There will be a new comic on Tuesday and Wednesday, too, so be sure to check each day to get the whole story.
Today's YHT comic is somewhat based on actual events. Our neighbors have surround sound and sometimes we can hear it. It's not as loud as I portray it here, but when I do hear it I think what Andy thinks: "What are they watching? It sounds awesome!"
I was flipping through some comic books last night that I had bought last year. I have three issues of Andi Watson's "Love Fights", and I gotta say it's some of the best writing in comic books I've ever read. So much fun to read, and there's so much stuff going on. I gotta find the trade paperback of this stuff.
Drop a line in the forums if you know what's good for ya. I'll be waiting to chat it up.
My sister recently sent me an e-mail asking me to explain G-Mail and how it works. After a short description of G-Mail and its features, I received this e-mail in reply:
"Yeah wes that is really dorky- and the fact that u dedicated many days of entry on your blog to it - makes me think u are an even bigger dork
But I still love u - cause hey, I have to"
I was informed that my comics will be published on the Fanboy Radio website starting on Monday. There are three strips total, so check back on Tuesday and Wednesday for the full story! To get to Fanboy Radio, just follow this link:
http://www.fanboyradio.com
After you read the comics, make sure to hit the Fanboy message boards and tell 'em how much you loved my strips. :)
Sidenote: I've decided I'm gonna try to start jogging. . . . I'm not gonna start today, though.
Not much to say today. My mother-in-law is coming to town for the weekend, which means that at some point we'll be going out for dinner. That's always fun.
I drew some comics for the peeps over at Fanboy Radio. I have no idea when they'll be posted, but I'll be sure to let you know.
As I said, there's nothing new to report. If I can think of anything important later on, I'll be sure to throw it up here.
Favorite Jeans: Most people have a favorite pair of jeans, and I'm no exception. I've got a pair of American Eagle jeans that I've had since my junior year of high school. They're great, and American Eagle jeans haven't been the same since this pair. The side pocket fits my cell phone perfectly. Newer jeans have a tight pocket, and it's hard to get my cell phone out in a quick and easy action. My fave jeans also have a lot of character. I used scissors to bootcut the legs, and the cut eventually worked itself up to the middle of my calf. I use safety pins to hold the legs together at the bottom. They're perfectly broken in, too.
Alas, I may have to retire these jeans in the very near future. Yesterday, as I was drawing comics, I looked down and noticed there was some significant wear in the "groinal" area. Rips in the legs and holes in the backsides of jeans are, in most cases, acceptable. But the "groinal" area holds treasures that no one wishes to see, nor bestow upon anyone.
Seinfeld: I've been watching my Seinfeld boxed sets while drawing comics the past few days. I've enjoyed this show for quite some time, but I never knew how many recurring jokes there were. Art Vandelay, Biff Lohman references, Hinnegan's references, etc. I watched the featurette about how the show came to be, and when Larry David was discussing the writing process my ears perked up. Instead of watching the documentary for entertainment, I was watching it for writing tips.
Grinders: There's this great little restaurant called Grinders that my wife and I frequent. It's just down the block from where she works, so we usually hit the place up on her lunch break. We're going there this afternoon, and I'm hungry just thinking about it. They have these potato chips that they bake in the kitchen, and they serve them with chipotle sauce to dip in. They're freakin' awesome. If any of you come to Chillicothe, let me know. We'll hit up Grinders.
Comic Book Store: Not only is Grinder's right around the corner from my wife's workplace, but so is the local comic shop. And I'm very tempted to pay them a visit today, but I've got work to do. I've worked non-stop on comics for the past four days, so the devil in me is saying I need a break. But the angel in me is telling me to keep rocking the art desk. I don't know, though . . . I try my best to do the right thing, but I haven't paid the comic shop a visit in quite a while . . .
I hope everyone's having a good week. Drop by the forum and have a quick chat with us if you get a chance.
The only thing that's pretty awesome about working shift work is the long, four day weekend. It's been pretty laid back the past few days. I've been drawing comics and visiting people, and also eating things.
On Saturday, Josh and Sara came over. We were going to go bowling, but the weather was still bad and none of us felt like waiting for an hour in the smoke-infested bowling alley to get a lane. Instead we hung out and played Scattegories. Pretty fun game, but my wife and Sara are hardcore. I had so many good words that were denied by the "female jury." Josh felt the wrath of the ladies as well. He still won, though.
On Sunday, Trish and I went over to my parents' house to watch football and eat hamburgers. I was kind of hoping for an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl, but that dream was denied hard. After dinner, my parents drove Trish and I up to the Governors Place. My mom and dad are thinking about moving into a condo up there, and they wanted to show us the few they were interested in. They were pretty nice.
Today, Trish is at work and then she has college in the evening, so I will spend the bulk of my day by myself. It will be lonely, but it should allow me to get a lot of work done on comics. Gosh, I love this job!
The G-Mail Giveaway was a lot of fun, and I hope all you peeps had fun, too. All the invites are gone, now, so I hope everyone is enjoying their new G-Mail account. I hope we can do something like this again in the future. If not G-Mail, then maybe some other internet app of some sort. If we do G-Mail again I'll let you know so we can gather up some invites. But I'm gonna sit on the idea for awhile so I can think of ways to make the next giveaway better.
If you're bored and you've got time, come hang out in the forums! We've got a lot going on in the You'll Have That forums, and there's a new "General Discussion" message board that everyone should check out.
I posted the G-Mail invites in the forum last night at 7:00 PM, and there are still plenty left. So, if you want a G-Mail account you should visit the forums. I'm kind of disappointed because I had hoped the invites would be all gone, but then I'm glad, too, because some people had expressed interest in an invite but weren't sure they could be here at the appropriate time. Fortunately for them, we had plenty left!
I tried to pick a time that most people would be available, but Friday was probably a bad day to do it. Maybe next time I'll schedule it mid-week or something. Who knows. We'll see.
I'd like to thank the following people for giving up their G-Mail invitations for a fun experiment:
Lil_Hazy Lisa, David Hopkins, Soda, Jim Resnowski, Leon Swindale, and Bethany Keeler. I believe we ended up with thirty-one invites, which is pretty good. Thanks again, and hopefully you can help out if we decide to do this again.
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's my day off and my town is under a winter storm advisory. That means being a lazy bum and drawing comics all day. Good times!
I've collected 31 invites for G-Mail, but there's still time to send more! If you have a G-Mail account, send your invites to me at:
wesmolebash@gmail.com
I'll see everybody in the forums at 7:00 PM EST/ 6:00 PM CST sharp!!!
Also, I'm giving free sketches to the people who use my link to sign up for a free Mac mini and complete an offer. If you sign up and choose an offer, e-mail me your mailing info and I'll have your sketch in the mail as soon as my referral link recognizes that you completed an offer. So, if you want a free Mac mini, click here:
It's Friday, people, and you know what that means . . . G-Mail Giveaway! Tonight at 7:00 PM EST/ 6:00 PM CST on the You'll Have That message boards, we'll be giving away G-Mail invites. I've received a few more invitations since yesterday, but, if you are already a G-Mail member, you can keep sending them in until 7:00 tonight.
Yes, we are still giving away free G-Mail tomorrow at 7:00 PM EST/6:00 PM CST in the You'll Have That forums. If you want to be a part of an elite, secret-society, then be here tomorrow at those times! I only have a few invites to give out, but I'll be accepting invitations from current G-Mail users up until 7:00 PM tomorrow! So send 'em in!!!
In case you don't know, G-Mail is a free, web-based e-mail service being offered by Google. It's still in beta form, so the only way to be a member is by invitation. (Google will have web-wide access, but I'm not sure when they plan on releasing it to everyone.) The biggest feature that G-Mail has is its storage space: 1 gig. It also sports a very easy interface. You can file your e-mails in standard folders, or you can just leave your inbox cluttered and utilize the "search bar" to find e-mails. You can search by name, e-mail address, subject of the e-mail, . . . even text from the e-mail. One benefit to getting in so early is being able to choose a username/e-mail address that hasn't already been taken. I have a weird last name so I don't really have that problem, but if my bro, Josh Jones, wanted to sign up he might be able to get "joshjones@gmail.com" as his address .
So far, I've received 21 invites (and I'd love to get more!). I'd recommend stalking the message board until the invite links are posted. If I'm right, the invites will go pretty fast.
That said, tell all your friends and family that want a G-Mail account to hang out with us tomorrow night, and maybe they can get their grubby mitts on one.
The company I work for was recently purchased by an investment company. When I say "recently", I mean "yesterday". Apparently, I won't be out of a job, but, as is with any type of large business transaction involving companies switching hands, there is a small amount of uncertainty. I'm sure I won't be affected, but when this stuff happens it makes me wish I was "Walt Disney" rich.
The G-Mail Giveaway is this Friday at 7:00 PM EST/ 6:00 PM CST. If you want G-Mail, be at the You'll Have That forums at that time, people. So far, I've collected 18 invites, and I would love to get more. So keep sending them in! And tell your friends to send them in, too! Here's my e-mail address:
This coming Friday at 7:00 PM EST/ 6:00 PM CST, we're going to give away G-Mail invitations on the You'll Have That forums. I don't know how many exactly, but I want to give away as many as possible.
So far I have twelve invites that I have acquired from a couple fabulous YHT fans, and you can help, too! If you have a G-Mail account, and you have some invites that have been festering in your inbox for some time, why not send them to us for the giveaway? Just e-mail me your invites, and I'll copy the links and post them in the forums promptly at seven o'clock on Friday.
You can send your invites to me whenever you want, just as long as I get them before Friday's deadline. Be sure to check my blog all week for any updates, and join us in the forums for a little comics chat!
I love music and I've always loved buying CDs. I have quite a large CD collection, and I'm very proud of it. The nice thing about having so many CDs is sometimes you "re-discover" bands, which is sometimes more fun than buying a brand new CD. For instance, the other day I was driving to work and I kept singing this song by Better Than Ezra called "Rewind". It's a great jam, and I remembered I had the CD in my CD case. I hadn't listened to the CD in a long while, but when I put it in all those great jams flooded back into my memory.
This phenomena happened to me a few months ago with a band I was in love with in high school, but stopped listening to shortly after starting college. That band was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I loved these guys, and I got to see them in concert in Cincinnatti. It was one of the best shows I have ever attended as I got to meet Dicky Barrett, the lead singer. Not only did I meet him, but he drew a picture of me after I drew a picture of him. I've got the picture hanging on the wall in my office/studio/closet. I knew all the songs that night, and could barely talk on the ride home because I was singing them all. It was a great time.
Unfortunately, ska lost it's popularity shortly after I graduated high school, and I was introduced to new sounds. Sounds like Dave Matthews, Ben Folds, Guster, and Jack Johnson. I taught myself to play guitar listening to these guys. In fact, I stopped listening to pretty much all my punk and heavy metal discs, and began listening to more acoustic/indie/college rock stuff.
But a few months ago I decided to grab my MMB discs and listen to them in the car. To my surprise, the Bosstones still rocked my effing face off. Man, it felt good! All these memories from my high school years came roaring back into my head. The Bosstones pretty much made up the entire soundtrack to my teenage years.
I remember when this girl broke up with me for another dude when I was a senior. It wasn't the worst break-up I had ever experienced, but it made me kind of angry. One night I drove around the country-side thinking about the situation while listening to "Illegal Left" at full volume. Man, that song was fun to sing in the car.
So was "Someday I Suppose" and "The Impression That I Get". I have a live CD and they go from "The Impression That I Get" right into "Someday I Suppose". I used to scream the lyrics to those songs as I drove home from work at the pizza shop. I can remember being at school or at work, and not being able to wait to get to my car so I could drive home while cranking the Bosstones at dangerous thresholds. Heck, sometimes I'd take the long way home just so I could spend more time listening to the CD.
One of the songs I loved to listen to on the ride home from work was "737/Shoe Glue". If you're not a Bosstones fan, this song is awesome and it will melt your face with ska-rocking ferocity. This is another example of the Bosstones going from one jam straight into the next, thereby continuing the rock in monumental succession. Man, I can still hear the lyrics as I pull in the driveway: Turn it up/ More than a notch/ Like a punch to the face or a kick to the crotch/ All night never ending/ Benefitting from a bender/ And nothing's worrying you that's key/ 'Cause nothing's worrying me.
I have no idea what the band is up to now. Their website is gone, as are most of the fan pages. I hate to think they just disappeared. I own their latest CD, "Jackknife to a Swan", which is fabulous but it's a couple years old. If anyone has any information about the band, let's chat it up in the forums. I'd love to know what those guys are doing.
And in the extremely small chance that a member of the Bosstones is reading this, I just want to say, "Thanks". Thanks for having a huge impact on my formative years, and for creating songs that I could attach such awesome memories to.
I thought I'd share my favorite Bosstones songs with you. They're in no particular order as they all rocked my face off in different and special ways.
The Impression That I Get
Let's Face It
Another Drinking Song
1-2-8
Cowboy Coffee
Do Something Crazy
Dogs and Chaplains
Hell of a Hat
Hope I Never Lose My Wallet
Illegal Left
Kinder Words
He's Back
Noise Brigade
737/Shoe Glue
Someday I Suppose
Toxic Toast
Where'd You Go
Howwhywuz Howwhyam
Docter D
Numbered Days
A Sad Silence
Break So Easily
Awfully Quiet
. . . and of course . . .
A Little Bit Ugly
Thanks for letting me rant. If you guys have bands that are special to you for whatever reason, let's talk about it in the forums! It'll be good times.
If you're an old school TechTV junkie (pre-G4), you may be excited to know that Kevin Rose, former host of The Screen Savers, is premiering an online program similar to the original TSS sometime in February. There should be a couple hosts and a lot of tech how-to's. He also said we may see some old "friends" (Pat and Leo, perhaps? Gosh, I freakin' hope.).
In addition to that program, he's working on bringing his online hacker 'zine, The Broken, back. I've downloaded all the DIVX videos, and I gotta say they're very fun and informative. Dan Huard and Kevin Rose basically do a bunch of illegal computer hacking, and then tell you how to protect yourself against those particular hacks. In one episode they show you how to mod an XBox, PS2, and Gamecube. Pretty cool . . .
Anyway, I'm posting this because Mr. Rose needs some help. He and the rest of the guys producing these programs need to raise money to purchase some video and audio equipment. You can donate via PayPal, buy a The Broken t-shirt, or simply put the word out on forums and chat rooms. Visit www.kevinrose.com for all the details.
There hasn't been a lot happening the past few days. I've been working second shift which really knocks me out of the loop with day-to-day goings on. Only two more days of second left, though, so I should be back in the flow of things shortly.
Trish is experiencing some frustration at the local college. She recently re-enrolled to finish up her degree, and they're charging her for being a non-resident. Tricia is originally from Michigan and she moved down to Ohio shortly after we started dating. She's been living here for over a year and a half, we're married, she works here, she has an Ohio driver's license, and the college still needs more proof that she's an Ohio resident. She has a petition she needs to fill out with all kinds of personal information that has to be in the mail by tonight so it can be in Athens by Monday. Monday is the deadline for these petitions. It's craziness.
On Friday, Trish and I are going to Columbus to do some shopping. We'll probably go to Home Depot and, maybe, Bed Bath and Beyond if there's enough time. I don't know if there'll be enough time. Then we'll probably see a movie and grab something to eat. Or vice versa.
This is a picture from our wedding. That's Tricia's junior bridesmaid, Allyson, on the left, and our flowergirl, Danielle, on the right. They're both nerds.
2004 was a busy year for weddings. My wife and I attended five of them, including ours. Needless to say, I'm pretty good at the wedding course-of-events now. For instance, receptions are boring as heck until the wedding party arrives. And even when the wedding party arrives, that isn't a guarantee that things are going to get any better.
Another thing I don't understand, is whenever my wife and I went to weddings this year we kept comparing them to ours. And in our opinion, ours was the best. I'm sure everyone feels that way about their own weddings; that their own wedding was the best every in the history of weddings. In all seriousness, though, my wedding was the best wedding in the history of weddings. The ceremony was short and sweet, and we partied at our reception. I was sweating like a stuck pig when we left.
On a sidenote, I'm not much of a drinker. I've never been affected by peer pressure in high school, and I didn't have my first beer until I was twenty-three. I just never cared to have a drink. And while I don't mind having a beer every now and then, Pepsi tastes so much better. That said, I had my first (and possibly last) shot of tequila at my wedding reception. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be, but it wasn't great. My dad was shocked when he heard I had tequila. He was pointing me out to people at the reception and telling them that I had the purest blood in Ohio . . . up until the tequila anyway.
Things are starting to heat up for You'll Have That. The official press release went out last night, and it's starting to be discussed on a few message boards. I'm terribly excited and I urge everyone to tell your friends, family, enemies, pets, etc. It's going to be a fun 2005, and I can't wait for things to start happening!
Trish and I had some friends over last night for a stirring game of Monopoly. I hadn't played Monopoly since I was, like, seven so it was fun to play again. My friends are way hardcore about Monopoly, too, which made it more fun. They're like a bunch of Monopoly day traders. Whenever someone landed on their property, they'd have an attitude about it, like, "Yeah, uhmmm, I think someone owes me twenty-five dollars. I know I'm not rolling until I've got twenty-five dollars."
My friends also try to get the trades going, except for my boy, Jage. Ben, Brad, and I kept trying to get the property trades going, but Jage wouldn't trade anything. And he had good property, too. He kept saying, "I'm the abyss. I'm the crypt for property. The property comes in, but it doesn't come out." I came close to getting Jage to give up Atlantic Ave. with a three-way trade that would've landed him all three red properties, and Brad would've netted all the railroads. But Brad held out on us and ended up trading Park Place to his brother, Ben. Since Ben had both Boardwalk and Park Place now, he loaded them both with hotels and we were all bankrupt within the hour while Ben made love with concubines on top of the pink fifties.
A sincere "thanks" go to my wife and Ben's fiancee, Grace. They were both getting sick of our long trade sessions, but they stuck with us and went bankrupt just like everyone else. God love 'em!
Before I met my wife, I was an anti-cat person. I hated them. And I still do kinda. My wife, however, is a cat fan, and we currently own two. The only cats that I like are the ones that live with me. All other cats can die a horrible and painful death.
Now, if you're a cat owner, you probably know about a cat's tendency to puke, spit hairballs, claw things, and, occasionally, urinate on things outside of the litterbox. Such was the case this morning. Tricia had a box from the Gap sitting by the door last night waiting to be taken to the trash dumpster. When we woke up this morning, Sophie, our oldest cat, had pissed in the box. If you've never smelled cat pee, it's a horrible, piercing scent that lingers long after it's been cleaned up. Trish picked up the box to take it outside, and, in doing so, began to dribble pee across the kitchen floor. At this point she called for my help. She had most of it wiped up when I got down there, and when I arrived she asked me to retrieve the Swiffer Wet-Jet mop from the utility closet.
If you've never used a Swiffer Wet-Jet, allow me to describe it for you. The Wet-Jet may be the coolest cleaning utensil ever made outside of the Dow Scrubbing Bubbles toilet brush. At first glance, the Wet-Jet appears to be a regular Swiffer-brand mop. However, halfway up the handle is a bottle of cleansing fluid which is activated by a button at the top of the handle. When the button is depressed, fresh smelling cleansing fluid gently sprays onto the floor via a small nozzle located near the bottom of the handle.
As fresh-smelling as the cleaning fluid may have been, when it mixed with the pee-smell it made for a very undelightful odor. Regular pee-smell is not good, but lemon-pee is even worse. It took a few swipes of the Swiffer to dilute the odor, but it was no problem for me. I Swiffed it good. Into shape. Shape it up. Get straight . . . Sorry.
. . . on another note . . .
I watched several great movies over the holiday, and I thought I'd give you my opinions:
Stepford Wives - This movie was better than I thought is was gonna be. I like Christopher Walken, and he was pretty good in this flick. It was a good "popcorn" movie. Definitely rentable.
Spiderman 2 - Yeah, I know, I was the only person on earth who hadn't seen this movie. However, despite all the hype I heard leading up to my viewing of the movie, I was not at all disappointed. Rarely is a sequel better than it's predecessor, but Spiderman 2 pulled it off. Doc Oc was a better villain, in my opinion, than the Green Goblin, and the relationships among the characters were explored further without getting corny. Great movie!
Garden State - I went ahead and bought this movie without seeing it first because I was that sure I would like it. And I must say, after viewing the movie two times, I'm in love with it. Great acting. Great plot. Great character development. Great movie. It's hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. I love movies where the characters make small self-discoveries throughout the film, and, ultimately, become almost an entirely different and better person by the end of the film. If anything, give this movie a rent.
Napolean Dynamite - Unfortunately, movies can be "over-hyped". Not by the media and production company, but by friends and fans of the movie. This was the case for me. All my friends loved the movie and told me how hilarious it was. A couple message boards I visit told me that I had to see this movie. Well, I saw the movie, and it was good, but I guess I was expecting more. That's the problem with hype. It can bite you in the anus sometimes. Nevertheless, this is a very good movie and it has a lot of very funny moments. I went to a small high school like Napolean's, so it was pretty cool to see him competing in FFA, riding the bus to school because he lived in the country, and sitting in a small, dreary cafeteria. If you're thinking about seeing this movie, you should see it just to say you saw it. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised.
I like video games, and I consider myself somewhat of a "gamer". I own two systems, XBox and GameCube, and I'm very proud of my game collection. However, I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore gamer. If you ever get to play me in a first-person shooter, you will most likely use karate to kick my @$$ from here to Tienemen Square. Same with any fighting game . . . I will easily concede victory. Sports games I can be a threat at, but, again, I suck at fighting and shooting games. Furthermore, I don't play games constantly. I go through phases, like the moon. I might buy a game that will take up maybe a week or two of my time, then I'll go a month or two without playing any games (except maybe to kill time here and there). So, it's very rare that a game will encompass my every thought. A game that will cause me to lose sleep and harm relationships with friends and family. Few games have done this for me, and I can count them on one hand.
The first game was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The second game was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. And now, my life is being "owned" again by Star Wars: KOTOR II. Allow me to elaborate.
If you're a fan of the first game, the new game will rock your face off. Everything is almost exactly the same as far as menus, controller, and some of the in-game worlds are concerned. The Ebon Hawk is alive and well and is laid out exactly the same as in the previous game. Some of the characters from the previous game have cameos. A lot of what you accomplished in the first game is alluded to in the new game, as well. Overall, it's very refreshing and familiar at the same time. I've read some reviews that complained how closely related the second game is to the first, but I have no complaints. I love that I can jump into this brand new quest and not have to struggle to figure out the controls for forty five minutes to an hour. You'd never guess that a different software company produced this game.
I've only played about sixteen hours, but I've already got my light saber and a sizeable party. I'll give you guys a heads up whenever I finish the game as to what my overall experience was.
