Several times today I’ve typed posts up in forum discussions, and about halfway through decided “this isn’t really worth saying.”

Sure, I love hearing myself speak, and seeing myself post. What attention-whoring, publicity-craving, ego-driven webcartoonist DOESN’T? But I seem to be maturing a bit. I’ve grown up enough to know that not every conversation I read with engaged interest needs my input — even (and sometimes ESPECIALLY) the ones about me.

Don’t expect my post count to fall through the floor, though. There are still bazillions of discussions out there that DO need my input. They just don’t need it right now.

–Howard

Y’all might be interested in reading this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2005-04-15#braying

It pretty much speaks for itself. And before you ask, the answer is “yes, I gave Tycho permission to reprint my email.”

Now I just need it to get picked up by CNN. 🙂

–Howard

So they’ve put up the conclave chimney, a signalling device to let the world know whether or not the assembled cardinals have elected a new pope.

This is quite possibly the coolest smoke-signal in the world, if only because so many people will be paying attention to it. And it reminds me of the last time it was used, when I was in gradeschool. It was all over the news, and we all talked about it, even though very few of us were Catholic (and I’m not, in case my previous LJ entries haven’t made that clear.)

Anyway, during or shortly after that time, this lady’s car caught fire at the edge of the schoolyard. She got out okay, but the car went up like a torch, with thick, oily, black smoke billowing from it. Then the Sarasota Fire and Rescue team extinguished it in one go with a a couple of hoses.

As the plume of black was immediately replaced with a mushroom-cloud of white steam, one of the kids in the crowd shouted “A new Pope! Yipee!”

That was a great day in my memory. Cars need to catch fire next to schoolyards more often.

–Howard

Well, it took all freakin’ day to get four comics inked.

Some progress is better than no progress, though.

–Howard