Morning Views

It's early, I'm up, and I have 11 minutes to blog before I have to jump in the shower then go to work.

I watched the first night of the new Adam Sessler/Morgan Webb "X-Play" the other night. Let me tell you, no offense to anyone, but it was the worst thing I've seen in a while. There was absolutely no chemistry between Morgan and Adam. Adam's talking to "Mr. Disembodied voice" was supposed to be funny, I guess, but it came off as a lame attempt at surrealism. I like the fact that we see more of Morgan's personality, however, she adds nothing to the show. She's got no cred when it comes to video gaming and it's pretty obvious that they stuck her there because she's "Morgan Webb" and they want to exploit the name.

Not that I'd ever do that (don't look at today's strip, don't look at today's strip ...).

I've seen a lot of video game review shows in my life. Nothing was ever as bad as the live action GamePro show of the late 80's/early 90's. It featured JD Roth running around pretending to be in video games (usually static blue screen overlays). It sucked. It was lame. JD's reviews had no cred because he didn't know what he was talking about. Well, unfortunately, this show sucks even worse than that. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???

And what idiot came up with the 11:30 PM ET slot? Most people have to work in the morning. If they stay up late to watch something it's usually Jay Leno or David Letterman or (in my case) 70's show reruns. All are much funnier and more worthwhile than this show. I realize it's their lame attempt to get this block of programming in "prime time" on the West Coast, but let's face it folks, alienating your east coast viewership in this way isn't going to work. It never works and even if this show wasn't worse than the old Mario Brothers live action show (let alone the movie) this show is doomed.

I'll give it another chance at the end of the week but right now, 11:30 comes and I'm watching that 70's show.

If the Martin show is as bad as THIS, dear god ...

I give X-Play a 0 out of 5. Not even Morgan Webb can save this ship.

k9
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Happy Monday

Today started off with a trip to the doctor's as my dad had to go in for blood work. I took the morning off and made arrangements to take him to the hospital to do this. We get there and they refuse to take him because they don't like the Veteran's Administration doctor who wrote the orders. That's right, they don't like the doctor, so they didn't take my dad.

Got home and I felt horrible. My allergies are opening up and I'm in misery. Took a nap and just didn't want to get out of bed. Turned on what used to be our "local fox" (fuzzy station from 100 miles away that you need rabbit ears to get), and confirmed that it's now a WB. Which really sucks because it doesn't have star trek voyager and I was really getting into that series. However, since the fact that we could get "local fox" on an antenna meant we couldn't get FOX on our dish any more, the other week I asked DirecTV to check on it for us and ... I got out of bed, ran into my room and looked. Yes, now we have FOX again!

I know, I know, so what? Let me tell you, until you lose one of the national channels due to some weird law you will not appreciate them. FOX means that I can watch THE SIMPSONS again. Our "local Fox" didn't carry them. It has Sienfeld on every night (no more waiting for it to come on TBS), and my god, I can watch Malcolm in the Middle! YES! My god, YES! American Idol, gotcha covered. NFC football ... you name it, we have FOX again and I'm going to devote the evening to mindless TV and reruns of shows that I probably have memorized, I don't care, I have FOX!

Mohahahahaha.

Me am Nicole Fan #1.

k9
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Sunday Morning

As the title states, it's Sunday morning. The eventful part of this Sunday morning is the fact that I have a Sunday morning headache over Monday afternoon problems. Nothing I can do about them now since it's Sunday and no one is around. I can bitch about them but what's the point, really? I'd rather try to get in the mood to take out some aggressions in writing.

Figuring out the rest of the season. Have some strange things in mind, but that's okay. I always have strange things in mind when I'm trying to figure out a season. What's weird is that I still have life in me and I still have stories to tell. If you had told me two years ago that I'd still be writing techtv stories on this site I think I would have called you crazy. Actually I think I'd have called myself crazy since how many stories can you tell about TechTV?

I think the thing that keeps me going is that I have a tight continuity with no ending in sight. I try to keep it that you'll find the strip funny even if you don't know the back story. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Like yesterday's, I think it still would be funny if you didn't know that the Senators were talking about Bill Gates. I showed it to a coworker and she got it, though I did preface it with "Bill Gates and GW Bush traded jobs."

I'm thinking of taking time to do a primer that features the highlights of the last 18 seasons. I doubt I'll have any time to do one, but I do think about it from time to time. Actually I want to do one but keep it funny. Maybe do it through the eyes of character or have someone else entirely write it. Preferably someone who doesn't care or has no clue about TechTV. I think that would be a blast.

Lastly, I'm thinking of starting the first fan club to the Screen Saver's Nicole. I don't know what it is about her. I think I have a handful of captures of her from "All Women" day at TSS so I can print T-shirts. Maybe medallions, like the old character Bizarro from Superman. So I can scream "Me am Nicole Fan #1!" then pound whomever is Nicole Fan #2.

(Dear god don't let Evil James be Nicole Fan # 2. Thanks.)

Don't look at me like that. It's not that odd, I already know that there are people doing the same thing in regards to Dan the Fu-Fu. Mostly women, too!

He's in tomorrow's strip (well sorta) since Stef requested him. So Dan, if you're out there, thank Stef for that ... and if you don't like it, blame Stef for that too!

On that note, I'm going to go back to work. Be bad. Especially you, Stef. You need to!

k9
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Test Test Test

A weird character seems to have screwed up my RSS feed. This is only a test.

k9
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Another Case of the Blahs

Wednesday night and I'm struggling. Finished the season (tomorrow's strip) but I have no clue and really no inspiration as of yet for the new season of the strip. Going daily is a lot different than I thought it would be. I was hoping that site hits would go up significantly as I'm pouring all this effort into doing a daily strip. Sadly, the payoff just isn't there. I had initially thought I was going to continue to do daily strips long after my planned end date of April 30 and now I just don't know. I'm struggling. It's a lot harder to do fresh content when the real world comes a calling.

My allergies are acting up and I was exposed to someone's cold yesterday. So I'm sniffling and I really feel like I should be in bed right now. I don't want to. Giving in means I'll be asleep soon enough and that leads into tomorrow. Tomorrow means more work and more work and more work. I work 7 days a week. Once in a while I get a day where I'm only working 3 hours, but most days, I'm there and it's totally nuts and a half.

Oh well, I'm off to bed.
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I hate mornings.

I have to leave in about 30 minutes.

I planned this morning. I'd get up 15 minutes early and feed the cats and put the dogs out. Then I'd run to the shower and get one before I had to leave. As I'm in the middle of feeding the cats, my 89 year old deaf to the world Grandpa (visiting for Easter), snags the shower. So here I wait. I knew it was going to happen. I should have just ignored the cats and grabbed the shower when I could.

It's been busy here. There's been little to no privacy since the TV downstairs hasn't been working and both of my parents have been upstairs to entertain my grandfather. They're driving me insane. Upstairs is a refuge from them. That was the deal, this is a total violation of the deal. I can barely do anything by myself now. Ugg.

Grandpa out of the shower. I'm going.

k9
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Greatest Thing Ever

If you want a laugh click here.

If it works it should take you to an old Episode 8 strip translated into Spanish. It's the wildest thing. It drops some lines here and there, but otherwise it's just a blast.

¡Él es como el uh realmente semejante freaking me hacia fuera! ¡Para seguro!

k9
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New Addiction

Okay, I officially have a new addiction. I got the Microsoft game "Freelancer" last night and had so much fun with it I wanted to play it before work this morning.

Freelancer is a space game much like the old Commodore 64 game "Elite." You have a spaceship and a galaxy that's pretty much wide open. While unfortunately, the economy isn't dynamic like Elite's was (with merchant prices changing in that game based on different factors), it's still a blast to play and it's probably as close to a star wars type dogfighting game we're going to get for a while ... wait, a GOOD star wars style dogfighting game. Sorry, Starfighter fans but that game sucks ...

I'm still getting used to it though. Things like setting way points for your computer to follow back to a planet or station is new to me. I'm used to playing space games where you find a spot on a map and push your ship to that spot. Well, in this game, if you do that, you can be dead. I swear I felt like Han Solo for a minute when I forgot to set safe waypoints and ran headfirst into a debries field of metal around a planet. I was looking for the asteriod with the space slug in it to hide out in and get called a dumbass.

Didn't dream of it yet. I'm going to play it a bit later tonight, but I'm warning ya, I know I'm addicted and I'm not giving this one up for a while. It's stress relieving. Unlike that bloody SimGolf ... razzlefrazzle.

k9
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Sunday Morning

War is a weird thing. I don't know, seriously, I'm sitting here choking up because the POWs have been found and are going to Germany to be checked out before coming home. I can't believe this story, that the Iraqi commanders fled and the troops didn't know what to do so they started walking until they found Marines and surrendered and turned the POWs over to them. All seven are there, they're in good condition (though two have gunshot wounds), and it was all done without a fight. Just sort of happened, a fluke thing this morning that makes America go "whoa ... very cool."

We still have 6 missing. We shouldn't rest until those 6 are found and brought home, one way or another. We shouldn't forget the hundred plus others who gave their lives in this conflict. I hope it's over soon and our soldiers are coming home.

k9
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Catching Up Again

Took a couple of days off from everything just to try to devote to resting my back. When I broke my toes I didn't stop my normal schedule. Sure I was limping around, but I was still bringing in the massive loads of wood when my parents needed them and I pretty much ignored everything my doctor had said. This time, I can't. I mean I can't pull my pants on in the morning some days without being doubled over in pain. While it's getting progressively better (it's been a week now), it's not something I can ignore because I'm reminded of it every time I try to reach down to do anything.

Turned on the news then turned off the news a minute ago. I'm sick of the war. I'm sick of the rah rahs. I'm sick of a lot of things to do with that stuff. It's all cheers and whistles right now from everyone, but they haven't found any chemical weapons yet. Wasn't THAT the reason we wanted to go in in the first place? I mean if you believe the Bush administration, if you hit Iraq with a stick you'd be showered in chemical weapons like some sort of national pinata. Didn't happen so far.

While these people needed freedom, they quickly turned into a pain in the butt as soon as they got it. Rioting and looting everything. After a few decades under a dictator's rule they've turned freedom into the LA riots. It's dumb, too dumb for words right now.

In our country, I'm ashamed to say, if you don't agree with the president you're not welcome ... at least at the baseball hall of fame. I'm sure you've all heard about THAT episode by now. This war was on to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. To allow their people to be able to say what they want without fear of the consequences from an oppressive government. Yet Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon didn't agree with the war and the Baseball Hall of Fame cancels Bull Durham day because of it. Why? Because they say flashing peace symbols at the Oscars put our troops in danger.

Uh ...

So far I've side stepped any flack from painting the president how I do. I mean not a mean letter, not a hateful e-mail, but then again, if you believe my site statistics, nearly half of my visitors are from a Canadian server in Toronto. I know Evil James visits from his lunch hour at work because it's reflected in the server hits. Yet I don't think either the Canadians or Evil James give a darn about the war to boycott this site so that's good. I'm going to have fun exploring Bill Gates' as president of the united states and George W. Bush as CEO of Microsoft. Sure I have nothing in mind right now, but dammit, this site has always been based on 8 or 9 strips sitting in my head at any time. I don't have any long term plans and I'm glad I don't because they'd all be scrapped due to the high job mortality rate at TechTV. The only one you know for sure is going to be there forever is Leo. Everyone else? Off with their heads!

TSS is looking sad these days. No Megan (congrats Megan and hope motherhood is great), no Martin and no Morgan now. The set is pretty much empty. Dan and Kevin sort of hide instead of trying to get on the air. Sarah is showing that there's not much more to her when she's actually on camera. Nicole is good WHEN SHE'S THERE, but 2 out of 3 shows she's not. She has a whole Roz from Fraiser thing going for her. But otherwise it's Leo and Patrick and it's downright BORING. It's not fun like it used to be. It's too much Leo for goodness sake, but at least it looks like they gave him a new haircut and darkened the set so he'd stop scaring small children (let alone adult Internet comic strip writers).

On that note, I'm gonna go take something for my back.

k9

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Quick Update

Well they've fixed my mail and now I have a new statistics server. I'm amazed that my rss feed seems to be pretty popular (my old server didn't track xml at all). I still don't understand the whole RSS movement, but if you're reading and you're enjoying this site, then welcome and thank you for reading. I thank Stef too for suggesting it, and it was worth clicking blogger's little box to set one up and get it going.

Would like to share some of the keyword phrases that people are using to get to this site. I don't mean to make fun of anyone, I am glad that ALL of you are reading, I just want to share some of the weird ways you get here. So here goes:

"i could have been a doctor" is second only to "Morgan Webb" in the list of search phrases used to find the site. Morgan Webb, by far, is getting the most hits on my site. She's gold. Put her in a strip and people are flocking to see it. She's followed closely by Erica Hill, but Erica just can't catch up to the "MorganMania" that seems to be sweeping the internet.

I'm afraid. I'm sure she is too.

"how to kill nerds" isn't as popular as that, but it's slightly ahead of "boobs and guns" on the list of phrases. "pictures of girls showing off drunk," "hot fat naked suck," "elvis because i love you too much baby" and "techtv sucks" are even further down the list, but nothing compares to the "difference between boys and girls," since it brings up my favorite joke ever:

Q: What's the difference between Snow men and Snow women?
A: Snowballs.

That one still cracks me up, nearly 20 years after I heard it for the first time.

I'm not sure where any of this is going, but "fat people with mullets" probably means it's time for me to sign off.

I'm so scared.

Keep it up.

k9
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The Curse

Back in December I accidently ran over Evil James' father's foot as he was getting out of my car. He seemed to be okay, but was in quite a bit of pain for a while. Since then ALL of my luck has been bad.

If I believed in curses, I'd say I was cursed by this incident. First, I break 2 toes in Febuary after a bizarre wood chopping accident, and now my back gives out. Yes, still hurting like heck.

I half think that if it was a curse, it's not going to give up until I'm using a walker and have identical injuries to Evil James' dad. It'll probably make me grow a big moustache too just to make me look like him.

Hey, stranger things have happened.

Oh well, we had 6 inches of snow yesterday, thankfully melting, and my back gave me an excuse not to go out and shovel. I guess that's one blessing from all of this.

My e-mail should be back up tonight. Cross your fingers.

k9
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This Probably Won't Offend People

A little later and I had a strange afternoon. Seriously. About 5 PM or so tonight I stood up and I wasn't in pain. I still get a twinge of pain when I move wrong, but I'm not all twisted up like I had been. I'm still taking it easy and I still get a lot of pain when I try to bend over but otherwise, I didn't have to take aleve tonight and I'm not going to until bed time.

They're calling for snow tomorrow. 4-8 inches or a foot plus if you believe the weather channel. My god, will it ever end?

k9
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This Will Offend People

Okay this is a PG-13 to R rated blog today as I talk about my back and bore people a bit. It's getting better but I think it's more due to the fact that I have the ability to adapt to nearly anything. Right now it's like my legs have a mind of their own. I have to think about what they're going to do while I move my upper body or else I hit that spot that sends pain through my body. That's when I start swearing and I don't realize that I'm doing it. "Shit holy mother of Elmer Fudd" seems to come out a lot without me thinking about it. Another favorite seems to be "Holy kickstand dammit shit helper more." I have no idea what it means, but now I understand the gimmick they've given to the WWE's Goldust these days. Random swearing is fun.

I don't mean to do it, I just hit that point and instead of crying out I start swearing. Since I try to avoid swearing as much as possible in real life, lol, I never knew that my thoughts were so filled with swears. I don't want to g-rate myself, since that would probably mean getting a lobotomy, but lol, I'm sure the nuns who tortured my mind for a year and a half before we moved and I got the heck out of Catholic school would look at me and get out the ruler to slap my fingers.

Nuns are weird. In 3rd grade we were taught that Jesus was god and god was all around us. Then we were supposed to always leave room in our tiny uncomfortable desks for the baby Jesus to sit next to us. I think I was always the only kid dumb enough to actually leave room for him. Never saw him either, but I should have started stealing candy because if he needed that much space to sit down, he must have been hungry. That would be the ultimate, "Oh, it's not for me, it's for Jesus." What? Don't frown, it's what Jimmy Swaggert and all the other TV evangelists do!

In 4th grade we had a nun who was a former police woman. She became a nun because she killed a guy. That was sort of cool but damn, when you know your nun has killed a guy it's sort of intimidating. Like you wouldn't want to cheat at dodge ball or cause a scene when you got the wrong milk because that lady up there SHOT AND KILLED ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. Thank god I moved that year to a totally liberal conservative town that didn't have catholic schools. My parents tried to bring the idea back years later, forcing my sister to do a year at one in high school where she was persecuted for being a heavy metal fan, but I avoided it. If they had forced me to go I'm sure I would have been even more rebellious than I turned out to be.

I skipped school a lot. I just didn't want to go. Senior year I graduated 8th in my class and skipped a record 45 days. They even threatened to kick me out of school for not going to school. It made sense to me. My sister dropped out and got her GED. What I didn't know is that I broke my Grandma's heart when I decided not to participate in the graduation ceremonies senior year (I was the first grand kid to graduate). I never got into the cap and gown bullshit. That's what it is. It's bullshit. It was yet another tradition that I never gave a damn for. It was easy to do since it was a fight just to get more than 2 tickets to the thing. They'd make open announcements that those with large families were SOL. I wish I had e-bay back then, I could have put my two tickets up and made a fortune ...

Skipped prom and dances. Mainly because a) I was clueless about girls, b) I was half deaf and blind (my parents refused to get me glasses until I passed the driver's license test, yet I couldn't pass the driver's license test with bad eyes) and c) people always ended up getting shot at at any public gathering at our school. People loved guns there. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen.

Oh, I'm a nerd, and that compounded things, but that's that. I'm done rambling for another day.

k9
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Saturday Afternoon

I gave up on war coverage for the afternoon. I flipped through the channels and it looks like nearly every movie channel has a Paulie Shore "masterpiece" on. Sometimes I wonder WHY I pay $40 extra a month for all these movie channels when lately all it is Harry Potter and Paulie Shore. I wonder, could a Harry Potter parody be the thing that brings Paulie Shore back to mainstream TV? Oh god.

I will say that if she's anything like her character, that once she turns 18, I'm scheduling a major crush on the girl who plays the girl sidekick. If I was 10, I'd probably put down my GI JOES to watch. Probably not for long, but still. I have to start picking people now who will be 18 for my midlife crisis. Isn't that sad? Hell no, it isn't. I want to be one of those guys who hit the lotto and have millions and have gold chains and 18 year olds on their arms. Sorta like the old wizard who gave Morgan her powers ... hmm ... wonder if there's actually magic words. Wouldn't that be great? If you just started making up magic words and lighting would hit you and you'd become other forms ...

I'm saying a lot of strange words today, just in case, but mainly they're new forms of swears. "Holymotheroffish, that freakapoloy hurt!" when I go to sit down. "My christianpogostick, frig frag flip" when I try to stand up ... ah life ...

So I've turned the TV onto the World Poker Championships on the Travel Channel. All the commercials have beautiful people on them. You know "characters" for you to come watch. Sadly, none of them are in this tournament. Well at least done of them that I want to see. Like the red headed girl in the low cut outfit. Where is she? Or the guy who looks like a long haired cowboy in the leather duster? Where did he go? And why aren't any of them wearing the cool black clothes while playing? The guy who lost was just in a purple ensemble that would be indicative of one of the Joker's henchmen on the old Batman show, not one of the ultra cool poker sharks that were in the commercials.

This was like the time I found out that Wayne Newton was Wayne Newton. Growing up I had heard stories of this guy. You know, women would throw their underwear at him on stage and how his machismo made him a super hero. Then I saw him. Then I saw the women who throw their underwear. You know, it's like finding out that Superman was really Jimmy Olsen the whole time and Lois was a guy. Ugg. Wayne Newton ... with 50 year old housewives throwing their undies on stage ... my god, WHY DOES IT HAPPEN TO ALL OF MY HEROES?

You know, one of these days it's going to come out that Patrick Norton isn't getting laid by half a dozen college cheerleaders every night.

Please god, don't spoil that one.

k9
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Yeoch

Another Saturday I seriously don't know what I did to my back. I know I was in pain before I reached for the can, but it doens't make sense. I was walking along and blam, pain. It only got worse after I reached for the can. What's weird is that if I'm lying down it doesn't hurt. Right now it, as I'm sitting in my chair, it sort of hurts but not that bad, but as soon as I stand up or try to bend over I'm in a lot of pain. I'm very doped up on Aleve right now so that's helping, I just wish I knew what it was. I really don't like this at all.

Right now my webcam is acting up. I really want to change the plug and reinstall it off of my hub, but this means I'll have to climb under the computer desk to do it. But of course, I can't get under my desk right now with my back like it is. It's driving me crazy. I can't wait for problems to fix themselves. I have to act NOW or else it drives me nuts. This is for everything, but right now it's driving me nuts.

Oh well, 30 minutes left of work and then I'm going back to bed. Doing new strips tonight to finish the week off.

k9
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Ugg.

Oh man. I'm stopping in between an all morning process of taking our recycling to the recycling place. I did something to my back. I went to reach for a can that had fallen out of the car and my back siezed up and I couldn't bend over. I've had these before when I was a kid, they usually work themselves out after an hour or two, but damn, I have to be strong today. I can't stop because I have too much to do.

My dad is downstairs and he is having phantom chest pains. He has his oxygen on and a blanket pulled up to his chin in his chair. He had me go get him McDonalds, but by the time I got back with his food he decided he wasn't hungry. He wanted subway instead. I was covered in crap from the recycling so I didn't want to go inside subway to go get sandwiches. Ugg. So it'll go uneaten. I've moved beyond caring about it at this point because it's the usual.

Before I go, I've had a couple of questions why I've been outspoken about what happened to Chris Pirillo. I may not have been a fan of the show, but I always thought he was a good guy at heart. Look at him: he's a raving nerd, but he's pulled his stuff together and has a life that most of us would envy. He also got screwed over by TechTV. Which seems to be the trend. I don't like it when people get screwed over, especially on the level it looks like Chris got screwed. He may be playing nice and he may be making peace, but he has to, in that industry you don't burn bridges because you never know who you're going to be working with down the road.

Me? I'm so far out that I don't have bridges to burn. I have a deep slippery slope leading to an ocean. Venture here at your own risk 'cause there ain't no bridge to cross or burn. I can be outspoken because I have nothing to lose. So I'll say it one last time before letting it rest: What they did to him was wrong. He was a good guy and while I wasn't a fan of the show, you don't screw people over like that. Period.

k9
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Putting Bias Aside ...

So I just woke up from a nap and put in my tape of the first half of call for help.

Leo started the show by saying that Chris Pirillo had moved on and that they had a wonderful talk last night and everything is wonderful. I won't comment. I will critique the show, however ...

The TechLive set does nothing to help Leo any more. It used to be stark and cold. If he dressed professionally he'd look okay. With the new color scheme focusing on the bright colors, Leo's physical faults stand out. He's not easy on the eyes, that's for sure. I mean he's got the grandpa Munster look worse than ever. My suggestion is to turn down the lights and use some colors that work for Leo because right now, all it does it make your host painful to look at.

Otherwise, the show itself seems to be the same format as it was yesterday -- but with a 50-something year old trying to fit into the "young and hip" atmosphere. This is sort of like when Colin Quinn took over for Norm MacDonald on SNL years ago. While Norm wasn't the best host for the news segment, Colin didn't fit what Norm built at all and didn't last. Not wishing anyone the worst but right now Leo doesn't fit this format. He needs to slim down, dye his hair and get a face lift so he stops scaring small children if he's going to stay in this bright and cheery lighting scheme.

You know what scares me? The thought of Cat doing this gimmick at 30. Playing dumb is tolerable when you're young and you can get away with it, but let's face it, she'd need to have a body transplant with Morgan Webb to make this work. Even then, my god, there's more to life than a big busted dim witted blonde joke -- especially when you're a flat chested brunette. I hope she smartens up, starts acting professional, and stops coming off like chewing gum is a mental exercise.

Her interaction with Leo was painful, but no more so than her interaction with anyone else. I have a low tolerance for stupidity, I guess.

Oh well, off to work.

k9
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Fucked Company is Reporting ...

Not that I put any value into anything reported at FuckedCompany.com, but they posted an internal memo that went out to people working at TechTV yesterday. They're reporting that 20 people, including the Gnome were released yesterday, that the production teams of Call for Help and the Screen Savers would now be shared and there would be increased focus on Call for Help and Fresh Gear.

Greg Brannan wrote the memo. Ironically enough, yesterday's strip -- where Judge Judy bashed Greggy -- was written several days ago. With the new schedule, I'm writing several days (if not weeks) in advance, so reactions to world events are going to take some time. I'll be giving the Gnome one hell of a going away storyline, that's for sure. However, as always, it's going to take some time.

Probably going to blow ever get mentioned on TechTV ... but hey, any time they do layoffs, I spoof them. Whatever the cost, this strip is based in fantasy but we do and will address real world issues. Always have, always will ...

k9
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Mail is Down

My web server decided to upgrade my mail service overnight so I currently can't access or reply to any mail that's been building up over the past couple of weeks so I'll just pass on quick responses here.

Adding a Hulk Hogan library later for the guy who requested it.

Thanks to the guy who says this is his favorite web site. It's much appreciated.

To Brit, saw the blog by Gretchen and saw her comments there that they can't comment due to the contract about why the Gnome is gone.

IMODO, Leo shouldn't have blogged as to why the Gnome was leaving. Even if he has nothing to do with this move, his blog and his changing of his story at the end of TSS last night (now he's just "substituting" on Call for Help), makes him look guilty by association even if he isn't. (Note: He did go back and revise the offending passage from his blog. Which makes it look even worse to anyone who saw the original comments.)

I'm not passing judgment, but it was pretty dumb of him and made him the natural focus of backlash on this. Everyone knows he's wanted a "Call For Help" type show for a long time now and ta-da he's got one, so of course people are going to pissed and pointing fingers.

It doesn't surprise me that he'd mess up like this, but again, I'm withholding judgment until the facts come out.

I'll probably tape it today to see how he explains in, but a Call for Help with Leo & Cat is worse than a Call for Help with Gnome & Cat. Just one more reason for me to go find a life in the afternoons.

k9
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What the Heck?

I couldn't sleep this afternoon and I had the TV on so I decided to try and get captures from "Call for Help."

It was the usual bland experience. The Gnome looked better with the shaved head than I ever did and Cat, well, someone in management apparently likes to give people seizures at home from her voice. Oh, don't look at me like that, I'm being nice.

The whole show was blah. That's what call for help is, has been, probably always will be. The Gnome is better off by himself, IMODO and I was hoping that one day they'd figure that out ...

... and now I go to http://chris.pirillo.com/ and the Gnome says that he's no longer with TechTV.

This has got to be a joke. This has got to be an imaginary story. This is pretty dumb if it's anything but a belated "April's Fool" prank.

I may not have been a fan of him, but it was the role they put him in. He was hired to be a geek. He was hired to be annoying. He did that well. Sure he was odd, but dang it, MOST OF US ARE ODD. He represents us better than nearly anyone at TechTV.

He was one of us.

Like it or not.

Dammit.

Wonder if they'll replace him with that stupid sex show.

Ugg.

k9
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Wednesday Afternoon

I hope that someone gets the ungoing gag that I'm doing with the pictures of Morgan Webb on our index page. The theme of the season is "Sweeps" and on TV during "Sweeps Week" they usually bring out special guest stars or use "hot" women to attract viewers. So the plan has been to fill the entire middle of the season with pictures Morgan Webb -- even if she's not in the strip. I know, I know, it's cheesy but I'm having fun and making a little statement. She'll get redemption when you see how season 16 plays out.

I'm starting on season 17 tonight. It's weird because I am a week ahead and I'm forgetting what I wrote over the past couple of days. I've always had the end of season 16 in mind and it builds to something. Season 17 is different, right now I have nothing. No clue to what I'm doing. I have bits and pieces in mind but I probably won't get anything done until I actually sit down to write.

Oh well, almost time to go back to work.

k9
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Tuesday Night

It's Tuesday night and I'm waiting for it to get dark so I can put our cat named Cat out. Anytime it gets warm out he goes on a rampage outside for the first couple of days. Last week he brought home a dead bird and a dead mouse in under 24 hours so I decided to try to keep him in during daylight hours. I hate to see anything die, especially at our back porch, which is a haven for birds right now.

I'm in the middle of writing the 7th new strip in about 24 hours. Of course you won't see it until next Monday or so, but hey, it's probably pretty funny and it's killing me not to put them all up right now. I think this daily schedule is going to kill me, not from doing strips, but from having to wait to put the darn things up and hopefully get a good reaction.

It snowed again yesterday, right now it's in the process of warming up and it is supposed to be 65 here tomorrow. It's kind of weird. It snowed this morning as well, but now it's just going to melt again and then I'm sure we'll have snow for Easter. That's just how it's going to happen.

In other news, I'm trying not to hurt those that I love. I'm trying to figure out everything right now. I've been quiet and getting back into the swing of things is hard to do, but I'm trying. I'm stumbling, I'm falling, but I'm trying. Please don't give up on me yet.

k9
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Going Daily

Yes, the D word.

A while back Chellie the Okto Girl suggested that I go daily. I didn't like the idea because, well, I'm an egomaniac. I like putting up 5-10 strips at a time and have people laughing (or cringing) for a half an hour or so. Unfortunately, when I do that most people don't actually read all of the strips. They might read the first one or the last one (or anyone with a cute girl in the picture), but they won't read the whole batch. I also get bogged down with real world work from time to time (like for the last three weeks or so), and there are long breaks in my work. You've all seen that.

So somewhere in this current wave of misery that is life, it hit me: Our next strip is our 250th strip, sometime this month we're having our two year anniversary. Why not do something special for it? So I started thinking. I needed a stupid stunt to go with it. I've done an entire season in two days before. So that's out. How about going daily? Daily ... hmm ... okay, if I get a lot of strips written all I have to do is put them up one at a time ... right?

Okay so we're going daily for the month of April. I'm also going to give something special to anyone who gets us mentioned on TechTV. I don't know what. Ask after you do it. No money and no, you can't have my cats ... you can't afford the carpet cleaning bills ...

k9
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