If you’ve noticed that I’ve been quiet for the last week, then you might also like to know the reason for my silence was that I had the swine ‘flu.
Let’s catch up shall we?
I don’t know if the sarcasm comes across in the comic… I hope it does. The point I was trying to make, I guess, is that really, these new pandemics seem to be rather mild – partly due to vast improvements in medicine and understanding – yet we still treat these relatively minor outbreaks with all the same hysteria.
I’m better now… not that I was particularly devastated by it in the first place. It was a strange illness… the first time I have had a ‘flu with all the symptoms except for the streaming rivers of mucus.
This made the whole thing feel more like a hangover than anything else. Even so it didn’t stop me whining about it making ‘urgh’ noises whenever I had to move and generally moping around.
I went out one day in bright sunshine wearing my long coat. I was asked if I was hot in it to which I replied, ‘Yes… no… yes… no… …’. Temperature fluctuations eh?
Anyway enough of that.
I have other news too. I’m not the only Gregory making a bid for fame an fortune these days. My father recently made it onto the BBC news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8141054.stm
That’s right, he’ll never be able to grace the bonnet (US: Hood) of a car again without some serious ‘nam style flashbacks. He’s OK by the way.
And then there’s the animation too – Using my sickness to some benefit, I’ve finally sat down to start animating some of the Flowfield Unity strips. I should mention that if you have any favourites you’d like to see in animated form, just let me know. I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of them and so have been selecting in a rather arbitrary manner.
The big breakthrough came in finding someone to narrate the animations. I did consider doing it myself, but then I would have to listen to my own voice repeatedly as I worked on the drawings, and I already have quite enough of that.
So, that’s mostly what I’ve been up to, what about you?
ADDITIONAL (30/07/2009) – Upon re-reading this post (yes, I do read them from time to time) I realise that about 30% of my commas are missing.
Had I lost my powers of punctuation? Had someone stolen them?
Upon checking I’ve now found that my keyboard is a little bit broken – just that one key and not all of the time. I was tempted to correct the missing punctuation, but figured that it made this strip a little more believable…
Happy to see that you- and your father- made it out of your respective scrapes relatively unharmed.
I’ve been moving into my new place, then for the first two or three days there was no internet, but then that got fixed and it’s been business as usual except I don’t have cable, so I’ve mostly been watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes I downloaded and otherwise laying about. The other day I rode my trike down the street aways (mainly to see how far down the sidewalks continued so I’d know if I could take my trike down that street to a movie theater I like) and when I got to a nearby overpass I deduced that there is probably a colony of bats living under said overpass, based on the squeaking noises. From now on if I go that way on my trike I shan’t linger under there.
.-= The Great Joe Bivins´s last blog ..COMIC: BAADD: Blobs All About Drunk Driving =-.
part of it might be wishful thinking. i don’t think i was the only one to find myself rooting for the warlords and conquerors in history class, the idea of something happening on a massive scale with world-changing effects is attractive, even if it is (or maybe because it is) incredibly destructive.
school is starting again, and with it the yearly nightmares about forgetting my class schedule and somehow losing my shirt.
Thank goodness your dad is alright. You, too, come to that.
.-= golfwidow´s last blog ..the half-brained prince =-.
Thank you, although I have to admit that my run in with H1N1 was considerably less dangerous than my Father’s adventures… it was also considerably less foolhardy.
Trying to stop vehicles with your own mass can only lead to no good.
Being christened by processed bat food is a right of passage according to some South American cultures.
Congratulations on the move. And well done for surviving ‘no internet’… I found myself getting quite anxious the last time that happened.
It’s been nearly a decade since I have had to follow any sort of educational schedule, and yet I still get thosenightmares…. particularly the one about turning up late for an exam for a course I have never taken (usually something like Russian, a subject you’d struggle to apply any other knowledge to).
I know what you mean about world-even scale disasters…. there is something a little fascinating about them. Perhaps that’s why we have gods.
Thanks. Us gregory folk are made of strong, if suspect, stuff. Although it would be fair to say that neither of us is a particularly good patient.
I can’t wait to hear what you think about Harry’s latest outing…
Glad you Gregories are made of adamantium, or whatever it is that they’re making superheroes out of these days.
I’ve been trying to come up with a decent schedule which will allow me to accomplish everything I want to do in life and still have enough time to eat, sleep, and breathe. With a baby in the house and two major creative projects to balance it’s not an easy thing. I need to cut out pointless internet surfing and set a clear working schedule. I’m thinking of cutting back to two comics updates a week- this makes me feel like a complete wimp, and it means that it’ll be a year before Mischa’s Story is finished, but I’m going to have to accept that I’m not Superman. Or even Aquaman.
By the way, your guest strips went up a while back.
Sean can now walk as long as he’s holding onto something. He can also say a few words in Korean and English. The only word I’m sure he’s using meaningfully is “food”- he says “mom” and “dad” kinda randomly while crawling around the house.
.-= Joseph Hewitt´s last blog ..Bartender =-.
I stupid;y thought my friends would pick a nice, easy mountain to climb this weekend, but I was totally wrong. Now my legs are paying for it. Not to sound *too* cynical, but I’ve seen similar, if not better views from pretty much any other mountain I’ve reached the top of by easier means than tiptoeing on rainslick roots and rocks, fearing slipping and breaking something.
is there anything you could do about that little picture up by my name? is looks a little too much like a swastika for comfort.
Yes, what Brandy said.
And, excellent description of the swine flu. Physicians wouldn’t think to call it like a flu “except for the streaming rivers of mucus.”
.-= sitting pugs´s last blog ..The Highlight of my Taco Mac bench =-.
Glad you and the rest of the male Gregorys are now ok
Hey, has anyone else noticed that all the ‘flu pandemics that have been around, have all been described with a one-syllable? Bird ‘flu, Swine ‘flu….Sadly, this means there will never be a Maddie ‘flu. It’s just too long.
Also, it makes my grammer-nazi side happy that you always remember the apostrophe in front of ‘flu.
oh i just bought tickets to see MST3K live next month!!! i think they are called something else now, but its the same dudes and they make fun of movies live in the theatre… crazyness!
glad to hear you’re back in service.
It does a bit, doesn’t it? I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, please remember, everyone, that Tia is not a Nazi.
I’m pretty sure that Aquaman couldn’t even manage one strip a week… the paper would get damp and he’d cry salty tears into a sea that wouldn’t even register a change in chemical composition.
I love the fact that kids develop in a way that makes like them seem as if they are varying types of drunk… congratulations on reaching the ‘must hold on to something stage’.
Yeah the live Rifftrax of Plan 9 From Outer Space, I’m going to see that in the theater around the corner, even though I’m broke right now.
.-= The Great Joe Bivins´s last blog ..COMIC: BAADD: Blobs All About Drunk Driving =-.
A good deathclimb does you good…
It sounds a bit ‘Touching the Void’ to me.
Cut the rope, that’s what I say.
I dunno, she has that Hitler like little ‘stache going….. /tic
.-= Ben´s last blog ..I’m all legs =-.
Mountain climbing isn’t about the view, it is about reaching the top (says me who is working in the flatest place on earth).
.-= Ben´s last blog ..I’m all legs =-.
That was meant to be a reply to jjmblue’s comment.
.-= Ben´s last blog ..I’m all legs =-.
Well, I’m still out in the middle of nowhere. The drive to work can take up to 2.5hrs each way, slower if there are animals on the roads, which there are.
At the half way point in the tour, so another 3weeks (maybe) and we will be allowed back to real life.
I have a trip to the other side of the country to see my newest nephew, then maybe a few quiet days at home in Perth with my gf. Then back to work for 4wks.
Glad to hear you are alive and well, and that your father survived his peron/vehicle uplanned interaction, intact.
.-= Ben´s last blog ..I’m all legs =-.
What next, avian swine flu?
When pigs fly!
(this obligatory bad pun was brought to you by the fact that I am psychologically compelled to overuse any jokes I have that are even mildly amusing)