The Official Blog of Ralph and Chuck

Read a book

I am very pleased with how this comic turned out. I was trying out a new skill and it worked beautifully.

I’ve done stuff with gradients before, but this is the first time I’ve tried to use fading gradients. Before, I could make one color fade into another color, but I had no idea how to make a color fade away into something transparent (which is especially important when you want the original colors to show up behind something like, say, a beam of light). I knew it shouldn’t be that difficult, so I poked around on Google for a while to see if I could find a way to do it, and obviously I did! I think the results speak for themselves.

I love reading. It’s one activity where you truly block out everything else and devote your mind to one thing. I’ve made a point to read more this semester than I have been since I started attending college. It’s true that sometimes even for people who enjoy reading, it’s easy to not do it as much with all of the other stimuli in our lives. Reading does take more of a mental effort than other activities. But it’s worth it.

A passel of unpunctual politics

I’ve been really lax about posting my comics lately! So here’s three-fer.

Looking back, Ralph and Chuck had a pretty political week. The first one is actually taken from a joke made by a friend, which has been copied here almost word for word here.

The big topic right now is contraception, specifically the portion of the health care law that forces private institutions to provide it for free. That’s what the next two comics cover.

It’s easy to get distracted by all the sex, but this contraception debate isn’t even about contraception itself. While this may be a difficult idea to convey in a comic strip, it’s really about whether the government has the authority under the constitution to force individuals to enter into private contracts under which the government sets the terms. I’d be as passionate about this issue whether it was over contraception or whether it was over bananas.

Aside from constitutionality, I hope I got across that the law is asinine and is clearly meant as a distraction. Access to birth control was never an issue until this administration made it an issue, and now we’re talking about this idiocy instead of how the country’s in the crapper. I can’t wait till I get to vote in November.

Pets and Panem

I just got back from a weekend at home, which I’ll use as an explanation (if not a particularly good excuse) for why I didn’t update the blog on Friday. I was busy spending time with my family.

Friday’s cartoon pretty much documents exactly how I was received by my pets on my return home. Dogs can’t wait to see you, and cats don’t care!

I just recently finished the first Hunger Games book, which was excellent. Today’s cartoon pretty much represents what went on when Lisa leant me the book (I finished it in one night, but I didn’t call her at 2:30 AM). I’m looking forward to the movie, but I’m wondering how they’re going to handle all the violence!