[787] pristine, angelic white

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 >

"Family acquisitions and mergers"

Friday - November 18, 2005

[Dom] - 10:30:00 - [link here]

Tonight, to many members of my family, is the real Thanksgiving, the night we spend with our close circle of cousins before gallivanting off to various families and parts of the country for the lesser Thanksgiving next week.

What we never expected was for the "close circle of cousins" to get so large.

See, the usual "close circle of cousins" involves about 8 or 9 of my generation (for perspective, Grandma had 20 grandkids) and their various spouses, which raises the number to 13 or 14 people.

So the Cousins Thanksgiving used to be a fairly cozy affair in San Francisco as we gathered to drink and eat and just hang out.

The thing is, one of my cousins, pictured above, married into the Rogers clan, which is just as large and close-knit as the Phan clan (my mother's maiden name is Phan, so I'm considered a Phan for these purposes).

The Phan clan and the Rogers clan get along extremely well, so when Kevin comes along, he brings his brother Pete, and with them come their cousin and childhood friend Bob, while his sister Liz also comes by if she isn't on call at the UCSF hospital. Liz brings her husband Steve, naturally, and Steve often brings his two sisters, who also feel like part of the Phan family by now, and...

Then we have the roommates and friends, because now Tania is my sister's roommate and dating one of my cousin's oldest friends, so they both get invited, and then my cousin's other friend gets invited because they're rooming, and now that we've invited three out of them we might as well invite the fourth, and...

Can you see how this balloons? The invite list for the Cousins Thanksgiving is well over 30 people now, and it may be the case that we'll soon need to hold the Cousins Thanksgiving at a banquet hall, because we just don't have room for everyone...

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I love all of these people dearly, and I know that there are plenty of people who would kill for such a large and supportive family.

It's just overwhelming, sometimes, how many people I'm either related to by marriage, or feel like I'm related to despite no blood or marriage linking us.

So anyway, happy real Thanksgiving to all of you tonight, and may you spend it with people you love before going to your families, who you may or may not get along with.