SINKWAD (alternately
sinkwad) is a neologism and initialism referring to those people who have a
Single
Income,
No
Kids, but live
With
A Dog. The
I may also stand for
independent (as opposed to living with one's parents, I guess). The demographic is similar to the
DINK and
DINKWAD (dual income, no kids), and often describes today's "Generation Y" twenty-somethings who, either by choice or circumstance, live alone or with a significant other, and save childbearing or even marriage for their thirties, if they do it at all.
Being of the single income variety but not
enough income to afford living on my own, I have lived with my parents for almost four years now, since I graduated from college. Until this past September, we had always lived with a dog (but we're soon about to adopt another). Technically, this gives me the SINKLWPWAD label, but since that's much more difficult to pronounce than "sinkwad" and I basically exhibit sinkwad sensibilities, I've chosen sinkwad as my descriptor.
DINKs are sometimes lumped under the "yuppie" umbrella, but this is not always the case. The dual income but lack of children to care for often means the couple has more money to spend on living expenses, material goods, and education, as well as time to commit to various endeavors that having a family might otherwise inhibit. In my observation, this is more of a generational trend among Gens. X and Y, rather than being a political demographic (as "yuppie" is often aligned with conservative political views). SINKs, by virtue of only having one source of income, may not follow these same characteristics, but often a SINK may happily remain single
because they earn enough money to where they have the benefit of consciously choosing an independent living space over a cohabitual relationship if they so wish.
Eventually, I hope to have a comic strip featuring a sinkwad as the main character. Since I work full-time and have various freelance projects besides, I don't yet know how soon this will come to fruition, but as it's my life dream to be a syndicated freelance cartoonist, I hope it's soon. In the meantime, I decided on the name Sinkwad for my comic and have registered sinkwad.com for my use. I can be e-mailed at sinkwad@sinkwad.com.
(Incidentally, there is a website geared toward dinkwads at
dinkwad.com.)
It's been a busy past few weeks, but I thought I'd throw a few bread crumbs to this blog just to keep it running. I took a "narrative drawing" class my senior year of college, and while I won't go into what an incredibly inaccurate name that was, I did get a chance to draw a comic strip for one assignment. I had forgotten I had scanned this comic, and it's still sitting on the server, so I thought I'd post it here, as it's a theme I will probably use in the future.
In the meantime, I've developed a preliminary logo. This may change as the strip develops its personality, but it'll work for now. At the very least, it spells out the abbreviation.
At left is a sketch of the two main characters for Sinkwad. The guy is basically Brian, the main character from my last attempt at a comic strip, while the dog is a basic beagle I've been drawing for years. Neither of them has a name just yet. The guy (with slightly different hair) was once known as Brian Byrd, which is how people often write my name unless I spell it out for them. The dog has been named Max and York at different times.