Chris Roberts
LightNews LightNews
banner
rickzarber.bsky.social
Chris Roberts
@rickzarber.bsky.social
19 followers 39 following 170 posts
So tired it hurts, in too much pain to sleep.

He/him/or whatever—I have no strong feelings about my gender and won't take offense.
Posts Replies Media Videos
rickzarber.bsky.social
I'm so exhausted & sore from yesterday that I can barely even move. Despite 18 mph winds during the daylight hours hampering efforts, we managed to hurriedly get things up and running enough for trick-or-treaters, and another Halloween has been completed successfully. Pics when I have the energy.
A wide-angle photo of our yard, taken around midnight, showing the full set-up, with the left side lit in red, the middle blue, and the right green. Very many decorations.
November 1, 2025 at 11:21 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Soon™
The photo shows a nighttime pic of part of the yard covered in lights, the 7ft werewolf in the center. A ladder and boxes also feature, for that in-progress look. (Because we're still working on it, you see. Halloween is under construction. It's tomorrow! oh no)
October 31, 2025 at 12:44 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
soon
A wide angle view of a house on a corner lot, taken from the corner sidewalk at evening. The yard is encircled by low fencing with orange lights, and lighted inflatables (spiders, jack o'lanterns, witches) are being set up around the perimeter. In the foreground, the frame of the "spider cage" has been set up, and the "clown tent" can just be seen in the background.
October 18, 2025 at 11:20 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Nothing like getting home at night, turning on the kitchen light, and getting jumpscared by this year's new additions.
View from inside the kitchen into the adjoining dining room. Three life-size scary clowns are lined up facing directly into the kitchen.
October 15, 2025 at 2:25 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Ya-ha-ha!
A photo of a set of bocce balls in a field, but there's a makeshift flag in the middle made from a stick and a leaf. It looks vaguely Korok-y.
August 30, 2025 at 7:42 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Suddenly caught the spirit and started working on my video game for the first time in who knows how long.
A tight cropped image of a three monitor set-up. The left monitor shows a JAQ comic page, the central monitor has RPG Maker open to the corresponding map and cutscene script, and the right monitor is filled by a play test window.
July 22, 2025 at 10:22 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
RIP to the Best Boy.
A selfie from 2019 where I'm laying on the grass, my housemate's cat, Leif, laying near my head, one paw outstretched touching my shoulder. My arm is bent back, trying to pet him, forming a little loop so that our limbs are parallel. Another selfie with Leif, taken a few moments later, but we're scooched a bit closer, and he now has both paws on my shoulder. My head is turned to look at him, and he's smiling a peaceful little squinty cat smile.
July 16, 2025 at 9:46 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Five minutes to midnight, here's my Terrible Comic. These are Times and this is all my brain can muster.
[Text] Presenting: Terrible Comic Made in MSPaint Over a Steam Link Because I Am Out of Town Staying with Family at the Moment. A crudely drawn scale weighing the Earth against an ostrich with its head buried. [Text] It's all too much. Much, much too much. I feel like I can't balance needing to be aware of everything with instinctual panic. An even more crudely drawn stick figure with lines branching out away from it. The branches terminate in "no" symbols, one with a car, one with a heart, one big one at the end with a nuclear blast. [Text] Survival has always been an incalculable probability, but I feel less in control, or more aware of my lack of agency, than ever. [Text] I struggle to express myself, turning mostly to song lyrics. So I guess I'll leave it at: "hang on to each other" In the bottom corner, a group of stick figures are huddled together.
June 25, 2025 at 3:55 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
My niece asked me to draw a Pikachu on her canvas for her to paint. I said only if I could draw original-style Pikachu. She didn't want the ORIGINAL original one, but she accepted this one:
A pencil drawing on a small canvas of Pikachu from the cover of Pokémon Yellow.
June 11, 2025 at 8:11 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
I'm doing my part! 🫡
69 supporters 34% of Goal
June 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Social media sabbatical update: mostly still ongoing, but I saw a neat bug the other day.
A close-up photo of a tiny black beetle with white polka dots scurrying away across a black metal mailbox. The edges of its carapace are dotted with very close tiny white spots. From a distance, I confused it with a spider. A second (slightly out of focus) photo of the same bug perched on the edge of the mailbox, facing away from the camera. Not pictured: the beetle wagging its foreleg at me as if to say, "No photos! Get out of here!"
May 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
When they say this, they don't mean that the Golden Age will arrive out of the ashes of our collapsed civilization as we violently reject all aspects of their praxis, but it still has that kind of Dune's Golden Path, Star Trek post-WWIII feel to it. But somehow I don't think we'll be that lucky…
A tweet from alt-right "personality" Jack Posobiec commenting on the current market situation: "My own retirement is down too Don't care All-in on the Great Deal The Golden Age is on the other side"
April 7, 2025 at 10:26 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
The problem was not, in fact, fixed.
Another panel from a Pictures for Sad Children comic, this one of a priest saying, "and every second, god decides that reality does not involve you feeling good today".
April 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
My scroll wheel wasn't working, so I disassembled my mouse, figured out the issue, made a makeshift repair, and successfully reassembled the mouse.
Two panels from Pictures for Sad Children. P1 text: temporarily overwhelmed by confidence, gary believes he is some kind of ogre. P2, Gary yelling: "I EAT BONES AND SHIT GHOSTS"
April 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
I don't know what happened
An old Wondermark comic by David Malki ! [Panel 1] Man 1: Heh, look at this old report card. "Bright, but needs to focus. If he spent as much time studying as he does drawing rocketships in class, he will go far. A lot of potential." [Panel 2] Man 2: We ALL had such potential, didn't we. Did you ever roll over into ACTUAL? Man 1: I don't know, man! I don't get report cards anymore. [Panel 3] A bumper sticker that reads, "I was an HONOR STUDENT. I don't know what happened"
March 12, 2025 at 7:13 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
I swear by those third party ergonomic grip thingies. With my hypermobile joints and osteoarthritis, I basically wouldn't be able to do any portable gaming anymore otherwise.
A 3DS and a Switch, both seated in grips. The consoles flipped over, showing the grips (which also come with kickstands and game cartridge storage).
January 24, 2025 at 4:22 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Two sequential tweets from Julia Kaye. The first reads, "likes don't matter, follower count doesn't matter, what matters is your friends responding to you with your name in all caps". The second reads, "now go out there and make your friends embarrassed to know you", followed by a smiley face with hearts.
January 3, 2025 at 8:55 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Merry Crimbo, bluesky moots!
A sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles in the form of a little snowman against a snowy skyline. (I made it. It looks okay.)
December 25, 2024 at 3:21 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
GI Robot from Creature Commandos squinting in suspicion of Nazis.
December 13, 2024 at 9:24 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
*some* mistakes.
A road stop novelty pen where the entire grip is a sculpted figure of Bob Ross. The paint application is sloppy and careless, and the face bears only a slight resemblance to the genuine article. The eyes look both haunted and haunting. (He reminds me of Tingle from Legend of Zelda, honestly.) It's out of focus, but at the bottom it says "No Mistakes, Only Happy Accidents".
December 1, 2024 at 7:39 PM
rickzarber.bsky.social
A relative joined this FB group and so I was cursed to behold this unholy sin against Bill Watterson.
A Facebook public group banner comprised of extremely obvious AI generated panels. Real horror show shit. We've got Hobbes fingering a photoreal (ish) …blood(?) milkshake. Calvin and clones of various sizes with hands of ice cream cones and feet of stones. Horrible Calvin/Hobbes amalgamations that will haunt my nightmares… None of it looks even remotely good, and the group is ironically named Calvin and Hobbes(Lover) and has 18.4K members. I despair.
November 28, 2024 at 5:57 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
@howlingswampcat.bsky.social and then lastly here is a photo I took JUST FOR YOU, of a stuffed doll that isn't mine (nor do I even know the character), but which I grabbed & put on a pumpkin that I didn't carve (nor do I follow the vtuber). Just announcing to the world that ours is a house of sin…
A "neso" (?) of a purple-haired anime girl atop a large pumpkin that has been carved to show a "pesti" (??) and a "chattini" (???). Backlit by an LED lantern as it was way too windy for candles.
November 3, 2024 at 4:24 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
After we finally ran out of trick-or-treaters, we took a quick meal break and then begun the process of tearing it all down. (There was a 50% chance of rain the next morning, so we weren't risking it.) We finished shortly before 3 AM, with everything stored into the garage so it can be packed up.
Another panoramic shot of the yard, from the same vantage point. It is dark and empty now; all that remains are the frame of the spider cage, now bare, and the red clown tent in the side yard. But the garage is open and a red light pours out… A shot of everything in the garage, the 7-foot werewolf towering over it all (barely fitting inside, in fact). There is pretty much no floor space left empty. Goodnight, Halloween! (It is 3 in the morning and everything hurts now.)
November 3, 2024 at 4:14 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
No rain or storms this year, but some strong winds kept us busy. The spider cage was often moving violently, and several inflatables had a bend in their outlook (a 90° bend—to a place where happiness is perpendicular to wonderment).
The spider cage, with many of the hanging webbed corpses at a 45° angle, getting all tangled up in the hanging string lights. Some of the undead in the adjoining graveyard are spun around backwards. Three inflatables—the giant Mr Stay Puft, a haunted tree, and a jack-o-lantern-headed scarecrow—all bent 90° staring up at the sky.
November 3, 2024 at 4:04 AM
rickzarber.bsky.social
Before I post the video, a few highlights.
Mid-yard shot, a bug-eyed devil looming near a graveyard, lots of skeletons and ghouls. The seven-foot-tall werewolf in the back is impossible to miss. Odd shadows are being cast onto the side of the neighbors' house from blue and green spotlights. A view from the sidewalk of the "spider cage" (on a rare occasion when the wind wasn't blowing everything horizontal). Dozens of spiders of various makes (plastic, stuffed, animatronic) cover the frame. The lighting is mostly green and purple. A view from the entrance of the "clown tent". Clowns hang from the ceiling among light strings and lit by careening light projections. Some of their eyes glow. In the back stands Rico, a tall menacing clown with his arms (and eyes and mouth) open wide, welcoming the children. A shot into the garage, where the walking path narrowly winds in and out. On the right is a ghastly morgue, with a skeleton doctor and zombie nurse presiding over a table full of human limbs and appendages. In the back are shelves full of skulls and creepy-crawlies. On the left, a dapper vampire skeleton (in top hat and cape) stands between tables covered in smoking goblets and haunted photos. Chains, bats, weapons, and heads hang from the ceiling and walls.
November 3, 2024 at 3:56 AM