Grave Reflections: July 2006

Kickass Wedding Weekend (Congrats Amber & Ben)

I'll just preface this by saying that Amber & Ben had a kickass wedding. Everyone looked so happy during the ceremony, and and it was cool to have a wedding reception in the clubhouse overlooking the lake. Actually, it's been a REALLY long time since I've been able to look out on the lake in the middle of the night, and doing so again gave me a particularily cool moment of nostalgia.
I wasn't really even drunk during the dollar dance, but I outdid myself. I got in line to dance with Ben, as is my strongly held tradition for every wedding dance I go to (ask anyone who's invited me to a wedding). When it was my turn, I asked Ben if he was a strong man. He said he was, and I asked him if he was sure, and I jumped on him. True to his word, he caught me and held me for five awkward seconds, grinding his pelvis into my like a rhino. Okay, maybe I made the last part up, but it was still pretty cool. You don't forget Doug coming to your wedding dance.
Anyway, some other stuff happened, then Amadon and Josie came. This created something of an even more awkward situation which I don't have the patience to explain right now (besides, there are others who could do a much better job at it). Kevin & Butto approached Amadon at the bar and took him to a booth to talk to him about it, and somewhere along the way, Kevin completely lost his patience. Mind you, Kevin's been the polite one all this time. I gave up on Amadon centuries ago, but Kevin, even though fed up, was still trying to be a peacemaker. So, to push a guy like him over the edge and make him as angry as I saw him, well that takes a special talent. Bravo to you, Amadon and Josie. I'm sure you're still wondering why he got som mad.
As much as I wanted to sit in on that little talk, I figured I shouldn't. Looking back, I don't know why I didn't. Yeah, it was awkward, but I'm not the one in trouble here, so why didn't I hang around there? Maybe it just because I had nothing to say, and it would have looked funny, me just sitting there saying "Cool!" when Kevin lost it.
Ben's daddy brought in some 'cowboy whiskey', which was mainly just Everclear with some sugar water (or something like that) in it, which was cool. Kevin and I brought in some Jack's from our own private reserves.
Anyway, back to the wedding reception/dance. I liked the food, I liked the champagne, Karissa loved that she got to be in the slideshow (even if she was shown lay-dancing on the floor). I loved the mix played for their first dance. The first part of it was Apocalyptica's version of Nothing Else Matters, which made it classy and cool and the same time. I felt a little surge of pride, too, because I got Ben into Apocalyptica, so there.
Seems like a fun time was had by all and I hope Ben and Amber have a fun honeymoon (and hey, get out of the hotel once in a while, we're gonna want to see some pics of the scenery!). Oh, and I hope Kevin likes his little "belated birthday gift" I left in their kitchen!

Somebody Must Be Reading It!

Go to Google, and type in "bone daddy comics".

On Time and Under Budget

Wow, I didn't think I'd make it, but I got the new Golden Brown done and posted.

Re-Tardy

Golden Brown might be just a tad late again this week. Get behind once, and it bites me in the ass again and again. Of course, it's not like I have to have it out every friday, I just thought it would be nice to put myself on a schedule like that to get me used to doing something like this professionally, and to help me get over my procrastination thing. Also, I figured it's a good way to start the weekend for anyone who reads it, right?
I should warn anyone who thinks this will continue indefinitely, that the Fall semester is right around the corner, and I honestly don't know what my workload will be like. Last semester was a killer, this one should be easier, but I make no promises regarding the fate of the comic.
On a very related note, I have a little off and on project I picked up again. It's nothing big, just a little ten-page (I think) comic I wanted to draw to lead into something bigger. I wrote it over a year ago, drew a little, then just set it aside. Last month I picked it up again, and started doind a little inking just to see how it looked, and I think I'm going to try to see it through.
What's it about? Well, it's about <The rest of this post has been deleted by an administrator>

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch...

http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic
Just thought I'd throw that link in there. It's a comic about a couple of dinosaurs who basically just talk about anything. Funny as hell, though. And it took me reading about 4 of them to realize the pictures are the exact same from comic to comic, just different dialogue.
Well, I've managed to seriously piss off someone else. I don't come off as nice as I used to. It's funny, though, that when I just don't tell someone when something about them is bothering me, it bothers me even more. When I started being more honest, like telling someone I was tired of hearing them bitch all the time and to do something about what they were bitching about, I felt much better.
Well, of course it's selfish. And sometimes, people gotta bitch. That's cool. For the most part, I don't mind hearing it. But hearing the same story over and over again, well, it gets tiresome. And it's not like I haven't been told off before. Kevin flipped ass on me once when I was going through an extreme apathy phase.
I was recently told (paraphrasing) I must be bored to make someone's life hell. Well, I don't know. I actually thought about it, too. Is it that I'm bored with my life? I kind of doubt it. I've been doing stuff all summer, like going on small road trips to Valley City or to April's parents' lake cabin, stuff like that. I've been really excited to get back to school (yeah, I was surprised when I realized that, too). I've been drawing the comic on a fairly regular basis since the semester ended (which leaves me wondering about the status of it once school starts back up again).
So, no, I don't really think I'm that bored yet. I think it's frustration. Yes, boredom is a type of frustration, but it's not the same. To create a personal hell for someone, you can't just be bored. That doesn't really even make sense. I don't know. All the online fights I've involved myself in, and I'm being honest that even if I didn't start them, they didn't elevate themselves,--with all of them, I felt I made some really good points. I didn't feel I hit too low of blows (except one time when the point became slightly misconstrued, which I'm not gonna boil up again as this is not the right time to do it), because I was trying to get a valid point across, and the more petty you get with a fight, the less credible you sound. Not to say the other side was being petty, either.
Really, as impossible as it may seem, I'm not out to get these people. It's just that I want them to stop being the way they're being, because it's having a bad effect on the people around them, or it's at someone else's expense.
("no Doug, you're not selfish...") Gee, thanks, but really I am. And don't I deserve to be? I mean, if I am a person. Everything I do revolves around my well-being. I like my self. It's a good self. Do you know how hard it is to find a self you like?
Anyway, I had an interesting weekend, but I'm a little tired, and took too much time bitching about...myself, apparently.
Anyway, I did get a new Golden Brown out earlier this afternoon, just to let people know.

Bone Daddy Explains...

Some of you might have noticed that my latest "Golden Brown" is almost the same as the post before it. Sorry, but I was in a hurry to get it out on time, and I was so close to having it done that I hastily put an almost-finished version up. Anyway, it's finished now, and it's up, so enjoy!

Crazy Old Things and Derek

I'm gonna go quick, because Karissa wants me outside to watch the coming storm.
Friday: Helped Amber & Ben move, very hot, but very good burgers towards the end. Oh, and I got to meet Ambers old Mexican guitar, I of course tuned it and played it and it was fucking awesome.
Saturday: My muscles hurt a bit, I hadn't slept (night shift), and it was still freakin hot, but Kevin & I went to Cooperstown to meet with Derek. We hit an antique/coffee store, then went to a place called "The Post Office" with Derek. Very good food, and a fancy little place for Cooperstown. We got to Valley City and headed for the farmstead owned by Kevin's uncle--see pics below. Had a blast--it was like a freaky car cemetery, though extremely hot out, and I got good and burned. No woodticks on me, though. Hit an antique mall before heading back to Cooperstown. Yes, I'll freely admit that I love antiques and other sorts of old shit. I wish they made a "musty car" air freshner. And that doesn't make me any less a man! The parasol doesn't help, though.
Sunday, Karissa, Isabella and I went to Crystal to visit my Grandma, who hadn't met Isabella yet and is slowly succumbing to dementia. Sad, yes, but who can cry about it when she's still a spitfire and has a picture of Billy Ray Cyrus on her wall??? Seriously, it was above the TV and when I finally just asked her about it, she replied that she liked him. Okaaaaaayyyy...
Anyway, we're back home, my dad called me to tease me about not know the "shorter" route back from Crystal, we finished off Godfather II, and now it's storming, so I'm gonna check it out. Oh yeah, and most of our weekends are going to be something like this for the rest of July, so bring it on!!