I hope I'm not the only one for whom this post-tryptophapocalypse week has been a knuckle-dragging nightmare. When did holiday vacations become so much work? I'm not referring to family interaction, but rather the activity of grown-up holidays. As a kid, I remember Thanksgiving weekend as a veritable funageddon. (Two made-up "end of days" words in the same paragraph!) Of course, I had zero responsibilities as a child, and the only duty I did have was simple participation. Puting down my sketchbook and joining the pinochle game was really the most that was required of me.

Seems like growing up means a lot of stuff has to be serious. Work is serious, love is serious, and even playing is serious stuff. No wonder there are so many anti-depressants on the market. Well, that's not me. In fact, I think if there was one thing a Nate poll would reveal, it's that I'm rarely serious. And on that point, I am absolutely serious.

I just finished my first piece of video game art. What game is it for? I have no idea. I was approached under cover of darkness by a man in black who said not a word, but handed me a thin manila folder containing the contents of the job. It was a grueling back-and-forth of changes and proofs (apparently the industry norm of game producers), but I finally finished at the 11th hour, and the funds will now be transfered to my numbered account in the Caymans (also game industry norm). Despite the flurry of changes and tweaks that the project involved, I found myself intensely engaged with the process. Because the artwork needed to be in a "pulp" style (a style I have never attempted, and struggled to emulate), I even dreamt in lurid yellow, green, and red. I don't recommend it, but it did show that I was deeply involved in the work I was doing, a feeling not easily achieved.

That's all for now, friends. Hope your Thanksgiving was grand, and the jarring return to work wasn't too uncomfortable.

This is very unusual for me, and I feel slightly dirty doing this, but there will be no Thanksgiving comic this year. I can see that your tears are welling up, making you look like a cast extra from Sailor Moon, but it'll do no good. I'm swamped with work from both my day job and my freelancing, which means that all of my free time is spent doing daily maintenance tasks like brushing my teeth and puting on pants. Did I mention I beat Bully last night? Great game.

Anyway, I'm just completely drowning in work right now, but I'd still like to wish each and every one of you faithful readers out there (even the ones who don't celebrate the Yankee holiday) a very Happy Thanksgiving. Get stuffed.

Just a quick little blog this Monday morning to revel in my Nerf fixation. This last weekend, I saw a commercial for the best thing to come out of the Nerf corporate headquarters in years, and it looks like this:

That's right, it's a Nerf suction-dart sniper rifle with a clip and a bipod. This baby collapses/separates into two weapons, retails for about $29.99, boasts a range of 35 feet with pinpoint laser sighting, and I want one. What am I going to use it for? I live in downtown Microsoft, a booming metropolis of glass-sided office buildings. Use your imagination.

Now you know what to get me for Christmas.

Songs that I am depressed are not on iTunes: "If You Be My Bodyguard" by Paul Simon, "Teenage Wasteland" by the Who, anything by Yvan Cassar, and "The Rock" soundtrack. This list is by no stretch of the national deficit complete, but it's what's frustrating me right now. The absence of these tracks makes me question the validity of a place like iTunes vs. Bittorrent or even iMesh. Ah well, viva la revolucion, and all that.

I took my wife out to dinner for her birthday last night, a magnificent affair because we decided to throw a bone to the new restaurant in town, Spazzo's Italian Grill and Wine Bar. It turned out to be a bone well-thrown because the service was royal and the food was excellent. How excellent? The dish I got was so good, I'm considering going back and ordering the dish that sounds least appealing to me; so confident I am in their cooking. We attempted to take a picture of our left-overs once we got home, but all that showed up on the film was a bright prism flare indicating the food's super-dimensional presence. Spazzo's is good. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

New Coming Distractions, as you can see, and I'll try to get back on the voting incentive wagon soon.

Just a little peek to whet your appetite and let you know how I've been spending my Monday nights.

Cheeahs.

The day before Thanksgiving is a point of mystical convergence for theatrical releases. Last year was a dubious mix of minor hits (Deja Vu) and major misses (Deck the Halls, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny). This year we have August Rush, Hitman, Enchanted, and The Mist, a menagerie of flicks guaranteed to satisfy whatever itches the movie center of your brain. You might say that the wondrous variety of cinematic endeavors available on Thanksgiving weekend was spawned by the tradition of pre-dawn espresso and carnal mayhem that has come to be known as Black Friday. Cute and courteous housewives become hype-fueled bargain-gladiators for a few hours, so naturally why not unwind with a movie once your hard-pillaged swag is safely locked in the trunk?

I personally plan to make a double-feature out of August Rush and Hitman. The only thing I can't decide is should I do feel-good then violence, or violence then feel-good?

Yesterday, I was told by someone that they were thinking of quitting one of their jobs. As far as I knew, he loved this job and had at least as much fun at it as he had at his regular full-time job. Maybe more. Yet, there he was talking about quitting. I had to ask why.

It turns out he just discovered there were a couple of gay men working there. "Are you serious? You're going to quit because of that?" I asked. "Well, I'm definitely going to watch who I work with." Because they're gay. He said he was going to have to watch his back from now on. I think one could drive a metal stake into the heart of the issue if one replaced the word "back" with "ass." It was a blatant depiction of fear. I didn't say anything to him about his code of ethics because it's not really my place, but I was still blown away.

In spite of that, I have a few things I'd like to say here. I know that most of the folks who hate and fear gay people do so out of a misguided moral sense that they somehow derive from the Bible, so here's some stuff to chew on:
1. "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:18 (That's Old Testament.)
2. "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12 (That's New Testament.)
3. "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:31 (Those are the words of Christ.)

I am so sick of people who claim to follow an enlightened path of understanding and love displaying an attitude of intolerance and fear. Nowhere in any section of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth does he ever say it's okay to hate. Nor does he imply that there is something unsavory about associating with any type of person apart from those given to hypocrisy. If Christians really followed Christ, then most of them wouldn't be able to hang out with themselves.

As for the debate over whether it's choice or genetic, neither possibility should have the least effect on how you treat another human being. It's irrelevant. But that's just my opinion backed up by common sense, logic, and Biblical scripture. Let me know what you think, people.

Mahatma Ghandi said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Now you can support King Sheep and get something cool to wear in return! I've taken the most popular and most controversial image I've ever done, and put it on a t-shirt over at Cafepress, so check out my little online store!

So, what do you think? The new comic archives have been up for a little while, now wonderfully databased and homogenized and uniform of appearance. This is all thanks to the mad genius over at Enisoc, of course. I had been following tutorials and learning both PHP and CSS formatting on my own to make my job of site maintenance easier, but the method of creating a comic archive eluded me until I found the demented midget who created btphp for the benefit of all comic-making mankind. My new knowledge of PHP is also why all the pages on the site now end with that very suffix. Apologies for broken bookmarks.

Also, sorry about the lack of comic updating going on. I got distracted by the site upgrade, and am currently distracted by teaching myself how to paint. In yesterday's mail, I got my entry form for Spectrum 15 (definition here). Deadline for entries is January, so I'm going to be shuffling priorities a bit, but Coming Distractions will still be updated on Fridays. Sorry, friends, but it looks like Kingdom Heights will be drawing to a close. Ha! Drawing! I pun! Whatever. Anyway, I just don't have the time to dedicate to two comic strips, and it's high time I started doing things with my skillz that puts cash-money in my pockets. Simon and the crew have had a good run and will always find their way into my sketches, but the story has reached a good point to call "The End." I'll give it one more strip, then call it good.

Out to the Peace.

FYI, I'm updating the comics and their respective archives using btphp, so if you had your favorite comic or even the main comic page bookmarked, you'll need to do that all over again. I know, terrible hassle, but those are the prices we pay for progress. You're still getting the comics for free, so no complaining.

We're back on with the side-by-side blogging now. This is always how it was supposed to be, right? Having both of our posts appearing at the same time at the top of the page makes this like Schroedinger's website. Then one day the waveform will collapse and we'll become one singular entity of humor and wit. Huzzah! More later, friends and family.