ante diem xii kalends june 2003 c.e. Have I mentioned that I need to find a decent armchair to put in my living room so I can sit someplace and have quiet time rather than lying on the bed and dicking around on the computer? First it'd be comfortablerer and secondly it will allow me to sit around with Spot in my lap while I smoke my meerschaum, read my Dostoevsky and contemplate the finer points of my unintentionally monastic existence. Cerebus the Aardvark So I have pretended that I have interested readers and emailed me asking what exactly is Cerebus the Aardvark. Cerebus is a barbarian aardvark who started out as a funny animal parody of Conan and became the Kitchen Supervisor for Lord Julius of Palnu then Prime Minister of Iest, it's like Europe, then becoming pope when he witnesses the previous pope's assassination. One of the recurring storylines in Cerebus, besides the various women in his life, has been a love interest by the name of Jaka. Who's that? She's a young noble who took to dancing in the seediest bars after a perceived slight by her uncle Lord Julius, a dead ringer for Groucho Marx, then went on to meet Cerebus during the profession of her Art. Cerebus falls in love with her after being drugged and when he snaps out of it she comes to him so they could run away together and he brushes her off because he doesn't remember her due to his previous intoxication. She tells him that she'll wait forever for him. Fast forward a couple of years and a change of jobs for Cerebus and he has her brought to him. Cerebus discovers that Jaka has married and is pregnant. Cerebus says he's going to give up his current position and leave with Jaka for a happily ever after. She turns him down because she's married. Cerebus ascends and returns to find the world has changed for the worse. He ends up being a houseguest in the modest apartment of Jaka and her husband Rick. Once again Cerebus professes his love for Jaka and she tells him how she loves Rick. Cerebus hears the couple fighting all the time and leaves to buy some white paint. Upon his return he discovers everything has been destroyed and ends up sitting in a catatonic state in front of a bar. Much later, at a different bar, Cerebus meets up with Rick again and inspires Rick to become a prophet. Rick's not so much of a girly-boy anymore but he can't take Cerebus's attitude and stubbornness, fucks Cerebus's ex-girlfriend and leaves before telling Cerebus that Cerebus will see Rick one more time. Guys and Rick's Story are my favorite stories. At the end of these stories which take place in one place and deal with fictionalized writers (Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway) he goes off with Jaka and realizes that life with her isn't everything that he dreamed about or had imagined during her absence. Jaka was one of the more likeable characters in Cerebus but she royally fucked over Cerebus. Cerebus comes from Isshuria, a dreaded nation to the north which is very conservative, where women are treated as they are treated in muslim countries. She convinces Cerebus that she could put up with that as long as she had her own space and when they arrive in Sand Hills Creek, his hometown, all the doors are being slammed and locked. Cerebus is undergoing a shunning much like the Amish. When they finally see someone outside Jaka decides to remove her left mitten making it obvious to everyone that she is not married to Cerebus. Our, erm, hero then takes his own advice and tells Jaka "Go on, beat it, scram!" I'm waiting for Latter Days to be collected in a trade paperback so I can read it since Cerebus comics are rare in comic shops since the current circulation is 6000 and dropping from what I have read in various Cerebus forums. It's sad too since it's coming up on issue 300 where Dave Sim ends the series and retires or blows his brains out or ends up drinking himself to death. That's my haphazard description and summary of Cerebus. New Jersey: Denounment I always read that as "de-noun-ment" as if taking away from the object status of a word and making it into something else or something inferior. I know the correct pronunciation is "day-noo-mon" but that's seriously gay. One thing I forgot to mention about my trip to New Jersey is the fact that my mother said "You can't always go home again." She seems to have a knack for reciting aphorisms simply because they seem to fit the situation not because they mean anything. I came home again and most likely I will return to New Jersey again because there is nothing stopping me from making a trip. I have friends, I have nothing but good memories and feelings about New Jersey. I don't believe that I have changed or I have changed much. The only baggage I've brought with me is my intolerance, my anger management issues and the feelings of being predestined for failure which appear to have no objective basis in reality. One More Thing I have no idea when the Birds got home but I'm under the impression that I went into their apartment an hour before their return to feed Chumky and make sure she was in good health. I felt silly.