The November Retrospective

Ahh.. The last day of November. It disturbs me greatly that it has gone by so fast. Also, I am disturbed by the fact that my family's Christmas is going to be on the 17th of December this year, so I have to buy like 14 more gifts by then. It doesn't leave a lot of time. Also, I am rather broke, as usual, so that adds to the general air of festivity in my world at the moment.

What else has happened this November?

I have finally taken it upon myself to actually TRY to make money, rather than just let everyone else contact me first. That didn't seem to work very often, actually. People seem to need to be reminded that I can do things like paint and draw. Anyway, I have been sending out emails to various places that might be able to "hire" me. I started this like.. two days ago? Three? So far, no one has written me back. I can't tell if it is because they are jerks, lazy, busy, or if they are appalled by the general tone of my emails. These emails can only be described as "shockingly informal." The only thing I try to do is try to remember to not curse wildly. Other than that, they sound fairly stream-of-conscience and possibly insane. And if they don't like it, it will be their loss, not mine! I reason that if they didn't want me to be that way, then our work relationship would be a hassle to me. And I make it my business to avoid hassle, pain, and struggle.

But that does remind me: Octoblog Readers! Attention! With the holiday season arriving so soon, I think that you should all consider buying original artwork from me for loved ones. I am pretty cheap compared to most other artists. I do this because I understand how ridiculous it is to enjoy art, but not have enough disposable income to buy most of what you see. Then, it seems that the cheaper things out there all look pretty fucking awful. I offer BOTH quality AND affordable prices. What better gift is there to give? Presents which become more valuable as each year passes are the BEST kinds of presents.

You know I make sense.


Also this month, on OMGJ... I actually can't remember what the site has done this month. Have there been two updates? There should have been more, quite likely. Funds were recently raised on the Forum to keep the Forum up yet another year. There is also a push toward the idea of raising even MORE money so that we can technically own it and stop renting it or whatever it is we do. We'll see how that goes.

On a more personal note, Jeremy was stranded and his relationship with Andrea is hard on all cars involved. XV has been busy, stressed out, and missing in various orders. Mark has been traveling and scheming, things which seem increasingly common with him. Trev has managed to completely miss the ENTIRE month of November in his blog and we should all travel to England just to smack him UPSIDE THE FACE several times, you know, to add to his stress and interrupt his busy hectic schedule. Jeremy P seems to be busy, and yet not AS busy as he was, since he actually has made blog entries, which makes me glad.

Well! There you have it! I am pretty sure that that is November in a Nutshell. I suppose it wasn't all that bad. Now we begin our desperate slide towards the year 2006. TERROR.

Edit: Also, I must say that I have had to republish my blog in order to make my picture okay there at the top. But it has been stuck at 40% for like AN HOUR. I swear blogger's favorite hobby is to fuck with me, specifically.

A Brief Analysis of That First Comic of Mine

So I've decided to take Trev's advice and write a little bit about my comics from time to time. This should serve me well for those occasions when I feel that I desperately need to make an entry, but don't have the inclination to whine endlessly about things that really don't interest me all that much anyway.

That Comic About Britishness Effecting Pants

I made this oh so very long ago, back in the day when I foolishly believed that it was really easy to make comics. My friend, Mandy, who lives in San Diego, started attending the Comic Convention there and so she was showing me pictures and the comics she'd bought and sharing her opinions on the matter and whatever, and I was all "pfff! I could make those!"

We had been talking about this kid I had discovered on the Internet who I believed was very cute and all British and everything. Mandy tended to agree, and we spoke about the dangers our pants were in, and about pants exploding, and all of that stuff.

Of course, then it turned out that the boy in question was from Philadelphia and the charm completely ended. We were no longer interested at all, and I have no idea what ever became of him. I really don't care.

This was all in the same night that I figured comic making was a simple act, and I decided to try my hand at it then and there, using what had just happened as my material.

It is a simple comic of one page. I didn't measure anything out. I don't think I even had a sketch of the layout anywhere at all. From the looks of it, I didn't even sketch anything out in pencil before drawing over it with pen. It is a truly hideous comic, and I am so glad that I have improved beyond this (and very quickly) because if my comics still looked like this, I'd be one of the saddest people alive.

From the poor illustration quality to the hideousness of my dying marker to the incredible knack I have for not ever being able to make a straight line for more than an inch, this comic truly is a piece of crap. The only thing saving it even a little is the concept behind it, and the introduction of the delight I find in making jokes about exploding pants.

The characters, by the way, have never reappeared in any of my other comics. If you didn't know, my other comics generally have many of the same peoples in them. But this one.. They are essentially so ugly that I never wanted to draw them again. However, those two girls probably are the predecessors of those two girls who are friends and saw the clown that time. I think their names may be Karen and Sally. The boy used is just a generic boy, but he is kind of based on the real live boy that gave me the idea in the first place.

Yeah.

I don't know what else to say about this comic besides the fact that I am almost embarassed to have it seen by strangers.


Okay, that finished, I'd like to mention that the Thanksgiving Update looks pretty snazzy with a fine article by xv bones. Jeremy asked trev to make a Thanksgiving-themed Devilspoon which I see turned out very well indeed. It even caused an AIM exchange that trev showed me which made me lol:

OMGJeremy: can we get a thanksgiving devilspoon?
Trev: devilspoon is english, jeremy
OMGJeremy: irreverant
OMGJeremy: its not like any of us care about it either
Trev: did you mean to use "irreverant"?
OMGJeremy: yes, except with an e

Trev: i think he meant to use irrelevant

Oh, Jeremy, when did you get so special? The only foul-up with this update was that Jeremy lost the url to Fly's article, so I am guessing the Dr. Fly thing will be up this NEXT update. Or HELL TO PAY.

I Think We Have Been Blogging For Over a Year Now

You would think that since I have had this cursed blog for more than a year now, that I would find it easier to blog. I was hoping that I'd be in the habit of it by now, and not have to literally force myself to make an entry every week or ten days due to guilt. But here I am, forcing myself, wondering what to write about.

Actually, it is this lack of knowing what to write about that makes it sound like I do nothing but complain. Blogs aren't fun for me, so I am not in a happy frame of mind when I am typing into this little blog window. I don't like to share actual personal facts about myself, so speaking at length about social events when I have them is out of the question. I will mention them in passing if they seem relevant or peculiar, but otherwise, I don't feel that it is much of anyone's business or interest.

I try to be entertaining, maybe have a topic to speak of, but that's what I do when I write articles, and I don't want to waste a topic on the blog if I could make an article about it someday.

This means that for the past year, I mostly complain about really petty things that I don't really care about (mostly because working for OMGJ has taught me that the readers here mostly enjoy rants and belly-aching about anything we can think of as long as it is done in a colorful manner), and I don't talk about my private life often so it makes it look like I don't actually have one, so it just appears that the only thing I do is sit at my computer machine and whine all day.

I assure you that this is not the case. But I am not really inclined to tell you all about what I actually DO do, so you'll have to take my word for it.

It also isn't that my daily activities aren't interesting or exciting. They must be okay since I rarely ever feel bored. I just don't see any appeal in keeping a public journal where strangers can know the names of all the major characters in my life, what we are all doing, and what I think about it all.

I may be trying to talk myself into doing that, but I just won't do it. No, sir!

Likewise, I won't do blog entries where I link to news articles, or to other points of interest on the Internet mostly because I am very lazy but also because I rarely follow links at all, so I figure that everyone else is like me, too.

Also, for some reason I find it impossible to write really really long blog entries like xv bones does. My attention span is nowhere near long enough, but he has the most popular blog of the 5 or 6 of us, so he must be doing something right. Lord, five thousand word blog entries... How does he find the motivation? Jeremy's blog is pretty nice, it just drives me crazy that you can't comment on his posts. DAMN YOU, JEREMY! Mark's blog is usually filled with humor anecdotes or bitter complaints. Trev's is updated too infrequently, but usually revolves around the fact that he is too busy to blog so we have to take what he's willing to give us. But it is still fun to read. Jeremy P does short reviews of stuff and when he actually has time/energy to be himself, he makes wonderful, entertaining entries.

Maybe I find my own blog lacking because I am my own worst critic? And since I wrote it, re-reading it seems dull because it actually came from my own brains.

But, it is true though that I am a bit tired of these blog entries of mine feeling so forced. I tire of the fact that every entry's topic is just something I thought that I could maybe write a few hundred words about so that Jeremy wouldn't complain to me about my lack of blog-related contribution.

I need a formula, focus, and drive!


See, I think these things, and I'm all YEAH I'LL TRY HARDER WOOO! And then I remember that this is a blog, and I remember that I really don't want to exert any effort at all ever on a blog.

So once again, I will end an entry with an apology to you all, and a little frowning face.


:(

Very Peculiar

Last night at the grocery store, I found myself in the cereal aisle. Well, a week or two ago, I was also in that aisle and was puzzled by the lack of cereal WITHOUT ALMONDS. I lamented the fact that so many consumers were duped. SO MANY that the stock was completely out. I was saddened.

But last night...

Last night I realized something amazing. That cereal was back, in the orange box. The one that used to say "without ALMONDS." Yes. It USED to say that. But now, on the shelves, there are about 15 or 20 boxes of that old cereal, but there is NO MENTION of it being without almonds anywhere on it! The boxes are fresh, crisp and new! As if they had recently been manufactured. There wasn't even a sign of the cereal boxes of yesterweek, when I had been angered beyond reason.


Could it be that Kroger's desire for complete customer satisfaction made it so that ONE long-winded complaint caused them to redesign a box of cereal? Or was it that I happened to be the ten thousandth complaint on that same topic? In other Kroger stores across the region, have all of the cereals been replaced? Or just in the local Kroger here in this town, the one they know I use to buy groceries?

We had noticed the missing product 2 or 3 weeks ago, which was the VERY NEXT time we had been to the store AFTER my formal complaint. I joked about it then. I never expected that my petty whining would ever make a difference.

That's right.

I Made a Difference.


Enter a new era of Amanda Wood. The one who will not hesitate to put in writing her annoyances and irritations - FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE WHOLE WORLD!

Perhaps Mark and I will start our own Committee which will be a consumer review and we'll be all lobbying against poor service and misleading advertisements and all of that stuff.

I am finding that in adulthood, you try to make a hobby out of anything you can.