November 25 2003

November 2003 Blog Archive

November 25 2003

I know very little about the workings of the human brain. It amazes me that we can do something, go 15 years without thinking about it, then suddenly it pops back into our heads as clear as yesterday. All the while that little bit of information was stored somewhere in our head...just waiting to be remembered. Fascinating.

Along the same lines I am equally fascinated how we can repetitively do complex tasks without thinking. For example, I've been playing the piano since 3rd grade. Lately I have started playing more than I have in a long time and, for whatever reason, am drawn to the ragtime music of Scott Joplin. I learned half of Maple Leaf Rag probably 8 or 9 years ago. I haven't really looked at the sheet music in as much time, but play it from memory practically every time I sit at a piano. My sight reading skills are virtually non-existent, but my memory for music I've learned is pretty uncanny. (I can still play a version of Ode to Joy that I performed at a recital when I was in middle school, or earlier .)

So a few days ago I'm sitting at the piano, bouncing through the Maple Leaf Rag, when I realize I have no conscious idea what I'm doing. I'm watching my hands play this song, but I can't tell you what exactly I'm playing, or what key it's in. I slow down enough to attempt to break it down, but I can't. I can't slow it down enough to start thinking. Apparently, when my conscious thought takes over, I can't play it. I get totally lost.

This is, incidentally, how I feel quite often when trying to communicate complex ideas. Whether discussing some complicated theological or philosophical point, or trying to argue my case with my eccentric employer, there are times where a part of me knows the reasons and defenses...but I can't articulate it easily. This frustrates me to no end about myself.

So I guess what you can draw from this is the following:

If you are ever discussing life's great questions and someone is having a hard time expressing their reasoning, give them time. Breaking down the notes for a symphony takes longer than formulating a witty retort.

-Brian

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November 22, 2003

It's a beautiful November day. Not only is it beautiful, it's also productive! Page 6 is now up as you are introduced to our protagonist, Philbert. Enjoy!

I'm thoroughly engulfed in listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas and George Winston's December while I work on drawings. The two best holiday albums on the planet. Of course, that's just my humble opinion. What's yours?

-Brian

comments?

November 21, 2003

I put up a new cartoon journal last night on my personal site.

-Brian

comments?

November 20, 2003

Last night I think my waiter spiked my food with a massive amount of Benedryl. I slept for 11 hours last night...and I'm still sleepy. I think I need to go home and take a nap. Except now my printer broke. Should I stay and try and fix it or leave it until tomorrow. My body screams "TOMORROW!"

Tomorrow it is.

-Brian

comments?

November 18, 2003

I put up a new cartoon journal yesterday on my personal site. Enjoy.

And now I would like to submit the Lame Hip-Hop Lyric of the month for November, courtesy of my local gym.

*ahem*

"If you're sexy and you know it...clap your hands."

Ah, perhaps the most violent assault on artistic sensibilities to date!

-Brian

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November 17, 2003

I have estimated that I see the sun for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes each weekday thanks to the time change. Fun huh?

Also I would like to point out that in exactly one month this happens. Booyah.

-Brian

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November 15, 2003

At last, Page 5 of the comic is now up.

It's a cool, drizzly Saturday morning. The type of morning that finally brings on the feeling of Thanksgiving. A feeling that was helped along by the several albums my brother sent me in the mail this week. A Charlie Brown Christmas rocks the world. George Winston: also rocking the world. All retail stores now have my permission to start putting out Christmas items.

-Brian

comments?

November 14, 2003

Today's entry is a Cartoon Journal found Here.

-Brian

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November 13, 2003

Today was Techno/Rave day at T.G.I. Fridays. Though I estimate 10 to 15 different songs played while I was there, there was only one monotonous beat that sucked every song dry of musical merit.

At the gym I've noticed every other day is Hip-Hop day. I have also noted that the background "music" to most Hip-Hop sounds like it was performed on a cheap Casio Keyboard...by a 4 year old who knows one semi-melodic riff.

Once again talent and fame fail to intersect.

-Brian

comments?

November 11, 2003

Okay I think I'm out of my funk now. (see yesterday)

At 1:00pm everyday the show "Good Day Live" airs and it has taught me something very important about myself. I can't stand people who constantly laugh really hard at things that aren't that funny. What would happen if they heard something that truly was funny? Where does their maniacal, prodigious laughter go? What headroom do they have left to express themselves? Would their heads explode, smattering pieces of their lofty countenance all over the walls? When you get right down to it, maybe what bothers me is that I cannot conceive of someone finding the majority of mediocre jokes that funny. So, to me, it seems blatantly fake. Perhaps it isn't, and I'm jealous of their low threshold for humor.

-Brian

comments?

November 10, 2003

I finally have two more pages scanned in and ready to be lettered in the GravyBoy saga. If I can find a minute and motivation to do them in the next day or so, that is.

I've found that life has a kind of inertia. Well, my life at any rate. After spending weeks and weeks of just trying to distract myself from the fact that I'm sitting in a warehouse day in and day out I end up just trying to be entertained by something. As a result any momentum I had for doing anything constructive is lost and I feel like I can do little more than vegetate. The desire to do something worthwhile is there...but I lack any mental energy to bring anything to fruition. Simply because I have given myself over to procrastination and escapism 40 hours a week.

I need to find the way out of this rut.

-Brian

comments?

November 6, 2003

In a small, out of the way coffee house of questionable repute, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing one of the worlds biggest celebrities, The Internet:

Me: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me 'Net. May I call you "net"?

Internet: It's my pleasure. And yes you may call me 'net ;)

Me: Great. So what have you been up to lately?

Net: Well, I've been spending a lot of time in Corporate America.

Me: I see. E-commerce?

Net: Oh, no no no. Mostly TextTwist and Checkers.

Me: Ah.

Net: I like to think of it as keeping America's workforce sane.

Me: And a noble task it is.

Net: I think so.

Me: So is there anything that you want people to know...that they probably don't know already.

Net: Everything I say isn't true.

Me: Can you give me an example?

Net: Let's see...There never was a guy who ate pop-rocks with coke and had his stomach explode.

Me: Really?

Net: Nope. Never happened.

Me: And all this time....oh well.

Net: uh huh.

Me: So how does it feel to be more powerful than the recording and movie industries combined?

Net: Please, you'll embarrass me.

Me: No really. You give access to just about anything possible, movies, music, news, blogs...blogs...blogs...

Net: Well, there's more to me that that.

Me: I think what most of us really want to ask you is...why do you have so much porn?

Net: What?

Me: The porn...why so much?

Net: No comment.

Me: Aw, come on.

Net: I did not come here to talk about that.

Me: Are you afraid of controversy?

Net: Me? No. I just don't think that porn is a good topic for gravyboy.com.

Me: But if I say the word "porn" enough, I'll get more traffic.

Net: Well...er...true, to a point. But you'll also get a lot of angry surfers who were looking for porn and just found...well, this.

Me: Hey! All press is good press, no? Porn.

Net: Not really.

Me: Porn.

Net: That's very immature. And you just blocked out anyone with a filter on their computers.

Me: They'll get back on when I archive the blogs.

Net: It's your site.

Me: And yet, so very much yours as well.

Net: Well I wasn't going to say anything.

Me: Well, it looks like our time is up. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me! Any parting words?

Net: Al Gore is not my father.

-Brian

comments?

November 5, 2003

It ticks me off that someone can steal a credit card and spend thousands of dollars before they're caught. But I can't go into Best Buy to buy a $150 hard drive using my wife's credit card.

"I know the last name is the same, but we can't take it if the names on the ID and card don't match."

Since when, Best Buy?

What's even more screwed up is that I can turn right around and buy the hard drive off their website with the same card.

-Brian

comments?

November 4, 2003

Perhaps it's just me, but I get the feeling that whenever I talk about stuff I'm into with most people I know, I usually get a "Um, that's nice" type of response. This makes me feel like an idiot. Yet another reason to keep things to myself.

With that said:

We have finally finished the dialogue for the next three pages of GravyBoy. Hopefully this week I'll get the next page up. Two if I'm lucky. That's just a little info since this is a website about a comic. In case you forgot.

[nostalgia]

When I was a kid, way back in the 80's, we used to get catalogues from the three or four major department stores around this time of year. I mean big, thick catalogues. Towards the back there would always be pages and pages of toys from which we could make our Christmas wish lists. I miss getting those catalogues and looking longingly through the endless choices of Transformers and GI Joe action figures. *sigh*

[/nostalgia]

-Brian

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