You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2008.
Despite the fact that sitting in my house, in front of my computer, in my comfy aeron chair, with a coffee or tea is one of my favorite places on earth to be, it seems to be almost impossible to go home and do this after spending nine or ten hours doing it at the office. I guess this is why I so often end up on the couch watching Law & Order reruns or bad reality tv.
I’ve made some really serious goals for myself though for the next couple months. It will mean a lot of hard work and a very tiny amount of fun and “relaxation” but I hope to have some real progress and close out some projects. Wish me luck.
It’s true. Two crazy and semi-awesome things happened to Adam and I when we were out and about in the city a couple months ago, and I want to do a comic about it, but it’s just not condusive to a little four page cartoony strip (well, not with my mediocre skills). I am considering doing and epic-ish “comic page” about it, but still, my skills are so weak, it will be hella difficult to draw. (Yeah, I’m bringing “hella” back – you gonna start trouble?!). Anyway, I’ll think about it…
Heads Up: I’m going out of town this afternoon for work and probably won’t have access to a computer tomorrow while I’m away, but dedicated that I am, I still have a comic for Friday, but it’s just going to post later this afternoon…
This is a great little new show. You may have seen an ad for it in an actual theater – which is where Adam and I first heard about it, and marks maybe the first time ever that I wasn’t pissed to be watching an ad in a theater. It is a good show, but there are some problems, it can get a little repetitive and neither Adam or I like the opening.
Eugene Cussons, the ”host” I guess is what you’d call him, is charming, without being overly nice and sweet and “perform-y” for the camera, and sometimes you can see that other than saving chimps for a living he might kind of be a dick…which oddly, makes me like him more, if only because he seems more real. He’s got a great foreign accent (South African? I’m not sure) but that also makes me like him more…I’m a sucker for a British-like accents. The real stars of course are the chimps which are insanely cute and human-like, especially the young ones, which tend to be less scarred and traumatized and more interested in just hanging out with Eugene and being adorable and climbing trees.
The show consists of three primary elements – Eugene finding and rescuing chimps that are being mistreated, or that have been stolen, or are scheduled for termination (etc.); dealing with the frustrating details of the respective governments and travel and the myriad of other obstacles that get put in his way; and Chimp Eden itself, which is primarily a beautiful fenced in reserve where he can rehabilitate the chimps. My favorite bits are of course at Chimp Eden, if only because it seems less sad and more sweet and optimistic than seeing how badly many of these animals are treated, however the show can turn on a dime. Last week as Jao, a big “grandfather chimp” in “The Kindergarden” (he’s in with the young chimps because he is too aggressive to be in with the adults) all of a sudden tried to yank off Eugene’s boot - pulling him out of a tree – and almost taking his foot off. They constantly remind you on the show that the chimps are ten times stronger than a human, but man is it easy to forget. Eugene kept his foot (and his boot) in the end, but it was really intense.
Escape To Chimp Eden is on Friday’s at 9pm on Animal Planet, although you can catch repeats all the time as well.
You can learn more about the show here and can also check out a clip on youtube here, it’s not the greatest clip, not the one I would choose, but the best one I could find today.
This movie had plotholes big enough to drive mack trucks through them, but it was really the lights issue that bothered me most. They’re hiding out in an attic for a long time (like weeks – though we get no sense that it has been that long) and the entire freaking time they have the lights on…if you are hiding from vampires – vampires that have been portrayed as the ultimate hunters and badasses no less – would you really keep the attic lights on for two plus weeks, and keep peeking out of a pulled back piece of kraft paper taped over a window? No, you would not. Also, these vampires are so smart…why did they not cut off the back-up/generator power to the town after the cut the regular power. And does back-up/generator power really power an entire town for 30 days? It was very frustating for me.
Even though the movie was chock full of holes in logic, it was quite pretty, from Josh Hartnett right on down to the images of bloody massacre on snow (I know that doesn’t really sound beautiful – but from an artistic perspective it was kind of stunning). Overall it was a very pretty movie, and since I’m a scaredy cat there were times that I was into it and scared, but it was pretty disappointing – mostly because it could have been SO awesome – and it just fell really really short. It’s probably 2 1/2 stars for me, which means I have to pick between 2 stars and 3 stars on netflix. Ah, the half star conundrum continues…
Does this happen to anyone else? This weekend was a perfect example. I had cleared a lot of time for writing (and drawing) but I wanted to focus mostly on writing and specifically on some short stories that are on the brink of being ready for submission, yet I really only managed to write for a couple hours on Sunday night. Why oh why does this happen? It is SO frustrating. I literally fantisize about how awesome it is going to be to be home and writing when I am at work or doing anything else, but when the time comes things always get in my way, and sometimes I even seem to put things there. Very frustrating.
Panel #4’s text is a shout out to Adam. I think we all hate it when cop shows have some crappy grainy footage which they are magically able to “enhance” to see someone’s face, or on this specific show I was watching, it was a cop’s badge number, but Adam hates it more than anyone. A show I was watching recently got a cop’s badge number off some grainy two seconds of footage. Literally the line as the actor left the “lab tech techy” was “Increase the resolution, do whatever you have to do, but get me that badge number!” Seriously? When will this stop? Are the writers the ones that are so stupid? Producers? How does this happen when most of the semi-tech savy world knows shit like this is impossible?
Anyone watch the Oscars? My man Jon Stewart was great as always, and some well deserved wins with some nice surprises mixed in there. Here’s a list of the nominees and winners in case you missed out and are curious.
Yeah. Questions? Comments? Knock yourselves out…I’ll just be lying over here dead…
NBC has put a well deserved bullet in Bionic Woman…whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!
To answer the question at the end of this short article – “what felled Bionic Woman in the end?” It was absolutely without a doubt the horrible wooden performance of lead actress Michelle Ryan, unless it was her performance combined with the off the charts bad writing…
If any of you reading here recommended it you should die. Just kidding, the film was recommended to me by a pretty wide swath of people and general reviews, so I’m not blaming anyone. I should have just trusted my instincts, but y’know, sometimes you lose faith in yourself in a little bit and you waver. This was a nice reminder that I know what I like and I can spot what I’m probably not gonna like with fairly good accuracy. It didn’t help of course that by the time we watched it, Adam and I were both pretty convinced it was going to be great. Raised expectations can ruin even a good movie. Not this one since it’s not a good film, but it didn’t help matters.
As for Gone Baby Gone, that was a good movie. I really liked Casey Affleck. I’ve liked him ever since I saw him in Gerry, a film that made many people – including my roommate Kyle that I dragged with me to see it on Valentine’s day years and years ago- want to kill themselves – but I liked it – and I particularly liked Casey Affleck and Matt Damon’s performances in it. Affleck has a nice very real quality about him that appeals to me and even when he’s doing accents the performance is nice and subtle. Gone Baby Gone was a pretty tight film and the direction was surprisingly well handed by Ben Affleck. He’s less distracting behind the camera I have to say, than in front of it. I had a couple minor problems with the end, but overall it was good. I gave it three netflix stars, but I wanted to give it three and a half. Damn you Netflix and your inability to let me use half stars…!
I know, it doesn’t really make sense, but I guess I thought when I got my head together, the rest would follow. Now, arguably my head is not together just because I’ve been in therapy for a year, but it’s better. Actually, I’m not really sure it’s better…no fault of the therapist, or me really, 2007 was just a really hard year, and you can’t expect to get better or “together” when all you’re doing is surviving. Regardless, I continue to hold on to the possibly erroneous belief that getting my head together will be the first step to making the body come along in the direction I want it to. It would be great if it could start coming along before I go to Hawaii in July…how about that body? C’mon!
Sidenote: I think I’m getting sick (again). Adam has been sick since Saturday night and I’ve been taking care of him. I thought I dodged it with clever handwashing and taking vitamins and such, but my throat hurts this morning, so all that damn hand washing may have been for naught. Anyway, I’ve already got a comic scanned and ready for tomorrow, but I haven’t done Friday’s yet, so we may have the first ever Rabid Lamb Comic interruption if I get hit with this thing. Maybe it would be best if you all mentally prepare yourselves now…I know your day just won’t be right without a morning comic from Rabid Lamb… 
Shoutout: A special shoutout/thank you to Josh, who has been helping both Adam and I whore out our blogs. The line of widgets you see on the bottom of some of these posts is my blatant attempt to get more traffic…and it’s all thanks to Josh. Thanks Josh!
Yeah, you can see how fun it can be.
Anyone who calls a terrible Poison jam as my jam, then they’re gonna deserve some serious payback. And calling someone’s known favorite song as your jam, is pretty much the ultimate My Jam Game revenge. Ah, it’s so sweet. Adam has called plenty of my favorite songs for himself, so don’t be feeling too bad for him. Though I confess as I think about this that I don’t know that he’s ever called my all time favorite song as his jam…hmmm…maybe an apology is in order…
Okay, Rabid Lamb Comic #83 needs some explanation. I know, that is cheesy and lame, but I’m dealing with only four panels here and very little ability, so let’s cut me some slack shall we? Thanks.
Years ago…six? seven? I don’t really know for sure since I wasn’t there, Adam and two friends of his, James and Andrew, fellow co-workers at an infamous pizza joint in Savannah named Vinnie Van Go Go’s invented a now somewhat famous game called the My Jam Game. The rules are simple.
!. You hear a song you love, a song that is ‘your jam’ so to speak, and you claim it by calling out My Jam. Anyone beats you to it then it is not your Jam, it is theirs. You’d be surprised what competitive fun this is, and how much it jacks you into the music you’re listening to.
2. You want to piss people off? Is there a horrible song on? Well, go ahead and call Your Jam for the song and point to them (or say Kelly’s Jam) whatever. See comic strip for a detailed illustration of this.
3. There are no other rules. People are often trying to add on additional rules and expand the game, which kind of pisses the creators off quite frankly. Things like calling songs as “my ultimate jam” or “my jam of all time” things like that. My friend Kyle and I created an offshoot of the My Jam Game, based on the original, but that is a story for another time.
The end result is that this game is awesome. Adam and I play it basically every day as it has just become a part of our relationship. Great song on? My Jam. Horrible song on? Your Jam. It’s good fun.
Sidenote: I’m sure Adam will be happy to correct me in the comments section if I’ve gotten anything wrong.
Editors Note: I know you all probably think my proportions are WAY off in this cartoon, but sadly that is about how we fit in the freaking cartoon clown car that we recently rented for some errand running. Shoulder to shoulder and with Adam’s head jammed into the ceiling. Good times!
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
A little post-Valentine’s day naughty doppelganger treat for everyone.
This comic is actually born of a dream Adam has had in which I’m there…twice. Me and my doppelganger. Of course his dream is less pleasant than my comic, as in his dream I believe the real Kelly gets pissed at him for holding hands with the doppelganger Kelly, which depending on my mood, is pretty accurate. I think there was even a second doppelganger dream later as well. Adam care to comment? Anyway, it’s been rolling around in my brain almost since I started doing this strip, so it was high time the doppelgangers appeared…heels and all.
Since I’m off today I’m looking at a 4 day weekend…which could pretty much not look MORE awesome, especially now that my computer nightmares are worked out and I got good news from that second agency. I hope you all get Monday off like me and make the most of it, I know I plan to. Did anyone do anything for the dreaded V-Day? Was it a bust or a grand success? Did you eat your weight in chocolate? Let’s hear it…
Hee hee. This is surprisingly accurate. I’ve had to clean up Adam’s ears like 50 times already since June.
To his credit, this would drive anyone nuts, especially someone so well versed in computers and someone that spends so much time on line. It’s a horrible situation. We’re (and by we’re I mean “he, and maybe I’ll chip in for his birthday”) saving up for a new machine for him. It will be a great day for both of us when he no longer has this internet disconnection issue.
Happy V-Day to everyone. I wish I had a special V-Day strip for you guys today, but it just didn’t happen. I do have a slightly naughty post V-Day strip for tomorrow though…so make sure to tune in. Hopefully most of you are doing something nice for yourself or your loved one on this most corporate of holidays. It’s funny, I hated Valentine’s Day when I was single, and now that I’m not, it’s really not that much better, just corporate pigs, feasting on our poor needy little carcasses. It’s so sad.
Yet I still hope I get some Sees chocolate though…I’m a sheep, what can I say?
Best Books READ of 2007 (fiction)
It turns out that 5 of my 10 best books of 2007 were in fact published in 2007, and an additional 2 were paperbacks which were released in 2007…so this list has more validity than I expected. Yay for me!…
You can also read Part One and Part Two if you’re feeling left out.
10. Lady Into Fox, By David Garnett. Originally published in 1922, Reprinted by McSweeney’s in 2004.
I’m hesitant to write complicated reviews of each of these books, since I’ve already done that in review format over the year, so I’m just going to link to them here and add a sentence or two if I feel so moved…okay? Great. So Lady Into Fox really surprised the hell out of me. It’s never a book I would have expected to make a top for the year list for me, but I really ended up loving this bizarre story of love and loss…it’s a great creative metaphor for a lot of other things in life. Read more about Lady Into Fox here.
09. Water For Elephants, By Sara Gruen. Published in 2006 (the softcover – which I read – 2007).
Water For Elephants surprised me as well, if only because I don’t consider myself a NY Times Bestseller reader in general, but this book was really beautiful and well conceived. I finished it quickly, which is always a great compliment. Read more about Water For Elephants here.
08. Midnight At the Dragon Cafe, By Judy Fong Bates. Published in 2004 (the softcover – which I read – 2005).
I adored China Dog, Bates book of short fiction, and didn’t figure Midnight At The Dragon Cafe could live up, but I loved this as well. Bates has a brilliant way of turning a story on its ear, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, read more about Dragon Cafe here.
07. Astonishing X-Men #1 – #22, By Joss Whedon & John Cassaday. Published in issues 2006 – 2007.
I can’t say enough good things about this collection, and my only complaint is that it’s ending soon. The last issue of this arc is due to come out soon, and it will signal the end of the Whedon/Cassaday team up. I’m very sad about it, although maybe it means Planetary will someday get finished? One can only hope. Read more here.
06. St. Lucy’s Home For Girl’s Raised By Wolves, By Karen Russel. Published in 2006 (the softcover – which I read – 2007).
This was a great and really creative collection. The title really beautifully summarized what I should expect and it totally delivered. Read more about St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves here.
05. Shortcomings, By Adrian Tomine. Published in collected hardcover format, in 2007.
I’m a huge Tomine fan and Shortcomings is just a beautiful beautiful work. Read more here.
04. One Hundred And Forty-Five Stories In A Small Box, By Dave Eggers, Sarah Manguso, and Deb Olin Unferth. Published in 2007.
I knew this was going to be great, with the creative format and the brilliant ideas that McSweeney’s is always swinging around, but I was unprepared for how much I was going to love both Eggers and Manguso’s books. Manguso’s collection stands out particularly as wildly creative and heartbreaking, although Eggers has my favorite piece overall. Read more here.
03. Famous Father’s Other Stories, By Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Published in 2007.
Ehrhardt was a new author for me and I was incredibly impressed. A wonderful collection. Read more about Famous Fathers & Other Stories here.
02. The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, By Junot Diaz. Published in 2007.
I freaking LOVED this book. It blew me away, and was an excellent way to end the year. I had been anxiously awaiting Diaz’s follow up novel (like everyone else) after I was shocked by his wonderful first book Drown, a collection of short stories. This far surpasses Drown in so many ways. I don’t care how long I have to wait for the next one, so long as it is as good. Read more about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao here.
01. The Road, By Cormac McCarthy. Published in 2006.
What can I say? You don’t win the Pulitzer for writing a mediocre book. I haven’t ready any of McCarthy’s other works, and I’m very intrigued as I love his style, but I suspect he won’t ever be able to hit closer to home for me than he did with this book. Reading The Road was a singular experience that I will always cherish, and sadly, probably never duplicate…but I’ll spend my life trying. Read more about The Road here.
Honorable Mentions: You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am – Tao Lin (Poetry); Tell Me Why – Clare Jacobsen (Non-Fiction); Superbad – Ben Greenman (Short Fiction); No One Belongs Here More Than You – Miranda July (Short Fiction); Transparency – Frances Hwang (Short Fiction); and The Walking Dead – Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard (Graphic Fiction/Comic Book Series).
Worst Book Of The Year: I’m not going to say. I know that’s a cop out, but it’s easier than explaining why it is the worst book I read this year. And words like “bitter” would surely be tossed around in the comments section and y’know what? I don’t need that. :0
Excellent news! Got a request for a full version of my manuscript yesterday via email. For those keeping score (wait, is that just me?) here’s the summary:
#1: Partial Requested and Rejected. Door left nicely open to submit graphic novel when further along
#2: Never heard from them, going to resubmit the query as they show a 3 -4 week turnaround and I think I got lost in the shuffle (or am up on previously mentioned “laughing board”).
#3: Dead. No response to email query. I’m considering it a rejection.
#4. Requested Partial. Sent Partial (first 5 chapters) via mail about two and a half weeks ago – no word yet.
#5. Full Requested. Full will be sent via mail tomorrow 2/14/08.
#6. No response to email query as yet, about 4 weeks out.
#7. No response to regular mail query as yet to HUGE agency, about 3 1/2 weeks out.
#8. Rejected Query.
So, 2 Rejected Queries; 1 Rejected Partial; 1 Requested Partial; 1 Requested full; 3 Queries still living in limbo…not bad. Everyone cross your fingers and hold your breath for about three months okay? Thanks.
Okay, nobody panic, he’s not actually going to kill anyone, or anyone’s kids. He just really really hates these people. Adam kind of hates rich people period (which is too bad, because someday I hope to be one…y’know, a rich person) but he REALLY hates these “Housewives” of Orange County women and their children. He’s right. It is a terrible terrible show. Which I promise not to watch anymore, which is easy to say now, since the season is over.
As a hilarious sidenote, I randomly stumbled upon (ironically not through the stumble upon site) on this awesome website Pretty On The Outside. The writer/artist there has a great bit on this horrible show, complete with crazily accurate (and pretty awesome) drawings of the women on the show. If you’ve ever seen the show, and hate it like I do, but feel compelled to watch it when you see it on you should check out his summaries and drawings. Great stuff.
Updates: Computer. Who-Hoo! I’m up and running. Had to buy a new Mac Mini ($599) with the Extended Three Year Warranty ($149). It’s too bad, as who just has $800 bucks lying around, but there are few things more important to me these days than my computer, so there really wasn’t a choice. The positive side is that it is faster (yay intel!) and has double the hard drive space of my old machine and now I know I’m good for 3 years, AND most importantly of all – my external hard drive has proved to be fine and all my data is intact. First on the agenda this long weekend…burning back up CDs…!
Writer’s Strike. It’s over! Yay! Bring on the work…and if new TV shows come back that’s okay too.
So I guess she meant did we want someone to carry it out for us, or have it delivered to our house or something, but man did her delivery leave a lot to be desired.
It reminds me of a time that my good friend Kyle and I went to see a movie in LA years ago, I think it was Brotherhood Of The Wolf, which is a subtitled film. We were buying our tickets at separate windows right next to each other and my teller said something to the effect of, “Miss, are you aware that this film is foreign, which means that it is subtitled, and it will be necessary to read the words on the screen in order to understand the film?” I said yes, I was aware, and just as I finished saying this I heard Kyle’s teller say to him, “Ya gotta read it.” To which Kyle looked at her like she was insane and said, “uh. okay”.
It was pretty hilarious in retrospect, but pretty sad in reality. It’s obvious that since having that film (or any foreign film?) at that theater the staff had a lot of complaints from people who didn’t understand subtitling, and were insulted to have to read while they watched their precious movie (having worked in a video store for years during college I am sadly too familiar with this phenomenon) but the difference in delivery was also pretty sad. I think my teller, the one with the accurate, polite, and well worded explanation was perhaps the last of her kind…she was probably shot down shortly thereafter so she could be replaced by an idiot that would only say, “Ya gotta read it.”
I’m happy for him, but I’m sad for me. Actually, this makes sense, because not that it is really a big deal, but it is yet another jab at me by the bitch that is karma. Which really blows, because honestly? I’m a pretty freaking good person, and I don’t really think I deserve the karma take down. There must be evidence to the contrary though, because I just spent six excrutiating days trying to repair my computer and get things back to normal, only to have it do the exact thing again last night that started the whole nightmare last week. The added bonus? This time it looks like the hard drive crash may have somehow also fried my external hard drive in the process. WHAT?! Which is great – because the external has, y’know everything I’ve ever written, photos from the last ten years, all the music I’ve loaded for the last 5+ years, everything. And my little extra back up flash drive hasn’t been updated in like a year, because well, the external was supposed to be the back up.
So I’m crossing everything I’ve got that maybe if I can’t save the drive at least some genius at Tekserve or something can save the data. But in the meantime I have to come to work and pretend that everything I need/want/must have is not floating around in limbo somewhere. Great. Just great. Karma? Yeah, F’ you.
Is that a great happy Monday am post or what? Yeah, sorry guys – hope you’re all faring better than I am…
Some of you suggested this very idea this week, and it’s true that cleaning is certainly a better workout than just sitting around watching old episodes of Law & Order, but it’s not a REAL workout and I know this because I generally don’t sweat too much…I just get tired and grouchy. Also, a few of you (ahem, TK42ONE) suggested I put on weights or something while I clean, thus maximizing my cleaning/workout time. While I admit this would certainly maximize my time, I do have to ask, just how much do you WANT me to hate cleaning? Because wearing weights while I clean (which I already hate at like, a ridiculous level) takes me like right over the edge into going insane land.
As a sidenote, can we all please notice how much more attractive I have drawn myself when I am thinking about cookies…versus exercise. Coincidence? Oh, I think not.
Lastly, guess what I have to do at some point today…that’s right…dust bunnies the size of my hand are currently roaming freely across our hardwood floor…
More clever ways to avoid working out…I hope you’re all taking notes on these brilliant suggestions!
