I am going to take that "updated Monday and Friday" thing off my comic. That has always been a dirty dirty lie. I've been going 10 months and only have 68 comics! Should I just drop it to one day a week and try to stay faithful? Or instead say "updated randomly" and just put them up whenever I can? Considering how these new comics are more than twice as long as the old ones, I think that once a week is more than fair. <_<

In other news, MURAL!!!


Finally finished it! Turned out pretty good, considering I had to mix up all those paints myself. Not EXACTLY like the concept art, but not bad, I'd say. I wish I could have made it bigger, but the projector couldn't go back far enough to cover the whole wall. As is, I'm proud of it. ^_^

Got to spend some time with Rachel this weekend. I'm so glad to see a friend once in a while! We shopped and drank Chai and worked on her scrapbook of Europe. Scrapbooking is an EXPENSIVE hobby. I'm going to make a scrapbook someday too, though I plan to do it digitally and have it printed out on 12x12 sheets at a photolab. Still, I can think of a lot worse ways to hang out than doing arts and crafts!

I am not a band nerd anymore. I am an art nerd. A traitor!  ¶ 00:22

There, that comic should be up now. Odam is Jamie Norwood, and the guy in the green shirt is Janos, aka Chris Tatum. (In khakis, of course.)

A question for you. It has been said to me that my second-person narration is strange. Do you find it confusing in any way, friends? Irritating? I could change to first person if the current style is making it difficult to understand. I liked doing things this way because it was different... but defying convention isn't always the best way to do art.

Speaking of art, I'm painting a mural. The church asked me to design one for the college room, so here it is:



Simple and bold. I like it because I won't have to spend much time doing it. Big blocks of color make for an easy paint-by-number. Those words are all names of God. Alpha and Omega, Emmanuel, I AM, Theos, El Shaddai, and (of course!) Elohim. (If you haven't figured it out by now, Elohim is related to my comic. It is why the world is named Elo, and is also the name of Elo's deity.) I'm going to be up there painting most of Saturday. I'll take pictures of the real mural once its finished.

I'm actually enthusiastic about doing this because the piece I've created doesn't make any kind of statement about faith. It's not trying to remind you of a Bible story or show you the formula of salvation. (There used to be a mural in the youth room that showed the steps to getting to heaven. Can you believe that?!). My mural is just reminding you of the fact that God has many names. It speaks to everyone, not just people in this one church. Maybe not even to people of this one religion; those are Hebrew names afterall! Ultimately, I want this mural to be something people can look at no matter what mood they're in, and feel good about it.

It is my gift to that church. I do not much care for the way they treat people sometimes, but that's no reason I can't work to help them see their youth for what they really are: the future of faith. Not the downfall of it.  ¶ 21:57

The good news: comic will be up later today. I'm having HAND issues at the moment. Also, I was struck by a ton of new ideas, so I feel more compelled to work it. Which means more updates, and less of Heather being a slacker.

Bad news: Grandpa vomited blood. In the hospital, and they don't know what's bleeding inside. Apparently they've cauterized something in his stomach, but its not helping. Beyond that, I'm not sure what's going on. Grandma is most vague. Luckily, he's stable and all. Hopefully the inner faucet turns off soon.

I haven't had a good night's sleep all week. Insomnia, school, early classes etc. So, instead of ranting or speaking profound truths, I'm just going to go climb in that there bed and go unconscious for several hours.

*tips hat* Adieu.  ¶ 22:00

Normally I don't post in the middle of the week. But something great happened to me today!

Most of you know I love webcomics. And you probably know I obsess over one particular favorite, The Life of Riley. It was the first comic I ever read, and has always been closest to my heart. Last year this comic went on a 9 month hiatus because of a suicide (though its coming back on March 4th). I've hung out in their forums since then, trying to fill the void.
Today I posted some fanart over there, along with a link to my webcomic. And then, within minutes, I received an IM from one of the comic creators. He told me he thought my comic was great. One of my comic heroes thinks my comic is great!

I know that webcomic artists/writers are just people. They're not any different from most people you meet on the street. But this... this just made me really happy. I know my comic isn't incredible or anything. It's just Heather telling her goofy story. Nevertheless, I am encouraged. I am honored.  ¶ 21:00

Well, there is a comic up for once. I feel like I'm finally finding my groove with the art and the writing. More content in these than there were in four of the older smaller ones. If only I had more time to make them.

So, I've been thinking these traitorous thoughts lately. I have decided that I like Macs. A LOT. I use one at work every day, and I am slowly becoming attracted to its sensual curves and smooth, stable operation. If I had $2000 just, you know, lying around, I think I'd switch in a heartbeat. Mostly because its so excellent for digital art, which is all I ever do on the computer other than surf the web.
I remember, only a short time ago, when I scorned all Mac users as idiots. I thought people only chose Mac because they couldn't figure Windows out. Little did I know that Macs hid such power! None of this "The program is not responding and must shut down" mess. If I plug something in, Mac doesn't fight with me about it. Everything is so easy...*sigh* Oh, and don't tell me "M4cz SuX0rz Th3y no pl4y teh g4m3z!". I don't play computer games. That's why I have a PS2.

You've probably noticed by now that my website got a new template. I switched mostly because I just couldn't READ it in its framed format. I really liked the way it looked before, but it just became so cumbersome that I had to rearrange things and let the text just flow flow flow down the page.

I finished "The Gospel According to the Son". Good book. Very refreshing look at Jesus. More realistic than the picture movies and books try to paint of him.

I'm thinking, next November, I'll be in NaNoWriMo. You should read the premise (under the "about" link) if I haven't forced you to read it sometime before. It would be fun for me to write about my family. Just so long as I didn't write fantasy, I think I'd be okay.

Have a stress-free week, friends.  ¶ 21:11

I am sitting here at the Mac at work. My job at the studio today consists entirely of printing out a wedding album on the HUGE printer over there across the room. There are four pages to a sheet, since the sheet is about 42 inches long. Sofar, I've been here two hours. And guess how many sheets have printed out? TWO. GAHHH SO BORED.
Seriously, this is a pretty good job. Any other day this would be great... being paid to stare at a printer. Thats almost as good as when I worked the summer at Delta, when the computer was so slow I was virtually being paid to watch it think. But, as is, I'm trying to get on the road to Houston, and I need to print out at least MOST of these before I leave. And no, I cant just queue them up and go. This printer is very fickle, it needs constant monitoring. I have to readjust the alignment of the roll, make sure the ink is full, etc etc. No mistakes, because this thing takes about $6 a square foot to print. Geez.

I've been sketching to fill the time. Got enough sketches to do a Monday comic, I think. Last week was heck. 4 tests, plus job, plus that UH money deadline. Good news: I paid the bill and only owe $400 to my mom. I totally scraped together the other $1100 in two weeks. Yay for random checks! I think that I was seriously blessed by God or something, because when I was in need I received in plenty. I think I'm going to pay it forward somehow. Like the movie.

I saw Les Miz two nights ago. It was so incredible. It rivals Phantom of the Opera as my favorite. I don't know if I can compare them though, Phantom is a tale of damnation, while Les MIz is the story of redemption. I think when I was younger, I found something more cathartic in Phantom's sad tale... but I've become more and more of a softy lately. I start crying at the slightest expression of the nobility of man. Like that time in history class, when the prof played a clip of MLK's "I have a dream". Boohoo, right there at my desk. What a powerful line at the end of the musical... "Remember the truth that once was spoken... to love another person is to see the face of God". It doesn't just mean eros either. The priest loved Valjean even when he was a theif, Valjean loved Fantine when she was a whore, Eponine loved Marius when he asked her to deliver a letter to Cosette. Agape, my friends. The best religion. Better than going to church, better than faith, better than prayer. Though all of those things can be lovely at times.

I'm off to Texas now. Hopefully I'll get some sushi while there. I freakin love sushi. By the way, I found out that I ate octupus in one of the samplers. Rubbery, but otherwise tastey. ^_~  ¶ 10:17

I was going to put up a page about my hiatus, but Lara made a lovely filler for me today. Well... perhaps not lovely... but its something.

I, on the other hand, am sick. I've lay in bed all day. I won't give you the gory details; just trust me when I say that the heaving and moaning was one of the most painful experiences of my life. Or at least the most painful, of those I can remember... I don't remember how it felt when I broke my arm. That's probably because I was in shock more than the fact that my childhood is a great fog. I remember everything surrounding the break, but not the break itself. And I guess that's just as well.
Even so, my memory is incredibly poor. I am continually astounded by how much I forget. People, places, movies I've seen. Books I've read. Sarah and Nancy were talking to me at Mardi Gras about fifth grade, and tried to get me to remember those playground days. When I failed to recognize their stories, they just shook their heads at me and suggested I start taking supplements. Ha! ^_^

I'm the only one awake right now. I absolutely cannot sleep because I passed out for most of the day. I'm also hungry, though I'm afraid to put anything in my stomach right now. When I'm well again, I think I'll go get a plate of sushi. Mmm. I've been craving more ever since the last round I had over at Kobe, which was incredible.

Gah, I can't concentrate enough to write a worthwhile post. I think I'll go try to read a book. I just finished "The Life of Pi" (which I liked, but thought was a bit heavy-handed). Now I'm reading "The Gospel According to the Son". Not bad sofar. Anyway, I hope all of you remain in good health... even if I don't have the flu, its going around bigtime. Wash your hands! ^_^  ¶ 21:46

No comic, but a nice filler for once. My problem with doing these usually isn't finding time to draw them. Its trying to come up with dialog that doesn't suck so utterly. I feel like the last few have been better than average, and I'd rather wait to produce something that's of mildly higher quality than just rush along.

I'm headed to Nawlins for the weekend. Mardi Party Gras! I'm mostly excited to see Sarah, whom I rarely ever get to hang out with. I actually need to be packing right now.
I almost didn't go because I'm very very very short on money right now. UH is threatening me, so I've started emptying my tiny account into their inflated one. Bastards. I was worried about how I was going to buy gasoline. But, just when I needed money the most, the portrait studio called me in for some work. I'm going to have to borrow some from my parents, but I'll have a means of paying it back now that I've got a job again. You can bet I'm going to WORK too. (Though anyone who wants to contribute to the starving Heather fund is more than welcome.)

Now for some philosophical content: I read the BEST article on the clanBOB forum. It's a excerpt from "Finding Darwin's God". In it, a Christian science professor talks about how stupid it is to think that being religious requires you to deny science. Here is a long quote out of the middle if you are interested:

"...By pointing to the process of making a flower as proof of the reality of God, Father Murphy was embracing the idea that God finds it necessary to cripple nature. In his view, the blooming of a daffodil requires not a self-sufficient material universe, but direct intervention by God. We can find God, therefore, in the things around us that lack material, scientific explanations. In nature, elusive and unexplored, we will find the Creator at work.
"The creationist opponents of evolution make similar arguments. They claim that the existence of life, the appearance of new species, and, most especially, the origins of mankind have not and cannot be explained by evolution or any other natural process. By denying the self-sufficiency of nature, they look for God (or at least a "designer") in the deficiencies of science. The trouble is that science, given enough time, generally explains even the most baffling things. As a matter of strategy, creationists would be well-advised to avoid telling scientists what they will never be able to figure out. History is against them. In a general way, we really do understand how nature works...
"There is, however, a deeper problem caused by the opponents of evolution, a problem for religion. Like our priest, they have based their search for God on the premise that nature is not self-sufficient. By such logic, only God can make a species, just as Father Murphy believed only God could make a flower. Both assertions support the existence of God only so long as these assertions are true, but serious problems for religion emerge when they are shown to be false.
"If we accept a lack of scientific explanation as proof for God's existence, simple logic would dictate that we would have to regard a successful scientific explanation as an argument against God. That's why creationist reasoning, ultimately, is much more dangerous to religion than to science...
"Putting it bluntly, the creationists have sought God in darkness. What we have not found and do not yet understand becomes their best - indeed their only - evidence for the divine. As a Christian, I find the flow of this logic particularly depressing. Not only does it teach us to fear the acquisition of knowledge (which might at any time disprove belief), but it suggests that God dwells only in the shadows of our understanding. I suggest that, if God is real, we should be able to find him somewhere else - in the bright light of human knowledge, spiritual and scientific."

Still reading? Good. I don't know about you, but I find this kind of attitude hopeful and refreshing when it comes to Christianity. There are so many people out there who shut their eyes and close their ears just so they can protect their idea of God. This is a good one to comment on, guys.

While you chew on that, I'm going to go get a hurricane. ^_~
  ¶ 21:43