Champ 2010!

February 14, 2010 12:05 AM

In an attempt to stay sober for the year beginning January 01, 2010, Jed Collins is posting a comic a day. Here's his page.
posted by sredefer (75 comments total)

Is this the yin to drunk-guy.com's yang?
posted by dunkadunc at 12:13 AM on February 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Here's the one that explains the drinking/comics thing. The one you linked to was him drawing comics in a bar(??).
posted by ryanrs at 12:46 AM on February 14, 2010

Best wishes to him.
posted by Daddy-O at 2:12 AM on February 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Thank you for introducing me to Jed Collins and thank you ryanrs for the explanatory link. I'm really pulling for this guy. I hope his comic a day works. Whatever it takes, pal.
posted by Uncle Chaos at 2:35 AM on February 14, 2010

Yeah, good luck to those dudes.
posted by christhelongtimelurker at 3:04 AM on February 14, 2010

There are some gems in there... the statement "I'm afraid I'll never drink again." is interesting...
I wish this guy the best, but part of me is afraid to check this everyday....
posted by HuronBob at 3:22 AM on February 14, 2010

This is really great - simple and touching. I'm rooting for him.
posted by fire&wings at 5:16 AM on February 14, 2010

So we've got not-smoking comic guy and not-drinking comic guy. Any that I missed?
posted by fixedgear at 5:35 AM on February 14, 2010

I wish the guy luck. Really. But if I may transcribe from ryanr's link...

At 27 years old I've had something like 30 jobs and a slew of week long relationships with women! I think my longest relationship with a woman since I was a teenager was 6 months and that was years ago. 15 or 16 crappy vehicles and 3, count em 3 DUI's, countless arrests in general. Scars, black eyes, psychotic episodes...

1. Jed's problem isn't alcohol; alcohol is just the place he runs to get away from his real problems. If he thinks not drinking will solve his other problems with no other work or effort or introspection, this will end in fail.

2. This will probably end in fail anyway within a few months. I put the over/under at the Ides of March.

3. He doesn't have a funky personal comic style. He has an inability to draw.
posted by localroger at 7:01 AM on February 14, 2010

So we've got not-smoking comic guy and not-drinking comic guy. Any that I missed?

Well, there's not-having-sex comic guy.....oh, wait, that's redundant.
posted by jonmc at 7:52 AM on February 14, 2010 [12 favorites]

Hmm, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Mr. Collins sounds like the kind of guy who watches his referrer logs. (now if he shows up, you owe me a favorite!)


Collins: if you want to respond, use the contact page. Explain that you're the subject of a thread, and the moderators will give you a free account.
posted by ryanrs at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Jesus H Christ, localroger, what a delightful commentary.

1. We don't know this guy. Hopefully, he thinks that stopping drinking is the start of working on his problems, not the entire answer.

2. So good natured of you. I hope he makes it much longer than that.

3. I think his drawing style is interesting, and his composition is good.
posted by HopperFan at 8:03 AM on February 14, 2010 [10 favorites]

Odd- the more I read, it was as though waves of depression and loneliness were pulsing out through my monitor to consume me. Um, thanks, I guess.
posted by malusmoriendumest at 8:25 AM on February 14, 2010

I wish him luck. I've been sober 36 years and it's funny how all the bad things stopped happening when I stopped drinking . . .
posted by Peach at 8:27 AM on February 14, 2010 [7 favorites]

We don't know this guy.

He sounds like an asshole:

At 27 years old, I've had something like 30 jobs, a slew of week long relationships with women (I think my longest relationship since I was a teenager has been 6 months, and that was years ago) 15 or 16 crappy vehicles, 3 count 'em 3 DUIs, countless arrests in general. Scars, black eyes, psychotic episodes. Et Cetera.

I may not know this specific guy, but that guy he describes? Complete asshole. Fuck that guy. Good luck in not being him.
posted by ryanrs at 8:31 AM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I never said he didn't sound like an asshole, maybe he is. I was specifically referring to the idea of him quitting drinking, and how none of us have any idea of his thoughts or motivations beyond what he's stated thus far.

"Good luck in not being him."

I have no idea what this means.
posted by HopperFan at 8:42 AM on February 14, 2010

I like it, thanks, sredefer; has lots of what I've always loved about minicomics - odd little observations and strange moments from other folks' lives. The drinking thing adds a layer. Thanks for posting it.
posted by mediareport at 8:49 AM on February 14, 2010

>> Good luck in not being him.

> I have no idea what this means.

Good luck not being that guy he describes, the one that keeps getting DUIs. I.e. remain sober.
posted by ryanrs at 9:07 AM on February 14, 2010

When I saw this, I was curious as to how metafilter would respond--everyone seemed so negative about the dude quitting smoking who draws every time he wants a cig, because he's no great artist.

That guy, incidentally, seems to be doing well. I can't help if the nature of that project has something to do with it--every single time he has a craving, he draws. A comic-a-day is a much looser structure, particularly since he's already missed a few days. Also, I wonder if hanging out at a bar is really the best way to get sober. But I do wish Jed the best of luck.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:21 AM on February 14, 2010

Getting sober is hard enough without random people on the net calling you an asshole and attacking you for what happened while you were drunk. For all we know, he's going to AA or some other equally helpful self-help group (yes, there are alternatives!) or getting social support in some way that works for him (no, not everyone quitting drinking needs a support group!) and/or is in therapy(again, this helps some, is not needed for others).

However, the vast majority of people with drinking/drug problems quit *without* AA or alternatives or therapy-- someone whose problem is that severe is less likely to manage this, but it is not uncommon. I am not in favor of saying that whatever the guy did when drunk "isn't his fault" and he shouldn't be blamed for it-- people aren't willless zombies, even alcoholics or addicts, when under the influence. This is why the "amends" part of AA *can be* extremely helpful.

We don't know, however, if there was mental illness or child trauma or both playing a role here (those tend to have a great influence on what fucked up stuff you do when drunk or high) and pragmatically, the guy is much more likely to get sober if he's not sitting around blaming himself for his past but it working on not doing it in the future. So, I would suggest a little compassion...
posted by Maias at 9:29 AM on February 14, 2010 [9 favorites]

This is touching but sad. He seems like he is in some stage of admitting being an alcoholic but in my experience, people who don't/can't use the word "alcoholic" and also make attempts to not drink for a year or a month or however long are still in some stage of denial and hence not really ready to stop drinking. Folks who hang at bars and make deals with themselves ("I can have a drink in a year if I don't have a drop for 364 more days!") are typically several relapses from recovery. I can't imagine that after a year this guy will sip one cocktail with dinner, all of his problems having evaporated because he...drew a comic a day for a year?

localroger is partially correct--when he talks about the drinking being symptomatic he's right on. When people are addicts there's usually a universe of other factors that need exploring in order for someone to come to terms with and confront and overcome an addiction.

Hope he finds his way.
posted by Rudy Gerner at 9:37 AM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I read and enjoyed every page of the comic before stumbling into the comments. Good on Jed for turning his situation into something productive and unique. I think he'll make it.
posted by mochapickle at 9:51 AM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I sure hope none of you ever have to try to get yourselves out of a hole.
posted by thejoshu at 9:54 AM on February 14, 2010 [4 favorites]

thejoshu, Who's to say we have not tried/are trying/have helped friends and loved ones who have tried/are trying to get out of holes and that's where our comments and perspectives come from?
posted by Rudy Gerner at 10:25 AM on February 14, 2010

If you read the whole thing, you figure out that O'Betty's is a hotdog stand, and not a bar. So one less thing to be jerks about.

Furthermore, I think his drawing style is actually pretty interesting, the comics are often insightful and/or funny and/or generally interesting, and I wish the guy luck. I especially like the cone-as-mustache thing.
posted by papayaninja at 10:37 AM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is touching but sad. He seems like he is in some stage of admitting being an alcoholic but in my experience, people who don't/can't use the word "alcoholic" and also make attempts to not drink for a year or a month or however long are still in some stage of denial and hence not really ready to stop drinking

Your opinion is not backed by the data. William Miller or one of his colleagues studied this: there's no correlation between using the word "alcoholic" to describe oneself and whether or not one succeeds at recovery. There is, however, a correlation between trying to force someone to use this term via confrontation and drinking: the more the counselor confronts, the MORE the client drinks!!!!!
posted by Maias at 10:39 AM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

You don't need to be able to draw well to communicate visually.
posted by fire&wings at 10:42 AM on February 14, 2010

If you read the whole thing, you figure out that O'Betty's is a hotdog stand, and not a bar. So one less thing to be jerks about.

I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I think, given the name, it's a fair ass-umption to make. Or at least an easy one.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:45 AM on February 14, 2010

Jed's problem isn't alcohol; alcohol is just the place he runs to get away from his real problems.

If he's an alcoholic, that's probably the first thing that he needs to deal with before he deals with his other real problems. No other real problem will go away until this one does.

If this is one way for him to deal with the problem of alcoholism, Godspeed. As Uncle Chaos said, whatever it takes.
posted by blucevalo at 10:50 AM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

(Actually, read back through the whole thing, and it's not clear at all that it's a hotdog stand rather than a bar that sells food, which was my first assumption. So, yeah.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:51 AM on February 14, 2010

Jed's problem isn't alcohol; alcohol is just the place he runs to get away from his real problems.

He doesn't drink because he has problems, he has problems BECAUSE he drinks. Could he solve any of his life problems by giving up drinking? Well, let's see...3 DUIs? Check. Failed relationships? Check. Psychotic episodes? Check.

Good luck to him, and I hope this experiment in comics serves as the therapy he needs.
posted by misha at 10:59 AM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Good luck to him, and I hope this experiment in comics serves as the therapy he needs.

Indeed. To any and all who see this as an opportunity to predict his failure (or to talk smack about his comics!), I would just like to say this: Today may be a good day to reflect on why you are alone. And if you're not alone, today may be a good day to let that screaming person out of your basement. Good lord, people.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:06 AM on February 14, 2010 [7 favorites]

If being a realist makes me a jerk, I guess I plead guilty.

Let me rephrase: Jed's biggest problem isn't alcohol, it's that he is 27 years old and still literally living in his mother's basement. His biggest worry on embarking on this project on day 1 is that his friends won't find him interesting or fun any more. He has no money, no job, no future, no hope, a record of habitual petty criminality which probably makes him really familiar to the local cops, and a circle of enabling acquaintances who will probably fulfill his fears that they won't recognize him sober.

Trying to fix his problems by drawing a comic a day is like trying to bail out the sinking Titanic with a teaspoon. He needs to change his situation. He needs to move out of Mom's basement and leave town, even if it means hiking out with a backpack.

I don't know Jed personally but I've known several people very much like him. Most of them try something like this once in awhile, and sometimes it even works for a few months. But habits are strong and if you hang around the influences that reinforced them it's too easy to fall back in. If the only habit he changes is drinking, the stress of facing reality is going to push him really hard back toward the bottle. You need something really powerful to distract you from that. I've seen it.

I have a friend (who, unlike me, is a medical doctor) who believes a lot of alcohol and drug use is actually self-medication for other, unseen or undiagnosed conditions, most commonly stress and depression. (I found it was a lot easier to drink less myself when I realized I had metabolic syndrome; turns out one side effect of alcohol is that it lowers your blood sugar, so when you quit drinking it can spike.) Looking at it that way it's very hard to see how this is going to work. Not drinking is not going to automatically fix his other problems; in fact, it's quite likely to make some of them worse. If he doesn't have a plan for that, he is going to eventually go back to the bottle.

I'm not wishing or hoping the guy fails; quite the opposite. It would be rather inspiring to see this work at least once. But the advice of experience is not kind.
posted by localroger at 11:16 AM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty wowed at how hard some people are being on this guy. I came to Metafilter to avoid the blatant asshattery.

Also, I like his drawing style. He's got good composition.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:23 AM on February 14, 2010

I know this guy, in the general sense. This is the guy in your life who, while he was hella fun to drink with, after the 2nd or 3rd late night call to bail him out of jail you cut ties. Good luck with sobriety and all, but don't call...
posted by kjs3 at 11:26 AM on February 14, 2010

He has no money, no job, no future, no hope

You seem to have missed this strip from four days ago. But I'm glad you've put the effort into dismantling someone who you can't even be bothered to spend five minutes learning about.
posted by eggplantplacebo at 11:45 AM on February 14, 2010 [6 favorites]

I sincerely wish this guy well.

But I'll also say that if a friend of mine with some significant behavioural problem asked me what I thought about their plan to remedy the situation by doing a daily chore that would be announced to the world via website publication, I would try to dissuade them.

It seems to me that being so public with the attempt poses a very large ratchetting up of the pressure to succeed and that is necessarily accompanied by a very large emotional gamble and will therefore lead to a huge hit to the esteem and selfworth if the venture doesn't pay off. I think risking so much of an already bruised psyche is not a sensible way out, however admirable the overall intentions might be. There's too much to potentially lose.
posted by peacay at 11:53 AM on February 14, 2010

"He doesn't drink because he has problems, he has problems BECAUSE he drinks."

Nope. I'm not a huge AA fan, but one of their most common sayings is true, I think :

"When you first stop drinking, you realize that alcohol is the problem. The longer you go without drinking, the more you realize that alcohol is not the problem."
posted by HopperFan at 11:56 AM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Localroger, I don't know if being a realist makes you a jerk, or even if being a jerk makes you a jerk. But you're sure acting like a jerk.

Perhaps the experiences in your life have led you to a certain perspective on things. The experiences in my life teach me that sanctimony in the face of things we don't really understand correlates strongly with a profound lack of wisdom.

From what I can gather, you a) don't like this guy's aesthetic style and b) otherwise have it all figured out. Armed with these sparkling facts, you're going to gallop off to the closest community blog and loudly announce to everyone (including, in all likelihood, the subject of this conversation) that this asshattery is the wizened truth borne of experience.

You're being That Guy On the Internet. I know, I know, you're immutable and inevitable and you will always be with us. Please go be That Guy On The Internet someplace else.
posted by bicyclefish at 12:12 PM on February 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

I'm really, really surprised by the amount of vitriol localroger's getting for acknowledging that addiction to alcohol is complex and multifaceted and that something like this can be a band-aid for the problem, not a cure. I mean, really, contrast it to the black lung crayola thread. There, you had a bunch of people bitching about how a project like this trivializes addiction.

Honestly, my feeling is somewhere in between. I'm always glad to see people turn to creative, rather than destructive, outlets, but I feel a little skeptical about this project specifically because there's no real relationship between the behavior he's trying to quit (drinking) and the new behavior (drawing). He's missed a couple comics already, which also doesn't bode well for it in terms of it being a new daily habit. But, like I said--and like localranger has already said multiple times--more power to the guy, and I hope it does work, even if I feel skeptical.

But this?: "To any and all who see this as an opportunity to predict his failure (or to talk smack about his comics!), I would just like to say this: Today may be a good day to reflect on why you are alone. And if you're not alone, today may be a good day to let that screaming person out of your basement. Good lord, people."

Yes, good lord, people. He's posting comics publicly; commentary on art style is inevitable. And many people criticizing the scope of the project aren't doing so out of spite, but because it seems unrealistic in some ways. "If you don't like this or agree with it, you must be a lonely sociopath" is the worst kind of ad hominem attack, and I'm sad it's here on metafilter.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:32 PM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I have a friend (who, unlike me, is a medical doctor) who believes a lot of alcohol and drug use is actually self-medication for other, unseen or undiagnosed conditions, most commonly stress and depression.

Sure it is. When it becomes alcoholism, it's also a disease. A disease that needs to be treated. A disease that needs to be treated before anything else is dealt with.

Looking at it that way it's very hard to see how this is going to work. Not drinking is not going to automatically fix his other problems; in fact, it's quite likely to make some of them worse.

Not knowing anything about this fellow's specific situation, I don't pretend to be able to say anything about him or it. But generally speaking, continuing drinking will make an alcoholic's problems worse than not drinking will, and not dealing with the alcoholism first will make the other problems that much harder to solve and will usually make those other problems even worse. If drawing a daily cartoon keeps him sober, one day at a time, more power to him.
posted by blucevalo at 12:33 PM on February 14, 2010

Correction: helps keep him sober. I don't have any way of knowing whether the act of drawing cartoons alone will keep him sober. He may well be doing other things to help keep himself sober as well. In any case, more power to him.
posted by blucevalo at 12:39 PM on February 14, 2010

blucavelo: Sure it is. When it becomes alcoholism, it's also a disease. A disease that needs to be treated. A disease that needs to be treated before anything else is dealt with.

My doctor friend's entire point is that this is, there isn't really a kind way to say it, totally wrong.

First of all, classifying alcoholism as a disease is problematic. When does a habit become a disease? It's easy to say "when it starts being bad for you and you keep doing it anyway" but c'mon. Is excess participation in Xtreme Sports a disease? Playing World of Warcraft until you get carpal tunnel syndrome? Meanwhile I remember this guy I saw interviewed on his hundredth birthday when I was in my early 20's. The reporter asked him the secret of his longevity and he proudly said, "I drink a fifth of Jack Daniel's whiskey clean straight every day."

As for treating it ... how do you do that, exactly? Send him to AA and hope he doesn't give the whole thing the middle finger because he doesn't believe in a higher power? Put him on Antabuse and hope he actually takes it? Tell him to draw a comic every day?

And finally, the entire point my friend tries to make is that if you "treat" the alcoholism before you treat the thing the alcohol is treating, you will fail. It's like treating the fact that someone is taking too much Tylenol, which is destroying his liver, without dealing with the reason he is taking twelve Tylenol a day or replacing it with something else. If you don't give the Tylenol guy an equally good analgesic or fix his back pain some other way he's going to go back to the Tylenol. And if you don't fix the thing that makes alcohol so attractive even though it makes you feel like shit in the morning and keeps sabotaging your life, you're going to keep going back to the alcohol.

This idea that you've got to stop the alcohol first is not grounded in reality. Yes, when you have three DUI's, psychotic episodes, and can't keep a girlfriend more than a month, you will need to stop drinking -- but if you're drinking at all with that many problems, it's very likely that you're drinking for a really powerful reason. And you don't have to read much of Jed's little project to see how many powerful reasons he has. If you don't figure that out and deal with the reasons at the same time, or preferably before, you attempt to deal with the alcohol problem, you've got what can most generously be called a long uphill battle ahead.
posted by localroger at 1:33 PM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

localroger, none of us know what else is going on in his life other than this plan for a comic a day. We don't know about his support system, whether he's going to AA or some other kind of counseling, if he's avoiding his drinking pals, etc... We have no idea about his plans for working on the other problem areas of his life.

"My doctor friend's entire point is that this is, there isn't really a kind way to say it, totally wrong."

I could really give a shit what your one doctor friend says. I have plenty of physicians as friends and associates, too, and some of them disagree with your friend's claim that alcoholism isn't a disease - but so what? They're just opinions - probably more medically sound than what you or I could come up with, but opinions.

This is just one guy, and he's made one small step at addressing his problems. I don't see why there has to be all this "But but but he's not saying he's an alcoholic! He hasn't given us his daily schedule for counseling and being a productive member of society! But this can't possibly ever work!"
posted by HopperFan at 2:06 PM on February 14, 2010

I'm finding this really charming and personable.

So we've got not-smoking comic guy and not-drinking comic guy. Any that I missed?

I've been making good headway on my quitting-drawing-comics project.
posted by cortex at 2:58 PM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Trying to fix his problems by drawing a comic a day

He's trying to fix some of his problems by not drinking anymore.
posted by inigo2 at 3:55 PM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

PhoBWanKenobi - I wasn't calling you out at all, I was just correcting your assumption to allow people to understand the situation a little bit better. My post could probably have separated my annoyance with people being jerks and my correction of the bar/hotdog stand thing, but your first response in the thread was pretty mellow and not jerky at all.

Also, this comic's caption and the fact that he's always eating hotdogs and coke clued me in, but it doesn't ever say "HEY THIS IS A HOTDOG STAND," and until I read the old ones, the first one seemed like a bar to me too.
posted by papayaninja at 4:24 PM on February 14, 2010

And finally, the entire point my friend tries to make is that if you "treat" the alcoholism before you treat the thing the alcohol is treating, you will fail.

Guys, this debate has been around for as long as the "is addiction a disease?" debate has been. Both of them are unhelpful if you are going to use absolutes to deal with specific cases.

For a good large percentage of alcoholics and other addicts, self-medication of mental illnesses and/or aftermath of child trauma (child trauma increases the risk for both mental illness and addictions) is a key part of the problem. For another significant portion, medication of existential/economic pain also comes into play-- for people whose only employment is menial work and who have no significant relationships, addiction can be not a disease but a rational choice-- and sometimes both!

There's great overlap between these groups and between them, they include nearly all addicts/alcoholics-- there may be a tiny group who were happily going along with no problems whatsoever and but they have some weird genetic issue that made a particular substance irresistible, but this group doesn't seem to be the majority of cases by any means.

Anyway, it's silly to debate whether you need to stop drinking and treat the trauma/ mental illness first or if you need to treat the trauma/ MI before you stop the drinking: meet the person where he's at! If he wants to stop drinking first, go for it, deal with that first. If that proves untenable and he refuses to deal with the drinking, do the reverse. Ideally, you treat both simultaneously and have an integrated system that provides for varied levels of treatment need as the person requires.

But the debate is fruitless because different things work for different people and there's no one true way here!
posted by Maias at 4:47 PM on February 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

HopperFan, while it is very true that none of us know this guy, it is also very true that the comic at hand is a blog of his experience. It is Exhibit A, and it is very typical.

And you mistake my meaning if you think I think he should start a counseling plan or join AA or some other such thing. I think what he needs to do is change his life. As long as he is living in Mom's basement, hanging out at the same eatery and seeing the same friends and watching the same TV shows that he did when he was drinking, he will eventually start drinking again as surely as God made little fishes. A comic a day may be helpful in the short term but if he considers it anything other than a first step, he will fail. And this is what I am not seeing in his cool plan, the next step. Given the nature of the project, I suspect that if there was a next step we would have seen evidence of it by now; surely it would be more panel-worthy than today's grossout from Man vs. Wild.

Kudos to him for making a start but if he is fooling himself into thinking it's anything but a start, well, as I said over/under at 03/15. I've seen plenty of little projects like this, some started with much greater investment in energy and determination. Frankly, based on my experience with people like him (which is all too much like kjs3's) he needs to pick up stakes and start over from scratch. He needs to be in a place where he the cops don't know him and he isn't constantly wondering if his friends find him boring now that he isn't the life of the party and the empoyers don't wonder about the risk they're taking by hiring him. Get that done, and then maybe he will have a chance against the alcohol monster.
posted by localroger at 4:48 PM on February 14, 2010

On failure to edit: Maias, point taken. However, in this case I think Jed has told us quite a bit about himself already, and I'm basing my admittedly pessimistic conclusion on experience with people who I believe were an *awful* lot like him.
posted by localroger at 4:50 PM on February 14, 2010

O'Betty's Red Hot! Athens, Ohio. (not a bar)
posted by ryanrs at 5:01 PM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Localroger, thanks. However, I think personal experience is extremely misleading in addictions. Many counselors have personal experience that says no one gets better without AA. Many physicians have personal experience that says no one gets better period. They are both making different versions of the "clinician's error" which is the idea that the people you see are representative of the condition in general.

This tends not to be the case: community samples show very different truths about addiction compared to clinical samples. Any individual's personal experience is bound to be skewed unless one makes a point of going out and looking for the variety of addictive experience.

This is something I have done as a writer who covers this subject-- and the research simply doesn't support blanket statements about addiction! A geographic cure may help some-- others may find the social support of living at home the best place to make a change. It varies. I know this all too well from having used my personal experience to make blanket statements about the failure of methadone as treatment, when, in fact, my personal experience was not borne out by the data. This is why we have science to guide medical and psychological treatment-- the use of personal experience in addictions as a guide to care has been a complete disaster!
posted by Maias at 5:07 PM on February 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

"as I said over/under at 03/15"

I'd take that bet, did I not think it was cynical in the extreme to bet on someone's life.
posted by HopperFan at 5:35 PM on February 14, 2010

Well HopperFan, if there is one thing that I will admit can be said about me with some accuracy, it's that I am extremely cynical.

It's a worldview which has saved my ass on more than one occasion.
posted by localroger at 5:49 PM on February 14, 2010

How nice for you.
posted by HopperFan at 6:09 PM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

You also the guy that bets the Don't Pass line in craps? Cause that's cool.
posted by inigo2 at 6:43 PM on February 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Seriously, I think some of you are underestimating how powerful being committed to a daily ritual is. It's something you have to look forward to, and it's something that you can think about instead of all the other possible self-destructive things you can think about (or do).

For me, when I needed to get out of my hole, I committed to running 30 minutes a day. It became a ritual that I planned my entire day around, and one year later, it's made my entire life a lot better.
posted by every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes at 9:23 PM on February 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, localroger, if you'd read the comic, you'd know that he actually just moved out of his mom's basement. Whose to say he has no greater plan? Oh wait, you think you are.
posted by every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes at 9:27 PM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting that O'Betty's link, Ryanrs. Not a bar...but you can drown your sorrows there in amazing gourmet hotdogs...while enjoying the owners collection of campy hot dog memorabilia. Or, if you come around Christmas, his collection of holographic depictions of Jesus. The dogs are amazing.
posted by sredefer at 12:33 AM on February 15, 2010

His latest strip addresses this discussion.
posted by fire&wings at 3:58 AM on February 15, 2010

I think he called you all 'girls.' I still think 'no-sex comic book guy' has the greatest chance of success.
posted by fixedgear at 4:54 AM on February 15, 2010

inigo2 -- I paid off my house by advantage play gambling. People who bet don't pass are playing craps to win, which is stupid. If I play live money craps it's for entertainment, at small stakes, and I make line bets. Now at a blackjack tournament where I'm playing to win, I will most definitely double down on hard 20 and hope for the ace if it's the only way to overtake you on the last hand.
posted by localroger at 5:19 AM on February 15, 2010

well everyoneneedsahug, I'd feel more optimistic if he hadn't written on 02/08 that what he really, really wants to do is get drunk and burn bridges, or if his very first experience at the new job hadn't been being late. But as I keep saying, it's a start, which is not a bad thing.

HI JED! I'm the asshole who thinks (not hopes) you will fail. It would amuse me tremendously for you to prove me wrong, though.
posted by localroger at 5:28 AM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd feel more optimistic if he hadn't written on 02/08 that what he really, really wants to do is get drunk and burn bridges

You understand that this is a comic strip, right? That it's a sliver of whatever part of his day and his internal monologue seems like it'll make a readable little something for the day? It's not the sum total of his worldview. It's not an exhaustive review of his mental state. People reading into it in either direction, to absolve or to doomsay, are being kind of silly.

And silly in, as should be implicit in any case but was made explicit by yesterday's strip, a highly visible talking-about-someone-who-is-in-the-room way, for certain values of "in the room". What webcomicker doesn't keep an eye on their traffic or their referrer logs?

Which is not to say "don't talk about someone because they might see it", but maybe keeping in mind just how close you effectively are to just emailing your "I am nigh certain he will fuck up or fail to unfuck his life" to him when you're going on about it repeatedly in this thread. Sometimes it kind of makes sense to take a quick look around at the context and just decide not to post some of the negative armchair assessments of your fellow human beings that go through your head.

Anyway, I'm glad the guy is doing it because it's an interesting read, I like his approach to the art, and it's got a much more substantial human angle behind it than the average "hey these two guys sure play a lot of xbox" strip. I hope he keeps it up; all else aside, this sort of thing-a-day project seems to do pretty well by the creative folks I've known who've undertaken them.
posted by cortex at 8:34 AM on February 15, 2010 [7 favorites]

He noticed the thread.
posted by WCityMike at 8:42 AM on February 15, 2010

He totally had me on the 2nd day, with his elegant solution to the moustache-problem. Keep at it, Jed!
posted by steef at 12:12 PM on February 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

I just saw this post...and then read all 45+ days of comics...I love 'em. His sense of humor just kills me. So many of them made me laugh out loud, but I think this one is especially genius.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:50 AM on February 16, 2010

Well Jed, if you're checking this again, there's a place called Metatalk where we talk about the site and stuff like you noticing and incorporating Metafilter into your work. So there's another thread talking about you talking about us here.
posted by nevercalm at 7:27 AM on February 16, 2010

(And put me down for loving what you're doing. You'll get where you want to be.)
posted by nevercalm at 7:33 AM on February 16, 2010

Keep comin' back to Metafilter, Jed!
posted by greekphilosophy at 7:53 AM on February 16, 2010

I think he's keepin' comin' back....
posted by nevercalm at 9:00 AM on February 16, 2010

HI JED! I'm the asshole who thinks (not hopes) you will fail. It would amuse me tremendously for you to prove me wrong, though.

FTFY.
posted by HP LaserJet P10006 at 10:07 AM on February 16, 2010 [5 favorites]

I love the comic, and I'm glad he apparently reacted well to this surprisingly negative thread. (He posted today thanking us.)
posted by agropyron at 10:43 AM on February 16, 2010

Cool comic! Thanks for the link.

Tangent: I have a close family member who I would describe as an alcoholic. For about 10 years or more he was a hard-core drunk. DUIs, serious marital problems, etc. Then he quit cold for another 10 years or so - no AA, no self-ID as an alcoholic (at least not one that he shared with people in the family). Then, he started drinking again, and 10 more or so years later, he still drinks, but instead of being a drunk, he is a pretty conservative drinker who has a glass or two of wine or a couple pints of beer each day.

I think of him as an alcoholic because he clearly can't or wont go a day without drinking, but he doesn't harm anyone else with his drinking now, he's in good health, his relationships are fairly functional - at least as much as anyone's.

For a long time, I had pretty rigid ideas about alcoholism. I never would have believed that a raging drunk could quit without outside help, or a former raging drunk could be a controlled drinker. I also felt pretty judgmental about people who drink every day. This person has broadened my understanding a lot.
posted by serazin at 5:22 PM on February 16, 2010

FWIW, good for you, Jed!
posted by fonso at 8:09 AM on February 18, 2010