For '04

Is it really gonna be 2005 soon? What's with that ? Where are the flying cars? Where's my friggin robot butler (who I don't trust 100%)? Where's my food pill that tastes like chicken? Where's the future? Oh well... Maybe the year after next....

Anyway... Hey! Remember I talked about taking a vacation a while ago and never took it. Well it's apparent now that maybe I shoulda then because I need one now fer sure. I'm feeling a bit fried out. My apartment is kind of trashed. My clothing is piled up in the corner. I smell stuff before I wear it. My fridge has stuff so old in there it's stuck to the thing. I gotta air out. So for the rest of the year I'm gonna take a bit of a break and recoup. And go outside. Buy late gifts. And look at stuff. I'll still update the site (because I know I can't resist).... but it might be a little sporadic through the end of the year..

Anyway again, 2004 was weird for me. In January the powers that be revved up a locomotion engine for a friggin TV show. By June the train had flown off the tracks in and rolled down an embankment and lay steaming upsidedown in a river. Done and done. Luggage spilled everywhere. So that was that. But it was more good than bad this year by far. I got a new beautiful niece. I attached a gardening trowel to hairclippers for those hard to reach places. I saw way too many movies. Drank some beer. Did some stuff. Boycotted TV then didn't later on that afternoon. Did some freelance jobs to help keep the lights on.  I ate too much egg salad. Rounded my head extra. Quit bad habits then unquit them. Panicked over bandwidth issues. Succumbed to finally having to place ads on the site. (Never in a cartoon although someone accused me of selling out to the Utz people.) Prodded my landlord to let me get a dog (got a maybe!). Crashed my computer. Had a pet bird for two days. Got greyer. Took lots of pictures of stuff. Enjoyed many things. I bought a new shirt and a new pan and finally finally figured out how to make a good cup of coffay. 

But hands down the best thing about my year was waking up everyday to this website. Although its had its ups and downs and comings and goings and stuff. It has become almost a living creature for me. A creature that I love. It has moods. It has moments. It has an energy I think. It has different faces. It needs care like one of those weird japanese pets or something. It's hard to manage sometimes. Yeah, I made some mistakes and bad calls this year- but I do my best... and that's all I can ask of me. 

This site is three years old now. It's just a baby. The fact that it lives and grows and people log on everyday, once a week, once a month, whatever, to see whatever is going -and hopefully check out something that cheers them up keeps me chugging along. It's still just me sitting here in my apt in Brooklyn running around... and that's how I like it. Lots of goodies are in the works for next year. A new laid-off toon and game will be here soonish kinda and I'll have a fresh new homepage design at the start of the year. The Mep Ball scoreboard will finally get done soonish too (promise). And a whole new section of cellphone fun is coming. 

Other than that I don't know what the new year will bring (although I don't think I'm gonna have a robot butler who I don't trust 100%) and I don't really know how I'm going to make a living which is sometimes scary- but I know no matter where I'll be or what I'll be doing- I know I'll be happily doing this site. And that's the best security blanket of all for me. 

I promise next year will be an interesting and hopefully fun one here- although I can't really tell you why I know that or how...I think that's maybe the best part.

Thank you all for being here this year. For your emails. For your letters. For the donations. And for your advice. And for bearing with me. And for your good vibes. Also thanks to all the writers, cooks, poets, pet lovers, contributors and artists who send in stuff. Big thanks to the great people on the message boards and to everyone who helps me with toons and games and other mentalness.

Pray for peace in 2005. May our troops all get home safe and sound and soon. When times get tough for you...  remember how easy you may have it.

Bestest of good vibes to y'all.

And extra good vibes to all job seekers in '05.

ok bye bye 04! On to 05!

tOdd