The New Floodgates of the Mind

🙂 Comicopia is at 135 pages right now. Still waiting to tabulate 3 sections.

Some funny stuff I got in an email

Well, my section is ready to be copied. I’m waiting to get Francisco’s via email this afternoon and ‘s tomorrow morning. Carson supposedly mailed his on the 19th and I should receive it on the 22nd. Of course, the fact that I’m not home ON the 22nd to receive it, thus not knowing the page count or even IF it arrived… means I have no clue if it will make the issue. ‘s is sitting at the post office waiting for me to go pick it up which I should be able to do tonight.

House Organ will be printed tomorrow morning, copies made in the afternoon, and the issue could just as easily be ready to mail out by Saturday morning! THAT is a nice feeling 🙂 And then, I can turn my brain to the 1/2 million other things left to do 🙂

in other news…

I’m busy today. And I also find myself with an upcoming lunch hour and nothing to do. And no food to eat. And nowhere to go. Blah.

On The Tube With The Savage One

Interesting night. Chantale met up with her mom to go for her final fitting. Thus, I went to take the car after picking up my last couple of weeks worth of comics at Komico. At home, I immediately began to work on compiling Comicopia. All current sections have been collated and hole-punched, ready for the next sections. The House Organ is as updated as could be at the time, and emails sent to various members about their sections. Finally, I began to type up my section’s hand-written notes.

Chantale just got home a little while ago and she set up the Nintendo console we got as a gift from my best man’s stepson this past weekend. So, as she sits there on the floor of the basement, playing Mario Brothers (version 1) and squealing in laughter, I’m here typing away feeling quite content that Comicopia’s 13th Year Anniversary Issue is as well-along as it actually is! Having a basement to work on each issue is going to make things so much easier! And, having a post office close to home which is actually open on Saturdays means I’ll be able to get back to mailing all issues out on the Saturday after deadline! Coool! 🙂

So, with Cyndi Lauper’s greatest hits crooning behind me, Chantale Nintendo-ing next to me, a Sangrila Tornado quenching my thirst, I’m sitting quite happily at my computer. Yes, we are quite happy in our home. And each day just brings up another thing to be grateful about and our happiness increases. The basement might still be a little messy, but my weekend cleanup has done amazing wonders for it which means we can hang out here without problem 🙂

Sometimes, it’s nice to sit back and recognize the fact that life is, indeed, good.

“We’re just following
Ancient History
If I strip for you
Will you strip for me?”

-Adam Ant
Strip

Someone told me something last night in regards to the type of person I am. She said, “Being a Writer is a lonely job for a People-Person”.

As you can imagine, that really had an impact on me. There’s no denying the fact that I am, indeed, a People-Person. I need interactions with people as much as I need to be able to help/ work with/ and teach people. I am also, I must admit, more prone to write when I know my audience and can visualize the person, or group of people, reading my works. As much as I might crave feedback from my works, I do relish open discussion.

This one simple comment threw me somewhat for a loop and made me truly recognize something about my life as a Writer and why I am where I am instead of where I think I should be and KNOW I could be. Eye opening revelation is what it was…

i’m so exhausted i feel like i’m going to keel over and pass out at any minute. i seem to have a lot more on my mind than i thought i did. i seem to be a lot more stressed than i believed i was…

i tossed and turned all night last night. i managed a couple of small hours of interrupted and fitful sleep, obviously waking up a lot worse for wear. plus, i’d been fasting since 8pm last night due to it being time for my yearly physical this morning and thus needed to fast prior to my tests. all this was quite frustrating which, of course, did nothing to calm me down enough to properly rest. *deep sigh*

how long will this last?

What a weekend.

When Chantale went for her trail-run hairdresser’s appointment on Saturday morning, James and I cut the grass. After she got back, I took a quick shower and the three of us went downtown to Dundee’s. I’ve been wanting to take Chantale there for ages and this was as good a time as any since she wanted to head over to Simon’s. We had a fanastic lunch and I even indulged in a Smirnoff Ice. It was the first time I actually “splurged” by buying a drink (I usually find it a waste of money to spend up to $2 more for a bottle of something easily purchased at a store). That was bizarre for me but I was just in the right mood for it.

Who knew.

After our wonderful meal, we started walking towards Simon’s. As we were on the corner of Crescent, we decided to walk to Winston’s to say hello to Francisco. Initially I was a little reluctant to walk in since James was with us, but, Chantale pulled him in and so I went after them. And was immediately surrounded by a pack of smiling faces. They got me good. I was so nervous I immediately broke out into a sweat. Francisco began talking and presenting me with a number of items I had to wear or carry. Namely, a “This is my Bachelor Party and I’m SCARED” t-shirt with the blair witch face on it, a “Jenny” party-doll, a breast-pacifier, and a breast soda-can cover. And, of course… a ball and chain. And guess what? I had TASKS I had to accomplish. The sooner I did them, the sooner we could leave to go back to Francisco’s place. But first… I had to walk back to Standard Life and get my car out of the garage so Chantale and James could go home. Sheesh.

Needless to say, I was most wonderfully humiliated. But, I managed to accomplish all my tasks. From buying a girl a drink (I bought 2 girls a drink each!) to getting the phone numbers of 3 women (I ended up getting 4 🙂 ), to getting a woman to kiss me, to kissing a woman older than my mother, to getting someone to talk dirty to me (I got a girl and a guy) to getting Francisco’s shoulders rubbed by a woman (I again got a girl and guy) to getting a quote from the Purolator lady on how much it would cost to ship “Jenny” back to China.

All the while, carrying the items “branding” me as a soon-to-be married man. It was quite the adventure, it truly was. And the fact that I managed to achieve all my objectives (with my father-in-law in tow!!!) was quite remarkable 🙂 In fact, everyone was having SUCH a blast, they mainly forgot to take pictures!!! Ha! Less incriminating evidence! 🙂

I have never been “gotten” that good before in my life. Truly, one to remember 🙂

Yup. Seems I was the last updater last night and first this morning. Sheesh. You’d think I wouldn’t know what sleep is 🙂 And you’d be partly right. James got up again this morning, but I couldn’t remember if it was at 4am or 430am. (shrug) At any rate, Chantale left at 7:30am to go for her dress-rehearsal hair appointment. Since I was awake, and heard that James was as well, I ran out of bed and jumped on him 🙂 Afterwards, we came down to the basement where I gave him some older Peanuts comics as they’re his new passion 🙂

So, as he read those, we listened to a CD he got from Camp yesterday, and I continued cleaning up. I had had enough of the very messy basement and, even though we’re not going to finish it for at least another year, I wanted a “semblance” or normalcy down here. And thus, I unpacked, put aside a ton of novels I’m going to try to sell to a second-hand store, and generally re-arranged stuff. I even managed to set up my stereo system which means the 400+ CDs I have up against the wall can get some use again 🙂

Some of the nice of unpacking is coming across lost gems like my old stamp collection, some old Comicopia material, etc. Heck, I even JUST found the notes I had originally written when I went for my interview at DPM back in 91 🙂 And, in the same booklet, the outlines for my Gene-X-Factor storyline from the earliest Comicopia challenge! (And yes, that includes the Archie/Punisher outline :> ). I guess this is what you’d call “Good Nostalgia” 🙂

Man, when you think that Comicopia is celebrating 13 years next issue, it seems hard to believe. Until I look at all the issues lined up on my bookshelves and all the admin notes I have in my drawers, including past covers, non-covers, paste-up covers… wow.

And, hey, I once again found Issue 0 🙂 I’m tempted to print up the cover of that one for the current members to smile at. I would reprint it all but the insides are too dark for proper reproduction. Although, I’m almost positive I have a copy of Comics Scene #8 from which it was copied…

Ah, I’m going off track again and starting to ramble… of course, it only makes sense this happens while “Stand By Me” is playing…

I’m almost feeling ramble-post-ish and yet, from my short wanderings tonight, it seems that a lull of silence has fallen over many… the stillness of the night is broken by the chirp of the crickets but as for humans… none are to be found.

I’m exhausted but was more thirsty than tired. Thus, I had to down me a coke before going comatose. But what with all the interuptions I’ve had during the last couple of nights, a part of me is almost worried about trying to sleep again since it knows it’ll be awakened in some rude manner before the sun rises…

I don’t think I’m making sense. My brain is in a haze…