You know, talking about the birds and the bees with your kids is probably one of the things that strikes the most terror into the hearts of parents. I am pretty comfortable about that kind of thing, and still I find myself stammering through any discussion with my kids. That’s why I love this comic (Issue 253) , because I think it really conveys that feeling well.

I do have to admit, this actually wasn’t my idea or joke. This actually happened to a friend of mine. Her child asked her, and true to her cool cucumber nature, she just did the “we’ll talk about it later” thing–to then learn where the word had been picked up. I thought this was so funny, I had to use the joke, embellishing it a bit with Harry’s reaction. Of course, thinking about this, I have to go back to the old Art Linkletter show, “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” Anyhow, a big thanks to “El” for sharing that story with me and being the inspiration for this strip.

On another note, the comic is up on time today! How did that happen? Maybe it’s because I don’t feel quite on death’s door being sick and all. Let’s just hope the “wellness” streak continues in our house. The particular bug that’s hit us has already gone around twice to everyone in our home! That’s more than enough for me.

Oh, and for any kids reading this who don’t know what that means, in the context of this comic, the word simply means “pure”–not having anything added to it.

I have wanted to give the Pixel kids a swingset/playfort since the beginning of the strip. My original plans were to have Harry build them one shortly after they moved in. But the story just took another direction and we never were able to fit it in. With things wrapping up with Rasterman, I wanted to go back to something ordinary and family-related, so the timing was good now. (Issue 251)

Our kids have a playfort and I have to admit they live on/in it during the warm weather months. It provides them with so many opportunities for imaginative play and just plain fun. The whole story about setting up the swingset is loosely based on how we built ours. Much like the Pixels, we just didn’t have the money to pay a company to build one for us. So, we went and got the plans, bought the wood, and then decided how we would do it over a series of weekends. As it turned out, my sister suggested that maybe my family would offer to come over and pitch in. Thus, we turned it into a small party. Now, in our case, we did not have 200 people show up. My family came, and a few neighborhood kids dropped by to watch the activities–and grab a burger or two (we actually grilled, not doing the pizza thing). It was hardly an hour and a bit of work. Everyone put in a good 8 hour, and during that time we managed to get the main frame up. Jim and I finished the project up an hour here, an hour there in the evenings and weekends over the next couple weeks. Anyhow, that is how fiction is often written, taking a bit of your own life and exaggerating it a bit. I am looking forward to all the fun the Pixel kids will have on that swingset, and the potential for storylines it will give us.

Now I guess it would be good to note, however, that if we did do something like this we could totally see it turning out like it did for the Pixels. Harry’s line about how these things always turn out that way for them is pretty much something we say regularly. We can plan and plan, but things never quite turn out the way we expect, and usually involve some sort of disaster!

That also said, I am truly yearning for Spring. We got teased with some 60 degree weather this past week. Now that it’s back to a more seasonal 30, I am longing for warmth and greenery. *sigh* That and the fact we are STILL sick. Yes, over a month of it bouncing back and forth between family members, and I once again have a horrible head cold. The doctor says it is simply bad in this area and everyone seems to be getting it. Either way, I can’t wait for some nicer weather and for everyone to feel better so we can get back to doing stuff rather than sniffling and sneezing.

Working on today’s strip (Issue 249) took far longer than I expected. The very unexpected reason was that it was quite the challenge doing Mr. Smiley’s armchair. When we wrote the script, I kept thinking about where Mr. Smiley would make the call to the cops. I didn’t want to do it in his living. We’ve already seen the foyer, bedroom, living room, and kitchen. I realized there had to be another room in the house. Perhaps a study or office. I just imagine a place where he would sit to read his paper, make his calls, etc., I got this image of this Archie Bunker chair (and, yes, I realize I’m old enough that many of our young readers will have no idea who Archie Bunker is). I managed to find a few models of chairs that were close to work off of, but ended up having to do quite a bit of pixelling to get what I wanted. Anyhow, I know it’s such a small thing, but I really am nutty about details like that.

Everyone is on the mend on the home front. This weekend is the big push to get several projects done. After that, hoping we have some breathing room to get back on schedule with the strip…and get a Booyah done!

I hate being sick. Ugh. And I should know not to push it when I’m sick, because I make mistakes. Case in point, I tried to update the comics last night and ended up messing something up and the database crashed. Granted, it was probably a program error, but I didn’t really check everything when I did it and just went to bed.

Of course, the sickies worked against me as I ended up deleting the scripts for these strips, and then re-did them only to leave them at my work. Migraines are inconducive to the creative process.

That said, we are pretty busy with a couple of other projects we’re working. One being the re-launch of Family Webcomics, which is going to be worlds better and easier-to-use than its predecessor. We have also been busy being interviewed for different media outlets, including the New York Times. One of our other sites is one for large families, and with the octuplet news, big families are in the spotlight again. This isn’t the first time we’ve been featured in a paper. I’ve been interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times and our family was featured on CNN.com last year. And, as glamourous as that sounds, it really isn’t. 15 minutes…or more like 8 minutes. Plus, you don’t get anything out of it other than some appreciation. Oh well. Not to mention, they never mention Bitmap World, which would be way cool, but…oh well.

That said, the kids are on the mend, though I’m in the middle of that “feel better one day, feel worse the next” stage. Hoping this bug is beat soon. Still hoping to get the comic up on Friday, but you all know how that may go.

Oh, I am updating this entry to note that in Issue 248 that Char calls the Gigs DINKS. That is an acronym for “Double Income No Kids.” It’s basically used for couples who are both working and making good money and don’t have any kids. Thus, they are usually well off financially.

I have a couple of posts over at my pixel blog, if anyone is interested. Also, be sure to check out our Lehmann Family Picks. Our yearly collection of our favorite online shorts.

On other fronts, we have 2 upcoming “things” that we are really excited about. One Bitmap World related, the other more webcomic related. Just a teaser, but stay tuned.

I probably date myself, and that’s funny to say since Y2K was only 9 years ago. Well, “only” in the real world. In computers, 9 years is an eternity.

On New Year’s Eve 1999, I was working as a programmer at a major newspaper. The months before that point were nothing but sheer chaos as people ran around, predicting the doom of the world as all of the computer clocks rolled over into 2000. There were predictions of power outages, mass hysteria and the like. My company wanted to prepare us and that came in the form of a survival kit containing a flashlight and a candy bar, nothing else. At the time I joked that if the power went out, we could shine our flashlights at the computers and continue working.

So, my family was at home and I was at work. Thankfully, Our work had been successful and the computer systems rolled over without any (major) problems.

Months later, the company gave everyone a $100 bonus for all of the hours of unpaid overtime and extra work they had done to avoid the end of the world. Of course, the managers who simply pointed and barked orders got considerably much more. Gotta love big companies.

Of course, as I look back on Y2K, I now have to look ahead to 2009. On September 9, 2009 there is a risk of another fallout, and by “risk” I mean, well, absolutely nothing. 999 is the number some programs use to mean “end of data”, but as anybody other than a manager can see, “999″ and “09-09-09″ are completely different. Still, you can be sure that in large companies all over the world — including the one I used to work at — managers are barking orders and programmers are running around like monkeys making sure that the “threat” of the 999 bug doesn’t wreak havok.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope that 2009 is great for everyone.

I don’t really like to do political cartoons. I am not one who gets into tight political debates. I like to talk about issues, and will get into some engaging talk, but I don’t like when things get rough. So, when I decided I wanted to do a strip to honor American election day (Issue 213), I didn’t want it to be preachy.

The whole premise and the punchline actually came from my boss. During our last major election a couple years back, he made the comment that all elections ultimately boiled down to a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Thus, the strip. The one thing that I did kinda comment on is that in most elections, the candidates are usually very close on the issues, and it really is just a few core ones that distinguish them. But, for the mostpart, their answers are the same, just with a twist here and there.

Anyhow, we both got a kick out of doing it, and I had a lot of fun doing my smiley versions of Dee and Dum, whom I based heavily on the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland (which just so happens is my favorite Disney movie).

Okay, there is probably an argument that we are not a big enough comic to have a Wiki. But, since there are lots of little insides and such, and that even we have a time tracking them, we thought a Wiki would be good to set up and have anyway. Once the strip (hopefully) gets big, it would already be in place.

And thus the nightmare began. To say that this has been a mini-curse would not be an understatement. I cannot tell you how many wikis we installed, how many problems and roadblocks we ran into. I cannot tell you how much miscommunication, misunderstanding, and downright frustration grew out of what was to be a very simple thing! On the very eve of us putting up this Booyah, yet another snafu happened which caused us to take a detour, scrap our current wiki (again) and try something totally new at the last minute, only to find out that the alternative was not to Jim’s liking and we ended up going back with the previous version.

So, it is up, and (we hope) this current nightmare is over! Ugh and ugh.

I had thought to mention this quite a few times and never really did get around to it. When we first started the strip a year and a half ago, we made the decision to stick to a fixed-panel format. Now, there are many webcomics who use a fixed format, but they are usually ones who have the hopes of moving to print some day. We don’t plan to go that route, so that wasn’t our reasoning. In fact, most “indie” comics love the freedom of the web in order to create comics of varying size, and use whatever number of panels it takes to tell a particular strip. My first comic strip, Just One More, did that a lot–using varying panel and strip size. Anyhow, because of the small graphics of Bitmap World, we decided from the beginning that a 2 row max, with 1-6 panels, would be the standard comic. Honestly the number of panels was less important than the actual size of the strip. Still, 6 panels seemed like a good number. Actually, it worked out well for quite a while. As the plotlines started getting more involved, and we started doing different things, the limitations of 6 panels started becoming painfully obvious. There were many times I so wanted to roll over into a whole other row. I refrained from doing so for 2 reasons. The first reason is I like the way the strip looks. The layout of the site was deliberate and the format of the strip works well within it. The second this reason is really a personal thing, the format makes us WORK. Meaning, it keeps us tight, makes us trim our dialogue and keep our writing concise. Also, it helps with pacing. Granted, I had used mini panels before, usually when I needed a bigger than normal panel, so I had one tiny one on either side, or flanking it. But I had always kept with the 6-max panels. As it became apparent that there would be many strips ahead that would roll over into the 7 or 8 panels, that was when I had to sit down and template the mini-panels. Even though it might have not been a huge change or difference to our readers, it really helped make my life a lot easier. It was a testament of how you can make something work, even within certain constraints.

Getting to the current storyline (starting with Issue 200 we just wrapped up. How many people knew there was really a gopherspace? If not, Google it. When we first came up with the story about the monkeys, we always had the idea of a Narnia-esque closet. But what was beyond? Jim immediately thought of gopherspace. This storyline was a lot of fun, and we got a kick out of incorporating a lot of subject-appropriate inside jokes. As for the gophers themselves, Jim commented that the weren’t very nice, even though they did a lot of smiling. My theory was that was why the monkeys started trashing their place after being nice in the beginning!

Issue 206 - This strip is actually a little nod to our own dog and cats. Our dog has been here a year and our cats still only tolerate him. It’s funny to watch their little war. They co-habitate, and tolerate each other, even though I know our dog would love to be friends. But, every now and then, when they just relax, they actually can be nice to each other. We’ll occasionally see them sleeping near each other, even touching a little. Cute. Until they wake up, that is.

Issue 207 - This strip is not a true slice-of-life, but it could be. Our son and daughter bicker a lot like this. The funny thing though is the whole idea of Care Bear throw-offs doing battle. And honestly, while that particular game is an extreme parody, it is pretty amazing some of the things you will find. I have mentioned my brother before…Mr. Video Game. There have been quite a few times my kids have had a “fluffy” game which he was convinced was not worth his time. Of course, once he started playing it, “just to try it out”, he’d end up sucked in. Pretty funny.

I want to thank everyone who wished me well last week. I have a couple of chronic conditions–nothing life threatening–but they can cause intense fatigue and other minor issues. I’ve suffered with a lot of this for years, so it’s nothing new. Just annoying when you can’t do everything you want to. But, I do manage fine. Last week was kinda bad, but I’m back to my old self now. Thanks for the concern and good wishes. I appreciate them.

We did have a couple of things planned for the Booyah that we held off on in order to do a few other things (and because I just wasn’t up to it either), so here’s to hoping next month will go a bit smoother. Though, knowing our luck…NOT! LOL!

Oddly enough, two food-related entries have come from BMW! Figured I’d post them here:

Bananas and Pepperoni - I was looking over the bonus section of the site recently, testing for dead links and all, and started reading the extras. I came upon the strip we did for the Monkey Day last year. What got me going was the punchline of the strip. **Note, the following is a spoiler, so if you haven’t read the strip, you should or you should skip this.** In the end of the post, Harry talks about having a banana and pepperoni pizza. I thought that was pretty funny and bizarre, and still do. Thing is, the idea of “banana” and pepperoni is not that far-fetched. Tostones are a Hispanic dish. They are made using plantains. Now, plantains look like bananas but they are not. They are bigger and they are not as sweet. However, they are related to bananas and despite what people say, they do have a bit of a banana taste. In a lot of countries they are used in a manner in which we would use potatoes in America. Tostones are often eaten with chorizo, which is a Mexican sausage. If you can’t get chorizo, an alternative is to use pepperoni. Thus, pepperoni and banana! Would it taste good on a pizza? No idea. Still, I was really tickled by this and thought I would share with you. If you want a recipe for tostones, check out this page.

Monkey Bread - It was about 4-5 years ago that I first learned about Monkey Bread. And all I can say is…where the heck was I? Simply put, monkey bread is awesome. It’s a sweet, pull-apart bread that you can make from bread dough or store-bought biscuits. It’s sweet and gooey and delicious. For our family, we like to throw in some walnuts, to it’s also nutty…just like us. When we first started making monkey bread, Linus was probably about 4 or 5. We used to muse about why it was called monkey bread. Linus’s explanation was that it was “made by monkeys in their tree ovens.” That imagery always made me laugh as I thought of this group of monkey cooking this bread up in the trees. Honesly, I never thought I would have an opportunity to translate that into an actual picture, but with Issue 199 I was able to do that! So, I do have to admit that this strip has a special place in my heart because of that, and it was so much fun to do. Of course, Jim’s favorite part of that panel is the Mustafa sitting in his armchair with his sidetable! If any of our readers are interested in monkey bread, here is a link to a page with a bit of history and some recipes.