Hey there, Idiots.
(I bill myself as being crass, eventually you knew I’d make good on it.)

So how’s this blog thing working out for everyone? I’m really enjoying it, and surprised to still see a few comments crop up. The few, the proud! Thanks for sticking with me.

I did some (see: all) of my holiday shopping (can’t really call it Christmas shopping, can I? Do non-believers get to lay claim to the holiday yet? I think not.) on the 22nd, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I don’t even know why, but there in checkout-lane 16 at Target, as the woman scanned my meager assortment of items destined for gift-dom, I felt strangely embarrassed. Not so much becuase I’d put off my shopping, but that I was shopping for gifts at all. As near as I can tell, such a feeling is derived from the Counter-Culture Component of my personality (est. 2002), which I thought had since subsided.

Not doing stuff becuase everyone else is doing it is about as dumb as doing stuff becuase everyone else is doing it. And so, I’ve forgone that old dichotomy of either trying to “fit in” or “stand out”. I don’t really have the energy for that type of conviction these days. I just thought it was funny that I still have residual emotions from worldviews I held more than five years ago.

Since I’ve been home I’ve started doing this weird thing. Not necessarily new, but really weird. Have you ever fallen asleep in front of the television before? I know it happens on accident, but I’ve started doing it on purpose. Ethan accused me of turning into my father, but it’s different. Dad sleeps in front of the TV becuase he’s never done with what he wants to do. Going to bed is an admission of defeat to your day, so to speak (I know becuase I think along similar lines; as long as you stay above the covers, you might still finish that final task…). What I’ve started doing is different.

I went downstairs, blanket in hand, sat down, flipped on the set. At my house, since we pay for Super Mega Cable, we have this thing where you pick what movie you want to watch, and you can watch it for free. I use it mostly for the porn, but tonight I chose the Bourne Ultimatum. I’ve never seen this movie, but when it started, I promptly curled up and fell asleep.

I saw… maybe five minutes of the film. Matt Damon all running around a train station and whatnot. The real point of this story is that I took the trouble to load up a movie I’d never seen, and would otherwise watch, but with the express intention of falling asleep! What would posses me to do such a thing; how does one justify it?! I’m unsure.

Today I read a bunch of webcomics. It’s a thing I do. My apologies to friends/family who may have received unsolicited webcomic-links in their inboxes in the past few days… I’m kindof into them for the moment. Particularly the history/randomness of Kate Beaton, along with the stark (and on occasion, delightfully crude) insight of A Softer World. I’ve been enjoying both quite a lot, however:

There was a moment in there were it simply became too much. Reading hipster webcomics is bad enough, but in that moment Sufjan Stevens came up in my iTunes which had been shuffling about. I almost keeled over and died, such was the spike in my indie cred levels. Alas, that is not the real me, and a track from the Star Wars soundtrack was quick to follow Sufjan, bringing my cred levels back to within the acceptable tolerance range from “loser” to “nerdy guy”. Thank heavens.

Reading a lot of webcomics always instills me with this strange sense of purpose. I feel like I could make a webcomic. So strong was this feeling, way back when, in days long-since-gone-by (Brak Blog, c. 2004 to be exact), I actually MADE a webcomic! I did. Below is the cumulative sum of fruition that came of that dream:

Uninspired, I know. I am, however, pretty impressed with the art. Not great, but not… vomit-inducing. Sad that that’s the best thing I can find to say about it, but hey. A spade’s a spade, right? And that was four years ago. I’ve loved a lot of ladies, learned a lot of physics, and grown exponentially more pretentious since then. Perhaps the dream is not lost just yet?

I think that problem is that I put the cart before the horse. How about I hone my drawing skills first, THEN maybe try and include some variety of wit or wisdom. Guess what!? New blog-feature! I’ll steal our scanner from downstairs (Mom threw it down there because it didn’t fit with the aesthetic of our new office furniture…), set it up in the Command Center 2.0 next semester, and you’ll all bear witness to how terrible my art is.

Guess I’ll go draw now.
*CRAP!*

(Year-End Album Reviews Up Soon. I’M GLARING AT YOU IAN.)