| put on your paranoid poison hats |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|09:53 am] |
| [ | music |
| | I'm A Cuckoo (Avalanches Remix - Belle & Sebastian | ] |
It just hit me that the only food I know of outside of unprocessed fruit that no one talks smack about is Cheerios.
Please tell me there is no secret, horrible, deadly, Satanic component to Cheerios. |
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| Hard Times |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
Chillin' Like Villains just finished a storyline, so if you're not one of the seven people who read it, here's "Hard Times" in its entirety! A brand new issue starts tomorrow at chillinlikevillains.com
( All 24 pages ) |
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| ellewin and arldbard |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|11:03 am] |
Hey everybody! A comic that I wrote and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tedprior drew is up on Top Shelf 2.0! You can read it here. You can also read the first E&A story here!
I have been neglecting this LJ since I finished the Month of Girls, but I have just finished Mungo Bean Book 2! It will be in our Etsy shop as of next week, and should be online fairly soon. It is a cracker!
Also, if you are in Perth, come down to the Made on the Left Markets this Saturday and buy some things! You don't have to buy them from us but I strongly recommend it.
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| The Gut |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|08:17 am] |
Last week I read an article on The Huffington Post titled "Are Your Food Allergies Making You Fat?" Basically, it suggested that eating a lot of processed food is killing the "good" bacteria in your system and replacing it with "bad" bacteria that inflames your gut and makes you fat.
Obviously, one shouldn't eat a lot of processed foods and if one makes the switch to more natural foods like fruits and vegetables, they might see an improvement in their weight. The article wasn't a cop-out piece like those that say "My genes made me fat!" or whatever. It advocates healthy nutrition.
It has given me a lot to think about though, because I eat an AWFUL lot of processed foods. This is dumb, I know. Especially once I kind of figured out how to take care of myself after taking kickboxing and weight training a few years ago.
I'm totally off any fitness program at the moment and probably heavier than I've ever been. I'm about 225 right now, but was as high as 230 a few weeks ago. I didn't take advantage of the time off this summer. Didn't work out. I just kind of sat around and ate crap in between applying for jobs and going to interviews.
My daughter is going to be born in a almost a month and I'm starting to freak out a little bit because I remember how poorly I took care of myself when Henry was born. You operate on such little sleep and you don't really have time to properly take care of yourself. All of your efforts are on taking care of the baby. I'm worried that I'm going to gain even more weight.
I don't know why I can't dedicate myself to my own health. I have all the proper motivation, but I can't seem to get started. I feel like there are too many distractions. There's Henry, there's night class, there's Theater Hopper. Pretty soon there's going to be a new baby. I feel like if I'm going to squeeze in time to work out, something else has to suffer.
Something has to change. Ever since Henry was born, I've become acutely aware of my own mortality. I'm living for someone else now. I need to take better care of myself. If I can't squeeze in exercise, I should at least be controlling what I'm eating.
Maybe I should see a nutritionist or an allergist and find out if I have any food allergies I've been unaware of. Who knows?
This is a rambling post, I realize. Consider it a reflection of my splintered state of mind on the weight loss issue. |
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| Saturday Night Meh |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|07:52 pm] |
First let me say that you will likely not find a bigger fan of Saturday Night Live than me. I've love the show ever since I was old enough to stay up late and watch Dana Carvey do The Church Lady. I've loved it through all of the rough times and it is 100% appointment television in my book.
That said, what the hell is going on with SNL this season? I just finished watching the episode with Taylor Swift as host and I found it largely embarrassing. Part of me thinks they've invested too much into Andy Samberg and the SNL Digital Shorts. But without them, there would be a serious lack of comedy on this show.
Taking a step back, I think I figured out the problem. Basically, all of their "characters" really suck right now. I'm talking about the familiar characters the show trots out week after week to deliver a catchphrase and something familiar. Yeah. They all blow.
SNL is notorious for this, of course. The Church Lady, Hans and Franz, Wayne's World, Brian Fellows, on and on and on. But I think what's different about this current cast is that they bring back the characters and don't change the situation.
Fred Armisen (who I usually love) makes me cringe every time he brings out his "topical comedian" character Nick Feign, I cringe. Admittedly, Armisen killed with this character the first time he brought him out and in subsequent appearances, he gives it all he's got. But there's no depth to the character and it's the same set up an execution over and over and over.
I mean, people loved it when Wayne and Garth said "SCHWING!" but they mixed it up a little, too.
The "Scared Straight" sketch with Keenan Thomson. Same thing. Same setup, same execution. What about putting these characters in a different context for once?
I know people are going to say that this is the same thing that SNL has always done - taken a "popular" character and driven them into the ground. But I don't know... something about this cast seems off. Like they're on auto pilot, or something.
This week's show was their first after having 3 weeks off. You're telling me these guys couldn't come up with something - ANYTHING - new after 3 weeks?
I love SNL. I'll watch it until the day I die. But lately, it's just been insulting. |
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| the ladies |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|05:45 pm] |
I am working on a submission package to try to get my comic syndicated in newspapers. I don't care that newspapers are dead and stuff. it has been a personal goal of mine since i was a midget elf boy. here is one I just did.
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| RE: The End of Theater Hopper |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|12:23 pm] |
Ironically, on the same day I decide to have an anxiety attack about Theater Hopper, I discovered this article at Comic Book Resources about... how webcomics end.
Total coincidence, I swear. I didn't stumble onto this article until about an hour after I wrote my original missive.
Ironically, reading the article brought me some comfort. Particularly the quote they took from John Allison about ending Scary Go Round:
Firstly, the huge archive and long history put off new readers, and I can't afford to put all the out of print books back into print. You'll always lose readers as the novelty wears off for them, but if you can't replace them, your audience will slowly diminish to a hard core. And it's hard to have people email you saying they'd buy the new books if they could still buy all the books, but they can't, so they won't.
I have an archive of over 1,000 comics, the daunting improbability of collecting all of them into books and the slow ebbing away of readers as the novelty of my 7 year-old comic wears off.
Shamefully, I don't follow John Allison as closely as I should. But maybe I need to keep tabs on the guy. Clearly he knows what he's talking about.
Reading his words makes me feel a lot less guilty about potentially ending the comic. |
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| The End? |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|09:53 am] |
I hate to write these thoughts down because I think words have power and there is a very real possibility that the fears I express might come to pass. But I feel like I've been wrestling with this internally for a while and I need to attempt to work it out differently.
I'm worried that I might be reaching the end of Theater Hopper.
I've had this kind of nagging feeling about ending Theater Hopper ever since Henry was born. Before we had Henry, I had always told myself that Thater Hopper was a hobby that would probably end once I had kids.
Things slowed down for a while as I was running movie reviews and sketches as I readjusted my priorities. But ultimately, I found a way to make it work and have been back to my regular 3 day a week update scheudle for a while now.
I don't know if the site ever really recovered from that down period, though. My traffic has been trending downward for the last three years and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.
Part of me wonders if my heart isn't into it as much anymore. Maybe I'm kidding myself and I'm not detecting it. Maybe my readers have already picked up on it and that's why they're bailing. Maybe I'm repeating myself with my comics. Maybe I've been around too long and it's just gotten stale.
I think everyone has moments of doubt. They wonder if the time they're investing into their comics is worth the reward. But usually those doubts ebb and flow. I've been kind of nerved up about this for a while.
At this point, I feel there are two different things that could accutely spell the end of Theater Hopper.
1.) Cami and I are having our second child in December. After she's born, I might find it impossible to juggle two kids, a job, pursuing a Master's degree and Theater Hopper.
2.) I'm running a fund raising campaign for my third book - attempting to raise $3,500 by December 30. If I can't meet that goal, it communicates to me that I don't have the same kind of pull that I used to and that maybe I should give up on self-publishing altogether. If I can't produce books, maybe I should give up on the comic as well?
I look at these two potential death nails and think maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stop. But, on the otherhand, I am a determined and stubborn cuss. I don't like giving up. Stopping now would feel like I failed.
I'm also fearful of losing the social network I've built up with Theater Hopper. It goes without saying that I love interacting with my fans. But I'm also thinking about the friends I've made in web comics and if abandoning Theater Hopper means not having an excuse to talk to these people anymore. I fear isolating myself.
Part of me thinks that if I stop doing Theater Hopper, I wouldn't stay away from webcomics for very long. I've been toying with the idea of doing a journal comic for years. I have a domain name reserved and a website designed and ready to go. But why do I want to throw away everything I've built up with Theater Hopper just to start over again?
I could reduce the number of updates to once a week. But, again, watching my traffic numbers go down over the last few years is what put me into this mindset to begin with. Going once a week with the comic won't likely improve that.
I've thought about taking a hiatus. Maybe 3 months or something. But I worry that if I take a break of any kind, I might get used to it and not want to come back at all. I'd rather end Theater Hopper definitively and on an up note. I'd rather not have it just fade away. I'd like to punctuate it.
I don't know. I'm just kind of messed up right now. In the very least, if I could put my thoughts down, maybe I can get a little distance from them.
How *do* people end their webcomics? It seems like there are so few examples of creators that manage to do it right. |
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| mungo bean book 2: on its way |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|05:06 pm] |
Mungo Bean Book 2 is coming! I've finished 18 pages and am working on the last ones. Here's a sneak preview! SPOILER: It will be full of ADVENTURE.
Mungo even has a Twitter account: Mungo_Bean. (I have one too @monstacle but it's less full of adventure.) Follow him!
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| halloween |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|07:49 pm] |
this is what happens when I'm too busy to get a real halloween costume
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