The Nose Pickers Quarterly Digest

So, the new year has started out well. When I renegotiated my contract with Pete, I ended the 24/7 on-call situation we had going last year. (By the end of the year I was really worn out and dropping balls in every direction.)

I now have business hours (really weird ones) and I take weekends and federal holidays off. Completely off.

It's already working tons better because I take time to recharge, and I've always been good about leaving work at work. I guess last year my problem was that I never left work, so it was constantly weighing on me.

Kiki Doll So, we got these impossibly adorable Kiki dolls, right? Only problem? The store people kept taking really gimpy pictures of them which made them look awful. So, I spent the afternoon at Pete's, photographing the Kiki dolls, and managed to get what I think is an extremely good picture of the doll.

All I have to say is... once Book 9 is finished printing and on the store shelves, I think I'm going to go have myself a quiet nervous breakdown. Earlier in the week, we got a proof that had all Torg's hair BRIGHT green. (All the other really bright yellows had also been tinted green.) Other delays caused by cover specs, waiting on the printers for this that and the other... gyah.

If I give off the impression that the printers don't know what they're doing, it's wrong. They do, and they're good at it, and they're helping me all they can but GODDAMN IT I'm not a publisher and I didn't know what I was doing. There wasn't anybody else to step in and do it all for me, so I decided to go in blind and risk doing it myself. I think it'll work out, but the worry about all the things that can go wrong because my ignorance (e.g. I didn't know that the chocolate doh doh waves have to be neutralized by the dibsang discombobulator before the book goes to print) is killing me. How am I supposed to know?!?

I've kept my ignorance very very prominent to everybody who's been helping, so that they know that *I* won't know if I'm doing something wrong, and we've caught a couple of things, but I just won't be able to relax until I see the books in my hand.

Okay, so, nervous gabbling and whining aside...

The book looks gorgeous. All the colors are so incredibly bright... it's beautiful. All the blacks are oversaturated (on purpose), and they highlight every other color in the book. Some greens and reds that I was worried about (CMYK printing is not kind to bright reds and greens) have been reproduced faithfully. I can't wait till you guys can see it too. Unless of course, something went wrong and it sucks, in which case... I'll be heading for the funny farm.

Last night, on the guild voicechat..

Thyla: (laughing) This level 25 orc warrior just cut a really wide path around where I was sitting, trying to avoid aggroing me.

Avarre: Little did he know just how large your aggro radius is...

Everyone Else: (loud laughter)

Orc Warrior: (fireball) (death)

What kind of bastard would take a deliciously fun chocolate like Nestle Crunch, and pour caramel all over it?!?

(Yeah, ate a piece of halloween candy without REALLY looking at it, and was instantly sorry.)

Okay, I seriously can't be alone in my undying affection for the Grammer Gorilla. But that's not what this post is really about.

Book News: I am now more than 2/3rds of the way done. It is entirely possible that I will be able to finish the bulk of my work tomorrow.

PageMaker News: PageMaker blows. I switched to InDesign.

InDesign News: I like the trial version so much, I'm going to pir.... buy it!

I'm running a little ragged myself - I'll be glad when we're done with this book, and can actually prepare the next one at a less hectic pace. I mean seriously, this book idea was pretty much...

"I know! I'll set a deadline that's so tight that it doesn't allow for ANYTHING to go wrong! Then, I'll put together a book, which I've never done before! And, just to make it interesting, I'll use software I've never used before! Brilliant!"

(Yeah, we hit a snag that resulted in me having to re-do 50 pages of the book. As it stands, if the hardcopy test prints I asked for come back looking really f'ed up, I may have to re-do the entire f'ing thing.)

Say that your husband bought a quart of coffee flavored ice cream with fudge swirls and chocolate covered almonds, and offered to share it with you. Say then, that you tried it, and found that you only really liked the almonds.

How horrible a person would you have to be to stir up the first two inches of the quart to find and eat every single chocolate covered almond, leaving almond-less ice cream in the tub?

So, I realized I hadn't shared this with you guys yet. (Unless you went to Ubercon VI, in which case you probably heard it like eight times.)

About a week before Ubercon/Slugween, Brendan and I wake up early, and I decide to take him out to breakfast. Right before we're about to step outside, I remember that I forgot to brush my hair, and run to the bathroom to go fix that. I run up the stairs, open the bathroom door without breaking stride, get ONE foot inside the door, shift my weight to it (remember that I am still running, not walking)...

And step on a hanger.

I went flying (sideways), and hit the edge of the toilet on the ouside of my right thigh as I fell. Two days later, the bruise was about 9 inches by 12 inches.

What really got my goat at Ubercon VI is that I was at a con with no dearth of people willing to hear the story, and it's a fairly good and somewhat funny story, and... I couldn't show them my bruise because it was way too high on my thigh. Life's just so unfair.

So, after years and years of No New Books, thanks to some info I got from Rich Burlew at Ubercon VI, Sluggy Freelance has a real shot at publishing Book 9 in time to have it available for Christmas. Of course, this means that I don't get a break after planning Slugween in about 25% of the time it took last year, and I don't get a break before we do all the Christmas projects. Still, a new book out in time for Christmas makes it worthwhile!

I finished the first mockup last night. Today, I'm waiting on a few answers from our printer, and then I can start laying out the first hi res test files. I'm new to Pagemaker, which doesn't make any of this any easier. It took me a full day of use just to learn how to set up new guides. (Well okay, I got some other work done on it while learning this.)

Is there a menu option for it? No.

Is it mentioned in the manual? No.

So how do you do it? You click on the rulers at the top and the side, and drag - that gets you a guide. *headdesk*

Still trying to figure out how to tell it "No, no, we don't WANT standard black, we want you to print RICH black (50% Cyan (C), 40% Magenta (M), 40% Yellow (Y), and 100% Black (K))"

I do want to note that despite the specialness of the bodice, I still look more like a boat than anything else. So, as usual, be prepared to destroy Slugween pictures containing me if I look as bad in them as I did in last year's.

So, I got my halloween costume about 30 minutes ago. It's a bodice, chemise, and skirt.

My very first bodice.

It looked impossibly small when I took it out of the box, and I thought sadly that I wasn't going to fit into it, and it was a shame because I was going to have to go buy a cheap outfit that actually fit. But, I decided to give lacing it up a try anyway.

It fit.

The support and cleavage this thing provides are simply unbelievable. And it's not even a proper corset! There's no heavy boning! (*snicker* *snicker*)

But yeah, I'm impressed, happy, and all that, and cursing the fact that this sort of thing just isn't acceptable business attire.

So, why is Best Buy's Extended Service Plan bullshit?

Pitch: You should buy it because the manufacturer's warranty doesn't cover screen breakage.

Bullshit factor: Neither does Best Buy's policy.

They specifically state that accidental and intentional damage to the screen is not covered. So what's left is screen failure of it's own accord, and if it is truly so imminent that I should pay $300 to prevent it, the better idea is for me to keep my $2000 in my bank account, and not buy a product that is so immensely prone to falling apart.

That said, I called the manager, and got the Store Manager on the phone. He apologized profusely, and when he asked for the sales rep's name, I said it slipped my memory. No problem, he wants to know what he looks like, what time I came in, and what section I found him in. I told him. No discount was offered. Best Buy has lost this sale, and any future sales they could make off of me.

Solution: I went to Toshiba's site, and configured my own TabletPC. For $100 more than what Best Buy is charging, I will be getting a 400Mhz upgrade in processor speed, 512 MB upgrade in RAM, AND (for another $250, which I'll happily pay) a 3 year extended service plan that DOES cover me for accidental breakage (screen included). Fuck you, Best Buy.

So, I finally decided to go down to the local Best Buy and buy my damned TabletPC. It did not go well.

Me: I'd like to inspect the laptop for dead pixels.
Salesman: You can do that only if you purchase the laptop first.

(Strike 1. Okay, that's kind of annoying, but it's store policy, and I can always exchange or return. Fine.)

Salesman: Would you like the 3 year extended service plan for $299?
Me: No.

(Strike 2. I hate being pushed into extended service plans. Waste of fucking money in most cases, and I know it's a definite waste of money in this case.)

Salesman: You really should get it. The manufacturer's warranty is only 1 year and doesn't cover the screen. (Goes on to insinuate that screen breakage is imminent.)

(Strike 3.)

Me: Congratulations. You've just told me that the laptop is a piece of shit and I shouldn't waste my money on it. Goodbye. (I walked out.)

--

I'll be calling his manager tomorrow to report this conversation. I know the laptop I chose has a very good track record as far as holding up to wear and tear goes, and I will be purchasing it. Whether I purchase it at Best Buy will be determined by the manager's response.

No, nothing's changed much since last I posted.

I just want to note that now I have TWO techlusts in my life. My (soon to be) TabletPC, and my (probably not to be) PDA Phone.

( picture )

*sigh* That PDA phone that's the new hotness is so cool, and so completely cost-unjustifiable.

*sigh*

Sometimes I wish that at least some of my projects weren't secret, so I didn't have to keep track of who knows what about which one. :(

I drew this picture of a Nac Mac Feegle for our WoW Guild on Bloodhoof.

( So, I decided to mess around in Painter IX for 30 minutes )

It probably sucks to the practiced eye, but I'm just over the moon that I got THOSE results from thirty minutes of fooling around in an unfamiliar program.

(Er, I should note, for those not familiar with Sluggy - the line art isn't mine. I just had the hi res version of this filler sketch handy, so I used that to mess with.)

Edit: Decided to post the results of 30 minutes of goofing around, as opposed to 10.

So, while I was asleep tonight, SOMEONE (*cough*_rit*cough*) decided to replace the failing motherboard on my workstation, and also upgrade it to a full gig of RAM. What does this mean?

1. No more spontaneous reboots.


2. Significant performance boost on the RAID array, which was bogged down on the old setup because with only a half gig of RAM, the disks were constantly swapping.


3. Significance performance boost while photoshopping.


4. Significant performance boost to the games that I most definitely do not play, especially World of Warcraft, which I most certainly do not play. At all.


5. I no longer have to quit most programs when I need to make a few code patches using the Zend IDE.


6. Did I mention how blazingly fast photoshop is, and how I can once again handle the huge files Pete constantly has me reviewing?

So, the next time I have a little money to spare, I'm thinking of upgrading to 3 gigs of RAM, because the motherboard can support that now, and the RAM it needs isn't prohibitively expensive.

Dear Religious Whackjobs,

Stop talking about creationism as a scientific alternative to evolution. You're embarrassing us as a country.

Love,

Thyla

So I got this idea for a necklace design. Gold ribbon choker, with a pendant made of citrine chips arranged on gold wire (the gold really brings out the fire in citrine), and maybe some earrings to match. I did it, although I don't think it's quite perfect yet. I need to get some smaller jump rings (they're the ones making the "chain" the clasp attaches to), and I need to get a better pendant bail (the bit attaching the pendant to the necklace), but essentially I think that the design works well.

It's better suited to darker skintones (citrine tends to disappear on light surfaces), but I'm sure I can make a version using a different stone (garnet, or maybe iolite) for light skintones.

( Some Not-Excellent Pictures )

The top picture is more representative of what the set looks like IRL, but neither is a very good picture. I didn't waste too much effort photographing something I haven't finished tinkering with yet ;)