9.23.03 The end is near, kids! The end of chapter one of Gods & Undergrads, I mean, of course. That should happen before this week is over. I know I, for one, am terribly excited. Twenty-one pages of text equals fifty pages of drawing, apparently. And when that's over with, I am graciously honored to be participating in Pop Image's "Young Bottoms In Love" collection of short stories, all hopped up on gay romance. I'm trying to up my productivity level so hopefully Gods & Undergrads won't lay idle for too long. There might also have to be some chapter art or something, though, seeing as how I've never drawn a chapter before. That's pretty much all the news there is for now. It's the lovely Lauren's 24th Birthday this Friday, so if you ever run into her on a Marilyn Monroe chat site, wish her a great one!

9.21.03 Finally Isabel and all her surrounding hysteria are over with. The storm, at any rate. The after-effects still linger. I sequestered myself at my friend Matt's for the duration. His was one of the few houses to actually retain power. (My parents did not, but hooked up a generator to the house and managed to run everything from that. All of their neighbors are probably preparing to attack them and steal it right now.) Matt, Marj, and I had a jolly good time mocking the hurricane, running around in it, watching Buffy, and drinking wine. At one point I used their computer and suddenly Matt ran by the window during the hurricane, pretending it was actually blowing him away. Then we called Dan and pretended we were all Isabel, blowing and rumbling and screaming, leaving him a personal message. We made such fun of that hurricane, I was completely surprised to find my apartment intact with not a lick of damage. Actually, the only damage done was to Lauren's plastic wind toy, which ironically was also named Isabel. Big Isabel took little Isabel out. But I re-strung her from our patio, no harm done. The rest of the weekend, we tried unsuccessfully to see Lost in Translation, and briefly attended the Baltimore Comic Convention. We hung out with the lovely Ed Mathews and David Gallaher in downtown B-more, ate too much food, and saw a woman in a veil walk by holding a huge inflatable penis. Ah, good times. Now back to work. Oh and by the way, there is a lovely article about me written by the lovelier Jay Laird, at Pop Image, here. Or if that link doesn't work, go here, and then click on the link that says, "UPFRONT: SPX (Small Press Expo): Longer, Tasteer, and Uncut!". Then if you scroll wayyyy to the bottom, you'll find me and my lovely man-servants. . . . OH and I'm an idiot. By "updated bi-weekly" I meant "twice weekly". Yeah. My bad.

9.17.03 I'm about ready to clear out just in case that hurricane does come this way. We have a huge glass patio door, and I keep picturing it shattering over and over again. Plus, based on the current reputation of this apartment for being extremely unreliable and falling apart, I'm afraid even a minor hurricane would level the place. Therefore, I'm retreating to the parents for the next couple of days. Hence the quickish update -- I'm usually not nearly so on schedule. . . . Oh and by the way, a shout out to my parents for tomorrow is their 31st Wedding Anniversary. (I think it's #31--better check tomorrow) Wow, who woulda thought they'd last so long? *wink wink* Just kidding, mad congrats Mom & Dad!

9.14.03 I spent wayyyyy too much money at Starbucks this weekend. And the saddest part is it's not even the one near my apartment, but in my home town. One of the happy employees there said, "You know, you come here enough, why don't you just get the frequent usage card?" "Oh, but I don't live here," I replied, much to her puzzlement. "But . . . you're here so much." That was a slight wake-up call for me. But not in a bad way, I suppose. Let's see, otherwise, I did another update, found a frog in my apartment, got my friend Matt interested in Buffy, and played Volleyball inside my parents' house at one in the morning. A pretty productive weekend, if I say so myself. Oh and I'd like to give a humongous thank you to megatokyo.com, who mentioned me nicely on their site and got a ton of people to visit here. Thanks you guys, and sorry I wasn't there to meet y'all in person at SPX. I'm sure the man-servants did a fine job instead.

9.10.03 Back to work. My room is officially exploding with comics. I had the best time I possibly could at SPX. It left me simultaneously motivated and overwhelmed by all the greatness and dedication out there.

Highlights:

• I gave away a good deal of postcards, I think. By no means all, but still. It continuously amazed me that people would ignore all the glaring "FREE POSTCARDS AND STICKERS" signs and not approach unless I announced that they were free.
• I approached Terry Moore, threw some fan art at him, and when he tried to read the sappy message on the back, screamed, "Don't read it yet!!" and bolted back to my table.
• I got to order around my three best friends all weekend, calling them "man-servants" and making them watch the table for me.
• I had the best tablemates ever: Sharing my table was the constantly amusing Millard Draught, who told bad jokes the entire time. Everyone I knew bought a magnet from him. At the table next to us sat Geoffrey Hawley, Marc Raab and Janet Alexander with their gorgeous book Nepotism, combining all their talents. They had no problem participating in ordering my man-servants around and were endlessly fun.
• My friends and I ran through the hotel's spinning door with more amusement and force than anyone.
• We met the cutest boys ever from Florida -- Ed and Joel -- who graciously forgave us for immediately comparing their looks to those of famous actors.
• We got to hang with the cool crowd from Pop Image -- Tim Fish, Jay Laird, Ed Matthews, Brett Hopkins just to name a few, who were endlessly sweet and made us feel a part of the group. They invited us to eat yummy Thai food and chat with the wonderful, magnanimous Jose Villarubia. I couldn't have had a more magical evening. Oh, except when later Matt (man-servant #2) and I got to look at picture after picture of commissioned art with the Florida guys and drool over it. And then scream when we all almost stepped on a tampon.
• Every glass of wine I got I sipped politely at first, but then circumstances would inevitably lead me to chug the last half. Therefore, I spilled wine all down the side of a shirt I drowsily wore to work on Monday. My appearance screams professionalism.
• I engaged a drama teacher named Wendy in a discussion of Ranma 1/2 and The Last Unicorn.
• Lauren (man-servant #1) and I found ourselves seriously discussing Star Wars with our tablemates, mid-expo. Oh the horror.
• The Friends of Lulu group was wonderful to me again and permitted me to add a drawing to their "What Lulu would look like now" sketchpad. I was one of the ones who left the balls and ringlets in her hair.
• My parents showed up, much to my rejoicing. My dad was sporting his bright, parroted "fun shirt" and when I told my mom to be careful on the stairs she retorted, "Thanks, MOM" back to me. The only time I've been burned worse by a parent was when my dad mocked my socks.
• A string of surprise guests showed up at my table, including my coworkers Bonnie and Janet, Dan's (man-servant #3) brother Jim, and the lovely Aaron, who instantly became man-servant #4.
• We went out to eat at a place that served S'mores. There is a god.

So in conclusion, I met some of the nicest, friendliest, cutest people ever. I laughed my ass off and I think managed to get my name out a bit more. Job well done!

9.4.03 I am off to SPX 2003! Sorry about the non-update, there was just not enough time to print out all of Gods & Undergrads and do anything else besides that. The update will have to come next week, and the first chapter's almost over! Very exciting! . . . For me! So come one come all this weekend, come pick up some free postcards and stickers from me and then immediately rush off to Terry Moore's booth.