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< Piro >

"Processoriffic"

Wednesday - January 10, 2007

Ok, some information and a quick update on what's up for this month.

January is the month that i have to get the bulk of Megatokyo Volume 5 pulled together and processed. I have until mid February to finish all of the material, but i'm pushing to meet an earlier deadline to finish all the comic material by the end of this month (I need time to work on the character and story guides next month). Even with December as busy as it was (thank you to everyone who shopped at the MegaGear store this holiday season!) i only missed a few comics. This month should be no different. I'm only expecting to have to miss one comic (the one for this week). In fact, if I miss any comics after Wednesday next week, it'll mean i'm in trouble and likely to miss my deadline.

Huh?

Let me explain. No, sounds too much like whining. Let me sum up.

I set the publication date for Volume five based on my own assessment of when i'd be able to finish chapter 8. I missed more comics this summer than i planned to (surprise -_-), but i've been going strong since September. My original target was 80 pages, but the current count is 84-86 depending on how it comes together. In other words, I have to have finish all the comics for chapter 8 before they are scheduled to post. I'm on comic 71. By January 25th you should be reading comic 80. That's 4 to 6 extra comics i need to do in addition to the 9 comics scheduled between now and the 23rd.

4 to 6 extra comics all while doing comic processing that usually results in weeks of missed comics? Am I Doomed?

Not really.

For the last book, I had to do all of the processing work by myself. This time, Hawk is helping me out and will be doing most of the processing. The only hitch is that I have to finish all of the review, editing and tweaking, etc BEFORE i send him the files. There's a lot of planning that goes into pulling a book together, and it has to happen before the bulk of the processing work starts. That's what i've been working on since the first of the year. Once I get these files to Hawk he'll spend the next few weeks processing the 170 or so files. While he's doing that, i can focus on finishing chapter 8.

Hawk did help me with one other thing. For the first four books, i did the coloring for the covers myself. I'd be the first to admit that there's nothing really special about it. Also, cell shading is not the kind of coloring style i'm working on these days. So, i asked Hawk to help me out by coloring Dom Ed and Junpei for the volume 5 cover. It's disgusting how quick he can do stuff like this. :)

I appreciate your patience this week as i scramble to get the front end stuff for Volume 5 done. Unlike what usually happens when I worked on previous books, this is one time where the work will result in more regularly posted comics. The irony, huh?

Volume five is slated for release on April 25th. Should be a pretty decent book. :)

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< Dom >

"Filling in blanks"

Monday - January 29, 2007

[Dom] - 07:30:00 - [link here]

This space ~~will be filled in later~~ now continues below, but for more information on my Japan trip, you can head over to Game|Life, the WIRED game blog. Chris Baker asked me to write my impressions of The iDOLM@STER for WIRED, and given that I haven't written for them in ages, I gladly obliged. Here's the permalink for the post, in case you don't see it at first or you read this rant at some later date.

Plus, following that link, you can see one of my favorite pieces of review writing, my iDuck review.

additions begin here

I was originally going to write about the rest of my first Japan trip here, but I don't have much time to write right now due to a week of solid (and early) meetings at work. So why am I ranting in the first place? Let me show you something from this morning.

8:53 AM
pixiebell: just got home from work
man, fred has his new comic up already
you failed me dude!
me: I wrote a new rant!
kind of!
pixiebell: WHERE?!
me: in my rant spot! It went up like half an hour ago
pixiebell: I was in a cab!!!
me: go to sleep!
pixiebell: LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me: when you wake up, it might be a real boy
pixiebell: LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (a good 15 exclamation points deleted for formatting purposes)
LAME LAME LAME!!!!!
me: go to sleep like a good girl!
pixiebell: not until I am done calling you lame!!!
me: you're done! Go!

3:45 PM
pixiebell: WHERE IS IT?!
me: I'm in a meeting!
pixiebell: right....
me: God, woman, we're not even married and I'm feeling henpecked!
pixiebell: HAHAHAHAHAHA

And that is why I'm adding to this rant, even though by all rights I should be sleeping so I can get up at 5 AM or so tomorrow morning to get ready for the next swath of meetings.

This rant is dedicated to the miscellany, so let's get truly miscellaneous. I noticed that in my WIRED blog above, I abused the comma far too often. That's what you get when you write your article at 2 AM on a snowy Saturday in Nagoya, but it's still a terrible practice as a writer.

So, from now on, I am limiting myself to two commas a sentence. I'm going to make exceptions for multiple appositions and lists of items, of course, but otherwise I'm going to fix my poor 'net writing habits.

I don't think anyone other than me cares about those last two paragraphs. I can live with that.

Let's see what else - I've decided to adopt my Revoltech Dante as my digital camera mascot. Should I ever need to take pictures of any objects in my house, which will probably happen soon, he will use his vast collection of spare heads, hands, and weapons to add a whimsical touch to an otherwise boring photo.

However, I have received dire threats against my health--specifically, the parts of me that make life worth living--should I ever again pose Dante like he's looking up a skirt. So it will take a very, very amusing photo op before I do that again. And let's be honest, I most certainly will do it again.

Speaking of figures, Fred now has two sitting on his desk, and it's my job to make sure that he gets more. Because I don't want to be alone in my illness (current count: 45).

There, Flubber, are you happy now? I missed watching Heroes because I wrote this for you!