Good news!  My website, www.coolcartooning.com, isn't going to die after all!  Shortly after I notified the company, www.sbi.com, that I would be canceling the site, one of the site managers contacted me and asked if they could take it over for me.  They said they didn't want to see a good site die.  So, although I won't be making new cartoons for it that often, the site will be sticking around!  Also, I have new cartoons daily from other cartoonists on the Daily Giggle page.  So don't stop visiting!!

I finished the first draft of my mystery novel, entitled "Simon Quinn and the Dead Wind Hollow".  Name needs a little work.  It's been a lot of fun, and in a couple of weeks I'll be tackling the second draft, as well as the next draft of my science fiction novel.  Lots of fun!

My wife, when researching stuff on the computer, came across a disease called "Cataplexy", which is pretty similar to what I've got; in fact, it probably IS what I've got.  Cataplexy is a rare disease typified by a sudden loss of muscle tone and control.  Basically, it's temporary paralysis in different stages of severity.  It's more complicated than that, but you can look it up yourself in Wikipedia or something.  But that is exactly what I'm going through.  It's a disease closely tied to narcolepsy, the disease in which people fall asleep during the day all of a sudden.  In my case, my brain stays awake but my body falls "asleep".  Weird, but it's good to finally have an idea what's going on.  I'm going to run this by my doctor, and see what he says.

In other news, I've got another kidney stone!  My first kidney stone came around November 2007.  Then, the stone was really big; so big, I needed surgery.  But this one apparently isn't as big.  Which is bad, in a way, because it means I've got to pass it.  I'm in a lot of pain, and probably will be for a while.  Oh well.  Kidney stones are actually a side effect from the medications I'm taking for my seizure and fatigue conditions.  The doctor warned me about them, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise.  It doesn't make it any more fun, though.

Finally, I'm putting the finishing touches on my very first ventriloquist figure!  I've always loved ventriloquism, and have been dabbling in it since I was 12.  I've always wanted to build my own dummy, and so this is a dream come true.  I made it largely out of some hard epoxy stuff called Apoxie Sculpt.  I wouldn't use that stuff again, though.  Although it's hard when it dries and acts a lot like durable plastic, it's also pretty heavy, and you generally want your figures to be light.  Mine isn't terribly easy to handle, either.  The mechanics I put in are moving eyes and slot-jaw mouth.  Those seem to work pretty well, but I've discovered I did put the eyes too far back in the head.  Oh well!  It was still a lot of fun, and it was a great learning experience.  I'll do better on my next one.  When it's completed, I'll put up pictures of it here!