My brother Bill was in town this weekend for an accounting symposium at BYU. I know, I know, it sounds like a thrill a minute. He was here to present a research proposal, and the neat thing is that when he explained it to me I both understood it and found it reasonably interesting. Mostly this is because it has implications beyond just accounting, though. I’m sure if it had been something esoteric regarding tax code I would have been bored out of my skull.

For most of the weekend he was busy, but we got to spend Sunday together. We had lunch (quesadillas with freshly grilled green chiles!), did the Church thing, and then enjoyed a big ol’ pot of jambalaya with sausage, chicken and shrimp.

NOTE: My freezer has no more shrimp in it, I’m sad to say. My diet is moving increasingly into the “inexpensive staples” area, but I’m good with that. After all, I’m working from home as a cartoonist, and the food I eat gets eaten with my family all around me. It’s not what you eat — it’s who you eat it with.

After dinner Bill and I played shoot’em cars. I’ve mentioned this before in the Open Letter. It’s Rush 2049 for the N64 in “Battle Mode.” Our favorite track is #6, and I’m pretty much king of the game in my family and extended family. It doesn’t matter who wins, though. We whoop and holler and shoot and asplode and everyone is SAD when someone racks up 10 kills to end the melee.

Bill’s on his way back to Cornell now. In another couple of years he’ll have a PhD in accounting and be “Doctor Billy” (well, Doctor Tayler, but you know the family won’t stand for THAT). We’ll all make jokes about the aches and pains and boils and lesions we want him to look at, and then he’ll make sure the IRS audits us all.

I should have let him win the video game. 😉

More Marker Art

And now I’ve been to the gym. I bought a nice pair of swim goggles at Park Sportsman on the way to Gold’s. I haven’t had a pair fit me since I was 12 years old, mostly because every time I shopped for them I bought cheap goggles. Well, I spent $12.99 and tried them on in the store. They worked great. I scowled at the $8.99 pair, realizing that saving $4.00 for goggles that don’t fit right or that slowly leak would be a waste of $8.99 rather than a savings of $4.00.

I’d forgotten what it’s like to see clearly while freestyling up and down the lane. Or what it’s like to come home pleasantly tired and NOT with burning eyes. I could get used to this.

–Howard

I had a reasonably productive morning. I slept in a bit, since I was up until something like 1am reading Ringworld’s Children last night, but I jumped right in this morning to finish up a commission. (Hey, skirtman, it’s done!).

Then I struggled with a Sunday strip that wasn’t coming out right. Turns out it needed an extra row of expositional action. That’s easy enough. So I added a row, reprinted the script, and pencilled it.

(Allow me to remind you guys that Schlocktoberfest this year will be darker than usual. Oh, and Book IV is going to be dark, too. But if you stick with it ’till the end you’ll be happy.)

Then I got frustrated with Photoshop. The tools I thought I learned how to use in class are not working here at home. I’ve either forgotten a step, or there’s some configuration change between Photoshop CS here at home and Photoshop CS in the classroom. Oh well. It’s not like this grade is going on my permanent record. Screw the homework — I’ll tell the teacher about the problems I had, and we’ll figure out how to fix them. And with THAT decision made, it’s time for me to go to the gym. I’m in dire need of some exercise.

Oh… one of the things that came up in this mornings trawl of the business-related traffic was a proposal from one of my commercial customers. So I’ll put it to this group: Would you be willing to spend $20 for a 12-month calendar featuring 12 single-panel gags that do NOT feature Schlock Mercenary characters? The artwork and writing will all be mine, and because of the nature of this particular contract, all of the gags will have handheld devices (Palm, PocketPC, Symbian phone, etc) as an element. (No, this is not a commercial for PDAs. It’s just PDA-related humor.)

I’m not 100% sure on the price, but I figure that with shipping, that’s about what you’d spend.

–Howard