I'm back! And so is Aki Akuyama! It's been a while, so here's a quick catchup.

Art by me, and the students at Lee Kyung Mi Art Academy, where I'm now living!

The Cartoon Commune is hiring!

I'm expanding the site a bit, and bringing on more artists, so I can divvy up the commissions. I have some people on board, but I'm MAYBE looking for a couple more. I'm kind of frightened to bust out an open call, because I don't want to offend anyone. Right now, I'm just gauging who's interested, either for my open spots now, or for down the line if people leave.

Okay, just because so many people freaked the crap out about my money situation/physical state after my last two posts.... a quick word on how to read my blog.

You hear a voice in your head when you read something. But with plain text, it is difficult to know what emotion the author is intending to express. When you see something that you would expect to read with a sad, frightened, or concerned voice, imaging the first sentence is "WOOOOO! ADVENTURE! WOOOOOOO! YEAH!" and continue in that same tone.

I share these tales not for pity, but because I am super excited!

Also: Both the day before I left up Kilimanjaro, and the day I got back, I spent a whole day walking between ATMs trying to find one that worked. But each time, it would say "cannot contact your bank" or "timed out".

Guess who just found out that every single time he tried an ATM, it withdrew a couple hundred bucks from his account, but didn't give him cash???

Guess who just lost the last thousand bucks he had on faulty bank machines?

IT'S ME!

So I think Kilimanjaro and I are about tied.

I made it up there, but good lord did it ever take everything I had.

On the 6 day trip up Kilimanjaro, there's really only one little chunk of time to speak of. For the first 4 days, we walked about 2 hours a day, and wait at a campsite in an empty field for about 22. Just enough to soften us up. Then, at 5pm on Day 4, we were told to go to bed, because at midnight, we had a 7 hour march through the pitch black freezing cold to look forward to.

This week I learned what it means when a rich person tells you that they went on safari in Africa and camped out in a tent in the wilderness where they could hear wild animals howling while they sleep.

It means they paid several hundred dollars a night to stay poolside in the equivalent of a 5 star hotel room that just happens to be made of canvas, though it's encased in another structure, under a roof, and in a resort filled with non-indigiounous plants imported to make it look Jungley, all behind an electric fence to keep out scary animals.

Well, my several dollar per minute internet ran out before I finished telling all my tales from LA, but just as well.... the story of my Scientology test will be much better when I can scan and post my test results along with it.

But LA story time is over! Kenya story time is now!

Well, I just got here, so I don't really have any stories yet. I just thought that since I'll be heading out to the middle of the desert soon, I'd take advantage of the city's ability to keep me from my promised break from the internet.

Greetings from the internet terminal at Gate 38 of LAX! LA was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for more. Huge thanks to my excellent hosts, Jamie Dee and Courtney. Some of the highlights:

I been doing lots of jam comics lately!

Here's one with Jamie Dee Galey. Everyone compliment Jamie on his motorcycle, he is very proud.

Hey Everybody! Greetings from a cruddy internet cafe in the middle of nowhere!