Switch has now existed for some number that’s in the teens (I think it’s 13 or 14 issues), but a lot of people still haven’t heard of it or seen it.

The Journal Star has been publishing it as a wrap, 8 pages around each week’s Ground Zero, distributed for free on Fridays at 50-something locations around downtown. The only places I’ve ever actually seen it were Bodega’s and Duggan’s, though I’ve heard it’s been available at Jimmy John’s.

Here’s where this blog entry starts being about me. Each week, since its inception, I’ve had a column in Switch. I’ve also had a few cover stories. I wish more people were seeing them. Not only would I get even more famous, but I’d feel like it was more worth it to put the effort in. It’s nice getting paid to be creative, but it’s more fun when you know you have an audience.

It’s not online. I really wish it was, obviously. I might just start posting my columns and stories here in my blog. I’ve revived some classics from the DN days, doing “Judging Books by their Covers” one week, and last week, Tessa Jeffers and I revived the reviews of the bar bathrooms of downtown Lincoln. My column from the week shown here with the visual aide was from the frontlines of superhero patrolling in Indianapolis. This week’s story was a history of the comics stores in Lincoln.

The hard part about posting the columns is that they’re kind of visually-oriented, especially with layout. I might just post them as pictures, but then they’re kind of hard to read.

This ended up becoming an in-house note for the devoted readers of the cheeksofgod.com blog. Thank you.

I woke up early this morning, about 8, which is way earlier than my usual Wednesday waking time of 10:30. I listened to the Rick Emerson show, a great talk radio show from Portland, Oregon, that is now podcast at rickemerson.com and available on iTunes.

My editor is running the show at the paper this week, so I had to have my sketches in by 11 rather than the usual time around 1 (hence the earlier waking time). So instead of having cartoon lunch at McDonald’s, I had cartoon breakfast. And it was wonderful.

I got the big huge breakfast, which has a proper name I don’t recall, but it’s the one that has pancakes and scrambled eggs and sausage and a biscuit and hash browns. Then, not only was I able to conjure up the required three cartoon ideas, but my fertile brain hatched FIVE ideas.

Then instead of going home and scanning my sketches to e-mail to my editor and then await his response, I just swung by the paper and he picked one on the spot. So by 11:15, I was home with an idea approved.

With all this extra time, I thought, heck, why not draw a picture of a vampire cowboy that my friend Walker requested. So I did!

I got the cartoon done by like 12:30, so then I called my dad because it’s his birthday. Then I went to the comic store and got this week’s haul. Then I went to McDonald’s for lunch, and it was GREAT.

Now I’m at school, where today is the first day of the last quarter of Advanced D.A.V.E. Maggie, to my left, is editing her documentary about the day last quarter when we just dropped everything and walked to the gas station to get junk food.

She is also narrating everything I type as I type it. Hi I’m Maggie and I eat poop.

Then tonight, I get to find out who gets kicked off American Idol, and even if it’s Lisa, I won’t be devastated. I hope it’s Chris or Ace or Bucky or Paris.

And there’s a new episode of Lost!

Great day.

The end. Now go back to B23, Maggie.

WNBA Betting

Women’ s basketball is rising thanks to a handful of celebrities ushering in the next generation of the sport, and all of the top hockey betting sites will certainly offer odds upon each fixture. The parity in typically the WNBA may end up being its calling credit card, as five regarding the league’ s 12 teams won championships from 2010-18. Three others a minimum of made an look in the Titles.

Although athleticism and rate considered with NBA betting is missing, ball movement, five-women offense and protection, and X’ s and O’ t strategy are definitely more stressed, creating a free-flowing, easy-to-follow brand associated with basketball betting.

How in order to Bet WNBA Probabilities
Related to the NBA, WNBA wagers consist of typical point spreads, moneylines plus over-under point totals. If the Detroit Storm are internet hosting the Minnesota Caracal and are -200 to win the particular game outright, the gamble of £ 200 would produce £ 100 inside winnings. Likewise, when the underdog Lynx are +150 to off an upset, a wager of £ 100 would net winnings regarding £ 150.

In of which same scenario, typically the Storm could possibly be -5. 5 against the spread (and, hence, the Lynx are usually +5. 5 against the spread). Propagates usually cost bettors between -105 plus -115, and are usually determined as success or losers based on the final score, plus (in Minnesota’ s case) or minus (in Seattle’ s case) the spread.

Over-under stage totals follow the same costs since spreads. If the particular Seattle-Minnesota game provides an over-under regarding 164. 5, gamblers can wager of which similar -110 cost that the put together points will proceed over or below that total. Individual player proposition bets are also typical and follow a similar pattern.

Tips for Gambling WNBA
Star Power Reigns Supreme
Though there exists some “ team” really feel to the WNBA when compared in order to the isolation-heavy NBA, with just twelve teams it helps to get star power.

The majority of Valuable Player individuals constantly find themselves in the hunt for the league’ s finest record while enjoying deep into the particular postseason. And while we likely won’ t see something like the actual Players in the NBA put together in adding Kevin Pendant, stars want in order to play together.

Also, with just 34 regular-season games players have got more staying strength. Unlike the NBA, where stars are usually playing upwards associated with 90 games (postseason included), the use and tear associated with WNBA stars is less; many participants play overseas inside the offseason, but the point remains.

Finding the team with the particular best player inside a particular matchup is generally a good spot to start when contemplating a wager.

Rookies May Tip the size
The expertise pool isn’ to as great within the WNBA as it is in other specialist leagues, meaning presently there are opportunities with regard to rookies to create instant impacts. Even as we pointed out, there’ s tremendous parity within the group.

Part of that comes from franchises finding talent with all the leading picks in the set up and seeing all of them turn around prospects of a group. This is often especially important early within the period before oddsmakers have got adjusted their own predictions.

When a young rookie is trending upwards, chances are far better within the WNBA as compared to other leagues that will it will yield immediate results.

What in order to Consider When Gambling WNBA
Big Sample Measurements
Obviously, with just 13 teams within the league – and also with a 34-game schedule – these groups are rather acquainted with each other. Enjoying all 11 teams at least three times in with regards to a three-month span mean styles are more substantial and less a good aberration.

Perhaps this implies games are nearer because there’ h less of your advantage, similar to other leagues and divisional opponents. In a new sense every group is a divisional opponent.

Higher Seeds inside the Postseason
The WNBA postseason is incredibly unique. Eight of typically the 12 teams enhance to the playoffs, with the top two seeds obtaining byes all the way to typically the league semifinals. Typically the 3 rd and next seeded teams https://betsminers.xyz/az/page/2/ get byes to the quarterfinals.

So when considering championship title chances, there is the huge benefits for typically the top and second-seeded teams in typically the regular season. The particular first two times of the postseason are one-game, winner-take-all “ series. ”

There’ s zero room for error. When the semifinals roll around it becomes a best-of-five format. Thus a top-two seedling has to earn half a dozen total postseason video games to win this all.

Home Teams Matter
Just like all professional sporting activities, home teams have got a distinct edge. The fact that teams are enjoying as often as they are in such a short timespan may make travel stressful. Oddsmakers will are the cause of home teams like they do in all professional sports activities, but it may tip the scale if a bettor will be leaning one method or the some other.

Look for Pace
Coaches coach with their roster’ s set of skills. The WNBA provides continued the pattern in most basketball regarding relying more about 3-pointers. That increases point totals, nevertheless so too will the pace a particular team plays from. An even more defensive-minded team may wish to slow pace. An even more athletic staff may want to get upward and down.

Looking at the team’ s particular pace – in addition to whether a gambler believes that staff will control typically the pace – can produce a substantial difference when considering an over-under stage total bet.
 

Well I was just a call-in guest on John Baylor’s show on KFOR in response to this cartoon. I was teased as “throwing a flamethrower bomb” in yesterday’s cartoon with “a blatant attack on the Republican party.” With that kind of an intro, I thought I was in for a tough time on the air.

But I thought it went really well. Mr. Baylor essentially wanted to know what I meant, and he gave me plenty of time to explain myself. I brought up the recent news with Sen Mike Foley, Right to Life’s contradictory logic on their Heineman endorsement and Tom Swartley as examples of people invoking the name of the Lord and the work of God who behave dishonestly. He asked me good questions forcing me to better explain myself, and other than talking about a mile a minute, I think I did okay. I can’t think of anything I regret saying.

He also asked which cartoon has gotten the most response, either positive or negative, and I mentioned that Paul McCartney cartoon from October, which has blown away every other cartoon in terms of response. He also brought up the infamous Danny Nee cartoon from early 2000, so he knows his stuff. 🙂

Stuff is finally coming together, and soon I will be a master of broadcasting.

When people ask why I haven’t graduated, I usually say that I just need to finish my thesis. That’s pretty much true, but not entirely. I have several other unfinished projects on the side that need to be wrapped up and approved before I graduate, but I’ve kind of operated with the attitude that nothing’s happening till I finish the thesis, so I might as well just use this extra time to polish everything extra pretty.

Of course that’s not how it always works. Sometimes it’s just an excuse to procrastinate. But now, finally, things are really getting done to the point where it all seems so very doable. The May graduation is going to be tough, but it’s possible.

I just bought a new hard drive tonight, which was a big hurdle. I bought a hard drive last summer to begin the editing process, but it filled quickly. So now I have a second, and the beauty of this one is that it’s portable. More expensive per gig, but built to be carried around and without the need for its own power source.

The KRNU NexGen manual is almost complete; the long-unfinished Planarian Man Flash cartoon merely awaits finishing touches; The Bad Seed just has a few small scenes (that I’m actually attempting to write out of the movie) left to shoot and then it’s all post-production After Effects work; the Wham! script is coming together nicely; and all of the primary travel/research work is done on the documentary. I’m in the middle of transferring all the DV tapes to VHS for logging, and it’s going to be fun once that’s done (that wasn’t sarcasm).

There was just so much work to be done before getting to this point, that it was one of those things where it just seems like you’re working and working and not getting anywhere. But now everything finally seems doable; everything seems like I’m on that downhill slope. That’s nice.

I’ve been a big cheerleader for Delta Web Hosting, the folks I use for this site and nealo.com, because they are ridiculously inexpensive for what you get. However, I’ve recently been extremely disappointed by their service. I’ve had databases go down and it takes about 8 hours to get a response from their “24/7 support” staff. Not to mention that the problem keeps repeating itself. The forums and the comic blog on this site have been down for almost a full day now and I still don’t have a response.

When the two most popular portions of the site are useless, that kind of defeats the purpose of having the site to begin with.

So I’m looking for anybody out there who’s had a good experience with a hosting company. The thing with Delta is that they’re *so* cheap…$3/month for 50GB bandwidth, 500MB disk space, unlimited email addresses and subdomains…I’ve never come close to using up my bandwidth or disk space. On one hand, it’s hard to be picky with prices like that. But on the other hand, I pay that price so that a site is operational.

If anyone has any advice / recommendations, please email me or post it as a comment. Thanks.

I was interviewed for this week’s Redweek, the UNL College of Journalism & Mass Communications’ weekly newspaper, on the Danish cartoon controversy.

I’ve been interviewed for various reasons in the past (see: 1996 Auburn Yearbook Crisis; 2003’s Puppeteer Geek story) and finally – finally – I felt like I was represented accurately! I’ve been on the other side of enough stories that I know how easy it is to present people’s quotes completely as stated in the context they were given, yet people still feel like they were misrepresented, so I am not saying that to put any blame on previous reporters. But either I’m finally getting better at saying what I mean, or Tiffany Lee did a heck of a job (the second is actually more likely, but it might be a mixture of both).

I don’t know if Redweek is posted online anywhere, but it’s actually a really good story about the many angles of the situation. There’s a UNL student who had lived in Iran, a law professor with 1st Amendment expertise, the Christian perspective, and a cartoonist’s perspective.

I was singled out not because I cared to defend the Danish cartoonists (because I don’t), but because I have depicted Jesus in quite a few cartoons over the years.

I did have one quote that I can’t believe I said (I’m not disputing I said it, I just can’t believe my internal censors didn’t stop it) but I don’t think I dishonored the world of professional editorial cartoonists any more than those bland losers do to themselves on a daily basis.

I don’t remember if I posted about this before, but several months back I injured my neck while sleeping. I had already been going through the whole “I’m 27, I’m old” thing, and then I went and got injured while lying flat on my back. Oh, and I had just gotten over a back injury from playing croquet.

Okay so I realized I shouldn’t bother typing the whole story again in case I had written about this back in September, so there, a link to previous misery.

Today, I’m doing something slightly more dangerous – towel-drying my hair after a shower – when I re-aggravate it. Dropped to the floor. Pulled myself up on my bed, trying to catch my breath from that sudden shock of pain. As the day went on, I managed to get to my car (where I had left my neck brace) and make it to McDonald’s and back for my cartooning lunch, but it just got worse as the day went on.

It’s now 9pm, I have a stupid neck brace on, and I hate the feeling of knowing that no matter how hard you wish, your body will not cooperate with you.

Oh and then I found out I got dropped from the lincolnite blogroll. Lincolnite BOG roll is more like it! No, not really. It’s fair, since I don’t really post anything other people would want to read. I only post about being injured, not important things like HAVING THE FLU.

😉

I saw this on Mistina’s livejournal, and I only have work that I should be doing right now.

Open iTunes, sort your library using the following search criteria, and list the results.

Total Count
4704

Sort by song title
First: “***K the Millennium” by 2K
Last: “Zu Dir” by Black Heaven

Sort by time
Shortest: Kompressor “You Will Call Me Kompressor” 0:53
Longest: Dandy Warhols “It’s a Fast-Driving Rave-Up with the Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes” 16:06

Sort by artist
First: 2 in a Room
Last: The Zombies

Sort by album
First: “’64 – ’95” by Lemon Jelly
Last: “Zooropa” by U2

Sort by genre
First: Alternative: Calexico “Ballad of Cable Hogue”
Last: Unclassifiable: Subtle & Hrvatski “I Heart LA Two”

Top ten most played songs
1. “Space Age Love Song” by A Flock of Seagulls
2. “Fading Like A Flower” by Dancing DJs vs Roxette
3. “Only You” by Yaz
4. “My My My” by Armand Van Helden
5. “Second Story Man” by Heaven is a Hotel
6. “Yawn, Yawn, Yawn” by Les Savy Fav
7. “Got to wake up” by Baxter
8. “Precious” by Depeche Mode
9. “Daydreaming” by Massive Attack
10. “It’s Me Again Lord” by Rev. F.C. Barnes & Rev. Janice Brown

I played it on KRNU the other day, and I haven’t really stopped thinking about it. “Shipbuilding” by Elvis Costello is just one of the greatest songs of all time.

I love countdowns, and many “modern rock” stations have best-of-all-time countdowns around the new year, and it always makes me think, “Could KRNU ever do something like that?” We have such a huge, varied music library – could there really be anything that could justifiably stand among the greatest “indie rock” of all time?

There are obvious choices – “London Calling,” “Anarchy in the UK,” “Blitzkrieg Bop,” etc., but those are the ones that make it in whether you’re a college station, a Clear Channel modern rock station or MTV. I was trying to think a little deeper, to the ones that are absolute classics, but are perhaps undersold by the mainstream historical view of modern rock.

So that’d been floating around in the back of my head for some time when I played “Shipbuilding” the other day. The song has always brought about a sense of awe, in the way that it so poignantly tells several stories at once, hitting on the tragedy and the ironic joy (“within a week they’ll be reopening the shipyards”) that comes from war.

“Shipbuilding” is one of the few songs that I could comfortably say, “Yes, this is one of the greatest songs of all time.”

BBC’s Radio 2 has a fantastic site for classic songs called Sold on Song. Here is the subsite for “Shipbuilding.”