Why I'm a Flake

[Allan_ecker]

Now, I don't want sympathy here, so no rushing to soothe my ego, okay?

Really, I am on quite an ego trip these days now that I'm employed in the exciting and glamorous field of high-frequency analog design. This statement is meant with no irony whatsoever; as far as EE is concerned, I'm a friggin' rock star. That ain't workin, that's the way you do it, money for nothing and your chips for free.

So, to the record:

Forumite pic: ZERO PROGRESS. This is not due to me not being interested in this idea or anything like that. I still plan to get around to it, but it may be so long that I run another forumite description call. If I do, the first batch go in the front set of rows, and then going back from there, FIFO style.

UHCD: FORTY PLUS HOURS REMAINING. The real roadblock right now is the annotation, which I simply refuse to publish without. I also really want to get some serious scanning done so that the UHCD will have a proper -wad- of scans and never-before-seen trinketry. Anyone who's -still- around after all the hiatuses, sketch days, failed experiments and low update density deserves at least that much.

Buffer: ACTUALLY FAIRLY DECENT. I had a few real -bursts- of inspiration when UH2 insisted on being created, so in inks I have a fairly large number of comics. However, just to be safe, I'm going to keep running weekly until I have some idea of how many of these I can turn out in an avarage month.

Okay, to flaking out:

Looking at this record, it's clear that my artwork tends to take a back seat fairly readily. This is pretty much generally true; under stress, or even poor working conditions (I haven't had a lot of free table space or broadband lately) comics are often the first thing to go. (Also I got kinda distracted by the discovery of a few choice comics, like Transmetropolitan, The Dark Night Returns, and Superman: Secret Identity.) It is especially true that relatively humdrum things like scanning documents and composing html files to go with the UHCD take a back seat even before artwork. (However, I'm planning to use Perl to make most of the UHCD html files, which should be genuinely fun!)

The past four months have, frankly, represented some of the worst conditions for getting artwork done I've ever experienced.

The Master's Thesis was a monumental task of paperwork, research, and sheer begging for help from my coworkers. Once that was done, I was swept almost immediately into the surprizingly difficult task of moving to Oregon. I'll bore you with the details in a LiveJournal post later, but suffice to say that a month later I am just now arriving at a state I would call "settled in". I still find myself realizing that I have to buy some minor item like a pair of scisors or a screwdriver two or three times a day, but my new apartment really feels like "my place" now.

However, my first work assignment (which I'm fairly certain I can't even describe here, for fear of Agilent getting wind of it) is especially challenging and interesting, and if last summer is any indication, projects like that tend to leave me coming home from work at the end of the day feeling creatively satisfied, which while being one of the greatest things any person could hope for, is not exactly conducive to boatloads of comics getting written. So, as far as the buffer is concerned, we'll just have to wait and see.

However, I have great hopes for the weekends, at least once the weather cools off. If you think the Bush administration is in denial about global warming, you should talk to an Oregonian appartment manager. "Oh, it never gets all -that- hot here!"

My ass!

Of course, I am a person who puts on shorts when it gets above 65 farenheit and starts bitching about the heat anywhere past 75...

But the hot weather has some advantages. If you can somehow get to the coast on a morning before dawn, the beaches are incredible (if crowded) and there's beautiful farmland everywhere more than a few miles away from Highway 26 that just wouldn't be there if it weren't for the long, sunny summers. (Well, long relative to the summers in Seattle, anyway.)

So, in addition to a weak showing over the past few months, I'm anticipating some sluggishness in the months ahead, but I don't know how -much- sluggishness, so...

You're stuck on weekly updates for a while, but not necessarily indefinitely. I just figured everyone deserved an explanation to the general flakiness I've been exhibiting of late.

Just FYI.

...

How the hell long should I boil his corn for, anyway?

[Hat-Kun]

To Allan
You don't suck.

From Hat-Kun

[Maximuscoolman]

How the hell long should I boil his corn for, anyway?

7 minutes, DO add sugar, DON'T add salt.

[Allan_ecker]

To Allan
You don't suck.

From Hat-Kun

Now, now, what did I just say about defending my ego?

[Gengar003]

Now, I don't want sympathy here, so no rushing to soothe my ego, okay?

Feh. You're getting it. We all have lives (well, most of us); very few can comic full-time.

I for one, will still be a reader, regardless of what happens in the short-term, because I know you make stuff I like.

[Allan_ecker]

Heh. Whenever I hear the word "Halo" I immediately think "I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, or a giant hula hoop in the sky," and then I think "This is it, baby, HOLD ME."

I usually hate first-person shooters, but Halo had... class.

[Hat-Kun]

Duh duh duh dunnn...

Duh duh duh dunnn...

Duh duh duh dunnn...

Duh duh duh dunnn...

Da da da da da da.