fredart : blogbits

NOOOOOO….

Why, i say, WHY does the next sub of the next episode of AIR have to come out on or about SUNDAYS?? howabout monday afternoon guys? GIve me a break! you bastards! (pulls out hair)

Heh, i shoulda known. Well, i’m gonna be firm about it this time and not watch the this next ep till tomorrow. I’ve found that when i do watch this show on sunday mornings it causes all sorts of problems with my own creative process. It’s not that it doesn’t inspire creativity in me, it’s just that it’s not the right KIND of inspiration for doing Megatokyo comics, if that makes sense. Great for ‘warmth’ perhaps, but thats not what’s due today.

Oh, i got the most bizzare email yesterday. Someone actually recognized the vending machines and the location where i took this picture in Sendai. Not only did she recognize them and the station where they are located, but that she actually LIVES there.

This isn’t like some station in Tokyo, near Akiba or Shinagawa or something. This is a small out of the way normal sized station on the JR line going from Sendai to the bay. It’s the location where i plan the base the warmth story (i may not use the actual station and town name, but then again i might, not sure yet).

Anyways, that was fun. It amazes me sometimes where you can find people who read MT. Now if i could just put her to work to do some more research for me there…

- pirotunes: Schloss Tegal - Technocore (Iteration X) - The Outsider -

Damnit. I’ve been assimilated.

I’ve tried hard not to let this happen. I’m a proponent of whee wiz bang freedom, i never fall into the trends, or i try not to. Actually, to be more specific… I’m a mac user, i love the things, glad i made the switch, etc. I actually like my Ipod a lot. I don’t put it on an altar and worship it (in fact, i dont use those crappy white headphones that come with it, i like my Sony MDR-A34’s much better). I don’t care about the Ipod Shuffle - nice, but pointless for someone like me. I made jokes about the Apple Mini. I like itunes, and the Itunes music store is nice enough. i like the concept well enough (even if i’m still not convinced that DRM standards are quite to the point where its fair for both customers and digital rights owners) etc, etc, but not something i’d just use because of the ‘cool and new’ factor.

When the Itunes store first opened i poked at it here and there (pretty easy to do if you have a mac and use itunes - gotta give apple credit for integrating things nice and simple) but there was quite literally nothing i was interested in. Yay, more of the “crappy music that we are all supposed to like” bullshit. I tend to like things you can’t find in music stores. I bounce between Industrial, House, Downtempo, Ambient and certain kinds of Metal. Not really what the store focused on initially.

The only thing that would make the Itunes store work well for me would be if i could buy tunes and CDs of things i wanted that are hard to find elsewhere. It is frustrating to have to mail order almost everything i’d be interested in (most CD shops around here never have what i want) and as such, i almost never get anything. If the Itunes store had some of them, it’d be nice. The DRM is easy for me because i have macs and an Ipod anyway…

I just bought my first album from the Itunes music store. I fell so ashamed.

Damn them, but if their selection of Industrial tracks has increased dramatically. Damn them. I’ve actually found several CDs i’d want now. It was too easy. I picked up NamNamBulu - Distances. I can’t make a habit of this. That could be very dangerous.

and expensive ^^;;

- pirotunes: NamNamBulu - Memories from “Distances” -

I don’t really know what has been wrong with me for the past few days. Yeah, i know i have been sick - or at least was really sick on tuesday and was not firing on all cylinders on wednesday, but i still feel like so many things have just been out of focus. Meh. Need to regroup a little and get back on the stick.

Busy busy day ahead. I probably should have just posted todays comic friday and tried to catch up on other things, but its kind of a point of pride to get 3 comics done this week. I had one 2 comic week this month, that’s enough. I’ve also got a lot of store related stuff that i need to get cracking on, including a certain delivery that is supposed to happen this week…

Gonna work on a MT rant, gotta finish that up. I have some photos to share from my japan trip, so i gotta pull that together. THo maybe i should save that for the weekend and work on the comic instead, i dunno… sometimes i do wish i had a stunt double.

- pirotunes: いつもABCBで from “きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード あの日にかえりたい” -

I don’t know what it is about the past few days, but my mind has been wandering far more than it should. I got an email today pestering me to rant again - it’s been more than five days, comeon! He did thank me for the comics tho.

Gosh, he must not remember the bad old days when it was rare to get 3 comics per week

Anyways, i really need to shake myself loose a little today. I spent Saturday mired in email setup (which went well, even tho its really not all finished) and sunday… well, sunday i sat down and did a lot of writing. Writing isn’t easy, at least not for me, and the hard part is not the ideas, its taking them all and somehow putting them together in ways that work. I’ve been doing better at that recently… inspiration is not the problem, it’s applying inspiration that’s the real bugger.

Still not doing well on MT rants. I gotta loosen up on those, im really falling down on my goal (sigh). Good material for today’s, just need to manage some images first. Whee.

- pirotunes: また、あした〜回想録〜 from “AIR Moive Original Soundtrack” -

Sorry for not blogging yesterday. Actually, has it been a few days? maybe. Ugh.

I spent most of today switching email clients. Not because Entourage isn’t a good client, but i am in serious need of changing my habits, and changing clients is maybe a good way to enact some of those changes.

I experimented yesterday with apple’s Mail program (the one that comes with OSX) and after noting that it does most of the things that i need it to do (dealing with rules, filters, folders, etc), i though that i’d try it and see if by switching to it i might be able to revisit and actually change the way i deal with email.

The hardest part about dealing with problems with your own efficiency is being able to step back and recognize just what the hell you are doing that isn’t working. This isn’t easy. I’m a horrible creature of habit, and i am one of the most forgetful people on the planet. An age old problem i suffer from is not remembering to do important things. At 10pm i can say to myself “i have to change advertising tonight!’ and then three hours later completely forget. A possible solution to this problem not only helps address bad habits, but takes advantage of my own obsessive qualities. And it lead to me revising how i deal with email.

I’m an obsessive email checker. Not because im desperate for email, just… out of habit, i think. It’s part of my ‘at the computer’ routine. I am also an email hoarder. I never delete anything (its only in recent years that i delete SPAM for chrissakes). I spend most of my time organizing mail as it comes in, dealing with spam, flagging and sorting emails to answer at some later date. the problem is, i never seem to answer any of the damn emails.

I’m sure there is some deep, disturbing psychological reason for all of this, but i took some tips from the 43 folders site (great site, btw, to whoever it was the pointed me to it :P) and i decided that i needed to simplify, and just become more effective at dealing with mail. For starters, I am now deleting mail that really there is no need to save (i still save fan mail - and thats most of what i get) i have a much better and actually effective folder storage system. A big change is that I am taking the few moments it takes to answer emails that i can answer quickly. That really is the case with MOST emails anyway. I’m not really sure why, but there is a subtle something about responding to email in Apple’s Mail that just seems to work better for me on a subconscious level than Entourage. Maybe it’s because it’s simpler, i dunno.

There’s no way i can catch up with all my past emails, but maybe i can do a better job from here on out. Just one more step on my path to actually getting organized in my life… Oh, and the thing about remembering things? I joked with Seraphim about how given my obsessive email checking, i wish i could just get email msg’s that could remind me of things… and when i realized that Ical could do this, and send me ‘alarms’…

There’s hope for me yet.

- pirotunes: Dj Wally - Yes It’s True -

I think Megatokyo chapter 6 is rolling along nicely, and even at a good enough clip to keep it from turning into the bloated disaster chapter 5 turned into (thank god chapter 4 and chapter 5 will be in different books, or the book containing both of them would have been an abysmal nightmare and i prolly would have beat myself to death with the bluelines) Book 3 looks pretty good, and god knows i’ve packed enough of the damn things that i’m kinda sick of looking at them. ^^;; Tho actually i was sick of looking at it before the damn thing even went to press. ^^;;

I’m feeling a little brain dead now because tuesday was completely taken up by other things, and by the time i did get started on Wednesday’s comic, i was having trouble getting the it to come together. Part of this was because i sorta ended up pulling two comics together which resulted in a single comic that worked fairly well. Once i finished up today, i was once again feeling spent. It’s a pretty common feeling after you finish creating something, believe it or not. The suckiest part of any day is having to push on with other things once you finish something major. Maybe i’m just lazy, i dunno.

I could really use some crash time tonight…

- pirotunes: Paxahau: | | | Paxahau: Detroit’s Electronic Music Resource | | | -

Why did i watch Air ep 6? Am I a raving idiot? Have i no sense of responsibility for all those Megatokyo readers who want their comic tomorrow? Dammnit to bloody hell…

I can’t really say more about how i feel now, because it’s more than how i reacted to this this episode than how much it upset me. For some reason, it unlocked something, something i think i’ve been struggling with in relation to one of my own stories.

It was kind of disturbing, honestly, to see such a close reflection of some of my own words in this episode. I think that seeing this really helped clarify something for me. Not in showing me the similarities between what i want to do and what the folks at Key have done, but the differences.

Oh, while you are at it, you might as well go here.

i can’t explain how it feels, honestly. (sigh) there are times i wish i didn’t want to write stories, and that i could just enjoy the works of others.

- pirotunes: Farewell song from AIR ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (DISC-1)” -

Wow, Air episode 5 was very moving. Even though i don’t know all the details of the three girl’s senarios (which is part of why watching this is fun for me - i won’t have the same joy with Clannad if its every animated because i have had a complete run down of each of the girl’s senarios :P) you can sense just some of the quickness with which is going, but the emotive quality of the episode overpowers those feelings quite well. Stunning job, really.

AIR is not for everyone, and i know that. The nice thing is, tho, that the quality of the show is such that even people that may not totally click with the story or whats going on tend to like it well enough. For people like me (who tend to like really weird emotional stories like this) it’s gold. Enough so that i’m almost afraid to watch it, sorta like, you want to wait to have time to really get into it.

Anyways, good episode. It really put me in an odd mood this morning. The scene where Mizuo breaks down just… i dunno. We all have times when we connect with a character in an anime more than just the normal ‘wow, i really liked that’. I’m a little disturbed by how i connected with ep 5, and how it hurt to watch that breakdown. Actually… i kinda understand why. Maybe it’s connected in some way with why people used to ask me why all the girls i draw are sad.

But that’s dowsing into parts of me where much of my creativity comes from, and thats for me to wonder about. All anyone else will ever see are just the reflections of it that come out in what i draw and write.

(more good impressions over on Hounto Ni Taihen Desu, scroll down a bit for AIr 5(no idea how to get a permlink from doug’s site.))

I feel like writing today. I suppose that’s the upshot of it all. Sometimes i wish i could just push aside all the other work and things that make for a busy week and keep me and sarah and the store and MT and everything going and just sit and write for a few days. Maybe i’ll have some time today, once we totally clear out the rest of the preorders and have them ready to be on their way monday…

- pirotunes: 夜想 from AIR ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (DISC-1)” -

Ugh. I know i should be looking forward to finally seeing Volume 3 today (how dumb is this? I haven’t even seen a copy yet. but the sucky part is that before i can look at one i gotta help unload them from the truck delivering them today. Guu. Actually, that’s not even the part the bothers me, i’m more than happy to lug and haul things around. In fact, as i’ve said before, its one experience that I have being an owner creator that not all do, the lugging around and interaction with the merchandise itself as it finds it’s way to fans and readers. I’m not even slightly twonked about the fact that Seraphim and I are gonna spend the entire day (probably much into tomorrow too) packing up and getting pre-orders out the door as fast as we can. Today is gonna be a hugely busy day, but that’s ok.

No, what’s gonna suck is the layer of ice on the ground with several inches of snow on top that is still falling. We don’t have a truck dock so we have to manually move all this stuff in from where the truck will stop. It won’t be more than 12 feet or so, but still, it’s gonna suck (can’t roll a cart outside with it like this). Shoot me now.

Ah well, i can use the exercise

- pirotunes: Wieland Samolak - Steady State Music 02 -

Seems this blog has turned into to sordid story of fred and his browsers. ^^;; Ah, what the hell, i’ll go with it, at least one more turn.

I’m using Firefox again. Now for the details.

One thing i like about Safari is the fact that the data entry into it is much nicer. The boxes for entering text allow me to check spelling, the little glow around it is nice, and the buttons, while maybe a little too mac-ish (the whole aqua thing) are still nicer than the firefox buttons. Honestly, I do like the feel of it but i don’t like is the fact that you have this feeling you aren’t really allowed to change anything. It’s almost like they are trying to keep you to a particular way they want you to browse. Apple stuff tends to be like this, i think, and It worries me.

I get this creepy feeling that Apple wants to control what my computing experience should be like, because they know what’s best. Sure, its good stuff, but i worry about how hard it can be to tweak some of the core Mac programs. Ya, im sure you can get under the hood and tinker with them, but most people don’t do stuff like that. We need choices, and there needs to be not only lots of options in the preferences menu, but there NEEDS to be alternatives to Mac software. I don’t give a flying fsk about the next great glorious thing Steve Jobs is gonna introduce at the next Steve Jobs Is Awesome Expo… I do NOT want all the software on my machine to be produced by one company. I do not like the closed nature of my ipod. Yes, macs are good stuff, i love mine. They make great stuff, but they need to be careful. If i feel they have too much of a say in how i live my digital life, no matter how nice and comfy their little chains are, I will cut them free (as I hope will many others will). The revolution will be seen as a dictatorship, and that will be the end of it.

And they wonder why they have trouble selling the high end systems. But i digress.

Maybe that’s why i feel at least some need to use Firefox rather than Safari. The problem with japanese entry and the fact that Safari has a lot of trouble auto-detecting japanese sites were the other reason. So, i took some of the advice posted here and went in and removed old instances of firefox, firebird, mozilla and netscape. First i did it on my laptop. Seemed to work great, but the gif problem was still a problem. Tried it on the desktop. The gif problem had gone away. What the hell?

Now, i have seen mention of the fact that the problem only crops up when the screen is set to less than millions of colors. My screens have always been set to Millions of colors. So why the problem? My desktop machine has ALWAYS been set to millions, as has my 12″… or has it?

Of course not. For some bizzare reason, it was set to thousands. Once i changed that, the gif problem went away. I used Safari Bookmark Exporter to pull my freshly sorted bookmarks back into firefox. I installed a few plugins (including the bookmark synchronizer) and i’m going to run with this for a while and see how it goes.

- pirotunes: Hedfunk - Dark Blood -