Beacon Comics

I've been submitting comics to The Beacon, the SMCC paper, and unlike The Free Press at USM, they were not rejected by a one sentence email which basically said, "Go Fuck yourself." Oddly, no one at the paper told me that they liked them or had received them, so it wasn't until I actually saw them in the paper that I was certain I'd sent them to the right email. Not only that, but my name was listed on the staff for "Comics". So I guess I'm the comics guy for The Beacon. I've been submitted one or two new comics every Friday since then. The only one they haven't printed is the Jesus one. Understandable.
I'm a little worried about next weeks'. It depicts a man in a car, from a bird's eye view, driving down a highway. On the side of the road is a tall sign or billboard that reads "Historic Site of Donner Party" and there's a little symbol of a picnic table. This comic may be a stretch for two reasons.
1. Does everyone know that the little picnic table icon means that their are picnic tables/areas?
2. Does anyone know what the Donner Party was? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
I'm worried it's something that people don't learn about it anymore, in school or elsewhere, though it had a profound affect on my imagination when I learned about it as a boy. Two out of three people I asked, all smart fellas, had never heard of it.

Here are the other comics I've finished

Olympic Balloting update

Oh right, my blog. It's Olympic planning time again, which is that time of year when I annoy the Olympic faction of my friends with ballots. This year I upped the ante considerably, asking each Olympian to contribute 5 event ideas for the final ballot. I promised each competitor that at least 1 of their events would end up on the final ballot but I actually managed to squeeze at least two of every one's on there. I received event ideas from 14 out of 15 2009 competitors- much better than anticipated. Here are the 30 event ideas that were sent out on the final ballot:

Wrickle Badminton
Science Quiz (Bones and Periodic Table)
Flag Football
Root Beer Chug
8x100m Relay
Softball Game
Rollerblade Race
Capture the Flag
Soccer
Knife Throw
Team Crossword Puzzle
Kayak Race
Baseball Accuracy
Rope Climb
Water Polo
Underwater Headstands
Team Obstacle Course
Dock Jump
Karaoke
Hula Hoop
3-Point Contest
Guitar Hero/Rockband
Kan Jam
Blindfolded Canoe Race

I was bummed that I couldn't submit more because there were definitely more than 30 great ideas. Barbell curls, Rock Skipping, Texas Hold 'em, Three-legged swim, Nag Golf, and Wiffle ball were just a few of the creative submissions that had be cut for space and fairness.

Right now, Blindfolded Canoe Race is sailing away with the competition. I wasn't even intending to include it as I didn't think it would receive many votes. Only three ballots in so far though so nothings decided. Ballots are due by December 1st and I'll be announcing the final events by Christmas, so folks will have at least 8 months to prepare.

Exam week

Been busy with school. I've got three exams this week, and possibly a quiz on Thursday if the Spanish teacher gets mad at us again. She has a tendency to get very irritated with the class almost spontaneously and unprovoked. There are a lot of whiners in the class for sure, but she has a habit of saying, "Oh my God, I've told you this a million times, and I won't say it again..." and proceeds to tell us something I'm certain she's never said even once. I take good notes; I would know.
My exams are in Anatomy & Physiology, the corresponding lab, and College Algebra. The A & P lab exam is on Epithelial and Connective tissue cells, and body regions, while the A & P lecture exam is on myriad facts from chapters 1 through 4. An unbelievable amount of information to cover but hopefully I'll do alright. The Algebra exam should be fairly easy- word problems. The only one's I have trouble with are mixture problems that involve percentages. We're supposed to use our calculators for those ones and I am not proficient with a calculator. I'm dreading the graphing chapters.

A real piece of bad news in the last 2 minutes. I went out to check my bike and my back tire was slack. It's letting air out around the valve, which is bad news. So I won't be riding her to school this morning, or Wednesday for that matter. I have a back up bike (World Sport) but I have too many books to carry to class and I can't put my basket on it. Plus it would probably break half way through the trip.

new comic

New comic I came up with last night while fiddling with the radio.

Catching up with late August

Shit. I've been really slacking off with the blogging. Lot's of exciting things have happened since my last blog, but I don't have the time or desire to attack each event with an in-depth rehashing. Instead, I'm going to write a blurb about a couple of the mildly exciting things that have happened in the last month or so since my previous blog entry.

1. Jacuzzi Park Wiffle Ball Party 3 - The third installment in the wiffle ball saga, possibly the best party yet. No karaoke, not an insane amount of intoxication, not the biggest numbers we've seen- but possibly the most fun. We had roughly 10 people there the whole day, and we all played in every game. We had some exciting matches, including a few grand slams and two shutouts. One shutout was actually in a slow-pitch game, in where the pitcher lobs the ball. It's designed for hitters. Oddly, Dan pitched a complete game (3 inn) shutout that way. Hard to figure. I pitched a CG shutout as well, in a fast-pitch, or standard game. I feel like mine should be recorded as being the 1st ever, but Dan's did happen earlier in the day. Dan also etched his name in the tablet of wiffle history by becoming the first player to homer into the tall grass in center field, formerly known as Gopherland. It is now officially known as Danland. Also, for the first time, we had an MVP that wasn't named Ethan. Nick Viti took home the honors with a, frankly, surprising performance which included multiple ground-rule doubles and a couple HRs. Dan and I also received honorable mention.
After the last game, we all went down to the beach and rode waves. It was foggy, the night before the incident at Thunderhole where the folks drowned, and it made for some astonishing waves. Which leads me to no.2...
2. Bodysurfing on a closed beach- We heard that the beaches in Maine were closed on Sunday, due to the tropical storms creating large waves and a fearsome undertow even in New England. Well, we went down anyway to check it out. People were in the water so Jesse, Breanne, and I decided we'd go in too. It was mind blowing. I'd never been so close to such large waves, and the undertow was literally like a rope of water yanking your feet out from under you. I rode several waves for what seemed like 100 ft, having to bail out a few times because I could no longer hold my breath. I was also caught in the undertow at one point, and pulled out beyond where the waves were breaking. I didn't panic, but remembered to swim parallel to the shore, and eventually I was hurled back in by some early breaking waves. It was all very invigorating. Sometimes if I didn't time the wave crests, I would be thrown like a rag doll back towards shore, without the strength to pull my arms and legs in and keep them from twisting and contorting. It's hard to explain how powerful the water was. After an hour or so, the lifeguards called everyone out of the water. We discovered that our bags and belongings, that we'd placed next to the dune grass furthest from the shore, was soaked, even though it was still an hour till high tide.
3. Red Sox game - I also went to a Red Sox game with Jordan. I went down to his house a bit early and we hit the batting cages near his house. It was a lot of fun, and more difficult than the cages at Schooner's in Old Orchard. The game was sort of a bust. Junichi Tazawa only last a few innings, giving up 9 runs to the White Sox after three. J.D. Drew hit two HRs, one that landed not too far from us out in right field. We were roughly half way between Pesky's pole and the visitor's bullpen. I watched Jenks and Contreras and few other guys warm up. Seems like I see the White Sox every time I go to Fenway. We did get to see David Cassidy butcher the national anthem, and the pitching debut of Nick Green. Green worked two innings, walked three batters, but gave up no hits. He cut right through the heart of the ChiSox order too. He threw all fastballs, 87-90 mph, and one "slider," according to the scoreboard operator. Looked more like a fastball in the dirt though.
4. School starts - School started this week. I had College Algebra, Spanish 101, Anatomy & Physiology, and the A & P lab. I now have lots of homework to do. I suppose I should get to that now.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. I'll have lots of school related things to blog about soon, and if the new fall season of softball works out, I'll have that too.

Being in shape no longer cool

I read this article today online about pot-bellies being "hip." I don't understand the article at all. At one point the author says that a flat stomach is "passé." How is that even possible?
Big sunglasses, off-kilter hats, skin-tight pants, etc. all these things I can understand. I don't understand how a pot-belly is stylish.
And the author refers to the look as the Ralph Kramden. Ralph Kramden, if you're not familiar, was Jackie Gleason's character on The Honeymooners. He did not have a pot-belly; He was a very fat man.

Walking through streets that are dead

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_en_ot/us_people_bob_dylan

Bob Dylan isn't recognized by two cops. He was probably glad to not be recognized- I'm guessing it doesn't happen terribly often.