Calvin & Hobbes

Here Is Proof

High School Drafting Transcript

Over the weekend I decided to clean out the 2-tier file basket that is on a table in the computer room. I’ve been dumping stuff on the top level for quite some time, mostly the monthly, semi-annual and annual statements from State Farm with updates on all of our policies we have with them. The pile had grown taller than the basket and the top forms were sliding out onto the table. Every single one of the Sonata’s 6 month bills were in there, which was 8 documents of 6 pages each. The Miata’s stuff of similar size went a little further back than 2011, plus the homeowners policies and life insurance policies, it was a mess. I keep the most recent of each and shredded the rest.

In the other tier of this basket was a treasure drove of stuff that I had forgotten I even had. Including the copy of my high school transcript proving my post from the other day. I blurred out everything but the Drafting grades as there is some stuff I’m not too proud of there. The grades reading from left to right are the 4 semesters and the fifth is the average grade for the whole year. Where I’m from high school was only three years, so they tacked on my final year of Jr. High in the upper left (no drafting there.)

Another great find was in a business sized envelope were the cardboard templates for the Pigs In Space sweatshirt I made back in the 80’s. I may have to recreate this. I’m going to need a different medium though, the original was made of felt pieces layered on top of each other then sewn on and we don’t have a sewing machine anymore.

I also found a Calvin & Hobbes Time Machine sticker that I didn’t know I had. There used to be one on the rear bumper of the Emperor, but it went away when the back of the car had to be repainted after the Great Dented Trunk Lid Incident of 2006. I must have had two made … took the newly resurfaced sticker out to the garage and applied it on the Emperor’s rear.

Plus my Junior College transcript was there too, so tomorrow’s treat will be a glimpse at further proof my drafting prowess.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1479

So That’s Where I Got That Idea

A month or so I picked up a well used copy of The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book at a used book sale. It was an interesting read as not only did it have hundreds of C & H comic strips, but it was filled with Bill Waterson’s insights on his making of the strip. About 2/3rds of the way through the book there is a series strips where Calvin kidnaps Susie’s doll (sort of her version of Hobbes):

Kidnapping Binky Betsy 1
Kidnapping Binky Betsy 2
Kidnapping Binky Betsy 3

In that third strip Calvin has his kidnap victim tied to a chair…so that is where I got the idea for the video in Part IV of the Great Roach Kidnapping Caper of 2010

Wiped My Rear End Clean

When the Emperor got tapped last March the whole back end of the car had to be repainted to make sure the metallic paint blended and matched. This meant that the 5″ high vinyl sticker of Calvin & Hobbes that had been on the car since September of ’05 had to come off. I ordered a replacement and when it came in it was 6″ instead of the previous five, but I put it on rather try and deal anymore with the fellow who made it for me (let’s just say he was not the most reliable type.)

Almost ever since the day I put it on I felt it was a little too big and today I couldn’t stand it no more, so I removed it. As a consequence I updated my mod list to show it gone and added the cost of my recent dash statuette purchase. The back bumper of the car is naked again.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11

Is It Stealing Or Is It Art?

Within the last month two of the blogs I regularly read and are linked to the side there have commented on Bill Watterson and unauthorized Calvin stickers. If they read my blog they would know that I have commissioned a vinyl decal place I found on the web to make me a Calvin & Hobbes sticker for my car. Have they stopped reading my blog because of this? If not, are they aiding and abetting a known criminal? Or is their only real objection that they found the image of Calvin peeing on “insert object” offensive?

I scanned the image I’m having made into a sticker from a C&H collection book I bought. The fellow that is making the sticker for me feels as if I have commissioned a piece of art from him. Is this sticker fair use for me? Is it art? Is it a tribute to my favorite cartoon characters?

My local newspaper just started carrying Calvin & Hobbes on the funny pages again. Not new stuff, but 20 year old strips. C & H will only be running from now until December the announcing article said. It is mainly a way to help sell Mr. Waterson’s new book, The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, a $150 set of books that reprints ever strip that ever appeared in the newspaper over it’s 10 year run. To make room for adding Calvin & Hobbes the paper stopped running Shoe daily and a couple of other smaller comics on Sunday. I sure hope Mr. Waterson is compensating the authors of the strips he is misplacing in this self-promotion scheme…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 291

Half Right & All Wrong

When I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I would be buying gas next week and it would probably be $3.50 a gallon, I was half right. Down to about a quarter of a tank tonight on the way home from the MMC monthly meeting, I stopped and filled up at $3.499 a gallon. There were a couple of gas stations that were advertising $3.199, but I guess that was what they were selling it for when they had it, both places had bags over the pump nozzles in the internationally know signal for “I’m Out of Gas, But Come In and Buy a 6-Pack of Beer, You’ll Feel Better.”

After one misdirected envelope, the second arrived today with my Calvin & Hobbes sticker. I put it on the bumper, snapped one picture and took it off. There were three reasons for this; 1) it was larger than we expected, 2) silver, while not bad, seemed kind of blah and 3) I placed it too low on the bumper and with too much of a slant. So back to the sticker guy I go with a request for another sticker that will be in dark yellow and 5″ tall instead of six. Maybe the first one won’t get lost in the mail and I can get this in a week instead of two.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 291

Whatever.

Free to a good home, one MGW Gripper Shift Knob painted Garnet Red. I’ll even toss in the extra gripper ring because it might be easier to surgically remove the current one, than try and pry it off. Paypal me $3 for postage and I’ll priority mail right to your home.

Vacuumed the car and then removed the week’s accumulated dirty using some Quik Detailer because this afternoon was the MMC’s showing at the Sno-Cap Drive-In’s 41st anniversary.

Yellow Sandwich

That and this week’s photo meme pictures came from the party. Through the magic that is MT’s editable Authored On data field, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday’s pictures were posted before the event.

I found someone to make my Calvin & Hobbes sticker and he mailed it late last week. Not here yet. I hope that they didn’t take a detour in time on their way here and were eaten by a T-rex.

Birthday present update: Window tinting is off the list, just doesn’t make sense for me. Rear lip spoiler is fading fast. Current front runner is a mild computer upgrade. This Dell was purchased in March of 2003 and while it 2.53Ghz processor is plenty strong enough for what I use it for, I’m thinking bumping the RAM from 512M to 1024M and getting a faster and bigger hard drive might be a nice thing. Hey, afterall I spend more time in the seat in front of the PC than I do in the driver’s seat of the Miata.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 285