There are two things that really raise my blood pressure – to the point that my head might explode: driving in traffic and computer problems.
Saturday, my family tried to combine the two.
I was driving home when I got a call from my one of my daughters. Apparently we were having printing problems so severe they needed to call. As calmly as I could, I said I couldn’t do anything for them while I was on the road, and hung up.
Now, I hate it when things don’t work the way they’re supposed to so I didn’t mind the call.
But when I got home, I couldn’t solve the problem. In fact, the next day, I found I couldn’t launch photoshop to finish up the page I’d been working on or any of the Adobe suite products I own.
At that point, I’m thinking that I really don’t want to purchase a new computer – the cost would be painful, but the amount of work transferring all our crap would be worse. Fortunately, we have backups of all our files.
Eventually I had to reinstall the system after running disk repair. Everything seems to be working OK now, even printing.
Tonight I try to reinstall my Adobe suite and if I’m successful the way I’m attempting to be, I’ll have done this without my usual bad habit of swearing and general computer rage.
So far, I’ve taken it all pretty calmly, and if i keep that up I’ll call that a win.

Update: All’s well and reinstalled. maybe even post the new comic tomorrow.

I haven’t done this in more than 20 years, but I started a modest pull list at the comics shop I occasionally go to.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a pull list is a list of comics you’d like the store to set aside for you to purchase when you come in.
I was intrigued by DC comics decision to restart all the series at number 1, so I requested Detective Comics.
I also heard that Gene Yang will be scripting “Avatar,” and although I’m not all that interested in that comic I do like Gene’s work, so I thought I’d give it a try.
Finally, I put down “anything by Paul Grist,” because I liked his Kane series so much.
I’m also picking up the trades of Ex Machina, recommended to me by my friend Jim Hampton.
Otherwise, I’ve set as my goal to read the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle. So if you’re wondering what’s distracting me…

The thing I’ll always remember about that day ten years ago isn’t what I guess most people will recall.
Certainly there’s the shock of the attack and loss of life, and I say that with no intention of minimizing what other people went through.
But during the moments when the attacks were occurring, I was walking one of my daughters to kindergarten. It was a special time when one twin got a parent to themselves, and it continued that entire year.
And to this day I go back to that memory, an event that went on even as horrible evil was being perpetrated against innocent people.
Because of that memory, I’ve privately disagreed with anyone who’s said that everything changed after 9/11.
Only if we let it change, and only if we let it all change for the worse.

So since my knees aren’t what they used to be, and since I have a few gray hairs, I promised myself a while ago that if I got my black belt I would seek to learn how to use the cane as a weapon. That’s something available to learn in Hapkido, taking a street-legal item like a cane and using it for self-defense.
Thursday night I brought my cane to class and Master Michael showed me a couple of techniques afterward.
The first is deceptively simple – take the cane and use the end of it to strike a person’s midsection.
The interesting thing is that in doing that, you’ve extended your reach beyond what you could normally expect with your hands or your feet. Add the length of the cane to the length of your arm and you’re striking your opponent before they can get into range of striking you. He follows that with a quick move of whipping the cane around and up, striking the top of the head. Simple, but very tactical.
The other move I won’t explain, but it ends with a nasty choke using the hook of the cane.
Of course my wife jokes that I’ll resemble the cranky guy in “Up,” getting committed because I wacked some innocent with a stick.
Somehow, it always comes back to cartoons.

It’s for a mystery convention called Bouchercon – four days away from work and family. I don’t miss work…
On the train down, I started writing a completely different story – a prose novel. Things are getting interesting.

It’s just getting started, but Bouchercon is underway. Panels I’m interested in feature authors like Val McDermid, Gary Phillips, Tom Schreck, Peter Spiegelman and, well, a host of others.

The Jordans, of Crimespree Magazine fame, have put together a terrific program and you can’t two steps without seeing a author you’d love to spend some time with. And you can, everyone’s accessible and friendly. If you’ve never been to a con like this, it’s a great way to recharge your creative energy.

And this goes on for four days in downtown St. Louis. If you’re in the neighborhood, there are single day tickets available.

I had a chance to do a bunch of writing this past weekend. Plotted a number of pages at the Detroit Fanfare, which was pretty fun. Great to meet and talk with comics fans.
Here’s the next page I’m working on: