Between Friends Blog

An invasion of privacy

I don't recall if anything in particular happened to inspire this cartoon from 2009 but this is a subject that is an issue with me.  I think our society has an astounding lack of privacy.  Anyone, anywhere at almost anytime can be recorded and then splashed over the internet for all time.  A person can be having a bad day, an intimate moment, an emotional crisis, having a wardrobe malfunction or can even be in mid-chew...and be at the mercy at some inconsiderate boob with a cell phone.  It bothers me when I see photos splashed around the internet of little Suri Cruise (Tom Cruise's daughter) when she's tired and in her mother's arms or when she's upset or even just out walking with her parents.  What's worse are the captions under every photo...the critical comments because she's wearing little high heels.  They sell those little shoes in every toy store in America...the kid is playing dress-up for Pete's sake...leave her alone!

I saw a photo on facebook once...it was a photo of a mom and dad and a toddler sitting at a table in a fast food restaurant.  The toddler was crying and having a tantrum, the mother and father were obviously agitated and reacting to the tantrum.  They both looked tired.  The expressions that were immortalized by some moron sitting near them with a cell phone were less than flattering.  And then the comments under the photo...they were critical and mocking and mean.

This infuriates me.  My kids are older now but I felt nothing but empathy for that young family.  I've been there...I've had a crusher day with a killer deadline, my husband has had an extremely busy day at work, maybe having been called out during the night (my husband is a Funeral Director) and not had much sleep, a child who is maybe tired or has a cold coming on.  And we decide to go out for a burger to make life a little easier...but it backfires.  And what was supposed to help only makes things worse.

That's what I thought about when I saw that photo.  This family of private citizens were just trying to get through a bad day and someone recorded the moment and threw it up on their facebook page for some very low-brow entertainment.  I know that's the world we live in now but I don't think it's right.

What's brought on this rant?  I don't know...but it probably has something to do with my desperate need for a hair cut...

 

 

 

Wardrobe Camoflage

 

Timeline go home

I never got around to figuring out the last "improvements" Facebook made...now I'm going to be forced to figure out this Timeline thing.  Does skipping over the last "improvement" put me ahead or behind?

To tell the truth, I don't really get the Timeline pages of friends that I've looked at...it all seems like a big mash of STUFF all over the page.  What do we read first?  How do we add, delete, ignore?  It looks like controlled chaos.

Sigh...serenity now...

I didn't, shoulda, was going to but...

I decided I should be blogging on a regular schedule.  Like every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Today is Wednesday.  I don't know what happened to Monday...

Doppelgangers, Innuendo and Influences

One of my favourite online spots to visit while I enjoy my morning coffee is Comic Strip of the Day.  Comics aficionado,  Mike Peterson  profiles a different cartoon each day and gives a little commentary about his choice.  I enjoy his picks not only because some of his choices are my own favourite comics but also because he always turns up some new, unfamiliar ones.  Today, I was flattered to see Between Friends was the Comic Strip of the Day.  (thanks, Mike!)

What struck me while reading Mike's comments about this strip is that he referred to Susan as my doppelganger.  I've admitted many times that I identify most with the character of Susan...so I'm not quite sure why I was surprised to read that.  Am I the ostrich with its head in the sand?

Yes...Susan is me and she's not me.  Maeve is me and she's not me...and there's a little bit of me in Kim as well...but not really.

The idea for this strip came as a result of my trip to Wisconsin to speak at the Kenosha Cartoon Festival.  I usually catch all my flights from the Buffalo airport as I live so close to the border.  (It's much closer to me than Toronto.)  However, these days you really need to be at the airport a couple of hours before take-off and you never know how long the line-ups or hold-ups at the border crossing will be...so with an 8:00 flight I left the house at about 5:30 am. 

My husband drove me and I insisted that he make a pit-stop at the local Tim Hortons so I could buy a small cup of caffeine.  You know...so I could wake up and be coherent by the time American customs asked me my citizenship.  We went through the drive-thru...I ordered a small coffee...the voice told me it would be $3.00.  As we swung around the corner to the pick-up window, Tim said that was awfully expensive for a small coffee.  I mumbled something that they meant that was the change they were giving me from my five.  Yes...I know that doesn't make any sense.  Refer back to my comment about my need to be caffeinated in order to be thinking coherently.

As we drove away, the math suddenly clicked.  Wait a minute.  THEY DID JUST CHARGE ME THREE BUCKS FOR A SMALL COFFEE!  Let's go back!, I told Tim.  No, he said...we don't have time to fool around, we have to get across the border and get to the airport.  I grumbled but agreed that he was right and we better keep going and THIS COFFEE HAD BETTER TASTE AMAZING FOR THREE BUCKS.

Fast-track to after the Festival and I'm back home and Tim and I are sitting in the family room watching televison.

Did I tell you I went back to Tim Hortons when I got home from the airport?, he asks me.

NO! DID you?  What happened?, I asked him, with rapt attention.

I went in and asked them how much a small coffee cost., he said.

Yeah? And?

And when they told me, I told them we got charged three dollars this morning on the way to the airport.  So they apologized and just gave me my three dollars back.

You would have thought I won the lottery.

Thus...the above strip.  And yes...I do feel pathetic on a whole lot of levels.

...and no, Susan isn't me...but she is...

Make-Over Magnifique

 
Everyone needs a little sprucing up now and then, right?  (I'm going to be doing that myself in the fall...my web site, I mean.  Although a new hair colour never hurt anyone...)

My syndicate, King Features has a spiffy new web site!

27 Degrees

 
It's going to be 27 degrees here today.  That's 27 degrees CELSIUS for those of you of the Fahrenheit persuasion.  And that means HOT.  Geeeeez...the shorts season always seems to come up out of nowhere...

Any questions?...anyone?...anyone?...

 
Confession:  I know I haven't been posting very much the past little while.  It's not that I've been any busier than usual...in fact, now that my university course is finished (and I've completed a few speaking presentations that I was scheduled for last month)...things have actually slowed down.  I am working on a few extra out-of-the-ordinary Between Friends things but I'm not under real deadline pressure with them.

As such, I'm not really getting much of anything done at the moment.  It's like I was running on a treadmill from January to May and all of a sudden it's stopped and I'm kind of in lethargic-mode.

Although, I DID clean out my tupperware cupboard last week.  It's not really full of tupperware but that's what I call it.  I recycled a gazillion plastic margarine containers, old water bottles from when my son played soccer back in...oh...maybe grade 4...little plastic containers for my kids' juice at lunch in grade school...containers with lids that have lost their tight seal...and other useless things that have been taking up space for no practical reason at all.

That cupboard is now organized and clean. And my electric frying pan now has its own little place where it can be put away when not in use.  This thrills me.  Call me boring, call me pathetic...I am a happy woman.  A happy woman who is feeling a little lethargic and distracted lately.

It's June next week so I'm planning to shake this mood and get a little more productive.  And hopefully write more interesting posts than this one.

Have a great weekend!

Give it to me straight with just a little bit of a curve.

 
Do you want people to tell you THE TRUTH or do you want them to tell you want you want to hear?

You can read Between Friends daily right here!

April 15th isn't JUST the American Tax Day

 
Today is my son's 17th birthday.  Wow.  Seventeen isn't what's getting to me...it's that he's going to be EIGHTEEN next year...and finished high school...and off to university.  In one short year.  I have a feeling I'm not going to see much of him after that.  He's going to be too busy enjoying his life.  That gives me some comfort...I want him to enjoy every single bit of his life.  I just hope he shows his face around here now and then. 

...hmmmm...I think I better and go visit my mom.

Have a great weekend!

When a lack of pride is a good thing.

 
The secret weapon in dealing with teenagers:  humiliation.

Have a great weekend and in your web surfing you can read Between Friends here!

Your Unique, Inner YOU

 
You can read Between Friends daily by clicking right here! 

Seriously, is this really too much to ask? . . .

 

The Female Cycle of Being Noticed

 

Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

You can read Between Friends every day by clicking RIGHT HERE. 

The Girls

 
 This is my contribution to King Features "Breast Cancer Awareness" Comicgopink campaign.

For the most part, I find writing for pre-determined themes difficult but I really enjoyed creating this comic for Breast Cancer Awareness.  Between Friends is women-centric and writing about women's issues (light-hearted and serious) is what I do anyway, so I felt like this was a natural fit.

And hopefully, it brings a little bit of added attention to an important cause.

Visit Comicsgopink.com to bid on an original piece of cartoon art by Dan Piraro (Bizarro).  Proceeds of the winning bid will be given to their charity of choice.

Also, visit Thingamaboob.ca for lots of Mammo information!

The next few weeks:

Okay...so the little symposium at Mohawk was cool.  I think my presentation went well.  I really enjoyed listening to everyone talk about their careers.  Paul Gilligan, Leif Peng, Mike Cope and John Martz are all great guys and exceptional talents.

I'm going to be kind of busy for the next little while...lots of stuff on the go plus I'm attending the Festival of Cartoon Art in Ohio in a few weeks...so you know what that means...WORK AHEAD.  So you may be seeing a few of my favourite cartoons on here for a while.  Hope that's okay.  Talk to you soon!

The ties that bind...or don't...

It's noon on Monday as I type this...and it's shaping up to be a crazy week already.  Be prepared for some cartoons from the past.  You don't mind, do you?

Time-sucking technology

I'm a little busy trying to get some stuff completed...so here's a Sunday cartoon.  My choice of strip has been influenced by my continuing quandry over twitter.  If I wait long enough, do you think it will just turn out to be a trendy fad that's passed?  Maybe...maybe...

ZRGT

I do have a blue sofa in my living room.  That's the only thing in this strip that reflects my life.  Honest.