Chapter Four, Complete... Finally!

Whew, that was a long chapter... but yes, indeed, Chapter 4 of Strawberry Syrup is finally complete! At... 54 pages... yeesh.

If I'm being completely honest here, the chapter should have ended about twenty pages back, when Hunter was first turned into a chipmunk. However, at the time, I hadn't thumbnailed ahead and thought there would only be a few more pages after that.

... I don't remember WHY, exactly, I thought that, but I do remember that I did.

All this boils down to, basically, is that thumbnailing chapters in their entirety before even starting the final pages is a good thing, while just winging it is not exactly ideal.

Now, normally I'd be taking a break after the chapter end, but due to the hiatus, there's no way I'm taking any time off now. And fortunately, I don't have to! I'll admit, I haven't planned out all of Chapter 5 yet, but I have got a good chunk of it down, and I'll be working on the thumbnails long before I finish what I've currently got done.

Way better than winging it. ^_^;;

(And for those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, a "thumbnail" is a small, usually quick sketch of the comic page. They're generally much smaller than the finished page, and may consist entirely of stick figures. They're just meant to give the artist a good idea of layout and story flow. Personally, I prefer slightly more detailed thumbnails so I can make sure everything works well before I'm left stumped by a sudden issue on Tuesday night.)

The Effect of Anime on the Brain

I am starting to come to the conclusion that anime affects the brain. Not in a bad way, mind you (although of course, that depends entirely on the anime in question), but in a way that makes strange things make sense.

Prime Example: Firefly.

Firefly was an amazing series. We're talking the Wild West with space ships. For those of you unfamiliar with this little piece of awesomeness, it was a short-lived Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire fame) creation that aired on Fox in 2002, starring Nathan Fillion (now in Castle), Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, and Summer Glau (among others). While it was cancelled before it even finished airing all 14 episodes, it garnered enough fan support to make the follow-up movie Serenity a reality in 2005. It recently aired on The Science Channel as one of the best science fiction series ever.

Its early demise remained a mystery to me until I read the early critical reviews of it. They lead me to believe that general reactions went something like this:



Yeah. Apparently, the mad mix of sci-fi-Western-comedy-action-drama didn't sit well with some people, who felt they were an unholy concoction forced together via Whedon's insane genre alchemy. And yet, I never once gave it a second thought. The world of Firefly felt complete and whole to me, with nothing out of place and nothing forced or strained. I didn't care about some cliche metaphor about the final frontier and the Wild West. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

You see, by the time Firefly came along, I'd had a good five years of anime like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Trigun and Gundam Wing to acclimate me to the idea of the space cowboys, rough-and-tumble frontier planets, and complex interplanetary politics. As for mixing genres, well, that's practically par for the course in anime and manga. Just ask Rumiko Takahashi or the CLAMP team. Mixing comedy, drama, romance, and political intrigue is pretty much commonplace, so I don't think anything of it when an American TV show gives it a try.

Anyway. This is what I get for watching old TV series and checking out their Wiki pages afterwards. But it does beg the question: DOES mixing genres like that still bother a lot of people, or has that changed in the past ten years?

Judging by some of the shows slated to air this fall, I may have an answer soon...

One Full Month of Strawberry Syrup

Woot! Today marks one full month of Strawberry Syrup. While that may not seem like a big deal for a webcomic that's been running since 2007, 2011 has not been Strawberry Syrup-friendly. Between computer issues, health issues, and all sorts of other things, my poor webcomic spent months on hiatus. Therefore, I'm counting a full month of updates a victory.

Although we did learn something about the beloved Arcadia Sanguis High School today...



Their janitor's closet is huge. It is, as co-creator Koni put it, the TARDIS of janitorial closets.

They should probably look into that...

U.S. Open Tennis

And the final major of the year has begun! Looks like they did a great job of setting everything up after Irene. They're off to a pretty good start, although I really had to feel for the girl who flew in from Moscow today just to play and lose to Venus. Ouch.

As for Federer, I think the inability to really practice all weekend was affecting him. He looked a little rusty. But, as he said, it doesn't matter that it wasn't pretty; he still won!

In any case, my TV will be dominated by tennis for the next two weeks, much to the delight of my family, I'm sure. And while I'm doing that, I'll figure out something to get up in my gallery for August. Sadly, I haven't done much non-Strawberry Syrup digital art this month... I'll get something up, though.

Dangers of an Impulse Buyer

I admit it: I can be a little impulsive when shopping. Book stores and craft stores are definite weaknesses. Today's venue of choice: Hancock Fabrics. They had a sale on a brand of patterns, so my SIL and I headed over there to check it out.

Now, I am a very novice seamstress, and I'm mostly interested in bag, pouches, and so on, so I stick mainly to fabric remnants and quarters. And then... there's the patterns. Soooo many patterns... which is where being an impulsive buyer can get me into trouble. I think, "Well, I might learn something from this one!" And, of course, since I'm a complete n00b in the realm of sewing, I can learn something from just about every pattern I come across. I justify it with, "Well, when I learn these techniques, eventually I can create my own patterns, and then I can actually sell something!"

Before I know it, I've got ten patterns piled up.

This happens in book stores and other craft stores, too, especially when things are on sale. If I'm not careful, I could end up spending a whole lot more than I intended.

Fortunately, there's a way to help prevent it - or at least minimize the damage: delay check-out. Rather than grabbing things and heading straight to the nearest register, I spend some time walking around with my stuff. Eventually, I'll start thinking, "Okay, do I REALLY think I'll use this? Will I actually READ this sometime soon?" If the answer's no, then I put it back.

So far, it's been working pretty well. Then I just have to be careful not to grab anything on the way to the register... or at it.

Now I just have to put some of my new goodies to use.

And Back Again!

So, 2011? So far, not a great year for my poor little blog. Or my comic, for that matter... but I'm back again!

Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Getting Strawberry Syrup back up and running. My readers had to sit through one heck of a long hiatus this year, but I finally buckled down and took my own advice to build up a buffer of pages before I ended the hiatus, so with any luck, they won't have to put up with another gap for quite some time.
• Working on a few new items for my Etsy shop. A few new boxes, a few new sketch journals... One out of four is currently listed, so those are slowly going up.
• Learning how to sew. My sister-in-law has been kind enough to show me how to use her spare machine, because we all know if I tried it on my own with no direction, it would end up imploding or catching on fire. In true Kit tradition, I'm not terribly interested in, oh, clothes. Nope, my thing is bags, pouches, and other items you can put things in. The fabric equivalent of boxes, if you will. Once I master the sewing machine (or, ya know, am reasonably capable of sewing a straight line), I plan on making little pouches with embroidery worth of hanging off any Renaissance Festival-goer's belt.
• Watching Blue Exorcist on Hulu. GREAT series. Right up my alley... especially considering I don't usually watch subbed. I was also watching Tiger and Bunny, but I need to catch up on that one. As for dubbed, it's all Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Cartoon Network. It's wrapping up, but it makes waiting a week between episodes sheer torture.

And that would be what I've been up to this summer. Hope your summers went well. ^^

Bumpy Starts

And 2011 gets off to... a bumpy start.

The impact of cold and flu season aside, in early-to-mid January, my beloved laptop started making a horrible whining and whirring noise. It would start quiet, then start increasing in intensity and pitch until it sounded like it was seconds from imploding.

Needless to say, there was a mad dash to get everything backed up on an external hard drive and a trip to the local Geek Squad there... who kept it for two weeks.

But all is well now in Kitland. I've got my baby back, and thanks to a new fan, it no longer sounds like it's planning to kill me the first chance it gets. Maybe now things can finally get back on track!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Or Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, whatever you prefer. Hope you guys have a good one! ^_^

Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender is in a week-long marathon (Thank you, Nicktoons Network!). Six hours a day for five days straight, and there aren't too many shows I could sit through that with. What's more, it lets you fully appreciate just how good the story telling is in that show.

That, and it's a handy way of purging a certain horrifically done live action movie from one's brain...

IT LIIIIIIVES!

*fwump*

Yep, still alive over here in Kitland. Sorry for going MIA for two months. The cold I mentioned in the last post? Hadn't gone away by the end of October. Turned out it was bronchitis. Which, I suppose, explained the extra dose of fatigue...

Sadly, NaNoWriMo just... didn't happen this year. I got about 10K in, but just didn't have the energy for it (I blame the bronchitis). Most of November and December have been spent trying to catch up - November, catching up from everything I neglected in October, and December with the everything I didn't do in November while I was trying to catch up from October. It really is a whole vicious cycle. Or a downward Spiral of Doom. Whichever you prefer.

In any case, I am almost back on track with Strawberry Syrup. Heck, I might even finish this chapter sometime soon!

Next goal: getting back on track with my blog. XD

My History with NaNoWriMo

Yeah, I so jinxed myself. I managed to catch my first cold of the year, and this one came with epic levels of fatigue. Yaaay, fatigue! But it seems to be going away finally, even if I am still keeping a bag of Ricola lozenges nearby.

October promises to be a busy month, though... For one thing, I will be preparing for - drum roll please - NaNoWriMo 2010! I haven't decided what I'm going to write yet, which isn't exactly unusual for me. Well, as usual or unusual for something that's only been done three times.

In 2006, I went the whole "PLOT AND PREPARE!" route, complete with snowflaking an entire story throughout the month of October so I could just plunge right in and write on autopilot. It worked, more or less, and I made my 50K with days to spare. That particular story is still waiting for me to swing back into high fantasy mode so I can finally finish it.

All October of 2007, I focused on one story, hammering out the characters and the world setting and all that fun stuff. On October 31st, there I was, ready and waiting for midnight to strike so I could plunge into my story. Midnight came... and I discovered that was not the story I'd be writing that year. Completely refused to be written. Wasn't happening, no way, no how. So, on November 1st, I pulled out my notes on an older story idea I never got around to writing and dove in head-first... and loved what came out. Another winner, too. It has since had its first draft finished and is waiting for me to get off my tail and put it through some hard editing.

2008... didn't happen. It was a rough year, and I opted out of NaNo.

In 2009, I was itching to get going on NaNo, and October was spent planning the sequel to 2007's story. No snowflaking this time, but I knew the basics of what I wanted to happen. Think major stops on a road trip, but leaving the in-between as a surprise. Smoothest NaNo yet. The story itself hasn't been finished yet, but it's getting there! It's somewhere around 85K. With any luck, I'll be able to finish it before November.

This year? I have no idea what I'm going to do. XD I haven't decided on what I'm going to write yet, but I've got some time. Should be interesting!