Can you believe I had never read Slaughterhouse Five? I’m right about halfway through - just got to Dresden. Catch-22 is next in the queue.

I was sortof looking back at my schoolings and realizing that while we’d been assigned books, and I’d read them, I never really read a lot of the Big Things I feel like I should have. So I aim to fix that, bit by bit.

Haven’t thrown in the towel on those comics just yet.

Gonna try hand-drawing and digital-inking. Failing that: hand-drawing, scanning, assembling, printing, hand-inking, re-scanning, coloring.

(Yes, I’ve tried the latter approach, and yes, it works. Time-consuming as hell, but it does work.)

Note that the signature reads ‘11-01′. Clearly I don’t even know what friggin’ YEAR it is.

This is not a page, you’ll notice. Today was spent on various ‘housekeeping’ tasks, including finding and installing a bunch of new graphics programs to play with. The furnishings here were made with Google Sketchup, which is pretty cool. Though I think I might just use these as a framework to draw over, seeing as it’s a tad inorganic. eh. We’ll see.

So: two pages tomorrow, if we’re lucky, but seeing as I have a meeting I have to (a) bring a finished poster design to and (b) bake for… maybe three pages on Monday. Or two Monday and two Tuesday. The combinations are almost endless!

hooray! This is what you get today. Tonight. Whatever.

Again: this is a rough. There’s lots wrong with it. But I’ve deemed that this exercise is about getting into the ‘every day’ habit and that’s it. I’ll have 30 or so updates’ worth of material to mine (touch up/remaster/whatever) when the month is over, and I’ll be in the habit of getting things done no matter what, and I can use these things to my advantage.

I’m trying to challenge myself. That is what this is about for me.

Also, without even meaning to, I seem to have done a callback to the first strip of an older series with Rory’s pose. Funny how that works, huh?

(I should’ve checked that before I colored in her hair, I guess. Should I go back and fix that? Maybe tomorrow.)

NaNoMangO begins! 30 pages in 30 days.

They don’t have to be polished. That’s in the rules and I’m milking it for all it’s worth. This is not ‘final product’ - like Teledildonics before it, I reserve the right to go back and do a tidier version later.

Yes, this happened to me (but no, that’s not me up there - that’s Renny), and yes, it’s sadly notable, as public-restroom-cell-phone-use goes. Not only are we ladies totally at ease carrying on conversations as we pee, but some of us (I mostly see middle-aged ladies doing this) are content to carry on conversations with people who aren’t anywhere near the bathroom.

This is Not Good. When ladies go to the restroom as a flock, there is an inherent agreement at work. You are asserting your acceptance that yes, it is within my comfort zone to converse with you as you do your business.

You should not be conducting actual business as you do your business.

Talking on the phone while you pee breaks these rules. The person on the other end is not there with you, therefore they haven’t given the okay. You are dragging them into that zone without their consent. I don’t care if you’re sure it’s okay. Everyone around you is going to assume that it’s not.

I mean, talking on the phone when you’re at the counter ordering is bad enough, but that’s just annoying and rude. This goes beyond that and makes people universally uncomfortable. 

So here’s to you, kindly stranger with the good sense to let it go to voicemail. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re okay by me.

As for the ones who continue to brazenly compromise the sanctity of the public loo - I may find myself having to flush a good three or four times.  You can never be too sure.

I love Portal so hard.  I finished it yesterday afternoon (having started the day before). So, of course, I treated myself to cake!

So here’s chibi Chell. This is totally ripping off inspired by the photo+toon art that Hawk of Applegeeks does from time to time. (His is way better, obviously.)

I wasn’t sure if I’d have her pop out of the cake or not - I was originally thinking she’d just be portalling in next to it - but then I took another look at the photo and realized there was a great big oval-shaped discount sticker right there on the lid. Had to go for it.

Now I must prepare for the onslaught of small children. whee.

Yep.

I do believe she looks like a Renny to me.

Yup.

Another girl in green, yes. But I couldn’t buck her color scheme.

I can’t promise you’ll see her again, but I won’t swear that you won’t. fair enough?

(I got lazy with the shading after her hair, face, and shirt. I never realize these things until after it’s saved and done. Ah well. Practice.)