Slow Progress Is Better Than No Progress

[the_gneech]

It's been a less-than-productive day here. The good news is, I'm on page 33 of Tough Breaks. The bad news is, pages 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, and 31 have not been done, because the high-res strips are missing and have to be recreated.

See, the usual strip-creating process is, I draw it, I scan it at high-res and pour it into a template, then I upload a flattened version to katayamma's server, where he snags it, colors it, and shrinks down a web-sized copy for the site (usually after we haggle about using earthtones instead of funky dayglo colors, and he pesters me to run high-res versions instead). However, in late 2002/2003, there were several strips that, for various reasons, Hikaru didn't color, so the only high-res copies were on my secondary hard drive.

The one, you may remember, which unexpectedly died in 2003, with only partial backups.

So, for all of these strips that I colored, I will need to make a list of the ones that are missing, sift through all my old bristols to find the originals (hooray for me being too lazy to sell my old strips!), re-scan 'em, and post 'em up for Hikaru to re-color.

It'll keep him busy, anyhow! ;) But it means I haven't achieved as much as I would like to have.

Also, today, I decided I would go over to Game Parlor to take a look at Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the non-d20 original) to see if it would be a good medium for a slightly-less-simplistic version of Teenagers From Outer Space. No luck, they didn't have it. And hantamouse, who I'd hoped would lend me his, turns out didn't have a copy. So, nothing accomplished there, either.

Finally, since it was a bright, sunny, breezy March day, lythandra and I decided to take a break and try out some kites we bought a little while back. Once we got the complex contraptions assembled, we tried for about half an hour or 45 minutes to get them into the air ... alas, they're large and heavy kites, requiring minimum sustained winds of 7 m.p.h. or higher. While we did have some fairly high gusts, there were none that lasted long enough to get the kites above the 20' or so ceiling they'd need to stay in the air without assistance. So, that was another bust.

While we were out there, some moron riding past in a car yelled out at us, "Hey, you $&@%^#* niggers!" 0.o Given that Laurie and I are both ruddy-skinned, red-haired anglo-celtic types, this seemed a particularly bizarre taunt. I know the psychology behind it, of course -- it was some jerkoff trying to score points in front of his equally jerkoff coterie riding in the car with him by seeming daring, and it didn't matter who or what he was yelling at. He was just spouting the most offensive thing he could think of ... sorta like an internet troll, actually. 9.9

I had a friend -- briefly -- in high school who would pull this kind of idiotic stunt, and then get all huffy when I told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of it. I'm sure that to this day, he thinks I have no sense of humor ... whereas I think he's a pathetic little prick. As I say, it was a short friendship. But I digress.

So anyway, it's been a less-than-fulfilling day ... but I still have a few hours of potential productivity left, so I'm going to do what I can in them. Wish me luck! And thank you for not being like that moron, I appreciate it. :)

-The Gneech

EDIT: Laurie says, "Were they yelling at us, or the other car?" I didn't see any other car, but I suppose if there was one, that might make it a little less nonsensical. No less obnoxious, tho.

Comments

[frostdemn.livejournal.com]

*blink*
An internet-troll-like person... off the net? Goodness! XP
Hope the business isn't too much, Gneech! I wanna help somehow!
Keep it up and you go show 'em how it's done!

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Hoping that the speed of the car would provide the same sort of protection as the internet's distance.

It doesn't always work. ];-)

===|==============/ Level Head

[stilghar.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see them try a stunt like that in, say, Harlem or South Central L.A.

Enough handguns fired at once can closely resemble automatic weapons fire...

[level-head.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking. As Heinlein put it, and armed population is a polite population. And Conan the Barbarian observed in one of the books that barbarians are more polite than civilized folk, as the civilized people could insult each other without having their heads bashed in as a general rule.

===|==============/ Level Head

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

Guardians of Order has a PDF download of Big Eyes, Small Mouth for free, you know. Might be worth a look...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Not any more, that was a limited-time promotion.

(You can get the d20 version under the OGL, but that's not what I'm looking for.)

Thanks anyhow!

-TG

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

The proper word for those folk isn't "troll". It's "asshole".

It's okay, Gneech. I've gotten mistaken for Black a few dozen times. And I have brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Heck, I wouldn't object to being mistaken for black, although I might question the person's grip on reality. I do object to the mindset that thinks it's jolly fun to go around spewing racial slurs out car windows at random passers-by. Or just spewing racial slurs generally. Fer cryin' out loud, we should be long past that crud by now.

(Heck, I don't see how even the most frothing bigot could manage to feel like anything but a goofball after, say, Blazing Saddles. But I am frequently astounded by people's ability to take themselves seriously.)

-TG

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

*smiles and shrug*

I don't mind being mistaken for black, either. But I don't understand spewing slurs, either.

Some of us have grown beyond it. I think that we who have grown are a lot happier because of it. But we've got a long way to go, still.

[mooncat.livejournal.com]

I do object to the mindset that thinks it's jolly fun to go around spewing racial slurs out car windows at random passers-by.

*nods*
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers twits. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West East Coast. You know... morons." ;)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Should I be worried that I really do have a friend called Mongo?

-TG

[mooncat.livejournal.com]

Nah, unless you're in the habit of sending Candy-Grams ;)

[kesh.livejournal.com]

Hold off on buying BESM. The new edition will be out later this year. Among other things, it's apparently going to change from a roll-under system to a roll-over system. Which I personally am thankful for.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Actually, looking over some reviews, I don't think BESM is going to be what I want anyway. I'm looking for a fast "rules lite" sort of game, but one that's not quite as lite as the original TFOS (which basically consists of "roll 1d6 and add a stat, vs. a difficulty of 1-10").

-TG

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

*drives by your LJ* You big you you, you! -Frisk ;)

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

=:O

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I resent that! I'm not a you, YOU are!

-The Gneech

[canisrufus-uk.livejournal.com]

You are all you, I am me :P