from a guy who makes (made...whatever) comics with pee jokes in them.

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Friday, May 12, 2006

Who Broke the Chuck?

Seriously? I mean, here it is, 3:16pm on Friday and we don't even have the sketches he promised on Wednesday! I say we string 'im up! Who's with me?

Also, The Office season finale was really good. A little more soap opera-ish and a little less funny, but still good tv.

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Friday, May 05, 2006

Admissions

First of all, Happy Cinco de Mayo. This is a stupid, stupid holiday, as far as I'm concerned, but people celebrate it and so those of you who do, enjoy.

...Perhaps I should elaborate on WHY I think it's stupid. I'll start by reminding you, I have more Mexican heritage than anything else, so it's not like its a racial thing. No, in fact, until this morning, I thought it was an interesting day. However, that was based on bad information. Though I have a lot of Mexican blood, my family (on that side) is very Americanized, so I know very little about it. What I found out is that Cinco de Mayo is NOT the equivalent of the 4th of July...it's a celebration of the Mexicans defeating the French in the Battle of Puebla.

Beating the French is not worthy of a holiday. That's like awarding money to someone for beating a two year old in a cage match.

Second...I love The Office. Yes, I know it's not like I'm the first to say so. The thing is, at first, I wasn't interested at all. It didn't look that great and it's an adaptation of a British comedy. How many of THOSE have been good? What's that? Almost none? Indeed. In fact, I missed the entire first season (all 6 episodes), and the first episode I saw of the second season was the Halloween episode. At that point, I decided I didn't like it because the only actor in the show I was familiar with (Steve Carell) played an obnoxious boss who tried to be cool but came off as just pathetic. The little shot at the end of the episode of him home alone as the kids came over trick-or-treating was just entirely too sad.

And not in the "I feel for you" way.

In the "Wow. Loser" way.

Anyway, since it comes on right after "My Name is Earl" and right before "ER" (I feel obligated to watch ER because...I always have...it's there and I feel compelled to come back to it. Actually, since its not focusing so much on the ER as it is the Darfur stuff, I'm rather enjoying the show lately) , I kinda caught it a time or two after it by accident.

Then it hit me. This show is genius. I just needed some exposure for the characters to grow on me. Dwight's line from the drug test episode "It has to be official and it has to be urine"...dude. Dwight has to be the best villain on tv because he's evil the way so many real people are evil. He's so wrapped up in himself that he's...dude. And...I hate to admit it, but I'm totally wrapped up in the near-romance between Jim and Pam. I blame comic books for hooking me on serial things, and my wife for making me understand romance, so once I began to care about these people (because the show is well-written enough that you care about the characters) and every time it takes a turn for the worse, I find myself thinking "Aw...poor Jim." Plus, the episode last night where they listed off a few of the pranks he'd pulled on Dwight...I'll tell you what, just the thought of them...I had to exercise a great deal of restraint not to try one of them out today. Not really the kind of environment where that'd work, here. Anyway, the problem with the Jim/Pam thing is that I want to feel bad for Pam's fiance. I mean, he must care for her. It's just obvious that Jim does so much more. At least, while she's unavailable.

In other news, I'm such a girl.

Anyway, after seeing a few more episodes, I've decided that, yes, Michael is a loser. However, he's also so pathetic it's funny. I really like that show. That, of course, means that by some freak event, it won't be back next season, even if it IS supposed to.

Third, it would appear that my links have claimed another victim. Reasoned Cognition is on hiatus until the 15th. Or so he says. I'm not saying he's lying. I'm just saying that my links are very powerful. In a negative way.

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