Sadly, today’s comic strip chronicles events pretty much as they happened. My sister (Lin/Xin) and her husband had helped me with the movers earlier in the day to get all the “regular” things out of my apartment and I was left with just the “precious” stuff. My buddy Michael (the Cornfather) stopped by later that night to see if I needed any help, but I foolishly said, “Nah” and sent him on his way. Then began the 14-hour epic journey between my old apartment and new, dollying boxes, collectibles and other items back and forth the entire length of time. Thank the gods I had a dolly. I nearly declined the offer of it from my buddy, Mike (Coolhand), and had I not had that thing I’d probably still be moving.
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Sorry for getting the strip up a day late! Let’s just say Friday the 13th (yesterday) proved worthy of its reputation. Even the audition I had that afternoon proved, uh, bizarre.
Poor Jefbot! XDD
Either my computer is tripping out on my and not showing others comments….or I just posted the first comment.
poor jefbot indeed, JoLee! just looking at this strip brings back all the pain for me. heheh.
and, nope, your computer isn’t tripping out – you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! i literally just posted the strip and was editing the blog when your comment came through. as such, the Shades are yours and you must wear them well: they’ll help shade your eyes in the bright light of morning, and illuminate your vision during the dark of night (should you ever find yourself in a situation like bot, here):
😎
Omigosh, yaaaay! This is my first time getting the shades! Thank you jefbot! I will wear them with honor and pride!
BTW, I hope by “bizarre” audition, it didn’t go too bad for you! I hope everything goes by well for you, and once again, thank you for this comic! It always brightens up my day!
woo! congrats on your first Firsting, JoLee! and i’m happy the strip continues to brighten your day – you saying that actually makes my day brighter, too. 🙂
as far as the audition goes, it was bizarre in the sense of the timing of it and the events that evolved from it. can’t say much more since i don’t want to sound like i’m complaining (in case my agent reads this. heheh.) besides a “bizarre” audition is generally better than “no” audition!
NOOOO I was planning for the first comment!! DD: I’ve been refreshing since yesterday!! Anyway Bot should give me all his Batman stuff, I’m sure that’s a good box worth. (;
sorry, Nat! i’m sure the Shades will be yours sooner or later. keep trying! and, yes: i can definitely vouch for bot having at least two boxes worth of Batman stuff. probably three.
You know when I first moved out I hardly had a rooms worth of things to move, most of it fitting in a truck I had, since I had been living at home with my parents for 18 years of my life and only had a rooms worth I figured it would take forever to even get another rooms worth….
Those video games and collectables really stack up.
you speak truth, Zolen! after moving out of my parents’ house my amount of geek loot went up exponentially. i’ve been able to curb that somewhat in recent years (mostly since JEFbot started taking up most of my free time) but i’d really like to try to reverse the trend, now. 🙂
Writing comics seems to be a fun thing to spend time on regardless, I always wondered what it would be like, shame I am more for writing then drawing. (My prized drawings are mostly stick figures sadly :P)
writing comics is totally fun, Zolen, and much different than writing pure prose. you should give it a try if you’re interested, and don’t let the “stick figures” get you down – it hasn’t stopped XKCD, and that’s one of the biggest comics out there.
Poor ‘bot!
I only have a few things that I wouldn’t trust anyone else to move: my computers, video games, maybe a few irreplaceable books. Also my CDs, some DVDs, my rock and mineral collection, the family coin collection, and… unnnnnnggghhh! I can’t even lift ’em now! (When we had to move our stuff out to have new floors put in 2 years ago, I almost hurt myself just getting some of my things on the dolly!)
Love the new banner; looks like ‘bot is still in Tetris mode!!
i feel ya, Insectoid – i really have to start putting my stuff in smaller boxes; just filling some of the big boxes with my collection of hardcover books raised eyebrows (and popped neck veins) on some of the movers. not to mention my boxes filled with tech and gadgets. i can’t even imagine how heavy your “rock and mineral” collection was!
and glad you like the new banner! it’s bot in his “pixel-eyes” mode, as seen here: JEFBOT.234.
I probably didn’t mention that the next-door move was in Bloomington, IN where we got interested in fossil collecting. Can you say Big-Heavy-Boxes-O-Rocks? They moved out here to CO with us too. And books have always made up a disproportionate volume of my junk. Smaller boxes are definitely necessary!
i’ve learned my lesson about using small boxes instead of big ones, Shanna. although i hate to even think of moving, i’ll be way more prepared next time. 🙂
yikes – boxes of rocks!?? my movers would’ve hated me even more than they already did!
Erm well… the rock and mineral collection is in a small container and is actually only around 20 lbs. (they’re small samples).
*whew!* well that’s not so bad.
This happened to me. I was moving from one apartment to another in the very same building. I figure I could do it all by myself, without a dolly. After all, I didn’t have THAT much stuff. Well, two days later and I was finally done moving. ugh…
having a “close proximity” move is deceiving, Saeed! hopefully, this strip (and comments like yours) will serve as a lesson to those who might share the same fate. 😉
Yea, so when I moved next door and thought it was going to be so easy, we moved everything by hand, a box at a time. I was a post doc at the time and we enlisted the help of my lab mates. They helped move furniture, and we carried drawers over individually, or two at a time, with all the stuff still in them. My advisor got the drawer with my underwear and bras. *facepalm*
Again, I feel your pain. I can’t believe you moved all those boxes yourself! I hope stairs were not involved. 😛
I helped my two neighbors move a while back. The female of the pair had a dresser drawer that wasn’t removed from her dresser and was taped shut. She gave specific instructions on this drawer not being removed from the dresser. Her instructions were honored by myself and the rest of the moving party. Later on, I was walking up the stairs and overheard her father tell about how the frobidden drawer came out of the dresser, fell to the ground and revealed its contents ( during a previous move ). This included a certain device that was shaped like a rod and vibrated at the touch of a button. This device was rendered highly visible in a public place. I didn’t find out who was being spoken to as I already had too much information.
aagh! see, this is why “Darke Magicks” boxes must be utilized properly during moves, Rainey! i’m actually surprised it took an accident for the forbidden drawer to have spilled its contents – i have friends that would’ve taken those “specific instructions” as an invitation to discover what exactly it was that i wanted concealed so badly.
ha! well, at least it was a drawer full of “underwear and bras” and not a drawer full of “Darke Magicks,” Shanna. 😉
fortunately, my new apartment has a rickety old elevator installed. unfortunately, my old place did not, but at least going downstairs is easier than going up.
o,O dang broski. i feel bad cuase we moved into the house nex door cause our landlord at the time wouldnt let us buy so we just bought the house nex door and the move was hard but really fast (the hard parts were the beds cause my fam hav stupid beds like overly comfortable and not able to take apart and are heavier than a team of sumo wrestlers -.- ) and it took bot forever to move like not that much :O i guess should really be grateful for those organizing skills ^ u ^
It didnt put my name 😮
well, a comfortable bed is worth its weight in Sumo wrestlers, MrSnow, so i’m sure it was all worth it in the end. 🙂
and consider the panels of today’s strip to be time-lapse snapshots of bot’s move. i.e. there were a lot more boxes he dollied to the new place (i can attest!), but i couldn’t chronicle them all. that it took him over 12 hours to complete the move in the dead of night (not to mention this is after he already spent the entire day with the movers) should shed some light on just what a herculean effort he made that night/morning.
I c, i c. Poor bot, tis the fate of a gamer. For a short time i was healthy then videogames-anime-manga-fastfood-television-metal took over, maybe bot can jus bulk up a bit even though this was bout endurance not strength
Gee, I feel sorry for him.
If I were in his situation, then here’s what I’d do.
So I have a huge pile of my precious things. Divide it into 2. The “You Can touch this, just wear gloves and have several people carry it with you” pile, and the “THIS IS MINE!!!” pile. Now on a ratio of what I carry to what they carry, it would be 1:25 or more.
wait, the ratio was reversed. 25 or more:1.
the pile you see in today’s strip was the “THIS IS MINE!!!” pile, ShadowShuffler! heheh. he already divided out what he would allow others to touch. remember, he wouldn’t even allow his best bud to help him with this stuff. sad, but true. 🙂
Never underestimate bot’s devotion to his stuff! That move was a labor of love. Great job on bot’s facial expressions: the protectiveness of the 1st panel, the blind self confidence of the 2nd, the determination of the 6th, to the exhausted triumph at the end. Really masterful work!
ha! it kinda was a labor of love, Brad L.! but it was a special love that bot (and i) really don’t need to experience again. some types of love are just better when they’re fleeting. 🙂
and thanks for the kudos on the artwork! those expressions took quite a bit of time (another labor of love!) so i’m happy you noticed.
This reminds me of having to pull late-night scullery duty during my first summer job as a dishwasher back in Highschool. My coworker called in sick on a day that the cooks were particularly messy with the meal-making, resulting in me having to do more than twice as many dishes as usual, and not getting home until around 1 am.
The job of dishwashing in a restaurant can cause you to need to stay late. Once I worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant and I landed a job at an electronics assembling plant. Sometimes I ended up being a few minutes late for my plant job because I needed to stay late to get dishes done. ( You can’t exactly leave dirty dishes lying about in a restaurant. ) Once my boss at the assembling plant called me into his office and told me he couldn’t have me continue being late. I explained to him about my dishwashing job causing me to be late. When he told me he still needed me to be on time, I told him that I would quit my restaurant job so that I could be on time at this job. He told me that would be fine. He then waited for the day I quit my restaurant job to fire me from that job so that I’d be unemployed. I was furious!
what a horrible boss, Rainey! was it a coincidence that he fired you right after you quit your other job or do you actually think he did it purposefully? either way, that totally sucks. hope you got an even better job after that.
ugh. i remember those days when i worked retail, Soul Man, where you just have to take it one step at a time cuz the task seems impossible to complete. hope your coworker appreciate your efforts. 🙂
I hope it doesn’t take us too long to move everything >> We have a lot of stuff.
i’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, dj. plan as much as you can!
Wow, I kinda feel sorry for you. I am glad I live in a smaller area and don’t have as many horribly precious things.
thanks for the sympathy, D25! it’s my own fault though – i really need to get rid of some of this stuff before my next move. 😛
Poor you. Gotta move the PRECIOUS! Can’t let hobbitses have the Precious. *snerk*
heheh. i think if the Cornfather had pushed him a bit more, bot totally would’ve gone full Gollum on him, KB!
ditto!
Man bot, the look on your face you look like some zombie who smoked a whole lot of weed. Still kudos on sticking to your guns
it’s entirely probable that jefbot’s feeling like a member of the undead at this point, Jiro. Corn better make sure that bot doesn’t have a hankering for brains.
I foresee one hell of a crash coming up when bot lets himself slow down enough. Maybe a well-placed trip from the Cornfather will help get him down.
I’m noticing a recurring theme with bot: horrifically bad sleeping habits. To hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature? 😉
Misquote alert: “When someone asks you if you need help moving, Ray, you say yes!”
How long before you had the feeling back in your legs . . . and how long before you wished you hadn’t? Ever?
Not to ignore great strip when I see one, but do we get to see Coolhand, Lor, Akira and rest of cameo charaters any time soon again? I allways think that such cameos are great for interactions with regular charaters and for showing that not only main cast exist in the comic world. Just one of the many reasons why I like your strips that deal with auditions, getting coffe or going to the arcade more than some of the other wierd but funny stuff.
Well, if you’re anything like me, cleaning and/or moving is time-consuming because I get involved in items I’ve forgotten about. I think you covered that in a strip not too long ago. I’m guessing some of that time was spent checking and replying to messages and posts on your phone.
This reminds me of a couple of days ago when we moved out of our storage shed. Took an hour and a half to fill the 26′ truck, then 7 hours to unpack because it was just my wife and me (and some of my daughter). We didn’t finish until about 1 AM because we were so tired we were moving in slow motion (did you see what I did there?).
Moving is torture! Ugh, you captured so accurately in your timeline. Hope the new place is one you love.