fredart : blogbits

Ok, one more post here to test that twitter plug in for wordpress.  Should be working now.

We’ve added a wordpress plug-in that will automatically post fredart blog updates to the fredart twitter.  This is a test to see if that works or not :P  (I actually posted a blog post right before this reviwing a new Logitech mouse, so don’t forget to check that out.)

The new Last.fm site re-design is pretty nice.  I have to say, the old design was a little jarring at times, this is much, much better.  It’s always nice to see it when a site gets updated in a POSITIVE way.  Not always the case. :P  Thankfully, the MT site update was definately an upgrade, even if it didn’t change all that much visually.

My little experiments with YouTube yesterday and the day before came off pretty good.  Aside from the need to add some music or commentary to keep viewers from falling asleep as the lines come together, its not bad.  Of course, i wish they were better drawings - its hard to go back and record a drawing process AFTER you have drawn something.  I’m going to cobble together some background music in Garage Band to run mindlessly in the background of the next one, and try adding some commentary voice over.  I’m not sure if i should comment WHILE i draw or do the voice over AFTER.  Doing it while i draw might interrupt the brain cells as they are focusing on the drawing, doing it after might not really be as interesting.  I can easily do both, its just a question of trying both.

When i first started talking with the guys who re-did the MT site, we started talking about what to do about the FredArt site.  I don’t want to simply re-code this site without thinking about how i really want it to WORK.  I tried early on to think ahead to what i might or might not do, but in recent months i’ve started twiddling with bosting content online in ways that really do give me some interesting ideas for how this site can really be something different and interesting.  I can capture and upload screenshots with very little effort now (using automator), and i am working on ways to make video clips of the process that do not require lots of setup or thinking (that’s pretty important when it comes to me).  That kind of content on a regular basis, especialy when tied in with the Fredrin twitter and RSS feeds make for some interesting possibilities.

The only problem with using my youtube account again is that now i’m getting tons of youtube emails ^^;; ah well.

One of the things i’m looking forward to when Jack starts getting a little older is playing with Legos again.  Legos were, of course, one of my fave toys when i was a kid.  I haven’t built anything in many years, but it’s not hard to be inspired by some of the things that people build.  We’re a few years before these kind of Legos are anything less than a massive choking hazard.

This is a Lego set that i must have.  Pictures of it leaked today.  It’s not out yet, but you can probably guess why i want it: 4999 Vestas Windmill set

Lego, of course, deny’s all knowledge of this for now, and even asked some sites to remove the images (though it’s a little late for that, cat is long gone out of that bag).  I will be keeping an eye out for when i can order one tho.

Just need to find a place for it near my desk… somewhere Jack won’t be able to reach it.  For a few years.

Guh.  There’s nothing worse than having to break off of one thing that you have TONS to do on to do something else - and then find yourself cooling your heels in the midst of doing that second thing.  Eh, well, i knew today was going to roll a bit like this, which is why i have my laptop here.

Oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i finally picked up a new Hard Drive for my Mac Book - remember how it died on Christmas Day last year?  Well, Tomoyo is back up and working.  I lost some things when that hard drive failed, but it wasn’t a lot.  I really need to get a copy of Leopard for her, but that can wait.

Really irritated that i wasn’t able to get that comic done for today.  Setup for this thing i’m busy with today took a lot more time than i thought it would, and I’ll be busy with it tomorrow and Wednesday as well.  Bleah.  At least it’s not all day, i’ll be able to get back to the comic later this afternoon.

Now that i sorta have this fredart blog thing rolling along again, it’s not too hard to just sit and tap out a lame little post like this.  The MT rantspace on the other hand… i think  i might just have to take the same approach.  That thing up there right now has been there for two months.  That was the first thing i started to work on when i sat down to write while waiting here…

and here i am posting on fredart because i was drawing a complete and total blank of how to start on the MT rant.  I guess what i should do is talk about the omake, as well as the way i am doing the comics now and the things that have changed now that i really am drawing all digital… that might make for an interesting topic.  Good place to start anyway.

It’ll be interesting to see if i can really manage to get that third comic done early today.  It would not be a problem if yesterday was not taken up by a number of things that kept me away from my desk completely for most of the day, but the encouraging thing is that i am still on track enough here that the possibility of getting it done on time is actually quite good.  ^_^  Jack is doing much better at playing on his own for periods of time, and i’ve learned to anticipate some of the things he needs (like his feeding and nap schedule) which keeps him happy and not worked up trying to communicate such things to me.  This fathering stuff does have a learning curve, one which i think will never actually flatten out.

I’d type more, but jack is sitting in my lap right now and it’s getting hard t \lksfa  klaek keep him f ro msa  hitting the kyeboard.

It’s a bizarre but delightfully pleasant experience to not only have been done with Monday’s comic ahead of time but to be almost done with Wednesday’s comic on tuesday afternoon.  More often than not when ‘missing’ a comic i actually found myself not able to work on it at all until the evening it is due, so there has been little ‘getting ahead’ in the past six months.  Last week, however, i did manage to get most of ‘Friday’s’  comic done and, rather than posting it Saturday afternoon, made a comitment to see if i could use the boost of having a comic done “early” and then diving into the next comic in the framework of my currently “skewed” work schedule.  Trying to work from a positive position rather than a negative one.  It feels good, i’m hoping i can keep it up.

Why is my work schedule so ’skewed’?  Well, it has a lot to do with the fact that Sarah and I are both trying to work ‘full time’ both here and at the warehouse, we both have a lot to do, and we are trying to raise a baby at the same time (and not using day care).  Since a good part of our work (mostly mine) is working ‘at home’ in theory it’s a great idea… until you find out that taking care of a baby during the day can be a full time job, especially when he has a habit of only sleeping for 30 min at a time >_<.

There are two things that are improving this rather daunting issue.  First, Jack has been taking longer naps (mostly because i think he’s taking a breather from some of the teething hell he went through for a few weeks) and we have a baby sitter that is going to come in from time to time to watch him and give us some much needed work time.  Just one day of her help last week really took a lot of pressure off, as you might be able to tell by the rather positive bent on my infamously problematic production issues.

Part of this will also involve more blogging and ranting.  I’m trying to get over the idea that people don’t want to hear my whining by seeing what i can do to reduce that whining and prattle about more interesting stuffs.  This might not bee particularly interesting, per se, but it’s a fair reflection of things at this particular moment.

That said, comic 1137, FMP 09 is just about done, drawing-wise.  I need to hatch and render some things, then put it together in illustrator (the dialogue is already done).  Doing one comic ahead and posting on time is ok.  Doing two is even better.  Three is a real triumph, but what i really want is to find the norm being that comics are posted ahead of time and are availible at 1am like they are supposed to be, on a regular basis.  It’s been the holy grail of my life as a comic artist, as i am sure you all know, but for once it seems oddly possible… and possible without having to seriously comprimise the art or the content of the comics.  So we’ll see. 

And now for some randomness… i’ve been experimenting with notebook applications, not sure right now if i like Evernote or Yojimbo better.  It’s almost like i wish i could mix the two (With Yojimbo it is all stored locally, evernote is on a server (and you have 40mb or 400mb allowances)…  given how graphic-rich my clipping tends to be, i worry that 400 meg per month might not be enough… i’ll blog more about this in my next post.  Anyone else here using similar programs that act as thier brain repository?

Duh. I forgot to mention that a few months ago i started using last.fm. If you don’t know what last.fm is… er, well, its a little hard to describe, but it is a pretty interesting way to not only share and cross reference your aggregate listening habits (”scrobbling” posts your playlists to your site) but it’s am excellent resource for exploring and finding new music.

For example, when looking for some low key minimal techno i came across thinner netlabel and it’s extensive library of downloadable releases. There’s even a Megatokyo group on last.fm. Not sure yet how it’s content is a reflection of megatokyo and the kind of music found within, but it’s still neat to find one there.

Feel free to add/friend/smoohzz me if you are a last.fm user ^_^

It’s been a long time since i’ve done any blogging, ranting or posting, which is silly when you consider how easy it is to post such things these days.  It’s kind of like Kalium said in a twitter response earlier - i’ve got more than enough to blurp about, i just need to start doing it where i’m supposed to rather than just to friends online.  So without further blathering, I’ll put this rather delightful WordPress interface for this particular blog to work.

If you’ve been following MT or reading my blog for any length of time at all, you know that i have some odd and wide ranging taste in music, most of it chosen to either compliment or contrast whatever mood i happen to be in at the time.  I’m a particular fan of various types of Ambient music, running the range from the dreamy, spacey and sometimes kinda silly stuff like John Serrie to the sometimes rather alarming sounds from artists like Infetu and Karjalan Sissit.  It’s really hard to figure out if a particular ambient track or work is going to be something you enjoy or are able to listen to over time because it’s kind of a subconscious listen.  The best tracks are the ones that leave you with the atmosphere and the mood without giving you anything to grasp that sticks in your head and identifies the tune.  Consciously hearing the track as it comes on means that it’s not going to have the effect you are looking for.  You don’t WANT it to grab your attention.

Which is a little dumb if you are creating a track list or looking for stuff to listen to.  :P  I pluck stuff from itunes or amazon or other places quite regularly, but yesterday i picked up download that is something i’ve actually been hoping to find for quite a while: Gas - Pop.  Even better, it wasn’t just Pop, it was three other disks by this guy as well in a ‘box’ set called Nah Und Fern.   Itunes has it, but i got it for a much better price over at bleep.com, a download shop with a pretty specific collection of labels to choose from.

Gas is some earlier work by influential techno artist Wolfgang Voigt who released these works almost 10 years ago (Gas (1996), Zauberberg (1997), and Königsforst (1999), Pop (2000)) but evertime i heard something from Pop on one of the ambient shoutcast stations i listen to from time to time, i would make note of it and try to find it.  Just the other day, when looking at some of my bookmarks on ambient music, i brought up a page on Gas and after poking around for a bit found that some of his work had been released recently on itunes.  Then i came across this CD, and i felt it was one i really should get.  It’s easy on the ears, which just enough structure to it to wander, and it seems to really be saturated with the kinds of moods i am always looking for in ambient music. I’ve listened through a number of times now and it’s definately been worth getting.

Just for the heck of it, i’ll try putting Bleep’s little player here so you can give it a listen.  Lemme know if this thing blows up your browsers

So much for a super quick post.

It’s amazing how much time babies take up in the first few weeks, till you learn how to multitask better. You sort of have no choice, and i’m getting there but jeeze, everytime i turn around it’s something else (in one instance this morning, i had to change my own shirt as well as Jack’s outfit - something he seemed to be quite proud of ^^;;)

Today is Black Friday again, and you may remember this rant from last year. Funny, we weren’t getting much sleep last year either, but for totally different reasons. Needless to say we weren’t going out at 3am to wait in line for any Black Friday specials this morning. Hell no.

Though I have a feeling i might be doing it next year… ^^;;;

I’m working on a christmas ornament for this year, as well as some dog tag designs to go with the zombie ranger shirt i’ll be posting probably tomorrow in the MegaGear store. Ugh, so much to do.

You can tell i’m a positive thinker though, because i went and started the downloads for the Clannad episodes that came out since Jack arrived. Haven’t watched a one of them yet, but maybe at some point i’ll be able to…