New comic, new blog, as usual.

The fluid has moved into my left ear, causing temporary hearing loss. I feel like half of my head is underwater. The muffling is maddening; I have to stuff cotton into my ear just so my brain can somehow justify the imbalance through the sensation of the fibers expanding against my skin. It's most notable when I drink a coke; the fizz is amplified inside my skull. Nothing to hear on the outside, so even the creaking of my jaw seems overwhelming. Katie and Miranda laugh as I wheeze my way up the stairs. I feel like I'm carrying something heavy when I walk. The cold fingers of adrenaline twine around my heart and make it beat faster when I carry my purse up to the room. Some people joke that its because the purse is so huge and heavy, not that I am sick. Luckily the worst has passed, and I can breathe while I sleep now.
I'm sitting here very anxiously. Any moment, any moment now, I will find out if I'm admitted into UT. The decision should be posted online sometime today. In a way I feel like all the struggles of the last three years have come down to this single day. Whether or not I'm in. I don't think everyone who reads me knows how hard it is for a non-resident to transfer to UT. They admit mostly residents, mostly people with very high GPAs, mostly Liberal Arts majors, mostly everything I'm not. They only take about a quarter of their applicants in, and they're making enrollment cutbacks. So all odds are against me in this one.
Every time I log on to my UTEID account, I feel those same cold fingers around my heart. Excitement and fear, yes, but mostly exhaustion. I know I'll be okay if things don't go my way. I have back up plans and good friends in Houston. But I've been shuffling my chess pieces for a while on this one, and I'm ready for the game to end. I'm ready to pack up the pieces, close the door, and get on down the road. No matter which road I've gotta take.

A Heather Fortune Cookie:
If you feel alone, then try to stop running away from people.  ¶ 22:13

Today's comic is up!

I think I'm coming down with a cold. Sneezing is so horrible.

My sister's birthday is today. I told her I'd design her a tshirt for her birthday and give it to her in the next two weeks. Your assignment: Think up a funny phrase for a shirt and post it in the comments section. I have made a few shirts recently bearing the words "partly cloudy" and "half full" (with appropriate illustrations). Similar absurdities welcome, just be sure its appropriate for a fifteen year old girl. And try not to copy anything in a store.  ¶ 22:04

Blake posted an interesting blog about how many American stories have the same characteristics. His points included stuff like enemies often being relatives or past friends, evil comes in hordes from the east, heroes travel in parties of no more than five, and have a soft spot for kittens no matter how many monsters they kill.
You might think sounds like a comic book, or perhaps a fantasy novel. That's fine and dandy, but they aren't traits that are exclusive to fantasy writing, and I think people here have been a little hasty to assign these things to the genre. It's true that about 98% of those long rows of books in the fantasy section are utter crap. And here is why: the stories are based more on the world than on the development of individual characters. They are too plot driven, too busy trying to save the world, and the characters themselves are tools to unravel the situation. There are different people with different stereotypes (much like the Real World!), and you can pretty much tell who will fit what role 5 pages after they are introduced. This kind of crap is boring no matter what setting is used: fantasy, sci-fi, or something close to reality. And it is heavily utilized by first-person videogames (Since existential RPGs would kindof suck...)
Character-based stories tend to be the books favored as "literature", and with good reason. The world is a tool to explore personality, instead of the other way around. This is where you can find the elusive "good fantasy"... good anything really. Short stories are especially effective since you can't save the world in three pages, you can only delve into the mind.
But all that aside, the real question is WHY these things pop up again and again. Joseph Campbell attributes it to archetypes. In "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" he pretty much explains that all heroes ARE the same story, adapted to reflect the culture of the times. Archetypes are the inescapable cliche of art. Even when the hero is an anti-hero, he's still struggling with the same themes.
Now for the interesting part: while literature is more intelligent or valued by today's world, archetypal heroes are more memorable. In the test of time, a strong mythology will always prevail over a strong personality. Like, when you think of Jesus, the cross springs to mind before the Golden Rule. Superman will always be more famous than Sandman, and our grandchildren will still be reading Lord of the Rings while Updike's books are molding on the shelf.
So, genre aside, my favorite books contain realistic characters, whether or not they live in realistic worlds.

As for good or refreshing fantasy, check out Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.  ¶ 19:07

Today's comic is up, just click the banner!

First news, Kill Bill 2 was awesome. Most people tell me it was less cool because there was less fighting, but I honestly can't compare the two movies because they were in fact ONE movie. Only complaint is that a lot of the scenes could have been effectively communicated in half the time. Talking is fine... just so long as its succinct. Pai Mei was the BEST character ever. So many people have told me that they really want his eyebrows. MUST have them in fact. There has been talk of Halloween costumes... what say we ALL go as the cast from Kill Bill next year? Who's with us?
Second news, I'm now a registered Cherokee Indian. Got my card in the mail, now I'm a minority. Ping! Its pretty silly that I have a piece of paper that certifies my race, lets my check "Native American" instead of "Caucasian" on all those little forms. I'm a very white girl; so white I can't tan. I've decided to learn a little more about Cherokees since I'm going to be claiming them. Especially the language. The alphabet is fascinating. I seriously doubt I'll ever learn to speak it or anything, seeing as you can't buy "Cherokee in 10 Minutes a Day" tapes from any local bookstore. But its my ancestors and stuff, and I really respect them, so I might as well show some interest.
Last news, I really love Lamb. Miranda and I insist on playing the same track on the self-titled CD over and over again, like crazy people. The track is called "Zero", but isn't anything like the Smashing Pumpkins song of the same name. This one track is unique, it has a string thing in it that sounds like the tangos in "Waking Life". Fancy.

I guess the only thing I have left to say is to ask yall to pray for my gramma. She's got some serious blockage in both her iliac arteries, and we're worried.  ¶ 22:33

Friday's comic is up.

The UH Honor's College requires all of its students to take a two part course called "The Human Situation". It places several works before you, some of which are interesting, but the majority of which are very odd. The movie "Hiroshima Mon Amour" falling into the latter.
I took the course last year, but went to watch the film with Katie for the hell of it.
The movie is a story of a Japanese man and a French woman meeting in Hiroshima and experiencing a violent affair. They think to themselves how this affair is impossible, how it has destroyed them, how they cannot bear to be apart. But even before all that the woman reflects on Hiroshima's destruction through the atomic bomb. Even more disturbing is her account of her own insanity after her German lover was killed as he came to meet her to elope. All of the online reviews describe this as another New Wave French romance... but that's not what I gathered fromt he film at all.
The story instead seems to revolve around numbness. Numbness toward Hiroshima's destruction, even with the madness of radioactive poisoning. Numbness toward the death of the German lover, since she slowly forgot her pain enough to function again. And she will eventually forget her Japanese lover. She states that it was horrible to forget the German, and she "trembled that one could forget such love". It almost seems that she would prefer the insanity, prefer to not to function, than to live in complacency.
And of course, we MUST live in numbness in order to survive. We can't sit around contemplating the devastating effects of nuclear war. But its as if... to be truly passionate and alive, we have to take part in something very very far out on the edges of living. We have to be vulnerable to self destruction. We have to walk the edge, risk going over, and allow ourselves to burn up once we do go over the edge... at least for a little while.
She says she was hungry for infidelity and lies... hungry to suffer more perhaps?
I'm not saying I agree with all that, but that's the feeling I got from it. I can't imagine being so hell-bent on NOT forgetting pain. But its interesting, nevertheless.

Ha. And I'm not even IN a discussion group. So, I guess you can steal that as an arguement in your own class, you stealing stealers :P

If you do use it, at least tell people to read my comic please? ^_^;;;  ¶ 10:03

Brakes are fixed.
I finished the seventh page of my comic this weekend. I'm trying to stay well ahead of schedule so that I can stay consistent through finals. I'm the kind of person who can't draw things well unless I have a photo reference to help me learn fabric folds and such. So to make a single comic, I have to type out a rough outline/script/jumble. Then I have to find some good photographic backgrounds online or take some of my own. I usually have a person pose for me for one of the shots. I then sketch out several small images in my sketchbook, scan them in at double resolution, cut them out and paste them into a blank page. Arranging them and adding text isn't terribly hard. I do spend a pretty good amount of time painting the characters in grayscale. Black and white characters are good because I don't have to be too careful about coloring in the lines. The girl to your left took more time to color than all the characters in my latest comic combined. So stop complaining that the people aren't in color! I've got enough to worry about already!
I can't believe that I've only got about 5 weeks of school left. Dang, this year went fast. I registered for classes at UH next semester, just in case UT decides to reject me. We really don't want that to happen, so everyone needs to say some prays for Heather. Otherwise, I'll be doomed to complete my degree far away from Jeff at a college that is contained in a single building and costs just as much as UT.
If it were a matter of staying at UH, I think that would be okay. I've decided I don't hate this school anymore. They've done me right, and I've no more complaints. But they don't offer my degree, so no matter what I'm waving goodbye before 8 months have past. Maybe sooner. Maybe later.
I think I'll call UT tomorrow to harass them ^_^  ¶ 22:30

Okay: the rest of this post.
April 9th was Jeff and my 6th anniversary. He surprised me by taking me to Damien's, the best Italian food place in Houston. (One of the top 10 restaurants in Houston, period). It was very fancy, and quite possibly the best food I have ever eaten. I could go on and on about its ridiculously delicious courses... but then I might make myself hungry again.
We almost missed our dinner reservation because my brakes went out while I was on the Houston interstate. And I mean OUT. I was pushing the pedal to the floor, and had to yank the parking brake in order to not die. I somehow made it to safety, though it was really traumatizing trying to cross 4 lanes in a traffic jam when you can't stop! Well, I got towed by AAA, and my car is currently sitting in a "Just Brakes" shop. This problem apparently has nothing to do with the problems I got fixed two weeks ago. So here goes all Heather's money again! *poof* Don't ask me to borrow, $5, because I don't have it!
And now, I'm here typing back and forth with Eric furiously over AIM. He's in my government class, and we have a group project due Wednesday. Our group was going to meet at the library today, and here I am having car trouble. Probably not going to get the brakes fixed in time to make it there, so we're talking about video conferencing, AIM conferencing, cellphones...... whatever. Here's to fixing brakes. Here's to not failing government!
  ¶ 09:45

Yay! New comic! Boo! Can't get the code to work!
You're stuck with this format until I get those fancy little "First, Previous, Next, Last" buttons.

I could type a mile, except that I am tired, so I think I'll just fill the rest of this post out tomorrow.  ¶ 23:44

So exciting!!!
Right above this post is the link to my very first comic!!!
Okay, so the first one is just a picture. You're really going to have to give this about 6 pages to get started. Look for updates every Monday. I'll go to Mon/Fri if I decide I'm making comics too far ahead of schedule.
The title is taken from a line in the first scene of the movie Waking Life. Its this very odd but incredible art film that I consider one of my all time favorites. All these random people talk on and on about different philosophical or psychological topics, all exploring the human subconscious. You probably won't gain too much insight as to what the comic is about if you take the time to watch the movie. But watch the movie anyway. And read my comic too. ^_^

Went to Frontier Fiesta this weekend. It was so lame last year, but wicked fun this year!! For those who don't know, its a school festival that started back in the whenevers but ended in the 60's. We restarted it like 13 years ago and now its actually becoming close to its past glory once again. The Greek people put on shows that you can get into for a dollar (watching fratties try to dance is pretty funny). There is also food and carnival rides. The best part was the fact that Katie and I got into so many rides for free because we didn't have any money and nobody really cared. There are funny pictures of the two of us sumo wrestling with the big suits on. We talked each other into riding the electric bull too! We had a blast!!

Okay, well, DST has thrown me off, so I'm going to just go to sleep now and hope I remembered to set my clock ahead.  ¶ 23:54