Holy Krap, this was one hell of a weekend (not really in a good way)... Let me see if I can describe most of it. Let's start with the remainder of that last Friday...
As you may have guessed, I was supposed to draw some more. So I did - and finished what I got so far, with time left so I figured I'd take up drawing another page and try to get TWO pages total done this week (considering the weekend I was in for, that was the absolute maximum I would have gotten down regardless of the effort involved). So I get out the storyboards 'plan' and look up the next page that was supposed to be done. Staring with nothing but sheer amazement on my face I read: "Another joke about the guy that keeps getting killed. No storyboard yet". CRAP !!
For anyone who's unfamiliar with my method of approach for the Grim DotCom, let me break it down for you like this: Once I *have* a storyboard (the rough-draft concept of a page) it takes me somewhere between one and five hours to draw the page, then at least five more to scan, edit, colour, layout and letter the page and get it to the smooth, finished result that ends up on the website. That's about ten hours per page, once I have a storyboard ready.
Storyboards are a different process altogether; Drawing I need to be doing in relative peace and calm, and the editing I need to be doing around a computer with most of my preferences, fonts, standard colour variations etc. in places where I can quickly retrieve them. Storyboarding however is the actual 'coming up with the joke', which I can NOT do in a quiet environment. Most of the storyboards so far have been written at work, or in the train/bus, or in the Cul de Sac. I need some distracting chaos around me to be able to figure out the exact 'beat' of the joke, as well as the text, what references I want to cram in there, the positions of the characters, their expressions, etc.
Since Viktor was off to his mother's for a Boxing Day dinner, and the cats were behaving rather well for once, it was definately not the right environment for the creative juices to start flowing. So I shoved a sheet of paper and a pen in my jacket pocket and headed out to the Cul de Sac.
When I arrived there it was pretty busy (which is good) but there were a LOT of familiar faces around. Consequently I got treated to a lot of Dronken Vis, despite my protests that I was 'at work - seriously !!'. And no Dutchman can refuse free drinks, in the end, so I drank a few more than I should have to come up with a good joke (though still way less than necessary to get to the 'drunken stupor' stage) and once I had the joke written down, I headed out to home. A lot of people who know me still don't know how I am when I'm focussing on a concept - I am not a very sociable guy when my mind's working its REAL magic, folks. If I'm somewhere and I'm working, I'll still talk and whatnot, but expect my mind to drift and for me to head out as soon as the work is done. I simply am not there for social reasons at times like that. So if anyone was offended with my suddenly heading out without so much as a goodbye, I'm sorry - that's me, deal with it.
Anyway, I went home, and went straight to sleep. Saturday was, after all, the first day again in this Catholic country, that I was able to get groceries again, and my supplies were running low. So that's what I did on Saturday - that, plus a few direly needed chores around the house. Then came the evening and I had to go to Breda, because my brother's girlfriend DID celebrate her birthday THIS Saturday. I didn't stay late, my dad drove me straight home (which, in retrospect, was a timesaver) and I went straight back to work, drew half of the page that I wrote just the previous night. Exhaustion set in and I went upstairs, but was foolish enough to check my mail and the status of Probeersel.com first.
Blink Blink.
There's no comic on the main page. WTF ??????
I was barely able to keep my eyes open but this definately was an issue that needed resolving asap, so I jumped straight into the code. I figured it probably had to do with the fact that this is week 1 of 2004, even though it's still 2003, and the code might not comprehend that. Sure enough, that was one bug, but there was something else wrong that caused for the code not even to figure THAT bug out... I'll boil it down to the simple cause that took me nearly three hours to track down: as a string, "week52_2003" is HIGHER than "week01_2004". So the code could only conclude that week 1 of 2004 was LESS new than week 52 of 2003... I had to turn a large part of the system and the text-based databases around to get that fixed, but hey, at least these two bugs are now permanently OUT of the system. Needless to say I went straight to bed after THAT - I think it was 5 or 6 or so...
Rolled out of bed at 1 30 to get straight back to drawing, then scanning and editing, and then it was evening: another family party lined up. ARGH.. So my brother dropped by to pick me up and off we went to another part of the country and one of those hell-hole family parties that show the corny, scary heart of Dutch main culture and will never cease to make me reconsider my country of residence. As I put it to my brother and his gf on our way back, if an angel came down from above right then and there and told me that hell was this, 24/7, I might just better my ways. Then again, all of my friends would be there so I'm sure we'd THEN be able to turn it into something cool instead.
Got home at around midnight, only to get straight back to colouring and the rest of the process. At 3, I was done (with both pages I set out to finish that week !!) and after uploading etc. I shaved, showered, hopped into bed at around 4, and MUST have fallen asleep at some point after 4 30. Of course, to get up again at 6 30...
Now, this morning was REALLY interesting. When I woke up I did not hear my alarm clock as such, but it suddenly was a radio alarm clock that was very, VERY loudly playing an interview with me telling the interviewer how hard it can be to get up in the morning. I sat up groggy after switching it up with a slightly embarassed panic ('Nooo, not THAT interview, I hope my roommate didn't hear that'), then looked at my alarm clock in amazement and realised it *is* just a simple 'beeeeep-beeeeep-beeeeep-beeeeep' machine. I concluded that I was not awake enough to deal with this world yet so I set the time for 6 50, 20 minutes later and curled back up under the covers.
A strange déjá vu-like feeling creeped upon me as I sat up and tried to set the alarm clock at 6 50 and it wouldn't coorporate. It wasn't until the time switched to 6 51 that I realised that AGAIN it had gone off and AGAIN it hadn't registered in my mind as having done so. Now, tell me - to be that asleep (or psychotic ?), tell me that does NOT make an interesting morning.
Bumped into Jaap and his object d'amour in Tilburg Central, at which time I spouted a few anecdotes from the collection you just read, since that was all I was mentally capable of at the time. Jaap can't make it to the New Year's party (He is 'claimed' by the other party just mentioned) so I have an extra ticket for anyone who hasn't got any yet.
... could be time to run into that Mystery Lady again ;)
Anyway, I'm now at the office with nothing but caffeine in my veins, and we'll see what the rest of this day will bring. Oooers, look, gnomes. And goblins.
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