Yahoo! Comic's done. Read, y'all. I know it's been a while. It's good to be back. Let's party! *breaks out the vodka*

I learned today that McDonald's has gone on this whole kick of making everything "real" at their stores. Goddamn it! I could eat their Ice Cream! It was fake! No trace of milk in it. But according to their newest ingredients list, soft serve now is made with real milk rather than potatoes or whatever they used to make it with. No lie, the little McDonald's soft serve machines that you can buy in the toys aisle of Target list potatoes as the main ingredient. Potatoes are used to make vodka. No wonder I liked the soft serve. Vodka cones!

Anyway, I doubt I'll be eating there much anymore. I hate this whole "real" kick everyone's on. I can't eat "real" food. I get sick because most "real" food has milk or cheese in it. I'm so waiting for the day when synthetic foods that contain all the nutrients you need are available. I'll order a "Death by Chocolate" Ice Cream Sundae. It'll be great. Till then, I'll be robbed by the Starbucks corporation and every other coffee shop that charges extra for soy milk. Discrimination, I tell you.

Ah, enough griping. I want to thank everyone who sent me Get Well pictures and emails. They made me feel much better. Thank you to all who sympathized with me during my lack of Internet. I'm obviously back, and I'm happy to read your emails again. ^_^

I want to rant some more, but I think I'll save it for tomorrow. Continue party!

Devil Hello Kitty!!


I've got the comic finished. All I have to do is add the text, but I have to go to work now. It'll be up tonight for sure.

Hey, I have Internet back! Rejoice!

If it weren't for that, I could jump.


Dah! It's day seven of no Internet. Comcast! You suck!! I'm so ready to switch to DSL.

SGVY should be out by Monday. I'll find a way to post it.

BTW, I'm playing FFTA moderately (read: every chance I get). I'm not addicted or anything (read: yes, yes I am so addicted). It's not a problem (read: yet). No need to worry (read: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP ME BEFORE MY SOUL IS COMPLETELY SUCKED AWAY!!).

Well, back to not having Internet. Fetch me a telegraph machine.

16 bit forest.


My Internet is down again. I hate you, Comcast. So, I'm over at the wonderful place that has Internet posting. Whee!

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a lot of fun, except for the fact that I have to level like a bitch to keep up with the game. I'm told that I need to just invest in six ninjas and blast my way through the game. No, sorry. I like diversity. I also like exploiting the game. I hated the laws at first, but now that the law cards have been introduced, oh man, I'm having a blast. I can make it so that the other side can't do anything. UWAHAHAHAHAHA!! A winner is me!

However, I'm at the part in the game where Jagds have been introduced. You'd think that it'd be fun and games with there not being rules, but in these happy lands, if your character is still "dead" at the end of the turn, they will actually die. Not cool, game, not cool. I've invested a lot of time and effort into my little clan of twenty-four. Plus, I can't exploit the laws, so I try to avoid the Jagd as much as possible.

Overall, FFTA is a good game with some flaws. It's addictive as hell, but I get annoyed time to time and turn off the GBA in disgust. Then I turn to my translated version of the Love Hina game for GBA and laugh my ass off at how terrible it is. So far I've gotten the Mutsumi ending. Watermelons!

Oh yeah, SGVY. I'll work on that some this week. Being sick and being away from my computer this weekend have really fucked up my schedule. Ah well. I'll get it done.

Kupo!


I'm feeling much better now. Thank you again for all your well-wishes. They really made me happy. ^_^

I'm going to try to work on SGVY tonight. I have a lot to do this weekend, so I'm really going to be hurried. Gwaa!

In other news, I'm past the third totema in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I really shouldn't be there. My characters are too weak to be at this point. I'm going to have to level like crazy.

Off to work!

Wait, you're giving up this world where you're a general and respected by many in order to go back to being some bitch who everyone picks on? ARE YOU CRAZY?!


Well, I'm still sick. Whee. This damned cold won't go away. I woke up this morning and my throat wouldn't MOVE!! Argh! It hurt so much!

But anyway, I'm doing better than a couple days ago. A couple days ago I couldn't go to sleep without dreaming that I was a Final Fantasy Tactics Advance character. I think I was an Elementalist. It was weird. Now I'm dreaming about parrot-lemur spies. Weirdness, but not as frustrating.

I think I have a lot to do today, but I can't remember. Oh well, I think I'll find out sometime today.

I'm going to go sleep again. 'Night.

Roads paved with giant eggs.


Since the comic's not out due to sickness, here's a bit of bonus. Warning: If you don't like scantily clad women, why are you reading this comic?



Enjoy. ^_^


Ugh, I shouldn't have gone to work yesterday. Now I feel a lot worse. Oh well, I've got today off, so I'm going to rest and hopefully regain my head soon.

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes. It's actually making me feel better to see the pictures, cards, emails, and donations you've sent. I'll be back soon, don't you worry.

I'm off to sit in bed now. Maybe the little White Mages can Cure my head.

Nobel the Blue Mage!!


I'm feeling sick today. Ugh, my sinuses feel like they have cotton in them, and my throat feels itchy. I'm not as bad as Harry Lime though. Poor baby has a sore throat from hell and has been coughing really hard. We're a pair, huh?

Thank God we have our GBA SPs. I forgot to mention last night that I gave Harry my Cobalt blue SP. He's really happy with it because he gets to play e-Reader games and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I'm thinking about getting him another game for it. He says that he's going to get the JFlame-DevKit and make his own java games for the GBA through the JemBlazer. Whee! I can't wait to see what he makes. ^_^

Harry Lime says: If only the GBA had a keyboard!

Yeah, that would be cool. Then we could have adventure games and strategy games that don't suffer from the endless searching through menus that console strat games have. Hmmm...

Well, I'm off to get me some rice and hopefully feel better. I'll play a lot of FFTA to make it better.

Kupo! Splat!


This is what's been occupying my time:



Ah, I love my new Pearl Pink GBA SP. It's so cute. I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on it non-stop since I got it Thursday. Actually, most people think it's cool despite being pink.

Even though I have my Pearl Pink one now, I still am looking longingly at the Famicom 20th Anniversary Version GBA SP. Only 1000 will be made, and they're only available through the contest to those in Japan. Gods, I don't want to even know how much these will be when they hit eBay. More than I'll pay, I surmise.

Well, off to play FFTA again. Till then!

Not purple; it's the light.


http://www.glico.co.jp/pocky/pocky_g/intro.htm

I like the screaming guy on the left. Truly, he is the embodiment of Pocky.

*crunch*


Oh, I forgot. Tomorrow I get Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I can't wait. I should finish SGVY before I get it. Mmm... Tacticy-goodness...


Well, I just finished typing up the next nine weeks of SGVY. My gods, I only had six of them on scrap paper, but I went ahead a wrote three more. I think this is enough to fill an Edda. Oh, now I have to draw on this week's comic.

Y'all need to listen to Nectarine Radio. Chock full of game-inspired music, it's the perfect zoning music. I feel the power of late-eighties to early-nineties gaming goodness fueling me. Maybe this is why I feel so much like working. Nothing like game music to make you want to strive to save the princess from hamburger monsters or write nine weeks of your comic. Yeehaa! Go listen!

Lain and Spike: They're on a mission from Mario.


So I'm back from Dragon*Con. Yay! It was so fun! I made a Slideshow of all the good pictures that we took. Go take a look!!

Let's begin the synopsis!

Thursday, 8/28:
I got on the road with Barn Owl around 9:30am. Nobody else came due to class, teaching, and meetings. I had been up all night and had only gotten one hour of sleep (see post for August 28). Poor Barn Owl. I spent a good part of the trip sleeping, even during the traffic jam. (It was between a Wal-Mart truck and an SUV. Both drivers looked dazed.) We did stop at the Georgia border rest stop and looked at the neat portable latrine trailers complete with carpeting inside.

When we finally hit downtown Atlanta, we pulled off on our exit, only to be met with an idiot making a dead stop because a truck just happened to put on his blinker to come back in. Mind you, I said he only put on his blinker. He had no intention of pulling on yet. We were going like 70mph, so Barn Owl had to do some fancy driving to keep us from crashing into him. This little incident, though, did cause the power steering to explode. We fortunately made it to the 'con. Barely. We were stuck on the dealer's loading deck for a while. I had to get our stuff to the room while Barn Owl literally ran nine blocks to get some power steering fluid to get us moving a little.

I spent the rest of the day after getting Barn Owl's truck into the parking deck wandering around and finding where things were. I met a few of y'all along the way. I think I was as nervous as you guys! ^_^

I think I ended up gaming or something that night. Who knows.

Friday, 8/29
Dragon*Con begins! We stood in line getting Harry Lime, Plink, Belrose, and Morgan's badges. Morgan had the same trouble I did the day before by having to go through the Line of Shame because he had to get a badge transfer. (I had lost my postcard. ;_;) We went to the James Marster talk. I'm not a Buffy fan, but he seemed pretty cool. I liked the parts where he would talk about Joss Whedon and him being a god, which is true. Morgan, Harry and I went to watch the Coming Attractions after that, but after watching lame trailer after lamer trailer after lamest trailer, we left to go to the Exhibit and Dealer's Halls. I bought a Chobits bottle cap figure. It was one of the random ones. I got Yuzuki. I wanted Sumomo. Oh well, that's how they make their money off those things.

Oh, and here's someone I met on my way back from McDonald's. Dude, you totally rule. People, he had to be SOWN in each time. I declare you Valkyrie of the Monkeys.

That night I got to meet Erin Lindsey of Venus Envy and Dave White of The Japanese Beetle. Erin was playing a switcharoo of identities with her friends when I first met her. I was kind of confused. ^_^;; We hung out for a while, and it was really fun to talk with them.

The night was ended with gaming.

Saturday, 8/30
The day of the panel. I wanted to go to the British Cartoons panel in the British TV Track, but I slept in. Oh well. I did get to go to the panel on the Future of DC Comics. I am excited about Batman: Death and the Maidens, the current Wonder Woman comics, and the upcoming Superman comics. All done by Greg Rucka. Pretty cool guy, if you ask me. There was a running joke about writers being artists and Ra's Al Ghul being the villain in everything, including the new Thundercats/Superman crossover by Judd Winick. *shudder*

Don't get me wrong; I like Judd. He's actually one of my favorite comic artists/writers. Apparently he was backed into doing this crossover. I feel for you, man.

I ended up being a panelist on the Anime Track's panel on Magical Girls. I got to meet Space Coyote of Saturnalia there (she was a panelist too). It was a lot of fun, though a lot of time was spent on defining a magical girl. ^_^;;

The EFF panel on Webcomics was at 10pm. We were locked out of the room before the panel started. I received a bottle of Ketel One vodka from a nice individual for bringing Erin to the 'con. Thanks, dude. You made my day. ^_^ The panel featured Dave White, Erin Lindsey, Space Coyote, Rob Balder of Partially Clips, and me. This panel was awesome. The room was packed. Robert of the EFF was having to crane to count everyone in the room. I couldn't have asked for a better time. A lot of good things were said, and a "rivalry" between Dave and Rob was forged. I drank much Apple Pie in celebration.

After the panel was over, I signed a bunch of things, posed the Yuuki cosplayer into Yuuki-like poses (so cool!), got everyone on the panel to sign my Ketel One, and then Rob, Dave, Harry, Plink, and I talked for a couple of hours about comics and jobs.

We gamed afterward. Notice a trend?

Sunday, 8/31
Dragon*Con continues! I think I went shopping on this day. I bought the new Duklyon paperback from Tokyopop. I only have this to say about the translation: Tokyopop, this is Two-Thousand-Fucking-Three!! You don't have to downplay the Kentarou wanting to be Takeshi's bride bit! We're adults! For God's sake, you're publishing FAKE!

*ahem* Sorry, I really like Duklyon.

I went and saw Greg Rucka, and he had some interesting things to say about the Hat Trick he'll be pulling soon. (Hat Trick is writing Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman at once.) After that I was on a panel on Webcomics with Space Coyote and Erin again, along with Bill Holbrook of Kevin & Kell, one of the guys from Spellshocked, John Robey from Suburban Jungle, and Jeffery Darlington of General Protection Fault.

Dave White hung out with us for the night. I think we gamed at some point.

Monday, 9/1
Dragon*Con is OVER! I spent the day getting things in cars, checking out, and making last minute purchases. (The Baron went down to $20. Sweet!) I slept the whole way home and went to sleep as soon as I got home. Whee...

So, that's my Dragon*Con 2003 adventure. If you went, hope you had fun. I'll be going back next year, so get ready!

I want to thank everyone who made this Dragon*Con special:

Thank you to Erin, Dave, Rob, and Space Coyote for attending the EFF Webcomics' panel. You were all great. I hope to be able to do a panel with all of you again and hang out.

Thank you to all the fans who came to see me. You are wonderful. It makes my day to meet you.

Thank you to the Yuuki cosplayer. I want to tell you that it was such a surprise to see one of my characters cosplayed. Congratulations on your new job, and thank you for the contribution.

Thank you to Robin Ruse. The Ketel One is delicious. Erin had some too. ^_^

Thank you to David Foley. I appreciate the donation in person.

Thank you to all the people I was on panels with during Dragon*Con. I was very happy to meet all of you!

And finally a special thank you to Scott and the people of the EFF. I hope to work with you again next year. Thank you for the wonderful panel.

Kompai!!