 Iron Chef, Iron Artist
posted by Christopher on 5.9.2004 - 2:22 pm
so i'm back from the dead this week... no more sketches for awhile (i hope).
my girlfriend finally put a crack in my (until-now) inpenetrable anti-TV defenses. i'm actually hooked on a show... dammit. iron chef (the old japanese version) is really entertaining, and it's on the food network every night.
in the spirit of iron chef, i decided to try my own version this week... iron artist. the goal is to produce a strip in 4 hours, start-to-finish (every week's ingredient is photoshop). i didn't do it in one sitting, but i did time myself, and this is what 4 hours of strip looks like (for now). as evidenced by the last three weeks, when my job kicks into busy season (huge company meeting back-to-back with announcing our numbers), everything else goes on the back burner. i'm not talking about the burner right behind the main one, or even the one right behind that... i'm talking about the one on a different stove. it was obvious that this comic was taking way too much time (12-16 hours a week pretty much IS all my free time), but to nearly miss a month because i can't spare some hours means i either need more time, or less time commitment.
until we go to the metric calendar and get 100 hours in a day, i'm not getting more time... so cutting down on the strip's commitment has to be the answer. i can't say i'm thrilled w/ the outcome of this comic, but i don't feel like i lost THAT much ground in terms of style or quality, considering i did it in 1/3 the time.
so.. bear with me during these next several weeks, and i'm sure the style will improve as i figure out how to cram more production into 4 hours, and thanks for continuing to read it even though i posted a bunch of filler in april.
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 "Under the radar" should not be a viable strategy
posted by Dante on 5.10.2004 - 8:40 am
After watching the finale of Survivor last night, I am once again forced to choke down another defeat for the straight-up player. After seeing the weaker player (who is purported to have played a 'smarter' game) be rewarded for like the fourth time, I wonder why players even bother bringing their A game to survivor. If you dominate the challenges and run the table while you fill the jury, then you are just going to get shot down in the end.
Let's establish a hypothetical situation. I decide to set aside both my pathological fear of dirt and my seething hatred for humanity so that I can play Survivor. Then let's assume I get cast. If I were cast, I'd like to think I could snow the other fools into overlooking me as a strategic threat long enough to make it to the final 9. From there, we then have to assume that I would suffer a catastrophic breakdown in my game that would allow me to be voted onto the jury (of all the assumptions so far this one should be the hardest). If the player who had orchestrated my defeat was still standing when it came time to vote ... they would get my vote.
Sure my feelings are hurt. Sure they probably stabbed me in the back and violated my friendship. Sure, I was on survivor and I have therefore become a simple-minded, grand-standing poser. But that person flat out beat me. I always like to see the person that beat me go on to win it all. That way I can think to myself, "if only I could have bested that person - then the game was mine."
And why does everyone on the jury act like this million dollars is going to be such a huge 'gift' to the winner? These jerks suddenly feel like the million dollars has to go to a 'good cause'. If they had won the million I am sure whiskey and prositutes would have been a legitimate cause. Being on Survivor has already lead to lucrative endorsement deals and other entertainment contracts. As we learned last night, being on Survivor has gotten a lot of the contestants laid (proving an ancillary point of mine that Survivor can be viewed as a 17 week video dating service). Stop thinking of the prize as a 'reward' for being a good person. Start voting for the 'winner' of the goddamn game and then let the prize money come later.
If the Nobel committee awarded their prizes based on the monetary award rather than for the impact of the research - imagine what kind of crap would be honored there?
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memories for sale ... everything must go
posted by Dante on 5.2.2004 - 9:04 pm
I spent last week working about as hard as I ever have. I flew back to Des Moines and spent seven days helping my mother clean out her house, all culminating in a garage sale Saturday. The poor woman's house was full of the accumulated clutter of her husband and children, none of whom are still in the home. I took short breaks from hauling heavy furniture up and down stairs so that I could sort through my oldest possessions.
I had always suspected I was a pack-rat. I come from a long line of pack-rats. It is apparently in my blood. My room back in my mother's house was all the evidence I needed to indict myself as a 'collector'. But then there was the closet in the spare room. And the stuff in the basement was just embarrassing. The other rooms in the house though, that stuff wasn't mine. I swear. It was hard to let go of some of it. Lots of fond memories ... rose-colored glasses being what they are. I was glad to see some of it go though. It marked a turning point, as I try to let go of my hoarding tendencies. And perhaps it is time for me to put away childish things.
And while I'm on the subject of purging the past, let's talk about old furniture and appliances. I respect the opinion that 'old world' craftsmanship carries a lot of value. I too believe that there is truth in the phrase, "they don't make 'em like they used to." Guess why? That old shit weighed a *ton*! Give me carbon fiber, synthetics, and composite materials. Give me revolutionary building materials or give me a hernia! Sheesh.
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