End of Dicebox : Book 1: Part 8 : Birds of a Feather

Not only is this week’s update two pages, it marks the end of Part 8 of Book 1: Birds of a Feather. (permalink)

I’d also like to mention that I have been taking time to update other parts of Dicebox.net , most significantly the Gallery and the Store where I have a new t-shirt design for sale, which I call the Green Man:

I’ll also be doing a reprint of the Poppy design at the end of August. I’m only planning on doing a run of the dark green ladies cut, but if you want the design on a different color or style of shirt (or tank top or pants, etc.) contact me and I can probably make it so as a pre-paid pre-order.

And now for a word on updates for the rest of 2008.

Though there will continue to be weekly updates, this’ll be the last update of new material of Dicebox proper for a while–perhaps for the rest of 2008. Yes, this is due to me being pregnant and all that goes with it, present limitations and possible future ones.

As is custom, I have a fill-in cartoonist lined up for my post-Part break, this time out it will be Patrick Farley.

After that treat, I will be doing page revamps, rewrites and pages notes, the whys and wherefores of this are outlined in this post here. This is something I feel confident I can make some sort progress, as well as something I need to get cracking on as we are coming to the end of Book 1.

The week I actually give birth (which could be anywhere from October 16th to November 7th) will be covered by a short fill-in of some sort, as will the couple of weeks following birth.

Then I will return to page revamps until at least the beginning of December but maybe until January 2009 depending how things go.

will be working on the last Part of Book 1, Part 9: Out of a Molehill while all this going on, writing, laying out, drawing pages, etc. But I won’t begin releasing this Part until life has resettled into its new pattern (now with infant!) and/or I have a large enough back-up of pages to provide an extravagant buffer for myself. I really want no un-expected breaks or interruptions to this last Part. Regardless, by the start of 2009 I will be updating the story proper again.

Why not just go on hiatus? That makes me nervous. I need that weekly update as a goal and obligation. I’ve ingrained that so into my psyche that I can get a bit depressed if I miss an update. Not to say I don’t enjoy and desire to work on Dicebox, but I know what creatures of habit we all are and I want to make sure I don’t break this habit.

So close

Alright, so, just one page of Dicebox this week as opposed to the two I was hoping to do in order to compensate for last week. And honestly, I’m glad of even that one, all things considered.(permalink)

As you’ve probably noticed, I don’t tend to post in this journal when I fail to make an update– I figure everyone has enough Internet noise as it is. Though I am willing to do so if folks find it helpful or even courteous.

At the risk of jinxing myself, next week should see the end of Part 8: Birds of a Feather, which has gone on about two months longer than intended, thanks to a certain fetus.

Late-ish adapter

You know, if I had much more time and money, I would be an eager early adapter; I get excited by many new gadgets and technology. But time and money constrictions do indeed make me conservative. I wait and see after others have used and abused the item in question and the company has issued an upgrade to fix all known bugs.

This holds true with web apps and communities as well. It takes awhile for me to decide the usefulness of joining and using, this was true for LiveJournal, Flickr… and now Twitter.* (Interesting examples as I consider all three journaling sites: traditional, pictorial and expositional.)

When I redesigned my website and set up my new Wordpress blog, I realized I missed traditional journaling; documenting an event or thoroughly exploring an idea. Besides the discipline and mind stretching, I enjoy and find it useful to go back and see where I was at at a certain point in time. The only reason I didn’t start there and then is this was about the time I discovered I was pregnant. Naturally this would’ve been the topic most on my mind and I was far from ready to reveal or discuss anything about that.

But that (and this) type of journaling can consume more time than I have to spare. This is partly why Flickr became my default journal of sorts a couple years back. It’s an excellent way for me to document things I’d done and when. But, naturally, it doesn’t capture thoughts.

In walks Twitter. Actually, I was first introduced to Twitter about two years ago and was unimpressed and bewildered by the application. But then, the examples I saw all followed this model:

“What a nice day!”

“I had breakfast.”

“My neighbor mowed the lawn.”

And so on. It just took enough people I knew to join in and the standard use to tweak slightly before I became intrigued. Brenna’s regular Twitter collections helped soften me quite a bit, actually. It’s nice to have a place to share a thought or simple happening without feeling obliged to build a post around it nor look for commentary.** (People can comment on a particular entry, but it feels more conversational than an acknowledgment.) Or create an email and figure out who all to send it to. This way it’s out there free to amuse or annoy as folks may choose.

Also, as I do these things for my own benefit as well to share, I’m pleased to have a place to jot things down, have time stamped and then collect every week as an ersatz diary. And, yes, a lot of the thoughts and events are about my pregnancy—it is changing and ruling my life after all. It’s for that reason that I wish I had started Twittering before, then I would know exactly when Kip first felt Taran kick, laughing and crying as he did so. (Thankfully I happen to know when I first felt her as I was dashing off an email to Dylan at the time and chose to mention it to her.)

And, really, the biggest reason I decided I must start Twittering is that I can think of no better way to document my labor and delivery while sharing with those who can’t or choose not to be there first hand.***

* Yes, somewhere after Kris and before Dylan, I joined Twitter. And by god, I enjoy it.

***I imagine there will be a point in the process I’ll be handing it over to Dylan.

12 years ago today…

Homestretch

Page 29 of “Birds of a Feather” marks the beginning of the last Chapter of Part 8 of Book 1 of Dicebox. (permalink)

Yes, it used to be Chapters and Scenes, but I reasoned my way to parts and Chapters a while ago. Eventually I’ll update everything to reflect that. In all my spare time. Wherever that went.