Stuck in Traffik

http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2479.html

Today's theme: Nigerian Finance Minister

Shortpacked!@TNI: It's head-in-a-jar time!
Shortpacked!: Her, uh, anatomy makes slightly more sense than Blackarachnia's.  

Hello!  Everyone and their mother emailed me asking about the lineart for the Mike/Amber Smoochy-Smoochy strip.  Well, you can have it!  But you'll have to fight each other for it first.  That's right, it's auction time.  

As usual, it's on 12"x18" art paper, was rendered in blue pencil and Copic brush marker, and comes to you rolled in a mailing tube.  Add it to your collection!  Or start one.  I'm not fussy.

Auction ends in 5 days.  

So, like, even back before I started getting all the Batman guys from DC Universe Classics, I kinda coveted their Robin.  It was my favorite Robin design ever!  It kinda helps that Tim Drake's One-Year-Later-through-Batman-RIP outfit was based on hisNew Batman Adventures look, sure.  You know me and my Bruce Timm designs.  I liked that the green is dropped and he's just a red, black, and yellow guy.  But the comic takes it a bit further and draws him closer thematically to Batman's motif.  He's got a scalloped cape, for instance.  And those little tufts on his gloves.  And, oh, hey, pockets on his belt!  He's like a mini-Batman with red.  It kinda makes sense, don't it?

I passed it up at the time because I wasn't collectingDCUC, but I am now!  So, yay, an excuse to get him.  And the fun thing is, BigBadToyStore still had him in stock for non-secondary-market prices!  (they don't seem to any more)  And so I was just a day or so away from just going ahead with the whole thing and ordering him when I found that damn Robin at our local Target.  Just sitting there on the shelf.  What?  Okay.  Well.  I guess miracles do happen.  

Robin joins my Batman in punching villains now.  Sometimes he even gets the punching!  (Okay, most of the time.  He's only second behind the Riddler.)  The toy comes with a few accessories.  He's got his martial arts staff that Tim Drake likes to carry around and two Batarangs.  (Robinorangs?  Birdorangs?)  I kinda wish he could store the -rangs in some of his pockets.  But no, they'll probably just get lost.  I prefer the staff.  He also comes with a stand, as he's not part of the "build-a-figure" deal.  

I'm grateful that there's a smaller, teenager-sized body-type for Robin to be.  It just wouldn't do, being the size of everyone else.  Plus, y'know, I guess it'd come in handy for the rest of the Teen Titans.  

Anyway, speaking of Power Rangers, you know how they all wore color-coded outfits when they were in their civilian identities?  Red Ranger wore red, Pink ranger wore pink, etc?  Robin totally did that in the very early comics, I noticed, as I've been reading through my Batman Chronicles collections.  Dick Grayson is always in a yellow collared shirt under a red sweater and green pants.  Wow, that's a bit conspicuous.  Batman probably color-coded his civvies, too, but blue and gray formal wear is a lot less outlandish.

Made some chili last night according to what I remember of the traditional family recipe -no beans, no tomatoes, just beef & spices. Used a whole bag pf ground chile plus a tablespoon of chili powder, but even after sitting overnight in the fridge it just wasn't that hot. Not much of a burn at all; no hotter than what you'd get at Hard Times, really, which was disappointing. It tastes okay, mind you; pretty sure I got the garlic and cumin right. The ground chili was just too mild, though. I guess next time I'll have to use some whole peppers and hope for the best.

The Nationals got another step closer to undoing the damage done by ex-GM Jim Bowden by passing on eternal prospect Austin Kearns and allowing both Dmitri Young and Ron Villone to file for free agency, according to mlb.com. Kearns did little to help the Nats in return for his $17.5 million over the last three years, spending most of his time on the DL and the rest of it being ineffective at the plate. Young was paid a little less ($10 million, 2 years) but was just as rickety and ineffective. Villone, at least, pitched well for the Nationals out of the pen, leading the bullpen in appearances and posting a respectable 4.25 ERA. Frankly, I was hoping they'd re-sign him, but there are other lefty relievers out there.

Catcher Josh Bard and pitcher Livan Hernandez both filed for free agency on Thursday; Bard is old and has a below-average OPS, and Livo is a mediocre innings-eater who can be replaced. I'm hoping for Pudge Rodriguez and...well, I don't know. Most of the decent free agent pitchers are going to be expensive in dollars and draft picks, so maybe the Nats would be better just sticking with the kids.

M made yummy currant scones this morning. *Nom nom* The kitties are rough-housing and chasing each other from one end of the house to the other. Today is bright and sunny and all the leaves have finally dropped, so we'll be raking this afternoon.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2478.html

Today's theme: Space

I hope traffic around Chicago isn't toooo bad on a Sunday morning. Must ship out to Mitsuwa and then home. Will try out this newfangled GPS unit. SHOULD BE HOME BY 8PM CST, ONE SHOULD HOPE.

It is 1:25am. sleepykelvina's wedding was awesome and a hit, and lol being made the technical Maid of Honor the day before. I DID NOT HAVE A SPEECH PREPARED I got handed the microphone at reception tonight and said "Jess is a wonderful person, congratulations." Short. Simple. 8U Uh. I'LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU LATER.

BUT YES, CONGRATS JESS AND ERIC ON YOUR WEDDING. ♥ ♥ ♥

Thanks so much for all your continued support! ^_^ Best of luck to all bidding!

You Look Adorable

Busty Mom Hug

Making Do

Don't Let Go

Appropriately Immature

Trip to the Vet

Should All Blow Over

That's Not Fair

Get Inked

The Connection

Balance a Beer Bottle

Animal Control

*FLAIL*

There are remastered versions of all the old Toonami promotions for Gundam Wing! The sound is still kind of crap, but the visuals are now GORGEOUS.

This should not make me anywhere nearly as happy as it actually does.

/dork

To quote Ed Driscoll:

“[Robert] Gibbs: Can you imagine if, five years ago, protesters had compared our government to Hitler?”

As Allahpundit writes, “You know what? I think I can.”

RTWT, It won't take you long.

I've been considering splitting off some of the content that currently goes on my LJ and sticking it on a separate blog or blogs. Right now, I'm leaning toward keeping all the personal stuff here on the LJ, and shifting the baseball, culture, politics -along with book and movie reviews- over to a separate site, somewhat similar to what Baseball Crank does. There's also the possibility of having separate blogs for baseball and cultural/political stuff.

I'd definitely link to the new site from LJ and Facebook so that people didn't miss anything. Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

A meditation on hating the Yankees
( Cut for those uninterested in baseball )

http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2477.html

Today's theme: Cliffhangers

Insurance companies are the lowest form of scum on this planet. They should be outright illegalized altogether and a new system needs to be instated to insure that people have some real options if and when something happens.

Every time it has ever actually mattered, every insurance company has repeatedly failed time and time again. We pay these companies to keep our interests safe, they take the money and pay themselves with it until an occasional auto accident or house fire occurs in which case they find whatever excuse they possibly can to not pay. They fail over and over again to protect people which the whole reason we have them.
Why the fuck am I required by law to pay for auto insurance that won't do me any damn good anyway? IF they ever decided that there is no excuse to not pay, they'll just jack your rates up anyway!

We pay these companies hundreds of billions of dollars each year to protect our investments. We invest in these companies and when it actually matters we get nothing. They failed again and again to protect the investments of the people in New York, New Orleans and across the country in our daily lives.
Health insurance caters to the rich only. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. Insurance comes in a variety of packages and only people that can afford to pay thousands of dollars a month get real insurance coverage. The rest of us face a battle with some attourney hired by the insurance company. His job is to make sure that you pay for your own vehicle repairs, medicine, surgery, house repairs, furniture, etc.
Their job is to convince us that they have our interests in mind but they really do not. They take your money, and refuse to give it back if they can find any excuse they possibly can to not pay and when we actually needed them to do their fucking job in New Orleans, they failed spectacularly.

These are the companies that drag down the economy. We keep creating these middleman positions, we automate and outsource our labor and they charge more and more money for the plastic cars they make today. The rich are taking more, the middlemen are taking more and the labor force is getting less and less.
We BUILT this fuckin country with the strength of our backs! We ARE the founding fathers! Carpenters, craftsmen, manufacturers, farmers, they all gave us the country we have today and yet more and more of us are going out of work! Meanwhile CEOs for these companies that bankrupted the economy in the first place and stole our homes from us get nothing less than the red carpet treatment from our own president.
Our economy is more than $14 trillion in debt, 6 Trillion or more went to bailout the very companies that are responsible for our situation in the first place. This pisses me off to no end because I really wanted to trust Obama but he really let us all down with these bailouts. He left the companies we actually need out to die and gave trillions to companies that turned around and bought more cars for their CEOs with it.
They are criminals of the worst kind and should be given nothing less than the death sentence in my opinion.

When I learned that Obama wanted to nationalize health care, I was thrilled. This was the first real idea that could possible do some real good for the american people and the insurance companies immediately started to complain. They came up with every excuse they could possibly think of to make it seem bad and now a huge number of republicans are against it. Go figure. They spammed the media in every possible corner with propaganda that healthcare will somehow magically bankrupt the country and people are buying it. The insurance companies have taken over the world. They run america now. These companies are among the wealthiest organizations in the world and they pick and choose which presidential candidates we get to choose from. Where do you think these politicians get their funding? Insurance companies are the largest campaign contributors, plain and simple.
Now, they have profit in mind when they take any action. What does that tell you about who we get to choose from on voting day? Presidents are put in power to keep things the same.

What happened to this country? Our forefathers would have tared and feathered these people and run them out of town for the crap they are pulling!

So the bottom line is this, these men run our country with the money they convince us that we need to pay them. They have direct ties with the vast majority of every politician from both democratic and republican parties and they control directly influence our government. Our economy is in it's current condition because of the crap these assholes pulled and what did our politicians do when the chips started to drop? They bailed out the insurance companies. Think about it.
The real reason you are required by law to wear your seatbelt is because the insurance companies don't like to pay. I've found that a lot of the laws that don't make sense will start to make sense if you think this way.

I think we're going to see some really cool shit in the next 30 years if this trend in free thinking continues. Perhaps there will be a revolution in our lives.

Hey there fandom. I know some of you all out there enjoy the Big Bang Theory. I've been watching the first season thanks to takuansoho and belindabird who graciously loaned me the DVDs, but I'm halfway through and I'm not sold yet.

( My trepidations at this point )

So my question is this: Does it pretty much continue on this way or is there a point where things change? Alternately, am I an extreme dork who needs to get over herself and enjoy the show for what it is?

Finished my first day of subbing, covering for a language arts teacher in one of the two middle schools. Since the Kia is hors de combat until Carlos can figure out what's wrong and fix it, I took the bus over there and back, which involved a fair amount of walking on top of all the walking I was doing in class. (The kids stay quiet and on task so much better when I loom over them.)* By and large it went well; most of this teacher's classes were Honors classes and those kids were generally well-behaved with a couple of exceptions that I left notes about. One kid in the last period got on my last nerve, wandering around messing with the others, and so I invited him out into the hallway where one of the regular teachers proceeded to realign his headspace with some impressive non-obscene language before taking the little troublemaker down the hall to the vice-principal. On my return the rest of the students were noticeably quieter.

Missed lunch at the school, wound up walking a couple blocks to Subway (needs must when the blood sugar drives) and then another couple blocks to the Braddock Road Metro, where I took a bus to the Alexandria Hospital. I was hoping to catch a Metrobus down into Foxchase, but instead of waiting 45 minutes I just walked it, since it was all downhill. My legs may forgive me, but not today. :(

Was going to make chili tonight but instead I think I'll just fry a pork chop or two, nuke some veggies, and crash.

*windelina, I don't have your bubbly personality, so I have to rely on presence. ;)

Via Mothering Magazine:

New Moon Girl Media's mission is to help girls, ages 8 to 12, discover their unique voices and express them in the world in ways that matter. Through active girl involvement and participation, they provide respectful, creative, energetic and safe communities where girls explore, discover, create, grow and share their voices to make a positive difference in their lives and in the world.

You won't find diet advice or popularity contests at New Moon Girls. The magazine is 100% advertising-free and dedicated to helping girls discover and honor their true selves. Created by girls, for girls, every issue is pure inspiration. Unfortunately, it may not be able to continue. Joe Kelly sent out a heartfelt letter today. Please do what you can to help.

From Joe:

You know how crucial it is to empower today's girls with healthy, positive media--alternatives to the toxic media drenching our daughters.   New Moon Girls online community and magazine gives girls ages 8 and up a safe, exciting, supportive space to express themselves and hear from other girls around the world. Girls who could be the next Courtney Martin (a finalist this week in Washington Post's America's Next Great Pundit contest) whose first article was published in New Moon when she was a girl, 14 years ago.

Sadly, this will all end on 12-31-09 without your help.

New Moon has had a tough year like many other businesses. Even with a lot of effort, we haven't succeeded in bringing in additional investors this fall, and it's time to add a new strategy to keep New Moon alive. We have until Dec 31 to reach monthly break-even so that New Moon can grow in the future.

Have we tightened our own belts?  You betcha! Right now our monthly expenses are 65% less than they were a year ago.  But we still have a gap of $7500 a month to break-even.  The good news is that with your help we can close this gap.  The gap amounts to only 250 additional orders a month @ $29.95.

You can help by:

• Sponsoring memberships for libraries, schools and programs serving low-income girls. It's quick and easy to sponsor one, ten or 100 girls - every dollar matters!
• Buying memberships for all girls 8-14 that you know. Our holiday special saves you 50% after the first order.
• Telling everyone what you value about New Moon.  Link to us, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share with your FB friends and Tweeps.

Please act today so the media universe for girls won't be totally dominated by Stardoll.com, Seventeen magazine, and worse.

With your help to sponsor memberships for non-profits and to give New Moon as gifts, we can continue to ensure a media that lifts girls' aspirations, increases their power, and gives them an outlet for their unique perspectives and voices.  I'm sending this email to everyone I know and asking you to do the same.

Also, if you (or someone you know) would like to learn more about becoming an investor in New Moon, contact Nancy Gruver: nancyg@newmoon.com.

All the best,
Joe

You've all been patiently waiting, now here it is!  Pre-order yours now at the introductory price of $44.95!  After the pre-order is complete, the price will go up to $52!  Order yours TODAY!



Thanks much for all your support! ^_^

You don't know it yet, but you're witnessing a revolution.

Only 4 more pages to draw and I'll be over the long bit.

Teaser pic!



I'll be interstate this coming week, but will get back into those final pages when I get home. Then onto the much faster inking stage!