Admiration Overload.

After another long and horrible day at work that I'm not going to get into, at my transfer in 's Hertogenbosch on my way home I decided 'fuck it' and went to the Sylvester comics store to finally buy the stuff I know has come out by now. Had an interesting talk with store- and publishing agency-owner Sylvio where once again I tried to convince him of the worth of webcomics AND of the Stripliefhebbers Forum which I really think stands apart from the bulk of online forums, but I have no clue if it was to any avail. Anywho.

I am currently in awe. Of several pieces of art. And that's what I want to talk about in this post because I need to get it out of my system. My eyes are shimmering with excitement just to get these thoughts down 'on paper', so to speak, and it's a feeling I haven't had in a long, long time. I wish the feeling could be about a comics idea but that hasn't happened in months - although I feel intrigued by taking on the Dutch 'christianity' next week in Worst Case Scenario, but that's a different story and definately not the excitement I'm talking about here.

First of all, I bought Bone album 9. The final, FINAL book. Rounding up a series I've been collecting for a decade now, and lord knows Jeff Smith worked on it longer than that. And although I feared it would be very constructed, pathetically tying up the incredible chaos of loose ends that the other albums left up to and including album 8, everything falls into place. I really should have had more confidence in Smith's genius, man. The book had me laughing, crying, and closing the last pages (there's a few loose extras that appeared along the way in the loose issues and have now been included in this last album - but, unexpectedly, fit awesomely well at the end) with a full feeling of closure. You read these books and fall in love with the characters, and find yourself wanting more and more through all of Smith's wonderfully intuitive writing tricks, and yet, with this final album, the story is over. You're not sad, you're not happy, it just works. It really is over. Milking this out would be wrong, and this series has definately become a prime example of integrity, 'keeping it real' as fake people like to say, making art as opposed to marketing a popular product. I'm in deep, deep awe and anyone who hasn't given these books the slightest chance to enter their worlds is poorly off for it.

Then I made another mistake, I popped in the SECOND dvd of Almost Famous. I know and love the movie, but when I bought it I found out they insered a second dvd - which usually just contains extras, or deleted scenes, or interviews, or whatever. Well, .... bloody hell. This second dvd is the same movie, except the EXTENDED VERSION. And where most extended versions DO add to the movie but don't CHANGE it, this really is a different movie altogether. The original really put the emphasis on the mother who's worried sick about William travelling along with the band Stillwater trying desperately to write his article on them and falling in love with Lady "Penny Lane" Goodman, but the REAL movie... I can't believe they cut so much out. The editor of that movie should be lined up against a wall and shot. It's a miracle the cut version came out so well because so damn many great jokes, tender moments, insightful and intelligent dialogue, and key moments have just been tossed on the editor floor. I am glad, incredibly glad, that Cameron Crowe had the decency to include this uncut version (titled "Untitled") in the package, and even more glad that I decided to watch it. Where the cut version makes Russell initially come off as 'mysterious' because he's barely talking in the first part of the movie, this version has him chatting away and at the same time make it painstakingly clear why he's not yet SAYING anything yet, at least not anything William can use in his article. The 'funny' decisions (because you don't quite know where they come from) in the cut version are decently worked up to in this version (you get to see the stuff that leads up to it) which makes the movie and the story flow. I have no clue why they cut all this great stuff out - probably because they feared the public wouldn't understand the observational gems and storyline twists that the REAL version so masterfully contains. I dunno. There's also a lot of dramatic irony that was cut away - again, I suspect this was because the editor feared the audience wouldn't 'get it' - like predictions that in 1993 there'd be electric cars flying over our heads, and that Mick Jagger wouldn't still be trying to be a rock star at age 50.......
I loved it. I'm exhausted and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow but I'm.. well, touched, by this version. The real, uncut version, is art. Ironic art, because it deals with the difference between edited-from-a-commercial-point-of-view art and because nearly every section dealing with that HAS BEEN CUT OUT OF THE COMMERCIAL VERSION. I love it. I've come to admire several other Crowe movies but hot damn, Almost Famous is my current favourite movie. I'm sure I'll trade it in again once something even more genious comes along (something always does) but deep inside I'll still treasure this version.. because it says everything I'm trying to stand for. And everything about western and pop culture there is to say. All stuffed in a sweet tale of a 15 year old reporter who gets to have the greatest adventure of his life with a band and an incredibly intuitively wise groupie (whoops, band aid...) who, in the end, appears to really be the one who's 'almost famous'.

I've also begun to read Craig Thompson's Carnet de Voyage. Since even Thompson himself is calling it a 'light snack' and doesn't want it to be taken as seriously as Blankets or Goodbye, Chunky Rice, and so far it seems as light as he warns us it will be (I also skipped through it a bit to see what kind of story I'm reading - story-reader fault 1, but I occasionally do this and it never really hurts the experience for me) I hope this will get me a little less unimpressed with the art in this world. Because with these kinds of Goliaths facing me, how can I ever hope to make anything even worth catching some of their shade ???


I can't help but chuckle at the 'mojo' joke in Almost Famous, by the way. The part where editor Ben talks about a new machine called a mojo, which transmits pages through the telephone.. "It only takes about 18 minutes per page." Makes me value my dialup speed a whole lot more.

In case you were wondering...

I'm Norman Bates, according to the quiz behind the link (thanks to Greg for this). Makes me wonder if that's how I run Probeersel.com - I think the other members better start worrying whenever they're in the shower.

Rejoice !

The fair has been cleaned up - I noticed the last of the trucks and tents standing about as the train rolled into the Tilburg centre on my way home. I felt a quick rush of joy - once again, 'my' city has become 'my' city again. For a little less than another year.
Of course there are other big events that hit the centre of the city from time to time. Carnaval. Christmas. *Shudders* But really, nothing quite ruins this city's view and general audience as the fair.

Another Bridge Burnt.

Saturday night (early Sunday) I got deleted off a telnet talker I used to go to called The Dating Game. The only reason I ever started going there in the first place was because the owners are the aunt and uncle of my then-girlfriend, and she went there a lot back then too. I'll admit I 'met' several interesting people there, but the past few years I've been wondering why I still went there at all anymore (not that I showed my face often anymore anyway). So when, Saturday, some people felt offended by some (women-hating) jokes I made, and in fact started playing the biased political game they've always played in that place, I decided to push it further and get everyone pissed off enough to delete me. I couldn't care less anymore, and I'm glad I'm out of there (they don't have a .suicide command).
That's the last of the telnet talkers I ever went to. I noticed I don't use the web to chat anymore - except perhaps for a few forums here and there, and then I try to stay on topic, so most places I post are comics-related. I've stopped seeing the web as a 'place' and started using it as a 'medium'.
My roommate, however, kind of worries me. I have a suspicion he's using the web still as a 'place' and is alienating his Real Life Friends. But I could be wrong. Although that same Saturday evening (before I logged in to that talker for the last time) a friend dropped over who actually agreed with HIM that he migth come by. I ended up playing the host while my roommate never came out his room. That's just plain wrong: someone who agrees to come over with YOU and your ROOMMATE has to entertain them. I mean, the visitor's my friend too, so that's sort of ok, but still.
Ahwell. We'll just see - I'm not my roommie's mom, so. If he wants to sit around online all the time, fine by me.

I think if I'm gonna get any vacation time anytime soon I want to get away somehow for a while. Don't know to where yet and how to afford it, but I need some air, yaknow ? Probably won't happen anyway because I've got work piled up for me to do that I should be doing as soon as I have time off. Blah. Everyone else gets vacations, I get more work....

Muahahahaha...

I love images like this.
I picked it off a friend's weblog.



Death to the duckies !
(If it'd been pigeons, I would have enjoyed it even more)

Lookit De Pwetty Avatar.

Look what I made while I was sitting around bored for a moment at home. A nice new avatar to use... I wonder what was on my mind.

How Does One Make A Choice ?

Well, it's official, pretty much, since I've made my decision. So I might as well tell about it on here.
Clients of our department (another department) have shown interest in 'hiring' me. In short, I've been offered a different (better) position. And as I was offered this, it made me realise how much fonder of my job - or rather, my department - I am than I thought I was. So there's the explanation of my workaholism: I'm part of a great team that grew to rather big proportions since I joined it.
The new department has two very great appeals.
One, it's much more in lines of what I want to do. Basically, a branding team is forged and they want me on board as website manager / designer / technical jack-of-all-trades. Basically, I'm pretty much exactly what they're looking for, and a little beneficially more. It'll be publishing, writing, designing, ... it'll be utilizing what I can do AND what I like to do, a lot more than my current job.
Two, it's a brand new team who are going to set out and try a lot of things they've never done before. In other words, a similar department as my current one was when I joined. Back when things were still fun, we were inventing ways to make things work as we went along, we went around the books, we got things done.

But my current department has become like a group of close friends to me. And when I joined my current department, three other guys went from where I worked along with me. This step I'll be taking alone, and I know practically no one there. It will also mean I'm taking on a lot of work in the upcoming half year, and I already have some 10 weeks of vacation time built up that I'd really really like to take up. So that'll be very difficult to figure out. If I stayed, I'd have a stable, predictable work situation, I'd be able to take up my vacation time... and last and certainly not least, the relative stability makes it possible for me to work on my comics and Probeersel.com on the side. Which is why I went to work for my company to begin with.

So for weeks now I've been walking around with this. How does one make these choices ? Everyone told me I should follow what my heart told me but my heart told me jack shit.
So today I flipped a coin. Heads, I leave, tails, I stay.
It was tails. And it felt wrong immediately. So that's how I made my choice.
Even more busy, workaholic, exciting times, here I come...

I Have Been Neglecting My Duties As A Web Comic Artist Tonight.

I'm probably now expected to say something about both movies here, huh ?
Well, er, screw that. I had a great evening and I'll come back to write more about it once I figure out what I want to say about them. The only thing I'll say about it now is, if you haven't seen 'em yet, go see 'em.
 
The kermis (fun fair) is in town. And Tilburg has the annual honor of being the host to the biggest fair in the Benelux. 3 1/2 kilometers of every kind of ride, fair booth, candy, slot machines etc. you can expect at these things. For fifteen days. It started tonight, so we can once again expect two weeks of total craziness: the centre of town being unrecognizably swamped with at least thousands of people (last year's edition attracted millions of people grand total, to give an indication) at any given time, loud noises, flashy lights, screaming, drinking, vomiting, tacky summer hits blurting out of speakers everywhere - you guessed it: I hate it.
Can't wait till it's August and it's all over again.

The only good thing about my plugged-up left ear is that in the movie theatre, during both movies, I couldn't hear the annoying kids (I made sure to sit to the far right near speakers) and the fair didn't bother me much either as I had to cross it to get to my bike.

But in relation to the title of this post: yes, I should have been focussing on Worst Case Scenario's and the still-not-finished new storyboards for The Grim DotCom. But you know what, fuck it. I decided to have fun for one evening (and even then still came home relatively early) while everyone else keeps going on god damn vacations and shit. Even a workaholic like me deserves a little break once in a while. And if it's any consolation, I did do some thinking on both comics and you can expect that to evolve into finished results soon.
But for now, I'm going to end my fun evening with a little bit of lonely drinking downstairs and then going to bed with two cats cuddling up against me. Goodnight, folks.

Medical Weekend

Good grief, what a weekend. First the more and more usual fatigue, and the beforementioned food poisoning. Then of course the devouring of loads and loads of dilated poison with Bandirah, his friend, Troy Titane, Jean-Paul Arends (who both turned up as well), and several friends who show their face at the bar rather regularly. Then more fatigue which resulted in a heavy dose of sleeping in, and a rather nice shower later, my EAR SHUTS CLOSE !
Yes, AGAIN. Well, no, not again, really, since back in December it was my right ear, and this time, my left ear ceased to function. I've - perhaps unwisely so but screw it - battled it immediately with the leftover of ear drops and it seems to work a bit, in the sense that I'm now not COMPLETELY deaf at that ear anymore already, but it's still far from what it should be.
Add to that that I've taken the time to actually watch a WHOLE episode of Kingdom Hospital for once, and you might say I've had quite the medical weekend.

Enh.

Was watching Requiem For A Dream again last night and the diet Sarah was on made me crave a hard boiled egg. So I threw a few in hot water and boiled them - two burst open and became pretty disgusting rather quickly, a third wasn't boiled enough so I only ate one that SEEMED good. However, I'm pretty sure now that box of eggs was kinda overdue, since I threw it up later that evening and felt crappy all of today. I slept the last bit off this minor food poisoning off. Thank god I recently got another box of eggs (a week ago) so I can throw the last of these out.
Geez, I'm sticking with omelets for a while again I think. Ew.
It's that time again: I'm out of Grim DotCom storyboards. The last section of storyline 14 is coming up (the part after the devil) and I'm still not quite sure how to kick it off. The food poisoning hasn't helped, I've been asleep most of the day. I'm also drop dead tired from pulling in overtime at work again. The work's really starting to bear fruit, though - a lot of the stuff that was supposed to be done is now almost over with. Annnnd I got to build an old-school site as our department USED to do (and I used to do countless times) in FOUR HOURS. I rock.
Work has come through as well: I got an official letter informing me about my new salary and the fact that I'm now officially untied of the whole IT Academy. I'm a REGULAR employee now, and I get paid what I'm SUPPOSED to get paid for my work ! It's official !

Bandirah is in town this weekend and he wants to hang out at the Cul de Sac tomorrow night (well, later today, technically, by now). That should be cool. I feel like celebrating. Especially now that I feel a bit better again.
Also, you should check out Worst Case Scenario for today (this saturday). It features a guest comic by Cecile Saiso.

I can't think of anything interesting to say I haven't said anywhere else, right now. So goodnight folks.

I had a few minutes to kill.

Here's a few new silly quizzes I stumbled upon. Well, they're not really quizzes.
You just fill in your name or username and get a result. Still, amusing to see what 'StatusNil' leads to.
So here it is folks, the latest about me:

statusnil Highway Lake Love 4 Tower of Commitment 23 Contentment Meadows 41 Family Farm 144 Valley of Depression 330 Please Drive Carefully

Username:

Where are you on the highway of life?

From Go-Quiz.com

S	Smooth
T	Twisted
A	Accurate
T	Temperamental
U	Useful
S	Skillful
N	Neat
I	Innocent
L	Lively

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

How to make a statusnil

Ingredients: 5 parts competetiveness 3 parts silliness 1 part ego

Method: Blend at a low speed for 30 seconds. Add lustfulness to taste! Do not overindulge!

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

THIS WAY UP á

statusnil has fragile contents which may break!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

This one goes out to my dad and Joris.

In the light of Marlon Brando's recently passing on to the other realm, I decided to break the rather delicate storyline-setup of The Grim DotCom for once and toss in a reasonably well-timed episode dedicated to his GodFather persona. Of course, I didn't decide on doing this until I had some 22 hours left to come up with the joke, draw it, etcetera. That time was including sleep, occasionally devouring some food, and a few personal shoppings that were direly needed. In other words: an insane deadline. I finished it, though, with two hours to spare no less, so for two hours straight I got the "I've still got it !" feeling which was very nice. Then the "I've been in the god damn house too long" anxiety set in and I rushed off to the bar where I enjoyed the rest of the evening.

That's twice this week I've pulled off a Grim DotCom page at rather insane speed. And both are 'loose' episodes. I'm starting to wonder if the current storyline isn't affecting my work: that working according to a previously outmapped plan is ruining the creative experience for me and puts a brake on my ability to jot down storyboards. Ahwell. The last round is about to begin - all I need are those storyboards and I'm good to go. Storylines and other episodes are mapped out up until and including week 46, which means that until November 15, I know exactly where all this is going.