On Christmas Day in the Morning

Another month has blown by at a mindblowingly fast rate. It feels like I've been so active this past month, leaving me with plenty to blog about, yet also leaving me too busy to actually blog about it.

Most of December has been spent animating and enjoying unclehood. It really is crazy how much the baby has grown in his month. I'm a sucker for the kid, I could sit and hold him all day.

My Christmas preparations were fairly easy this year, mostly thanks to the fact that I did the majority of my shopping online. It wouldn't be Christmas without getting out to the stores at some point though, which I did last week. Of course, the insanity of the crowds out there tends to turn my brain to mush and I forget what I went to buy in the first place.

Mom and I went to Anthony's last week for the first time in ages. I have so many fond memories of being there around Christmastime, I hoped to be able to relive a little of that. While it was nice, it's just not the same with so many of the old faces no longer working there.

This past weekend was basically one giant game night. Corey, Mikey, Eric, Brendan, and Jeff all hung out on various nights, with the peak occurring on Sunday, when we all converged at once. There were even surprise visits from Larry, Clint, and Jake.

A nice new twist this Christmas break has been spending time with Nikki. Our common nerdiness and similar movie tastes always result in a good time. I never thought I'd enjoy being beaten in a game of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. Then again, I never thought I'd be beaten in a game of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit.
She even talked me into seeing Enchanted with her last Thursday, which, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed.

And now it's the wee hours of Christmas morning, so I had better get to bed. Don't want Santa to skip over the house.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday!

Those Pumpkins'll Getcha Every Time

Change of Plans

At the last minute, I got a quick and easy costume idea that I'm confident nobody else anywhere was wearing tonight. I decided to go as...

Cartoon Jacob!(click for full size)

And now for my pumpkin. The star of my most recent short...

Batman!
(click for full size)

Yeah, I'm weird, but it's fun.

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Hey! Hey!..err...Ho! Ho! Ho!

Countdown...

Well, we're leaving at 11 AM. This is gonna rule.
You all behave while Daddy's away, now.

The Patriot

Happy 4th, everybody!

-Jacob

Wrong Turn

My day started with my yearly appointment where I basically go in to show I'm still disabled so I get my medical shtuff paid, it was an interesting experience. I'll spare you that story though, too odd.

As Mom and I left, I mentioned that I'd like to stop at Borders to browse some books. Mom thought she knew of a quicker, more direct way to get there. Roughly ten minutes later, we found ourselves on a long, straight road in the middle of a sparsely populated farming town. A roadside sign kindly welcomed us to Leroy Township. It's one of those places you always hear the name of, bu have never actually been there. It was actually a nice visual treat: little rivers and streams, endless rolling fields, cute farmhouses. There were a couple rickety old houses along the way which quickly had me humming "Dueling Banjos" to amuse myself. The one bad thing was the heat. It was a sunny, ninety degree day, even the wind felt hot as we flew down this neverending road.
I actually enjoyed our little detour, but Mom was a bit stressed. She handled it pretty well, but it's a sure thing that she should never be allowed to drive a truckload of nuns or small children anywhere. Mom's vocal stress relief would most likely result in shock-induced heart attacks or an impromptu exorcism attempt, from my seat it's a pretty funny thing to behold.

About a quarter tank of gas later we were back in familiar territory. "Screw Borders" was the mutual decision as we instead headed to Denny's to cool off. Listen up, folks- next time you're at Denny's, do yourself a favor and order the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. It's so ridiculously delicious, it must be terrible for you, but trust me, you won't care. Tell 'em Jacob sent you, then watch the amusingly blank stare you'll be met with.

On another note, when I got home tonight, I was fortunate enough to chat with the lovely Sara. She told me she had visited the site and my mention of her in a previous entry made her blush. So, it seems only fitting that I now do this...

That oughta do the trick!

Stay cool.

-Jacob

Hippity Hop

Happy Easter, gang!
Here's a quick cartoon for y'all, enjoy!

Rollin' On

For those site visitors who may not know, I'm disabled and in a wheelchair, hence the title of my blog. I've had this last chair for a whopping twelve years. They don't even make this kind of chair anymore. Vintage, baby. I've bonded with the chair, we've gone a lot of places together and done a lot of things, but the fact is she's getting old. As much as I hate to retire her, it's time to bring in some new wheels.

Back in October we set things in motion to get me a new ride. We met with the folks at the wheelchair place, discussed what I needed, chose a chair model, and most importantly, chose the color. Midnight blue, ooh yeah. They put the case into the system and said they'd call us in four to six months.

A few weeks ago we got the call. A mix of excitement and dread came over me. I tried to let the excitement win out, but it wasn't that easy. Past experiences gave dread the edge. When getting past wheelchairs, my family and I have spent literally all day there as I was fitted and the chairs were customized. I wasn't in the mood for that again.

Three weeks ago I went for the first fitting. It was eight hours of doing our best to get this chair customized to my body. Seven of those eight hours were spent trying to get the back support right. After those seven hours they finally actually listened to me and tried the arrangement I suggested. What a surprise, it worked. At the end of the day there was a lot left to do, so we had to schedule a second fitting.

Monday we went back for part two. It was a short day, only seven hours. It was actually a fairly smooth day, we got the seat, supports, and controls set up as best we could and they let me leave with the new chair. It was the only true test for the chair, to see how I could function in my daily life with it. After we left, Mom and I decided to take it for a test drive at Target. Let me tell you, this thing moves like a bat out of hell and turns on a dime. Day one was a success. The following days were not quite as smooth.

The next day it felt like someone had messed with everything in the chair, though that wasn't the case. Everything about it was uncomfortable and I couldn't even sit in it.

Wednesday I decided to suck it up and head out in the chair again to give it another try. This is when it dawned on me that nobody must actually test these designs very thoroughly. The chair is designed to help take bumps easier. The front wheels are mounted on little arms that raise em when they hit a bump so that the big center wheels can take the brunt of it. Brilliant idea! The only problem? The motor is mounted so low on the chair the entire thing scraped across the bump! Talk about canceling out a great idea. The rest of the day went well as I went to the Cleveland International Film Festival, you can read more about that in my next blog.

Yesterday I did my best to compile a list of what all needs to be fixed. After fifteen hours of work, it's frustrating to have so many things still need to be fixed, but the fact is I should be more comfortable in the new chair, not in more pain. We've got to get it right. For the thousands of dollars chairs like this cost, there's no reason for this much discomfort and struggle. Mentally I'm not ready to go back for more work, but I've got to do what I've got to do. Wish me luck, gang.

And now, though it's a day late, here's a little cartoon by yours truly. Enjoy!



-Jacob

A Little Bit of Action!

Valentine's Day is nearly upon us, so what does that mean? Time for another one of my annoyingly overdue blog entries!

You may have noticed (yeah, all five of you) that updates to the site have drastically decreased. I assure you though, there's actually a good reason that doesn't involve me being lazy, quite the opposite in fact!

For those of you who don't know, a few months ago I found myself in contact with Zoe of Frankly Zoe Productions and we clicked. To make a long story short, Zoe asked me if I'd like to write a short film for her annual Youth Summer Movie Project. Excitedly, I accepted her offer.
I searched for an idea and finally thought of something we could possibly use, I tossed the idea at Zoe. She played with it a bit and tossed it back. We tossed it back and forth. Playing catch is fun. Anyway, Zoe finally said what I had been hoping she'd say. The idea had too many possibilities to be just a short film, we're gonna make it feature length!

So, ladies and gentlemen, that's why it's been so long since I've updated, I've been working on my screenplay, bay-bee!
I'm writing this bad boy, I'll be 1st Assistant Director, and yes, it appears I'll also be acting. What can I say? I'm a jack of all trades!
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated via this handy dandy lil blog here, so stay tuned...or favorite place...or bookmark...whatever you wanna call it.

I also promise the site'll have some more updates soon, including a brand new section I think some of you are gonna like. Oh, and do I have to beg you guys to make use of the Ask Jacob section? Come on! ;)

Until next time may you be Cupid's target. Happy Valentine's Day!

-Jacob

PS- The winner of the "Name My Computer" challenge is Sparroweye! Sure, she was the only one to enter, *glares at the rest of you* but she gave good suggestions. So, Sparroweye, Lois and I congratulate you!

Y2K...5 Years Late

Happy New Year, everyone!



Well, I don't know about you, but my 2005 has gotten off to a hectic start. We had a nice Christmas, Jolly Ol' Saint Nick was good to me. After a quiet New Year's Eve at home with Mom, I had a nearly constant flow of company visiting. Over Winter Break I even met three new friends!

Uh oh, what's this? I think...yep...I feel a shoutout coming on, watch out! Hey Bridget, Adrienne, and Eric!

Okay, the shoutout's over, is everyone okay?

So this weekend was the big finale game night before everyone headed back to college and it was good. Hands were tested, thumbs were blistered, and Jeff was named the new commissioner of our Playstation 2 wrestling league.

The following day I was just in a bad mood, feeling a bit down. 11 PM rolls around and I decide to get comfy, watch a DVD, and chat a bit on my laptop. So I get comfy, I get my laptop...it won't start, it just shows a blinking question mark. Obviously the work of the Riddler. So I give Batman a quick call to see what's up, but apparently the Riddler prefers Windows. That blows that theory, so I immediately call Corey, a fellow Mac user, to see if I can get a nugget of wisdom from him.

"You're screwed." Not exactly what I was hoping for, but hey, at least he's honest.

I went on my PC to see what help I might be able find online. I found a few things, tried them all, none worked. I worked until 3 AM before quitting for the night, not knowing whether or not I had just lost everything I had spent so much time working on. No, I didn't have backups. I know, I know, shoosh.
Oddly enough, I had been planning all last week to buy a nice big external harddrive, just incase anything like this would happen. The day I had decided would be good to order it...yesterday. Irony. Ha.

Yesterday, the first thing I did after waking up was call the Apple help line. The lady was very helpful, but extremely dry. This was a prime example of why I hate phones. I tried to lighten things up with a couple quick one-liners and I'm pretty sure I heard crickets chirping at the other end of the line. I swear I heard her sigh a couple times like I was interrupting something. What a fun conversation.

Anyway, after a fifteen minute phone call and about an hour of work, my laptop's back on track and none of my info is lost. I DO have to re-update my system though. 97 MB on a dial up connection, I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

Y'know, I've had this laptop for a while now and aside from a few hiccups, she's been really good to me. I think she deserves a name, anyone got any name suggestions? C'mon, consider it an assignment, folks. Bring on the names!

-Jacob