User blog comment:Raidra/Creepypasta Nightmares/@comment-4849011-20141111131739/@comment-4849011-20141113174809

That's good to hear! I myself have a good friend with a history of substance abuse, and he's doing well also. He has a baby daughter now. I jokingly asked him how much harder it was to take care of a baby than a Hiccupping Dil doll (a toy which came out when the first Rugrats movie did), and the short answer was that it was harder.

I know what you mean. Don't worry, I won't turn him into a whiner. I think that at the end the reader will see his resoluteness. I'm glad you see that parts of it are providing background, setting the scene, etc. instead of going, "What in blazes does a car crash have to do with anything!?"

I definitely want to know Genie's compassionate side. That's why she's doing this - out of compassion. It's not a matter of "This guy uses drugs, so I'm going to make him suffer!" It's a matter of "I'm going to use my abilities to help this guy recover.  It'll be a rough process that's hard on both of us, but he'll be better for it in the long run."

Yeah, Van has a lot more tapes than DVDs (I still tape things off the TV myself.  Videocassettes forever!), but I can imagine him having a couple. I can alter that part to show that better.

At least I can understand you. One time I called a tech guy for help and he got angry with me because I had trouble understanding his accent (like I were having trouble with listening comprehension on purpose just to irritate him). ~angrily folds arms, shakes head, and looks to the side~

I learned the shoelace philosophy from, of all things, an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that I happened to see. There was a rabbi who explained, "Many people who beat their children claim they're following the Book of Proverbs, but they're misinterpreting the scripture.  According to the Talmud, if you must strike a child [for disciplinary reasons], you should do so only with a shoelace." The point was that you should have compression, mercy, and moderation in dealing with children even if they've done wrong. I thought that was a good philosophy (and one that could apply to lot of adults as well) so I decided to showcase it in my comics. (In case you're wondering, no, Genie's not Jewish, but she does follow some Jewish philosophies)  As for my comics, I don't have them on-line, except for a few panels on my stories "The Cause of the Crash", "The Needle", "The Creature in the Meteorite", and "The Dagger and the Cords" (A few of my other stories have illustrations of characters from my comics as well). I could always scan some pages and show you, though. Part of my unique style is giving people short snouts instead of mouths and noses. Later today or tomorrow I can post drawings of Genie and Van. The thing about this comic book story is it's one I'm planning; I haven't drawn it yet. ~"Zonk" music from Let's Make a Deal plays in background~