Last night I met up an old friend and his wife. I brought Aliza out and we discussed weddings and stuff like that. It was nice, but I drank too much, and stumbled home and fell promptly asleep at 11:30. I don't like when that happens, 'cos usually I use the hours between 11 and 1 to get some drawing done. I like working late at night like that, with the radio on, and Aliza sleeping a few feet away. So, I was slightly annoyed that last night's wee hours weren't put to use. But I'm not really that bothered. If I was then I'd be some sort of mini-comic maniac, who wasn't interested in anything else in life, and I don't think I wanna be that guy.

I've been thinking about it a bit recently. To "make it" in cartooning, I feel I really have to apply myself, and produce as much quality work as I can at the moment. I like to come out with new books every few months to feel like I'm gaining momentum. But what is "making it" really? It might be some critical respect, which I would like, and it might be a steady publisher, which I would also like, but it's never really going to be something I can make any serious cash doing. It'll never really let me quit my "day job". So it's no good for me to push everything except cartooning out of my life with the hopes of one day it paying off and me living off my funnies. So I have to make sure that I don't short-change the other things in my life, like my real job, my family and friends, and of course Aliza. But I don't want to pull back on cartooning either, so I have to try and work hard at both things all the time.

Wedding planning is going "okay. We got a quote from the caterer which was eight dollars more per-person than we'd originally been quoted. That may not sound like much, but it's an extra thousand bucks or so. So I was annoyed about that. I decided "fuck getting some New York caterers to come out to cater our wedding in new Jersey" and started looking around for NJ Caterers to come do our reception. But that didn't last long... I didn't really try that hard, but the two or three places I found on the web all just seemed like cheeseball places, and really didn't cost all that much less. So, I quit my search and went back to coloring my comic while I was supposed to be working. See? Balance!

In other wedding news: The honeymoon is booked and paid for. I like that we took care of that before taking care of the wedding. Somehow I think taking care of the honeymoon as a priority shows that we are more concerned about what happens the day after we get married, than the day we do it.

I am a page and a half away from finishing chapter one of the big "Gabagool! Summer Special (caution parents advisory)". The plan is to finally bite the bullet and print it like a real comic. I dunno if it'll work out or not, I never seem to get around to actually printing these things, but this time I'm serious. I swear.

Chris Radtke and I went out last night to try and write. Had a serious case of writer's block though. That's fine, sometimes it's nice to just sit and drink and shoot the shit and not have to dutifully transcribe everything said into our notebook. Chris hurt his neck the other day looking at a cute girl who walked by. That's funny. It's also indicative of what time of year it is. Yep', it's getting warm out, and in New York that means all the hottest girls in the world emerge from hibernation. The most wonderful time of the year...

There have been budget cut-backs in the city. I wonder if this means that New York is going to return to the state of decay that it was in when my family first moved to America in 1986. I recall coming up to the city for a visit and being convinced that we were going to be shot and mugged and left for dead in the streets. It definitely didn't feel like that in the late 90's though. I used to think that this city was like a theme park, there was so much fun and money going around. It all seems to have gone to shit since then. But I know it can get a whole lot worse.

I have talked to a few people about this whole smoking ban they've got going on. It turns out that I personally really don't care one way or the other if they ban smoking. Except for the murder that happened in my neighborhood over it. That was a bit extreme. But I think the ban is good for young guys looking to meet girls. 'Cos now all the smokers have to gather outside for their cigarettes, which gives a guy an opportinity to get to chatting with the ladies in a casual setting. Plus: they've got tons to talk about, such as how much the smoking ban sucks. I saw packs of people out on the street doing this the other night. Seems like a windfall for the lonely men of the world.

Okay, I think I got this figured out now, so I can start making real posts:

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Decided to start up my little web diary. But this time with a real blog engine thing. I dunno what the advantages are of doing it this way, except now I don't have to write new html all the time when I wanna make a remark.