It's Official...

So yeah... this will be REALLY interesting on Sunday the 29th... Considering I usually take a very long time to draw, even at top speed. 24 pages, and a full story (or a SERIES of gags, which might be even worse)... I'm dreading this. But I'm gonna do it nonetheless. For the very same reason someone would climb Mount Everest. Sure, it's insane, but let's face it: You'll have DONE it. And you learn a lot about yourself in a challenge like this. So I'm excited - despite that I dread it.

I've had to cancel quite a lot of evenings out and stuff with people lately, and cut back on a lot of other social activities. I'm simply too damn busy. This upcoming month I have 29 days (until beforementioned event) to code a solution so the participating artists can create and upload their own NEW comic. Which is a huge step up from the 'upload images for existing comics which all have automatic names so the script can figure out when they should be published etc' temporary scripts I've set up so far. It's gonna be a pain in the neck. I *wish* the entire Probeersel.com new setup and new CMS would be ready by then, but that's naïve to assume. Instead, I think it's even naïve to assume coding a temporary solution to the above is going to be rough, too.

A friend of ours, Marieke, had her birthday a few weeks back. She still hasn't received her present from me, nor the card from Vik and me. My father's birthday was the 29th - I still have a present for HIM lying around as well. What can I say ? The path I've chosen comes with responsibilities to my 'mission'. If I don't take the progress of Probeersel.com seriously, nobody else will. Don't get me wrong, we have a staff now and I'm incredibly grateful for their contributions, but as it is right now, I'm still pulling the cart. So if I stop putting work into this, it will no doubt die a quick death into oblivion and everyone will forget about what could have otherwise become a great initiative which can add a lot to the comics world and the emancipation of the 'Ninth art'. I'm dedicated to it, so my own life and my social responsibilities can, at most, only come second. I'm sometimes sorry for it, but in the end, I have my priorities straight. I know this is what I have to do, so I'm doing it.
Doesn't mean it doesn't get lonely, though.

Cigarettes are about to become quite a lot more expensive - an 80 eurocents increase in price, on packs of an average price of 3,80 euros. I'd call that hefty. So today I stacked up 4 cartons. Sure, my bank account doesn't love me right now, and sure, these cigs will last me a mere 4 months if not less, but that's a 32 euro saving, damnit. Calculated back to what guilders were worth, one could have had a very nice time out on the town some mere six years ago. I'm making good money from my job, but I'm not about to forget what a buck is worth. I see too many constantly-on-the-verge-of-being-broke people around me to forget that.
It's also confusing when I think about it. Ok, when they introduced the euro, things were suddenly extremely expensive. First they didn't quite seem so, because, let's face it, the euro's worth 2,20 times as much as the guilder, so it SEEMED like everything was cheap. Then prices rose quickly, and nearly everything became its old price again, except now in euros. The initial excuse was the period of adjustment. Then it was that our economy was bad - people were even urged by the government to spend more. While a large part of the country is going poor at incredible speed !
Now, everything's STILL getting more expensive, and what's the excuse now ? THE ECONOMY IS DOING WELL. Can you believe it ? Apparently our economy is doing well, at least in comparison to the US, so compared to the dollar, the euro is strog, but this is BAD for us ???
Can someone please explain to me, WHAT Europe has to do to make sure prices drop again and this wretched, ugly new coin stabilises ? Because I'm confused as hell.
Anyway. The blog's called Rants 'n Ravez so I was entitled to this little rant, but still. I'll leave it at this.

Gregory's started a blog, now, too. I like that. I've already taken into account for the new setup (which I'm afraid I'll be coding, likely) that the artists should be able to have their own blogs - ON probeersel.com, of course. And forums, we should have that, as well. And all single-signon. So only one username and password required for artists to control their comics, their own information, news posting, blogging, email, etc.

Anyway, I should leave it at this. It's late and I have sleep to catch up on.
Sorry about the perhaps not too cheerful tone in this post, but I'm kind of down right now. Perhaps it's just the loneliness - if I know my emotional cycles well enough, it would be very good if that's it, because this is usually followed by more emotional times, and then a sudden surge of creativity again. I'd like to be drawing again. I really would.

So, goodnight folks. René out.