The long summer is over, and it's time to get back to work. It's been a good break--lots of traveling (Texas, Alabama, Chicago, Slovenia, France), got a lot of quality work done, and recharged my batteries for the upcoming school year.
I'm teaching three courses, as usual--Introduction to Political Science, Introduction to World Politics, and Middle East Politics, and all three of them are pretty large. So lots of students, which means lots of tests to grade, lots of questions to answer, and lots of papers to read.
One of the things that's imperative for me this year is not to spread myself to thin. I did WAY to much last year, and I could feel the fatigue, both physically and mentally, at year's end. So I've dropped a committee, tried to loosen a bit of responsibility, and don't have a couple of South Africans to help out.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Too Much World of Warcraft Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
School starts on Wednesday, which means it's time for me to go back to work. Fortunately, I am pretty well-prepared at this point. Syllabi are done, courses are ready to go. It's a good feeling not to be scrambling at the last minute.
What this has meant, however, is that I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft this week. A LOT of WoW. Now, I am not what you would call a hard-core WoW-er. I play once a week with my friends (on Tuesdays) for about four hours. That's very mild my gamer standards.
But...
The last three days or so I have been averaging around seven hours a day. Hey, why the heck not--I have the time, I enjoy the game; why not cut loose a little for a few days of hard-core dork-dom? And I've gotten my highest toon from 61 to almost 64 in that spell.
Good stuff!
What this has meant, however, is that I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft this week. A LOT of WoW. Now, I am not what you would call a hard-core WoW-er. I play once a week with my friends (on Tuesdays) for about four hours. That's very mild my gamer standards.
But...
The last three days or so I have been averaging around seven hours a day. Hey, why the heck not--I have the time, I enjoy the game; why not cut loose a little for a few days of hard-core dork-dom? And I've gotten my highest toon from 61 to almost 64 in that spell.
Good stuff!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Olympic Fever? You Bet...Sort of.
The Olympics are here--and, relatively speaking, I'm happy and enjoying them. Being an internationalist by trade, I like the color, the different countries, the competition, and seeing sports that I don't normally get to see in the USA.
There are some things I absolutely HATE about the NBC broadcast, though:
1. The American bias: yes, I know this one is something I probably can't change, given where I live. But I am interested in people and athletes regardless of what country they are from. To sound sappy, the human spirit goes beyond any artificial borders.
2. The announcers and commentary: shut up, already. Let me watch the competition and come to my own conclusion. And the color commentators, who usually are ex-athletes in whatever event is being broadcast, are just loudmouthed know-it-alls who hurt the quality more than enhance it.
3. The focus on particular sports: beach volleyball does nothing for me. I like gymnastics, but not to the degree everyone else seems to. And I'm ready to fight Michael Phelps as much as he's on the boob tube.
There is redemption for NBC, however, and it is the internet broadcast. Not only is there a wide selection of sports to choose from (I've been enjoying Archery, which is almost NEVER on network TV), but it is commentary-free, which means you can hear the same sounds that you would if you were there without some tool telling us what to think about it and what it means for someone's medal hopes. So it's a nice, pure way to watch the event.
Overall I'm enjoying it, particularly because I have a choice of how I want to watch.
There are some things I absolutely HATE about the NBC broadcast, though:
1. The American bias: yes, I know this one is something I probably can't change, given where I live. But I am interested in people and athletes regardless of what country they are from. To sound sappy, the human spirit goes beyond any artificial borders.
2. The announcers and commentary: shut up, already. Let me watch the competition and come to my own conclusion. And the color commentators, who usually are ex-athletes in whatever event is being broadcast, are just loudmouthed know-it-alls who hurt the quality more than enhance it.
3. The focus on particular sports: beach volleyball does nothing for me. I like gymnastics, but not to the degree everyone else seems to. And I'm ready to fight Michael Phelps as much as he's on the boob tube.
There is redemption for NBC, however, and it is the internet broadcast. Not only is there a wide selection of sports to choose from (I've been enjoying Archery, which is almost NEVER on network TV), but it is commentary-free, which means you can hear the same sounds that you would if you were there without some tool telling us what to think about it and what it means for someone's medal hopes. So it's a nice, pure way to watch the event.
Overall I'm enjoying it, particularly because I have a choice of how I want to watch.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
I Think We're Working Again
Okay, I think everything computer-wise is fixed. At least I hope so.
My computer is back to normal, and in fact is running better than it has in a long time. Of course, much of that is due to there being a new, unspoiled hard drive.
The bad news, however, is that I am terrible at remembering to back up my hard drive, so I lost a lot of data. Most of the really important stuff I had on my laptop or one of my thumb drives, but the biggest casualty was my music. I'm not sure how I will get it all back yet--I wish iTunes would just let you re-download songs you've bought previously. Hell, they keep a record of it.
My computer is back to normal, and in fact is running better than it has in a long time. Of course, much of that is due to there being a new, unspoiled hard drive.
The bad news, however, is that I am terrible at remembering to back up my hard drive, so I lost a lot of data. Most of the really important stuff I had on my laptop or one of my thumb drives, but the biggest casualty was my music. I'm not sure how I will get it all back yet--I wish iTunes would just let you re-download songs you've bought previously. Hell, they keep a record of it.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
My PC is Broke-ded!
Yesterday my PC was slain by Microsoft.
We had some bad weather in the area, and I was involved in my weekly World of Warcraft session. Windows was doing one of those irritating automatic updates, and then the power flickered, causing my computer to shut off.
Not thinking much of it, I turned it back on, only to be greeted with blue screen hell that indicates your CPU could explode at any minute. I tried to use Safe Mode, also to no avail.
So I called tech support, and after talking to someone from the Philippines for an our and pretty much getting nowhere (other than a confirmation that the brownout during the Windows update was probably the culprit, I feared the worst--a zapped computer with unrecoverable files. I'm bad at infrequent at backing up my files, so I'm terrified of the possibilities.
Ironically, the same thing killed my wife's computer about a year or so ago.
I took the unit to a local repair joint, where they told me the hard drive was responsive, and they felt optimistic that everything could be recovered. They'll run a diagnostic, put the hard drive contents on my external drive, and reload Windows, assuming that everything goes smoothly.
Here's hoping it can be resurrected. And I'll definitely eliminate that automatic update shit (and buy a battery update) so this won't happen again.
We had some bad weather in the area, and I was involved in my weekly World of Warcraft session. Windows was doing one of those irritating automatic updates, and then the power flickered, causing my computer to shut off.
Not thinking much of it, I turned it back on, only to be greeted with blue screen hell that indicates your CPU could explode at any minute. I tried to use Safe Mode, also to no avail.
So I called tech support, and after talking to someone from the Philippines for an our and pretty much getting nowhere (other than a confirmation that the brownout during the Windows update was probably the culprit, I feared the worst--a zapped computer with unrecoverable files. I'm bad at infrequent at backing up my files, so I'm terrified of the possibilities.
Ironically, the same thing killed my wife's computer about a year or so ago.
I took the unit to a local repair joint, where they told me the hard drive was responsive, and they felt optimistic that everything could be recovered. They'll run a diagnostic, put the hard drive contents on my external drive, and reload Windows, assuming that everything goes smoothly.
Here's hoping it can be resurrected. And I'll definitely eliminate that automatic update shit (and buy a battery update) so this won't happen again.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Wizard World Chicago Report
I know I am doing this out of order a little, but I thought I'd give a brief report on Wizard World Chicago, even though it's already been a week since I was there.
The wife and I arrived in town on Wednesday, for the primary purpose of catching a Cubs game at Wrigley field. We're both baseball fans, and a visit to Wrigley (or Comiskey) is a must when we are at the show. For once on a visit to a ballpark, the home team won, and I gorged myself on ballpark food, which is always a good thing.
At the show itself, we had a large booth--20'long, and in a nice spot. Setup was pretty easy, although there are always a few snafus along the way.
Sales were good, as Chicago is always our best show of the year, and we had lots of creators to help out, although we were a little short on artists this year.
I did manage to snag sketches from all three of the artists I wanted. Bob Layton, Art Baltazar, and (another) Matt Kindt.
The highlight of the show, however, was spending a little time at the bar with Bob Layton, the creator whose run on Iron Man in the late 1970s and early 1980s is what turned me into a permanent comic book fan. We hung out and talked for like three hours, and I gave him a little Ape swag in hopes that he'd dig our work. Overall, a fun show, and I look forward to next year as well.
The wife and I arrived in town on Wednesday, for the primary purpose of catching a Cubs game at Wrigley field. We're both baseball fans, and a visit to Wrigley (or Comiskey) is a must when we are at the show. For once on a visit to a ballpark, the home team won, and I gorged myself on ballpark food, which is always a good thing.
At the show itself, we had a large booth--20'long, and in a nice spot. Setup was pretty easy, although there are always a few snafus along the way.
Sales were good, as Chicago is always our best show of the year, and we had lots of creators to help out, although we were a little short on artists this year.
I did manage to snag sketches from all three of the artists I wanted. Bob Layton, Art Baltazar, and (another) Matt Kindt.
The highlight of the show, however, was spending a little time at the bar with Bob Layton, the creator whose run on Iron Man in the late 1970s and early 1980s is what turned me into a permanent comic book fan. We hung out and talked for like three hours, and I gave him a little Ape swag in hopes that he'd dig our work. Overall, a fun show, and I look forward to next year as well.
Getting Caught up on Things
I'm back from Huntsville, and am actually going to be around for a couple of weeks before my next excursion. I'm not going to San Diego this year, but SubCulture artist Stan Yan will be at his own booth in Artists' Alley, plus I am sure he will make a few appearances at the Ape Entertainment booth to sell and sign any copies of the SubCulture comic that you might wish to purchase.
Speaking of, supplies of the comic mini-series are starting to dwindle, so if you haven't read the original story yet, now might be the time to pick it up. You can get all four issues for only twelve bucks in the online store.
Work on the TBP continues to go smoothly. We're lining up a few new pinups for the book. So far confirmed are David Dwonch, Super Ugly, Lonnie Allen, David Hedgecock (Gargoyles) and Alex Robinson (Too Cool to be Forgotten)! I'm also working on deals with Pat Lewis (The Claws Come Out) and John Lucas (Exterminators). I'm also sure that a couple of chaps from Stan's Squid Works studio will come through as well. Keep your eyes here for more updates.
Stan and I also are still deciding how we want to collect the webstrips. We are approaching 50 strips, which means we have enough to put into floppy form, should we so desire. If we do floppies, we'll end up putting out two a year, given the current frequency of the strip. A book, should we go that route, clearly would be more infrequent.
Speaking of, supplies of the comic mini-series are starting to dwindle, so if you haven't read the original story yet, now might be the time to pick it up. You can get all four issues for only twelve bucks in the online store.
Work on the TBP continues to go smoothly. We're lining up a few new pinups for the book. So far confirmed are David Dwonch, Super Ugly, Lonnie Allen, David Hedgecock (Gargoyles) and Alex Robinson (Too Cool to be Forgotten)! I'm also working on deals with Pat Lewis (The Claws Come Out) and John Lucas (Exterminators). I'm also sure that a couple of chaps from Stan's Squid Works studio will come through as well. Keep your eyes here for more updates.
Stan and I also are still deciding how we want to collect the webstrips. We are approaching 50 strips, which means we have enough to put into floppy form, should we so desire. If we do floppies, we'll end up putting out two a year, given the current frequency of the strip. A book, should we go that route, clearly would be more infrequent.
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