The Marvelous Patric

dear blog,

I'm really bad about writing here.  I admit it.  I wanted to post last night, but by the time I got home, it was time for conan's first show and now way was i missing that.  

things be going well here in patric land.  FNS is having a big Summer of Our Content thing where i'm posting "something" everyday.  Comics five days a week right now, with bonus sketches or character profiles on the weekends.  I'm actually ahead with the comic and starting to build a little buffer.  Hopefully by next week, I'll be a full week ahead.  If i can get it up to two weeks, I may start putting comics up on the weekend.  We'll see.   

The other cool thing I'm doing now is a weekly podcast with Matt.  It started as I was doing a Ustream of drawing my comic.  And then I'd post the audio from that.  but, i'd get distracted drawing and there'd be dead air.  And interaction is funny.  So, here we are.  The show is still called "Patric Draws" and we still (usually) do it live, but the podcast is worth listening to on its own.  

things are going well with the girl.  we spent a weekend up at "the lake" with her family on memorial weekend and last weekend, we took her little boy to see "Up."  everyone's already raved about "Up", so i prolly don't need to.  It's enough to say it's really good, but Wall-E still is my favorite.  

I also have been given a teaching assistantship for next year.  I'll be teaching freshman english.  Quite exciting.  

I'm auditioning for a play tonight.  I found out this local theater group is going to be doing Wonka and the Producers in the future, so I thought I'd audition for the next show to test the waters.  I'll about the theater these days, yo.  

I've started another draft of my thesis play.  It's going to be radically different this time around as I'm going to try to do it as a mockumentary and a straight comedy.  Last time was more like Dr. Strangelove or MASH.  This time, I'm going for Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind.  

Current Location: the office
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: none?

dear blog,

the year of the patric is almost over. i'm not going to do a year-in-review post like everyone else. that is just soooooo 2007.

so what is new with patric? well, i finally got a diagnosis on my terrible head pain. i have atypical facial neuralgia. with a diagnosis with that many big words, you'd probably think i'm dying. but, i'm not. actually, it's quite treatable with medicine. for like the rest of my life. but, it could be worse.

i've been playing my bass at my new church. i haven't played very much, but it's been a lot of fun. i wish i was better, but considering i haven't really played my bass in years and never played in a group before, i think it's going fairly well.

band is also going fairly well. we're on break now until the 5th.

my first semester of grad school is also over. i assume i did fairly well. i really don't care much about grades. it seems fairly ridiculous that i could get an A in the class i learned the most in and also get an A in the class i learned the least in. fairly arbitrary, wouldn't you say?

I really liked my Rhetoric of Style class. I think the most creative work I've written in a long time came from that class. far more creative than my actual creative writing class. I learned so much there and had so much fun.

i'm thinking of collecting all my writings from this semester into a pdf and selling it. the work would include 4 short stories and a couple of essays. i'm not sure how many pages, but at least fifty, likely more.

i ended up canning my secret project. the project was a 6 minute animated FNS holiday special. i have the voices and the artwork, but i was having trouble getting the lip-sync to work out. i decided i would rather keep it until next year. maybe i can get someone good at animating to help out. i'd also like to find some music and stuff, so i think it if i wait, it'll work out much better.

FNS is going to return next week. i'm going to devote the time i would have spent animating to drawing it. which is like, tomorrow night. but still, it's the thought that counts. oh, who am i kidding? i'm gonna waste time playing guitar hero.

i have to finish my xmas shopping tonight. i have only a couple of things left to buy.

and i get to work over break. it's "extra" money not included in my usual GA package. woos and hoos.

Current Location: the office

dear blog,

Right now, I'm at Moorhead. I'm attending a graduate fair, representing my school. It is my job to tell people why they should pick SCSU over any other school.

I really don't know what i'm doing.

I went to SCSU because I live there. Sure, they gave me a great assistantship, so I guess I can talk about that. But, the programs? Yeah, i really don't know anything.

In other Patric news, it's Fallcon this weekend. That's like my favorite show. I love going there, it's a lot of fun. I don't expect to sell much, given the economy sucking like a blackhole.

Life is very busy. School and work take up a lot of my time. The rest goes to drawing FNS and the various house projects. The siding and roof is done, but now Rock is working on a three-season porch. I hold things. Last friday, I put a stormdoor on the front all by myself. That was interesting, but it worked out okay. It came with instructions, so I wasn't just trying to figure stuff out.

I think school is going well. I like two out of three classes. The one I don't like is terrible. It's supposed to be about technology and english, but all the material we've read (so far) is so horribly outdated. These things were written in the early 90s, predicting stuff that happened already three or more years ago. We weren't told it was an online class, but it is. And, it's using a MOO for it's online, which some may remember from, well, the early 90s. I've come to the conclusion that our teacher is at the very least incredibly lazy, if not incompetent.

The election is like a month away. As is probably obvious, I love Obama. Please vote for him. We can't take another four years of a leader who has no idea what ordinary people are going through. McCain thinks $5000 a year should be sufficient for medical costs. My mom spends more than that in just a couple months on prescriptions alone. Obama is right, we need to look out for each other. We need to be our brother's or sister's keeper. We are all in this together. We need to help each other. You want morality? Tell me, how is it moral to allow people to have to choose between medicine and food? How is it moral to give a tax break to the top 5%, and allow the poorest of the poor to loose their homes? How is it moral to say babies must be born, deny them health care and education, but then send young people to die in another country?
Voting for Obama is a moral choice. Frankly, I wouldn't vote for John McCain even if Satan himself was running against him.

Current Location: concordia college, moorhead, mn

dear blog,

The other day, my mom had a doctor's appointment. As they ask their routine questions, they asked her "are you currently in an abusive relationship?" my mom's answer, "if i am, then i'm the abuser."

Yesterday was Valentines Day. Or, as us ugly people call it, "Thursday."

Today, I accomplished something. I learned all the words to "The Alphabet of Nations" by They Might Be Giants.

Only two more weeks remain in the big "Vote or Don't" campaign at my website for the new sunday feature. Picture Imperfect was in the lead last I checked.

Current Location: work
Current Music: Ruby- The Kaiser Chiefs (in my head)