Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

… and there’s a reason for it. Actually, there are about four reasons, but I can’t reveal any of those just yet. Maybe soon, but for now, I’ll do my best to sneak in some comments here on the blog. Let’s start with New Year’s.

Yep, the end of the year is right around the corner, and I always do a quick evaluation in my personal journal of what I’ve accomplished over the year. It’s always weird because I don’t ever feel like I’m getting much done, but when I sit down to do a tally, it always surprises me (especially considering I usually only have an hour a day for most of this)…

Comic pages written: 296
Prose/article pages written: 168
Screenplay pages written: 172
Journal entries written: 517
Blog entries written: 262
Pages lettered: 160

Not too shabby for a year’s part-time work/fun. And I have a feeling I’m gonna surpass all those marks next year.

Speaking of New Year’s, I hope everyone’s ready to adjust their clocks for this year’s leap second. ^_^ And if anyone’s interested in a breakdown of 2005 notable scientific news items, New Scientist is running a series of articles recapping the year in various scientific areas (environment, technology, biology/medicine, etc). It’s an interesting little look back at what’s been happening this year… from cell phone viruses to mystery mammals in Borneo. Definitely an “interesting” year for watching scientific headlines.

And for those interested, the listing for mine and Seth’s Steampunk Faeries book finally went up over at comiXpress. Response to the book was fairly good, so we’ve already started working on the next chapter. Seth’s working on the design for some really crazy monster concepts I came up with (and I know he’s having fun with them) while I’m picking away at the script in my spare-spare time. We’re debating on whether to do colors on this next one (at the least, we’ll get some nice grayscales to help with the darker atmosphere of the book).

Okay, that’s all the rambling I can spare for now. If I don’t get a chance to post before the 1st, I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Updates have been a little infrequent around here lately. Some might think it’s because of the holidays, but it’s not. Well, not completely. I’ve been fixing a bunch of issues around the website (some news feed problems and some behind-the-scenes stuff that’s supposed to automatically update on its own). I’ve also been working on a major update to the site–there will be some minor tweaks seen on your end, but there will be a lot of changes on the inside (to make it easier for me to add sections and content as well as adjust the look of the place). I’ve also been working on the layouts/designs for a website for someone else. And working on a series for a comic publsiher… and still writing and lettering the two weekly webcomics (Brat-halla hit its 2-year anniversary recenly and Spook’d hit its 1-year)… and I’m also writing up some requested horror prose for an editor I know (among other things… finishing up another screenplay and already plotting out the next and also outlining a novel).

Busy, busy, busy.

But I’ve let this blog slide too much on my list, so I’m putting in a little effort to get some more ramblings out there. So here’s some quick pieces to start off with:

• Mission statements and the big blue. Looks like the Air Force has a new mission statement.

The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests–to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.

Having worked in the computer arena at the tail end of my Air Force career (worked at the headquarters level for both the Air Education and Training Command and Air Combat Command), I can definitely vouch for there being some top notch computer people in the Air Force. But I always saw one major issue with computers in the military… the organizational structure. How many Fortune 500 companies would hire a computer programmer straight out of college with no practical experience in programming (and sometimes not even an IT related degree) and put them in charge of a mission critical team of developers, network admins or sysads (most with at least 2-4 years of experience in the field)?

Every once in a while you get lucky (“Hey, you guys know what you’re doing. Get the job done and keep me up to date on what’s going on, and I’ll keep everyone else off your back.”), but most of the time, you’d run into the kind of conflict you’d expect from that kind of situation. Yes, I encountered those kinds of situations, but I’m not gonna hold a grudge… one of those people forced me to go see the military doctors about my knee, which resulted in me getting out early as a disabled vet and leaving an already undermanned (and somewhat overworked) shop. It helps my perspective on the situation that I had a much, much better paying job in the civilian sector lined up before I even finished my outprocessing.

• Shadowline. What is it? It’s an imprint that’s part of Image Comics (Todd McFarlane has TMP, Marc Silvestri has Top Cow, and Shadowline is Jim Valentino’s line of comics). Current line-up for Shadowline is Shadowhawk, Intimidators, Runes of Ragnan, and Bomb Queen. All fun stuff, and there are some more titles on the way from them next year (and definitely some good people working on the books over there).

• Steampunk Faeries. We have copies of the books, but they still haven’t released it for online sales over at comiXpress yet. Need to drop them a line to see what’s up with that (they said it’d be in this month’s listings).

• Ted Noodleman rides again. From my buddies, Kep and WyA. And of course… a few backup stories from me (like “Geektopia” with art by Pirate Club creator Derek Hunter) and some other talented creators. One of the things I really enjoyed about this was getting to do a backup story featuring a concept I’d left on the backburner for a long time (kind of gave up on it after I found out about Fables)… “The Detectives Grimm” (the Grimm brothers as hard-boiled detectives investigating “unusual” crimes.

Okay, that’s it for now…