L.C.Stein wrote:
Sorry, I can't help but make a stupid joke…@usedbooks will soon be debuting her new series “Used Cars”. I've seen those ads for Carvana everywhere, hope it works out and it's as easy as the ads make it out to be…

It's used everything around here. Most of my furniture was given to me by my folks or their neighbors. The house I bought a couple years ago is 97 years old. I found my dog literally on the side of the road. lol

I compared several online services and some local dealers too. But I did end up with Carvana. I found the make, model, and even color I wanted, newer with low mileage. Priced right in the middle of what's expected. It's scheduled to be delivered in a week. So far, it's an easy process. I had all the paperwork done in half an hour, and the insurance was a just a phone call.

I did realize today that Kia doesn't include spare tires, so I ordered one. My driving is mostly rural, and I wouldn't want to be stranded with a blowout. (I've had several in the past.) My daily commute doesn't even have cell service.

Call Me Tom wrote:
I'm trying to get back into making comics but I keep getting paralyzed by whether it's okay if my stuff is just kinda crappy. I except that I'm never going to improve as an artist and I'm fine that anything I make will have around five people who read it if I'm lucky, but everyone talks about the need to improve as an artist and I know that's never going to happen in any meaningful way with me. I don't know what I want from this, probably just to vent my frustrations. Sorry

Always just go for it. The audience doesn't really matter in the end, all that matters is that YOU get your fun out of it through the act of creation.
That's what Webcomics are for! You don't have pressure on you like the creator of a movie, or a composer or some other paid creator, it's all about enjoyment.

Jury duty on Monday.
PLEASE don't let me be selected! Pleeeeeeaaase! -__-
I would rather get CoVid-19

@usedbooks same here. Pretty much all our furniture is either Ikea or hand-me-downs.

So Texas has been having really crazy weather lately. They had some unprecedented ice, snow and cold. Just found out some of my relatives out there are without water, and had lost power for a while. My grandma lives out there, but thankfully she is staying with my aunt. It's really bad :(

Yeah I've been hearing about the outages in Texas, LC - sorry to hear about your Grandma's struggle. That's got to be brutal. I hope our other Texan ducks are okay out there. This is scary stuff.

L.C.Stein wrote:
@usedbooks same here. Pretty much all our furniture is either Ikea or hand-me-downs.

So Texas has been having really crazy weather lately. They had some unprecedented ice, snow and cold. Just found out some of my relatives out there are without water, and had lost power for a while. My grandma lives out there, but thankfully she is staying with my aunt. It's really bad :(

I just watched a youtube news clip about that. It looked absolutely horrifying! Sorry to hear that your relatives must go through all this:( I hope they can make it as safe and sound as they can, til this crisis is under control.

It's tragic seeing places without the infrastructure in place to deal with extreme weather like this. Upstate New York or Canada this would barely register. Central Atlantic coast can handle this. Happens at least once a season. But Texas has nothing.

And near total deregulation and privatization of the power grid? NJ power companies are as corrupt as hell basically buying off the legislature to do as they please but people without power, they do work hard to get it restored. And the CEO is a real a-hole and the employees are entitled and they piss away money but they are fairly responsible when it comes to restoring power and get slammed when they don't.

It's tragic seeing places without the infrastructure in place to deal with extreme weather like this. Upstate New York or Canada this would barely register. Central Atlantic coast can handle this. Happens at least once a season. But Texas has nothing.

And near total deregulation and privatization of the power grid? NJ power companies are as corrupt as hell basically buying off the legislature to do as they please but people without power, they do work hard to get it restored. And the CEO is a real a-hole and the employees are entitled and they piss away money but they are fairly responsible when it comes to restoring power they really get slammed anf investigated when they don't.

Yeah. It is not good to privatize essential services. Greed is a very damaging force when private industry literally holds lives in its hands.

Greedy people bother me a lot. Including that governor and Lt. Governor. I mean…they are your constituents. Those people elected you to take care of them, but no!

I was anxious about my pregnant rat (which I always am), but it became completely validated. She looked pale (and was two days late, which is a lot of time for a rat), so I took her to the vet, and they had to emergency spay to stop internal bleeding and remove the (all dead) babies. She had lost a lot of blood, but she survived and is home now. One of the medicines she was sent home with requires gloves for handling. I've very glad she survived. I lost a rat the same way a few years ago and have never gotten over it. The vet bill is $685, so I put it on the card I just paid off.

Anywho, my previous supervisor called to ask if I want to have the position again this summer. Wheels are in motion for employment, and that removes another big source of anxiety.

My new car arrives in two days, and I have anxiety/excitement over that. I hope it's not a lemon.

And the books I ordered are still in a print queue. Ugh. Taking forever.

Thanks for the support <3. At least where my family lives (Houston) the weather will be going into the 60's and 70's this week. Losing power sucks, but running water is something we all take for granted. Like, how would you flush the toilet?

Bravo, I agree that it is most tragic when stuff like this happens to areas that are not used to it. Thanks for acknowledging this. Northerners like to laugh about the Southerners freaking out and driving in the snow, but the problem is that most of the winter weather further south is ice and freezing rain. Ice causes the power outages, ice makes the roads dangerous. And if it does snow a significant amount, roads are not passable since there are not enough snow plows. Sorry, but no one is going to be a great driver on a sheet of ice without proper equipment.

Used books, I am really sorry to hear about your rat. Good for you for being vigilant and taking her to the vet. It's crazy how animals can hide their pain…owning cats is the same way (if they show pain, they are REALLY in pain). But I am glad that other things in your life seem to go going well, and a new car is always something to be excited about! :)

Thanks, LC Stein. My younger cat had most of his teeth removed last year due to stomatitis (it's basically an autoimmune condition; he gets fevers too). It cost $2000 when all was said and done. I didn't know anything was wrong, but a friend on Facebook noticed the inflammation in a photo.

I have a dog, two cats, 17 rats, and three chickens. So, it's always something.

My car was delivered yesterday!



It looks and runs like new. I love it. :) My only hurdle is that it came from Florida, so it doesn't have a plate/frame for a front license plate yet. (Virginia requires front plates.) I ordered one from a Kia parts store.

It'll take at least 30 days to get plates, and with Covid, the delays are much longer. The dealer tag will suffice in the meantime.

Great little Starbug!

Ozoneocean wrote:
Great little Starbug!

I hope it stands up to my heavy usage. I tried to do a trial run of my summer commute, but the road was closed. (It's in the mountains, and I imagine ice storms probably felled some trees.) I'm taking it to a trusted family mechanic tomorrow to give it a once-over.

Meanwhile, I received my copies of Used Books volume 5 today. It's pretty.

usedbooks wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:
Great little Starbug!

I hope it stands up to my heavy usage. I tried to do a trial run of my summer commute, but the road was closed. (It's in the mountains, and I imagine ice storms probably felled some trees.) I'm taking it to a trusted family mechanic tomorrow to give it a once-over.

Meanwhile, I received my copies of Used Books volume 5 today. It's pretty.

This is great! Is it available on Amazon?

Sadly, no. It will be available on IndyPlanet with my others soon.

Usedbooks, wow looks like you've got quite a menagerie there <3<3. I just found out my kitty is hypothyroid so he will have to be on meds to manage it for life. My other cat has dealt with low-grade inflammation and eye infections for the past year or so. Both my kitties turning 15 this year, so the vet is going to be getting a lot of money from me to keep them alive. They're technically “geriatric” but they don't act like it, and they plan to live till 20 just to spite my husband LOL :p

Your car looks really cute, and I love the book you did. Maybe one day I'll compile all my web-comics into a book.

I've been adulting so hard lately. We're refinancing our mortgage, and today I started calling up contractors to look into getting our kitchen remodeled. I have been putting this off due to the pandemic and also to bootstrap to save up for it, but I hate our counter-tops and I NEED a double deep sink with a disposal. It's an absolute must!

Wow guys!
Interesting news!

Gunwallace just informed me that the artist who did Tina's Story was a politician who unfortunately lost his seat because of being a fury.
That's such a shame…
People's online life and fantasy stuff in no way reflect or affect who they are in their daily lives.

It was the writer. I'll post a short thing about it later today.

I created a new thread about it …
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178628/

usedbooks wrote:

Ozoneocean wrote:
Great little Starbug!

I hope it stands up to my heavy usage. I tried to do a trial run of my summer commute, but the road was closed. (It's in the mountains, and I imagine ice storms probably felled some trees.) I'm taking it to a trusted family mechanic tomorrow to give it a once-over.

Meanwhile, I received my copies of Used Books volume 5 today. It's pretty.

I'm late to the party, but wow! that's amazing! it must feel wonderful to have so much accomplished! and the books look great! Congrats on all your hard work.

I've never had my comics printed that I remember. So that's amazing UB!

I had an interesting dream last night.
I found myself in a snowy area. I encountered a baby elephant which was playing with me and having fun, and a juvenile polar bear which was watching me curiously…
Eventually the polar bear approached me. I stood up suddenly because that really startled me. That scared the crap out of the bear, which ran away fast in its awkward loping gait.

I left the elephant to make my way back down to greener parts, but as I was walking two wolves ran up and past me. One was grey and the other was white with a very weird head… sort of like the bunny mask from Donnie Darko. It had long thin ears, a flattish human style face, evil satanic eyes and a mouth full of spiky needle-like teeth. It broke off from chasing the grey wolf and circled me, running around…
I watched it with caution as I kept on walking. I wasn't scared but I was wary. I stared it down and it got intimidated and ran off after the grey wolf again.

Love all the heavy symbolism here XD

Had an odd dream with crossbows in it. Seems I was somehow in the 15th-16th century and had invented a bicycle crossbow.

The handle bars were the bow and the center rod could slide up to be a shoulder stock. It could be shot while riding or thd crossbow removed to shoot dismounted.

Definitely remember there being pedals.

Also remember thinking that the bicycle didn't exist before the 19th century.

I had a dream one night two days ago where I saw this big lovecraftian blue, glowing mass slowly disappearing through a wall and this blue cthulian antropomorphic figure in a dark robe move closely toward it pleading the blue. glowing mass not to leave it behind. As the glowing mass disappears in a flash of light through the wall the robe and antropomorphic figure is incinerated by the flash of light and what is left is this blue, severed umbilical cord looking thing that lies crying in despair. I just look down on the thing hearing it sob and then I woke up. Then when I walked to the grocery store the next morning I find this blue towel laying in the middle of the bicycle path, making me think back to the blue umbilical cord looking creature in the dream.

My parents are back on American soil!

They left in January 2020 for a three month vacation. I haven't seen them since. I am so happy they are finally coming home!

usedbooks wrote:
My parents are back on American soil!

They left in January 2020 for a three month vacation. I haven't seen them since. I am so happy they are finally coming home!

Nice! I'll hope you and your parents will have a Happy Easter, Usedbooks. Happy Easter to everybody who's celebrating this weekend, whether its in company or otherwise👍

Hey guys! As I remake the front cover, this is what I made for one of the variant covers. :).

Anyone knows any good POD services?