Calm before the storm

Tonight is New Year’s Eve! Tomorrow is the first day of a new year! Tomorrow is the first day of the last year before my calendar starts counting up…

Perhaps that’s why no one else posted today; they’re all out at New Year’s Eve parties, having a good time. Drinking too much. Finding someone to kiss at midnight. Something about wanting to wake up into a new year with a headache big enough to cover anything they might have otherwise regretted.

I am doing no such partying. Last night we had a little pot-luck among the different shop-keepers up here, and that was fun. I even had a couple of glasses of a wine-like beverage, after my grandparents retired for the evening. Then after the festivities died down, I went up to my room and completed both units of the correspondence course that I received Friday Night when I returned home from Phoenix. So now I just have to wait for them to ship me the next three units and I can do some more. Probably they’ll take longer than these, being classes I haven’t already taken.

So yeah, today is 1065.-1AC, and tomorrow is 111.0AC. It’s already 111 in many parts of the world as I write this. I’m not even going to bother looking at a news site right now, watching the news tomorrow, or reading any news sites until Tuesday. Unless I’m forced to. Unless the air raid sirens go off or when I go in to supper my granfather is watching the news because he just can’t look away, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. In fact, I don’t think most people will know why this day is 111 until quite a bit further down the road. So don’t even bother asking me on Tuesday what it was, ’cause I’m still not telling.

So, Modern Evil Virtual Book Club (MEVBC) will be meeting 131@19:30MST to discuss The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. Then on 163 at an as-yet-to-be-finalised time, MEVBC will meet to discuss The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Also, MEVBC will be meeting to discuss Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson on 233@19:30MST. All you need to join us is MSN Messenger, and to ask me for my .Net passport. I hope to see you there!

I need to draw an anthropomorphic mouse, but am having some difficulty. I keep coming up with anthropomorphic rats and ducks and sometimes Mickey Mouse, but … I don’t want to rip someone else off 100%, and I want to have an anthropomorphic mouse. It is an important character in an upcoming comic I’m working on. Actually, I’ve already finished the entire scripting and some of the coding to put it together & I just can’t start the drawings until this mouse exists, because he is in just about every panel. So, this is a ‘shout out’ to anyone who reads this who can draw or doodle or paint or fingerpaint or whatever, and has an idea of how to depict an anthropomorphic mouse — please send me your ideas! Email them to me or (if you’re Iain) post them in The Daily Doodle, or if you’re someone else, post them in your blog and link to them here or in an email to me, or mail them to me via USPS to Teel McClanahan, PO Box 2303, Pine, AZ, 85544, or whatever you need to do. Or hey, just link me to images on the web of other people’s anthropomorphic mice that you like. Thank you, in advance, for your help. You’ll like the comic when it’s done (105 panels from now).

Oh yeah, the red fluid contest is over. See, Angela saw the stuff I was mixing it from AND had access to my personal copy of Harry Newberry and the Raiders of the Red Drink the other day. So while I wouldn’t accept her response, she may have told someone else. And yes, of the two answers, one acceptable one would have been “Red Drink”. But seriously, go to your library and read this book. It’s fantastic, and it will make you want to eat cold, day-old pizza. Heck, it made me want to open up a pizza parlor that only offers day-old pizza. Oh yeah, and nowadays I drink Red Drink. See why.

So, I think that that may be all for now. I may post later, but for right now I’m going to step away from my computer & maybe work on something else. Maybe I’ll watch four episodes of Felicity and a movie & fight with this damned anthropomorphic mouse. Or maybe I’ll get back to work re-writing my novel. Oh yeah, and by the way – any minute (read: day/week) now I’ll update the SaveME banner to reflect the new deadline. And update all my artwork to stop reflecting the deeply discounted sale prices. So buy now to save big, and to Save Modern Evil!