Alone in the Dark

You know what sounds like a good thing to do after work when you work late? Not drinking! Yes, excellent. You know what else is better? A nice walk in the park. You know what makes that a batshit crazy idea? Doing the two and a half mile walk alone--in the dark. Seward Park is nice, with the walk almost completely surrounded by water, only the parking lot part of it was lit. I used to consider this walk "exercise"...now the walk barely does anything other than freak the hell out of me when I hear leaves rustling in the woods.
I realize I need to learn how to stop being so skittish about being alone in the dark. But I figure there's a better solution. I need a dog. A big one.
When I got to work this morning, I had a goofy pick-me-up email from my buddy, Eric. He had seen the warning label on my JetBoil thingy, and decided to illustrate what went through his head when he first saw that. I so envy artist's ability to do stuff like that (even with necessary spelled wrong, I envy them, granted he did that at like 8-9 in the morning).
See, my thought on the whole backpacking thing would be illustrated by my artsy programmer's stick figures.
<--(Me, being krushed to death by heavy pack, or explodey pack.) Yeah, I don't have as much faith that I will be feasting on delicately flame broiled bear-meat. Nor do I plan to use chessy one liners borrowed from the dude-with-the-face-I'd-like-to-punch from Fantastic Four. Eric thinks his brain might be broken. I tend to agree with him. Too much thinking about game design will do that to you. He's got this comic on the game industry that's a scary but true reflection of things that go on. It's an impressive use of three colors.