As far as Minecraft goes, I'm doing well for myself in the single player game so far…



The only time I'd play Multiplayer Minecraft is if DD had its own Minecraft server. However, I won't have to worry about that as I don't think any of you play the game. :)

My children have gotten me into Minecraft. It's a very addictive game … so I try to limit myself.

Gunwallace wrote:
My children have gotten me into Minecraft. It's a very addictive game … so I try to limit myself.

My niece and nephew got me into the game. It's always the youngest ones that pull us in… However, they're always in the creative side of things whereas I prefer cave diving. And from what I've seen so far, the cave systems are HUGE and you always seem to find a branch you missed along the way.

Lately I've been attempting “safe” mining. Namely the “Pinwheel” method.

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Mining_techniques

Diagram's in there somewhere. It's simple enough, though I mine at levels 6 and 10 (6 is the block level right above Bedrock, which is indestructible in Survival Mode). And I block off any section that breaks into caves. So what could I possibly have to worry about using this technique?

SILVERFISH!!!
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Silverfish

…..

I had plans on visiting my father. At least see him one last time alive. Now I'm making plans for a funeral. Death happens so suddenly sometimes. You know it's gonna happen, yet it's hard to accept the inevitable.

*sigh* It's a mix of sadness and relief. I didn't want him to go, but at least he's not suffering from his lung cancer now. At least he's in a better place now, but I wish he hadn't left so soon…

sorry about your loss lonnehart

I hope you're OK Lonne :(

Heartfelt Condolences on your loss Lonne.

My mother needs heart surgery soon. It's been creeping up onher for two years and her cardiologist was watching it carefully. This comes as my sister is settling into a higher responsibility in her career.

I'm so sorry, Lonne. :( We're all here to lend an ear if you need it.

Thanks, guys. This kind of thing is never easy. Currently in California going through our rosary for my father. We all agreed to having him cremated and I will be keeping a part of him with me when I leave here. Memories, the jokes (my father was the clown among his siblings) and some of his ashes.

Maybe I'll do what my father kept asking of me and find a partner… though not likely to happen unless the woman sneaks up behind me and knocks me out with a hammer before dragging me off to the Justice of the Peace…

just kidding!

Lovely drawing, Kawaii. :)

Sorry to hear about your mother, Bravo. Hopefully her doctor will ensure she doesn't go too soon.

Yes, novena rosary prayers are serious business. Glad you are remembering all the good jokes and memories since your father was the comedian. You are very fortunate that you were able to get a ticket and be with family on such a short notice.

I do not know if you want to end up with a woman who will club you and drag you back to her cave. That is the man's job.

What part of California are you staying? I am from SoCal (not currently living there at the moment) but my advice is to eat as many burritos and tacos that you can get your hands on! You will not regret it.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Yes, novena rosary prayers are serious business. Glad you are remembering all the good jokes and memories since your father was the comedian. You are very fortunate that you were able to get a ticket and be with family on such a short notice.

I do not know if you want to end up with a woman who will club you and drag you back to her cave. That is the man's job.

What part of California are you staying? I am from SoCal (not currently living there at the moment) but my advice is to eat as many burritos and tacos that you can get your hands on! You will not regret it.

Our novenas are an important tradition. We always have a few family members who can lead them (and they have the books too). I tried leading one once when I was younger, but I found that at the time I didn't have the kind of stamina it takes to stay on your knees for the time it takes to get one done. T_T

Currently I“m somewhere in a place called Stockton. I'd eat burritos, but for some reason I get bad gas from them.

Getting a ticket here wasn't hard. My sister is a flight attendant and was the person who made arrangements for me to travel with her husband and eldest daughter (along with my cousin and HER daughter). A three hour flight to Japan, then a six hour layover there before embarking on an ”epic" nine hour flight to San Fransisco (spelling?). Trips like that are not like a good story. The beginning and end are great. It's just the journey that's annoying (stuffed into a giant flying tin can, then into a giant square box, then being stuffed into an even bigger tin can…. O_O

Yeah, long flights are not fun at the best of times. I always find the airport to be more stressful than anything, though. For the flight itself I usually take gravol because I get airsick, and that has the fortunate side effect of letting me doze for a few hours.

What are novenas? I'm not very familiar with Catholic traditions.

—

I had a very awkward thing happen yesterday when I went to get a new phone case. I had talked to the guy who runs the kiosk once before, and he always says hi when I pass by, so I chatted with him for a little while. Then out of the blue he says, “You come sometime, I take you to lunch, as a friend.” I'm terrible at these kinds of things so I just said “Oh…that's okay…thanks…” and his face justfell. It was awful.

Oh, I should probably be clear that this guy was a lot older than me. Afterwards it seemed like maybe he had been flirting with me and I had just mistaken it for friendly shopkeeper personality because he was definitely out of my acceptable age range. He gave me a deal on the case because “I like this girl,” and was bragging a bit to me about owning 5 other shops in the city and so on. Or I dunno, maybe he really did just mean it in a friendly way and we have different ideas about how people interact. :/

Anyways, here is my new iPhone case, painted with acrylics:

Hippie! You need to work at that phone case kiosk if your custom painted cases look that good. Acceptable age ranges are hilarious. They fluctuate depending on how old you feel. I know I draw the line at anything older than my parents, that would just be too awkward.

It has been almost twenty years since I last partcipated in a novena, but it is when the family of the deceased spend several days praying the rosary and reading the bible to pray for the soul to get out of purgatory and into heaven. There was a passage about circumcision during one of the readings, which was somewhat inappropriate, and people could not stop laughing while reading it.

Interesting! Both grandparents on my dad's side were staunch Irish Catholics and I don't recal anything like that at either of their funerals. Maybe there was…? Just that my branch of the family isn't very religious.
But then my Grandmother's funeral was partly aboriginal as well (Australian aboriginal), so that may have changed things for her.

Flight to the US from Perth take considerably longer than your trip Lonne, It's horrific, I do feel for you though! I've never done well during long consticted travel in jets, busses, trains, or cars.
Sailing ships, yachets, and horses were more pleasent.

———————

Aw hippie. :)
Guys are so bad with signals. Either we read everything as a flirt or we read nothing at all. A radar full of false positives or one that only reads a blank- it rarely ever works as it should.
Nice phone cover!

——————–

I'm having fun fixing up the comedy skit for the latest Quackcast! Hopefully I don't make myself sick this time trying to get it finished on time! Banes and I are getting batter as actors I think :)

kawaii wrote:
Hippie! You need to work at that phone case kiosk if your custom painted cases look that good. Acceptable age ranges are hilarious. They fluctuate depending on how old you feel. I know I draw the line at anything older than my parents, that would just be too awkward.

Thank you! ^_^
My upper age limit is definitely affected by the fact that I still live with my dad and little sister, so they always see or at least hear about the people I'm spending time with. I'm sure my dad would have a conniption if I was dating a guy more than say, ten years older than me. At that point I think people are at a different stage in their lives and it wouldn't work all that well anyways.

ozoneocean wrote:

Aw hippie. :)
Guys are so bad with signals. Either we read everything as a flirt or we read nothing at all. A radar full of false positives or one that only reads a blank- it rarely ever works as it should.
Nice phone cover!

——————–

I'm having fun fixing up the comedy skit for the latest Quackcast! Hopefully I don't make myself sick this time trying to get it finished on time! Banes and I are getting batter as actors I think :)

Ugh, tell me about it! Meanwhile I'm getting nothing from the guys I've been tryingto flirt with. :P
I think there might also be a “level of comfort” element involved, though. I'm probably less nervous (and thus more charming) around guys I have no interest in.

You and Banes are pretty darn good at doing different voices! I can only do like five voices: kid voice, old person voice, man voice, affected lady voice and neutral voice. Just enough to make reading aloud less monotonous. :)

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
It has been almost twenty years since I last partcipated in a novena, but it is when the family of the deceased spend several days praying the rosary and reading the bible to pray for the soul to get out of purgatory and into heaven. There was a passage about circumcision during one of the readings, which was somewhat inappropriate, and people could not stop laughing while reading it.

There's a passage with THAT in it? Either I don't pay that much attention during our Novenas, or it's been edited out. Most likely the latter as I've never heard anything about… THAT…

And as far as “signals” go, I'm extremely terrible at it. Let's just say if a woman screamed “I LOVE YOU” to my face and really meant it the impact would be… zero… I'd probably think she was kidding… hence the terrible joke I always tell where a woman would have to club me into unconciousness then drag me to her cave (thanks for that image, Kawaii). :)

Thanks Hippie! Banes and I really went to town on this week's Quackcast- out in a couple of hours… :)
My hair is at an awkward length… To stick with it and grow it longer or get it cut short again? I don't know. :(

Great voices in the Quackcast. Banes you should be more goofy with the Ed Wynn characterization. And you made Abt sound like Dieter from “Sprockets” Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.
Too bad your AI robbed you of the glory of being the first to walk on the sun's surface. (You gotta go at night!) Old Polish joke.

It's almost like they're making me do work at work! Rather than goofing off in the shack those contractors are making me weigh trucks! Eek! And then they piled up another responsibility on the post. Since two of the guys at tower are irresponsible dingbats we can't let them know the post has internet. So, they can't access the email for all the crew and gate lists they need to have for the post. So my post gets them all as email attachments and I print them out and have the mobile security bring them over. Awful when you can't trust $10 an hour employees not to do stupid things with equipment so you have to pile up the work on another person who supposedly is that responsible.
eh, He don't know me very well do he?

My mother's operation has been put off until May so my sister can finish her presentations as the interm prewident of the New Jersey Busniness and Industry Association. The board got some new members last year and they made everyone else notice that her boss was an idiot. Hopefully she gets the job because she has been bascially running everything behind his back the past few years anyway.

It's probably a good thing that I'm almost done school for the year, because my attention was definitely starting to wander in the last couple of weeks. I'm working on a take-home exam question related to the global division of labour and was thinking “Why don't I remember anything about this?” So I flipped to the relevant lecture in my notebook and did I find my usual thorough notes? NOPE. Minimal notes and pages full of Mighty Boosh-themed doodles!



Excellent use of tuition money, Hippie Van. :P

ozoneocean wrote:
My hair is at an awkward length… To stick with it and grow it longer or get it cut short again? I don't know. :(

I think your hair looks pretty good short, but I seem to remember you weren't all that happy with it last time you had it cut.

Interesting stuff about the ‘signals’ from people out in the world.

I think I'm relaxing more…or giving off good vibes, maybe? It's weird; sometimes people seem off-put by me for no apparent reason (which is kind of distressing. It really bugs me). And sometimes things seem good. And normal. And even better than just “good” and “normal”.

Today I was chatting with these gals at the gas station and it seemed like I was getting…I won't say “signals” but it seemed like there was a “pre-signal” thing going on. I managed to make them chuckle a little and left.

What could I have done from there, though? Asking for a phone number or date and risking looking like a creep is a guy's duty, and when I manage to do it (the asking out, not the creep thing) there's a rush of confidence, even if it's a “no”. I don't do it nearly enough.

There didn't seem to be enough of a “spark” created to take that step today, anyway. When there IS, I'm determined to take that step as often as I can. I've ignored that part of life too much lately.

Duckside, I'm way psyched to be finally doing this wacky story I've been thinking about since before I even began posting the comic! It's a lot of fun!

I wake up at 4:00 am to post my pages, too. Which is…a slog. And kind of enjoyable. Still, I hope we can get that update thingy worked out at some point…

Love the Dixon Bainbridge pic! I love that guy's acting too :)
He was great as the second version of the boss in The IT Crowd :D
Saw a bit of him in that “Dark Place” series too, not bad their either. I love that ‘80s uppercalss toff persona he affects.

Thanks for the hair advice too. Heh, I’ll see how much it irritates me before I feel definitely need a change of style. Maybe I WILL go short again afterall.

—————–

Hahaha Banes, it's always that next step that's the hard part. Going for coffee is probably a good one, that way you can ask for the phone number too…
No, no, no, ask them if they'd like to model for bottomless waitress! Winner! :D

i was surprised late last night/early this morning to find out that my comic was featured :3

haircuts

How long is an awkward length?

The difference between a good haircut and a great haircut is one week. I used to go to hair salons that spoke zero English because I did not like all the chit chat that goes on in regular salons. Then I learned that communication was key and sometimes the hair stylist know the best suitable style for you hair than the fancy picture you point to in a magazine.

You can always take a photo and use these haircut silhouettes to see if the style suits you.

If you just want to keep growing it out, Vitamin B supplements help speed up hair growth, rotate out your shampoo, maybe change your facial hair, or experiment with a new vibrant color!

hippievan's doodles on class notes

My favorite part is the silhouette of the little person in the cage with the words “SAVE ME!” scrawled across the side.

JoeL_CQB's feature

Yay! Congratulations again. I am glad Oz featured your comic. Ghost Operators was on my feature watchlist, as well, and you definitely deserve it.

Signals

1. First check for a ring or even a sun tan mark where a ring should be on the left hand.
2. Do not ask person out if it looks like you have been drinking and have an empty pitcher of alcohol sitting in front of you.
3. If it was at a gas station, you have nothing to lose, because what are the chances of running into each other again?
4. You can always say, “I make comics!” Then give a link to your comic. That always works…(・・?)


–

I used Google Hangouts for the first time last weekend. It is amazing that multiple video chat windows can be used now. It felt like the early days of the Internet when I was experiencing chat rooms for the first time 19 years ago.

@Joel: Congrats! Your comic looks really neat so far. :)

ozoneocean wrote:
Love the Dixon Bainbridge pic! I love that guy's acting too :)
He was great as the second version of the boss in The IT Crowd :D
Saw a bit of him in that “Dark Place” series too, not bad their either. I love that '80s uppercalss toff persona he affects.

I haven't seen Darkplace, I will have to watch it! He and Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil) also did a show called “Snuff Box” which is…very odd. There's something about Rich Fulcher that I just find inherently funny, though.

—

As far as haircuts go, the worst mistake I ever made was getting bangs. Definitely learned a lesson there. If you don't have straight hair, you have to be prepared for a year-long commitment to straightening/blow drying them every single day. They never warn you about these things though…one of these days I'm just going to ask the hairdresser to make my hair so it will look nice without being straightened, blow dried, or having any product put in.

this is the life we live right?

heh thats awesome.

It wouldn't matter what he said, it was the jacket and the sunglasses. And it doesn't hurt that the two guys were trying to impress her with the exploits of their RPG characters.

heh.
i got a call from my bank today. apparently somebody got my debit card information and tried to go on a spending spree. Too bad for them I don't have any money in the bank account.
HA HA! THE JOKES ON YOU! …. I'M POOR!



aw….

Great advice on the hair Kawaii.
@Hippie - I haven't had a fringe (bangs), since I was little… It'd be nice to try one again. My hair is always too long for that to work right.
I will look up Snuff box because I like Rich Fulcher too.

——–

Joel, that cartoon was hillarious! It does depend on your audience though, seriously… While most people will say “what's a webcomic??? o_O herp derp derp”, there are some beauties with brains who know exactly what one is. :)

——–

I got a huge silver skull badge for my busby! Yay! All the way from Germany from guys who specialise in making pickelhaubes and various Prussiian reproduction uniform bits and pieces. This thing is quite large and very thin, almost like silver plastic, but it's certainly metal… stinky, easily tarnished silver actually. I am SHOCKED it wasn't all bent up and flattened out in the post since all it came in was a little bubble wrap evelope.

When I get my sabretache back I'll have to organise a proper photoshoot. The skull really does set off the whole black and silver theme nicely. The braid on the hussar jackets is like a ribcage afterall.