I took Turbo Schlock in to Jiffy Lube yesterday, and saw a guy who looked kind of familiar sitting in the lobby. I turned back to the check-in desk, and the fancy screen that faces customers told me it was Sam Cardon.

Background: when I was a music student at BYU back in 1990 there were a couple of famous and successful local alumni we variously admired, respected, and envied. Sam was one of these guys. Here’s the official CV, if you want it.

Anyway, I turned back to Sam and said “Sam Cardon! I thought you looked familiar — the screen here helped me out.” He told me that I looked familiar too, but he wasn’t placing me. So I introduced myself — “Howard Tayler – I studied music at BYU.” He recognized me then, and immediately asked if I was still “doing music.”

I told him I wasn’t — I was now a full-time, independent cartoonist. He was genuinely thrilled.

And there began a very enjoyable and enlightening 15 or 20 minute discussion. We dicussed the “cult of the amateur” in our various fields, and how the free content model was or wasn’t working well there. He seemed happy to know that it wasn’t just the music industry falling apart, though we agreed that they’re being pressured less by a rising tide of free-content amateurs than by file sharing among their customers.

We also talked about how technology has provided such cool tools for our jobs. Sam wistfully spoke of the $100,000 in recording equipment that he and Kurt Bestor put together years ago, whose functionality now exists in a single laptop Sam carries around.

I wish we could have talked longer. I hope we’ll have the opportunity to talk again. I gave Sam a Schlock Mercenary URL card, along with my email address and phone number. Not that I hope to illustrate his music, or have him score my comic, mind you.

What with needing to be on the road Monday morning, I decided to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in one sitting. I finished at about 4:00am.

It really was quite good. Sure, there are problems with Rowling’s prose here and there, and her plotting is a little formulaic, but I usually don’t read just for the prose, and formulaic plotting is my favorite kind. I had a great time reading the book, and was quite pleased at the way she tied things up.

Today, however, I am going to require a nap.

My trip to Comic-Con is complicated by the fact that I’m hauling a rather extensive booth display with me… in my 2003 New Beetle.

There is room in the vehicle for the display, but there would be a lot MORE room (for things like my luggage, and the books I need to sell at least 100 of in order to break even) if I could just get the passenger seat out.

I noodled around online, web-hounding as best I could, and found nothing. Then I called “Jimmy’s Love Bug,” where I bought the car, and their mechanic gave me pretty clear directions.

For the sake of bettering teh intarweebs, I shall post those directions here, further clarified by the fact that I have followed them.

1) TOOLS: You will need a socket wrench with an extension, a torx screwdriver, a small-blade pocketknife, a small pair of snips or scissors, a replacement wire-tie (for putting the seat back), a small hammer, and probably a third hand.

2) Begin by removing the rail covers on either side of the seat. Move the seat all the way forward and get in the back to do this. Take the knife and pop off the plugs that cover the torx screws. Unscrew them with the torx screwdriver. The rail covers will now slide off, but may need to be bent a bit (they’re plastic, it’s okay.)

3) Now it’s time to free the seat from the rails. Move the seat all the way back, and look under the front of the seat for the block of metal bolted to the upthrust tab from the body of the car. Unwind the nuts with the socket wrench, and then tap the bolt-heads with the hammer. The seat should now be free, constrained only by the wiring harness — don’t slide it all the way out yet, though… you’ll rip the wires.

4) Snip the wire-tie holding the cable in place. This will give you more room to work, and it has to come off regardless. Now you can remove the seat from the rails and tip it back to get under it. If you find that you don’t have enough slack to get under the seat from the front, fold the seat all the way forward, out of the rails, and use your third arm (or your friend) to hold it against the dash. Now pop the rear hatch and (I’m not kidding) get upside-down in the back seat, feet sticking out of your car, and get your head and hands under that seat where you can use them. Bring your pocketknife.

5) Unhook the three plugs. The front (towards the front of the car) yellow one is easy. The middle green one requires the pocketknife — you need to gently lift some tabs to get the plug free. The back yellow one has a hinged cover, and then at the top of the plug there’s a tab you can’t really see that you’ll need to pry back with your finger.

6) Unhook the white harness clip at the far back of the assembly. Check and make sure that the wires are all free of the seat. The seat can now be removed, provided you are strong enough to wrestle it out of the car. I suggest going through the door, rather than trying to lift it out through the rear hatch.

7) Tuck the cable and the plugs into the rail at the center of the car so you don’t crush them when you start piling stuff into your cargo-enabled Beetle.You may want to duct-tape the wire in place. Don’t worry — sticky stuff on the outside of the rails will not affect the seat at all.

8) NOTE: When you start the car, you’ll see that the yellow “airbag” light turns on. I think this means that the car has figured out there is a seat missing, and has disabled the airbags. WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. It’s more effective than the airbag anyway.

I’d write instructions about putting it all back together, but I haven’t had to do that yet, so it would be fiction. I do fiction, but in other places.

I saw Ratatouille with my good friend R.J. yesterday afternoon.

I came home and nearly ate myself sick. No, that’s not the message of the movie, but I didn’t have time to cook something for the palate — my belly was screaming.

It’s a wonderful film, but I recommend doing one of the following:

1) Eat a good meal before going.

2) Have dinner reservations for someplace nice and tasty afterwards.