My mom and brother are in town right now, so I was going to try to show them the town a bit. The only problem is the ungodly heat outside, which make outdoor activity significantly less appealing to them. Now I don't what to do with them! Most of the fun stuff to do in Savannah (at least during the day) involves being outside. So I guess we're about to head off to the mall.
I installed Tiger - very exciting! Eleanor's been making fun of me for being so enthusiastic about some ridiculous upgrade, and I can't blame her. But it's been so long since I updated this machine, it's almost like getting a brand new computer. Everything's running faster and smoother, and I'm not constantly having to work around problems.
For instance - I never did figure out how to get my printer to work in "Classic" mode, so anytime I wanted to print something out of Photoshop, I had to save the file as a tiff, and open it up in Preview. Then I had to press "print preview," which would open the file as a pdf in Acrobat. Then I could print the pdf. Ridiculous, but it's all in the past! And with the new optical drive, I can burn a cd in like 1/4th the time.
I've been reading a lot of Trondheim comics recently, and I highly recommend him, even if you're scared of European comics. His style is so energetic and packed with ideas. Here's some comics to check out: Dungeon vols. 1 & 2, Astronauts of the Future, and The Hoodoodad.
I was poking around Ebay the other day, and I found a relatively cheap used copy of the Criterion "Four Samurai Classics" box set of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, and Ran. It was still expensive, but hella cheaper than buying all four of the movies separately, even if I found all four of them used. Yeah, I still shouldn't have - I'm not exactly rolling in the big bucks.
Man, this computer is so sweet now! Everything's coming up roses!
Ah, in the midst of coupon book insanity. I got my copy of Tiger in the mail, but I'll wait until after I'm done with the coupons for this month before I install it.
Eleanor has been making more awesome things for our table at SPX, you should check it out.
Well, I'm back online, and the computer is hopefully fixed. I got a new optical drive installed - it's supposed to be faster than the one I had, so that's good. The only problem is that I can't burn disks until I install a patch that tricks the computer into thinking that the new drive is an Apple product. And I can't install that patch until I upgrade to OS 10.3 or higher. So I went ahead and ordered 10.4 "Tiger." I've been wanting to upgrade the OS for a while, since I'm essentially running the same system the computer came with when I bought it four years ago. I've just kept putting it off for financial reasons. Oh well, at least now I have an excuse.
The computer gave me yet another scare this morning. After having gotten it back yesterday, apparently fixed, there was yet another power out at around 6 this morning. I woke up when the power came back (and all of our electronic gadgets clicked back on.) I was instantly paranoid that something would be wrong with the computer. So I got out of bed to check, and I was right! The exact same problem as before - The button lit up, but the computer wouldn't come on at all. So come 9:00, I was back at AIS Computers. I talked to the same guy who worked on it before, and told him it was an emergency, so he took it back to the shop while I waited. This time around, the problem apparently WAS a dead battery. They replaced it for free, and the computer was back home and running by 9:30.
I can't help but be a little suspicious... didn't they check the battery when I brought it in last week? My first suspicion was a dead battery, but I didn't think to try changing it myself until after I took it into the shop. When they told me it was the problem was a short in the optical drive, I was pretty surprised. Hmm...
Anyway, there is a pretty awesome pancake place in Savannah - the "Original Pancake House," supposedly. Eleanor and I've been there twice in the last week or so. They have 18 different varieties of pancake at our location, and we've been working through each one (in order of appearance.) This morning it was "chocolate chip" and "banana." The chocolate chip pancakes were a little much (more dessert than breakfast,) but the banana pancakes were pretty good. The best we've had so far have been the "49'er Flapjacks" - a basic sort of pancake, but very well done. Every time we eat a new pancake, we come home and cross it off of the takeout menu we have pinned up on the bulletin board. 8 down, ten to go.
I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and revamping my website, which I've been wanting to do for a little bit.
I'm typing this from the library, because my computer is back in the shop. It's a Mac G4, and I'm pretty fond of it, but something goes wrong with it every six months or so. Last time my hard drive went kaput out of nowhere, and had to be replaced. Luckily I was mostly backed up.
This time around? We had a power out, and when the power came back on, the computer wouldn't. The startup button lights up when you press it, but nothing happens. This has happened before, but last time, I took the computer's battery out, put it back in, and it miraculously worked. This time, the computer repair people are telling me the problem is in the CD drive, and I need a new one.
Every time I have a computer problem, it requires expensive replacement parts.
Anyway, I should be back online by Monday, and will hopefully have some new comics to post then.
You know, if I had a million dollars, maybe the first two things I would get would be the complete Penguin Classics library, and the Criterion Collection gift set. I am a complete fucking sucker for "complete collections." Damn Chris Wright for ever pointing out to me that each Criterion Collection dvd was actually part of a numbered set.
Remember a couple posts ago, when I mentioned being nominated for a Web Cartoonist's Choice Award? I've been nominated a couple of times before, and always lost. But this time, "Pup" won the Infinite Canvas Award, for whatever that's worth.
Huh. Put a comic on the back burner for a while, and then it gets the attention. I finally managed to get "Pup" back online at Serializer the other day. So if you're a current subscriber, you should have full access to the comics. I really plan on doing some ambitious new "Pup" material in the not-too-far future.
Now as promised, You Ain't No Dancer. - a new anthology series from New Reliable Press. I did a six page story for the first issue. The issue also features about a metric ton of other awesome cartoonists - I can't even begin to list just the cartoonists I like, so click here for the lineup. If you're curious about the contents, click here for a generous preview of quite a few of the stories, including mine.
You Ain't No Dancer doesn't hit stores until September, but now is the time comic shops have to order. So if there's a local comic shop you frequent, consider asking them to order a few issues. If not, the book should be premiering at SPX, and should be available from the website shortly after that.
I finished a story for the upcoming SPX anthology. It's a seven pager that's basically in the same vein as the untitled mini I did last year. It's a dream comic, but hopefully it turned out more interesting than such things usually do. We'll see if they pick it up.
Two weeks ago we went to a "going away party" of sorts for our friend Chris Wright, who's finally cleared out of Savannah after getting his masters degree. A bunch of us drove out to the beach at Tybee Island at night, drank some beer, and kicked around in the surf. Chris is an amazing cartoonist, and a big influence on me. He'll be sorely missed - especially when we're down drinking at Moon River.
I wish he would finish his website, so I could link to it... eh, screw it, I'll just link to the unfinished website.
Eleanor and I finally bought a bunch of frames at Michael's for the original art we've had for a while (by Chris Wright and others,) so we've hung it about the house. I've been meaning to take a bunch of pictures and put them online - I think we're both pretty pleased with the way the place is looking.
For the 4th of July weekend, Antar and I went to visit Rose in Orlando. Orlando is one messed-up city - the epitome of urban sprawl. Everyone's down there "flipping condos" and building developments. Anyway, we poked around the Virgin Megastore and the rest of "Downtown Disney." There seemed to a tour group of midgets there at the same time, which (though completely un-P.C.) was very amusing. We ended up leaving on the evening of the 4th - the entire drive up 95 was punctuated by fireworks displays in the distance - and I drank 3 Red Bulls trying to keep my eyes open on the road (I had trouble sleeping the night before, and wound up lying awake and reading Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" instead of catching those vital Zzz's.)
