Terrence Marks

I have found the coolest video game easter egg ever!

2008-02-22T23:02:33Z

As those of you who've been playing along at home know, I'm a huge fan of the Paper Mario series.

Now, after you beat Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, you can go to Poshley Heights. Lady Bow, from the original Paper Mario, is hanging out there. Also, Goombella's special ability is Tattle, in which she tells you about the area, a monster, or the person you're next to.

If you tattle Bow, she says:

That's Bow.
Wait a second! Mario! Exactly WHAT is your relationship with her?!? Tell me NOW!

Hee hee hee hee hee hee!
Just kidding! I always wanted to say that.
But you DID go on an adventure with her, right?
Tell me sometime, ok?

Well, I think it's awesome. After I beat the game, I spent two days going and tattling every character I could find. Anyhow, on to Phoenix Wright 3 and Twilight Princess; my personal theory is that Midna is related in some way to Timpani and Count Bleck and the game hasn't proven me wrong yet! I mean, look at the way they warp...

Battle Revolution

2007-11-03T08:13:16Z

I'm going to try to actually get back to posting on this regularly again. I probably won't, but I want to spend a few minutes a day writing. I've hardly done any of the writing for the comics for the last few months, unfortunately.
Anyhow, I spent a decent portion of my free time this weekend playing Pokemon Battle Revolution, mainly because I'm trying to catch them all, and this is the only way to get certain items needed to evolve pokemon. I found two important things out:
1) When you buy an item, it is broadcast wirelessly to your DS. It's broadcast to all DSes in range, actually. Isabel and I were able to get two of each item for the price of one. This is good.
2) Each Pokemon Diamond or Pearl cartridge can only receive each item once. So if you purchase an item a second time, you get nothing. This is bad because some items are needed to evolve multiple pokemon (like the King's Rock, for instance).

Anyhow, there's not much else to the game. I shouldn't bother reviewing it - anyone who would buy it already has - but there's not much game to it. It's pretty much useless if you don't have Diamond or Pearl. There are ten different colosseums you can battle in, and most of them are pretty much the same things. The ones that aren't have bad gimmicks (eg. Your pokemon must be level 5 or under. All the opposing pokemon are level 5, so even if you have a good team, you have to breed them and raise them to exactly level 5, without going over). I can't think of a reason to play the game besides the DS buyables. All you can buy in-game are clothes. You can't see the clothes before you but them, and I think they all look pretty much the same.

unlikeminerva @ 2007-11-03T00:46:00

2007-11-03T07:47:26Z

So, I've been playing Maple Story lately. Isabel and I have been playing it, a few months off, a few months on. Last time we quit because it was a long, slow grind. Then they came out with double xp cards - for a few dollars, you'd earn twice the normal experience for 4 hours a day, for a month. It makes us feel like we're making progress in the game.

Anyhow, in the last week or so we've both gotten to level 70, which unlocks a new class (crusader for me, and priest for her). We've sold off most of our spare junk and have a fortune in the tens of millions - nothing amazing, but respectable. And we've upgraded our equipment.

This brings me to my current quandary. I've upgraded my accessories enough so that getting better ones would be prohibitively expensive. I'm thinking of getting a new weapon. I have three options:

1) My current two-handed sword, a Sparta with an attack of 93, which I've had since level 60.
Pro: Already found and paid for.

2) A red katana, the level 70 one-handed sword. Due to game mechanics, one-handed swords are less powerful. I'm having serious trouble finding a pre-scrolled red katana with an attack comparable to my current sword. Finding clean ones and scrolls to augment them is pretty difficult too.
Pro: One of the fastest weapons in the game, about 20% faster than my current sword. Lets me use a shield.
Con: Shorter range. About 20% less powerful than my current sword. I usually fight things powerful enough that a shield doesn't help much.

3) Doombringer. The level 70 two-handed sword.
Pro: Cool looking. I can afford one about 5% more powerful than my current sword.
Con: Anything more than 5% better is prohibitively expensive. Weapon attack values don't increase nearly as after level 60.

Option 3 involves spending a decent chunk of my money for very little return. I was seriously considering option 2. I figure if I can get a more powerful sword, it'd be 20% faster, but just 10% weaker, it might be worthwhile. If I could find a good deal on a red katana or enough scrolls to make a decent one, I'd consider it.

Anyhow, as happens when I start typing up one of these entries, put it down for a few days, and pick it back up....I'm sticking with my current sword. Neither of the new swords are worth it.

Just a quiz

2007-10-24T17:50:51Z

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

More hard drives, more trouble

2007-06-25T09:04:26Z

I have three hard drives. The one with Windows on it wasn't being detected. Over the course of a day or two, it went from working 95% to 50% to, well, lower. Last night, it wasn't being detected at all. When it was connected, I got bluescreen errors every hour or so.

My plan was to reload Windows on my other drive. That wouldn't be a problem except the USB ports on my motherboard died a few months back.

But I got a new USB card when they started getting flaky. That wouldn't be a problem. Except I have a USB keyboard, and the BIOS doesn't recognize it any more.

That wouldn't be a problem, except my machine is set to boot from HDD then CD (for some reason) and is incapable of successfully completing a Windows reinstallation. And I can't even choose safe mode or choose to boot from the CD.

Anyhow, what's happening? I have two hard drives on my primary IDE. If they are both connected, they're not seen by the BIOS. If I disconnect power to the master drive, the slave drive is detected. I tried it vice versa once and the master drive was detected, but I don't think that's statistically significant.

When they were both connected, the machine tended to bluescreen frequently. The master drive passed

There are five possible points of failure.

1) The master drive - I was convinced that this was the culprit until I disconnected the slave drive this morning, and everything worked. Now further troubleshooting is required. 30%

2) The slave drive - It's very possible one drive to interfere with the detection of another. Since the OS is on the master drive, it'd be difficult to troubleshoot. 20%

3) The jumper settings - The whole detection issue is symptomatic of jumper problems, I'll be the first to admit. However, I hadn't changed anything to the configuration in months. And it works intermittently, which isn't typical of jumper issues. They're supposed to be an all-or-nothing deal. 20%

4) The motherboard's primary IDE controller - perhaps. I haven't seen this as a point of failure often. I should try swapping the IDE ports to see what happens. 5%

5) The cable - cable failure is rare, but none of the other options make much sense. 25%

--
UPDATE: After I get this whole thing typed out, I open the case up and my drives were jumpered master and cable select. So far, it's been a day and things are working fine. I still don't understand how that worked for a few months then failed, but I don't mind as long as things stay fixed. I still can't get into the BIOS or safe mode or anything. Or boot from a CD or floppy. But I'll pick up a PS/2 keyboard at my convenience.

My weekend

2007-03-31T09:23:06Z

A few people e-mailed me, concerned that we were up until 4 working on comics. I appreciate it, but I work the swing shift. I usually get home around 1 AM anyhow, so 4 AM isn't that unusual.

Anyhow, this was a good weekend. I picked up Polarium, Metroid Prime Pinball, and Trace Memory at the local Toys'R'Us. They were $25. Total. For all three of them, and that's far too good to pass up. A few months back, they had Feel the Magic: XX/XY for $10, so I'll probably head over there every couple weeks just to see what they have - most EB/GameStops have a very limited set of DS/Gameboy games. It seems like half of the space they have for used portable games is taken up by old Gameboy Color carts that've probably been there for six years.

Got a new hard drive installed - 200GB drive from newegg.com, only about $60. I remember when you couldn't get a 200MB drive for that price. I'm a bit disappointed because it only has a 1 year manufacturer's warranty. If I didn't care about warranties, I would've got a larger OEM drive. Anyhow, I replaced one of my smaller drives (40GB). Copied everything over. I'm going to give the new drive a week before I put anything important and unique on it.

I meant to go in for my next test, finish up MCDST certification, on Friday. There weren't any appointments available, so I'll just study a bit more and take it next Thursday. It's mostly about Microsoft Office, which I haven't used in years. Maybe take the A+ tests too while I'm at it. It's a mixture of basic knowledge and trivia.

Instead I spent Friday getting our taxes finished up. I had our federal taxes pretty much figured out, but had to take care of state taxes. They get more and more complex every year - not because of the government, but because our situation keeps changing. There were five separate worksheets that I had to fill out but not send in. And yes, we pay taxes on our earnings from the website.

Anyhow, I'm playing through Final Fantasy III on the DS, and just started on Viewtiful Joe. I like FF3's job system. It reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, only less complicated. I don't want to go in to battle and try to remember how the zodiac signs interact with each other (which varies, depending on the characters' respective genders). I enjoy it. Part of me wants to get to level 99 in every job. Part of me will settle for just getting to level 99 in the useful jobs (which is about half of them). Part of me realizes I'm just going to beat the game. Maybe get each character topped up in one job. The fact that I just got three new DS games (and still have a half-dozen others on my to-beat list).

Viewtiful Joe...reminds me of playing video games when I was ten. The grand beat-em-ups like TMNT and Final Fight. Also, the not having any idea what was going on, not knowing what parts of the bosses I was supposed to hit or dodge, and swearing that I pressed jump and it was the stupid controller's fault that I died. I decided to play through it on Kids mode instead of Adult. These are, apparently, only difficulty levels. The nude paintings and strip clubs in the background are still there in Kids. I wouldn't mind it so much if the options were "Easy" and "Normal", or something. But calling it "Kids" makes it seem a bit creepy.

unlikeminerva @ 2007-03-01T02:03:00

2007-03-01T10:04:59Z

At the end of the month, there's always a rush of last-minute donations. I'm not sure why. I suppose people want to see if we make the goal without them having to donate, which means the bonus content for donors is probably less of a draw than I think it is.

One of the downsides of my new schedule (3-midnight) is that I can't keep a running total for the last few hours. I'm sure people want to know if we made the goal. I visualize people hitting refresh, waiting for it to reach $990, then giving their $10 so they can be the ones who brought us over the top.

Doesn't happen, unfortunately. All donations are processed by hand as soon as I can get to them. I've been meaning to find some way of integrating my system with PayPal, but I haven't yet.

Music. Not reviewed.

2007-02-27T11:07:11Z

I have finally finished going through my music. For the first time in years, I've actually listened to all the songs in my collection. I'm kinda proud of that. I'm doing a second pass over everything now, alphabetically, and have gotten as far as Boffa Longo.

I'm tempted to write a review of the various albums, but I probably won't. The famous bands I listen to (Argent, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Big Star), everyone's already heard of. The not-famous bands (Ace of Cups, Aggregation, The Blossom Toes), nobody's heard of.

I dislike it when critics make lists of hidden things - you know, "Here are ten great songs that you'll never be able to hear". "Here are the five best books that are out of print - you could spend years looking and not find any of them". It just seems like they're showing off and mocking us. I mean, a list of the best local restaurants that've closed down? That doesn't do anybody any good.

Also, I'm hesitant to review things for two other reasons. Firstly, it'd require the reader to have heard the album to really understand me. How many people have listened to an album by The British North America Act or Autosalvage or The 23rd Turnoff? How many of those people are on-line, much less researching things?

Secondly, I prefer my information centralized. I like having things in one place. I don't want to have to search through ten Geocities sites knowing that six won't exist any more, three will just be collections of links, and one will have nothing but a few lyrics and a lot of broken images. That's to say nothing of bands like The Attack or Audience, which are effectively impossible to search for online. Allmusic is spotty and erratic when it comes to 60s bands. There are a few very good sites, like Julian Cope's Head Heritage, but nothing really comprehensive. The best source of information for psychedelic music, Borderline Books, went offline a few years ago and has no intention of coming back. So it may just be the laziness talking. It may just be that I can't think of anything really worthwhile to say about Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue (filed under Beach Boys, naturally). It appeals to me, aesthetically, to not write up much detail about it

I'm still proud of having listened to my stash of music, though. It's what I've been doing for the last several months.

unlikeminerva @ 2006-11-23T18:00:00

2006-11-24T01:00:23Z

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

unlikeminerva @ 2006-04-23T22:59:00

2006-04-24T06:02:21Z

Now, I've spoken before on con salesmanship. Two years ago at Comic-Con we aggressively handed out flyers. People would walk past our table double-speed, trying not to make eye contact with any of us because they knew we'd make them take one if they slowed down at all. That was unpleasant after about the fourth day.

We took it easy here. It was a lot more pleasant. Peter brought a bowl with little chocolates. That was our "hard sell". If anyone came by and looked interested, we'd offer them one. It worked fairly well. It broke the ice and gave people a chance to start talking to us about our work if they wanted to.

Peter would ask "Do you like comics?" while gesturing to our books.If they said no, I'd ask "Well, do you like science fiction?" while gesturing to his. Some people said "no" to that also; I wondered what they were doing there.

After a while, word was getting around. Someone came up and asked "Is this the table with the free chocolate?".

A few fans came by (Hi, Geoff). A few more sent their friends to pick them up something (Hi, Brendan). A few random walkups. We signed some of the Kevin & Kell books dedicated to us when Bill sent people our way. It was fun.

David Kyle
Peter introduced us to David Kyle. David Kyle was organizing science fiction cons back when they called it "scientifiction". He published the first hardcover books by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Howard. He wrote three Lensman books. He's easy to spot at a science-fiction convention because he wears a red jacket and is in his late 80s.

He's cool. Not "cool for such an old guy". He's cool. He asked how long we were married. Three years, we said.

"How many months? How many days?"

"Today's the twenty-fifth?"

"Yeah"

"Three years, three months, and three days".

"You're putting me on".

"Nope. Jackpot."

The Dinner
There was an awards banquet Saturday night. We didn't get tickets. We weren't aware of it until Peter asked us how many tickets we had. So us, Bill Holbrook, Dressari, and the Prellwitz family headed off to dinner at a local Chinese buffet. I felt bad about taking them away from the banquet for a while until I realized that Peter's children didn't have tickets either and he couldn't've just left them there.

I learned something important about Kevin & Kell from Bill. Kell Dewclaw? In her last name, the stress is on the second syllable as if it were DuClaw. I had always pronounced it with the stress on the first syllable, like "dewdrop".

Bill asked what Lemon Technology actually does. They resell fragrances, generally for industrial use. I wanted it to be a company that did something that would never affect most people. Something that was unglamorous and had a fairly limited market. A company that didn't sell direct to the public. But when your company orders a gallon of pine-scented disinfectant to mop the floors with, the pine scent has to come from somewhere.

Since this was the largest number of You Say it First readers I had assembled to date, I asked if they thought they could tell when Isabel wrote the comic and when I wrote it. I had always wondered about that, how similar our writing styles really are. I think they're fairly different, but since we edit each others' work it probably gets blurry. They said they never thought about it, which means there probably aren't any great differences. One day I may publish a scorecard. The Lounge Guys give you +5 to "Written by Terrence". Or maybe not. I'm never sure about how much of the process to reveal.

George Takei
I was walking through the hotel lobby. A man was looking for his wife. She came into the room and said, "Georgie! There you are!". As I walked away, there was an Asian man in a Planet Hollywood jacket around the corner. He said "I thought I heard somebody calling me".

I said "No, I think it was a different George".

I realized, then, that he was George Takei. We were heading the same direction - I was staying a few doors down from him, I later found out. That meant that I had a whole minute to try to think of something better to say than "George Takei! You are so cool!". Because, well, he's just come back from several hours of that. I couldn't so we walked quietly back to our rooms.

The End. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I did living it.

I-Con report, part 2

2006-04-11T07:10:39Z

I-Con Report, part 2
Badges
The names on the con badges were printed very small, in about 8-point font. We hadn't brought the badges Isabel made for previous cons. We should've, just so people could tell who we were. I couldn't read them without my glasses, and even then I'd have to lean in and there's that awkward "Have I heard of this person before?" moment that took a second too long because of the small print on the names.

If you're a cartoonist, it really helps to make yourself a namebadge that's easily identifiable. It should have a recognizeable piece of your art and your name printed large. The first con I went to, I wore an ascot. I don't any more for a number of reasons. Firstly, I know this is a borderline case, but I think dressing as your own character is too gimmicky and comes across as a little desparate. Secondly, Brisbane doesn't wear them consistantly so the relevance is kind of lost. Thirdly, I lost them.

The Panels
We had four panels, all on Sunday. This was our first time doing panels. To prepare, we saw Stan Sakai's "How Usagi Yojimbo Came to Be". I felt mildly intimidated when I realized that he had been doing this since I was nine and Isabel was more likely to eat her crayons than color with them, and I couldn't possibly become as good as that. At least not in one afternoon. It did, however, make me wish we had gone to all of his other panels.

Our first panel was "Getting Started in Online Comics" or something like that. It featured us, Bill Holbrook, and Mookie. It was at 10 AM on Sunday, when the con first opened. It was in a different room than was listed on the schedule. A marathon closed down the road most people used to get to the con. There was only one person in the audience, Dressari, and that was because he came over with us. He'd had dinner with us and Bill the night before and didn't have any questions left over. About 45 minutes in, we went back to the dealers room because nobody else had shown up and they had to relocate the belly dancers' panel to that room because the anime dance had caught fire the night before. I'm not making any of that up, honest. The only thing that would've improved it was more audience, and I'm not even sure that would've helped. They drew Kevin, Tipper, and Dominic on the chalkboard. I considered writing a two-panel exchange between Kimberly and Brisbane up there, but couldn't think of anything that'd stand on it's own especially well.

We headed back to our table for a little while and waited for for our next panels, which were a three-hour block, one right after the other.

What I feared most was that there would be a large audience who were more familiar with our comic than we were, who would ask us detailed questions and embarass us about apparent contradictions in the characters' personalities or the timeline. Ask us things like "Do you really expect us to take the comic seriously with the lounge guys in it?".

I was entirely wrong. What I should have feared most was an audience that we outnumbered, half of whom had heard of our comics once or twice but hadn't read any of it.

The first panel was "Why anthropomorphic characters?". Bill, Isabel, and I each had about five minute answers for that. Mine was the simplest - because there were a lot of other good comics out there that did it and it made the characters seem more iconic. The fact that it was the only way to tell them apart, back when I had a new artist each week, was just a coincidence. There were two people in the audience. They were both very nice and helped us by asking questions to fill the time. Sam "Uncle Kage" Conway was in the next room over. He's famous in the anthropomorphic con scene for his panels. He also had a three hour block that we were scheduled against. It sounded like his reputation was deserved. There were a few times I felt like we should call it off early and head over to see what was going on his side of the wall; it seemed like he was having a better time of it.

Then we had "Three comics at a time" panel, which featured a few aspiring cartoonists who said they'd email me if their comics ever go on-line. We were also scheduled for "The Daily Grind of Updating Webcomics" at the same time. I had hoped they'd combine the panels. They seemed similar enough. There were hints that they might, but it didn't happen. We went with Three Comics; it was in the same room as our panels immediately before and after. During the panel, all I hoped was that somebody told the people at the other panel why we weren't there.

For those of you who missed it, the secrets include: use blue pens or tracing paper so you don't have to erase pencil lines, simplify character designs, use pre-made backgrounds and, the big one - don't do anything else. Three people were in the audience. We seemed to have an upward trend that way.

Our final panel was "Writing with Furry Characters", which featured Isabel, myself, and Amadeus. It seemed like a bit of an awkward fit, especially without Bill there - he had to leave to catch a ride to the airport. He would've been perfect for that panel, as his characters live in a much more anthropomorphic world than ours do.

I'm informed that Amadeus was to do with a film they showed at the con the night before. He would've been perfect for the panel excepting the small fact that he didn't show up. Word on the street was that he was last seen having dinner.

If you were to replace our characters with humans, there would be very few points requiring explanation or changes. You can count the number of species-related character traits on one hand. Species has, purposely, not been mentioned in You Say it First or Unlike Minerva. (That got a bit awkward when people talked about Brent, their pet whose species only remains nameless because we can't think of anything good to call it). There's nothing especially "with furry characters" about our writing. About twenty minutes in, I kind of had to admit it to the crowd - which had swelled to ten people - we must be doing something right! Half of them left a couple minutes after that. I think a few of those people were aspiring novelists. We have no real advice for novelists. Neither of us has written fiction prose in the last six years, and the prose we had written back then isn't a thing we generally choose to show off.

Neither of us, in fact, view "anthropomorphic" as a genre. It isn't. There are a number of specialized anthropomorphic subgenres with their own styles and rules, but it's no more a genre than "movies featuring bald actors" or "songs about weather" is. I haven't read any anthropomorphic fiction - actual prose fiction - since Wind in the Willows. I'd wager money, though that there's less stylization and that readers of said fiction are less "trained" than readers of other conventional fiction. A lot of fiction out there is attenuated to the fact that the average person who buys a romance book, this is the twentieth romance book they bought. If anthropomorphic fiction has that kind of fine-tuning on it, we're unaware. So not only do we not have anything useful to say on the subject. We don't believe that anything really useful can be said.

After I came clean - and I felt much better afterwards - the topic changed as people started asking us again about how to start comics. This was territory we were familiar with. We've started an awful lot of comics.

I-Con report, part 1

2006-04-03T07:33:47Z

Spare Parts is back! Hope you enjoy it!

So, how was I-Con?

Quite simply, it was the best con we've been to. And here it is, categorized by anecdote, because chronological order is for suckers.

The Table

We shared a table with Peter Prellwitz, who published ND Year One and is an accomplished science fiction author in his own right. He brought along two of his sons to help us man the table, and Dressari, a fan of ours who came all the way from England (and also helped run the table when we weren't there).

We wound up getting Mark Goddard's table (He played Major West in Lost in Space, and cancelled at the last minute). We were next to a company selling what appeared to be independent horror B movies. On our other side was a company called Anime Clash. They had, they told us, just sold entirely out of anime and were selling their other products, also independent horror B movies. Was this a good thing? Well, we stood out from our immediate surroundings, at least.

We were, more importantly, across from Bill Holbrook and Stan Sakai. I often wished we brought a beachball so we could hit it back and forth when things got slow. We dropped by Bill's table a couple times and he came by ours.

The Sketchbook

I've been toting around this sketchbook to conventions since DragonCon 2000. Back when I first got it, I'd get a sketch from anybody who'd give me one, but I've become a lot more selective over the years, in part because it's running out of space. They all mean something to me.

I got three new sketches this con. Mookie, R.K. Milholland, and Stan Sakai. I already had Greg Dean and Bill Holbrook. I went up by the Goats table once, but Jon wasn't there and I decided not to hang around, partly because I was afraid they wouldn't know who I was and partly because I was afraid they would.

I started reading Dominic Deegan because I figured we'd meet at I-Con and it'd be polite. It's an amazing strip. I got a drawing of Dominic; I was thinking of asking for Celesto or Gregory Deegan but didn't. Always better to let the artist decide.

I caught Randy Milholland at his table. There was a sign, "free sketches". An eight-year-old boy was in front of me. Randy asked his mom, "He doesn't read the comic, does he?". "No". "Ok, good. Don't let him". So he drew the kid a ninja. He was selling original art from the strips for about $5 each. I bought one.

We gave Stan Sakai one of our books and he drew an amazing sketch of Tomoe Ame for me. He spent, I believe, a total of ninety minutes at his table over the three days and we managed to catch him. He works with great speed. I'm married to somebody who can sleep in and still draw seven comics a day; his speed still impressed me. He looked through my sketchbook. He's the first artist in a long time to do that. He took the time to look through all the other sketches I had, and he recognized a number of them.

News simulcast from Spare Parts

2005-02-27T22:00:42Z

I've been working on a longer, more music-related news update. Honest. But to summarize my recent life: X-Com went from tedious to fun about three weeks ago. I deleted it last week as it's the only effective way to stop playing.

My comic of the week for, well, whenever I left off, is Sandwich World. I've been back on my "Reading Mark Twain" kick instead of reading comics. Mainly because if you read an e-book, you look like you're doing something instead of goofing off. But I digress.

Sandwich World originally caught my eye because this comic has a restaurant by that name. He was using the name first, but I hadn't heard of his comic until long afterwards. But it's a cool coincidence. Anyhow, the strip itself is great. It's straight-up comedy, with very little regard for drama or realism. It's about this sandwich shop. They've got a demon who bakes the bread. Their archnemeses are Ninja Burger and the ex-mobster Health Inspector. That is not a sufficient description, but gives you an idea what to expect. It's been on an unsteady schedule of late, but will hopefully return to regularity. I say it's hilarious. It reminds me of Cromartie, one of my favorite mangas. I realize that most of you have not read Cromartie as it won't be officially released for a month or two. Go read Sandwich World, please.

Also, I got Pikmin recently and it's a great game. I enjoy playing Pikmin much more than I enjoy writing about it, so that's all I'm going to say about it.

unlikeminerva @ 2005-02-07T00:48:00

2005-02-07T08:49:25Z

Firstly, I have a job. I'm basically a tech gofer at a local bank. This makes my life significantly better (and more busy).

Secondly, we've re-opened the Namir Deiter store.

Thirdly, we've added Tales from Grover Hills to the bonus section of our donor-only site, NamirDeiter.net. And there's been a decent amount of behind-the-scenes programming, none of which should be noticeable anyone but us.

Fourthly, Isabel's renting Star Fox: Assault. I'm playing through X-Com and spending more time on that than I probably should. But I have plasma weapons now.

unlikeminerva @ 2005-01-24T22:36:00

2005-01-25T07:09:22Z

I know I don't update this thing much. I mainly post my news on Spare Parts, which most but not all of you read. We used to simulcast things on the namirdeiter livejournal, but that stopped working. Long story.

Anyhow, a few questions. Answers greatly appreciated.
1) Do you want me to simulcast news, opinions, reviews and such to this journal?

2) What bonuses can we give for donors? So far, we've got extra comics, wallpaper, and a raffle. But if you guys have any requests, or can think of something you'd like to see, let me now.

3) I'll be holding a Spare Parts survey. Any suggestions for questions?

unlikeminerva @ 2004-12-17T02:27:00

2004-12-17T10:29:48Z

My Christmas Wishlist: (Sorry about not getting this out to you guys a few weeks ago, but hey. Late presents are cool.)

* A job, first and foremost. I've done tech support for Gateway, IBM, and the VHA. If it's computer-related and needs fixing or configuring, I can do it. Preferably something around Pasadena, Glendale, or Los Angeles.

*A copy of The Moles' Instinct, to replace the copy that I lost while moving to California; dealer's choice of formats.

*A copy of any of Mort Garson's zodiac albums; dealer's choice of format. I seriously doubt that they've been released on CD, however.

*A copy of "Museum", by Donovan, preferably the demo version off Troubador. Yes, I'm too cheap to buy a two-CD Greatest Hits anthology for a couple of alternate versions. The Herman's Hermits version is acceptable, as well.

*Any tropicalia CDs, preferably Gilberto Gil or Os Mutantes.

*Tablature to any songs by The Incredible String Band (pre-U). Or "War in Peace" by Skip Spence.*Bass tabs for any song(s) by The Monochrome set. Or "S-E-X-X-Y" by TMBG. Or "Happy Family" or "Indoor Games" by King Crimson.

*A copy of the Rumic World compilations that Viz cannot seem to keep in print.

*Donations are, of course, cheerfully accepted, because I realize my taste in things runs extremely obscure.

*Fanmail. You don't have obscure music, an open tech support position, or spare cash to send my way? Send fanmail. Not necessarily to me, that's not what this is about. Send fanmail out to three people. Your favorite cartoonist, writer, manga scanlation group...the guy who runs that useful website for your favorite TV show, or hosts that game you play...anybody online who made the Internet a little better for you. Somebody who you think doesn't get enough fanmail. Let them know you're out there and that you like what they're doing.

I went for a walk on a stalk on a stalk of wheat...

2004-08-30T06:13:31Z

(simulcast from the Spare Parts news)

I picked up The Spine last weekend, They Might Be Giants' latest. What do I think of it? I like it more than Factory Showroom, but a bit less than Mink Car. I bought it on the strength of Experimental Film; I recommend it and the Bros. Chaps' video for it. Experimental Film, I Can't Hide From My Mind, and Stalk of Wheat are the best songs on it. There's a few other good ones. But most of it, I could take or leave, and when you're talking about a 36-minute album, that's not good.

Musically, it's got a lot of very nice moments. Lyrically, well, it doesn't mean anything to me. I get very little emotion from it. I get almost no meaning. It's as if they're trying not to say anything. Now, I listen to a lot of bands who don't, in the conventional way, always make sense. I've been listening to a lot of Robyn Hitchcock, The High Llamas, Rain Parade, Olivia Tremor Control...even if they words themselves don't make sense, they communicate through them (in the blink of an eye, you get several meanings). The lyrics are my hang up; they're repetitive (Au Contraire, Damn Good Times) and they use self-rhymes (Bastard Wants to Hit Me). They don't mean anything and they're not even sung like they mean anything. There are clever ideas; Spines works great as a 30-second song. I'm sure Prevenge or Broke in Two would be great if they were about a minute long. But there's about a minute's worth of communicaton (counting solos) stretched out to two and a half.

Musically, as I said, it's amazing. Great horn arrangements - which shouldn't surprise anybody who has John Henry. Love the off-kilter rhyme meter in Stalk of Wheat - I can picture Richard & Sinclair performing that song, wherever they are now - and the psychadelic drone of Wearing a Raincoat. I like all the songs that are under two minutes. And Experimental Film has a real positive energy to it that I wish the rest of the album shared.

But it seems like They Might Be Giants has lost its direction. They're not a novelty band; I mean, they're not trying to write "quirky" songs or anything like that, but they're not really trying to shake a novelty band label either.

A webcomic survey

2004-08-20T04:02:19Z

Because Graveyard Greg and the Gneech were doing it... (and because I enjoy thinking about my comics)

*Webcomic Artists Survey Galore*
What's your comic's name?	You Say It First
Comic's link:	http://www.soapylemon.com
In short, what is it about?	Sequel to Unlike Minerva. Brisbane and Kimberly live together and deal with the real world.
When/How the idea was born?	Well, I wanted to do a comic. I liked old radio programs and vaudeville, and things went from there.
Tools you use to make it:	Textpad and a (pen-and-paper) notebook
How many strips you've done so far?	All combined, about 800-900.
Define the style in your comic:	Domestic Romance/Comedy, cf. Maison Ikkoku, Living Game, Couples, and Dance Till Tomorrow (minus the naughty bits)
Is your comic for a general audience, or just for a particular group?	Anybody, I think.
Which is more important: Killer graphics, or strong storytelling?	Storytelling. I mean, neither Schulz nor Tezuka were great artists - or at least they worked fast enough to not do great art regularly.
Got a favorite comic (webcomic, newspaper, print, manga, etc.) artist? If so, who and why?	Osamu Tezuka, because he tells stories I didn't think could be told. Charles Schulz, because he made me realize that the humor isn't in the joke, it's in how you tell it - there are very few actual jokes in Peanuts but lots of humor. Garry Trudeau, because he has the the most vivid characters. Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Rumiko Takahashi, Bill Holbrook, and Vince Suzukawa.
Which is your most favorite character in the comic? Why?	Alisa from Headphone Story (coming soon). Kimberly from YSiF. Jeff from Spare Parts. Joseph Cambpell and Sharon Moscowitz from Manxish Boy. Snowflake from Soapy Lemon.
Which is your LEAST favorite character in the comic? Why?	Sofia; there's not much I can do with her. That's why she's not there. And Peter was nearly impossible to write for sometimes.
Recieved positive feedback from readers?	Yes! But I'd like more.
Recieved hate mail?	Not really. A few harsh critiques, but that's different.
According to your readers, which is your comic's strong point(s)?	Realistic relationships. Emotional depth. Isabel's art.
According to yourself, which is your comic's strong point(s)?	See above.
According to your readers, which area(s) do you need to improve/work on?	I don't get much feedback about this, actually.
According to yourself, which area(s) do you need to improve/work on?	Avoid gaming humor - you don't game. Pacing should go about twice as fast as it does and cover slightly more character development. Spend more time writing (see below).
Got any future projects on mind once you're done with your current comic?	Yes. Karma Check. Wisdom. Manxish Boy. Soapy Lemon. Page Turner. RPS. Real Life Permanent Dream. Beeside. And a couple others...
Finally, got any words of advice to aspiring webcomic artists?	Be true to yourself. Write what you want to write. Write what you want to read. The best comics out there are the ones where the creators obviously enjoyed what they did.
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Comic-Con report, pt 0

2004-07-28T04:00:10Z

I get back from Comic-Con, collapse, wake up at 5 AM and go to work.

I have a huge box full of free and not-so-free comic swag. I've got a nice collection of books and flyers. I've got a dozen websites I promised I'd check

And what's the first thing I do when I get off work?

Go to my local comic shop and pick up two copies of Knights of the Dinner Table.

Boo-yah.

Advice to cartoonists

2004-06-04T03:34:44Z

If you have to spend more than two hours trying to make a line fit into a conversation, it probably doesn't belong there. No point climbing a rock that you can go around.

Hopefully, Spare Parts will be a bit smoother with that particular rock out of the way.

Me vs Califur

2004-05-31T07:00:02Z

The plan was:
We go to a furry con. A few people recognize us. We give away a bunch of flyers and get a few new readers. We don't sell everything, but manage to unload about $200 worth of merchandise - enough to cover expenses and buy a good meal. We get practice doing convention stuff for Comic-Con. Isabel has her first full-size comic, not 8.5x11 folded in half but the size of an actual comic book.

The first thing happened. We went to a furry con.

Before:
The leadup to the con was hectic, really hectic. I spent a lot of time getting books prepared and printed. Isabel spent the better part of the week finishing up Grover Hills. I wound up having three interviews the day before the con. I skipped out on one, just so I could get the books finished up.

By the time we got Grover Hills ready to go, it was about midnight. Unfortunately, the first and last pages were in the wrong order so we went home, fixed it, and came back. By that time, there wasn't anybody there who could finish the books. So those books weren't made. It was my fault and Isabel was greatly displeased.

We got about four hours sleep before we went on to print more books. We made a smaller version of Grover Hills that we could print on at home and ran off ten each of that and YSIF. We wanted 15 but we were running late and figured we could print more overnight. Took longer than we figured - our printer was really, really slow with those full-color covers. We got out of the house at 10:30, just in time to miss McDonalds' breakfast and got to the con a little late, fairly hungry, and extremely tired.

During:

So we get there late. We decide not to set up the banner or the girls. We still had about six books and five flyers there. The flyers were all marked free. About half the dealers were pornographers. Not artists who also drew pinups. Pornographers. We were next to one. We had considered asking, on our application, not to be next to folk selling adult art. We didn't. We should've.

We were able to give out about ten flyers in two hours. That counts the guys that took multiple flyers. I mean, they were labelled "Free". There were five of them. Take one of each. It's a con. You're going there to meet people and get free stuff. So if it's free, take it! Most of the people who took a flyer seemed like they were just taking one to humor me.

Thomas Bryan, the guy who does Gremlin Trouble was there too - we should've talked to him or something. He seemed to be just as out-of-it as we were. I mean, I can go to a Star Trek convention and there's dudes selling model cars and fake swords. I go to a computer show and there's guys selling anime tapes and air purifiers. We're artists who tell stories. Some of them need to be told with humans. Some of them need to be told with anthropomorphic characters. But it's a reasonable assumption that people in the anthro fandom might like our work. I felt like I was trying to sell timeshares or Amway. We took the Imbroglio comics down after an hour or so just in case it was scaring people off.

There was one person who wanted to buy our comics but didn't have cash. We should've taken a check.

A kid comes up and sees our booth. I say "Free comics. You can't get a better deal than that"
He says "You could pay me to take them".

We left around 1:30 because we were both horribly tired, not amused, and not selling a single damn thing. We probably could have stayed four more hours and sold, maybe, $50 worth of merch. I wasn't feeling up to it. Isabel wasn't either. The crowd didn't seem to care about us. And it wouldn't've been worth it even if we did sell things.

After:

We have 1000 bags, a tablecloth, a banner, pipe cleaners, two cutouts of the girls. We have several books, the YSIF sampler, ND Sampler, ND digest - they're pretty much just what's online. They're good reading, but it's hard to sell $2 worth of comics over the Internet to people who get them free.

Their guests of honor should've been a clue. If I'd've heard of any of them, it'd be one thing. I figured that they were just not in areas I pay attention to - I mean, I don't know from comedians or electronica bands, furry or otherwise. I mean, dude, if it were up to me, Thomas Bryan would be the GoH. He's nationally published. But their guests of honor were all, well, they were shooting pretty narrow. I'm surprised they couldn't get a cartoonist or actor or something. No, actually, I'm not. With most cons, the GOHs are listed along with a few notable accomplishments. "We've got Foxxbite, an artist who's been published in Hroof! and Yarp". It wouldn't matter if Hroof! had a circulation of 53 and half of those were contributors copies. It would be credentials. It would be a reason why we should go out of our way to see that person. But instead, it's like "We've got Foxxbite, an artist that people in our circle are generally familiar with".

The fact that there were no merchants there was also a bad sign. There were people sellin things, artists and craftsmen. But nobody who picked up an armload of Disney films at a discount and tried to unload them here. Nobody selling a boxful of Furrlough back-issues he had sitting in his comic shop for the last few years. There was one guy with a pile of sketchbooks, but that was it.

Isabel is pretty much turned off of furry cons. I'm at least turned off of small furry cons. I like conventions. I just realize that this wasn't a good one to sell at. It was very small and very insular.

And we're not going back. If we sold $100 worth of merchandise tomorrow, it still wouldn't be worth $10 in gas, $10 in parking, $30 in food (assuming we got breakfast here..hotel food ain't cheap), and 10 hours of our time ($50 / 2 people / 10 hours = $2.50/hr each)

I wanted to go back. Not because I think it'll help; just because I think that skipping out will disappoint some people. I know I shouldn't be afraid of disappointing people, but I am. I didn't go back because I realize that it's not going to be worth my time. Maybe if we had picked up breakfast and got a few hours more sleep, or maybe if we had skipped out on Friday and showed up Saturday. Maybe if a couple other people had picked up flyers. Maybe then we would've spent more than two hours there. I'm not sure if it would've been better. The risk/reward ratio was looking pretty bad, though.

Do I have anything bad to say about the con or the staff? No. They were helpful and courteous. Even if we never could find the lounge. But it was just that we seemed to be in the wrong place.

So we'll probably sell the books at a discount - they're fairly cheap to produce. The banner we'll use at Comic-Con. The tablecloth was cheap. The bags, we'll try to return. And the pipe cleaners? Well, we're using them to tie our network cables together.

We're looking forward to Comic-Con. Leonard and Thomas are going to be there with us - it'll be easier with friends there. And people will be there for comics. At Califur, they didn't seem to be. So I'm sure that will go better.

Argh

2004-05-27T23:19:49Z

Yesterday, I tried to adjust the nameservers for Namir Deiter.

Today, on Isabel's birthday, the day before the convention, it refuses to work.

So we're pretty much out of luck until tomorrow morning unless any of you have a nameserver we can borrow.

EDIT: Not Fuitadnet's fault. They were nice and helpful. 000Domains is our culprit-of-the-moment. But it's working now so we're good!

Things to do

2004-05-27T02:29:33Z

Wednesday:
Design and print books and flyers for Califur

Thursday:
Three job interviews.

Friday:
Go to Califur. Sell stuff.

More journaling

2004-05-20T08:54:18Z

My name is michael caine.

Hmm...and unlikeminerva is that color

Do As I Command!!

2004-05-18T06:03:04Z

I'm not much for memes, but this one looks interesting.

Anyone and everyone who reads this is required by law to post in here something they would like to do with me someday.

After you do that, post this in your journal and see how I respond. 0.0

-meme adapted and "stolen" from howiecat (who got it from jenova_silver, who got it from someone else, too)