I'm home from my weekend with Jeff. A great birthday indeed, though I'm going to be late on the comic because of it. No time to draw and all.

I bought Jeff a harmonica for his birthday. He wants to play it along with the guitar. Good luck learning to bend notes. Its freaking hard.
I picked up a couple of new books to read. "The Life of Pi", "The Gospel According to the Son", "The Remains of the Day". I still prefer fantasy-type stories, but I want to start reading some other things too.
I lost my barbell, so I had to go to a ring. LAME.
Other than that, I have a week of tests. Can't wait til Mardi Gras! I think I'll go buy a King Cake tomorrow...

  ¶ 23:22

I make long comics now because I can fit in more text. Now, something actually happens in each issue! Yay for plot progression!

I'm going to Houston this weekend to visit Jeff<3. His birthday was last Wednesday. That means Monday's comic is iffy. But you know the drill, I'll do my best.

I've not got much to say about this week. The most exciting thing that happened was that I finally won a free Coke. The bottles say "1 in 12 wins" but I can tell you that's a total lie. I drink TONS of coke, and, until now, I've never ever gotten anything but "Drink Coke Play Again."
Tangent: I've always wanted to write a haiku where that is the last line. Ideas?

Pretty sad that Coke is all I have to show for my week. But you know, even though I've been kinda bored lately, I've been happy. Grades are good, school is easy, I'm going to start work again soon, and I'm feeling creative. Oh, and I've been talking to people on AIM more than usual. Keeping in better touch. Yay for friends ^_^

Lastly, Chris made this thing. I think its way cool. Have a good week everyone!
  ¶ 23:34

Scandal! Esuna naked in a comic? Good thing all there is so much conveniently-placed steam...

This has been a good weekend for me for some reason. I felt productive. I fixed the problems with the Prevailing Winds site, started a new site design for my dad, and was inspired on how to go about the story arch for Chapter 3 of the comic. I really feel in my element when I'm working on graphics and websites and stories and art. Rather than just watching TV or surfing the net, I'm creating and learning.

A few things of note: Jeff's Birthday is Wednesday. So wish him a happy one! I'll be out of town next weekend to see him, so I'm not sure about what will happen to the comic those days.

Also: Sarah, you seriously need a character name within the next week or so! I've got plans!

I'm planning on going in there and finishing Chainfire tonight. Hopefully I won't be disappointed. I've found that Terry Goodkind's books are a lot easier to stomach if you stop thinking of them as works of fantasy and pretend they're books on philosophy. Then, the page-long, over-answering monologues don't seem out of place. ^_~
The books are based on Objectivism. Have you heard of it? Its the morality of selfishness (though don't be so quick to recoil against that phrase; they don't mean it in the way you think they do... or at least, not exactly). I have an entire book on it over there on my shelf, and really, its more than I could possibly explain or comment on in one post alone. So my question is this: when is selfishness a virtue? Feel free to research this one if you never had the chance to read one of her books.
Its an interesting idea, working toward your own goals, valuing reason above everything, and respecting the dignity of all beings. I'll go ahead and put my two cents in about Ayn Rand... if everyone was as intelligent as her heroes are, Objectivism would be ideal. But, I've never met anyone who could really live up to what she's describing. How unfortunate that compassion is so necessary.

  ¶ 23:31

Okay, so here is a very texty DOUBLE length comic. I'm working on a character guide so you wont be as confused about things (like the fact that Stormdreamers live longer regular people do, Rayne is like 30-something in this flashback, Esuna is 40-something, Sulie is only 17, etc).

This week has been essentially uneventful. I'm just here chillin and playing guitar. I'm getting a little better at that, but only a little ^_^. I've also been thinking of things to do to the Delta Controls website, so that maybe they'll hire me to fix it up. I worked for them 3 summers ago (has it truely been that long?!?) and made their site slightly more organized. Now I'm ready to move it to a crisp, white, professional page, if they want the help.

Other than that... I start more classes Tuesday? Seriously, someone throw a party. I'm bored.
  ¶ 00:48

Not a double-length comic, but a VERY texty one.

Happy Milk Holiday!
We call it that because of the sign in front of the school, don't ya know? Drive by "MLK HOLIDAY JAN17" going 45 or more and chances are you'll misread it. Like I do. Again and again. So. Today I'm going to drink milk in honor of MLK. Make that chocolate milk, so its more relevant. Hey, shut up! Like you're actually celebrating it at all? Go MLK. That speech, that speech makes me cry every time I hear it.

Going to bleach a little more hair today so I can pink it up again easily. Going to be more bold this time. My hair is dark, so it won't take a bleach mistake well. But I'm ready to actually have some of it showing at all times, not just under one ear.

Just redesigned the Prevailing Winds website. You remember them; they're that community band. Well, I'm working pro bono on super-small sites to build my portfolio. Then I'm going to open a web-design part of this site so I can direct people to it. Like a resume. Like an electronic business card.

One last thing. I'm reading the new Terry Goodkind book. I picked up the first one in middle school, and have been reading faithfully since they came out. The only problem is, I kindof hate the series. I mean, the first 2 books are incredible, and the sixth one is incredible, but the 7th and 8th were almost the worst things I've ever read EVER. And yet... I'm so invested in the series, I can't stop reading. I'm on book 9. He's got 2 left to go in the story, or so he says. And I'll be buying them hardback, no question. The first thing I said when I walked in the store and saw this book on the new release rack was "Oh, CRAP."
This one is better than the last two sofar... but he is trying to BE Ayn Rand.
  ¶ 00:06

Well, it looks like I'm double-lengthin the comic on Monday. If I'd known that my class tonight was actually going to meet for the whole 3 hours, I'd have probably started on one sooner. But since it did, and I didn't draw much, oh well.
I'm kindof down on the story right now anyway. I'm having trouble scripting concisely, so I often end up with way more text than I do art. It gets hard to fit everything on a page, so I cut down and cut down on dialog until its so sparse you hardly know what's happening. I'm working hard to set up a wiki for the comic that can serve to fill in these blanks, but this proves somewhat difficult. If I can't do something about this soon, I'm considering something else... turning this comic into illustrated fiction.
Of course, that's huge. Its like a shift in genre. But how about it? What do you say? I'm getting to be a decent artist, but I'm still terrible at layout and pacing. Heavily illustrated fiction would be a lot easier to produce, I think. Easier to ORGANIZE. Could provide more character depth, more quality dialog, etc.
Don't worry, I'm not going to up and change all of the sudden. But I'd really like reader input... do you think I should try it, or stick with what I'm doing? (I'm going to keep asking this question in subsequent posts until I feel I have enough answers)

Okay, enough Elo. Now, lets talk about school.
*ahem*
For the past 3 days I have driven across town to the NSUS campus, take a seat on the front row, and sat quietly while my brain slowly oozed out of my ears. This school is a joke.
My first class is Finite Math (they don't want my Calculus credit). I went ahead and took it to fill the 12 hour TOPS requirement, but HOLY CRAP I AM DROPPING THIS CLASS. I am going to drive to Natch and CLEP even if I have to stab a man. My soon-to-be-ex-teacher talks like a sleazy car salesman and tells ridiculous jokes which amuse him so much that he leans and gaffaws loudly every 2 minutes. He refuses to give us a syllabus, so its not like I could just show up 4 times in the semester and ace the exams.
Next is Economics. Okay, I don't know much about this. Fine. But its boring, I can tell you that much.
Finally, Fine Arts Survey. Boy, that's a bit of irony right there. While I'm not really a master of any field, I think its safe to say that I am an artsy person. (I play flute/piano/guitar. I write. I draw. Etc.) And if that's not enough, I took a Music Appreciation course at BPCC through AIM in highschool. But do they want THAT? NO. They want none of my credits. Plus, this guy keeps us there for the full 3 hours. I was so anxious to get out of there, even the nun sitting next to me started to irritate me (she doesn't speak English well, and I had to help her out, which is fine... the first ten times).
You know what? If these classes continue the way they're going, it will only serve to reinforce my opinion that BPCC is a better school than NSUS. I don't know how it is at the main campus, but if its anything like it is here... ugh...
After BPCC starts, I'm going to get a job to fill the hours.

Tell me what you think of the fiction thing. I'm going to go stick my head in a bag.
  ¶ 23:00

Okay! Comic back in business! This one is weird and ceremonial due to the extreme blur that exists between Elo's government and religion. Interestingly I gathered inspiration from both the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Catechism.

I spent the last week at Jeff's, which was wonderful. I feel really happy about him; he's so sweet. ^_^ Although... that's the only kind of "sweet" that's in his house right now... the cookies are GONE. He's been dietin and exercising lately with Josh, and has already lost 10 pounds. I lost 3-4 just staying in his house, without access to small sugary foods or cereal! Ugh, when the semester starts again, I'm heading back to the gym.

I'm listening to "The Black House" on tape because I really dig audio books lately. When that's done, I'll go to the library and check out another to listen to (All the ones on CD I've bought before came from the Used Bookstore, but I'm running out of CD options). Audio books are great for driving. Not just long trips, but also for just driving around town. And its no harder to start and stop listening to them than it is to stop and start reading a book.
Just think... almost everyone drives at least 30 minutes a day, right? If you commute to school that can become 1-1.5 hours or more, depending on what you do between classes. I can knock out a 12 hour book in less than 2 weeks at that rate, and still have time to read something else at home.

Hmm... what else? I'm trying to learn Flash so I can make a kick@$$ intro to this site. Actually... that's backwards... I'm making the intro so I can learn something about Flash. Right now I have about 7 seconds of coolness, but I'm planning to make the intro 50 seconds long, so who knows how long this is going to take. Don't worry, I'll put a skip button in there or something so you don't have to watch it every single time.

*Yawn* Thats enough for now.
  ¶ 23:27

Lara got a flatscreen. Always cool.

This one just kills me; my uncle Mike MADE my father this harp from scratch. It has 26 strings and plays beautifully. This is insane. Everyone in my house has always wanted to play the harp... and now there is this actual harp in the music room! WHOA!

And last but not least, my sister and I gave my mom a Raggedy Ann doll.

But this isn't just ANY doll. Lara and I made it by hand.

See, Mom has this sad story about how her mother cut out the pieces for two dolls when she was a little girl... but only sewed up her sister's Raggedy Ann doll. Mom's doll lay in pieces for years, and she was always jealous that her's was never finished. Well, I taught myself how to use a sewing machine, I taught Lara how to cut out patterns, and we set to work. The legs came out different lengths and I'm kinda glad you can't see the back of the hair in this shot... but all in all I think this was my favorite part of Christmas this year. All of us were most excited to give this to Mom, even more than we were excited for our own presents. (Dad was excited and he didn't even help make it!) She cried and cried when we gave it to her. I cried too. Now Ann is in Mom's bedroom, sitting on the cedar chest my grandfather built her, the seat of honor.
Betty worked a lot when Mom was growing up. Mom tells me that Betty had a good heart, but she didn't have time to run her house most of the time, much less sew a doll. Mom ended up cooking and cleaning and generally worrying about everything. And I'm sure you know how stress only leads to more and more unfinished business.
Like my dad said... you go through life, and you get more and more stuff to take care of, a longer and longer to do list... and then you die.
Betty died last year.

Sometimes... you have to wait a very long time to get the things you want most. And sometimes you never get them, simply because everyone's plates are too full of other worries to enjoy life. Nevertheless... I still believe that if you have a kind heart, things have a way of sorting themselves out in the end. (I'm probably too old for optimism, but here it comes again, tapping at my window...)

I hope you have a wonderful New Year, everyone. I'm off to Houston for a few days, but I'll be back before you know it.

  ¶ 23:15