fredart : blogbits

Ah… Well, i woudn’t go far as to say everything is perfect - i’m not really happy with wednesday’s comic, kimiko looks far cuter in glasses than she came off in this comic, something i’ll show a little clearer in a future comic (i can’t believe so many people think she wears bifocals - meh.) but the little break helped me get the story rolling in my head again - something that has been lacking for a few weeks.

It’s kinda weird, but there are definitely times when i write and draw megatokyo comics and there is almost no concept of the story in my head. No amount of notes, outlines, synopsises, scripts or anything can give you the ‘feel’ of a story. A mechanical story without feel is like a skeletal remains - there’s no flesh to it, no life. Nothing sucks worse than to have to do comics when you can’t feel them. I’m starting to get a feel for it all again, which is good. I swear, my work life is like this huge barge i keep trying to drive up a river that’s too narrow and too shallow to navigate.

I think i’m also being somewhat effected by the havoc wrought by the hurricane down south - our hearts go out to everyone of you who has been effected by the storm, and Sarah and I are thinking about what charities we can link people to who want to try to help. Watching that storm was like watching someone shoot someone else in the face, the fact that you could see it coming and you knew it was going to be bad… and it’s made me feel pretty sad over the past few days.

More stuff later. I have a lot of stuff rattling around in my head that needs to be cleared out. Rant time.

- pirotunes: As One - Freefall -

Ok, that will teach me to take a day off.

Actually, i really can’t blame this on a day off, other than maybe i should have done some serious work on story dev saturday night instead of watching anime… oh well, hindsight, as they say. I hate missing comics, but there was definitely something not right with today’s script.

This is actually not unusual for the first 20 or so comics of a chapter. Ideas are still formulating, i’m still getting up to speed with things, etc. I tried to take care of much of this before i started the chapter, but Otakon really cut into my story dev time, and its showing. I have struggled with the past few comics, and this one… meh. I need to sit down with the story some more and finish my story structure. In-service day time

Whenever i have to backtrack like this, it always feels like i wasted my time on stuff that i wont be using, or i feel frustrated about having material that i won’t be using… but the thing is, its not really a waste of time. It’s the tossed ideas that somehow get you to the ideas you eventually use. You can’t be afraid to toss ideas when they don’t feel right, or to make hard decisions about actually tossing something when it doesn’t work

It’s just better if you can do it a few days BEFORE you are supposed to post something.

- pirotunes: David Sylvian & Holger Czukay - Mutability (A New Beginning Is In The Offing) -

Well, i feel a little better now.

Yesterday was the first day in two months that i didn’t go anywhere near t3h factory, didn’t think about Megatokyo or Warmth or MegaGear or anything… it was my first real day off, and it was something i think i needed pretty bad. Of course, i didn’t just laze around and goof off, we worked on cleaning up the house, i redid the kitchen, cleaned stuff out, had to clean up a ghastly mess in the garage (something had dragged a big Morning Dove in there and proceeded to feast on it - the scene was like something out of a horror movie - yuck) etc, then plopped down in my chair and continued to watch some anime backlog.

There is so much to catch up on. Thankfully, most shows aren’t really worth watching in the long run, but some i’ve been wanting to watch and are just now getting to. I’m most of the way through Rozen Maiden right now, and… yes, Suigintou ownz me (like that’s a surprise) and the more current anime Shuffle!, which is surprisingly good for an ero game conversion. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out my fave character in this series Oh, and in case you forgot, Erika was wearing a Shuffle school outfit way back in chapter 5 around the time of the fanboy riot Shuffle was a new game that was just coming out back then - you can check out the Navel website for more info on it and thier latest game Tick! Tack!.

Ah, the goodness. Now if only i was thinking about Megatokyo. I need to get my brain back on that, asap. If nothing else, i’m more creative when i at least have some kind of input going on, things get stale when im busy and am not watching anything, i’ve found…

- pirotunes: Moss - Semantics Is A Bitch -

You may have noticed that i deleted my last blog post, the one i put up yesterday morning. I’m not usually in for deleting stuff once it’s posted, but i kinda felt like, after posting it, i felt uncomfortable about it, so i took it down. I appreciate all the kind and supportive posts i received, thank you. Things are better today - a certain person is home from the hospital and is doing fine, so that turned out ok.

The comic itself was hard, every once and a while i have these comics where getting something done is an intense struggle. It’s just something you work through when it happens. What i DON’T like is that whenever i find myself struggling with the writing, i start getting dozens of emails strongly suggesting that since i am struggling, maybe i need help with the writing and should get a co-writer. Good frickin lord, people - just because you struggle with something doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means that its hard. I don’t care if writing for me is hard, i think that the production of a good story is hard work. You get out of it what you put into it.

Anyways, i’m still tottering around with writing for friday’s comic, but im getting there. Time to get back to it. Also, i plan to get back on track with blogging regularly. Thanks for your patience with the lack of material here recently. Otakon was a big event for us, and i’m just now starting to get my head back on straight.

- pirotunes: Vidna Obmana - The Insane Brightness -

I’m really looking forward to getting through Otakon because honestly, i could use a break I’ve been double loading myself recently (and had two nights where i simply didn’t go to bed - not entirely smart) but i’ve been putting getting *some* sleep on the to do list. As usual, there are lots of things i keep forgetting about (i need to take care of some of them today) and its a comic day… whee.

Actually, there are some really good signs in my ‘productivity’ scale recently. I’ve been drawing a lot more detailed a lot faster than i have been in the recent past. I’ve been struggling less TO draw, also the ideas and organization for things has been flowing pretty well. What’s been killing me is that i’ve been spending bigger and bigger chunks of each comic day still working on ‘other things’ and not getting started till late. Once i get past Otakon (and a few other things) then maybe i can get started earlier… and i might actually be finishing comics on time for a chance. What a concept.

So far so good in this chapter. Chapter starts are always a pain because you dont have any of the inertia that you have towards the last half of a chapter. The chapter beginnings are always more about getting things into place for what happens next. Every ride requires some kind of wind up, if you don’t people get whiplash

The biggest problem i have right now is that i have not worked enough on the Naze Nani Megatokyo show for Otakon yet. I still have a lot to do, and i was supposed to have been able to finish most of it yesterday, but i had other fires to put out… i need to get todays comic under control so i can get to work on it. Weee…

- pirotunes: National Forest - For November -

Ok, i must have been tired last night, or my server had better sense than I do. The blogpost i wrote at teh Factory before i headed home last night for some reason… disappeared. No great loss, mind you, but I’m puzzled as to how that happened

It was somewhat mindless ‘gah’ at the fact that my internal clock is so off that it’s starting to get ridiculous. For example, it’s not unusual for me to go to bed between 4 and 5am. What’s with that? It all started back when i went to AX Tokyo last year, and my internal clock hasn’t been the same since. I suppose there would be nothing wrong with it if i didn’t insist on still getting up ‘early’ - but there is only so much you can short yourself of sleep. Really gonna have to do something about this sleep schedule thing.

Anyways, it’s good to have chapter 7 underway. I have been struggling with it and its globbyness for the past few days, mixed in with all the Otakon prep. I have one OTHER project i have to start and finish today or it will never happen (sigh) Such is the life of a whatever the heck i am.

Acquired some new tunes via itunes again. I used to be safe from music purchases with giving endless love to various streamcast stations and having musical tastes that prevent me from ever finding stuff i like in most music stores… damn that itunes. I picked up DJ Cam’s Underground Vibes a few days ago, and am liking very much. there’s a weird part of my soul that has a real fondness for certain types of downtempo / ambient experimental hip hop. It’s an old disk, but highly recommended.

- pirotunes: Deep-Dive-Corp. - Relaxer -

Damn, when did i start getting so stuffy about my fredart blog? Sheesh. The whole idea of this thing was to just randomly talk about stuff without worrying about it being stellar material. Why is it that i feel like whenever i say anything online it has to be deep and meaningful?

It’s the net, fred. Stop being such a damn pill. Sheesh. No wonder people think you’re such a gloomy gus.

This past week has been *nuts*. From now until August 17th i’m going to be swamped with prep for Otakon 2005, mostly because i really want to do a nice entertaining show for everyone, and to make sure that our booth and store and everything we do at the con looks good and makes everybody happy (including me and sarah :P) We had one item that we were planning to debut at Otakon, and it was a major blow two weeks ago when we found out that they wont arrive in time for the show Ugh. So, i’ve had to scramble to pull together some other items so we have some new stuff. Funny thing is, some of them are turning out pretty cool, better than i hoped, so maybe it’s not so bad. I hope people like ‘em.

It never rains but it pours, as they say… There’s a major promotion for MT coming up in September that i’m trying to get something ready for, and i’m scrambling to get that done in the background of everything else…

oh, and there’s that Chapter 7 thing that i need to be working on. I’ve got a few weeks before i start that, right?

right? O_O

- pirotunes: Stars Of The Lid - Central Texas -