Friday, November 14, 2008

Happy 600!!!

That's right, 600 strips. I know the exact figure varies depending on whether or not we count holiday strips, joke strips or whatever. All I know is the wordfile .doc I used for today's comic was numbered 600.

Woot.

So this ends the long run of Vexxarr. Hope you enjoyed the trip. I just lost interest and decided that I had batter things to do.

No...Not seriously.

Many more strips to come. A book IS in the works. (Adobe Acrobat is the Devil) I would ask that as a celebratory measure you go out today and force someone to read this comic. It will make you feel better. I know it will raise my spirits.

I promise.

Anyway, I just wanted to send out a special note to all my readers who were with me from the very beginning...

I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry.

I'll burn in hell for this.

Tell a friend...or a bitter enemy.

Oh, and for those who obsess over stuff like this, here is the alien's dialog:

Giant Alien - I do not understand you little green thing.

Giant Alien - I am working as fast as I can!

Giant Alien - Strange, tiny alien...I have no time for this. We have a schedule to keep.

I hope this brings peace to your strange, fitful world.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Not A Rant

Today is Election Day in America. Hopefully everyone reading this will be either on their way to or returning from their polling place. If the media is to be trusted - and why start now - America is going to see voters turn out in record numbers. Given that it is all but a forgone conclusion that Barack Obama will emerge victorious, I wanted to clarify an aspect of his tax reform platform that often goes ignored or misunderstood. Actually, I wanted to clarify something about our attitude toward taxes and who pays more - but I'll get to that in a bit.

First, a bit of melodrama:

IF Barack Obama passes his tax reform bill as outlined on his website, I will likely be unemployed.

Let me restate that.

Should the tax reform program - as outlined on Barack Obama's website - become a part of the US Tax Code, it is very likely that I will no longer be able to make a living as an independent contractor in the commercial video industry.

Honestly, I'm not an Obama detractor. He has a lot to recommend him. Obama and I see eye to eye about Iraqi oil financing the US presence in Iraq. We are both firm supporters of a sustained manned presence in space. Both fine voting issues.

But what disturbs me is the fact that his economic plan - far from being counter productive or evil or even socialist - is simply nonsensical.

I'm not a fan of McCain's economic policies either - so don't start with that old saw. McCain offers more of the same play-both-ends-against-the-middle tax policy which congress has tossed around for over one hundred years. But reading through the Obama case for reform leaves me scratching my head. Couldn't anyone in the Obama election office hire an eleventh grader to point out the spiral of death his tax structure will create?

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

OK, so how exactly does a tax cut for my own tax bracket lead to my unemployment? Easily. I'm being given money that, by rights, I should simply have been allowed to earn on my own.

OK, I'm being intentionally obtuse. Forgive me. Let me start over.

The Obama Tax plan seeks to increase or at least not mitigate the tax burden on households or business grossing over $250,000 annually. His platform insists that 95% of small business in the US make under this amount. I can pick at his numbers but in a sense, he's dead right. The problem is that most of those "small businesses" aren't operations anyone would normally consider businesses. They are more typically referred to as a sole proprietorship. And like myself, they actually could use the tax break.

Problem is, our clients are business grossing well over $250K. Worse still I'm in a sector largely considered discretionary. When my clients feel the pressure of an increased tax burden my line item is the very first to be cut - right before the coffee and hot coco at the office sink. What will happen - what has happened in times passed - is that video will become internalized. Cameras and computers are tax deductible expenditures and unlike myself, they depreciate.

What makes this situation all the more painful is the fact that many of my friends seem to think that the "big" business who employ me (I do not currently and seldom ever work for anyone earning less than $500K ) have it coming. I was told just last week that these new taxes "...will simply come out of their profit margin...right?"

OK, fair warning. My degree was in Economics. Don't use a term like "profit margin" in my presence unless you want the full one-hour lecture. And take notes because the quiz is a bitch.

Let's start again at the top.

Businesses don't pay taxes. Let me rephrase that. Business don't take taxes out of their earnings. Businesses have accountants who can calculate estimated taxes based on their offsets and revenue. They then roll those taxes into their variable costs of doing business. Given that the market, for all intents and purposes, determines the price they are allowed to charge for what ever the hell they sell, they then have to balance these new tax outlays against their revenue stream. The extra expense therefore, has to come out of operating expenditures.

Advertising is always the first to go and that's me.

After advertising, any outsourced activity that can't be cut is internalized. And there goes my other job. Anyone with a camera and a laptop can do what I do, right? Well as it turns out, no...but it typically takes two years before they give up trying.

OK, let's ignore my specific plight and look at the bigger picture: The Obama Tax proposal is aimed at households and businesses that earn more than $250K. Smaller businesses and households will be given a tax cut.

Fine.

Only problem is that businesses earning less than, say, $300K don't usually have employees per se. And those business and households earning less than $250K (or $200K or $150K depending on which proposal you read) basically work for those business who earn $300K and over. The next line item that goes after advertising, outsourced services, coffee and coco is manpower. Given that the price of goods is set by the market. Given that operating costs are generally fixed as well. Given that most businesses don't make profit beyond the salaries of their employees, what happens when they need to find a few extra dollars to shed?

How much is a tax cut worth to a man who has just lost his job?

Yes. It really is like that. Basically, I'm not saying that Obama's tax plan is bad. I'm not calling him a socialist. I am saying that his tax plan is silly. It's silly because it just patently, obviously, rationally does not work. It doesn't work on any level. Accountants know this. Businessmen know this. Eleventh graders know this. Why doesn't Obama seem to know this?

And yet there is a bigger picture still:

Placing taxes on those earning above the $250K mark does, at the very least, discourage wage increases. Employees not losing their jobs as a result of increased taxes will at least not receive their usual cost of living increases. That is a proven historical trend. I've personally lived through it twice.

As wages slip next to inflation or simple cost of living, consumers tend to spend less (obviously). Worse still, what money they do spend will be spent at larger discount retail chains - yes, Walmart. The smaller business simply can't offer the high volume-low prices that the large retailers do. The consumer then chooses Walmart over small business with their reduced income. In the end, despite a tax cut, the small business winds up suffering anyway.

What you create is a situation where, due to tax increases on larger entities, those earning below $250K are left with with so little taxable income that they don't benefit from the proposed tax break they were target for in the first place.

Honestly, I have to assume that Obama's election committee was just making campaign promises here. I have to assume that when he does present his actual tax plan it will look more like a functioning, job-generating tax package than the employment depth charge he currently touts.

Why?

Because he has smart people working for him. They won't let him worsen an economy already on the brink of recession.

So why is this happening?

Somehow in America, we've gotten the idea that those earning 'a lot of money' aren't contributing to the market. We see successful businesses and imagine huge bank accounts with Scrooge McDuck money bins and surfboards. What we forget is that any money we take home, one way or another comes from these successful enterprises. To the extent that these enterprises have enough revenue to spend with discretion, we can negotiate a portion of that money into our own accounts. We look at companies like Microsoft and wonder what exactly they do with all that money. Apart from employing 39,000 some odd people, they cut me a check every year in the form of dividends. I own Microsoft. Lots of people do. When you cut into those earnings, you cut into my bottom line.

I guess what I'm disturbed by is the fact that people are so quick to blame successful enterprise for their own problems.

I don't think Obama feels this way.

I do think that he believes we do.

When the stock market dropped last month, I pulled out the last of my meager spending money and sank it into some very large companies. Their stock had dropped precipitously and I knew that an opportunity like this comes around maybe twice in a lifetime. The experience only served to reinforce something that I had always felt. Tearing down those who achieve success helps no one. Taking part in something that has earned others prosperity helps everyone. And even if I felt that the government really was correcting an injustice by placing the tax burden on those with more money to lose, what was going to do me the most good in the long run?

A few hundred dollars from the IRS once a year?

Or a contract with a company that could afford to pay my invoice in-full every month?

So please, please, please vote your conscience. I would never tell anyone not to vote for the candidate that served what they felt were their best interests. What I do suggest is that as you vote, make sure that you are voting for something you feel will improve your life and not against something that improved someone else's life more than yours.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Been Awhile

Just a note to let everyone know that I'm still alive. I know that all the recent on-time updates have thrown everyone for a loop. I must apologize for my timeliness and promise that it won't happen again...until it does. See, I've actually gotten ahead AND managed to keep up my schedule. This of course can only mean one thing...I'm unemployed. Well that isn't entirely true but for the purposes of my blog and your sympathies it's true enough. One good thing about this global economic downturn is that it will push me all the harder to turn this web comic into an actual revenue stream. That isn't a hint. Rest assured, when I do drop a hint, you'll see the donate here button next to it.

I'm working on that.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Dragon Con...Who Knew?

I don't announce my Con attendance because it is always at the last stinking minute. This year I was not going to Dragon Con - Absolutely Not - but then The wonderful people at the Film Track (Matthew Foster) and the Webcomic Track (Scott M. Jones) agreed to let me pontificate about things which only I and a few thousand other nerds would care about so I was in - IN!

Four days, Little sleep and the complete loss of my voice conspired with hurricanes, late paychecks and client revisions to make it a hectic, exciting and slightly disturbing trip. No, I did not meet Pete Abrams. Yes I got to shake hands with Jerry Doyle. The bastards at the Hyatt and Marriott won't give up wireless internet for less than $29 a day so I was forced to drag myself home and promise you two strips Wednesday. There was free wireless at the food court but either the crushing weight of nearly 40 thousand attendees rebooted the router or the owners pulled the Ethernet cable defensively less our digital thirst exceed their bandwidth limits.

Which reminds me - if you have Comcast. Drop them. They are adopting bandwidth limitations that in effect put an end to streaming media usage. You can read about it here but the only option is to drop them cold and tell them why. Seriously, pay an extra $20 a month and use anyone else. These guys need to understand that the consumer decides what is and what is not broadband. Comcast is just the mule.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Parenthetical Comments

Seldom will I allow myself to write a comic that requires such a fine grasp of Vexxarr's internal continuity. Yet the opportunity to dig at the Aztek whilst revisiting the Mead was too sweet to pass by.

For me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy one of the more subtle (read vague) punchlines. Let me know on a scale from 1 to 10 how much it hurts...

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Vexxarr's Scheme

Thanks to Koolbeans who introduced me to WORDLE.

I have composed a little randomized piece of Vexxarr's mind for you here:



She contributed the following which I believe needs a little front page treatment:



A little on the so-real-it-is-disturbing side, Ratzmandious presents us with his SPORE authored vision of our favorite evolved Cnidarian here:



Now you can go about your day knowing that whatever else may or may not happen, your life has not been a waste.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Bat Fatigue

I was one of the millions of nerds (you heard me) who stayed up late Thursday night to see Batman: Dark Knight. It was amazing. This is not a review.

As of today, the film has grossed over $155 Million and beaten Spiderman 3 as the top grossing opening weekend for a motion picture. Already the media is pontificating and analyzing the effects of 'sleepy Friday' and hyping the drowsiness of the fans who stayed up as late as 4:00am to see the Bat do his thing.

This only bothers me because I know damn well that the core Midnight Premier audience is not Joe and Joanna six-pack and they do not typically have jobs where sleep is held in high regard.

Break down the audience and you'll see what I mean.

Males and females between the ages of 17 and 21: This group can be disregarded out of hand. First, their mix of youthful energy, hormones and consumption of Bawls (beverage) make sleep largely irrelevant. Second, they were just as likely to be up playing World of Warcraft till 4:00 am anyway.


Males and females between the ages of 22 and 29: Were probably just leaving work at 11:00pm and drove directly there. Given that at that point they had likely already worked 100 hours for the week, losing another 3-4 hours of sleep wasn't going to significantly alter their job-place demeanor.

What's the boss going to do anyway? They control all of the IT department's passwords and half those of their sister companies. If they get chastised at work for falling asleep, then maybe the boss just "misses" a paycheck that week...month...

Assuming they bothered to show up at 8:30 the next day, they probably didn't look any more exhausted, overworked or under slept than usual. Besides, they only show up early to check on their clan's next raiding party anyway.

Males and females from 30 and over: Likely run their own business or have enough seniority to take Friday off. The boss is still a little gun shy from the last time they changed all the master codes and locked everyone out of the network (where do you think that new car came from anyway?).

Assuming any work-related activity suffered as a result of the nocturnal outing it was probably their UO guild meetings which take place from 11:00pm to 4:00am anyway.

So let's get over this sleep deprivation fairytail and just accept that for most of us, being at a movie like Dark Knight at 3:00 am does more to improve our performance at work than the twenty hours of rest that our boss has been promising us since 2006. Should we hear anything about attending late night premieres, rest assured that we are not without recourse.

What am I doing on this computer? I dunno. Gonna check that letter there from the IRS? Looks important.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Late Comics - The Why

I'm working another project this week. Easier than the nightmares which have kept me separated from you these past long weeks. Still, only this eve did I pen the script for Friday's strip. That - believe it or not - is the hard part.

Someone once said:

Writing is easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until blood beads on your forehead.

Well, I find that writing a comic is just that hard. Often I have to drive around, or take a shower or go to the gym expressly for the purpose of dislodging a joke from my fevered brow. You would not believe how many times a story has sprung forth whilst doing squats. SQUATS.

Never let anyone tell you that writing isn't physical. It's damn near herculean.

Friday, June 13, 2008

I got some nice feedback about the artwork I posted. But then again my Mother can dote sometimes. You lot were nothing but hateful.

Hateful!

But I thought I'd post it again because I like to taunt you.

So once again:



The Plan/Profile of the Command Ship and Warp Sabot.

Also:



The Locutron Landing Field.

I like the tiered burr effect which took more time to create than was warranted. Also, I could have spent more time on the JOKE. I am often reminded that irony and humor while related are not synonymous.

Then the man in sunglasses dunks me for another twenty seconds. I hope they bring hot porridge again for supper.

Monday, May 26, 2008

We're BAAAAAAAACK...

Yesterday, at around 7:45pm Eastern (US) Standard Time, mankind proved to those Martian rapscallions that the poles are no longer a safe hiding place. Braving heat, cold, cosmic radiation and the metric system, the Mars Phoenix lander touched down on the northern polar ice cap of Mars making it the third rocket-slowed lander in US history to successfully touch down on Martian soil. The first pictures show a healthily if narcissistic machine on solid ground and with fully deployed solar panels.

Only hours after this amazing feet (which is rapidly becoming viewed as commonplace by many) are the humanitarian whiners beginning to chide NASA.

Same old saw: isn't this money better spent solving the worlds problems?

Or: shouldn't we solve the world's problems first?

OK. I have to point out the obvious logical fallacies to these idiotic quips. I have compiled a short but definitive list. It looks like this:

1. It's not a lot of money. NASA typically gets one-half of one percent of the US operating budget or 15 billion dollars annually. NASA has about the smallest departmental budget in the US government.

2. Space Research benefits mankind.
Many humanitarian technologies such as global communications, miniaturized computer technologies, weather prediction, GPS location and solar power have come directly from space exploration.

3. Many important technologies come from seemingly unrelated research. Smallpox vaccines came from livestock.This week, research on South American beetles may have provided a breakthrough in optical computer research. You can not predict where that next earth-shattering discovery may come from. De-funding one discipline may cripple another. You have to explore and research everywhere because you cannot predict which datum will save your life down the road.

4. Ultimately, space holds the solution to all of mankind's long-term problems. Ultimately, we will only find the food, energy, metals and room we need off world. There is only so much of that stuff here. Unless you believe that one in four people needs to be culled for the sake of our crowded planet, there are no earthbound solutions to these problems in the long term. We will have to get the things we need from other places. And history shows that looking for these resources at the moment you need them - is already too late.

Basically, space exploration is the solution and not the problem. If you are a space exploration detractor, then you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. I would go so far as to say that culling people who disagree with space research would do more to help mankind than would culling space exploration itself.

Space is more than our destiny, it is our salvation. Without programs like this in our lives today we have a dark future ahead. Phoenix may be analyzing soil and looking for evidence of organic life but to do that, it refined the engineering necessary to get our machines off the Earth and safely aground anywhere we damn well want to put them. Soon, these machines may be generating power, mining useful metals or moving pesky E.L.E. objects out of our orbital path. We spend the money and materials now so that when we need do do these jobs, we already know how. If we wait until the need arises, it may be too late to do anything.

Still think space is money waisted? Do me a favor and change your species. Humanity is already at quota for dead weight.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Devil, Details and Life

For those of you who care about such things (hello, Roy) I have posted the background of the post-apocalyptic Epsilon Beta Schlumpy for you to see:





It has a Seussian quality that I find not unpleasant. Also, I'd like to occasionally show you the kind of detail that - all things being equal - I'd rather not do BUT feel compelled to provide.

Those tiny voices...

Damn them. Damn them to hell!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Solar Units

Yes, yes, yes...

Technically only our star is Sol. So the Bleen Navy would still likely use the term AU (astronomical units) but derive the short side of the triangle from the relationship between Bleen and their sun. Yet, an AU has become such an Earth-Centric term that - although potentially generic - it sounds specific to our sun and our orbit (and the distance from both whereby the Earth and Sol appear to be one degree of arc apart).

edit: It has been pointed out that I have confused an AU - the distance of Earth from Sol and a Parsec - the triangulation of Earth and Sun to one degree of arc. I'm blaming it on fatigue.

So where was i?

Oh, yeah. So by Solar Unit I mean a (Whatever the Bleen call their sun)-ar unit...translated from Bleen into English.

Good enough?

So now you know what keeps me awake at night...and why I have no friends.

I sleep now.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Perspective

Well...Now I see how it is...

I would have thought that the new perspective of the bridge would have elicited Oooo's and Aaah's.

But no.

I am taken for granted.

See if I bother showing you what is really on Carl's screen now...

Monday, April 14, 2008

Taa Daa!!!

Taxes Filed ! Celebrity Filmed ! Today's Vexxarr Posted... Today !!!

Urban Planning Video (sentbackforfurtherrevisionsand I'llhearbackfromthemsometimenextweek) !

So my pledge endures. I endure. Both as a result of Diet Code Red administered via constant intravenous transfusion.

I need some sleep...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Unexpected Work - Late Bonus Update

...BUT still all caught up by tonight.

I've had taxes, a birthday, a long-format video for the Jefferson County and a commercial shoot with a football celebrity (who never appeared). Yet I still manage to get you one more strip.

Again, I invoke my pledge: I shall produce a strip for each and every Monday Wednesday and Friday until either the day I die or the very last sun is extinguished from the heavens.

And I wouldn't place any bets on which will happen first if I were you...

So more Vexxarr for you today. Less sleep for me tonight. And I'll be anxiously awaiting all those T-Shirt sales which help to keep my i.v. filled and my respirator pumping. But don't feel guilty...

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Still One Comic Behind

But I did TECHNICALLY update three times this week...

SO...

You get Friday's and Monday's on Monday - how lucky for you! And I noticed a marked SPIKE in my readership this week. From whence do you come?

I always enjoy hearing where readers found my humble strip.

Amuse me...

Or DIE.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, Hunter the cartoonist, the filmmaker, the (fake) castle builder and the Mac Parody Guy has turned 41.

It started with a dull ache in the back of my head and progressed to a burning sensation engulfing my entire body. Soon my flesh began to disintegrate into dust and my bones suddenly exploded like dry plaster in a kiln. In the end, the small pile of my granular remains sat like chalk dust awaiting the sunrise. And just as the first amber fingers of the new day touched my dessicated form, it gently took flight upon the morning breeze...

Late Late Late

OK, the trifecta of tardiness...

I have a huge project which refuses to die, it's my birthday and the IRS wants a fraction of the money which I did not make.

So, Vexxarr marches on but seems to be a day out of sync. Those of you who know me know I will make things right - and by right , I mean three comics a week.

Those of you who don't know me, will assume the worst - and on a purely philosophical level you will be correct. But not about the comics.

So Take today's offering for yesterday and I promise today's tomorrow after today's is done yesterday.

I'm going to sleep now.

Fish.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

April Fools!

But you already knew this, didn't you?

Just a little fun and wishful thinking on my part. New comic tomorrow. Maybe even a funny one!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Tweaks

We are implementing a new calendar archive so bear with us. Till then, enjoy the new enhanced day by day archive with the pully downy story arch menu and new support for non standard images (expect the April Fools comics to return).

We'll get this worked out yet!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Arthur C Clarke

I'm re-reading The Sentinel tonight. Clarke's insights on Lunar Sausage proved to be prophetic.


New comics Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Crabs Are Complicated

Yes, I know.

The crab home world (Mother Rock in my scripts) seems devoid of rock crabs (silicoids in my scripts). The truth is, drawing the little buggers is a chore. Yes, I know...I have added Sid (yes, that's his name) to the roster of regular characters. As a result, I have embarked on a champaign of finding ways to interpose simple objects between Sid and the viewer's perspective. I may also resort to a model sheet of Sid's expressions and gestures and just cut and paste him into the comic. This is also something I am about to do for Minionbot (Minionbot 107 in my scripts). Because the automata in the Vexxverse need to appear symmetrical and proportionally consistent, I don't view use of a cheat sheet as cheating per se.

Which, of course, it is.

One way or the other, I'll depict more crabs and less mutable robots. Thus far, the only character regularly conjured from the clipboard is Carl for obvious reasons.

By the way, anyone notice that the rack of testing server blades from Groom Lake still sits behind Carl on the bridge? There are still little tools on its top as well...

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Sao Tome and Principe

OK, so I use Stat Counter to keep up with you guys. And there is a fun feature that lets me monitor you in real time with a map (and I can see you in your underwear too...). I see that I have readers in Scandinavia, Germany, England, Australia and across the US. I even have readers in Ukraine, Russia and a lone reader on the Isle of Man. Sometimes I give what the man in the street would call a 'shout-out'. Although when I use that exact turn of phrase I taste bile...

Excuse me. *ahem*
Anyway I have noticed that I have a mystery reader, off the coast of Ghana, Africa near Sao Tome. The only problem is that there is no land mass associated with the marker. Of course I have constructed elaborate fantasies involving oil platforms, man-made archipelagos or Bond-villain-style undersea fortresses with missiles and henchmen in silver jumpsuits but I'm curious to know the truth. Who are you, where are you reading Vexxarr from and why do you make your henchmen wear silver jumpsuits?

Actually, when you have time, I'd love for you guys to drop into our forums and send a message about where all of you readers are from and how the heck you found this comic while surfing the web in Siberia.

Yes. Seriously.

Friday, February 08, 2008

SHIRTS!

Arrived!

Soon, they will move your way!

I am SO sorry about the delay. The long wait is now a short one. I am dedicating myself to the movement of Vexxarr Merch exclusively tomorrow.

So.

If you were awaiting a shirt or a print - tomorrow is the day!

...that they ship. God knows when they will actually arrive. At least after tomorrow it won't be my fault.

Have I mentioned that I love each and every one of you?

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Catching Up

Yes, I'm overburdened with freelance work and trivial issues in my life. For those of you who have not completely abandoned me in my time of extremity, you have noticed some of my Youtube offerings. Chief among these video morsels is my old Mac Parody Crash Different. In between actual work and what little time I allot myself for food, exercise and sleep, I have been defending the veracity of the issues raised by the Mac rant. After some semantical back-and-forth, I found out that despite a finite population on this planet, some of you are seeing the damn thing for the first time. I shall repeat here what I should have said up front on my Youtube space: Crash Different is five years old. Some of the gripes I outline in that narrative have actually been addressed by Apple (shocking though that may be). SO if you have a quibble over my quibbles, try to keep them in the proper context...

...it's the internet. No one cares.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Boston vs Mooninites...FIGHT!

Let us take time to remember the Mooninite invasion of Boston one year ago wherein the mayor (Thomas M. Menino) ignored both good information and internet memes.

This is not a criticism of the Boston Police and emergency response teams who, acting on orders from the mayor, did a near perfect job of securing a huge metropolitan area and showing exactly how a coordinated response effort is supposed to unfold.

No, this is a reminder that many of or elected leaders are aging, isolated fuddy duddies who absolutely need to get out more.

Let us all recall that Boston was one of many major metropolitan areas in the US where a guerrilla marketing firm had L E D Moonanite signs posted in an effort to raise US awareness of the AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE movie to a fever pitch.

Let us recall that these guerrilla placement missions were video taped and posted online for months prior to the incident in Boston.

Let us recall that Boston Bomb authorities also detonated a traffic counting device just weeks following the event. No one was charged in this "hoax".

Let us all remember that other major metropolitan areas - Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco - all identified the objects as harmless and either removed them or left them in place.

Let us all recall that Google exists.

That said, I submit that the incident in Boston, the confusion which followed and any expenses incurred were the sole responsibility of the Mayor's Office of Boston. This is not to say that Mayor
Thomas M. Menino was necessarily wrong in activating his reaction teams. Thomas M. Menino's only mistake was not having access to a media team to research the issue with all resources available once the effort was underway.

Look folks, innocent bomb scares happen. Things get blown up by mistake. The police will, on occasion, be called for an emergency that doesn't exist. As I've stated before, just because I leave my lunch box on a park bench and the bomb squad is called out to detonate my bologna sandwich, doesn't mean the the mayor's office gets to charge me with a hoax.

The incident in Boston was a simple misunderstanding. The charges filed by the city of Boston on the individuals responsible were a simple face-saving measure. The entire event was a perfect storm of media and pop-culture un-awareness, failure to heed good information and simply living in a time of heightened awareness. In the end, Aqua Teen Hunger Force got some headline exposure, the Boston authorities got an excellent disaster drill and
Thomas M. Menino got to get out a little bit and smell the roses. Which he needs to do more often...

Bologna sandwiches will get detonated from time to time. It's no one's fault. Take it as experience and move on.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Transpermia

Sometimes I wonder if my scripts cause a wave of search traffic over at New Scientist and Wired. And if those administrators look at the traffic querying words like transpermia and gigantomachy and wonder what exactly is wrong with the world...

To them the question is merely rhetorical. I, in fact, know...

Monday, January 28, 2008

And now a word from our sponsor...

No, this isn't why today's comic is late. But if it were, it might almost be worth it.



Enjoy.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lots of Work - Little Time

You know the drill...

I have tonnes of work and only so much waking-time. In most comic enterprises, this would result in a skipped strip and a lame apology.

Well here at www.exxarr.com we do things a little differently.
At www.vexxarr.com we give you and exceedingly weak excuse AND I make up all the due strips and back-post them to the archives.

I mean, isn't that better? It's like you get to store up my strips in your little cheek-pouches and then enjoy then - en mass if you will - later, back in your little rodent den.

Oh come now, I've seen you. Your little straw bed, your little wood-knot hole. You, reading Vexxarr while clutching a sunflower seed in your two, thumbless paws.

Makes me want to pet you all...

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Assuming you guys aren't already watching all the video (that there is) on my YouTube account...MORE stupid roommate!



MY ROOMMATE THE IDIOT: BURNING ROM

Idiot - Jeremy Renta
Not Idiot - Josh Davenpot
Doctor - Hunter Cressall

Thursday, January 10, 2008

More Silliness

If you liked Beef jerky, you'll love Bees!



MY ROOMMATE THE IDIOT: BEES

Idiot - Jeremy Renta
Not Idiot - Josh Davenpot
Doctor - Hunter Cressall

Monday, January 07, 2008

Video Goodness for You!

My friends and I have been busy... So enjoy the fruits of our twisted souls. Or meats, if you will... A special kudos to George Milton for his musical talent...



MY ROOMMATE THE IDIOT: BEEF JERKY

Idiot - Jeremy Renta
Not Idiot - Josh Davenpot
Doctor - Hunter Cressall

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Calendar Woes

Once again our archive calendar has collapsed. Once again the Stalwart Ratzmandious (Carl) has saved the day. It makes me thank God that there is such a thing as England and that it will write code for a .php calendar implementation.

God save the Queen. Thank her for my archives.

A humble ex patriot, rebel and nerd,

H

** update **

The calendar is fixed...if a bit...er...expanded. My thanks to Carl, my coding expert and benefactor. Forgive me if adding the back-dated comics clear to 1969 does not occur with unbridled alacrity.

I did however catch us up to Friday so there that at least.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Wednesday?

Sorry gang,

Had to take a personal day for...WORK. I figure you've gotten two bonus ministrips for Christmas and New Year's Day so you should be happy. Still, I'll stack two on Friday just to make good on my ner' ending pledge.

Long live the Vexxarr!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Anti-Vista

Many of you may know me from my Mac Parody. This has given the erroneous impression to some that I loathe Apple and (by some bizarre opposition calculus) love Microsoft.

I think that I have made my position clear that I hate Operating Systems in general. It should therefore be - by extension - no surprise that I have a bone to pick with Vista.

This is true.

Yet with Vista, it is not a mere bone but rather and entire Harryhausen-ian horde of skeletal warriors...that I pick.

(ahem)

Let me start over.

I became acquainted with Vista Home Edition with my new laptop. I knew that my Acer Aspire 3680 came with Vista pre-installed but I figured that I would give it a shot. Well, what they say about its performance drag and peripheral incompatibilities is true. Having lived through both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, I can tell you that Vista's birthing woes are objectively worse than one would expect from any new operating system - and this includes OSX which was a complete reboot of the Apple product line.

Now Vista at its core has many things going for it. It is at least as stable as Windows XP which is to say as stable as any home computing device gets these days (sorry Apple). It is very easy on the eyes. It is also fairly intuitive. However, in order to truly enjoy Vista, you must not only be logged on as administrator (something Microsoft now inexplicably discourages) but you must be at least a little familiar with administrative rights, servers and networks as Vista operates in this sort of world. What this means to the average user is that Vista will do things - strange things - at inconvenient and often disastrous times. From my point of view even the fact that Vista does things when I'm not telling it explicitly to do things is itself a bit shady.

Add to this the fact that Vista has a comedicly large footprint, saps resources and generally acts like a blob of poor coding and you have a rather off-putting user end experience. Pardon me for placing some credibility with Microsoft when I say that they simply should have known better.

Now Microsoft wants us - and by us I mean the entire planet - to drop 2000, NT and XP and adopt Vista even though it doesn't work like a finished piece of code. Consumers have responded in the appropriate fashion by uninstalling Vista and going back to whatever worked best for them. In my case, I purchased my first copy of XP Pro and am happy to report that it is a slick and jim-dandy operating system! Still apologists are trying to create a parallel world where consumers are happy with Vista and Microsoft need not address their blunder.

The problem is this. We the consumers need to be able to decide what works and what doesn't (this means you too Steve Jobs). When something comes out like Vista that has some game-ending issues the consumer needs to be heard on the matter.

Microsoft? We'll just drop support for XP so you HAVE to buy Vista.

Well this time there is something we can do. Dell and many others offer XP (again) on most new machines. When purchasing a new PC please ask you retailer for XP (you'll thank me) and if they don't offer XP for that computer ask for a system for which that they can. If they don't have anything you can use that comes with XP please say no thank-you and tell them why. There are plenty of reputable computer vendors who will build a nice system and include a licensed version of Windows 2000 or XP at your option. In this way, we can force Microsoft to address Vista's fundamental failure and maybe try something new like a total OS reboot (it worked for Apple).

We need to be firm on this and we need to stick to our guns. If the future is Vista, we can look forward to a PC price point (due to performance requirements) closer to that of Apple. We can look forward to feeling as helpless with our home computers as we do at work on the office network. Most of all we can look forward to losing the personal of personal computing. Microsoft has written some pretty impressive GUI in the past. Based on my experience with the Xbox 360, I know that they still do. Vista wasn't a planned violation of good code execution, it was an error in judgment. All we need to do is force Microsoft to admit their mistake and go back to the drawing board. Think it can't happen?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you OS 9.