ambivalence in absentia ... how much can you really expect?



blog

2012.09.24: after what has been a nearly terminal hiatus, i've finally drawn a few more strips. the end is nigh. i read through to the end and i'd still rate it at around 95% funny, so i have high hopes that it actually gets finished one day ... we'll see though ;)

2011.07.11: i just drew #369 (hehe, yay for multiples) and going strong ... not sure how many more i have left to do (given that i'm away from my web server and am too lazy to count), but i sure am getting tired of drawing that damned vampire. i like the interludes ... far fewer lines and much less precision required ... which is little more than further proof that i'll never do anything more complex than stick figures ... it's up to you as to whether that's a good thing or not ... meh ... back to drawing ;)

2011.06.28: soooo ... that little bit of resolve didn't last very long ... now, i find myself once again bored, with my graphics tablet plugged into my laptop and a near fatal case of boredom ... i've drawn a strip ... i really would like to finish this project ... i haven't truly finished very many things in my life, so despite the realitive ease of this one, i would still be proud of completion ... we'll see ...

2011.01.13: a bit belated at this point, but happy new year again. there was a relatively long drought there were i put aside the comic for other ventures. then, one day, i was sitting with my laptop open, graphics tablet plugged in ... was bored and started browsing through old files and, of course, found my way to the aia folder ... started reading through "the future" (the written but not yet drawn strips) and discovered that i enjoyed them just as much as i had when i'd first written them ... so, i picked up the pen and went to work. in the past few days, i've managed to upload quite a few new strips. my new years resolution this year is to complete this project. yes, that does mean there's an end coming. i never announced it, but i've written the last strip. don't expect anything overly epic, but there is closure.

2010.04.12: to anyone that's paid even marginal attention, it's obvious that I haven't managed to keep up the comic output from last year. There have been a lot of contributing factors, but I think the bigest one has to be the death of my primary desktop. it's just not the same drawing on the laptop. also, i hit a long series of strips that required drawing yumi in nearly every frame. that gets tiring. i know you look at it and probably say, "wow, you suck at life if you can't even draw a head and some hair four times." ... well, doing the hair is way more intensive than anything else found thus far as a repeating element in this comic. so, it's definitely a detractor from progress, but i've finally made it through the yumi section, so hopefully things will pick up from here.

on a completely unrelated note, i've been considering doing up some posters featuring the characters of the comic. would you buy one? i didn't think so, but i figured it'd be worth asking. i've also considered selling prints, but i don't think there's anyone out there who'd be interested in buying one of those either. don't worry though. i'm not hurting for money or anything ... i.e. you won't see adds appearing on this site.

on a semi-related-to-the-first-part note, it's been a real struggle, but all of the written-waiting-to-be-drawn strips now have flavour text. woot!

2010.01.03: happy new year everyone! my new year's resolution is to keep my comic output similar to that of the previous year. if i can keep this going, it'll be the longest running, nearly continous project i've ever worked on! woot.

2009.11.21: so, it took me a couple of days to put together, but in celebration of my 300th comic, i have filled in all of the remaining flavour text for the old comics! i suggest going back and re-enjoying all of them. i know i'm going to!

2009.11.19: wow, 300. i can't believe this project has made it this far. you'll have to excuse me for being proud of myself for making it this far on a single project. i've been doing this for over a year now and though i'm pretty far off my 1 strip per day mark, i'm just happy that it's still going. i hope everyone out there is enjoying reading them as much as i'm enjoying writing and eventually drawing them. here's to the next 300!

2009.11.17: to complete my transition from photoshop to inkscape, i have redone the banner in inkscape, so there is no longer any need for me to ever go back into photoshop for this comic. the old (done in photoshop) strips are permanent, meaning they will never be edited again. i have no desire to ever boot into windows again and this is just another step along that path. woo for freedom!

i also added a subtle gradient to the background of the page. honestly, i was tired of staring at the solid colour and wanted to cut off the corners, battlestar style (i might remember the name of that by the end of this, but i doubt it), but i think that effect is a little over used in my work, and i didn't want to have to rework the way the edge gradients are done, so i guess it's a mix of a need for change and general laziness. despite its origin, i think the change is for the best. we'll see how i feel about after it's been there for a while though.

2009.11.12: all (personal) blog entries should be hand written. it adds a significant level of personalness back to them that plain text is otherwise completely missing ... yes, i know that i'm making an argument for hand written blog entries in plain text and no, i don't care. and by, "making an argument for", i guess i really mean "just saying" since aside from the single reason, i haven't really argued for it too much ... oh well. 2 cents added.

2009.11.12: nothing to worry about

2009.11.09: updated thoughts

2009.10.14: 250 ... wow ... that's half way to 500 ... which is half way to 1000 ... which has four digits in it ... and that means something ... because it's a power of 2 ... though not a very high one ... (4, not 1000).

2009.10.05: second thoughts

2009.09.05: graphic drivel part ii

2009.08.26: so, as i'm sure you've noticed, i switched up the art style. in reality, all i did was switch programs, but the end result was a new art style. i've transitioned off of photoshop, since it was massively excessive for what i was (am) doing and have started using inkscape, a cross platform, open source, vector drawing program. now, you (as i was) might be wondering what the hell i need vectors for. as it turns out, it makes some of the stuff i do a lot easier, especially, the post processing. if, after i'm done, i want to move a letter inside a word just ever so slightly, i no longer have to worry about drawing a lasso around the letter and moving it over and overwriting pixels from the surrounding letters. instead, i just click on it (which selects it because it's a vector, not just a bunch of pixels) and move it around as i see fit. it also opens the door to other cooler post processing effects such as the madness seen in strips 215, 217, and 225. inkscape has an amazing set of filters that i'll be making use of as appropriate. don't worry though; i'll use them sparingly. other than that, yes, i'm aware that i'm 6 months behind in drawing and 3 months behind in writing ... and no, i still don't care, so deal. enjoy.

2009.08.24: graphic drivel

2009.04.12: it's not very often you get to say "merry christmas" and "happy easter" on the same, day, but the fates have aligned just for such an occurrence to have ... uhh ... occurred. so there you go, i uploaded the strip from christmas on easter ... herpy chreastermas. (hope that wasn't too blasphemous to those that actually care about such things.)

2009.03.05: thanks to the magic of php's sparse arrays, flavour text is now included with as many strips as i feel like adding some to.

2009.02.22: decemeber is so close, i can smell it ... good god i'm behind in the drawing ...

2009.02.10: web comics are fun. the longer the web site lasts, the more "features" it grows. or at least, that's the way it's working with mine. i can't really speak for other web comics since i only administer my own ... and the fun may only be because i am both the artist and the web master, but i couldn't care less why it's there; simply noting that it is.

2009.02.06: 97 ahead and counting! woooo!

2009.02.03: to all of my (imaginary) loyal reader(s), the comic is in some what of a renaissance at the moment. there is enough shit in my life to give me content for the next two hundred strips. enjoy it while it lasts. i'll be publishing as many as i can every day.

2009.02.02: yesterday was a very exciting day for the comic. i wrote 10 straight. i'm now a week ahead and 91 behind. woot! to anyone that doesn't think that all great art is reaped from suffering or that the introduction of drugs (alcohol being the drug of choice last night) doesn't greatly increase the probability of artistic production, i must say, "ha! you are so incredibly wrong that i'll probably have to write a comic about it!" i know, it wasn't quite as strong as you were expecting, but that's the way it goes. i don't have a whole lot to leverage against that breed of unbeliever.

on a side note: i just got through drawing the first few strips with the character four in them. if i dare say so, this is a very exciting time for the comic. it marks a decided step in the evolution of its content. i hope you enjoy the madness.

2009.01.27: draw two, write four, still behind in both. i'm tempted to say that i can't win, but i put myself in the situation, so ... i win! if you were expecting the previous few thoughts to make any sort of sense, i'd be tempted to say that you're reading the wrong blog. may i suggest you go back to the comic?

2009.01.22: and i'm behind in writing again. is anyone surprised? 'cause i'm sure as hell not.

2009.01.10: elevation sucks. i was born at sea level. i was raised at sea level. i bloody damn well belong at sea level.

2008.12.29: i'm on travel and i feel as though i should apologise to the few readers that i have. my laptop has a wide screen and thus my graphics tablet is unhappy with the proportioning (for those that can't believe that i would waste a graphics tablet on this comic: get over it). the difference is really noticeable in the text in strip #102 (to me at least). i'm slowly getting used to it, but it's still a bit odd using only a portion of the tablet to draw on screen.

2008.12.20: in case you didn't notice, i uploaded a new banner for the site. i think it looks a lot better than the old plain text one that was there previously. i hope you agree, because i'm not taking it down.

2008.12.15: so ... today's my birthday ... i've gone around the sun one more time and still have yet to accomplish most of what i set out to do ... as one of my good friends said recently, i'd be a force to be reckoned with if i could ever be held to a hard deadline. luckily (for the rest of you i suppose) the creative world has a large tolerance for not completing works when intended. so yeah, here's to another year of lack of accomplishment ... may i have many more.

2008.12.07: for the first time in a long time, the writing is caught up! woot. now to see how long this lasts.i give it a week ... or at least through tomorrow, as that's how far i've written to.

2008.12.05: in the future, i should probably refrain from making so many posts in one day, though i can't really come up with a good supporting argument. it's just a feeling. and if we learned anything from star wars, it's that we should trust our instincts ... god i wish i listened to them more often.

2008.12.05: hey look, i added an faq.

2008.12.05: i thought about adding a hit counter to the site to see how many people where reading the comic, but then i realised that i would have a hard time filtering out the all of the hits that i make. and i figured it'd be a bit depressing that even if i could discount my own hits, i'd probably be removing 90 some odd percent of the total. so i shall leave it as a mystery and simply hope that there is more than just me out there that likes the comic.

2008.12.05: i made a lot of progress today and hit a new low all at once. wrote 8 strips and subsequently became over 40 behind for drawing. Why does all progress seem to accomplish little more than inducing the need for more work?

2008.12.01: it snowed three times today ... and none of it stuck. what the fuck?

2008.11.28: for the interested: yes, i am aware that "normalicy" is not a word. i am a writer. i take certain privileges with my language of choice. if you have a problem with that, go read something more "correct". and i leave you with one of my favourite quotes, "those whom i hate most, are they who are so uncreative as to only be able to think of one way to spell a word."

2008.11.27: i've always found witting to be therapeutic. no matter how shitty i feel, just getting it out on paper (or typing) has always helped. my life is so unimaginably good and yet so painfully horrible as to rival the setup of some epic greek tragedy. i continually find difficulty meshing the two. the ease and privilege of one half is thrown into sharp contrast by the (mostly self inflicted) pain and reality of the other. to make things absolutely perfect, i can't even talk about the later half. for the protection of all those involved, i am forced to suffer in silence, pretending that everything is normal and ok ... oh, did you think this blog was only about the comic? sorry, this is my outlet, but i shall now return you to your regularly scheduled normalicy.

2008.11.10: i have developed the solution to any stuck series. the comic had suffered a loss in direction for a few weeks. but not to worry, for that problem has been thoroughly solved with the introduction of a new character. it worked the first time. it worked the second time. it should work a third time. if any of you have been so unfortunate as to have suffered through watching the show heroes, you know i speak the truth.

2008.11.09: there, it's been uploaded. you're pants should be squarely where ever you like them.

2008.11.09: yes, it's been a while since i uploaded a comic. no, it hasn't been abandoned yet. yes, i know that means i'm more than a month behind. yes, you will get over it. one is being drawn right now. it will be uploaded shortly. keep your pants on. or not. it's really up to you.

2008.10.27: i fixed the styling of this section so it would support scrolling entries. if you found that interesting, you are as boring as i am. as it stands right now, i have 34 strips written waiting to be drawn. that's a lot. i don't know if i'll every catch up. i enjoy the writing far more than i enjoy the drawing. would the site lose its character if i found someone else to do the "art" work? would you like to do the drawing for me? if you've got a graphics tablet and can handle stick figures (i know they're not easy, but i think you can handle it), then let me know and i'll get you the scripts and upload privileges.

2008.10.26: in case you hadn't noticed, though you are reading this, so i am forced to assume that you have, i have officially added a blog to this site. just in case you were wondering: yes, i am this pathetic in real life too.




stream the madness: rss
number of comics written, waiting to be drawn: 18 ± 3 [1]

marginally hidden, yet thoroughly unsurprising information

new comics are released as often as i get around to uploading them, but i try to write one every day. if you can figure out how to hack my server, the unpublished ones are stored in a php comment in the file "the_future.php". i neither encourage, nor discourage any attempts at such.

for some unkown reason, people keep comparing my comic to xkcd.

this comic is about concepts and ideas. i am a programmer, and thus excel at neither art, nor english. if you notice a glaring, or even minor error, please notify me.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
were you expecting something down here?
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