Adventures of the Smart Patrol

This week has passed by at about the expected pace. My legs are still sore and I've just gotten back from fishing, again, at the usual location of some culverts so as to allow for car travel. It's really amazing how the fish here will go after most any kind of lure I've tossed in, yielding some easy fried lunch. They say you shouldn't eat too many fish out of these lakes, due to heavy metal contamination. There's precautions aboutany things these days, from cellphones causing cancer to soy products resulting in sterility. Oh well, regardless, it was a tasty fish.

One more day of this, and maybe I'll actually keep routinely checking LJ after this as opposed to going back to my "quarterly posting."

I suppose if I wanted to be possitive, I could remark on the pleasent temperature out here, but to be honest, the weather in Flodida never bothered me to begin with. But, oh well, flight is in one leg departing at 5pm. So it's around 5 hours if driving, 3 hours of flying, then I'm home by the evening.

Maybe I'll keep up reading in long sittings as well when I get back, but we'll see if the temptation to stay online just IMing is too much to maintain any productivity. Also, around two weeks to go until I get my flight to Manitoba... really need to finalize plans. I've got the funds, just need to know where I'll be staying and all.

I really can't wait to be out of here as well. Bring holed up in a room for 18 hours at a time is sounding really nice right about now.

I got the book, Mandi! Thank you so much!

I was going to work entirely from home today, but I've suddenly got some errands to run. So, I'm headed downtown. I'll likely be there when Julie gets off work ("Can I have a ride, Honey?").

For a couple of my jobs I need to get myself:

1. A nice binder of some sort
2. Some good celtic knotwork clipart (I've already searched the web exhaustively, now its time for books)
3. A shipping box for that framed drawing I did yesterday.

I still have some artwork to draw:

1. 2 HFRs
2. Jessie's tattoo
3. Bethanie's commission
4. Matt's commission
5. CT's commission
6. Chris's logo
7. Something kind of naughty that I have in my head

I hope to work on three of these today. So you'll probably find me down at the Drop at some point with my portable studio, a refill cup o' drip, and four chocolates.

Man, I've really gotta get rolling on that Harmless Free Radicals collectible ceramic coffee carafe selection!

Why we even let this guy open his dumb mouth I don't even know. I'm no Obama or McCain supporter, but I get tired of this kind of rhetoric being spouted by people with no authority to back their opinions. This guy really needs to stop Godwining himself to oblivion and just stick to what he's good at - economics.

Julie and I have our radio set to go off in the morning to wake us up, and we have it set to KGMI for that "local" news. They've gone through a lot of changes in the last few months, probably part of the whole industry shake-up going down with news in general. Anyway, they've started to become rather repetitive lately. It used to be that you'd hear relatively new headlines every morning. Granted, they were still the same headlines as what were on the front page of the local daily, but at least they were usually different. As far as I can tell, this week is the first week in which the headlines were the same all week long.


And the two headlines that made it the entire week were:

Businesses are cutting more jobs.

Inflation is coming! Inflation is coming!


Every fucking morning, first thing, the message was, "You are not going to be able to afford your food."

Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:13:28 -0700 (PDT)

From: "paul doyle" <paul_joeyd@sbcglobal.net> View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert

Subject: Doyle, Paul J. - Fiction -Science Fiction - Telkar Chronicles, Book One

To: acquisitions@atlasvariety.com
Dear Sir or Madam:

"Telkar Chronicles: Book One" is the working title of the first volume in a centuries-spanning series about Phil Telkar, who (at first) is a young man with extraordinary, hereditary powers which bring his imagination to life on a grand scale. He has no control over these powers once activated, and they have proven to be tremendously taxing. The notion of “playing God” stings him deeply, because he only wants to do the right thing. Since his powers have cost him so much—a normal childhood, a close-knit supportive family and a positive outlook on life in general—he is deeply troubled by them, even though these same powers have also been redeeming and uplifting on other occasions.

In "Telkar Chronicles: Book One" Phil Telkar is struggling, a well-meaning loser going through a very tough stretch of life. Not only has he dropped out of college, but he is now jobless and homeless. Phil has serious problems with his uncle---his former guardian---who once had similar powers to Phil and is in league with the antagonist of the novel, a deeply flawed creation of Phil’s who refuses to make the most of his uniqueness and instead seeks revenge on his “Creator.” The antagonist reluctantly runs a paramilitary organization that came to life when he did, but he is neglecting his leadership duties to exact his revenge.

In the first few chapters of the novel Phil reaches a personal crossroads, and once again finds himself tempted to use his powers for the first time since his adolescence. This is also aggravated and intensified by the happy reunion with an ex-girlfriend who knows most of Phil’s most intimate secrets including his powers. Phil submits to temptation, and uses his powers for what he hopes will be the last time. What follows is an entertaining, character-driven adventure filled with aliens, futuristic dragons, companionship, tragedy and passion. I definitely hope you will consider publishing my first novel.

Sincerely,

Paul J. Doyle.

WOW are publishers picky and particular about query letters, but I'm seeing where they are coming from. I'm currently looking at this major publisher's guidelines:


http://www.atlasvariety.com/submissions.html

Expect the following "rough" form letter (written a few years ago, when my real life had become far too stressful and involved for me to properly concentrate on my "serious" writing) to be heavily edited---sliced and diced, dissected and bisected and vivisected:

---

11 January 2007

Dear ________

I am Paul J. Doyle, the writer (and the illustrator) of Telkar Chronicles: Book One (the working title), the first volume of a planned five-novel sequence. Having registered the copyright of Telkar Chronicles: Book One with the Library of Congress in 2005, I am now seeking to get the novel published commercially, and also desire a contract for the remaining four novels which are all in various stages of development including the completion of the first two chapters of the second novel. The word count of Telkar Chronicles: Book One is approximately 346,600 words, and the novel also has several pen and colored pencil illustrations, not included in the Library of Congress copy, which may or may not be included in the final form.

The whole five-novel sequence is science fantasy, beginning in present-day New Mexico and increasingly moving offworld to more exotic locales. There are spaceships, dragons, aliens and high technology throughout, though at first this is not apparent. The sequence is about a young twenty something man named Phil Telkar who has extraordinary, hereditary powers which bring his imagination to life on a grand scale. He had no control over these powers once activated, and they have proven to be tremendously taxing. He tampers with the natural order and alters the course of history, and the powers only become stronger as he reaches adulthood. Because he is basically a good person with a strong conscience he fears using the powers again, even as he realizes this stuff will always be part of his life. The notion of “playing God” stings him deeply, because he only wants to do the right thing. Because his powers have cost him so much—a normal childhood, a close-knit supportive family and a positive outlook on life in general—he is deeply troubled by them, even though these same powers have also been redeeming and uplifting on other occasions.

In Telkar Chronicles: Book One Phil Telkar is struggling, a well-meaning loser going through a very tough stretch of life. Not only has he dropped out of college, but he’s also lost his job in a valley where unemployment is rampant and is sleeping on the couch of a well-to-do friend who is rapidly running out of patience. Phil is rapidly withdrawing from reality and neglecting his hygeine, and begins having a series of visions. Phil has serious problems with his uncle, his former guardian, who once had similar powers to Phil and is in league with the antagonist of the novel, a flawed creation of Phil’s who refuses to make the best of his uniqueness and instead seeks revenge on his “Creator.”

Phil has a vibrant imagination and loves to write and draw, though his uncle has interfered with his simple happiness. He is not trying to steer Phil toward a stable income that pays the bills, but is acting out of anger and jealousy which has built up tremendously since Phil’s actions forced him to become his guardian, many years ago. More than anything else, Phil’s uncle is trying to undermine and break his will, and then deliver him to the novel’s obsessed antagonist. The antagonist runs a paramilitary organization but is neglecting his leadership duties to exact his revenge against Phil Telkar. Once Phil is aware of this, later in the story, Phil confronts the antagonist in an effort to reconcile and heal, just as Phil himself only wants to reconcile and heal, and move on from his unremitting vicious cycle of hurt and guilt.

In the first few chapters of the novel Phil reaches a personal crossroads, and once again finds himself tempted to use his powers for the first time since his adolescence. This is also aggravated and intensified by the happy reunion with an ex-girlfriend who knows most of Phil’s most intimate secrets including his powers. Phil will never understand exactly why she takes so much interest in him, until much later in the novel. She will be part of his destiny. Just before he completely breaks down losing his composure, Phil yields to his temptation to try to undo all the damage he has unwittingly caused over the years (revealed in a lengthy, vivid flashback to various points in his childhood). He uses his powers again, and instead of making his life ever more complicated and miserable, he makes the life of the rest of the world more complicated and miserable, thereby setting up the stage for four more novels.

When Phil resumes consciousness after being wholly overwhelmed by the power streaming from within, he immediately decides life is worth living, even as he realizes the other shoe (shoes, actually!) have yet to drop. He meets a character he had been thinking about, writing about, and drawing for years, generally in private. Jak’edrac sel’Gury is a seventy-foot male gold dragon from a futuristic world where humans and dragons live in relative harmony though the dragons are fully sentient, have their own civilization and are quite often opposed to human interests. On Jak’edrac’s world, this dysfunctional harmony is mutual.

Fortunately, Jak’edrac is not only a “good” dragon character who can think and talk, but he is also comfortable with humans. He is also extremely grateful to Phil, even though Phil can’t help but wonder if his new dragon friend has his own agenda. Yet Jak’edrac only wants to get home to his mate-for-life, but he realizes he won’t get very far if he doesn’t cooperate with Phil and his small group of tight-knit friends. He also eases Phil into a drastically changed reality, and is a towering pillar of support when Phil would have otherwise given up on himself and committed suicide, even though he has rekindled his interest with the ex-girlfriend who knows so much about him. Yet as charismatic Jak’edrac may be, he is hindered by several bad circumstances which are exacerbated by his association with Phil Telkar. Ultimately the dragon’s desire to return “home” becomes a common interest, and as living on Earth becomes dangerous for Phil and his friends, the vengeful antagonist makes his move, and exacts his revenge by taking advantage of Phil’s powers and using them for his own agenda—even as the antagonist falls in love with a crucially important alien created by Phil’s uncle decades ago and accidentally brought to Earth with the rest of its kind, by Phil. By identifying with the alien—the antagonist, as previously stated, is not a “natural” human—starts appreciating his existence, even as the alien gently manipulates him for the benefit of its displaced race, and does not love him in return.

Ultimately everything revolves around Phil in this novel, and indeed in this entire novel sequence, which will span several centuries and will be filled with adventure and intrigue, love and heartbreak, war and terror, and subtlety and incredible power. I intend it to be vastly entertaining and intriguing, and to be popular with critics and readers alike.

*****NOTES*****

This novel sequence is intended to be marketed toward the18-50 age group, to both men and women, to readers with at least high school education, to genre fans in particular but also to general audiences as this story is ultimately about a small number of characters, above all else. It does explore some controversial topics, has a few unsettling scenes, and has moderate to high levels of sex and violence, adult language and adult themes. Though the seperate artwork need not be included in the novel, it is essential the novel itself not be subject to drastic editing and truncation, though it is certainly a lengthy, complicated novel with a simple core. I do want to create a permanent name for Telkar Chronicles: Book One , but that can be negotiated when the time is right.

I have not published the novel online or anywhere else, although I have book illustrations published on several online art galleries. I consider myself a writer first and foremost, with my art abilities of secondary importance.

This link is from the Swedish-based e-community, Elftown. It is a small wiki-page which contains some information regarding the novel:

http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/_pauly's book stuff

Elfwood Wyvern’s Library page, currently the only place on the Internet outside of Elftown where I publish my writing. Do note this stuff is experimental in nature, and I have no immediate intentions of getting any of it published traditionally, at least for the time being! In the next few months I will be updating this page with about a dozen new entries I have written over the past few years. It includes two poems related to the novel sequence, which are not part of the novel sequence itself.

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/libr/p/j/pjdoyle/pjdoyle.html

Art gallery links which contain novel artwork. Again, my artwork is secondary to my writing, though I put much less of my writing online, than I do with my artwork.

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/p/j/pjdoyle2/pjdoyle2.html
http://pauldoyle.deviantart.com/
http://paul.doyle.sheezyart.com/
Thank you for reading this, and I will see to it your interest is worthwhile.
Sincerely,


Paul J. Doyle

---

Naturally, the "rough" query letter IS way too long, so I'll condense the dickens out of it, so I can fit the guidelines of various publishers and agents

Re-reading stuff written in the past, particularly stuff you wrote and thought was awesome at the time, can be awkward and potentially humiliating if someone else has read it. For example, previous drafts and attempts of my first novel are variously hokey, ludicrous, stilted (because I was still developing my "voice") and clearly reflected someone who was ages 13, 15-17, 18-19, 20-21, and 23-24 when I wrote them in 1987, 1988-90, 1992-3, 1994-95 and 1997-8.

This full, complete version's rough was written in 2002-3, and the "final" version was written from late 2003 until 24 March 2005.

There are lots and lots of reasons why I will not elaborate on the plot and particulars, because I have intentionally done an Internet "black-out". Otherwise, a sanitized version of my novel would be on Elfwood Wyvern's Gallery (my original Elfwood account) and the full, R-rated version would be on DeviantArt as well as my own (yet-to-be-developed) website. So to avoid problems with the publishers (who generally will not publish things previously published on-line), I have to limit myself to a few public illustrations (all of which I could now improve upon, given the time), as well as little ramblings here and there that do not actually give away that much.

I so WANT the entire thing to be public, but I also firmly believe in selling big without "selling out". So how to solve the dilemma?

I'm so excited about this novel (despite the aforementioned minor continuity glitches and the annoying WordPerfect10-induced typographical errors) that I'm getting off my ass and starting the publisher/agent shopping process tonight!

overheard while breezing through VS @ Southcenter on a mission:

You know, after 43 years my wife still likes to play games.

Whoa ho. Ha ha. Awww.

I've lost more than 10 kilos so far this year.
Now my pants keep falling down.

Hey for all my artsy friends, or friend who know know artsy people. I'm aggressively looking for someone to commission a character sheet of GMD. Preferably a 'sharp' art style, something like this. I just don't want something too terribly toony looking, or cutesy. Also preferably at least a 3/angles view character sheet (maybe a unique headshot view or something to help with the details of the head too.)

If you know anyone who is taking character sheet commissions or you yourself are up for it please say something. ^^ Thanks!

And here it is, today's moment of zen:



(Source)

squeeeeeee theres a proof ready to go seeeeeee in the morning!!!

Based on the time and energy it took me to do it, this is what I should be shooting for when I agree to do a drawing for $25:



As I get better, the time it will take to do that will go down. I'll let the quality improve from there, too, but that's a good baseline. (BtW: There was no measuring or use of any planning tool other than graphite in that one. Totally freehand from a reference photo of queenfrizzle)

Does anybody want their drawing to look like that?

Of course, I can always work in other media, too. But I need to find the baselines for pencil, charcoal, crayon, and mixed stuff. That should be my assignment for next week.

Tomorrow, I'm going to put $25 worth of coloring into it.

And speaking of coloring, here's my first test with doing watercolor on vellum finish bristol cardstock:



Serviceable. Especially if I trim off the warped edges. I've been giving myself quite a margin with some of my latest work. Makes it easier to frame and sometimes gives me a testing space. I also have better colors available than these. I'm still not happy with the leaves. I may use acrylic for those.

Oh, right, and I've got these nifty, accidentally distressed frames! They're free to anyone who buys a 7" x 5" drawing from me:

celtic_tiger, I just did the roughest of preliminary sketches, basically circles, lines and rough outlines of the characters, and I am already in love with this drawing!

I shouldn't say more, I should just get back to work, but it isn't really often I get to draw two people caught in the act of being affectionate!

I should really draw this sort of thing more often.

Hi,

Are there any LiveJournal API that will allow me to read and update user's profile, as well as photos?  I took a look at http://www.livejournal.com/developer/, but didn't find too much about actually profiles there.

Thank you.

Its been raining all day and has thusfar been a good excuse to sleep in. In these storming conditions, it's hard to stay online for more than five minutes. Good enough for email or writing this post, not good enough for IMing. It's just as well I can't hike, the current conditions would make it next to impossible anyways.

I've been working on "Collapse" off and on, without the same dedicated focus I gave to "Into Thin Air." I suppose it really is harder to focus in the rain. I'm around page 240, so that's a little less than half way through. It really is interesting how Easter Island, the Maya, Greenland Norse and others all fall into the same pattern of building up to a peak, destroying the enviornment, failure of food crops, warfare and canibalism. Jarrad Diamond also seems to enjoy making metaphorical connections between these isolated communities with complex interdependant economies to the interactions between the nations of Earth. It's almost unsettling really.

So yeah, just a couple days until I'm off for home, and a couple weeks after that when I'm planned to be on my way to Canada. At least that's a trip I'll thoroughly enjoy, regardless of the net connection or weather conditions!

Also, my headphones are broken. Just as well, I have trouble reading and listening to music at the same time. If I hear the noise of speach, I suppose I'm culturally engineered to focus on it rather than what I'm reading.

Also, a trip to Canada @_@
I'm honestly really excited about it. I really hope it all works out.

Denis and Anna from Art. Lebedev Studio welcome all interested parties to meet with them in New York and California in August, 5-10th and 10-13th respectively. We'd like to talk to those who can see Optimus Maximus as a software solution to their corporate projects, or as a new tech component in custom equipment. Please make sure to contact Anna now at ak@design.ru or call +1 702 4264-178 after August the 4th.

Hey kids... e-mailed some people, but there are more of you out here.

Turning 25 tomorrow. Getting some folk together at the Parkway Tavern in T-town at about 7 PM for quality chillaxin' time. And YOU are invited. That's right, YOU. Because YOU are special, and I value YOUR presence.

No really, I do. Even if I have rolled up all your existences into a single personal pronoun to make this easier to write.

Maybe Saturday I'll actually post a real post? Maybe...

Something I've come to realize just this year is that if I'm feeling down and unready to work, if I complain it makes it worse. If I don't complain, I have a strong chance of turning that feeling around within a couple of hours.

The result is that it has been something like eight or nine months since I've said the phrase "I don't feel like working today."

I have said variations of it, unwittingly. But that very phrase has been mentally verbotten, and to fairly good effect.

I know my dad has been repeating this advice since I got my first job, but it took me until around about last November or December to make the observation in myself.

It just reinforces an earlier realization I've had. Sometimes, all the advice in the world won't help, you just have to experience something for yourself 100 million times first before you can learn it.

Anyway, this morning is a particularly challenging morning. I intend to overcome it.

Let's see how many drawings I can draw at the same time!

Kate Beaton started a meme where you do a comic talking to yourself in the past, from the future... you know what I mean.




I shouldn't brag, but that came out pretty good for laying in bed at 2am, no pencils and only a office pen.

I should go to sleep.

More on the potential 1920s circus game! I figure that now I should give you more canon and information on the circus and what I have in my brain area.

See this post for additional information.

Right!

( History of this circus and how it functions. )

For the game to work at its opening, here is the list of cast members most immediately desirable and playable.

( Cast list again. )

Interested people means it's time to decide on a format. Here is what I have so far:

( Format of the game!!! )

If you still want in and want to brainstorm, here is your official (for now) application to reserve a spot. Just comment here with it. As I don't even know what to call the game yet, you're not in any rush to figure things out. If you want a spot reserved and have no ideas for the character yet, just let me know which spot you want and you can apply later.

If you want some inspiration, remember that some of these characters may have been second or more generation in the Brooks circus, or came from other circuses. Some might not know their birthdates ("freaks" especially). Some might not be able to read. Some might not yet speak a lot of English (Isabella included). Some might be nasty pieces of work. Some might not. Some might have a stage name. Some might not know their real name. You can play someone as young as four or as old as, well, old. If you want to put a character, such as members of a family or a best friend or an assistant, up for adoption, simply specify who they are and I'll stick them in the cast list and add who to contact for more information. There is no fantasy in the circus other than Isabella (for canonical reasons).

Again, anyone applying a character already in DL need not actually apply. We'll have NPC journals for audience members and non-circus people, so the only thing you need to worry about now are the one or two characters you wish to play.

<b>Your Name</b>: <b>Character Name</b>: <b>Birthdate</b>: <b>Circus act</b>: (what they are; e.g. clown, juggler, freak act of some nature, etc., etc.) <b>Mini bio</b>: (featuring appearance, personality, quirks, disorders if a 'freak', how they came to perform in circuses or something, etc.)

It would behoove you to make a LiveJournal for your character(s) now so I know who they are when they join later.

When there is something to actually join.

Specifics will be organized later. These are basic applications. We'll establish how they came to the circus as well as relationships and acts and where they live and whatnot down the road. Not too far down the road, but down the road.

If a character needs an assistant or apprentice role filled (we need one of each for the illusionist), please don't hesitate to tell me what you'd like so I can post more information and get someone to play. Or con someone you know into applying for the role.

Gameplay will not begin for a while, so there's no need to rush. I'm not looking to create a really intense game. Just something creative that builds upon itself.

It would also be snazzy to pimp this around so we get plenty of people. Bring in your friends!

(Circus history: here, here, here (1920s circus photos), here, here, and here.)

Been working a lot, so sleep and work take up a lot of my time of course (SecondLife takes up the rest for the most part recently these past few days). It's weird, before I had enough time in the world for anything. I couldn't remember how people could be busy until now.

So, I've penciled this sucker as a media study for a couple of my commissions. Now, I'm happy with the pencil work here and I know how I want to color the commissions, but I want to color this thing differently:



I want the original to be colored! Now, I could do it like those studies in my previous post. They look alright for the frame I'm aiming for, but for some reason the crayon is really dissatisfying to me. Unfortunately, I don't have any markers or pens to use of any sort. I do have some watercolors...

Anybody have any suggestions? Is there anything I should fix before coloring? Should I add the shading with pencil or pen?

As this is a practice piece, I'm willing to be challenged here.

I just finished the title transfer on my folk's 99 Ford Taurus so now that I've got a vehicle and insurance and got all the testing and licensing and paperwork behind me I am now finally free to drive other then needing to ration my miles due to $4.00 a gallon gasoline. It feels good to finally accomplish something I set out to do at least and hopefully should open some new opportunities to me.

Hellboy.
River Park Square.
Thursday, July 24, 2140 hours.
Gather at 2120 hours at the railing over the escalator, so we can get seats together.

-=TK

Trying a mix of pencil, ball point gell pen, cool grey Copic marker and crayon:



I think I've got a winner there for the technology, but I'm not happy with the leaf yet. I'll figure that out by the time I need it, though.

And here's something a bit more heavy handed:



What I'm doing here is testing to see if this technique looks good in a particular frame I have. I'm going to use this for at least one of my current commissions, too. You'll see the final product(s) today, most likely.

I am really surprised that jewelery designers and Bluetooth headset manufacturers haven't gotten together already. All the designs so far have been variations on the same couple of lozenge shapes, and have been the primary reason I haven't saved up to buy one yet. I refuse to have something that ugly hanging out of my ear.

I've been trying to come up with a design I'd be happy with, and have yet to visualize anything decent so far. But then, quipper pointed out that the new Jawbone is pretty snazzy. It is different, and it is definitely more of a step in the direction I'd like to see the designs go:

http://www.amazon.com/Aliph-Jawbone-Bluetooth-Headset-Packaging/dp/B000RZFNN2

So now that we have a base point to work off of, I thought I'd sketch up some of the ideas that have been in my head and brainstorm from there. I'm not sure I like what I came up with, but they're more interesting than most designs out there:



However, I'm also beginning to think that the reason headset designers have been so cautious so far is that with the bulkiness of the technology, doing anything that resembles a standard headset ends up looking remarkably phallic.

In any case, I really hope I see some more daring designs hit the stores, soon. Even cheap ones. I'd like to buy one someday, but something that doesn't look like what anybody else has.

My legs are unusually sore today. I woke up and actually have had to physcaly grasp and lift the right one just to get it on the couch. I'm sure it's all due to a hike I did yesterday. A lot of it was down an old railroad track with ties dated to 1924. Of course, to walk down it, one step invariably goes longer than the other, and given my left leg was injured to begin with, I undoubtably over-strained my right. What was the point of all of that? I wanted to see if I could get a cell signal anywhere, but two miles in the most "open" direction yielded no luck. And just about as much well spent effort on the ridges of several lakes.

Today it's a bit windier and somewhat cold... well, cold to a person like me anyways. The cloud cover has been thick and it's been threatening to rain all day long. I've spent most of the day thusfar laying on the couch, sipping a couple cups of tea and reading "Collapse" by Jarrad Diamond. I read the book before it, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" last summer, so I suppose after reading how societies formed, it's fitting to read how they fall apart. I'm around page 130 now, and it's a bit denser of a read than "Into Thin Air."

There's a pot of boche on the way, which will be quite nice as a "cold-day soup." I'm honestly kinds tired, but I suppose that is most likely due to the cold weather. Oh well. Today seems like it is to be a very out-of-contact, laying on the couch kinda day. Their satelite-based Internet access never fairs too well in even minor rainstorms.

Intact, it's dropped me for a couple auto-saves just in typing this.

At this rate, if my desktop can live for say, five more years (which it should be able to), then I'll be buying one of these instead of a new laptop in the next year or so.

In fact, it is such a good goal, I'm tempted to rework my whole budget right now! Instead, I am going to draw like a madman! The budget can be worked out after I've met the first goals I've set for myself.

Thank you Yahtzee for another hilarious review... XD

Part of a continuing series on incomprehensible signage and typography.

Seriously, I don't care what you say -- that sign clearly reads as "EWU DRIVE FOOD."

Hi All.

I want to write a simple utility (using Java) to upload pictures in LiveJournal Scrapbook directly from my PC (or, say, a cellphone???). I need some help to get started, i.e.

What documentation I should go through.
What APIs I can use.
The general method to accomplish what I intend to accomplish.

Just an outline would be enough; I will find out the rest.

Thanks.

Dexter.

Yep, another go at the grey wash technique...

I honestly just got up. I'd been rolling around in bed all day, usually waking up over-rested, then shifting to sleep some more. I have honestly been in a terrible mood for the whole durration of this trip, I just really don't want to be here. But, yeah, listen to me whine and bitch about it.

The plus side had been that the fishing is easy... too easy. They're practically jumping out of the water onto bare hooks. Guess they hate it here too.

On another hand, it is actually ammusing for more than fifteen minutes to watch some nature show about migratory birds, while listening to Napalm Death at deafening volumes. I guess I'll do that some more, that preening makes that goose look like he's really rocking out to this, instead of actually removing pathogenic parasites..... which are probably also rocking out on all eight legs.

So, while I do have some phone calls to make and some comics to deliver, because I'm so backed up with my drawing, I'm going to head down to the Drop this morning and draw there for a while first.

I've got a free coffee and I need a change of scene in order to focus. So, I hope the big round table up front is open for me when I get there!

To do:

1. HFR
2. Jessie's Tattoo
3. Chris's logo


I got a bunch of other stuff, but that's enough for this morning.

Unless, of course, you've paid attention when I link to gapingvoidtest, today's Harmless Free Radicals has a super obscure element to it. Though I've seen people laugh at it before they fully understand, so the timing's good.

Anyway, a footnote for the comic, then:

Hugh McCloud is a blogger that blogs about blogging. He also invented blogcards.

He actually has some pretty useful stuff to say, and even though the concept of his blog is pretentious as fuck, he does have a reasonable sense of humor about himself.

Still, his blogging sells Stormhoek wine, a Saville Row taylor's services, and Microsoft. Pretty high profile in the ol' bloggosphere, so he's a target.

And with an ounce of common sense. Here we go.


"McCain urges more drilling, blames Obama for high gas prices"--the Washington Post.


Now, I haven't been able to watch the video clip of this new ad by the McCain campaign to determine how implicit versus explicit this claim may be, but I urge you: really think about the claims candidates make about each other.

In this case: for a candidate to not support off-shore drilling now, does not correlate to a rise in gas prices that took place over the past year. Nor would it help for some time, because it takes time to get permits, time to scout locations, time to build rigs, time to start things pumping. At least a year, if not more.


There is no quick fix.

~ / BatJen

The laptop decided to stop booting from its HDD.

It won't recognise the drive at all; I don't know if it's the HDD that's borked, or the SATA controller onboard that's fried. All I know is that it froze on me, in the middle of the OS, and it won't recognise the HDD, even after a PRAM reset.

I hope that it's not a drive failure. I'd be annoyed at that, but that's only a weeks' worth of sporadic writing lost. Not terribly important, as everything terribly necessary is already backed up. It would still be annoying to reinstall everything. I'd actually be marginally pleased if it were a SATA controller failure, because that means the HDD probably still works, even if it means that it takes longer to repair the MacBook. If it is the SATA controller, that means the HDD its self hasn't failed yet, and all HDDs do fail eventually.

Unfortunately, I have no available 2.5" SATA drives or external drive enclosures with which to test, and I've spent a half-hour more than I should have on this. I'll let it cool down and try it again tomorrow afternoon.

At least I still have my desktop.

This first one has me goofing around with grey tone, using in this case watercolor pencils. I kinda stole this method from Miss Lasko Gross and her Escape From Special book, though to lesser effect and skill. Seeing as how the daily is an "exercise" in drawing, it's a good place to test run this look...

Optimus Pultius - a 15-keys addition to any keyboard. To be used with the Maximus or with any other non-display keyboard.

Optimus Pultius uses the same principles as Maximus, has the same display keys and the same set of ports on the back (using one instead of two additional USB hub slots).



Availability: end of 2008/early 2009.

The hippies used to say "Don't trust anyone over 30." But, being hippies and not computer programmers, they left a surprising amount of syntactical ambiguity in that statement. Even if we don't challenge the assumption that "thirty" refers to the number of Earth solar years since the target's birth, this still leaves the question of what the exact cutoff is, and to hold any sort of rational discussion about the topic, it's necessary to find a rigorous answer.

Linguistically, "over" implies strictly "greater than"; if "greater than or equal to" were intended, a phrase such as "at least" would have been more appropriate. So if we were writing pseudocode for a trust routine, it should look like:

if ($person.age_in_years > 30) then { $person.trust = 0; }

Even this doesn't answer the question: What is the precision of the comparison? Is someone "over" thirty when they are 30 plus a month? 30 plus a day? 30 plus an hour, a minute, a second, a nanosecond?

Tests of arbitrary precision could easily be constructed and executed, but this would then create a secondary dilemma: platform differences would not guarantee consistent trust results across runtime environments. For full RFC compliance, and to prevent security exploits in applications implementing trust webs, we must ensure that all interpersonal relationships are calculable in replicable ways regardless of native hardware. Removing the question of precision is recognized as the canonical response to this issue:

if ( int($person.age_in_years) > 30) then { $person.trust = 0; }

Which is a lengthy way of saying that, as of yesterday, you can no longer trust me.

--
Edited to add: No, I didn't just turn 30. ];=8) If int(baxil.age_in_years) needs to be strictly greater than 30, then 30 > 30 fails. Besides, I already turned 30 last year.