National Novel Writing Month

I've participated in the National Novel Writing Month (shortened to NaNoWriMo) for the past two years. Each year I failed miserably. The first year I had no good excuse to have failed considering I had nothing to do at the time. I felt pretty guilty about that. Last year my attempt was even worse and I nothing to do again because my university was on strike. Looking back on those two horrid failures has made me realize that I suck at starting things and sticking with them until the end. This needs to change if I'm to go anywhere or accomplish anything in life.

I realize that this blog has basically no readers but I've decided to post my novel on this blog as I write it. Hopefully I can keep up a steady habit of posting once a day. By posting it to here I am hoping that by putting out there for someone I will have more determination to keep going and reach the finish line. It will also keep this blog a little more active, which is also a good thing since I do not write nearly enough.

Wish me luck and if you're taking the challenge then I wish luck to you as well. Feel free to berate me ruthlessly if I begin to fall behind schedule. Sometimes people need a good yelling at.

Finally, if you've never heard of NaNoWriMo before and looking to get more information, here's the website.

Cleaning my Computer

Hello

Yes, I realize I haven't updated this blog in forever. I apologize. No, I will not give an excuse.

Now that that's out of the way, I was recently begun to reorganize my entire computer because it was becoming a massive mess. Everything was everywhere and I had no system of keeping track of things. In my cleaning I came across an old document I made back in high school and I thought the internet might like to see it.

The night of the living boobs

Andrew de Koning

Chapter 1 – The boobening

Chauncey raced towards the front door, knives in hand. It was a dark night, halfway through febtember, and Chauncey hadn’t known a woman in the traditional sense for nearly a onemonth.

But that was about to change.

He got his boots on and headed for the boobmobile.

What. The. Crap. I love finding things like this on my computer because I never remember writing them. It gives me an insight into my dumb high school mind. I especially like how I wrote that last sentence and then apparently just got bored. Also, why the fuck did I decide to make the month febtember? Or why did I name him Chauncey? That's not even a sexy name! Why was his period of not being with a woman (in the traditional sense apparently) about to change? Give me some answers! I guess all that this really tells me is that I've been writing incomprehensable idiotic prose for a long time.

Fire Hill in the Gunshot Bank

Hey folks

I'm not going to apologize for not updating my blog. Why, you ask? Because I don't want to. I haven't update because I've been busy, far from it, instead I haven't updated simply because I have nothing to say. Keith is working on issue two of Killing Time. I'm writing little tid-bits when I get bored and life goes on a s normal. I don't need to inform you of the going ons of my life.

A few months ago I started planning on a new project. I had a new idea for a comic but a problem arose in that I had no one to draw it for me. Keith surely wouldn't; Killing Time was proving enough for him. So I decided to take it upon myself to learn the art of drawing. Any previous knowledge I had of it was how to make the ugliest stick figure you could set your eyes on. So started drawing. Using lessons from websites and tips from Keith I began learning to draw in the manga style. The main reason being that it easier to draw and I don't want to learn colouring either.

Two or three months later and I still suck at drawing but there is a noticeable improvement. Now soon, I'm going to start the drawing process of my first issue. It will be a long process with tons of redraws until I get what I want but I've decided to start now. Also, I'm going to try and get a tablet for Christmas to help with this. But... yay! Progress! Also, writing it has been a fun but really challenging experience.

Now since no one wants to read all that I'll finish with some boobs.

Life Is Boring And All Kinds Of Stupid! Also I Feel Like An Artist!

Keith told me to update my blog so I will. Here it is an update! 

Cool story we got a wicked sweet light table and today we moved the desk into the spare room and now it looks all professional. I feel like I actually do things when I enter there even though I still can't draw worth crap. We also bought a whole bunch of art supplies, I got new pencils to try different textures and stuff and we got comic board for Killing Time so that we don't forget what actually happens in the story while we create it.

Done this update is done!

Wheels Keep On Spinning 'Round

As of Recently I have found myself to be a very nocturnal person. I often won't go to sleep until roughly five-thirty in the morning and wake up in the mid afternoon. It's not even that I stay up really late now but it is also at these late hours I'm finding myself to be the most productive. While sitting around at four AM this week I have written a couple scripts for my manga and created character profiles, settings and general plot concepts. I'm kind of like a way less cool version of  Batman. As for how this manga is coming along I still have lots to do in the way of learning to draw. The faces I draw are definitely way better than they were a weeks ago and I improved a little at drawing hair but I have a long way to go. Luckily Keith is around to tell me when my drawing sucks. The current name I have for my manga is The Bureau of Regret but I'm having trouble creating a good plot from the concept I created for it. Actually, that's not quite true, a more accurate description would be to say that I'm having trouble deciding which of several basic plots I have would work the best in the long run.

Now that the first issue of Killing Time is done I'm kind of excited to get started on the second. This really seems like a long and slow process for us but I think it could have some fun experiences in the future.

Also, I got tickets to see CAKE in Toronto in September. Huzzah! I'll be living in Toronto at that time so for once in my life it won't be a problem for me to find a way to get there. Hopefully this concert is good enough for me miss seeing Trooper a couple weeks ago.

Play Time is Fun time!

Yay! Killing Time issue one is complete. Keith and I put in the finishing touches yesterday and it looks good. On the other hand it will be kind of anti-climatic considering people have been waiting for something like three freaking months for it. But to all those haters I say "Eat your pants and shove it". We will start work on issue two soon which I pretty excited for except that I wrote it a long time ago and now I'll need to remember those minute details that I wanted in there for some reason. In the future Keith and I will be living in the same apartment so maybe we will be able to get comics done faster. Maybe.

In other news, I decided to spend this summer learning to draw. I've wanted to make my own manga for a while now but never started because I am such a terrible artist. But not anymore. I'm going to draw regularly this summer, take tutorials, take lessons from Keith, eat pies, draw more and maybe by the end of the summer I will be able to start issue one of my manga. This also gives me plenty of time to write a story. I have a concept for the manga created but for the life of me I can't decide on a conflict. I always have this problem, though. I create all these concepts that I think are really cool but I don't know how to create a good conflict within these settings. Maybe that says something about my personality... but maybe not.

They're Not Getting My Cumulative Upkeep Hamburger!

So, I recently decided to get back into Magic: The Gathering. Several years ago I used to play all the time with a bunch of friends every week as we tried to perfect our decks in preparation for our local Friday Night Magic. It was good times. Since a couple friends and I knew that the local hobby store where we got all our cards was going out of business and having a sale, we decided to burstle on over and get ourselves some sweet savings. It really brings back memories. We decided to each get five booster packs and have ourselves a small booster draft tournament. I tried playing a three coloured Green, White, Black deck with just a touch of Red. Some of it worked well but I didn't have enough land fetch to make red of any use at all and eventually lost. I think I might try to make this a regular thing again and maybe even try to go to another release tournament next time a new set comes out.

Oh wow, all this Magic talk is making want to play some Dungeons and Dragons. I know, I know, everybody envies my life. Maybe I'll write an adventure about a thief lord who stole all the booze from every tavern in the land and we need to get it back. Holy crap! I am amazing at ideas!

And since I know that my reader(s?) want some Killing time updates I can say that Keith and I recently came up with a sweet story arc for the future and it will be all kinds of awesome. But for now we just need to get issue one out.