Yeah, my bad.  Anyway, here’s our end of summer podcast!  The topics include:

- Spencer is super busy!

- What we did this summer!

- People quitting on the internet!

- How we would quit our jobs!

- Spencer talks about who he wants to punch in the face!

- We finally discuss Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen!

- Summer Movies!  (In particular Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)

MUSIC:  “Come Back To You” by Silence is Sexy – http://www.silenceissexy.nl

You know, when I was a small child (and presumably less, ahem, mature than I am perceived to be now), we had a word “gleek”.

If I am recalling correctly, it referred to the act of projecting a small amount of spittle, sometimes to the distance of several feet, hitting a target with accuracy.

I was never capable of accomplishing this feat, although I believe I was targeted at least a couple of times during my elementary school days (a period some of you might refer to as “grammar school”, but I never understood that because I didn’t do well in grammar.  I was more of a maths person.)

But I digress.

Nowadays of course, the terminology refers to a very different act and or person – someone who is a fan of the hit show “Glee”, which returns tonight on Fox (Normaltivity is not sponsored by Fox or any Fox subsidiaries, near as we can tell, anyway).  And as it would happen, both Spencer and myself are fans of the show (Spencer a bit more than  me I think, but I still enjoy it).

But perhaps you have only heard of this show.  Perhaps you don’t know yet what all the fuss is about.  If this is the case, then look no further!  We’ve created a handy guide to help you figure out whether or not Glee is right for you.  Just start where it says “Start” and follow your truthful answers to your destiny.

Dan

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P.S. – The last comic was supposed to be posted with a Normaltivicast! that recapped our summers.  We’ve run into a bit of technical difficulty (by which I mean I haven’t finished editing it yet) so it’ll go up shortly as its own thing.  My bad.

Does anyone else find it strange that now there have been a full four comics that were “drawn” by Dan?  I only ask because I (as Dan) am not what one would call artistically gifted.  I think I did one awesome painting once in a summer art class when I was like eleven, but if you look you can see very clearly where my brush works end and the expert work of the teacher (who I guess felt sorry for me and decided it would be nice for me to end the session with at least one piece that didn’t look like I had been drinking heavily in front of the canvas) began.

I’ll give you a hint:  the face of the seal (for some reason it was a painting of a seal) does not look like the work of an eleven year old.

Another point of interest (while we’re being all self-referential) is that of the four comics that I have produced, a full three of them comment on our inability to complete a proper “new” comic.  Perhaps it is because I have few ideas when it comes to the humor of the panel.

Or perhaps it is intended as a message, a public calling-out of sorts upon the artist half of our team to get his act together.  After all, we have only so much time and much work still to be done.

We have a new project in the works, something that I will not divulge just yet but let me say that it simply involves us in yet another attempt to cash in on our own genius. Whether or not we succeed is, naturally, immaterial; our goal is simply to “see” how it goes.

But in the meantime, a new Normaltivicast!  Finally we reach double digits (although I think we called at least three separate podcasts our 9th, a mistake we are likely to make again).  Once again we return, way too late, to discuss numerous topics in what I like to call our “End of Summer Blah Blah” – a recap of our summers.  Recorded in Late August.  But posted in Mid September.  Because we’re fancy like that.

Topics include:

- Spencer is super busy!

- What we did this summer!

- People quitting on the internet!

- How we would quit our jobs!

- Spencer talks about who he wants to punch in the face!

- We finally discuss Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen!

- Summer Movies!  (In particular Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)

Today’s comic also refers to events of the summer.  Although you may notice that there is a slight edit within the comic (you’ll know it when you see it).  This is because I was way too lazy to go back and draw another panel.

So obviously it’s been a while since the KFC Double Down was released.  Perhaps you have tried it.  But in the event that you haven’t, we have provided you with a guided tour of sorts to what you might expect.

This also probably tells you roughly when we recorded the lastest Normaltivicast!  Which, we think, is finally #9, even though I’m fairly certain we’ve established at least one or possibly two others as Normaltivicast #9.

But this is #9.  Probably.

So obviously, our output speed has slowed considerably.  Some would suggest that this is because we are “abandoning” you.  I can assure you we are not!  It has more to do with us being “lazy”.  That and Spencer is finally starting to learn that having five jobs means sometimes having to do work.  And I am learning that there are many things to do in what I would call my “free time” – which I have much of, again, since I don’t do the drawing.

Perhaps I should learn to draw.  Or, I could continue to sit here and do nothing.  That sounds slightly easier.

Anyway, in this installment of the Normaltivicast! we eat the Double Down live (to recording) to let you know how it is, Dan wants to know why people bother him instead of using the Google, and Spencer takes us down a “Transformers”-based rabbit hole that you just can’t come back from (spoiler alert: it involves Megan Fox, Shia, and Bumblebee).

-Dan

P.S. – This Normaltivicast features special guest Jason Arimoto of the band JMD, but oddly, the backing music comes not from JMD but from the band Silence is Sexy – “This Ain’t Hollywood”.  If we had planned better perhaps we would have borrowed some music from JMD.  Maybe next time.

So officially, we’re back!

And officially, we’ve changed.

It’s been an intense few months.  Spencer got a job and got promoted like thirteen times.  I got a job, which adds (percentage wise) an infinite amount of work to my schedule.

We’ve also taken a step back from our heroes, as you might notice in today’s offering – which, we humbly submit, might be considered the second season of our little show here.  You may be wondering who those two new characters standing in the bathroom are.

That would be us.  Sort of.  Certainly they appear to be reasonably accurate representations of what we look like (although those of you who have seen me in person know that I got a haircut.  Oh, also a big step for me.).

I would like to state, for the record, that the three scenarios depicted have not, to the best of my recollection, occurred in real life.  Instead, they are visual representations that stem out of the discussion that Spencer and I had on the most recent Normaltivicast! – the podcast which you shall find at the end of my little post here.  In it, we discuss Health Care, Small Talk, Bathroom Etiquette, and generally catch up on what happened.  Also, I believe I had a delicious taco.

But all in all, this is where we are – and, if you’ll permit – likely where we are headed – podcasts and comics, joined together as simultaneous entertainment.  This does not mean that Dino, Robot, Ninja, and Adam are gone forever – they’ll still pop in from time to time, when they have something to teach us – but let’s be honest, all that color is hard to draw.

Lest I forget, this week’s music is from Alexander Hamilton once again, a track entitled “Ghouls & Ghosts”.  We’ve also thanked them in our podcast, but as we enter the second season, we have to thank those who have helped along the way in our first year, including all our friends and family, but in particular, special shout-outs go to Jen Ramos, Mike Hew, Jason Arimoto, and of course, Kogi BBQ – who still refuses to sue us, despite our blatant “borrowing” of their logo and likeness for humor purposes.

Onward into 2010!  (What do you mean it’s April already?)

-Dan

So if you’ve come to the site in the past few months, you might have noticed something.  That something being that we have not updated anything in quite some time.

That’s our bad.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, we’ve been pretty busy recently.  That’s not an excuse, but just a fact of life.  As it turns out, both Spencer and I enjoy doing other things on occasion, and sadly this has encroached on the amount of  “comic time” we have.

But fear not, for great things are coming shortly, including:

- A slight format change in which our heroes may or may not survive!

- More podcasts!

- Health insurance for all of our employees!*

All this in what I’d like to call the upcoming Season Two of Normaltivity.  But you know, it’s like the cable seasons:  short, sweet, and with a long hiatus in between.

In the meantime, please enjoy our new temporary comic.  I took a correspondence course recently called “Mastering MS Paint:  It Works Better If You Don’t Have Too Much Coffee”.  Did it help?  I think the results speak for themselves.

-Dan

*By this I mean our employees are free to buy their own health insurance.

Happy Birthday Dan! You are old, and death is coming closer every day. Have a good one!

You see what I did there?  See, because we’re making fun of the “Twilight” kids, but then at the same time referring to something else that would make us the target of someone’s mockery.

Jokes are always funnier when you have to explain them.  That’s what my improv coach taught me.  Although I suppose technically he was less an improv coach and more Walter, the homeless guy who I would happen across from time to time during my days of undergrad.

Don’t get me wrong, Walter was an excellent improvisational actor.  He would just go to three stories that were in his wheelhouse.  One was to ask for money because he needed to get on the bus to see his sister (alternate:  his niece).  One was something that I can’t remember anymore.  And one was that he needed money to get the lunch special down at the local supermarket.

I drove past my old school the other week, and as I did, I saw Walter talking to some impressionable youths, no doubt continuing to hone his craft and spread the Walter technique of improvisational panhandling.  It made me smile.

Some of you may have noticed that we’ve been gone for quite a while.  We’re sorry for that, life got in the way.  It’s not really as glamorous as we make it sound, but Spencer’s been super busy with trying to save the planet (something you may have heard if you listen to the normaltivicasts) and I’ve been finishing up some writing that was long overdue to be finished.

I told you it wasn’t nearly as exciting as it may have first sounded.

But the statement that I made earlier still stands.  If you haven’t read the statement, the gist is that we’re going to be slowing down a bit (if you haven’t already noticed), and freeing ourselves from the “hey we need to update every week” thing.

Perhaps this makes us lazy.  We’d like to think that it means we’re only going to be uploading stuff we actually enjoy.  Which hopefully means that it’ll be stuff that you enjoy more, as well.

All of that is to say, please stop making angry comments on my Facebook page.  We’re working as hard as we can.  Sort of.

-Dan

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It has been a long time! First, apologies to everyone for the infrequencies and the tardiness, as most of it has been my fault. I’ve been obsessed with working, and am happy to be so, but it’s made me neglect my only “creative” outlet. Creative in that I only really draw about 1 or 2 images, and find ways to recycle them as much as possible.

This is also a momentous occasion in that Dan helps out with the art chores! This is actually the second time Dan has contributed art, the first being his solo debut, but we decided to collaborate this time around, and I think it came out nicely.

Confession: I read the first Twilight book, but not New Moon. As a substitute teacher, I have a good amount of down time, where the students have to finish some busy-work assignment, and I am often to my own constrained devices, so i sometimes bring in a comic book. One of my students was reading one of the Twilight books, and she asked me if I’ve read any of them. I told her I did, but didn’t particularly enjoy. I thought the writing was terrible, and the characters were very two-dimensional. She looked offended, and said, “Mister, I see you reading Spider-man all the time.” That was it. Nothing more, but I realized how ridiculous it is for the nerd community to discriminate against other nerds. We should all be happy to have more nerds join our ilk, even if it’s because of super-duper shitty writing and character development.

I want this button.

-Spencer

You might have noticed that we haven’t posted a comic in a little while.  Two weeks, in fact!

We also have not done a normaltivicast in the same amount of time.

So the question you’re all asking:  what happened?  Have you guys quit?

The answer is no.  We have not quit.  We are, however, having some difficulty getting our schedule together, and the every-week-we-must-create-new-things stress was getting to Spencer, which makes things difficult for us since he’s the one that does all the work.

Plus he has that new job that keeps him busy and whatnot.  I mean, I’m trying to learn how to use Illustrator, but let’s be honest, I’m a writer, and as such have no real demonstrable skill in anything else.

Anyway.  In the interest of trying to create the best work we can (and let’s face it, there were a couple of weeks there where even we were saying “yeah it’s not out best, but we’ve got to get something out there.”), we’re going to on a “whenever we feel like it” update schedule for the foreseeable future.  At least until Spencer makes some money, and certainly until I learn how to use Illustrator.

But with such an uneven update schedule, how will you keep up?

Why, by following us on Twitter, of course!  Or by becoming our fan on Facebook!  Or with that RSS feed thing up there!  So many ways to keep you posted!

Now we just have to create something…

Have you seen the Transformers 2?  It just came out on the digital video disc and the download-to-own internets this past week.  Of course, if you go to the movie theater, it actually came out back in the summer.

Perhaps we are a bit late on this one.

In actual reality, this is a comic we wrote a while ago, but decided that it would be more topical if we could tie it to the release of some Transformers 2-related product.  We try to be timely this way.

Of course, Spencer is so busy that we had difficulty getting this out on time.  So difficult that we are two days late.

So the joke is months late.  The comic two days late.  Basically we’re just behind the 8-ball this week.

But hey, did you notice there’s a shiny new normaltivicast?  That’s 7 6 podcasts for you to listen to!  6 hours of your life that you’ll never get back!

I just noticed something.  Our joke is about product placement in a movie, but our comic itself is relying on a product and the placement of said product within our own storyline (if not visually, certainly within the zeitgeist of the world).  This presents us with a few questions:  Does this make us no better than the media overlords whom we so righteously mock?  Have we sunk to their level?  And most important, how do we get some of that sweet, sweet product placement money?

-Dan