24 inches of haven

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I just bought a new LED monitor. 23 and some odd parts of an inches diagonal. There’s not enough room on the old computer bench for anything bigger. This thing is big. I’m finding that there is stuff to the side of web sites that has been always there but I didn’t see it with the old monitor. You can get a stiff neck reading text on this monitor, your head goes back and forth reading. The old monitor was so small that you could get a line of text in one glance with out having to move my head. This monitor is HD TV format. I wish it was a little taller for making drawings on it. This monitor is much better for drawing, much more drawing space. I don’t think I can use a 10 inch tablet, even with blowing the image up will not help.  If I get a laptop it’s got to be 13 inches minimum with a Wacom screen. Save your pennies and get the biggest monitor you can.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Voltage

e-book pirates are alive and thriving

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At the last meeting of the screenwriters group I belong to one of the members who runs a mirco-traditional-publishing business had some bad news for another writer in the group. The other writer has written and published several novels both in trade paper back and e-book. The bad news is someone is selling print on demand copies of his books and he wasn’t aware of it or getting any money for the books sold. Seems it common for people to scrape e-books off the net and offer them for sell. They sell the books through large used book web sites but not Amazon. Self published authors and other small authors would not expect to find their books on used book web sites so they never check. One site we were shown claims the books (taken from other authors) were printed in the USA. The books from the dealer using print on demand were selling for less than the author sold them for or the price on the book jacket.

Are you a small book author that has e-books or know someone who is, then check the used book web sites and see if this is happening to you or people you know.

 

Write on. Professor Voltage.

Excuses, one million and two, plus drawing practice

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Chris Hart said in an interview with Jazza that it is better to spend one hour a day drawing than to draw for eight hours one day a week. One hour a day isn’t much, but last night I sat down to put in an hour but before that all I had to do was write one check to pay a bill. There was money in the bank to cover the check, I just had to fill out the check and sign it. I opened the check book and was too tired to fill out the check. After a day full of taking care of family, working around the house to keep it from falling into more disrepair, keeping the plants in the garden from dying, and keeping the fish in the fish tank clean and healthy I was tired.

I went to bed. The next morning I filled out the check over a half a cup of instant oatmeal (Trader Joe’s with extra cinnamon and some raisins). Later I hand delivered the check.

They say there are no excuses, well some days there is more day than there is me. Missing a day of drawing is like going off your diet for a day or two or three. It’s not the end of the world, it isn’t even a big set back but you have to get back to it.

Tonight it’s write and draw but only for an hour, I’m tired.

Write on. Draw on. Professor Voltage.

Company Merger Less Service

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I just received an email that Time Warner Cable will kill the free web site I have with them at the end of the month. I’ve had this web site for a long time, through three ISPs. Why are they doing this, they didn’t say. I believe they have to eliminate all freebies so Comcast can report good financial numbers next quarter. Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable and Comcast debt will increase, big time. To pay the interest on the new debt’s loan and still report an increase in profit Comcast will have to cuts out everything it can from the cable service while keeping the price the same (less service same price). Does the storage requirements for a web sites cost that much. I don’t think so, Google offers ton of free cloud storage for gmail accounts and other companies offer free storage to. Does it matter? Not so much for the web sites. People don’t use personnel web sites like they have in the past. Now people use FaceBook pages or use a web site hosting service. Even Blogs are declining in popularity. But this could be a warning that new fees are coming for things that use to be free. The end result is some people at Time Warner Cable will get an unreal amount of money while the customer will get less. Is this unique to Comcast? No, Union bank bought out Santa Barbara bank and simple things have been stopped. My mother still complains that they no longer print pictures of checks on the monthly bank statements and if the computer is ever hacked or crashes she will not have a record that bills were paid. How much could it cost to print the pictures of cashed checks on the statement? If Union bank wants to act like a major bank then their customers could end up going to a small bank that will go the extra distance to give them simple things that they want. Time to call up Verizon and see if I can get a good rate on plain internet service. Write on.

Using WordPress for a Webcomic for the beginner 1

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When I started this Blog for a Webcomic I wanted nothing between a new reader and the Webcomic. No splash page, no adds, no pop ups. I also wanted a simple easy to remember URL or web site address. I built a web domain name (which is part of the URL) and obtained domain hosting for a web page. I named the WEB page/site/domain for the location where the comic takes place. This web site transfers the reader to the WordPress site for the web comic so the URL doesn’t need a /wp after the domain name. The transfer is very fast.

You can get a domain name from many companies. Most of the companies will also sell you hosting. Shop around. You can ask other Webcomic authors where they get their services. I get my hosting and domain names from register4less.com. They are located in Canada. The service desk has answered my questions quickly and I have asked them a bunch of questions. I use them to support another Webcomic “userfriendly.org” by Illiad. Hey Webcomic creators should support each other. Is this the best hosting service? No, that would depend on you and your coding ability. Look for reviews of any hosting service before you go with them. register4less.com is banner-free so that’s a big plus for me. Monthly and yearly charges vary all over the place. I pay extra for e-mail capability for all my WEB sites so be aware of extra charges. You can move a domain from one hosting service to another if the hosting service doesn’t work out or changes after you get a domain name. Make sure the domain and hosting service allow you to move domain names.    Side note, Illad the creator of the webcomic userfriendly has a major project going on and has been running old comics on the userfriendly site. I wish him the best of luck and can’t wait for him to start running new comics.

The web site, not the WordPress site, has several pages. The pages are not active yet. The code for the additional pages is like hot, shaken, nitroglycerin. They blow up all the time. I’ll get the code fixed one of these days but I got a comic to write. I am planning to have the ability to jump from the WordPress site to the different pages of the first web site. This should keep the response time of the WordPress site very fast.

Building my bolg, pain, headache, and lack of information

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This is my blog, this is my journey. I started this blog site to showcase my Webcomic. To help build the blog I purchased “The Webcomic Handbook” by Brad Guigar. Brad does the Evil Inc. webcomic at evil-inc.com. The handbook recommends using WordPress and the Comic Easel theme. Unfortunately the Comic Easel theme has been replaced by the ComicPress theme. The good news is ComicPress is set up so that you don’t have to use Child Themes. Child themes are an attempt (that doesn’t always work) to save from having to re-enter information into a theme when WordPress updates or the theme updates and both WordPress and ComicPress have updated several times in the last couple of months. The bad news is I can’t find decent instructions on how to use ComicPress. I don’t have time to do what I have to do during the day and write stories and work with an artist to get page drawn (I’m not a good artist) at night. Over and over again I’ve found that by the time I learn enough about some piece of software they change the program or language and you have lean a whole bunch of new programming methods. So far I have pushed buttons and got the blog to work somewhat and I haven’t locked up the server yet. I still can not figure out things or find a place where it explains what to do. If you haven’t noticed when you go to this site you go to a web page that redirects you to this site on Wordpress. If WordPress goes down, gets hacked, or I hose the theme beyond recognition I have HTML and CSS code I could drop into the web site page to have something up, it will be crude but there will be something on the web page. It would mean hand entering changes to images and text (a lot of work) till WordPress gets back on line but the site would still work. Still looking for help with ComicPress without spending days, weeks, months or even years learning programming.

Write on.

Hot and Sweaty Wacom drawing tablet

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It’s been so cold for so long you can forget what it’s like to work up a sweat and have your hand stick to your tablet. Many digital artist use a two finger glove that covers the bottom of the hand (where it rest on the tablet) and the bottom two fingers on their drawing hand. See Jazza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVo5IcY9Mbo) on Youtube. He’s left handed and in the insert window you can see him wearing a two finger glove when he holds up his left hand.      I think it looks dorky. I use a plain piece of copy paper and place it over the Wacom drawing pad. The pen/stylist works like the paper is not there. The paper gives the stylist (drawing pen) the feel of drawing on paper in place of the slick plastic surface. Replace the paper often to keep it clean and the paper will reduce the wear on the drawing pad surface. The paper will most likely wear the tip (nib) of the drawing stylist out a little faster but the nibs last for years and can be replaced. Wacom drawing pads comes with extra nibs.    Draw on.

April 1 proves the economy is getting better

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April first I received several e-mails that were April fools gags and the gags weren’t gallows humor. This proves the economy is getting better. People are happier, the beam counters are not strangling everyone (it cost money to send out a gag e-mail, those electrons aren’t cheap and were in business to make money not get sued).  Spring is coming, the snow is going to melt and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (it’s not a train it’s congress coming to muck things up).            Professor Hy Voltage.

What’s the difference between an artist and an engineer?

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At the ConDor convention in San Diego I noticed a number of people complaining about how early the panels started. The panels started at 10:00. They must have been artists. An engineer knows that time and science wait for no man. Even when not working I get up at 6:15 to 6:30 every morning. I know fellow engineers that are up at 5:00 a.m. By 10:00 the days half over with. The difference between an engineer and an artist, about five and a half hours.

Or 80 dollars an hour and over time if your lucky.

Write on, draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage

19th century meets 21st century

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Coming from the pool area into the convention area of the ConDor con you cross by the pool area then through a short hallway to the con area. Along one side of the hallway are brand new soda machines and on the other side are full length mirrors. Early Sunday morning one of the attendees was checking the fit the bustle of her steampunk costume in the hallway mirrors. A great juxtaposition of the 19th and 21st century.

Write on,draw on.  Professor Hyram Voltage