money dance

I think I broke my personal record for getting my tax refund back this year. It's already in my account. Yes, seriously.

On the agenda: new PC. I'm looking for a nice all in one package, a big monitor, huge storage, fast processor. Not for use on the interwebs or gaming. Will be used to host my huge production programs: the Animation Master suite, Manga Pro, Photoshop, you name it. Also my new writing production packs like Liquid Story Binder.

I'm building a workstation. For work. Not for play.

It's time I started getting into the business of business, and the creating of creating.

working on...

... getting the PauC website back online this month. Once I get that up and self sufficient again, I'll be able to concentrate on other projects. Whee!

This means creating two separate and distinct sites: the PauC site and the Arleneopedia site. This is what I intended to do in the first place (hence two blogs) and I do plan to reincorporate things so that this blog is actually part of the site and the other blog is part of the PauC site.

So, adventures in webpage coding and redesign! Whoopie. But progress is being made, or at least waved at.

More toward the end of the month.

New month, more plans!

This is new for me. Adding more projects onto the list while somehow not doing the old ones XD

By midmonth I should have two separate websites operational. The Pont-au-Change site should be up and alone by itself again, which is as it should be. My main site, arlenecharris dot com, should be its own separate site as well. My goal this year is to have both of them working pretty much on their own with little to no outside help, and both of them generating content. And, hopefully, income :-)

By midmonth I should have more info. Check here or the other blog at pontauchange.blogspot.com for updates, as I make them.

checking in

I've been:

1) playing around with art board. Fun! I wish I had a bigger screen to connect it to, though :-(
2) working on a group picture for PHX. Basically it's supposed to be the picture on the videogame box. It's very telling, and also very misleading. Which I like. When scanner gets hooked up again I'll put it up.
3) bought some books, including a kick-ass book on perspective, and how to do it. Not another "you'll get it when you get it" book, that treat perspective like a magic eye picture. No, this is a book that shows you if you draw line a to b and b to c, that point right in the middle is where you want to be. Just what I needed!
4) also got an old copy of Animation Master tutorial, that has in it a pre built wireframe of a cow. Oh hell yes, I am so doing CQ in CG!
5) pushed back the relaunch of the PauC website until Marius and Cosette's anniversary next month. Yeah, I know. But I want it to be decent, so.
6) there is no six. Of course. Well there are lots of them actually, but that's not at all funny.

Should have something concrete to write about by the end of the month.

oh, yeah:

7) started a new project, the 2yn, or two year novel. I figure that's slow enough it won't interfere with the other 8 million things to do. I'm designating this project not by its title but by the project name, 2yn. More on it when it actually becomes something other than an idea, a genre, and a title.

dangerous while bored

So, yesterday at work I was put on the "restaurant only" line for a couple of hours. Which is a much slower volume phone line than the show line. I say this because I didn't have anything to do for long stretches and forgot to bring a book or wheedle a newspaper off of anyone.

So I spent most of that time storyboarding a potential PHX graphic novel. Not working on the CQ one like I'll be doing in April. I'm very seriously considering doing both. I'm getting a little scatterbrained on the whole idea (you think? ;-) ) but it's getting more and more fun the more I get into the planning stages. My goal is to have a webcomic, either one, up and running by the end of the year. Whether it's CQ or PHX and whether it's manga style or fully rendered CGI (which is my first choice, but right now I could actually go either way)

I have character sheets and head turns for the CQ characters already done. I'm having issues with some of the PHX characters; the ones based on expys (like from Timeless, who I have drawn to death and back, both in Timeless and my old EQ fanzine) are fine but the new ones are having issues getting properly gelled. So. That's my next priority on that side.

I need time to get up to speed using both the manga illustrator and the CG program. I also need to get a computer I can work on. Putting it all on the laptop is dangerously irresponsible; not only do I take this places which means it might go missing or whatnot, but also people are stupid with drinks in their hands and I do not trust them (which is why I do not take this to the coffee shop if at all possible). I need a workhorse, immobile system. I'm working on procuring that.

After that, we start working on the nuts and bolts of actual creation, and the creation of the actual nuts and bolts.

I'm probably going to drive myself crazy, but I've got a full tank of gas and an open road, so may as well put the top down and the stereo up while I'm doing it. What's the worst that could happen?



uh...

January 10

One year ago today.

I miss you, Mom.

5 Things That Can't Be Copyrighted

Including this post's title!

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/01/08/5-things-that-cant-be-copyrighted/

I knew about 1, 2, and 4, but not 3 and (surprisingly) 5. And the fashion industry is rampant with copying and outright design theft, you'd think they'd want to put some legislation on that. Unless it's more fun to rip off the person who ripped you off last season? Ad infinitum? Yeah, thought so :-)

I recommend this website for very important and sound information.