A Few Things

Winnipeg urban planning: so close! And yet, so far.

My apologies for my sudden disappearance! Those of you who remember my previous work also remember that I'm prone to disappearances, but this one was more of a technologically induced series of exercises in frustration than anything else. Things I Have Learned:

1) Upgrading to Opera 10 (and its persnickety, seemingly arbitrary system of handling cookies) will ruin your every attempt to access Google Accounts, which in my case most notably means my Blogger/Blogspot access. I can get into my account just fine from other browsers, as you can probably tell because you are reading this right now, but I genuinely figured there must be another workaround for this that I was just missing. Then -- quite to my consternation! -- I lost all internet while I was trying to figure it out, meaning I also learned that

2) Sometimes network cables just straight up die from old age. And in arriving at that particular diagnosis, meticulously inspecting every necessary component of my beloved desktop computer along the way, I also concluded that

3) Network cards built right into the motherboard are a manufacturer's way of telling you that you definitely bought the wrong kind of motherboard. ffffffffffffffffff--

ANYWAY

So here I am, and my problems aren't exactly solved, but they're at least held at bay long enough for me to move on to other things. So let's burn it up!



Uptown Magazine! Oh, what a relief it is!

Last Thursday saw my most recent column published here, and it's a rip-snorter of a good read if I do say so myself. Politicians, am I right, guys?

Speaking of politicians -- word came down the pike a couple of days back that Premier hopeful Andrew Swan was formally dropping out of the three-man race to become Gary Doer's inevitably less popular replacement. Tom Brodbeck, man of class as always, berated Swan at length for his decision in yesterday's paper, because if there's one thing that nobody likes it's a man who has a reasonable understanding of his comparative chances in a popularity contest and rationally decides to let the matter drop. Brodbeck busted out "lame", "spineless", "gutless", "wimpy", and "quitter" twice in describing Swan and his exit; I'll grant that I'm not particularly fond of the guy myself either, but damn, bro, ease up a little.

Of course, having said all that, I did draw this to amuse myself earlier today--



--and it's funny how I hadn't realized, until I tried to draw him, how much he reminds me of Egon from Ghostbusters. But you can see how I'm opposed to his policies, rather than directly antagonistic and hostile to the man himself, and clearly this unbecoming self-restraint is why Brodbeck gets a daily newspaper column and shmucks like me are relegated to the internet. Man, I gotta start practicing some personal attacks!

But, anyway. Good to be back!