Category Archives: Life

Casual Friday—Coyote Moment

This was a filler comic…sort of.  The only gag I had was the “waking up with a face full of feet” bit in the final panel, and I couldn’t figure out how to fit it into the next comic. Both Ms. Campos and Scrubbo (Brandon Sonderegger) were great sports about me including their characters in the comic (I did try to get their permission before-hand). In panel 2, Steve wakes up with a kangaroo.  Don’t ask how or why.

Casual Friday—Pickup Lines

I have to admit, I miss cigarettes.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that cigarettes are deadly, and I do not wish that anyone who is conscious of that fact gets themselves hooked by a nicotine addiction again.  I just wish that cigarettes were still a little socially acceptable.

There was never an easier way to meet a stranger than to need or offer a light for a cigarette.  Also, cigarettes were the best hand-prop ever.  You have an actor who’s all hands?  Put a cig in one of them and watch him settle down and start acting with his whole body.

I’m a smoker, and I have no plans to give it up, because I like smoking.  Yes, I know I’m addicted to nicotine.  Yes, smoking will kill me.  I don’t care.  I enjoy smoking; I enjoy the action.  I do not apologize for it, either.  I go out of my way to be courteous with my smoking (if you engage in a potentially detrimental behavior, you should make every reasonable attempt not to burden others with your choices).

Of course, these days, the fact that I smoke at all makes me worse than Hitler.  If I was one of those douchebags who lights up even in places where smoking is strictly prohibited (are they still a thing?) or one of those idiots who thinks an electronic cigarette is an excuse to “light up” wherever I want, I’d understand the animosity.  But, you know what?  If I’m outside, a minimum 25 foot distance from the nearest public entrance to a building, and your danger of “second-hand smoke” is even lower than that noted in the one disproved study that created the idea in the public mind—if that’s the case, then you need to shut the fuck up and leave me alone.

I mean…um…yeah…I miss cigarettes…

Casual Notice–LALALALA Misprint!

I grew up with Chick Tracts.  To be fair to their paranoid and borderline psychotic author, I have to credit them with sparking my interest in the Christian Bible and in religious philosophy in general.  Sadly, once you begin independent study, you sometimes learn how small the minds of those who inspired you can be.

That being said, while there are a fair number of facts in Chick Tracts, there is also a heaping load of misinformation and misapplied information.  At this time, the best thing I can say about them is that the art is pretty good, and that almost no living Christians think the way Jack Chick does.

At the time I made this comic, I was very concerned with the ongoing battle for children’s minds–a battle that had no business taking place in the public school system.  I still am.  I am not a Christian, but I don’t begrudge them their faith, and it is my sincere belief that science classes must be taught in a way that does not preclude the existence of some sort of Creator being.  This shouldn’t be hard; science is not concerned with the who or the why, simply with the description of what is.  The Big Bang (or Great Expansion, since nit-pickers are obsessed with mild inaccuracies in language) does not preclude the existence or planning of a Creator Deity.  It also does not confirm the Deity’s existence.  That’s the way it should be.

By the same token, Christian groups should not force their beliefs on others’ children.  As in this comic, there is a lot of Christian theosophy that is just counter to the way many people would like their child brought up.  It boils down to this:  If you want your children to be Christians, then it is your responsibility to raise your children that way, but it is not your right to force others to explain away the effect your faith has on their children’s learning.