As I said, this strip is a slight digression from the usual. My original idea for Odder than Artifice was to center it around the bizarre events of my life, and this event was surely bizarre enough to warrant a strip.
Nothing like celebrating the weekend like hanging out in a field in Mariaville in tents and wearing funny clothes and getting a full set of colds for all 4 of us.
And a bit of a sun burn.
And even still? It was a great weekend.
Night all.
posted by: Skeeve @ 7:36 PM
Sunday, May 25
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
sorry about the 11th hour posting time i was having so much fun this holiday weekend i almost forgot to make a video
zungs new camera has some sort of face tracking thingy that made the video really shakey and wobbily i;ll fix that for next time
posted by: WORMHORN @ 11:30 PM
Friday, May 23
Zero's Friday Five
I don't mind stealing bread
posted by: Zero @ 11:47 PM
Thursday, May 22
#13: Snail Mail
Enjoy the comic. Tell your friends about it. Next weekend, I'm going to PDF, so there might be something a little different for Odder than Artifice next week.
Big work week for me, so if I'm not around too much, you can rest assured I'm in a heap somewhere recovering from the long days and nights at work. Seriously. Wednesday night I'm going back into work at 2 am.
Something about students being off campus brings out the work at our school.
Now, admittedly, we only get one real week a year to do any of these sorts of projects. The last of the kids just left this past weekend (graduation was Saturday, and our own Weston was in that group, if you can believe that...) Next week we have special programs starting up... This. Is. It.... One week to do anything that involves bringing down critical systems... But, there is still staff working at the college, so we can't bring them down during the day...
We have added several new servers of late too, most of them have been virtual, as that's the "EASY" thing now. (Someone please tell my boss that a virtual server takes resources too, please?)
We're also going to be adding a KVM to 3 big Sun servers that we're currently using a ghetto laptop console on. This involves adding video cards to them.... This is timely, as one of the machine hangs if it's console cable even gets bumped.
Speaking of, one of the larger projects that day will be bringing down the entire SAN, as we had an issue where one of the power strips on a far rack gave a few second short that brought down our main SAN, where our major production database writes... This hung the database and corrupted it. This is what we call "fun"... Not. So a complete replacement of these old strips with newer is in order.
Ok, I'm off to learn some more CSS so I can build the TFRL site. It's time that had a permanent home. ; )
Night
posted by: Skeeve @ 9:12 PM
Sunday, May 18
how a kitchen works
this week zungs kitchen is nearly renovated and i learned what you do in a kitchen
So I remember back in the good old days of the internet, when eBay was young. It was touted as being the flea market of the internet - the place where you could go have a good cyber-rummage through all manner of randomness, and sometimes you'd discover something totally cool that you didn't realize you wanted.
Then, as inevitably as happened to that super cool flea market in the next town over, more and more people started going, paying more money and flooding it with generic items, until you became lucky if you could even get away with paying retail for anything.
It, in a word, sucked.
But then - THEN! A new flea market opened, one that took the simplest parts of the old one and gave free rein to patrons in a local area. Craigslist came upon us. I cannot but sing the praises of the site; free of unnecessary imagery, expecting people to follow basic rules and behave like adults, it's become my favorite place to search for the things that Skeeve and I need. This week alone we bought a papasan chair with a footstool and a mulching lawnmower. If we'd gotten these things new in a store, it would have run us close to $400-$500, easily.
We paid less than a hundred.
Check out your local online flea market, kiddoes - and buy me something pretty.
posted by: Bliss @ 8:56 PM
Tuesday, May 13
May the TFRL be with you... Always.
We had a fire and s'mores. The summer season has officially started.
I smell like wood smoke.
There are memories in that smell. Camping with my parents as a child. Hiking out around the lake with friends. Hiking into Mount Marcy with a friend and camping overnight amid the bears, skunks, raccoons and boy scouts.
Wood flavored marshmallows with gooey melted dark Hersey's chocolate and crispy graham crackers... Nothing really says summer like that. Oh, wait.. Mosquitoes. Yeah. : )
We had yummy dinner as well. We hung out, and played in dirt.
Summer is coming. Buy a pool. (Or at least set a fire.)
posted by: Skeeve @ 10:05 PM
Sunday, May 11
the bear cha cha cha
not feeling so well this weekend zung tells me i have a cold
didnt have time to make a new video
so for your viewing pleasure heres some unused footage from last weeks video that zung edited together for me
posted by: WORMHORN @ 9:21 AM
Friday, May 9
Zero's Friday Five
In honor of Mother's Day, I'm going to make this week's Friday Five all about famous mothers.
1. Mother Nature - She hates you, and your oil. But, mostly she hates the people of Kansas. You know the ones I'm talking about. These are the people who build homes in "Tornado Alley" and then have the nerve to look surprised when the news interviews them after a twister destroys their homes and kills their loved ones... and then they rebuild in the same spot. Le sigh.
2. Mother Earth - Often confused with Mother Nature. She also hates you and your oil. But, mostly, she hates the people of Kansas. Because they're rubes.
3. Mother Goose - She wrote nursery rhymes so you didn't have to be creative in order to tell your kids a story. And also so that all the kids knew the same stories, thus breeding the notion of conformity early. I think I also heard that she was a he. And that he came from the same magical land from which Wormhorn hails. I wonder if they're at all related?
4. Mother Judge - If you are from the birthplace of TKOP then perhaps you know this local singer/songwriter. She's wonderful. But, she hates you, and your oil. Mostly, she hates the people of Kansas. Because they owe her money.
5. Mother Theresa - I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, he's not going to make fun of Baby Saint T, is he? Well... No. I really wouldn't have anything rude to say about her. After all, I met her once. In Calcutta. She said to me, "Zero, old chum," she said, "I want you to go back to your homeland and start a weekly blog. And I want it to bring joy to the people who read it." I have tried to answer the call these last 3 years with my epic Friday Five and Citizen Zero writings, but I feel like I haven't done enough just yet. Today I suddenly remembered the other thing she said, "And someday," she told me, "there will come a troll unto your realm. He will be blue. He will be furry. And he will steal your readership."
As I write this blog, the Food Network is playing a show called Dinner: Impossible. Like most shows on the Food Network these days, it has a gimmick; the chef in question has a challenge, for every show, which if he fails to complete will cause him to be eliminated. In this particular episode, the chef is running a hotel kitchen and directing the creation of 1100 meals for the Scripps Spelling Bee Awards - and the kicker is that he has to have ingredients starting with each letter of the alphabet.
Other gimmicks I've seen lately:
Alton Brown's Good Eats - delves into the history and the science of particular foods and meals
Food Network Competition - an assortment of chefs are in a timed competition to create a specific something; the most recent I saw was chocolate and candy castles put together in 6 hours.
Throwdown with Bobby Flay - Bobby Flay goes into competition against a local chef in [insert town here] who is known for a particular culinary creation. Without fail, despite created tension and undeniably delicious looking attempts, Bobby Flay always loses.
Unwrapped - primarily candy-oriented, and hosted by Mark Sommers (You may remember him from being the host of Double Dare on Nickelodeon in the early nineties), this show explores the history of and modern creation of a variety of foods.
Diners Drive-ins and Dives - a dude in a ridiculously beautiful convertible (and I know Skeeve will give me crap for not remembering what kind) travels the country, finding (You guessed it) diners, drive-ins, and dives that despite a semblance of being pretty grody nonetheless have a strong following for whatever it is they serve.
The strong thread that runs through all of these gimmicky shows, though, tying them together, is strong and simple: the love of food. In their own way, each one is a celebration of food through history and in contemporary times, an examination of what it is in a given food that so draws people to it and give it staying power through time, from the creation of espresso to the development of the hot dog to the use of leeks through the ages. It's a necessity (at least, I don't think my friend Jason was ever successful in his quest to learn to live without it) but food is more than that. If one takes the time to really examine a meal, to appreciate all the flavors that roll across the tongue.
posted by: Bliss @ 10:20 PM
Tuesday, May 6
Babes and cars... Cars and babes...
I seem to reflect a lot on this day. It's a day that has seen wonderful celebrations, as well as sadnesses and loss. I've blogged about both things in past cinco posts.
Wushupork and Bliss and I had a tradition of going to alternate restaurants between Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's day. Once we tried to have a meal at a mexican place on Cinco de Mayo with JennyBanana and HobbesEsq. Ugh, that was NOT a good day. But, we do have a fun story about the worse waitress.
I always think about CourtJester/Richard on this day also... As I have mentioned in previous Cinco blogs, this is the anniversary of his death. This year marks the 12th.
I hope you had a good May 5th. It was a beautiful day.
posted by: Skeeve @ 11:27 PM
Sunday, May 4
peach schnapps!
sorry my video diary blog post entry is late, I cant really remember much about last night except for what i filmed.
also i just finished editing this with what i am being told is called a "hangover"
enjoy
posted by: WORMHORN @ 3:06 PM
Thursday, May 1
#10: Peace Offerings
Should Clyde have gotten Terry a trampoline? A pony? A pinwheel? Fireworks? Escarg… never mind.
posted by: WORMHORN @ 12:27 PM
