Tracy and Tristan News

Impratica Begins

In order for you to not have a long hiatus while I do NaNoWriMo, I decided to ink and scan in the comic I did for the 24 hour comic. I might add in some pages I laid out, but did not complete due to time limitations.

I've decided to give a piece of Fan Art to whichever Web comic give me the most referrals. And the winner is:

Legendary A fun RPGesk comic.

View the art work here

RANT RANT RANT

I understand the necessity of ads. I even make a point of looking at them and visiting the ones I'm interested in.

BUT

I recently found a wonderful plug-in for Firefox called Ad-block that lets me specify which ads to block. My web surfing life is now very very peaceful.

To get on my blocking list:

• Have an ad with inapropriate content: Graphic violence. Explicit sexual terms. I'm not much of a prude, but there are limits.
• Have an ad that makes noise: VERY annoying when surfing at work (On breaks!)
• Have an ad that pops up, under, or anywhere that blocks me from doing what I want to do.
• Lastly, Have an ad that triggers "instant migraine" (You know the ones!)

This all started because I complained to a website about their inapropriate content. And they said there was nothing they could do about it. So I did something about it. I feel bad for their lost revenue since 95% of their ads did not bother me. But they were unwilling to set standards.

Anyway, I like Adblock because I don't have to wipe out every ad, just the annoying ones. Where was this when Jabber come out? :)

Freelance work and being sick

Found out today that I have a middle ear infection. I'm on meds and hope to be ambulatory tomorrow. If not, Thursday's comic might be late. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to scan in the pencil scribble versions. Send my get well cards and prayers. :)

Recovering

My shin and shoulder are recovering nicely. They are now at the itchy stage.

Friday is my Wedding Anniversary. 3 years! (If I calculated correctly!) It feels like my husband and I have been together forever -- in the good way.

Wipe Out!

Sorry about the lateness of this comic. I guess I'm out of my own Lazy Grind. :(

I wiped out on my bike today. I haven't done that in many years. On gravel too. My left side is scraped and I'm a little lightheaded, but otherwise OK. I'm wondering if my sense of balance is confused again.

My Birthday!!!!

Today (May 13th) is my birthday!! yay me!! Send me eCards!

Next week is also the strip's first year anniversary. Tracy and Tristan will be having a BBQ in my backyard. So far some web comic characters are coming. I have already gotten an AWESOME comic from Lanin http://rangers.keenspace.com.

Happy Dance! Q(^.^Q)

My Birthday this Friday!

Yay! My birthay is this Friday the 13th.

PLUS I am one day ahead!!!

Still moving

I'm still moving. Got new drugs to try out from my Doctor. Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake during the day!

I somehow think that Thingamablog might die a horrible death. I can't just type in what I want to say. I have to type it in HTML. It SAYS that it has WYSIWYG - but it really doesn't. Anyone know any good bloging software?

I have a meeting with my therapist on Wed and a get-together with an old boss to talk about potential employment.\

Obviously I'm a day offset

I hope to have Monday's comic up SOMETIME on Monday. Why to these things alway turn in to appologies about being late!

Health-wise, I'm back to sleeping about 18 hours out of the day. Which cuts into my productivity time. Guess I should send an email to my Dr.

Look -- I made a banner! Next step -- a Link Page.

Look at my cute kitty!

Tru is my newest kitty. We got her the day after Tristan died. As you can see, she likes to play Diablo. You can see the rest of my pets at: my gallery

Stray Dog Theory

I have a theory about "finding the lost". I call it the stray dog theory.

People who are lost (i.e. haven't found Jesus) know that they are missing something. The problem is that they aren't sure what. They have been let down, beaten, yelled at, degraded. They have reason to not trust anybody.

Along comes our good Christan. They see the lost person and know what the need. So they grab them and try to stuff Jesus down their throat. At which point the lost person runs away and throws up everything just fed him.

This is where the stray dog theory comes in. When you meet a stray dog, you don't rush at him. Either it will run away or act defensively (Bark at you or bite you!) What you do is leave the food out and walk away so the stray can eat it at his own pace. When trying to feed the stray, you choose locations where the stray does not feel blocked in or trapped or threatened. I nice open location with friendly -- non pushy! -- people. You don't over feed the stray! Being unused to food, the stray might just throw it back up and blame you. Eventually the stray may follow you back to your house. This is a critical time! Let the stray know they are welcome in the house and they are also welcome to leave. Trust is important!

I have tried at various times to become Christian. Many times my "This is a brainwashed cult" light came on and I ran away. Other times I was told I was going to Hell (This was in a public place -- I was playing a game with my friends). The worse was when someone I respected gave a sermon on "inter-faith connections" -- on how it was a bad idea and that there is only one way to worship God.

I believe there are as many flavours of worship as there are people. Sometimes it is by gathering together and shouting our love of God. Sometimes it is by finding a quiet place in the woods and looking at the wonders of God. That's why there are different churches. So people can find the right place for them.

I once heard a Bible verse that said something along the lines of there are as many different ways to reach the lost as there are lost. Remember that everyone has a different tune to play in God's Symphony.

I'm ahead of the game!

I actually have monday's and wednesday's comic uploaded and ready to go. I have two weeks worth of comics in my head and ready to be put on paper. Now I have to figure out how to do that!

Work is going well. I have the website at about 95%. The other 5% are speciallized reports and we don't know what we'll want until we need it. :)

My friend Sally is coming over tommorow to play Katamari Damacy. It Rocks!

Tristan Nostalgia

I'm feeling a bit nostagic for Tristan today.

I'm trying to clean up my office / son's room so I can actually get some work done!

I'm glad THAT is over

Last week as impossible!

I was sick, had a project due (due March 15), and it was March Break and my son was here to visit.

Due to circumstances, my son normally lives with my ex-husband and his wife. They are wonderful, loving people. Yes I want to have my son with me, but I think he is better off in a stable environment. That being said, my son loves visiting me because I am WAY more permissive than his Dad. He also loves to give me blow by blow descriptions of everything he is doing. Which is difficult when you have a cold and are trying to work from home. Most afternoons I fell asleep on the couch while he played video games. I couldn't work at night (when he was asleep) because my computer is in his room. (His room is my office when he isn't here -- he doesn't mind because I clean it because most of the "stuff" around is mine.)

My son is definately a researcher. He likes to read in bed before he goes to sleep. I walked in to tuck him in and he had out the "Comic Book Bible" and was cross referencing it with "The Illustrated Bible for Children". I want him to bring back his "Boy's Bible" -- I want to read it!

Still sniffing away,
Susan

Worries

I'm always worried that I don't provide enough information in the strip. I agonize over whether Tristan should explain that he's taking the Southside bus because he is afraid of the thugs. The problem I have is that Tristan wouldn't be thinking of that. He would never admit to being afraid. I think it's unnatural to have a running commentary in your head. I personally have a soundtrack, but that is hard to convey in a comic. *sigh*

Third piece of fan mail!

I like fan mail. She also sent a wonderful link: http://www.christyscomics.com/ Check it out. It is definately going on my links page when I make one.

We are in the middle of a snow storm that is going to turn into freezing rain. Guess I'll be working from home tommorow.

It was hard Drawing Tracy for Today's comic. I wanted her to look more sad than mad. I think she ended up looking like a film noire star. Well, next week is back to Tristan's Adventure.

Tracy is turning into a zebra!

I still don't have Tracy's hair quite right. I want it to look brown and not black. *sigh*

I should add Israel and Judah to the cast page. Even though they are only supposed to be in this story arc I've notice that characters have a way of sneaking back into s strip.

Getting fancy

Can you tell I'm getting fancier with my drawings? I even shaded these ones. I still don't like use colour. Don't you think Tracy looks like a waiter?

FYI the screen tone of the couch is curtesy of http://www.operafloozy.com/digitone/

I think church services should be held in the afternoon. I keep sleeping in on Sundays and missing service. You people should poke me with sticks!

I have a tagboard partially set up. The problem is that it is on the server that is dying. :/

Another Week Ahead

Hopefully this week will be more productive than last week. I was laid up for 4 days with a sore ankle.

I did make some more fan art for Moghendhim. Check it out at his site: Ostian Adventures and poke him to put up more story.

With Moghendhim's help, I have the next two plot lines planned out. They are simultaneous. (Aren't I getting fancy) Their names are "Babysitting Israel" and "A Fish named Tristan" Someday I'll make one of those pull down thingies.

If you notice, the telephone bible got fatter. That's because I used my new Quest Study Bible as a model. It's a good bible -- I highly recommend it.

Aunt Died

My Aunt Died yesterday. Things are a little chaotic.