Concerned Extras

This was e-mailed in to me recently, from someone who got it from someone else, who got it from Valve.

Yeah, that’s the guy! At first glance he doesn’t really look too much like Frohman, but if you study his face for a while you can definitely see it, especially around the eyebrows and mouth.

He sure looks a lot tougher than Frohman, too.

Thanks to Acehead and JoshuaC! It’s interesting to finally see the face I stared at for hundreds of hours.

So, I’m pretty sure I was interviewed over at All Games, but I honestly can’t remember a thing about it.

See, I had to do the interview at work. I didn’t think this would be a problem, since the interview was at 4:00pm on Thursday, and my boss always leaves by 2:00pm on Thursdays. At least, he has every Thursday for the past 11 months. Naturally, this one Thursday, this very Thursday, he decides he’s not leaving. At all.

Okay, no reason to panic. I can still find an empty office or cubicle somewhere in the back and conduct the interview without him barging in because he needs something faxed. It’s not like the receptionist will suddenly announce that she has to leave for the day a few minutes before 4pm, thus requiring me to cover the phones and greet visitors at the front door. Right? Ha ha, no, of course not! So, that’s what happens.

So, I have to do this live phone interview, my first ever, while manning the front desk, dealing with the stupid UPS guy who doesn’t understand that when you POINT AT A BOX it means TAKE THAT BOX, dealing with my stupid boss who doesn’t understand that holding up five fingers means GIMME FIVE MINUTES, and trying to disguise the fact that I’m giving a live phone interview since no one I work with knows I do a webcomic. Plus, the receptionist’s phone goes KSSSHHHHHHKKKTTTT in my ear roughly every three seconds for some reason.

Anyway. I was a bit worked up and honestly can’t remember a single thing I said. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to Scot and Lawrence for setting it up and being patient!

Hey! So, I’m going to be interviewed today, live, at 4:00pm on All Games Interactive! It’s a live gaming call-in show done every weekday in Los Angeles. Don’t miss it! And if you do, no worries, they’ve got an archive of previous shows so you’ll be able to catch it later.

I’m gonna be switching over to a Tuesday & Thursday update schedule for the forseeable future.

I won’t say I don’t have the time to do the comic three days a week, but I’ll say I don’t have as much time as I’d like. I feel like the overall quality has been lacking a lot lately, and a lot of that is because I’m rushing the strips, and working much later than I normally would, and not putting as much thought into them as I used to.

It’s mainly due to my job, which was already hectic and now has me commuting to a construction jobsite (I work for a commercial plumbing company) a good hour and a half out of my way four days a week,and working longer hours, and spending almost all day on my feet, meaning that by the time I get home I’m pretty much destroyed physically and mentally. I think this situtation will calm down a bit in a month or so once I get them back on track, and I won’t have to make that long-ass drive nearly as often, so if I can, I’ll switch back to three days a week.

The main thing for me is, I’m getting close to the end of the comic strip, and I’d like to finish up with some good, well-written strips, stuff I’m really happy with and not strips I’ve dashed out at breakneck speed. Sorry for changing the schedule — I really hate it when other comic-strip creators do it — but I think it’s necessary at the moment.

Thanks for your patience.

I’m doing some blogging over at wired.com this week, filling in for Lore as he is down in Los Angeles covering E3. If you’re interested, the blog is located here.

Since I got some complaints during my reader survey about readers not able to pinpoint their various countries in my limited selection, I went and set this up. Now, you should be able to show where you actually live.

NOTE — THE FIRST ONE I POSTED WAS SOMEONE ELSE’S EXISTING MAP THINGIE. Don’t join that one if you haven’t already. If you have, then forget it and join this one instead.

Here’s the new one!

You don’t need an actual account, so why not take a second and put yourself on the map?

I saw this over at the excellent Alien Loves Predator, who was cool enough to link me last week. Thanks, Bernie!

King Nintendoid sent a screencapture of Google Adsense once again detecting exactly what type of ad to run under today’s comic. Check it out here. Thanks, KN!

It’s your lucky day, because now you can do what you’ve always wanted to do: send me some of your hard-earned money!

I’m sure this is going to sound like a lie, but I do get a fair number of requests from readers who’d like to contribute. And, I like to give the people what they want (except for more To The Deaths, apparently).

Anyway. If you’ve got a couple bucks you weren’t planning to spend on anything (and who doesn’t?), and you feel like you absolutely have to send it to someone (because you’re tired of looking at it sitting there uselessly on your desk), and you’d like that someone to be me, now you can.

Keep in mind, and this is important, that the money you send will really be going to me, and not the website. The comic won’t get funnier if you send money (if only it worked that way). It won’t be updated more often. And, most importantly, the comic won’t vanish if you don’t send money. I’m not holding the comic hostage or anything. This is completely voluntary on your part, and you shouldn’t feel any pressure or guilt or anything. The comic and site are free, and even if I accumulate a total of zero dollars, it’ll still be published with the same attention to detail (that is, very little) as it currently is.

If you’re wondering where your donation will actually go, here’s a handy guide to help you out, with the dollar amounts listed and how they’ll most likely be spent.

$1 — Anything I want at the 99 Cent Store (plus, change!)
$2 — A huge cup of plain coffee. The lifeblood.
$3 — A breakfast burrito (no meat) from the Maggot Wagon (those disgusting trucks that sell food to construction workers)
$4 — A gallon of gas for the Volvo (predicted 2007 prices)
$5 — A delicious and healthy pack of cigarettes. Lung-a-riffic!
$6 — A lunch at Subway, just like Jared has.
$7 — Anything I want at the 7 Dollar Store (no change, though).
$8 — Anything I want at the 7 Dollar Store, plus a buck to give the guy panhandling outside the 7 Dollar Store. His name is James, and he’s a little stinky.
$9 — A couple of gaming magazines, so I can catch up on the latest outdated gaming news
$10 — One ticket to a current quality film, such as… well, there’s nothing good out now.
$15 — Small soda at aforementioned film that isn’t playing
$20 — A copy (via Steam) of Half-Life 2: Episode One (coming June 1st!)
$25 — A free month of web hosting (I have two sites)
$50 — Could be for a bribe. Could be to have some schmoe worked over in a dark alley. You don’t want to know my business. Trust me.
$100 — A posh dinner. One with cloth napkins.
$250 — An iPod. No songs, but I can pretend to be listening to something by bobbing my head and dancing like an idiot down the street.
$500 — Anything I want at the 500 Dollar Store
$1,000 — Enough songs to fill a small amount of memory on the iPod from before.
$10,000 — A seriously cool new gaming rig.
$100,000 — Ten seriously cool new gaming rigs, at least one of which I’ll install in my bathroom so I can play games on the can.
$1,000,000 — A million lottery tickets.
$500,000,000 — My very own Citadel, pointing into the clouds like an accusatory finger, from which I can broker the very end of humankind. Also, maybe a new pair of jeans.

Here’s a button to help you out, and there’s one on the main comic page, down near the bottom. And thanks!