:D

Merry Christmas

2006-12-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe it's not really Christmas themed, but here is a special Christmas comic for you all. Special because I never seem to do anything anymore around here.
Regardless, I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and we'll see what happens in the New Year.

This Too Will Pass

2006-11-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

So it's on again. For how long, I don't know.
The tablet definitely helps me to do things faster. Sadly, it doesn't seem to make it any better.
Oh well. I have story ideas again, so I'll just have to carry on.
Time to rebuild the Loops Army.

Happy Halloween

2006-10-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

It only seems fitting that the comic should come back to life at Halloween. It's actually been just over two years now since I started this thing, but poor updating makes if feel like much less. But now the tablet idea has re-energized me, and I think the comic will benefit in many ways.

Also, I'm working on a new storyline which should get many other people involved/interested so, fingers crossed, here we go again.

Could it be?

2006-10-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

What's this? A new comic? From Out of the Loops?
Impossible.
Well somebody went out and bought himself a tablet this weekend so now he figures he's going to do his comic again. Will anyone notice? Will anyone care?
We'll see.
Oh yeah, as for the comic in question, does it mean that we are now dead?
Again, we'll see.

Contest: First one to notice that there's a new comic wins a prize to be determined.

Ferguson

Low Budget

2006-04-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Still trying desperately to find a way to draw these things in less time so I can continue. The voices in my head still tell me what to write, now if only they could draw and scan and colour. Useless voices.

Life Imitates Art

2006-04-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, I have a strange lump growing on my neck. Thankfully, the doctor says it was nothing scary, but not a zit like Sid's turned out to be. As I write this, the scanner is feverishly processing some drawings that I did, so the wheels of progress are trying to churn once again. No promises though, because I suck at that.

Convergence

2006-03-24T17:56:00.000-08:00

Things are starting to pick up steam now.
As summer gets closer and closer, the prospect of moving my family out to Edmonton with me looks more and more daunting.
What this means from a comic perspective is that I better get my ass in gear now if I want to get things rolling. Get a little momentum going before it gets to hard to even consider.

In short, new comic this weekend.

Really.

Way Out of the Loops

2006-02-24T20:41:00.000-08:00

This comic is best viewed with a hell of a lot of backstory. First of all, it helps if you remember Superman 2, which I am old enough to do. You can find the poached pic here, and that's preferable to going out and renting the movie. Secondly, it helps to know that Edmonton is in the Prairies, and the Prairies are quite flat. I'm sure most of you know that one, right? I would have included a link to the rockin' tune called Prairies by Featherweight, but I couldn't find one anywhere. Thirdly, it is imperative to know that I have recently (well, a month ago at least) moved to Edmonton to pursue work-like adventure, causing a massive delay in my comic and tremendous turmoil in my life.
This new site layout was just about finished at home when I found out I was heading East and I've just now got around to polishing it off. A few more site tweaks are in the works, and a little bit more time to recharge the buffer and we will be back in that sporadic mess that we call business.
So, to anyone that still checks on this site just in case, you can rest assured that it has not been in vain.

As always, thanks for the visit.

Family Guy

2005-05-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

I thought the new Family Guy episode was awesome. What did you think?
I also noticed two gags that we taken directly from the pages of "Out of the Loops", that webcomic I'm sure you all read.
I will provide links when I have more time.

Have You Seen This Girl

2005-04-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

Young Tara Lee Collier, missing and presumed grown up.

You can sure see Maddy in there.

Currency Exchange

2005-04-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

The loonie has never been more valuable.

I'm Back!

2005-04-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Chaos subsiding,
Urge to post rising,
Rising...

Marvin the Paranoid Android from the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie

AIBO from Sony

Twiki from Buck Rogers

So I've seen a lot of the preview for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I think I'm excited. There are a few minor deviations that stand out. Ford Prefect is black, Zaphod Beeblebrox has only one head, the Heart of Gold doesn't look like a running shoe, things like that. But the one that makes me a bit nervous is Marvin the Paranoid Android looking like a deformed Sony robot dog. I always figured he would look like Twiki from Buck Rogers. Oh well, it sounds like they got the voice right.

I'm not sure if this material will transfer to the big screen very well, but I am forcing myself to be optimistic because it's been a while since I saw a half-decent movie.

Also, the comic is now re-energized. Unfortunately it took the Pope's death for me to rediscover my passion for it. Well, unfortunate for him at least.

Coming Soon

2005-03-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

Hooray!

Darby

2005-03-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Darby. I'm one year old and I enjoy chasing tennis balls, barking at kids on bikes and peeing on the living room carpet.

Bow Wow

2005-03-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

We have a dog.
Film at 11.

Awwwwww

2005-03-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

She is soooo sweet. She makes the Steve Nash hair work.

New Gear

2005-03-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

Finally got us an mp3 player. It's cute as a button too.
When we saw it, only half looking for one, the price seemed really good. It was only when we got it home that I realized Sony, being a typically territorial technology company, required that songs be converted to their ATAC4 format before being loaded on the device. Well after about two hours of fucking with software installs, downloads and updates, it became clear that this was an absurd system. Out of around a dozen tracks converted and loaded, only two came out with anything that could remotely be considered good sound quality.
So, just minutes away from tossing the thing into a river, I found a review of the device online that said one could, with yet another software download, load mp3's directly on to the thing. Wow, I thought, just like a real mp3 player, how novel. So I tried one last download and found to my surprise, that it worked like a charm, and I am thrilled with the little guy.
On a slight tangent, I discovered a free cd ripper that works beautifully to turn all of my legally purchased cd's into mp3's.
Who says you can't take it with you?

I Made The Right Call

2005-02-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

What's this you ask? Why it looks just like an ordinary toothbrush. But picture, if you will, a scenario when a toothbrush just like that one, is flushed down an ordinary toilet. Things happen in such a scenario; dirty, wet things. Three hours of playing Mr. Plumber, things work again, the toothbrush is safely in the garbage and I am more certain than ever that I want to be an electrician. If I wanted to be a plumber, I'd play Mario Brothers.

A Geek Should Know Better

2005-02-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you try to move too quickly putting a disc into your DVD drive.

Sad but true.

Damn free stuff

2005-02-17T13:19:00.000-08:00

That's the problem with these things, they just work whenever they feel like it.
The shoutbox is down on both sites again.
Sigh.

It's about f***ing time

2005-02-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

The NHL season has been officially cancelled. No kidding.
None of the few who cared anymore were surprised by this. It comes as good news though.
A 28 game season would have been a waste of time. Almost every team would be missing key players who wouldn't bother coming back from playing in Europe. You would have a very short training camp and a very short schedule. You would end up with deserving teams missing the playoffs because of one or two off nights, and weaker teams making it thanks to one or two big upsets. In short, awarding the Stanley Cup would be the biggest crap shoot ever, and the winner would have to have the biggest asterik of all time beside their name in the record book.
And if you are a team expecting to make the playoffs, and you play a few stinkers and find yourself 3 games out with 12 to play, do you really buckle down and push for it, or do you coast your way to the cellar and jump in on the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes.
That's the biggest reason to cancel it I think. This kid is likely to be very good, and he should be going to the team that needs it most, not the team that plays the worst hockey for a month and a half.

The worst thing of all, is that the two sides will probably not meet again until two weeks before next season is set to begin.

Electromafying

2005-02-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

2 weeks in and three sparks created by shorting out outlets and lights. I'm on fire. Almost literally. School rocks.

it's late

2005-02-02T01:52:00.000-08:00

Started school today, it's awesome. Have yet to start any fires.

Watched "The Forgotten", thought it was creepy cool.

Wish I had a digital camera. The chunks of ice littering the sides of the river right now are tremendous. The ice dam that formed in Barriere busted up and set tons of ice down to us. Somehow piles of it got beached all along the river and it looks pretty cool.

The Mailinator

2005-01-31T18:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is just awesome. Check out Mailinator, it's a disposable email service. I know most people consider Hotmail and Yahoo accounts disposable, but these are single use accounts and you never have to worry that someone is already using MachoMan3000 again. The service allows you to make up any email address on the spot, and then when someone tries to send something to it, it is automatically created. It seems perfect for situations where you are signing up for something on the web and they ask for an email address for verification or activation. Make up an email address, check it on their website, and never speak of it again. I love it!

Movie Rampage

2005-01-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

Must be the cold weather, but we've been watching a ton of movies lately, many of which were pure crap. Watched a show called Cellular yesterday. Crap. Decent enough idea, but clearly the writer and director only got there because it was a dying wish or something. The good one of the bunch was Being John Malkovich, which was every bit as strange and wonderful as I would have imagined. Now suddenly I'm drawing a blank as to what else we saw. Clearly nothing memorable. I did get to see Oceans 12 in the theater though. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. Very similar in many ways, but everything Vegas has been replaced with Europe. That makes the first one better, but I still enjoyed this one.

I'm starting school in one week. That rocks.

Still searching for some new pictures to post.

Snow is melting everywhere.

The song "Radar Gun" needs to be officially retired, along with "Laying Pipe". It's just time.

Movie Season

2005-01-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

As many of you are undoubtedly aware, it's been freaking cold here. Like -30 kind of cold. Now I expect no sympathy from those in Edmonton, but damn that's chilly. So with not much else to do but bundle up and watch videos, that is what we did. And out of all that I have emerged with a new "Worst Movie Evar!" and it is Stepford Wives. What a piece of crap. Seriously. I know I get what I deserve when I take a chance on a show like that, but damn, that's just cruel. It's one movie that you almost have to see just to know how bad a movie can be. It makes Dodgeball, which we also saw, look like Citizen Kane. Dodgeball at least was funny after multiple trips to the pantry. Also watched Napoleon Dynamite, which was a little hard to take as a full length movie. It seemed like they tried to make a whole movie around one dance scene, and it dragged at times, but there were some hilarious moments for sure. The best we've seen recently was Shaun of the Dead. I highly recommend it to everybody. It actually works okay as a standard zombie flick, but there is some inspired comedy to go with it. Last night we watched the Day After Tomorrow, and it only just occurred to me that it sounds like a sequel to the Day After, the nuclear bomb movie we had to watch in high school. Day After Tomorrow was good big budget entertainment, nothing particularily great or notable in it, just enteretainment. And we couldn't help but sit through it and say, "Meh, it doesn't look that cold."

Picture Time

2005-01-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, for all those who are longing.
How to get that fluffy cat look	Eric rushing to open his presents on Christmas
Eric and his best pal	Eric and the grand pile of loot
Eric's Happy Dance: Step 1	Eric's Happy Dance: Step 2
Eric doing manual labour for us	Eric and Daddy: Men at Work
Manual labour action shot

Quick Shot

2005-01-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here's Eric and Mommy on the sled up at the farm. It was a blast. And maybe Rob and Tara can get some if they come up in February.

Change is Good

2005-01-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

You may notice a new item on the left hand side there. It's a shoutbox, or tagboard, or whatever you want to call it. Basically it lets you leave a short message, much like the guest book, but without having to go to another site or dealing with an annoying pop up window. Just enter your name and email and your message and then hit the send button. It's just that easy. I will be removing the guest book link, I just forgot to do it this time around. There's only so much web page coding I can do at work. Oh well, what are they going to do, fire me?

The gift that keeps on giving.

2004-12-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I finally figured it out.
So first of all, read this comic here. (I know you already did, right?)
Then check out what I got for Christmas here. (Sorry for the size, I know nothing about compressing video)
I laughed like a fool when I opened this one up.
Thanks to Nana Sue for the craziest gift of the year, and thanks to Margaux for the camera work.

Snow Day

2004-12-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

So on Boxing Day we went to "The Farm". Not the CIA training center but my Dad's place up in Pinitan Lake. Had a good meal, drank a few beers, and watch Kari go absolutely nuts on the snowmobile. Yeah, my Dad's got a sled and you could just watch Kari's eyes go three times as wide when she saw it. If the sun hadn't set she may still be on it, tearing up the snow and getting air wherever she could. I rode it a couple of time and I had some fun, but you should have seen the way she whipped that thing around the hills, always returning with a huge grin on her face. Needless to say, we'll be back to "The Farm" a little more often now.

Watched Anchorman last night. Wow, that was strange. I've never seen a movie more deserving of the "Hit or Miss" description. Parts of it were hilarious, parts of it were painfully strange. The highlights were Paul Rudd (I think that's his name) as the retarded weatherman, and the competing anchormen played in cameos by Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Tim Robbins. I would recommend this movie only after a trip to the pantry.

Recovery Time

2004-12-27T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well that was fun.
Christmas in the Loops was fan-foogoo-tastic. It seemed like everybody got what they were looking for but mostly it was all about Eric. Eric scored huge! There are a few pictures we've got to get developed showing just how much loot the kid got. It was quite something to behold. Not only that, but he let us sleep in until around 7:30 or so. I think it may even have been Kari who woke us up, but that is unconfirmed.
Personally, I received a couple of great Playstation games, Splinter Cell and Ratchet and Clank, and some awesome DVD's, Fight Club, Fists of Fury and the Star Wars boxed set (WOOT!!!). I also managed some good practical gifts, and a few really strange ones, the best of which I will post a video clip of as soon as I figure out how to.
Hope you all had fun and good luck with any New Year's plans you may have. We are going to have a quiet one I think. Save money, save brain cells, save some energy. This next year is going to be a big one.

A Christmas Miracle

2004-12-23T09:32:00.000-08:00

So last night my brother and his wife show up with a little bundle of joy. That's right, an X-Box. Obviously I'm thrilled and Kari is, well, not. But after a couple of hours of Christmas cheer, and a trip to the pantry for some more cheer, I witnessed something I would have never expected. I saw Kari take an X-Box controller into her hands. Not only did she take that monster into her hands, but she worked it over. We fired up some four player Tiger Woods golf and she went out and fired a 59. A 59! I did manage to tie her, but it took a miraculous run of 8 straight birdies (lipped out what would have been the 9th) to match it.
Not bad for a rookie.

If nothing shows up here for the next couple of days, Merry Christmas everyone.
Enjoy it to the best of your abilities.

Nooooooooooooooooo!

2004-12-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

It's gone, it's really gone.
Suprnova.org is no longer. After being turned on to the wonders of Bit Torrents, the best torrent site is now shut down. Something about copyright infringement blah blah blah. I don't know what I'm going to do. If anyone knows of a good alternative, please let me know. Please.

Why, Blogger?

2004-12-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

I've changed the layout again. The reason for this is so I can have a backup for the ranting. You know, just in case I say something funny and I want to look back on the triumph.

Why, Robot?

2004-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Managed to watch three movies on the weekend, a good weekend by any measure. The nice thing is, none of them sucked. The closest we came to that was I, Robot. As summer blockbusters go, it was just ok, which is exactly what I was expecting. Nothing particularly awesome, nothing to lame. If you get the opportunity to watch it, and it's not going to cost you anything, you probably won't demand the two hours of your life back.
After that, we watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a movie that I would accuse Snatch of totally ripping off, if not for the fact that Guy Ritchie did both of them. Well I really enjoyed Snatch and as you might expect, I really enjoyed Lock, Stock etc. If something is a good enough imitation of something else that you like, you are bound to like it. It's like if you are a fan of Radiohead, you can't help but like Pilate, even though they are nothing more than an hack cover band. The best thing about both Mr. Madonna movies is my new favourite actor, Jason Statham. This guy is cool, and even makes totally overdone movies like the Transporter enjoyable.
Speaking of enjoyable, the last show we watched was last night on TBS. For maybe the thritieth time in the last year, they showed Zoolander. I liked the show when I saw it for the first time about six months ago, but last night, after a long trip to the pantry, I loved it. I was in the perfect place mentally for this movie and found myself laughing throughout.
The only thing more enjoyable about the whole weekend was the newest episode of Arrested Development. This show is so consistently funny, it brings hope to TV. I mean come on, the guy is an understudy for the Blue Man Group! It seemed so strange watching a show of this quality, and then seeing commercials for the Real Gilligan's Island, like watching the Bengals play one of those good football teams.