Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Chris Benoit 1967-2007

What kind of demons would turn a hero into a monster. A killer. A corpse. I was a fan of Chris Benoit for most of his career. When I would get hassled by people about how "fake" wrestling was, I would always refer them to one of his matches. Around "the boys" he was quiet and reserved, a consummate professional. Somewhere behind the facade something was very, very wrong.

When I heard he and his family died this weekend I was floored. To know now that it's a possible double murder of his wife and seven year-old son and suicide... I just don't know what to think. He exemplified what professional wrestling could be at it's best. In some was he made it more respectable because you couldn't help but respect him. Now it's all different. Now it's all changed.

It's tough enough being a fan of professional wrestling. This will be chalked-up as another black eye on the business. History tells us it won't be the last. I just never thought it would come from Chris. None of us did.

My heart (what's left of it) goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Back in Bizness


Sweet relief is on the way.
Thanks to all you readers who've ridden out this last couple of weeks. Server downtime sucks hard, but it just makes uptime feel that much better, don't it? If you've missed a couple of strips in these past days, make sure to drop by the archives and catch up on what you've missed.
The best news is that ComicGenesis (our host) is finally getting a new, upgraded server to replace the old hamster wheel currently spinning in the closet.

The new machine looks to have some punch to it, too:
• 8 core processor (4 cores CPU's, 2 CPU's)
• 16 GIGS of RAM (I betcha we'll still touch the HD)
• 4 750 Gigs of SATA Hard disk space in a 3-way RAID setup and a hot-swappable spare. Total is just barely 1.5 TERABYTES of space

Remember, if this server has issues again, and you need your daily Brink fix, you can check out the Drunk Duck mirror site at www.drunkduck.com/brinkerhoff. Bookmark it for a rainy day, yo'. It looks like it's getting some good exposure at that new location, too.


In Brinkerhoff news, we're fast approaching the 400th strip, sometime in the middle of next month. I'm toying with a pretty big event to commemorate the milestone, so stay tuned for that.


On the home front, we've been remodeling our kitchen from the ground up and the rest of our house is upside-down because of it. The house was built in the late 1930's by the first owner. It's what can be called a "hobby home". Every nook and cranny of the place has the little touches of a guy who's lived in and worked on it for many years.
Because of this, though, many of the updates and improvements are not only good aesthetically, but to fix things and bring them more into code. In fact, the whole reason we accelerated the plans to update the kitchen came from the need to add a dishwasher. We knew it would have to be a new plumb to get it in, but the bigger problem we saw was that the countertop was an inch-and-a-half too low. An even bigger problem we solved was the plumbing we had to replace once we saw the sea of corrosion the drain pipes were bathing in. We dodged that bullet better than Neo in the good one.
So we've been burning the candle at both ends to get the whole thing done before our wedding reception(s) next month. We might've even found a new end on that damn candle, as hard as we've been working. Out friend Todd has been a huge help for the last week and he'll be back to help out tonight as we hit the home stretch of the cabinet installation for the countertop measuring scheduled for tomorrow. We'll be celebrating that accomplishment over some wine and pasta at Europa, one of our favorite Spokane restaurants.
When all is said and done, I'll probably post a picture gallery to brag on the accomplishment. Viva home improvement!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Mirror Stripping


Tired of server jam-ups and lag time preventing new Brink strips from posting on time? Me too, brudda'.

That's why I've decided to mirror Brinkerhoff comics over at Drunk Duck, too. So if you wake up some mornings to see that the comic looks an awful lot like the comic from yesterday, check over at the Drunk Duck site, because it might be there while the main site works through it's problems.

I doubt this will be a permanent switch. It'll just be another place to make sure you get your daily dose of Brink. Oh, and if you sign up to be a member of the inebriated mallard's community, you can comment on that day's comic and do some other fun junk.