Update...

This--->

(The whole container) along with an entire package of Club Crackers,* is what Norm had for dinner last night. He swears that not only is this the best ice cream ever, but that he invented it years ago. He's been mixing birthday cake and frosting into his ice cream for ages. I, for one, believe him.

So anyway...

The festivities for the independents day were cancelled in Stilly, so we're going to go to Tulsey town. Where Jen's parents live, they are up on this big hill, and can see more than a few displays. So we'll just sit there, maybe grill out, maybe give Jack a sparkler.

That's all I got.

-JP

*I was hoping to see him actually scoop some ice cream onto the crackers, or even spread some on with a knofe, but I was denied. He just took a few bites of ice cream, then ate a few crackers.

Cooking with Norm

Welp, First off, I'd like to apologise for the lack of art lately. I don't have a scanner at work, and since I am staying at the in-laws during the week, I have no scanner there either.

I do have a picture of my kid for ya:

That is the look all of you make while reading my blog. Why on Earth do you bother? That haircut, BTW, is the standard "Okie Burr" given to him by his grandfather. Not my idea. Not Jen's either, but he started right up the middle, and at that point, he had to finish it, lest Jackson has Harkonnen blood that I am unaware of.

Living with the in-laws (especially Norm, Jen's step-dad) is proving ... Interesting. This is the only time where somebody's eating habits, unrelated to cleanliness, has gotten on my nerves so much. I have no idea where this man learned to eat, but it wasn't anywhere I've ever heard of.

Let's go through some of my favorites:

note: For a lot of these, you will need an Insanely Large Bowl (ILB). I just measured the one Norm usually uses, and it is about 2 Quarts. For reference, because I know most of you don't know what the fuck a quart is (because you are either foreign and use the metric system, or American and dumb), the pitchers that we all used to make kool-aid in as kids, that's about 2 quarts. It's a BIG bowl.

1)Tomato-cracker "soup"

You will need: Two cans tomato soup, an entire box of Club crackers, a fist full of shredded longhorn sharp cheddar cheese, and an unhealthy amount of salt.

-dump both cans soup into pot to cook. Do NOT add water.

-When bubbling, transfer soup to ILB.

-Crush every single club cracker from the box (3 rows)and add to ILB.

-Add cheese and salt (because the salt from the soup and off the crackers just isn't enough), stir.

-Place in microwave, cook for 2 min, then leave it in there for a while so the crackers soak up the soup.

What you should get is a paste of sorts that is yellow, orange and red. You can eat it right out of the bowl with a spoon, or on heavily buttered toast. Around here, bread is unheard of, so the best option is usually the former. Be sure to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

2)Pizza Monstrosity

You will need: 1 DiGiorno supreme pizza, a massive tomato*, a fist full of shredded longhorn sharp cheddar cheese, and an ungodly amount of French's Yellow Mustard.

-Remove pizza from box.

-Cut tomato into "shapes" of no discernible rhyme or reason.

-Add tomato and cheese to top of pizza in no kind of pattern you ever heard of.

-Cook as normal, insuring that the new cheese is burnt, and the frozen cheese stays that way.

-When done, cut like a normal pizza, remove two pieces and lat on plate ass to end.

-Add mustard in copious amounts to top of pizza.

-Add a dash of salt.

-Exclaim: "This is the best god-damn pizza you ever gonna eat!" to all within earshot.

3)Breakfast "meal" (to be eaten at night)

You will need: Honey Nut Cheerio's, Grape Nuts, 1-3 bananas, sugar, two kinds of milk.

-Fill ILB with all ingredients listed above in as large of portions as you can muster.

-Place ILB in fridge.

-Go outside, smoke a cigarette, watch the first part of the O'Rielly Factor, wander around for a bit.

-Remove ILB from fridge.

What you should have is a brownish-white... thing. The sugar should have dissolved the banana, and the Cheerio's and Grape Nuts should have soaked up a good portion of the milk, though the mixture should remain very liquid. So much so, that it is difficult to carry without spilling, and as you walk yo the living room with it, you should leave little spills in your wake. When you notice these upon your return to the kitchen, mumble a string of curses under your breath.

And the self-explanatory ones:

4) ILB full o' shrimp

5) Cheese n' Pickles

6) An entire 12oz bag o' beef jerky

These are just a few, and not even the most interesting. He insists on putting mustard on most things he eats, and nothing crunchy usually works it's way in. It makes me not want to eat anything.

-JP

Well, I started my new job today. I think it went really well. I like all the guys I'll be working with, and I had a fun lunch with a few of them. I get into he meat of the job tomorrow because a snafu of sorts over the weekend meant that the guy showing me the ropes was off today.
I think I'll have a good time, and it seems like this is the first job I've had that I can still see myself in ten years down the line.

In other news:
We had a great week end where we celebrated father's day and a few June birthdays all at once. Better to get them all out of the way.
We sold the crappy ass '88 Volvo that had no air conditioning to a woman to give to her teenage daughter, for $500. They did not get a deal. That is exactly what the car is worth.
We did a small bit of shopping, including the bridesmaid dress that Jen will be wearing next week in Robin's wedding. Lucky thing the Wedding is soon, or Jen wouldn't be able to fit in the dress.

I think that's it.

-JP

Grub.

So there it is. Jen is 11 weeks on, and the baby is due Jan 3.
We are both very excited.

Not much else to say. I start my new job next week. Robin is getting married the next, and Hopefully our house will sell soon, so I don't have to commute.

waiting.

-Jason.

Transmogrification

First off, if anybody out there wants to be a rock star, watch this video over and over again to get some pointers.






The White Stripes and The Raconteurs are bands that I really like despite their massive popularity. See diagram. For once a band is popular because they deserve it, and not because the Clear Channel and MTV programmers were bribed into over playing them and insisting that you should love them and you should go to the concert that we happen to be sponsoring and here is some free swag that you don't need and visit us for a free hot dog at some shitty car lot that we also have an in with where you can hear that same song played from the back of a van...


IN OTHER NEWS:

The following has mostly broken out, so I feel safe in telling you all straight out. I seem to love to totally disrupt my life and the lives of my loved ones about every two years or so. First off, I just got a new job. It is as a Graphic Designer for the Tulsa World Newspaper. I am very excited.
This means that I will be packing up my family and moving back to Tulsa. So I'm going to have to commute or stay safe places until we sell our house and find a new on to either buy or rent in Tulsey Town. I also need to start packing. I have a lot of stuff. I will miss certain aspects of Stilly and I will miss most of the people I've met, and I will for damn sure miss the coffee shop. Stilly has been a good experience overall, and has been great for Jackson. I'm sad to pull him out of his school and daycare because they both do a bang-up job. But I have come to realize that if you don't have anything to do with OSU and are a professional with any kind of ambition, then your options run a tad short. So off we go.

So the other news is that Jackson is going to be a big brother. Jen was keeping it quiet, but the word has pretty much been spread about by the rumor mill*, So I am here to tell you that yes it is true, and Jen is due in early January and don't call us screaming congrats or anything like that or I'll have Jen puke on you.

So, um... Yeah. I have a lot to do. I should get to it.

-JP


*By "Rumor Mill" I mean the Kettlers. And my Mom.

Big changes.

More later.

Not really an SB

Here are all the Doctors hastily scribbled on post-it notes. It serves no purpose.

Jen threw a Batchelorette party for Robin this weekend I assume they had a good time. I don't know because the boy and I were not invited. We hid out in Tulsey Town until the dust settled, and all evidence of penis cakes and what not were cleared away.

Then I crammed a whole weekend's worth of chores into a few hours Sunday evening.

Other than that, not too much going on. I hear rumors that the Turner Burner is coming OK way, so that will be fun. This weekend is my 5 year wedding anniversary, so that's cool.

I am very excited for the Heroes season finale tonight. So I just want my day to go by faster.

That is all.

He just keeps being awesome.

See what I mean? Also, Campbell's bit as an obnoxious french waiter in the Spidey3 film is full-on awesome. Not since Patrick Stewart's turn as an obnoxious french waiter in LA Story has a geek-hero been so entertaining as an obnoxious french waiter.

Good news here. They dropped the charges against the ATHF guys after they did some community service. They shouldn't have even had to do that, but at least they didn't get charged as terrorists. The article does say that there would be a problem with proving intent with that anyway.

This is pretty funny, too.

What else?

Did everybody call their mothers yesterday? Did anybody call anybody a mother[SHUTCHO MOUTH!] Just talkin' 'bout Shaft!

I had a nice weekend at Aunt Grace's house, except that every body got weird sicknesses independent from each other. Jack had this nasty fever and Grace threw up so hard her nose bled. I had massive sunburns from dealing with Grace's crapped-out lawn mower (Lonny is off with the Guard cleaning up Greensburg, so we offered to help out), and Jen was on no sleep because of an overnight fundraiser at her work. We had a really good time despite ourselves.

Now I'm back at work.

meh.

But you know what? I kind of like Mondays now. Heroes is on Monday, and I usually have an extra helping of web-comics and blog updates to pour through.

-JP

Rain

Rain rain rain...... Big storm......rain rain.... Tornado....rain rain rain...

And that's about it. The weekend had a break, and I did yardwork with a great furver, then it rained again.

See? That's been going on forever now.

SB 26 - Big Fat Nerd

So, let me tell you a little story about my youth. (this gets nerdy) The very first episode of Dr. Who I ever saw was 'Robot", written by Terrence Dicks. It was the first 4th Doc Tom Baker Episode as well. He first hit the screen in 1974, so this was either America getting the eps really really late or repeats in syndication, because I saw it in like '83 or '84.

This is important because I had already seen Jedi at this point. As a nine year old kid who was teetering on the edge, about to fall into the abyss of geekdom, and not being old enough to care about production costs or good writing, this was a good episode to start with. It started a lifelong ... not so much obsession ... but devotion to Dr. Who that would persist into my '30, with only occasional breaks for actual obsessions like Teletunes or for the show going off the air for a decade or so. Even then, I read the comics and the novels from time to time. Jeff was the real fan, and I was kept updated by him as well.

Having seen Jedi by this point is important because of the slave girl outfit. As with most boys, and a few girls, in a certain age group and demographic, that slave girl outfit was a bit of a turning point in my life. It made me realize that girls were more than targets for propelled dirt clods. And I, along with everybody else, never told a sole. Which brings us back to "Robot". This ep also featured Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elizabeth Sladen, as a plucky reporter trying to make a name for herself, but people give her a hard time because she's a girl. She also had these big doe eyes that a nine year old Jason found totally cute. That actually may be why I tuned back in the next week, and after a few more I was hooked. So there.

What else?

It is my Mom's birthday, so happy birthday Mom. I seriously doubt she reads this blog, but you never know. If she does then I should have had a lot of explaining to do before today.

I saw Spider-Man 3 last night. It was good, but not the strongest of the three. It was a bit choppy, and I think they didn't learn the lessons concerning overindulgence that X-Men or Batman taught us. They just tried to cram too much in there, and even though there was simple way even the odds, the whole last third of the movie seemed really forced. Effects were really good, and even though I was never a big Venom fan, they did a good job with him, and he's in it a lot more than I thought he would be. The thing that really bugged me was that in the whole "temptation" sub-plot where Peter is hanging out with Gwen Stacy was silly to me because the obvious choice would be Ursula, the awkward, and completely hot neighbor across the hall. Idiot.

Okay. So that's it. I gotta go back to work.

-JP

SB 25 and Kites in Denver

Here is a sketch of some of my favs from Heroes. I am ball-bouncingly happy that said show is back on the air. Waiting a week was bad enough, but almost two months? Piss off, NBC.

In other news, I had an awfully good time in Denver. Thanks to all of you who made my stay as awesome as it was. I got to see some new Friends like Margi and Lisa and old friends like Terrence ( I used to call him "Terry", but that has since been disallowed.) and Dave.

The Drive with Mr. Joey was the funnest part. Back in the day, Joey and I would Road trip all the time. At least once a summer, usually more because back then we had shit jobs and no responsibility and could take off for a few weeks without our personal realities crumbling. We get along well in the car and have almost the exact same taste in music and snack foods. The trip took less time than I figured, but since we outfitted his 97 Civic for Hyperspace, it's got a little more pick-up off the line.

We stayed again at the Empty Condo of the Mom which, much like the Model Home in Arrested Development, is the default place to crash for my family. No one has actually lived there for years, but if one of us is visiting from out of town, too drunk to drive back to the sub-urbs, just broke up with significant other and got or needs to bring a hooker somewhere discreet, then the Condo is the place to go. My Brother and his wife were waiting for us there Friday night and it was good to see them because I hadn't seen my brother in a few years. They spent the majority of the weekend at StarFest and had a good time. My mom had stocked the Condo with food and whatnot, so we made a big breakfast each morning since that was the only time we knew we'd all be in the same room together.

I went to Sputknik, Gabor's and The Skylark (not all in the same night), And saw a too many people to mention by name and had a lot of fun, only a small portion of which involved porn.

Sunday Emily decided we should all fly kites. so that's what we did.

See? I tell no lies:

This was the first time I came back to Denver where two things happened, or rather didn't happen. 1 - once we parked the car, we didn't touch it again till we left. Which is probably because we 2 - never left the hill. We walked everywhere. I never went past Broadway, Colfax, Cheesman Park or 6th, with the exception of the bar. I usually make it into LoDo at least once, but not this time. Weird.

I'm back in Stilly now, and even though I had a great time, I was ready to see the Wife and the Shorty (Sgt. Shorty now).

Joey made his way back to Austin without incident, and I was sad to see him go. We really need to make it down there for a visit. He and Laura are up on us like 3 visits now.

That is all.

-JP

SB 24

Um... I have no way to explain the above pic. I will say that I have suspected for a long time that my brain doesn't work right. Too much happy time in high school.

The Good:

-I and Joey V are leaving for Denver in about 24 hours. I hope to be knee deep in friends and whiskey once I get there. Make that happen.

-Jackson has figured out that if he uses his little wagon full o' toys and gets a running start, he can knock over the baby gate. He then runs into the back part of the house yelling the baby equivalent of "FREEDOM!"

-I'm totally excited to see Hot Fuzz. Anybody in Denver want to go see that with me?

The Bad:

-Cody will not be joining us on the D-Town trip. He says that all the rain has hampered is earning ability for the last few weeks. I guess I can see that, but he's still a weenie.

-TODD Goldman, the maker of David and Goliath tees, has been caught red handed ripping off a web comics creator. This story is all over the interwebs, thanks to a Juxtapoz article, and hopefully Todd Goldman will burn in hell for it, or maybe just be put out of business. There is now a whole site devoted to his obvious rip-offs.

The Ugly:

-April is indeed the cruelest month. With the exception of my good friend Aaron Taylor having his birthday in April, the month pretty much sucks. OKC, Columbine, This Virginia Tech thing, That plane crash that killed all those OSU basketball players. The Bees getting killed by cell phones. Kurt Vonnegut dieing. My horrendous allergies that smack me around all month long with a bigger hammer than usual. Piss off, April.

-Speaking of the VT shooting. I hate to sound rude of insensitive, but having been in Denver during the Columbine shooting, and only a few years removed from high school I have to get this off my chest. Here's what will happen: There will be a massive outpouring of concern and solidarity, rightly so. Then the extremes will come out of the wood work. The Right will yap about more security, The Left will yap about gun control. Not realizing that the answer is somewhere in between, they will not waver their extreme points, and nothing will get done. It's what happens every time there is a school shooting, and obviously it hasn't worked.

Also, I have to say that I don't like the camera hogs. People who had nothing to do with the incident or any of the people involved, but end up on the news four times a day. Back in high school, a kid got killed huffing the crap that they put in fire extinguishers. When news hit the school, there were these kids who would sit in the hall crying and asking why him, and all that, and none of them knew him, They just wanted attention. I've always hated that. It happened at Columbine, and it happens whenever there is a major tragedy. Those people don't need your shit. What does that get you? 5 seconds on TV and that's it. Your false sincerity blows.

So, um... Yeah. That was a bit of a downer. Sorry about that.

have a nice day.

-JP

Thought dump 2

Well, after public outcry from my last post, I have decided to link to the jack pose.

Click at your own risk.

Thought dump:

I am going to be in Denver over the weekend of the 22nd, so adjust your plans accordingly.

So Nick Cave has a new band. Well, not a new band, but an old band with a new sound. A sound so different, they decided to change the name. Grinderman is their name and I have to say that this description pretty well sums them up: "Foul-mouthed, noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better." The album is good and entertaining in the way that your drunk, racist uncle is. You'll ignore the intolerance because his stories are so fucking awesome.

I love my DVR. I really don't watch live TV anymore. Having a shorty makes that cumbersome anyway. Most of the time, I'd rather spend the 3 hours a day I really get to see him playing with blocks and tonka toys on the floor that watching Boston Legal anyway, so I just record everything I might want to watch and wait for him to go to bed. The last week or so, Ive been really into a book anyway, so once I'm done with that I'll just stay up some night watching oodles of cheesy sci-fi till 2AM and be in a crabby mood the next day when I hit the message boards.

I lent Jen my ipod so she could take it on her business trip this week. I'm using a little flash based job that I won in some raffle here at work a while back. It won't work with itunes, but I don't need a music subscription service to use it, just drag and drop from my music files. That's pretty handy. I hate the interface, but the sound is really really good. I'm surprised. It is super tiny, too. I like that.

I've been listening to Kevin Smith's podcasts lately. They are incredibly entertaining. Kevin has no censor button on his brain so the sickest shit comes out of there in a very matter-of-fact kind of way. And he curses more than anybody I've ever even heard of. Fun stuff, but not safe for listening in groups. Keep it in the earbuds.

I wonder why spring is being such a bastard. Does he really put that much credence to what that stupid groundhog dictates?
"Six more weeks!" says the groundhog.
"You know what," says Spring, "Fuck you."

-JP

SB 23 - Raincoat guy

Hey! a new sketch! About time, Powers.

Okay so I have some random thoughts that won't leave my head till I write them down:

-I love how easy it is to get music on the intertubes these days, either legally or otherwise. I also love that I have a vast network of friends who are also music lovers, who can dupe things and mail them to me. The music is so assessable now that one barely has to think about it. One hears a song they like, and just goes over to the computer and gets it. No more wandering into Wax Trax and thinking "what the fuck did I come in here for?". There are a few downfalls, though. One is the band not getting as much money, but with the exception of Megadeth, I truly believe that this is propaganda perpetuated by the major record labels and that the artists (at least the ones who are in it for more than money) would want as many people as possible to hear their music regardless of how they obtained it. The second, and the one I have only recently realized is the loss of album art. Sure, itunes has that tiny 2 inch square in the lower right corner that gets displayed on your ipod (if you are lucky enough to have one that allows this, like I don't), but most of my downloads are off the torrents, and are bare bones. I've been listening to !!! for weeks now, and I only saw the cover of the album last week while in the music store. I feel that an album is an all senses kind of thing, or at least it should be, and I'm missing out on something here. I need to look into that.

-I came late to the party for a wonderful British show called Life On Mars. It is wonderful. Well thought out and beautifully acted. I don't know when BBCAM will start running it again, but catch it when it does. I read somewhere that David E. Kelly was making an American version for ABC, but I still can't figure out why the networks insist on remaking great shows and not just playing the original. The exception being The Office, which has managed to out shine it's predecessor somehow.

-Guys who insist on backing into their driveways or into a parking spot bug the shit out of me. It seems to take way longer to shimmy into the spot backwards than it would to just pull the fuck in. Do these guys think a brawl is going start in the Satrbucks, and they might need to get out in a hurry? Seem weird.

-They kicked off Sarah last night on America's Next Top Model. Bastards. I've been watching this show over my wife's shoulder for years, and Sarah was the first one that I really liked as a model and as a person. Usually those things don't mesh, but Sarah was smart and cute, and didn't go all bitchy all the time. She was there as a definite career step, and not because somebody told her she was pretty once and wanted to be on TV. She'll do well outside the show, though. She has enough drive.

-According to an entry in BoingBoing, you can now have your cremated ashed made into pencils. Live on through other people's sketches. I actually think that's really cool. You heard it here first: in the absence of a living will, that is what I would like to have done to me when I die.

-Jackson started doing this thing in the bath, where he stands up, rests his right hand on the edge of the tub, crosses his legs in front of him, and places the other hand gingerly on his hip in what can only be described as a modelling pose, ala Mr. Peanut. He then leers at you with a coy little smile, as it to say "hello, ladies." It is the funniest thing I have ever seen a toddler do. I shall try to capture this on camera, but he only does it in the bath, and I don't know the laws regarding posting a pic of a naked toddler in a "come hither" pose.

Okay. That's it. Brain emptied. Thanks for playing along.

-JP

Kiev

I think there is a lot of good street art out there. I just don't think most of it is in America. Last night, The Fam and I got stuck at train crossing, and were commenting about how all the graffiti on the train cars ammounted to a variation of "Joe was here". Don't get me wrong, I have a high respect for art in any form, and if it weren't for street art, we wouldn't have Basquiat or Keith Harring or several other very influentual artists.

But this stuff* -->

Just awesome. It's from The Ukraine, and I can't read it. But it looks really cool, so I don't care. I wish more Americans would crank it up a notch like these guys did.

Another cool artist I found between trolling the message boards and actually working was Ashley Wood. She combines two of my favorite things: Robots and Pin-up girls. Cool stuff.

The 3rd series of Doctor Who hit England on Saturday, and then hit the torrents a few hours later. It was really good. The new companion will do just nicely.

In other news:

For those of you who know my brother Jefferson, this will be amusing. He's part of a podcast now, over at SuperHeroCinema.com. He and two other guys yap about movies and other media that is adapted from comics somehow. I have a hard time listening sometimes, because I know his voice so well. I keep wanting to interject. They geek out on all kinds of stuff, and I don't get to do that very often anymore, so I listen intently every week.

Those podcasts are all the rage now. I can't figure out if I like them or not. A lot of them are fun and amusing like the ones from the Onion, but others are like listening in on a conversation that you can't be a part of. Kevin Smith's is like that. Why do I want to listen to two guys yammer on like that? Answer: I really don't. I get the same feeling I get when eavesdropping on the neighbors when they are fighting or screwing. I usually keep listening in either case, because I am gossipy deviant.

Jackson is nearing 2. My how time flies. He's learning a lot of words really fast, which means I have to watch my mouth a lot more.** He is also starting to push a few boundaries. In that, I mean he can be a total pain in the ass from time to time. My friend Brian has a good theory on why that is, and I tend to agree. I now have the age-old parental question of weather to give in for the sake of quietness and risk spoilage, or don't react, and risk deep-seeded daddy issues later in life like I have.*** I usually go about 50 -50 to cover the spread.

-JP

*From Drawn!

** Like I ever did before.

***And everybody else in the world.

In which I have a new pic.

Finally, a new page of NGV5 is up! enjoy.

In other news: Looks like Iran started a war. Idiots.

So, a few weeks ago, Jackson went through a little phase where he was loving to take his pants off. That's cool. We all do that. I still do that. He was at the baby sitter's, where she had a heckova time getting him to keep the drawers up. She's pull them up, he'd run around the corner and laughing the whole time, pull 'em off again. At some point, she realized that she hadn't seen or heard him for a while, and found him between the couch and the coffee table.

The result, here.

As I said in the previous post, I am addicted to Lego Star Wars. Lego just announced that they are making a new game based on Lego Batman. I peed a little in my pants when I heard that.

Equally exciting is this:

This is a test shot from the movie version of Watchmen, which Zach Snyder of 300 and Dawn Of The Dead fame has taken on as his next project. There may be another Zombie movie first, and if I get that too, I can happily wait for Watchmen. I am becoming a big fan of Snyder. He does good work, and he has a good bead on how movies work both as a business and as art. He stated in an interview, that he is treating the book as literature, not wanting to update it to fit into today's political climate, ala V for Vendetta. His point is that if you were to make a movie based on Moby Dick, you wouldn't try to set it in a contemporary time frame*, and I have to respect that. Good for Zach. He also stated that he wants to keep it as true to the comic as possible, making it most likely R rated and 3 hours long, and after seeing how accurate 300 was, I believe he can do it. Watchmen is the single most important Comic ever produced, and those of you fan boys that just had The Dark Knight Returns pop into your head can fuck right off.**

Also: I didn't get a job I was going for. I'm a little disappointed, but it was a long shot anyway, so no harm done. Jen and I are looking to make some sort of major change, though. We basically know what, we just need to figure out how to proceed. More on that later.

I have nothing else to report.

Have a nice day.

-JP

*save that for Shakespeare.

** Still one of my Faves, but couldn't have happened without Watchmen.

Oh, those silly comics...

You all should check out Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Panels from YesButNoButYes. Good stuff. Like this gem -->

Of course this guy has been at it for a while now.

Speaking of comics: Back in the day, as it were, I was a big fan of all the Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean Sandman stuff that was counter-culturally popular in the early '90s. After a while, though, I lost interest in Gaiman and that whole gothy-comics thing. I thought Gaiman's writing was going down hill, and the majority of similarly themed comics weren't very good. When Sandman ended, I wasn't too upset, and I picked up The Dreaming for a while, but soon lost interest. Gaiman edited a collection of short stories that I thought were pandering and dumb, so I pretty much gave up on him. McKean was a similar story. He sort of got in a rut, and most of his art looked so similar that I couldn't tell one piece from another for a while.

About a year ago, somebody sent me a link to his blog, which I have been reading off and on ever since. I was surprised to find out that he'd forsaken the gloomy streets of London for a family life in Minnesota. People I respect were telling me that his novels were really good, and I did enjoy Good Omens, but that was because it is really witty and funny which I assumed was the Terry Pratchett influence.

So a few weeks ago, at the urging of my curiosity, I rented Mirrormask, the movie that McKean and Gaiman made together. I hadn't heard of them collaborating on anything very big for a while, so I thought I'd check it out. It's a bit of an Alice in Wonderland rip off, but It looks gorgeous, and was way better than I thought it would be.

So then I decided I'd give in, and I picked up American Gods, used, with a gift card. I have to sat that I am impressed. All the stuff I used to love about his writing is in there with out all the gothy trappings he fell into way back when. I'm only about half way through it, due to my obsession with Lego Star Wars, but so far, I likie. The boys redeemed themselves.

I am currently listening to The Violent Femmes first and best Album. Everybody go dig that album out and listen to it very loudly right now. You won't be sorry. I have memories flooding back of lazy high school afternoons driving around wasting time till dinner.

-JP

In which I have little to say.

Well, there have been some serious changes at my work. Some shuffling and some re-organizing. Suffice it to say that I have turned my thoughts toward change. I have been feeling for a while that I may want to leave Stilly. I like it here, but I feel I may be able to make a better life for my family if I get back to a bigger city. Which city and with what opportunities said city would offer are the questions. Things seem to be pointing me back to Tulsa, at least in the short term. We shall see. The weird thing is that I've actually been hella busy at work, hence no sketches or comics for a while.
In other news:
Basketball has robbed me of new Heroes episodes, so to fill my geek quota, I have to survive on sporadic Smallville eps and whatever Sci-fi has to offer.
The new Robin Hood series on BBC America is better and worse than I thought it would be, so I keep tuning in and can't really figure out why. The acting is mostly bad, but the writing is pretty good. It suffers from trying to distance itself from the version the one the Herc and Xena people did by fully embracing the Kevin Costner version. Of course they make everybody younger and better looking, in keeping with what feudal English peasants historically looked like. Who knew oral care was so much better during the Crusades?
BBCAM really needs to re run The Eleventh Hour. That show is really good. Starring Captain Picard and Maggie from Extras, they both play against type as crime investigators. Picard uses chemistry to save the day!
Also, Live Forever is a really well done documentary on the whole Brit Pop phenomenon back in the '90s. If you were into that at all back then, Like I was, you should take a look.
The FX show The Riches got off to a promising start. A family of con artist-gypsies take over the lives of a family killed in a car wreck. Good stuff. It was really weird to see Eddie Izzard a) without make up, and b) acting so well. He does a really good job. And I didn't want to punch Minnie Driver in the face*, so she's getting better.
Jackson is learning more words every day, and it is awesome to see his cognitive abilities grow. He's going to be some sort of evil genius when he grows up. A mad scientist perhaps. I should start looking for castles atop creepy mountains for him to live in.
Why is the spring time so filled with reality shows? For the most part, I don't like them, a few here and there aside (and none of those are on the air anymore) I just don't see the appeal. Though most reality show watchers would wonder why I waste my time with cheesy sci-fi.
The new Arcade Fire and !!! (chk chk chk) are both decient. !!! is fun because you think it's dance music until you realize they are all actually playing real instruments.
I think That's all I got. Take care.

-JP

*though that jaw would probably break my fist.

One of my favorite things..

Is when white christian conservatives bitch about being discriminated against. I love it for it sheer absurdity, kinda like a mime. Or when you catch dogs humping. They're just doing what's in their nature, but it sure is funny.
NPR ran a story today about Conservapedia, the conservative's answer to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anybody can edit. I guess they had a problem with "anybody". That could mean that somebody who wasn't a white christian conservative, and they can't have that. That would undermine Jesus' teachings of love and tolerance. The main page touts: A conservative encyclopedia you can trust. Yeah, right.
So, um... yeah. Sorry I haven't written in a while. There's been some funky-funky at my work lately, so I've been a little pre-occupied. I can't really go into it, because they have eyes. and cameras. Not really. It would just be wildly inappropriate.
Other than that, not much going on. I saw 300, and loved it. It was like watching a giant live action video game. Miller's dialogue actually works in such a setting.
So. That's it. Go away.

SB 22 - Fish

Here is a fish. And it went where ever I did go.
Jackson got a little fishy for Christmas from his aunt Grace that lives on our counter now. In a little bowl. Jackson likes it. Every once in a while, he points at it, and says "shi-shi!"
Fish are weird. I've had a lot of them in the past, the coolest being a Black Moor named Doctor Fishopolis that lived eight years. Fish don't have eye lids, so when they die, I never really believe it because they're still looking at me. I usually have to poke them once or twice to make sure. (why is it that whenever we come across something dead, our first instinct is to poke it? Usually with a stick.)
Everybody in the Powers household was sick over the last week or so. A nasty "comin' outa both ends" kind of sick. The kind where you don't eat anything for 3 days, then when you finally feel better, food still sounds disgusting. All you want to do is lie in bed. Or better yet, you wish there was some way to move the bed and the TV into the bathroom so you don't have to scamper as far. Jack got it first, then me, and finally Jenn, the day before she had to go to Dallas for some training class. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't all get it at once, as there are not enough bathrooms in our house.
Now we're all better, we all have our appetites back, and even though the ordeal left me 8 pounds lighter, I'm glad food sounds good again.

-JP

My Town Stinks

Know why? Because there are a large number of skunks that have gotten hit by cars all over town. I have never seen such a mass-suicide in skunks before. They are running at cars kamakazi style in what seems like pairs. We went to Tulsa this weekend, and counted 14 of them in the road during the drive. The combined effect is making the whole town smell like skunk spray and rotting flesh. Yummy.

Thanks to everybody for well wishing going on all weekend. My birthday was marred by a sick child, barfing all over everything all weekend, so the celebrations were decidedly low-key. Jen took me to a very nice dinner, and out for a beer. It was relaxing, which was just what I needed. Poor Jack had to skip his friend Gavin's 1st birthday party. We got back on Sunday, and Jenn made me a cake.

That's about all I have right now.

-JP

Life and Times

Alright.
I have no sketch or anything for you today. Sorry about that. There should be a new NGV5 up tomorrow, so you'll have that.
I had a lovely three-day weekend. During the traditional celebrations, we decorated our Presidents Day tree with Boston tea bags and little fake copies of historical documents, with a light up star/capital dome at the top. Jenn wore leggings a powdered wig, and Jackson a top hat. We dressed up one of our small dogs as John Wilkes Booth, and let her chase Jack around for a bit, holding a dainty plastic derringer in her mouth. I decided that this year, I would dress a Teddy Roosevelt, and dug out my old circular wire framed glasses, and put on a false mustache. I then went into the woods behind out house and killed the first living thing I saw, which happened to be a tick. I was glad for that, as I don't own any guns, and would have had to beat a larger animal to death with just my bare fists and a heap of moxy.
President's Day also ushered in some mild weather that me and the fam took full advantage of, as we have not been able to play outside in weeks. Our pasty white skin turned red in a matter of minutes during the trip to the park. A few hundred trips down the slide were exactly what Jackson needed to get the heebie-jeebies out of his pants.
Um... Not much else going on. I have a birthday coming up on Sunday. I'll be 32, or freezing, were I water based. I suppose I am , really, but the carbon 14 is keeping me solid. We will be in Tulsey Town Saturday night, so if you want to help me celebrate, get in touch.

That is all.

Happy Heart day.

I have to say that I like this holiday. I like making valentines and being all arty. Even when I was single, I liked this holiday. I always saw it as full of potential rather than a day to mope and listen to The Cure (though if you choose this path, grasshopper, you will find that The Cure has a surprisingly large amount of love songs, and you will just dig that hole deeper).
Yet another holiday that the Roman Catholic Church used to distract people from, and dissuade them from celebrating a pagan holiday, in this case, Lupercalia.
Lupercalia was celebrated in ancient Rome:

"At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy."

In this case, I fully support the change. I only know a few people who would like to be smacked with a "shaggy thong" by a naked rich kid. However, as Hallmark has bastardized this holiday for financial profit, I can see why some have labeled it "singles awareness day".
I remember, back in grade school, when we all gave out little pre-printed cards en masse to every person, male or female in our class. Dropping them into the paper lunch sacks that we spent the previous afternoon decorating, and then carefully taped them to the side of our desks. One year, I got one from the resident hotty of the fifth grade, that was signed "love, Rachel". This was a big deal back then, as grade schoolers rarely shared such deep feelings, and I set that one aside, because it was special, and I had convinced myself that I apparently had a shot with this girl, who every boy (and maybe even one of the girls), had a crush of sorts on. On the way home, while walking along with a few of my buddies, one of them produced an identical card with an identical signature. He was convinced that he had a shot with this girl, because of her emotional outpouring of two words. Then I pulled mine out, and then the third kid pulled his out, and we quickly realized that she had signed each card the same way. All three of us had assumed that our card was unique, and each of us had had the same feeling of requited affection for an entire afternoon, and I bet every boy(and that one girl) in that class felt the same way. I still kept that card for a while after than, just in case.

-JP

SB 21 - I wish I were Yuri-G

I was listening to PJ Harvey, and decided to draw a pic of Yuri Gagarin. I haven't done a ball-point pen picture in a while anyway. I don't know if Gagarin is the Yuri G mentioned in the song of the same name, but the song mentions the moon a lot, and even though Gagarin never went to the moon, he was the first human in space, and was closer than anybody had been before. The song seems to mention a voodoo doll as well. I don't know what peej is on about most of the time, but she makes good music and is so delectably weird that I can't help but like her. So, um, yeah.
Well, Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay Boston 2 million dollars. 1 mil to cover the cost of dealing with the "mooninite scare" and 1 mil as a good faith money. The sad thing is that the two guys who put up the LED boxes are still facing charges of terrorism. Stupid. It seems like the most they could reasonably throw at them would be a vandalism charge, which would only apply to the ones not placed on private property, so they should really just drop it. They won't though. I can foresee it.
Last week, Jen was in Vegas having an awesome time celebrating Robin's birthday and playing craps and doing all the fun stuff Vegas has to offer. Well, hopefully not all the stuff, like going to whore houses. She had a good time, and she wishes me to extend a thank you to all those who made it possible.
Her being in the desert meant that I had the boy all to myself for a whole week. I loved it. I loved being that responsible. I loved picking out his outfits and packing his little lunch and taking him to school. We got to do what ever we wanted in the evenings, and we played hard so I could wear him out so he would fall asleep easier. I was very glad to have Jen back, though. I had fun, but I couldn't keep that up on my own for very long.
Not much else going on. We are excited to see Cookie's photography show in Enid, and hope to go there this weekend. I fully plan on buying something. Maybe the one of my kid that I hear is in there.
That is all.

-JP

Mooninite Panic

weenies.

I gotta say something about this, and the panic storm that has risen around it. This is an example of how much the media is screwed up. No, That's not correct. This is an example of how people use the media to retarded ends. I think the on the ground reporters are fine for the most part, they just report what they see. But in this situation, the anchors at the 24hour news channel are the ones who have turned this into a circus. They are the ones that blew this thing out of proportion by naming this thing a Terrorist Hoax, which it is not. It is an advertising campaign. A grass roots, guerrilla ad campaign that was actually pretty ingenuous. Just because somebody who grew up in the '70s and had some kind of Lite Brite trauma as a child took it the wrong way and overreacted, doesn't mean that the idea behind it was anything malicious. Now all these freaky-deaks are rattling their cages and saying that they want to put these guys in prison because some idiot was scared of a cartoon character.
You can actually see the progression into the downward spiral. These guys put these things up, somebody complains, some cop checks it out, and he calls the bomb squad just to be safe. People get word that the bomb squad is taking these things down, and it gets on the news. People who have noticed these things around town start to freak out, and call the cops. The news coverage continues, and the whole city gets shut down while they sort it out. Now once they figure out that the whole thing is basically a bunch of Etch-a-Sketches taped to phone poles, the cops and the bomb squad and the media types get embarrassed at their own stupidity and they get angry at the two little hiptser hippies that made them look bad. This couldn't be their own idiocy, right? Must be a fucking Terrorist Hoax! String 'em up!
This is the world that GWB has created. People are so concerned with terrorists, yet they cant tell one from a cartoon. This is what Wil Wheaton had to say:

"This is the result of politicians and the media creating and then exploiting a culture of fear in America.
Politicians use it to grab power and silence dissent, and the media use it to drive up ratings.
In either case, it's sickening exploitation." (more)

I do have to say that I love the reaction of the perps during their press release:




These guys get it. They realize what a fucking joke this whole situation is. I hope they keep talking about Mod haircuts throughout their whole trial. Better yet, I hope the Judge throws the case out, and chastises the prosecutor and the Media talking heads for wasting everybody's time.





-JP

I love this man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18

SB 20 Robot 3

Here is an unfinished robot. You like? Yeah, he's okay.

So Jen is off to Vegas next week, and I have the house and the boy all to myself, and a babysitter, and maybe Jen's dad at some point. That will be fun after not seeing him for four days while in D-Town. Jen will have fun, and win us enough money to buy a pony.

Not much to report. A boring week, other than getting the now Flash at work, and messing about with that. It does many neat-o things. I'm having a good time with it.

Seriously, all I have for you is a silly robot.

-JP

SB 19 - Squid

Well, I haven't posted a Sketchbook in a while, so here you go. It is a squid. I didn't have much to work on today so I drew a squid. And there you have it.

So I'm back from Denver. I finally got my driveway free of ice yesterday after much scraping with a nasty looking scraper thingy, and now we're supposed to get dumped on again. Another 6-10 inches heading our way. To tell the truth, I am relieved. Other than my lack of an actual snow shovel, I have no reservations about the coming storm. I could use a weekend in, after the holidays and the cruise and the Denver. I caught a cold in the three days since I've been back as well, so I could use the rest. Next weekend, Jen goes off on her own trip, so the boy and I will be batchin' it. That will be fun. Sometimes I really like having him all to myself.

The big news in Stilly is that the new, up-to-date Wal-Mart opened today. Whoopty-fuckin'-do. It is a lot closer to my house, but my bank is still in the other one, so good and bad I guess. I hate that I have to shop there, but they don't give much choice. Albertson's is hella expensive, and the IGA is a friggin' joke. Stupid Wal-Mart.

Not much else going on. I miss my Denver friends, but I am glad to be home. If any of you in Denver can get me a really good paying job, so we could all come back, go ahead and do so. You have my number.

-JP

Denvah in '07!

Oh.

My.

Gawd.

Did we have a good time. (click me)

We set forth on a chilly Thursday evening that was going to get way chillier. Like chilling out with the children of Chile while eating a chili-dog with green chili and a bev from the chiller while watching a chilly-willy cartoon, awaiting the start of The Big Chill. Cody and I did not care. We were on a mission. And we were in a heated, 4WD truck with some good music. Cody is good company. The road trip is a good test of friendship. If you don't want to jab an ice-pick into someone's eye after hours and hours trapped in a tin can with them, then you never will.*
We did well, with Arctic Monkeys and Eddie Izzard, and peeing on a gas station in the freezing cold keeping us awake. That is until about 4:00 am, when we both started to crash. But like that famous line from the Gambler, we were both too tired to sleep.
We made it to the Breakfast King and all was well. The King has changed a bit. The smoking ban has forced a bunch of dives and greasy-spoons to smarten up a bit in order to appeal to those who would otherwise not want to fight thick grey fog for a plate of biscuits covered in thick grey sauce. No yellow windows with my fluorescent yellow eggs, please. It also means that your clothes don't stink after a night at the bar.
A visit to Cain at the Pablo's to get some keys and we got settled into my mom's mostly empty condo, feeling a bit like squatters. At least I did. I was on a mat on the floor, whereas Cody had a King-sized bed. It may not have hit him as hard. Funny thing is that I got to sleep right away on my little mat, and Cody fussy-butted around in his king-sized pile of cousin's until he gave up and went to the mall.
I met up with him a bit later for sammies and coffee and shuffleboard and Newcastle. Then we tried to take naps, but I couldn't sleep this time. Cody had a craving for a Gabor's hamburger, so off we went. People slowly trickled in, and we chatted and drank and ate. I took off for a bit to visit with Amy, and while at The Thin Man, Eric the owner bought me a beer. This was a bit weird. I've seen him charge his own mother. Off to Sputnik, and a fantaboulous time. This was a great night. I met a lot of really cool people and had a lot of fun in the photo booth (see above). We closed the place down, and went home to sleep it off.
Saturday we slept in. After a kick ass if way too expensive breakfast buritto from watercourse, Cody went off to visit his sister, and I tooled around town with Aaron and Jeremy until it was time to hit LeCentral with my mom. I saw the new Tattered Cover, the new Twist and Shout, and some galleries and toy stores along Broadway. It was cold and icy. I bought a little toy from a very cute girl. LeCentral was delicious. I had beef tips on a bed of pasta and the French onion soup that has an inch of provalone on top. Yummy. We called the whole world and told them to meet us at the condo.
Then the real fun started. See, in the condo, you need a phone to buzz in somebody from the lobby. Being squatters, we had no phone. But I remembered that if you have a TV hooked into the antenna for the building, you get a channel that shows all of the security cameras. At first, we were just watching to see when someone showed up so we could go down and let them in. Each time somebody got there, we would make them do something goofy, not knowing that the rest of the group was upstairs watching. We speculated on what would be amusing to see on a camera pointed at a lobby, like putting Jeremy in there in a recliner with a reading lamp, or Cain spilling a box of baby chicks. Once everybody got there, we spent a while doing other weird things, like little plays, pretending to strip, or a hockey fight that spanned two floors. Then Cain put a dollar in the lobby to see if anybody would grab it. After a while we thought it would be fun to put a sign by the elevators, telling them to put it back. This we did to hilarious results. After two people came through the garage instead of the front door, and with a large group of malcontents getting steadily more drunk while staring at a bunch of security camera images with growing anticipation, we hit pay dirt. A young couple came into the lobby. The man noticed the dollar, picked it up, and did that thing where you hold it with two hands in front of someone and sort of snap it like "look what I got". She nodded in that unimpressed way every girl nods, as if to say "great," but not really mean it. As they round the corner, they see the sign. They look at each other and look back at the floor where the dollar used to be, and to our complete astonishment, the guy fishes the dollar out of his pocket and puts the fucker back! Then he peels the tapped up sign we put on the wall, and re-tapes it to the floor by the dollar. Then he and the girl, giggling, enter the elevator and go out of sight. Hoo Boy did we have a good laugh at that one. A while later, another guy, who's honesty really amazed us, picked up the dollar, and left it on the coffee table ling before he ever saw the sign. When he did see it, he went back and put the dollar back on the floor. By that point, it was late, and fewer people were coming in, so we decided to go to Streets of London Pub, where we spent the rest of the night throwing darts(not always at the dartboard), giving each other fake knuckle tattoos, drinking whiskey, and generally having a great time. We went our separate ways, Cody and I got some Taco Bell, and watched the last part of a weird as fuck animated movie about giant fish-faced people oppressing tiny humans, and the first part of a Hercules movie before crashing out.
Sunday I had lunch with my Dad, ironically just 45 minutes after I woke up. I spent the later part of the afternoon with my mom, having coffee at the shop, and then we all decided we wanted Indian food, so we went to Lisa's house. We drew on the wall, and listened to Cody play the guitar, and soon realized that not only was there no Indian food in her house, there was no Indian food in out bellies either, so we went to an Indian restaurant. Called India's. The mightiest vindaloo in the land, I tell you. I needed Lager**. I was informed that not only did Cody once piss off the lead singer of Live for no reason, but the movie we saw was called "Fantastic Planet" and was the product of a Czeck and French team-up intended to freak out really inebriated people in the future. We headed back to Sputnik, and met even more cool people, and had an awesome time. I had a few too many whiskeys, which was fun because I was a lot more mellow after having vodka redbulls the previous two nights. Cody and I had a wonderful conversation with Vanya and Katie, that I don't remember much of. After being forcibly defenestrated at about 2:30, we went home and slept the sleep of the dead.
Monday we packed up and headed home. All we did on the way back was text all the people we just saw, talk about how wonderful the weekend was, and how much I wanted to get home to see my wife and kid. We made it back despite a massive series of snow and ice storms that made the whole state look as though it had been covered in vanilla icing.
Today I went to work. Yes, the fuckers made me go to work.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun I had. Thank you to all who made it so. Despite all that, I was Jonesing to see my family. As much as I love you all, I love them more. I am happy to be home with them, though missing all of you. I feel so torn.



*maybe
**The only thing that will kill a vindaloo.

So we went on a Cruise...

It was relaxing in that whatever we wanted was right there, the food, shows, the bar, the swimming pool, all right there, and we didn't have to pack up a bunch of crap or find a babysitter or anything, we just went upstairs. So that was cool. It was exactly like being trapped in a LasVegas Hotel. Sure there is plenty to do, play the slots, go to the buffet, see a musical... But you can't leave. You have to stay put and give your money to them.
It rained on us from when we got to Galveston the night before until a well into the Cruise.
We had a fun night in the Super 8, frequenting the Waffle House out front a little too much.
We packed the whole family into 2 cabs, and headed for the pier, which looked like a really run down bus terminal made for giants back in the time of talking animals. We stood in line for a while, then got on the massive ship, which was made in the late '80s and the decor has never been updated. A lot of neon and busy carpet patterns. The halls are lined with plastic New York New York sky-line buildings that shimmer in Black and green and gold. If you have epilepsy, I caution you to not take a cruise on this boat. We spent the first night and part of the morning hiding from the rain and trying to keep our food down, as the swells knocked us around a little.
After that, the sun came out, and the upper deck was soon flooded with an enormous amount of scantily-clad Americans of all ages and weight classes.
We all spent most of our time in the restaurants. Not like we ate continuously (I actually lost weight), but there were 13 of us and we tended to linger. We took Jack swimming, and to a kid's dance party, and saw some shows, and Jen and I got some awesome spa treatment massages. Mostly we just sat on the deck and chatted with the fam. Jackson was a hit with just about everybody, because he's super-cute. We got a lot of compliments.
All the meals were included, but none of the drinks were. Any soda or alcohol we had to pay for, and they were not cheap. I think I spent most of my time drinking the fruit punch from the kid's buffet. You could buy stuff from the duty free shop, but after you buy something, they kindly wrap it up, and tell you where you can pick it up once the cruise is over. Bastards. You could get this drink card worth unlimited sodas for like $25.00, so we got one and smudged out the name enough so a bunch of us could use it if we were crafty. Tim and Lonny both brought Whiskey in their luggage, so we mixed that with our ill gotten Mr.Pibbs. Fuck the man!
Cozumel was really cool, but we were only docked from 8 till 5, and two hours. Either side of that was spent ferrying people from the ship to the island because a hurricane knocked out the pier last year, and they aren't too busy fixing it. So really we only had 4 or 5 hours on shore, which wasn't enough to see the whole island. We ended up renting a van, dropping off the girls at the plaza to do some shopping(after I got us lost and we ended up in the ghetto), while Tim, Lonny and I went to see the Mayan ruins. The ruins were neat, but small, and I hear the ones on the mainland are a lot bigger and more impressive. I'll hit those next time.
We were originally going to rent some scooters, but I'm actually glad we didn't. Cosumel is the scooter wreck capital of Mexico, and I now know why. Scooters are everywhere, and they don't give a shit. At one point we saw a woman driving with her 4 year old standing on the running boards, while the 8 year old sat behind her carrying a large cardboard box, just whipping in and out of traffic. We saw one scooter that had 5 people on it, mostly kids.
I had to buy some diapers for Jack in Mexico, and let me tell you, those things were sub-par. They held very little even though they came up to his nipples.
So after getting on the very last ferry back, we did the whole boat thing back to America.
We were barely looked at during customs, but the airport security was awful. They took away a bunch of our stuff, including a small bottle of Mexican Vanilla Jen had bought that I had mistakenly put in the carry-on, and were complete dicks about it. Due to some bad scheduling, we had to sit in the airport for a few hours, and that didn't impress Jack one little bit. He got pretty cranky, and told us so by smashing cheese crackers into Jen's purse. Once on the plane, though, he passed out, and slept the whole way home.
We all had a good time, there were few family clashes, it was relaxing. But I was very happy to be home, as was Jackson. He was way off his schedule, and it was starting to wear on him. When we finally got home, he started laughing hysterically while getting all of his toys out of the bin. He slept for 14 hours.
Now, after Jen spent the last two days doing a shit-ton of laundry, and we hurriedly celebrated her birthday, I am off to Denver with Cody tonight. We were going to leave on Friday, but since there is yet another giant snow storm heading there that will hit Friday afternoon, we thought it best to drive all night rather than get stuck somewhere in Eastern Kansas.

See you when I get there.

2006 year in review

Everybody seemed to love this last year, so I'll do it again.
In 2006, I:

(in no particular order)
-Was relieved that a good portion of the country came to their senses and realized that allowing any one political party do whatever they want is a bad idea.
-Switched from a mac to a PC. (there are very valid reasons)
-Downloaded more music and movies than I bought.
-Saw Jack turn one.
-Welcomed home my brother-in-law, safe and sound, from Iraq.
-Watched my son grow from a baby to a boy.
-bought a car, sold a car, couldn't afford that car, sold that car, bought a $300 car.
-Visited DC and met a bunch of politicians. (I had more fun meeting Ann's family)
-Really got crackin on my comic website.
-Got one comic published in a mag and one posted on a website that wasn't mine.
-Really got crackin' on comics and art.
-Worked on my house a lot. It is finally starting to feel like our house, and not one that we are house-sitting.
-Got so comfy in my job, that I think I can do something more now.
-Realized that I am a better parent than I thought I was.
-Realized that Jen is a way better parent than me.
-Drank a lot of coffee.
-Was excited at the news that Jack will have a new cousin to play with in the coming year.
-Didn't loose the weight I wanted to loose, but didn't gain any either.
-Never did get a decent haircut.
-Made it through the most God-awful fuckhot summer ever. If that shit happens again this year, I'm moving back to Denver. I can deal with cold. And they never give you a day off because it's too hot.
-Watched a crack in the foundation of my house inch upward in pace with all the fuckhot. As soon as it started raining, the crack stopped.
-Was visited by many a friend and family, which was surprising, because Oklahoma isn't on most people's "gotta visit before I die" lists.
-Went to a fabulous wedding for two people who honestly care about each other, and got to be a groomsman, which was a distinct honor.
-I made a friend. One of the best ever. He drives a lot to see us, and that makes him cooler.
-Turned 31, but I got to throw a really cool party for Jen's 30th. Robin helped. I'm lying. Robin did most of it.
-Taught myself Flash. It's actually fairly easy, if time-consuming.
-Did lots of sketches. More than usual.
-Realized that the 3 hours I spend with Jack in the evening after work and before he goes to bed isn't enough.
-Was mostly disappointed with all the over-hyped summer movies I was looking forward to. The pirate movie was the only one that really delivered.
-Was really happy that the new crop of nerdy shows on TV were so good. Heroes, Doctor Who, Torchwood... All awesome.
-Was amazed to see a great many people move out of Denver, my brother and his wife included. There are still many reasons to return, but they get fewer every year.
-I now have a good reason to visit Portland.
-Realized how a good family support system really helps out when one has a kid. Those guys are super!
-Realized that Jeremy is really good with kids. (keep that in mind, ladies.)
-Noticed that Thom Yorke doesn't "have it" anymore.
-Got into some new bands. There is good music out there, you just have to dig.
-Saw several friend's bands got fairly popular, proving that it does not have to be a "young man's game" to break into music.
-Didn't visit nearly enough people.
-Saw Jack start pre-school, start using words and sign language, have a really awesome Christmas, figure out how the use the vacuum, and generally watched him grow up a little. He's exceedingly smart and slightly impish. He'll be a maniacal genius. I'll have to keep my guard up.
-Realized that Jen deserves a medal for what she does. Working and being a mommy has at times run her thin, but has strengthened her resolve and character to degrees she is completely unaware of. She is tougher, more resilient, more loving and sweeter every day. I'm so glad I married her.
-I think I really became an adult this year. Having a kid really skews one's perspective if they do it right. We had a few financial bumps here and there, and the fact that my kid and my wife came before everything without me even thinking about it or even realizing it was a bit of an eye-opener. I see a bunch of people who were never ready to be parents or never will be, who try to cling desperately to their old lives instead of embracing their new one, or who look at kids as a burden and not a blessing, and I want to smack them. Not that people's lives need to stop, far from it. It just needs some skewing. I don't want to tell anybody how to live but when a plasma TV is more important that putting food on the table, you got some thinking to do. (I'm pointing at you, crazy couple in wal-mart the other day)

2006 was fun. We will miss James Brown, Jack Palance, Dave Cockrum, Gene Pitney, and all the others, including troops, who died. We will have fond memories of the good, that hopefully outweighed the bad.

2007 is set to be another fun one. I have a few secret and evil plans, but I'll keep those to myself. I do intend to make a road trip to see Jeff, and to move my comics to a real website, but those are "at my leisure" tasks. Jack will turn 2, I'll turn 32. (or freezing if I was Celsius)
Grace will have her kid, and the fam will grow. Congress may or may not get anything done, but let's hope they do. Maybe then the stupid polarity of the nation will ease a bit, and the power-hungry folks at the top won't be able to gorge themselves on our liberties as often. I have a few more rooms to paint, I have to get a new garage door, get my foundation fixed, have the transmission on the truck looked at, and we need to find Jen a better car. We need to pay down some more debt, but last year we got rid of a good chunk, and if we stick to our guns, we should be sitting pretty by this time next year. I'll have to teach Jack to pee standing up. I'll try harder to loose the 20 lbs I still need to. I'll try to get a decent haircut. I have a few art projects to tackle, and some prints to frame, and a stack of books to read. I have a kid to look after, and wife to help to not go crazy. It should be a blast!

Pics of the litter

Christmas pics here.

Catch up!

Well, we have a lot to cover. First off, there are some pics of Jeremy's trip here.
Second, we had an awesome Christmas! With the exception of a short jaunt to OKC for a small family thing, my plan to not go anywhere, and make everybody else do the driving this year worked just as I had planned!
We spent a good time at Grace and Lonny's house, where she had a big announcement, and Jack got a set of Jack-sized cleaning products (vacuum, mop, broom) that he was EXTREMELY excited about. He loves to help us with chores, and he flipped out when he saw them.
Sunday, Jen and I made a big batch of snacky food consisting of a shitload of sweets and things that can be dipped or scooped into other things. We munched on all of that all night in lieu of an actual meal. We stayed up late, played video games and watched movies and had an all around good time. Monday, we all woke up about the same time Jackson did. He didn't have the full understanding of what the day meant for him and his playtime activities, but he got up early nonetheless. When we dug into the pile, Jack made out like a bandit, and his favs were a toy coffee pot, that we got him so he would leave mine alone,* and a the trikie, as evidenced above. The rest of us had a good haul as well.
The rest of the day was spent being very lazy, eating food, and playing with all of our toys.

Today I had to back to work. :(

slacker week

So I don't have many projects, and my company had to have everything sealed up for Christmas a few weeks ago, so we are down to slacking and having holiday parties and things like that. The staff is dwindling as they leave to visit their families anyway. Today we had out secret Santa thing and a little raffle thing, and I got some cool stuff. So that's cool.
Turner got off okay, with just a massive delay with his connecting flight in phoenix. I guess they have a huge blizzard right now. Good thing to come home to when you live in Denver. Makes it feel like home.
Jack just got done getting pics with Santa, and from what Jen tells me, he wasn't a big fan. He wasn't scared or anything, just didn't want to sit in his lap too much. I remember my brother going nuts come Santa time, and I think we only did it for a few years. This is corroborated by the distinct lack of photos depicting either my brother or me with Santa. I don't seem to have missed it much.
My cards are not done, and my gifts are not mailed because I'm a total slacker. I'm hoping to get that done today, and everything will be late, so don't expect much.
I tried not to go overboard with Jack's presents because he has grandparents and will be very well taken care of.
I am finally over the horrible stomach virus that I got on Sunday night. Yay. I didn't eat for two days and dropped 5 pounds. I slept 12 hours Monday night. I woke up hungry, and took that as a good sign. Thankfully there was a pot-luck at work. I brought pop-tarts and a toaster. Un-thankfully* Jen now has the stomach thing. I think this may be what Jack had when he was throwing up and not eating for a while. Mystery solved!
Having kids mean you get sick a lot more than you used to.

weekend of fun

we are having a great time. Turner have been here since Wednesday. Lats night he and Cookie made home made green chili that was the best I have ever had. Then after Jen's sister and her husband came over, we all drank beer and wine and sat around the chimenea and played video games into the wee hours of the morning. Right now we are eating cinamon rolls and watching the discovery channel and nursing hangovers.

The X-mas

Christmas is creeping up! 10 days left. If you don't receive a card or something, well, it's because we have an 18 month old and a house guest right now.
Speaking of: Turner made us the most awesome dinner last night, because I won his contest. It had pasta and chicken and a cream sauce and asparagus and a bunch of other stuff and we ate till we wanted to pop it was so good. Then an hour later, we gorged ourselves on ice cream. Turner ate three bowls I think. Maybe more. We drank a bunch of beer and watched a movie, part of a dog show, and then some documentary on discovery about puppies. It was doggy night I guess.
This saturday, there will be a party in his honor. You should come, it will be fun.
Jackson seems to be over his bout of barfing, and is not only feeling better, but has decided to sleep through the night two nights in a row. This has NEVER happened, and getting all that sleep is a weird feeling at this point. My chemical dependencies are much more noticeable. All that coffee in the morning used to just keep me functional, but now I'm actually a bit jittery. All bleary-eyed and happy. It's like an old friend I haven't seen in years. I welcome his return. Jack LOVES Turner BTW. He follows him around, and wants to be picked up by him all the time, but it think that's because Turner is like eight feet tall, and Jack likes to see everything. They cuddled on the couch for a while last night, and Jack usually saves that for really close family members, so that's cool. So remember that, ladies: Turner is good with kids!
What else? The new HP trailer is up, and though I now a crazy huge fan or anything, I do like these movies. The thing that struck me in the trailer is that I didn't realize how much I hated the haircuts in the last movie until I saw that all the characters get shorn in this one. Although if that's the main thing I took from the last movie then they must have had some major storytelling issues.
So that's it.

The sun will come out.

Tomorrow the Turner man comes to town. Excited I am.
enough of that.

So yesterday, on the way back from school about 1:00pm, Jackson had his first big boy barf all over the car. We got everything cleaned up, hosed off the carseat, washed all of the padding, and let everything dry out in the sun. He seemed okay after that. After I got home from work, we needed to go to the store, so we put everything back together, all the padding back on, put the carseat back in, and he barfed all over it as soon as we pulled into the store's parking lot. So we used up all of our wipes, and almost had to run in to get more. Luckily, most of it landed on his hoodie, so it wasn't near as bad. He's still a bit oogy. He should feel better today, I hope.
Jen stole my phone on accident. And she's out of town tonight, so don't call me.

The Turner of the screws

So next week, Mr. Turner will be visiting, and I am very excited. For all his neurosis, he is a good and honest man. He became one of the best friends I have ever known within hours of meeting him(those hours spent at Streets of London Pub). I knew him before he had flames. I trusted him so much when we met, that I didn't have a problem with him moving in with Jen, him being an ex-boyfriend and all. For a whole year, and especially during the build-out for Pablo's,we played NHL HITZ and watched Blind Date or Conan every single night. We kept Gabor's in the black. And now he is coming for a visit. We are going to throw him a party, we like him so much. So come to our house on the eve of the 16th to wish him well, and help get him drunk. He will regale you with yarns of a tattooed goth existence.
In other news:
1)I need a new drafting table. If you have one, kindly set it on my porch.
2)Jackson's back teeth have turned out to be complete assholes. Nobody likes them. They keep Jack up at night, which keeps mommy and daddy up at night. Which makes mommy and daddy cranky and destroys their immune systems. In addition, it keeps daddy completely chemical dependent to appear human.
3)A happy birthday should have gone out yesterday to Tom Waits.
4)Happy birthdays go out today to my Dad, Joey, and Kyle.
5)Happy birthday goes out to Heather O tomorrow.
6)Yoko can go fuck herself.

Snow Day!

So as many of you anywhere in the Midwest know, we got a hella snow storm last week. It was a full on blizzard with only fifty yards or so of visibility. Since I now live in an area that doesn't see this very often (compared to Denver), everybody freaked out. And nobody knows how to drive in it. Like how turning you lights on would be rule #1. I went in late on Thursday, and ten inches later they sent us home and told us not to bother coming in on Friday. Woo and then Hoo. Three and a half day weekend!!
We spent Thursday night staring out the window. Friday I shoveled the driveway for the first time in the four years I have lived here. Then we got all bundled up and took Jack out to play in the snow.

He did NOT enjoy it. --->

The snow was way too high for him, and he couldn't move in it.
He did have some fun splashing in the slush. He spent most of the time in the garage bawling.

Saturday we had a little pre-emptive Christmas party at our house with Jen's dad's side of the fam, though Jen's dad didn't show up. We had a really good time. Jack got a book. We had a shit-ton of food and some really good coffee. After that we just hung about the house. I watched The Island. It was pretty, but stupid. Just like a few of the girls I dated after high school. Sunday we went to the city and did some shopping with Jen's sister and her husband, ending the weekend by stuffing our faces with Mexican food. Last night Jack decided that three AM was breakfast time and I am really sleepy.
We have little going on at work, so I've been watching the whole of Red Dwarf on my computer. I love bittorrent.

That is all.