Obsession Du Jour

Inspired by my friend Kim's exhortation to "do something about the Egyptian darkness" in my apartment, and my neigbours' regular window-cleaning, I've cleaned my windows for the first time since the last century. I've also removed the net curtains (much needed for privacy; I live on the ground floor near a busy street) so I can take them to the dry cleaners' and put them somewhere conspicuous so I won't forget to actually do so.

To my shame, Kim's exhortation was made 2 years ago, and I first noticed the neighbours' window-swabbing last year. It's taken me that long to take action. I got a lot, I mean really a lot of grime off both sides of the windows and even though I haven't done a stripe-free job of it, I definitely get more light in. One more step towards making this place pleasant to live in again.

On the downside, people walking down the street can now see the appaling levels of disorganisation and messiness in my flat. I'd better do something about that. But not today, because I've been indoors for long enough.

Ever since editing, at Pete Ashton's suggestion, the template for this blog's RSS feed so that it includes the entire entry instead or just a short excerpt, I've been wondering if the Excerpt feature was still used anywhere in the blog. Now I've found out.

I noticed that a recent search term leading here had been "Gestapo" and did an internal search to remind myself which entry the searcher might have found. The internal search led me to this result, which includes a summary I'd entered on a whim.

So I will contine to occasionally put stuff in the Excerpt field that I've got in my MT entry screen, as an easter egg for my legion of obsessive blog-devourers.

Finally, a webcomic that isn't too small to read comfortably. Problem is, it doesn't fit on my 1280 x 1024 pixel screen!

I think this is where webcomics need to go before we even begin to tackle the question of whether horizontal or vertical formats are more comfortable for online reading in earnest. Really. As long as the choice is between making a comic the pixel-size equivalent of a postage stamp (or in more recent years, two postage stamps either stacked on top of one another or put side by side), the question of whether the stamp is horizontal or vertical should be the least of the webcartoonist's concerns. But I think it may be a little to early to start putting them online at 1225 x 2008 pixels like sizes like this episode of Seven Plains . The comic looks promising, by the way.

[Update: the episode I linked to is the only oversized one in the series so far. The others are on the high end of webcomics sizes but should fit most monitors]

How do you feel the story and art in Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan are coming along? What needs fixing? What should I stay the course with?

This spammer crawled out from under a little rock, and it's about time I chased it back. Note the phone numbers: 555 is a fictional area code, right?

Culprit: http://samspade.org/t/lookat?a=www.all-debt-consolidation.org aka

http://samspade.org/t/lookat?a=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.I-directv.net

Spam incidents: 2.
Email address used: hrie@yahoo.com
Originating IP's: 62.233.230.117 and 212.160.201.98

Server Used: [ whois.gandi.net ]

www.all-debt-consolidation.org = [ 80.67.173.5 ]

domain:ALL-DEBT-CONSOLIDATION.ORG
owner-address:Acc. Media
owner-address:586 Drew Street
owner-address:14552
owner-address:Little Rock
owner-address:Arkansas
owner-address:United States of America
owner-phone:1.5552556565
owner-fax:1.5552556565
9403324906c56a445851d0a7096a6c52-847167@owner.gandi.net

(more...)

Opera for children is a delicate balance, and Scottish Opera is to be congratulated for not pandering to them, but presenting a work of actual artistic merit, their only concession to children being an attempt to make the plot easier to follow. However, there are several problems that ultimately make me consider The minotaur only a partial success.

Things start out rather promisingly - The Oracle's opening song reeked with excitement and drama, as she began to set the scene for the opera. Louise Innes' is a superb performer both physically and vocally, and practically oozes charisma - an excellent bit of casting. Things look very promising indeed.

(more...)

The French are trying to ban it.

Get Your War On rocks the hizbah.

I now have a script approved and because I'm still buffered, I will be able to start drawing it today. That means I should be able to meet my deadline and stay buffered. Things aren't so bad then:)

Just when I have nearly two weeks' worth of buffer for Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan, I get word from Hello You! that they don't much like my first Floor script for the next season, and by the way, the final deadline for the art is June 8! They tell me this after letting me wait a whole month for them to announce the magazine's new format.
So the next few days I'll have to come up with a better script which I'll have to start drawing immediately once approved. *If* I succeed, which is by no means certain, I will have no buffer by that time.

Oh to be like Howard Tayler and to be able to crank out a week's worth of comics in thirty minutes...