10.16.00 ...Inspired by a weekend camping trip to Spy Rock and fulfilling a desire to bring Portman back into the comic, I wondered if Portman could survive in a world without computers. According to Portman himself, "it would be a mess." When I told him about this first comic, he cautiously whisked out his Palm Pilot, looked at it in awe, and exclaimed "Wow." Then he pointed it at me.

10.17.00

10.18.00

10.19.00

10.20.00

10.26.00

10.27.00

10.30.00 ...Second Nature went psychotic for these next three strips. Thanks to my brother for helping me out with Smokey the Bear's "your fault" idea.

10.31.00

11.1.00

11.2.00 ...Mark Trail with the P-Wing...yes, I have officially gone insane.

11.3.00

11.6.00 ...During this week there was an online poll on the main secondnature.web.com page. Amidst the insane 2000 Presidential election and student elections, the "Save Portman" vote attempted to mock them with ridiculous candidates and mindless banter. Students may have noticed chalk drawings of some of the candidates on grounds at UVA, emulating the student elections.

11.7.00

11.8.00

11.9.00 ...Thomas Hall had mentioned that he liked the "invisible block" comic on November 2nd, so I asked him if we wanted to endorse someone and appear in a later comic. He's a good guy, and during that day more votes were cast than any other day.

11.10.00 ..."San Dimas High School Football Rules" is from the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Adam Reno has worked with me on the UVA Dance Marathon as well as being in a lot of my classes...he's another person, like Portman, that I think has a personality perfect for a cartoon character. He told me later that complete strangers came up to him during this week and told him that he was going to lose to Optimus Prime.

11.13.00 ...Adam Reno won with a commanding 44% of the vote. Optimus Prime came in second with 28%, followed by Flush-Flush with 11%, Justin Timberlake with 10%, Ronald with 3%, and the poor pigeon with only 1%. Yeah, that doesn't add up to 100%, but no one seemed to notice.

11.14.00

11.15.00 ...Both Portman and Adam are U-guides, or University Guides for prospective students, which is a big deal at UVA. Look at page 168 of The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book and see if you can find the inspiration for this comic.

11.16.00 ...How fitting that on Portman's last day he was quoted in the paper about doing something nerdy.