I am not going to go into the entire explanation of this because my better half said she didn’t get it until I explained it to her.  I want to know if it makes sense as is without an explanation.  Anyone??

The only reference I will give is for all my non US visitors and non news reading US visitors is to define what Cash for Caulkers means.  It is a new government funded program.  Essentially it gives on the spot rebate for people who buy energy saving equipment for their homes.

So it seems yesterday was International Women’s Day.   And while some women support the day as a way to highlight the struggles and oppression women face all over the world, other women are saying WTF.  Only one day??

My primary goal in the revamped launch of beartoons.com is to attracted more regular readers and commenters.  One of the ways I am doing this is by offering up free ad space using two different criteria.

You will notice that the current blog design has six 125×125 ads prominently in the upper sidebar.  The top two are for top commenters, the middle for other Bearmania activities described below and the final two are reserved for my own ads.

Top Commenters:

My favorite part of posting is getting all the great comments and interaction from regular readers.  To reward this group, the top two commenters each week will have this coveted ad space for until the following weeks results are in.  HOWEVER, spam commenters and those who move beyond interaction and try to artificially bump up their comments will be disqualified.

Bonus points:  Ties will be broken by giving bonus points to those with a Bearman Cartoons banner ad.  The bigger the ad the more points you get.  Have the ad on your homepage and I double the points.

Bearmania:

The second set of ads are reserved for Bearmania activities.  These will not have set time limits.  Instead as new ad program participants perform one of the following activities, their ad will take the place of the former one.  Each ad will be in place for at least 20 hours.  Bearmania activities include:

• Purchasing a product from WackSack.com, our sister company store.  Contact me to let me know what name you used to purchase so I can verify before setting up your ad.
• Sending a picture of yourself wearing your WackSack designed shirt.  Also contact me to let me know what name you used to purchase so I can verify before setting up your ad.
• Designing a web banner for Bearman Cartoons.  I hate my banners, so designers get out your photoshop/illustrator tools and do me one better. Feel free to use the Bearman Cartoons logo.  Approved banners will be posted in the Beartoons banner section along with a permalink to your site.  Example tag lines that may be useful include:
A Hack Cartoonist’s View of the World
Editorial Cartoons, Pop-Culture Cartoons, Other BS
A Moderate’s View of the Crazies all Around Me
Blog Blog Blog – Blog about Beartoons. Overall promotion, promoting contests, free ad program etc etc.
Socialize me – Follow BearmanCartoons on StumbleUpon, become a Beartoons fan on Facebook, Follow Bearmancartoons on Twitter AND follow via Technorati.  All links are available at the top of the screen.  Once you have done all four, contact me for verification and ad set up.  First 10 people to do this are eligible.
Guest Cartoons – Either editorial cartoons, answer a specific call for guest cartoons OR send a picture of your webcomic character(s) with our URL and the words “I’m a Bearmaniac”
Other ideas – Contact me if you have other ideas that may be worthy of including in this list.

How to join the Ad Program

2 steps –

1. Put a link to Bearman Cartoons (http://beartoons.com) or a Bearman Cartoons Banner on your website
2. Contact me with a link to your 125×125 banner ad.  I will include your ad in my links page.  Then whenever you are an ad winner, I can automatically post your ad in the appropriate spot.

I reserve the right to cancel/modify the program at any time. But I probably won’t for a long while.

Take a look around and see what’s new. I’ll do a more in depth post later but wanted to get this up now. Let me know if any links don’t work.

Also for all my BEARMANiacs and new friends start sending me a link to your 125×125 banner ad so I can put them in my new links page.

I just realized that I never did post my guest cartoon I did for Tony Piro over at Calamities of Nature.  Don’t be fooled by my schlock.  Tony does great work.  Check him out.

Looks like our friends Corve and Jordasche have some competition in the movie reviewing business.

This video by what seems to be one kid using motion capture imaging software (much like what was used in the real Avatar) is making the rounds on YouTube. No way this was one guy doing this but I can see the technology being there soon where people could make their own Avatar in the comfort of their living room. But I am sure before we consumers get use of the technology some porn director will make a real “Blue Movie” using it.

Hat tip: Cartoon Brew

New “duh” story about cannabis.  People who smoke alot are more likely to have hallucinations.  Study out of London says,

Young people who smoke cannabis or marijuana for six years or more are twice as likely to have psychotic episodes, hallucinations or delusions than people who have never used the drug, scientists said on Monday.

I must be so far removed from people I knew that used heavy drugs that I learned a new term.  “Skunk”  Seems this is a more potent form of the drug in its purest form which makes the above affects seven times more likely than your normal everyday pot.

Everyone remembers:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
my Bonnie lies over the sea,
My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Chorus:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me, to me:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Well that ain’t all.  According to the post the second verse (actually it is the third) goes:

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead.

OK…does he wish her dead or just assumed she was dead?  So further investigation I come across a site called ScoutSongs.com and lucky for you and me they had the whole song.  The further you go the creepier it gets.  I will now have nightmares. 

My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
my Bonnie lies over the sea,
My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Chorus:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me, to me:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me.

O blow ye winds over the ocean,
O blow ye winds over the sea.
O blow ye winds over the ocean,
And bring back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead.

Repeat chorus

The winds have blown over the ocean,
The winds have blown over the sea,
The winds have blown over the ocean,
And brought back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank,
The height of its contents to see,
I lit a small match to assist her,
O Bring back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
I stuck my feet out of the window,
In the morning the neighbors were dead.

Repeat chorus

My mother makes beer in the bathtub,
My father makes synthetic gin,
My sister makes fudge for a quarter,
Wouldja believe how the money rolls in?

Repeat chorus

My mother, she drowned in the bathtub,
My father, he died from his gin,
My sister choked on her chocolate,
My stars, what a fix I am in.

Repeat chorus

I tried making beer in the bathtub,
I tried making synthetic gin,
I tried making fudge for a living,
Now look at the shape that I’m in.

This cartoon was inspired by recent events where actor/director Kevin Smith was unceremoniously booted off a Southwest Airlines Flight because they claimed he was too big to put the armrest down.  He claimed otherwise but was still booted.

Now of course I exaggerated Kevin’s weight above but this brings up the bigger question.  Should overweight people be forced to purchase two seats on planes where the seats are way smaller than they should be?  I am sure that if you go back 50 years people were skinnier and airline seats were bigger.

But on the other hand, what about the rights of the person who paid full price for their ticket as well and had to suffer from someone invading their already small space.  As someone who is over 6′ tall and broad-shouldered, I realize that my frame could impede a seatmate on a plane.  That is why I have moved to window seats so I can scruntch that extra 2 inches towards the window.

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Raise your hand if you use Twitter to announce when you have posted a new comic/cartoon.  Raise you hand if you also like to submit your new post to sites such as Reddit, Digg, or StumbleUpon.
 
If you are a user of Twitter and a registered user of StumbleUpon there is a great but little known tool at your disposal that you can submit a link to both sites at the same time.  When posting your comic’s URL to twitter you either have to use a URL shortener like bit.ly or allow Twitter to shorten it for you.  Instead, I recommend using http://su.pr to shorten your URLs. 
 
Make sure you are signed into both Twitter and StumbleUpon.  Once you have posted your latest cartoon, go to su.pr and type in your tweet along with the full URL of the post.   Then hit submit.  Your post will be submitted to both sites. 
 
Here is what really makes it impactful.  Now when someone clicks on your link in twitter they will go to your post on StumbleUpon where they can not only view your cartoon but also give it a “Thumbs Up”.  The more “Thumbs Up” you get, drives potentially more visitors. 
 
Even better is that Su.pr has analytics of who retweeted your post.  If you are like me it can be difficult to determine if someone retweeted your post especially if they don’t use your twitter name.  With Su.pr, anytime they use the shortened URL in a tweet, it will show up on su.pr analytics who sent out the message.
 
Hopefully this is a tool that is useful to you and please if you see the SU header in a post and you like it, take the second and give it a thumbs up.  Your fellow cartoonists will appreciate it.  And as always you can find me on twitter at @bearmancartoons.