Waffle

… that the part of webcartooning where I spend hours prepping files for publication and then uploading them through a database has lost all its appeal.

There was one page missing from the Courtly Manners serial currently running on rocr.net. This has now been restored. Thanks to Geir for pointing it out.

Interesting. I should pick this release up when I’ve got some time.
I haven’t used the GIMP much at all since it became practical to use Photoshop on linux, but it always pays to stay ahead of new developments, and if they’re finally making some progress in dealing with what people hate the most about the GIMP—its window management and menu interface—then that’ll give the program a huge boost.

The drawing above is now for sale through my Comicspace galleries. You will need to sign up with Comicspace to be able to see it (to certify that you are old enough to look at nipples) but the process is easy and does not result in you getting spammed. If you don’t want to buy it that way, though, you can also e-mail me and buy from me directly. Price is set at $100 - not exactly a bucketload of money.

I have also made it available as a Print via DeviantArt, in a range of formats and at the default prices. There, too, you’ll have to sign up to view and order.

It’s actually been 2 and a half years since I wrote this post in which I griped about my bank, the Postbank, offering a silly rewards program to get deals on consumer goods with its basic savings account instead of an interest rate above inflation. 2 and a half years, and I’ve only now gotten off my ass and opened a savings account at ASN Bank (the product I use is ASN Ideaalsparen, which at the time of writing offers 4.75% interest and requires automatic saving so I’ll be following the Pay Yourself First principle of personal finance). I’m still finalizing the paperwork and will be using their one-time offer to move my savings over before Jan. 2009.

I don’t think there’s any excuse for anyone even using a savings product that doesn’t offer a rate above inflation (outside of situations where hyperinflation takes place, but in a financial collapse at that level, you’re probably better off spending your money on canned food and firearms), but if I were to try, I’d argue that back in 2006, I really wasn’t able to save much money anyway. I am now, though, and I’ll be using that opportunity for as long as I manage to remain employed. Even in a recession (and even in one where trust in the banking system is suffering), I’m still better off earning real interest on my money than in letting it rot away slowly.

Today, I’m frustrated about… well, a lot of things, really, but I don’t want to share all of them with my internet readership and in any case, I think a lot of it is just a hungover feeling from having run that 11K yesterday, and not accomplishing much of anything today.

But one of the things that is frustrating me comes from the other thing I did yesterday, which was to complete the move of my stuff from my studio into my apartment. Over the years, the stuff in the studio had piled up, and since starting the move out, I got saddled with lots of extra computer parts, books, art materials, old sketchbooks, old sketches on loose sheets of paper, toys and figurines, furniture… put all of it together and my apartment is as cluttered as it was a year ago, when that was a major source of frustration and embarrassment for me. If not worse.

Some of it will sort itself out. I’ve got a potential taker for the old Suske & Wiske books that Jeroen took to the studio a few years ago and didn’t want back. There’s a whole lot of other stuff that isn’t mine, including some items that I have to take back to the studio because they’re Jelena’s or belong to the company renting the place out. Those can be returned to their owners or thrown out if they don’t want them. Original art can be sold, as can surplus books (the consolidation also caused my CD collection to overflow, so I’m now eyeing it with a view to selling most of my CDs). A lot of the paper can be discarded and the consumable art materials can be consumed. I’d really like to have more time to do that.

But I’ll still have my work cut out dealing with the extra clutter. Time to head for The Unclutterer for tips. Though after a year of trying, there’s not that much left to learn as far as the general principles are concerned. I try to practice the one-in-one-out rule, with mixed success. I limit the amount of stuff that I buy and try to discourage people from giving me stuff other than consumables. I have considered and rejected the One Year Rule on the basis that I often go back to using stuff that I haven’t used in over a year, especially art supplies. And I’ve become a lot more dilligent about getting paper and other junk out of the house immediately than I was a year ago.

I’ve learned one thing two things from getting all this stuff back from the studio. One is that I’ve made some really poor book purchasing decisions - or at least someone did; there were about a dozen books that none of us thought belonged to them. The other is that I’ve bought far too many pencils over the years; my desk is overflowing with them.

I ran 56:44 net (56:49 gross) in the 11 km at this year’s Thesinge Run on Saturday, finishing 18th out of 49. I’m very satisfied with this result. Prior to the event, I didn’t feel ready for it - I’d come out of trainings feeling like I couldn’t keep up with my training-mates and on the day itself, I had some mild asthma problems. I was also worried that I’d knock myself out in the first few kilometers, because I’d never run an 11K or even a 10K before.

In the end, the asthma concern actually helped me, because I had another motivation to slow down at the start. My breathing was irregular during the first half but stabilized during the second. I was able to talk throughout the event. At the 1K point, the guy running next to me clocked us at 4:50, at which I slowed down a bit more. I passed the 4 Mile mark (official length of the 4 Mijl van Groningen) at a little over 33 minutes, and could speed up a bit during the last 2 kilometers, catching up again with the guy with the stopwatch before finishing.

Wilma de Vries, winner of the women’s 11K, told me she’d seen me finish and that I was looking pretty good at the finish line. In short, I ran the race by the book and finished with energy to spare. Good. Next year, if I’m still in the Netherlands, I’ll knock a few minutes off that time.

I love the Thesinge Run. It’s only in its second year, but it’s well-organized, with many of the teething problems from last year dealt with. The start was earlier in the day so no one had to run in the dark, and there were real dressing/showering facilities and a pasta meal after the run this year (I didn’t go to the pasta meal, preferring to drop by at my parents, who live nearby and hit them up for food instead). Because the community center had been renovated, partly with the takings from last year’s run, there was a bar as well, so when I fancied a beer after the race, I could have one. That drew some comments from people in the audience as I was drinking beer while still in my running clothes. Also, this year’s weather was fantastic.

What hadn’t changed was the inclusive atmosphere, with the entire village turning out to help out, encourage runners, take photographs and have a good time with the event and make everyone feel a winner. The different categories were also set up to allow everyone to take part, with special kids’ runs for the very youngest (though young children who felt up to it could also take part in the adult events and the women’s 4K was in fact won by a nine-year-old girl) and generous time limits allowing people to walk the 4K and 4M. It’s the camaraderie that makes the Thesinge Run so much fun - that and running on gravel and shell paths running through farmland. I didn’t notice quite as many cowpats as last year, which I’m grateful for.

Me at about 2 km || Me at a hundred meters or so from the starting line, though I can’t tell if it’s the first or second time I passed that spot

Drawing that just popped up in my head the other day, after talking to Aggie about the economic crisis. Of course, after the drawing pops up in one’s head, one has to do the hard work of drawing it - including research for things like wheelbarrows full of money.

When I googled for “Wheelbarrow full of money”, I noticed something interesting. I expected to get only images of the German hyperinflation of 1923, but instead got a whole bunch of stock photos and illustrations showing succesful, wealthy, smiling people pushing wheelbarrows full of cash. I guess because the US has never experienced hyperinflation (yet), they associate wheelbarrows full of cash with wealth rather than with the collapse of a financial system resulting in poverty for large sections of the population. I have never personally experienced hyperinflation (yet) but to me as a somewhat historically educated European, the image of a wheelbarrow full of cash is not a happy one. Thinking about this has made me want to do more art relating to money, the lack or oversupply of it, and the different cultural assumptions and constructs surrounding it. There’ll be more nekkid people in it, either to sugarcoat the theme, or because they’ve just lost their shirts.

Update: This drawing is now for sale through my Comicspace galleries. You will need to sign up with Comicspace to be able to see it (to certify that you are old enough to look at nipples) but the process is easy and does not result in you getting spammed. If you don’t want to buy it that way, though, you can also e-mail me and buy from me directly. Price is set at $100 - not exactly a bucketload of money.

I have also made it available as a Print via DeviantArt, in a range of formats and at the default prices. There, too, you’ll have to sign up to view and order.

Is it too much of an exaggeration to claim that the Bush presidency is over, and that President Bush hasn’t been succeeded by Dick Cheney or any of the four people on the Presidential election ticket, but by an unelected Chancellor?
From Naked Capitalism:

This is a financial coup d’etat, with the only limitation the $700 billion balance sheet figure. The measure already gives the Treasury the authority not simply to buy dud mortgage paper but other assets as it deems fit. There is no accountability beyond a report (contents undefined) to Congress three months into the program and semiannually thereafter. The Treasury could via incompetence or venality grossly overpay for assets and advisory services, and fail to exclude consultants with conflicts of interest, and there would be no recourse. Given the truly appalling track record of this Administration in its outsourcing, this is not an idle worry.

(read the rest for context)

I didn’t get to work on Feral again this weekend, and it’s time I stopped kidding myself: I can’t keep up with a schedule, so I’m going to take another break and putting up some filler in the mean time, until I’ve built a buffer.

The filler I’ve picked is the two Courtly Manners stories from 2002 and 2005, respectively. The second one used to be on the old site when ROCR was primarily available as a subscription comic, but didn’t survive the transition to free and to WillowCMS. It’s been posted on the Chronicles of the Witch Queen site, though, but it never got the audiences there that Invasion and Feral did get. Courtly Manners 1 has been languishing there as well.

The comics will be posted at a frequency of 1 a day, every day. I’ve always thought that’d be the perfect schedule, and so it annoys me that right now, I can’t even swing one a week. A buffer will help.

Feral will be back at the beginning of November.