Fashion

Dressing, for my mother, is a marathon event. It requires training and self-discipline and denial of all else in favor of it. She can be so late to an event that she misses it entirely because she was fine-tuning her outifit.

This seems like a colossal waste of effort to me.

This morning, she was 15 minutes late to work because she couldn't get her outfit perfect so that she could secretize* for a handful of science professors who, other than covering their nakedness, have no idea how to use clothing.

Thank God they got that much.

.....Eughhhh....

This isn't to say that I can fault her for caring about her appearance. I mean, a little moderation would be nice; a little recognition of the fact that nobody really cares 99.54% of the time, but a lot of people don't really put much effort into looking like they WEREN'T just backed over by a dump truck. Of course, this has made its way into my life, as well. I don't know that I've ever been late because of getting dressed, but I don't like going out in public if I haven't shaved, for instance. There have been a few odd mornings lately where tiredness and time worked against me and I went to work without combing my hair (good thing it's really short), and I'd fix it at lunch time. Mostly, I'm just especially self-conscious about my thinning hair. I don't at all relish the prospect of being bald. Most guys who look young do not look good bald. Ron Howard has only recently aged into his baldness, for example.

I do like wearing fashionable clothes, though. Granted, the fashions I tend towards are usually those of a high school kid, not that I wear that stuff that often, but I've always been a t-shirt and jeans guy, so it only stands to reason that advances in that area would pique my interest.

I guess this means that if you ever see me wandering around in a bath robe, the world is probably going to end.

Unless someone buys me this bathrobe, which I would gladly wear even to work.


*Secretize - What one does when they are a secretary

Vague Warnings and Finished Things

I started a new stick of deodorant the other day. Usually, I don't think much of it. I just remove the lid, pull that little plastic plug off the top and swipe it around my underarm area. For some reason, though, I noticed a message pressed into the stick. I've seen them before, but never paid much attention. This time, it caught my eye, saying "Take the risk".

What risk?

Does the deodorant know something about the future that I don't? I'm not entirely comfortable with a hygiene product that knows more about my destiny than I do.

Or is it just saying I need to shoplift a certain war-based board game?

Anyway, turned 29 on Monday. Saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Or, really, Pirates of the Caribbean 2b, since the second one really didn't have much of an end to it. Less so than most movies in the middle of a trilogy. I mean, think about it...

The Empire Strikes Back

• Luke's Jedi training........finished
• Rescuing Han and Leia........finished (not entirely successfully, but still...)
• Han and Leia's admissions of love (well, as much as Han is ready to do to this point)..........finished

All that's left hanging is Han's fate and the trilogy arc with Luke and Vader. Another one...

Back to the Future, Part II

• Sports almanac..........finished
• Fixing the present...............finished

The one thing that was left was what happened to Doc and how Marty was going to get home...which was only introduced at the end as a teaser for Part III.

PotC 2 had none of that, so I couldn't, a year ago, tell you if it was a good movie or not. Entertaining for the 2 hours or so that I watched it, surely. But it wasn't until I saw "3" that I could tell you how the 2nd should be judged.

However, I have to say, it is good.

Highlight for me.......best film wedding. Ever.

100, 3.5, 1/2, 3, 36

100, 3.5
Well, it happened. Aaron's gotten sick for the first time. Apparently, he has an infection in both ears (how does that happen?) which has made him a little ball of unpleasantness. This is not to say that I've stopped enjoying his company. Just that it's a lot more work keeping him calm. He is, most assuredly, not enjoying himself. I'd checked his temperature before I left for work yesterday, but it wasn't until after work that he actually registered a temperature. 100 is a lot for a 3.5 month old. Of course, I worry about the accuracy of our little digital ear thermometer, but since you can't put a thermometer in a baby's mouth, I'm sure he appreciates this to the more traditional alternative.

1/2
Especially with Heroes gone...again, I've been enjoying the Black Donnelly's. However, I enjoyed it a great deal less last night. About 1/2 the enjoyment was had. This can be attributed to the fact that because of exhaustion, and going with Andria's suggestion that we turn off the tv for a bit before the show, I fell asleep about 20 minutes before it came on and missed half the show. In her defense, she actually intended to sleep. I just passed out. I plan on watching the first half online at home, but that's entirely dependent on our DSL NOT sucking, which it did most of yesterday. I get the feeling that CenturyTel was not entirely truthful when they said we could have DSL at our place.

Or they omitted the fact that we couldn't have it CONSISTENTLY.

3
I've been working on a logo for the children's ministry at my brother's church. What they've got me doing is nothing groundbreaking, but I've enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it's taxing the crap out of my laptop. It's newer than the desktop, but it really isn't appreciating the workload I'm putting on it with the file size. The thing is, I KNOW I could be doing it a different way with one of the other programs I use. I just don't know how to use that program very well and I'm not sure how to learn. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, here are the 3 versions we've gone through thus far. Note how they're essentially the same with just slight changes. That's what's annoying. If I knew how to use that other program, it'd be 10 minutes of work. Instead, it's a week (given I have other things going on during that time as well).




36
I am, again, at the limits of my pants. As such, I will now endeavor to lose in the vicinity of 36 pounds over the next...however long it takes to get there. The time is entirely dependent on how much will power I have and how many of those wonderful, available only once a year, Cadbury Cream Eggs I ingest over the next couple weeks. I have to admit, losing that much will put me in a size smaller waist, but I can cinch up my belt. There's not a lot you can do when you've out distanced the waistband, though. Walking around with your pants open is socially frowned upon. I need to lose the weight for reasons beside that including, but not limited to:

1. When Aaron becomes mobile, I need to be able to keep up with him
2. I don't want to be an old, fat guy, and the old is coming whether I like it or not
3. The idea of being filmed from behind for a Dateline special on weight in America doesn't appeal to me.

The thing is, I'm not a diet and exercise guy. I can do a diet if need be, but exercise is something I don't even have time for. Unless you count carrying Aaron about, and it's getting warm enough that he doesn't really appreciate my added body warmth. I'll probably have to up the activity level a bit, but I'm not looking to be doing anything particularly spectacular. Maybe run the "Peach Festival" race in...whenever the Peach Festival is. July, perhaps. But I wouldn't count on it. I'm way more broken than I was last time I ran a race like that, and it wasn't like I was in great condition then. Mostly, I'm just afraid that I'll end up doubling the distance for all the times I have to go back and pick something up that fell off.

The Good, The Bad, and The Broken

By the power of Netflix, I discovered a new love in the spaghetti western. I also discovered, make that rediscovered how easily my back can be injured.

Let's start with the pain so we can end with something good.

I've mentioned, more times than are necessary, how my house is old and not terribly well put together. Of course, I've also mentioned how I'm not terribly well put together, as well. This is more related to the latter. You see, since my house is old, we cool it with window unit A/C. It reminds me of this quote:

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.

Totally true. Also, with central air, you don't have to store, unstore, lug around, and finally place huge chunks of machinery until it gets cool enough that you have to store them again. A major plus. And, as a geography note, to make sense of the how in a second, Andria and I have a "queen" sized bed in a "twin" sized room. Not to mention Aaron's bed, my dresser, her dresser, the nightstand and the dog's bed.

Yeah, yeah, the dog gets lonely in the house at night. Lonely dogs make lots of noise.

Anyway, so I'm carrying the A/C unit from the storage closet into the bedroom and everything is going as well as expected. I've managed not to destroy anything or get any storage room nastiness on our bed as I squeeze past, but the window is closed and I've got no hands left. So I start to set the unit down. I was trying to observe the "lift with the knees" rule, but with as little room as there was, I got tilted forward a little. Suddenly, the weight of the unit was now on my lower back.

It gave.

Fortunately, the unit was only about 6 inches off the ground and NOT over my toes. Still, I needed to see the chiropractor and he was out Monday. I got popped, but my back muscles are still pretty sore.

SUBJECT CHANGE!

Last week, Andria was gone on choir tour, so we set our Netflix to send all 3 of the movies from my list instead of splitting them. I got A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Guys, it is your duty as men to see these films. At least the first and last of them. Sure, A Fistful of Dollars was ripped off from Yojimbo, but Eastwood plays the perfect anti-hero in it. And The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was just plain goodness. Technically, it comes first, being a prequel, but the techniques used filming it shame the other two, so it's better to watch them in the order they were filmed.

I'll probably order some more of Eastwood's westerns in a while, but since the last two didn't come until after Andria was back (poor girl didn't enjoy A Few Dollars More, so I waited to watch TGTBaTU until she was in her night class...it's three hours long!) I'll give her a break first.

I'm almost convinced to try and revive that western comic I had a few pages sketched from...

Grease'd

I've made mention of the fact, in times past, that I don't much care for reality tv. I've rehashed it a couple times and I don't feel like it again. Suffice to say, they aren't, generally, good. My wife, on the other hand, rather enjoys them. Specifically the music related ones, American Idol (though we've only watched a season and a half since we've been together) and Rockstar (which I actually enjoyed) spring to mind. This trend has been carried on with Grease: You're the One That I Want!, which I don't exactly hate, but that's more due to a general erosion of my willingness to fight over these things. I do have my favorite "Danny" and "Sandy"s, but it won't break my heart to see them go. Actually, I think it'd be funny if the show that they're casting for tanked. That would bring a great deal of joy to my blackened heart.

The thing that bothers me most about Grease... is that the songs stick in my head. I mean, it was bad enough when we'd watch the Travolta/Newton-John version, but now they get refreshed every week. It's akin to lighting yourself on fire and, when the flames begin to die down, you have a friend pour some more gasoline on you.

A perpetual Richard Pryor, if you will.

You'd get that reference if you were older.

Kids...feh.

Appendage

I think my appendix is the only thing working properly anymore. Went to the optometrist on Friday (having my eyes dilated was an interesting experience) and got a prescription for glasses to use while on the computer (stupid eyestrain). I can't sleep at night because my neck is out of whack, which isn't that painful, but it causes my shoulder to hurt in the way things should only hurt when they're being ripped off. My knees seem to be failing me. I've done nothing to them, but going downstairs requires having a hand on the rail because if I stumble, they aren't strong enough to catch me anymore. Also, standing is less than pleasant. And, to top it off, my stomach seems to have missed that minor detail concerning where it ends and my esophagus begins, since it apparently believes that its acid is just fine so long as it hasn't gone over the edge into my trachea. Of course, a little spillage is bound to happen when it's up that high.

As you can see, the only thing that hasn't failed me yet is my appendix, and it doesn't even do anything (except eventually blow up and try to kill you).

So, if you happen to have a spare body lying around, preferably unused, I'd really appreciate it if you could send it to me for Christmas. This one's pretty much ready to be traded in.

*Twitch*

My right eye lid has been twitching off and on for three days now.

This displeases me greatly.

Something I Realized While Pulling Up My Crappy Socks For the 50th Time Today...

Wow. My feet reek today.

Like, corpse-in-a-pile-of-dead-fish-left-in-the-sun-over-a-three-
day-weekend stink.

Super and Not-So-Superman

My back is killing me. I'd tell you how I hurt it, but I'm not even sure what happened, just that one moment I was fine, the next...immense pain. As such, I can't even really get comfortable enough to sit and type long, so this'll probably be a short post.

Or I'll just be in a very bad mood when I'm done.

Saw Superman on Saturday. Dude. Very cool. I'd say stuff about my few problems with it, but it was good enough that I don't want to risk ruining it for anyone. It was good enough to make up for how horrible X-Men 3 was. I forgive Singer for abandoning the X-Men to make this film. I've seen that people have had great things to say about Spacey as Luthor (and they were right), but they've also been less than kind to Routh's Superman and Bosworth's Lois Lane, but I was comfortable with them. Routh did a good job for somebody I'd never heard of. He did a good job portraying Superman's humanity as well as that sense of alienation that the character needed for other elements of the story to play out. I think that, by the end, Superman found his place in the universe. Which turned out to be cooler than I expected. Singer showed some heart with this one. Next, Pirates of the Carribean!

Also, my mother-in-law has gone home leaving my wife and I with Andria's niece. We're having a good time and all, but if she continues getting up and crashing on the couch as I'm getting prepped for work, we're going to have to have a little talk. I can't tiptoe around and get my morning routine done (not to mention that I'd worked in some time for a couple races in Midnight Club that didn't happen because I blew so much time trying not to wake her up).
She's got a bed. Why can't she sleep in it?!?!?

Oh, and we went to 2 different 4th of July fireworks displays yesterday. Actually, we only saw the one, but we showed up where the first was going to be, decided it was destined to be crap, and left. The one we stayed for wasn't much better. It was raining quite a bit and apparently that affected how much they were able to shoot off. In the 45 minutes or so from the time it was supposed to start to when we left, they shot off about 5 rounds of fireworks separated by long periods of waiting in the rain. Bleh. Oddly enough, the town across the river (who the storm had to pass to get to us) shot off their stuff just fine. We weren't sitting where we could see it, but we could hear it all. I wonder what they did differently...

Aging

So, I tured 28 on Sunday. Yes, I'm aware it's now Thursday. You'll take the notification when I give it to you, and you'll like it!

Anyway, I realized that when I was younger creativity was easier for me. It was easier to write songs and poems and stories and things than it is now, and that's bothersome. I did, however, manage to figure out what the two main sources for my creativity were, though. First was my sense of wonder. I can find something to be amazed about at all times. It's also easier for me to sit back and enjoy something than it is for other people. There's almost always something to take interest in, even if it's not what is supposed to be the focus. Second, however, was my youthful irritation at where I was in life. I was angry and dissatisfied and I felt like everything sucked.

This causes a problem for me. Outside of my dwindling creativity, things are good. I'm married to a woman I love more than anything. She's pregnant with our first child. I like my job. I'm not completely and utterly broke (close enough, but still...). There's just not a lot to make me angry/sad/depressed enough to be creative anymore.

That really sucks. ;)

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.

VL gone XL

So today, Tuesday, November 29th, Vapor Lock is a bit larger than usual. There's your payoff for not having one on Thanksgiving Day. I know, in reality, that it doesn't look like that much more to YOU, but my aching drawing hand (the one I broke that only KINDA healed) says it is. I'm having fun with this story, to tell the truth, and I think I may actually finish it before the year is out. I lamented to Andria that it wasn't going to happen, but since today's strip is a condensed version of a couple strips I had planned, I may be back on track.

If you look at the strip today, actually, you should notice that this is the first time in a long time a strip has been this large. In the early days, I wasted a lot of space so that the panels could kind of drop down the page, creating a kind of logical flow. Plus, I did all the drawings for the panels separately. Since I'm doing them all on the same sheet, characters on the background and all, it's more work (I mean, I may have to scrap the old apartment set I used for Cal and Trav's place since I can't use it like this). Honestly, I think it's good for me to do things like this now. Hurts a lot more, but at least I'm drawing a lot of things I didn't before.

Hooray for extra effort.

Empire of Fools

Since my last post about Andria's music professor went over so well...I have another one with her involved. Last night we went to a Halloween concert that professor puts on every year. Usually, she'll do a mixture of typical Halloween music and dark themes from movies and the like, and she did so last night. The high points, for me, were the medley from Lord of the Rings and the songs she did from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. To tell the truth, since I was only able to see Sith in the theaters once (curse you poverty!!!), I wasn't entirely sure that she was playing the Sith songs until the last one (the Imperial March), but it rocked nonetheless. Of course, in spite of a request from the main music guy at the U of O (also a Star Wars fan), there were still several idiots who talked through the whole thing, both to their friends and on their cell phones.

I hate cell phones.

Actually, I hate phones in general, but I think I've mentioned that before.

Anyway, while I was there, I was also doing the inking for today's comic, so any rough spots you see in the drawing of the comic are due in no small part to the fact that it was REALLY dark in there, I'm night blind, and arthritis is apparently going to be a problem with my drawing hand (which I broke this summer...yay!). Of course, some should be expected anyway, since I have a horribly unsteady hand without all that. Crushed my dreams of being on the bomb squad at an early age....so sad...

Raw Meat

So...today (Tuesday the 18th)'s Vapor Lock probably looks a bit odd. That's because it's not inked or colored. My wife needed the computer all last night (bad timing) so instead of inking I went out shopping during her Women's Ensemble practice (singing thing) and bought some healthier foods (turns out my cholesterol is 206, which is a bit on the high side...came as a complete shock to me...shouldn't have...most of what I eat is crap...no, not feces...junk food) so as to bring my cholesterol level back to a liveable number. Anyway, I COULD have finished it all, even after that, if she didn't have a large paper to write, but she did, so I didn't. We have a second computer, one that's supposed to keep this from happening, but it apparently decided it didn't want to work and if we didn't like it we could stuff it.

Also, if it comes up, which it should, I included some Demon Hunter Zendariel sketches of my own. I figured, I had some extra time after finishing the pencils, so I'd try to make it up to you for an unfinished strip with some extra doodling. Hope El Chuck doesn't mind me taking a shot at it.

Spasmastic!

Just want to apologize for the quality of this strip. It's better than some I've done, but I feel like I phoned this one in. My hand's been having spasms lately (should've figured after I commented to my wife about how I was finally feeling back to normal) and it affected a lot of what I was capable of doing.

Well, without hurting too much, anyway.

That thing I did for Tuesday that I couldn't post...

Usually, when I can't post, it's because Keenspace/Comic Genesis/Herb is down and I can't FTP things. The other day, it was because my ISP went screwy for a bit. Seems they lost my password. Dunno how that happens, but it did. Anyway, this is a character sketch of the main guy from a story idea I had called, as it says on his shirt, Necessary Evil. I liked the concept, but I've been too busy to flesh it out much. I've been holding onto it for a while now, actually...

Anyway, I updated his look from my earlier sketches. Tried to make him dress a bit more like the kids these days (heh heh...I love using phrases like that...I'm so old...*sob*), but that's mostly because I don't remember exactly how I drew him before and I don't remember where I put the original drawings. It still needs work, but, then, so does the story.

I Have Nothing to Say to You

There's something that's been nagging at me. It's there at the back of my brain where I can't quite get to it. It seems like there's something I wanted to say but I can't remember it.

I guess it was nothing. Oh well.

Would You Like a Kidney, Too?!?

Ugh. It's unpleasant, I tell you.

A week...or...*ahem*...two ago, my wife instigated a cleaning of our bedroom, a task which we hadn't undertaken since we got married. That meant that her crap and my crap were sitting in piles on top of the dressers and everything else in what had become a rather cramped sleeping space.

Well, to her credit, she did an amazing job getting everything out of the room on her own and putting her stuff back in an orderly fashion. My stuff was a bit more difficult. I mean, the majority of my stuff is comprised of 6 boxes of comics. That's 5 small ones and one long box roughly the size of three of the others. The mandate was I needed to separate out what I wasn't going to keep, you know, cut the fat.

You have to understand the relationship I have with comics. I've loved them since I first got my hands on one. I was intrigued by them before I ever actually owned one. Once I had some, I needed more. My first major comic purchase was a grab bag set from the JC Penny or Sears catalog. I read through all 25 comics in about two hours. Some weren't so great. In that set, though, I was simultaneously introduced to Storm and Gambit (X-Men) in a lackluster issue that also happened to be Gambit's introduction. It's varied in price between $15 and $50 since then, and, at least as far as I'm aware, is the one that's potentially most valuable. Especially of the ones I'd consider parting with. I have a couple others that would be more difficult to part with because of who drew them. My idols take priority over monetary value (unless it meant...not being able to eat or something, I guess).

So I took yesterday and, fighting everything in me, managed to pick at least half of them out for removal. HALF! It wasn't easy. I had to part with a few issues I wanted to keep for one reason or other in favor of others that were just drawn better. That included some issues with covers by the aforementioned idols with content between the covers by someone else. There's a particular Uncanny X-Men issue with a cover drawn by Madureira that falls somewhere in the lead-up to the Onslaught super-crossover that I ended up getting rid of that I purchased in the first place based on merit of the cover alone. There are some others that I bought because I thought they'd be worth something and now I don't care if they actually are enough to hold on to them.

By the way, if you're interested I've got some comics that might actually be worth having in my cast-off pile. Send me a list of things you could be looking for and we'll talk (the bulk of this is from 1996-2000).

Anyway, parting with these comics was kind of like seeing an old friend move away, never to return. The only difference being, I'm going to try and sell my old friend on Ebay and make some of that green back (did you know I had a $40 a week comic habit at one point? I'd KILL for that kind of disposable income now!)