Waffle

The Comics Journal forum denizens having fun with language, after a few Scandahoovian readers question Kim Thompson's ability to translate Norwegian cartoonist Jason's work.

I've been sitting on this knowledge for a few days now, and it's time I did the responsible thing. Remember when I wrote about Barbara's beer? I have now heard on the nearly reliable grapevine that the bottles of chocolate Witbier are liable to explode when stored at room temperature for too long.
I haven't been in touch with her about it (she probably knows about the problem) but pending reliable advice about it, it may be a good idea to keep the bottles chilled, and when you open them, open them with care, and allow the beer to settle for a while. It's a little more alive than beer ought to be.

I'm in the middle of yet another work-intensive page right now (Monday's! When will I ever get a buffer done again?), but I thought I oughtta take some time out to credit two sources for the detail work on today's Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan comic.
I always have to do a lot of research for scenes set in the Sinn Fae environment, the abandoned human enclave colonised by faerie radicals. I look for architecture, wood carvings, knotworks to serve as body art on the extras, and other little odds and ends as well. Most of the time, the sources are public domain, but this time, I swiped quite brazenly from living artists, so they deserve credit.

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Friday's page has

• a larger canvas than usual;
• detailed backgrounds;
• an unfamilliar setting and characters, requiring, nay demanding adaptations to the color scheme especially for them.

It's taken me twice as long as many recent pages already, and it's still not finished. It's fun to work on though. I want to do more real drawing in ROCR in the future. It's so much more satisfying.

Cap'n is back from hiatus! Being my experimental outlet, I don't always have the inspiration or the drive to keep it going on a regular basis. I'm not sure how my reader-base would look if I did; it is a pretty experimental comic. I'm confident the art is good enough to attract readers, but the story and the changes in art-style will not appeal to everyone. I don't really mind: this way I can keep experimenting without worrying about losing readers if I do...

Once again he tried to keep it quiet, but he's not going to get away with it that easy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY REINDER!

I wanted to leave a comment on Websnark but it only takes comments from Typekey account holders. Well I was going to have to get an account some time anyway, and it's easy to get one, so I went and signed up. When I did so, I noticed with bemusement and absolutely no surprise whatsoever that what I expected would be the spammers' response when I first heard of Typekey had already come to pass: Typekey had taken measures to prevent robots from automatically signing themselves up for a million Typekey accounts. The only part of my forecast that was wrong was that I didn't expect this to happen until Typekey had become ubiquitous.

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200.31.79.214 is the 100th IP address to be added to my IP ban list! The lucky winner just spammed the blog with a link to an internet casino. Sam Spade has no info on the URL, and the lucky number points to a university, so I won't do a full exposure of the spam here.

If this blog can go for 14 days without spam passing through MT-Blacklist, I will liberate the comments. The clock has been reset...

Geir Strøm provides a translation for Tamlin's Ghostly Apparition's runic dialogue.
Tangent takes the campaign to save Clan of the Cats to the ROCR forum.

A short trip yesterday - only about 25 kilometers to Pieterburen in the north. It took Sidsel and me forever though, because we were hampered by strong winds and nasty cold showers. The trip back took almost 3 hours! Even if that included a stopover for mustard soup at Abraham's Mustard Factory, Restaurant and Museum in Eenrum, that's the slowest we've gone so far. Serves us right for picking a route through nearly completely open space when the weather prophets had been warning of storm for days.
The strong head wind also demonstrated the difference between my Koga Myiata and Sidsel's old single-speed bike. I had a hard time but I could always switch gears; she had no such option, and even the single speed doesn't run as smoothly as mine.
While in Pieterburen, we paid a visit to the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre which in addition to rescuing and rehabilitating sick or orphaned seals does epidemiological and toxicological research into the reasons why these animals develop so many problems in the first place. The Centre is only partly open to the public - you can see the quarantine units and outdoor basins full of recovering seals, plus a room full of informational displays. It's well worth a visit, if either:

1) you're in the neighbourhood anyway; or
2) you have kids.

Kids are almost invariably smitten with the cuddly-looking, lively creatures, not just the babies but the grown-up animals as well. To us as adults, they're still pretty charming as well. They push all the cuteness buttons known to man, and a few unknown ones. Still I wouldn't go to Pieterburen just to look at the seals. If it had been earlier in the season it might have been fun to take a walking tour of the sand banks (wadden); during low tide, one can walk to one of the islands with an experienced guide, and that's one thing I've been wanting to try for some time.

But back to cycling. The Koga Miyata is a cool bike that's making long trips easier and even more fun than they were on the old bike. I'm not to keen on the racing saddle though, and I may replace it. Because the construction isn't standard, that's a bit more work than it has been with the other saddles I've been trying.
I took the bike out for a short trip on Thursday as well, trying to get used to how it handles, and I think I've ridden 200 kilometers on it since getting it. Not bad for just one week.