fredart : blogbits

I just posted a random sketch from my notebooks - there are so many random sketches like this, and so many of them aren’t worth scanning, but this one isn’t bad, so i posted it.

I’ve been working on what was going to be mondays comic since early this morning, but it’s been slow going, mostly because i keep changing the script and i’ve already started over twice. Well, you can’t escape the fact that traveling messes up my comic production schedule, and this is just one of those times… i just don’t want to rush this one, i guess.

- pirotunes: “DebuDebu” from “Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~ Original Soundtrack” by Anne -

Yknow, when you consider how much people supposedly love their cell phones, and the fact that just about everyone has one and they are very much a part of our everyday lives, you’d think that buying one wouldn’t be a such a pain in the ass. It took two hours to get our new phones, and 50 minutes of that was spent waiting around for a salesperson in the Verizon store to help us. We waited because we had the same wait at the Sprint store, and eventually just walked out. So much for being a loyal Sprint customer for 5 years.

And the dumb thing is that part of why we went with Verizon is because people kept telling me how great their customer service is. Huh. Maybe its just the way things are with the cell phone biz.

We got a pair of LG VX7000 phones, which aren’t too bad, i guess. They do pretty much what i wanted them to do (based on what cell phones in the states can do that is) and didn’t cost $500 a piece. Too bad they are kinda… uuuuugly. Oh well, they are just phones, i guess. They aren’t pretentious, at least. I’ve already customized walpapers and stuff, so at least that wasn’t too hard to do. Pretty sad - all that technology, and the thing that makes me happy is being able to put Tomoyo-chan on my phone.

Honestly, i’m just glad to have the cell phone thing done. I like buying techy things, doing the research, etc,(for example, i enjoyed doing the research on headphones, and i appreciate all the input i got from everyone here - i like my Grados. A little more bass would be nice, but they are pretty nice otherwise but researching cell phones was just… frustrating. The limitations aren’t based on whether you can afford the things, it’s all based on what crap they make available to you. It makes it harder for people who like to be a little more unique when all they have to choose from is that weighted average of what it is felt the masses wants.

Nothing is more frustrating than having to choose from that kind of limited selection.

- pirotunes: Narc - Defragment - digital to analog conversion - Disk 1 -

Well, i think i did the smart thing and trashed the first blog/rant that i wrote for this entry tonight. It felt good to write it, but it said a lot of things about me and my past that i don’t really think anyone needs to know. It was just a venting that wouldn’t really serve any purpose except to clear my head. It might have made an important point, but i didn’t really want to say that much about myself and my past to make it. So, into the oblivion of unsaved data you go.

What was it about? Well, it was about how intolerant a lot of people seem to be about piro’s self worth issues and his self effacing behavior. A lot of people get it, and understand it, and even identify with it. Many others don’t understand it and feel compelled to get irritated by it. With a leveler head i find it interesting how people who understand or identify with Piro have no problem with Largo and his bizarre behavior, but people with identify more with Largo or Erika or Miho or other more ‘interesting’ characters simply will not tolerate much of the Piro storyline. I have three comics in a row of Kimiko/Piro conversation, a difficult one because it there are so many things coming together for them from today and the nature of these two makes it tricky to pull it all together… and people are bitching about the “months” of the whiny piro storyline and how i need to start moving things along, because its getting boring.

Months? People, its been 3 comics for conversation on the train.

I suppose its just part of the problem with writing a thought out story, and having a variety of different types of characters to portray. Some are going to be more ‘interesting’ than others. Largo’s relationship with Erika is a hella lot more explosive than Piro’s is with Kimiko right now. I can’t believe that there are people out there who think Piro just needs to haul off and drag the girl to a love hotel and stop the angsty bullshit. Sure, it might alleviate your irritation with him, but would that be good story writing? I don’t think so. I’ve been striving for a balance in this story, and balance is a funny thing - it requires weight on both sides in order to get it.

It also points out why i am starting to get frustrated with the webcomic medium - it is so hard to pull off a story that advances page by page every other day in a way that makes it tolerable and interesting to readers on the web, as well as when all the pages are read in sequence. Most of the shit i get from people has to do with the difficulties in maintaining this balance.

The most amusing thing is that, Just like piro, i have a lot inside to say but didn’t have the gumption to say it. Just like him, i can never really find the voice. I think that’s why people like him and I turn to art, it’s our way of saying things we can’t really just come out and say. Maybe i am just asking for a little fucking tolerance as i try to make some points in the midst of entertaining you. Is that too much to ask?

Enough grumbling. I think i get too introspective sometimes. Kinda like piro, i gotta cut it out, stop being so boring, and start trying to be interesting again.

- pirotunes: Nigel Ayers & Randy Greif - Paradoxicon - Oedipus Brain Foil - Build a Poison Fire -

Two little side notes… If you remember recently i talked about buying headphones, and i had picked up a pair of Sony MDR-EX715L earbuds. Good headphones, but… i ended up hating them. The cord was so unwieldy and uncomfortable. Also, while the sound was good, i REALLY hated the sound isolation. So, i decided to go back and look again at what might work for me, and decided to pick up a pair of Grado SR60s. These are nice phones, i am definitely liking them.

My second side note… i need to get a new cell phone. My Samsung SPH-A460 is finally starting to show it’s age. Right now i use Sprint, but i’m considering moving to Cingular because i like some of thier phones better (in particular the Sony Ericson V500 or whatever it is). Honestly, i hate the phones they sell here in the states. I wish i could get some of the japanese phones, but alas… Suggestions welcome

- pirotunes: Steve Roach - Two Rivers Dreaming Part 1 -

Funny thing about regrouping, if you really seriously sit down and try to get your act together, you usually can. I’m kind of sick of the constant tripping over myself when it comes to getting things done, so i’ve gone to the core of some of my working habits and tried to change a few things. The main thing i’ve been needing to do is filter things better.

I used to tend to be a real pack rat. I rarely used to throw things away and even kept things like boxes for wireless routers and mice. The standard excuse for not wanting to throw anything away is that you “might need it sometime in the future”. The only problem is, the sheer volume of junk that gets collected keeps you from being able to get to the things that you really DO want to keep. Junk hoarding is a function of being too lazy to filter things as you go.

A long time ago (with the help of Seraphim) i changed my ways when it came to hoarding and pack ratting, and the real surprise to me was that i found i was getting access to things i had put away and long forgotten about. By limiting what i did save, it gave me access to those things. The human brain can only access and absorb so many things, so proper filtering will ensure that end up enjoying the things that really matter to you, instead of having things so buried that you don’t even remember you have them.

I have a problem with distractions. As most of you know, computers and net connections were MADE for distracting you Being open to distractions is a lot like being a pack rat — you allow yourself to be open to everything because you feel like you don’t want to miss anything, but once again i think it’s a function of filtering. It may only seem like a few moments here and there, with a random AIM conversation here, check a web page there, make sure you have the latest episode of that anime there, review your RSS reader, check email, check the forums… none of these take a lot of time, but if you let them tag team you, over and over again, you can find yourself getting nothing done all day.

I produce my best work when i’ve isolated myself from distractions, and the nature of being a web-based creator and the isolation that is needed to produce the work for the net presents a kind of paradox and traveling between two different worlds that can be… confusing, i think. It’s a lot like when during WWI, troops would spend a week in pure hell in the trenches, then spend a week sipping wine in Paris while on break. The contrast between the two drove a lot of them crazy. I find myself struggling with accessibility and absorbing incoming data with the need for isolation to do the comic on a regular basis, and if anything it is the core problem i have with doing a webcomic.

Anyways, i’ve taken a hard look trying to filter the things i do, trying to restrict some distractions, even things that i tend to enjoy… not because they are bad, but because there are creative things i want to do, and i’m finding that i’m not DOING any of them because i’m spending too much time being distracted. We’ll see how it goes.

yknow, i think i figured out why it is i feel so bleak on days where i just cannot, for some reason, finish a comic. it’s bad enough when it is because i’ve been too busy, or things just got away from me, or i ran out of time — that’s just time management issues. Not being able to pull anything together after struggling for a large chunk of two days… that’s your creative process failing you.

Now, when i talk about the process failing, i’m not referring to some kind of cataclysmic end of the world kind of thing — it’s just writers block. Hardly earth shattering. I think that even i can take some modicum of comfort in the fact that I’ve done more than enough reasonably ok comics that it is something that will get past… it’s just that, when it does strike and you can’t get past it, it leaves you with this empty feeling that is hard to describe.

See, the experience of writing a comic and forming these things is, i think, different than reading them. I experience the comic through creating it, and when i can’t create it, and when the pieces just will not fall into place, it leaves me with this frustrating, depressing void that is very hard to describe. I used to think it was just me being all down and feeling crappy because i let people down and missed a deadline… but now that i think about it, i don’t think thats right. I think there is a palpable void where you should have yet another little chunk of this world you are trying to create — kind of like (but not really) when you are looking forward to a movie or a tv show, and when you see it is totally not what you expected and really disappoints you. The problem with being the creator is that there is no channel to switch to to find something else to fill that void.

Anyways, its all part of the ups and down of doing creative stuff for a living. If you suffer from the problem from time to time, this actually lists some very good ideas to help you get past it. Of course, there are no guarentees, and sometimes only time can fix the problem.

On that note, i need to get back to work

- pirotunes: Brian Eno - Discreet Music -

I finally broke down and registered NewsFire for my Mac. It’s always been a pretty nice RSS newsreader, but some of the changes have made in recent versions have been pretty nice, and i think it works pretty well for me (that and they managed to make the ‘unregistered’ pester-you-to-buy behavior pretty annoying I’ve been finding that i keep missing out on updates on many of my fave sites that tend to update regularly because i just don’t have much time to putz around on the net checking pages. I took a little time this morning to organize some feeds, add sine new ones, and set things up for me.

The Fredart feed is kinda lame, and we all know how problematic the Megatokyo feed is. i need to do something about that. For this feed, I suppose i just need to dig into Movable Type and figure out how to better integrate it all. I see that a lot of people are moving to Wordpress rather than Movable Type… of course, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

The most amusing thing i’m starting to see is that some feed are including google word ads in their feed. Oh come on… though i suppose, if it facilitates good feed content, i guess its ok. I really need to decide if i’m going to revise my approach to what i provide in the feeds for MT and for FredArt. I’ll have to mull this over.

Some new merchandise going online tonight… well, one new item. I just need to photograph it. Whee.

- pirotunes: Fektion Fekler - Diabolic Changes (Side Effect Mix) -