On being a grown-up
4 days ago | On | Comment [3]My mom is now deaf in one ear, possibly permanently, thanks to a perforated eardrum the doctors tried to blame on her “using expired medication.”
This is concerning in two ways. One, because the doctors thought my mother would intentionally deafen herself (and people wonder why I believe everyone in the health and wellness industry is a complete scumbag).
The other, because… I have a partially deaf mother, and a father turning 60 this year.
I’m not supposed to have aging, senior parents. Parents are supposed to be those towering forces in your life that hold punishment in one hand and privilege in the other, not people with ailing health and aching joints.
Somehow, I went from writing dumb stories about little girls going on whirlwind airship adventures to developing financial plans and worrying about investment options.
I stopped playing video games and I started making ten year plans and developing organizational to-do lists.
I stopped drawing pretty pictures to research apartments and choose renting vs. buying and look at interior design for maximizing space.
I went from being a hardworking creative anything-is-possible to a love-defeated salaried sorrysport, and I don’t know how to bring the old me back.
A few weekends ago, I spent the day in a baggy t-shirt and jeans and up came the unsolicited thought, “It’s so nice to not be on.” After so long of always dressing like I was going to a meeting, I was treating every day of my life like it were some big performance and not really me at all.
Sure, I was always organized and wrote lists and did all those things, but it’s different now. I make project plans and cost breakdowns rather than exciting stories.
I don’t like being a grown-up. My friends used to make fun of me for being a mom figure, but this is far beyond anything I did back then. Adulthood and maturity aren’t my thing, whimsy and fun and kung-fu-monkeyliciousness don’t mix well with budgets and obligations and drudgery.
I think I need to hitch a ride on the next airship and go on an adventure to find where my former self went to, and how to bring her back. I think she’s out looking for someone who went away a while ago, but where either of them went is something I can’t answer.
Major spambomb
5 days ago | Site | Comment [1]I woke up this morning to 103 new emails. One was from Facebook, and one was from my mom.
101 others were spam on one of my oldest articles on this site.
I think I have to move a little faster on that CAPTCHA implementation.
That, of course, or switch over to ExpressionEngine.
The O-Word Must Not be Allowed on Television
7 days ago | Media | Comment [3]$5billion is being wasted right now, and if you tell anyone you’re against it, they look at you as if you just admitted you eat human babies. But I’ll say it anyway:
I’m anti-Olympic on several levels.
For one, the political aspect is depressing at this point. I’m impressed that China is using their heads to piece together parts of little children to make one Perfect Chinese Girl, but they should have at least outright said it instead of letting people treat it like a scandal.
Not only that, holding an event that draws millions of people into a country that has a terrible political climate is a bad idea. Slave provinces and media-silencers make for a lot of people dying and a CG building being placed in so the rest of the world won’t see the rubble.
More depressing, however, is the idea of the Olympics itself.
Fact is, humanity is smart. We have tools to accomplish things that our bodies can’t. For every weightlifter, there is a grocery stock boy with a trolley moving the same load with much less effort and training.
There’s no value in physical human accomplishment anymore. Granted, there is a value in physical activity in the individual (and the western world would sincerely benefit from going for a jog instead of sitting down to watch the next fencing match), but even a man who can run the fastest in the world won’t get to his destination before a car.
Until we start giving gold medals to Nike for the development of their swimsuit technology, I don’t see the reason to praise anyone involved in the swim competitions this year.
Reward the makers of the equipment – the swimsuits, the running shoes. But don’t reward the people who waste their lives jumping, jogging, splashing and lifting for the sake of personal outdated glory.
I feel no pride in my country for participating, and shame for the rest of the world.
Workin' on a to-do, goin' down down down
7 days ago | Random | CommentMy to-do list is a little overwhelmed lately.
Radio Schizophrenio has its template and Textpattern-building completed.
Same with Patrick’s personal site (save for the missing top menu option, which we still haven’t agreed on).
So for these, I need to wait for Patrick to return and buy hosting to complete the projects.
I have so many new things that I don’t even want to add to my to-do list, and all of a sudden, dates are getting added that I’m really not prepared for.
For example, relaunching the new layout of this site would be wise prior to the comic con. The comic con also has art, program guides, signage, documentation, and a table to prepare. It also needs consideration and a project plan for next year’s site, which is getting completely overhauled.
Another big deal is apartment-hunting. I can’t make goals for where I live unless I know what I’m moving into, and even the simplest of financial planning is hard to do when I don’t know what my future budget is going to be.
I started writing a Google Doc on my goals, in the intervals of one month, three months, six months, one year, three years, five years, and ten years. This is a necessity. I’m not thinking in terms of reasonable goals, I’m thinking in “this is a good goal for right now” – not a healthy way to approach things like savings, which lately has been erratic.
I stopped working toward goals, and because of that, I don’t really have a focus lately.
Sadly, the things that need doing the most don’t have a time scale I can assign. They’re not up to me.
To boldly go where every fan has gone
8 days ago | Media | Comment [1]The Manitoba Comic Con is coming up fast, and I really need to start working toward my table. Too often I leave my own work until the last minute.
Every year I’ve appeared at the comic con, I’ve made enough to almost – but not quite – break even. I really want to change that and at least make back what I put into it. Sure, it’s an appearance, and the publicity has a value itself, but I also tend to buy a lot of neat things there.
My issue this year is fanart. Should I do it?
Original work
Pros: Being creative and doing my own stuff is so much better for me as an artist. It’s good self-promotion, and a good step to doing better things. It’s also a good way to generate more work for my portfolio. It forces my original stuff to be good enough that people will buy it, and forces me to not slack on it.
Cons: with this method, I’ve never sold enough. Also, from a realistic standpoint: who wants to pay money for local relative-unknown work?
Fanart
Pros: This would sell a lot more easily and a lot faster, so long as my print quality was good. I have some pretty obscure (by fanart standard) taste, and could probably be the only one at the con offering a few of these.
Cons: I’m personally against fanart for artists – too many young people do nothing but fanart, never receiving recognition for anything else and never really flexing their creative muscles (take bleedman, for example. Awesome? Pretty much. His own stuff? Not at all, and his fanart is wildly more popular than what he really does). It’s making money off of someone else’s idea, even if it’s my execution.
Here’s a list of what I’d do if I did do fanart:
- Yukari Takeba -> Persona 3
- Dr. Horrible -> Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (would only print maybe 3 copies, it’s more of a joke. Winnipeg isn’t that internet-savvy)
- Molly -> Molly/Oban Star Racer
- Daria and Jane -> Daria
- Leeloo -> The Fifth Element OR Alice -> Resident Evil (movies)
- Hank, Dean, Dr. Venture and Brock -> Venture Bros.
- The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend -> Venture Bros.
- Triana, Kim, Dr. Girlfriend, and Molotov -> Venture Bros.
- Alyx and the Companion Cube -> Portal/Half Life
- Chell and a gLaDOS eye -> Portal
- Gordon and a headcrab -> Half Life
- Major Kusanagi -> GITS: SAC
- Tachikoma -> GITS: SAC
- Betty Boop -> Betty Boop (goth chicks are obsessed with her right now)
- Prince Zuko and Aang -> Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Jade -> Beyond Good and Evil
- Fry, Leela and Bender -> Futurama
- Painting of Hypnotoad -> Futurama
I’ll still be selling previous years’ prints, and I’ll still try to do some original stuff. My Ohai stickers, NuRal pinup girls, and painting prints will still be front and center on my table.
I also have to consider my table layout and pricing scheme. What would you pay for an 8.5×11?
So: would you buy any of the above-mentioned drawings? Can you suggest any other ideas I should do? Should I sell my soul to make a profit at a comic convention?