Happiness is…
I love this one that Andrew Sayer (http://twitter.com/andrewsayer) sent me on Twitter this morning…
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“Me and the Old Man” – an inspired comic
Inspired by.. me! Or something I said, anyway. I am so pumped by this.
Michael Minutillo – aka Wolfbyte – emailed me today to let me know about this comic strip he has started producing, based on a meme I’ve been talking about over the last six months – what would happen if one of your ancestors could see how you are living today?
Mike sez:
Hi Cam,
Way back in January I read a comment of yours on the LOTU forum (http://www.tangler.com/forum/lotu/topic/32371) about having to justify your exsistance to your ancestors. I remember feeling inspired by that at about the same time that I discovered Toonlet (http://toonlet.com).
Random neurons fire (as random neurons are wont to do) and a web-comic was spawned. It is called “Me and the Old Man” and it is a commentary on how modern people have such opportunity but they waste it watching TV. The basic premise is that the main character lives by himself in a non-existence of fast-food, TV, and unsatisfying work when his great-great-great grandfather shows up and claims to be checking up on his investment. Sound familiar? Further down the track I intend to introduce the main guys great-great-great grandson come back in time to meet the living legend that is his ancestor. Hilarity and social commentary ensues.
So I wrote the scripts to about 40 strips but never actually got around to making them. Well, over the weekend I started up and produced the first two strips, opened up a wordpress site (http://matom.wordpress.com/) and posted them up. I then decided to write a blog-post and naturally wanted to include a link off to the original quote so I went looking for it. Then I saw the link off to your comics for The Pact (http://flickr.com/photos/cameronreilly/sets/72157603683640435/).
I don’t remember seeing these the first time around but I’ve clearly posted to the forum after this link was posted and now I feel a little foolish because it seriously looks like I was trying to rip you off. That was never my intention. And so, before launching “Me and the Old Man” officially I wanted to find out if you still intended to draw The Pact, and whether you would be bothered by MatOM.
Here is the link for what I have so far. I can send you through some of the scripts as well if you’d like.
Regards,
—
Michael M. Minutillo
My original quote in the forum was:
Do you ever stop to think about how many people lived and died, scratching out the most meager of living from the dirt, poor, huingry, all so you could be here today, living in the land of opportunity and freedom, in middle class luxury, doing white collar “work”? I often image I am having a conversation with 1000 of my direct ancestors, having to justify to them what I’m doing with this gift they have given me.
I actually blogged something similar back in May 2007, after a dream I had which lead me to try and work out how many direct ancestors I had. It’s become one of the key themes that drives my life and work.
In addition, Mike has introduced me to the site he used to create his comic, Toonlet. It makes it easy for non-artists to create comics. So, of course, I had to give it a go! Click here to see my first attempt.
Anyway,’nuf talking, here’s a link to Mike’s comic, “Me and the Old Man“. Great work, Mike! It always excites me when people take an idea of mine and build upon it. That’s what it’s all about.
Corey Hart’s Daily Schedule
You have to be a child of the 80s to get this one. More like this at Culturegraph, put together by recent G’Day World guest Jeremy Toeman. I’ve been LMAO in the kids’ dentist’s office this morning. Cool dentist. She started by showing off her new Macbook Air and then launched into a discussion with the kids about Age Of Mythology, their favourite game (except maybe HALO) which she also plays.
My Fast Thinking article
I’ve had a HELL of a week. The day I was leaving Melbourne I discovered TPN was having major technical issues and it’s just been one thing after another this week. Database errors, sites hacked, you name it. And as TPN is still between proper IT support, it’s KILLING me. I’ve been trying to sign a deal with a Melbourne-based IT company since the beginning of December and it’s just dragging on and on and on.
And TPG are dicking around with the setup of my broadband here. I filled out their online order form on Monday morning this week and today they tell me it’ll be 3 – 5 working days…. from today. So that’s the end of next week.
WHAT TAKES SO LONG????
TPG isn’t very popular with the folks on Twitter. Their PR people should pay attention.
What made me laugh most was on Monday when the guy from Telstra had to come to my house… TO MY HOUSE… WHERE MY WIFE SLEEPS… WHERE MY CHILDREN PLAY WITH THEIR TOYS… TO MY HOUSE…. (a little Godfather Part Two reference there, couldn’t resist)… to connect my phone line. I watched as this guy knelt down in front of my house, opened up a manhole, and TWISTED TWO WIRES TOGETHER. It’s 2008! WHAT THE HELL?!? I asked him “why do you have to come all the way here to connect my phone, can’t they just push a button on a computer somewhere?”
He replied “well they do that but someone needs to make the physical connection.”
“But”, I asked, perplexed, “the last tenants had a phone with Telstra, can’t you just say “oh ok now THIS person has the phone at that address?”
Apparently not. What the HELL Telstra? This is the level of sophistication of your network in 2008? A guy twisting two wires together? We’re all screwed.
Ah well. Here’s a link to an article I wrote months ago (that’s my excuse if it’s woefully out of date) which has just been printed on some dead trees for Fast Thinking magazine. Hope you like it. WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME BITCHIN’ ALLITERATION AND REFERENCES TO SUPERMAN.
Link.
first day in the new office
It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it.
Seriously though – the trip was great, the boys and I had lots of fun stopping off at Parkes Observatory, going to a planetarium at Coonabarabran to see Saturn through a telescope, checking out the radio telescope array at Narrabri, etc. We saw emus and kangaroos in their natural habitat. It made me remember how much I enjoy the Australian countryside. Twenty years in Melbourne can make you forget how beautiful the colours are out in the country, the blonde grasses, the red soil in the sunset, etc. Check out the photos.
The house in Brisbane is great, although there doesn’t seem to be a decent cafe within several suburbs, but the kids are loving the pool (they are in there as I write this), so all’s well.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you listen to The Productivity Show #35 – Tim Ferriss “The 4 Hour Work Week”. It’s a couple of months old but I just got around to listening to it on the way up here. TPN’s Tony Goodson had a great chat with Ferriss about living life NOW, not when you are 65. Our society has things pretty screwed up. We get taught to spend the best years of our lives working in jobs we don’t like, for people we don’t like, to make enough money to buy things we don’t need, to impress people who don’t matter or just to fill the holes in our psyche which are created by the fact that we’re spending all this time doing unimportant things in the first place. It’s all screwed up but you can change it if you want.
Which brings me back to sitting by the pool on a Monday morning….