Category: News

I invite everyone to check out the new banner. All systems are go for a new independent animated film production. Now what?

Well, my focus now is directed towards raising the necessary funds, on top of what I need for living expenses et cetera. I have been relieved of my lucrative construction job, due to my inability to control my temper, so I am now back to my paltry cartooning income and eBay sales. I am an irascible and unhappy man and working a 9-to-5 around people who often decide to be disrespectful and shitty never works out. I walked off the job rather than go to prison for killing someone.

I’ve done everything within my power over the past 20+ years to help the world understand that hearing music which I feel is superficial and/or devoid of talent is literal torture for me. So instead of murdering a human being for hurting my ears and disrespecting me while I’m working, I removed myself from the situation*. Don’t ever ask me why I didn’t just “ask them to turn it down”. Whatever the reason, when I am “being tortured” enough, I can’t be anything but physically violent. This goes all the way back to high school. All the way back to working in the mall record store in the early 1990’s. It’s why I created Bands I Useta Like in the first place.

Oh yeah- the deadness in my arms that I mentioned in prior updates wasn’t caused by the construction job (which actually helped fix it). Hey- remember the months and years we were all forced to work out of our homes, thanks to our coward fraud government? Well guess what. For like two years straight I held my arms at chest-level sitting at a desk or computer. Over time my shoulders hunched up and my arms withered because I was constantly resting them on armrests. So I started waking up in the morning with lifeless hands, because for less than 20 minutes a day I was standing with my arms at my sides. Since I was never walking, there was never any natural momentum to drag blood to my fingertips. If you ever wonder why some of us still seek a windpipe to crush regarding the “pAnDeMiC”, I hope this clears that up. Heed my warning/example.

I’m too tired right now to finish this, and I need to give my li’l hamster pal some TLC before I hit the hay. (He’s on my shoulder supervising at the moment.) If I haven’t already said so, past/present/future donors to my cause are all slated to be credited as executive producers. I’d like to reward every donor with a miniature John’s Arm figurine, but I haven’t figured out the logistics on that yet. I have pages and pages of treatments and notes, with some dialogue, and things have really picked up now that I have the aesthetic concept properly defined. As I’ve told my secret collaborator, I had to rediscover the uniqueness of what I’d created, and relearn its appeal. I had to work out how to introduce the world to the John’s Arm universe a second time, without retracing my steps or anyone else’s. And now that I’m working in high-definition, it’s a whole new ball game compared to 2005. You see them fire and lightning effects I did in the trailer? Yeah bro.

Stay tuned. Time for zzz now. Gomez the hamster says hi.

*Next Day Edit: I neglected to mention that when I flipped out over the ear-splitting music and walked, I’d also been watching my friend basically killing himself doing the job for no money, because we hadn’t been paid yet and hadn’t eaten a thing that day. Kind of a crucial detail that hopefully will help folks understand that I’m less psychotic than I might seem. Believe me, it takes a hell of a lot for me to just ditch a job like that in Current Times. Thanks for your understanding.

Okay so I just figured something out this morning that tied a great many things together. And hey, if you were a Patron, you could learn about stuff like this on the regular. 

I have been working on other people’s houses for 6 to 8 hours a day, a few days a week. Even this combined with everything else I make doing cartoons is barely enough to get by for another month. It’s been a lot of good exercise and sunshine, but I’ve been in a very foul humor for weeks now, partly because of the way the country is going, but mostly because my arms have been working off and on for some time. Arms, hands; y’know. What do I use those for anyway, right?

I became less out of shape during the phony “lockdown” than most guys my age, and you know God damn well I refused vaccination and will continue to do so indefinitely. (Hey, if you think the resentment’s ever gonna go away, I don’t know what to tell you.) My mind started to wander down darker paths as I woke up at 6 am once again unable to feel or close my hands. Tendonitis? What does arthritis feel like? Is this something that will combine with my slowly diminishing eyesight to finally kneecap my career as an artist? Is it chickens coming home to roost from past injuries? Mom had MS, but doctors told me I’d never get it. Then again doctors have told me a lot of things in the last few years. 

I calmed myself down by figuring it was just nerve damage from the green bruises on my forearms caused by flinging eight-foot ladders and sixteen-foot 2×8’s around a muddy suburban backyard. Then yesterday while priming a ceiling I almost had to tap out from the searing pain and numbness in my arms. I couldn’t hold my arms over my head for more than a minute at a time, and my left arm continued to mess up the rolling by crapping out intermittently. All that kept me from losing my composure was knowing that at home after work, there was some really amazing weed waiting. Seriously, I was like just let me get through to 4pm. 

I only mention the weed because without it I wouldn’t have figured all of this out. 

Sometime in early 2020 (I think) I bought a posture corrector off Amazon for a few bucks. For a few more, sometime earlier I bought a new desk chair for working, that had actual lumbar support, which my previous chair lacked. Both of these things improved my posture and overall mood significantly over the following three years. The chair, although still comfortable and such, has a deflated seat cushion that makes you sink down when you sit in it. 

So you don’t realize it, but for extended hours, you’re sitting slumped while working at the desk, propping yourself up on your elbows. Meanwhile, your shoulders compress into your neck and spine, and they not only cut off blood to your head, but they grow weaker, because they’re rarely holding the balanced weight of your two arms. Which also begin to grow weaker, and your hands become numb and itchy. 

Okay, now let’s add a perfectly good posture protector into the mix. The one I have works by compressing your lower ribs, so that your spine naturally aligns your ribcage and sternum. However, it uses shoulder straps that can press against your neck and underarms. If you slump in a chair with your elbows on the armrests while wearing this device, that’s exactly what those shoulder straps do, slowly putting your arms to sleep, while also putting a very weak sleeper hold on you. 

Bottom line is, before heavy physical work carrying things through and working in Georgia sunlight for several hours a day, I have been having coffee while unintentionally putting my arms and head to sleep. 

I raised the armrests of my desk chair this morning when I figured this out, and the problems with my arms and hands have been slowly evaporating (and this is with the posture corrector on). Holding my arms up to the keyboard to type this (my keyboard is above elbow level, as is my desk where I draw) is making my hand start to fall asleep again, so I’m taking that as confirmation that my theory is correct. Folks: you have to put your arms down. Our bodies are not built to keep our arms above waist-level for extended periods. You just end up hunching at the neck and messing yourself up. Trust me, this was a painful lesson. It just was more embarrassing than life-threatening and I’m glad I waited until I figured out what was what. Now that so many of us sit at desks all day, God only knows what kind of conditions are being misdiagnosed and improperly treated. 

Even now my arms are still over-correcting to avoid the armrests which are no longer in place. Learn from my mistakes, people. Don’t eff up your core because you don’t realize how bad your seated posture is, and that it takes time and effort to fix when it gets worse. I thought I was taking extra naps because I passed 50; turns out I was choking myself out in the mornings. And I think you can grasp why the “hands slowly ceasing to function” was stressing me out a tad. 

More to come.