Okay, because yesterday I posted a Lady Gaga video just for the Great Danes, I found you a genuinely funny and cute Great Dane video.

That’s right, boys and girls, I’m going to be getting rid of the links page.  You may have noticed a couple of 200 pixel banners pop up over on the right hand side. As I figure out this WordPress thing, I realize just how easy it can make navigating the site for you guys. These will open in a new tab or new page depending on your browser settings.

Also, in about a month or so, you’ll see a new little change take place. I’m going to print my comics through Ka-blam! They’re actually local to Orlando, and the quality of late has been really good.  The print job will be more professional, and I can probably make profit a lot easier since I  won’t have to guess at the price of ink going into a minicomic. Everything will remain in print. There will be a few changes, like Flight of the Virginia Dare being a single issue instead of two books and the previous collects of Artist’s Journals will be retitled within the Bunkee series, most likely #0 and #1/2.

That being said, Happy New Year!

Yeah, I miss having a Great Dane. What About It?

Right now things are pretty good. I don’t want to jinx anything, but I feel all right, albeit a little overwhelmed in my attempts to organize my bedroom. Still looks like I’m moving in, and that I don’t have enough space for everything. I still have a horrible-paying day job, but that may change for the first quarter of the year. I’ll know more by week’s end.
I am looking at posting the next strip in Factor of 01 tomorrow, but there’s a lot that I want to do today. Speaking of which, I need to get started on it. I was waiting for it to warm up a little outside but I guess high 40s is the best I can hope for. I know, you people up north can’t feel bad for me, but I can live with that.

Okay, you might not want to play this one out loud at work. There’s nothing actually dirty about it, but your co-workers may not get the metaphor.

I’m a fan of Storm Large and I really wish she’d come through Central Florida, but I understand that its a bit of a trip.

Tonight I actually experienced a moment of synchronicity when a line from a TV show seemed to have meaning for my particular situation. Look up synchronicity if you’re not familiar with the term.

As human beings, we have a tendency to look for meaning in certain events and then usually assign causation to those events, based upon our own philosophical outlook. Carl Jung, explored this phenomenon and named it synchronicity, although he didn’t go so far as to assign it a cause. Subsequent Jungian Psychologists have ventured into that realm as a basis for their particular belief systems. Since becoming a skeptic, I’ve had a problem with the concept of synchronicity. Psychologically, I knew there was a better term for this phenomenon, one that didn’t lead to the assumption of a causal force.

In doing some light research, and I’m hardly the type of person to be an authority, I believe what we’re actually looking at in synchronicity is cognitive bias. We simply take a lot of data and throw out everything negative and only look at the positives that reinforce our predisposed supposition. Using this method we can find meaning in just about anything, simply because we’re presented with so many instances that may not be interpretable into a supposed sense of synchronicity. We’ll only remember the hits and forget the misses.

So don’t look too much into that card you just came across from your Mom. Don’t look too much into that phrase that was in a billboard ad.  You’re simply not noticing all of the things that don’t match up. The psychology is that we look for patterns and think that they might have meaning, because the random nature of things can be overwhelming. Remembering all the data that’s thrown at us would drive us crazy, so we throw away a lot of it. It doesn’t make you stupid, it just makes you human.

Here is an e-mail I got in reply to an e-mailed resume. I really don’t think I’m violating anyone’s copyright, because if you do a Google Search for “Convergence Business Systems” you realize that they’re very free with this form letter, and there’s a reason.

Daniel Boone

to me

Convergence Business Systems

Hello,
Thank you for replying to our open position on Craigslist. I am the Local HR Manager for our company, Convergence Business Systems. Thank you for taking the time to send in your resume. From the many resumes we received you have been selected for further consideration.

I would like to schedule an inteview with you in the next week. Please note that our company requires all potential employees to have a credit report on file at our interview. We ask for this because your dutuies will include working closely with the billing and finance departments within our offices. The requirements are not very high so dont worry that it will hurt your chances of getting the job.

Please complete and print your credit report from This Link. (disabled, you’re welcome.) You will need to bring it with you to your interview. This credit report is free and is completely secure from one of the most trusted sites on the internet.

Once you have completed the credit report please let me know and we can set up a time for an interview within the next week.

Congratulations on becoming a candidate for our company.

Regards,

HR Manager

That’s right, it’s a scam.

UPDATE: I thought I got confirmation that this company actually existed, but nope, I double-checked my data, and yeah, it still looks like a scam.

I have one started but I screwed up in placing word balloons. Next Monday, I promise.