Change Is Inevitable, Sure.. But...

A few days ago, Dixons announced that it will officially stop selling VCR's. This will probably mean that all other electronic stores will stop as well, which in turn means VHS will start to disappear very, very quickly.
I am sad.
I've always been fond of VHS. Never cared about Betamax or any of the other standards, and I certainly never cared about DVD, but I cared about VHS. I always claimed that a good movie experience always starts with either a theatre ticket or a rattling, black VHS tape. And now it's going to disappear, forever. Future generations will grow up with movie experiences that start with a shiny round disk or the progress bar on your download. Sighhh...
It was inevitable. Yes. I know this. I also know about the strategic (I'd call it sneaky) move that for a few years now, all tapes (at least the ones pre-recorded with movies n stuff on them) were of much lesser quality so they'd break down within a few years (instead of the usual decade). And we all know how hard it's become to find your favourite movies on VHS anymore, in contrast to DVD.
I don't know. I am really gonna miss the big clumbsy rattling cassettes. I never missed audio tapes, or vynil, but I will miss VHS. I'll miss them every time I put a shiny DVD in my player and some videogame-like interface starts up. Other than the extras. You gotta love the extras. VHS barely ever had those.

Look, in the sky ! The apples are returning ! Everyone run !

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'.

You're Watching BNW, Bad NewsWeek, All Bad News, All The Time.

It's turning out to be a rather weird week. First thing Monday, news came in that a direct colleague of our contractor colleagues had died over the weekend from cancer. Another colleague would have his last working day that day, before going on pension, and a big party was planned which consequently got postponed to some undetermined date. He's also not much of a guy for big goodbyes, so basically he gave everyone a hand at the end of the day, put on his jacket and left.
Then later that week, another colleague's husband fell ill. My own grandfather is also in the hospital for heart problems, being operated this week. And just half an hour or so ago, I heard back from the department which was supposed to offer me a new (and better) job, but let me know their plans fell through and they can't offer it.
The death of Prince Bernhard honestly doesn't concern me at all (I never cared even the slightest bit about the Dutch royalty and my life wouldn't be any different without them) but it definately seems to be the icing on the cake.

Speechless. Nearly.

Here's one for the anti-environmentalists amongst you.
Take a moment to read this news article.

Now: feel ashamed. Take your trash back inside and start recycling. And stop voting for moneygrabbing dicks and start voting for the environment. And quit referring to people who care about nature as 'tree-hugging hippies'.

Do I have to tell you people what to do ALL THE TIME ?!

I didn't learn much, this time around.

Although Wednesday and most of Thursday were kind of low on activity for me, being ill and all (feverish, semi-delirious, and downling gallons of stuff like milk and bitter lemon) one of the things I did do while conscious was watch a few new movies in my collection (I had the time for it, after all..).

The one I appreciated best was The Straight Story. It re-inspired my own (legendary) stubbornness (because it always goes to show that enough stubornness, when thrown in a mix with enough time, can get you anywhere) and so, by Thursday evening, I was up and about, getting things done (while still coughing quite a lot) and I've been busy designing something that needs to be at the print shop early tomorrow. Well, today, really, seeing as how it's 3 30 now.
I'm still not in the best shape I've been but my head's a lot clearer than it was yesterday, the coughing's less rough and less frequent, and so I hope I can handle the upcoming Friday. It's not going to be a smooth ride, from the looks of it:
First there's the print shop, where I have to get a booklet printed, and also hand over the Str!pdagen booklet files again for a second printing (for the Probeersel.com artists only) as well as several business cards (again, for the Probeersel artists). I also have to shop for a birthday present, and then I have to be back at home by noon, because somewhere between noon and 6 the ADSL man is visiting to set my access up. I could do this myself, no doubt, but I'm ill and I have better things to do with my time than fiddle with that stuff when a pro can just come by and do this for me, for a relatively sweet price. While he (or she, but statistically these people are most commonly male) is messing with the modem and my PC I'll be perfecting a new storyboard for The Grim DotCom as well as attempting to come up with another one, so I can draw Saturday and keep the illusion of a backstash going. Then after 6 (or earlier, depending on when ADSL-man is done) I have to hurry and get all the groceries for next week in da house, and once that's done, I have to be off to a birthday party I promised I'd go to (hence the birthday shopping early in the morning). I'm sure sleep and food have a place somewhere in that schedule, too. Normally a day like that would be a piece of cake for me (hell, aren't all my days like that lately ??) but as said, I'm still ill, so I hope I can handle it all. If not, it'll be the shortest birthday visit I've made in quite a while.
Now if you'll excuse me, my head is killing me and I could use at least a little bit of sleep before all this madness commences.