Sunday, April 25, 2004

Who needs a drink ?!

... I do.
I went out and celebrated the many things that make this day special - see previous post.
It was a good evening, the bar was fun, bumped into Ivo van Leeuwen who was drunk as hell and ended up getting escorted outside by a security guard (even though I thought he was being quite well-behaved, well, considering it's Ivo), plenty of new unknown faces around with a little sprinkling of familiar faces. The girl I can't seem to stop loving was there - she will still remain unnamed here, because I really don't want her to ever figure out what I feel for her, but I'm pretty sure I brought her up before, so I'm re-mentioning her now - and she wore the site's shirt, first edition. That's right, MY site (well, OUR site by now since there's 9 people involved, but still - I founded the whole thing so it will remain my pet project until it's fully out of my hands ;>) on HER body - and all that on the two year anniversary of the URL. Good stuff.
Somehow though, I felt like not sticking around long. I went home rather early - considering it's me - and on my way home I felt empty and sad. Even semi-composed a lil' rock song that will never get written down or performed.
And so I get home, I decide to quickly check up on the site before I go to bed...

AND EVERYTHING'S GONE.

Protagonist.nl is gone, Probeersel.com's gone, the webmail, the control panel, even FTP access, all gone. From the looks of it the server(s) tipped over, but needless to say, I'm not happy. Just when I spent most of the day coding an automated solution to the new T-shirt competition, and it all seemed to work fine and whatever, wham, all gone. I can't help but wonder if my crappy coding is yet again to blame. It kinda wouldn't surprise me, although any of the other times, protagonist didn't vanish along with it. Nor did webmail and with a little effort I could usually still establish a very sluggish and minimal FTP connection to fix the problem - it would usually take me some 40 minutes just to delete the perl script that caused the ruckus, but still, you could tell that a connection, slow as it was and with the amount of time-outs it gave, was still possible. This time, it seems like nothing can connect. Everything's down and gone. NOOOO !

I should have just started publishing a magazine. And kept the whole thing offline. Shouldn't I ? This web site stuff is such a damn pain in the ass, I swear. Time and time again I can't help but wonder what the hell I've gotten myself into...

On top of this joyful news, all week I've been having trouble with my kneecap. Every time I sit up, knees bent, after a while - 15 minutes will usually suffice - my knee starts to feel pressure, like it's gonna explode or at least pop. It's very painful and annoying, especially if you commute a lot or sit in front of computers a lot and stretching your leg isn't much of an option. I had it happening in the bar earlier as well, and as I type this, my left leg's stretched out again because it just came back AGAIN. I'd go see a doctor if I had the damn time - and wasn't concerned with the fact that doctor visits cost me money I likely won't have.
Life is great....

On a slightly positive note, not to finish this post on too negative a tone, the only big obstacle between me and Viktor going on the trip I won in the lottery in about a week and a half from now, was that the cats need a sitter for those four days. We found one ! He's a reasonably trustable friend from the bar, and generally a cool guy, and he didn't mind. So that's great news - I actually get to go on vacation soon ! Sure, it's only four days, but that's four days more than I've had off since November !
I can really use a vacation. I seriously can't wait.

Ok, folks, wish me luck on trying to get the site back online. I'll do all I can. And pray that it wasn't our fault.
*Sigh* If only comics weren't so damn important to me. I might have even told that girl at some point in the years I've known her how I feel. And lord only knows what could have happened. Instead, I'm sitting up, tired as a dog, at 2 30 on a Saturday night, trying frantically to connect to a webserver. If alternative realities exist, I sure hope another me is happy living with that girl, somewhere. I envy him.

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Who died and made April 24th such a damn special day all of a sudden ?!

Ok, you may not be aware of it, but today's a very very special day. Here's a few reasons why.

First off, it's (international) 24 Hour Comics Day. It's a worldwide event organised to celebrate the first decennium of Scott McCloud's concept. So worldwide, loads of comic artists are busy creating complete 24 page comics within 24 hours. A special book was released shortly ago, with nine of the best 24 Hour Comics from the past ten years, and to celebrate this day as well, another book will be released later this year in June, with several of the best 24 Hour Comics as created on this special 24HC Day. You can find more info here.
I am not participating because, well, I'm not as insane as you may think. I get close, I admit, but still. One of those insane attempts per year is more than enough for me. I still vividly recall my state of mind after the last one. It wasn't pretty. Funny, but not pretty.
If anyone else is participating, good luck ! I mean that. It can be quite rough - interesting, though. If you've never done any (and you draw comics) I recommend trying it at least once. And today's a good day to do it ;)

Today's also Newman's Day, or 24 Hour Beer Day. Little tip I got off the Comics Journal Forum. Read more about that here.

There's a pretty big exposition opening in one of Holland's major art museums, the Cobra Museum, about 70 years of Donald Duck.

And last, but certainly not least, it's Probeersel.com's two year anniversary as the URL we've all gotten to know and love. Go us !

But all in all, it's just a Saturday, where I have to go get groceries, and I have a new T-shirt competition solution to code, and I have Grim DotCom episodes to draw, so I'm thinking I'll try to sit in the sun on some terrace somewhere for a while if I get the chance and that's about as special as today will get for me. Hope nobody minds. The above reasons are good reasons to celebrate, though, so if you were looking for an excuse, or somewhere to go, or something to drink, or something to do for 24 hours straight, I hope I was of some help by bothering to blog this. Feel free to thank me. Now I need sleep, so seeyah.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Summertime.. and the living is annoying...

Welp, the first signs of a rather warm month are definately here. Not just the weather - weather is weather, it can vary. The average of the weather over a month can be cold whereas the weather on some days can be scorching hot, at the same time. I'm talking a warm MONTH.
Damien begs and pleads ALL EVENING LONG to go outside. If you're stupid enough to let him out, you won't see him back until the next morning when he's at the door around 6 or 7, meowing loudly. Needless to say, I prefer the variant where he doesn't go outside since that actually allows me some SLEEP. And doesn't cause me to stand outside at 2 at night shouting his name with him nowhere in sight.
I had my first spontaneous blood nose at work on Tuesday. That usually doesn't happen until June or so, when it starts to get really hot.
The average temperature of this month so far seems high. At least judging from how many summer-like days we've had so far - which were quite a lot. I'm not complaining, it's nice, but I fear the upcoming summer now.
It's gonna hit us hard. I just know it. I hope our department finally moved out of the 5th (and top) floor to the 2nd, where the air conditioning actually WORKS... or I'll DIE this summer.

Monday, April 19, 2004

From Tilburg With Fatigue.

It's about time that I updated you all on what's going on, again - especially those of you who know me well enough that plenty will and does happen in my life if you don't hear from me in a while.

Let's start off with my most common subject as of late: the The Grim DotCom backstash. I only got one episode done this weekend, so I'm afraid I still don't have two months' worth.
There. That's enough on that subject. I think you'll all agree.

So what has kept me so damn busy then ? On Friday, I cleaned out our hall closet. I'd been meaning to do that for a year and a half or so by now and it's only gotten more and more of a wasteland since. Cultures were developing there, languages spoken, space travel - it wasn't pretty. It's clean now, all the useless stuff has been thrown out, and it amazes me how much available space you can create just by reorganising what you own.
All this was brought on because I wanted to demolish our garden. I needed tools and I couldn't find them in that mess. So the mess had to be gotten rid of, first. Then I turned back to the garden.
I took out a large square of the tiles, creating a whole new section where grass and plants can and will grow. It'll give the garden a nicer, greener outlook, it'll give the cats more uncontrolled green wilderness to play in, and it will finally make mowing the lawn worth it. Also I've been planning to plant some of that cat nip I brought back with me from Philly last November. Nice little surprise for our cats. I'm growing it in a pot in the (closed-off) guest room, right now. As soon as I feel these plants will last outside, they'll be moved there.
More demolishing took place on Saturday, when I tore Vik's couch apart. Again, this may sound strange, but the thing has been outside since we got the pool table, and despite the plastic sail we keep over it, it's rotted away inside. It stank bigtime when we took the plastic seal off on Saturday, so I decided then and there - this couch is dead. And I asked Vik permission to kill it officially.
Most of it is gone - wrapped in convenient trash bags stuffed in a corner. We'll toss it out bit by bit. And if it wasn't rainy and windy on Sunday, I would have torn down the rest of it.

Friday night our friend Marieke came over to visit and watch movies n stuff. That was a pleasant surprise because I'm near broke this month. Paycheck comes in again next week, so it's all good, but I couldn't go out. (Probably also why I unleashed destruction on our hall closet, the garden, and Vik's couch) This resulted in Vik also ambitiously trying to clean his room (I don't know exactly what he was hoping for..) and me deciding the living room, the hall and the stairs could use a good vacuuming again. I swear, I can't remember us getting this much done in one weekend since, well, we moved in.

So on top of all that, I got one page of The Grim DotCom done. And I watched some TV. That sums up the stuff I've kept myself busy with.

Other matters worth mentioning: Our cat Damien was showing some bald spots so Vik took him to the vet's. Fleas and ear mite again, so we're putting stuff on his ass and in his ear - PEOPLE don't like it when you do that to them, so imagine what a rather large cat with razor sharp claws thinks of it. Luckily, Damien's a total sweetheart, and with a little cuddling you can hold him just so that he calmly coorporates. Still doesn't mean he likes it, though. Poor kitty.

And in other news.. Vik and I have been talking. In October his work's department in Tilburg will close definitavely and he's already been applying in other locations in different cities. This I knew. He brought up that if he did get a job rather far away, he'd move there. But that would be a while, and getting housing elsewhere first will also take quite a while. Still, it may mean I need a new roommate later this year. Bet that'll be interesting. Most of my RL friends don't qualify because they're allergic to cats - and in all honesty, I'm keeping them if I can. We talked about that, too - Vik doesn't really want to leave Damien behind unless it's better for him, but at the same time, he considers this place Damien's home. So we'll see. For all we know the only place he can get elsewhere won't allow for cats, making the whole discussion rather pointless. At least we're both very civil and open about it - we BOTH want the cats to stay with us, but we'll decide whichever is best for them. I'm pretty sure Satan will be best off staying here, though. He's happy here.

Anyway.. that should put you guys all up to speed. I'm so out of touch with most folks. Sionnain called on Friday but we couldn't talk for long. She wasn't doing too well but still keeping an optimist spirit about it which is encouraging. If only lady Luck will smile her way a bit, I'm sure she'll be fine. And I also tried to get in touch with my buddy Dave, only to find out his Tilburg phone number was no longer in use. I called his cell and left a voice message 'I just KNOW theres a story behind this. Care to call me and enlighten me ?' We'll see what happened there...

René out. Goodnight, folks.

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Who Is Bob Herbert ? *I* Am Bob Herbert.

Bob Herbert
You are Bob Herbert! You're not the most sparkling
writer, but one of the most solid and selfless
on the Op-Ed staff. You focus on New York
politics, the poor, race issues, and civil
liberties. You like to quote others, and rarely
place yourself in your columns. You keep it
real. Seriously.


Which New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Like Tossing Part Of Myself Out.

I just had to toss away my oldest shirt today. It was a flanel one, from the very days I decided to start growing my hear (and at least wearing it differently), rebelling against school and my parents, and trying to find myself. It was there when I graduated high school - both times. It was there when I made the Probeersel books. It's travelled across the globe with me. It was there in university. It was there through ALL of it. I've had it for 13 years.
But the right elbow decided to be completely worn down and burst open.
So with one last salute, I tossed it in a garbage can. *raises a drink* Here's to all the women who can't comprehend why we men value long-lasting clothes that we wear for years and years and wear down to their last threads.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

One Final Easter Toast

It's 1 at night but I'm gonna go and mix myself a little drink. See, I've spent Saturday, most of Sunday, and the larger part of today, working on The Grim DotCom. And I'm pleased to report the work's paying off. Despite the fact that, just like every week, Sunday meant the launch of another new episode, thus slinking my backstash down by one again, I now have a month and a half of backstash ! And I still have six days before another episode appears, so I'll be continuing the hard work.

So what's so special then about the month and a half, I hear you think ? Yes, I heard that. Don't put on an innocent face, I know that that was what you were thinking.
Well, nothing, besides the fact that the last episode I finished working on now, which'll appear on Probeersel.com a month and a half from now, is the 52nd episode. Of a weekly comic. In other words: I've got the first year of material finished !
Annnnnd THAT, as far as I'm concerned, is worth raising a glass of as yet undefined alcoholic beverage to. Just wanted to share that with ya guys.

The weekend wasn't ALL wasted on drawing, by the way. I slept in a lot, I made sure to sit in the sun today while drawing because it was GORGEOUS weather most of the afternoon, and I was at the Cul de Sac on Sunday night. Even had a lil' afterparty there which was, as always, fun.

I'm also hoping to hear back from my buddy Tom wether or not he would mind house-sitting while I and Viktor are off to Sweden for those four days. I kinda want someone to be here to look after our beloved hell-brats (read: cats) and I suppose I could always ask the neighbours or friends who live close-by, but I'd much prefer someone who'd be here more than just five minutes every evening. Just in case they get ill, or something, and to keep them company, and to let them outside if the weather just happens to be gorgeous. Plus, it'd be a good chance for him to catch up with my movie collection which he'd been wanting to do for a while. And it could be a little holiday for him too. After all, he spends most of his time in Eindhoven in a rather small apartment. He'll have the entire house to himself here for four days, and it's no secret that I think Tilburg is a great place for anyone to spend some time.
If he decides he can't, we still have a few other friends who might be interested, as well as friends and the beforementioned neighbours who'll be in the neighbourhood and can check up on things if necessary. So it's no problem. But I think it'd be good for Tom and he could have fun here.

Anyway, I'm going for that drink now. Talk with you all later.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

I have the coolest friends.

It's true, my little 'posse' (our group has kept close bonds since halfway highschool, which grants our friendship some nearly 10 years existance now) is the coolest. Right now they're all at a house warming party which I declined the invite to, and was repeatedly urged to go after all, to. But really, I'm exhausted from this past week, and the company that employs me stole a normally quite fruitful evening from me that I *could* have spent working on The Grim DotCom. All day today, I've been mostly asleep, after a taxi indeed drove me back from Amsterdam at 2 at night. I *want* to work on the comic, but really, all I seem to be capable of today is vegetating. So tomorrow will be well-spent, I hope. Because all in all, I turned in 3 days this week that I could have been drawing (Wednesday constituted a well-deserved break since I drew next Monday's Worst Case Scenario which tells the world Joep and I are halfway this crazy enterprise of making the same joke 365 times).
However, I would have liked to have gone. And I hope they all have fun.
But the main reason I bring them up is to give big dibs to my friend Joost, prominent member of our little posse. I mentioned on his birthday recently that I've been trying to get the DVD of the brilliant BBC series Manchild but it's impossible to do without a creditcard. So he ordered it for me (of course I paid him back, but still - it WAS impossible to attain otherwise !) and he brought it along tonight when he came to pick up Viktor to go to the housewarming. So I've been watching it in this warm, exhausted, vegetating slump I'm in, and it's still brilliant.

For those of you who have never heard of or seen this show, shame on you !
It's all about a group of four friends: a stock broker, a dentist for VIPs, an art collector and a decking 'king'. Though different in their lifestyles and interests, they all mainly have their age in common: they've hit the big five-o. And thus the series is all about their midlife crises. Hilarious in itself as the concept is, it's been done brilliant: the stuff these episodes show and tell are insightful, witty, sarcastic, even cynical, but awesome. Each episode breaks down for the audience how the male mind REALLY works. And thus, I would like to state here that this is the one and only 'Sex In The City for men'. It's far from the sentimental crap that SITC keeps popping up, or the pointless theories and other observations, however, exactly like SITC, it's perfectly aimed, full-blast and honestly, at the very focus group it's displaying. SITC is for women, Manchild is for men. Of all ages. Sure, it's about the midlife crisis, but trust me, we ALL THINK LIKE THIS. ALL OUR LIVES. It's brutal, it's honest, it's terribly, terribly insightful, and while watching it you can't help but feel slightly ashamed of what kind of creatures us men are, and at the same time, feel yourself wanting to cheer these guys on. If you haven't seen it, go to the BBC site and order it.

For a while there, there was a series called Mind of the Married Man. Though marketet as 'SITC for men', trust me, it's crap. It's mostly SITC *itself* but ABOUT men. Men who watch this will not get the 'SITC experience' women get out of SITC. It's bogus. It's a cowardly look at a couple of men who, though a slight tad controversial here and there, mainly maintain the image men try to show women of who 'we' are. I watched it for a while, and besides being bored, I was annoyed at it being typecasted as SITC for men. It's not. It's cowardly propaganda, written for, and probably by or with the aid of, women. It's not at all about men. Not a single man I know is HONESTLY like that. Yes, we all ACT like that, but that's not who we are.
Manchild, however, DOES show who we are. And how it all works. Because, after all, divorced men in their 50ies, or deliberately-remained-bachelors at 50, or even married men at 50 (all of which are represented in the little quartet of main characters) have no reason to have ANY qualms about giving in to every hedonistic whim they have. This show is clearly about which head men think with, how we approach any dilemma, how we REALLY view relationships, women, etc - and makes NO apologies whatsoever for it.
I can't wait for series 2 to come out at some point. Meanwhile, excuse me while I continue to vegetate.

Thursday, April 08, 2004

God Damnit I could be drawing or sleeping now !

I am still at work. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT ?!!
I was stupid enough to reply 'yes' when they asked me to volunteer a few hours of overtime to help test a roll-out of a newer version of my department's CMS product. After all, I know it best of the entire department - at least best from a user's point of view. I won't pretend to be able to understand the infrastructure or how the databases tie together, but I know how the software behaves, what the issues are that to date are unsolved, which workarounds there are, in other words: if this was a horse, I wouldn't be a vet, but a damn good instructor and riding champion.
So yeah, if you want someone there to tell a bunch of infrastructure experts wether or not the software's doing what it normally should do, after the upgrade, I'd be a logical pick.

Except it's some 6 hours after they started installation, and it's still not even properly installed. I'm sitting around at work, reading about the history of webcomics, online, in lack of ANYTHING ELSE TO DO.
I don't mind the overtime in a sense that I'll compensate it all sometime next week, but damnit, it's practically MIDNIGHT and I'm in AMSTERDAM ! I could be in sweet Tilburg, curling up in bed with my cats Satan and Damien, or watching a good movie on DVD, or working on The Grim DotCom, or just chatting away on ICQ, or chillin' on the downstairs couch talking with Viktor. Hell, I could be drinking in the Cul de Sac.
Instead I'm sitting here on stand-by while they try to get the program running. I barely slept this week, so I'm exhausted now and can barely keep my eyes open. And since I won't be able to catch any train or bus home anymore, I guess a taxi will drive me home after this - luckily, I *do* work for a company that'll pay for that. So a taxi *WILL* drive me home. Still, I'd rather already have BEEN home. And the train has the added benefit that I've mastered how to draw during the ride. I doubt I'd get much drawing done in a cab, during some, what, three hours ? on the road home, in the dark. Yeah. No comics tonight, folks. Thank my wonderful employer for that.

Anyway, I'll stop bitching. It wouldn't all be so damn bad if I wasn't sitting around being practically useless. It's all infrastructure that's causing the trouble now, nothing that my expertise can help. I'll only get useful once they get it to work. And from the looks of it, that'll be damn late, and MUCH testing won't end up being done. They could have just asked one of our NY clients to test, instead. It'd be about the end of the working day for them, there. That wouldn't be as bad as my predicament.

Damnit. I hate Amsterdam. It's my weekend by now. To quote Clerks' Dante: I'm not even supposed to be here !

Monday, April 05, 2004

Recommended Reading.

A colleague sent me this, and I found it to be quite insightful to be honest. I can't wait for the full version which, according to the article footer, should also appear at some point.
In any case: What do you get when these two guys (regardless of the facts that one of them has died and the other might not be willing or quite as intellectual and clear as in this example) started a conversation ?

Well.. you get this.

Sunday, April 04, 2004

It's Been A Long Time, Shouldn'ta Left Ya

I hope none of my readers was ignorant enough to take ANYTHING in that last post seriously - you should have paid attention to the date if you had. Anyway, I'm back. And I've been terribly busy !
So here's the latest stuff on my life:

I finished an excruciatingly difficult-to-do Grim DotCom episode, that took me nearly all my free time over the past week. The drawings look amazing though, and, just like with the art episode (which is currently showing in our Probeersel.com theatre), resizing it into page format ruins it completely. It's frustrating. Perhaps I need to think about a new format for that comic, or cut down on panels, and in doing so, in pacing, wittiness and story. Not sure I'm ready to do that yet, but if I keep producing better and better art but the end result screws it up, I'm gonna be too frustrated to continue this concept. Then again, I know damn well that, one, it's a terribly popular comic. Two, it's a great (though not completely unique) concept that can run for a REALLY long time. Three, it gives me great opportunities to vent all sorts of stuff on life, bureaucracy, death, people's general stupidity, and I get to explore all kinds of stuff I was never able to do before. And four, all that, and the story, and the pacing and jokes etc. ALWAYS COME BEFORE THE ART.
Still, though. After that 24 Hour Comic I feel like taking on new challenges. I want to do that Non Biblia Sacra script so god damn badly, you have no idea. I need my hands free ! But to get there, I first need to get The Grim DotCom, Worst Case Scenario, the Probeersel books, the re-setup of the site, the new T-shirt competition (which will likely start any day now since we only have one original shirt left anymore), and possibly Penguism (since Sionnain isn't quite back in the saddle yet and the comic's missed two updates already) out of the way. Not to mention, my job. And my social life, which has been shouting louder and louder claims on my time and I'm trying to balance it just só that people, when this busy period of my life is over for a while again, won't have turned away from me forgood. Annnnd finally, I suppose some sleep every now and then might have upgraded from luxery to the status of necessity.
But I *will* do that story. At some point. I can't wait. It's gonna be hellish and I have to learn to draw COMPLETELY differently, but it's gonna be a major challenge and I'm all for that now. I feel like I'm slipping into a bit of a rut, and that tale may just be exactly what I need to get me out of it again.

Anyway.
About the claims my social life makes on my free time: Thursday night I was out in bar Cul de Sac which was celebrating its 5 year anniversary. I don't think I'd have been forgiven if I'd made a no-show. It was good though, talked with a lot of people I know there, and also got to congratulate Troy (Titane) on his officially joining the ranks of the publishing artists on Probeersel.com, and I got to hang with Joris for a bit who I hadn't seen since somewhere halfway February.
Then Friday, there was a lot of household stuff that really needed to be done, as well as drawing (as mentioned above), which both went on into Saturday, on the evening of which I had to make my way to The Hague where Michelle was having her house warming party. I knew a whopping three people at that party, so I was kinda glad to go back home.
On Sunday my mom calls me while I was still asleep, to let me know.. that the tickets arrived. That's right, folks: Stockholm, here I and Vik come ! Sure, it's only three days, but it's a free vacation ! Who can not be excited about that ?! Well, besides my wallet - the travel expenses from airport to hotel are for ourselves, and Stockholm's a notoriously expensive city, booze-wise. And we all know how expensive that might get for someone like me. But I'll be fine. Most importantly, I'm out of the house for a while and I get to travel without the travel costs. We should really figure something out about the cats, though - someone needs to take care of them those days. Perhaps we can get a friend to stay in the house those days. We'll see.

Work has been insane all week, but there's all sorts of progress being made, which makes it GOOD busy-ness. I could do without it for a while though - like I said, I really need, need, NEED my hands free for just a few days to work on my comics. I have another house warming next Friday and I'm seriously thinking about calling it off - first of all, I hit a creative vein so The Grim DotCom's making some progress again, and I want to exploit that to the fullest possible. Secondly, it's in Eindhoven which is far from my favourite city to be at all, and finally, most of the people who'll be there I've seen at another birthday just last week. So I'm thinking - although regrettable - passing it up will be good.
If anyone reads this who's also waiting for a call or visit from me, I hope I gave a clear enough impression of exactly how insane my life's gotten, and that I really barely have the time to sit down for a good meal. I have too much mess to clean up. The Grim DotCom's backstash is the first on the list.

Anyway. I skipped on some perfectly good sleeping time (which was planned in since I couldn't come up with a good storyboard anymore tonight) to report all this to you folks. Be grateful, damnit !
If work allows me a bit of slow time tomorrow, I may check in again. Otherwise, I'll just see ya when I see ya.

Thursday, April 01, 2004

StatusNil.BlogSpot.com, your reliable source of news and information.

NEWS FLASH - In the news today:

René van Densen comes out of the closet and admits: "The rumours you have heard about me are true. I am, in fact, a penguin. The handsome guy who has posed for countless of my pictures is actually a group of similar-looking actors, hired to keep up the façade of me being a human being. My comics are actually drawn by Craig Thompson, under my name as a pseudonym to experiment. I can't live with this lie anymore. I hope my fans will forgive me and continue to send me fresh fish. Also, it's kind of cold here."

Truth finally revealed about the Bush administration: Today in a special press conference, president Bush will openly admit that allegations that his leadership is a joke are in fact true. "It was all part of a well-prepared, long-running April Fool's day gag, folks."

World renowned international comics community Probeersel.com unveiled ! Probeersel.com turned out to be, as the result of a shocking investigation turned out, nothing more than a sub-section of Keenspot. Fans are rioting and stormed the building of the hosting provider. Helpdesk support is still at large.

And finally... Today's not April Fool's day. Someone messed with your calendar. Yes, on your computer too. And on your watch. Your mom's in on the conspiracy as well. LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU, A NINJA SQUAD !!