3049 Incorrigible Goil.

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Monday’s page didn’t auto post. For the first time since this version of the site I saw “Missed Schedule” under the publish settings. I have no idea what caused it. The site is so old and based on such an insane framework that almost no one has the capability to do anything with it. Even the smallest updates usually require hours of fiddling to get it back to a functional state, and I am so far beyond knowing how to do it myself I’m essentially at the mercy of whoever has time to help me. At one point I had enough extra money that I could pay a person if things were dire, but now economic conditions are not so good. I always wonder if the next update will be the one that takes down this version of the site forever. Most people have no understanding of what that means to me. Since most people see websites as simply a tool for business rather than a part of the work a person does. This site has over a decade of insights, life events, and history all wrapped up inside of it. If I could no longer access it I would be devastated. The thousands and thousands of comments by themselves have great value to me. Each one is a record of a person somewhere that I reached and spoke to through my work. Even the negative ones represent something real. It is perhaps foolish to desire some kind of permanence from something that most people would see as transitory at best, and yet here I am. If I could print out a version of the website as some kind of book I absolutely would. My work may not be a great epic of its time, but in 1000 years it’s exactly the kind of banal human interaction that scholars would love. So much of the early internet is gone. Those of you who were born 20 years ago have no concept of what the early internet was like. Looking back now it seems crazy to think that the internet could ever be so friendly. My entire concept of self changed when I found out that there really were other people with the same interests as me. Maybe I wasn’t normal, but I also wasn’t alone. Back then there was a lot more delineation between types of people. You rarely saw Jocks reading comics, or girls reading them. In retrospect the Nerd evangelism was kind of a monkey’s paw situation… Anyway there’s a lot more overlap between types of people now and somehow instead of it making things better people fight more than ever before.
Anyway this site has existed through several version of the internet even it its short life. At one point this was the top of the line for webcomics presentation. Or at least near the top depending on who you asked. It existed in a severely broken state for a long time too at one point when it wasn’t quite so new. That was quite an experience… That’s all as may be. I’m just saying I worry about everything all the time and the website is included in that. I could have probably just said that and been fine but my pathological need to endlessly explain myself takes over sometimes.

I’ve got to go to the health fair for cheap bloodwork in the morning. Always a fun time. I’m not sure about leaving mom alone for that long, but I’m also not sure I can get her into the truck in the state the chemo has left her in. It’s 30 minutes to town so if she were to fall while I was out it could be well over an hour before anyone would find her if she was unconscious. I did construct her new pseudo wheelchair tonight though, so if she does go with she can rest on the way to the restroom or whatever if she needs it. All the pathways to everything are fully cleared now, so the tripping hazards are gone at least. She’ll probably be fine by herself, but that’s certainly not going to stop me from worrying.

You know we’ve always had trucks or similar vehicles because we’ve been a generally rural family. It’s not like we were out milking cows, but we were always going to rural adjacent places and events. You had trucks to drive on dirt roads and what have you. When I was little mom had a car. I think it was called a Cougar, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember exactly what it was. It was emerald green and kind of boxy with sort of fin like structures on the front. I can’t remember what it was replaced with but I do remember being sad when we sold it. I suppose it should be no surprise to longtime readers that I form emotional bonds with inanimate objects. (I Thanked our old mailbox for its service…) For the life of me I cannot recall what the next vehicle in line was. I know that mom drove a Ford Bronco 2 for many years that she liked very much.
Not important to the point I was going to bring up which is that it’s a long way from the ground to the seat in a truck these days. I’m over six feet tall and I can barely step up into the cab of these behemoths. There isn’t even a handle to help you climb in on the driver’s side of our current truck. And the running board step thingys are treacherous. If they are wet at all, or get any substance on them that isn’t glue, they become frictionless. How the fuck do you even design something so poorly? Trucks are for jobs where you will likely walk in mud. Anyway all of that is to say I see why older people buy vans and stuff you don’t have to climb into like it’s Kilimanjaro. I can foresee a a time when the trucks will not be something either of my parents will be able to haul themselves into. At the moment mom is basically already there. It’s like, well what the fuck do we do now? Mom is too heavy right now for me to lift her into the truck on my own. Over the course of this adventure, shall we say, that may change, but right now it’s a concern.

Well whatever. I can’t fix these issues at the moment and I’ll just have to field them in the moment as best I can. I’m trying to get ahead of situations though so I can at least minimize the extra stress not being prepared causes. If nothing else I’ll have a new page ready on Friday for you to hopefully enjoy. Until then, slappity bappity doo.

30 Comments

Thanks as always for the posts below. I get the attachment to things too and always awesome to remember those random little details of the things like specific cars or their colors and whatnot from childhood. Hope everything turns out well

Oh forgot to add if you want to do a print run maybe ask chlove (go get a roomie) author how they did theirs? They did do a print copy of their web comic at one point during the run, but not sure if the process may still be the same or worth the time/effort/money at the moment for you.

He did make books out of some stretches of his comics. But I think he meant saving more the blog posts and comments and updates, all the other stuff. This is like his LiveJournal as well.

I hate the current “friendly” internet. It’s SO friendly it’s full of echo chambers calling for the literal execution of people from other echo chambers; stepping out of their invisible and undefined lines gets you shadow-banned, downvoted into a void, or just outright booted. At the same time, despite the endless hostility and dehumanizing of other people, everyone is a giant crybaby about insults and words related to upsetting topics, etc, while swearing is either banned or excessive. I liked when the internet was superficially un-friendly because you had to grow a bit of thick skin first, something that serves a person well in life, and then it was all just friendly banter, even if it horrified grandma. It made people focus more on what you were actually saying, not how you said it, because no one cared if you used a gamer word or a slur. I’m just saying, teenagers would only benefit from having to overcome the shock of being casually called a “K*** N***** F*****.” I won’t write the actual words because, again, I have to walk on eggshells to avoid causing Jackie any problems with naughty words, even when used ironically and sarcastically. I have to periodically swing by the Farms just to cleanse my pallet–everyone insults everyone, but actually terrible people (aka pdfiles) get torn to shreds, there’s no “You’re banned for using a no-no word when addressing the scum of the earth–just because they will burn for eternity doesn’t mean you can disrespect them with mean words.”

Basically the internet went to crap when it stopped requiring any real form of intellectual effort to get online. Right around the time any fool could buy a smartphone and find themselves an echo chamber that let them think their opinions had any worth in the grand scheme of things.

AOL and the ‘Eternal September’ fixed that. Beforehand, it was mainly schools, and BBS users who knew how to use the Internet gateway function. I’m old.

I would argue it came a little later, because even once getting online just meant clicking an icon and listening to the dial up, most people didn’t have much use for the internet besides checking their email. The ones who did were nerds, geeks, weirdos, people into niche hobbies, people who liked arguing politics without ruining Thanksgiving dinner, etc. I’d point more towards social media as when it really started to change; that’s when millions of people got online to just sort of exist–share stupid pictures, cyberstalk people, read celebrity gossip, take personality tests, and download malware like it was a competition. That’s when, and why, they started to sanitize it; they wanted people specifically to turn their brains off when online, and just throw their money and data around, so anyone who made people think or feel had to be stifled. The internet is a blend of 1984-style irrational hatred and rewriting of history, and Brave New World stupifying and emotionless nothing–I think both men would be impressed with just how we’ve managed that.

Sluggy Freelance is still going, and hearkens back from the late 90s. They’ve got several massive books of their strips but I do believe the sum total of the comments on this here site is a great example of what humanity had to offer at least in the linguistic Anglosphere. I think I am part of the same generation as Jackie, at least; I was online when Facebook required an .edu address, when Tom of Myspace was everyone’s friend, when America Online had to be loaded by CD-ROM,and 4/Chan was starting to because thing. Who recalls Stick Death, Rotten dot com, porn sites requiring subscription or credit card ID verification, when Hotmail was the only other competitor to AOL/Yahoo emails, Usenet/BB Boards, Netscape, and Yahoo groups?

Modern trucks are a scourge upon the roads. Most of Europe knows how to do things right, and pedestrian safety laws mean you can’t get a lot of giant pickups over there.

As a truck owner and user I agree. I live in a rural area and actually use my truck to haul things and pull a trailer. It was my Dad’s last farm truck and is also 25+ years old. At least around here (Texas) most of the new trucks have evolved into $75,000 status symbols. I don’t think it is possible to buy a single cab fleet truck. After my father died Mom kept the truck for sentimental reasons and I bought it when she quit driving. It isn’t lifted and it doesn’t have a huge four door cab. Even so it is kind of a hassle in urban areas. It is difficult to parallel park and some parking lots don’t really accommodate its ocean liner turning radius. Big pickups really don’t do well in the city. They have, all the same, become the affluent soccer mom vehicle of choice. I think it mostly comes down to a bit truck that is tarted up with a special edition package has a better profit margin. I always liked the “mini truck” but the Big Three Automakers managed to get them legislated out of existance here in the US.

Did they? I thought they were just not big sellers. I had a Chevy S-10. If anything, I thought the better gas mileage would have made them preferable for the big 3, to hit those CAFE standards.

I don’t really agree that Europe “does things right” though, in this regard. I think it’s apples-to-oranges. A far higher percentage of their population lives in the major cities (not “around” them, but actually in them), and the cities themselves, being so old they were built LONG before cars, physically cannot accommodate large trucks on many/most of the roads. Though I do agree it’s annoying how many people blow 100k on a truck they have virtually no use for whatsoever.

The CAFE standards are actually the reason for the giant trucks. The standards are actually based on wheelbase and width-axles further apart and wider-doesn’t have to hit as stringent a standard. And all the crash safety and emission regs add weight, complexity, and unreliability. You pay more now for the dozen airbags, high pressure direct injection, infotainment, and 8 and 10 speed automatics than you used to pay for the whole truck. Old automatics and standard transmissions could be picked up and carried by a strong man-even for a lot of medium duty trucks. You’re not going to do that now.

About the truck being to high, here we had and will have the Fiat Panda 4wd, that is the smallest 4wd car.
I don’t know if you can find one in the USA though

Ninjo is slightly off her game…but she started recruiting! Nice twist Jackie.
Attachment to inanimate is just as normal as anything else within proper parameters. And like most stuff that can be taken outside said restrictions sometimes make us feel crazy even if we are not partaking in insanity. But everyone has their favorite food, chair,color, number ect…ad nauseum. And that is not just considering normal but actually expected of everyone and truly is no different. I have given names and sometimes titles to vehicles, computers, stuffed animals, and other stuff–to this day if I mention “old green” half the people I know understand that I am talking about the F150 I inherited from my unce John years ago, or if I say “the tank” I’m talking about the windows XP computer that I modified and kept running for 15 years…the very PC that I had when I started reading this comic. And I miss them. Nostalgia has many forms. Ironically I just bought a truck and I mentioned to my buddy Jesse that I was considering getting one of those roll out chain ladders for it, to wit I’ve had cars that I’ve had to “fall down into” the seats and the climb was getting back out…anyone seen a mercury Capri? We still have 4 of them….although they’re on the way to the junk yard…I had told dad that if we were any taller we could take the drivers seat out sit in the backseat and still reach the pedals just fine….and we are only like 5’9″. I used to call my Eldorado my “recliner on wheels” because the seat tilted back as well as reclined and the steering wheel tilted down as well as telescoped out to you. And yes very much like Jackie I deal with and abundance of infinite exposition…

I do miss the old internet. I think of it often. For me, the old internet was 1998 onwards, when my family got AOL and my world expanded far beyond the borders of my Iowa home.

I recall it being a place of endless Geocities sites (most under permanent construction), forums/message boards, and tons and tons of fan sites. I perused some web comics back then (particularly 8bit theater), I engaged with sites like Newgrounds and, crucial for young me, pirated tons of media and games through torrents.

It also fundamentally changed my life as I met my ex in the early ’00s online, and we ended up moving across the world to Scotland together.

Looking back, the early internet has a sort of quaint, almost naïve feel to it to me. People just wanted to talk to each other, share ideas and projects and interests, and generally just get to know each other. So much content was uploaded for free with no expectations of making money–simply for the joy of sharing creations with others.

Obviously not everything was sugar and rainbows, and undoubtedly I view it with some rose coloured glasses, but do feel it was fundamentally a different entity entirely from today.

Yep.
The Web was a different place before, in my opinion- most users let the Web…and its [censorship rules]…get taken over by big companies like: “X”, Disney studios, fast food companies, tiger parents who want all sites to be “family friendly”, and the like. Man.
:(

A Task! How would you like each page with comments preserved as a backup? Word file batches of 50 sent to you as email? Series of screenshots? Or other preference?

Could Thomas have found a way to get his head closer to Patricia’s chest in that first panel? He may be in a serious relationship but he’s still a lover of beauty.

Jackie,regarding the issue with your Mom and the truck,there are companies tha retrofit vehicles to use wheelchairs and thus have to lift the person into the vehicle. I cant recall if ive been it on trucks but in Asia its really popular with vans, I do know they do this in the US and in some cases its covered by insurance.

Like a siren’s call, Jess’ laugh begins to draw everybody together into a larger group interaction; I also love the sing-songy “Lead the way, Baby J”

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