On another note, I sure am glad AVGN likes him some boxes, because honestly, after moving over 20+ times growing up, boxes seriously give me a complex.

I noticed another new piece of grammatical incorrectness that has become popular in recent years is to use the word “based” as an adjective in a sentence, i.e. when somebody says, “That's such a based comment.” Can somebody explain to me just what “based” is supposed to mean in this context? It almost sounds to me like when in the mid-2000s when everybody used the word “gay” to mean something was weird or crazy (i.e. “Dude, that's so gay!”).

J_Scarbrough wrote:
I noticed another new piece of grammatical incorrectness that has become popular in recent years is to use the word “based” as an adjective in a sentence, i.e. when somebody says, “That's such a based comment.” Can somebody explain to me just what “based” is supposed to mean in this context? It almost sounds to me like when in the mid-2000s when everybody used the word “gay” to mean something was weird or crazy (i.e. “Dude, that's so gay!”).

It's just another way to say “cool”. Depending on the context, it can even mean “anti-woke”. I got this from KYM, but that sounds about right.

There's an actual term for anti-woke: “sleep”. It makes sense when you think about it.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
I noticed another new piece of grammatical incorrectness that has become popular in recent years is to use the word “based” as an adjective in a sentence, i.e. when somebody says, “That's such a based comment.” Can somebody explain to me just what “based” is supposed to mean in this context? It almost sounds to me like when in the mid-2000s when everybody used the word “gay” to mean something was weird or crazy (i.e. “Dude, that's so gay!”).

The way I've heard it, it meant someone just not giving a fuck about it. Doing his thing without a care, that makes it seem cool or impress people.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
There's an actual term for anti-woke: “sleep”. It makes sense when you think about it.

I've never liked the term “woke”, not for what people mean by it but because of the way it's used, it's such an awkward use.
It's like how everyone used “pivot” now… it's just so awkward and stupid. They use “pivot” to indicate radical change, which is moronic since the term means to turn slightly on an axis so it can never indicate a radical change. The change has to be to something related, and not that big.

———

Speaking of things being incorrectly used, I've been watching the series “white collar”. One of the leads is a very pretty looking man who's supposed to be a conman, art thief, and expert and every illegal thing ever- a bit of a Mary Sue to be honest, but that's not the issue: He's supposed to be very stylish and has a penchant for wearing a hat.
But it is a VERY unstylish hat!
It's supposed to be stylish, other characters marvel and compliment him on his hat styles but they just aren't.

He wears a fedora style with a rather narrow brim and a tapered, almost pointed crown. This is the style that old alcoholic, red faced, sad old smelly guys used to wear down to the betting shops here. A generation who're all dead now, but that was THEIR style. It never looked smart.

Also, in a scene it shows him buying a panama version in straw from an expensive hat shop- the weave is huge. It's NOT an expensive or good hat. The costume people for the show clearly had no idea.

To be fair, fedoras have been pretty trendy again in recent years, particularly among the younger crowds; I see a lot of people from teens up to people my age wearing fedoras. Meanwhile, I've also observed that in recent years, hats with wide and somewhat floppy brims seem to be the popular headwear of choice for bisexual hipster women.

When I was a kid growing up in the 90s, the cool thing to do was wear baseball caps backwards - we all did that, but it wasn't until many years ago that I learned that the backward ballcap originated as a gang symbol - it was apparently how you could identify a gangbanger from an everyday joe by if he wore a backward ballcap.

My problem is fitted hats never fit my head . . . I have one of those weird protruding foreheads (think Dory's dad, or Lee Arenberg), so the circumference of my head is more oblong and oval shaped as opposed to round, so it's very difficult to find a hat that I can get to fit over my whole head and get over my forehead slope. My hat size (by the American sizing charts) is 7 5/8, which is right on the border of an XL/XXL for fitted hats; L/XL for hats that have some stretch fit, but too big for anything marks as “One Size Fits All/Most.”

The whole backwards baseball cap thing always irritated me. The point of the brim is to shade your eyes. I always wore mine milspec (two fingers above the nose, glasses permitting) because I even then I was light sensitive.
I also need a large hat size and fluctuate between a 7 5/8 and a 7 1/2. I have a wonderful classic fedora Panama hat that I got in Hawaii. Such a magnificent hat.

On the subject of light sensitivity, I'm a sun-sneezer, however, one of those genetic research companies (I think it was 23 and Me) once sent me a report that indicated that my genetic makeup meant that I was not likely to be a sun-sneezer. What a load of hooey.

Yeah “pivot” sounds dumb. It's kinda like when people say they did a 360 on there opinion.

Right . . . cuz that would actually be a 180.

I briefly considered the opposing opinion and then went right back to my beliefs.

Nice pivot.

Hahahaha totally

Here's a piece of local history that is no more: we used to have a local holiday in my town called Boomsday, which was basically an encore of the 4th of July that was observed the Sunday before Labor Day - it was the city's way of sending summer out with a bang . . . literally, lol. Unfortunately, by 2015, the city decided that it cost too much money to keep organizing the event year after year, and in fact, they were losing more money in organizing the event than they were making in revenue from local businesses during the event (restaurants and hotels and such), so 2015 ended up being the final countdown.

I documented said final countdown, so now, this is how I spend my Sunday nights before Labor Day: just reliving a holiday we no longer celebrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZNUENWVDZc

Why they always gotta play such shit music during fireworks shows?!

Well, 4th of July had the local symphony orchestra performing live music (mostly Americana music and such), but Boomsday, yeah, they generally synced the fireworks up with whatever the biggest pop songs were at the time, for the most part. I remember when Katy Perry came out with “Firework” the city actually made it “illegal” to not play that song when the fireworks went off.

Before Covid some New Jersey Shore towns had fireworks every weekend. I lived next to one. So throughout the summer until Kaber Day I'd see fireworks every weekend. That was stopped during the pandemic and now they're back to Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day.
I was an Army tank crewman for ten years. Once you've done live fire on a tank fireworks are less than nothing. I want the smell of cordite, diesel and hydraulic fluid and scan for targets not watch sparklers.

Oh, you grizzled ol' war veteran you. :P

Ours is also one of those towns where it's illegal to shoot off fireworks at home, but people do it anyway, especially around the 4th of July, where people will shoot off their own fireworks practically every night for a week . . . it gets annoying after a while, especially when you just want to relax and wind down during the evening before bed.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Oh, you grizzled ol' war veteran you. :P

Girls love it. “Wow, you've actually done stuff!”
First time I heard that it was a total shock. I actually had done stuff. I'd challenged myself and came out the other side. Messed it all up lots of times but I'd survived. One day I'll get it right. Might even do something worth a bucket of warm spit. But I've done stuff.
It's wild when you can say “been there, done that even got the tee shirt” and like you really did. 🤣🤣XD

The best places in the world, I found along my travels, for unique t-shirt designs have been:

-A corner of Telegraph near (Cal) Berkeley's campus that specialized in funny political parody shirts
-Several vendors in Southern Vietnam who sold funny phở and iPhone parody shirts


===

Yesterday I (accidentally) wrote an Agenda on the board that read:
“PowerPoint Slideshow in GC”

Then I was asked the question, “What is a PowerPoint?” I then responded with an answer that was very telling of how far the generation gap has grown. "PowerPoint was a program that was used to make slide shows before Google Slides. It was part of the Microsoft Office Suite." I then erased the board and fixed the error. -_-'

-Happy 25th Birthday, Google.
-And yes, I grew up in a household that had a complete encyclopedia set.

Good to see that the movement to permanently ban PowerPoint was successful. It was the bane of presentations for the first decades of the 21st century. PowerPoint presentations were also found to be a cure for insomnia.

I come from the generation that still used transparency and overhead projectors or even flip charts. Some of the most extensive artwork I did was for flip chart presentations when I was in the Army. I was trapped into doing four copies of a presentation for map reading and two copies for safe driving classes. I was also trusted by the drill sergeants to wander the whole post by myself to gather art supplies. I was one of those people you could trust not to get into trouble or bring back stuff we trainees weren't allowed to have. 🤣🤣 XD

I'm sure there are also plenty of Phouc pun tee-shirts in Vietnam. The Aussies had a field day during the Vietnam War as it was their area of operation.

My personal favorite old shirt is my 35 year old “where the #@*& is Fort Drum NY?” With Beetle Bailey artwork.

Oh, speaking of t-shirts, I just recently opened up a Redbubble shop!

jscarbrough.redbubble.com

I mostly have Steve D'Monster t-shirts and other items right now, but I plan to roll out with some VAMPIRE GIRL merch within the next month or so for anyone who may be interested.

Yeah, I'm shamelessly plugging right now, but I really need the money, lol.

A better way to make money might be services rather than items- like advertise that you'll make art for T-shorts, for people who want to design one, illustration for comics, photo editing, that sort of thing?

——–

VegaX asked me for art from the Quackcasts to use in his duck and Quail comic, I went through and saved the DD duck pics from the art and there are a lot… over 70. I may turn them into a comic.

Ozoneocean wrote:
A better way to make money might be services rather than items- like advertise that you'll make art for T-shorts, for people who want to design one, illustration for comics, photo editing, that sort of thing?

Idk man, I'm not saying I'd go buy a The Duck Webcomics T-shirt first thing after getting the paycheck, but I'd definitely entertain the idea at some point down the lane. If I can be honest, when it comes to securing funds, staff might be efficient, but certainly not exploring the limits. :D

Not a bad idea though. He could also offer patrons a monthly design request and once it's up in the store, anyone could order it. But yeah, generally it's better to go creative when you can.

Yeah, thanks for crushing me guys, this is exactly why I initially thought the idea of merchandising was futile when it was first suggested to me, because nobody would buy it.

On the other hand, Redbubble approved me for a premium tier account, which means I'm eligible to participate in their fan art program, which means if they can aquire the appropriate licenses from the copyright holders, I could sell designs fan art designs.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Yeah, thanks for crushing me guys, this is exactly why I initially thought the idea of merchandising was futile when it was first suggested to me, because nobody would buy it.

On the other hand, Redbubble approved me for a premium tier account, which means I'm eligible to participate in their fan art program, which means if they can aquire the appropriate licenses from the copyright holders, I could sell designs fan art designs.

That sounds great. Don't get discouraged. I've opened my own merch shop as well recently. Just because it doesn't sell now, it doesn't mean it can't later. But it's true that merch inspired by your comics are things your fans would buy and if you want quick money, a way of doing commissions works better.

Where do people go to get commission work anyway? I need to make about 10,ooo dollars AsaP.

lothar wrote:
Where do people go to get commission work anyway? I need to make about 10,ooo dollars AsaP.

You and I both. Seriously, stuff like commissions and patrons are a big help because the funds go towards getting our work (at least it is what I do) published and printed.

Hello Ducks!

I'm still alive :) But apparently it's been too too long since my last howdy and the site said (figuratively) ‘ayesinback Who?’ Obviously that's been straightened out.

Now that it's been almost four rollicking years, we're settled into our Lancaster Co. abode, learning the Lancaster Co. speak. For instance, the locals pronounce Lancaster as Lan-kissed-her.
The produce and meat are better quality here, but not so much the cuisines; certainly diversity is lacking.

I miss the ease of getting into Manhattan and the shore, but the plus side is huge: people here are just so much more relaxed. I don't know about “nicer,” but I haven't experienced anything like the Jersey hurry. Absolutely amazing how much more enjoyable the days are when there's less pressure. Yeah, I KNOW that's a no-brainer, but I was like a frog in that pot of gradually warming water. Glad I'm out.

Hope to be lurking through the forums more frequently now. ta ta