Today is the last day of an exceedingly long work week for me. 6 days straight of 8-9 hours at retail chipper levels. It's nauseating, really. My tolerance for customer-brand-stupid is low enough that I've got a headache thinking about going into work today.
I haven't gotten the chance to do much arting lately, however I am in-process of writing the script for my thesis's art component. (I really want to hit the ground running when I get to studio class in the fall.) It's going to be a josei-style story, probably printed in some relation to manga ratio, and I'm thinking of going for a toned / black and white look rather than a colored one. I'm a bit out of practice on coloring things, and my coloring style has veered so far away from what is normally seen in comics I need to nail it down more before I do a book that's colored with it. PLUS, black and white printing is much, MUCH cheaper.
If I do the art component how I want to, I may have to color the pages, but that is going to take some figuring on the part of the script to design pacing. And printing, and cost, and blah... blah... blah...
We'll see, I guess.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Frivilous Purchases
So I was at work today, boxing, stuffing, weighing, and shipping our returns, when I came across a book I'd been meaning to read. Being a bibliophile means that this isn't an altogether uncommon occurance. I find these sorts of books all the time. They hide in corners and under video tapes, on shelves, and sometimes, on the far side of homework. More often than not, they are tucked at the bottom of the budget and simply forgotten about until I have access to a library that will give me them for free.
But today at work, I was reminded that I not only wanted to read the pearl of a book that I was inevitably going to ship away and forget about (there have been dozens of these poor, lost reads that I regret not perusing more deeply before parting with them) but ALSO that I had a credit from our book club waiting for me. So I used part of that credit to pay for the book Horseradish by Lemony Snicket.
I don't normally go for giftbooks, quotebooks, or novelty items... but this book just makes me feel a little bit better about my sense of humor, and the state of the world. The back of the dust jacket reads:
Life is a turbulent journey,
fraught with
confusion,
heartbreak,
and inconvenience.
This book will not help.
(Which isn't true, because it does.)
But today at work, I was reminded that I not only wanted to read the pearl of a book that I was inevitably going to ship away and forget about (there have been dozens of these poor, lost reads that I regret not perusing more deeply before parting with them) but ALSO that I had a credit from our book club waiting for me. So I used part of that credit to pay for the book Horseradish by Lemony Snicket.
I don't normally go for giftbooks, quotebooks, or novelty items... but this book just makes me feel a little bit better about my sense of humor, and the state of the world. The back of the dust jacket reads:
Life is a turbulent journey,
fraught with
confusion,
heartbreak,
and inconvenience.
This book will not help.
(Which isn't true, because it does.)
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Ask not...
what your computer can do for you, but what your peripherals can do for your computer.
Yesterday I acquired a radioSHARK. I opened it this morning after I tripped out of bed and nearly brained the cat. I'm sure this thing went the way of the dinosaur with XFM and streaming radio-casting, but let me tell you, I'm liking it.
You can set up pre-sets, and turn your computer into a radio. (I'm such a little kid about this thing, it's like staring at something shiny when you're little. I guess my Mac peripherals are much like shiny things to children.)
Just one more way I'm extending my techno-arsenal. ^_^
Yesterday I acquired a radioSHARK. I opened it this morning after I tripped out of bed and nearly brained the cat. I'm sure this thing went the way of the dinosaur with XFM and streaming radio-casting, but let me tell you, I'm liking it.
You can set up pre-sets, and turn your computer into a radio. (I'm such a little kid about this thing, it's like staring at something shiny when you're little. I guess my Mac peripherals are much like shiny things to children.)
Just one more way I'm extending my techno-arsenal. ^_^
Ask not...
what your computer can do for you, but what your peripherals can do for your computer.
Yesterday I acquired a radioSHARK. I opened it this morning after I tripped out of bed and nearly brained the cat. I'm sure this thing went the way of the dinosaur with XFM and streaming radio-casting, but let me tell you, I'm liking it.
You can set up pre-sets, and turn your computer into a radio. (I'm such a little kid about this thing, it's like staring at something shiny when you're little. I guess my Mac peripherals are much like shiny things to children.)
Just one more way I'm extending my techno-arsenal. ^_^
Yesterday I acquired a radioSHARK. I opened it this morning after I tripped out of bed and nearly brained the cat. I'm sure this thing went the way of the dinosaur with XFM and streaming radio-casting, but let me tell you, I'm liking it.
You can set up pre-sets, and turn your computer into a radio. (I'm such a little kid about this thing, it's like staring at something shiny when you're little. I guess my Mac peripherals are much like shiny things to children.)
Just one more way I'm extending my techno-arsenal. ^_^
Saturday, July 14, 2007
A bit too much to overlook.
I was going to write this blog post about the book, about the number of pencilled pages I got finished today, about the temperature and bug infestation problem at work... but I can't. I really just can't.
I was reading through the journal of a friend of mine, and came across the story of what's going on in Jena, LA right now.
For anyone who reads this and hasn't heard about the goings-on in Jena, Louisiana, I ask that you do a little reading. Generally, I'm pretty low-key when it comes to politics and government and justice system stuff. About as close as I get to that sort of thing is cop-dramas on tv. But this story is just a bit too much for me to ignore.
I'd like to say we've made progress, in this country and/or in the world. I'd like to say that we've moved on towards being a single race - the human one. But there are pockets of history still alive and well and living in the world. Apparently, Jena, LA is one of those pockets.
I've read over several of the internet documentation, and the jist that I have gotten from them is this. There was a trespass - some African American students went to sit underneath a generally Caucasian shade tree (the idea of that is a little far-fetched to me, but hey, who knows. I never thought you could segregate SHADE.). Afterwards, three caucasian students hung 3 nooses in the colors of the school from said shade tree. Some time passed, more things festered, there was more trading of hurt and anger between the two sides. The final "straw" in this case came when the retaliation turned physical - in some manner, a Caucasian student was assaulted by several African American students.
What is NOT clear in this is how many African American students actually assaulted the student, who it was that started the fight with the Caucasian student, and why nothing was done before this to stem the anger that caused it.
What IS clear is that one of the six students charged has been found guilty with "aggravated second degree assault and conspiracy to commit secondary degree aggravated assault".
What seems to be the consensus is that the defense attorney didn't do enough for his client.
It's hard to know exactly what's true and what isn't, being this far removed from the situation. There's a lot of chatter on the net, there's a lot of news articles. So on the one hand, I'm really in an uproar about the idea of the way this trial is being handled, but on the other, a group of students (of whatever size, and of whatever skin color) beat up another student. I'm equally as uneasy at the apparent "miscarriage of justice" as I am the group beating.
Getting jumped like that, to use the colloquialism, is terrifying. No one should go through it. Being convicted in a trial that's sitting on a slant rather than an even keel is likewise something terrifying that NO ONE should go through.
Come to your own conclusions. Here's the links I found:
Friends of Justice: Ineffectual Assistance of Council: What Blane Williams Should Have Known
Schools Matter: Nooses in the School's White-Only Shade Tree
Bill Quigley|Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang from the "White Tree"
Racially motivated attacks in Jena, LA. | Council of Conservative Citizens
Topix - Jena News
And, if you feel the urge, here's the petition that's circulating:
Jena Six Petition
I was reading through the journal of a friend of mine, and came across the story of what's going on in Jena, LA right now.
For anyone who reads this and hasn't heard about the goings-on in Jena, Louisiana, I ask that you do a little reading. Generally, I'm pretty low-key when it comes to politics and government and justice system stuff. About as close as I get to that sort of thing is cop-dramas on tv. But this story is just a bit too much for me to ignore.
I'd like to say we've made progress, in this country and/or in the world. I'd like to say that we've moved on towards being a single race - the human one. But there are pockets of history still alive and well and living in the world. Apparently, Jena, LA is one of those pockets.
I've read over several of the internet documentation, and the jist that I have gotten from them is this. There was a trespass - some African American students went to sit underneath a generally Caucasian shade tree (the idea of that is a little far-fetched to me, but hey, who knows. I never thought you could segregate SHADE.). Afterwards, three caucasian students hung 3 nooses in the colors of the school from said shade tree. Some time passed, more things festered, there was more trading of hurt and anger between the two sides. The final "straw" in this case came when the retaliation turned physical - in some manner, a Caucasian student was assaulted by several African American students.
What is NOT clear in this is how many African American students actually assaulted the student, who it was that started the fight with the Caucasian student, and why nothing was done before this to stem the anger that caused it.
What IS clear is that one of the six students charged has been found guilty with "aggravated second degree assault and conspiracy to commit secondary degree aggravated assault".
What seems to be the consensus is that the defense attorney didn't do enough for his client.
It's hard to know exactly what's true and what isn't, being this far removed from the situation. There's a lot of chatter on the net, there's a lot of news articles. So on the one hand, I'm really in an uproar about the idea of the way this trial is being handled, but on the other, a group of students (of whatever size, and of whatever skin color) beat up another student. I'm equally as uneasy at the apparent "miscarriage of justice" as I am the group beating.
Getting jumped like that, to use the colloquialism, is terrifying. No one should go through it. Being convicted in a trial that's sitting on a slant rather than an even keel is likewise something terrifying that NO ONE should go through.
Come to your own conclusions. Here's the links I found:
Friends of Justice: Ineffectual Assistance of Council: What Blane Williams Should Have Known
Schools Matter: Nooses in the School's White-Only Shade Tree
Bill Quigley|Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang from the "White Tree"
Racially motivated attacks in Jena, LA. | Council of Conservative Citizens
Topix - Jena News
And, if you feel the urge, here's the petition that's circulating:
Jena Six Petition
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Manuscript Editing Part 1
I've wavered back and forth in how I feel about having the book published (even in small press format), and I'm guessing, at this point, that it's like having a child grow up and move away from home. Given the emotional flipflops I've felt in the last two weeks, I empathize much more heartily with my mother on allowing me to go away to boarding school. The trial that must have been I don't think I'll know for quite a while, myself. Thanks, mom, for finding the grace to put up with it.
There's the part of me that's really excited to be getting the project moving, and with such a wonderful team working on it, I'll flat out admit that that part of me is the largest, loudest bit. There's also a sense of... hmm... I've been coming up with decent vocabulary words for my feelings all day, this shouldn't be too hard... there's a feeling of unrest about it. (Which probably mirrors my pre-graduation anxieties about what to do when I'm done for the second time with post-secondary education.) But from what I can tell, it is simply part of working in the field of art - be it performing or otherwise. Eventually, it's not about you anymore, the work is its own thing, and other people get to peruse and respond or ignore it.
Blah blah blah.
That being said, this post (and I toast with the lime sherbet I'm eating) is in celebration of my first run of edits to the manuscript. There's some formatting questions that need answering - positioning of page numbers and what goes in the header (if we even use a header), etc. - but I've re-read the hardcopy 1.5 times since the first edits, and I'm satisfied with just about everything that's there. I've got a few faerie-logistical word choices to cement in place, but otherwise I've made up the end of my mind on it. Tomorrow I go through and check on what edits Seth saw needed happening (I'll be cross-referencing via two digital copies, so wish me luck), and then tomorrow evening I send it off to him. Und zhen... (say it aloud, it makes more sense, I promise, me and my bad fake accents) it should be done on this end. We'll be into the artwork-intensive portion of the post-production process of the book.
*does little happy-dance and rocks out to Feist while eating Lime sherbet*
And thus, does the world continue.
I got really hyper about putting the edits from hardcopy to digital today because I got the urge to draw again, and I need to finish this before I'm letting myself move forwards with either the comic pages or the sketches I'm working on. Some call it single-minded determination, I call it the need to actually finish something from time to time.
Anywho, I'm off to write my health insurance check and have a cup of tea before I pass out. 4 hours of computer editing will suck your soul into your G4 anyday.
Peace and sandwhiches, folks.
There's the part of me that's really excited to be getting the project moving, and with such a wonderful team working on it, I'll flat out admit that that part of me is the largest, loudest bit. There's also a sense of... hmm... I've been coming up with decent vocabulary words for my feelings all day, this shouldn't be too hard... there's a feeling of unrest about it. (Which probably mirrors my pre-graduation anxieties about what to do when I'm done for the second time with post-secondary education.) But from what I can tell, it is simply part of working in the field of art - be it performing or otherwise. Eventually, it's not about you anymore, the work is its own thing, and other people get to peruse and respond or ignore it.
Blah blah blah.
That being said, this post (and I toast with the lime sherbet I'm eating) is in celebration of my first run of edits to the manuscript. There's some formatting questions that need answering - positioning of page numbers and what goes in the header (if we even use a header), etc. - but I've re-read the hardcopy 1.5 times since the first edits, and I'm satisfied with just about everything that's there. I've got a few faerie-logistical word choices to cement in place, but otherwise I've made up the end of my mind on it. Tomorrow I go through and check on what edits Seth saw needed happening (I'll be cross-referencing via two digital copies, so wish me luck), and then tomorrow evening I send it off to him. Und zhen... (say it aloud, it makes more sense, I promise, me and my bad fake accents) it should be done on this end. We'll be into the artwork-intensive portion of the post-production process of the book.
*does little happy-dance and rocks out to Feist while eating Lime sherbet*
And thus, does the world continue.
I got really hyper about putting the edits from hardcopy to digital today because I got the urge to draw again, and I need to finish this before I'm letting myself move forwards with either the comic pages or the sketches I'm working on. Some call it single-minded determination, I call it the need to actually finish something from time to time.
Anywho, I'm off to write my health insurance check and have a cup of tea before I pass out. 4 hours of computer editing will suck your soul into your G4 anyday.
Peace and sandwhiches, folks.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Happy 4th of July
So whether you celebrate it or not, today's been a holiday in the US. Down here there's fireworks and guns going off and horribly bad radio station soundtracks to the fireworks. (I skipped the ones downtown so I could avoid hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" in combination with some warped patriotic sense that the rest of the music is supposed to imply. Although I do have an ex-boyfriend who said it was his 'constitutional right' to drive like a jerk-off. So I suppose overplayed music is just as good, huh?)
I finished doing the paper edits to the novel today. I lay down after my yoga this morning on the living room floor and went through the last 80 pages of the print out that I have of it. I broke for dinner with Lindsay, and then I finished up an hour or two ago. Now I have to translate the paper edits into digital edits, and do one more run of editing based on Seth's notes, and then the manuscript will be done! It's a crazy feeling, having worked on something for this long, to finally get to the end of it.
Well, I hope it won't be the end of it, but at least it's a milestone or a landmark or something in the creation process of it. Other than that, I watched Marie Antoinette this morning... I needed period costume references, and there were pieces of the soundtrack that were quite palatable. Then there were the remixes of otherwise acceptable 80s pop-rock... and those occasionally made me want to mute it and put on some french chamber music and guess at the dialog in the rest of it. I'll say this about that movie... it's dry. It's a biography, but even in that regard, it's dry. The direction they were trying to take the movie was that of Marie being something of a rock star before rock stars existed, well DUH. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that is the epitome of an irresponsible monarch, or at the very least the stereotype of it... isn't it? Frankly, though, the music choices made it seem more like yet another movie in which Kirsten Dunst was playing Kirsten Dunst. At least this time she wasn't a redhead. And I'll say this for her, her Marie is much better than her MJ. When I mentioned the bit about wanting to mute out the music, it would've been ok, because I could read emotions on her face.
Still pales in comparison to Live Free or Die Hard. Ah, a special place in my heart goes out for that movie. Fire sale, anyone?
Anywho... I'm going to comfort the cat against the popguns and firebombs. Hope everyone had a good Fourth.
I finished doing the paper edits to the novel today. I lay down after my yoga this morning on the living room floor and went through the last 80 pages of the print out that I have of it. I broke for dinner with Lindsay, and then I finished up an hour or two ago. Now I have to translate the paper edits into digital edits, and do one more run of editing based on Seth's notes, and then the manuscript will be done! It's a crazy feeling, having worked on something for this long, to finally get to the end of it.
Well, I hope it won't be the end of it, but at least it's a milestone or a landmark or something in the creation process of it. Other than that, I watched Marie Antoinette this morning... I needed period costume references, and there were pieces of the soundtrack that were quite palatable. Then there were the remixes of otherwise acceptable 80s pop-rock... and those occasionally made me want to mute it and put on some french chamber music and guess at the dialog in the rest of it. I'll say this about that movie... it's dry. It's a biography, but even in that regard, it's dry. The direction they were trying to take the movie was that of Marie being something of a rock star before rock stars existed, well DUH. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that is the epitome of an irresponsible monarch, or at the very least the stereotype of it... isn't it? Frankly, though, the music choices made it seem more like yet another movie in which Kirsten Dunst was playing Kirsten Dunst. At least this time she wasn't a redhead. And I'll say this for her, her Marie is much better than her MJ. When I mentioned the bit about wanting to mute out the music, it would've been ok, because I could read emotions on her face.
Still pales in comparison to Live Free or Die Hard. Ah, a special place in my heart goes out for that movie. Fire sale, anyone?
Anywho... I'm going to comfort the cat against the popguns and firebombs. Hope everyone had a good Fourth.
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