Ok, that title was justabout the craziest I could think of today. As titles go, at least. As far as user requests and complaints go, I've already seen crazier things come by, and I've only been in the office for a little more than an hour so far yet. I love this job...
Anyway, so what's new ? I'm slacking !! Well, not really, I'm actually putting in fairly good efforts on everything I'm doing, but I seem to be making such little progress everywhere that it feels like I'm slacking. Perhaps I'm finally finding my limits, I don't know. All I know is, things aren't going as fast as I want them to. Or as easy.
So what am I up to ?
First of all, there's still that damn ten page project. Yes, it should have been done months ago. Why am I stuck ? Because drawing women - one of the two major characters is a woman - is not my forte. I've narrowed it down to the eyes: I can't get her eyes believable. This is supposed to be a very gorgeous woman, and I've managed everything else about her character design, but the eyes aren't working out. Frustrating !
Then, as soon as her character design is done, there's still seven pages left to go, some with a lot of experimental stuff, style- and storytelling-wise. Normally I'd find this interesting, but right now it just looks like a truckload of work.
I'll be sooooooo glad when the story's done.
Then there's the ClickBurg webcomics convention I'm trying to organize. Things just aren't happening as fast as I'd like yet. The organisation that takes over the building that we're interesting in holding it in, has not been revealed by the Tilburg municipality yet (of course, civil servants have a reputation of not being speedy decision-makers, or speedy anything, for that matter, so I should have expected this). Also, I've asked a very good friend of mine if he'd like to help out on organizing things, since he's a natural in that field and we can really use his help, and he would get back to me after the weekend. I know it's only Tuesday, but you have to understand, each of my days is packed with activity and information, so time moves reallllly slowly for me, and it seems ages ago that I talked to him about this. It was, in fact, just a week ago.
I'm also supposed to be coding on the site for this convention. It's gonna have a content management system, built from the forum code. But I'm having the jitters - I'm not the world's best coder and I still remember how much of a hassle the Probeersel code was, and this set of code intends to be able to do much more complex stuff ! Still, I've got a PHP & MySQL book handy, and I really just have to apply myself to it. Millions of people around the world have mastered these technologies already, and there is no reason I wouldn't be able to. Meanwhile, by postponing it out of lack of programmer confidence, I now have some three weeks left to finish it. Eeeek.
The Grim DotCom is moving along still, but unknown to most fans of the comic, it isn't updating quite as smoothly as it seems. Normally I'd have at least a few weeks worth of backstash, but in fact, there is *no* backstash right now. That's right, the current episode is the last one so far. Luckily, I encountered a bout of creativity recently which allowed me to write several storyboards for the comic, so I know what to write and draw for the upcoming episodes. It's really a matter of getting 'round to it. In my own defense, I have been really busy with the above, and with a lot of people needing to meet me for a variety of reasons, and besides, I have a picture and a half done already (out of six) for the next episode.
I've also sort of promised to do a guest episode for ROCR to help poor sick Reinder out. Which of course means a completely new style (although I'm pondering another Grim DotCom crossover for this) annnnnnd I haven't fully written the storyboard yet. I have a very rough idea for the joke (although not even a punchline yet, ugh) and that's about it. I have up until and probably including this upcoming weekend.
I'm also reading up on a big, big book by someone I'm going to write a graphic novel about with, er, someone else. Yes, another secret project. And a lot bigger than the ten pages one. Eeesh, how do I keep getting involved in these things ?
Then there's of course just daily Probeersel.com updates. Uploading stuff for other artists, changing things in the code or database, emailing with a lot of people, etc.
But that kind of goes without saying... and let's not forget that I have a full-time job four days a week as well. Besides, I'm sure I'm forgetting some things here.
I need some time off... except the person who can give me time off from work has been beside her husband's hospital bed for over a week now. Which of course makes me feel selfish and whiney and bad for feeling slightly annoyed, but I really really desperately need this time off and it hasn't been approved.
So that's my two whiney cents. On a bright note, I've been talking with Sionnain again recently a few times, for the first time in lord knows how long. I did speak with her shortly, occasionally, during all her ordeals the past year, but that never took long and I've really missed her. She's doing relatively well now and I'm glad for that. It's always great talking with her, so I guess it compensates a bit for the above.
But man, when am I gonna learn to just tone down on my many activities and go for a slightly easier life ?? By the way - pretty much all of the mentioned above is stuff that needs to be done either this week or within the next month... so I'm not even mentioning I still have two big other graphic novel projects lying around, Probeersel book 4 and 5 still need to be converted, the Probeersel.com engine still needs to be further developed so the staff can make easier updates, and next year The Grim DotCom starts off on another big storyline... Betting starts now on how young I'll die. I'm putting a tenner on 'before I turn 27'.
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