There are things in life that you just can't control and don't plan on. This is a page dedicated to the bizarre, chaotic, fun and weird things that spontaneously happen.

June 20, 1998 - It happened again today, and it's been happening now for at least the last six months.

I promptly pay my phone bill and within the next month, I receive a statement politely telling me that $.00 is owed and my refund check will follow for the amount that I last paid.

I've called the telephone company three times, spending about a half-hour each time explaining and trying to resolve my odd billing behavior. Each time they assure me "they've got it right, and it's resolved" and each month afterwards I see another refund check.

We'll see what they say this time. For some reason I've been extremely patient even though I've spent a good deal of time trying to resolve this. I guess I keep thinking of my own life and how many times I keep making the same mistakes before I "get it right."

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Happy Summer Solstice!

Balloons, flags, and a zillion belly-dancers were part of the annual Summer Solstice parade in Santa Barbara today.

This is the second time I've gone, and I was fortunate and found a bunch of friends who all still work at Meta. Sometimes I have mixed emotions about seeing those folks, but I'm always happy afterwards.

I think that it may be equally uncomfortable sometimes for some of them as well. But then again, I really don't know. I know I've been in awkward positions after coworkers or bosses leave their jobs.

What do you say to someone when you know they've experienced some kind of odd situation? It's like they're infected by the plague - eminating a death aura akin to ebola.

Sometimes I really get paranoid about what people think although I know that's absurd. But sometimes no matter how much I acknowledge myself and all that I've done, I still can't shake that feeling that little gremlins are laughing at me...

I know JW would say, "keep your chin up!" and he'd be absolutely right. As with all things in life, I know I've got to keep plugging away, moving forward step by step, however slowly. I'm so thankful that great opportunities keep popping up on both the web and cartooning front; maybe I'll have more to write about on that front soon.

Thanks go out to Scott and Audrey for the fun party after the parade, and it was a lot of fun to see Paul, Chuck, Larry, MaryBeth, Ian, Sunshine, Erika, Greg, Kelly, and Josh.

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Book recommendation: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

I'm feeling the urge to put together a list of favorite and friend-written books; maybe I'll do that sometime in the future. But for now I'll just mention this one because it's one of the ones I've been reading lately. When I talk to friends and aquaintences, I've seen hesitation in showing off their art or they're trapped in jobs that require so much commitment they retreat from doing some of the things that mean the most to them.

This book is about unblocking as an artist, and I think it's really more about unblocking as a person. I firmly believe all people are creative by nature, and that any person would do well to work on being more creative and expressive. Not all folks are neccessarily meant to be professional artists, but the arts should be available to everyone. Art (and writing, music, dancing!) is great therapy.

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Just for fun: Pictures from Mark Szorady

Thanks go to Mark who snapped these (and had some assistance on one) at the National Cartoonists Society annual Reuben Awards Weekend in Pasadena, CA.

Here's Mark and me... he's a fun guy and helps out quite a bit on the NCS Website.

Here I am with Jim and Wes... I was really looking forward to meeting Jim Borgman because he draws Zits, which Jerry writes.

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That's all for now... I'm off to work on other areas of my web site. :)