Claw marks in the frozen peas

valeriek asked: What is your name on Words With Friends? I am eager to kick your ass.

“Vinh” and there will be no kicking of my ass, because I refuse to lose. It’s a thing.

Anonymous asked: You often talk about graphic novels and comic books... I am interested in both formats, but don't know where to start. Can you help me out?

I would start with original graphic novels and collected trade paperbacks. I jumped back into monthly comics last summer and it was tough trying to figure out which books were worth reading. Mostly, you just have to kind of dive in based on your preferences. Do you prefer superheroes or non-superhero stories? It helps to follow a few comic sites like Comic Book Resources and iFanboy. They have previews and reviews to help you choose which books to read. Most comic book sites like Vertigo have some of their first issues for free download.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Original graphic novels:
- The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames
- Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
- Blankets by Craig Thompson
- Crogan Adventures by Chris Schweizer
- Essex County by Jeff Lemire
- The King by Rich Koslowski
- Stitches by David Small
- Super Spy by Matt Kindt
- The Surrogates by Robert Venditti
- Too Cool to Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson

Collected trades:
- Batman: The Long Halloween
- Batman: Year One
- Criminal
- DMZ
- Echo
- Fables
- The Goon
- Hellboy/BPRD
- I Kill Giants
- Incognito
- Locke & Key
- 100 Bullets
- Planetary
- Preacher
- RASL, vol. 1: The Drift
- The Sandman
- Transmetropolitan
- Umbrella Academy
- The Walking Dead
- Y: The Last Man

Monthly comic books:
- Batgirl
- Batwoman/Detective Comics
- Chew
- Daytripper
- Joe the Barbarian
- Jonah Hex
- Power Girl
- Sweet Tooth
- The Unwritten
- X-Factor

caz asked: How do plan to stop your evil niece from taking over the world?

Easy. I’m going to lower her self-esteem through ridicule and tough love. What do you think? Good idea?

Anonymous asked: I've been having conflict with the whole stealing time at work thing. If I'm downloading great music at work, and am working while it downloads, and then enjoy the music therefore increasing my work productivity...does this action of music downloading constitute the label 'time stealing?'
That goes the same for looking at tons of design blogs, media blogs, music blogs, etc (including yours) I firmly believe that all of this asorption of internet media is beneficial. what do you think?

I’ve been staring at your question since this morning, unsure of how to respond. Let’s see if I can break it down.

Don’t download music at work. Save that for when you’re at home or a friend’s house. I’m not entirely comfortable with streaming music at work either. As a general rule of thumb, never do anything illicit at work that can be tracked. You’ll find yourself in a hole you can’t climb out of if your boss has hard evidence to discipline you.

No matter which job I’ve worked over the years, I always find myself surrounded with people who can’t seem to get their shit together. Being around these people can be annoying. I’m all for spending a few moments out of every hour to check up on my google reader, going outside to get some fresh air, or socializing for a bit. I’m for whatever it takes to distract myself from the stresses of the workplace as long as the work is completed.

I hope this answers your question.

maybeandroid asked: How do you fill your time being unemployed? I am unemployed too and it's driving me crazy having nothing to do all day.

I have a loose routine I follow every day that involves any or all of the following:

- Wake up at 8
- Brush teeth
- Internet
- If I feel up to it, I’ll to out for a walk/run
- Shower/shave
- More Internet
- Lunch around 1-2pm
- I might go to the store if I need things
- Maybe an hour of video games
- More Internet
- My friends and I have a fantasy hockey league, so beginning at 4pm on game days I’ll watch the stats update while I do other things.
- Dinner around 5-6pm
- Watch shows in my Hulu queue
- Read. I promised myself I would read more book-books this year, and so far I’ve been on a pace of one book per 7-12 days. Usually takes place after 7pm.
- I read about 1-4 graphic novels/trades per week too. Usually after 7pm.
- I’ll watch Netflix, disc or streaming on my PS3, while I read. A minimum of 8 movies every week. Usually after 7pm.
- More Internet
- If I’m bored, I might play another hour of video games around 9-10pm.
- If my podcasts have updated, I’ll watch them as soon as they update around 10-11pm. I’ll fall asleep to audio podcasts, usually around 1-2am.

These are the barebones of my daily routine. Lately, I’ve been dominating Jessica on Words with Friends on the iPhone, and that takes up pockets of time throughout the day. I have a habit of randomly organizing and cleaning to keep my mind occupied, and this happens every day. I do regular cleaning and laundry every Sunday. Since I purchased a Disneyland annual pass, I’ll pay a visit to the park about once every 2 or 3 weeks. Wednesday is new comic book day, so I’ll go to my shop to pick up my pull list. Since I’ve been out of work, I listen to an average of 3500 tracks on iTunes every month, and this doesn’t include anything I listen to in my car.

The hardest part with being unemployed is the immense amount of alone time I spend everyday, and there are times where I can go an entire day without speaking a single word. I have people I communicate with on IM, but it’s not the same. It would be nice to be able to have lunch with an actual human being once in a while. Some days are harder than others, and it’s real important to have a routine.

clablr asked: Can I have your post-it collection?

Never, but you may look at them.