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Monday, December 31st, 2012
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7:06 pm - Math Trivia! 2013~It's the first time since 1987…
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Happy New Year, all. We are in the final stages of straightening up the lab for our annual New Year's Eve soiree, which has become so traditional, that this year, we didn't even bother to send out invitations. And, if Five hours from now, there's just the four of us banging the traditional New Year's Gong of Better Luck and blowing upon the Crumpled Trumpet of Fiscal Responsibility– (Those are actual instruments that we own and we only haul them down from the shelves for New Years. It's a Geneva Convention thing.) Well then we all get to go to bed early, don't we?
Ran some last minute errands today, which included depositing some checks. While I was standing in line, I noticed that someone in the Banks Advertising Dept. had discovered social media, as there were little ads exhorting me to follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook and subscribe to their YouTube channel.Unfortunately, it probably isn't a couple of LOL cats talking about fiduciary responsibility, or a reasoned repudiation of Marxism sent out in 140 character bursts, so I think I will skip it, as will everyone who isn't said Advertising Dept. minion or their immediate superior.
And for those pondering our little pop math quiz; 2013 is the first time since 1987 where the year won't contain duplicate numerals. I posed this question to the Experiments, and Number 2 got it instantly. Good for her.
Happy New Year!
current mood: Anticipatory
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| Saturday, December 29th, 2012
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10:55 pm - Today, we acted.
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James Ernest has discovered a talent for making Kickstarter videos. (He made the one for The Rats of Mechanicsburg, and I think we can all agree that went pretty well) Today he was shooting one for the re-launch of 'Deadwood', which was one of the better Cheapass games, about extras trying to make money by appearing in Grade B westerns. I really enjoyed that one (and not just because I did the art).
So today we shot the video on a ranch, with real horses, and barns and fabulous scenery. This was fun (for a given value of 'fun'). It is not my first time before the lens, and I was well aware that for every second of onscreen magic, there's about an hour and a half of standing around in the rain, trying to keep warm and endlessly repeating your line in various shades of emotion. But knowing all that, we went anyway. Kaja summed it up best as we were packing up to head home. Someone asked if she had a good time, and she said "It will have been fun."
All four of us got some screen time. Experiment # 1 got to rob a store, Experiment # 2 was a cow, and Kaja and I were thespians, dammit! I had already resolved to do more acting in 2013, and this only cemented that. Rest assured that I'll let interested parties know when the video is up. One of the things we plan to Kickstart ourselves this coming year is a CD with all the Girl Genius Radio Plays done up with fancy sound effects and editing and theme music and everything, so that'll absorb a lot of this particular ambition, I'm sure.
Our neighborhood is beginning to divest themselves of their Christmas lights. Our area is known through–out the city for having swanky light displays. According to a parent of a friend of Experiment # 2 who lives in this particular sub–division, there is a great deal of neighborhood pressure to actually put up said swanky lights as soon after Thanksgiving as you can. We are across the street, and technically, not in this particular sub–division, which is a good thing, really, as I don't respond well to pressure. On the other hand, as long as you put up lights, they don't care what it is you're celebrating. We discovered a magnificent illuminated Flying Spaghetti Monster, easily fifteen feet wide, with glowing red meatballs. It was a thing of beauty.
current mood:  tired
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| Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
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10:11 pm - Christmas been and gone.
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The Experiments are buried under My Little Pony® toys and video games. Kaja got tickets to the opera, and a towel warmer. This was a wondrous thing we saw while we were staying with People Who Knew How To Live in Cambridge. (Technically, I think they would have know how to live anywhere, they just chose to do so in Cambridge, which speaks very well for Cambridge). I got some socks, and this swanky electric cord thing that lets you turn lights on and off with your foot. A better year than most.
Then we had our traditional Christmas Day party, where everybody comes over without their extended family, and dumps their quaint, traditional leftovers. So for the next few days we'll be dining upon frog cheese and grape jelly meatballs and these odd little pastries which, according to one family's tradition, are left out for Santa, and he is so "surprised" by the taste that he drops his bag of toys and runs away. No one actually eats them, but by golly, they're made every year because it's tradition, and then they're used to "surprise" unwary party guests at party you don't want to go to next year.
Today we mostly lay about and played with our assorted gifts. However, since you can only turn the light on and off so many times, I poked around online a bit. I was rewarded with a wonderful article about this totally reasonable mad-science idea about powering cities with captive, man-made tornadoes. They use waste heat from other industrial processes, and each one could replace an entire coal-fired plant. Here are the details; http://vortexengine.ca/AVE_FAQ-ave-process.shtml#how_power. I really hope this one pans out. I'd been thinking about getting solar panels installed on my roof, but this would be ever so much cooler.
The big news around here is the success of our Kickstarter campaign. We were hoping for $7500., and we got over $108,000. As I declared, we will be Kickstarting everything from now on. (Sadly, according to Kickstarter's own rules, you can not, in fact, Kickstart everything in your life ("Hi- we'd sure like to go to the grocery store, and if we reach our goal of $500, everybody gets pie."). Which is, I suspect, for the best. But we will use it to grease the gears for Girl Genius Volume 12.
current mood:  impressed
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| Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
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11:41 am - I saw the Hobbet. Meh.
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We continue to do Good Works! My parole officer would be so pleased! Patrick Rothfuss, one of the darlings of the epic fantasy genre is trying to use the awesome power he has accrued to help make the world a better place. He has this charity thing going called Worldbuilders. This year he is trying to raise a half a million bones and I would not be surprised if he did it. One of the ways he does this is by auctioning off assorted things. One of the things he is auctioning off this year is from us! It is a complete set of Girl Genius, along with a mention of the winner in the strip sometime in the next year. Mr. Rothfuss won a similar prize 2 years ago, and was so immortalized. Here is link to the charity, go forth and be charitable (http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/category/worldbuilders-2012/).
There are only four (4) days to go on the Girl Genius Kickstarter (http://kck.st/U5IzHH). I was hoping to make all of the goals, but even if we don't, it'll be a heck of a game.
It actually snowed here, which is a rarity in this part of the Northwest. Experiment # 2 was thrilled.She became significantly less thrilled when she realized that there was not enough snow to cancel school. Ah, the bitter disappointments of youth.
Speaking of which; The Hobbet. (Warning. Yes, I'm going to give my opinions about the Hobbet now. No, I will not respond to your comments. Just sayin') First of all, we saw it in the new 48 frames a second 3–D version. My advice? Don't bother. As other people had said, it looks like it was filmed on a cheap video camera. Now, this the Curse of the Early Adapter. I'm convinced that future filmmakers will learn from this, and that advances in lighting and processing will correct these problems, and that ten years from now, people will look back at this film and find it as weird as we find the early silent black and whites. I also found the 3–D aspect of it to be pointless. No, I take that back, it was actually annoying, because periodically, something would awkwardly swim into the extreme foreground, a rock shelf, the back of someone's head– and it was obvious that the only reason this thing was there was to increase the depth of field for the 3–D effect. Amateur hour in Dixie.
In fact, we walked out and Kaja turned to me and declared, "What a crappy directing job." Strong language from the Professaressa. Part of her annoyance comes from the fact that she is an immense Tolkien goob, and Jackson & Co. apparently felt free to re-write stuff, apparently for no reason at all. I am not familiar enough with the canon to catch everything, but I assumed that every time I felt fingernails dig into my arm, something egregious had been added or cut (The bandages come off Thursday). There were also long, long stretches where they talked. And talked. And talked. About stuff! The Hobbet is a charming little stand–alone story, that– incidentally– sets the Lord of the Rings story into motion. Jackson feels compelled to hammer home that every god damn thing that takes place is leading up to the return of Sauron.
Oh wait, not everything. He throws in a bullshit elves vs. dwarves story line, and Thorin Oakenshield gains his own arch–enemy, an albino uber–orc witrh a steel hand–just like a real comic book villain! (because Smaug, and his own fucktardedness won't appear for another year or two) I was astonished he didn't have a goddamn German/Russian accent and a white cat. Oh, and everybody is mean to Bilbo, but at the end, we're assured that the enemy will be defeated by the Power of Friendship. I expected Gandalf to throw off his robes and reveal that he was really Captain Planet.
Now from all this carping, you'd assume that I didn't enjoy myself. Au contraire. I enjoy carping. However there were things about the movie that I really liked; Martin Freeman as Bilbo is amazing. I loved him from the first 2 minutes. The special effects were beautiful. The Kingdom of the dwarves, and the goblin's city were wonderful. Radagast was annoying as hell, but everything around him, his house, his sled, was a delight to see. I liked Gollum, but they spent too much time on him (of course, they spent too much time on EVERYTHING).
I'm hoping that when the DVD comes out, there will be a "Okay, I got that out of my system" Director's cut that will whittle it down to less than two hours. Now that would be a great movie.
current mood: Fiesty
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| Saturday, December 15th, 2012
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3:03 pm - I don't know enough stupid people.
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This is humorous, as anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with me will know that my entire life has been spent trying to avoid that sort of thing. However, by my reckoning, this is the sixth major "Doomsday" event I will have experienced. I think the first was either the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius or the Jupiter Effect. After awhile they all sort of blend together. The only one I ever allowed to affect me in any way was Y2K. Remember that? All of the smart chips we'd built into our alarm clocks were going to melt down and we'd loose all power and missiles would launch and the only people who'd survive were the ones living in Idaho (America's Bunker!) in gigantic underground complexes with enough food for a thousand years. I went and bought some extra firewood, which in retrospect, is the lamest doomsday preparation action–plan ever. This time I'll buy some bottled water.
Anyway, the point is that I don't know any gullible rich people. You know, the ones who laughingly give their annoying neighbors their cars and yachts because they know that next Friday they'll be on their way to Heaven in Jesus' UFO, and imagine said neighbors weeping bitter tears surrounded by these earthly possessions while the world itself folds in on them. Not that they'd actually enjoy that, mind you, schadenfreude has no place in the heart of a truly spiritually enlightened person, but other, less enlightened persons are no doubt mocking them in their stead. I'll be honest. I'd cheerfully accept the burden of the base chattel and pottage of more spiritually advanced people so they can go off and experience the Rapture unencumbered by earthly things. {Guys like this (http://www.postrapturepetcare.com/) Who, for a fee, promise to take care of your pets after you get sucked up into Heaven? They are my heroes.}
Hopefully there are readers of this blog who at this moment are seething– seething with rage! How dare I mock the Mayans, or the Rapture or Comet Kahoutek or the Singularity or whatever. Come on, show me! Bury me in wealth! Lard me up with mundane transitory material goods that will, come next Friday, reveal my life as a hollow sham. The more, the better. Come on, let's be honest. If giant space whales show up and start eating the moon and all I've got in my pocket is an extra ten bucks, I won't particularly care. But if I'm sitting pretty on a Powerball lottery sized checking account in my new chateau on Majorca, I'm going to have some serious angst. Just saying.
In Kickstarter news, we were interviewed as part of the Kick–a–Thon event, which is dedicated to promoting geeky Kickathon games and such (http://www.freelancelot.com/kickathon/). Steve Beeman and I chatted about the comic and the campaign. We're entering the last week or so, and things are expected to pick up. (http://kck.st/U5IzHH).
We are also involved in the doing of good works. We have donated a set of Girl Genius graphic novels to one of our local charities, Northwest Harvest. To get these fine books, there is a contest; (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/15/you-can-win-eleven-free-books-just-by-being-a-good-person), which ends today! The challenge? write the most Steampunk sentence you can think of! (You also have to donate to Northwest Harvest, but you don't HAVE to donate the price of all eleven books, which comes to around $250, so be creative!) Or you could just donate to them anyway.
current mood: complacent
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| Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
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10:40 pm - 'Sup?
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The Kickstarter continues to do well (http://kck.st/U5IzHH). The final goal, the one that will allow players to design their own towns–of–Death and put them on online, has been established. I'm really hoping this gets funded, as according to the Experiments, games where you can design your own worldlets and then run amok in them are the most fun. I'll take their word about the "fun", as they certainly have the "run amok" part down. Experiment # 1 showed me a game where you can design a weapon that fires Sherman tanks. No joke.
There is an intermediate level, where we'll be producing a Level Editor. I'm not really sure what that is, but all my computer friends sound impressed, so color me impressed too. Plus it'll be ported to fringe platforms like the Mac, and the PC and Linex. Charity work, I guess. I have also been informed that, as an incentive, they'll be using the Paper-doll ap. (Remember the Paper–Doll ap? It's the thing you will actually be getting upfront for your money.) Anyway, the idea is that every time you guys plateau us up another $10,000, I'll design and draw another character to go into the set, above and beyond the characters we were planning on putting in anyway (such as Tarvek). This is pretty cool, as there are characters I'd enjoy drawing (The Baron, Othar, Fraulein Snaug, Von Pinn, Violetta & Saana, to name but a few). I will state here and now, for the record, that I will cheerfully create a new doll for every $10,000 we pull in, no matter how far beyond the "final" goal we go. (Ha ha ha– That cannot possibly backfire on me in any way, yes?)
In other news, it seems like all of a sudden, everybody wants artwork by yours truly. I try not to complain about paying work, but I have to admit that I'd prefer it if it was spaced out through the year. The first one on my table is a set of illustrations for a computer language manual. I did one of these last year for the language 'Ruby', and apparently it did well enough that the author managed to convince the publisher to let me do it again. The language this time is called 'Python', and I designed up a nice little Naga girl. The author says he likes it, so that's one hurdle cleared. I admit that I was a bit worried, snakes are one of those things that most people think are interesting, and then you get the one person who sees it and runs screaming. Luckily, none of those people decided to get into the computer language manual biz. I'm told the next language will be 'Brain Parasite', so next year? Things might get a bit tricky.
current mood:  artistic
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| Monday, December 10th, 2012
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12:01 am - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.
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Which we put up and decorated today. We went out and purchased said tree last night. The kids are always astonished how quick a procedure this is, but after all, there are certain set variables we adhere to (our ceiling is only so high, we prefer Noble Firs, etc.), and when you get down to it, it's just a Christmas tree. ( Hint to all future parents; Never say this out loud.)
We use LED lights, and thus worry a lot less about our house going up in flames. Kaja's mother, who is loath to throw anything out, is determined to bequeath us a cartload of ancient lights. I have seen these things, with their gigantic, burning hot, buzzing bulbs, strung together in clusters of individual wires (which have slightly sticky insulation), and I cheerfully tell her that of course we'll take them! Unfortunately she has twigged to the fact that whenever she does give them to me, I immediately stuff them into the garbage before they spontaneously explode, so she's holding onto them, possibly under the mistaken impression that if she does so until she dies, they will be magically transformed in heirlooms, which no sane person would ever throw out. Dare to dream, Ma'am.
We have two boxes or ornaments. One is full of ornaments made of metal, cloth, or plastic. For the first few years of the Experiments existence, these were the only ornaments that we used, in case the Experiments became so excited at the whole Christmas thing that they tried to climb the tree, or sleep under it, or try to eat the branches. None of this ever happened, and I suspect that my expectations were shaped by the various brain–damaged cats I have owned over the years, who have done all of these things, and more. These days, they get hung closer to the ground, and if the dog eats them, we'll cope.
The other box contains the Good ornaments. We've collected them over the last twenty years, and while some are fancy, German glass ornaments, most of them have what people in the Insurance Industry call "Sentimental Value". Kaja and I try to find a new addition to this part of the collection every year (with mixed success). Our primary guideline is that, ideally, it should have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. We formulated this after finding a jaunty manta–ray wearing a bow tie, and it's gone on from there. These are the ornaments that get hung near the top of the tree, where our friends can marvel at them during slow parties.
This is also the time of year where we haul out the decorations. Some of these are indeed heirlooms, and some of them can be mighty odd. My particular favorite is a pair of Santas screaming at each other that my mother passed down to me. Oh, she didn't die or anything, I think she was just glad to get them out of the house. Apparently in the 50's, there was a fad for humorous ceramics, and anyone who trawls through junk shops of a certain vintage has seen their share of them. But these guys are weird even by the standards of the day. I was fascinated by them as a kid, and always wondered what it was they were argueing about. I suppose I'll never know.
In New Product news, we received a package from the effervescent ladies at Z.O.M.G. Smells! (http://www.zomgsmellsshop.com/) who are the ones who put together the Girl Genius perfume line (yes, you can also buy these from the folks at TopatoCo (http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TO&Category_Code=GEN) It appears that they are branching out into soap! They sent us two samples: The Baron & the Nuremburg Pudding Incident, which, we can assure you, make for a delightful shower experience. I don't see them up on their site yet, but perhaps this is because they don't have enough people yelling at them. Yet.
current mood: amused
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| Saturday, December 8th, 2012
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3:08 pm - A crisp, cold day in the Northwest.
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Which is why I'm sitting in my snug little studio. Our Kickstarter is doing very well, thank you. Of course, we're not the one's running it, so we're very sanguine about it. The folks over at Gizmocracy, on the other hand, are running blindly into walls, while screaming "But what can we give them next?", because they had no idea that Girl Genius readers would be so eager for a game. So we find it all very entertaining, and we thank you for that.
Probably sometime this weekend, we will be able to pay Mr. George Sanger (who apparently insists in being payed exclusively in gold coins and Belgian chocolates) to do his music thang, so we had to brainstorm up a batch of new Stretch Goals. As I hinted earlier, they came up with a pretty good one. If we hit the next goal (they haven't told me the exact dollar amount) they will produce an engine that will allow you, the ap owner, to create your own towns, with your own mechanical rat–infested streets designed to your own twisted Spark–inspired specifications. You can even name your town whatever you like. Nice? Yes, but here is the kewl part; You can the upload your town–of–death onto the internet, and other people can take a whack at it. Each town will have posted stats. Such as; how many people have downloaded your town, number of people who completed it, and how many of them you managed to kill off. This lays the groundwork for all sorts of interesting competitions, yes?
We also talked about various skins, and color & design options for Krosp and his walker, a strategy guide that would list Easter eggs- (what? seriously? you read our stuff and you didn't think we put nonsense like that in there?) and Stephen muttered something about an ap that would give everyone a free pony (But that was after his second cup of coffee at this wonderful Lebanese restaurant Kaja and I took them to, where the coffee is as thick as molasses and served in teeny tiny little cups, and I swear that the last time we were there, when I ordered my usual four cups of the stuff, the waitress looked at me and said, "Oh, so that's you, is it?"), so don't hold me to that one.
We also talked about greatly expanding the paper–doll ap, which is what people will actually get for their up–front monies because of Apple's twisted policies. There was talk of seasonal outfits, more characters (a lot more, because, apparently, having me draw stuff is by many legal definitions 'free') and software that would let people actually print the paper dolls out so that you could cut them out and put them in charming little groups in your cubicle and they could dance for you and act out arguments with your boss before they mysteriously burst into flame and all sorts of therapeutic things.
Anyway, while we talked about all these things–and more! Naturally I have no idea which of them the folks over at Gizmocracy will actually use, until they post them on the Kiskstarter site, and that's not going to happen until the Big Hammer Of Reality makes them do it, by funding the last of the stretch goals sitting out there. So– if you enjoy the idea of programmers freaking out because they have to do more work than they had planned to do, as much as we do, then please consider dropping a couple of bucks into our Kickstarter (http://kck.st/U5IzHH).
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| Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
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10:42 pm - Oh look, It's Christmas again.
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If you need proof of this, here is a picture of a dog dressed as two dogs carrying a present. (http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/A809deoCEAErLT_.png
) It is delightfully creepy.
Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. I'm just a bit gun–shy about it. I'm not one of those
people that hauls out the lights after I finish the pumpkin pie at
Thanksgiving. No, I like Christmas to sort of sneak up on me. Get used
to it gradually. Usually I go fetch a tree about 2 weeks before
Christmas, and it stays up through New Years, and then 2 weeks after
Christmas, everything gets packed away for another year. In this, I am
markedly different from my parents, who, until I was in my teens, used
to pack us kids off to bed Christmas Eve, and then put up & decorate
the tree, and put out all the presents, and decorate the house,
ensuring that "Magic of Christmas–wise" we were properly shocked and
awed when we got up the next morning. Yes, they were insane, but to
their credit, it was pretty cool, and when they realized that we were
old enough to not be crushed by mundane reality, they had us hanging
lights and ornaments or else while they supervised from the couch.
So– The Experiments growing up seeing stuff get hauled out of boxes and
such 2 weeks before? Wonder crushing reality!!! Doesn't really seem to
have spoiled them, though. They had their firm belief in Santa phase
(Experiment # 2 is a bit unsure, but, as Kaja has said, if you tell us
that you know that there is no Santa Clause, then we know that it is
okay to start filling your stockings with socks and granola bars), which
we continue to play along with, and will do so until they both roll
their eyes at the mention of his name. Then it's socks for everyone!!
Our Kickstarter campaign continues to do well (http://kck.st/U5IzHH).
We will be getting together with the folks from Gizmocracy later this
week to talk about stretch goals. I can't give details at this time, but
I will say that their latest proposal had both Kaja and myself sitting
their with our mouths hanging open, and Experiment # 1, who will no
doubt have a very successful career, as long as it involves playing
video games, declared, "No one's ever done that before." So we're pretty
excited about it. I promise I'll give people details later in the week.
Got a head–scratcher of a note from Titan Books. They are working on
advertising and publicity for the Girl Genius novels, and they asked us;
What other books would you compare Girl Genius to? I don't know why
they want to know something like this. Possibly so that they can figure
out how many copies to print or get a hook about how to spin the
presentation. With that in mind, I told them that we're remarkably like
Harry Potter, in that we have an orphan who discovers that they're a
magical person who everybody has expectations about. I felt unclean, but
if it helps sell a few million copies, I'll cope. Any suggestions?
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| Sunday, December 2nd, 2012
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11:26 pm - The Kickstarting is going well.
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I expect to wake up tomorrow and discover that our color specialist, Cheyenne Wright will be even more overworked, as the next goal involves him working his chromatic magic upon the game. After that, we shoot for sound! Please support us, if only because I find Mr. Beeman's increasing disbelief to be amusing (http://kck.st/U5IzHH). Myself, I have confidence that we will hit this goal, though it raises the troubling question about what stretch goals we should cobble together next. Frankly, I have no idea. Naturally there are other formats we could try and adapt this thing for; 3–D, IMAX, VHS: but that's technical stuff, which, I'll confess, I might not be compleatly current on.
In other news, Kaja is busy emptying out the basement warehouse. As we have mentioned, our fulfilment is now being handled by the jolly folks at TopatoCo (http://topatoco.com/), so we no longer really need a warehouse full of books and assorted merchandise, or a shipping department (except to actually ship said warehouse full of books out to TopatoCo– treś ironic!), so Kaja is fulfilling (ha!) a long held dream and is turning our basement into a D & D themed disco. At least that's what it sounds like whenever she starts to describe it. It's really exciting. She started out by dismantling several of the shelf bays and then just started opening every box in the joint and seeing what was in there. The interesting news was that we're finding all sorts of weird, esoteric stuff that we tried to sell over the last 20 years (and what we think is a forklift). Our Christmas gift needs are taken care of! We also now have several hundred empty boxes. Experiment # 1 has been told that it is high time that he learned the value of honest toil, and has been exiled to the basement with a box cutter and an actual job. Our recycling guys are due for a bit of a surprise next week. As is Value Village, Craigslist, and EBay.
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| Saturday, December 1st, 2012
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12:12 pm - So this is Kickstarting…
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We made the initial goal! Our developer, Mr. Steve Beeman, was pretty nervous about that. I remember the night when the site went live, he was fretting that we wouldn't make it. We were pretty sure that with almost a month, we could do it. We made it within 24 hours, which is a bit startling. So–we're expanding the goals. For all of you people who were whingeing about Android, YOU WIN!!! We already have enough that we'll be doing an Android version. If we keep meeting goals, I'm sure we'll have to do a port for the Atari.
So the new goals involve things like getting Cheyenne Wright, the color artist on Girl Genius, to add his touch to the background art. Beyond that, we'll be getting fancy, like adding a real sound-track, with voice work by Kaja, Cheyenne, and myself, as well as honest–to–Pete real voice actors to pick up the slack.
Now if we get to the level of Serious Money, we get to mess around with music. Most games of this caliber, if they have "music"at all, it is provided by the programmer's family standing around humming and making animal noises. While this is certainly tempting (Experiment # 2 makes a charming mechanical mouse being crushed by an anvil noise), Steve actually knows that most rare and beautiful thing, a talented video game musician who does not have a heroin habit! Specifically, we are talking with Mr. George (The Fat Man) Sanger (http://www.fatman.com/). We're pretty jazzed about that! If we make this goal, we'll start producing Girl Genius themed ring-tones, which is something that we were thinking about doing anyway.
In other exciting Girl Genius news, we got a look at the first book cover from the British editions. We think they're pretty striking, visually, and that's what you want. Something intriguing, that stands out on a bookrack from across the room, and this delivers that in spades. Kudos to the Titan art team!
In other news (Yes, I know, I should learn to pace myself) I just discovered that Night Shade Books, our beloved publishers, have brought the second Girl Genius book out in a trade paperback edition! Now one would think that they would mention this to us, so that we could do some promotion. Whip up a little enthusiasm. But no, evidently they wish to remain modestly tucked away in the bottom of the lists, since our first hint of this was a case of them hitting our doorstep (which went unopened for a week or so, because we had no reason to open them). So! For them what cares, Clockwork Princess is now available in paperback! This is edition with all the typos we could find fixed! (Not saying we found them all, but we're trying) You can purchase these fine things here (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597802239/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d3_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1B5DS69BRMRN3X92VXFG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846), and I'm betting that, despite their shyness, our publisher would not be displeased if they could clear a few of them off of the spare couch in the back room of their office before the holidays!
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| Thursday, November 29th, 2012
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9:00 pm - We Are Doing The Kickstarter Thing!
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Yes, Girl Genius is actually venturing into the swinging, swirling world of video games. Over the years, literally thousands of well meaning people have come up to us and informed us that a Girl Genius video game would be A Good Idea, and that we should make one. A good idea indeed, but one that presumes that we have a video game production company sitting around down in the basement twiddling it's collective thumbs. (We have also got similar good advice regarding animated movies, live–action movies, Television series, and operas {actually the opera did get done, it was someone's final project in Germany. Not that we ever saw it}) However, there ARE people who have unused video game production companies sitting around in their basements (on paper, anyway) and one of them, Gizmockracy, LLC, is working with us to produce Girl Genius video games! Yow!
Now, as anyone who follows these things knows, video games can be as expensive to produce as feature films. This will not be one of those games. We are starting small, with an iPad ap game called Girl Genius and the Rats of Mechanicsburg, in which Krosp stomps around in a walker clank fighting mechanical rats. Not exactly 'Gears of War', but everybody has to start somewhere.
Here is a link to the Kickstarter page. (http://kck.st/U5IzHH)You can see the video, and help support us.
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| Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
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11:26 pm - Dangerous Musings…
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I was thumbing through a Far Side collection this evening, and I came across this cartoon. It's the one with Muhammad sitting in his house, you can see him in the window and everything, and there's a mountain outside ringing the doorbell. Get it? Of course you do.
The thing is, The Far Side was syndicated around the world, in hundreds of newspapers, back when everyone read newspapers, and as far as I know, nobody ever said "boo" about it, let alone riot in the street, attack an embassy, or declare a fatwa on Mr. Larson. Considering everything else he talked about in his behind–the–scenes book (http://www.amazon.com/PreHistory-Far-Side-Anniversary-Exhibit/dp/0836218515), I'm pretty sure he'd have mentioned it.
We got a look at the British covers to the first two Girl Genius novels today. Weird! Odd! We like them! Kaja spent several minutes rhapsodizing about them from a graphic design perspective. I have asked the publishers – Titan Books!– if we can give you guys a sneak peak, and if so, I will do so.
We heard about a nifty little project we'd like to throw a little love towards; it's a fundraiser to help install an irrigation system and clean water to a village in Kenya (http://www.stayclassy.org/fundraise?fcid=216785) by a charming young lady named Sydney Gray. I've never been to Africa, though I'd love to go someday. If only to see the lions and tigers (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/kenya/). However, at the moment, the continent is a bit of a dump. I firmly believe that projects like this, undertaken by people like Ms. Gray, will help change that.
current mood:  contemplative
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| Monday, November 26th, 2012
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11:13 pm - I Have Discovered An Ugly Truth About Myself.
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I was up early this morning, Thanksgiving Vacation is over, and it is time to herd Experiment # 2 back to school. She says that she is happy to be going back, and is looking forward to seeing her school chums again. These are lies, delivered because it is what we want to hear. She would be perfectly happy staying home all day watching My Little Pony mash-up videos on You Tube (Believe it or not, I am not going to link to any of those. You're welcome.) Anyway, what with everything, after I got back, I didn't feel like going through the whole elaborate procedure needed to produce my perfect coffee formula (this involves grinding, packing and the addition of cinnamon and/or cocoa powder, thanks for asking.) I just spooned out some instant we keep in the cabinet for when the parents drop by. It was great. I love strong coffee, so I just used a double amount, and it was nasty and horrible and had me buzzing within minutes, which is all that I desire in coffee. Now, this may sound like a pretty punk confession, but I've been living in Seattle for 22 years now, and over time, I have picked up enough of the fetishization of coffee that goes on around here, that my own actions horrify me. Is that messed up or what?
On the other hand, the man I want to grow up to be, Shel Silverstein, once wrote a very wise song called 'Beans Taste Fine' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3no5eoyuE), in which he talked about how once you were used to the finer things in life, like good steak, you could occasionally savor a bad hamburger. For the record, this song annoyed 2 of my previous girl-friends, and Kaja professes to not be too pleased about it either. Surprise, surprise, Mr. Silverstein was not just talking about steak. But, as my wife says admiringly, he was a Bad Man. Perhaps I have just gotten to the point where I want strong, but lousy, coffee. We shall see.
current mood:  embarrassed
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| Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
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11:26 pm - A Tasty Day of Doing Not Much Indeed
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Happy Thanksgiving, all.
Well, we sat around and pulled things together and had a very nice dinner. We sincerely hope you did as well.
Need I say that we are not going to rush out and participate in 'Black Thursday?' I think the stores participating in this codswallop are fuckers. I wish ALL their workers would walk out–or even better, they get paid for their hours, but no one shows up. Sadly, I know that's not gonna happen, but we live in an imperfect world.
I, for one, plan on doing all my shopping the eco–friendly way, online. I'll admit that I have a horse in this particular race, but you could do a lot worse than to secure gifts from the jolly folks at TopatoCo (http://topatoco.com/). It's a pretty safe bet that you'll find stuff there that they have never seen before. Or, you could get one of these (http://www.hallmark.com/products/christmas/keepsake-ornaments/lets-get-it-on-1795QXG3224_DK/). I plan to. It plays music!
current mood: mellow
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| Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
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11:33 pm - Working Hard to Be Able to Relax.
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It would be nice if we were able to totally veg out tomorrow. So we went a bit nuts today. Tidied the place up a bit. Kaja got a bee in her bonnet and has done 90% of the cooking. Really, the only production tomorrow will be the assembling of the turkey–beast. Now I myself get a bit byzantine when it comes to the stuffing. It requires caramelized onions, fried apples, pork sausage and possibly alcohol and pecans (though I promise nothing).
This will be a Normal Turkey Year. Every couple of years we try something different. One year Kaja found a recipe in a Chinese cookbook and we had steamed turkey, with a sweet rice stuffing. It was awesome. It was also an awesome amount of work, apparently, as she refuses to even discuss doing it again. A pity.
I did something I like to do before a major holiday, and donated blood. I do this pretty regularly, and recently received a little pin informing the world that I had been drained of six gallons (not all at once. I know I'm fat, but come on…). The whole process takes less than half an hour, and I get an automatic pass if heavy things have to be moved for the next 24 hours. (http://www.psbc.org/programs/blood.htm)
Today's book mention is another of Liz Williams 'Detective Inspector Chen' novels; The Shadow Pavilion. I really enjoy these, as they're a mash-up of police procedural and Chinese fantasy. Liz gives us a world where there are a variety of afterlives. A Chinese Hell, A Hindu Heaven, etc., and everybody has a specific place to go when it's all over, and these assorted afterlives occasionally fight with each other. Inspector Chen is a human who is married to a Chinese demon, and has another demon as his partner. There's been about 5 books in the series so far, and not a dud in the lot.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
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10:52 pm - A Busy Day Indeed.
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A number of things occupied my attention today. Firstly, I had to ship off a plethora of boxes to the jolly folks at TopatoCo (http://topatoco.com/). For those of you who are unaware, TopatoCo has taken over the fulfillment duties of Studio Foglio, so that I no longer have to have old ladies, (or even worse, me) lugging heavy boxes of books off to the post office. Of course, I had to lug a huge stack of boxes to the post office today, but that is entirely different and shut up. We also sent them our pins, so they should be up on their site toot suite.
I have to admit, it was rather relaxing, in a strange way, bustling about the warehouse, loading, labeling and schlepping boxes. I used to do a lot more of that sort of thing when we were just starting out- before my relatives needed a job– and I have to say, I don't miss that shit at all. However it is nice to know that I can still do it.
We are also getting ready for our traditional Apres Thanksgiving Party & Pot-Luck. We've been doing this for close to 20 years now. Thanksgiving, you know, is very much a holiday that should be spent with family. Thus everyone we know desperately needs a chance to recover from it, and so we give them a place to relax, vent, drink and spend time with people they want to be with. (Very few of our friends are good at the game 'Happy Families'.) So we're bustling about shopping and cleaning, laying in firewood and alcohol, digging out recipes and making sure we have enough forks.
Today's literary mention goes to Sir Terry Pratchett's newest tome, a collection of short stories titled 'A Blink of the Screen'. Apparently it will not be available in the U.S. (Ho, ho, it is to laugh. Just order it from Amazon UK if you must) Now you should remember that I am a jaded and cynical sort of person, and I'll confess that I was unimpressed. This was doubly annoying as I love Pratchett's work overall. However, as he himself says in the book, short stories are not really his metier. No one will argue that where he shines- and will do so for the next few generations at least- is as a novelist. The stories here are early works, scraps written for conventions and such, or fragments that were later developed and incorporated into a novel. The only exception is a wonderful short story starring Pratchett's strongest characters: Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, titled The Sea and Little Fishes. This story alone almost justifies the cost of the rest of the book, and I plan to reread it several times.
current mood: busy
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| Sunday, November 18th, 2012
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10:08 pm - A Lazy Day.
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Quite unlike yesterday, where we went and had video shot at us. Some very nice people who work in the video game industry have decided to try to make some Girl Genius video games. Yay! Needless to say, they are spunky independents as opposed to giant corporations with actual budgets to spend on coding, advertising, or (sigh) licensing fees, so they will be doing what all the kids are doing these days and putting up a Kickstarter. We are planning to do several of these ourselves, for assorted projects, so it is very interesting to see How It Is Done. They came over to the studio and filmed us talking about the comic and the game and how we've trained our cat to eat cinderblocks, though I suspect that last bit will end up on the cutting room floor. Rest assured that when we put it up and you can send us your electronic internet dollars, we'll let everyone know.
The Experiments have the week off from school, so our sleep patterns are already warping back to our genetic pre-sets. As I have mentioned elsewhere, humanity apparently evolved with the habit of sleeping for about 4 hours, waking up for an hour or so, and then sleeping for another four hours. This continued right up until we got really good artificial lighting sometime in the 1800s and that screwed everything up. What scientists found the most interesting, after discovering that they had no idea how people were "supposed" to sleep, was that this knowledge was so completely lost so quickly. Writers from a hundred years ago would talk about "First sleep" and "second sleep" and we had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Anyway, it is obvious to me that not everyone would all fall asleep at once. It makes sense that the "wake up" period was staggered so that there was always somebody who would be awake to start screaming if a damn tiger or something was sneaking into the cave while everyone else was asleep. My ancestors were the ones who took the late shift. When we were still "child free" as some of our friends so charmingly put it, our daily schedule started by waking at 10 AM and going to sleep at 2 AM. Even now, after all these years, I remain depressed at the sight of dawn.
In book news, I see that everybody in the book review biz is scrambling to talk about 'Mr. Penumbra's 24–Hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan. Fair enough, I had been planning on doing so myself. It's an excellent book, especially if you're a person who enjoys reading books. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you know who you are. This is Mr. Sloan's first book, which makes it even more impressive. He is able to invoke moods and settings with a creepy use of language that reminded me of Bradbury. It's about a fellow who discovers that the bookstore he's working in is not, strictly speaking, in the business of selling books. Highly recommended.
Oh, in other book news, I'm quite tickled to report that the book I recommended yesterday, The Adventures of Dr. Eszterhazy, is selling quite briskly over on E-Bay, to the point where the seller is starting to panic because he doesn't have enough packing material with which to wrap them. Some people will complain about anything. I'm not sure how many of them he has left, since he's sold over 80 of them now, so if you're on the fence about this, strike now, or be prepared to pay a lot more for it later. Just sayin'.
current mood: tickeled
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| Thursday, November 15th, 2012
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7:27 pm - Back in Seattle.
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Well, actually, I've been back a few days now, but have neglected my bloggerly duties because nothing much has been happening and it's not like I'm getting paid for this and if I was, I should be getting paid more.
So– Back from beautiful Cherry Hill, NJ (official motto "You couldn't pick a better place" which begs for a question mark, if you ask me, but no one did).
On the night before I left, I attended a party thrown by Michael Swanwick and his lovely wife, Marianne. Michael has written a number of very good books that should be known to all english–speaking people everywhere (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book/dancing-with-bears/#.UKWluYV3T5E). I got to chat with a number of other science–fiction authors and editors, altthough I must confess that the most interesting conversation of the evening was with an ex–spy, who enjoys diagramming sentences. According to him, the song 'Chantilly Lace' (by the Big Bopper) can (and should) be transcribed as one long sentence. The things you learn in Philadelphia.
Spent over six hours aloft, and I lost track of the time sitting around various airports in this great land of ours, so I did a lot of reading. Read Sir Terry Pratchett's latest 'Dodger'. I quite enjoyed it. Dodger is set, not on Discworld, but during the early part of Queen Victoria's reign. Sort of. Real historical people traipse through the book, doing things that they probably would have done if they had been presented with these exact circumstances, which, as a matter of fact, they were not. It's a Young Adult novel ( I don't know if that's how it's marketed, but that's what it is). YA novels (as they are referred to in The Writing Biz), tend to have more linear plots–
Kaja has just reminded me that a 'Linear Plot' was a term that she's only heard from me, so it's possible that nobody else knows what I'm talking about. I suppose I could Google the term, in case I actually picked it up somewhere, but since the whole point of this is to write, I'll just wing it. A 'Linear Plot' is a plot that moves from Point A to Point B without any reversals, subterfuge or surprises. An author has the characters say that they are going to do 'X', and the story consists of them doing 'X'. Maybe not exactly like they thought they were going to, but do it they do. Linear stories can be very entertaining, tend to concentrate more on character development and description, and when they are written by an exceptional author, are an excellent read, especially when you want something light, such as on an airplane.
I also was given the gift of music. One of the fans who I met at Philcon mentioned that he was in a band. "Really?" I said, "I'd love to hear some of your music." Well the next day he hands me a CD! Now when someone says that they are "in a band", I assume we're talking about a group of 3 or 4 people who sit around blowing into jugs or something in their garage. Wrong! The group is called The Atlantic Brass Band and consists of 30 people (going by the photo on the CD), so if they play in a garage, they're parking zeppelins in there. The album is called Pageantry, and it features a number of tunes well suited to a brass band. There is never anything that really gets your toes tapping, if you're expecting Dixieland jazz, forget it. But if you're looking for cool, classic renditions of music that you can use to introduce royalty by at your next soiree, then this is the album for you! You can hear samples (and purchase the music) from the Great Satan, Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Pageantry/dp/B003AD4BCC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1353032735&sr=8-10&keywords=the+atlantic+brass+band).
current mood:  thirsty
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| Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
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11:49 am - So vote already!
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Today is Election Day.
If you haven't already, please go and vote. Preferably for Barack Obama. I'm sure that I have readers who will gleefully vote for Mittens. Don't bother telling me about it. I have a low enough opinion of our public schools as it is.
It's going to be close. I believe (and a cursory scan of assorted news sites confirms) that Republicans will do everything they can to try to steal this election. I am not too worried about this. I am a mean and suspicious man. I have to assume that both parties have professionals on staff who are even meaner and more paranoid than I will ever be on staff, waiting for shit like this. We shall see.
However what we all want is a definite win- one way or the other. John McCain's graceful concession speech Election eve four years ago was an welcome thing indeed. I see no chance of that happening this year, unless the results ar overwhelming. So make them overwhelming already. Four years ago, we spent Election Day at Disneyland, rolling into our hotel just as it was all over. Foolishly, this time I am here, plugged into everything driving myself nuts.
So- still getting ready for my trip to New Jersey. I gotta tell you, I'm just lovin' all the stories about impending snow, another incoming hurricane and other assorted apocalyptic tid bits. But I'll be there, and if it all goes to hell, at least I'll have some entertaining posts.
current mood: stoic
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philfoglio
