Or, Life Improvements

Recently, I've embarked on a series of life improvements. I haven't mentioned them here, because I think it's good to be well underway with these things before making announcements to the public at large, for risk of later embarrassment.

But really, I've been very serious about these improvements, incessently scribbling detailed plans into Moleskine notebooks, complete with pie charts.

Improvement 1: Get a real job, and money.
I was worried about this one for awhile, because the easiest path led straight away from Duluth, which I was only about 40% willing to do. For awhile, I seriously considered moving to St. Cloud for a job with the Postal Service. Luckily, I was able to snag a USPS job right here in the good ol' Twin Ports, where I can live 7 blocks from an inland sea. My job right now has some fairly intense mental and physical demands, which I'm sure will become easy as pie once I adjust to them, but it's nice to be challenged for a change. Plus, there is a bit of a ladder which right now involves getting a regular schedule and holidays off. But in the meantime, it's actually kind of fun.

Improvement 2: Acquire a car and a license to drive it.

I've been bussing/biking for too long. With money in my pocket and a ramblin' sensibility, I needed some sweet wheels. Or if not some sweet wheels, at least a used Ford Escort with low miles and no rust. I passed my tests with flying colors and I'm ready to roll. Watch for more remote vlogging in the future.

Improvement 3: Make apartment comfy.

For the past several years, I've been living as though I'm about to move, and I did move twice in two years. Now, I've got me some swank living quarters my friend, and I plan on staying here for awhile. It was a shame how long I lived even in this apartment with cardboard boxes and a half-empty, echoey space.

Now, for the first time in my life, I'm a table owner. I've been picking up odds and ends as I see them, and when I can afford it, I'll be acquiring some art. (Soon, I'm picking up a Russell Gran painting which is hot, hot, hot.)

Improvement 4: Draw comics again.

The huge expanse of time between Ripsaw issues has been nice for a lazy guy like me, but also, I miss drawing comics.

Maybe this is a premature announcement, but it looks like Ograte will appear as a serial comic in the Transistor. I had kicked around the idea of it being more of a comic book, or maybe even a web-based Flash cartoon, but I think this will be a good way to start introducing these characters and their plight.

Also watch for an Ograte website in the near future as well. My other comic, Occam's Razor, will still appear in the Ripsaw as long as they want to run it.

Various Others

I have various other goals that involve vlogging for Minnesota Stories, eating correctly, learning various computer programs including but not limited to Flash, getting rid of the Green Bay Packers stickers on my car, and generally conquering the universe.

Violently, of course.
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