the right price…

the right price

There’s always a right price.  It could be a number, a thing, a series of things, an act, a series of acts or a combination of the previous.  I know we all think when faced with getting that price, but having to abandon your fire, we’d all stay warm with the fire.  We’d thumb our nose at the price and walk away knowing our principles couldn’t be bought… at any price.

I’m not so sure.  Give me a break.  The world is commerce.  Everything can be bought or sold… or rented.  Yes, this is a pessimistic, dark and cruddy way of looking at things, but when this is all you see, it’s hard to see anything else.

I am a hypocrite.  I never denied my penchant for hypocrisy… especially when it comes to looking out for number 1.  I can’t be the only one.  Now, I would never intentionally harm anyone, but I’m by myself most of the time.  I got to look out for me.

That being said, I haven’t been purchased.  One way of getting around that is by setting your price so high no one with any sense would pay it.  But I’m waiting.  Waiting. Waiting.  If I told you my price, I might not get it.

 

i started a joke…

who is the joke on?
Ever hear a joke that is supposed to be the funniest thing to ever happen to spoken word and you just don’t get it?

Happens to me all the time.  It happens so much that I think the joke isn’t the joke, but rather my reaction to not getting the joke.  So, you try and save face and fake a laugh… but a fake laugh is about as bad as fake tears.  Faking any kind of emotional reaction is just bad.

I make it a point to laugh a little harder at the jokes I DO get… that way it all balances out in the end.  In the end of what I don’t know.  See?  That was supposed to be funny.  But it wasn’t.  I guess I have to be in the mood for a complicated humor.  The Three Stooges I can watch anytime.  Chaplin and Keaton… on the fence.  Some is simple, but most of their stuff can venture into the cranial territory.  I could go on about which stand-up comedians do it for me, but I have to save something for later.

It’s not easy being funny… just like the illustration says.  It’s just not that easy to make it LOOK easy.

procrastinate space oddity

procrastinate your love

Of the few things I can say I’m really good at, my ability to procrastinate definitely makes the top 5.  Anyone can do it, But only I can make the Olympics in it.

Yeah, I said it.  I’m actually bragging about something that I feel, and I’m sure a myriad of scientists, sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, podiatrists, dentists, carpenters, plumbers and cartoonists would attest to my near epic abilities in this field.

I want you back here everyday. I will do everything I can to make that a reality.  Eventually.

Frank, on the other hand, is still reeling from seeing the Commander Chris Hadfield “Space Oddity” cover yesterday.

I mean, I’ve seen this man at his highest highs and lowest lows… he’s been changed by it.  I told him to write every feeling he had down… to somehow preserve the moments… but we all know how that goes.  I’m sure he’ll get his act together this week sometime and write something… or draw something.  I know that after he saw it for the first time, he didn’t even see the point of trying to create anything.  It wasn’t that Hadfield’s voice was stellar, or that his musicianship was that of a virtuoso… it was just the fact that the emotions were there…

David Bowie wrote “Space Oddity” as a character in space…Contained in a spaceship in outer space.  We all know that… But when Hadfield sings it… we can SEE he’s that character, he doesn’t have to act, outer space is RIGHT BEHIND him!  It’s beautiful, it’s sad, it’s wonder, it’s amazing.

That whole video could easily be recreated on Earth using computers, SFX and some cameras.  But what makes Hadfield’s video (i can’t believe I’m saying this) perfect is that it’s 100% real.

Okay, so I’m saying kinda what Frank would say if he wasn’t a pile of goo in front of YouTube right now.

appreciation enjoyment…

enjoyment of appreciation

Appreciation is a lost art.  I don’t mean lost in the sense that it fell out the window or it was buried in some attic… I mean lost in that we (or I) just don;t know how to do it anymore.  I’m not even sure that I knew how to do it to start.  I want to be able to appreciate things in real time…while they’re in front of me.  I don’t want to need perspective, a bit of time between what’s in front of me and the realization, in order to realize that I should’ve appreciated it.  An especially good ice cream cone, a great catch, a funny moment that WASN’T caught on someone’s smartphone.  Here again, technology has taken a bit of that art of appreciation away.  Why should you appreciate something, I mean REALLY appreciate something if all one needs to do is tap twice on your charged up rectangle and it’s there… whenever and wherever you are.

It’s getting to the point that people can’t even tell a story anymore without having to pull out the phone and incorporate some visual aids.  What is that?  We’re losing something very important… more important than the art of appreciation… we’re losing ourselves, our ability to recount moments, to record moments with our heads and not what’s in our hands.  Obviously, there are many benefits to this as well…many lives have been saved, many wrongs have been righted…

But, our history is recorded on a finite material.  Once the power goes, so does history… so does appreciation.

mother’s day squirrelness…

mother's day bob the squirrelThis is a Mother’s Day Bob the Squirrel panel from back in the day… May 2011 to be somewhat more precise.  It says everything that I want to say about this day.

We can be over-mothered, under-mothered or completely un-mothered.  In that mix of motherness, there is a balance…but too often that balance is never attained.  Mothers can do everything, but everything isn’t everything.  They do what they can with what they have… they make mistakes.  Sometimes, they make big mistakes…Sometimes they’re taken for granted, not appreciated enough…assumed that they will always be there, no matter what… until that one day, they’re not.

Mother’s don’t get enough credit…that’s the bottom line.  Everyday is, or should be Mother’s Day.

Hug her if you haven’t.  Don’t worry about that last minute bouquet of flowers… just call her.  Flowers will eventually dry and fade… feelings of appreciation last way longer.

This has been a Squirrel Public Service Blog Post from Bob the Squirrel.

iron man squirrel

iron man bob

Last year, Frank was going through an Iron Man phase.  It wasn’t anything like the continual Apollo Astronaut phase, but we were a bit concerned.

I like the idea of a suit of armor…the idea that something put on can make you feel stronger, can allow you to do things that being in normal clothes won’t allow.  Maybe that’s why Frank digs spacesuits so much.  Sure he’ll tell you it was a childhood thing, that he coulda, woulda. shoulda tried to be an astronaut… but maybe it’s not.  Maybe, that spacesuit will make him stronger… at the very least make him FEEL stronger.

When you feel stronger, you’re more confident, more willing to accept risk.  The astronauts who walked on the moon knew that.  The suit would protect them from the harshness of space, but there was a chance, how ever slim, that it could fail.  The suit made you invincible, but it didn’t make you immortal.  It let them go above and beyond, be super human… but then it brought them back.  It was an extension, not a replacement.

I’m sure firefighters, police officers, soldiers and anyone else who wears a uniform feels something similar.  The material really, is irrelevant to the feeling that it instills.

The Iron Man suit makes Tony Stark stronger.  It allows him to do things the flesh alone could not.  It also is a symbol of the guilt he feels for building things whose sole purpose is to kill (or protect, depending on which side you’re on).  The suit makes him something the human is not.  It’s better than the human it encases.

I don’t need a suit for myself though… I’m pretty terrific already… why would I ever want to cover all this Bob up?

to be a cartoonist…

This is a post Frank put up on the main bob site… I thought it should be posted here too… sometimes the kid can really think of stuff…

—

About a month ago, I was told that I inspired someone to pursue a career as a cartoonist.  That’s pretty cool, right?  This person is still in high school, but her work is far above average… she could really do something.  I thanked her by doing a drawing for her.  She, in turn, thanked ME by drawing an entire comic book using me, Bob, Lez, Lauren and Lucy as the characters.  For those of you that don’t know, an entire comic book is A LOT of work.  It was hand colored too.

I know, right?  Pretty cool.

The following is an email response to the comic and her dreams.  I hesitated to share this at first, but I think it could help someone out there that needs a little bump… be it in pursuit of a career or anything else.
—

got your wonderful comic last night.  i can definitely see all the hard work that you put into it.  you should be extremely proud of yourself.  thank you for not only sharing it with me, but including both me and my family (literally) in it.

i don’t have to tell you that being a cartoonist is tough.  it’s not the toughest job in the world, but it’s still tough.  should you decide to dedicate yourself to this, you look forward to many sleepless nights, near constant aggravation, overwork with the prospect of little or no pay and a nagging lack of respect from “real” artists.  that being said, it’s all worth it when you draw something that makes you laugh or makes you sit back and wonder, “how did i just do that?”

you don’t get into this thing for the money… you get into it because:
A. you can’t picture yourself doing anything else.
B. you have something to say…and
C. for moments like i just described.

there is a long road ahead of you…as there is in front of me.  i’m not nearly where i want to be professionally, but i’m stubborn enough to keep at it, despite every single thing telling me to turn around.  i’ve sacrificed an awful lot in order to get this dream within my sights.  i’m sure i’ll be sacrificing a lot more before it is achieved.

you’re young.  you have time to check out what’s out there… don’t dedicate yourself to one thing right now.  there may be something out there you’ve never heard of that might speak to you more than cartooning.  treat life like a buffet.  get a plate and put a little bit of everything on it.  taste everything you can.  once you’ve done that, go back for what was the most delicious to you.  you’ll find as you get older that you may not get many chances to go to the buffet.

if cartooning is what is in your dna, then go for it.  but check other stuff out first.  regret is a nasty feeling…stay away from it if you can.

i’m honored to have played a small part in what you want your future to look like and/or be.  if you ever need any brutally honest advice, don’t hesitate to contact me.  who knows, maybe one day i’ll be working for you. 🙂

take care…
frank
—

Being a cartoonist day in and day out takes much more than talent.  It takes discipline, love and stubbornness… But doesn’t anything worth anything?

appearance is everything…

appearance is everything and a bob the squirrel

Appearance can mislead.

Well, duh.

I’ve never been one to be able to get by on my looks alone.  However, I hope to one day have an option like that.  Seems way easier than having to actually think and talk my way into things.  Some have made a very healthy living from their faces and other assorted body parts… why can’t I do that too?

Well, I could. But, as much as I complain about it, I rather like my tail where it’s attached right now…

My appearance is my appearance.  I take pride in it, but stop short of obsessing.  If there are no eye boogers visible and my three hairs are brushed, you’ve caught me on a good day.

the concept of kryptonite

dental kryptonite

Kryptonite  is a concept I really dig.  And not just because it’s the only thing that can kill Superman.  (Not that I’m advocating the death of Superman.) I know that other things can kill him, but let’s just keep it simple for the sake of the squirrel.

Everyone has some sort of weakness…be it a person, place, thing, substance whatever.  To think one is completely devoid of weakness is foolish at best and completely stupid at worst.  People smarter than me (including Frank, but don’t tell him I said that) have thought and wrote long and hard about the notion of weakness.  I think that by Superman knowing he has a weakness makes him more compassionate, makes him think just a little bit harder.  Not that he wasn’t a compassionate character before… the “big blue boy scout” could be considered even too sweet.  Frank touches upon this in this week’s strips about bullying… specifically today’s strip really bring this concept home.

Superman is an alien from another world living on our planet.  He could easily slip into a God-like mentality, but doesn’t.  The values taught to him by his adopted parents make sure that doesn’t happen.  But the mere existence of kryptonite drives that idea even further.  We see it all the time, someone coming up from nothing and making good for themselves in the world, only to forget where they came from… shunning the roots that bore them in the first place.  Kryptonite is there to make sure Superman NEVER forgets where he came from…to be humble, to not be a jerk.

Don’t forget where you came from… Don’t be a jerk.  Bob says so.

 

 

act of reenactment…

reenactment of bob the squirrel

Maybe we’re all in a reenactment of something that’s already happened.  Maybe our entire universe is in the dimple of a single grain of sand in some kid’s backyard play area.  Maybe we’re really floating and the ground is doing all the moving.  Maybe Elvis is still alive and working as a chef.  Maybe the title of this blog post should have been “maybe.”

Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about and all this is a dream.  Not my dream, but the dream of another squirrel they had three nights ago while awake and in a stupor of cheese curls and onion rings.  I’ve been there, that’s not a place you want to be awake in… for very long anyway.

Not that I have anything against onion rings… or cheese curls.

Are chance and fate things which are tangible?  If you can seemingly control chance and fate, are they REALLY chance and fate?  Is this life a script we’re biologically implanted with before our first breath and we’re just along for the acts and intermissions?  If that’s the case, do we get a re-write?

Now, this isn’t new territory.  Minds across generations; way, WAY above my pay grade, have pondered the scripted life in depth… watch a season of the original  Twilight Zone and you’ll get my meaning.  Funny, I’m telling you to wastch a scripted show to get a better idea of how your life may be scripted.

I think I just blew my mind.

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