Idle Minds - News Archive

10/21/2000

And it was so!

Well, as you can no doubt see, there is something big tonight. Something that is bigger than any of us. Something that the entire world can enjoy. That something is, of course...

The World Series.

and, you know, the new layout. Sam here, or should I say, Secret Agent "Lazy-assed Samurai" here to give you the scoop, the skinny, the poop, the four-one-one, the info and whatnot on our new layout. *takes out a pointer* Okay, up here to the right, you'll notice a nice picture of a random cast member. Hit your reload button. It changed, didn't it? Yep, we kidnapped ourself one of them kick-ass programmer-types (Thanks, Dorm!) and he wrote us up a nice little cgi-script for it and was nice enough to host it on his very own Rydia.net server. Now then, if you look above, you'll see the new News banner so you can tell who's doing the news update so you can skip over it if it's me or something. *Points to the left* You'll also notice that we've rid ourselves of the link buttons, save for the link of the week, which happens to be to Lethal Doses, a really cool webcomic drawn by everyone's friend, Hot Soup. You'll also notice that we've got a mailing list for you to recieve your not-quite-daily dose of news-update goodness. Just slap in your email addy there and we'll do the rest with a little help from listbot.

Don't think that's all we've done. Oh no, not by a longshot. You'll notice today's comic isn't so much a comic as it is a picture. It's actually from our newly updated Characters section, which has newly-added Corey and Mer, as well as anime headshots for all the characters. It's also part of the new desktop background for you in the Stuff section! While you're there, check out the updated "Making of Idle Minds" feature, where you can see pictures of my desk and the original sketch for Amanda's character!

As you can tell, I've been doing a LOT of drawing this week, which is why we couldn't put up an update on Wednesday, so this link should be a sufficient apology. Besides, if I HAD done an update on Wednesday, it would have been PDOOMA.

I'll leave you all with this... use it wisely.

-Sam, who is STILL drawing more new stuff.

Better late than... nevermind..

Hey everyone, Sam here. Sorry about not having an update for Wednesday. I know that we might have worried one or two of you out there who had bets on our lives going (I've got $50 on November 12th, 2015), but we've just been busy working on a nice little surprise for you. Let's just say i've been drawing a LOT of new artwork. Not so much that I couldn't pump out a strip for today, though. The real life corey is starting to get a bit agitated about losing so often.. perhaps he'll get his revenge soon. I know the real-life Mer is enjoying it. =)

Okay, we've got to talk. One person posted in the forums. ONE person. ONE. Come on, people, you're better than that.

Okay, well, I'm tired and I need to draw more for tomorrow, so stay tuned for Sunday's strip and our big surprise!

-Sam, who has Japanese class in the morning.

Sam wa darui desu!

Hey everyone, Sam here. You know, in my line of work, if it's not a drought, it's a frickin' flash flood. I had work Friday and Saturday nights until around 2am each, so I couldn't get a strip drawn for Sunday, but thanks to Stig for doing so for me.

In that same vein, I got to meet and interview some cool people on friday. The first of which was Matt Corboy of Dare For Dollars, an internet show that has people do crazy things for some quick cash. It's a really cool show and I suggest you all go give it a watch. The second cool person that I got to interview was Kara McNamara, who co-created MTV's The Blame Game and was the female lawyer on said show. They're engaged (awwwwww) and they were both hi-larious on the show. (Oh, I should mention that my university produces a late night talk show called Nightcap, and I had the honor of hosting the last episode as part of the "audition season," and hopefully will get the position full time next season until I graduate.) Thirdly, I met a funnyman named Roger Smith, who is now making the comedy rounds at clubs and whatnot, and if he's coming to your area, make sure you go see him. Make SURE you go see him.

Ah, the age-old dilemma of either telling the girl you're going out with the truth and risk being brought in for credit card fraud, or going along with the charade and eventually legally changing your name to the one you told her. Such is today's strip. Hopefully we can rig up a poll of some sort that will allow people to vote to see what you think Sam should do. Until then, try discussing it in our FORUMS for a change.. yes, we have FORUMS.. just click on the button that says FORUMS to go to the FORUMS. Can you tell we want you to go to the forums?

-Sam, who is going to post in the FORUMS right now.

Yes! Finally a plotline! This one will actually go on through the end of this week and probably into next week and maybe even the week after! perhaps even longer! Why, you ask? Because I, Sam, enjoy pulling storylines out of my nether-regions, really. I tend to thrive on stress.. well, really, I don't, but I just like saying that.

Well, Stig's missing in action again.. I'm beginning to think he just likes watching me squirm at 11:45 to come up with a newspost for the day. ^^;; I guess i'm good at that.

You guys aren't going to the forums like I asked you to. Why not? If you don't go to the forums, then i'll be forced to spank each and every one of you.. well, I'll take the females and Stig will take the males. (shhhh.. i've heard things, if you know what I mean. wink wink nudge nudge)

On that note, I'm off to bed! New comic up on Friday to whet your collective whistles. In the meantime, seriously, check out Megatokyo. They rock something commonly referred to as fierce.

-Sam, relaxing comfortably with Friday's strip already done.

Proving a Point:

And that point would be that the SNES Super Mario Kart kicks the collective ass of the N64 Mario Kart. It's a proven fact, really. If you can resist the wonders of using the feather to take the shortcut on the haunted track level, then you're a soulless, heartless mass of flesh undeserving of true love. Well, not really.. aww, come on, Ike still loves ya, baby!

Not much else going on today, at least on my end. Stig may have something to say about that, though. I wouldn't know though, because he's asleep right now. *Pokes Stig with a pointy stick* See? Oh wait, that means he might be dead. I'll be calling an ambulance now, so in the meantime, check out the Forums and the Stuff section. And check out the Contact section! I'm under the impression that Stig redid that. Check in wednesday for a new comic!

-Sam, who actually finished through friday's strip!

Yes, that's right, a new character! He's going to be around every once in a while to provide relief from the tedium that are the other 5 characters. Some background info on him: He went to High School with Sam and Joel, he owns a bookstore and he shares the guys' love for pizza being delivered. There'll be more to come on it soon (read "Friday"), so keep an eye out for him.

Oh, this is Sam, by the way. Nice to be back again. My IE was getting all "wacked out" as it were, freeezing up and whatnot. It was rather quite annoying, seeing as how I have an intense hatred for Netscape. Anyway, we've got a little surprise for you all, Stig rigged up an Idle Minds Javachat in the stuff section! I've yet to check it out, so hopefully it works. Knowing Stig, though, it's probably twice as advanced as it needs to be.

Well, I'm on the clock right now, in the sense that I've got class tomorrow morning, so I'll sign off. Check back on Friday for a brand spanking new Idle Minds comic that I just drew yesterday. We've run through the reserves, so hopefully I can keep up with the demand for comics with another large cache of them whenever i get a chance to draw them up.

yo yo wazzup biznatches!
wait, that's not me.. restarting update in 5.. 4.. 3..

Hey everyone! Sam here with a News update for ya! You'll notice a different style for the comic today. Joel took a shot at drawing the strip for today, and I think it turned out pretty well. He keeps saying that he's "no good at drawing" and "can't draw to save his life" and "Sam, please don't make me do this" and "no!" and "no I won't let you forge a drawing and say it was from me" and "stop calling me and hanging up in the middle of the night" and "I know it's you! I *69'd you and you picked up!" and "I'm calling the police" and "I'm calling my lawyer" and "Sir, I represent Joel McCoy, and i have a restraining order"... and you get the picture. But I think it turned out well.

I know that Joel mentioned he was jumping on the Scribble bandwagon, and I have too. I just don't have the balls that Joel did in posting the link to my personal account in the news update.

Don't forget, there's new stuff in the, well, Stuff section. Ask for it by name!.

-Sam, having a bad day. =(

Yes! An anti-contest! Keep reading for more info on it!

Just a reminder: All comments about Stig's last two updates, please email Stig to complain.

With that out of the way, on to the news update. Sam here, picking up the slack for Friday, when I wasn't able to update becuase of a little computer problem. I'll admit it, I paid money for a microsoft operating system. I had to, repeat HAD to upgrade to Windows ME because my kernel 43 or whatever dll file was chronically failing. I also had a huge test on Friday morning, so I wasn't able to stay up that late. Fortunately, the test, which required me to be able to read and write Hiragana, one of the Japanese alphabets, was a take home test, and I knew more than I thought I did.

That put aside, it's time for my update's rant. No, it's not about communism or socialism. I'm a firm believer in capitolism and democracy and the good ol' American way. I'm not going to talk about that, though, because it seems to be netting Stig more than his fair share of emails..

I'm not going to talk about good parenting. I'm a believer that parents should monitor their children's behavior and what they're doing. Parents should monitor what websites their child goes to. We here at Idle Minds tend to not put things on the site that you wouldn't find during prime-time Television, or, failing that, an R-rated movie. The rating for most prime-time TV shows is TV-14, meaning that it's inappropriate for children under the age of 14. I like to think the same way for our strip. So, parents, don't blame us if your kids are picking up dirty language and terms and ideas from us. It's YOUR fault for not watching them.

I'm not going to talk about the upcoming elections and how I'm hesitant to vote for either Gore of Bush and how Nader's actually looking pretty good right now. I'm not going to talk about the startling lack of funny shows on Comdey Central. I'm not going to talk about the time delay that's killing the ratings for the Sydney Olympics. I'm not going to talk about Gundam models, as much as I'd like to. I'm going to talk about...

The secret of life.

That's right, the secret of life. I've found it to be three-fold.

1. Comfortable Shoes.

2. New Socks.

3. A really good parking place.

When I've got those three factors going for me, you could shoot a cute kitten point blank in front of me and I'd still have a good day. I say this because on Friday, these things came into alignment for me and I just had a really good day. I went to a nice big and tall shop to pick up a pair of dress shoes that I so desperately need and came across a pair in my size made by a company called Havana Joe. They're suede, kinda half-boots with the big sole, and they're padded. Oh so padded. I had put on a pair of new socks that morning, too.. and my parking place at school was nearly impossible to normally get. 3 spaces out. Normally, I'd have to "Vulture" (which is to circle the parking lot, waiting for people to walk out to their cars from class so you can ask them if they're leaving and possibly offer them a ride to their car to ensure you get their space) for about 15 minutes to get a spot that's 10 or 12 spaces out. 'Twas a glorious day, indeed.

Today's comic is indeed an anti-contest, meaning that it's something for you to do, but it's not a contest! It's more like officially licensed fan-art... wait, that makes it sound like we're hurting for fans.. Anyway, it started out as a joke because I couldn't think of anything for today's comic, so Joel suggested "Why not just make it blank and tell them to make up their own damn punchline?" and it just mutated from there. Basically, all you have to do to participate is fill in the blanks (It's in the appropriate Information/Gripe/Common Sense/Rude or snappy remark format), save it under 120k and send it on over to SSJVejita@home.com, and Joel, Stig and I (and possibly Lisa and Amanda) will go over the entries and put the funny ones up in the "Stuff" section, and possibly use some to fill in Sunday comics when we're too lazy to do them.

Once again, CHECK OUT THE FORUMS!!! They're starting to pick up. I know that we've got 150 or so normal readers, so why are only 4 of you posting in the forums?

Well, I'm out for now. But, before I go, don't forget to check out the...

Battlemail - While it doesn't look like much on the outside, beware, this game (free for download) is extremely addictive. There are actually two games for download, Battlemail Kung Fu and Battlemail Soccer. and 3/5 of the IM crew has been playing Kung Fu for a week now. Dare you challenge Sam or Stig? Both the bearers of black belts? Pssst.... I (Stig) made the banner myself! Yay me!