Applications and Homestar Runner

Last night around 3:43 AM Eastern time, I finished my first application in this latest round of job hunting. It was an online application, and I was able to upload it from the comfort of home. I suppose the first round of job hunting began and ended with Stanford -- it was more of a bonus round anyway. But this time its the real McCoy.

Taking a break from all the application stuff, I like to visit the Homestar Runner, an excellent cartoon series on the web, about the title character and his unusual friends who inhabit a surreal yet fun world—a world of bright colors, cheesy Nintendo-style music, and 1980s pop culture references all neatly packed into a well done show. My facorite characters are: Strong Bad, a mischievous and egotistical little guy dressed as a Mexican wrestler; his friend The Cheat, a little yellow critter that looks like an evil Pikachu; and Bubs, a fun-loving dude who knows how to rule the dance floor.

Series co-creators Mike and Matt Chapman—AKA “The Brothers Chaps”—inspired by old video games, Saturday morning cartoons, and children’s books, came up with the idea for the series in 1996, but did not launch their site until late 1999. You can read about how it all began here. One of the amazing things about the cartoons is that they are appropriate for almost all ages, be it grammar school, college, or beyond.

“Me and Mike look at a lot of the Flash cartoons and get a little pissed off by what’s popular...the gay jokes and sex jokes and crap jokes,” said Matt Chapman. “We just try and think of the stuff that makes us laugh. Remember all the hilarious stuff that happened (in grammar school)? Well, it’s still funny.”

Yes, it still is.