December

So, it's officially December, let's see where we're at.

I'm still jobless, which isn't helped by the now "official" economic status of recession and the ever-dwindling job market. With that lack of job comes a lack of money. We're just getting by, with not much left over after bills and what-not. Normally I love Christmas time, but I love it more when I can actually afford to buy presents for people. Oh, well.

And speaking of lack of money, both our Flickr account and my deviantArt account subscriptions are up in just shy of a week. I don't know if we should really spare the cash to re-up them right now, when the money could go to more "important" things, but I don't really want them to lapse either. Hmmm.....

November has come and gone, and I'm now quite convinced that apparently writing a novel in a month is not for me. I've ended up with some great ideas each year, but that's about it. This year saw considerable progress in the amount of words written over previous attempts, and I atleast got a decent outline done. But I'll need to do an immense amount of research before I can get any real work done. But I guess that's what I get for only being interested in crazy semi-historical concepts.

Hopefully I'll take some time in the coming year to dive into that research, for atleast one of the ideas, if not all of them. There's also Script Frenzy - NaNoWriMo's sister event, which may be more my cup of tea. I might be able to use it as an excuse to do some serious work on my various comic ideas. We'll see, I guess.

So, this week's agenda should include:

• Job hunting.


• Some overdue art projects/commissions and possibly work on some new projects which are only in the planning or pre-planning stages.


• A super-secret project involving much heavy lifting over a couple of days.


• The apartment really needs to be cleaned. I mean, really needs to be cleaned....


• A hair cut appointment (exciting, I know - but definately necessary).

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of at the moment, with the NyQuil starting to kick in and do it's thing,

I hope everybody had a Happy Thanksgiving, and the rest of your coming holidays are shaping up to be appropriately festive. Also, a happy beginning of summer to those of you in the Southern hemisphere... :D

Smashing Windows

Some time ago (months, really), I mentioned getting an old lap-top from Jenny's dad (her sister's old one) that I was thinking of trying out Linux on, since I was getting so frustrated with Windows. Well, I finally did it - I ended up going with the latest version of Xubuntu - and all I can say is "Wow!"

I never thought this old thing could run this fast or this smoothly. And while I had only tried the Live CD versions of a couple different distributions previously, the install was so simple and painless, I was amazed. I think I'm officially a convert to the wonders of Linux. :)

Granted, I haven't done much with this thing yet - so far just installed Opera (which I've been using as my primary browser on the PC and love) and got that set up the way I like it. But I've got to say I'm impressed so far.

Otherwise, in non-computer news: Jenny and I are both still getting over this sinus thing. I'm finally feeling better, tho Jenny's still run down quite a bit. Hopefully I'll be recovered in time for the library to call me for an interview (hope, hope).

We've both been trying to write some on our NaNoWriMo novels, tho we're both way behind what we're supposed to be at, wordcount-wise. Jenny's ahead of me, but not by as much as previous years.

Sick + Task List

Jenny and I have both been getting sick, but I was hoping it was just another cold. I took half a dose of NyQuil last night to help me sleep, but I woke up last night (long before the NyQuil should have wore off) with my head pounding and my face hurting horribly. Took a couple of Aleve and eventually got back to sleep, but woke up still hurting.

I've felt like this before, and I'm pretty sure it's a sinus infection - I get them every once in a while, and I think it's usually about the same time of the year (though I've never really paid very close attention). Not fun at all.

Starting slowly on my NaNo novel - only got half my word count goal yesterday, and my head hurt too bad to write today. Hopefully I'll get caught up over the next couple of days.

Tomorrow should include:

• job hunting and applying
• rent paying
• writing (NaNo)
• voting (dropping off mail in ballots)
• artwork
• retrieving Christmas tree and decorations from garage
• cleaning (atleast the studio, before putting up Christmas stuff)
• a whole lot of T.V. (Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes, My Own Worst Enemy)

I guess it all depends on how I feel....

NaNoWriMo: T-minus 3....

3 Days till November 1st and the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. My attempts at NaNo over the last 2 years have been pretty pathetic. Both years I started out with a vague idea for a story, then completely switched gears within the first week, came up with a "great idea" and promptly skidded to a stop.

I'm ahead of schedule this year, since I've already tossed my original idea (a superhero crime novel) and decided on something else. I know I'm just not psyched up enough about my novel, so I'm just going to use NaNo as an excuse to write something....

So.... instead of a traditional "novel", I'm going to try and see how much work I can get done on one or more of the comic ideas I've had kicking around in my head for a while. I'm hoping I can get the ideas out of my head, on to paper (or the computer) and into some sort of order, with the goal being to compose some comic scripts out of the mess I'm left with.

I figure I can't do any worse than the last two years, and maybe I'll actually end up with something tangible to work with and make a comic out of. I suppose I should have done this during NaNo's sister-event, Script Frenzy (in April), but oh well. Maybe next year. And if my job-hunting success doesn't improve, I'll have plenty of time to write... Yay.

EDIT - Well, I wasn't planning on writing a real "novel", but I just had an idea for a modern sci-fi story which I'm going to try and run with for a NaNo-Novel. The working title is "Young at Heart", and the "high concept" would be X-Files meets Big.

So I'll be trying to hit the 50,000 word mark with Young at Heart, while also working on my comic ideas. I've decided I want to get atleast one of these comics up online, as a regularly scheduled webcomic, in 2009.

Rodents, Writing and Road Construction

Well, I called the apartment people first thing this morning, and they sent some people over today to attempt to deal with the infestation problem. I say "attempt" because it's still there. It certainly sounded like they were trying to take out a wall next door, but they left at some point and didn't come back. Maybe tomorrow.

I think I might actually know what I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo this year. After taking a fresh look at a couple of unused ideas, I realized they meshed together rather well and might make an interesting story. I'd like to do some outlining before November 1st so I've got a plan going in, and hopefully this will be the year I actually finish (or atleast come close). Third time's the charm , right?

They're continuing work on the traffic pretzel near by, and it's just rediculous what they're doing. There doesn't seem to be a traffic light going up after all, just a giant round-about that's going to be a huge waste of space (and probably money as well). Just seems like it's going to cause even more congestion, and headaches,  than before. We'll have to get some photos and post them up.

Creative Pursuits

I wanted to spread the word that my good buddy Alex is starting up a miniatures design company - The Forge of Ice. He doesn't have a website up for it yet, but you can check out this thread on the Excelsior Entertainment board for info and some sneak peeks of greens: Miniatures by Alex

Just so happens I'm also doing some design work for him - one company logo so far (which you can see on that thread), and I still owe him a couple of alternate logo designs. I'm also hoping to contribute some figure designs for him down the road. The models he's got in the works so far look really great.

NaNoWriMo

November is right around the corner, and with it comes the National Novel Writing Month. This will be the third year of participating for both Jenny and I, and hopefully this year will be somewhat more successful for me. I really have no idea what I'm going to write, and I'm thinking that might be a good thing.

The last two years I had "great ideas", which might actually make good novels, so I kinda sabotaged myself by overthinking them and getting bogged down in too much research and too little writing. This time I'm considering just coming up with a couple of main characters and then free writing and see what happens to them. Guess we'll see on November 1st.

24 Hour Comic Book Day

This is a yearly international event, started by cartoonist Scott McCloud, where artists (with more free time than sense) get together and attempt to write and draw a complete 24 page comic in 24 hours. It's crazy, really, but a great creative exercise.  I'm sure I'm not ready for it, especially since I haven't attempted any sequential work in ages, but what better way of kick-starting myself back into it, right?

This year the day is on October 18 (the Saturday after next). Here in Spokane, the 24HCBD will be sponsored by and held at Merlyns (a local comic and game store), and organized by Levi Skeen, a local comic book artist. If you're looking for more info, check out these links:

     The 24 Hour Comic Book Day Website
     The 24HCBD Spokane MySpace Page
     Merlyns' Store Website

This and That and The Other Thing....

Just some random updatey type stuff:

• The apartment is clean! It had been way too long and desperately needed it. A clean home always make me feel more motivated/creative, and it's probably healthier as well. Also did a whole lot of laundry and dishes this weekend....
• I am way behind on NaNoWriMo, but I've actually written more so far than I did last year, so I guess that's something. Not sure if I'm going to try to continue. Jenny is making much better progress (although she's technically way behind too).
• I have been drawing/sketching more lately, which is always good. I've been trying to participate in more of the weekly draw-offs over at Digital Webbing, as well as just drawing every day no matter what.
• Jenny and I are both getting tattooed tomorrow! I'm finally getting the Daredevil piece on my leg finished (originally started by Rev Mikey), and Jenny is getting little (Haida/Tlingit style) wings on her ankles. Our friend Lucky is back in town for Thanksgiving and is going to do both. We are quite excited. :)
• Christmas is approaching entirely too fast. We had every intention of being ahead of the curve this year and getting our shopping done early, but it was not meant to be (we do have a wedding as a pretty good excuse). We do have our Christmas cards bought atleast, so now we just have to get them out on time... I can't believe the year is almost over!

NaNoWriMo Update

Whoooo!!! I broke the 10,000 word mark. Yay!!!

I'm only 13,000 words behind where I should be, and I have 40,000 words to write by the end of the month. And only 16 days left! Agggghhhhh!!!

!!!

-J

P.S. I love my job!

Media-riffic

Meanwhile, In TV land:

Heroes continues to rock. We've been making a ritual of watching it with Shannan and Scott and this week they treated us to barbeque. otherwise we're still enjoying Prisonbreak, Bones, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers and all of the various comedies on NBC Thursday nights. Not a lot of new shows this season that we've warmed up to, but Reaper is hilarious and Beauty & the Geek and Moonlight are a couple of guilty pleasures we've been enjoying. Medium and Jericho are coming back eventually and I think there are a couple of new mid-season shows with potential that I'm forgetting.

We spent most of this weekend relaxing and catching up on the week's TV, as well getting the computer cleaned up a little. We finally got some more RAM for the ol' PC as well as a shiny new video card - Jenny's dad was nice enough to come over and install them for us. We were way overdue to back up everything on the hard drives, so I went ahead and did that as well as uninstalling/deleting a bunch of useless programs that were still on the machine and defragged both drives. Fun, fun, fun... but it needed to be done.

November's fast approaching, and with it National Novel Writing Month. We're going to attempt to participate again, hopefully with more success than last year. Actually Jenny got quite a lot done on her novel, but mine was a bust. This year we've both already got ideas, and this time I'll try not to change my mind at the last minute and come up with something completely different. :) Oh, and we're both going to write super-hero stories this year...

Jenny's had some promising interviews, and we're really hoping for one job at a local gallery that she's been going for. We've got a new guy at my job (3rd new employee in 3 months...), who I think is going to work out OK, or atleast better than the last two.

Edit: I (Jenny) had an interview with a local library yesterday, that went well. However, it's only 5 hours a day Tuesday through Saturday, so I'd need a 2nd job even if I got the position. But I know libraries, so that part would be fine. However, I just now got off the phone with the art gallery, and they want a 2nd interview (technically the 4th interview if I count the mini phone chats) today. So, of course I said yes, today is great! The interview is at their house. And when I talked to one of the owners of the gallery, she said she was trying to coordinate the interview with another woman that they "want to hire too." I don't think I'm competing with the other woman, I think she might be the hire for the position they actually put an ad in the paper for, and I'm the lucky framer who caught their attention and made my OWN position. So that's good. I got the feeling they might want us to meet each other, as well as have another interview. I REALLY REALLY hope they hire me. I want to work there. And I hope the hours and pay are good too. I'll keep you posted! -J

What Else Could...?

Well... So far it's been an interesting weekend. Before the weekend, on Thursday, my allergies decided to become a real cold so I didn't get pretty much anything done then, and slept in on Friday. I got my haircut Friday afternoon with Jenni and kiddos. Another exciting time ending with her son in another headlock with me holding his arms. I don't know what the kid has against haircuts. That evening, Tigger came over and we went to Denny's to have dinner, then came back here to talk for a while. We knew we'd be up later then we normally are, but Peter ended up going to bed at around 3AM and Tigger and I watched the sun come up while talking and she left about quarter to 6AM. I got to sleep soon after. So Peter and I ended up sleeping in.

We were eating lunch and Peter remembered the office for the apartment complex closes at 2 on Saturdays for some asinine reason. The clock said it was 1:50, and we were still in our pj's. So we decided to get to the office some other day. We need to renew our lease soon and they've finally put notices on the garages that the owners need to come forward or move their stuff out or it will be tossed out on June 1st. Yay! So we want to make sure the office firmly knows that we want a garage, and one of the 2 in front of our apartment would be great. (Not that they don't know with Peter and I asking frequently over the past several months.)

Then, Peter and I ended up moving the futon/couch into the former office, now den, and then moving the miniature painting desk too. So then the den was almost complete, just a few more things need to be moved and set up. Once we finally got showered and dressed, it was nearly 4 and we still wanted to head to CDA to visit my parents and do some shopping too. So, then we had to blow off going to the comic con at Gonzaga and were out the door at 4:30. The antique store I had been to with my folks earlier in the week was already closed when we got there, but otherwise our shopping was sucessful and we visited for a while with our Border's friends. After spending some time at my parent's house, we headed out around 10 or something, maybe earlier, I can't remember.

Everything was going fine till we passed the last exit to Post Falls. Suddenly the truck started making horrible noises and losing power. Luckily, there was an exit to the state line coming up, so I started pulling off and the truck died. I still had momentum so I got it to restart and put on my hazard lights as the person behind me looked like they were going to drive up my tailpipe. I wanted to continue on to the rest stop, but the truck died again, and I could only pull off to the side of the off ramp. I tried a few times to restart the truck, but it wouldn't start, so Peter and I got out and lifted up the hood. Right then a bunch of cars drove by and someone in one of them laughed at us like Nelson from the Simpsons ("Ha Ha!"). So I swore back at them. I don't know if they heard me, but who laughs at someone with car troubles on the side of the road?

So, then I thought maybe the truck needed more oil or something, so put in the 2 bottles I had. It still wouldn't start, so we grabbed some flashlights and headed for the rest stop to call my Dad. There was a towtruck driver and another guy already there getting ready to tow a different vehicle, and after discovering no payphone at the rest stop, I asked the guys if I could borrow a cell phone, or if they would be willing to jump the truck, even though they were busy. I described the problem and that we had seen that the battery was all corroded again. The tow-truck driver suggested that it sounded like the alternator (which had just been fixed a couple months ago), and that even if he jumped it, that the headlights would drain the battery long before we got home.

So I called Dad and he came out to help us. After taking the leads off the battery, we discovered that the one leading to the starter was so corroded, that it was nearly gone. Dad tried to put it back together and jump my truck, but it still refused to start. Since Dad's truck was now facing the wrong way on the side of a busy off ramp, a cop came by and wanted to know what was going on. While Dad was on his cell with the Chevron emergency roadside assistance people, we explained what was going on. The cop still decided to run our IDs, and it seemed to take a really long time. Although, with all the crap that's happened since we moved down here, this was the 4th or 5th time I've had to talk to a cop in the almost 3 years since we've been down here, so all that probably came up when he ran my license. But once he gave our IDs back (never asking for Dad's) he told us to turn Dad's truck around and get my truck out of there ASAP. (As though we weren't trying to!) So then we stood around waiting for the towtruck and Dad turned his truck around (and called Mom to tell her what was going on).

The towtruck was one of those flatbed ones, and I had never seen exactly how those work, so watching that was interesting. Dad told the guy we wanted it dropped off at Parker Toyota in CDA who work on all the family cars, and the guy told us we could just go then, he knew where that was and didn't need our help unloading the truck. So, Dad drove us back to his house, where we ended up borrowing Mom's car and leaving my parent's house (again) at Midnight. Also, since it's Memorial Day weekend, there's no way the truck will even be worked on till Tuesday at the earliest. But at least it's not on the side of the road!

We had been planning on stopping to get something to eat on the way home right before the truck died, so we were pretty hungry. But I just wanted to get home. Which we did make it home safe and sound.

Now, we had bought some soda in CDA since Tigger had drank the last of our Mt. Dew, and before we went to bed Peter put in away in the 'fridge. So, this morning, well... Noon, I was in the 'fridge trying to find some food when I noticed some liquid on the glass shelf above the bottom drawer. Yep, you guessed it. One of the Pepsi's (the one at the very back on the bottom) had decided to leak. I, er..., had to spend some extended time in the bathroom at that moment, so Peter ended up cleaning it up by himself. Apparently, since it was the soda in the back, everytime he moved a soda out of the box, a small wave of soda would accompany it, spilling onto the floor. So, there was a lot of sticky everywhere. And to top it all off, both Peter and I have splitting headaches.

Some good things though, we have our wedding invitations and they look beautiful. And, we picked up at Borders one of the Kaiser Chiefs' CDs. We hear them on Triple J all the time, so we knew we would like the rest of their album. While Tigger was here I got some good pictures of her because she was complaining that she didn't have any new (and good) pictures of herself, and I happened to have my digital camera handy. AND! And, now we are much more motivated to get our own car insurance and to get that new vehicle that Mom said she's going to help us get. So that's good.

So, now I'm going to interrupt Peter from rearranging the living room (now studio!) so he can look over what I've written and see if there's anything he'd like to add... -Jenny

Moving On Up, and other Goings On....

Jenny's been offered (and took) a pseudo-promotion at work, and so she'll be staying with Michaels and actually moving up to (barely) full time. She doesn't want to get over-worked and over-stressed, so she made it clear to her boss that she would take the job, but only work minimal full time hours.

But she will be getting a slight pay raise + benefits, which (apparently) I'll be able to share. This is incredibly good news for the two of us, and the main reason she said yes to the job. That, and the fact that when the person she's replacing leaves, and she moves up to "Head Certified Framer" (something like that), she'll be able to stay in the back of the frame shop doing production most of the time, with new girl up front helping customers. The whole retail/customer service thing is the main part of her job she dislikes, so this is the other main reason she's taking it.

We still haven't got a garage yet, which is disappointing. I have seen (what appears to be) a few people cleaning out their garages, so hopefully the office has finally got after the sneaky people who've been "borrowing" garages for the last few months.

The apartment is clean, and I'm trying desperately to keep it that way through upkeep, as opposed to going on a mad deep-cleaning spree once a month. So far, so good.

We're going to put up our Christmas decorations very soon, so we'll actually be able to enjoy them for a while. We probably need some more, like a wreath, and more lights. But first the tree goes up and then we'll go from there. We also want to pick up some more Christmas music. Right now we've only got a Carpenters album and a couple of Celtic Christmas albums to listen to. We're aiming for "classic" pop Christmas music (Sinatra, Dino, etc.) and I'd also like to find the Limelighters and Kingston Trio Christmas albums on CD, since I fondly remember listening to those as a kid.

National Novel Writing Month is into week 2 , and while I'm way behind (about 2000 words), Jenny is making really good progress on her novel (over 8500 words so far). I had a pretty good idea what I was going to write about up until the day before the month started, and then threw it all out and went with a completely new idea at the last minute. So I've been kind of struggling to catch up ever since....

Not a whole lot else going on - I'm home sick from work today on orders of my boss. I'm not horribly sick, but I've been having sinus headaches and related symptoms, and my job has a general "if there's even a chance of you getting sick or giving whatever you've got to me - GO HOME!" policy, which is kind of nice.

I dropped out of the big Draw Off Tourney that LJamal was running over at Digital Webbing - the last subject was a Halloween themed Bloodrayne & Blade vs. zombies piece that never materialized, and I had to no show finally. Didn't even have time to start the stupid thing that week - disappointing, but I'll live.

Haven't been drawing much lately, with work and the shadow of NaNoWriMo hanging over my productivity, but I've still managed to start scribbling in pen in my various notebooks, so I don't completely forget how to draw (which is how I feel when I don't draw for a long time). Now I just have to remember how to write, so I can finish this novel.

Still have various projects that are still unfinished/started + some other things I'd like to get done, if I can only find that elusive "time" thing that people speak of: current Draw-Off (Cap'n A vs. Iron Man), Rising Stars of Manga contest (due sometime in January), I'd like to do some art-jam Holiday cards with Jenny this year, but we'll probably just end up buying some at Borders on the cheap.

We're starting at Borders this Sunday - the holiday crew meeting is 8am Sunday morning, although I'm not sure how long we'll be working. It's mainly a training day for us. Register training and what not for Jenny, and getting me back up to speed. We won't be working again until the last couple of weeks before Christmas, but Sean wanted to get us back on the payroll so we could take advantage of the discount, especially with an employee appreciation (40% off) day coming up. I see a lot of our friends getting books for Christmas this year! :)

What's Happening....

We were totally planning on dressing up and going out for Halloween this year, but we put off figuring out costumes till...well, now, and so that's really not going to happen. :) The (thoretical) plan was to go thrift store shopping and piece together Britney Spears and Kevin Federline costumes, but we kept putting the actual shopping portion of the plan off till it's too late. We're now going to go over to Jenni and Eric's and have dinner with them and go out with them when they take their kids trick or treating. We might dress up, but it's really not a high priority at this point.

We are definately going to start working on some awesome costumes for next year, maybe try to go out to a place where they're having a costume contest or something. We'd like to continue our "comic couple" theme (e.g. Joker & Catwoman, Peter Parker & Mary Jane), although we may expand that to sci-fi and fantasy couples as well. Regardless, part of the plan involves working out and getting into much better shape in the next year. Neither of us is willing to wear anything resembling spandex otherwise...

The big plan for the coming month is that both of us are participating in the National Novel Writing Month. The idea behind this event is that anyone can write a novel, and that you just have to apply yourself and make yourself do it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to apply this sort of deadline-abiding philosophy to other sections of my life (like my artwork), and be much more productive in the long term. For now, Jenny and I will both be attempting to churn out 50,000 words in 30 days. If you'd like to learn more, check out the NaNoWriMo website; and if you're a participant you can "buddy" us - here's My Profile and here's Jenny's Profile. Wish us luck...

Otherwise - work continues as normal, we still don't have a garage but it'll hopefully be soon (we're waiting for the apartment people to figure out who all's using garages without paying, and whether they'll kick 'em out or charge them back rent), and the IRS payment plan is working itself out. We may be out from under their thumb sooner than we thought, but it's not a sure thing yet.

I Wrote Something!

I finished the prologue to one of the stories I've been thinking about for a few years now. Alex told me the title name a long time ago, that a bunch of the guys had come up with after dicussing a bunch of different animes. The title is "The Legend of the Demon Beast Invasion Womb on Nightmare Angle Campus." There was never any story behind it, they just made up the title. So I asked Peter about it, and what (if anything) had he pictured the story to be. He said that he hadn't really thought about it, the title had always been a joke, but he thought it would be funny that if there was an anime about it, that it would have nothing what so ever to do with the "legend" and only to mention it in passing. That was NOT the same idea I had been thinking of, so I ignored the comment and started coming up with the story my way.

Peter hasn't read what I wrote yet, but I think it turned out how I meant it to. It only sets the scene though, I haven't even introduced the main character yet, so I hope I don't get writers' block!