Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Guest Comic: It's All Greek to Me

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

It occurred to Christopher that, at one time or another, he has used 18 of 24 Greek letters in his classes. So far.

The progression in the comic is interesting in that when he created his previous guest comic in 2010, he was just finishing middle school. He is now, five years later, in college. At Cornell University. Yes, I'm proud. And I'm extremely happy that when I "kinda/sorta" asked if he'd like to do another comic -- not knowing if it'd be as fun as when he was 14 -- he responded immediately. So quickly that I could use it for Comic #999.

I won't stop bragging about my kids -- although next comic I get to brag about me, if for just one day.




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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

There Goes Tokyo Again

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

The only thing that stops a bad monster from destroying Tokyo is a good monster which no longer destroys (much of) Tokyo.

I still remember seeing Monster Zero on TV as a kid. It was listed as featuring (and I quote from memory) "Godzilla, Rodan, Nick Adams."




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Friday, April 24, 2015

Ken-Do #9: Lemons

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Why else would I have all those lemons?

Thanks to a glitch in my file naming, I thought this was #10, and Ken was going to reference the "Big 1-0". Last minute accounting picked up a discrepancy. (And a misplaced file, which is still misplaced -- I'll have to search for it.)

I haven't done a Ken-Do in quite a while because I realized that I needed to redo the figures. Basically, the program I used to create them in the first place had a clause on it stating that the avatars created could only be used for personal use. Putting them in the webcomic is probably not allowed. Previous attempts to duplicate them in my own style were horrible, and I've abandoned it a couple of times. I still have to go back and update the other 8 -- which will require a few more figures. Wish me luck.

Wow! Nine strips. Who would have thought it possible?




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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Secret Origins

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Keep it under your hat.

Yes, I've used the hat before. For that matter, I've used the graph before. You don't get to 996 comics without recycling. But, hey, recycling's good for the environment!




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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Check Your Solutions

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Extra for solution sets.

The "Eggoids" appeared very early on in the strip when I needed something to be the embodiment of a mathematical formula. I didn't want to have just an equation with eyes and a mouth, or even a talking equation with no facial features at all. I think I've done both in the past near-1000 strips.

You know, I did think of doing some kind of "discount" 9.95 joke, but I didn't want to get bogged down on the numbers.




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Friday, April 17, 2015

Happy Math

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I've done this. No, it doesn't make it better.

I've also had some interesting conversations online with people who absolutely hate, despise, loathe, abhor and generally wish to do all sorts of ill deeds to long division of all sorts. And that's just the teachers!




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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Sherlock Pi: Irregular

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Quit your groaning! You knew it was coming. I didn't disappoint.

Originally, this was going to be a (x, why?) mini, which feature a bunch of talking shapes. And they still may end up there. But I had already established a Sherlock character and didn't need a mini version.

By the way, I wasn't planning taking nearly a week off. Sorry. Life happens.




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Friday, April 10, 2015

The Alien's Table: Self-Referential

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

That table and half the chairs are in the basement. Still have the horrid paneling.

For the record, this is their fifth comic as a collective, although the Andorean appeared separately in this comic.

The photo was actually taken in 2005, long before I had this comic or even a blog. The picture was for eBay. Buyer's remorse, I guess. I thought that they were cool for a while, but with the kids and other stuff in the house, I thought I should get rid of them. They aren't out -- they're in a box in the basement. My best offer was "those are the cutest thing I've even seen. I just wish I had someone to buy them for." I think I even brought them with me to Lunacon one year, but came back home with them.

I hadn't intended on the photo to be A Thing. Then again, five times in 1,000 really isn't. I just hope it isn't a problem if I ever make a book out of these strips.

BONUS COMIC

A few years back (2011 or 2012), Lawrence Schoen of the Klingon Language Institute made this video of Soft Targy (to the tune of "Soft Kitty" from The Big Bang Theory). I adapted it as a comic and set it to him, and then showed it to him at Lunacon. He acknowledged having seen it before. (YES!) Oddly, I could not find the original stored on my hard drive anyway (it might be on a back-up disk), so I had to download it from a Facebook page. Enjoy.






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Thursday, April 09, 2015

A Young Pickpocket Learns A Valuable Lesson

Something happened a couple weeks back while I rode the Bay Parkway bus one weekday afternoon shortly after school let out. The bus was crowded as it usually is even before it got to my stop, by the train station. Naturally, it's a transfer point where many commuters are making a connection.

For those who haven't ridden a bus in New York City (and I haven't ridden elsewhere, but I imagine it's similar), you get on through the front door, the driver says move on back so more people can get on, and generally, people ignore him after moving about 10 feet. Resistance is met with surrender -- if you can't get past two people who refuse to move, you'll likely stop and add to the problem.

I do try to move back as far as I can. For one thin, plenty of people exit through the rear door, so if you can break through the logjam, there's usually breathing room in the back (and sometimes a seat with a bag on it that you can shame someone into removing).

There are a couple of semi-valid reasons for not moving toward the back of the bus. First, you are with someone who managed to get a seat, so you wish to stand near them, which requires you to sway out of the way of people pushing past. (Note: this is difficult to do if you are oblivious to the fact that you are wearing a bulky backpack sticking straight out into the "aisle", which is basically inches wide. Take it off!) Second, you have packages or a bag on wheels with a handle, either of which would be difficult to navigate through crowds.

On this day, there was an older woman with a travel bag with the handle extended immediately to her left, and she also had a sizable pocketbook hanging from left shoulder. I had my briefcase in my left hand, with its strap still on my left shoulder. I was also wearing a pair of earbuds with the wire running down to and disappearing into the right pocket of my jacket. Everything inside my pocket was secure; it always is. I was basically sidestepping through the crowd, leading with my bag to wiggle through, saying "Pardon me, excuse me, pardon me" like an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. My right hand was grasping and moving along the overhead bar because the bus pulled away from the curb rather abruptly. (Schedules!) I noted both of her bags and was being careful.

Now there is an alternate explanation about the events which happened next: it is possible that the wire could've caught on either of her bags. It is possbile that the woman shifted and her elbow caught the wire. It's possible that this was just an odd occurrence. But not likely in the slightest.

This is why: I have had the wire to my earbuds snag on things before. The result is always the same -- the earbuds are pulled from my ears. Action/reaction. I think that there was one time that the wire came loose on the other end. However, the path of least resistance, the weakest link in the chain, is the connection to my ears, not to my pocket. Never -- I repeat, NEVER! -- has any snag yanked anything out of my pocket. (Like a little boy's, a grown man's pockets run deep, and they collect many things.)

Here is what I believe really happened. Someone, likely a school-aged individual, saw an opportunity. They saw the wire disappearing into my pocket and my right arm raised over my head, giving them a clear path. They either thought that they could easily lift my phone out of my pocket by the wire, or maybe that if they pinched the wire, my motion to the back of the bus would lift it out on its own. Their objection, I suppose, would be to yank the wire free, palm the phone and swing about in their seat, essentially disappearing into the crowd, leaving me without anyone to accuse. It's not like a cop would stop the bus and search all the passengers, right?

But the little sticky-fingered bandit didn't get away with it. Like Snidely Whiplash with two binomials, his plan was foiled because he hadn't counted on something. There was something he hadn't expected and probably never would have before now.

And so my little pickpocket friend, you have now learned a valuable lesson.

You now know what a Sony Walkman looks like.

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Round Up

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Get along, little log-e.




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Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Catching Up on My Reading List (and Reviews)

While I have some time off, I'm catching up on my reading and also on my reading list. What I mean by that is that I like to keep track of the things I read -- what books, the authors, and something about them. Years ago, a friend posted a list of the books he'd read at the end of the year, and I found that I couldn't remember what books I'd read. So I started keeping a text file with the titles and authors.

This worked for a while until I realized that I saw titles of books that I couldn't remember. (Granted, some were very memorable, but that isn't much of an excuse.) So I started writing little summaries of the main characters and the plot. And then I started posting them on a blog, and they morphed a bit into reviews other people could read and enjoy instead of book reports that I was handing in to Sister Rose.

Anyway, I've uploaded a bunch of book reviews, which will appear daily, starting today. The first is Eric Flint's 1632 or the Ring of Fire. The rest can be seen on my reading blog.

Monday, April 06, 2015

Trigonometry Jones and the Running Gag

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I went from ''sliding yardstick'' to ''running gag'' in about three seconds.

I hope the running gag was not what you expected it to be. My thoughts on sliding yardsticks were here in this article.




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Sunday, April 05, 2015

Easter Eggs

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

It's not really an Easter Egg so much as a Brick, as in Brick Joke. Or a Callback or a Delayed Punchline or whatever.

Confused? Check out this old strip.

Happy Easter!




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Friday, April 03, 2015

Holiday Shopping List

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

The shopping list keeps growing, right up to the moment the stores close ... or, you know, you go to the store and get everything.

Factors include: deciding (being told to) make more food, more people coming over, realizing that the stuff isn't in your house when you thought it was ...

You know, the usual.




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Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Cave Painting

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Super-Stick-Man is a parody character who has appeared in these pages many times. I'm revisiting some of the oldies before I hit 1,000 strips.

This is the 67th adventure in a stream that starting around 10th grade. (Not counting the unfinished Graphite Novel(tm), pages of which have appeared here before.)
The classics were posting starting here. Note that this is The First Super-Stick-Man comic to appear on the blog as well as the Comics Only site. Before this, they didn't appear on the blog because the scans didn't look very good.

As for the choice of subject matter...

What else would come to mind on April 1, the day after a coyote was spotted on the roof of a bar in Queens, in New York City. (I may have modified this photo from the New York Daily News slightly.)






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Cave Painting

EDIT: UPDATED! Go here for finished comic. Thank you.

Having some technical issues. This page will be updated later this evening.

Copyright 2015, C. Burke. Super-Stick-Man is a parody character who has appeared in this pages many times.

What else would come to mind on April 1, the day after a coyote was spotted on the roof of a bar in Queens, in New York City. (I may have modified this photo from the New York Daily News slightly.)