[785] the call you've been waiting for

console

< Piro >

"wrecks and re-openings :)"

Monday - November 14, 2005

Ok, a few things this morning, before i jump back into things after 3 hrs of sleep...

First off, the new new new MegaGear store is now open! Yay! The upgrade to MegaGear 3.0 is done, so we're back in business! The store has been up since Saturday, and it looks like things are running well enough to announce the opening. So, yay! Go buy stuff! Christmas is coming! All purchases helps support MT! etc, etc. :P Please note that we are taking both domestic AND international orders, and we'll do our best to get international orders for Christmas to you as quick as we can.

You might also note that you'll find that there is more than just Megatokyo gear available at the MegaGear store now - we are also starting to offer Applegeeks merchandise! Hawk And Ananth work their butts off on Applegeeks, and we're going to help their readers support them buy carrying some of their merchandise :) Check it out.

Also, Sarah is still working on the final report on our Pine Ridge trip and the dropping off of all your Gifts of Gear. Complete with pictures :)

Another note - if you have expressed an interest in advertising on Megatokyo in the past month and have not received a response, i apologize. I have been working to change our newsbox advertising system to automate some things and its not quite done yet. Hopefully you should hear back from me within the next seven days. Thank you for your patience.

Of course, having difficulties with todays comic was NOT the way i planned to usher in the new store. It's not late because of the store - we finished that up Friday night, and i did the last of the Worldship integration stuff Saturday night. This is a pure and simple case of the art not being up to snuff. Mostly it's the expressions. A lot of what i try to get across in these comics comes down to some complicated and subtle expressions, and you'd be surprised how hard it is sometimes to get those expressions close to workable. Most of what i have is salvageable, but this morning upon looking at what i have, i need to re-do at least one of the frames, and change the approach to the last three. I'm working on it as we speak.

I wasn't able to get three comics done last week because of the push to finish the online store, but this week the main focus is getting comics done, so there will be 3 comics this week, i just kinda wish this one had gone smoother. I appreciate your patience, and well... i'm sure you are all used to it by now (those that aren't gave up on Megatokyo and stopped reading (and emailing me) last year. For some reason that doesn't really bother me :P)

Lastly, my race to beat out Dom in the number of rants this month is doing well! In fact, last night i contrived little something-something on the Bay Bridge to 'delay' him a little bit more. Heheheh. :P

All joking aside, Dom was in a car accident last night, and yes, he's ok, only a little banged up (most of that from that wonderful airbag-to-body thing) the car isn't in the best of shape, but cars can be fixed. Fixing Dom would be kinda expensive :P He says he had promised to be back with a new rant on monday, so he wanted me to pass on his apologies for being otherwise occupied last night.

Now, i need to get back to my train wreck known as today's comic. It'd be nice to be in smooth cruise control mode someday, instead of Burnout mode all the time.

Hell, that'd be no fun, would it.

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< Dom >

"Cobwebs"

Tuesday - November 15, 2005

[Dom] - 08:15:00 - [link here]

They say that your life flashes before your eyes in dire circumstances. They're wrong, at least in my case. When a van started spewing smoke and veered into my lane, my slamming on the brakes (not fast enough to avoid rear-ending the car in front of me, unfortunately) was accompanied by a "What the hell?" and then the foul smell of burning chemicals that accompanies an airbag popping.

The next few minutes were kind of surreal. I got out of my car on the Bay Bridge and made sure the other people were alright (amusingly, the van was full of a hip-hop dance team, something I found a little incongruous compared to the two ladies and their dog that I hit) while calling 911.

And then I got back in my car, noticed I was limping a little (it was just a bruised shin, I'm alright) and I think the burning smell and the crumpled hood got to me, as I called my family members to let them know I'd be late to their pho party. Then I got scared.

I have more than a few mechanisms in place to deal with fear, and one of the first things I did was talk to family and ask them to help me through the rising panic and I sucked in more fumes from the airbag and stared at the gigantic cobweb in my windshield caused by the passenger side airbag.

Then--I kid you not--I pulled out my Nintendo DS as CalTrans workers arrived to clean up the mess. Advance Wars seemed like a better idea than running around screaming.

But enough about that--the car's in the shop, a long bath has gotten rid of the remaining aches and plins, and the two or three hairs on my thumb lost to rug burn will eventually grow back.

This has been a very weird week.