My sister, Linda (the inspiration for Xinda, of course), was diagnosed and operated on for breast cancer earlier this year. I’ve been struggling with whether to incorporate her condition into the continuity of JEFbot or not for a long time, but after talking it over with Linda and other family members and friends, I decided to go forward with it, as the consensus was that her story might raise awareness of the issue (October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month after all) and also possibly give comfort to those that have either been through it themselves, or know loved ones who have. This storyline – actually, it’s not really a storyline, as it will be an ongoing challenge for Xinda in future strips for as long as it’s a challenge for Linda – won’t always be funny, but I’ll try to find the humor in it whenever possible, just as my sister has.

Although the cancer was removed at a late stage, the good news is that Linda has just recently completed her chemotherapy and radiation treatments and is doing well. (I don’t think I would’ve been able to make these strips otherwise, honestly.) I’ll let her disclose as much of the specifics of the operation and treatment as she’s comfortable with, and knowing her, I’ll bet nothing is off limits if you have any questions, which you can post in the comments. She’ll either answer them herself or I’ll pass them along.

• National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. donation page

Here’s a pic of Linda at the hospital after the surgery that sums up her attitude towards the cancer perfectly:

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And here’s one of the two of us celebrating Linda’s birthday at the Grove in West Hollywood a week ago:

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A quick note that this is the last strip in The Angry Scarf storyline, which means this is the end of the three strips a week schedule! The next new strip will be on Friday, so next week will begin our regular schedule of new strips being released every Tuesday and Friday.

Also, if you’re in L.A. this weekend (November 5 & 6) come to the JEFbot booth (#3601) at the Comikaze Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. If all goes well, Xinda (and/or possibly Mombot, Popbot and Lor), will be helping me out at the booth throughout the weekend!

So jefbot has just one more mission to complete before he can go home for some much needed rest. And it’s just him and a little dog, right? What could possibly go wrong there?

Actually, this strip represents one of my biggest pet peeves of all. Living in West Hollywood, where it seems almost everyone has a little dog, it’s pretty amazing how clean the streets and sidewalks are. Except when some dog owner turns a blind eye to their dog’s poop, and just leaves it wherever it’s deposited. I’ve seen it happen; the owner pretends to be deeply involved in a conversation on their mobile phone and then pretends not to notice their dog just dropped a steaming pile, and then innocently walks away. I just want to run over and pick up the poop (yes, with my bare hands. Yes, it’d be worth it.) and then throw it at the back of their head. Let’s hope jefbot takes a more civil course of action.

So I think we can chalk “Fasting for long periods of time without knowing it” up as another Power of Scrawn, folks! But then I guess we have to give  ”Consuming and storing mass quantities of food without knowing it” to the Power of Chub side, too.

I forget to eat a lot. And that’s only been magnified since I started living on my own again. Thank gods Mombot (Mom) is always giving me food to take home, and my sister Lor (Laura) fixes me leftovers whenever she makes food for special events. It’s also a good thing that I don’t have any fast food joints within walking distance of my apartment (although sometimes I’d kill for a Quarter Pounder with cheese and fries) as I’d probably lose the Power of Scrawn within weeks.

Evil, evil, Cornfather. Actually, I used to do this kind of stuff to my friends all the time when they’d sleep over in junior high/high school. It’s a wonder I had friends back then.

Gonna cut this strip’s blog post a bit short today since A) I wrote a tome for last Friday’s strip so thought I’d give you guys a break this time, and B) I need to get some sleep tonight because tomorrow is the premiere screening of Grey Skies, the horror movie I shot with actor/producer Michael Cornacchia (the Cornfather’s inspiration) last year!!! Longtime readers may remember me posting about my experience shooting the movie, here. Woo-hoo! Look for a blog post about the screening soon.

Considering the vast amounts of time my mom has spent alternating between Bejeweled 2, Peggle and Solitaire, and understanding that I just recently finished Grand Theft Auto IV, a game that came out in April, I think it’s entirely truthful at this point to say my mom spends more time playing videogames than I do. No joke, she takes her high scores more seriously in those games than I do my Gamerscore on XBOX Live. I’m actually not ashamed of this, but am in fact, proud.