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.

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.

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.

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.

Who Is Bob Herbert ? *I* Am 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?
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