All entries written in March, 2010
March 26, 2010 at 9:01 am · Filed under Personal, Thoughts
Oog. Not feeling too well this week, guys. I can barely work for two minutes without generating a pile of obvious typos. But I was long past due to post some photos anyway–I do still have a camera! These are from last weekend’s jaunt to Astoria Park here in Queens…it was so nice out at the time that I couldn’t resist. One look at the bare trees will instantly dispel fantasies of an early spring (though the leaves have been budding throughout the week), but rest assured, it was quite warm.
I may come back later tonight and add some captions for context, but for now, I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Who knows, maybe I’ll like it better that way in this case.
March 20, 2010 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Announcements
Who knows if this thing will suit me…it’s an experiment. And I’m still trying to find and/or design a decent page style (for now, I’ve chosen the most tolerable of the default selections). Check it out and let me know if you have a Twitter of your own for me to follow. Do I know anyone who uses Twitter? The whole world seems to.
http://twitter.com/vigilantemark
March 19, 2010 at 9:05 am · Filed under Misc, Thoughts
The other day, it occurred to me that several events or situations I’ve posted about in the past have continued or changed between then and now. In some cases there was improvement, in others…well, you know what the opposite of improvement is. I figured it was time for an update. Let’s start with:
My Local Supermarket Taking Customers’ Bags - After boycotting the store I wrote about in this post for nearly eight months, I finally found that I had to go there to stock up on boric acid. They’re either the only place that sells it, or the only place that hasn’t been out of stock for the last few weeks. In some perverted way, it’s kind of a shame that I like sticking to my principles, because this really is a superior store–they sell a lot of things no place else does, things that I like! So imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that the bag checker was no longer present! It’s too early to give a final verdict just yet: for all I know, they only take bags during peak hours (I went at like 4:00 on a Saturday). But preliminary results suggest that enough people might’ve thought like me to change the management’s mind. It’s a nice feeling.
Keep reading….
March 12, 2010 at 9:07 am · Filed under On SKSG, Thoughts
After writing all my back cover blurbs the same way for something like five years, I finally woke up one day and realized that I’d been unconsciously emulating late-1990s Sonic the Hedgehog splash pages. It’s a style, but perhaps not the best one for making a first impression…I mean, by the time you saw the splash pages, you’d probably already bought the comic, and if you bought it, you likely came in knowing you wanted it. I decided that more people might pick up a book in a bookstore if they’re grabbed by a short, punchy description; objectively speaking, the current blurbs put me to sleep within the first two sentences.
So, I’ve been experimenting with new blurb text as part of an overall rebranding effort, one that will hopefully help me sell more books and get greater exposure for School Kids SG. You’ll hear more about this soon. For now, here are early versions of the new blurbs, juxtaposed with their current equivalents. Old’s on the left, new’s on the right. See (and comment on) the difference!
March 5, 2010 at 9:00 am · Filed under On My Influences, Reviews, Thoughts
So I’m working on something. In fact, I’ve been working on something all week, which is why I didn’t write a post for today. You can bet it’ll be worth it when it’s done. All I’ll say for now is that it’s connected to the fact that the print version of The Gauntlet has been marked “temporarily unavailable.” Speculate away!
But even though I haven’t made something for you to read, I can certainly recommend something. Or some things, even. First off is The Comics Curmudgeon, a blog I mentioned a long time ago but didn’t even link to–it bears bringing up again. This is a site that gives the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment to otherwise-unbearable comic strips like Mary Worth, and makes good old Marmaduke truly seem like a man-eating demon. Go there and you’ll never look at the comics page the same way again.
My second recommendation is the always-solid work of Roger Ebert, one of my favorite living writers. He blogs surprisingly often for someone with his hectic life–you’d think that a huge workload, a bout of serious illness, and other factors would eliminate all his free time, but no. I admire that. Blog aside, though, his reviews are the main attraction, always on-point and often hilarious (see Jaws: the Revenge).
Finally, for the nostalgic dork, witness this angsty Rescue Rangers graphic novel. You know what? I’ll admit that I like it. It fits better into its target universe than most fan fiction I’ve seen, and, more to the point, it’s drawn really well. Even when it’s toe-curlingly corny, it’s still got that going for it! Give it a peek if you like cartoon art.
Next week: a rant about reinstalling Windows! An activity that almost kept me from posting anything at all!
