fredart : blogbits

Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving and whatnot. Seraphim were just simple not here all day yesterday. The joy of holidays being that there is a lot of travel and moving around When we did finally get home last night, i started working on a DPD sketch for friday while watching the tail end of Tomorrow Never Dies and then Goldeneye… gee, small surprise that it ended up being some sort of “piroko with a weapon ready to off the viewer” kinda sketch You may recognize the spirit of this DPD to have some ancestry in that old Ruriquake image i did years ago, the one that lead to the whole idea of Piroko in the first place. I have tried to do a piroko version of this image many times, sort of the de-facto ‘ph34r t3h cute ones’ image, but i’ve yet to really be satisfied with any of them. This one was ok, and the poster of it isn’t bad, but it’s really a different kind of image. Todays DPD is getting closer.

I’m sure all of you are sick of hearing about the whole ‘black friday’ thing (the biggest shopping day of the year, etc etc, day after thanksgiving, blah blah blah). I need to start pimping things a little on the MT site, so forgive some of the advertising and product promotions i’ll be doing in the next few weeks We almost lost an entire month due to the cart software fiasco in October, so we’re defintely looking for your support this Christmas - that and MT stuff does make for decent gifts

The MegaGear store is up and running fine, and we’re getting into Christmas mode - which means i have a lot to do today MT rant in the works, should have it up tonight. Right now we need to get busy getting some international shipments out the door. whee!

- pirotunes: Flytronix - Offset Acoustics -

I know this is gonna sound like the lamest thing in the world, but i spent the entire day yesterday cleaning up leaves and doing yard work. We raked leaves, cleaned off the driveway, piled them up, ran them thru the mulcher to make mulch to cover the flower beds. I also took great care in bringing the hoses in (i actually left one of the hoses on and filled with water for the first heavy freeze earlier this week. If you know what this can do to a hose and outdoor faucet, you can understand my relief in having things thaw so i could get things put away properly.) We cleaned bird feeders, straightened out the garage, put away stuff, generally cleaned up. I even put my tools away (there is a build in workbench in the basement) I even hung up many of them, in order, on the pegboard in the basement…

my god, what is happening to me? Am i becoming…. domesticated?

Nah. Not domesticated in the traditional sense, at any rate Between the comic, our business (megagear) and my ‘everyday life’ which is Sarah and and our kids (our cats) it is kinda hard for me to compete with the real hardcore otaku fanboys these days. I do feel like i’m not as on the cusp of things as i used to be, but for a ‘domesticated’ guy i do ok. I don’t think too many domesticated males in this country sat down and watched Karin episode 3 last night, and then proceeded to read Kashimashi vol 1…

I could be wrong, i suppose.

- pirotunes: Mama Oliver - Eastwest [Stoned Together] -

It’s snowing out! Yesterday, there were a few flakes falling, but it still felt more like a stormy rainy day than a snowy one… today, it FEELS like snow. Granted its just flurries, and there is barely enough to wet the pavement, nevermind accumulate or anything, still… it’s a time of year i like, and is often pretty inspiring for me. I wonder if it has something to do with a general kind of calming that a light snowfall and the atmospherics of it gives the world, i’m not really sure.

Back to work, lots to do. Maybe i’ll update later today.

Yay, finally…

After much blood, sweat, tears and piroangst (TM), MegaGear Store Version 3.0 is now open!

New look, new software, and a much better solution for us. I really am hoping that this is the last time we have to move the store and switch how we do things - it’s more than just uploading products and tweaking HTML and images to make it look good, a new e-commerce solution effects everything about your online business, from how you take orders down to shipping and inventory. A lot of work, but worth it.

Oh, and i forgot to mention… we’re taking both domestic and international orders in the new store

Thank you for your support! Yay! I think i’ll go curl up in a ball somewhere and sleep now

Ok, this has been a MOST crappy week. So crappy that i’m happy to say that i’ve started to find it all… amusing. Big things? Small things? yep, if it could have gone wrong this week, it did. I even had to tell Dom to please not make fun of me in a SGD about it all… i know he wanted to.

Feh. Well, it’s friday, the week is almost over, and i can look forward to better things (or ever greater disasters) next week, right? A blah week for comics too, because i have not really been able to spend any time on them. What i did get done was done in the cracks, and … it shows, i think. Friday’s comic was ok, but its less than what people expect from me these days (if i were to do this comic this way from the outset, i would have framed things differently and had 2 more frames) but i it works as is. I debated re-doing it, but that would just really delay things that much more for people. You can’t always do your best work, sometimes you have to get by with what you can manage.

As a treat for CGers and for people who just like to look at this stuff (i’ve had some requests) i’ve uploaded two frames from the comic, mainly frame 01 and frame 03 for your use. In frame one, there is a little detail that got cropped includes Dom’s tie as he pulls away, and frame 3 was pretty heavily cropped in the comic, so… yeah.

Some raw frames, just for fun, and in perhaps a small way to make up for this pretty crappy week. Thanks for suffering through it with me.

- pirotunes: Nine Inch Nails - Only from “With Teeth” -

Heheh, i feel like going back to the way i used to rant and blog on the mt site… whine bitch and moan about everything. I can’t really do it tho, because the net is full of people who are far better at it than i am

Another day to slog thru. I think all of this would go better if both seraphim and i felt better, but we’re making headway. Lots of things story-wise just clicked this morninig, some things that i have been struggling to get to line up, so i feel tons better about that little problem - now i just gotta draw like a madman… after i get the last bit of graphics done for the store, and check everything. That and i have a dentist appointment today (don’t ask) so i’m sure to be in a loverly mood later today.

I think i should dangle a carrot in front of my nose, some sort of treat to reward myself for slogging thru all of this without getting morose and fatalistic (no, i never do that). I want this. I’m always wanting some figure or another, but this one i really like. I dont want people to read anything from this, but Saber sometimes reminds me of Kimiko.

I wont get it, of course. I’ve vowed to not fall into that black hole of figure collecting (the same way i avoided cell collecting) but i shall entertain the wild notion for the rest of the day to make myself feel better.

- pirotunes: Freddy Fresh - Roller rinks & chicks -

Woo, the wind is really moving along at a good clip out there today, so much so that you can actually hear t3h factory move around as forces pull on the roof and walls (it’s a concrete block warehouse building with a flat roof, corrugated steel and insulation, etc etc, standard stuff, these kinds of buildings do have flex in the roof in high wind conditions) I actually don’t mind, it’s pretty moody weather, and that is always good for writing.

Fall and approaching winter has really crept up on us here in Michigan, kinda like a cat sneaking into your lap and you wonder how the hell it got there, even tho it’s been there for a while. I don’t mind, of course, i’m one of those nutters that actually likes fall and winter, because its good for my creative soul for some reason (tho it could be argued that this fact alone makes me a rather disturbed individual).

Pretty much done with the new store, hope to be able to open it this week, lots of comic stuff to do (i really hate doing scenes with lots of people in them, it gives me a headache) and i have got to get going on that other project, getting behind on it. Normal stuff for me, really.

What sucks is i probably will have to do yard work all over again. All the leaves i raked up yesterday… seem to be back out where i raked them up from at home. (sigh) ah, the beautiful frustrations of fall. Better get to work on the comic

I don’t really get sick that often, at least not in recent years. The only real problems i have with schedule are being overtired and trying to do too many things. Last night i really thought i was just massively overtired, but after trying to get going this morning… ugh. Fall head colds suck, they really do. Feel like my whole head is in a fogbank, even though outside the sun is shining and it’s a beautiful fall/winter day.

Luckily, i’ve managed to get a lot done this week. The new MegaGear store is almost ready to go - if you have ever built an online store you know that this is no small amount of work. We have a few small surprises for the store we change over to the new store, not as much as i would have liked - after all, i’ve been spending my time doing the store not new merchandise - but hopefully you will all like the stuff.

I really feel like going back home and laying down, but i’m past the point of blowing off this comic and need to finish it It’s turning out ok so far, too. Believe it or not, i like seeing the finished comics as much as most readers do.