Ponder and Enlightening Christmas Comic 2014!

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Clutter: Stickers All Over the Dressers!

I don't remember exactly when it started but at some point in my childhood I developed a love of sticker-covered things. It might've been a friend's older-sibling's bedroom door, it might've been one of my cousin's skateboards, it might've been some person on TV's dresser. I don't remember what inspired me, but I decided to cover my dresser with stickers.

Here is the front of my once-upon-a-time completely sticker-covered dresser. When I got older and was in my "putting away childish things" phase (before my "let's get those childish things back out" phase that I am currently in... in which I currently am... my phase which currently I am in an will continue... inhabiting.) I decided to take the stickers off. It didn't go so well, so many of them are still on there! Let's see go through them, shall we?

Many, many Roger Rabbit stickers from the trading card series. I was and still am in love with all things Roger Rabbit. So I put a lot of Roger Rabbit stickers on it.

On the right side you can see lots of little music note stickers. I got these from piano lessons. Collections that add up quickly are addictive.

On one side of the dresser you see lots of Super Mario Bros. and Punch Out stickers. I wish I had more of these for other sticker-cluttering projects.

Here we see some TMNT stickers from their trading card packs. I see a the Rocketeer sticker, too. I don't know where I got that one.

Here we see more Super Mario stickers, some "great job!" style stickers from school, some Dole fruit stickers (I think they were from oranges, but it might have been bananas), and my name from a label maker! Like every other kid, I loved seeing my name on stuff. I had scratched my name on the front of my dresser for some reason. I don't know, dumb kid reasons. And not only had I scratched it, I'd scratched each letter backwards. Not just "HTES", but each letter was backwards as well (the E and S facing the other way). Kids are weird. It's still covered with stickers, though, so you can't see my pre-Auto Correct text mistake.

I wonder what kind of stickers those white paper remnants were.

This other side is kind of hard to see. I couldn't get enough light on it to get a good picture, and it's full of fabric (from my mom's sewing collection) so I was too lazy to try to move it to get a better picture.

I can see a Prairie Public Radio bumper sticker (ND), some Colgate and pro-teeth brushing stickers, a bunch of "Buckle Up" and "Don't Drink and Drive" stickers, and a "Say No to Drugs" sticker. My parents gave me the NPR one, but I think the rest were from something at school.


My dresser was sticker-covered because I was copying someone I looked up to. My brother Kyle covered his dresser with stickers as well. He might've looked up to me, too, but it is equally as likely that I told him to do it, too so there was another place to sticker clutter.

Most of his stickers were taken off, but I still see some of the same Super Mario Stickers, a Ron Jon Surf Shop sticker (I'm jealous), a Link sticker, a Punch Out sticker, a dinosaur sticker, a Christmas tree sticker, and puffy butterfly sticker with googly eyes!

There's a Mr. Man or Smurfs or something like that sticker. I think it's a guy holding a flower. I'm not sure what it is.

I think that's another Punch Out sticker and some TMNT sticker remnants.

And that's it! I'll do more Clutter Culture posts as I find more things from my past that are cluttered or if I do any more cluttering.

Do you have anything that you've sticker-cluttered? I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment or send me a link.




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A Flag for the Ponder Couch!

I love the podcast "99 Percent Invisible" and listen to their podcast frequently. On a recent episode titled "Vexillonaire" they talked about people who love and study flag design (it's a radio show about all aspects of design. Design is EVERYWHERE!) and the Vexillologists laid out 5 simple rules for flag design:

1. Keep it simple

2. Use meaningful symbolism

3. Use two to three basic colors

4. No lettering or seals of any kind.

5. Be distinctive

I decided to design a flag for the Ponder Couch! Here 'tis

I've always wanted my own flag! And I really like how this turned out. I think I followed all of the Vexillological rules to the best of my MS Paint abilities.

The light blue represents the sky. This is a reference to my comic strip "Ponder and Enlightening" which is where the Ponder Couch idea originated. And the redish-brownish shapes are meant to represent a couch. I hope that is how it reads.

The podcast also mentioned another thing to do to check if your flag is a good flag. "Here’s a trick: if you want to design a kickass flag, start by drawing a one-by-one-and-a half inch rectangle on a piece of paper.

A design at these dimensions held 15 inches from your eye looks about the same as a three-by-five foot flag on a flagpole a hundred feet away. Your design has to work within that tiny rectangle, because unlike other designed objects, a flag is usually seen at a distance. It is also often in motion and partially obscured."

So I made a smaller version:

I couldn't figure out how to make it 1 inch by 1.5 inches, but I think this is pretty close. Get up from your computer, walk back 15 inches or so. Or, if you're reading this on a smart-device hold it at arm's length. Does it still read as a fancy version of a couch? I think it does.

But I will never really know until someone makes one for me out of polyester or heavyweight 2x2 ply mercerized cotton flag material. Are there any vexillographers out there who want to make one and send it to me? Contact me at sethifusp@gmail.com!

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Ponder and Enlightening Comic for 12/7/2014! Patreon!!!!

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Ponder and Enlightening comic drawn on 11/22/14 and uploaded 11/28/2014!

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Made Real: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Meal! 2014

Happy Thanksgiving 2014 from the Ponder Couch!

I hope you all felt thankful today and got to watch all of your favorite Thanksgiving specials this year!

Hot Chocolate

I've never been much of a hot chocolate (hot cocoa) fan. I grew up preferring cold beverages (unless you're talking about soup, then hot is better), but I also didn't like coffee, tea, chocolate milk, cola, or beer until I was well past the legal age for each.

So I never really cared for hot chocolate... until last weekend.

Last weekend Princess Melawesome and I were walking around the Fashion Mall because we often do on the weekends. They have been building their Christmas Season Spirit since the day after Halloween. I don't wholly approve of this because I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and think each should get a full chunk of the calendar to itself, but it's hard to resist Christmas music, decorations, etc. when they're plastered all over everything you see.

We were walking around, taking it all in (reluctantly) when we saw a group of girl scouts just inside the middle doorway of Pottery Barn. They surrounded a folding table on which there was everything you need to make a gourmet hot chocolate. It was mainly to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital . I am all for charity that helps children. So we decided to donate some money and ordered a couple cups.

There were about 8 girl scouts and each of them had a job. They asked what we would like in/on our hot chocolates. We ordered two with everything. Their eyes got wide. Apparently no one had asked for one with everything yet. They worked eagerly and efficiently: one girl poured out the cocoa mix, one added hot water, one added marshmallows, one added cinnamon, one carefully unwrapped our candy canes and added those, and one stared off into space absentmindedly ringing a bell.

In the end they handed us these:

Thanked us, and we were on our way.

My heart is still bursting at the seams with Christmas joy from this experience. They were so earnest in their jobs; making hot chocolate (a drink most people loved) in order to raise money for a great cause.

I wish I could thank those girl scouts for giving me the first in what I hope is a full season of heart-warming Christmas memories for 2014, but it would probably come off as a little creepy and old-guy weird. So I decided to just tell all of you.

It's safe to say that I am officially converted. I now love hot chocolate.

Ponder and Enlightening Comic for 11/12/2014!

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Krispy Kreme Glazed Pumpkin Pie! - A review from the Ponder Couch

How was your Halloween? Mine was great!

Well, it was good, but it could've been better. I had a costume party that I had to skip due to illness, and it was raining so we only got two Trick or Treaters. And they weren't in costumes. But I did watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" so the evening was saved.

I didn't post anything other than comics during October! I planned to, but got busy and decided to just enjoy the whole Halloween month without feeling obligated to post about it.

On to Thanksgiving!

A few days before Halloween I discovered this:

I've enjoyed each of the Krispy Kreme glazed pie variations that I've been able to find. And Pumpkin Pie is one of my favorite kinds of pie (second only to sweet potato). But I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to try this. It did not sound like pumpkin filling would go well with the glazed crust.

But I had to try it. I've reviewed all the other kinds I've found at my local grocery store, and this was available for a Limited Time Only!

So I bought one, hoping I was wrong about the taste and flavor.

I was.

More about that in a bit, but first... what's with the 4PUM on the back of the box? Did that mean 4 PUMpkin? For pumpkin? Or was that some other unrelated and coincidental thing?

Now back to the glazed pie.

They are very, very good.

I ate this pie like 3 weeks ago, and I can't quite remember exactly how it tasted and felt. I just remember that I was pleasantly surprised. If I remember correctly the pumpkin pie-like filling was much creamier than actual pumpkin pie filling. It was more like the normal creme filling you'd expect from a doughnut with some pumpkin-style spices.

Delicious.

I would put them as number 3 on my list of favorites after #1 Banana Kreme and #2 Lemon Pies! Unfortunately the Glazed Pumpkin Pies are for a "Limited Time Only!", just like the Banana Kreme pies.

So go out and buy a bunch and distribute them among your favorite family members at your Thanksgiving get-together!

Krispy Kreme, if you're reading this, please send me a case of your Glazed Banana Kreme pies. I miss them so.

Ponder and Enlightening comic for 11/3/14!

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Ponder and Enlightening Comic for 10/18/14!

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