Makin' Lists and Makin' Love (I loves me some Brad Neely)

As I write this post title, I think fondly of Brad Neely's life-changing animations and comics. I think in particular of his music video, Kenny Winker sings "Making Love" in which tri-corner hat-clad Kenny sings "There's a ton of shit we've got to do before we can make love." Admire. Gush. But alas, when I went to post the video for your viewing pleasure, I find it has vanished from the internets as a result of the economic downturn. Super Deluxe.com, the hosting site, is no more. Apparently, Neely is putting the videos up on his own site which will take some doing. Sigh. In the meantime, go check out his stuff, it will make you happier than you are now. I assure you. Soldier on, Brad Neely. Keep the tri-corner hat squarely in the public eye.

To tide us over, here's one of Neely's first animations that got all viral a while ago--Washington.

My list for the weekend:
1. Finish sixth Arms and Ether strip --starring Megaleos and Ginger Childe!
2. Fix Arms and Ether url issues.
3. Apply for promotion to "full" professor (college teaching guy who has eaten too many tacos in his time).
4. Make further allusions to "Taco Time," one of the planet's great restaurants.
5. Insulate The Shack.
6. Prepare Monday DMF lecture.
7. Prepare for other classes and review student blogz.
8. Keep fiddling with my online stuff. Cleaning up post labels--that kind of thing
9. Put together SOU Art Dept. Web material.

And then. . . only then. . .

The Sun Rises - Work List Part 1

And the dust is settling after the chaos of getting the first Arms and Ether strip on-line and getting classes rolling again. I'm more or less caught up on sleep, so now to get some kind of a working-groove going. I'd like to do a "hard-launch" for Arms and Ether on February 1. Here's some of what I'll need for such a launch:

1. Strips. At least eight published so it's worth people's time to check it out. I'll also need at least four strips "in the can" in case I take ill or take up serious substance abuse.
2. An email "subscription list" and way to subscribe.
2.5 Some goofy prizes for subscribing to the list.
3. An announcement via email/facebook/etc.
4. More understanding of how Facebook works i/r/t giving clear access to this thing, announcing, etc.
5. Look into My Space for an Arms and Ether page?
6. figure out how to get my URL to stick.
7. figure out how to make a little URL icon thing.
8. Get the web site spiffed up.
8.5 Figure out best way to do the website. . .
9. Finish the damn Miles Inada site.
10. Get the original Arms and Ether comic book up in a better format and integrate it into the new site.
11. Have hard copies of the original Arms and Ether comic available for people to buy. (cheap!)

So that's a big list. Got to do it without becoming a bad human being, ungrateful son, feckless husband, deadbeat dad, useless teacher, a-hole friend, etc. . . Yes we can! And it's not as bad a list as
1. Conquer Russia.
2. Cure self of terminal disease.
3. Re-attach head.
4. etc.

BTW this is one of those practice what I preach kind of posts. I'm having my students use blogs as a way to get their act together, define a creative project, delineate research goals, n' all that.

Friday down in flames

Sometimes you expect big things from a day and it doesn't deliver. I thought this would be a big day to get some Arms and Ether goin.' No such luck. Meetings. Yay. Grumble. I did eat a lot of pizza though. Ugh. For the love of . . . Here's some of what I'm cookin' up.
1) I want to sell shirts and books on the site. I'm looking at cafepress.com, but I think I'll also get the fine young men (Alex Falkenstein and Jess Gleasman) at basement-ink to do a run of higher quality screen print shirts as well.
2) Fontlab with Scanfont is looking good so far. I just need more TIME.
3) Arsenal's playing Wigan at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. Don't think I'll be up for that one. Darn.

What Ben Franklin

. . .may have looked like, nude and from behind; such is the price of my return to daily drawings.

Just had coffee with Warren Hedges down at the Beanery. Always inspiring to talk to the Ashland Elk of the Year. One of our main characters in The Happiness Hole is loosely based on him. Real Warren has a network-like brain able to take difficult ideas, distill them and make them comprehensible to the layman. Our fake Warren is a Warren gone off the deep end, driven mad by:

1) The cruel stupidity of the world.

2) A sense of the interconnection of all knowledge now made disturbingly literal by the invention of a quantum super computer.

3) A painful love affair with a dakini destined for bigger things.

Real-life Warren knows how to swim and tread water, so the deep end doesn't bother him.

No Child Left Behind

What I'm learning from ye blog so far:
1) I work a fair amount. Yay.
2) I work on a lot of different things--art-teachin', USEM-teachin' (bless thee, Thucydides), script-writin', 3D modelin' and animatin', 2D animatin' & drawin', web-site-makin', art-makin', school admin crap, prepping for teaching, 'mersh projects, water heaters and the like. Not to mention being a deadbeat dad and feckless husband. I'm not complaining. It's good livin'.
3) I'm bad at estimating how long it takes to get something done. Hence, the website's not done, the Happiness Hole's languishing, the water heater took 5 days to install, etc.
4) Life feels short--it's rushing by, happening now, and I feel completely clueless about it. Balls.
5) I'm thinking of taking the summer off from teaching for the first time in 10 years. I'd like to catch up on some solitude, some friends, and have fun with Sam.
6) I need to get the Corvair running. This weather is too beautiful.