March 17 - March 31
Have at Thee, Villain!
3-18-02
I've been focused on college stuff all day (as I should be) so I've only now gotten yesterday's comic up. I usually get it done around 1 on mondays, but today I stayed after class to work on my dragon sculpture. It's looking a lot better and I'm adding scales now. Most of the morning I spent fine-tuning my dragon dentistry. I only broke two fangs.
Last night I meant to go to bed early because of my 9:00 class, but there's just something about the wee hours of the morning that inspire me to draw. I drew my sadistic villain Klyo - a lynx, tormenting a squirrel. It's not a nice picture, but he's not a nice lynx. So don't look at it if you're squeamish.
I had a blast in fencing today. I'm a little out of practice since Spring Break, but it was really refreshing. I haven't had such a workout in a long time. It's the only sweat-breaking sport that I love.
Mom got her tax return so now we have money. We felt so rich that we ordered a pizza. A rarity by far.
Jake has recently started doing something annoying. He whistles. Contantly. Any time there is no music playing, he is whistling. It's not bad to whistle, but it does wear a little on others' nerves when you never stop. Especially when your brain is built like mine - I can't concentrate on anything with music playing. So when he's whistling and I'm trying to think - it drives me bonkers. But he doesn't do it to annoy me so I really can't spite him for it. It's a subconscious thing. Besides, he gave me a snickers bar for no reason today. Wasn't that nice?
Passing Thoughts
3-19-02
I enjoy my CS class, even though it is just lecture on technical computer stuff. Not just because it's useful, but because my teacher makes it fun. He's really relaxed about it and often makes jokes. Like today he was talking about his car when in college. He said it ate gas so fast that the fuel gauge could be used as a fan. Then he said you know your car's really slow when your exhaust goes faster than you. Then he said that his car was so slow that it was made the official car of the Amish. Heh.
After class I walked down to the computer lab to copy down the times it would be open so I could come in and work on my homework tomorrow or something. I was suddenly overcome by a great thirst and started searching for a water fountain. I found one, but the aftertaste was terrible. I wonder what's in it. Bleh.
There are these little shower like deals in the hallways of the EPS building. They have a compelling little chain you can pull and a mini plastic sink with an eye on it. Apparently this device is for emergencies - just in case you get doused with a burning toxic chemical. I know they teach physics in this building because once I accidently attended a class, and I've seen "Warning: high-powered laser in use" on doors, but I've not seen any chemistry stuff except for those giant silver-wire molecules that hang from the ceiling at the entrance. I guess it must be a chemistry building though, or else they wouldn't need those little shower deals with the tempting pull-chains along the walls. I wish I could see one work. Not that I'd want someone to be sprayed with burning chemicals - but I'd still like to see what happens when that chain is pulled.
So then, on the way home I stopped and cashed my tax return so I would have money to pay bills. I grabbed a rootbeer dum-dum sucker on the way out and ate it all the way to the art building. I saw Alex (short for Alexa or something) from my highschool Physics class, but she didn't acknowledge my existance. But I said her name in my head so I wouldn't forget it. I do that a lot. Name people in my head. There's Bat from Mongolia. There's Cal. There's Denise...
I stopped in the art building to work on my dragon again. I hung up my coat, set down my bag, then put my coat back on and picked my bag back up because I remembered that my tools were at home. I looked for the muskrat in the little campus stream, but I guess he's still hibernating. There was, however, a big black trashbag in the water. Litterbugs, bah. On the way home I thought about how the sign to the day care looked like "Lousy Skunk Daycare" instead of "Louise Shunk Daycare". Then I imagined the guy walking towards me leaping suddenly at me in a mad fit of psychotic insanity, but he didn't. I sung a Radiohead song and wondered if the little chunk of ice I kicked down the road yesterday was still on our porch. Walking that route is always boring. When I finally got home, I saw that my little tupperware container full of dirt had been upset. I was annoyed because I have been keeping a container of dirt there for a good reason. In the fall I had found a caterpillar on the sidewalk and Will the entomologist said that if I gave him soft dirt to tunnel in he might make a cocoon. So I did and he buried himself and I've kept the container on the porch ever since, imagining how cool it will be to see a moth emerge in the summer when it warms up. Since the container was already spilled, I thought I'd search and make sure the cocoon wasn't spilled out too.
It wasn't, but it wasn't a cacoon. Just a shriveled dead caterpillar. Aw, man. I was disappointed. Here, all this time I'd been awaiting the magic of metamorphosis, but it wasn't going to happen. I guess the dirt wasn't deep enough or something.
Ice Skidding
3-20-02
The "I got it" thing was not intentional, by the way. I really didn't know they would think I meant the take-out container. We ate out at the Mongolian BBQ. It was good. We haven't eaten out in a while so it was nice. I had a hard time deciding which of two incidents to illustrate for the comic. One was the broccoli comment and the other was what happened when we got home. I ran ahead of everyone because it was really cold (today it was 5 degrees) and I wanted to get inside ASAP. I didn't know then, but Merit had formed a snowball and bet Mom and Jack that he could hit me from down on the ground (we live on a second story). As he ran towards the apartment, snowball raised and ready to launch, he slipped. It was hillarious and painful at the same time. He's so tall and lanky...to see his feet fly into the air over his head is just...humorous. He did get hurt, though. Poor kid. Scraped up his hands something terrible and sprained his wrist. He even had to go the the hospital. He obtained a cool black brace/cast thing plus a good excuse to not partake in various academic activities.
Today I finished my dragon. Put scales on it for five hours. Bleh. At least it's done. Had fun fencing again. I tried my right hand for the first time, but it didn't work very well. That's about it.
It's Cold.
3-21-02
Today I wanted to get ahead but didn't. I planned to skip laundry and do it Saturday and stay at the computer labs instead to do homework. But when I got there and got all settled down and pulled my books out, I found that I needed my 3 1/2" floppy disk, and I had left it at home. Nyeh! I walked all the way back through the freezing snow, deciding that I will just have to do what I can at home and finish the homework tomorrow when the lab opens at 1:00. It's cutting things close since it's due at 5:00, but I didn't have time to trek back across campus a second time, and I might as well do laundry and eat lunch, right? So I did. On the way home I walked along the banks of the campus stream again, looking for the muskrat (who Mom says is out and about again), but only found duck tracks. Other than that, it was a rather miserable journey home, it being about 10 degrees or less. I wore three layers and a hood over my hat plus mittens...and I was still miserable. My nose ran and my eyes watered, and neither my clothes nor my mittens were very absorbant. It was good to be home. My brothers didn't have to go to school until after noon because of tests or something, so Jake was watching Star Wars when I came in. Mertle and his girlfriend came in while I was dribbling - er - eating soup and made a "constitution" on black paper with a vulture on it. I commented that it looked more like a death certificate. Eventually they all left and I thought I would finally eat that dinosaur my sister gave me at Christmas. It was very tricky because it was a strange shape and I cut my mouth on it once, but I ate it anyway because...um...I don't know. Lemon-lime isn't my favorite, and it was a little hard to devour, but I found it to be a challenge worth undertaking. Some other stuff happened, but none of it is interesting enough to tell.
Out of Ideas
3-22-02
Today was unusually nice compared to the past few days. Sunny and bright despite the clouds. I slept in, periodically waking to stupid country music. At one point I heard some decent stuff and woke up a little more, only to find that it was a Pepsi commercial. Some twangy music cut in and I turned it off and turned on my Proclaimers CD. After the drunk song I turned that off and felt disillusioned. I have this bad habit of imagining that people are like me and then getting really bummed when I find they're not. So I finished my homework at the CS lab and started for home once again. There were electricians working on light posts and I saw that you could remove a plate from the bottom and mess with the wiring. I thought, "If I were an evil predator I would use this information for evil. I would cut all the wires in a certain area of a street so that I could hide in the shadows and get someone." Then I thought that the electricians should be more careful. Then I thought, "No, that's silly. If an evil predator wants to be evil, he will be evil wether electricians are secretive about the little plates or not." Yes. I am weird.
I stopped at the SUB (the building where everyone hangs out and eats and sleeps and gets info) and visited the Exit Gallery where there were some wonderful oil paintings that made me feel happy. I was very hungry, but my wallet was empty. But then I remembered that I had my checkbook. So I splurged and got a wrap from Avagadros. I like that place because it seems clean and the food seems healthy. I got my usual - a "free bird wrap". I usually hate tomatoes and onions, but the way Avagadros combines them into the wrap makes them remarkably delicious. I don't eat them any other way (aside from tomato sauce and ketchup). I thought I'd draw a guy sleeping in the lounge, but he kept moving around so I just drew the cartoon. It's stupid and has no punch line. I left for home once more and walked near the campus stream to look for the muskrat again, but all I got out of that was a wet sock because my hiking boot's sole has split. So now I have holy pants AND my shoes are falling apart. I feel like a bum.
I got home and inked the comic and then everyone came home. Mom made a face at my comic saying, "I don't get it." and Jake wanted me to explain it. I couldn't, of course. It has no explanation. It's stupid. Pete came home with Jake and offered me gummy dinosaurs. I was immediately suspicious because there were so many and he didn't seem very posessive of them. I touched one and it was really hard and so I didn't eat one, but when mom and Mertle came home they both were given the opportunity to gnaw on the ancient rock-hard gummy candies. Fossilized is the word.
Mom bugged me about calling the campus police again. I thought I would be through with them after I bought my parking sticker - and was further convinced that all parking business was settled with them when I sold my dead car, but Mertle got a parking ticket recently and he doesn't have a sticker. So since his truck is in my name (don't ask why...I'm not even sure myself anymore), Mom wants me to ask if my parking permit can be changed to the truck since I no longer have my car with the sticker they gave me on it. I don't want to talk to them. Talking to the police about parking tickets and permits is about as thrilling as filling out forms.
(sigh)
Okay I'm done whining. Sorry the comic sucks.
Leigh Zee
3-24-02
I've been a bum. Sorry. I drew something yesterday, but I didn't finish it because I was drawing someone else's character and I wanted to make sure his clothes were right before I inked it. So it's still in pencil. I also couldn't think of anything and was just plain lazy.
I saw the highschool talent show Saturday night and annoyed my friend by poking her and invading one of her acquaintance's personal space. Then I got really tired and quiet and thought, "Wow. I have this natural talent for making myself odious to others and I'm not sure why that is." Perhaps I get sick of being serious and dignified as well as being cooped up at home and college and so I go temporarily insane with joy when I am alone with friends. I knew I had to draw something so I did. I drew a pathetic little humanoid.
I had to go see the Royal Tenenbaums today for a film class assignment and it was alright. I enjoyed the characters.
A really cool thing happened today as well. Our TV/VCR combo thingy messed up and wouldn't play this tape. So my mom took it back to Costco and got a refund. $339. We used it to get a flatscreen and a DVD player. We all thought that was pretty awesome. We rented "The ONE" for tonight and...I'm going to watch it now and eat popcorn so goodbye.
Spring is here!
3-25-02
Well today was very nice! Very warm outside. No muskrat still. Lots of singing birds, nest-building, and ducks eating mud. I made some giant cylinders on the potter's wheel today and grew to loathe it even more. I'm not good at it, and I don't want to get better because that would require practice and I don't like it.
So...I guess that's it. Nothing really happened.
Craving Chocolate
3-26-02
Once again the sky is blue, the clouds are white, mapies are ripping twigs off of trees for their nests, and the muskrat is still hiding. The more the snow melts, the more garbage I see. But the smell is not as bad today. The magpies probably have something to do with that and there are probably bugs hatching as well, but I've not noticed any. Scratch that. A gnat just flew into my face.
This morning I attended a small training session at the bookstore so that I can count inventory correctly with their little hand-held computer devices. It seems rather simple and sounds really delicious. They will serve us doughnuts at 9 and Pickle Barrel sandwiches for lunch and provide bowls of candy in between. Some job, eh? Pickle Barrel sandwiches are some of the best on this our beloved planet. They are huge and fresh and...and - soooo delicious. How can one describe taste?
My hand is quivering again. Sometimes it scares me because I don't know what it means. Maybe I'm going to get Parkinson's disease. Or maybe I don't take enough vitamins or eat enough. Or maybe it's just a nerve thing I was born with. Or maybe it's because of the bruise Gary gave my knuckles in fencing yesterday. Oh well.
So at 1:30 it's off to my Self Defense class where I will likely be choked, pushed, and shoved up against a wall. I volunteered for this, can you believe it? Actually, it's quite fun and I learn a lot. One of the worst things about it is that, as an assistant, I must wear a mustard yellow shirt. And that's not so horrible...I guess.
There are so many things I need to do...but I just want to relax. I need to try making Indole's company logo again, finish the picture I started Saturday, get my hair cut or something, and catch up on some readings. Maybe I'll work on the picture. Maybe I'll work on the logo. Or maybe...I'll just take a cat nap.
[Here's that picture I started Saturday]
Long Day
3-27-02
Well it snowed again. Not regular snow though - snow that's like bits of styrofoam. It didn't last long, but as luck would have it I had to walk through it. Now things are warming again. I spent all morning in the ceramics room finishing my dumb mugs and forming and re-forming and re-forming handles for them. My back hurts from leaning over. I was so glad to get out of there. Normally I love working with clay, but as I said before - not on the wheel. And two hours is way too long to put into two stupid handles. They kept coming out deformed and mis-shapen or they'd pull apart or crack when I tried to form them.
So now I'm home. I ate a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich and talked to the junkyard man and the campus police about the parking sticker. I really need to get some laundry done...and get a haircut. And do a bunch of other stuff. Tonight I get to go to a concert. One of my friends is a singer/violinist and she's come back up from Tennessee for a concert. Josh* invited me to go. Bought me a ticket and everything. Heh heh.
Heh.
(* Josh is the dog in the February 17th comic)
Oh I'm Just Glad to be Me.
3-28-02
Another day. More school. I've been running late all day, but I never suffered for it. Not that I will be doing it again - no no no. Not if I can help - well I mean, I guess I could have helped it today if I hadn't read comics in the morning or worked on my cartoon up to the last minute after lunch. I guess all I can say is, "I'll try to do better next time so that I won't have to suffer or be a spectacle."
I was thinking about a lot of stuff today. Wondering if some of the things I do are not so unusual. Here are some of the things that may characterize me as odd:
I hold my breath when I walk by a smoker or an exhaust spewing vehicle.
I squawk at birds when I think no one is around.
I go out of my way to step on ice in the winter and leaves in the fall so I can hear them crunch.
When I am bored, I sometimes move the skin of my hands back and forth so I can see my bones and tendons underneath.
If I find a spider inside the house, I either take it outside and release it (because they eat other insects - which I appreciate), or I put it in a container and take it to the entomology labs for analysis.
I like to create elaborate solutions to simple problems (i.e. my lamp next to my bed broke, so I was left with the choice of either not reading before bed, or reading and then crawling back out from under my warm comforter to flick the light off when I'm too tired to stay awake any more. I hated the idea of getting up when I just wanted to go to sleep, but I also wanted to read until I couldn't read anymore. My solution? I tied a thread to the lightswitch, ran it under my rug, and tied a miniature ruler to the other end so I could pull it and turn the light off when I was tired.)
I find it easy (and fun!) to spend hours and hours drawing and editing a picture.
I'm fine with fighting with and teasing others, but I can't bear people touching and hugging me (close relatives and close female friends excluded)
I like black licorice.
I am addicted to wintergreen lifesavers.
If someone tells me their name I will most likely forget it in the next second, despite my best efforts.
I can't roll my tongue or my "R"s (It's a good thing I wasn't born in a Spanish-speaking culture).
I prefer glasses over contacts because I find the time it takes to clean contacts to be quite a hassle.
I hate perfume.
I like to throw grass at people.
Sometimes I run in short bursts for no particular reason.
I sleep with my head under the covers 'cause it's warm.
Sometimes I talk to complete strangers as I pass them on the sidewalk (i.e. To cellphone man in winter after he crossed the road: "Were you aware that that vehicle couldn't stop?")
I find it easy to impersonate a certain pokemon, but am rather embarrassed when I do.
I treasure my collection of plastic dinosaurs.
I keep my toothbrush in my room in the claws of a rubber monster.
I have little jars of dead bugs under my bed, animal skins in my closet, and a broken coyote on my dresser that I glued back together and gave prosthetic legs out of plasticine clay.
Pizza Tastes Best when there's Someone to Share it with
3-29-02
Wow, March is almost over! And so is Friday! Today has just whizzed by because it's the one weekday I don't have any classes. I got to sleep in 'til I was good and ready to wake up. Then I took a loooooooong shower, checked mail, and wrote some stuff. Before I knew it, it was 1:00. I was surprised. My mom took me out to Godfather's Pizza because she had a coupon and we had a nice conversation (mostly). The guy behind the counter seemed to be having a bad day because he was a little cross. We had fun jabbering on about college and friends and such. Near the end we watched some dad pour money into a claw machine and repeatedly lose cheap stuffed animals. His kids were gathered around and one found the fire extinguisher and put the spray tube up to her eye to look inside. It cracked Mom and I up...not sure why. It was just funny. The man finally got a clown or something and we left. I took my online quiz at home and then role played a bit. Read some Hank the Cowdog then drew the comic and then suddenly it's 5:30! The campus family housing people always give away free bread at 5:30 and it has become my obligation to go get it. I am the designated "bread girl". I guess that's okay. I know how the system works now (squeeze through and grab what you can as fast as you can before the rest of the mob). Anyway, I'd better go do that. I suppose I will go to sleep early tonight since that bookstore job is tomorrow at 7 a.m.
Not such an interesting day, but relaxing uneventful days are a good thing, right?
Counting Cards
3-30-02
I set my alarm for 5:45 a.m. last night so that I could definitely get to the bookstore on time for my one-day job. This morning instead of my alarm, I awoke to tapping on my wall. My eyes popped open and I squinted blindly at the clock and was surprised to see that it was 6:09. What??? Why hadn't my alarm gone off? Mom walked in.
"Are you up?"
"Yes! Yes!" I leapt out. Why hadn't my alarm gone off??? I pushed the alarm button and found that I'd set it for 5:45 P.M. by accident. Thank goodness my mom is an early bird.
On my way to the store I took a small detour along the campus creek to look for the muskrat. Surely I would be able to see it THIS time since animals come out at twilight and early dawn. Nope. Not this rodent. Lazy bum. All I found was a pair of mallard ducks. Quack.
Well I got to work with time to spare and was teamed up with Ellen - a grayish haired lady who was very momish and nice and appreciated my jokes. We spent all morning counting greeting cards:
6 at $2.25. 5 at $3.00. 25 at $1.00. 6 at $2.25. 4 at $2.00...etc...etc...
I counted them and she tapped out the numbers on the register. We only had a few mistakes and when I got really bored and started to zone out like some robot, I would stop and tell a joke. It always perked us up because Ellen laughed so hard even though they were corny "a ______ walked into a bar..." jokes. We had doughnuts at 9 and then Pickle Barrel sandwiches at 11:45. By lunch we were all done and everyone was happily surprised with how fast we finished. I packed up the remaining half of my sandwich (they are rather large) and walked joyously home. I drew the cartoon, then came out to scan it and found Mom on the computer. That's okay. It's HER computer, after all...
But she stayed on for 6 hours! I never thought it'd take so long to type out answers to 8 questions! Granted, there were multiple answers and my mom is a perfectionist, but...I was going through withdrawal man.
I read some "Star Wars: Crimson Empire" comics that a guy lent me and then ate the rest of my sandwich. Then I started my third Hank the Cowdog book. Then Mom wanted me to listen to her presentation and time her. I did. It was a good presentation. And now that I've posted the comic I must leave again. There is an intriguing guy at Hastings who is only 18, but has published his own book (and illustrated the cover). I thought it might be interesting to meet him. Not many people like that. So that's where I'm headed. That's it for today. Sorry if I got that stupid "Sandman" song stuck in your head yesterday. (Oops - hope I didn't do it again!) Heh heh heh.
Happy Easter
3-31-02
I thought I'd start setting this up so that the cartoon matches up with the writing. So tomorrow evening the Monday cartoon will be up with the monday writing. Today I thought I'd do a little holiday thing and since all my characters are real people, I didn't feel right about talking for them. I mean, what if they wanted to say something other than a unified "Happy Easter"? So I let them all write their own little dialog box and this is what came out of it. That dog on the far left is Pete. You may recognize him from other comics. He's Jake's friend, but I still haven't added him to the Character page. I will though. Sometime soon.
This morning I stumbled out into the living room and found my Easter ziplock bag in the second place I looked. Killed the excitement of the hunt, but I was able to flaunt my candy in front of my frustrated brothers who just couldn't seem to find theirs, heh heh. We all had a wonderful Easter breakfast of pancakes, and after church we had dinner with roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and gravy. It was rather tastey. I'm pretty tired of sweet stuff right now, but at least I'm not sick. I used to do that all the time when I was a kid. Eat until I was sick. But only if it was dessert or candy, heh heh heh. That may have something to do with my current loathing for those nasty marshmellow chicks, cotton candy, and cheap jelly beans (except the black ones). There IS such thing as too much sugar.
Yesterday when I met that 18-year-old book writer, I was a little disillusioned. He was very excited and was dressed up in some medievel outfit. At first I caught his excitement, but the more I talked to him, the more he talked about himself and how smart he was. He wasn't that interested in getting to know new people it seemed. Oh well. I got home and vented at the Roach and role-played as grouchy Vizon who happened to fit my mood at the moment. That's one good thing about role playing. Instead of yelling at people or being destructive around the house, you can get into a virtual fight and kill someone. I didn't kill anyone, but that was okay. I'm in a much better mood and...oh dear I'm late. My, but time does fly.
Have a happy holiday! Goodbye!
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