Monday Blues

What can one really say about Monday… I just feel like I am setting back into my routine life and it is just fucking depressing. Okay, I am trying new things and I am switching stuff around a bit, but essentially Jakarta has only so much to offer. I am sick of my fucking desk job and having to play this role of an efficient businessman day in and day out. My body is fucking aching because I really pushed my limits wakeboarding last Saturday and I am just not motivated to work. On a day like this, the only thing I can find some sanctuary in are Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips.

I am not going to put my energy into some long ass write up explaining what they are all about and all that but I will say this: The content is extremely philosophical at times. For those of you who have never heard of them, Calvin is a young boy with a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, who is only drawn as a stuffed tiger when other people are in the frames. Hobbes is sort of the imaginary friend but the author put it this way, "I don't think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously comes to life when Calvin's around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product of Calvin's imagination...Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way."

They were created by Bill Watterson who revolutionized the Sunday comic strips by getting the papers to change the standard formats for size and spacing. There are loads of articles on the net about the characters and their origins that you can read up on if you are interested and also a lot of stuff about Watterson. As for me, I find a sort of rational when reading the strips. Calvin has a kind of a recluse and impatient way of viewing the world at times and Hobbes has a way of putting things into some perspective for him (and me). He is like the absolute sarcastic but honest side. I kind of find some balance between them, so on days like this, when I am all buggered out, I like to take some time and roll through some old strips.

What is also interesting about the author is that some years ago he just had enough of the ‘commercial’ direction his industry was taking and decided to bow out. Overnight he said farewell and took leave to live out his days in small mid-western town where the community does what they can to respect his privacy. You will never find any licensed images of Clavin and Hobbes on t-shirts or back packs, nor are there any stuffed dolls or animations. Watterson could have made some crazy money if he decided to sell out but he held fast to his ideals. You gotta respect something like that. That kind of reminds me of the guy who wrote Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger. He went hiding away after writing that book as well. Although I sometimes wonder if it was out of fear that he could never match his first publication. But that’s another debate all together. Did you know his son acted in the NERDS movie? He was the jock.

Back to Calvin and Hobbes, I truly believe the author is a genius. There was a strip I was looking to share but I can’t find. Here’s a few I came across today that I really dig. Have a good one.