Plausible Deniability

I’m a fan of the NBA… Most of the time. But I swear, the officiating has been horrible this year. Not just for my team, but all over. It’s enough to make you wonder.

Check out my speculation of what goes on in the NBA league offices.

AJAX Is X-TREME!

Author’s Note: I actually wrote this back in 2006, but it kind of fell through the cracks. So I present it now, for your amusement/pleasure/whatever…

The term “Web 2.0” has become synonymous with AJAX. With the hype and buzz that’s surrounded “Web 2.0”, people seem to invent reasons for using it. Even when it makes no sense. Sometimes especially when it makes no sense. Just because it’s “cool!”

Oh yes, AJAX is cool. It can really enhance the user experience of your application. And yes, you can do some interesting single page applications that don’t require a server. But hopefully you’re not quite as gung-ho about it as Charlie here (from the comic above). Rails makes it easy to use AJAX. Really easy. Too easy? Perhaps. And occasionally even I’ve been sucked into the trap of throwing out a quick, AJAXified, solution rather than taking the time to build it right, to build it compatible with the “Web 1.0” (or non-JavaScript enabled) folks. But I shouldn’t have. And neither should you.

That, Charlie, is a good question. In my next post I’ll talk a bit about Comatose, and how I went about ensuring that it’s backward compatible with non-JavaScript enabled browsers.

Author’s Other Note: I will post the second part to this soon… Probably next week. Cheers.

R.I.P. Mr. Wieringo

Lil Monstas!!

Lil Monstas is live! Woot! We actually made our Halloween deadline too—barely. There was about five minutes left!

Check it out today and every Monday for new installments. I hope you enjoy it!

Update: LilMonstas.com now has an RSS feed!

But I'm Not Bitter...

Monstas of the Lil' Variety

As some of you may know, I have been collaborating on a webcomic project called Lil Monstas for… Well, a little while now. OK, it’s been so long that some of you may be thinking that it’s never going to see the light of day.

Well, I’m here to tell you that Lil Monstas is alive! It’s aliiivve! Not only that, but we’ve decided on a release schedule.

So, I invite you all to visit www.LilMonstas.com on All Hallow’s Eve — October 31, 2006 for our inaugural episode! It should be a lot of fun, I hope to see you all there.

Who Stole December -- and, uh, January (and February)?

Wow, I haven't posted in quite a while! Sorry about that. Things have just been kinda crazy.

Well then, lemme catch you up on a few things... I finished up a stint with Site5. I was helping them out on their new offering: Flashback -- Be sure and check 'em out, they're a good bunch of guys 'n gals that really care about web-hosting. [/plug]

There are a couple of patches to the theme_engine that I need to integrate and publish -- look for that in the near future.

In the next few weeks I'm planning on releasing version 0.6 of TaskTHIS. It will fix some issues with Rails 1.0 (probably 1.1 at that point) and have better database support. Also, it'll have some examples of AJAX failure handling (which I'll talk more about in the next few days).

Activity on the Zoo Dot Com front! I'm writing several storylines now so that I can keep well ahead of schedule. And there's something else, very exciting, in the works for ZDC -- I can't tell you about it now, though. Hopefully soon. Very soon.

I guess that's pretty much it -- Oh yeah, I moved too. Heh, a little time consuming that is. Anyway, I will now return to my more regular posting self -- Stay tuned. Same M@ channel, same M@ time. (Did I just say that? Oh jeez...)

Got It, Read It

And it was good!

Flight of the Moot

Stardom

You know what’s cooler than having your own comic?

Getting fan mail for your comic! I got my first fan mail last week, others quickly followed. It’s a very cool feeling. Plus, it’s good motivation to update regularly when I have a “fan-base” (too cool) to think of.

I Change State, Therefore I Am

OK, so my brother sent me a link to ASIMO on the same day that I watched “I, Robot”. ASIMO made the movie seem a lot less fictional. I really could see house robots in thirty years. If they continue with the pace they’ve set over the last ten years, why not?

The movie was really good, by the way. It unfolded, had twists, and the action was tied to the plot— top shelf.

Posting Results

Interesting… I posted a link to ZDC on OnlineComics.net, it was approved and listed yesterday. It’s generated about 70 hits to the site, so far. Which isn’t too bad for a Thursday.

Another Day, Another Year

Well, another birthday went by… The last of my twenties, how sad. I wonder if it’s a bad thing that my birthday is known as “The day that will live in infamy”? At least it’s not known for that because of my birth—Japan made it infamous.

I drew this last year, but it still seems fitting.

ZDC#10 is finished! Took long enough, eh?

I’m recommitting myself to my webcomics. I have a better frame of mind when I work on them. I guess I really need the creative outlet. I also took the time to post ZDC on OnlineComics.net, they say the listing will be active in a few days. We’ll see if that generates more hits for the site. Although, I have to say, it’s had more hits than I expected—especially since I’ve not done any kind of advertising. Here’s a newer graph of the Zoo Dot Com visitor list by time zone:

Pretty cool, huh? Oh, I get this chart using Site Meter.

When I get a few more strips online, I’m thinking of collecting them into comic books. There’s a cool place that will print comics on-demand.

ZooDotCom Advertised

A friend mentioned my webcomic in his blog yesterday -- Thanks for the plug!

Here’s something kinda interesting from the SiteTracker for ZooDotCom:

The breakdown:

After the next update I’ll probably put it on a couple of webcomic listing sites. I was thinking of OnlineComics.net, but I’m not sure who else to submit it to—any suggestions?

The Real Picasso

It occurs to me that the comic above makes no sense out of context. So I shall try and provide you some: Pablo (the square guy) is the logo/mascot of the company I used to work for, Picasso Software.

Pablo and the Bear (4 Pages)

A day in the life of a lemming...

Web Comics

I know that I could be construed as a web-comic artist (uhm, ok I guess I am one with ZDC and all), but I’m not sure that I want to be a part of the ‘community’ of other web cartoonists.

From reading various forums, it seems most web cartoonists are either sprite zealots, soi-disant copyright pundits, or intellectual property paranoid. Also, it leads one to believe that most web cartoonists are assholes. Whilst some might say that I would fit right in (which may be true), I don’t think it does any good to openly (read: in public, which the web is) vent about any and every issue an artist may have with another. It really casts a bad light on the artist(s) involved, and the industry as a whole.

Personally, I think that any issues should be resolved by the parties involved, and shouldn’t be publicly aired. Why? Simply because the public isn’t involved. Whatever the issue is, it’s between the two of you, not the rest of us.

When creators fling the fecal, it breeds rivalry. Now, I’ll admit that sometimes a rivalry can be a good thing—for sports teams. But in web comics? How is rivalry, in any way, useful? To create a rival is to alienate a potential audience. I don’t think I need to point out how counterproductive this would be. Unless your purpose is to piss people off. If that’s the case, well, you could find better places to do that.

To publicly vent about a peer is beyond sophomoric, it’s pathetic. It makes me, and all the other artists/creators who care about our craft, look bad.

Well, I suppose it makes us look good by comparison—but that’s beside the point.

Or is it? Hmmm…

Ok, I take it back. You guys go ahead and piss away the hours trying to convince us that your character’s two pixels, or general body-shape, is being stolen and how that’s a horrible copyright infraction—blah, blah, blah.

Have fun. ;-)

Keepin' on Truckin'

So, Zoo Dot Com updates have been on schedule for over a month! It was even early, this week. Crazy, eh?

I have a new webcomic project in the brew. It’s going to premiere on All Hallow’s Eve 2004. Be sure and check it out! Lil Monstas is going to be a collaborative effort between myself and a good friend of mine. I’ll probably do most of the drawing and some plotting, he’ll handle more of the writing chores. I’m really looking forward to it! In the coming weeks, we’ll post some teaser stuff out on the website.

Have you seen Gran’Ma Evelyn’S Old-Fashioned Pudding Treats Wrestling Theatre ?? It’s a webcomic jam. Meaning, lot’s of webcomic creators take turns doing several panels. It’s also one of the reasons why webcomics are so cool, and have such a huge range of possibilities. I’ve thrown my hat in the ring, I’ll let you know when it’s my turn!