A short interlude

Made you read it again and again and again...
And again

Honestly, I thought I would be blogging more during this Christmas/Birthday/Wedding season. Well... Here's my delayed notice that I will be was on Hiatus for a month or so. I know it would've been better if I told you sooner, but I honestly planned to keep writing while I holidayed. But I guess life took over... (yes, I just got distracted)

Boy, that was a good holiday! Here's a breakdown of what I did in that space of time:

• Lived through every day successfully,
• Didn't die once! Honest!
• Drove a lot in one day - leaving at 5am and arriving at 11:30pm (we had many breaks along the way to Wilderness),
• Ate food,
• Slept,
• Went to Christmas with my girlfriend's family,
• Attended the AWESOME wedding of my sister and Francois on the 8th of January,
• And started working once again.

I do wish it lasted at least a little longer, though I certainly enjoyed the time that I had with my family and experienced great amounts of joy. T'was the season to be jolly after all! - Tralalalala-lala-la-la

My sister is a married woman!

Breath-taking pictures were captured on the beach.
I'm so proud to be your brother, you look beautiful!
And so do you Caro!!!

I still struggle to understand this concept. She is married, I have a bro-in-law, my mother is now a mother-in-law and MY SISTER IS A MARRIED WOMAN! Oh, I said that twice :O Wow... It blows my mind... And it's really great! If only I could see them more often. I love you my sister :D

Okay! So with this post, I'm back for good. I'll write more regularly again (hopefully) and try not to disappoint my adoring fans (that would be you).

I'M BACK BABY!
OK bye now...

Yours in writing
Benjamin

Mr. Immortal's grand entrance

Chapter 1: The non-transferable super-power

FYI: Clicking on the picture makes it larger :P

Thank you for your patience my dear readers, at last I have finished my first comic strip! I would like to thank my brain for thinking of it in the first place, and my handy hands for bringing it into this mortal plane. Oh, and my parents for keeping the electricity on :P Thanks to you two too! I shan't write much here because I made you a comic, so please feed me with compliments--- Ahem!... I mean, give me your honest feedback! Thank you kindly.

P.S. I will give you a proper Mr. Immortal logo later, don't rush me. Just let it happen at a work-able pace.

Yours in writing
Benjamin

The Wonder Drug

I don't do drugs often, but when I do it's because I'm really tired and the coffee is paid for by the business. Yes, coffee, the life blood of many adults... I'm trying to give it up but it's not that easy. People keep offering me coffee and it would be rude to just refuse, right? Well obviously! It gets quite tempting when I haven't had enough sleep as well. Coffee is irrefutably a strong energy booster and I have heard that caffeine is a drug, so I suppose it might not actually be good for you? There are many whispers of side effects... Shaking, wide eyes, spontaneous combustion, and having to pee more often! Scary stuff... Oh hold on a sec, apparently the spontaneous combustion isn't true. Well, coffee doesn't seem so bad now, does it!?

An all-you-can-eat
floor flavoured food flood

So last night I left my dog home alone. She sure showed me the error of my ways! I found muddy paw prints on my car windows. Maybe she thought I would sneak back in and hide in there? Silly dog... Then she ripped apart the bag of dog food (thankfully not a full bag). Now she has to eat dried-out dog food for the next couple days. To give you an idea of how much effort she would've gone through in this endeavor, we keep the bag of food behind those bars and the gate was locked. She reached through the bars and tore the bag past them, annihilating it in the process... Ninja, you black female dog, you have outdone yourself!

That was a pain to clean up but I reckon I did a pretty good job. I shoveled it all into that big tub in the background. Ninja just watched. SO helpful Ninja. For good measure, as you can see, she tipped the watering can over to make a third of the food soggy and gross to have to pick up. Very gross.

Not as gross as the dead bird she had on Sunday though! There's a funny story... So my woman and my friend were visiting on Sunday. I took said bird from Ninja in the back garden, kept it out of their field of vision as I walked through he lounge, cool as a cucumber, placed it in an empty box, put the box in a bag, and threw the bag in the bin outside! I'm a legend, they suspected nothing B) Just in case you're curious I don't know if she killed the bird or if it was a cat... Although I'm pretty sure it was a cat. Little murderers!

On to greater subjects!

I have procrastinated long enough! So when I get home later this evening, after cooking supper and cleaning the kitchen at last, I will try to finish my first Mr. Immortal comic strip. Don't expect anything fancy but look forward to it anyway. Or else. And be happy, I'm excited here with you! We can be excited together! Good times...

Holidays draw ever nearer

Everything gets so much weirder

Streets are empty

Houses quiet

Sweets are brought

With whimpering diets

Happy holidays my dear readers

Yours in writing

Benjamin

Creativity comes in bursts

A while ago I wrote something like 7 blog posts in one weekend. SEVAAAN! Then yesterday I had writer's block. Oh fragile mind, why do you maketh me struggle so!?

Charlie the 'Dream Machine'

I work with a Charlie. Kinda... His name is close enough to Charlie that I deem it fair to call him a Dream Machine. It's also close enough to Carl that I can say "But Carl, that kills people!" in a drawn-out naggy voice as though I were a Llama (in a hat). I have methods to my madness, I assure you! For those of you that don't know, there are ridiculous Youtube videos that you can watch to explain all. "Charlie the Unicorn" and "Llamas with hats". They have provided countless hours of entertainment, largely due to my friend 'almost-Charlie' not agreeing with being called a Dream Machine. He protests to the point of amusement. Mostly my amusement... :P Click on those links, I'm not going anywhere. But I am waiting...

The moment before everything went wrong. Just click on that link and watch it.

If your sense of humour isn't dark or twisted like mine, even a little bit, please don't blame me for making you watch Llamas with hats. They are hilarious unless you don't think so... Now! Creative bursts. You really build up a longing if you don't do creative stuff once in a while. Well - you do if you're me, because I do... So then I write, draw or do random creative things.

Building up to Christmas now, all this hype, 'almost-Carl' has gone on leave. That just leaves 'pronounced-kneel' and I alone some for a bit to manage the store. (I am omitting his real name for colleague confidentiality but to give you an idea his [or her] name is pronounced "kneel")

"That kills people!"
I don't know why you're still not watching it...

This is fine, but my friend 'almost-Charlie' was my primary source of entertainment. The crude jokes and inappropriate remarks throughout the day were a refreshing break from the usual stern professionalism which we uphold most of the time but not really... It's only been 4 hours of working without him but I can tell it'll be a long 2 weeks with him gone. For you 'almost-Carl': "Hello from the other side!". Have fun without us. I'm gonna call a thousand times. Cheers bro...

('Almost-Charlie', stop reading here!!!!!)
PSST! Don't tell 'almost-Carl' that I'm actually jealous of him being on leave, he'd enjoy that too much! I'd rather not give him the satisfaction.

Happy holidays everyone!

No way! Me too! I don't like doing that either. Good llama!
WATCH IT! -_-

Yours in writing
Benjamin

Mr. Immortal

I need a logo for him. At the moment it's
just an "I" for Immortal...

The least bothered super hero in history. He is, after all, immortal! And I'm only drawing him in 4-panel comics so far. Okay! So he basically just doesn't care about much because he lives in the endless expanse of time. I don't yet know how he got this super power but he's quite a depressing fellow because of his little "Super-power" problem.

I have realised that people generally have a focus on a particular theme and set of characters for these comics. It gives the reader a sense of familiarity which eases the humor by giving you insight on the character's personality. So I have Mr. Immortal! I am almost done with my first comic strip, which I hope to release here on Monday. Look forward to it! I have no idea how it will turn out. I'm pretty sure I have a lot of room for improvement though :D

And when I release it then everyone has to give me their honest first impressions! And no dilly-dallying, that feedback is important for the next comics ;) Today is a good day. A Friday, if you will. I love weekends!

Nah, I wasn't really going anywhere with that. Not being random or anything, it just happened... Okay, so I don't know what to write about now. Work's kind of slow lately with the odd rush here or there but I haven't had one of those days for a while. It really looks like everyone's gone off on holiday lately, I can't wait for my leave in January! I'm going to Wilderness on the 3rd or 4th and staying 'til the 11th, it's gonna be amazing! I'm getting more and more excited as your wedding draws closer my sister. Might also have something to do with Christmas, New Year, my birthday and taking a week off work. Among other things... This is gonna be a rockin' holiday :)

I'm wishing for a white Christmas!

Just like the ones I've heard about...

It would be nice if it snowed for Christmas this year. That would probably also be some sort of natural disaster since I'm sitting in 30 degrees of hot and sweaty right now... End-of-the-world omens and what-not. But nice!

Run little guy, run like the wind were carrying each individual snow flake that makes up your being!
And if there were a strong gust on which to ride... Mmmm, Strawberry slushy...

Yours in writing
Benjamin

Racism

What he said B)

That big "NO-NO!" in all of our lives. I think the word "Racism" is over-used, since it is simply an idea that's been given a word. A word of 6 letters that resembles so much hatred and bigotry. If everyone would just stop using it I'd be so happy. People are judging and excluding others that claim to be racist, because they judge and exclude people they're racist towards... I think it's gone too far for too long. We all bleed red and we all live only one life on this huge rock hurdling through space.

Facts of racism

• Racism is judging people based on their skin colour.
• Racism is the act of being biased specifically towards a person's race.
• When hearing a racist remark, you often hear the words "Not to sound racist but..."
• Saying "Not to sound racist but..." is racist no matter what it is followed by. For example:

"Not to sound racist but I don't trust that black-ish yellow person" - Racist
"Not to sound racist but that is a funny shaped sweet potato" - Racist

"Not to sound racist but would you please pass the salt" - Also Racist

"Not to sound racist but what's the answer to number 6?" - Possibly racist... If the question is "Name 3 states in America" or "What is Pi squared?" then they are both racist. Because you started with "Not to sound racist but..."

I would be lying if I said that I don't judge people on how they look. I'm no saint, if someone looks untrustworthy then I assume that they are untrustworthy. No matter how unfairly I'm judging them, I can't help it. I also don't trust people I can't smell. Strange right? Well I don't mean people that have no scent, I mean the ones I have to back away from. People I can't stand to smell. When the stench is great, I stand back. That goes for cigarette smells and the un-bathed masses, the smell drives me away, with the exception of my smoking family members. Even if you don't shower every day, I love you guys...

I judge you all -_- Daily!

So when it comes to my personal views, I don't think I'm a racist. I judge black, white, asian, coloured, blue, green people... I judge them all in the same way. If you look violent, un-kept or dodgy in any way then you will be judged negatively. And if you stink. I don't appreciate the stink... On the other hand - if you smell good, look washed, or carry yourself confidently, I will judge you positively and expect great things from you. I get judged quite often too, it's easy to tell when people are making judgements and it's human nature. By judging your surroundings you are able to better prepare for the worst, but for goodness sake please keep those judgements to yourself. Nobody wants to hear it. Judge in silence! Happy judging in this joyous season of merry-making my dear readers...

Yours in writing
Benjamin

Amusement at a price

9GAG

Ignore the rubik's cube. A rubik's cube
would imply that you have to think.

Bored, not much work to do, let's browse 9GAG! Laughter, jokes, popular internet memes, YAY!
(Later that day, after some time ticks by...) Oh! 9GAG updated! Check Facebook posts, what's happening folks?

I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets swept up in these things, right? I try not to let it make my work suffer and I can easily go days without straying off the straight and narrow path, but all I need is a morning with a slow work-load to entice me to some cheap entertainment and I sink into the pit of silly jokes and overly used punch lines. I feel much better about using my time to write up new blog posts, but 9GAG and Facebook allow me the freedom of not thinking much. Time flies when you aren't thinking...
...
...

Oh right! Back to writing. So I am easily amused, that's a fact. Simple things amuse my mind, like silly jokes and small fun games. Sometimes I catch myself doing absolutely nothing in "Standby" mode, just staring into nothing-ness. That happens a lot and it really confuses people... Hahahahaha, I love it!

So the "Price" I mentioned in the title would refer, I suppose, to wasting time doing something silly. Not loads of time necessarily, but time you could be using more wisely. For instance, ending war in the Middle-East. I mean really people? Your country needs you! Forget 9GAG! It helps no-one! Alternatively you could study or be working. But it's not my place to judge... If you want to browse 9GAG or social media platforms all day then go for it, and please don't call me a hypocrite because I'm doing the same. Thanks in advance...

How far I've gotten right now...

On a side note

I'm starting a web-comic! I might post them on this Blog, but I have no due date for you yet. I'll release the first one in the next 2 weeks if I don't lose an arm before I finish it. Nothing fancy, just a four-panel comic (more-or-less) about my super-hero, Mr Immortal. It will be arbitrary with a dark sense of humour... Look forward to it! That's it for me now, have a lovely day!

Yours in writing

Benjamin