As I sit typing this it’s Friday night and I’ve just had a bitch of a week at work. The only things that got me through was the prospects of this weekend. It’s highlights include going to see the new Muppet movie and settling down in front of Andy’s ridiculously large tv screen to watch The Clone Wars animated series on Blu Ray but what I’m most excited about is getting my PC back. Not only will it reunite me with Photoshop and mean that I can stop using the abomination that is Photoshop Elements but it also means that I can finally finish watching series two off Community. Thank you Marcus for returning my baby to me, I know that being immortalised in my strip is small payment but get used to it because it’s all you’re getting. I don’t usually write the posts this far ahead of schedule but I need to build a bit of a buffer with the strip as not only am I away this weekend, I’m also away next weekend. For three days. Meeting Stan Lee. And that is the thought that will get me through work next week.

I love Secret Circle. Love it. I know I’m not exactly the target demographic but I don’t care. I’ve always enjoyed Kevin Williamson’s work, it’s taught me a lot over the years. Dawson’s Creek taught me that the nerdy guy who spent all of high school watching films could get the girl (lying bastard Williamson!), Teaching Ms. Tingle taught me that those in authority can be, and often are wrong and that if you think you can do something don’t let anyone tell you otherwise and The Vampire Diaries taught me that it’s ok if everyone thinks you’re ripping off Twilight, as long as you make one of the best shows on TV and have at least one heart torn from it’s chest each episode. Secret Circle holds up to the high standards set by these previous works but adds to it a healthy dose of jail bait cleavage. Seriously Kevin, it was the one ingredient missing from your near perfect formula and I can’t believe it took you this long to figure it out!

On the art side of things, I’ve realised that my state of mind directly affects the quality of art I produce. Lately my head hasn’t been 100% in the strip and I’ll admit I phoned in a couple of strips and it definitely shows in the art. Lately I’ve been listening to The Nerdist writers panel podcasts and they’ve really inspired me. I know I’m not exactly writing television scripts here but I’ve found them so inspirational and they’ve made me want to be creative again and reminded me that there is a world out there beyond the mindless trudge of office life. It’s given me something dream for again and given me the ambition to work hard to get it. Lets just hope this new mindset lasts once I’ve finished catching up on the Nerdist back catalogue.

I’m loving How I Met Your Mother at the moment. I borrowed the first two seasons from someone at work and have been devouring the episodes. I’ve even been getting up an hour early and watching  it. This has been done in an attempt to train myself to get used to being up at that time in preparation for my triumphant (and at this point entirely theoretical) return to the gym and rewarding myself for doing so with episodes of HIMYM has been a remarkably effective  motivational tool.  I think maybe I have struck upon the Holy Grail of personal training; your reward for getting off your ass and doing something is to sit on your ass and do nothing. I’ve certainly mastered the second part of that equation, it’s just the first part that’s proving a problem. Ahh well, I still have the rest of the second series before I have to worry about leaving the sofa.