Book Wish List

Some people are hard to shop for. Others are just weird. Which one do you think I am?

See you next week for my end of year whatever the hell I’m going to do!

Forgot To Mention

My brother lives in Japan, though he did come home for a few weeks last March. And you know how during a big trip across the globe, little things can slip your mind.

Yes, that is seriously how he told us.

Worried

One panel comics this week! Can I be that succinct? Maybe! But probably not!

Christmas Re-Post #2

This one’s a two-parter since they’re related. You can also see how obviously I just copy-pasted everything.

Have a good holiday! Remember to stay away from people and keep your mask on! You know, like I’ve done every day of my life.

Christmas Re-Post #1

Looking back on my best* Christmas comics this year.

*Best being a relative term.

Tis The Season (To Be Impossible)

It’s almost the end of the year! That means it’s time to slack off even more than usual!

There’s a game/torture device called the Impossible Quiz (as well as two sequels) and this year, just in time for the holiday, the creator put out a new Quiz, and this one is Christmas themed.

Now, being called impossible, it’s not supposed to be easy. Or even make sense. There are time limits on some questions that straight up end the game if you fail, oh, and others you’re not supposed to answer by clicking one of the four answers given but do something else entirely.

It’s extremely frustrating. Which is good preparation for having to spend time with your family. Go enjoy it and try not to break your computer.

Happy Nondescript Winter Holiday!

It Might Be Genetic

Christmas is tomorrow! And since it’s on a weekend, my mom will be around to do all the baking. You remember how it turned out when I did it.

Really, it’s surprising that anything survives to be put out for the guests.

'Tis The Season (To Slack Off)

The  holiday season is fast approaching and I’m totally busy. Mostly with setting up my new laptop, which for some reason won’t let me scroll in Word which is...kind of an issue.

So here’s a Christmas quiz that Liz turned me onto to keep you occupied while I try to figure out how to stop this stupid thing from being stupid. Anyway, have a good end of the year! Once 2016 is dead it can never come back!

Pre-Christmas Filler

Today’s filler comic is going to be even lazier than Tuesday’s. How is that possible? you might ask. Don’t underestimate me. I am so lazy that I am just going to throw up a comic from last Christmas and pretend that it’s new! And no one can stop me!

Over the Holidays

A comic three weeks after the fact because it took me that long to process Christmas.

Seriously, they argued about who the baby in that picture was for twenty frigging minutes. And no, they never did agree on who it was.

Merry Christmas!

Or whatever you celebrate. Although today is Christmas. So have a happy day no matter what.

You might think this is the same as Thanksgiving, but not so. We have candy instead of cookies on Christmas.

My blood is probably mostly sugar by now.

No regrets.

Back on Tuesday!

Man, Christmas was exhausting this year...

Christmas Filler

It's that time of year again. Where I have to post stick figure comics because I'm being forced to spend time with my (ugh!) family. This year, since I had no other ideas, I decided to pontificate on the reasons I hated high school so much...

Reason #1: The Mid-Winter Fire Drills

Reason #2: The Guidance Counselors

Reason #3: The Teachers

Reason #4: The Stupid Logic

Reason #5: Did I mention the teachers?

Off For The Holidays

Well, pretty much off. I'll still be writing because I really want to get the rough draft this book done by the end of the year, and in case you haven't noticed, that's going to be kind of soon. I'm still going to post something on Thursday, of course, because I do love my stick figure comics. Just don't expect me to be lurking around your blogs.

If you're celebrating Christmas, I hope you have a happy holiday. If you're not, I still hope you're having a happy day.

Hugs!

The Holiday Season

Honestly, I really thought the informal polls would be more fun than they've turned out to be. It doesn't help that I had a bunch of questions in mind and then the second I started doing them, totally forgot them all. I'll keep them up for the next couple of weeks, but in 2014, I'm trying something new. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out to be a big dud like this one.

So...how's your December going? Are you Christmas-celebrators doing a lot of shopping?

Happy Holidays!

For me that means Christmas. For you, whatever you celebrate. Have a happy and safe holiday and please remember not to drink and drive.

As always, I’m going to post something special for Christmas and I figured, why not now? I’m not going to be around on the 25^th, so I don’t expect you to be either. I figured I might as well leave this up until etymology Thursday and not have to come up with a new post. It’s called efficiency laziness. No, wait, I was right the first time.

Anyway, here’s the Seven Deadly Sins (Of Writing). As always, click to embiggen.

Fact Check Fail

Critiquer Flaming

“Die for not understanding my vision!”

Sales Envy

Review Padding

Word Abuse

Solitaire

Advance Greed

“Five hundred dollars? For giving you the privilege of publishing my work I should be getting five hundred thousand dollars!”

 

PS. This is my 500^th post :D. I think it’s pretty well representative of the whole.

A Brief Word (Or Two)

First of all, Michael Hayes gave me a Versatile Blogger award last week and I’d like to thank him for thinking of me. He’s a great guy with a cool blog you should go check out.

Yes, I took Tuesday off. I’m feeling a little burnt out and figured, hey, it’s the holidays. Probably a lot of people could use a break.

I really enjoyed Christmas this year. I hope yours was great, too. Mine was soooo much better than Thanksgiving was, probably because there were fewer relatives. And also presents. And food that I’ll be exercising off until well into next year.

Enjoy the rest of the year. I'll be reading as much as I possibly can and as always, lurking around your blogs. But when January 1 rolls in, no more procrastination. It’s time to finish those edits. I’m holding myself to that.

Did you get anything good for Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever? How’s the writing going?

I hope your 2012 is full of a lot of words.

Merry “Holiday”

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about what to call the tree associated with an impending holiday. In the United States, separation between church and state is taken very seriously. To the point, in fact, where the tree-lighting ceremony where I live was for a “holiday tree.”

Some people were upset about it. They felt it was part of a war on Christmas and while I don’t believe in such an attack, I think they’re right about the nonsense of it all. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and a conifer decorated with lights and ornaments is still a Christmas tree. But since a Christmas tree can be considered endorsement of religion, they adhere to the letter of the law, but not the spirit, by making it a Holiday tree. For all the other December holidays that use trees.

I don’t want to exclude anyone, but is it really so terrible to call it what it is? I know the tree and Santa Claus are both enmeshed with the religious aspects, but they are also icons onto themselves. I’m not Christian (although I’m descended from Christians who aren’t observant) but that doesn’t mean Christmas doesn’t have special significance for me.

What do you think about the whole debate? If you live outside the US, how does your country deal with religion and government? Do any non-Christians out there want to weigh in on whether the tree and Santa can stand alone? And for Christians, do you think it matters if those symbols are separate from the religious aspects of the holiday?

Yeah, a lot of questions. But I’m very curious to know.

Quotapalooza

See that rock community? I can make up words, too.

Anyway, for Christmas I’m giving you a little diversion. I’ve compiled a list of quotes from various books, comics, television shows and movies (because all media is equal in my eyes). How many sources can you name? [PS. Contest is closed. Winner will be announced Sunday]

       For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

       Don’t try to be a great man; just be a man.

       It’s not about being right…it’s about doing right.

      All animals are equal

      But some animals are more equal than others.

      Darkness isn’t the opposite of light, it is simply its absence.

      I don’t want to be a pirate!

 

      You’re not creating, you’re negating! Your peace is that of the grave.

      Because I do not hope to turn again

      Because I do not hope

      Because I do not hope to turn

      Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope

      I no longer strive to strive towards such things

     (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)

     Why should I mourn

     The vanished power of the usual reign?

     One time I rocked so hard I killed a man.

     Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

      It's not pining, it's passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies! It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot!

     Self-improvement is masturbation. Now, self-destruction…

     The doll’s trying to kill me and the toaster’s been laughing at me!

     Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

     How wonderful is Death,

     Death and his brother Sleep!

     The Road goes ever on and on

     Down from the door where it began,

     Now far ahead the Road has gone,

     And I must follow if I can,

     Pursuing it with eager feet,

     Until it joins some larger way

     Where many paths and errands meet.

     And whither then? I cannot say

    . . . it is true of the spirit as it is true of battles—only the winners are remembered.

     This is not for you.

     And now I give it to you. What you do with it will be of more than passing interest to us all.

     We are all born mad. Some remain so.

     Just once I’d like to have dinner with a celebrity who isn’t bound and gagged.

The Day Before

There's a website called Typealyzer that analyzes your blog and determines what kind of writer you are. Both Christopher at The Oracle and the Muse and Anastasia at Labotomy of a Writer called it accurate, so I tried it out. It said:

The analysis indicates that the author of http://jefritz.blogspot.com/ is of the type:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Except for the "enjoy adventure and risk" I would call it correct. I would actually say being a policeman or firefighter is the exact opposite of what I want to do. It seems a little strange to me that those things are connected with being a "mechanic."

That's all for this post since, like before Thanksgiving, the Christmas post is going up just after midnight because I’m probably not going to be near my computer all day tomorrow. I warn you, it’s not as awesome as the Thanksgiving post. But then again, how could it be?

As for the day after and beyond, there will be word nerdery afoot. I have tons of words I want to look at the origin of. And maybe the letter C. That should be a fun one. Then…well, I’m a pantser, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Hope your holiday (or the day if you’re another religion) goes great. And remember: it’s wrong to kill your family members when they piss you off. But only on Christmas.

And the contest ends tonight at midnight. Because I'm sure you were wondering.