Breakfast For Dinner

I need to get a job.

I really need to get a job. Things are pretty bad when you think to yourself “Wow, my car’s pretty low on gas, better run out and fill ‘er up” just to get out of the house.

Carly came and left this weekend, fresh from her first week of college. I’ve never been as good an older brother to her as I could have been. I’m trying to work on that but I worried both her and I are too far along to bond like I’d want to.

The life is young though. We have time.

I’ve been reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for a couple months now (this summer has been pretty comic-heavy and that has slowed me down). I’m finding the book almost uncomfortable to read at this point. The protagonist is trapped in a world that may be my very idea of hell.

The use of the recreational drug soma, the mandatory casual sex, and even the simple arrogance towards ignorance all the people of Huxley’s future world share all ring a bell with me. It unnerves me. These feelings are either because I can easily see this fictional world mirrored in the American culture of today–

or it forces me to admit how much of a prude I really am.

Lame.

What I learned today: If I am bored I should try being productive. If that doesn’t work then I should try being less bored.

Every man should both know how to change the oil of a car and pretend they actually do it without exceptions. This is something mother nature cooked up for our species along with other great treats like the wet dog smell and mosquitoes.

Well, I can now say that I am a man who does things like CAR MAINTINENCE because I have officially changed the oil in my 2002 Saturn. Take that list-of-effeminate-things-I-have-done! What you got to say now? Nothing?

I suspected as much.

Being the only remaining kid living at home while my siblings are off to college is a lot like being the uninvited guest who offers to help clean up after the party. There are dual auras spread throughout the house. One of “Could you please leave now? Haven’t you eaten enough of our food?” while the second is “There’s a BIG mess, can you get that for me?”

What I learned today: When my dog wants to eat the dish washer repairman and against my tugging and yelling continues to try to do so, the dish washer repairman will smile about how excitably she is trying to eat him but not really mean that smile.

I think it is important to right off the bat announce some big changes in my life.

First! I was laid off from my job. Yes, I no longer have the snug security of working a full time job doing the exact thing I wanted to do as a career while receiving great pay and benefits.

Second! I have started eating more fruit.

Ok, I guess in retrospect it would have been better dramatic storytelling to announce the second thing first but I’m doing a train-of-thought experiment here and that means no going back, baby!

Darkwing Duck! Space age polymer! Manchester United!

Train-of-thought.

While I was very happy with my job, I always knew that I was extremely lucky to possess it. I suppose that luck just ran out over time. These things happen, and I left the company on good terms. Now I just find myself where I was right from the beginning of the summer: looking for work.

At least I have one more paycheck coming tomorrow.

To aid in my denial of my chances of finding work again in this economy, I think I’ve found an awesome way to occupy my time.

Comics.

I have been drawing and writing consistently for the past week and have gotten Nickmongo.com back up and running. There’s a new comic series there now, LF, and working alongside Dan from Space Pirates Ltd. I think another new series is soon to come. Throw in all my old comics now being updated with commentary and a future release of my top secret project and I think ol’ Nickmongo.com will be doing fine in the coming months.

I’ve also been writing more articles for Four Panel Folly which will soon be appearing there.

Ok, so, I really have only filled my time with some frivolous internet projects but they are MY frivolous internet projects. I find myself getting up early and working on them far later into the night than I would for a real job.

That is both exciting and kind of scary. Maybe I’m wired all wrong. Maybe I’m only passionate about something if there is no hope for it to be completely profitable. Maybe I can’t bring myself to function in a system of consistent payment for inconsistent work but I find functioning in a self-ruling system of work and accomplishment entirely doable.

Or maybe I just really dig comics.

Anyway, I realized something the other night. There I was, watching a torrent of an old anime series (because I am an unemployed 22 year old living at home and that makes watching such a thing mandatory) and I though “Jeez, it’s autumn, I better start getting ready”.

I’ll never have to get ready for autumn ever again though. And summers will probably just sneak up on me from now on rather than be something I count down to. I’m a grown up, and it’s weird dammit.

What I learned today: The lady at the art supply store has had it up to “here” with people telling her about the leak in the roof. She knows it is there and wishes her boss would just do something about fixing it “for Pete’s sake”.