Siri

Yes!  Finally, a new strip!  I've been planning to do something with the Siri app ever since I started to see this ad.  You know the one:  "Call me 'rock god.'"  ::rolleyes::  The only upside of that ad is that she really does sound insincere, doesn't she?  Amusingly, I found this parody.  (Warning:  does use the f-word 1x!)

PowerBall

Here's how long it took me to get it together and produce the 2/11/12 strip.  When I scripted it, the jackpot for PowerBall was $200M.  When I started to sketch it, the jackpot was $250.  On Saturday, 2/11, it was $310M (what you see in the strip), but I actually posted it on 2/13, when the jackpot was back down to $40M (but I kept 2/11 as the strip's "official" date with that date's prize).  As I wrote at the bottom of the strip, somebody in Maine won the jackpot. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to officially change my posting schedule to 2x/month, 1x/month, or "whenever I get to it," but that seems to be the de facto schedule lately.  I am telling myself I'll get back to my "every Saturday" patten sooner or later.  Hope you'll bear with me!

Schenectady?

You see, I doubt Jim Davis has ever even been to Schenectady.  There he was, sitting with his "comic" colleagues, when someone came along and asked the whole "where your ideas come from" question.  Hooking off of the "where" in the question, he gave a place name--Schenectady.  Probably because he thought it was fun to say "Schenectady."  He could just as easily have said "Conshohocken."   Since I live in nearby Albany, I've actually been there and can tell you I don't get any of my ideas there.  This is not a slam on Schenectady, which gave Kurt Vonnegut plenty of ideas, though probably not the kind that the city necessarily wanted to advertise.  I love running Stockade-athon, the 15K that Schenectady hosts every November.  I suppose I might get an idea related to Stockade-athon one of these days, in which case I might need to revoke my entire premise here!

Anyway, this strip came about because I was scrambling for an idea for the strip, which caused my mind to wander to that "Jim Davis" quote in Lynn Johnston's "Essay on Ideas" (and which she has recounted elsewhere as well).  For a long time, I've had a vague notion that I wanted to respond to it in some way.  :)

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo.  Against all good sense, I have decided to give it a try--my second attempt.  Well, "attempt" makes it sound as though I didn't "win" the first time I tried NaNo, and that's not the case.  I did meet the 50,000-word goal.  However, I ended up with a document I never wanted to look at again.  It had lots and lots of filler, including large quotations (with credit given, of course, but still).  It also just wasn't good.  This first attempt was in 2007.  It has taken me since then to recover from the trauma!

And I am way, way behind.  I've only completed 2,194 words so far, after telling myself that I would do a big catch-up over the weekend.  On Saturday, I actually did things!  Like going places, seeing people, engaging in activities.  So I got NO work done on NaNo OR "Crazy Guy."  And I'm setting myself up to feel that whenever I'm doing NaNo I'm stealing time away from "Crazy Guy" and vice versa.  I'm also determined to write something halfway decent this time!  (I'm trying my hand at a YA novel with a sci-fi/supernatural element to it, but NOT Twilight!)  So no taking the approach "Crazy Guy" is taking, despite how tempting that might be.  :)

As a matter of fact....

Last week, I did actually spot the real Crazy Guitar Guy with his hat on his guitar.  Today, I saw him again, but with his hat on his own head.  For all I know, CG could have set him straight!  :)

No Auto-Destruction at the Altamont Fair This Year

The demolition derby and car drop are my son's favorite events at the Altamont Fair, so we are a bit bummed that they aren't having either this year.  We have no plans to outfit the pigs with little cars, though.  :)

Those public phone conversations

Stalking Google Maps

My husband really did spot the Google-maps car recently, but unlike CG, he did not try to insert himself into the street views.

CG's legislative ideas

So New York State did get some big, splashy legislation passed and signed this past Friday... the marriage equality bill.  Naturally, CG hopes to parlay that into momentum for his own [crazy] legislation.  Never mind the legislative session is wrapped up and the legislators have gone home to their districts.  :)

Another funny last name....

Albany public figures beware!  You never know when Albanymous might catch a glimpse of you.  I actually spotted Fred Dicker in Bermuda shorts when I was meeting someone by the NYS Capitol Building.  He was grinning and getting into the car of someone who'd pulled up to give him a ride.  When I saw him, he had on a polo shirt with his Bermuda shorts, but I've been told that he's also been known to pair them with jackets and ties, so I thought I'd go with that for more comic effect.

Fred Dicker hosts a daily political radio talk show on AM channel 1300, provides commentary on Albany's CBS station, WRGB, and does a column for the New York Post.  If only he had his own newspaper, CG would think he has a media empire and envy him as much as he envies Chartock.

Technically, CG and (N)J should be standing in front of the NYS Education Building:

But I probably would have needed another week to include that in my backgrounds for panels 2-6.  Maybe I'll add them in later if I ever have an excess of time!