Phew! New comic and an honest to goodness little art upgrade

Only a lil' one, I know, but still it is a comic! I learned a lot while creating a reference page for Charlotte and salvaging/partially redrawing the disaster I aborted this past Wednesday. But it all took precious time! Still, I'll be much better prepared this coming Wednesday.

Blogger is acting WEIRD about uploading images. When I moved my small archive of twelve strips to the new address I had to put them on Photobucket and link to them as I kept getting that damn problem. But then, when I was done the new comic I tried regular uploading from my hard drive and wam bam spickidey spam....it worked?

Meanwhile, it's been a quiet weekend thanks to an incredibly sore right foot that has kept me from wanting to walk too far. This is what I get for having feet one size larger than what 99% of shoe stores in England carry, thus necessitating my getting my parents to send me a new pair of dress shoes from good ol' PayMore ShoeMoreShoe. While wating for them, I guess I've basically been walking on soles so thin as to not count under the Geneva conventions and thus here we are.

I did see Superbad though and I'd give it a hearty recommendation, even over Knocked Up. It just held together better, albeit probably because it had a simpler premise, and the overall theme of friends helping each other through tough transitions was executed in such a way that it was impossible not to see all sorts of funny and/or heartwarming similarities in my own life while watching. It doesn't desperately need the big screen though, so waiting for rental might not be a bad idea.

A huh....

Apparently I can upload pictures alright, just not from the specific folder in which I kept the batch of Notting Hill pictures.

AND NOW YOU KNOW.

But at least this means I can post comics this weekend!

A smidgen of Notting Hill

Here's something I'm definitely not used to seeing in Canada, a monument which addresses the Spanish Civil War. This is a topic generally not covered much, if at all, in Canadian high school history teachings and generally most folk don't much about it. I was certainly quite ignorant until about two months ago when I was reading Noam Chomsky's Objectivity & Liberal Scholarship, which used Western study of the history of the conflict as it's model.
Not unlike another monument I highlighted almost a year ago, this mural acknowledges people from the neighborhood who went and fought in the conflict. If you've seen one photo from the Civil War, it's generally this one by Robert Capa.Otherwise Notting Hill was a pretty standard, pleasant London neighborhood. Not as upscale as Kensington but certainly not as drab as North Islington, I can easily see why people would want to live here. Naturally, I kept looking about to see why you'd want to use this neighborhood to shoot a movie.

It's nice, but I wasn't sure what qualified Notting Hill over other areas I've seen. To be fair, this is based off of one fifty minute jaunt during a lunch break! After reading up on the matter a little bit, it turns out the director just really liked it so there. This I can sympathize with.

Also I just now seem unable to upload further photos to blogger, which is disconcerting since the Internet Gods smiled on me and freed up firstworldproblems.blogspot.com for me to leap on. Later today I hope to post a revised version of what I aborted earlier in the week! Until then...

While teaching paw how to make a blog...

....I came across the blog which has claimed www.firstworldproblems.blogspot.com

It's soooo abandoned! Does anyone know how to go about petitioning to get a dead blog cleared out so someone else can use the url?

The British Musem: Part 3 - Elgin Marbles

Right then! The Elgin Marbles are arguably the British Museum's most famous, long term exhibit. You can thank this wacky bastard for their having been taken from the Parthenon in Athens, as well as their English given title.There are folk of both countries that would like them returned to their rightful place, but frankly I do not see this happening anytime soon. This is if only for the fact that both countries generally have much higher priorities to worry about and because the timelessness of the Elgin Marbles doesn't exactly put any great urgency to the matter.I wish I had the kind of photographic memory which would have let me piece the marbles into the Parthenon using memories from my trip to Athens, but alas I could only sort of guess. Still, it was interested to know that I have now seen the almost the literal entirety of the Parthenon (a handful of pieces are scattered amongst other national museums, though the Swiss and the Germans are notable for having given theirs back).One nice thing about seeing the marbles was that I wasn't trying to blink back a blazing sun while I observed them, nor where the milling tourists nearly so thick (in more than one sense of the word). Being able to properly focus on some of the statues, like this torso of Poseidon, better allowed me to connect with the majesty of the artistry and the myths to which they are connected.Though you can find all sorts of statements and explanations for what happened regarding the transfer of the marbles and the reasons for keeping or giving them back...I thought it'd be fun to grab a picture of the explanations given on large plaques just outside the entrance to the exhibit.
--------------
In unrelated news, the fourteen tenets of a fascist regime are a hell of a thing to read when you realize that everyone's favorite American administration has checked of every single one.

Oh me, oh my, oh pooooop

I'm sorry folks, but in the interest of not serving up a steaming dogpile there won't be a new comic today.

On a related note my hat's off to all the professional cartoonists who have to draw just as well on a bad day as a good. On another related note - PROTIP: If you make a mistake that really pisses you off, take a step back and pause for a moment before continuing. Don't just power through and draw faster, harder with the expectation that you can kick difficulties ass....somehow.

Siiiiigh.....fuck it, I'm off to bed. Enjoy Bill Maher's rebuttle to the whole "Freedom Fry" mentality, if a bit past when that was first topical.

Tomorrow? Elgin marbles my dear.

The British Musem: Part 2

Outside!
The design of the central chamber was not what I was expecting at all...And a few shots from the west wings "Enlightenment" section, just past those lovely clocks.
I rather enjoyed the way this wing made you feel like you were in the library of an eccentric member of the aristocracy...which only makes sense given how such individuals have often given financial aid to the museum over the years.While I fiddled around the neighborhood briefly, I found a specialty store where one could - if one were so inclined - dagger canes and swordsticks.
I may go back for an estimate. Just out of curiosity, you understand.
Tomorrow will undoubtedly yield a comic, but Thursday I'll be showing some of those Greek treasures which the British Museum is "keeping safe". Until then!

The British Museum: Part 1 - CLOCKS

So yes, on Saturday it was pretty plain that the demand to see the Terracotta Warriors was (and is) pretty high in London. I got to the British Museum for 10:30am and was told the first free timeslot (with people being funneled in one end of the exhibit and out the other pretty much nonstop) was 2:20pm. Luckily I had the rest of the museum to explore and luckily the museum is in a neighborhood I am quite familiar with (the museum lay a few blocks east of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus). Logically I should start with the outside and main interior chamber of the museum, but I promised CLOCKS. FANCY CLOCKS. So that's what you get!This impressive ship-clock was designed to roll along the length of a banquet table and to fire off certian cannon's (just a flashbang, of course) to signify moving from one course to another!Phew! Man...so many nice clocks. I gotta go towel off THE SWEAT I'M TALKING ABOUT SWEAT HERE. More to come later!

I LIKE THIS MAYBE YOU'D LIKE THIS

This is a neat little "How each comic gets gone" video by Octopus Pie. It's more of a fun animation than any kind of actual tutorial, but still!



Meanwhile, the title for this post could arguably be used for 98% of user created content on the internet, I reckons. Ah well, if you haven't already then please check out the latest episode of my own little darlin'.

Get ready for clocks

Well hot dang, it's a NEW COMIC!

Tomorrow? Clocks. So many clocks like you wouldn't believe.

First World Fiddling

So here is my first proper play around with "colouring". I think I've just about made up my mind about going black and white or colour. Though I suppose I could always do colour for the site and desaturate the images for any kind of printed collection I might be lucky enough to do, some two hundred comics or so down the road.

But then, since writing is and will most likely continue to be my stronger half of this word n' picture show, it's probably best to aim for whatever lets me put out the comic quicker and more frequently. Thus black and white looks to be a winner for the time being!

The Terracotta Warriors, and the British Museum in general, were quite a thing today. Sadly, cameras were not allowed in the central exhibit (the Warriors) but they were kosher everywhere else and thus I have plenty of great pictures I'll be putting up over the next couple of days. Now you have something to live for!

Also, the hunt for a better font continues. Opinions are always welcome!-----------------
Meanwhile, the topic of protracted adolescence is something worth thinking about and this short article takes an interesting, male-centric angle on the matter.

Also, it seems the world's oldest profession is not human exclusive. That is to say, CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHIMP WHORES. DO IT NOW.

The Thames along Hammersmith Pier

Phoaaarr

Another quiet (blogwise) day, I'm afraid. Work has kept me very busy and I must admit that I'm embracing the increased intensity and challenges after the steady doldrum of data entry. The immediate neighborhood to my work is very pleasant (and conveniant as it's loaded with shops) but not terribly photo worthy. That being said, I gather I'm not far from one of London's more well known neighborhoods. I'll check my London A-Z and see if it's close enough that I could go and grab some photos on my lunch.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Terracotta Warriors have arrived in town and there's a good chance I'll be seeing them or at least finally making my pilgramige to Tower Bridge on Saturday so thar'll be news of that to look forward to.

Finally, my apologies for a lack of an "art upgrade" in the comic. Life got in the way of me finishing a bunch of character style guides I was drawing up, as it sometimes does. What's actually irritating, though, is that I gave into the urge to announce an improvment before it came about! This is something which I've privately gotten pretty annoyed by with when it comes to webcomic author newsposts and yet there I did it myself!

Well shucks howdy.

Also? Moby Dick is absolutely worth its reputation not to mention the literary wanking that one can do when they start to realize just how much of an influence Herman Melville's style of prose has had on so many that have come after him.

URF

THAR WE GO

AUGUGUHUHUAGH

The beast known as Computer Errors has just cost me a gross lump of work on the comic. I think I might still be able to get it up tonight (honey) but in case I don't, now you know why!

Wahhhhhh

If the Middle East were filled with nothing but millions of Olivers...

....then this is how America could win their hearts and minds.

Now I can spend a little money without peeing tears for the next week (?), I thought I'd find a nice cheap paperback to read on the tube. Popping into a Borders, I eventually found a perfect trifecta of classic literature, affordability and environmentalism.
According to a store clerk, Penguin started releasing these 95% recycled editions of old classics (upon which all the money has been made) about six months ago. As you can see in the picture, it only sold for two quid (about $5 CAN/US) and that's just a hell of a deal for a new book. I snapped up Moby Dick, Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bram Stoker's Dracula and a collection of selected works by Edgar Allen Poe. Hot damn but I'm covered for the next while! It also strikes me that these would be a great resource for students (all the Shakespearean plays were on the shelf, for example). Can anybody tell me if these are avaliable in Canada as well? If not, they should be!

Three hundred posts: woooo

But alas, just a short note!

Lots more places are pushing reusable bags, but I think the new Threadless store in Chicago has the right idea to really get people to use them.

Jahb, jahhhb, JAHB!

As first days go, this was pretty okay! The office is nice, the coworkers are very sociable and all around nice folk. The work itself wasn't too complex but then I doubt they'd entrust me to defending the Earth from the interdimensional Hounds of Tindalos on my first day.

The commute was surprisingly docile compared to what I expected, it seems the Picadilly Line is much less rammed in the mornings than the Northern Line. Thus I was able to get a decent amount of writing done while A) sitting down and B)not having somebodies quivering flesh jamming me into the unyielding glass and steel of the car itself.

Quivering.

I'd have taken some photographs and explored during lunch, except the people in my department all went to a really nice local pub where, wonders of wonders, drinks were A)had B) paid for on the company tab. Well, I wasn't exactly going to say no to that now was I? Hi-larious drunk bubbles passed across my eyes for the first hour (I generally avoid spending money on alcohol while unemployed or pseudo employed, as I've been the past while, so my tolerence had plummeted) but I persevered.

Addendum: You know you're on the internet when you encounter the following phrase "So I came across this hilarious blog post where Wil Wheaton integrates a magnificent Tycho quote into a funny story". Ah, but it's true and I must share it because the bookending story is fine but the Tycho quote made me laugh until I damn near wet myself because it was, as they say, so very true. You don't have to be some big programming geek to enjoy it, you just have to have been alive more or less.

As my Uncle Phil would put it....

...I am cream crackered. The last little while has been ten kinds of stressful for reasons I didn't bring up here lest it become one of those blogs and this afternoon it finally caught up with me. Try as I might, any attempt to progress past what I got made me feel like a dickless man trying to fuck his way up a mountain.

I....I think I just coined that horror.

As partial means of compensation I put forward these two offerings and a humble promise of a comic on Wednesday.

Hollywood (Monkey-Dust style) takes a crack at the Ivan O'Dobsky story...

...and then again, with The Crusades.

More English Guffaws you may not be aware of

Monkey-Dust was an animated series that usually hops quickly between loosely connected skits. But then they did the following epic which follows a fine arc of great comedy into a conclusion of utter horror.

Enjoy!


More clips from the show can be found here. It's also notable for great background music, most of it contemporary (I discovered this show through a link-go-round that started with the group Goldfrapp).