NETTG Rants

Comic this year? We'll see....

My head's in a good place, more or less, but I am actually rather quite busy. Within the realm of possibility. ( insert 4kids realm joke here. )

We're changing hosts shortly. The site might go down for a couple days when it's switched to the new place.

I blame WoW.

Rust's good for ya... lots of iron.

As for us, I think we're stale.... like crutons.

It's past time to start drawing again. In fact, I did, just last night. I'm very rusty....

I like traffic lights.

Time to start bugging people again. ;)

Time to start writing again.

Time to start drawing, again.

*Ichthyosaur*

*Giant Sloth*

*Wooly mammoth*

*Squirrels*

*Tumbleweeds*

We win!

April Fools Day... and I have no witty comments to share. Oh well, I shall declare victory and move onwards regardless! ^_^

Hmm. Guess our forums aren't coming back. Good alternatives might include the Florestica Forums at Florestica.com where I recently posted a couple of NETTG:TinT chapters (but unfortunately not anything related specifically to the comic on this site). But hey, it's an idea, anyway.

Also, Esa's back from Japan. Dunno when we'll get more art, but he survived the trip.

I is on a Training Trip in Japan. Got Onsen Episode, Got Samurai Training, Got Mind Blown By Cheap Bookstores. Got Maid Cafe. Got Temples and Castles. Got Public Bath. No Get Cosplay.

Many Many Things, Will Report in Blog Later.

Must Write In AllCaps.

Happy Valentine's day.

Hmm. So it seems our forums ARE quite cursed. We've had such awful luck with them. ^^

Anyway, not sure at this point how worthwhile it would be to simply start anew. I'm just waiting to see if they can actually recover the data before moving on to a new system. Besides, we've been down to a handful of readers for the longest time--if we need to communicate, we can drop an email to nettg@nettg.com or whatnot. Esa's thawing out, but he'll be a Wandering Fishmonger in Japan for February. Having adventures, defeating enemies with his blunt trout techniques, and so on. Oh yes, he shall defeat the wicked poultry salesman. Hmhmhm. Yes indeed.

Anyway, I posted Chapter 16 of NETTG: Terra in Tokyo to the FFML. I really should post it somewhere else so that interested parties can have a look at it as well. In any case, there's no big hurry, probably.

Wow, our forum is cursed. I wonder how that happened...

The cheese speaks in riddles,

But I speak in rhyme,

The cheese plays the fiddle,

And I pantomime,

The cheese grows quite mouldy,

While I grow quite late,

The cheese smells more boldly,

Then I abdicate.

Danny made up a li'l ArbyFish card. Tis simple, but I got a li'l chuckle out of it. Merry Christmas!

You're not fooling anyone, y'know. ^_~

In any case, no sign of updates so far. Chesu's gone off and is getting somma dat 'learning' we've heard so much about. Esa's also trying to graduate from his university so he can live somewhere further south during the winter. Typical fishmongering and such until then, though.

I'm getting better...

I'm not dead yet...

You've held me back long enough! I'm going to clown college!

Also, read this. Read all of it.

*chirp* *chirp*

Schoolwork. Lots. Still, some time and thought. All hope, not lost.

*Crickets*

Status: Thinking of GDM. Writing code, like a bunny. Stuff will happen.

Writer's block?

Is it Christmas yet?

Badgers are in th' wash. Come back next Tuesday!

Seems rather troublesome, considering I am blind to my errors and typos until I post. ;)

Egad. I get emails every time somebody updates a rant - or when they typo their password or something like that. Danny just about killed me with spam while writing that post :P

I did a google search on ArbyFish. There's a lot more things out there now than when I did that before. Random people who I've never known talking about 'em. Some people calling Arby an abomination, some the best fanfic character ever. He can be quite annoying, but he'll usually try to make up for it in the end. A pack a 'shrooms on ya doorstep early in the morning, 'bit 'o fungus in ya wash.

I miss the days when stuffed animals ruled my brain.

Nostalgia...

'Course those days also sucked in their own way.

Back when we were dumb kids still in school, we'd have endless fun coming up with scenarios, quotes, and such with our characters and run them over and over again endlessly. Well, at least Ben would. Ben would start a familiar sketch and we'd go through it, refining it and such. Such things simply aren't feasible anymore. There're things that simply don't come across as well in text.

My stuffed animals sit in the side-table cubby all-but-unused: Arby, Estaban, Lepoardu, Chokoreto. They stare at me sometimes, yearning to be brought to life. Sometimes they pop up and say a few words, then go back to sleep.

Someday they will live again.

Someday...

Hmm. Nothing to report just yet. So I'm coming along and saying so. :D

Been tinkering with a Terra in Tokyo chapter, mostly. Been quite hot around here lately, which makes it difficult to think. I believe Esa's in a similar position, despite him being pretty close to the arctic circle. Ah, fun fun summertimes! ^_^

Brightness - 25, contrast + 45

The shades in latest comic look terribly light to me. It's bugging me a bit.

Yay! Esa to the rescue!

Not quite ten years yet!

...But, it's been a while. I do recommend checking a larger segment at a time, so one gets the whole picture, so to speak. Considering it's been four months once again, it's understandable if one is a bit... fuzzy on who the blond guy in need of a haircut is.

After months of hard work, practice, and coaxing, Esa has produced another comic page! Last time we were with Terra, who had been getting a major lecture from her multiple personalities on the science of what has happened to her since being knocked from the grandness of destroying galaxies. And now, we're back with Captain Laios and the damage control/recovery efforts. It's just been a few days since the Galactic Destroyer attacked and nearly obliterated the solar system. So, natually, quite a lot of buildings are broken up and they have to dwell in tents and other temporary structures until rebuilding can begin in earnest. Many died... but it seems that some whom they thought had perished actually made it!

It's like Mark Doherty once said: "Better late than never, but ten years is kind of pushing it." ^_^

A little panic now and again is good for ya! Keeps the blood flowin'.

Random panicking! Yays!

...oh, they were just changing out the server. Works for me! ^_^

So... what now? Sock-puppets?

'Tis no matter of luck! 'Tis an evil voodoo curse placed upon our gold by the heathen gods what say, "Ni!" It's because we failed in our calling to ferry the melons across the 12th astral plane where they would find their rest in the 15 stomachs of the 8-tailed fox! Plus, we didn't properly pronounce our special technique, thereby keeping our enemies completely unalerted to our intentions.

...Or gremlins.

Looks like our forums have been eaten... again. Yesterday, they'd rolled back to a previous date, and now the page redirects to some weird banner ad site in some foreign country.

The main site refers to some SQL database, so it's possible that site got hacked, but it's hard to tell.

We've had such awful luck with our forums, really. ^^;

Another week of fine flying badgers.

Esa did come up with a rendition of a specific sprite comic on his blog. As usual, he's a bit timid about sharing sketches, but I think it's nifty.

Oye declare today... Tuesday!

I exploded?

What, again? I gotta stop doing that....

He lives. He merely gestates in preperation for WORLD DOMINATION!

Looks like Esa exploded again. Maybe we'll hear from him again after he recovers from his evil test today. ^_^

I plead the 13th.

I know it must seem awfully quiet around here. And... it is! Lo and behold, there's not a lot of activity lately. No sprite comics (Chesu's off doing other stuff, like move boxes around), no regular comics (Esa's off stressing himself out due to a big ol' mean test on Monday), no ArbyFish comics (Danny decided he didn't want to continue doing that), and no big written Extras to read (Ben's off being a lazy bum... no, wait, Ben's okay. I blame Larry for this one. All Larry's fault. C'mon, it's only a fifty-thousand page Masters report to edit, remove all the bogus Word formatting manually, line by line, gather a bunch of random pictures from a dozen webcomics, and make presentable for the Internet, what could be easier???? ^_-).

But we'z not dead yet. We're just distracted by shiny objects. Work, games, badgers, mushrooms, toothpicks... Kind of a package deal, y'see.

And it's the Creator of the ArbyFish's birthday coming up. There shall be no party, but feel free to wish 'im a 'appy McShroomin' Day! Tis all in good fun.

Ranting-du? No ranting-du. Mmm... writing-du. Playing-du, eating-du.

Yaaaaw!

No rant again this week. That's because there's no content added since last time other than some stuff up at Esa's Blog, such as a vampire ArbyFish and such. In the meantime, random plots stir underneath. And nothing to show for it yet. ^_^

Not much easter-fu here, no. But, despair not, there are things moving, deep, unseen....

'Appy Easter and such! Hmm... No Easterish stuff to share around this time, as everyone seems to be busy at the moment.

Nevertheless, on we go. We'z not dead yet! ^_^

April 1st and nothing new, neither fanfic nor comic.

Hmm, I must be getting old. ^_^

No rants again this week. We're in the process of waffling. Er, I mean... preparing, or... waiting, biding our time... for the moment when we shall strike!!!

If ya went aroun' rantin' without nutin' ta say, what would the dingos do?

Roight, 'cos there's no pages this week, y'see. Got some sketches at Esa's Blog, though.

There are no rants this week.

Random Linkage: The guy who does Brackenwood animation stuff. His blog is a good read for those interested in animation.

I have a tendency to get very excited about things for short periods of times. It's... well, Ben said I'm easily distracted by shiny objects - that's somewhat accurate. I've done some animation from now and then - most notably the "ASK getting bashed in the head" thing, which was one of the first things I did on PC, then there's my old forum Avatar - which, while interesting, could really have tried to push things a bit more.

Oh, the version of ASK-Bashing in Florestica is actually an improved one someone did in Flash - my original one was a plain ol' Avi, with not as good timing, no sound and no stars an SFX.

It would be interesting to remake that one, and see if my animation skills have improved any.. I do have some smudgy test-animations on my computer, which looked nicer now that some time has passed since I did them.

Yay! ^__^

So, Esa's got his comic for this year done, and to follow up... Chesu's Made a Comic Too!

I kind of promised Esa I'd really start bugging Chesu about the next sprite comic once Esa made another line comic. Under normal circumstances, that'd be something like... "I'll bug Chesu about another sprite comic when the fiery halls of hades start hosting polar bear clubs." But, the impossible happened, Esa found an outlet for his angstyness (blogs do wonders for the emo-gothish types, I hear), so I started bugging Chesu. Y'know, emails, IMs, postings, thousands upon thousands of letters carried by owls shoved under the door.... stuff like that.

...and it WORKED, too! :D

Esa's got a bit of talk on his blog about The Making of the Comic. He's also got a few scraps of art that I didn't even have before, such as the sketch that became the first page. Check it out!

Esa posted a large image of the 6th frame of line comic 19 in his art blog. Since it's a nice thing to have, a copy has been added to the list of fan art in the Extras.

Ze line comic, she is up! In this episode, at last, the side effects of living inside a human brain are explained! And the voices truly start chiming in!

As Esa's noted on his blog, this page took about 35 hours of work to do. That's an impressive amount, by any standard. But you have to remember Esa's style. There's a lot of things he wants to focus on and he is, to put it mildly, easily distracted by shiny objects. ^_^

His blog's helped out a lot so far. It's been a great outlet for him. Believe it or not, there's times he doesn't feel like working on NETTG-related stuff, and the blog gives him an audience for anything he may come up with. Plus... you have to admit, blogs are the outlets for a large portion of depressed people in this world. It's absolutely perfect for him!!! XD

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the page. Like I said to Mark Doherty (who finally finished I'm Here to Help after eight years of web silence), better late than never! Besides, Esa gets lots of good practice when we don't set any deadlines. Getting it done just, y'know, whenever, no worries, is fine. All kinds of other avenues of thought get explored. Even got some ideas played out for original projects we've got in mind. 'Tis quite good, yes.

Kevlar(bounces up and down): It makes me sooo happy! ^_^

it's not so much a preference as a... natural inclination. I'd much prefer preferring... bunnies, and... things.... Or something. Still, it's kind of amazing when something comes out of the pen that is... that I wouldn't expect to find from my brain.

I have a very physical take on consciousness, at least in the way I speak of it.

In other news, Larry updated Thalia's bio on Cast page with a new image. It has COLOUR! Brr!

Esa, as witnessed by his art blog, prefers art mixed with depression. Thus, "cute" can sometimes be foreign to his nature. Therefore, we appreciate his great sacrifice in researching cute things for the sake of the work. ^_^

Today, I had to do research on the subjects of 'cute', 'cute hairstyles', 'Milfeulle Sakuraba' and 'Chiyo Mihama'

I suffer for the comic's sake. Using some definition of 'suffer', in any case.

Why would they, when you direct-link like that, hmph!

Eh, I don't mind. Today is one of these days that remind me of the little matter of Finland being roughly an equal distance from North Pole as Alaska. Brr... Cold.

Keep checking Esa's Art Blog. He's got some nifty stuff there. For example, Terra as Super-DUPER Sailor Chibimoon! and Chiaroscuro Death! Stuff like dat. :D

Meow.

Ssh! I... Oh, whatever. I didn't want to make noise 'til there was more content. I like to at least pretend I'm too cool to care 'bout attention. Which, of course, is completely untrue.

Blogging keeps me sane-ish. Anyway, since the cat is out of the bag, to use my phrasebook, I should warn you: Part of the reason the line comic gets so easily blocked for years and years, is because of quality control. None of the pages seemed at the time of their posting like they were completely horrible. This won't be true for the blog. Be afraid.

Esa's got an art blog now. Negamafoozle! Or, Art and Depression. Take ya pick. Give 'em big hugs and support! ^_^

White stuff fall from sky! Make hard to drive!

No comic, but feel free to browse the Forums! Yup, they're operational and we've managed to discuss a few random subjects. We may get more comicness yet. ^_^

In other news, I've released Terra in Tokyo Ch.12 to the FFML, and I'm sure Larry'll get chapter 11 and 12 up once all the edits are made to the website. In the meantime, check out the previous chapters here.

Hokay, I've got an announcement and a request for the NETTG community. Friend of mine (one of the developers on the SIMud project) has just launched a simple little site to help folks find other like-minded individuals with which to play games.

If you've got the time and inclination, please hop on over to nearbygamers.com and register. We're hoping to get a few thousand users into the database within the next few weeks.

Given the problems that kept piling up and up, with no end in sight, we made a decision to discontinue the old forum and start over from scratch. To those who had accounts before, please sign up again. If anyone knows of a method to port over the messages from the old forum, I'd be glad to hear about it.

ZZZZzzzz...

Still no major updates. Stasis, m'boy, stasis. All in hibernation... Like hibernating bunny.

In other news, Chesu's been at it again... He made a medium-silly video called The Return of Link! Ah yes, as it says in the title, a fat, balding Link returns to action!!!

Right-o. As you were. ^_^

Hmm... No news yet. Esa's in hibernation and Christmas has occurred. We have to constantly patrol the damaged forum for robot spammers and Chesu has his Nintendo Wii. Is he playing the new Zelda game? Darn straightly! ^_^ And once he completes every last minigame, then he can move on to other ones.

How will stuff go from here on out? Anyone's guess. Onwards!

And while the windup occurs for the next story sprite comic, here would be Chesu with the New Apprentice--er, I mean, SIDEKICK! In true Donald Trump form, Link reviews the applicants for their pros and cons... and deals with their individual machinations in turn. And gotta watch those villains when they wanna join up.

And in case we don't get a comic or a special page before then, Merry Christmas! ^_^

And now the cover page for Chapter 7: Act Three of Cut Wood, Shave Bunny! More fighting, more intrigue, more bunny. Yaaw, very bunny. Like Du. Thanks to Chesu for using his newfound spriting ability. We like sprite comics. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't. The story goes on.

Work's going fine, writing is slow, game playing is ongoing in my spare time... Got into a beta of something called Dungeon Runners. We'll see if it's any good.

New page! To Be Continued Soon, In The Next Act... How will the story progress? How will ASK survive being ripped apart by love-crazed Jovian Amazons? Will Laios at last shave the bunny that vanquished his old martial arts master? What will Ameixia do after this competition? What IS worse than finding an ArbyFish in your orange?? Find out soon..............

Chesu's been off polishing his skills, and it shows. For example, he made a revised version of the Chapter 6 cover page. He's been teaching others how to sprite properly, and they've learned fast. He himself has picked up lighting effects and a few other odds and ends. He's definitely gotten better with practice. So, we'll likely have some more pages to come in a li'l bit. Whether a little bit is days or month is another question, though. People get busy. Larry's gotten busy with random stuff, I've got a job and have like... 8 level-capped characters in World of Warcraft... Esa is off doing his winter routine. He'll thaw out sometime in January or February, most likely. Y'know, when the birds make their migratory journey back from the desert sands of Nigeria. Things and stuff! ^_^

Now that's comedy. :D

Happy Holidays, all! Ahh, December. The time we visit lots with family, the time we collapse into a pile of depression and zoom off to Lapland to become a wandering fishmonger...

That's right, there's a holiday comic! HAPPY DAY OF THE NINJA, PEOPLE!! XD

And presenting this lovely occasion is our very own Knight-Zero, a ninja created on a whim. Nevertheless, she's keen to defend her proud ninja heritage, as it were. This is kind of in retaliation for the Talk Like a Pirate Day. Ahh, Ninjas versus Pirates! Who would win? Who knows. There's lots of things we can do to celebrate Day of the Ninja. We can... practice our katana skills, sharpen our shurikens, and pass the many arduous tasks that being a ninja entails. Ask a Ninja is always fun. Marathon watching stuff like Naruto and Ninja Scroll is fun... All kinds of stuff!

K.Z. looks forward to killing Ameixia soon! Thanks to Chesu for getting this one written out and sprited for today! ^_^

Nothing new yet. Same ol' stuff. Work, games, writing, waiting, dating. Y'know how that goes. Scripts? We got scripts. They just haven't been done yet. The webcomic Extra? It's done, but it takes time to properly format it. So yeah, there's stuff, but it's not ready yet. ^^

...then Oye deposited three mushrooms in the coin-box at the door and went me way.

Hmm... No comic, but Chesu has his Nintendo Wii, and so we can probably expect to see him when the living mattresses come out of hibernation. In other stuff, been getting some stuff reviewed on the FFML for Terra in Tokyo, the lastest fanfic attempt/venture/whatever. Overall, it's nice to see people that are enjoying it. ^^

More comicness whenever it gets produced.

Found Chesu again. Had to send the robots out this time. To say that Chesu is looking forward to the Nintendo Wii is rather like saying King Arthur was sort of looking forward to getting the Holy Grail. It's like saying Ranma is looking forward to getting a cure for his curse. It's like saying... Arby the ArbyFish kind of likes mushrooms.

Chesu is looking forward to the new Nintendo console. Oh yes, he's certainly looking forward....

And yes, he was wearing pants this time. Dunno what happened last time, but it wasn't pretty. I think it involved penguins and a stampede of goombas.

Roight. Got that settled, then. ^_^

As usual, we are playing the waiting game. The most stalwart fans are waiting for me to finish another chapter of NETTG. (NETTG: Terra in Tokyo's done, 'cept revisions and a proper epilogue since the ending as it stands seems to lack something important. Like... propriety. And plot. And sanity. Well, maybe it's fine as is. ;) And then there's the wait for more comics, both drawn and sprited, as well as that one webcomic extra thingamawhatsit. Ah well, this stuff takes time and motiation and plasma. Or something to that effect.

So bear with us. Might take weeks or months, but someday, progress! Someday! XD

I see your talking sock, and raise you a plushie.

I defer all questions to the talking sock.

So, anyway, I finally got a job. Only took, oh, four months or so. Not bad. Some people wait a year or more after graduating to get a job. Yaaay life. And income. :D

Meanwhile, Esa is off being depressed and wallowing in the darkness somewhere quiet. And I've been going to bed early and getting up early. Interesting how that works in contrast to what life's been like for me recently.

Got some NETTG Classic in the works still. As usual, it's slow as freeze-dried molasses, but it is progressing bit by bit. Anyway, onwards!

More like if we could get the email response system back, it would be better. People can't sign up for the forums because they can't get the email confirmation process done.

As for your project... I'm working on it, although it's a slow process. Just cleaning up the garbage MS Word stuck into the code is a job and then some. ^_^;

Yay, Chesu's Back! Yes! I was hoping he'd come back, as I am totally useless without people to carry out any grand designs we may discuss. He tried out some semblance of a normal life, but he has too many pixels in his soul. Sprites ooze out from his very blood! Prick him, will not a Nintendo cartridge emerge gradually from his skin? Despitefully accuse him, and will he not retort with vast stockpiles of video game trivia? Whaddaguy! XD

Dunno how much more comic...ness or how often we'll be getting, but he has not disappeared. He has been training pupils at the Secret Monastery of Sprite Comickry!!! Anyway, he's back. Cool.

Now if we could get those silly robots out of our forums we'd be doing better. ^^

Ranty-du? No ranty-du? Uuf! Rant like bunny. How-du? Hmm... whiskery-du. Carroty-chewing-du.

Have not heard back from Larry, but I expect he has been busy with his job, much as Chesu has been busy (or will be busy) camping out for his new Nintendo console. Guess we really did go into a huge hiatus. :D

Well, I edited my masters project writeup (at long last!) and sent it off to Larry to see how well it lends itself to a web setup. So, that's something! ^_^

When I was a badger, I looked like a bager, sang like badger, danced like a badger. Now that I have become a squirrel, I have put away badgerish things. But I brought them back out for weekends and holidays.

Still working on that webcomic project adaptation for a web-postable extra. The thing is, it is rather large, so part of the challenge is getting it split up for different linked subsites so people can find what they want to know quickly, or be able to just go through the whole thing from start to finish.

Meanwhile, Chesu is waiting in ravenous expectation of the Nintendo Wii (due out in another month and a half). He has already compiled a list of things he will need to camp outside the store when they open up for sales. He even has his LoZ Link costume ready. Now THAT is dedication. ^_^

Mush-mash, me boy! Mush-mash.

Fall is the time of depression and drawing.

Still no comic. But I am working on (finally) editing my masters project report for web posting. Only took me, oh, four months to recover from the mental trauma of agonizing over it for two years.

In the meantime, our number of users on the forum continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Yup, we've got about 250 or more users that registered. Unfortunately, our last legitimate user registered at about number 56. Wow, good thing our mailback system's broken (and has been broken since our transfer from the server from last, like, September). Otherwise we'd be totally loaded down with spam from spammy users that actually managed to register. :D

On the other hand, that means that we've gotten no new people to chat with on the forums, what with them not being able to activate their accounts. Alas, no one new to encourage us, to berate us for our mistakes, or to stuff our pockets full of random bits of cash.

Esa's still Esa (and winter's closing in again), and Chesu seems to have caught the noncommunicative depression bug too. Guess that means we're on standby until somebody (me, Danny, any respective artists or programmers) do something creative. It'll happen, eventually.

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Esa's produced a li'l pirate Terra drawing. Quoth the ArbyFish, "Ey, lookit me! Oye's a parrot! Tweet tweet!" Some who know me might note an occasional usage of "Yar!" as a greeting. Oddly enough, it's something I tend to only do in public, since there's no need to impress family members or strangers with my somewhat offbalance personality.

Esa's lunged back into darkness and depression, but that's no reason not to enjoy talking like a pirate. Here's a good video that teaches you how to talk properly as one. Here's a song about it. Here's that song actually being performed. And here's where space pirates actually appear in the sprite comic.

Roight. Me civic duty has been fulfilled in recognizing farcifal holidays. Yar-har! :D (Thanks to Esa for the on-request pic!)

This Soup Needs More ArbyFish! Danny was kind enough to come up with a proper filler while we're waiting for Esa to draw something and while we're waiting for Chesu to decide that his skills are once again adequate to the task of sprite comickry, and while we're waiting for Ben to come up with something original so we can 'ave something tew market or somesuch thing.

Onwards and upwards, backwards and forwards, to the left and to the right--stand up, sit down, fight fight fight!

Chesu's been busy dealing with his funk. (Link doesn't have anything to do with Chesu, just funk in general.) He's been spriting, which is good. Perhaps he shall re-emerge from the temple of webcomicry more powerful than ever.

In the meantime, Random Cuteness. ^_^

It's Official! It seems that Pluto is No Longer a Planet! And the associated factors have been retconned to suit the new revised history. It's revisionist history, y'see! Much betta' than regular history. Alas, Sailor Pluto... lowered in prestige! How can she stand it? ^_^

Thanks to Chesu for hammering the comic together! Was beginning to think he had resorted to moving to Lapland to become a wandering Fishmonger. But no, he lives, and is still among us. Onwards, then! :D

Status on comicness? Well, still waiting. We've had scripts, but artists have either been busy, depressed, or working on something else. Even Larry's been busy with long hours and long trips. Y'know, overworked, underpaid, no control over one's life. How depressing. Mmmmohhdear. T_T

But all is not lost. I'm still tinkering with story ideas and such. Not sure when anything'll be presentable, but it'll happen someday. ^_^

furifuri mawatte pon!

/*advertise*/

My cousin

/*advertise*/

Elsewhere, movement.

Hmm. Still no Chesu comic nor Esa comic. Perhaps they've gone off to become wandering fishmongers together. ^_^

Esa's drawing some conceptual stuff, and I think Chesu's off sharpening his skills in the secret monastery of spritery. That, or he's replaying all the Zelda games back to front three times in anticipation of Twilight Princess. ;)

Yay?

Yay!

Eep! Touch the "Prev" and "Next" buttons at your own peril! O_o; Basically, I've been trying to draw at least _something_ to keep in practice... A lot of it can be rather awful, so be warned.

No comic yet, but Esa's been drawing some more. We've been doing some character design discussion for power upgrades or changes in the next NETTG Classic chapter. Here's a look at what we have in mind for Terra's power swap. Basically, Terra finds out a bit more about her past, and gets another device from Arby's mid-series replacement to help make her a bit more useful. While she has had some basic Sailor Earth powers, she apparently decided not to do much in the way of offensive maneuvers to take down youma. She did use an "Earth Sunshine and Happiness" thing, but all that does is make people feel like a million bucks. The Negaverse people will be getting an upgrade as well, and they really kind of need it. Besides, gotta have both sides get pushed up absurdly in an escalating power struggle. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't!

Another idea we've been bouncing around for a while involves a kind of "Goth Girls With Swords" concept, though we've only got one goth girl in mind, and she's not gothic in appearance or attire, but rather in attitude and angst (she's the one on the left). Esa likes angsty things. ^_^ So, naturally we'll be tossing in a sidekick that's anything but depressing. Gotta keep things counterbalanced. Who knows where that'll go, if anywhere. We shall see, and we shall something. In-deed! Merrily mumbling wombats in combat with flyling fluffy 'shrooms!

Apparently, I'm going to start drawing ten hours a week. That should help.

Due to Ben's recommendation, I've recently began watching Lyrical Nanoha. So far, it's been interesting-ish. Has a lot going for it, actually.

- It's a basic magical girl show: transformation sequence, cute talking mascot and all. However it's rather realistic

- Property damage is property damage is... good.

- Nanoha's both parents are alive and she's not the only child! OMG!

- The whole technological vibe on her "magic" is very keen.

EDIT: I think I've got it. More on this later.

Chesu's been back, but he hasn't been much for comic-ness just yet. And neither has Esa... So we just waits a bit longer then. I know, patience is a virtue, but to get stuff done is even better! Larry's been busy too. Looks like we've all been driven mad. Actually, we're all mad here.... :D

Chesu made it home from his long road trip. All the way from Florida to Oregon and back again. Here and there again, a sprite artist's holiday! He faced the might of the dragon Smaug, he slew a thousand goblins in an intense campaign... and he returned home to his tea and crumpets! Or was that mushrooms and pie? Oh, poke it in yer oye!

Now the greatest challenge ever told will now commence... That of putting together another comic page after so long has gone past. Can he make it? 'Course he can! Filigree and jumble-fee soup, and a cake of rice upon the mop! Onwards and backwards, here we go, forwards toward the jack-birds, to and fro! To England my young man! To England! :D

When the artists are angsty, no one can hear you scream. ^_^

Aaaaaaahhhh!!!

Indeed. It's good to be bugged. Bugs in code, on the other hand, are not much fun.

Hmm. Today, from 8PM to 10 PM will be drawing time. 10 PM to 11 PM will be... probably gaming time. The rest will be sleeping-time.

Indeed, the suspense, it is killing us! ^^;

Ahhhh!

Still waitin' on Chesu. He'll still be gone for another li'l while. Been bugging Esa to draw something in the meantime. I haven't put together anything else entertaining, so guess we's waiting then. :D

Yaaw! Lock S-foils in attack position!

... I... Am...

Chesu's going on this big ol' long road trip. I imagine he'll have stories to tell when he's back. Maybe there'll even be a comic in it. It's from Florida to Oregon, so I imagine it'll take at least a week, maybe two. Meanwhile, Chesu will be without an Internet connection unless I miss my guess. This apparently means a break from the comic unless either Larry or I (or, say, hmm... Esa perhaps? Nudge-nudge-wink-wink!) come up with something to post in the interim.

Meanwhile, writing, plotting, meditation, torture, and job searching for me! That's right, I still don't have one. Been lookin' too. Shall have to continue looking. But it's not all bad, yet. A friend of mine commented that it took him two years after he graduated to get his first job. I... don't plan on my search taking quite that long, but I won't stress out too bad if it takes a bit longer. Onwards! :D

And now... The Bunny Strikes Back! It's a big bunny, but with no grand master of Usagi-dou around, who will shave it??? O_O

Thanks to Chesu for getting this done. He got it done at around like 4:00 AM his time. I don't think he sleeps at night anymore. ^_^

Onwards!

Yay comic! As far as the tournament goes, Congrats to the Winner! Yes, the little green-haired girl whooped everyone else in the competitions. Except for a couple, she came in first. Still, Ameixia and Lynn did pretty good, really well for their first time, securing second and third places. Chesu deviated slightly from the script in describing how things went on, but I'm glad he did. Some stuff I put in for action doesn't always translate well into a sprite comic.

Also, I tried helping DW with a Nanoha/Full Metal Panic fanfic. It was so incomplete I had to practically rewrite it before I could figure out some comments to give him. The discussion thread about that is here. Includes my rewrite. It's quick and has errors in it, but that's what happens when I don't proofread my own corrections. ^_^;

Second comic for the week! Turns out the announcers were having Delusions of Fame. It was Chesu's idea, and I decided to make it an actual script.

Moving right along, then. Gotta use up them scripts faster than I can come up with them (even though Chesu and Larry frequently come up with the scripts as well). Wouldn't be proper if ya didn't!

And now, to start the week off right, we've got Iolanthe's Reaction to the rankings. She's sad that she lost, yes, but... that certainly won't keep her from continuing to look. Even modern-day Makoto / Lita / whatever-they-call-her-in-Sweden wasn't kept from getting regular crushes. However, Princess Iolanthe might take a more... proactive approach given the society's heavily matriarchal leanings. In any case, it did surprise us who the next target of her affections ended up being.

Drill Sergeant Tacticus has something of an affinity for things that are tough and can take orders. If he sees someone acting like a pansy, he feels an overwhelming urge to whip 'em back into shape. But when all's well, why not smile about it?

Chesu is just bound to discuss some of the travails he had with this page on his blog! ^_^

Chesu lives! He's been busy lately with various things, but he's put together Knight-Zero's Reaction to the events at hand. Well, Lynn doesn't have much of a reaction, but Laios is rather disappointed that their plan for taking away their fugitive kind of fell through. KZ did make Laios a new outfit. One wonders how she managed with all the business of the events, but I guess it's kind of an innate and powerful skill. Like... she's interested in fashion or something to that effect.

In any case, onwards! :D

Hmm... Well, we've had scripts, but this time it's Chesu that's been busy. Ah well, always something. :D

In other news, the FFML seems to have revived somewhat since people were worrying so badly that it was dying. People are making a special effort now, looks like. Somewhat comforting, really. :D

Got a new sprite comic up finally. It's Ameixia's Reaction to the whole event thing. She did quite well, especially since this was her first time competing, but she didn't win the grand prize they were all so earnestly seeking. ASK doesn't feel down about it though. I mean, it would have been nice if she'd gotten him out of it, but since she hasn't, that just lends itself to ASK's ego about how he'll get himself out of it somehow. Despite the fact that he's been taken down repeatedly by a bunch of Jovian Jungle Amazons (from outer space!), he remains confident. Of course, his track record for getting out of cells and cages without help from female companions is somewhat nonexistent.

Chesu has been somewhat ill lately, so that's one reason we've been a week without comic. The other reason was that I was writer's blocked on the scripts for a while and now we're managing to push through that. I just have to not be afraid of doing a bit of the not-so-funny-but-still-advances-the-story kind of script. The "onwards!" concept I kept stressing when I started. Onwards indeed! :D

Well, I got a sort-of-okay bland script written, but everyone else has been busy too, looks like. We shall have another page up... when all once again blends in perfect synergy, or something to that effect. Sorry about the delay. ^^;

Continuing in my brain's absence, Chesu's put together The Door, Part Two! It's a good li'l something completely different. Fortunately, sprites were available, pre-ripped by lots of other faithful KH fans. With any luck I should have some sort of script written up sometime tomorrow. If interviews don't get in the way. But... I like interviews, so it'll be a good thing if it does happen. :D

No story comic, but we've got filler! Been playing Kingdom Hearts 2. I finally finished that and yet proper scripts still don't seem to occur to me. And now for something completely different. The Door! Similarly, the rest of us (I.E. me) sometimes have difficulty coming up with the blatantly obvious. Onwards! ^_^

Hmm... No new page just yet. It seems I got distracted over the weekend and totally forgot to make the new scripts! ^_^;

It's plotted, and we know what direction the story's going. I simply have to write it down in a coherent dialogue/action format. Thanks for bearing with us!

So while everyone else is freaked out about the last competition, Lynn is off packing away Souvenirs for the Mistress. Some people might be somewhat unnerved by people packing away monsters for transport back to another world. But then again, this is a weird fantasy jungle area, so this sort of thing happens all the time. Or it might. Either Jupiter has no customs officers or Knight-Zero knows how to smuggle things.

In addition to that, we've tinkered with the forums a bit. Guests can no longer post, and we got rid of the obvious spammer accounts. By we, I mean Danny. But the job's done. Ammon's moving some stuff around so that the forum's emailer system should work sometime soon as well. Looks like we're moving toward operationality. Still no ArbyFish comic yet though, since there's some quirk in how Ammon's got the hosting situation set up. I figure we could just do something like an /nettg.com/arbyfish/ comic thing, but we haven't discussed it as of yet.

And, thanks to those who have voted for us on Topwebcomics! We were at rank 166 as of the end of May. Thursday is a new month, so vote and keep us up there as we gain more operational...ness, and we'll be able to get more readers as time goes by. We like our readers. ^_^

Skipping ahead to the final bits of that last event, we have a winner. Meanwhile, Tacticus is off Watching the Girls Go By. It turned out to be a fairly difficult event, what with the princess-eating snails, traps, and pitfalls to the center of the world. So this concludes the events portion of the subchapter. We're not done with the characters, but we can at least move on to some more exciting climax material. Thanks goes out to those who made the suggestions for the events! We'll post the names and events as soon as we can dig up who suggested them. ^^

New comic! When considering all of the possibilities involved in an event, especially a running event, one might worry about people trying to eliminate the competition. So, when Lynn/Knight-Zero finds an exploitable rule, she'll be sure to use it to her greatest advantage. Traps? Call it Proactive Competition Management. Hmm... we've had a few characters change their appearance or attire in the comic, such as Laios during the Tsunami incident or Ameixia for practicing Way of the Bunny... but Knight-Zero does have a knack for changing clothes. This time, it's mostly to allow her to move more freely, similar to how she could with her kunoichi garb.

And thanks again for the people who've continued to vote for us on Topwebcomics! Keep it up! :D

Hmm... We're also sorting out the room descriptions for GDM's three parent alignments. The discussion thread is here. Basically, good gets bunnies, neutral gets wood, and evil gets spikes. We're trying to figure out what else an artist needs to get the concepts down. It probably doesn't help that I haven't figured out all the aspects of the game yet as it pertains to what kinds of things are needed in a room. ^^;

Just one last bit with the announcers before moving on. They're having Event 5: The Hundred-Mile Survival Trek through untamed wilderness. As is par for the course, it's chock full of untold horrors... which may or may not include Guu. One might ask... if it's never been explored, how do they know it's so dangerous...? Because the explorers never came back? They could have been having a party.... Ah well! Onwards! :D

And thanks to everyone who's continues to vote for us on Topwebcomics and elsewhere. We appreciate it! And we've managed to stay within the top 200 for the past few months, which has been great!

The results are finally in for the sprite comic's fourth event for that one Jovian Tournament thingamawhatsit. A Single Perfect Score. The final competitor seemed to have enough self-mastery to both convince an evil twin projection to cooperate and to avoid all the terrors from the deep. Makes one wonder if she was cheating somehow. Lynn got disqualified, on account of her "evil" twin getting eaten by one of the monsters. Though she didn't win that one, it will hamper her ability to win the grand prize and take ASK back to the Moon Kingdom for execution or some other unknown purpose. It looks like there'll be a different winner.

Hmm... seems like the tournament events have gone on about as far as they will, so I'll try to wrap that up in the next comic and make things fall apart and explode as they have the tendency to do. There shall be scriptiness soon....

Hmm... All the graduation stuff's been taken care of... I'm currently looking for a job that can use my degree, a few prospects here and there, been writing more NETTG Classic, been waiting for comments back from Larry... been getting permission from various comic authors to post their interviews for a web version of my masters project thesisamawhatsit... Thinking out how to describe the girl's room for each alignment in GDM, that sort of thing.

But mostly waiting for Chesu to get his internet connection fixed. You know how that goes. Can't get stuff from the artist, can't post the comic. Well, he had it up and running, but I guess he was busy. It happens. :)

Back to story comics! More Synchronized Evil Twin Swimming! The contestants have managed to convince, fight, or mind-control their evil twin projection things into doing some synchronized swimming, to the tune of One-Winged Angel. Don't know how they got that one, maybe they got it off a Venusian recording device or something. Ameixia's managing, however oddly. Iolanthe is getting the job done in her own unique way, and Lynn... doesn't seem to have any problem at all with misfortune happening to her "evil" twin. Even if it comes to disqualification, I guess there's something about the twin that... gets to her. :)

Thanks goes to Chesu for getting it done! Been a busy past while for us all, it seems.

No comic just yet. Chesu's working to get back into the groove after OD'ing on new games from E3. What we have is a Recycled Self-Infliction comic reflecting how Chesu feels about the situation. Not Self-Insertion, mind you. Self-Infliction. Ahh, I remember the Revengefic years! I hadn't even started writing fan fiction back then. A lot of 'em were a bit violent, unneccessary, and OOC, but they were certainly interesting. Nowadays, people are so worried about being in-character or having consistent characterization that they never get anything done. Or perhaps they just ran out of time and have to work and program for a living and such. ^^;

Ah well, life goes on, and the comic still has a heartbeat. Going into it, I never thought it had to be exceptionally high quality (though Chesu's improved a LOT with practice), but it just had to continue. The heartbeat of the site as it were, and squelching it moves on! :D

Sorry about the lack of comic last week. Had no warning for it, really. Chesu has... Absolutely No Self-Control when it comes to previews of various Nintendo games, especially Zelda games. It seems he overloaded on information. ^^;

So I, like, graduated on Saturday. Still pending grades on the masters project, which I finished. Hopefully I did well. Larry and I are going to work on making a public version of it that's more interesting than the dry academic presentation. I'll have to check with the various authors to see if it's okay to post the interviews with them as a matter of interest. I think it should be okay as long as we properly link and reference and praise 'em and stuff, but it's best to ask first or else there's a chance for complaints. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't!

オオ、死んだ...

Graduation today, graduation Saturday... and final papers to grade. Looks like a busy few days ahead. ^^;

No comic just yet. We've had scripts, but Chesu's been busy.

While Ameixia appears to be having trouble with her evil clone, Lynn seems to be doing okay. Now we've got a couple More Evil Twins to worry about. Iolanthe isn't the sort to cooperate with evil twins, even when the prize is as grand as this one. But that last girl doesn't seem to be having any problems at all. Does that mean she's evil? Only evil people have an easy time cooperating with their opposites? I wonder....

Mmm... burning eternal pizza. Eternal burning pizza might be better. I like my burning on top of my eternal rather than the other way around.

Lynn's evil twin? Hmm... Wouldn't it be something akin to this?

Or would Stylin' be actually more like a niece? Hmmhmmmhmmm

Setup for our main characters' Event Four still goes on. For now we have Lynn and Ameixia's Evil Twins. One wonders how one might convince one's own evil twin to cooperate, at least on a temporary basis. Ameixia might have to struggle with her and beat her in combat, or trick her twin to follow along. Lynn has a more no-nonsense approach to getting an "evil" twin to cooperate: mind control. But while we're talking opposites, if Knight-Zero/Lynn is evil/amoral/etc., what would that make her "evil" twin? Hums indeed.

Larry's reviewed chapter 9 of Terra in Tokyo, that experimental piece that I wrote without any C&C of any kind. But now that we've got opinions, I've got words to tweak and a scene to add and such. Ahh, revision! I remember when I used to bounce ideas back and forth with Jason Hanks (yup, the one of Heart of Sugar fame) and we got stuff put together scene by scene and it got weirder and weirder each time we did that. It was a lot of fun. But life catches up with you. Jason had to work, and was consumed by the burning eternal pizza.... I had to finish college (which should be over soon, I hope ;_;)... But I'm glad the comic's running and keeping ideas going. This is actually a pretty nice setup.

No actual story comic today. The problem was both Chesu and I did More Than One Hour of Physical Labor, so we're totally zonked out. Chesu built a shed and I helped move my brother and his wife's possessions to their new house. You never actually know how much stuff is packed up until you have to transfer it to a new location.

Got a big week ahead of me. By Wednesday, it'll all be decided. I'll be turning in _something_ for my masters project, or explode trying! 'Tis time. And graduation is next week. ._.

Things and stuff!

Chesu came up with an unscripted Insane A.I. Filler Comic. With the fourth wall properly broken still, li'l side conversations can take place without the pesky worrying about continuity. Ahh, the good old days when I just advanced scenes by tossing in random Monty Python humor. ^_^

This time, there's been scripts available, but not the actual sprites. Chesu still has to work, y'see, so sometimes he gets home and doesn't feel like making new sprites. Has to make the Danny sprite too, and we haven't even consulted Danny....

Hmm. One way or another, for good or bad, my masters project is due by next Wednesday. That means I get to share the results with those who want to see what I came up with. It's not, like, doctoral research quality... but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. I don't have to put it in full-on-academic-dictionary style, so it should be readable by the curious. I got to ask people like Brian Clevinger and Caroline Curtis about their comics, which was cool. Didn't get to ask the Penny Arcade or other really ultra busy people, but apparently 13 interview/survey things is good enough for a project of this scale.

Concerning that same Event #4, having to convince an evil twin to swim in synch Wouldn't Be So Bad if it weren't for all the creepy crawlies and buggers from the dungeon dimensions they tossed in there. Spices it up, makes it dangerous and more interesting and stuff. Makes it worthy of a grand prize if someone can actually succed. :)

Chesu's been hammering together his own backgrounds some more. Looks like some of it was done freehand, and it's turned out quite well. I'm glad we've got the artist/writer/editor/etc. team we've got here. ^^

Next up, we've got Preparations for the Fourth Event! The fourth event is Synchronized Evil Twin Swimming. First, they have to make magically-projected evil twins for competitors to sync with. That's probably the hardest part because what most evil twins are likely to do involves attacking the "good" twin, or running off to ruin her life. But such is the risk of the Jovian Grand Tournament! No risk too great, no sacrifice too huge, no injury too severe! Moo-haa-haa-haa-haaaa! :D

And, yeah, Japanese marketing. Alas, I'm a fan of Final Fantasy, but unfortunately their definition of fun has recently gotten too closely-mingled with their traditions of self-inflicted pain and agony. Like they're Klingons or something, where their idea of a good birthday party involves zapping one's self with a pain stick or somesuch. Ah well, perhaps they shall learn someday! ^_^

http://atuin.simud.org/~ammon/ffxii_potion_battle.wmv

Fear and tremble in the face of Japanese marketing.

And now, The Second Part of Event Three! Turns out, you can get points deducted for subduing a monster before throwing it. Throwing a conscious Predator would earn you lots and lots of points, as would tossing a giant fire gigas. But throwing something freakishly heavy will do in a pinch, too. ^_^

Hmm... Some discusson about Terra in Tokyo has been going on in the Fukufics forum. This NETTG alternate universe apparently started medium/mediocre/normal, but then got serious right around chapter six. Chapters 1-6 are at my Florestica site. I'm releasing about two per week so that people can have time to soak it up before proceeding.

Meanwhile, the comic's moving along, and I'll need to come up with more scripts. I like scripts. And comics, so yeah.

In other stuff... I only have another couple weeks of class left, so one way or the other, the webcomic masters project must be done by then... or else. It's going to be fun. :D

In addition to making today's filler strip, I'm happy to announce the unveiling of the sprite comic archive page. The link's right up at the top of every page.

The renumbering of each comic strip to match the corrected file names is an ongoing project that won't be completed for a long time yet. But you can now find any given strip much, much more easily than before, and we won't let it get out of hand again.

...Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go collapse in exhaustion. ^_^;;

Filler comic by Larry: Giant Gumball Tiebreaker! Basically, it's an idea of what might happen if the competitions came so close that there'd have to be a tie-breaker. A no-holds-barred, last-one-out-wins situation. ^_^

And now... Event 3: The Monster Toss! Larry came up with this one and others helped develop it in the forum and in other areas. Thanks for the idea! Points are given based on ferocity of the creature, as well as weight and distance. Poor Miss Teela! She tries so hard and goes to every event. ^_^;

We had a rather large script for this one, so we had to split it into two pages. Other half of the event continues tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

And now we have the next event: High-Density Gas Wakeboarding! A contestant has to surf along the airwaves to get from one continent to a finishing spot over on the next island. Thanks to one known as Epsilon who came up with the idea. He stated:

"Contestants get a flimsy fiberglass (or equivalent) board and are then

tossed over the side of one of the continents. They then have to wakeboard

on the roiling superdense gases across to one of the other continents/a

nearby island. The catch of course is that this far down the air is getting

very thick (hard to breath) and that if they fall over... well, plummeting

into the acidic gases and superdense gravity of Jupiter in a one way plunge

towards the core is hardly considered a good way to start your day.

Plus, as a bonus, bikinis."

No bikinis in this one, but there is a destructive spell used as propulsion here. It certainly does live up to being an extreme sport, as it were. Thanks to Chesu for getting it put together, and thanks to Larry for getting it edited!

Chesu's going to Orlando tomorrow, so he wasn't able to do the page Larry and I got worked out yet. So... maybe tomorrow we'll be able to get back to the filler pages. Sort out what happened with the absolutely freaking insane A.I. ^_^

It was my idea, but some of the interesting details were suggested by Fatherz, from the Philippines. Thanks, guy!

And now, we have Event #1: The 100-Meter Pitmonster Dash! Thanks to Larry, who suggested it. I mean, we didn't vote or anything. I sort of just picked the ones I thought would be comical enough or seemed proper. We only get five of them, and there's some rather interesting ones coming up. The results of this round? 'Mixie came in first! But Iolanthe came in third. Not all the entries are doing every event. I'm not sure how the scoring system works to define one big winner, but that means that it'll be any character's game until the very end.

Chesu spent about six hours on this comic, since his computer spontaneously rebooted when he was about to finish it the first time around. We're glad Chesu's got lots of perseverance! ^_^

Bah, children... I was 26 months ago :P

Happy Birthday to me! I'm 26 years old! ^_^

Larry's renumbering stuff, taking pages out, putting them in, struggling with the PHP code for an archive page, but... we still have a new comic page! Chesu has put together the Grand Opening Ceremony for the Jovian tournament thingamabobber. We're glad Chesu's around. What'd we do for comics if we didn't? ^^

Well, there is Esa, but he's rather busy and stuff. Ah well. Later!

Good news! Chesu Has Been Found! This time, we at least didn't find him in the back-room closet acting out Zelda-induced delusions. The answer? Apparently, Chesu quitting was an April Fools joke. Work's busy, but not all THAT busy for him. So he decreased the posting schedule, intent on pulling a prank on us. He told me beforehand because I guess I was being my typical distracted, apathetic self, but Larry was caught by the joke totally unawares. In the end, Larry got some nice sprite comic editing experience. He proved he could do that in the previous several comics. I, meanwhile, remain blissfully ignorant of the process, though I did make up a photoshopped thing from previously available art once.

Hopefully back to the comic schedule on Monday. We shall see. ^_^

Oh, and we had my sister's wedding yesterday and the reception today. It was kind of time-consuming to get everything set up. False ceilings and food and cakes and transportation back and forth. Things and stuff!

And now we have the second guest comic by Larry, Toys From the Attic. I suppose it could have gone all weird and had lots of doll toys and other stuff attacking peoples' minds, then we could have called it "Toys In The Attic," a metaphor for going insane. Looks nice, though Chesu's our local expert and may have a few comments for Larry.

Still working on my masters project. Got an extension to Wednesday. Just have 3 or 4 major sections left, analyze the data, that sort of thing. Ah, well. It'll get done someday. =D

*Edit* Oh, and to get to the now less-memory-encumbered forums, go to this page until the link up at the top of the main page gets changed. Or if something else happens.

Chesu crawled out of bed long enough to notice my comic, and raked me over the coals about how lame a job I did with his sprites. So I remade it, and the new version has replaced the old.

Hey, I'm just learning! ^_^;;

I would like to take this moment to say... nothing.

Well, since Chesu went *Kaboom* for the time being, we'll just keep posting random junk as we either make it or dig it up. Chesu sent Larry his sprites, so Larry whipped up a little filler comic named Unheeded Warning. Really, we're just doing what we can to keep the site alive for the time being. ^^;

Pot, kettle? Glass houses? What? Dunno what you're talking about. ^_~;

And Esa should know. He goes *kaboom* on a fairly regular basis.

AAAH! Chesu went *kaboom*!!!

What to do, what to do... @_@;;;;

Astounding! We have a new page of the main comic! It's still in the exposition phase, but I felt it was best to get some of the explanation out of the way and the story established. That way we know what's going on before we jump further into the action. The REALLY good stuff is yet to come. ^^

Big thanks to Esa for getting that done!

Aaagh! Exposition!

Still busy. Aiming to have a rough draft of my masters project done by Monday. Got the data and stuff. Just have to, like, write the report now. ^^

April 1st is coming up too. I wonder if I'll have something ready to present by then....

Hmm. It seems work isn't the only thing going against us and the comic. And So It Begins... Again. I mean, Chesu's not a total obsessive Zelda fanatic... oh, wait, yes he is. Not much that can be said contrary to that, really. ^^;

Hmm... Looks like Chesu's still quite busy. Not to mention we gave him a very sprite-intensive (as opposed to dialogue-intensive) page to do. And I want to have a rough draft of my masters project done by the end of the week, so I should be busy too. Of course, I'll be taking lots of breaks... but I want to have it done so I can have April to revise it. So, bear with us while we get that sorted out. ^_^

Ahh, yes, Blackbird. I actually surveyed the author for my masters project. She does pretty nifty stuff.

Hmm... Forum's still out of whack because something (probably the mud) is eating up all the memory, so the available session tables aren't letting anything happen. Or something. The net result is that frequently we can't access the forum.

Chesu's still busy with work and such. He comes home fried every day, apparently. He can't think or speak. If he can't play any Zelda games, though, he'd be in serious trouble. So, that's what's going on with the comic. A combination of things.

I don't get the "I want to eat her brain!" urge very often, but there it is, again.

Sorry about the wait. My brain's been running away from the masters project and Chesu's been busy with work. Nevertheless, it continues. We're finally at the Event Signup and we thank everyone for your contributions to ideas for the events! We appreciate it, and it's given us a direction to go for this story segment. Knight-Zero's in it for the win, and so is everyone else, but she's got a few nice black magic advantages she can press if need be. Ameixia's as skilled as they come, and she's got a sense of fun to what she does. Plus, she's been a fan of the tournament for a while and knows pretty much how it goes. On the other hand, Iolanthe's really dangerously motivated. Who would have thought she'd go gonzo over some guy she's only just barely seen. Oh wait, this IS the future insta-boyfriend-crush Makoto Kino we're talking about.

We stay in character by going overboard, y'see! ^_^

Today, we've got... Knight-Zero With an Emotional Dilemma? Nonsense! She doesn't have the same kind of inner voices that Terra and ASK usually have (which I haven't shown much of and should probably write up a few pages with). What she has is more direct and normally without conflict. After all, she's basically Terra's personal assassin, with thoughts consisting of things such as, "Find target," and "kill target." Anything beyond that she gets free reign on, and that's where the conflicts spring up. Actually, it kind of reminds me when Voyager's emergency medical hologram-guy, who was designed to do surgery and stuff on occasion, eventually takes an interest in opera and painting, eventually needing an overhaul because his matrix is overtaxed.

ASK, on the other hand, doesn't take much in the way of orders. In the end, he must obey, but he'd fight it kicking and screaming, 'cause he's a very contrary sort. If somebody told him to just relax and have a good time, he'd find a way to protest and stress out. He'd cut off his own nose to spite his face if he had a reason to do that. Opposition in all things!

Chesu finally got a moment to finish this comic. I suppose it's all right he only got a couple pages done this week, because that's all I got done script-wise. Been kind of occupied grading exams (which are taking far longer than they should be! o_O), helping my mom with her masters thesis (ahh, the wonders of number-crunching spreadsheets!), worrying about my asters project writeup (oh, and the analysis--gotta do that sometime), and generally avoiding thinking about anything else (ahh, video games!). What's Chesu been doing? Working and resting from work. I heard somewhere that people in Europe, instead of taking more pay as economies have evolved, took more spare time. In the USA, on the other hand, people work the same or more and take more money. It was some productivity thing where I heard about that.

Doctor Who came on Scifi Channel today. Certainly a different series than the last one left off as. Ah well, all things must pass, and if they continue, they occasionally must be reinvented. Like NETTG sometimes. I could write a continuation; another chapter, and I will, and I have an artist and a few fans here and there who are getting rather annoyed at the lack of chapter 11 (or even Chapter 10, part 3!). Though... I sometimes wonder what kind of story I'd write or have written with the skill set I currently have. I guess we're sort of doing that right now with the comic. Funny how that goes sometimes.

Chesu's really sorry about not getting much in the way of comics done this week. He just started a new job, and has been rather tired by the time he got home in the afternoon. But he's been working on stuff. On the other hand, I've been busy as well trying to get some exams properly graded. Well-done exams are easy to grade: just give them full credit. Poorly-done ones... Well, I could fail them, but that would be mean. After all, they DID write SOMETHING down, right? ^^;

Sorry for the delay these last few days. In small part, that because Ben's been a bit busy.

A bigger part of it is because we're actually trying to plot stuff in advance for the next mini-arc dealing with the Grand Tournament. Actually thinking about this stuff is rather difficult for us. Plus, the sound of the rusty gears turning in our heads is deafening the neighbors, so we've had to deal with the police coming around on "disturbance of the peace" visits. ^_-

Laios has been detected by the locals, and so... The Chase Begins Anew. Amazing that the people would be upset after so much time had passed. Ah well, I'm sure it's got something to do with personal honor or cultural limitations or somesuch. On the other hand, maybe they were just really really upset that they didn't win that one time. A really good prize or somesuch which they didn't let Laios claim, and they weren't allowed to take because they didn't win. Maybe if they hunt down and rip him to shreds they can get the prize from that year instead. A distinct possibility.

Chesu's starting work tomorrow. He says he'll still have time for comicry and such, so we'll see how that goes. As usual, I'll bet he mentions it on his blog.

We'z gots Filler! The First Law of... Somethingorother! Continued from the previous part. Really, when I think of Azimov's rules of robotics, what comes to mind nowadays is Pratchett's take on that. It's all well and good to design tools that won't harm the users, but for more complex, proactive stuff, you can hardly expect a tool to make moral judgements about what's dangerous. Or if a human user decides to use one against another person in a harmful way, how's the robot supposed to know it's not supposed to do something? Besides, they'll go berserk anyway now and again if they're of any complexity. I vaguely remember that there was an incident in Disneyland at the Country Bear Jamboree where one of the animatronics flipped out and threw his piano on one of the other bears. It just couldn't take it day after day after day... Actually, there was a hydraulic malfunction, but still. These things happen. ^^

On the other hand, if we had an absolutely freaking insane AI running a high-tech fantasy office of our own, wouldn't it simply be fulfilling its purpose? 'Shrooms ta live boie!

Apparently, GDM's getting to the point where we'll need more sprite artists for the adventure mode stuff. DW'll be making a stage editor to help with that sometime as well. Ah, 'tis all good.

While Tacticus does employ The No-Nonsense Approach to Dealing With Aggressive Women, it has a big chance to outright backfire on him. Different culture and such. Meanwhile, Knight-Zero is practicing a few of her moves just to make sure she can handle her usual techniques her armored disguise and with one of her eyes covered. I'd say she's doing quite well. Operating under a handicap and such. She can take it.

Chesu spent a lot of effort on this page, for some reason. I imagine he'll talk about it on his blog.

There's been a bit of progress on GDM. The beginnings of adventure mode stuff has started to materialize, which is nice. It's got a ways to go before it's an actual game, but bit by bit, the programming framework is falling into place.

It seems Knight-Zero, AKA Lynn knows some Forbidden One-Finger Techniques for use in annihilating her enemies. According to Chesu, this is the longest page to date. The file in GIF format takes up 400k. In Jpeg (in any reasonable quality), it's 800k. I guess it's because of the wide action and how not every frame is mostly like the other or somesuch.

In any case, "Lynn" is likely to be quite a dangerous competitor in the tournament, whose events we have yet to properly determine. And we can probably gloss over a bunch of them, since doing a full Olympics-style thing could take weeks and could get boring, so a couple pages of examples should suffice.

And DW's had some time to tinker with GDM somewhat. He's gotten vacations functioning and has begun on adventure mode stuff. Chesu's supplied a few rough sprites for that, and DW in the meantime has begun playing Chrono Trigger for inspiration. Ahh, love that game. ^^

New sprite comic up! There's already two main-ish characters that are going to be competing, namely Ameixia and Princess Iolanthe. And so... Another Challenger Enters the Ring!

Knight-Zero is pretty tough when it comes to technique and low-blows. But can she withstand the awesome might that comes with learning the secret of Usagi-dou? We shall see, indeed, we shall see... (glances furitively at the incomplete scripts) Ahem... Site's been running okay for the past couple days. Forums haven't gone down... much, rants are working, and Chesu got a comic done.

Now I just need to see about doing the analysis for that pesky masters project. ^^;

Cause of rant outage: Larry uploaded an old version of a php file that would only work on the old server.

Action: I fixed it.

If you can read this, the rants have been fixed. Something must have broken while the site was getting updated to put a link to the fanfic in a more prominent spot, as per Chesu's request. Today's page deals with some Extradition Complications. Nothing's easy, despite the fact that ASK's been quite effectively caught by the local authorities. Of course, the didn't care he was a fugitive, though Laios does.

Been muddling over some fan fiction stuff. It'll get done... sometime. Been looking at it but haven't felt much like adding to it today. So close, and yet so far....

Fight your inner World of Warcraft... <_< *Cough*

Now that the Princess of Jupiter is entering the tournament, it seems she's receiving some Preferential Treatment. I mean, Chesu and I have discussed that in a warrior culture it might be seen as insulting that people would be making li'l Iolanthe's path easier than it should be... but really, it's not that unlikely that she'd get coddled at least a bit. Still, it's impressive that Ameixia was able to pound that first monster into the ground so handily. Perhaps she's a stronger fighter than we've previously let on. Perhaps it'll be time to bring out some new nifty gadget or whatnot. What's she like when she gets serious, eh? ^_^

In the forums (provided they're not dead at the time you read the rant >>-->^_^;;), we've got some discussion about site design as it relates to fanfic prominence and we've also got some discussion about random praise that the comic and fanfic have gotten as well as a bit of background as to where the muchly-anticipated fanfic is and how it's progressing. The gist of it is: I have to fight my own inner Darth Vaders and such before I can continue with what I now call NETTG Classic.

I've updated the links page with a link to Chesu's blog, and updated Urania's page in the cast section with a little more info about the way Jovian society has been developing in the sprite comic.

I've also just cast my weekly vote for the site at TopWebComics. I humbly request visitors to the site to make it a habit as well. It really helps in getting the word about the site out.

All entries in the tournament must first pass a Proficiency Exam, involving whacking a very large foozle. A standard step in the qualification process, y'see!

Yeah, Larry helped me out with some scripts. I was kind of hitting writer's block when it came to the story. Fortunately, those around me sometimes have a better grip on the storyline and universe than I do. So, we've got scripts. And Chesu seems to be doing well, aside from the business that occurs alongside spring cleaning. ^^

Ben and I had a productive day. We've got a bit over a week's worth of scripts ready for Chesu to look over. Hope you all enjoy them.

(Insert Dark Side joke here.)

Heh. Unimaginative, me.

In other news, I've been getting better. At being cryptic? Well, perhaps. Still, does a dog have the sound of one hand clapping?

Hmm... Chesu wasn't feeling well Friday, was busy Saturday, and was recovering Sunday. So the filler may or may not happen. We're looking at scripts to see what would work for the comic to advance. It happens sometimes. ^^

As it's been hammered home before, ASK's kind of part of the Grand Prize of this as-yet-unexplained tournament that takes place on Jupiter. Of course, ASK would recognize Knight-Zero even if she's disguised. One mental projection can spot another 'cause they know what to look for. Energy patterns and such. On the other hand, all the ninja-girl really did was brush her hair different and put on a purple uniform. That wouldn't fool ASK, would it? Apparently, though, it's enough to fool Laios. Go figure. ^^;

Tomorrow, we'll do more filler to follow up on the New NETTG Headquarters side-arc. Hooray for multithreaded storylines! =D

Even when you've found that pesky thorn in your side, caught in a cage and surrounded by guards, it's still important that you Don't Taunt the Prizes! There'd be rules and such. Ya gots ta do wot th' soigns say, y'see. Wouldn't be proppa' if ya didn't!

The story moves on. We'll figure out where it's going when we get there. ^_^

Whoa. (Holy Keanu Reeves, Batman!) Kawaii-ken.

The comic continues. Urania, great chieftain of the people of Jupiter, comments, "Oh, you want HIM." ASK can be hard to miss sometimes, especially when he makes sure everyone else feels his presence. And now, at long last, they'll have found that escaped convict they've been searching for so long! Laios wants ASK locked up, and Knight-Zero wants him dead. Ameixia just wants to be free to roam wild in the solar system. And Iolanthe has her own reasons for going after him. Ahh, it's so nice to be wanted, isn't it? ^^ I'm sure ASK doesn't mind the attention.

On my side of things, I've run out of scripts again, and shall have to write more. I mean, it can't be all that tough to write a 10-20 line script, is it? Well, it can be, and sometimes it's not. It's easy when I don't worry about the plot ramifications, and it's hard when I do. Hmm... I wonder what the proper course of action is. ;)

Whew. For a moment, when I first saw Esa's comment, I thought he said it was a Wang Chung seminar. That... would be scarey.

Head explodey.

In other news... There was a Wing Chun.... Seminar, I guess, which I wanted to attend, but didn't due to, well, head explodey. In the good news, I've found a makeshift drawing surface. It's no drawing board, but it might do for now.

In Monday's comic, the Princess of Jupiter comments, "He WILL Be Mine!" concerning the Atomic Starlight Knight. She probably would have mentioned that he reminds her of an old boyfriend or somesuch, but she's fairly young at this point. Might not be officially allowed to date till she's at least 12 or something. But... that doesn't mean she can't win the tournament and collect the prizes.

Esa self-destructed over the weekend again. Chesu didn't, like, sleep for a week and then slept for 3/4 of a day. Me? I cowered in fear of future assignments and my own masters project and escaped into video games to survive without gnawing my own legs off. Really, there's nothing to fear and my path lies clear ahead of me. Still, if Esa can run off to become a fishmonger for a while and Chesu can overdose on Zelda, I'm entitled to a few eccentricities as well, aren't I? Ah well, I shouldn't try to justify myself based off of the actions of others. It's not like I'm wasting time or anything, is it? Ah, well, I'll work something out. In the meantime, the Scripts Must Flow... And there's that fanfic that I'm working on. Not long now, just need a few obsessive sessions to complete it.

Well, we've got a Filler Friday stuff, though it's being posted on Saturday. Called Worst Nightmare Given Form, it's a continuation of this one. Really, why do people engineer big red buttons that do bad or unpleasant things? They KNOW people are going to push them eventually. Why can't they just light up and say, "Please don't push that button again," eh? Oh well! If they did, then we wouldn't have much of a plot.

Oh, and the HQ avatar... I asked Chesu to come up with some techno-fantasy embodiment of NETTG, and this design kind of works for the purposes of the insane A.I. arc. As usual, Chesu describes the creative process on his blog.

And they're back. Forums, that is.

Oy. Looks like the forum died. O_o;

In other news, my todo may be short, but my need-to-do is very long. I need to, in no particular order, draw a new comic page, write a lot of stuff, proceed in my studies, get back in shape, clean my apartment( A monumental task, I assure you )...

Well, not that much really now that I look at it. Sure, it's divided into about zillion sub-tasks, but in perspective, it looks doable. Of course there's the whole full-day job thing which takes a while, but that's the same problem most of the people I know seem to have these days. Of course, then there's the want-to-do list, but I'm not going to even think of that right now.

What do we do when one of the main characters insists on harming himself incessantly? Tell 'em, "Sure, Um, Have, er... Fun?" I mean, ASK's gotta try and break out. Wouldn't be proper if he didn't!

Yeah, we did get a whole bunch of hits mysteriously the other day. We're still below 20% of our allotment, so no worries about killing the server or anything. In fact, we'd probably welcome a huge audience if one happened to gather.

Fix the Deegan link sometime? Okay. How does right now sound?

I gotta know it's broke before I can fix it. ^_^

Hmm. That GD-pic in Extras is actually from the maboroshi no next comic page.

I believe we've been... hmm, what would be the correct expression here, "god-modded?" In any case, welcome all new eyes, do not kill Ammon's servers, thank you.

Hmm. Probably should fix that Dominic deegan link sometime, too....

I'd like to know just how they found it. As an experiment, I tried putting "valentine's day" in Google as a search with and without quotes, and we weren't on the first seven pages of results either way. I didn't bother looking farther than that, because it's for sure that 3,000 people wouldn't have. Where'd they all come from?

It's th' squirrels... they's wotchin' us; Boidin, their toime until the moment is roight...

Egad, people!

Yesterday, we did something just shy of a blooming GIG of traffic on this web server. Normally, we've been averaging something like 7gb per month.

And what do we have to blame for all of this? Last year's V-Day extra ;) Whee! Hooray for stale linkage or something, eh wot? Over 30,000 people read the thing yesterday. We're apparently doing something right...

When going on criminal-catching missions to other worlds, It's Very Important to Call Ahead. If you don't call ahead, then you get delayed, asked what you're doing there, showing your credentials, getting cross-examined by the badgers... Really, it's an inconvenience and the criminal might get away.

Hmm... Well, Esa's been feeling a little bit better lately. He's made a few sketches now and again, posted in the fan art Extras section. Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and he came up with a cute Laios and Lynn sketch. He wanted to do more, but this is still nice. ^^

The previous page, the 250th page celebration, while detailing a lovely bit of revisionist history, included a couple of characters from God Mode, Barrett and Kraig, who Chesu mentioned on his blog. The author was kind enough to link us in his rant. ^^ The comic itself has its moments, though frequently descends into freespirited bouts of nudity and lewd jokes alongside the gamer jokes. On the other hand, that may be what a lot of readers are looking for. Hmm... Doesn't swear nearly as much as Penny Arcade, though. Oh well!

I'm out of scripts again. That means I have to think up some more before proceeding. Ah, so what else is new? :)

It's much better now, that's it's been properly revised. History, that is.

And now we have... HAPPY 250 SPRITE COMICS!! Chesu wasn't sure we'd make it this far. I was kind of optimistic and thought we might, but you never can tell. Chesu could have broken down or run off and become a badger-snipe somewhere. There was really no way to tell exactly how the story would turn out. After all, we'd never done this sort of thing before, where the story just runs along wherever it will, mutates how it likes, and grows mold, mushrooms, and fungus for all. Some ways that could have been are not, and ways that might not have been, were. So a voyage to the past from the future changes the present and thereby the past by way of the future and back again through the upstairs neighbors.

Plotting is bumpy. You need a fine ship to sail it! We're using a canoe and making it up as we go along, but still, we've survived this far. Lots of thanks go out to the people who have helped out, especially Chesu (who put together all these funky things!), Larry (who edited), and random people who've helped out on the forums, DW for keeping an additional dimension of the story alive (GDM), and so on and so forth. Wouldn't be proper otherwise. ^_^

Next comic involves Contacting the Authorities. Gotta speak with the local government if ya wanna catch criminals under their jurisdiction, y'know. Seems like the worlds in question (The Moon, Mars, Jupiter) form more of a confederation than a federation. Yeah, they do respect the authority of Q.Serenity, but they've got their own problems to deal with. Governing a planet's big business, y'see.

Hmm... The next page, we'll have 250 pages of the sprite comic. Chesu and I weren't ever sure we'd even make it this far. If I can get a proper script made up, perhaps we could even have that page ready sometime this weekend. ^_^

Page is up! It's about a Failed Breakout. Kind of filler until I get my brain back in the proper mindset for scripting "real" comics. As if that had ever happened before. o_O

I talked with my advisor about the webcomic project. Turns out... 13 interviews might be enough, provided I covered the major genres, artforms, and eras of most major comics. But I'll have to make a big 'ol spreadsheet first and see which ones I covered. Organize 'em by genre. Do keyword analysis on the interviews I did. Let the badgers run the monkey grinder and such.

What's left in this subchapter? Bunches. Gotta figure out what kind of tournament thing's going on, some quasi-non-romantic parody subplots, mischief, and playing Benny Hill music and letting people chase other people around. So, stuff. Things and stuff.

We're up to 248 pages now. Won't be long before we're up to our 250'th Page Jamboree or whatnot. Milestones are good. We like having accomplished something. :)

Just finished an interview for my project with Carrie Curtis of 9th Elsewhere! She was very nice and helpful. I was glad to be able to chat with her. Each interview or survey gives me a better understanding of what online comics are for and how they can work out. Each story is unique, but overall... most webcomics aren't in it for the money, so to speak. There's other stuff like audience and personal development. Practically everyone develops their style and abilities with time and practice. It seems only natural, now that I think about it... but hey, now I've got DATA! :D

I've done 13 interviews or surveys so far. I'll need to chat with my advisor to see if I need to do another 40 or more. I believe it's possible to get done; I just have to contact a lot of people. Thankfully, many are very willing to help out. I'm very glad for that.

Anyway, comicness... We've got some Elite Jovian Brainwaves coming in... Or rather, Knight-Zero obtained them from Terra's repository. Why spend years living with and participating in a culture to learn about it when you can just crib with Cliff Notes, eh? :D

Thanks to Chesu for getting that done! Now we've run out of scripts yet again, so I shall have to make a few more up today. Thanks for reading!

When we last left the main story, Knight-Zero, in her disguise as Lieutenant-Master First-Class Commander-Sergeant Trainee Lynn, was driving the Lunar flagship with the engines at overload down into Jupiter's (admittedly brown) atmosphere. Captain Laios and the rest of the crew got to the escape pods, and most probably survived. But Knight-Zero is a better pilot than that. Which is why... THE SHIP SURVIVED?!!?

And yeah, as might be surmised by some random blatant hints we've been dropping along the way, our ninja-girl kind of has a thing for the blond guy. Don't know where that's going, but it's certainly going.

Hmm... Looks like Topwebcomics has reset for this month with new security features to prevent people from padding their numbers excessively. We were up in the 50s, and we're still in the top 100 at the end of today, so that's cool. That'd make... three months we've been in the top 100. That's actually quite fantastic. Thanks for voting for us! ^_^

For the Filler Friday stuff, Skuld's still there, collecting her pay and such. As always, there's a little extra quirk to the new NETTG HQ. For one, there's The Big Red Button. Not supposed to touch it, but c'mon, we gotta touch the button! The big red candy-like button! Can we avoid the temptation? Nope! Turns out, the new HQ also has an insane A.I. program. We like crazy A.I.s. Any other kind is boring, isn't it? ^_^

Roight... Onwards!

Comic's up! History Repeats Itself once again. Gotta have ships crashing left and right. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't. ^^ Chesu actually had the page done this morning, but didn't show up in my email till about an hour ago. Funky how this works sometime.

Anyway, now that in the comic, we've got our new headquarters, it'll be time to do some pages with that involved. I'm sure there's... um, all kinds of funny and hilarious things we can do there. *glances around frantically* Hmm, yes....

Isn't complaining and angsting what blogs are all about? Except that they're called livejournals, then?

Coincidentally, what the drawing board thing is about, is that it's one of the mental blocks that I need to deal with every time I want to draw something. Plus, there literally aren't _any_ not-completely-filled surfaces at home right now. Anyway, that's one stumbling block I can do something about, so that's what I'm trying to do.

Well, it's a completely different storyline than the one we came up with before, so I guess he can die... hmm... du. Ben's been digging into old skits we came up with before, which is no different than normal, really, but he doesn't have the constant feedback of me telling him that's it's all wrong and must be re-written. Oh, and I had a blog once... a good portion of it is still up, but I decided I just used it to complain. After I complained I felt better and so didn't really feel like fixing my problems, or felt like it was somehow making it worse. So, either 'cause I thought it created bad mojo, or whatnot, I stopped and decided never to write in it again.

P.S.

Gibber.

And so Laios finishes his flashback by Honoring His Master. Danny commented concerning Du, "I bet he's not really dead." I say... well, maybe not. It depends where the story goes. Anyway, had to find some random dramatic way to finish off the backstory so we could get along with the other kind of story. Also, gotta have his hair grow back fast somehow. No need to do a dragon whisker thing. I'm sure there's plenty of time for that. Unless his hair grows abnormally fast. Ah well, no worries.

Chesu was fortunate to find a proper pyramid for the comic. I imagine he'll mention it on his blog sooner or later.

Masters project is actually progressing now. Interviewed and surveyed several people. I'm not sure quite how many I'll need to ask, but it'll probably depend on the quality and quantity of data I collect with each one.

Anyway, I'm sure Esa'll find a nice li'l drawing board somewhere, somehow.... ^^

I'm trying to find a new drawing board from Oulu. Nothing, yet. I have two more stores to check... but, I'd be happy finding one from Finland, even. Hmph. If anyone knows where in Oulu I can get boards alike ones sold by the places Ben linked, email, I guess?

A drawing board has many virtues: it's always clean and empty, unlike every other surface in my home. It stays in my lap, thus I can use it while sitting in front of computer, or while watching TV. I can also use it while lying in bed. I can also carry it with me.

Today's page involves a BIG Bunny. Only a matter of time before they'd find a rabbit too big to shave. Chesu has the tale of his experiences making the page in his blog.

I surveyed and interviewed more people yesterday. Interviewed the author of Misfile and Building 12, then later interviewed the author of Alpha Luna (in Spanish, no less!). Also got several individuals willing to help out. Got more surveys answered... It's going pretty good. A lot of work, though, which I guess was the point. ^^

Standart story sprite comic continues. Just some minor Training Setbacks. Larry kind of thought this one could have been a bit better, as in having a stronger punchline... on the other hand, I've always had trouble with proper punchlines. I do get lucky though, sometimes. But it was too late for a proper review, and I couldn't think of anything else. And above all, the show must go on! The point of the sprite comic, y'know. Got some more scripts written that were up to snuff from Larry's perspective, and he recommends that I get scripts done at least a week in advance so we can avoid such problems in the future.

And I've emailed another ten comic authors or so. Of the first eight, I got three responses and two of them got their information to me already. I don't know how much data I need for my project, so I probably should find out soon, what with it being due at the end of this semester and such. o_O

And now, the Conclusion of the Skuld arc. Finally, we have an upgraded/modified NETTG HQ. I'd imagine the forums even work! You can see what I put Chesu through on his blog. Apparently, this was a big deal which I was mostly oblivious to. ^^

Speaking of oblivious, there's this weird seasonal event in World of Warcraft where we have to go around to other parts of the world to collect these coins for faction reputation bonuses and rewards, to be redeemed at the Moonglade gift shop or somesuch. The problem is, SOME OF THEM ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF PVP ENEMY CAPITAL CITIES!! So, I send my Knight-Zero WoW adaptation into Thunder Bluff and Ogrimaar, instantly flagged PvP for any random 12-year-old with a level 60 to lay some smackdown on 'er. Now, suppose some NPC guard kills Kayzee. That'd mean repair costs. No worries, she goes in her shirt and tabard which do not need to be repaired ever. This ends up looking like some kind of bizarre hazing ritual. Maybe people should make that part of their guild initiation. "To join Ultimate Instance Raiders, you must nab Warchief Thrall's unda'pants and run them up the flagpole before the sun dips beneath the horizon this day!" What's stranger is that my younger brother is trying to boost the faction reputation on his lower-level dwarf priest, so he'll have to go through the same rigamarole to accomplish the task. Madness, as he would say. Madness!

And it seems that I've run out of scripts again. Chesu has beaten me once more! So, hopefully during this weekend, I'll be able to come up with some more.

When encountering a species you've never seen before, it's only natural that you'd try to name it in terms that you're familiar with. In the case of the Du tribe, If it Feels Like a Bunny, Has Ears Like a Bunny, and Hops Like a Bunny, then it most certainly must be a bunny! Might be a well-trained lizard, but it's probably a bunny. Du the Great and Spotty has tribal chieftain garb to differentiate him from the rest of the pack.

Hmm... Chesu's been keeping up pretty well with the sprite comic. He's already exhausted the scripts I'd made for the storyline. I shall have to make more, as Larry encourages me to do so. Thanks for reading! ^^

And... well, I'm sure Esa'll be able to find a drawing board locally. I mean, there's bucketloads of stores even online that sell that sort of thing. Maybe even art supply shops have 'em. If not, there's always the possibility of simply finding a piece of plywood and spraypainting one side till it sparkles. "You have constructed a new drawing board. Your skills are complete...."

Hmm. Maybe I should start a Get-Esa-A-Shiny-Chunk-Of-Wood Fund, if that's all he's been needing all this time. ^^

I need a drawing board.

Elaborating: For... a sizeable chunk of time I've been drawing stuff, I was using this about 2-3mm thick, around 30x30cm board, essentially a blank board without a base coat, with one smooth side and one rough side. It fit nicely into my lap, and was light enough --- just a bit bigger than what an A4 paper sheet is tall.

I lost it, and haven't drawn much since.

And now we're getting to an explanation of Laios's old martial arts trainer. His name is... Du, the Great and Spotty! Kind of an odd mix between a monkey, a seal, a leopard, and a meerkat. He might be the result of random intelligent animals getting stranded in the Jovian wilderness and gradually mixing over dozens of generations. Or maybe we could just blame Venus for this. That usually works. ^_^

As usual, Chesu's keeping up on his blog as much as he can. Also as usual, it's dark, dreary, and cold in Finland. Gotta move Esa to Hawaii or Africa one of these days....

This next sprite comic involves some Blatant, Shameless Weird Al Line Robbery. But that's okay, it's got lots of explosions, violence, and crashing spacecraft too. ^_^

We've slipped to #94 on Topwebcomics... but that's okay too. We've had a couple months in the top 100, and that's pretty spiffy. The longer we can stay on, the better, but I'm glad for any measure of success and recognition we can get.

We'd get a lot more if Esa were drawing, but... I guess he's got responsibilities too, like work and classes and things. Not like I haven't been reminding him to do another page every day for the past several months or anything. ;D

And... work on the Masters Project continues. Slowly, but it continues. I'll have to send out more participation requests soon.

When raiding a cargo ship, one must be careful to discovere first if it contains any Hazardous Cargo. Them jigglypuffs, ya know. They'll bite yer legs off if ya's not careful!

Chesu was nice enough to correct some of the typos and grammatical errors in the script, which is good since I made the thing up past midnight and I can get kind of loopy around then and not proofread my own stuff. ^_^;

Sometimes a quick joke suffices. At other times, a story must be told in some fashion or another. For today, I am the Exposition King! Hurrah for the Exposition King! And it is, it is a glorious thing to be an exposition king!

On the other hand, this still has more framed sprites than it does have paragraphs of text. And so it is! There's even a pair of ArbyFish somewhere in this one.

Esa's still struggling with time. He's been busy with work and such. But he wants to draw, and wanting to is... half... the battle? It might be anyway, Happy Friday! Maybe there'll be a filler sometime this weekend.

And thanks for continuing to vote for us and keeping us in the top 100 on topwebcomics! :D

Oh, and Chesu now has a blog about the comic. http://chesu-mori.livejournal.com/

Since we haven't given him rant space yet (you never know what those cats of his might post if they torture him and get him to reveal the password!), this probably suffices for now. ^^

Ah yes, Jupiter, home of proud amazon-style warriors, really big people, and A Whole Bunch of Sore Losers. One of the dangers of a matriarchal society is that it's possible to carry it a bit too far. Same goes for patriarchal societies too. However, in NETTG, there's a dearth of patriarchal societies, consisting mainly of Earth, which is considered backwater compared to the other worlds.

And how are they breathing in an open spaceship? Magic, that's how! They've got some kind of atmosphere-generating airstone thingamawhatsit embedded in the ship.

Well, after thirty something hours of sitting around waiting for TekTonic to do something, they actually did something. An hour of agony after that, and I have cleaned up the stupid results of the crash and A'tuin is once again swimming through the cosmos with the world (and our forums) on his/her/its back.

New comic up! Knight-Zero (AKA "Lynn") is A Psychic Projection on a Mission! She had been given an order to kill ASK, but since her previous oneshot attempt didn't seem to work, I'm sure she'll put up a better fight this time. And... in the last frame, Drill Sergeant Tacticus is wondering what Laios's problem is. Ain't he tough enough for a bit of interplanetary turbulence? Nothing like pulling a couple dozen gees to clear up those nasal passages in the morning, eh?! :D

And, yeah, the forums are foozled, but not to worry, so are most of Ammon's other projects, so he feels our pain, perhaps more deeply than we do. ^^; We haven't had much luck keeping the forums operational for long periods of time, for some reason. I mean, it's not like it's accursed or anything. ^^;;;;

Oh, and Dan Shive of El Goonish Shive got back to me with information for my Masters Project. He's really nice. Takes care of his fans. Calls 'em bunnies. :D

(Mmm. Shaving-du.)

Ok, several of you have probably already noticed (in addition to those who have IM'ed me on the subject) that A'tuin is down - and thus, we have had no forums for 30 hours and counting.

The problem is with my hosting provider for that server. They're apparently experiencing all kinds of voodoo curses and hardware failure at the moment. Those interested in more details can check out my blog post on the subject.

I'll make another announcement here whenever we're back online. *mutter*

Got Monday's comic. Ahh, the Atomic Starlight Knight, Interplanetary... Damsel in Distress?! It seems that Jovian women are somewhat more domineering than what one might expect on other worlds. Or, the prize committee was just really pressed for ideas on what else to put in this year's tournament prize.

As for the Masters Project, Dan Shive and Caroline Curtis got back to me and now have the survey questions. So that's pretty cool!

Divine retribution?

Meanwhile, two days behind schedule, we have the next Filler Friday in the Skuld Arc. Really, Skuld's being kind of nice helping to get the place fixed up. Above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. Thanks to Chesu for getting it done! I thought last week's stuff was done.

And today, I shall have to come up with some new material for the main story arc. It's gone pretty well, I think, even if a lot of it's made up on the run. And thanks for those who have voted for us and kept us in the top 100! That's surprised and relieved a lot of those who work on this. ^^

Okay, I've bitten the bullet, so to speak, and have asked several more people if they're willing to help me out on my Masters project. I went for the toughest ones first: 9th Elsewhere, Ctrl-Alt-Del, El Goonish Shive, Machall, Megatokyo, Penny Arcade, Sluggy Freelance, Okashina Okashi, and Homestar Runner. Hopefully I'll get a few responses out of that bunch. Then I'll continue with the list of random people I've discovered by looking through various comic lists. Danny and Larry tell me I shouldn't be scared of doing this. Therefore... I march straight in, with my head held high. Hey, the worst that'll happen is they turn me down, right? :D

*Ominous Thunder*

And now we have an unpleasant landing. Or, we might call it... Tim Surfing! It's a helpful way to survive a really long fall.

Chesu had the comic done this morning at 1:00 AM, but when he emailed it to me, it didn't come through. Email can be so finnicky sometimes when sending 400k zip files! ^_^; In any case, it's up now. And I need to write more scripts. Hmm... well, it'll get worked out. Actually, there's a lot of stuff I need to do. But it'll get taken care of eventually. Thanks for readin'!

And here we have... Grandslam! Guu Helps Them Get Down. You know, sometimes it can be tough getting borrowed characters to act... in-character. At other times, it simply comes naturally.

Hmm... I always seem to run out of scripts so fast these days. Difficult to catch up to Chesu putting the pages together. And that's a good thing! :D

Oh, and Ryan Kerns of God Mode was nice enough to answer my webcomic survey/interview questions. He got back to me pretty fast, and that's cool. His comic's only been up a couple months, but it's already got some pretty funny gamer jokes. So, when it comes to surveys... one author down, only ninety-nine to go! ^_^

The Way of the Bunny is indeed a very powerful martial art. But for some reason, Training Never Really Caught On back in the Moon Kingdom barracks. I guess it requires more of a personal dedication to slide into.

So, we're still in the top 100 on Topwebcomics! Thanks for all who have continued to vote! We appreciate it, especially those who've worked hardest on it. And the forums have come alive again. That's gratifying to see as well. Some who haven't gotten a chance to communicate in this manner with other NETTG readers have now found it again, it seems.

Hmm. Classes start back up for me this week, and the same goes for many other college-goers. I suppose we'll get to observe how things like productivity and creativity change as this week passes.

What happens in today's comic is... Mixie Takes Over! Former Lieutenant Ameixia's no slouch when it comes to martial arts as well, it would seem. That girl has no focus in her life, I tell ya. There was that paperwork thing, but all that sitting in one place and getting a cramp in her arm and sore legs... It could drive a woman batty! No wonder she was so desperate to escape that career path that she joined up with ASK in a heartbeat.

Oh, and I tremblingly began my quest for Masters Project progress by asking Ryan Kerns of God Mode if I can either interview him or email some questions for him to answer. Oh, I may be no professional research team with oodles of grant money to lavish upon a lab and fly in test subjects, but I've got my audacity and insolence. Hopefully that will be enough for me to overcome my fear of going out and contacting busy people who don't know or care about me. And it seems I'm supposed to be some sort of business/IT professional now, what with me having finished my MIS Bachelor's and just about done with my MIS Master's degree. So I shall be professional, regardless of the outcome. We shall see how it goes.

Oh yeah...

Our listing in Comixpedia has been viewed 170 times.

You want stats? I'll give you stats.

OnlineComics.net: 1,309 hits, 34 subscriptions by fans. (On this site, subscriptions, which are called 'bookmarks', are used as votes for popularity.)

The Belfry WebComics Index: 9 subcriptions. (Same as OnlineComics.net - popularity is judged by subscribers.)

The Webcomic List: Holding at #930 out of 5315 total comics. Views this month: 6.

Average views per month: 61.

TopWebComics: Slipped down to #83 as of 9 a.m. today. We've gotten 86 votes this month, and a grand total of 499 votes. (Esa's benchmark, 9th Elsewhere, is #91.) In order to break back into the low 70s, we'd need 100+ votes, and to break into the 60s for the first time, we'd need 110+ votes.

So, how's that for stats?

Chesu came up with a quick filler, The Sprite Comic Doesn't Just Happen, ya know. Or it might. Well, sort of. Takes a bit of doing, on most sides of things.

Oh, and my TA orientation thing went well. Got out several hours early, so that was good.

Esa's been drawing a few things here and there. He's been busy, but we've been trying to get him to make another main comic page. ^^ Also, thanks for the people who are continuing to vote for us! I don't have specific numbers of how many visitors or whatnot we're getting... however, we have managed to stay in the top hundred on topwebcomics, between 70 and 80th place, usually, and that's not too shabby.

All right! I came up with a script or few and Larry even okayed them. This next one is... Way Of The Bunny THIS Whydon'tcha!? ASK is nothing if not persistent. And damage-resistant.

He is teh tank! ...Um, yeah, inside joke.

Anyway, Chesu's been doing quite well in jumping on the scripts once I've gotten them done. The story progresses along, bit by bit, as it gets made up. And such is the way with many stories.

And tomorrow, I'm going to some sort of all-day training seminar thing for teaching assistants known as "GATO." I don't know what they'll be talking about there. Maybe sensitivity training for people who aren't... or some junk. I'll see.

ASK has an overinflated opinion of his own abilities and self worth. Case in point, today's comic. Nevertheless, He Might Consider Learning Some New Techniques After All. Guu's not a violent individual, just playful. It just happens that she can handily clean ASK's clock if it comes to that.

Chesu didn't send his chest-eating hummingbirds this time, but again, I'm doing scripts off the top of my head and not sure exactly how it'll all fit together. We'll see! ^_^

Hmm. I'm still coming up with Tuesday's script. I kind of exhausted the buffer I built up and got reviewed by Larry, so now I'm doing things on the fly until I can get a good chunk of continuity reviewed. On the other hand, the sprite comic's not supposed to be well-thought-out. In theory, it's only maybe supposed to be funny sometimes. It's just supposed to... continue. If it so happens that it's funny, it's because of the underlying metaphysical karmic boundary that represents scripting and spriting skill that means our skills have improved such that things done even on the fly turn out well because we're... Just. That. Good.

Until then, please bear with me until I can scrape something vaguely resembling a script from the bottomless pit that is my lazy mind. Besides, Chesu threatened to send chest-eating woodpeckers of doom to devour my pectoral muscles if I didn't come up with a script. An odd threat, I thought, but it's his way. Anyway... something shall get done, eventually.

According to Guu, it might appear that ASK must... Train Like Bunny! Really, Captain Laios knows quite an odd set of techniques that he has not yet used to their fullest. You never know, it might be, from ancient times, the style that led to the development of the Hiten Mitsurugi variety of techniques. Of course, over the course of several thousand years, who would ever notice?

And, again, we heartily thank the people who voted for us over the past month and even before! On Topwebcomics we achieved a rank as high as 75, I believe, with between 300 and 400 votes last month. That's not too shabby at all! This morning, DW noted that we were as high as 66 before the numbers stabalized. Thanks for voting for us! I don't have the statistics available, but it has helped in terms of readership.

Also, Esa has a challenge... but we'll see how well he manages. We like art.

And... the forums still have the mailer issue that involves the forum posting a message and then sometimes attempting to inform a participant if they've gotten a reply. Since the forum doesn't appear to have an emailer hooked up to it, it kind of chokes on that. So, if you try to join the forum and it has trouble getting you on, we can bug Ammon about it. Apparently, and according to his comments on the system announcements forum, he did quite a job doing some arcane reworking of the database to get it to run on the new system. And that's good, 'cause we LIKE forums. Anyway, if there's any trouble, drop me an email so I can see if it's a problem. Nobody's complained so far. The forum works fine, it just can't email people of updated messages. I've already informed Ammon of the problem, I think, and it'll get fixed when he can get around to it, I'm sure.

Still, half a HQ is kinda... Maybe we could negotiate up to Sometimes a HQ...?

"Some times it's an amusement park, sometimes it's a rarely-cleaned student apartment, but it's true identity is..."

Wait, I'm channeling Cutey Honey here. Nevermind.

We gots that Filler up. The one who's continually getting bopped by Skuld due to excessive fanboyness is supposed to be Esa, though you can't see 'em 'cause he got blasted in the next filler page. Though not nearly as entertaining as The Blue Potion Restores Life AND Magic, I think we can agree that we like Oh My Goddess characters. Unless ya don't, in which case... there'll be other "guest stars" popping up as time goes on. Hey, we're at 222 comics now. Joy! ^_^

So, the NETTG HQ continually gets blown up, but gets back up again. Maybe it'll have a superior incarnation sometime.

Random filler involving Skuld'll be up when Chesu's done with it. I suspect there might have been some confusion on the last bit of it, but it shouldn't be too difficult to clear up.

So... the bunny is The One?

Hey, you're right! I guess we DO have our forums back! Anyway, we've finally come to the Crux of the Chapter! What IS the secret related to the Way of the Bunny? Is it like what the secret of the Matrix was before everybody found out what it was? In any case, it looks like it's a battle Ameixia would be more suited to fight. But ASK's not about to let somebody else get the glory when he can jam his big black combat boots into the center of things.

Oh, and I'm working on a Masters project involving webcomics. The thread's in this part of the general forums. I've gotten a couple of responses and comments on what I should do about the project, but I'd like individuals' input on what they think of such a thing before I go charging in half-baked. So far, it involves me going around and asking a bunch of authors their opinion on a variety of things. The goal is to get a better idea of the conditions that help contribute to successful online entertainment, using comics as an example. Larry commented that it's annoying when some authors just vent in their rants about their personal problems rather than focusing on entertaining the masses. On the other hand, like in the case of Penny Arcade or others that have the rant prominently featured first, it's probably the main part of the show and the comic itself is just to illustrate some parts of the rant.

I think Danny summed it up nicely when he said something to the effect that if you want lots of fans, you have to make what they want and tailor it to fit the masses. On the other hand, he mentioned that it's kind of nice having our own little corner of the universe and not having our next story decision dictated by what we think the people will like as opposed to how we think it should go.

Because, y'know, big sites that people have as jobs... well, they wouldn't want to lose that advertising and merchandise revenue, would they? It's not a question of selling out; it's a question of sanity. You'd have to be crazy to let such a nice business simply float away. Danny didn't say that, exactly. His phrase was short and poignant. But that's the gist of the ideas I drew from all that.

I wonder if we have our forums back.

And so we've got a new page up! FEAR MISTER FLUTTERS! FEAR, I SAY!!!

There was once a random image Chesu showed me and I wanted to somehow make it part of the story. So here it is! Hmm... scripts are running low again. I shall have to whip up a few in the days that follow. Christmas went well. Did I mention we got our forums back? ^_^

Comic won't be up for a bit. Christmas and holiday time stuff. Got relatives to entertain, gatherings to attend, gifts to mess around with, things like that.

Oh, and did I mention we've got Forums?

If there's problems registering or using it, posting, etc., you can probably send them to me at ben@nettg.com, unless Ammon tells me he wants bug reports sent straight to him. Well, we'll see how that goes.

A Christmas present from Ammon! Forums Are Back Online!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111oneoneoneoneone

I had to dig back into my emails to remember my password, but I finally got it, logged in and such. It all appears to be there. 'Cept forum avatars, but those can be re-uploaded or otherwise linked to. I was even able to post stuff. When it was back on Hedwig I couldn't post things for a while.

There is One Minor Issue when posting, though. It appears to be trying to email people who asked to be notified whenever a message was posted in one category or another. So, your messages get posted, but it displays a message that there's a problem with the PHP, that it's having problems with a mailer script. But your messages are posted! I suspect as a result new people will have trouble signing up or getting their new accounts validated. And possibly a dozen other issues, but for now existing fans with accounts can access old conversations and post replies and discuss things and such.

Thank you, Ammon, for getting it working again! We definitely need forums here.

Random Christmas comic with semi-obscure references for some random sampling of people! Jason, With Your Nose So Bright is its name. Chesu came up with this one when none of my other ideas seemed to resonate with him. And he said no ArbyFish, so that excluded a lot of possiblities. Gotta 'ave ArbyFish, wouldn't be proppa' if we didn't!

Anyway, looks like we've got a holiday weekend ahead of us, so Merry Christmas to everyone! And to awl a pontificous Tuesday! ^_^

Hmm. No forums still. Guess Ammon didn't get them working after all. But we've still managed to get up to number 79 on topwebcomics, so that's really great. It does seem to encourage Esa and Chesu when we manage to maintain a position on things like that.

Comic'll be up when it's done. I think Chesu and I decided on a script, but I'm not sure. Guess I'll chat with him later.

Back to the main story! According to Guu, they must... Enter The Tournament, Sports Fans!! Speaking of sports fans, Ameixia does have such hobbies that she follows, which explains her ability to go into such depths about random Jovian competitions. Chesu put quite a bit of work into this one, mostly because the way I'd written the script was difficult to put into the page without making an exessive number of frames. But it turned out plenty well enough, I think.

Oh yeah, and we might be getting half of a sort of new HQ after all. Ammon mentioned that he might work on the forums tonight or tomorrow. I think it'd be nice to have them back up. Y'know, speak with the fans and acquaintances, catch up on old times, blow things up... a real party, as it were! I did kind of mention that we'd been waiting a few months to get the thing back up... but I guess I probably shouldn't press the issue now, what with him acknowledging that it'll get taken care of and such.

And thanks again for people who are voting for us! I don't have numerical statistics, but I believe it's helping quite a lot.

Hmm, since today's the sprite comic's first anniversary, of the actual story stuff, we've got one of those special random fillers, continuing the Skuld storyline. And also to celebrate, we get A Brand New Office! How unfortunate that it was only half a wish we got. Indeed, it really was sort of a tease. ^^

Thanks to Chesu for getting this done when I put the script together at the last minute! Regular story continues tomorrow.

Ah, yes, and now our fugitives from the law have been informed that It's Dangerous To Approach Civilization. And who knows what reality is, when Guu's around, eh?

Thanks, everyone, for keeping on voting for us! It has a noticeable effect on everybody that's working on this. I mean, Esa's actually considering drawing something now! ^_^

With the excitement of hitting the top 100 at TopWebComics, let's not forget the other directories. We have risen from something like #1989 all the way to #646 at The Webcomics List. While OnlineComics doesn't give us a ranking like the others, our popularity is growing, and we get lots of people checking the listing out. Today our listing had 3,202 Visitors as of 8:51 a.m., central time. Yesterday, it had 12,328 total Visitors. Again, thanks to everyone for voting. It's getting the comic noticed!

So set aside a few minutes every day and start drawing. Your artwork in the lineart strip IS good enough, and you'll get better with practice. You just keep procrastinating.

Wait, we've passed 9thelsewhere? What? We're not worthy! O_o;

Well, I'm not, anyway. Chesu & Ben have done good.

Back to the main story, which involves Stopping and Asking for Directions. They're out of the bizarre landscape and back into the jungle. What was that big black thing that ate them? That would be our guest star, also appearing in this page.

Thanks for the people that have voted for us! We've gotten as high as 86 on Topwebcomics! I'm not sure we'll be able to make the top three, since they've got something like ten thousand votes each, but we've got two hundred, and that's actually pretty nice. Esa and Chesu and... well, the rest of us really do appreciate it!

Ahh, Christmas and other holidays coming up fast. Did some shopping over the weekend, but have a bit more to take care of this week. Classes are done, Danny's graduated, and it overall looks like it's shaping up well. (Ominous thunder!) Let's hope it stays that way. ^^;

We found out what to wish for! And it's all Jason's doing, too! Wouldn't be proper if he didn't, too.

Chesu'd finished the comic yesterday, but through an email mishap didn't get it to me till today, and I was busy all morning, so I didn't get a chance to post a rant till right about now. And we're putting up decorations and things too. Everybody's been too busy to worry about it till now as well. ^^

Anyway, DW's been tinkering some more with GDM. If only we had forums again, we could discuss it with friends and fans and post screenshots and such... I emailed Ammon about it at ammon@simud.org and I'm not sure if he checks his email anymore. I'll give him another week or so before I start really pressing the issue.

Yay, Danny had his graduation. ^_^

Comic'll go up whenever it's done. Chesu's tinkering away at it.

I guess I passed 372. Was just paranoia, I suppose. I'm not too worried about 386, either.

Random quick wakeup scene! Chesu was experimenting with fading and blurring, y'see.

Fruznic is a name I gave the main girl character in Final Fantasy IX. Don't remember what her actual name was. Was it IX? Maybe it was VIII. *shrug* Oh, well it was something like that.

I took my correspondence final. I whooped that class in the er... donkey. I took my 372 final. I'm not so sure about that one. I am developing this fear that I may have tanked it and am going to fail the class. Should that turn out to be so, I have a backup plan: WINTER SESSION! *sigh* I don't know yet, but always gotta have plans within plans and such. I have to take my 386 final today. Am I ready for it? Not really. What's going to be on it? Who knows?

Maybe it's just paranoia, maybe I won't fail either of my classes. Think positive, that's what at least two of the chapters in my psychology book were all about. I wonder what the going rate for academic bribes are nowadays...

As of today, we've gotten as high as spot number 98 on Topwebcomics! Thanks for the people who've voted and given Esa and Chesu (and me and everybody else) a little ray of hope that someday we might amount to something!! ^___^

We've got the next comic up, and it's about Knight-Zero, who's taken up the alias of Lynn. And She's Going, Whether You Like It Or Not! It seems she's still got a strong attraction to a certain blond captain of the guard. And who's the person all bandaged up at the bottom of the page? Aww, poor Selphie!

Again, thanks for voting on the sites. We can still use the advertising, as such. Who knows, maybe one of these days, I'll actually be able to manage a proper punchline! ^_^

Comic'll be up a bit later. Got kind of late after Chesu finished his other responsibilities. Again, thanks for the people that have voted and are voting on the sites! (Prolly the only way we'll convince Esa he needs to draw more! ...aside from me reminding him every single day. ^_-)

Looking at the topwebcomics ranking.

Wow, just... wow. Thank you, y'all.

There's plenty of good comics listed on TWC, almost all in the first page, for one... and then there's other fanwork stuff, like this, and... Well, plenty of good stuff. I'll see if I can draw a comic one of these days...

A thing to know about Ameixia is that destruction and battles aren't her idea of a good time. ...Okay, So They Are! Ameixia has had a tough desk job that'd make many lawyers hang themselves by their own striped ties, so so might act somewhat reserved at times. But... really, sometimes she just wants to burst out and go crazy. It takes a bit of prodding, but she'll let loose if given a proper opportunity.

We're up a fair amount on Topwebcomics, which is 107 as of this posting. Thanks to the people that voted for us! If nobody else voted... we'd need 20 more votes to make it into the top 100. I'm feeling kind of patient about it, but it'd mean a lot to Chesu if we could make it into that. We're not making the top three this month--not without another 8000 votes--but hey, milestones and such. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't have 'em! ^_^

Oh, and I finally read the two Van Von Hunter books. They're decently good stuff. I got a chuckle or two out of them, and that was even after it had all been spoiled by a friend who likes to talk a whole bunch about all the storylines he reads. If I were to gauge the comic potential... I'd say they've got a slight edge above the humor I'm capable of producing on a good day. This means that Pseudome can actually deliver punchlines, which I have to work on some more before I'm actually up to snuff.

Today, we have... Random in the Land of Randomness!! Hey, there's nuclear weapons, a crazy land nobody cares about... so why not throw in a fight to round it off? What's not to like?

Hmm. Well, at least it's not the Cheat's Cheatventures in Moses Malone Land, however entertaining they may be.

Oh, and Chesu tells me that I should tell everybody that you can apparently vote once a day on Top Webcomics. If you try to vote twice a day, I guess it says, "You've already voted today." So... I suppose that would account for the mechanics of that site. And how other sites are racking up millions of votes. To chalk up hits on other sites... you just have to visit the Onlinecomics.net site, and click on the nettg.com link on thewebcomiclist.com site. And hey, thanks for everybody that voted! We've been around #130-140 for the past several days on topwebcomics. It's probably one of the more efficient ways of getting noticed available to us without outright advertising on another site. And howevermuch I'd like to melt the server down by linking us from, say, Penny Arcade or Megatokyo... well, just a little being-noticed will probably suffice for now.

Oh, and we need forums. I asked Ammon about it twice, but he either mystically didn't see the message each time or leapt up and ran the other direction when I mentioned it. Maybe I should bombard him with emails till I find out whazzup wit dat. And... if it comes to that, I know where he lives, too. Mwehehehe. ^_^

Spot the drooling fan in the filler. ^_^

Well, not *drooling* per se... But, I consider AMS to be some of the best manga around, yes.

Filler Friday comic thing, I guess I'd title this one... Worth Half A Wish. Wouldn't be proper if fanfic stuff got full wishes, y'know! ^^;

Chesu got this one done while he fought off his own difficult cold/sore throat stuff. And... my class stuff is done. Just other work to take care of aside from that. All in all, not bad for this semester.

Comic's up! Apparently, it was all my fault. I sort of allowed him to work on a full stomach, in a warm blanket and drinking cocoa. Naturally, this prevented him from staying conscious to finish the comic. And with that, we are faced with a deep question: What To Do In A New Alien Landscape? Blow It Up, Of Course! And so we shall.

Comic's up. What's there to say about it other than... *BAMPH!*

Some rare few might recognize this subchapter's guest star. More on that as the story proceeds.

Chesu's experimenting with variations on speech bubbles, like ASK's bubble's now green and Ameixia's bubble is now blue. It's a technique he's experimenting with. I don't know if it's faster, better quality, or just looks different, but that's how we're doing it! ^_^

Hmm. My cold seems to be phasing out, though I don't exactly think I could or should get up and run a mile just yet. And... my projects are pretty much taken care of. Just have to send in some class participation and peer review stuff.

We'll post the next comic when it's done. Chesu was busy today. And really, so was I. Got a big ol' chunk of my classwork done, so that should ease the way to future writing activities. ^^

The paper got done! A little over 10k words, according to one team member. Got turned in about 10 minutes before it was due, which is a lot better than 10 minutes after it's due. ^^

Anyway, with that done, we've got the introduction of a new random character, which is also an old character, though a fairly obscure one from the old fanfic which was never really named in the fanfic. His name is... Drill Sergeant Tacticus! An all-around tough guy, he appreciates tough people. And if you're not a tough person... well, what's wrong with you, son!? We're going to war. We gotta whip you back into shape!

Plus, he's from Earth. Earth in this series is considered backwater, uncultured, and barbarous. Still, Tacticus managed to muscle his way into the Lunar military. The High Guard, even. How tough is he? Pretty tough. Not quite sure yet, but we'll see.

The Skuld Story will continue on Friday. We now return you to your regularly scheduled sprite comic, already in progress. This one's about The New Recruit. Funny how you can pick up some fantasy kingdom army recruits just about anywhere....

Got a 10-15k word paper due at 5:00 PM. There are about 6,000 words done right now. Let's hope it gets done so I don't have to scream and wail in ultimate agony and suffering. ^_^

On another note, it seems it's tough to do a proper sprite of someone who has her hair covering up half her face in one of those mysterious French spy fashions. Either one side shows too much of her face, or the other side shows none at all. Oh well, such is the style Knight-Zero has chosen for her disguise.

A look at the web comic listings has shown that NETTG:TEY is getting more exposure. We're #161 at TopWebComics with 16 votes (getting 27 or more votes should put us in the top 100), and #980 out of 4984 at The Webcomics List.

Thanks to everyone who has voted for us! And if you haven't voted yet, please do. It would be good to get into the top categories so that more people will stumble across us in the web listings. (No repeat voting though, as duplicate IP addresses in the stats wouldn't be good!)

Just two more weeks. Just have to read another 300 pages for my correspondence class, Icon program, C# program, learn all the stuff I missed when I slept through class, internship report, and write a letter for my manager-person to sign... and work just enough that they don't fire me. And then... and then... I'll have graduated. There won't be any non self/wife-imposed homework to do! There will always be laundry... but, but... I like doing laundry. Then I'll have to earn actual money... and we'll buy a house... and have children... and they grow up to torment us just like we tormented our parents. And... and... We'll never get a good night's sleep ever again. Of course, I don't seem to get a good night's sleep, anyways, so what does it matter?

Cantelope?

And from the realm of randomness, we have a filler crossover guest star thingy. The obligatory "Somebody Order a Goddess?" thing. It's been done so much before and is so cliche, we HAVE to do it. It's not like we have a choice here, y'know. ^_^

Back to the regular story on Monday and we'll continue this one next Friday. I know what I'm doing. Um, really I do. Mwahahaha.

Shikkari... Shikkari... Shikkari... Shikkari....

Filler Friday comic goes up when it's done. I made a last-minute script that he needs to make a new sprite for. And he needed to sleep regardless. ^^

Now that ASK and Ameixia have rematerialized, Laios and Knight-Zero need to catch them. However, they May Need Backup. A rough place, that planet Jupiter. Full of wild beasts and... Wait a second, isn't it a gas giant? Oh, well, that's just what they WANT'cha to believe, isn't it? Just like the probes they sent over to Venus. They're all galavanting around in a wacky paradise and the scientists are none the wiser. Bwahahaha!

And now... coming straight from the big green-armored guy 'imself, Escape Pods Are For Wimps! Ahh, yes, a captain must truly go down with his ship. They're not expected to survive, clearly, but there is the odd fellow who can manage to do so despite everyone's objections.

So, now that they know where ASK and Ameixia are, they must Hunt Them Down For The Mistress! Though both Knight-Zero (AKA "Lynn") and Laios may disagree on who the Mistress in question may be, they do share kind of a common goal here.

Chesu likes Legend of Zelda a whole bunch. Today, he showed me a demo he made up for a LoZ fangame, in the style of A Link To The Past. He got most of the engine worked out pretty good. Boomerangs, arrows, magic were working. We had a discussion about explosives. I just wanted things to blow up, he wanted them to fit in context and be able to solve puzzles.

Hey, explosives are great problem solvers! You see a problem, you can chuck bombs at it for a while, and sooner or later... it's not a problem anymore! Sailer Nuke sez. BWAHAHAHAHA.

Where was I? Anyway, it all looked quite nice, though sword combat wasn't working quite right. I got flashbacks to Lagoon for the SNES where the main character had this tiny little dagger-like sword. It never got more impressive, no matter how expensive the upgrade you got for it. That just sort of bugged me when we got the Ultimate Moon Sword of P0wn4g3 or whatever and it was this dinky little dagger thing where you had to be practically inside the monster's mouth to hit it. Bitter and traumatized? Why would I be bitter and traumatized?! o_O

*twitch* The sword! *twitch*gibber* The game... won't... get any... better! *twitch*

We have comic number two-hundred up! No fanfare, no dallying around, just jumping back into the storyline. Now, it seems, Captain Laios and Lieutenant-Master First-Class Commander-Sergeant Trainee "Lynn" are Tracking a Pair of Criminals. The plot thickens, then it gibbers a bit, then it falls over, screaming. ^_^

Well, no comic just yet. Chesu's probably busy recovering from an intense Thanksgiving weekend. Plus, the next one's the 200 page milestone for the sprite comic. And it's getting to be around the first anniversary of the sprite comic.

Been corresponding with Esa. Yes, winter has truly descended upon Finland. Considering that a huge chunk of the country is north of the arctic circle, it's not surprising that the weather tends to get one down. Well, at least Santa Claus apparently lives in northern Finland, so the tradition goes. Or was that a sacrificial Norse goat? I can never remember. ;_;

Winter apparently messes with people's schedules and minds. I guess it's kind of like living in Seattle or something like that year round where there's not much light to go around.

In the words of Mylar, the terminally depressed harp seal (not to be confused with Marvin the paranoid android), "Is it morning? There's no sun. T_T"

Life goes on and work continues. This particular week is where there's a couple big projects coming due, so that's what I plan on worrying the most about. Not necessarily spending the most time working on, mind you, but I'll at least spend some time agonizing about it before scrambling to get it done at the very last minute. Ahh, college life! ^_^

Hmm. It seems we have a Happy Thanksgiving comic after all. Chesu found a few moments to make it and send it over, and I'm thankful for that. Works out fine. Ahh, busy holidays and such! Having the whole family over. ^_^

Er, Juhannus is Midsummer...

And, I don't really like Unspeakable Horrors Beyond Known Spheres... I mean, not really. Except, kinda. Superpowered evil little girls, now that's another thing. Redeemed villains are also fun. Well, many things are....

Ugh, that cover looks awful, now.

Esa LIKES gothic superentities that devour souls and destroy worlds. In fact, some of his best character drawings have been of Terra. ^^

Chesu's kind of out of commission until he can pull himself away from holiday preparations. In the USA, that means he's busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, and he's expecting a huge group over at his place this year. I know Esa's also kind of too busy for the Internet when Juhannus and such rolls around.

Y'see, we're cultured. Kind of like cheese! :D

UNSPEAKABLE VAULT (of doom). I have a Cthulhu puppet. ^__^

Didn't see Chesu on today, but I got home late... so I guess we can call today's comic just slightly delayed. ^_^;

Now we rejoin our heroes--er... well, whatever title now applies to ASK and Ameixia--as they take some time to Kick Some Midget Butt!!

In other news, Chesu made up something of a NETTG screensaver that involves KZ dragging ASK through various scenery types. It uses some sort of game maker thing to run, since that's what he codes everything on. He says it, "goes through a mountain area, a desert, a glacier, then the mountains again." Just something random I thought was funny. Have to dump it in the Windows directory before Windows'll recognize it as a screensaver you can select from the Display thingamafoozle in the Control Panel.

...you know, from a security perspective, that sounds absolutely awful, dumping things into one's Windows directory. But it's from Chesu. He'd never steer me wrong, would he? Would he?? ^^; Anyway, I scanned it just in case, tested it, and it looks fine.

Off ta neva' neva land with us then!

It is an ignoble "we."

Today, we have a Filler Friday: Canned! We're up to 197 sprite comics, and number 200 is just around the corner. And... I haven't made any awards, I haven't scripted anything extra special... and if I recall correctly, we're about around the first anniversary of the sprite comic. Two hundred in a year ain't too shabby for a comic, though it was all sprites and highly experimental, and Chesu developed his skills as he went along. He says he made something that should make some effects in comics somewhat easier to make (or at least make them possible). So, that's nice.

We did get a comment on one of the comic indexes (or indices, depending if ya wanna be awl roight n' proppa')... The individual loved the monster battle stuff, and was intrigued when Sailor Moon characters appeared... but got confused after that. Chesu suggested I put a "To Understand This, Read the NETTG Fanfic" link in a prominent spot at the top of the page. Knowing some of my writing, it's likely confuse people even more. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, either. We've sometimes commented (like Danny, for example) that we get to do pretty much whatever we want with comparative anonymity if we don't have to constantly worry about what the fans want; to serve the fans and such. We don't have to add gratuitous fanservice, as such.

On the other hand, nobody's said a whole bunch about the sprite comic, though it's ever-presently there. Maybe the earlier ones scared away readers; who knows! But it keeps going on, and anyway, the sprite comic's an excellent forum for character expansion, development, and experimentation. Some of the slated "main comic" characters actually get to have personalities much much faster than otherwise possible. So, that's a good benefit as well. The be-all and end-all of it all? No idea. But here it is regardless.

Well, ASK and 'Mixie are back in the story for this chapter. As are Laios and more. Actually, there's a bucketload of random characters slated for addition in this chapter too. Should make it nice and complicated for anyone wanting to follow along. ^_^

Anyway, about Laios... Don't Talk To Him About Past Relationships, just FYI. He gets really sensitive about that subject when people perceived as more "fun" than he is snatch away childhood girlfriends. And, let's face it, who wouldn't be?

Oh... and I just got my second character to level 60 on World of Warcraft. A Big McLargeHuge warrior that's borrowing ASK's affinity for green armor. And I still haven't finished the current writing project. Sad, innit? At least classes seem to be going okay. And I need to do that pesky masters project about webcomics as well. And that 10,000-15,000 word project writeup for another class, and a book review...

Wow, I'm glad I don't worry about everything that often. If it all hit me at once, I'd be reduced to a gibbering maniac in no time flat! ^_^

Yeah, edit's broken. You have to delete your post and make a new one. Shall probably have to call upon Ammon to fix this one as well.

And a fix to the forums'd be nice as well. Hmmmm...

Can't edit me posts. Says error in SQL syntax. Very hectic at work, right now. Got an essay due nov 1, too. Stuff stuff.

Yay, snow! Now Esa can be depressed AND creative at the same time! ^_^

Anyway, we've got subchapter three beginning on the sprite comic. Hmm, we shall have to make an archive page for it all now that it's getting up near 200 pages now. And so we begin... Cut Wood, Shave Bunny: The Ancient Secret of Usagi-Dou!

What is the ancient secret of Usagi-dou? Well, it's a secret! Can't very well go round publishing secrets till the plot's been properly twisted. Wouldn't be proper if ya didn't! It would'a been if it wasn't, which it was.

Oh, I forgot to mention: we finally got snow here in Oulu...

Well, fine, sleet, technically. It's very warm here, considering the

time of the year. Dark, though.

In the sprite comic, it looks like... Everything's Back To Normal? As normal as it's getting, anyway. We'll have a title page tomorrow and proceed along with the next subchapter. Got some scripts tentatively approved, so that's good. Gotta see if the new guest star's personality pans out properly....

I occasionally go back and look at old programs of mine. I changed a couple of lines of code and created bouncy art! It also comes in blue-green and red-blue flavors. IE will be ever so nice and rename them to .zip files. Beat it over the head with an ugly stick and re-rename them to .jar files. Alternitively, you can use mozilla. If you have java properly installed, your OS should know how to open the files.

They just make me tingle. ^_^

Do You Want A Treatment? *Blink!*Blink!*Blink!* Ahh, Faxanadu. Been a long time since I last played that, but the shopkeepers always blinked like crazy.

Anyway, today's comic is a quick and easy solution to Terra's getting-fried-by-purifying-energy problem. We're rapidly approaching the next subchapter. Just a couple more scripts.

...

Speaking of which, I need to get plotting again, and fast. Got a story to figure out. It involves Jupiter and jungles, and little pink-haired monster-girls that devour anything in sight. Also involves rabbit-shaving martial arts masters and a thousand elephants!

...

Well, maybe not the elephants, but you never know! Elephants. Rawhr! *claws at the air*

And now, for Arby, it's... So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish! Sent express via rocketship, he's on his way to Pluto, a cold dark place billions of miles away where he'll have to face the demanding, difficult persona of Sailor Pluto. Who do we feel sorry for? I think that should be obvious. Like how Chibiusa in Heart of Sugar should never have had to get saddled with Ben and Jason, Sailor Pluto should never have had to deal with the likes of Arby.

I mean, it's not like Arby's evil or anything. Ask him and he'll say he's quite proper. But... well... he did grow up in a lab, y'see, so little bits of his propriety might be skewed somewhat.

So close to the next subchapter! So close....

Heh. The latest (two, three) sprite comic(s) made me laugh. Well done.

Anyway, Problem Solved! Arby shall get sent to a cold dark world, billions of miles away, and the green junk's all cleaned up.

But the use of such purifying magic may have some consequences. One wonders how much the Queen knows how much Terra dislikes that stuff. On the other hand, Arby does have the capability to make others act rashly.

Chesu got his power supply replacement really fast via overnight mail. That was nice. How unfortunate that it went out three or four times before, but good thing it got replaced really fast. Much faster than last time, anyway. We like having comics to post. ^_^

Hmm... Looks like Chesu's laptop power cable went dead again. So his laptop's out of power and that means no comic till he gets a replacement in a couple days. Oh well! Setbacks here and there. This'll be Chesu's fourth adapter for that laptop. He's about ready to strangle Dell, as it seems ALL the adapters have this same problem.

I know Aaron Bergman recently jumped up and down on his laptop, screaming, "ARE YOU @#%$#@^$#^ BROKEN NOW?? HUH?!!?!?" Given his troubles with it, I think he was perfectly justified. Hooray for outsourced Dell cheap-o support and design, eh? XD

All that pesky ArbyFish business. What Has He Done Indeed! Arby sure knows how to push everybody's buttons. Or rather, he keeps on poking at a few till people are driven crazy. He's over the top that way.

Well, leave Arby alone for a little while and who knows what he'll get into, or what diabolical plans he might hatch as a matter of course. By human standards, Arby Clearly Needs Some Correction, but it's anybody's guess as to what kind of correction he will need before he's ready to integrate properly into society.

...

Hey, he did grow up in a lab, y'know. He very well may be, as they say, incorrigible. An incorrigible fish indeed! Speaking of which, I hear Danny made up an Arby-style superhero on City of Heroes. Not sure how he'd handle it since they're all buff superhero humanoid types, but still, I wonder what it looks like.

Looks like Arby might be on his way out. But first, handing out gifts. Such as... A One-Size Fits None Sailor Fuku! Wouldn't be proppa' if he didn't.

Chesu always has to invent new sprites for just about every comic page, it seems. Also, wouldn't hardly be proper if he didn't, too. Anyway, we'll pick back up on Monday. Story stuff and whatnot. Badgers and mushrooms and things!

I believe that programming in Java during the day for work, then switching to Prolog in the evening for homework will have one of two effects. It will either a) Cause my mind to expand until it encompases the entire universe, or b) Cause it to violently implode, taking most of the universe with it.

So if you hear a very loud kaboom or whooshing sound, that's probably me.

Comic'll be up in the morning sometime. Chesu did Monday's comic already. The copy of the script he had didn't have this page in it. It was a last-minute insert of sorts.

Arby to Finland? Mind, what do _you_ think?

Mind: "Yes! Woo-hoo!! " / "Nooooooooo!"

This _is_ the time of the year I generally go to hibernation.

Wait a second... cold... dark... a million miles away... They should send Arby to Finland!

(It's gotten cold and dark in Finland again)

Oh, lovely.

Alas, poor Charon... We hardly knew ye. Or, not at all, really. Hasn't had _any_ screen time, that one.

"I'm not dead yet! I've just retired!" Shush. Silly feline.

Oh, for the audience, I don't really give any input on the sprite comic, so it comes to me as much as a surprise as it does to rest of you. ---I don't particularily like, nor dislike talking to myself, but that's what I do anyway.

Oh, and by the way, if ASK were a character on Warcraft or World of Warcraft, this is about as close as I can get to 'em. Would have liked nicer face models on the male humans in that game. Oh well! XD

Silliness is fun. And yeah, some things people only notice when it's broken. Like the forums. =^.^= At least we got that there RSS stuff up and running, though! Thanks, Ammon.

Anyway, the sentence is being considered. They shall... Send Arby to a Cold, Dark World, Billions of Miles Away!!

Hmm. Apparently somebody on the other webcomic directory things didn't see the sprite comic, wondering how we could be updating and yet there's no update. Maybe Esa can draw a new page sometime. ^^ Or perhaps the layout could be modified to emphasize that there are two comics running on this siamese twin of a page. Or perhaps make the rants more visible. Shall have to reconsider the design sometime so stuff like that can be fixed. Ahh, evolution! Tis a wonderful thing to view for creative works. ^_^

Stop that! 'tis silly!

No rest for the wicked gripped me and didn't let go.

... On second thought, I like silly. Do continue.

But... but... I don't _LIKE_ the hole! It smells bad and there's not enough leg room... ;(

That's right, Ammon. No one cares at all... unless it doesn't work, in which case we know exactly who to blame.

Now BACK into your hole! BACK, I say! [Cracks whip and brandishes pistol]

Grin. Ok, everyone take special notice of the RSS link above. Larry added this a little while ago and has finally harassed me into automating the process. This url (http://nettg.com/rss) may be fed into an aggregator such as: SharpReader (Windows), Straw (Gnome), or Sage (Firefox plugin), etc, etc... (there are thousands of them out there). It is a good technology. It is happy. It magically notifies you of new rants w/o any effort on the part of anyone.

Another possibile use for the RSS feed is that I can probably include instamagical notification of the latest comics as well (in addition to the traditional rant announcements). There are lots of things that can be done with this technology and NONE OF YOU EVEN CARE! YARGH! Feh.

Hmm. Apparently the Halloween comic script we came up with was too much for Chesu. Fighting him at every angle. So, we shall proceed with a story script. Shall we Make Arby Clean It All Up? I mean, what IS Arby's definition of clean, anyway? Different than ours, certainly. ^_^

Hmm. No comic just yet. Halloween night. People get busy and such. And overdose on candy and things. ^^

Currently in the process of Getting A Halloween Script Written. I think Chesu was just mad I couldn't figure out what kind of costume I'd wear for Halloween. I told him Death, meaning like Discworld's Death, but that wasn't really satisfactory, apparently. He was looking for something anime. In that case... it'd probably be Ikari Gendo. Why a villainous megalamaniac that plots against everyone for selfish purposes? Why indeed!

Chesu's costume's easy. Link from the Zelda series. Who else?

As for Larry, who knows? Same for Esa. We shall see if a right proper Halloween page gets done by the end of Halloween by this time zone.

The verdict is in. Arby is Guilty!

Though, being the slippery 'fish he is, he naturally tries to find ways up, around, and through it. Oh well!

According to Chesu, the woman with purple hair is... Chancellor Sum Thin Go'ruthr. We're careful to note that there are no lawyers in this scene. Just a whole bunch of bailiffs that Arby could make short work of. Gotta have 'em, though. Wouldn't be proper if ya didn't!

Didn't see Chesu on tonight... but that's okay! Looks like Halloween's coming up and I think we were talking about some kind of Halloween comic... but I was at a loss to describe what kind of costume I'd wear. Or, my answers didn't fit proper comicky humor business. Or something to that effect. Aaanyway. Comic'll go up whenever I get it. ^^

What would Arby say if he were a judge? He would say, Oye Sentences Yew Ta Immediate Congealation!

Chesu got back, and that makes me glad he didn't get eaten by the hurricanes that have been prowling about. But a cold front rushed in and now he's freezing. Ah well, sometimes just can't win.

Also looks like we've gotten some more linkage from the comic index sites listed right above the rants. That makes three spots and it appears we're already on a few individuals' favorites list. C'mon, with a name like Nuke 'Em, it's gotta be good!! ^_^

Chesu's still gone, so no comic today either. Hopefully he's okay. I imagine it's just a power outage.

And... Larry's put up an RSS feed. Or... at least the beginnings of one. Not sure about its entire functionality, but it's there.

I was pretty sick today. Could barely get up. I'm improving now, but it was really not very much fun for most of the day.

Whee! We're on Top Web Comics now! I wonder how high up we'd get if all the readers voted on it. I cast my ceremonial vote of confidence ot it once and it got bumped up from 3000 up to 1100 or so. ^^

On the other hand, Chesu seems to have vanished for just a bit. Maybe the hurricane got him or his internet connection or power supply. Only Esa can save us with respect to comicness now! XD

And... I just had my first lecture on some Macromedia product called Breeze. It was wild. A chat room with various aspects of the screen controlled by the professor. And like in any chat room, it went out of control a couple of times. And the WoW conversations crept up here and there.... Fun, kind of, but rather late. Started at 9:00 PM and ended past 10:00 PM. Oh well!

Hello there... No Chesu, but I found out that the NETTG Fanfic won some kind of award at the Fukufics.com site. Includes a custom award pic. Saw a preliminary version. Looks nice! ^_^

Comic'll be up sometime later. Chesu kind of got caught in a thunderstorm or hurricane or whatever it is those wacky Floridians get coming their way these days. And Larry apparently referenced us with a whole bunch of comic indexes listed at the bottom of the links page. As of this posting, we're at 1979 out of over 4000 comics on one of them. Woo! ^_^

There was a minor glitch in the main site while we were updating. It should be fixed now.

Next page is up. They're still having Difficulties With The Uniform. Good to see some things never change. ^^

That's the last few scripts I had written out, so I shall have to get more done over the weekend. Gotta see how funny I feel. Thanks to Chesu for getting 'em done on time!

Try as they might, They Just Can't Pin This One On Terra. Yes, there's mass hysteria and dogs and cats living together, etc., but there's no Moon-shattering kaboom, so it's definitely not Terra's M.O. She might slip up sometimes in her hiding from the termination authorities (I.E. her mom), but that's no reason to go paint the town green. Blowing up half the town, now everybody'd know who did that if it happened. =D

Oh, and apparently, we do have access to forums through some wacky wild quirk of fate, but the forums on Hedwig, through Ammon's home connection, are still broken by some funky PHP error that disallows posting. Or, rather, gives an error when we try to post. I wonder if we can get a link temporarily switched around and convince Ammon to beat the forum into submission. That'd be really nice. I wonder if he reads these rant posts anymore. =^_^=

Mouldy Awakening! Apparently, QS binds up her hair when she sleeps at night. It's just as well; one thing less to get wrapped up in. Could probably garrotte herself with it if she's not careful and if she tosses and turns a lot.

Didn't take long for her to figure out the culprit of the act. If you wake up in the morning and you're painted green and there's mushrooms all over the place, you get three guesses and two of 'em don't count.

Comic's up, by the way. Didn't post a rant earlier when the comic went up because I was scrambling to get a paper done. Once again, it was turned in just barely in the nick of time. Always have to cut it close. ^^;

Anyway, Time's Up on Shroom Day. The very first Shroom Day as recorded by ArbyFish History, revised or not, ends with everybody wanting more. Maybe that's why they always observe it from this point on. Will the ArbyFish be back for the next Shroom Day? Only if you insist they don't. They're ornery that way.

Ahh, yes, near anonymity. Reminds me of the guild we've got on World of Warcraft. Just a couple people, plus somebody we picked up along the way and hasn't left yet. Loads of fun. Might not be nearly as fun if we had three hundred people, forty of which were constantly raiding the Molten Core or somesuch. But then again... oh, it's not important. ^^

And, yes, we're hoping Esa can schedule things so he can do more stuff. Would be nifty.

I finally figured out what's been bugging me about the ArbyFish in the sprite comic. They don't have whiskers! Now I can finally sleep at night.

Thanks for the love, Esa. We love you too, man. You know, every time you put up a page, it's like another dose of crack. V^_^V

We all love you, Danny. ^_^; That's a lovely 'shroom, it is.

Now, if anyone feels like expanding the Comixpedia entry, feel free to do so. I am, as is well documented, lazy. Speaking of which, Ben, I'll try and schedule myself so that I can work on the stuff we talked about. ^_^;

Well, ya know... all we have to do is make it big, and it will become big. Simple enough. The question is... do we really want it to become big? It seems we are satisfied with our near-anonymity. It makes us less susceptible to popular critique and give us the lee-way to do whatever we darn well please with no regard to our fanbase. ;) If we wanted people to throng to us, we'd need to find things to tell people that would convince them that they're better than everyone else. Then we'd be popular. ;p I guess that's not the only reason why people band together, but it's one that's used quite often.

We don't do it for the love of the people or anything, really. The reason why this all started is because we were bored. So bored, in fact, that it drove us insane. Insanity is what we wrote down on the peice of paper. This is the creative process that we followed. Now we have so much to do, we can't possibly be bored. Therefore... I've forgotten where I was going with this.

Here, look at this.

Today's page is up. It attempts to resolve a critical debate: to determine The Most Powerful ArbyFish Ever!! Still a subject up for debate.

I found out that NETTG's referenced by Comixpedia and even once had a Wikipedia page but it was eventually deleted because it was non-notable fan fiction. I suppose whoever wrote the article only did a short blurb on the fanfic, using improper punctuation and grammar and such. Still, Chesu pointed out the deleted Wikipedia page and when I read, "deleted due to Non-notable fan fiction," I was like... "Hey! No need to rub it in! ^_^;;;;" No Alexa rating, three whole Google and Yahoo references... yes, we've got a smallish niche readership, but hey, I LIKE IT!

Right... anyway. I suddenly remembered a story about Norman Rockwell (whom by the way has little relation to the subject at hand since he was a popular, notable, exceptionally skilled magazine cover and poster artist and I'm an obscure hobbyist fanfic writer) who once encountered someone who had heard of his work. A young man approached him and this sort of exchange occurred:

Young man: Aren't you Norman Rockwell?

Norman: Yes, I am.

Young man: My art professor says you STINK!

Norman: T_T

What can we learn from this with relation to this comic? Not much. We're not quite huge enough to warrant ridicule or even so much as attention from the "higher ups" in the world. Perhaps someday, we can be brutally slammed by the Great Ones as a sign of our success, but until then, we'll just keep plugging away at it. ArbyFish arc's nearing completion this week. Subchapter Three should begin sometime next week. Right-o! 'Ere we goe, then.

I went and saw Moving Castle. What surprised me, was the disclaimer, "Based on a story by Diane Wynne Jones." After that, yes, the movie has a very DWJ-y flavor --- More than it has Ghibli flavor, even. Still, there's so much going on, it's almost... hard to keep track of. Good movie, it was. Will probably buy DVD.

Standing by for the next comic, but the script's been written and approved, so to speak, so it shouldn't be too long in coming.

Yay Chesu!

Ben.... Never tell me the numbers. /sulk

Something about ArbyFish is that you should... Well, Don't Even Try To Teach ArbyFish About History. They've got a unique standpoint on it. Meaning, history is often up for negotiation and resale to the highest bidder. Or, if they feel like changing it. Or, pretty much anything, actually.

This comic brought to you by the endless toils of Chesu, who slaves tirelessly all afternoon over a hot laptop. And Larry, who reminds me that the comics actually have to be funny on occasion. Good work bringing it so far along! We're actually approaching the sprite comic's first anniversary. And that's pretty nifty. We're at 177 sprite comics. That's pretty nifty too! :D

One thing about Purple ArbyFish is that they Have An Odd Perception About Time.

How do they perceive it? Well... differently, that's how. ^^

Yeah, then yew'd be certa'foiable! :D

I know what I'll do to celebrate hitting 60. I'll take a correspondence psychology course!

Ah, yes, once one reaches the level cap in any game, one must wonder, "What NOW?" In World of Warcraft, the answers are... quit, join endless raiding parties to get rare epic items, help other people get their characters up to level 60, or play through all the other possible character combinations up to level 60. All really pointless when you get down to it, but it's an experience nonetheless! ^_^;

New comic! It's about Those Crafty Pinks! Gotta put 'em in boxes and mail 'em off to Aubu Dabi and such. Wouldn't be proper if you didn't!

Ammon found an FTP solution so I can update it myself rather than make it go through him while we're in exile, without forums, on this server. Just earlier today, Dracos was wondering what's up. Well, the answer is that forums are still on Hedwig, actually accessible online through some extreme finagling manner that he found out. And those forums, barely accessible, are still broken and unable to post on! A PHP upgrade still has managed to break PHPBB somehow. I wonder if there's a patch available. ^^

Made it to level 60 on WoW. Yay me. What's the point? Who knows? If there was a point to it, it wouldn't be a game now would it? 'ave some pie!

Comic's up!!! Seems there was a mixup, and Ammon missed the email on accident. And I didn't jump on MSN Messenger and gnaw his shoulder off about it until just a few minutes ago. Oh well! At least I'm not scared of bugging Ammon gratuitously anymore. =^_^=

Today's episode... It's Revisionist History! Much betta' than regular history, y'know.

Yup, we're on Ammon's webspace, so we're pretty much at his despotic mercy. ^_^;

Even sent him a page to put up last Friday or Thursday evening and it's not up yet. Oh well! We shall have to wait mostly till the main server's back up, and no ETA on when that's going to happen yet. Basic status reports are still periodically updated here.

Wish I could. I'm handycapped right now because of the server situation. No FTP!

Exalted: The freedom stone has evil forums. Also, makes me want to play Exalted. Larry, consider adding this to links.

What I've been doing...? Um, a good question. I surrendered and got a full-time job, I'm (trying to)GM for a few games, trying to find games _I_ could play, Trying to get my backlog of todo-stuff (Includes to-read, to-watch and to-play ) done and, oh, I'm still studying. Have something like, 10 hours of classes a week. Oh, and I've been doing some stuff on the subject of Ameixia.

...

The list of, of plain old _games_ I've yet to finish is staggering. Like, NWN original campaign, Penultima Rerolled, Hex Coda, Doom 3, Morrowind, Disgaea, Project Zero, La Pucelle tactics, Final Fantasies 9-10, Kingdom Hearts, Vampire:Bloodlines, the fourth replay of Parasite Eve 2... And, Call of Cthulhu is almost here! I've already dropped a lot of games into "Never gonna complete" bin, so to speak. Don't get me started on books and movies, or Anime... Gurrr.... /Away weekend, by the way.

New Comic!! It seems Arby's been messing with the political system. He's Written a New Constitution and everything!

Not that anyone minds, or not that it changed anything. Just codified it, really. The ArbyFish government is an anarchy. Y'see, they all work against each other to accomplish a common goal. ^_^

Got some sprite comic scripts approved by Danny and Larry, so now we're just waiting till Chesu gets his laptop power adapter replaced. Then we'll be back on comicky business. Unfortunately, there's still no word on when the forums'll be back up and operational. That'd require the main server to be back online with the ports unblocked by an ISP--one that likes to sell expensive business connections to unblock ports commonly used for server activity.

Will... hmm. Can't talk 'bout that.

Some opinions around about FFVII: Advent Children, and FFVII: Last Order. Me, I liked 'em. I wish the forums were working.... *sigh*

More delays as I try to rework the scripts and until we get our main server back. :P

Alas, it's never easy! ^_^;

---AND I can now reach nettg.com from work. Wickedness!

Hmm. No comic today. Chesu and I are taking a bit of a break. We're still on unusual space.

That, and I've got another couple papers to write. Ahh, classes! ^_^;

Yar! Well, comics are back online. There is no ETA on getting Arbyfish comics working or on the forums, but we at least have pretty pictures again, ne?

Yup! Site's up on a temporary place. Unfortunately, nothing but the rants work right now. We, meaning Ammon, will work on getting that fixed. :D

I have hopefully just succeeded in migrating the site over to my pair Networks account. The database even works. Yay.

However, much of Larry's html is dependant on our Hedwig location, so I don't know how long it will take to make the site completely pretty again. I expect it won't take long.

It seems some of the ArbyFish are having Concerns About All These Random New Laws And Traditions Arby is implementing. A fine note to end on before the server melts down later Friday evening.

Grab a mug a' shrooms n' sing it with me!

When ya walks through th' fung', old ya 'shroom up 'oigh! N' don't be afraid of th' mould....

Hmm. Looks like we're shutting down tomorrow evening for I-don't-know-how-long. o_O

Server news'll be posted at: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ammon/

Looks like we might get a vacation from the site or something until we can get a replacement or fill-in or something. Or until Ammon gets new server issues worked out. Hmm... (looks curiously in Larry's direction....)

That, or we'll just have some downtime for a while. Nothing new; we've had it before. ;_;

Well, until the server goes offline, we've got another sprite comic. It's a Tradition!

Wouldn't be proppa' if it wasn't.

Oh, and we DO like comments on the comic pages. Especially when people can actually post comments, which we're sort of working on. Apparently, it's on the burner right behind hosting concerns. ^_^;;

Okay, on top of everything else, we're prepping for a server transfer, so we're expecting some downtime during the weekend. More details as we figure out what's going to happen.

Well, the ArbyFish certainly are Making Themselves At Home. Repainting the place, remodeling the great kings of old into the great mushrooms of old, sprouting spontaneous volcanoes, and yes, of course, building gigantic carved marble monuments to the joys of swiss cheese! Wouldn't be a proppa 'shroom day without it!

Ammon says he's yelled at the code to get it back into line, so things are improving. The forum's still having trouble posting, so we're looking into that.

Hmm. Forum appears to be foozled. Cannot post anything on it or post rants with apostrophies or contractions in them. Sent an email to Ammon about it and perhaps he will be able to fix the problem in a simple manner....

The Shroom Day festivities are beginning. Theyz gonna Paint The Town Green! The first Shroom Day of them all must be particularly poignant and far-reaching. What with the ArbyFish forming a substantial part of the universe at any given time, the small delegation sent to attend this special moment must do something with long-lasting effects. Thanks to Chesu for getting it done so fast!

And Danny posted another random ArbyFish page. But What Does It Mean??

Going to get lots of ArbyFish in ya diet this week. Lotsa vitamins n minerals n... vegetables!

Today, and for the weekend, we have Say Hello! Or, as Chesu might call it, Where's Bruce? He's apparently hidden a White ArbyFish somewhere in the page. Can you find him? Can you??

Gots a new page up. Half-killed Chesu trying to get all of the 'Fish in. Took him lots of pain and anguish and insanity, but such is the way of things. Here, we have Arby being ceremonially crowned as Tyrant King of the ArbyFish!!! Gets a noice bowler cap with it, too. Wouldn't be proper if he didn't.

For the duration of the Shroom Day festivities, it has been decided that This Concoction Needs More ArbyFish! So, we're truckin' 'em in by the boatload. What good's a League of Purple ArbyFish if ya can't muck about with time some, eh? Besides, think of all the money they'll make in allowing every single member of the species (who happens to have a thick pocketbook) to attend this most mumbling mouldy mushroomy muckledeepouch of an occasion!

Forget that... Think of the headaches Sailor Pluto'll get from all this!!! XD

And so begins the First Semi-Bi-Weekly Shroom Day!

Gotta explore the proper improprieties of ArbyFish society more fully, y'know. ^_^

And to finish off this subchapter, I thought you'd just like to know that... The Barber STILL Did It!

Dead Chesu Day for Friday. He's kind of down with a sore throat and stuff. We'll pick back up with the last bits of the subchapter later, probably Monday.

And we're out of scripts again, so I need to get, er, scripting and stuff! ^_^;

The thing is, I know what'll happen more or less for the next story segment, but since we just had a whole bunch of story, now it's time for vignettes and silly little one-liners. Or two-liners. Or airliners or something to that effect. Badgers n' mushrooms, m'boy, badgers and mushrooms!

And now, we're introducing Lieutenant-Master Ser...ka-WHO!? Looks like Knight-Zero found someplace to hide. The last place they'll look indeed.

This subchapter's finally winding down, and we're at, oh, 162 pages or so. Not bad at all. Things have progressed nicely. The "just write it!!" or "just draw it!!" method does seem to have some merit when it comes to having lots of material to post. Perhaps it's something I should apply toward prose sometime....

o/Saying Goodbye, why is it sad?

Makes us remember the good times we've had

Much more to say, foolish to try

It's time for saying goodbye.\o

- "Saying Goodbye," written by Ralph Burns and Jeff Moss

It would appear our dear Kay-zee is alive, albeit a little sad, emotionally. She gets the directive to Lay Down Low while the locals conduct their own search for the Galactic Destroyer. But where will she hide? Another world entirely? Or perhaps somewhere they would be even less likely to search? We'll find out some other day than today.

Right-o! Labor Day weekend is over, back to the grind!

And now, Tsunami has been Expelled from the Moon Kingdom for her actions! Gaspedy gasp gasp! Was she presuming too much? Was she just getting on QS's nerves? Or are they fighting ala Tenchi Muyo over the handsome fellow behind them? Who knows! Perhaps the answer will become apparent as the subchapter concludes.

And for our weekend filler, we have Real, Fake, Real Fan Mail! What would our fans ask of all of us? More importantly, how would we respond? Find out in this exciting new episode--er, comic page!

Sorry we were late on Thursday's comic. Minor connection problems and such. But I don't think it had anything to do with the recent hurricane or whatnot. In any case, we get to see what happens when two wondrous, serene, polite, forgiving, goddess-like ruler gals have to work together in the same kingdom for any extended period of time. We give you... Two Women In The Kitchen. Glorious, glorious out-of-character goodness! XD

Well, they've subdued the youma, he's mean, he drains energy, he drives little girls to evil... And He Doesn't Tip?! The FIEND!!

And that punishment is indeed severe. Oh, yes! Sing it with me! "Jigga-lee-puff, jiga-lee-ee-ee-puff!" o_O;

Is it not diabolical??

And now we have... THE PITCH! Alas, the duel between Knight-Zero and Laios could not last forever; it had to end sometime. On the other hand, KZ wasn't exactly trying that hard. She kind of likes that guy, after all. I guess it's kind of jarring to get stabbed by the one you want to get romantically involved with.

Second week of classes! So much time and so little to do! Oh wait.... Well, something like that.

Right-o. Onwards!

Well, not sure if there was any downtime, but apparently Chesu didn't get hit much by the hurricane that seems to be poised to obliterate New Orleans as we know it. On the other hand, Chesu doesn't live in New Orleans, so maybe there was nothing to worry about.

In any case, contact has been reestablished. For today's comic, We Have The Windup... and the pitch will come later. Knight-Zero doesn't get hit very much. One wonders how much she could take if she had to get pummeled for a while. It wouldn't do for a proper ninja-sort to not dodge at least 80% of the time.

So, classes continue this week for me. Gotta plough through the readings and brace myself for the assignments that are all but certain to come. It wasn't at all bad last week, but we got out of class earlier than we thought since it was the first day.

Hmm... I revised the scripts for the next few pages of the Esa-drawn comic. So, the line has been cast with the bait. Now to wait and recast a few times to see if our elusive errant fishmongering artist bites. Onwards! ^_^

Apparently, yesterday's downtime didn't happen, so it might happen later tonight. Oh well. ^^

Minor delay with the comic. Chesu had company, I think. And there's also a hurricane rolling into Florida, but what else is new?

On the other hand, I'm not sure he'll get hit that much by it. Oh well. ^_^;

Well, Wot's Awl This, Then?

Oddly enough, Terra found probably the one thing that can distract an ArbyFish and dissuade him from his purpose. Can't very well go 'round ignoring any Pinks one might find. Wouldn't be proppa' if ya did.

In other news, I performed surgery on the two PCs in my house. Video card in one went bad, we need both machines operational, so I borrowed a vintage 1998 card from someone and transplanted the mid-range video card... so in short, the computers are operational again. It'll do until I can get the card fixed, hopefully under warranty. And from Server Admin, we've got this announcement:

Hedwig will be coming down for maintainance on Saturday the 27th. The downtime will probably occur around noon server time (GMT-7) and should not take more than an hour.

I will be taking this opportunity to install a SCSI card in the machine in order to drive a backup tape drive as well as Morpork's old hard drive tower (6x9gb drives).

Once the tape drive is installed, I will feel much more confident in the reliability of our backup system. Chances are that we won't be rotating tapes or anything, but will just use the tape to mirror the /backup hard drive partition in the event of hd explosion.

As always, I will send out an announcement when the downtime begins and ends, will be available on IM for the duration of the downtime, and will post updates on another web server for the benefit of those who want to monitor things w/o harassing me directly.

Ammon

And now, The Coverup. Must leave no witnesses nor shred of evidence intact. And whatever shreds of evidence are left, have fun with!

No class for me today, but I did go and pay my tuition (there goes MY bank account again!), find out I might be able to get a TA job after all, get my books, and spend a lot of time out in the sun. Since I spent pretty much my whole summer in an air-conditioned office, I'm naturally pretty pale. I did burn today, especially my nose and forehead. But do I mind that much? Well, it's not that bad. It's what I get for living in a desert. More than 15 minutes outside? Radiation burns! In the middle of the summer, one can look outside and see no children playing... and not think anything of it. You'd have to be crazy to leave the shade. Just look at the lizards!

And a certain Muskrat wants to start up an RPG in the forums. A round-robin-text-only RPG kind of thing. Had me confused at first and now I'm debating on what to say about it. Ah well, can probably wait till I get my first taste of class this semester! ^_^

The Battle Rages On! And still, the guards are having trouble seeing it. Ah well. 'Twill all be decided pretty soon.

Internship's over, as of last Friday, and my classes start up this week. Will be a bit of a busy time getting everything sorted out over the next few days. I feel kind of weird, going back to class after having worked full time for the past few months. Ah, the difference between academia and real life! Have to tread through one to get the degree, have to tread through another to get experience, and hopefully make a living along the way. It's a Tradition!

And now... onwards, as always!

There is indeed some silliness going on. When I was uploading and posting the rant, the connection was denied a couple of times. Just keep trying and it'll appear. Or, wait a minute, and come back, and it should show up. No idea what's causing that.

I'm being pulled (on/in/to? help me out, here...) many different directions. >_<;

Besides that, is there some sort of DNS silliness going on? I can't get to the forums, or receive email from simud. T__T;

When it comes to random monsters to battle, really, we have Limited Casting Choices. The barber monster may not exactly be a robotic killing machine, but hey, it's no worse than standard Sailor Moon fare. Which isn't saying much, admittedly. ^_^;

And our casting director is totally not a clean-shaven Chesu wearing a suit. Why, a suit to Chesu'd be like a crucifix to a vampire, y'know! Maybe. Oh well!

'Ave ya'self a very nice weekend, and I'll try to have one m'self, 'cause classes start back up next week, and who knows what crazy amounts of fun that will bring. We shall see.

Well, THAT Was Short-Lived. Budget youma, I tell ya. Either that, or the focus really has to stay on the Tsunami-related battle. Though, this seemed appropriate to put in.

Hmm... Thursday and Friday'll be the last couple days of my internship. Then it's back to class and figuring out my Masters project. I plan on doing something webcomic-related, but I need to think of a lot more in the way of specifics to get things taken care of. But I found some good information that seems relevant to the task and ideas at hand. Let's see... to do a comic full-time, we'd probably need 30-50k loyal readers with a sufficiently targeted demographic so that advertisers'd flock to, along with tons of available merchandise. But since there's that one pesky copyright issue right now, it prolly ain't gonna happen as such. Oh well. Maybe something else in the future. I mean, I'm a decent unfocused and random jack-of-all-trades IT/Business hybrid thingamawhatsit, but I enjoy writing and such a lot more than plugging away at excel spreadsheets. Breaking into published fiction, online or otherwise, would be nice. Someday, somewhere, somehow, over the rainbow, way up high.... ^_^;

Page is up after a bit of a delay. 'Sokay, Chesu was busy last night.

As for today... well, Nobody Expects The... well, something. Plot twisty enough yet for ya? ^_^

Terra's tried to eat li'l Princess Serenity so many times... but, aha, Now The Nose Is On The Other Foot! It was only a matter of time before some of Terra's bad habits started rubbing off on her, y'know.

The scripts have been coming just as fast as the pages need to be posted, so I haven't had time to have Larry properly review 'em... but I'll see if I can't make another batch today so we can have that extra bit of quality control.

After all, We All Know What Would Happen if I were to simply be let loose without other people keeping me on track. ^_^

"usual chipper self?" Hoo, sarcasm. First day at work. Was kinda neat.

In Monday's news, Serena's still evil, KZ still only has one thing on her mind... and, oh yeah, The Barber Did It. At least it wasn't the butler, eh?

Esa's back, and working. He's his usual chipper self. Nice to see some things never change. ^_^

I'll be finishing up my summer job this week and getting back to classes the week after. Finally have some spare time to work on various things, including... more spare time stuff, more writing, more masters project stuff, and more homework. Business as usual, as it were.

Why does Laios's old teacher like to Shave Bunnies so much? I don't know... Maybe it's hot in the jungle and the rabbits must be shed of their winter coat. Maybe it's some bizarre wax-on-wax-off training exercise. Who knows, really? All that's left to understand is that the bunnies are shaven.

Just a little friendly deep thought for the weekend. o_-

Laios is a very well-trained fighter, while Knight-Zero has billions of years of dirty tricks at her disposal. But while they're capable of carrying out a perfectly fine epic battle, it's quite obvious KZ has only One Thing On Her Mind. ^_^

Well, we've got some Creative Use of Light Hawk Wings. Use what'cha know, and obsess about it constantly! ^_^

Haven't heard from Esa in a couple of weeks now. Of course, I haven't sent 'em a chapter of anything to read lately either. Maybe there'll be a connection....

Classes begin in a couple of weeks. And work may or may not be drawing to a close. I haven't been asked to quit yet, but I am getting kind of fatigued. Such is life. ^^

Growl! Fierce! Rawr!

Hey, KZ can kill someone quite effectively if she's so inclined. Just so happens that several deep stabs in the back, getting blasted through by shirikens, and finally getting her head imbedded in the pavement isn't going to actually kill a tree-based energy being such as Tsunami.

But that doesn't mean it won't sting just a bit. ^_^

Well, given what Tsunami's been through, she can probably be forgiven for Going a Little Too Far. A little case of mistaken identity, plus a few traumatic experiences, plus a few big long battles along with some lack of sleep.... Yup, she could easily have lost it. ^^

Larry's been doing a great job editing these scripts as they've come out... I'm hoping to give him something more substantial in not too long (after several long agonizing months of preparation), like, say, a story to then release to the masses. But working full time does take its toll. On all of us. Ah well, it'll be ready when it's ready. And we've run out of scripts again, so it's time for me to write a bit more there, too.

Ammon was nice enough to set us up some source control for GDM. That should help for additional programmers and such. We will have to learn how to use it proper, but most pro programmers tend that sort of thing anyway.

Onwards! XD

Urgh. Sorry about the lack of comic update. Cox internet stuff was out in the entire city most of yesterday. Didn't get a chance to speak with Chesu. ^_^;;;

Ahh, those little Cases of Mistaken Identity! Though after the experience Tsunami had with the metroid and such, one could hardly blame her for at least suspecting li'l Serenity Jr. (or the III, or the VIII, depending on who we ask) of being behind the whole thing. And to a certain extent, she is, but not in the way our favorite Juraian tree-lady-goddess-thingy thinks. Funny how plots work out that way.

Best not ask how the Queen knows Sakura and Chiyo. Because I don't know yet, and I'm not really sure it matters.

Then again, what's one more crossover, eh? =D

Not to worry! It'll take another half eternity for me to actually pull my brain together enough to actually write another Extra. ;)

Hmm. I feel an incipient case of absentmindedness coming on. It'll probably make me forget everything I know about editing and posting web pages. Oughta hit just about the time you next get around to writing an extra. Could take weeks for it to blow over....

;P

Ahh, yes. Laios studied Way of the Bunny in his quest to improve his skill with rapidly-moving blades. Snatch the shaven rabbit from my hand, Grasshopper....

The thing I'm working on at work is pretty much done, waiting for final revisions. In the meantime, I'm doing odd jobs around the place. Like for example doing diagrams for people outside my department.

Somebody seemed dismayed by a drawing on some random whiteboard. I examined it and somebody else commented on my mad leet Visio skills. Well, not mad leet as such, but still. I gave them a time quote of 20 minutes to finish the thing, and they seemed rather in awe of that. So, the first one did take about 20 minutes, and the whole revision process took about an hour. You'd think they could do it faster since they'd been working there for so much longer than I had. But alas, they've fallen into the trap of thinking it's much, much easier to teach a medical person computers than it is to teach a computer person medical stuff. Were it so, why on Earth would they be so in awe of me being able to make a diagram in 20 minutes using a computer? o_O

It's like saying it's easier to teach PHP programming to an editor than it is to teach editing to a PHP programmer. Were it so, why in the world did we need Ammon to make the backbones of this site? :D

(Just kidding, Larry! We love you! You're great!! ^__^)

Hmm... No comic just yet. Chesu was probably busy. He was marked "away" on MSN for most of the day.

Only a couple weeks till classes start back up. Me, I've only got two evening classes and a Masters Project to worry about. It'd be a snap without having to work, but... if I work, I'll go into considerably less debt from tuition and whatnot. Ah well, gotta balance the two. And three: writing. Got some more done last night, which is good, but there's still a considerable amount left to go in terms of storyline to accomplish. Another little while....

The Power of Pink Repels You!! Mwahahahhahaha.

Another Monday, back to work. Esa's in study mode, Chesu's as full of energy as ever... I'm scatter-brained, trying to think of everything and resulting in thinking of nothing. The usual. ^^

For today's filler, 'tis but a single picture, but 'tis a picture of... Toshi and the Amazing Arby-Colored Shroomcoat! It's plus foive ta indubidability, it is!

The Power of Mushrooms Compels You!

Really, if she's possessed by herself, then what would an exorcism accomplish? o_O

Or maybe they're trying to make 'er act REALLY weird. ^^

Old Jokes For Sale!

Really, I don't know where I'd be without people to check up on me. Maybe I really would go the George Lucas route and destroy everyones' precious childhood memories. Oh well. ^^;

So, got another weeks' worth of scripts written, just in the nick of time. And Larry's already reviewed 'em. Joy! =D

Knight-Zero Needs More Power!

Well, she'll need it, if she's going up against Tsunami and her personal avatar and whatnot. I mean, Juraian power is quite the knockout stuff.

On the other hand, so is galaxy-destroying energy. Who wins? Home field advantage! Maybe. We'll see. This is the last script we had in reserve and I haven't managed to come up with more yet. ^_^; Grr!

Well, we'll just 'ave to work on that, won't we? Or I? Roight!

New sprite comic! Knight-Zero is still kind of obsessing about Laios. And despite their best efforts, Tsunami is still roaming around. Will they succeed in eliminating her? Will they!?

At this point, I'm not sure. The scripts have yet to be written, much to my and Chesu's chagrin. Oh well. Twill come to pass one way or the other. ^_^;

And to top off the fillers, we've got a Filler Friday. Ahh, yes, poor computer, wants to be loved. ^_^

Chesu's back, by the way! Apparently his laptop's power adapter thingamajigger burned out so he had to get a new one. Comics continue, and I need to write more scripts. ^_^

In the meantime, go ahead and check out Larry's Extra if you haven't already. It's pretty good.

Well now! In addition to the filler comic, we've also got a new Extra, by Larry! It's called Comics Editing in the Silver Millennium. Ahh, yes. Larry does indeed do his part. It has a nice li'l insight into how the comic gets made. Lots of bouncing around ideas and corrections and such.

Since Chesu's still Missing In Action, here's another one of his filler comics he made a while back.

Technically, NETTG:TEY has three Serenities. First, the founder of the current political structure, honored and revered by all, second, her daughter. That's the current one, who's viewed suspiciously by many because of the damage done to the various worlds under her watch, despite it not being her fault that a galaxy-destroying being wanted to make sport of them. Finally, there's Princess Serenity, who's getting severely mentally disturbed by Terra's actions. That wasn't part of the original plan, but it is SO appropriate that it can't be missed. ^^

Still, with how the sprite comic's going, I wouldn't be surprised if Chibiusa WAS Serenity the 8th.

Random filler! I mean, it's not like I wish the li'l pink spore's demise. It's just that... she's so cuddly and fun to torment! Like... rubbing a staticky balloon against a kitty.

And Chesu's been gone for a couple days. I imagine that has something to do with the weather in Florida for the past couple of days. Ah well, he'll survive it. He's tougher n' a cockroach! :D

Comic delayed. Communication difficulties both in talking to Chesu and in posting a filler. Will have one up later, though.

New comic! Either Tsunami really has a thing for short blonds or she's losing it. Or perhaps somebody's doing intoxicating things to her tree. We'll see if it's important as the story progresses.

Comic's up!

I mean, it's not like Larry hates EVERYTHING people write. It's just that we're all quite surprised when he really likes how something went, even when the rest of us are quite unsure as to whether something is funny or not. But, he's the last line of defense between me and the readers, so if he okays something, I'm quite likely to let it go public. Editor status and whatnot. Gotta trust ya editors. Wouldn't be proppa' if ya didn't.

Yup, minor problems with the network. We'll hopefully be able to post again in the morning, as "simud.org" doesn't seem to be working at the moment. Got a Filler Friday to post, too. ^^

Ya gots ta taunt 'em a bit before blowin' 'em to bits. Wouldn't be proppa' if ya didn't.

Chesu's building up a buffer of comics again, which is pretty nifty.

Hmm. Not much else to report, which means there's lots else to report, but nothing that comes to mind at midnight. Ah well! There's some possible downtime this Thursday afternoon, I believe, since the network's going down for maintenance. But shouldn't be too bad. Which means it'll probably be quite apocalyptic, but who's counting? G'night! ^_^

Due to the network we're on, we might experience a half a day of downtime on Thursday, so if we disappear for a bit, that's why. The network's doing some random maintenance of some sort.

She's possessed!!

Wait, this isn't status-quo, is it? Driving poor li'l Serena insane over and over again? When will she snap out of it? WILL she snap out of it? Hmm. Maybe. We'll see how the script evolves.

In other news, Esa's still away at a remote forest cottage, millions of miles away from an internet connection, and Chesu's picked up an animated GIF program. ^_^

And Chesu likes setting his clock six years ahead. o_O

We've got a pair of new pages today, after the first one was delayed due to communication issues between Chesu's and my MSN client.

Dessert Time!

And...

Normal, Perky Self?

A lovely end to the hyped-up Metroid arc. I love a happy ending. ^_^

Hmm... Comic'll be slightly delayed. Possibly a hurricane hit in Florida or something. ^^;;

Filler Friday! Can't beat those old commercial things....

I started a new project at work since we got the main help documentation stuff done on that product we're working on. Now my brain's trying to adapt properly to the new paradigm.

And... Larry's reviewed the scripts, so now I'll need to meditate on them properly and make the needed corrections. :)

We're all quite glad that Esa likes it. (He likes it! Esa likes it!) And I rather like it as well. Good thing, too.

Finally, we're out of that battle sequence, and we're back with Terra, who's sort of Having a Midnight Snack. That's quite an explosion that the good captain set off there with his strike. Who would have thought that his martial arts school packed such a whallop. :)

Heh. Regarding the sprite comic... I approve.

And... Finally!

Forgot to put up the rant last night. But I did get some tentative scripts written for the next few days, waiting for Larry's review and approval. ^^

Captain Laios's fighting techniques belong to a very special group: Way of the Bunny. He learned it from his wise ancient sensei in the wilderness of Jupiter....

And there was a Fourth of July special holiday comic.

And I finally perfected (or reasonably perfected) the Night Elf version of KnightZero. Only took me six months. :P The toughest part was the tabard, where I had to amass enough gold to bribe a bunch of new players into signing the guild charter, buying them all tabards, and finally paying the hefty fee to actually get the tabard design made. Oh, and Danny and his wife joined up on World of Warcraft, on the same server, so I did the best I could to deck them out nice n' proper. And they can call on me to show off and slaughter the masses with my high-level characters anytime they need; otherwise I leave 'em alone, and I think they probably prefer it that way. The guild name is Basugasubakuhatsu, and Knightzero is the guild mistress on the Terenas server.

...I just spent six months trying to perfect a character design on an online game when I could have just asked Esa to draw me some more random kunoichi pics. I really am a silly, silly person who thinks he's a writer! ^_^;;

Saw War of the Worlds today. It was okay. Okay, meaning passable; okay, meaning it was quite suspensful, had its moments, and was enjoyable. I guess that means it was actually a pretty good movie and I just have the talent for understatement. Oh well! ^_^

Special Blowing Things Up Day (July 4th) sprite holiday comic! Lots of thanks to Chesu for getting one made up.

And the story continues... Hey, he had to get out of that metroid sometime. Thalia sure gave him enough bombs to do it! :)

Given it's the Fourth of July in the morning, Independence Day of the USA, the explosions are quite appropriate. In fact, I think everybody should celebrate a holiday that involves blowing up so much stuff. Ahh, what a country! Celebrate by blowing things up! Yeah, baby! XD

Filler Friday! Graciously provided by the ever-imaginitive Chesu.

You know, I've seen a lot of the Live Action Sailor Moon. (As if that weren't scary enough--ahem!) And all the highly-marketable items aren't even dressed up much for the actual show. They're made of plastic and, yes, I think they might even have the company logo on 'em. o_O

And imagine if they'd actually have given the main characters a choice before dumping them into their itty-bitti-miniskirted role! How many of them would have run screaming or had second thoughts? No, it's typically during a crisis situation where their choice is typically limited to, "take these magical miniskirted powers or I'll just let the big monster break yer legs and eat your head!" That's not really a choice, as such. Ya gotta make 'em sign up for it and want it all their lives and finally get there through hard work and luck and such.

Hmm... Of course, if a potential magical girl preferred death and agony over taking the famed miniskirted role, it wouldn't be a very long series, would it? Or perhaps a bipolar one that declined to fight during a downturn in emotions, watching the world get destroyed and all the other heroes taken down, all while contemplating the ironies of the universe. Probably wouldn't make a very entertaining series, but train wrecks are occasionally poingant. Ah well. It's a thought. ^^

Looks like Thalia must share tips with Ranma 1/2's Mousse when it comes to concealing weapons. I mean, it's not like there's much space on that outfit to hide a Matrix-sized gun and explosive arsenal. Nevertheless, she manages.

And... yeah, the leader of the Sailor Senshi has to have all contingencies planned for! After all, she's faced far stranger things on her home planet. Certainly, some perfectly normal things might perplex her, but that's what everybody else is for. But you need leaders to handle situations nobody else has a clue how to resolve.

Oh Dear. Where's Samus Aran when you need her, eh?

Esa made it back from his holiday, it seems. That's pretty cool.

And... what else? Meh, still dazed from... everything. Got a dentist's appointment in the morning. Don't know how much work time I'll need to make up. The project we're working on there is progressing rather well.

Oh, and my two-year-old niece ran off screaming, twitching, and muttering about "dolphins... jumping... jumping..." when she saw this twice. Maybe her brain wasn't ready for it yet.

And YES, IT'S--oh, wait... no. Not quite.

Yes, Captain Laios has just received a ton of top-notch Jurai-type power, but let's face it, the Metroids thrive on eating lots of new kinds of energy.

Are we there yet? Yes, we are!

Oh, and I saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the other day. I rather liked it, from the "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish" theme song down to Marvin the Paranoid Android (who actually was kind of reminiscent of Mylar the Terminally Depressed Seal). Makes me wonder what all the detractors were complaining about. Oh, sure, they didn't cut off all of Arthur Dent's limbs and dump him into a pit of flowing lava, but I quite liked this variation. I've got some experience myself in adapting a story to new media (fanfic to comic, however limited experience that may be), and this simply worked out quite well. Would've been quite boring and five hours long if they did a straight translation from book to movie.

If they wanted to do THAT, then they should have made a miniseries. Oh wait, they already did. Anyway, a fine adaptation for the American film market.

Chesu asked an interesting question the other day. And then he answered it. What WOULD this place be like if we turned some aspect of it into a gamer comic? I mean, there's all kinds out there, including Penny Arcade, VG Cats, and numerous MMORPG-based comics... but what would we talk about? Well, we'd have a discussion about it, which would invariably result in Chesu getting his head blown off.

Work's been... busy. It seems we're ahead of schedule, but there's still bucketloads of things to work on before the tentative due date in two weeks. Writing's been... sparse. Video games have been... there.

In World of Warcraft, I've got a character I named KnightZero. It's pretty appropriate, since I mostly sneak her into the instanced dungeons, past all the undead armies of darkness, and assassinate all the bosses. Apparently, it's a very good way to make money on the game, with a few tricks here and there. o_O On the other hand, all the critters are 20 levels lower than her, so maybe it isn't that big of a deal.

Hmm... what else? Oh, odds and ends. DW's made progress on GDM. Borders are working and conversations are... almost working. And that's really cool progress, actually. I'm pretty glad that progress is being made.

There's a little ArbyFish inside us all... and you can't get 'em out, no matter how hard you try.

Short rant today. Basically, who would have thought a simple power transfer could take so long?

And today, we discover exactly why Tsunami's power-ups weren't working. Why, that cheeky long-eared grandson of a Keebler elf!!!

That's not even a half-elf. Not really even a quarter-elf. Does explain why he's just a little bit short, though....

So, um, yeah... There's definitely something funky going on with the power transfer. More details on Wednesday.

This is actually a different order than the script, but I thought this one worked better here.

Holding patterns? Stalling for time? Never! XD

And... they've got it! Ermh. Or rather, not quite yet. Something funky's going on with Tsunami's power transfer.

Not sure what else to say; all kinds of other things are going on, but I'm at a loss to describe them. But I am thinking of having an Extra pretty soon. The subject matter for one of those just seems like it should be about the sprite comic. Lots to explain, like how the point of it isn't really to make brilliant jokes or whatnot, though we've had a few hits and a few misses....

Anyway, the work continues! :D

And... we're back! Minor server moving exercise. I imagine there'll be a longer downage when the server gets moved to another state. Maybe it's running from aliens or something like that. o_O

In other news... yesterday we had a filler comic introducing Larry, finally. And for Saturday we've got a quick extra thing by Chesu, a beefy Laios pic made with that old favorite hero machine thing. I'd post some ASK or whatever pics I made with the City of Heroes construction set, but I've already posted them all in a separate scaled lineup.

But yeah, the server's back up and the URL points to this site. There was actually a bug that Ammon found and had to fix somewhere. Ah well, tis done. Right, then, carry on! :D

Um. Let it be said, that I'm not evil. I'm just lazy. in other news, John Carmack has a blog and nobody told me.

Just got word from Ammon. This box, Hedwig, will be switching buildings tomorrow, Friday the 17th. The downtime itself will be about 30 minutes, but DNS propogation will take a while longer, so it'll look like it's down... and we'll have flaky connections for a while. So that's the heads-up on that. Of course, this isn't even the big move we've got planned, but a move nonetheless.

You know, sometimes when you're trying to do everything, and you've done so much, it's still possible to forget some very important things. Yes, occasionally I forget to inform Larry of important events that go on, stuff that I've written, or things that have been planned... but he's still a very important member of our group. And we kind of forgot until now to put him in the sprite comic. Or, at least, it was just now that his sprite got made. Who knows who else we may have forgotten along the way? Ah well, time will tell. ^_^

And in today's most exciting comic to date, Captain Laios finally gets Tsunami's powers!!!

Ermh... Well, kind of. Sort of. Maybe....

And in today's comic, Tsunami finally gives Captain Laios her powers!!!!

Ermh... Sort of, maybe, not quite. ^^

Ahh yes, those embarrassing little fourth-wall-breaking moments...

I mean, self-insertion is a long, time-honored tradition! But it's just a little aside here. Doesn't really mean anything.

...

Seriously! Um... Yeah! ^_^;;;

Joke liberated from the clutches of El Goonish Shive. Managed to get out before the alarms went off. You can't prove anything!! XDXDXDXD

Mmn... I like GD best in the second frame. The third... well, the snake-bug thing is nice. Fourth is messy. All in all... I give it B-. Although... can you say, "Exposition?"

I was, hm, 'sitting' on this for quite a while. Never seemed to have a proper timeslot for the edit-work -- which does make a big difference, I assure you.

Still close enough to top so I'll just put this here instead of adding to clutter. Paul seems to travel a lot. I worked with him for a short while. Steve Pavlina's article on how to become an early riser, besides apparently being amazingly popular, works.

Esa got a new page out! A direct continuation off of the previous one. That means I need to do some more soon scripting, most likely. ^_^

Anyway, with this one, we're introducing some more background and going further on the little chibified personality fragments. Enjoy!

Okay, after a medium-long hiatus, we're back on with the storyline comic stuff. This page continues where this page left off.

And... well, it looks like Tsunami sees things on a somewhat higher plane than others, more or less...

With the 100 sprite comic jubilee done with, we move right along to finish the subquest--err, story--that Chesu was working up with GDM.

Actual sprite comic story comics pick back up on Monday. Scripts are written up that should keep us busy for at least a little while. ^_^

Is that armor I see on Ameixia? ^_^

Hmm. A hundred strips, eh? I guess I'd better get... er, yeah.

Happy 100 Sprite Comics!!!

Funky. We made it this far. Triple digits. Most comics NEVER make it that far. Mostly because the team working on it gives up after a week of not being the best thing since chiaroscuro shading. o_O

Well, not us! We can go month, nay, YEARS completely full of mediocrity, and does that scare us off? No, we keep coming back for more! In fact, I feel so confident, I can go back and revise everything I've done before to match my new vision, mwahahahahahahhaaaa!

This next comic deals with the problems GDM will have to face when it's done. If the parent's a ruler, whyever would they have to pay to school their adopted kids?

And... Well, that's sprite comic page 99. Looks like we'll need to have something special for 100. More on that in not too long.

Okay, I'm up-to-date on 9thElsewhere. It's good. I think I read it when it first began, and forgot about it after I finished what was there then. Oh, and everything looks different at 800x600. Got tired of the blurriness of my monitor and acknowledged the fact it just can't handle 1024x768...

Don't worry, Ben! I'll have the next one out when I have a few hours free! >_<;

So busy.

Hmm... Still no comics. ^_^;;

Oh well. Partly my fault: nothing's been funny enough to make others crazy about drawing it or putting it together...

Anyway, full-time job starts tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

My brother bought Katy Coope's How to Draw Manga book, which has been translated to Finnish.

I'm... less than impressed with the book. The stuff in it is correct and, good, I guess, although rather basic. However if one considers that it's targeted for a younger audience, it serves it's purpose I guess. The thing is, at the time she just wasn't that good at drawing. >_<;

I like this one

Merekat is plugging 9thElsewhere. Hmm.

I've read my share of webcomics, but I'm not sure if I've ever read this one... I've certainly heard of it, I've even had it bookmarked once or twice, but have I actually ever read it? Maybe I've read some of it and just forgot or something? It's sort of like me and star cross'd destiny, meaning it's one of those I intend to read, but never really get to.

Word of the month: Something

And now, the writer's block shifts from me to Chesu. ^_^;

Work on GDM is continuing. The GUI part's being rewritten from scratch since DW's learned more about how Swing and whatnot work in Java, and it'd take more effort to fix whatever's in the current one than to just rewrite it. We'll consider the first one as a learning experience. Apparently, we need to know the color types we'll need, as well as the sound types we'll need. It's kind of complex and DW and I needed several minutes of chatting to know what we were talking about, but here's where it's getting discussed in the forum.

And, Esa's busy too. He'll be pretty busy until at least June 1st. But, in theory, if I write more... maybe... maybe, if I believe in translucent fairy ArbyFish and clap my hands together on a huge plate of buttered chopsticks--the badgers and the cheese will come together in perfect harmony to create the fullerined guttersnipe quantum theory replication device button! Yeah! XD

Still on a slight pause from the main story, but Chesu continues the GDM sidestory with... Show Me The Money, Baby!

Hmm... We're going to have 100 things of one kind or another posted in the sprite comic section soon. Nifty!

Well, Chesu came back for a short while from Guild Wars. We even had a sort of short conversation.

Hmm... In the filler, I guess we really do need to introduce Larry sometime. ^^

I saw Epi-3. Couldn't decide if I liked it, so I saw it again. I liked it better the second time. Something's still bothering me about it. I think it's Anakin's acting. Somehow I just don't feel the power of the dark side coming from him. He got the eyebrow thing down, but his voice acting needs work. Other than that, there were lots of explosions and stuff. I thought yoda's light saber work was a little better in this one; not so comedically outrageous. The first time I saw it, I didn't think the final battle between Obi and Anny was very good, but the second time it seemed better. I have to go watch 4-6 sometime soon now. I haven't watched them in quite some time.

Seen the movie, I have. Intense, it was. Quite appropriate, I felt. Yess, MMM-HMM-HMM-HMM!

Lots of rantage going on. Ahh, yes, try not to confuse them.

And Chesu likes Guild Wars. :D

*Phlegm*

Got more sprite comic scripts written, reviewed, and approved.

...

Okay, so maybe we do have a sort of committee thing going on here, but it works. It's how Larry gets his editor status and whatnot.

Now we just have to wait for Chesu to get tired of Guild Wars or snap out of his trance for a few moments. Maybe we'll need to ritualistically call him back from the void.... Oh, sure, I could hammer some sprites together myself from what he's made in the past. But he's, like, the Specialist, so I need 'em! ^_^

Just got the compensation information about my internship... it's about $800 scholarship money for 20 hours a week for the whole summer. That translates into, oh, about $3 an hour. Oh goodie! My thimble runneth over. I'll see if I can get that bumped up to, say, the federally-required minimum wage. ^_^;;

I mean, it's not a problem if I get some really great experience in the process, but if it's just regular mindless grunt work that people usually outsource to hard-working menial laborers in Africa, maybe I could actually do better elsewhere. After all, there's hideously expensive college tuition fees to worry about. o_O

I GOT AN INTERNSHIP!!!! XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD

I'm very excited about it. But in the shock and surprise of it all, I couldn't think of any really important questions, like for example the specific address of the office, and I don't know if it's formal, casual, "dressy-casual," or whatever else. Couldn't contact the HR person, so I left a message. I have yet to actually be hired. I'm tentatively assuming that I don't need to go in tomorrow since no details have been worked out... but perhaps I could begin on Monday. That'd be cool.

And... comic... Yup, it looks like Chesu's temporarily been eaten by Guild Wars. Can't raise 'em on MSN messenger because he's only using AIM, but I could email him. Unfortunately, I have nothing to email him yet, since I've been totally dead when it comes to writing creativity. That's kind of... not fun when there's comic work to be done. o_O I'll see what I can do in the next while.

I have intestinal issues.

Hmm. Haven't heard from Chesu in a few days, but he did mention something about Guild Wars, so maybe he vanished, forever sucked into oblivion... o_O

On the other hand, I've still got scripts to write, so that's okay. And today, I actually get to go to bed before 1:00 AM! Joy! ^_^

Classes are over, but I had something of a busy weekend and am still grading papers for my TA job.

(checks email) Oh my, I seem to have a 20-issue FFML backlog to skim through as well, plus a couple of people I need to respond to. ^_^;

Oh well. While I get everything all worked out and more scripts written and the current fanfic project finished, have a look at a few character designs I made using City of Heroes. I haven't been spending too much time on that. In fact, haven't even made it past the tutorial on any of the characters. But, if you're a frequent visitor to the site, you should be able to recognize pretty much all of these. Well, you might need to read some of my fanfic stuff to recognize a couple of 'em, but aside from that, they're pretty close and recognizable. I rather like CoH's character design tools.

Ahh, yes. While I grade exams and come up with random bizarre character designs, Chesu continues to answer the great mysteries of some of the between-points in NETTG! ^_^

Well, today's random comic involves GDM stuff. But it also brings up an interesting point from NETTG. Porridge!!!

Boku no atama no juusu mo morimasu kedo, naze ga wakarimasen.

Well, no actual story comic yet. Still filler. I mean, we discussed what the next story page would look like, and did a script for it last week, but Chesu didn't feel like doing it that night and instead decided that he must punish me for not having a few weeks of scripts done in advance. I had to outright veto some of the material he had planned initially... mostly because while it was indeed weird, it wasn't exactly funny. So okay, okay, I'll get going on the scripts as soon as my brain falls into proper improprietary order. ^_^;

Class stuff... is more or less over! Yay! Maybe I'll take a vacation, write some scripts or something. And not a moment too soon, because who knows what fiendish plot Chesu might come up with, script-wise?!

No, my brain hasn't been fried and fused against working on sprite comic scripts. My "atama no juiceuu" fluids have just been redirected to pesky things like reality. Projects, jobs, masters projects, case studies, World of Warcraft, etc...

But no worry. Chesu has a master plan to cover for me while I recover!

Okay, it turns out the power lines went out where Chesu lives, so we'll be a little while without comic. At least he's okay. ^_^;

And... no Chesu today, and since I'm totally inept with sprites...

Ah well. We'll continue in not too long, when things become less crazy. Just have to pick some questions to answer for a research paper for my masters project. I'm planning on doing it on online content of random sorts, maybe focusing on webcomics. But we'll see.

Hmm. No comic, 'cause even though my group's final evil presentation is over (YEAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!1`11111) and a script got written up with Chesu's help, by the time it was done, there was no time to actually do the comic. Ah well, such is the way of things.

In other news, the assistant department head at my college didn't seem to like my idea of doing the masters project over the summer and finishing up in the fall, encouraging me to look harder for an internship, naming off dozens of companies...

And Inki Gumbin, or Brett, emailed me and apologized for leaving everyone in the dust back in Star Wars Galaxies over a year ago. I replied and told him that it was no problem. After all, it's only a game! ^_^

Ahh, yes, but Where's the "Blast 'Em To Bits Button?"

We finally got another page written up. This is the one Chesu and I had for Friday... and now it was ready. ^_^

Presentation on Monday, report due Wednesday, extra credit due... sometime soon, and other odds and ends to take care of.

Then I have to find out what to do during the summer. Fun! ^_^

Just for the record, I didn't come up with any of this page. And in fact, I did write a script, alongside Chesu, but either he didn't feel it was all that great, or we were both tired or whatnot, but that page didn't get made. We had another filler script done previously... but that one didn't get taken up.

So... I've got one last huge project to take care of with a group for this semester. And then class for this year will be done and I can agonize about getting a job for the summer and such. Lots of stuff going on. ;_;

Note to self: Write Some More Scripts Quickly!!!

It's just that... big evil assignments SO kill the urge to write! ^_^;;;

All those tests and assigments that the professors have been planning all semester are going to happen... right about.... now. *Nails Danny in the forehead, toppling him back in his chair*

*oomph*

And they say I'm long-winded...

Yeah, filler. I'm kind of tackling three difficult-to-quantify assignments at once. One of 'em, we finished, mostly because the group I'm working with is so utterly tired with the assignment that we're willing to hand it in in its present form. Well, we did make lots of revisions and things. So one way or another, that assignment has been dealt with. A second one, a 2-3 page semester reflections assignment, got done, and then there's the third one, which is an implementation plan that I've been meaning to do for the past... two weeks. >_<;; But it's getting done in the morning!!! This time, it shall be done!

Oh, and I didn't come up with the script for today's comic. Chesu did... with liberal help from Jason. ^_^

And now, The Plot... Backtracks?

Ah, those pesky li'l metroids! They always were so tough to get off.

Hmm. Okay, no comic just yet. Looks like Chesu got busy over the weekend.

And now... The Plot Falls Over, Screaming!!

And now... The Plot Jibbers a Bit.

You can blame Kthardin for the punchline on this one. ^_^

In the sprite comic, The Plot Thickens...

Also, we've got our first random encounter. In such an unlikely place, too.

Oh, and I'm not verbose. I just ramble a bunch. :D

And... evil case studies are done. Oh dear, it looks very much like I'm going to pass this semester. ^^;;

Ben, you're so... verbose.

...

...

What?

Oooh, power outage where the server's hooked up. Apparently it was on the same grid or a similar grid as the business college's stuff, because the e-commerce lab upstairs lost a drive full of data when it went down. Ahh, the pesky power outages. They had an uninterruptible power supply, but even those can seldom last for a two-hour outage. And no backup generators for those systems. I'm just glad our server's so used to going down (it did bunches of times when we first got it) so that we can be reasonably certain it all won't explode when it goes down. In the other hand, Ammon said he'd be on damage control all day, so we'll have to wait and see how bad it was. He's got several machines on the grid, too. So, that's why we were down. ^_^;;

New sprite comic's up. Would've been up yesterday, but the server went down just as I was uploading. Ahh, Tsunami, Defender of the Innocent! Either she's more of a dryad than any of us thought, or she's still dazed from that blast to the head earlier. Either way, what bliss!

We're enhancing the story with Tsunami's newfound Floral Eating Habits. I believe in Tenchi Muyo that Tsunami would be perfectly capable of eating a plate of steamed vegetables, and I recall Sasami being something of a good cook as well, who handles veggies easily and will eat them, becoming quite satisfied in the process. But let's say, for the sake of causing arguments, that she's still pretty self-consciously tree-like. A veritable dryad, even. The page makes a fair amount of sense in that case.

And... I had my presentation on webcomics. For those two people in the world that are curious, here are the powerpoint slides I used during the one-hour-fifteen-minute presentation. It's business college stuff. Gotta 'ave powerpoint slides. What'd the MBAs do if we didn't? Can't have them running around without powerpoint slides. They'd have a nervous fit and go storm the computer science department.... It'd be total anarchy and ribbiting badgers runninc across the landscape! I mean, what would the FROGS do, y'know?

Okay, so the blackmail worked and I wrote up a few more scripts. Good thing, too, 'cause the assignments crashed back down on me. The project lead on the class project I'm working on made another assignment for me, and I'm working out how to handle that, since the table-making SQL stuff he sent me doesn't seem to work.

So, next up, we have a little something with Pink ArbyFish. Ohh, t3e 3bil, as it were. ^_^

Tele-tubbies vs. Terminator?

Oh, great, I need to start writing more scripts or Chesu'll keep pulling all kinds of junk like THIS. >_<;;

So, um, crossovers. Yeah. We like crossovers. Like, say, Tenchi Muyo or Star Wars or Star Trek, or... Metal Gear Solid. Fun fun fun. ^^;;

So, since Chesu went ahead and broke the fourth wall, something went ahead and came through.

And the fillers shall continue until my brain functions in the correct sequencing again. ^^

In the forum, there was a bit of discussion about if we'd break the fourth wall in the comic. Well, I'd hesitate to break the fourth wall, but Chesu might do it out of sheer, unrelenting curiosity. Or maybe I performed some bizarre psychological jedi mind trick game and made him do it. Hmm... This page wouldn't really mean much if there weren't any proper followup.

And... no Chesu tonight, so no sprite comic. It's just as well; kind of bogged down by diagram revision now. And tomorrow--A Project Quality Audit of Lord of the Rings! Y'know, getting the Ring to Mount Doom and dropping it in and such. Ahh, business. ;_;

Okay, about the GDM demo. It has to be unzipped before you run it, otherwise it can't find the images and sounds. When it's unzipped, you should have GDM.jar as well as a GDM folder that contains the folders named Images and Sounds. If you have WinRAR installed, it might try to unzip the jar when you double-click on it. In that case, you either change the options in WinRAR so it doesn't count jar files as unzippable, or you go to the command line, go to that folder, and type:

java -jar GDM.jar

You need to have some variety of Java installed for this demo to work. If someone can find a way to make a jar file that contains the images and sounds and still works, I'd be delighted to hear about it.

And now... Yet another plug for GDM! Yes, there's not much there yet, but that doesn't mean that'll always be the case. One thing we do have is good parents being able to visit the palace twice a month. Don't know why; maybe it's because she lives there. Really, there are all sorts of odd explanations one can use for that sort of thing. And why classes would charge the local ruler excessive rates for classes is another mystery. The mythos must be reworked somehow.

But I will take care of that later. Stuff's... quite busy. Got assignments here and there, and the comic script buffer's running a bit thin. Nevertheless, I'm confident that we'll pull through.

...

Hmm, yes, quite confident. Really. Umm. Yeah! ^_^;;

And, on the sprite comic front, we've got a little plug for GDM...

A tentative GDM demo's available at:

http://nettg.com/~ben/GDM.zip

If you've got Java installed, just unzip the file and run the jar file. If you're in Windows, that means double-click on it. If you're in Linux, then you probably don't need to be told how. (java -jar GDM.jar) I don't know about Macintosh or BSD...

About the demo. A lot of stuff isn't quite right. The inventory isn't even working. We don't have any opening "begin game" stuff. We just have the game jump right in, and you can click on a few things. Tooltips pop up when hovering over most icons. And vacations are pretty buggy and not right yet, either... but Esa drew us a nice vacation pic...

The souce code's available on request. DW didn't really want to release it because it's quite a mess in parts. ^_^

All in all, it shows that the idea has potential and it can work, with quite a bit more programming and such.

Happy Second Comic Anniversary! For the main comic, we've got two years and a whopping 27 pages! Yaay!

For the sprite comic, we've got three months and about 73 pages.

To think, we started this whole thing up officially April 1st, 2003. Since then, we've managed to stay alive, more or less. What have I learned in these two years? Haven't learned my lesson, that's for sure. I keep coming back for more, and other people keep on trying with me. 'Ave ya'self a 'appy April Fools' Day!

Next up in the sprite comic, KZ works on Another Approach to take down Tsunami once and for all.

Also, it would appear that the dedicated personal assassin in question is getting a little distracted on the job. The page does kind of hint at it.

...

Okay, so the page blatantly says it out loud in big glowing neon letters sprayed across the night sky. Or something. ^_^

As for the Pink ArbyFish in yesterday's comic... who knows? Mwahahahahhahaa...

Well, Tsunami's Feeling Better Already. But what dastardly plan could the Princess be cooking up now...?

'Spose it had to end sometime. Oh, and UDP is on my hitlist now. You know: the protocol. Yeah. I shake my pointy knuckles at it!

The saga continues, with a Trained Hair-Care Professional. Gotta treat those split-ends after taking a big old energy blast to the head, don'tchaknow!

Meanwhile, the case study is still gnawing on my brain and I keep getting distracted. Just the other day, I was..............

Nah, gotta get back to work. G'night!

Chesu's back! He had a rather long and excruciating time at the DMV. And I've got a case study due Wednesday morning and spent the weekend dodging in between working on it and playing video games.

I also did some writing, but just a bit. ^_^;;

Reports are confirmed! Chesu is alive. He just got busy like the rest of us. ^^;;

Also, Jason Hanks is alive. It was good to hear from 'em.

Next sprite comic'll be a bit late. Things are busy... Chesu's got AOL problems... and um... Stuff. Yes, stuff. Stuff that involve the third case study, plus group projects in every class, and me desperately trying to avoid thinking about it again. Joy! XD

Okay, back to the showdown! Page is up a bit late since it took quite a while to make. KZ goes head to head with Tsunami, and does pretty well, actually. But even she can get distracted by things.

Ah, yes, the couch was my friend for many years, but now I have a new friend, and real beds aren't so bad once you get used to them. I just can't flail wildly in the night anymore. I do sometimes feel a need to dangle off the edge, but 'tis a far nobler thing I go to, me lads! Nobler badgers they never was.

While KZ's off fighting Tsunami, it's important, mmmm, VITALLY important that something be noted about Princess Serenity. The burns from Terra's little attempt at a snack were so bad that they had to amputate! Mwahahahahaa!

Dang it, Jim! He's a barber, not a doctor!

And now, my spring break is coming to a screeching, crashing halt. What did I accomplish? About four more chapters of... something, and a distinct lack of additional comic script pages. Did manage to get my room cleaned out somewhat. Got Danny's bed moved out that he hadn't slept in for two or three years. He really likes the couch. I wonder what implications that has now that he's off and married. What does he DO when he's told to go off and sleep on the couch? Is this actually a reward for good behavior now?

"You know, Danny, you've been really good. Now go sleep on the couch!"

"Yaaay!"

In any case, stuff happens, stuff goes on, and it's time for brains to start exploding, just as Danny so succinctly put it! Happy end of spring break, everyone! And to all a good thingamafoozle! o__O

Brains...

To finish off this week, we've got a quick Battle Sequence. KnightZero's attempting to take on Tsunami. Tsunami's feeling a bit week still, considering her recent encounter with the Galactic Destroyer, but she's nevertheless not a total pushover.

As a side note, I don't think those guards can see a thing in those helmets.

CHESU exploded? I thought self-destructing was my thing?

Oh, and 'Appy Saint Patt'ee's Day!

Hmm... Looks like Chesu explodes just as he was about to get today's comic taken care of. Hmm... Well, it happens! ^_^;;

Waiting For The Right Moment to attack a tree-ship-lady-thing can be such a tough decision, but in this next sprite comic, KZ dutifully and diligently plans and executes her assault.

We're coming close to the end of the first-generation of scripts I made up for the sprite comic. I'll need to come up with a bunch more during spring break. You'd think it would be very easy and simple to come up with lots and lots, but mostly, my mind is waiting for the right moment to strike. I have done some more fanfic writing, though. Still be a while before it's complete, though.

Yay spring break. I don't know what I'll do yet. Maybe something constructive... like sleep.

She Slices, She Dices, She Makes Cute Dresses To Put On...

KnightZero isn't just a personal assassin. She's the ultimate in psychic projections, and has something of an obsession with clothes in her spare time. In one of the frames, she's holding a dual-bladed Juraian-style energy-sword-key-thing, Darth Maul style. (Bet'cha never thought of reading a sentence quite like that...)

Anyway, spring break this week, so me be workin' on more writin' and more scripts and such.

Danny actually got something completely done? That's extraordinary! XD

In celebration of Spring Break, I have decided to stay up till 3:00 at night playing World of Warcraft. Ahh, I feel better now, though my eyes are straining to move properly.

Oh, and we've also got a new sprite comic up for the weekend. It's called, "I Don't Know What You Did Last Summer." The Dendrophobia arc continues with an encounter between Terra and Tsunami. If Kthardin sees the page, I imagine he can come up with some kind of full explanation as to what happened. Suffice it to say, the GD and Tsunami's ship didn't exactly hit it off properly. Or rather, they got along like a planet on fire. Or something to that effect.

You'd think 400 level classes were supposed to be hard or something. I've been working on a parallel project for the past three days, but now... it is FINISHED! Bwahaha-hah-ha---ha. Ugly little bugger, but it works how it's supposed to, suprisingly enough. It's been awhile since I've actually gotten something completely done. It's like... amazing and stuff.

'Ello! Evil death case study is done with and has been defeated... for now. Mwahahahahaa. I've got another one due in three weeks, but for now, for now... I feel okay.

Chesu kind of got busy, so I'm posting a modified hero-maker version of ASK Chesu made a while back. I got spring break this next week, so I should be able to do some writing of one kind or another, too. I already need to do scripts for the sprite comic and for GDM. But for now... a short break. ^_^;;

Ahh... I've been waiting for this plotline.

Now up on the sprite comic is an Ominous beginning to the Dendrophobia chapter. And it's got trees in it and such. Thanks to Chesu for getting it done! Tenchi Muyo fans might recognize Tsunami and some of the backgrounds in one of the frames.

WILSON!!! o_O;;;;

Eh heh eh heheheheh. Case study... eating my brain.

And, yes, Esa definitely needs a new monitor. I figure if he gets one that isn't all blurry, worn out, and with faded colors, he could come up with even better art. Consider it like... weight training, or fighting with a handicap.

...I need a better monitor. i'm at University, using a rather worn-out Hitachi cm771 --- And I'm still noticing a lot of details that are completely invisible on my nokia ve17c. And... while some parts aren't as fuzzy as I thought they were, there are a bunch of extraneous noise pixels floating around, that could use a good erase --- it would save in bandwidth, too.

Right, then! Here, we have our apology and explanation as to why we missed Monday's comic...ness. Basically, uhmm... Chesu had computer problems. Yeah. ^_^;;

Since there was no sprite comic today, I merely posted a superhero machine version of KnightZero. Gotta keep the site's heartbeat going, even if it squelches as it goes past. Chesu made this one up, and it's not too far off, all things considered. The date on the "last sprite comic" is from when this image was made. How the system's set up. But I definitely posted it today. ^_^

Mmm. Brains. @_@

This is going to be something of a crazy week because I have another evil case study due. I thought I'd be more comfortable doing them after finishing that last one, but... they adapted to my new defenses and fired off countermeasures.

Anyway, if there are slight delays in things... that's why. More agony and such. Or maybe I'm catching a cold. Perhaps that's it....

Today, we present the special comic page, made for the winner of the error-guessing contest we had a month or so back. Chesu wanted to get it right, so he did it on three hours of sleep while dealing with odd humor and thoughts attacking him from all direction. Such is where insanity becomes indubidability...

But the page itself is not so much indubidable as it is borrowing from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Ahh, beloved childhood memories of watching it. It's a Classic. ^_^

Congratulations, Jason! You found the most errors the fastest in that one comic. Perhaps we'll have another contest sometime. It'll be another spur-of-the-moment thing, too. Happy Comic Reading!

New sprite comic up! Looks like Terra went and Lost Her Lunch on this one....

Who's the guy up top? Oh, just a really high-level cleric they brought in for just such an emergency. Chesu's been working hard on these pages, plus on other stuff, like for GDM. It's cool. ^_^

In the past, would the Kitchen Of The Future look like The Kitchen of the Present in the present? Possibly. This next sprite comic is called, "It's a Trap!"

Terra doesn't mind eating cooked things, so long as whatever she's cooking put up a sufficient fight and made interesting noises when it died. A little morbid, yes, but what do you expect out of a cute li'l amoral galaxy-destroying entity? ^_^;;

And now we begin the second subchapter in the sprite comic, titled, "Dendrophobia!"

Dendrophobia was a new word for me. It apparently means... fear of trees. And I believe there was a character in Tenchi Muyo somewhat associated with trees, so that'll be the special guest star for this arc.

And now, on the sprite comic, a Trip Down Memory Lane...

And there's been slightly more glacial progress on GDM. Bug fixing, mostly, but hey, animations are working now. On some systems. ^_^;; Nothing really postable yet, but it all goes on.

Minor bug in the attempt to get the Special Walk-On Guest Appearance comic up, namely Chesu was agonizing about getting Jason's hair right. Hmm. Oh well! It'll definitely be up next week. So, insead, we've got a hero-maker version of Terra up.

Anyway, back to what passes for a story in this thing, titled, "A Little Jedi, Hold the Mustard."

Well, I got the diagrams done for my case study, and now I just have to do the writeup. 4910 words to go, due tomorrow morning. ^_^

Why do I always have to cut these things so close? :P

Oh, this old thing. Also... I love reusable code. Note: Purple ArbyFish do not require a clock to time travel. He was just making sure that it was working properly.

(Looks at Danny's Arby-Hero-thing, nearly dies laughing.)

Heh. Chesu's gone mad with the hero generator thing. He modeled a fair chunk of the main NETTG characters using it. Might post those later if we hit a dry spot on the sprite comic. Speaking of which, we've just reached number fifty for the comics in that category. We've almost caught up to Danny's ArbyFish comic! In his honor, I steal one of his jokes, which he used oh-so-long ago when he was still doing filler for Ammon's now-dead scifi comic. Lotsa comics 'round here, but it's a comic-eat-comic world out there. Law of the jungle. Only the strong (or, like me, merely stubborn beyond reasonable sensibilities) survive. What DOES eating a comic taste like, anyway? Would it be pulpy, or would it spark and tingle due to the electronic media involved?

Anyway, I'm going through my diagrams for my Evil case study project thing, and then I get to do the ~5000 word writeup for it. Due Thursday. Fortunately, I'm a hack writer by hobby, so I should be able to plough through that writeup since I'm so experienced with words. Hopefully. Or else.

In the immortal words of Strong Bad, "You head a-splode!" ^_^

Meh. Close enough. 'Course 'e kinda looks like ranger-bob left out of the fridgerator for too long.

Hmm. Is this another Dead Chesu Day? Nope, it's just another different kind of fun, funky filler. We found this one super-hero generator-thing and Chesu made up as close as he could a portrait of Ameixia. Since we don't have any "real" hand-drawn Ameixia images yet, this idea'll work. Of course, when she shows up in the drawn comic, she'll probably have a different outfit once Esa figures out a proper set of lightweight female Lunar armor. But she's also due for a change in the sprite comic as well.

Ah, the joys of character design! ^_^

Chesu's contributed not only art but actual scripts that have been put into use. Like this one, entitled, "There's Always Time For Mushrooms!" I haven't checked with Danny about the viability of a temporally-displaced alternate-dimension ArbyFish fast-food joint, but despite a Green one displayed prominently on the restaurant's front, it's probably run by odd Purple ArbyFish who haven't quite gotten the accent down.

And... um, assignments and case studies. Yeah. o_O

I just HAD to pick an MIS degree, didn't I? And I just absolutely NEEDED to go on for a Masters in it, too! Man, I could'a gone into Computer Science, or Creative Writing, or... Political Science! I could have gone for art and maybe I'd have half a clue how to draw by now. I could have gone to work and, like, started to earn money or something. Nevertheless, this is where I feel I should be at the present time. But I haven't backed down from any classes yet, and I don't want to start right now. They will not be the ones to defeat me. Arr! >_<;;

On a lighter note, I really like Van Von Hunter. It's like Slayers, only funnier. Art's really nice. It only updates once a week, but... hey, we kind of wanted once a week for the regular comic, too.

We have up the next random Filler Friday, and with that, we take a break for the weekend to rest up and work on other things.

Quite apart from relationship issues or the lack thereof, I've got another challenge to battle for fanfics and comics: attempting to be funny when I'm bogged down with classroom concerns. o_O

The walk-on guest appearance filler friday will be next week, once Chesu's gotten a chance to get into contact with the contest winner and make 'em up a proper sprite.

"There Are Some Who Might Call Me..." is the latest sprite comic. Here, we actually name our destructive green-armored knight. With KnightZero being the master-forge Knight in Shining Armor psychic projection, one might imagine that the second one would be named, say, KnightOne. But naah, it's kind of a dinky name.

And yes, Danny, I shall find love someday! Somehow! Someway! XD

I mean... there are girls out there that like books and things. Right? Uhh, right?

Aaanyway. Um. Yeah. Classes are bearing down on me with the projects forming the primary bludgeoning mallet, but we're going on all the same!

(Wrote a fanfic. It sank into the swamp. Wrote another fanfic. IT sank into the swamp. Wrote scripts for a comic. IT burned down, exploded, then sank into the swamp. But the sprite comic... stood up! And that's what you're inheriting. The strongest fiction work on this 'ere server!)

*Pats Ben on the head* It's okay. Everything will be fine. ... ... unless it's not, then meh. *Shrug* Guess them's just the breaks. I got my girl. You're just an extroverted hermit. Does weird things to your psyche and love-life and ability to drive an automobile. There's a girl out there for you. Just have to find one who's interested in books'n'stuff. They're hard to find because they don't go to social events and typically keep a low profile. Also, though girls love guys with a sense of humor, you have to know how, when, and in what way to be serious... and remember that they're people. It's good to respect them, but don't put them on so high a pedistal that you can't reach them. Girls like flowers, too. I'm not sure exactly why, maybe it's some sort of bizzare genetic thing, maybe they're just pretty. Maybe I should make up a whole incoherent rant on the subject, but being married with work and school is just busy-busy all the time. Anywho, harpy berated varentines day ev'ry buddy.

And with this page, the numbers at the bottom of the page are now officially in disalignment with the number listed in the URL. What bliss! ^_^

This page is called, "Excitement, Adventure, and Really Wild Things." Chesu had some fun comparing the new ship with the old ship. Basically, it was discovered that the old ship, the now-defunct Intergalactic Space Whale, could travel from the Moon to Mars in a couple of hours. That's rather fast. The new ship... has weapons. Don't quite know what else yet. And, as it turns out, Ameixia has highly repressed destructive tendencies as well.

Chesu had a busy day today, and things kind of got out of hand, so we're having our first official Dead Chesu Day. He'll live. Classes have been crazy too... but I'll manage as well. Still working on... everything. :D

Happy Valentine's Day! Esa was working hard all weekend to come up with a proper Valentine's Day pic, and finally came up with a rather nice Stylin' pic. I promised 'em I'd make an Extra to go along with it, and so I did. It's a quick little reminiscing and ranting thing that I came up with in fifteen minutes, which Larry calls awful typical "no girlfriend angst" garbage thinly disguised as a Valentines Day greeting... but the art's rather good, so give the page a once-over and enjoy what Esa's drawn.

We do have another sprite comic up, and it's titled, simply, "Unforgiveable." It's no fun or games till someone gets seriously mentally traumatized. ^_^

And... Danny, the creator of the ArbyFish, half the inspiration for the insanity of all this, is, like happily married or something. Who'd'a thunk it? ^_^

We've carried out our plan for Filler Fridays for the sprite comic. Sometimes, Chesu's just a little too curious about those pesky big, red, shiny buttons. Really, ya never know what those things might do. ^^;;

Got projects in every class this semester, and they're all open-ended things, done with a group of people with diverse skills. One class is a mix of MIS Masters students and MBA students. Business and tech mix like acids and bases. The resulting product? MIS people. Does that mean I'm foam?

Aaanyway, lots of stuff going on, and that kind of makes me glad. Momentum on the site and in the background is good.

And, checking on the forums, it looks like we're getting quite a lot of robot spammers trying to get noticed on the site. We've deleted everything they've posted so far, which has only been a couple of bad-English attempts at advertising over the past several months, but they also like dumping names into the signed-up user list.

Of course, I could be wrong, and a bunch of Russian marketers might be really big fans and are just obeying their natural instincts... but'cha never know.

Ah well, we'll deal with that if it becomes a problem. In the meantime, sprite comicness is up. :)

We're just introducing new characters left and right here, aren't we? In this case, it's an old character that just hasn't been in the sprite comic yet. ^_^

So, yup, we've got a new sprite comic up, entitled On a Diplomatic High. It's up after much hard work, trials, and staying up late on the part of Chesu. The theory behind the planet Venus in this continuiuty is that... it really affects people profoundly. Some places are supposed to inspire awe and humility in people. Instead, Venus promotes insanity, and the inhabitants are very proud of it. :)

I call this one, "Royalty Isn't Crazy; It's Eccentric." There's a fight sequence and everything. Thanks to Chesu, this one got done well and on time. He's been very good about getting these put together.

On the forum, we've got a sort of contest where whoever finds the most errors in this page gets a walk-on role in one of the Filler Fridays, with a custom sprite made up by Chesu. We'll say... contest ends next Friday, the 19th.

Next Page, "Execute Them!" is up! Chesu was talking to me about all the horrific errors that are found on this page. He even requested a contest to see who could discover all of the errors, whoever finding the most getting a guest spot on Filler Fridays. Whaddaya think? Shall we do that? :D

And now, we return to the sprite comic's "story," already in progress, with "Lost in the Wilderness."

You know, Chesu's really good about getting these done before the due date. So far, we haven't even had to miss a page and get up and apologize for it. There's always some random filler junk we can toss in, and all is well, because the main point of the sprite comic is to just keep going, regardless of what may happen.

Oh, sure, the main comic's point is to craft a nifty story and practice good art-ness and such... but it all comes back to the quality versus quantity and quality through quantity argument. Kind of reminds me of some ultra-prolific fanfic writers out there, who just kept on writing, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, through dozens of fanfics, and never ever seemed to stop. Some of them even got better after a long while, and they got noticed. They always gave potential readers something to munch on, whereas arguably "better" writers were off taking their time and working to craft better stories, and often did.

Call it an experiment, or not, but I suppose we'll see which approach fares better, 'cause we're trying both on this page. :D

We're starting up a new tradition with the sprite comic. It's called Filler Fridays! Basically, ignore the storyline (even more than we do now), and take a peek at what's going on with back-scenes production, or whatever else strikes our fancy. The arcing storyline going on in the background for the sprite comic is just to establish the universe the whole thing's dumped into. Chesu's been considering doing something like a set spot for filler for the past couple of weeks. Since we've got so much potential story or diverse opportunities for jokes, might as well make sure we've got a place for 'em on the site.

And, Esa's got his latest release up. We talk about Misunderstood Metacognition in the posts below. I love it when we've got things to talk about on the site. ^_^

This time it was done with computers. Well, a computer and Graphire. In my opinion, only the "Ahem" frame works like it's supposed to, and GD-chibi isn't quite where I want it. (I have few pages full of conceptual chibi-GDs -- there actually were definite changes to the design from the ones you might have seen before).

It's no better or worse than the pages that were done with pen/paper, but... dunno. There's always a "loss" from the sketching stage to the finished comic, for some reason I don't think this method was that good, either. Hmm.

Esa's gone and surprised us again by finishing up the next page in the hand-drawn comic! I shall love it and hug it and call it, "Misunderstood Metacognition." Kudos to Esa for getting it done.

We noticed that the page numbers at the bottom of each page weren't quite matching up with the index given by the PHP in the URL. So, in order to reduce the usage of acronyms--already quite prevalent on this site--we're simply skipping ahead in page numbers for future comics. And no, this page isn't filler. Whatever would give you that idea? :D

And today, on NETTG: The Esa-less Years, we have a comic that goes by the title of, "Fly, yes. Land? No!" Still duking it out aboard the Intergalactic Space Whale (it's the commissioned name of the ship), it's proven that there's more than one way to avoid losing a fight.

Wow, we've got, like, 35 pages of junk in the sprite comic category. And we've just been doing it since December. Nifty!

With this sprite comic, we return you to our no-holds-barred duel to the death between ASK and Laios, already in progress. Quite fittingly, this strip is titled, "Lame Attack Names."

Chesu is happy because he doesn't need to make new sprites for the page after this one. ^_^

Whew! Had a cold the whole weekend, so my mind's a bit odd right now. However, we do have another page up in the Sprite Comic category. In it, ASK is performing a difficult attack maneuver called the Thermonuclear Wedgie. Chesu wanted a sub-title cover page to go with the arc that's coming up, and that seemed perfectly fine at the time. He was working on new sprites for battle sequences and whatnot. Getting those pesky pixels to cooperate can be a trying ordeal.

(Hmm... picturing the Crocodile Hunter trying to do sprite comics.... "Bloimey! Wouldja lookat that GOOMBA! You'd have to change ova' thir'ee pixels ta make THAT one work!)

Got a job interview in the afternoon. Gotta get summer internships. Wouldn't be proppa' if I didn't.

And Danny gets married at the end of this week. Funky. ^_^

And... this concludes another week of sprite-comickyness. We've got more sprite comic pages than we've got regular comic pages now, and for good reason: sprite comic strips are comparatively quick to manufacture once the jokes are made, but even so, Chesu likes to pay very close attention to detail, so it's not precisely all slopped down together...

Hmm. Kind of tired after all that's been going on. And so much left to do still, too. ^_^;;

Rants are back up. Thanks, Ammon! ^_^

Yup, we've transitioned back over to our real and favorite server, Hedwig. The forums, mail, and other stuff go SO much more smoothly than on the temporary server, Plesk, and this one's probably going to last us quite a while, unless we suddenly get a fanbase of Penny Arcade proportions constantly hammering the site. We may even be able to survive a Shashdotting, if it came to that, but I haven't quite checked with Ammon on that one yet. In any case, we're better equipped than we would have been on the temp server.

The Sprite Comic's going well still, purusing the goal of five comics a week, and I've heard some positive remarks from several people about it, so I believe it's probably essential to the life of the site to have it ongoing. It's much preferable to weeks and months with nothing new on the site. And besides, we can try things that we probably wouldn't on the main comic. More spontaneous humor rather than painstakingly crafted things. Or something to that effect. :D

We found Chesu! And we've put him on a twelve step recovery program. Sad, really, what Legend of Zelda does to a poor sprite artist's psyche.

Not like... World of Warcraft, which I only play because I want to, and I can quit any time I want, which I don't, and therefore--mwahahahahahahhahahahaaa.

Ermh. Yes, well. Back to NETTG-centered sprite comics on Monday. ^_^

And... I finished a description of one large group of core stats for GDM, which is available in the forum. The rest of the description should be available within the next couple of days.

In the meantime, classes seem to be going well, and Danny's still getting married, near as I can tell. Joy! ^_^

More filler today! National Filler Week, as it were. Today's sprite comic demonstrates the dangers of playing too much Legend of Zelda. I didn't write this--Chesu did, but he sure knows how to make his Zelda jokes. ^_^

It's the stress that does it.

Filler continues. And oddly enough, it's just as high-quality, as it were, as the regular stuff. ^_^

And... Chesu's still a VERY ardent Zelda supporter.

Oh, dear. Real filler already? Well, a'course! Gotta have filler material. Gotta keep the heartbeat of the site going, even if it's a soft, squelching heartbeat, full of mold, fungus, and mushrooms. Hmm. How appropriate. ^_^

Chesu asked for more time to do the comic scripts I already made up, and he's able to come up with filler material even quicker than he is regular comics. So, this week, we'll have his own particular brand of filler. Chesu's a Legend of Zelda fanatic to end all fanatics, so it's appropriate that he's plagued by nightmares of his Game Boy demanding that he go play more of it.

For me, Zelda 3, A Link to the Past, was the ultimate and final Zelda ever that anyone should consider. Ah well, maybe I'm just getting old.

How'd Terra's nose get so pointy? Hmm.

First off, congratulations to Danny. He's been so quiet lately... not that I haven't... Although, the rumors of me taking off for the hills have been... exaggerated for comic effect. The latest page... is one that's been bouncing around in one form or another for a couple of years now. It's mentally sticky, for some reason.

The sprite comic... I do find it very amusing, and Chesu's mastery over the pixels is beyond spiffy. Nifty, even. Me an' pixels, we do get along, for the most part. We're not exactly friends, though.

There's another of those hard-to-get-through spots coming up.... (looking at the delay between last two pages...) In three years, or so. Or two months. Probably some time between. The silence during this time was caused mainly by me not daring to show my face, so to speak, unless I came bearing gifts.

Wow. I've been going on and on for a while now, and _still_ no lynch mob? Hmm...

Did Esa do the splatters with his own blood? Ya never know... artists and such. Anywho, I'm not dead yet. I've just got work and school, trying to graduate this fall with a BS in Computer Science. I'm getting married Feb 4th. She's this nice little girl named Nicole and she makes me insanely happy. ^^ We've been engaged since the week before thanksgiving, but I'm not one to gush... or am I? That's it, I shall gush now. *GUSH-GUSH-GUSH* This all makes me happy, feel like I'm progressing with my life, and oh so exhausted.

Later(s).

Esa's done a nifty thing, like going and making a new comic page! I like how the GD looks in this one, no matter what size it may in fact be. Kept'cha in suspense for the better part of a year. Here, we don't die, we just rise like Count Dracula every century to inflict horrors upon the peasantry. So, we're still going, even in this respect. Hmm. I need to do another Extra soon just to keep up with everyone else. ^_^

We'll have another a sprite comic tomorrow, and a much-needed break for the weekend. Enjoy!

"Resignation Without Notice," is today's sprite comic. When I thought up this particulat public servant, I didn't think she'd join up so quickly with A.S.K... I guess she's got some repressed adventurousness issues. That, or she's she's from such a restrained society, when her world fell apart around her, she went kind of mad.

Either way, what bliss! ^_^

"Time to Update That Resume," is the title of today's sprite comic. Sometimes, our thoughtless actions can have severe, and quite comical, ramifications. ^_^

This next sprite comic's titled, for obvious reasons, "Scaring the Children." Hmm... Doing all that civil service never was easy, even in a quasi-utopian society, was it?

Back to classes tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

New sprite comic up! It's titled, "Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow." The local talking cat's been called in to potentially serve as an advocate for the to-be-charged-and-sentenced Knight in Shining Armor.

Hmm... Classes start this week for me, and with them also my TA position. Been looking up articles on the social issues of computing. And... good articles are kind of tough to find, filtering through all the junk that resides on the Internet. I've been playing World of Warcraft in a desperate attempt to escape life, but I also have left my IM client on, so that means I also have Chesu asking for details on the next sprite comic script, and DW's informing me of progress on Galactic Destroyer Maker. He recently got animations to work! Joy! XD

So, there's been a lot going on during this winter break. Perhaps I should have been relaxing, but nowadays, my relaxing typically involves doing two things at once instead of four. There's routinely a dozen or more items on my taskbar, all of which have a specific importance and I hardly wish to ever remove them because I'm moving back and forth between them.

Me? Stressed out? Never! This is me having fun. Much worse are the times when I have nothing to do and haven't heard from people online for several weeks. Hard work, I can handle. I might like to be left alone for an hour or two, or be allowed to sleep, but... it's strangely comforting to have other strange people to talk to, especially those who have decided to help me pursue these odd visions of mine.

Right-o! Gotta help out my dad at work tomorrow. Then Wednesday, back to school! If I want that Masters degree, I gotta play by the Business College's rules...

As promised in the forums, we'd like to wish Larry a happy birthday, and many thanks for all the work he's done here! He's actually reviewed all the sprite comic scripts we've had so far, to make sure they hit at least a minimum of decentness. Plus, he's kept a good archive of all the stuff I've written and posted to the FFML, on his website... and most of all, he hasn't given up on these mad, silly ideas I keep coming up with! Give 'em a big 'and!

Wot??? Filler already?! No, wait, it's just an intermediary page to denote the change in style. "Bigger! Faster! Cuter!" It was generally noted that the pages were way too small from a pixel perspective, so we're doubling it! Or at least zooming in.

How this happened... Well, I wanted something like 8-Bit Theater's big sprites with normal backgrounds, and later Chesu noticed that it did in fact look better when the size was boosted.

The title "Bigger! Faster! Cuter!" came from me always asking Esa to draw things more cutely, and him responding that cute is HARD. Still, he managed it, especially with some scenes of Terra. Actually, he got in a lot of practice with Terra. My Terra art folder's bigger than any of the other character subdivisions. And I like it! I'm a big Terra fan, and that helps a lot, 'cause I gotta write these things, y'see! XD

Right, then. I've been starting up some Teaching Assistant stuff for this next semester. It's for a class I loved when I took it, and even better, it'll help me stay out of so much absurd debt that graduate degrees demand you go into. As it turns out, I'll be teaching a bit about webcomics and online games while I'm at it. Been working on this here comic, with the help of others, for nearly a couple of years now. I guess that must make me some sort of expert. Or, if it doesn't, I can at least fake it. Joy! XD

Today's Sprite Comic page is titled, "Discount Legal Services." Sometimes, you just can't find good help for these kinds of cases, especially when ASK's the defendant. ^_^

This next page is titled, "Sweet Dreams." Chesu had an idea for a page, I agreed with it, and elaborated, then he elaborated, and I clarified... then that's why there's all kinds of messy signatures at the bottom.

This is what Terra's happy dreams are like. Perhaps we'll have one of her unhappy dreams later. ^_^

We've been taking a deeper look at GDM, as the GDM subforum shows. We're discovering that there are a whole lot of details to take into account. And scripts, and images. Low estimate says we'll need over 600 images, and bucketloads of storywriting. We'll... probably need a whole lot of help when the engine's more set up.

This next page is titled, simply, "No Lawyers." Looks like ASK, the rebellious KISA, wasn't quite up to escaping the law this time. ^_^

A pretty simple page, this one. And introducing a new character that's even been in the fanfic, but we don't know that yet. Or something.

In other news, they're making a new Charlie/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie. Tim Burton's directing it, so how could it go wrong? XD

And... Happy New Year! May 2005 be more fun than 2004! ^__^

Latest page up, "Sugary Snack," includes a familiar face to Babylon 5 fans, though the conversion to sprite format was tricky, and not quite perfect. The NETTG universe contains a hodgepodge of species, so there's plenty of room to borrow from other series. Besides, there's only so many original species out there for the GD to go out and blow up.

As for how it was made, well... we took a villain from Lufia 2, and did a lot of tweaking. And... this concludes the second week of the sprite comic stuff. As they say, so far, so good. And we've even gotten a couple of comments in the forum about it. Joy! ^_^

*cough*

'Tis the season for bad puns! The title for this page was "Tastes Like Beefcake" in the script. Chesu didn't know what a certain legendary super Saiyajin looked like, so he had to look it up. And yes, K.Z. IS getting a little too familiar in the final frame.

In other news, I've been able to play DBZ Budokai 3. It's pretty shallow, but it involves blowing things up and mindless item hunts. I like it. ^_^

This next sprite comic's got a title in the script: "Royal Proclamations." The titles never made it into the comic pages, for some reason...

Chesu kind of insisted that I tell about the history of each sprite comic strip. He kind of suggested it while I was in agony and near-braindead from headaches while I was fighting off the flu, so my mind's already conjured up a thousand reasons why I should violently bludgeon with a large trout anyone who dares suggest such a thing ever again...

But now that I'm feeling better, I believe it's noteworthy that the first version of the surface of the planet Venus in this setup wasn't nearly silly enough. From Thalia's description in the cast section, Venus was supposed to be a considerably stranger place, where something in the water, air, and rocks makes things particularly complicated to survive. So, instead of a sweet little green grassy terrain, we opted for a tye-dyed landscape with lots of exotic creatures roaming around--someplace where it really does look like everyone could potentially be perpetually high... and that resulted in this setup.

Blargh... Feeling a lot better now than the past week or so, and I even got some good writing done today, but I'm still not at 100%. And it seems my constitution and mental tolerance levels haven't recovered just yet, either. I mean, some days, I can stare down a room full of slavering cthuloids without flinching, but today I was recoiling at comparatively minor things, like some of Chesu's ex-girlfriend problems, somewhat unusual though they may have been. I actually dared to think I couldn't solve them. It couldn't be that I've stopped trying to solve other peoples' problems after it all didn't work with Esa, could it?

Ah well... Life Goes On! And I've got another couple weeks o' vacation before it's back to school, but I'll probably be starting work as a graduate teaching assistant before then. Hmm... nope, my mind's not prepared to deal with that one either at the moment. Heh... In that case, until tomorrow, same rant place, same rant topic!

New Sprite Comic page up! This one came about... well, I was basically just finding random things for the new KISA to do. And what would her mistress ask her to do? Oh, go out and cause mayhem and such. Of course, this KISA, KnightZero, isn't nearly as blunt and straightforward as ASK, so naturally she'd try to make a pun out of everything. Twist it around and make the meaning completely different...

As for what in the world Chesu was thinking of when he put the spider in, I have no idea. It wasn't in the script, but... I figured, why not, leave it in. Maybe he wanted me to have a mascot or something. Well, we've got plenty of them here, but they're all seal-like things. And not all ArbyFish. Got a terminally depressed seal, got another one that only speaks in twitchy Japanese, and another one that hunts bunnies in the jungle all the time so he can shave them. Yes, I'm serious. Why wouldn't I be? o_O

And... I've been hearing that people have been having problems with accessing the site, like it keeps not seeing the pages and such. This is probably due to the slow temporary server we're on. I'm going to do some more handwaving about that and say that we'll have the good, fast server (which I helped pay for) back up... sometime. It's out of my hands, really. Gotta bug Ammon some more to see if he can speed up time or teleport the box into a good fiber network or whatnot.

(Hmm... Mostly better from the illness today. Still a ways to go, though. Gotta heal more! Later! ^_^)

Next sprite comic's up. In other news, I was fighting off something today, probably the flu. Of course, it seems a lot of people I know are sick lately too, regardless of where they are in the world. Ah well, hope everyone feels better soon!

Merry Christmas!

We got a special holiday sprite comic up to celebrate the day. We'll take the rest of the weekend off, though. ^_^

I always like Christmas. Each one never ceases to surprise me. Just when we thing we've got everything we'll possibly need, more is found. And it makes me glad, this year, that we've gotten something going. For however long it lasts, I'm very glad. And even after, probably. I've got other plans and secret-ish projects I'm working on, but I've pretty much run out of things that are ready to present for this holiday season.

'Cept one more thing: A Christmas Card.

I got a gift from Esa a little while back: a nice drawing of one of the characters, KnightZero, who's made an appearance in the sprite comic, but is also planned for the Esa-drawn comic. Maybe things'll be right for it to be shown off sometime soon-ish. I'll keep writing and thinking about the storylines I'm pursuing.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!

And... next sprite comic page is up!

...

Man, it feels good to have something to post. I wonder what it'll be like in a month.

Okay, I switched the file format over to GIF, and set at lossless, this is just as good quality as the BMPs and the JPEGs at usually far less the storage space. This change came as a result of a conversation with my brother:

Dan: There's NO reason for these to take up 400k!

Ben: Umm...

Dan: Here, making this a GIF puts it down to 30k.

Ben(thinks): Er, maybe I should reconsider this file format issue.

So, here we go. I mean, 8-Bit Theater uses GIFs without any problem, and the biggest file we've got so far isn't much over 200k now, and that's 'cause it's got psychadelic colors. That's why I like feedback. It keeps me from doing the wrong silly things. And makes me do the right silly things. ^_^

Big page today. In Jpeg form, it turned out over 400k. I mean, it'd probably be smaller even if we did it in Flash with voices and everything. Ah well, such is life.

Here, this page introduces Terra's two new Knights in Shining Armor, so to speak. A lot of NETTG readers will recognize ASK, but the new gal's named Knight-00, or KnightZero, or KZ. She's the ninja mentioned in one of the Extras I made several months ago: Stabbing From the Shadows! It looks like ASK and Terra got off on the wrong foot in this version of the story. ^_^

As for our schedule, so far so good.

Next sprite comic is up. So far, so good. ^_^

Okay, it's fixed! I had Danny come and take a look at it. Turns out we had to take a file, move it out of the directory, and change things around... The point is, it works now. I've made an executive decision and we have two pages to start. Page 0 is the prologue (first comic), and after that, there's the title page (latest comic). It should give you plenty of an idea of what we've got planned.

And... an older brother and my Mom are bugging me to put up advertising or sell merchandise through the site (ArbyFish plushies, anyone?), but at the present time, I don't feel that would be appropriate. Sure, the 8-Bit Theater guy makes a bunch off of using Final Fantasy sprites, but... I already have the site how I like it. Besides, there's all kinds of people I'd have to pay if I started making money here. (Hmm... Esa, Larry, Naoko Takeuchi, Banpresto, and half a dozen lawyers, to name a few. XD)

And, we be launchin'! That's right, we're actually kind of, sort of, coming through with something this time. While Esa's out of commission, and probably after, we've decided to start a silly li'l sprite comic. It's not as "expensive" in terms of time as an equivalent hand-drawn comic, so we can keep a faster schedule, especially if we keep it simple. Our plans are to post Monday thru Friday, taking weekends off, but still getting 5 comics per week. It may be fairly different from Esa's typical spiffy style, but these'll be in color, at least.

Currently, we're tweaking the PHP to work right. Should be fixed within a day or two. Clicking on the "latest sprite strip" leads to a broken image, but "first sprite strip" leads to the first page just fine. Larry did his best, but he doesn't know that much about PHP yet. We'll need Ammon or Danny to come in and fix it up for us.

So, that's this surprise that we're unveiling right now. It's not the only surprise that we have, but it's the only one that's ready right now. The sprite comic will develop as I figure out what works best in a short joke thing, and as Chesu, the new indentured artist, gets better tools and figures out what works and what doesn't when making one of these. We'll have a comic up Monday thru Friday this week, and the next, and the next, and... we'll see how it works out.

And... the core hand-drawn comic isn't abandoned until Esa says he's tired of it. I love it, and he likes it... but like my writing sometimes takes a while to get into the mood for, his art takes a bit of mental adjustment as well. Here's hoping for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This year's resolution: make something that'll last.

We're still on schedule for tomorrow. Still waiting on the PHP stuff last time I checked, but it can be done on a temporary basis with pure HTML, if it comes to that. I'll tell you what we're up to later this evening.

And... Thursday. Final Exam day. One way or another, after those exams, the semester is totally and irrevocably over. I'm pretty sure I did/will do fine. I even got a Teaching Assistant job for next semester (filled out the paperwork on Tuesday), so I get to go into less debt for my graduate degree.

As for the site, we're experimenting with proper borders around the comics so that the pages look more... polished and whatnot. Can't have a proper picture without a frame. And finally, something's going to happen on Monday.

Something Wonderful.

Then on Tuesday I've got a dentist's appointment. What does this mean? Beef stew. That's what. Or plums.

Plums, I say, to you.

Plums in the sky and plums in my shoe.

Plums have been legislating changes in blue,

I say to you...

I'm a clown, I'm a clown.

Laugh at me, I'm a clown.

Please don't frown, or get down.

Won't you laugh at me? I'm a clown.

Oh dear...

All right, the project's done and turned in. Now I have time to write and work on other things again! Joy! XD

Now I'm so tired... Just have to recover and pace myself.

Also, some guy from 8-Bit Theater is going to start reviewing random webcomics that get submitted to some guy named Murray. I submitted NETTG:TEY, and maybe it'll get reviewed one of these months.

Ahh, commentary! I remember when I got my first bit of commentary back on the first NETTG chapter. I got it, and it was good. And I haven't stopped ever since. Funny how that works, sometimes...

The project's due date was moved up to Friday, so... tomorrow, it'll be all over, one way or another. THEN I can worry about the exams for next Thursday. Then the break comes. And Christmas and stuff. ^_^

Big assignments went well. One presentation and another big assignment left to go, then exams and the semester will be taken care of.

And don't worry, Esa. I'm sure the rabid NETTG:TEY fans will refrain from tearing you apart if you do the next comic in color. ^_-

No, I'm not dead - even though some of our (dwindling? probably) audience might wish me to be.

Temporary delay in master plan! Big assignments due on Tuesday. And another one on December 8th. Currently agonizing about them. Feels funky. ^_^;

Still workin' on it! 17/20, 23/100, hike! For whatever that means. o_O

Naïveté is a hope for things that will never be seen and are false.

Some things just make you queasy.

Puhua norjaa (Literally "to speak Norwegian".)

Lots of work to do, still.

...

Yup, tons and tons of work to do, behind the scenes, while not much gets done. Lots of plans, though. Galactic Destroyer Maker hasn't budged for months, nor has the comic. I wish I had some sort of hopeful phrase that I usually have to convey, but really all there is right now to deal with is... unending patience while a series of workable factors come into play to bring us a new hope for the future.

...yeah. ^^;;

*boggle*

*cough*

Still going on the backend of things. It's just taking a while to get things set up and going.

...

Wow, I am being vague, aren't I? Like I have something to hide or something. ^^;;

Site's now fully operational, including the archive page. Turns out, it was a pretty simple one-line thing that needed to be fixed. But it's done now. ^_^

Main comic links are now operational! You can view the pages again through the index.

Now to check with Esa to see if he's up for some more comicry despite all the oppressive, depressing cold and wet and cold and wet and... wet climate he's enduring right now. ^_^

Wheee! USA Presidential Elections! It's funny; I never really thought of politics as a touchy subject. Shows how much I get out, doesn't it? XD

Aaaaanyway, life goes on. And if I have anything to say about it, there'll be something weird to liven up this place relatively soon. Soon being... Oh, I don't know. But when it happens, it's supposed to be sustainable. And hopefully I don't mean server outages. ^_^;;

Pessimism? Nah, optimism and the constant fight to start back up when all of one's plans burn down to the ground and sink into the swamp.

"But the fourth one... stood up!"

(Looks at watch) Okay, so Danny's been sick the past few days, Ammon's been busy, and... so have I, actually. Therefore, the comic PHP has not been fixed. Plus, Esa's been busy too, so no new comic just yet, either.

And I've got large masters homework due soon, and... Tales of woe, which will be over this week, only to be replaced by something bigger and nastier. The old DBZ escalating conflict and all that. ^_^;

More plans have been set in motion, but I don't have much to show for it yet. Ah well. It'll be ready when it's ready. Hopefully before the universe explodes. AGAIN. ;)

Looks like Larry fixed the links! The comic page and archive page PHP isn't quite fixed yet, though. I'll try to speak with Ammon or Danny about getting it changed around so it works again.

I did some checking and found out that the comic pages are still there, but the index is a little fragged right now. To access the comic pages, you have to go to specific references in order to see them. Not hardly a proper way to view a comic, so we'll try to track down the source of the problem.

Speaking of problems, such as actual comic pages being made... Well, I'll let Esa tell you about that if he wants to. In the meantime, I'm still writing. I'm 44% done with the current writing project. I'll let'cha know when it'd done.

Hoo-kay! That was an interesting week or two. It seems something happened, then we had to temporarily change servers, and later we'll get it all back up and normal, but this will probably work fine for now. Or something to that effect. Perhaps when the comic pages themselves start working again and we get all the broken links fixed. And maybe when we get some more pages posted... ^_^;;

In any case, we're not dead. But, like Juliet, the comic site descended into the tomb only to awaken later to find her dearest love poisoned before her, and then to take a dagger to her heart later--

...

Okay, so that's a terrible analogy. :P

Or, we were dead, but we're much better now. Look, the forums are even working. As a matter of fact, you can discuss everthing in a specific thread in the forum. I know, months without any comic updates, then we go offline and scare everyone. Maybe it's all part of some grand master plan that will result in the conquest of the portobello market. Or perhaps not.

Anyway, those of you that are still faithfully checking the site... those of you that have kept the faith when no other sane people could, thanks. It's good to have such dedicated fans. You're nearly as crazy as we are. I salute you! ^___^

Okay, site's still feeling weird, but it's being worked on. ^_^;;

Feeling a lot better, overall, after a nice brain-encapsulating weekend playing video games and such. Even got some writing done.

Looks like Esa's zombied again. Probably another couple of weeks to a month before we hear from him. Or perhaps maybe in the spring when the sun finally comes out. Aaanyway, I continue to write and work on yet another semi-secret project with someone that's in Florida. :)

The process modeling midterm and the Business Communication class have been defeated, but I'm still a bit tired from the final battle. A couple more days and I'll be back up to snuff, so to speak. Writing continues, despite huge doubts creeping up every couple sentences I write. Now that the things I've been paranoid about for the past few weeks are over, I feel a lot better.

I don't know what to say about the stuff I'm writing since it's still on the backend of things... but rest assured that stuff continues.

I got some more writing done. Hip hip hooray and all that floomin' jargon. It's nothing postable; it's more of the backend stuff, but it's at least semi-nifty.

Esa's fighting off his usual winter bouts of depression again, so we must be patient with him. I'm fighting off my mid-term school insanity again, so we must be patient with me. Stuff will happen, eventually. ^_^;

Whew! Well, my bigger assignment got done.

...

Or, rather, it got to the point where I both ran out of time and mental capacity to deal with it, so I guess that's kind of like "done." ^_^;

It's really interesting. Either Masters courses aren't much tougher than undergraduate courses, I've expanded my own capacity to deal with work, or I'm just numb to the pain; when they tell us to do something unreasonable, I just nod and say with my eyes glazed over, "Sure! I can have that done in an hour!"

The most recent assignment took multiple sessions of several hours to complete, and I'm still not quite sure if I got the activity/state diagrams right... but it's done! Done, I say!

And then there was the presentation in the business communications class. My group and I practiced several times to get the presentation working right, but unfortunately we had no idea what the point of the presentation was, so we just took it from the perspective of us being sort of internal consultants to Cisco, talking about what can be done to better implement future ERP solutions or something silly like that. We were wrong and totally off-base, of course. We mustn't deny the instructors the sheer unadulterated pleasure of giving us a great big dressing-down/abrasive C&C in front of several other visiting professors. And we get to do it again next week, only for real. Kind of.

Hmm? No, I love the Masters in MIS program. We're technical, kind of, but trying to be businessy. The MIS graduate office is even down the hall from the MBA office.

I just HAD to pick the straight-jacketed schitzophrenic degree, didn't I? I don't know if I'm supposed to be a business person or a technical person, or both, or neither. Oh well.

It's IRONIC angst, y'see. I'm doing well in all my classes and getting along nicely in an advanced degree, with all kinds of things I like going on... and yet I'm still wallowing daily in some variety depression. Oh, wait, this is college. That's natural when they give assignments without end. And that's the way it's supposed to be, and we liked it...

Umm... yeah! While we're on that note, everyone clap your hands and sing to the 'shroom fairies in hopes of them granting the great wish that Esa can actually get some more postable art done. Or something to that effect. Might as well hope that I get more writing done. At this level of self-imposed insanity, I wouldn't put it past me to write some more. Life is just funny that way.

Hmm. A-hem! It is now my intention to play video games for several hours. Feel free to join me.

Things are getting busy again, like they always do. >_>

Nevertheless, we're working on stuff as fast as we can given the circumstances. ^_^;;

And the Extra is up! Thanks go out to Larry for getting it posted so quickly.

Okay, the Extra article's done and sent off to Larry. It should get posted within a day or two.

Hmm. I kind of promised Larry I'd get an Extra done this weekend, so I'll tinker with one and see what I can come up with. It'll probably be another character evolution study, like the last one with Terra.

And it'll be a good thing, too, since we haven't had any new material since July. :P

And I had a weird my life/Naruto fusion SI dream last night. The setting: the building where I have most of my classes. I was Naruto, Sasuke respected me, and Sakura seemed to like me a lot. Orochimaru was my instructor and I had to practice the forbidden sacrifice-revival technique, moral consequences or no. School must already be getting to me. o_O;;;

and the first frame of the next comic is done, too. Well, maybe.

(Squints blearily into the sunlight) Hmm... Yup, it's morning again..........

Ahem! I've been kind of fighting off a cold for the weekend, and it looks like it's not quite over yet. Ah well. ^_^;

We've been working on more stuff in the background. Unfortunately, it's not really postable material yet, but it's getting there. Autumn and winter are gradually rolling back in, so we'll see what kind of effects that has on everyone's respective brains. In the meantime, it looks like Larry's got broadband access again, so we can start bugging him again with random postable material again, probably. ^_^

Remember these words:

"Klaatu Verata Nikt*CoughCoughCough*"

Plenty going on. As Ben suggested, I've started a... sort of an "art journal". My job's officially ended... unofficially, I'm still working, though. I need to decide on my classes and whatnot, my car was broken into, and I'm trying to conjure a new comic into existence next saturday. Plus, there's some stuff I've forgotten.

I did finally finish Unreal Estate, though. Er, reading, that is. ( We touched the issue of ambiguous sentences in English class this week )

Okay, at this point it's safe to say, I won't be able to manage any more comics this month. I'm very sorry about that. However, I shouldn't have anything of overriding importance next weekend, so... maybe then?

Kinda busy.

English class, immediately after work. Good thing both are at the university. There\'ll be a new comic aaany day now. About 6-8 hours of work on it, and it\'s done. Now, where on earth could I find 6-8 hours...? Maybe I hafta start running on minutes, 5 min here, 5 min there...

Me and morning had an agreement that I would not wake up while it was still present. It seems that I have broken said agreement, and it has determined that I must pay the penalty. -_- ... I think I'm going blind. Yo. Oh, and I realize the physics aren't exactly correct on this, but I still think it's fun to look at.

Oh-ho-hoh! It gets even better! I'm starting up the MIS Masters program on Monday. Scarier still, we're next door to the MBA students. And we got job lectures from them and everything! The horror... the horror....

Still, if you want to get to know business, hanging around the wild and wicked MBAs is the way to go. I also applied for a job working at a computer lab. First interview went okay, second interview... not so well. I accidentally forgot the difference between a switch and a router, for example. My skills were described as, "Weak."

But we'll see. My "competition" includes other MIS students. And if they were trained just as well as I was....

Aye yai yai, the business people want MIS people to have more business skills, and the computer science people want MIS people to have a clue about technical skills. So, MIS people really are neither here nor there. But, the CEOs and CIOs are really the only people that get listened to, so here we are, learning more business skills. And yet not, 'cause we've got to learn technical skills. But we're not supposed to know them that well because we're supposed to be managing the people who actually do them. But we can't manage people well if we don't have a clue what their doing. But the time it takes to learn the skills well enough....

Reminds me of a little translated proverb I heard: "If tasty things aren't tasty, then are they still tasty?" Who knows? I'm going to work on getting this here funky degree to see if it's worth anything....

And oh yeah, there's the comic and writing to do. Fortunately, Esa's taking care of the comic. Unfortunately... well, the summer is drawing to a close and he might go crazy again. Ah, well, maybe he'll keep it together and I'll be the one to disappear for months at a time. It depends on how insane things get with the masters degree.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. Stuff... will happen, but yeah.

He'd probably be fine with it if there were biscuts or scones.

And on that note, a random bit of funny:

(quote)

Ah, yes. The Luna Pen...

"Disguise Power, change me into.. a Cup of Tea!" Princess Terra said. The energy flickered, attempted something, then promptly faded, leaving Terra exactly as she was before.

A tea kettle appeared out of nowhere and dropped to the floor. Its lid opened and Arby poked his head out.

"I'll not stand for this!" Arby said defiantly, dripping hot water.

"Oh, sorry, Arby!" Terra said in an embarrassed tone.

"I am not a cup of tea!" Arby said indignantly.

Terra thought about it. "You could be..."

Arby ducked back inside. "Alroight, but I won't loike it," he murmured from inside the kettle.

(unquote)

Hmm... Ramblings in realtime is a good read for those interested in this stuff. I have something of a Doom 3 fever - it comes out on the 13th here - which is also my payday, and the next week is a vacation. Sounds almost like fate, to me. Except that I only have a Radeon 9000 (225/175). Ouch

Aagh! this summer went by _sooo_ fast! (I worked for three months and all I got is this stupid RAM)... Crazy billage. ^^;

Um, yeah. I apologise for the surface level of deadness, but there are things a'brewing or whatever. I overuse the apostrophe, I know. Be prepared to check back next month (although I'm still planning on two comics this month) for... hm. Updates, I guess. Blue Zombie has a nice bunch o' updates, plus the latest comics are in color. woot.

Partially 'oighdroginated mushroom oil.

Aaa-ah.

I kinda want one of those tortured artist shirts. Does that make me a bad person? Hmm. I wonder, does my local Manga/RPG dealer have some of those MT books... I'm kinda interested at the commentary Piro put into the first book. Ah, whatever. As an aside, I'm gonna go throught Star Cross'ds archives any of these days.

Doesn't scan quite right, does it? ^__^; Ah well, can't be helped, now. Or could be.... But, probably won't. Maybe we'll do a big revision-type thing at some point in the far, far, far, far, far future? Say, around chapter... 50? At this pace, that'll be around...2100ish, if I pick up the pace.

OH! Just remembered what I was gonna say: This is June's comic. July's comic will follow when it's done... in August. ^^;; Hopefully August's comic shall be in august, too. Well, maybe. It will probably be cutting quite close.

As promised, Esa came through! We now have a sparkly new comic to look at! Yay! ^__^

Hmm... Well, there's been a tiny bit of progress on GDM. It's sort of the guts of the thing that are being worked out, so nothing flashy to show off quite yet. I'm also finishing my job of polishing up one of the last milestones for my MIS class tonight...

Larry's getting readjusted to his new surroundings on the other side of the country, so I won't bother him to edit and put together any Extras just yet, though I do have one in mind similar to the last one, for a different character.

Esa's been... pretty busy with work, coding bunches of stuff, but if I understand correctly, he'll have a page finished AAANY week now. ^_^;;

And me? On the fanfic front, I've been writing quite a bit, actually. But it's not ready yet. Best not subject it to editors when I really, really don't want to hear anything, positive or negative, just yet.

Oh! And I've got Jury Duty on Thursday. I can't think of any jury in the world in their right mind that would want to have me on it, but still, gotta go. It's me civic duty and such. Wouldn't be proper if I didn't. ^_-

Well, you's either gotsta believe 'em or beloie 'em. 'Cause if you just lieve 'em, then they can loie ta yew, or if you loie to them, then they won't lieve yew.

Aaaaah! My arts!!!!

...Wait a minute, should I _really_ believe an Arbyfish?

Oh dear, he seems to have eaten all the art for the past three months. That explains a lot. Oh well, back to the drawing board, then. -_- o_O ^_^

It wos roight tasty, it wos. ^^

Oh my, where is that comic art when I need it? ^_^;;;

Li'l bit dead around here for a little while, hasn't it been? Well, we're getting things prepped and figured out. It'll get worked out eventually. ^_^;;

My pictures/nettg folder has reached the size of 600MB. O_o; Ookay, time to backup.

Insanity is what we strive for. It is the word we have used for ages. However, we do not strive for psychosis. More recently, indubitability has replaced much of the insanity, but insanity forms the basis of indubitability, so therefore we is wot is, and that is that. A shroom by any other name still squelches in the dark. Prick me do I not ask for monetary reimbursement? Tickle me, do I not gnaw your limbs off? Poison me, do I not become the Kwisatz Haderach?

Mental exhaustion

That seems to be the common theme of my days, after I get back from work. let's hope the next couple of weeks when the code is frozen will give me a time to recharge. I've discovered a few interesting things, like WikiPedia, Artima and so on. There _is_ some sort of a difference between an artistly mindset and a soft-dev mindset, yet there are enough similarities that... Um, dunno. Do something, probably. Ah well.

Esa's quick opinions on series; Pugyuru looks like it could've been made with Flash, absurd-funny, me likes. Papuwa is kinda interesting, except I want Kotaro to blow something up. a bit Guu-ish. Sensei no Ojikan tries to be kind-of Azumanga-like, or so it seems to me. Any Azu is good Azu, and I liked it. Kenran Butoh Sai: Mars Daybreak looks like it could be the next Outlaw Star or something. Me likes that too... Hm. Actually, I doubt I'll mention series I _don't_ like... Since I don't remeber their names. Aishiteru ze Baby was... kind of, mellow. I did like it, even if the family was annoying. Kawaii-ken warning, though. I liked the animation in Kasumin, for the most part, and the main character's good enough. Sou nanda was too childish for me. Mujin Wakusei Survive might be good, but I have other series I need to look at first, like E's Otherwise and Stellvia. Kyo kara maou is not funny, and yet, it is. I'm a complete and total Tenjo Tenge fan (Masataka's my favourite character)... umm, okay, that's enough.

Earlier I said, "Ben's Insane. Or Brilliant."

And, well, yes, but... Dunno, 'Insane' is getting to be an overused word. Perhaps a better description would be... "Ingenious with a flair for the absurd", but that's not entirely right either. But, what I mean is that Ben's insane in the same sense as, say, the Wright brothers were insane, as in, pushing the boundaries of.... something-or-other. In mental health sense, he's quite balanced - or fakes it very well, at least. And why am I talking about this? No idea. Got kinda annoyed by seeing the word "insane", I guess.

Oh, and I should have a chance to do comiccy things today. Wish me luck, cuz that seems to be needed. (Oh, and it will count as a last month's comic. >_<;; )

Due to having a case of guest, Sunday was a total waste of productivity. Did watch a bunch of stuff, though. I probably won't draw anything serious tonight, since I'll be at work 'til late PM, so... more news tomorrow?

Oh, and just for the record, Ben's Insane. Or Brilliant. Your Pick. Must Begin Every Word With An Uppercase Letter.... Oh, where was I?

It's so hot today. -_-;;;;;;;;;;;

Although, I'm sure Ben and other Arizona-ites would laugh at the face of... whatever amount of degrees we have here. I wanted to do some work-work today, but no doors were open at the University. So, I went exercising instead, walking about half of the time, and running the other half. Y'know, medium exercise, about equal to playing DDR on hard. Anyway, I was at it for 3 hours and 12 minutes, or, 2300 calories worth, according to my heart rate monitor. That more or less doubled my daily energy consumption for today. Much pain and wiped-outness. Still, I'll try to work on the page when I can muster the strenght to hold a pencil, okies?

I'm late I know.... I am very busy right now, we're preparing for the last 0. release before 1.0 at work. Although, we might do another prelim, maybe... hmm. But, that's an excuse, really. It would only take a few hours of intense concentration from me to finish the comic, too. I _try_ to put my few remaining hours to it every day, but... well, emphasis on "try." Argh. T_T;;;;;;

Ghu. Gonna get a bit of sleep, couldn't quite finish yet... Which, officially means, "no comic this month". There might be one later today, though (it's already the first here)

Apologies. (Crouch of the Wild Tiger!)

I've removed the counter at the bottom, and we've instituted our own site stats to make ourselves feel better. :D

Hmm... Something seems to be causing popups to appear... Either it's a weird spyware issue on the browser side, or the hit counter's causing something to execute. I HATE popups, and to think that somebody's causing them to appear on MY free comic site... well, that just makes me not very happy. I've been using Mozilla and Netscape with popup blocking features, so I haven't really noticed it until I loaded it up with IE and with Netscape without popup blocking in it.

In any case, I'll be looking into it. Maybe we'll just get rid of the hit counter. Did I mention I hated popups? Yes, well, we haven't gotten any complaints about them, but I want them gone, so I'll ask Larry and see if Ammon can get a Simud-specific hitcounter added.

Lots of distractions. Still, our goal is to have the next page done before next Wednesday. I may be able to come up with another quick Extra as well.

It seems I've been living in the past... *literally!*

I thought today was Friday! Eeep!

Aah! what happened to Valkyrie Yuuki! The site is... Gone-ish! Does anyone know?

Whoa... Ian's new wallpaper... O_o;;; That reminds me of... hm. Well now, that would be telling.

Oh, and for those wondering why I've been "silent", there's a compound of reasons:

1) I have a job, which eats a noticeable chunk of my time, 2) I haven't really had anything significant to say... okay, that kinda correlates with the first reason, since I haven't had time to do any webhunting. ANYway, to present, I'm working on a new page, it's going quite well now... on the occasions I can pick up a pencil - well, specifically for drawing comic, instead of, say, UML diagrams. Oh, and I'm sick, as in ill, as in, I caught some brand of a bug. It's still kinda getting worse before it gets better, but I'm treating it, and I should get over it in a week's time.

edit: *phew*, okay, it seems like I just happened to check during a random server-down, or something. SGVY is still there.

And the Extra's up! Thanks go out to Larry for all the formatting and stuff he did. :)

The Extra has been written and it has been sent in to Larry for review. I think it's a cool subject. We'll have to save the Extra Special Extra I have in mind for later, when I can finish it. It's more of a fanfic, really.

Esa and I have plans this week to get, like, stuff done, so wish us luck and cheer us un and awl that floomin' jargon. ^_^

Esa's been drawing the frames for the next couple pages. He's also working and stuff, and I've been going to school and such...

Ever have a webcomic, only you're not the artist and don't have much artistic talent, only you've got some decent plotting ability, and a few stories you've written in the past that you got some fans from?

I mean, you'd think it'd be EASY to get a good webcomic going. After all, how long can drawing a few frames every couple days take? Well, as I've worked with Esa over the past couple years, I've discovered that drawing is an art.

...well, yes, but--

By an art, I MEAN that it isn't a science. Not what we do, anyway. A science is testable, provable, and repeatable. A formula that works is a formula that always works, within certain boundaries. It might take a few seconds to calculate the answer, but it can be done over and over again, always generating success.

Art, on the other hand, is a universe of gray areas. There are thousands of ways of getting a "correct" answer and thousands of ways of messing the whole thing up. At the same time, all your answers are right, and yet they're all wrong. It's not always repeatable, even if you re-draw an image using tracing paper. A formula that works to get one (and by one, I mean Esa) to draw well on one day doesn't usually work the next day. Plus, the results aren't always the same. Terra, for example, has evolved considerably over the past year or more. In fact, I think I'll put together an Extra that details the character evolution throughout the comic. Overall, I think the development has been for the better.

It's like writing. Writing is an art as well. Each time I touch the characters, they changed just a bit. They grow and change in my mind as well as on paper/the screen. As one works more with art, the more experienced one (and by one, I mean me and Esa) gets, and the result is better.

So, I'm sorry we haven't been able to get this comic on a proper schedule... but yet I'm very glad we've had time for the ideas to evolve in our heads and develop the characters before getting too far along.

Hmm. Yeah. Okay, who's still here? Well, glad you're still here! ^_^ May your patience continue to be greater than the hermit atop the mountain as the sun shines through the clouds and such. G'night, and I'll muddle over the character evolution Extra. Not sure. Could take weeks. :)

The weekend went all weird, so I ran out of time to properly write.

Though, I did get to see Harry Potter 3: Revenge of the Hippogriff. ^_^ 'Er something to that effect. (Oh, it's a Hippogriff. Koinda loike a mix between a hippo n' a griff. 'Ere, troie sum.) It was... another Harry Potter movie. Nothing more... but nothing less. Better than the last one, though. It had plot devices, but not quite as bad as a phoenix.

Oh, and summer school starts tomorrow. It's only an hour and a half, three days a week, but it's also the final course to complete in my Bachelor's degree, so that means horrific group projects, convincing a company to sponsor our 5-6 person team, conducting user surveys, experimenting upon them like rats...

I mean, it's not something I'd dislike doing out of sheer morbid curiosity, but I need to do it for a grade. I already walked in my graduation. Failing a course now... well, it just simply wouldn't be proper.

Then in the fall, graduate courses start. I'll only be taking 10 credits, but I'm told they're a really MEAN bunch of 10 credits. They, like, bite and scratch and sting ya or something. 500+ level courses. Plus a masters project.

What, me worry? Naaaah. Nah. This is just culture shock. o_O;;

I'll be fine in the morning. Really I will.

Oh, and if we just happen to get a new page sometime this month... it'll be possible since Esa, Larry, and I went over the script and the layout, and behold, it was good.

Anyway, I'm feeling that delightfully executive urge to go jump out a window. I guess that's a side effect of taking courses at a business college. Wish me luck! ^_^

The idea has formed and become coherent. But it'll take a few more days to get it done. I'm not writing an epic, but it'll be like a decent-sized single-part fanfic. It's another ArbyFish one, so... more core NETTG fanfic stuff will take just a bit longer as well. Plus, summer school starts next week. On the other hand, it's one class and not a barrage of them. The outlook is positive. I'd say... you're probably justified in getting your hopes up this time.

Hmm... Looks like I've tried to be overambitious with my next Extra idea. I'll tinker with it some more to see if the idea gels.

Hmm. No comic this month, since Esa's been fighting artist's block and also has this big, evil project to do, on top of working every weekday. So, I'll try to get some variety of spiffy Extra worked out before the end of the month.

I'm not dead yet.

Summer school starts in a couple of weeks, and until then, I've got vacation. I feel weird when I'm on vacation. It's one of those rare times when I'm not stressed beyond belief and one moment away from terrible destruction or some silly nonsense like that. I feel like... "Aren't I supposed to be worrying about..." And then... what? What am I supposed to be worried about? This is a break! Oh, I suppose I could angst about my future and worry about where I'm going and what I'll do with my life. Or better yet, I could cry about the debt I'll have to go into to fund my Masters degree... (ahh, student loans--joy!) but if I was worrying about all that, I'd be worrying all day. Can't do much about them yet. I do have plans to get some kind of assistantship at the university so I can at least say I'm working... but that has yet to be done.

What does this have to do with the comic? Well, if I'm stressed out and worried, I can't write nice n' proper. If I'm calm and confident, I can write just fine.

In other news, I saw Shrek 2 today. It's a decently good sequel--no complaints. Pixar and Dreamworks still seem to be making nice stuff. I wonder how Disney will get along without them.

Hmm... New silly Cartoon Network series worth watching: MEGAS XLR. I love a good, destructive parody giant robot show. Much more entertaining than stuff out now like Gundam Seed. ^_^

And... I also finished watching Azumanga Daioh. Considering I just... kind of... "graduated" from Undergraduate stuff, there's plenty of stuff to be nostalgic about. Of course, I wasn't surrounded by a bunch of cute, spirited women ('cept for whatshername... she's pretty peppy, especially for a finance major). Plenty of characters to keep an eye on, even in a business college.

I went to a meeting about some sort of proposed expansion/recruitment thingamajigger for the World Financial Group. Sounded okay at first, and a lot of people I knew were there, but as the presentation progressed, something strange happened: I was convinced they were completely wrong because their arguments hinged on being able to get a 8-12% rate of return on deposits and investments. Yup, that meant nothing to me a few years ago, but in my Economics classes, I learned that nowadays, the only way to get that kind of interest rate is in risky stocks and bonds and such. "Har-har! So long, suckers! I'll be around long after your stocks have crashed!" I thought as I left. o_O Where in the world did I learn to think like that? It's a shame what business courses do to you, really. ^_^

And what am I going to do now? Keep on truckin' and do what I can about fanfic material. I've got some new ideas that won't leave me alone. :)

And with this weekend passes my Undergraduate graduation commencement ceremony. I'm only now getting around to talking about it since I'm still a bit stunned from it all. First was my convocation with the Eller Business College. My mother commented that it was so funny how everyone was all dressed up businesslike, in suits, and several talking on cellphones. It was well organized, actually, though they didn't explain the lack of seating arrangement at first, but the solution became obvious later.

And then on Saturday, the Commencement! It was cool. We, the blue-robed ones, marched a mile or whatever from the Bear Down Gym to the McKale center, and sat down. The indoor stadium was packed. Nobody waited until the end to celebrate. People were all throwing tortillas around the place, knocking caps off, dual-spraying silly string at the people in front of them... hooting and hollering and pounding feet... It was COOL! My graduation rocked! ^_^_^_^

We had a former U of A student and basketball player come in and give us a speech. He commented that he could understand the tortillas (I say that they make good disposable frisbees), but he kind of wondered about the cheese enchilada that had gotten tossed on stage....

The faculty mentioned that tossing food around was kind of disrespectful to hungry people in the world who don't have such things, and I can kind of agree with that. (Better than the excuse that tossing around tortillas is somehow offensive to Mexicans. A decent chunk of the graduates were from Mexico or had Mexican family members... and they were doing the throwing, just like everyone else!)

So yeah, a minor formality of one last class (MIS441) during the summer, and I'll have gotten my Bachelor's degree. Yay! Now I can go on to my Masters degree in MIS and pay big bunches of money for yet another piece of paper... which I hope will make me bigger bunches and piles of money in return.

I really kind of wanted a Creative Writing degree... but I wouldn't be able to do much with that except perhaps teach. Ah well. Just have to go to work for endless hours at some prestigious financial institution, make bunches of money, and write on the side. After all, silly rich people can do whatever they like, it seems. :P

Finals are over... all hail the sleet and snow! May its rain be long.

For me: Finals on Thursday, studying before then, along with plotting, meditation, torture, and knitting... and then, good ol' Graduation Commencement/Convocation on Friday and Saturday.

Then, I get to take the final course in my Bachelor's degree over the summer and start my Masters program in the fall. This "school" thing... I've been in it since I was five years old, and it hasn't let up since. There had better be a cookie in this, somewhere. :P

Comic-wise, we know generally what's going to happen. After all, a lot of it was already plotted since the fanfic's debut, but this is Hollywood... ermh,, I mean, WebbyNet er' some junk. So, naturally, we'll be specifically contradicting a few things here, adding some details there, blowing other things out of proportion way over there... Ah, well. You'll see. It'll be great. Bet'cha a mouldy, green speckled ArbyFish pelt it will. :) Speaking of which, anyone seen the newest ArbyFish comic today?

Nettg: Plotting and planning,

Life: Tests, Projects, Job hunting...

Linkage... Um, bit-tech.

I bookmarked it mainly due to this.

Also, this is very useful to all you C programmers without MSDN, or a heavy stack of reference books.

Today I learned, spaghetti doesn't last for three days - especially outside the fridge. Penicillin in my gravy, mmm...

Hm. maybe that's why I was feeling kinda weird yesterday.

Woo-hoo! Three whole comics in April. Once on April 1st, another on the 8th, and the final one on the 30th. Esa had been saying that it was borderline possible that it might happen, and he was up really late doing it (so late, it was too early to go to bed, in fact!) after a crazy day... but he did it! He will not have died in vain--er!! I mean, stayed up really late in vain. Our hearts go out to him, as he struggles to finish his classes... He gets a break for now, but once the script for the next few pages gets decided... ohh, it'll be GREAT! ^_^_^_^

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. New comic page today, finishing out the joke from the previous page, continually moving onward and upward and sideways and slantways as we work to accomplish the goals of this chapter! This chapter's a particularly nifty one in that we get to establish all kinds of characters and run along with them for a little while as we focus on the misadventures of that cute lil' galaxy-destroying entity made flesh. It's a perfectly proper character establishment activity, y'see.

One thing that's struck me about doing the story in this comic format is how every page seems to need its own joke. Certainly, if we were doing bunches of pages at a time like Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki, we could get off the hook of not having a joke in each page, but when we're doing infrequent updates... or even if we went berserk and did a three-per-week thing, we'd still need each page to kind of be able to exist on its own. Of course, this being a comic with a storyline, it also needs to "flow" from one page to the next without breaking the "continuity" so bad. A bit of duplicity with both parts being necessary, as it were. I've read other webcomic artists/writers note the same thing. Yup, each page needs to be entertaining--an explosion in every pot, as it were. o_O

Ahh, yes... We talk about Esa having difficulties with school and things... but what about me? What about MY needs? I just got done today with a torturous beast of a group project that had been tormenting us for the entire semester. It was a tough road to completion.... The monster was kicking and screaming and biting every inch of the way. It just didn't want to DIE! But that's over now, and it wasn't a clean kill... but the beast is slain, if only barely.

Next up on the agenda is this Social Issues of Computing term paper I need to complete. It's a 4000-word (oh, maybe 10 page) essay that I got to choose a topic on. Mostly, the class talks about copyright/patent/privacy/legal issues about the Internet, and the instructor is a definite follower of the likes of Lessig, Stallman, and Torvalds. She uses a Mac, but that's no big deal--in her heart of hearts, she wants to be a Linux user. You can see it in her EYES. ^_^

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyhew, I haven't started much on that term paper, and it's due Tuesday. Not to worry, though! I chose a topic that I've been researching for the past several years--ever since Ammon declined to read my NETTG fanfic because he only read webcomics. Yes, my friends... I am doing a term paper... on the Social Issues of Webcomics! Since I've got about two years of research under my belt and kind of/sort of run a webcomic myself, I feel that I should be able to at least comment on the subject, while commenting on the other big names out there, like the Sluggy Freelance crew, Tycho and Gabe at Penny Arcade, Space Coyote at Saturnalia, wossname at 8-Bit Theater/Nuklearpower, and those... two... gals... at 9thelsewhere.com. All the names out there are freely available on the web for me to reference, and since they've almost all got rants and rant archives, I'm halfway there. I've learned such things about the differences between standard published comickers and the pursuers of webcomicky goodness. A webcomic artist can tell off a publisher easily, while it might be harder for a traditional comic-maker to turn down a deal. Yup, webcomickers typically go after what they like to see, not caring for what the "masses" may choose to go after. I'd say the difference between traditional comickers and webcomickers is as stark as the difference between the news on TV and the news on somebody's blog. And yet somehow, they are the same... yet different.

This is, again, Ben, and we wish you all a hearty comic-reading! Thank'ya, g'night! ^___^

Okay, having just re-read the archives, I can conclude:

1. This thing... it's pretty good!

2. I'm not drawing even closely fast enough.

The race is on to finish the next page before the end of this month. That would make three this month... That averages to... almost forthnightly, right? Oh well, linkage: Rules of Make-Belief is kinda heavy, but well worth the time of checking the archives... plus, they update kinda regularly. Animation Meat has some neatness... and good info. A lot of good info comes in the form of plain text, which can be kinda boring... but if one's _really_ interested in something, it's worth it. Shadowed... What can I say? Mako-chan introduced me to pOnju forums, and people... and I still can't match her drawing skills. IMO. Average Jane... Had to link a webcomic in this post, now didn't I? Kinda funny, kinda thought-provoked, still in my "unsorted" folder. Ah well, we now return to our regularly scheduled wait for next comic.

First the bad news: No new comic this week either. I guess the good news would be that the reason is not me moping or being in an uncreative slump or anything like that. I've just been busy with other stuff. I do have a bunch of unscanned drawings, and I'll be hopefully drawing the arts for the comic this weekend. Of course, there's a high probability I'll goof off a lot of the time, but... maybe not!

Linkage: Project J has good descriptions of a bunch of Japanese bands. I think I've mentioned Joel before. There's some Finnish comics on the web, some funny, some a bit too artsy for me... but interesting, anyway. Desert Rocks has a new URL. And here's some art done by people who actually know what they're doing. The CG style is.. well, comiccy, but... *drool*

Bruce's Typing Tutor.

Hm.

I doubt misspelling will get you disemboweled with a rusty spoon, though. Bah.

Yup, no comic this weekend. I did draw some stuff, so check out the forum thread. or Fairytale comics, or something.. Haven't really checked those myself all that well, but looks good, and Faerytale's Tsuki is interested in animation, which is good. I'm an animation nut, but you... probably knew that already, if you've checked the forums. Besides, hey, Anime. duh!

Hmm... What else... Distrowatch is often useful, even though I don't currently have an active linux box. That'll probably change a bit in near future. (A part-time linux box?) Then, if you're feeling down, you can always benefit of the Egobooster.. Oh, and Newgrounds' flash purtal's top 50 has good stuff. Just start from the top. "There she is" and "FF Tribute - Chocobo mix" deserve a viewing.

"But Esa, what if people don't have Flash installed?"

What, people _not_ having all the greatest and latest? Inconcievable!

Anyway, I'm off for the weekend, I'll 'see' you all next Monday.

It'll be another little while before the next comic page is out. But we'll likely be able to keep the once-per-month goal we've got going. ^_^;;

Good news! Esa managed to come up with the next comic page! As these pages go, it's looking pretty good. We're slowly but surely moving the storyline along, as it comes to us.

In the meantime, everyone have a great Easter weekend! My birthday's this weekend as well. All the more cause to celebrate. Esa's taking the weekend off, and I think I might as well. :)

四月だ。よろしく願いするぜ！

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! Okay, joke time's over. Here's the real comic. It seems Esa hasn't started up his own legendary Ruroni Fishmonger story after all. He's still alive and kicking--on the up and down spiral, as always. ^_^;;

The backup artist is still... not quite ready. For that reason, we can't manage the three per day schedule I'd like, so it's back to tentative monthly postings. Besides, I guess the NETTG:TEY readers were far too jaded to fall for such a simple ruse. Ah, well. Can't blame us for trying.

The April Fool's comics'll be posted in the Extras section under a new Filler Comic or Extras Comic category once Larry gets them up. Probably not too long. In any case, thanks for sticking with us!

Happy Comic Anniversary! We've had this thing going for about a year now, and we've got... a fair amount done in that time. We've had some lofty goals, but it's nice to see things coming along at a reasonably... steady pace.

This time of celebration is darkened a bit by some odd news: Esa's disappeared from school and gone off to become a wandering fishmonger... AGAIN. >_<;;; I don't know what's wrong with that guy... He complains all the time and keeps wasting away the hours on unimportant things. How DARE that boy eat or sleep on comic-drawing time! Grr. I mean, seriously, people... From the indications I've seen, he's probably not going to be coming back this time, so I've brought the backup artist on board full-blast. To inagurate his coming, he's made... not one, but THREE pages that are up today! The first is just phenomenal! The second is incredible, and the third just cannot be missed or believed. I mean, look at that CRAFTSMANSHIP! Megatokyo, Smegatokyo I say... THIS is where it's really at!!!

We're increasing the schedule to three pages per day for the next three months to catch up. The guy says he doesn't ever sleep, and I kind of believe it, the way he's been grinding stuff out the past couple of days. This is pretty much what the rest of the comic's going to be looking like, over the years, so sit back, and enjoy!

The Queen Serenity and Princess Serenity sections are up, as well as Laios's in the Cast area. Most of the rest of the characters aren't going to pop up in the series for quite some time, especially at the rate we're presently going. :P

ASK's description's pretty much already done, along with a couple of others, but they won't be along until probably a bit after chapter 2 or 3.

Esa seems a little out of it right now--either on vacation or in the midst of yet another random out-of-commission streak. So, at the earliest, he'd be able to get another comic drawn sometime late next month. I'll check with my backup plan to see if we can get one drawn up sooner.

My first "rant" in quite a while, eh? Just want to announce officially that we have the "cast" section open for business. It includes character write-ups for Terra and the Elder Senshi, and there will be others soon. Next up will be Queen Serenity and Laios, that handsome devil who serves as my avatar. ^_^

Just click on the "cast" link up at the top of the page and see all the background info!

All righty, then! The little overhaul got done, with the combined efforts of Danny and Larry, tweaking the pages and the PHP code. Seems to be working fine now, and Larry's happy about the new page setup. The comic and archive pages are working fine now.

And, like I said, there's a new Extra up. So, if you're curious about seeing that followup to the Star Wars Galaxies article I wrote up in December, there it is! Future Extras shouldn't have much to do with MMORPGs, so don't count this as an ongoing trend. ^_^;

Larry spent all day working out the page layout and getting the 60+ thumbails for it done. All's well that ends well, eh?

We're having a bit of technical difficulties, since Larry's overhauling the background works of the site... So, the comic and archive aren't currently working... but at least the next Extra's up! ^_^;;;;

The new Extra's finally been finished, and sent to Larry for editing. With any luck, it'll be up within the next couple of days. It's a Star Wars Galaxies-centric one... but I felt I needed to get that out of the way before moving on to more NETTG-related Extras. After all, there's been a bit of nifty art to pass around here since Esa's gotten back. :)

And who knows what I might do this April 1st... A few years back, my brother posted a teaser for the continuation of NETTG that couldn't possibly be true, and yet was. Last year, this comic got started on that day as a fake-out that couldn't possibly be true, and yet was. Gotta gear up for the anniversary. One year going and we've got, like, 21 pages. Imagine how many we'll have by next year! ^_^;;

I've got the images selected for a new Extra. I'll finally be explaining what I did with my Star Wars Galaxies character during that free trial period over a month ago. Once the Extra's done (probably within a few days), we can get back to Extras focusing on random topics having to do with the comic. After all, I've still got plenty to talk about. :)

okay, Beta release comic is up!. I think it's quite nice even as-is... missing backgrounds and whatnot, but seriously... it doesn't really need much. Oh, and Pita Ten is to blame for the second-to-last frame. ^^;

Still... I'd say today's experiment...........Succeeded!

Oye doesn't update more than we does. ^_^; For it is out, through, and down instead of across, over, and above. Would yew loike tew boie a noun? Oye offa' the word 'glove.' If yew wants it, yew's gots'ta pay! Wot, don't wants it? Fa' free then, take it away. Cloidsdayle butter-cake for fourty years and fourty nights. Lapping on the window-pane of ostridge pineapple deloight.

NETTG:TEY Chapter 1 Page 10 Frame #5 Attempt #6... Maybe I'll get lucky this time. *suuuuu*

Okay, looks like it'll work. And now I'm stuck halfway through #6. Figures.

Mmm. El Goonish Shive's latest plotline _is_ intriguing, I wasn't imagining things. Plus, they update more often than we... then again, who doesn't ^_^;

Chibi anatomy studies... Brrrr!

Today, I went a bit mad. I kept neurotically checking Ponju forums, for one. I think I did some art, but I only have the faintest recollection of such. I think the comic progressed a bit. I feel a bit better now, did some Chi Gung, Kikou, callitwhateveryoulike, anyway, energy work to help me relax. Also, discovered a whole bunch of muscles on the verge of cramping in my back. Sit a whole lot, and ignore your exercise, and see what you get. Ah well.

I'm going to draw a bit more, and then go to sleep. Of course, my intentions and actions have been known to be... disparate from time to time.

---

Oh, and anyone else think Armitage III is freakin' cool?

And now it's 0%... due to week being over. *sigh

On the plus side, quite a bit of work did, in fact, get done, so... um. _maybe_ monday. I won't be able to touch the comic 'til around 8 PM my time, due to a little case of exam, but that still leaves me with 4 hours... wich _might_ be enough to get me to editing stage.

About that... It seems I'm drawing slower than I used to... maybe I'm being more cautious? Hm. Maybe I could try just working the lineart on pencil&paper, and putting the shades in via CG... Oh, and, if you wonder why NETTG is all gray? well, here's a good reason:

See? (oh, and the anatomy is wonky... details, details. I never notice these things until afterwards. It's decent from the ribcage up, though)

And, who knows, it might not be an oncoming train. ^_^

Probability of a new page this week: 58%

We chatted a bit on the layout for the next page. Woo! ^_^

Esa's still got, like, responsibilities and such, so we're still taking a laid-back approach to the situation. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

Greetings. I\'m trying to get back on the... er, drawing horse.

I\'ve been a bit of a mess, lately. What\'s been going on is, that I\'m studying at university, which uses a certain chunk of time, plus trying to find a summer job, plus getting back to martial arts. Although, most of my time has gone to procrastinating about getting all that stuff done. Thus, mess.

February 14th, and still no art in sight. Esa continues to recover slowly, and the backup plan is moving on to expression sheets. Sigh. ^_^;;

Nevertheless, have yahselves a very nice Valentine's Day!

By the way, there happens to be a snippet of the NETTG fanfic rewrite on the forums here, for the curious ones.

Good news! Esa is alive and kicking! He's still kind of recovering from an odd situation, so we're taking it easy and letting him get back into the swing of life before we worry about the comic. In the meantime, I'm still prepping a backup on the characters and plots.

Just a bit longer...

Wow, it's been two months since I last made a comic. This one is... meh. But at least it's something. If you're experienced in DDR, you might recognize the step pattern. It's the butterfly turn they teach you in lesson mode on fourth mix... not sure about subsequent mixes. I'm also not sure why they attribute it to butterfly. I can't find it anywhere in the song.

School hasn't been that tough for me this semester so far. There's still a lot of stuff to worry about, though, like graduate school and what to do with my life during and after that.

Danny helped out a bit with the Inventory function in GDM. As for the comic, I'm still working on the backup plan. It's anybody's guess as to whether we're a few weeks or a few months away from posting any new material in the comic. We're thinking of taking it even easier than normal in preparation for that. However, I do plan on having a new Extra posted sometime soon. Ah, the joys of going into creative hibernation...

Okay, I got my fill of the free trial Star Wars Galaxies period, said goodbye to everyone again. It was borrowed time anyway, so that's okay.

In the meantime, I've been concocting some character descriptions based on the art I have available from Esa, so we might have some material to post in the as yet unused Cast subsection of the page.

Still no word from Esa. I hope he's okay...

I think we may have a case of Spontaneous Artist Combustion (complete with all the little squishy bits), so I'm preparing a switch to Plan B. To complicate matters further, Star Wars Galaxies is having a week free for people that previously cancelled their accounts. Lots of people I knew were crazy-happy to see me online. I don't plan on continuing beyond the February 2nd limit... but we'll see. Suffice it to say I'm on a contingency plan right now. Wish me luck in getting it worked out! ^_^;;;

The comic's navigation bar has been mostly repaired. Esa's vanished again, so we'll have to wait a bit longer for the next comic page. We may not get one done this month.

Okay, there's a minor issue in the NETTG comic viewing bar that happened when the ArbyFish page got added back in. We'll look into fixing that. >_>;;

Whelp, Oye got a li'l temporary page for the ArbyFish up. I'll work on making it pretty later, but now... lunch.

Email's back up, if you'd like to send me, Esa, or anybody else a comment or suggestion or two. ^_^

Poking around functions of the server, it looks like there's plenty of stuff to get shaken down. Avatars on the forum'll need to be re-uploaded, for example.

Ah, well. It had to get done.

Forums are back up! It looks a bit different, but I've noticed it has fewer broken links on it. For example, the spellchecker that never worked isn't linked to, and... It may be a newer version, but I haven't asked Ammon about it. Thanks to Ammon for getting it back up!

Danny'll get around to redoing his ArbyFish page when time and motivation permits. It's not every day you wake up to find your page accidentally deleted. ^^;;

Okay, the site's back up... mostly. The Comic and the Extras are working, but the forum and Danny's ArbyFish comic are currently down for the count. The server's email's down for me, too... Hopefully it'll all be back up in a day or two.

Okay, the scheduled downtime is for this Thursday or possibly Friday, the 8th or 9th. Stuff may be odd while we (that is to say, Ammon) gets the server's software overhauled. We're trying to avoid having bits of things missing from the site, but there's always the chance something might happen.

So, that's Thursday and Friday for Server Maintenance. Don't be alarmed if the page is down during that time. Thanks for sticking with us!

The server's going to have some scheduled downtime... probably this week. Ammon's going to fix up the Linux installation, try to set up a RAID, and extract a bad hard drive. More info later when the time gets set up.

I started writing about my SWG character as well... then I didn't stop writing for a long time, so I'm putting the link here.

A while back, I promised to write up an Extra, detailing my 3-4 month experiences with an MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies. So, I finally did! Others like Ian McConville and the people at Clan Bob have detailed their experiences with Final Fantasy XI, so it's only natural that I should follow along and talk about how I got into, played, and finally escaped SWG. Read about it here in the Extras page. Enjoy!

And... Yes, it's between Christmas and New Year's, so it's still kind of like Christmas. ^_^

So... is it Christmas yet?

Merry Christmas to all, now you're all gonna... er, I mean, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I didn't manage to get any fanfic material done, but I am gaining more command over the code Danny left behind for GDM. I managed to get a few things together, like some of the images displaying at the proper... Well, yeah, I'm starting to understand it, so that's a good thing.

Christmas. Yay to all.

This week's fanfic writing challenge.................... Failed.

Aaron Bergman and I made considerable progress on each of our chapters... but we didn't manage to finish them. The new goal's set for Christmas day. It's kind of unplanned how I might be able to schedule that, however we're moving along, which is more than could be said last week. ^_^;;

Weird.

Overload.

Meh. I'll pass.

Today's Finals............................... Failed?

Okay, so finals were a bit odd. But we are not defeated... are we?

I think I did fine on mine, though I could have done a bit better. But, others in the group were having a tough time. We'll see how Esa does when he gets a chance to talk about it. =^.^=

Oh, yeah... final and stuff. At least it's my last one, then I can rest in peace. All hail the queen of New Brunswick!

Actually, I think you might be... I know I am in 5 hours when my final begins...

I'm not dead yet.

Okay, I've got my last final for this semester in the morning, and after that I only have to decide my fate for the next few years, and oh yeah... I've got a bet going with Aaron Bergman to see who can get a full-blown chapter of something done by Saturday evening. We will see who will vanquish who in this battle. Oh, yes, we shall see. ^,^

As for Esa... he's got plans for one more thing before vacation. Pounded together in the moments between the evil-death-horror-classes, it'll contain the condensed droplets of sheer, unrefined artistic goodness. ...Of course, this sort of depends on him snatching precious moments from study and sleep in order to accomplish it, so again, we shall see.

In the meantime, only a little over a week before I wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It's roight propa', y'see!

And it's up!

Nng. >_<;

There WILL be a new comic today!!!!!

There WILL!!!! Honestly, it's very difficult for me to work on this for some reason. Nghgh

Drawings done. Need to re-draw last frame, though. in the meantime, go browse Online Comics. Many good comics linked there.

Blargh. I declare it Christmas.

Yup, work has started on the next page and the preliminary look at it... looks very good, actually. The sketches look like things will be in the right place and such. Esa's got a rough bit of work ahead of him, so we'll do what we can in the time we've got.

In other news, I just logged off for the very last time of Star Wars: Galaxies. Within a week or two, I'll probably have an Extra ready detailing the experience I had. Kind of a bittersweet ending, but it's the only way I can think of to really win the game. ^_^

work begun on new page. Let's see how long it'll take this time..

Well, what a surprise! We've got a new page out for this month! Last one got released on October 20th, and this one's out... now. Funny how it seems to be completely and totally chaotic, and yet the comic release schedule seems to be, on average, every month. Something about statistical processes and whatnot...

Anyway, there's some more blunt trauma in this page. Getting hit with heavy, blunt objects was a staple of the NETTG fanfic's storyline, so we might as well have it here. We're gradually easing our way out of intro mode and getting into the fun stuff.

The next Extra's up. And I just informed the group I was working with on Star Wars Galaxies that my account's finished on December 3rd. Once that's done, I should have more time to work on the comic, learn GUIs, and actually do what I need to with school. :) In the meantime, enjoy the Extra! It sure took me long enough to get it up. Thanks to Larry for getting it up so quick after it was done!

'Ere... We'll just put a li'l spit on in... *squeek* There we go.

A day or two ago, Danny essentially told me that if I want GDM done, I have to do it myself. ... So I will! ^___^

Gimme a couple months with the JAVA API and I might actually be able to figure something out. Now that I know he's not enthusiastic about it anymore, I can move on. That would make me more responsible for how things turn out, rather than wait and hope that someone else does things. People don't like managers who don't actually do anything, so therefore I can't be that sort of manager and hope to get anywhere with my life. I accept that I'm the one that started this up, so I must be the one to finish it.

So, unless someone's dying to take over as programmer of the main mode (and naturally I'll ask on the forums), I'll be doing that from now on. I'm an MIS major, not a CS major, so it'll be a lot more rough and less refined... but it'll go a lot faster than it is now. This is not a perfect solution by any stretch of the imagination, but it is nevertheless a solution.

I'll find out sooner or later how willing Ammon is to continue with things on the Adventure Mode side of things. He's got a lot more staying power than Danny (working with the MUD for years and years, for example), but he may be busy working and maintaining that very same MUD.

Right-o! Back to work with me. I just asked for the second of three letters of recommendation I need for the MIS Master's program. And after that, it's all twigs, thistles, and bramble bushes from here on out!

Today's GMAT..........................Failed?

Okay, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news? I needed to take the GMAT exam and I thought the cutoff score for getting into the MIS Master's program was 600, but apparently that's the score one has to get in the TOEFL exam for international students. I went in cold, did the best I could, didn't get a third of the questions done... and got a 530 (unofficial preliminary scores). Whether good or bad, I don't know. I'm not going into the MBA program, so I'm feeling rather clueless about it all right now. It's as if my fate's been decided today, it's been told to me, and I haven't understood a word of it.

Such is life. I still have a lot of work to do for getting my application packet in. The things I do when I wake up one afternoon and decide I want a Master's degree, eh? I've said it before, and now I say it again: I must be crazy.

Now for the good news. ... ... ... Okay, there is no good news. I haven't heard from Esa for a week, Danny seems disillusioned with the GDM game concept (told me that if I wanted anything more done I should learn to program in Java and he doesn't want his code posted to the forums for others to work on--that's reasonable... I guess), and what else...? No, that's pretty much it. Not so much when I come to think about it. Little things like this ought to clear itself up within the next while. :)

There's still an Extra in the works. I have it ready, I just don't know what's in it yet. ... How's that for a businessy vaporware statement? No, I just need a couple hours of properly creative time to pound it out... probably with my forehead.

I'm not usually one to complain, but hey, everybody's gotta hit rock bottom at one point or another. ^_^;;;

I already rule the world. Now I just have to convince the world of that fact.

Okay, we're looking at another busy week. Funny how these things go...

Tomorrow, early, I'm taking the GMAT exam, which may determine my fate for the next couple years. I don't think it should be too tough, but that doesn't stop me from being scared out of my mind about it. ^_^;;

Some people take expensive preparation courses for it. I just decided I was going for the MIS Master's program last week and I have to have all my application stuff (letters of recommendation, essays, GMAT exam) turned in by December 1. So, in the meantime, I have effectively declared myself insane for my decision.

How will this affect the comic, my fanfic writing, or GDM? It probably won't, given the current rate of output. :P Esa's the key to everything when it comes to all that except my fanfic writing. If we can get art, we can rule the world. If we can't, then things'll be on standby, as usual. However, I believe that Esa's off eating brains somewhere for a little while until school calms down for him.

I have the banner ready for a new extra, plus a couple pieces of art I think we can showcase... so an Extra sometime soon is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Wish us luck! Because we're really going to need it.

Is it Christmas yet?

Hmm. Yup, a total brain-eating zombie week. Things are busy, and we LIKE them busy, don't we, everyone? Esa and I have some odd schedule worked out to try and get new material for NETTG done, I've reacquired the writing urge after a sudden bout of insane school subjects... Everyone please hope I can keep it this time...

And hope we can get a page drawn out and polished up right proper for all to see... More explanations, progress, and excuses for lack of success in the days to follow. ^_^

What Ben said. Check the sketchy thread in the forums, if you haven't yet.

flashy thing link

Things worth checking: "Flash portal" has top 50 - plenty of good stuff - especially near the top.

A few more. I may hunt some linkage here when I get to it.

Hmm... Esa and I have been trying to work together some, but it looks like this very well may become a total brain-eating zombie week. On the other hand, the next couple pages are all plotted, thumbnailed, and scripted out. All that's left... is for them to be drawn right proper.

Right, then! I uploaded the next page, and I think the current version'll work out fine. And if not, Esa can post a revision when the network and other odd difficulties clear up. ^_^

The page has been nearly done for several days. If all goes well, we should have it in by Tuesday. We ran into some network complications when Esa and I had some time set aside to work together. Other than that, I think he got his schedule more or less on track so scholastic issues won't be such a problem as they have been. I've got a few major projects and assignments coming up... but I should be able to handle them as well.

On another note, I've been toying around with finding a fairly regular colorist for NETTG to possibly colorize a few NETTG pages. Since updates have been so slow, a slow colorist for optional color pages (say, click a link and it gives you color) might fit in really nicely. Of course, in that case, I might have to ask Esa to provide clean lineart on top of the page. And, I don't know who'd be willing to do that on a regular basis unless we asked Danny to do it. Ah, well. It's fun when there's a lot of production going into each page. ^_^

A good, free, open source 3d modeler.

Woot!

"Awesome! I'm it! WhaddoIdowhaddoIdo!?"

^_^;

Right...

Tag. You're it.

Cry fungus, and release the 'shrooms of war!

Alas! We probably cannot hope for another page this week. However, on the forums, we will continue communication until I can get enough chants and arcane rites going to revive Esa's zombified skills, entombed time and time again by the viciousness of University Life...

Not to worry, though, they're like Castlevania's Dracula--they WILL rise again! Sometime later this week, I'm hoping. ^.^;;;

Hmmm... I sure wish the comic would update more often.... Wait, I draw the thing, so it's my fault. Guh.

Er, look! A webcomic! and another

Hmm. Maybe I should just upload my bookmark list in the forums, or something.

While I'm linking stuff, here's a few more: Manga Jouhou, Animesuki's bittorrents, my cousin's website, Cosplay.com, 3dLuvr Oh, and I really like 10k Commotion... And, seeing as how animation is one of my interests, Warner brothers' site has some niceness, like "Go! Go! Moba Boy!, and Gotham girls.

Hmm...

Ponjued some art. The server's been down ever since.

A strange thought struck me --- maybe the reason I've been having difficulties drawing the comic lately, is that they're not very good? Ah well, worrying is like, half of the job description. That, and I lost my car keys. T_T;

An interesting thread at the Megatokyo forums.

Didn't have time to check it all the way through, but looks like there should be at least a few "hits" there.

There was a power outage earlier today, but the server's still been stable since we removed the errant memory. Funny how things go, really... removing a selective memory helped the server cope with its situation. I wonder what that says about humans, if anything...

In other news, Esa's really crazy-busy this week, so we'll have to leave it up in the air as to what we get done. Until school and such ceases to be really crazy-funky busy, we'll have to just keep getting back up after we get knocked down. Hang tight!

Yup! The final version of the page is up, and while the dialogue may be a bit clumsy around some parts, I believe the quality is sufficient.

Comic version 1.0 is up! I went with cheap-ass blurry Machall-wannabe backgrounds. I have some plans for when I need actual detailed BG, though - no worries! Really!

If there's something wrong with this, I don't see it- been staring' at it too long. One thing, though - the bubble ordering can get confusing a bit. So - the script: Sent to forums, looked ugly here.

for the curious... the current folder for "page 6" is 48 megabytes in size, consisting of 32 images.

... which is more than most.(most==10MB) Which, once again, shows that there is a bottleneck in the assembly line, or something.

BTW, got Ben's latest script revision. It made me giggle in a public place. Is that a good thing? Of course it is!

Once again, for the record: Backgrounds are a pain!

A thought: Did I get a wish and nobody told me? I mean, like, "Hmm... I sometimes wish I could draw" ---> "Very well, you now sometimes can draw," like.

Heh. Nice rant. Extra! I meant extra!

Late for class. New(as in, finished current) comic later today (my today, which is +2 Greenwich), if at all possible. I've gotten enough sleep, which is cool. Missed a few classes, which is not. Send Ben WaiMail, as he's the center this universe spins around, and he seems a bit stressed to me. ^_^

Or, go read TimeScapes or Tuesday Comic, whatever...

*sigh* edit, edit, edit...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Right. Um. It's... different. Kinda interesting actually. The green dress comes later, though. Anyway, pretty cool. For the final version, though... We're talking fabric softener here.

T_T

Hmm... color comics...

Nah. Not until I gets an Intuos, anyway.

The very first, more-or-less complete NETTG comic drawn, was actually in color, though.

Roight! Your comic 'as been colorized boie rabid ArbyFish!

The Extra has been written spontaneously, with art chucked in at the last minute, and sent off to Larry to sort out in the five minutes he has between work and sleep. Hopefully, it'll be up soon. ^_-

We worked and worked and worked... I beat the drums while Esa worked. We now have a public beta v0.90a worked out for the next page, for your viewing pleasure.

An Extra is in the works as well. Do not despair! That's our job. ^_^;;

*Cracks whip* Right, then! We've gotta get to work on this. We seem to have missed our Thursday/Friday session, so... it's anybody's guess as to how that will go.

Enough excuses. I have the art selected for the next Extra now, so there's no good reason I can't have another Extra done in a day or two.

I know, promises, promises, but... Argh! We have to do it right sometime!

Holy...

O_o;

It's been twenty-six days since last page!

O_o;

o_O;

That's it. New comic tomorrow. >_<;

But look on the bright side! The Archive page is working right nicely now. Big thanks go to Ammon for making the PHP script for that one.

Mm. Basically, the situation is this: We work on NETTG a couple a hours most mornings, but this week there were some misses due to me being completely unable to go to sleep in time. (It's Ben's late-but-not-that-late evenings.) Currently, we have about 3 frames done, out of a total of 5 for next page. Some things, though... First of all, there is some sort of severe error in my methodology of working. It's not unusual for me to need to draw the same frame 3 times, or more. This is not always a bad thing, sure. However, it is starting to bug me, how a) it takes a whole lot of time and b) It totally kills any spontaneity and at least some of the energy of the art.

Eh, y'know how everything affects everything? Well, in this case it's the fact that I generally put about 16 hours to each page, all in all... maybe more, when you consider the amount of plotting and planning, that is, talking that takes place. However, now I have uni classes, about 40 hours a week. While progress happens during our sessions, it's not quite the same as the 8-10 hour binges that have produced quite a few comics.

Anyway, there shouldn't anything preventing a session tomorrow morning, and there really isn't all that much left. But...

Okay, I'm getting confused, so stopping now. To summarize, something bugs me about this page still, and it's iffy if it will be out this week, but it might.

Ahah! Again, we do not quite manage to get a page done. We did some concept art for later, though. And there were some sprites done last week for GDM, so it's not a total loss. ^_^ In any case... Or, in some case, anyway, we'll plod along and battle through it, like always. There's even enough material for an Extra later this week. Let's see how it goes. Just set it up and watch it explode! :)

Just wanted to pull your attention to something. Specifically a webcomic called Darkbolt.

I was on a webcomic binge a year or two ago, and this one struck me with it's... anime-ness, I guess. It reads and feels like your average edventure-type anime.

Esa's still figuring out how to handle getting to bed early. We've got the page planned and most of the frames done. The rest is just finding a bit of time to finish it in. Thanks for sticking with us! We'll get back on track, just watch us! ^_^;;

Today's Plan..................... Failed!

I've gotten the hang of "early to rise", but not "early to bed" yet. Multiple occasions of ~4 hours of sleep is _guaranteed_ to give you an artist's block. Mind you, I did manage to break through it, though. But, there's still two, maybe three frames to draw, plus editing and I'm out of time. I'm leaving for the weekend (again) and the next session is monday morning 6 AM my time, that's sunday evening 8 PM for Ben. I'm not sure if even that will be enough. Hm. Maybe I can get some of the drawing done over the weekend, that would mean I'd be able to do the edits monday evening. (That's monday [early] AM for y'all US residents)

Do I dare say, "Expect a new comic tomorrow"? Not sure. Certainly, a possibility of one within... oh, next thirty hours or so. The my-morning, Ben's late afternoon sessions seem to work nicely. However, I'm trying to get some GDM stuff done, too, and I'm generally away during weekends, so maybe not - if stuff happens, might be as late as sometime next week. Or, if we decide the current page plan is inadequate and I end up re-drawing everything. But, a new page tomorrow is within the realm of possibility.

Okay, this is officially the day we start the creative reactors back up and get to work on more material around here. It'll take a bit of time to get things going, but a decent possibility of a page later this week isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

Hmm... At first I thought the forums were down, but no, they're up. The URL just got moved around. Now, it's: http://www.simud.org/phpBB/.

Ammon's gearing up to move his comic along, so things are getting tweaked around the server.

All right, I've broken my own silence with a new Extra to read through. The art's good, so it should help to ease things around here until Esa and I can get a bit more done.

It took me long enough to get back in the mood for writing Extras. ^_^;;

One week more before I try to make the wheels really roll again here. Until then, it's mostly just activity on the forums, with the possibility of an Extra later on this week.

School hasn't been bad so far, but it's only the first week.

Star Wars: Galaxies devours time worse than anything else I've ever experienced. I should never have let it get installed on my computer. >_<;;;;

Due to school and various other stress concerns, I'm giving all workers on NETTG and GDM two full weeks off of even worrying about it. I know that's mostly Esa... but yeah. The ArbyFish comic may get updates. In fact, Danny's free to run wild around here. Check back for updates on the 7th or 8th of September.

Consider us down for mental repairs and refurbishing. ^_^_^_^ My email will still be open, though, so any concerns can be addressed to me.

I figured I'd post, since everyone else has today. School has begun and tide of psychosis will inevitably come in. Ride the wave, yo... ride the wave.

Speaking of which, don't expect a comic this weekend. Probability less than 15%, as I have a math test next monday since I failed the last one. Gotta rectify. And no, I don't think a little thing like Ben being more busy will slow the comic... any further. After all, the slowdowns have been on this end of comic making progress. Admittedly, the script we have is turning out to be more of an outline than anything, but... Ah, something-or-other. Look behind you! It's a three-headed platypus!

The radio station is ready for beta testing. Congratulations, as a reader of Nuke 'Em Till They Glow, you have been pre-approved as a beta tester person of sorts. For details and instructions, read this thread on the forums.

Okay, this week, school starts for me. That may or may not slow things down even further around here. It really depends how truly evil the assignments turn out to be. On the other hand, if this semester's any easier than the last semester, things should actually improve. One never can tell with these things....

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Again, I say, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHHAAAAA!!!

We had that one page from yesterday and now we have this one page for today!

Enjoy!

New comic.

Go, read. Now, in lieu (whatever that means) of Ben, I'll do the maniacal laughter: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA*cough*wheeze*NAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Hey, it's harder than it looks, y'know.

TBC.

For those that have been left wondering, there is a page, and it's just about ready. Just a little more time...

Hurray for lowered standards! ^_^

Ssh! You're ruining the surprise!

...

Then again, A new page around a corner as a surprise, when it should be the norm, is a sad state of affairs indeed.(desu!) It's all my fault. *sigh*

Then again, I've been pretty constant at producing a page per month. ^^;

Another quick update... The chat sessions Esa and I did were reasonably successful. It wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility to expect a page this time around. As for the Extra... If there's a page, I'll probably make an Extra as well.

And, now that Ammon has a couple spare moments more than studying allowed him, he might get something done as well. Progress across the board, I'd say.

Esa and I got some character design stuff worked on, preparing for more in-depth work tomorrow. It could result in some excellent Extra material or (dare I hope?) another comic page, or even (gasp!) material for Galactic Destroyer Maker!

The point is, as long as we're working on it, we'll get something out of the deal. Here's hoping to see more material soon...

I managed to come up with a slightly more revised version of the GDM concept development documentation. There's a thread in the Forums about it here.

Esa and I have plans to work together to get some more of the comic done tomorrow. Wish us luck, because we'll probably need it. @_@

(Glances at watch) Hmm. Esa should be back from vacation and evil test stuff soon to give us a report and hopefully bring back a few souvenirs, and... Ammon's still busy condensing six years of his life into an Extras article.

After he's done, I'm up next to tackle another story-based Extra. It may or may not have something to do with what ClassicDrogn and I have been idea-bouncing about in the forums.

In any case, thanks for sticking with us--we'll get this all sorted out yet.

Well, like Ben says, I've been working on an Extra for a while now, and you'd be surprised at how difficult it can be to come up with something interesting to say about a project that I've been working on for almost 6 years now... however, I do have some interesting screen shots now and am vaguely hopeful that the thingy will be ready for human consumption some time today.

A quick update... Ammon's been working on the material for the next Extra, and it should be done and up within a day or two. And Esa has his exam pretty soon, so I'm sure we all wish him luck.

What was that WHOOSHing sound? It seems familiar...

^_^;;;;;

Y'know, it wasn't like I was lacking things to motivate me, "Put all your eggs in one basket and watch it", and such. Unfortunately, I got hit with a chunk of Real Life (No, not the comic), and albeit it was in a good, positive way, it did mean that all my antisocial hobbies, like drawing and reading and such, got pushed back, quite a bit. However, I'm more... rested than I have been in a long time. No wonder, as my routine at our little (rented) retreat by the lake consisted of... Well, swimming, eating, swimming, sauna, ((swimming, sauna) x 7), eating, swimming and sleeping, in it's generalized consistency. The few hours during of which I managed to get through almost half of my math notes nonwithstanding.

Anyway, I have some tests and such coming up, but that _shouldn't_ adversely affect art, not when I feel motivated or enthusiastic.

And, I really don't right now, I'm sorry to say. Generally my art comes and goes in bursts of few weeks, with months of nothing in between, and as I have never really been creative on demand before, I just don't seem to get hang of it.

...

Okay, I stopped making sense, so I'll stop ranting now.

I will improve, even if it... well, maybe not kills, but even if it maims me!

Today's Challenge.............................Failed.

And I had such high hopes, too. >.<;;;

The official explanation's in this thread. Basically, a lot of stuff caught up with him. Essentially things got changed around and he'll be on vacation (busy vacation) until the 10th.

Still, on Thursday we'll have an Extra, and this one will be by Ammon. He'll discuss all the other projects--and possibly their history--on the server.

So, sorry about the let-down! Getting an artist to... um, ART, is a very complex thing--more complex than I'd previously imagined.

On the bright side, I came up with a new intro for the first chapter of NETTG, and it utilizes the ancient tool that I originally used to craft the first version. I call it the Sledgehammer of Insanity. I'm checking it out with a couple people (Esa and Larry) before proceeding. It really was a bit strange, but 100% NETTG-style material.

As we all wait in anticipation to see the results of the challenge, I'd just like to note that I managed to come up with what I consider a sufficiently deranged and random new introduction to the revised NETTG fanfic series. I'll see what a couple of people think and then proceed from there.

The next Extra will be sometime later this week, by Ammon--the server administrator. He's got an awful lot more running on this thing than just a couple of webcomics. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing it all explained.

Ahah, yes, there is now (yesterday, actually) a nice, new Extra worth taking a look at. It includes a bit of theoretical storyline that could just as easily be applied to the NETTG comic or the GDM game. Enjoy!

The Extra's been written up and sent off to Larry for editing. It has only a couple of jokes in it, the delivery could have been better... but it's done now and not in, say, a month, so that's a plus. ^_^

Okay, I'm done with the E-Commerce test... Not sure if I pass, though, may need to re-take it, but at least I'm done. I'm presently sitting in the new Computer Lab - They've got some nice machines here, actually. Shuttle MiniPCs with LG DVD-CDRW combo drives, Syncmaster 172T TFTs and optical Logitechs. I'm not actually very impressed by the display. It's good, yes, but the ghosting is quite noticeable - Although it's exellent with watching movie clips. Anyway, there's one book I need to read before the 31th, (Relax, only about... 80 pages left, I think), and I need to fix my bicycle... Then, I'll take a couple o' days of dedicated drawing time before switching to Deep Math(tm).

Edit:

Oh, forgot to mention: NICE SW suite installed, too: VS .Net, Jcreator LE, which is FREEWARE, and I'm DLing when I get home, and on the art side of things we've got... Pagemaker 7, Photoshop 6 and PSP 7. 'course, it has burning SW(Nero) and a choice of browsers : IE, Mozilla and Opera.

Oh, maybe I should scan some more sketchy for Ben... At this pace, he'll be out of Extra material in a... month or two. Hm.

Got the art editing mostly done for the Extra... There's going to be a lot used. Should have the text done tonight or tomorrow.

Just some quick linkage: Cthuggles, Blue Zombie, and then I'm back to studying.

As for me, math wasn't so bad, but the 3 hours or so reading I have to do every night for my JPop class is sucking my will to live.

Ben you evil little figment of someone else's imagination you...

Now I gotta make it.

For those who have wondered what I've been up to, the answer is mostly: School. Summer school to be specific. I finished a math course a while back, and now I'm reading about E-Commerce... In fact, I have about 400 pages to read by next saturday (There will be a test, kids!), and week after that is the final exam for the math thing. So, in all that, and my natural resistance to, y'know, doing anything has kinda kept me from drawing. As for the status of the next page... I actually drew something halfway through yesterday... or was it day before that, before I realized how awful it looked. If you remember way, way back, I did warn that my drawing style might fluctuate erratically... and you can probably expect such a fluctuation to be visible in the next page. The page after that is planned relatively well, and I have some ideas what comes next, but... It's a daunting task, I assure. Not impossible, not by far, but... Bah! I will make it!

Well, Esa and I chatted and got a good start on the concept, design, and implementation of the next comic page.

Hmm... that actually kind of makes it sound like some revolutionary new system technology instead of a comic page. Ah, well.

We do sort of have a goal to have five pages done in the next couple weeks, with possible extra stuff ready for Galactic Destroyer Maker. In fact, we have a kind of bet going on. If you're participating on the Forum, it might be worth it to see who's right in about, oh, 12 days.

I should have a new Extra up in 1 to 3 days as well. I'll... find something interesting to talk about. Rivals, perhaps, in Galactic Destroyer Maker. Hmm... something to think about, in any case.

Esa and I have time set aside to work on the comic tomorrow, so wish us luck. We'll probably need it. Again, there'll be an Extra later on, and I hope to tackle an interesting subject again this week. :D

In other news, I sat down and started writing today. I believe I came up with a feasable way to finish the next chapter of Codename: Project Sailor Stylin' today. It'll also fulfil all the results of the poll. It took me quite a long time to figure out a solution, but I think it will be worth the wait.

All right! The next Extra is up and running. I was up kind of late while writing it, so expect it to have a bit of oddball humor. Enjoy!

Okay, I've got all the art selected and edited for this week's Extra. Unlike last week's, which had comparatively little, this one's going to have a few pieces that haven't really been seen before. Minor things, to be sure, but they help illustrate the text's points ever so much better than boring ol' plain text anyway.

I'm glad Esa sent me those three directories full of sketchy art. That way, I can pick, choose, and modify them to suit my purposes. He may be a bit fatalistic about the whole thing, calling the sketches sacrifices to appease the angered writer, but I really do need them.

Hey, there's artist maintenance and there's writer maintenance. Since I'm the mastermind of the whole project, I generally end up having to do both--hence my "I get knocked down, but get back up again" attitude toward creativity. But... he does it, in his own way. I'm currently being guided through a series called Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu. Quite fascinating, especially one of the main character's habit of devouring most anything that comes into sight. After a fashion, that reminds me of NETTG's Galactic Destroyer.

A new page shouldn't be overly long in coming. Shouldn't be, but we all remember what happened last time. ^_^;;;

Apart from that, I'm hoping Danny will find some more ArbyFish material sometime soon as well. The nature of his comedy is rather random and difficult to control, hence its sporadic nature. In any case, thanks for sticking with us!

The story goes: Ben told me he was running out of stuff for extras, which I found strange, considering the amount I'd sketched stuff during these few years, so I checked my sketces, and...

Well, there were a few nice ones that hadn't been used, mostly because I hadn't scanned them. Oops.

So, I did a bit of scanning some of the later sketces and some oldies, to give.... Um, I think I just gave Ben more blackmail material. ^_^;

Ah well, gotta sacrifice some sketches to appease the writer, every now and then.

We were working on the next page yesterday, and progress looked promising, so we may be able to get one out later this week.

Again, there will certainly be an Extra, and I think it'll actually be interesting this time. :D

The server was down today for a while--we're still hunting down problems here and there.

But on the bright side, I typed up an Extra to read. Mostly, it's a mindstreaming ramble about minor characters, but it does have a couple sketches in it. I'm sure we all wish Esa luck as he goes to face his evil math test on Monday. :D

Err, when I said there would certainly be an Extra on Thursday, I meant... possibly early Friday. ^.^;;;;;

Until I can get it written up, there's still the forums, where I discuss moral Alignment for prospective parents in Galactic Destroyer Maker.

Hang tight!

I'm workin' on it! I'll get the comic done before I start studying proper.

Arr, we still be trying to get a page out this week. However, there will certainly be an Extra for Thursday. It seems Esa has this horrifically evil math test on the 14th of this month to study for.

Ah, well. There's always a log on the bumpy, jagged volcanic rock road to success. The point is to get things done despite it, I suppose. :D

*yawn*

It doesn't look good. My concentration's been slipping this entire week --- I've even missed a few classes this week, and on my list of definite no-no's that's up there with "Don't drive on the wrong side of the road -- especially not on the freeway". My weekend... I'll do some website work (something I should'a done a couple of weeks ago, really, plus, I have a few books I need to read, I'm behind on math stuff, Some paintings I've been working on... Not to mention the immense media backlog (It's starting to look like a couple of months of solid watching.)

But... I'll get this weeks' comic done early next week, and... well, actually we're talking of late-may comics, considering how far behind we are, but... A Zillion things to do. I'll need to make time for the important ones, obviously.

To summarize: No new comic this week, but early next. Probably monday, maybe tuesday.

The new Extra has been sent off with the art and the text to be edited by the great Larry F, and should be up sometime today or tomorrow, if all goes well.

Ah, finally! A new page. This time around, we'll take some more extensive pains to make sure we keep on schedule. The idea is to have a page every Tuesday--though we technically want more--and have an Extras article every Thursday.

Thanks for sticking with us on this. And, as a reminder, the server's been upgraded, so the Forums now run smoothly and don't take five minutes to load now. We're also still developing Galactic Destroyer Maker, which will be a parody on the Princess Maker series. Feel free to examine the details we've gone over in the Forum and contribute any ideas you may have. We'll see if we can use them. ^_-

One downside that people should be aware of: the server's in a rather hot climate, and we've noticed one or two unnerving shutdowns as a result during the more draining server maintenance times. We're taking measures to remedy that problem as well.

I keep on thinking about something to rant about, and coming up blank. No surprise, really. After all, Ben's the wordy type. I'm supposed to be the artsy type. Admittedly, I think I have the angsting, procrastinating and self-loathing down to pat. (Whatever "down to pat" means in this context. My English skills are not unlike those of a Verbot) In any case, I really should be able to work faster. I should, technically, manage a new page every three days --- after all, the original "once-a-week" was chosen to give us some slack, in case of unforeseen events. Maybe there should be some sort of counter showing "days since last comic", or somesuch.

Anyway, I got quite a bit done just due to Ben sitting at the other end of the 'net last... Saturday, I think. Maybe it was due to us putting aside time specifically for me to work on the comic what did it. Basically, I had the complete page scanned... Monday morning, actually. I don't think I did anything last Sunday, though I could be wrong. Today, after being done with my math classes, I started fiddlin' with it, and now I'm done. Maybe I should get Illustrator or something --- the speech bubbles are a pain like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would. Who knows. For the curious, for a change, this page was done entirely in proportional size --- I often draw on separate sheets, and re-scale full sheet size frames to small --- or tiny --- size. This page? The original is on the wall, currently. It's about 21" by 11.4".

Question: Why do I go out of my way to use inches with measuring? Such an archaic relic... Although I guess it's more a natural size for a human to use, if rather inaccurate. About 50x29 cm, then. Anyway, making the page entirely in proportion wasn't on purpose --- it's just the way things turned out. Scanning wasn't too bad, actually, even though I had to cut out Laios --- that is, the one on the down/left separately. My scalpels seem to be getting a bit dull, since there was some tearing. I'll use scissors next time.

Next page? I'll do my best to get it out this week. A lot of the delays were caused by... uncertainity? Cowardice? Something like that, I guess. I'm not sure... An anxiety; Am I good enough? Can I do this? How do I do this? Maybe I should study more? What do the characters look like? Do I have enough time right now, is it even worth starting, or should I read one of the multitude of books I have to read? Should I try something more experimental this time? I'm not going to do this right now, since I'm gonna do the math homework, which comes first, but instead I end up idling and goofing off but can't draw since I must first do the math and read a bit of this and look at that and fiddle with this and that and now it's middle of night and I should go to sleep...

Procrastinating is a part of the problem, certainly. A large, even, maybe. Another is... I'm not terribly self-motivated. If someone doesn't need me to do something, chances are, I won't --- Although, I'm trying to get better with that, through all kinds of motivational stuff, like the Dexterity.com articles I mentioned earlier. I'll take my positive reinforcement where I can get it. You too, can contribute. check out the latest page, visit the forums and send us mail. It might help me manage the next page done in time, too... I have the script already waiting for pencil-on-paper action.

Hmm... An extra may or may not be forthcoming, but it looks like we may very well get a page this week. I say that mainly because I spent a hefty portion of the day working with Esa on it via instant messaging. :D

Hmm... Esa's still busy, but we did make some progress on this next page. Sometimes, it seems like a battle and a mass crusade to get each page done, but that's the way we'll do it until we discover quicker and more efficient methods. :D

In the meantime, I'll come up with another extra within the next day or two. I'll talk about master plans and possibly Galactic Destroyer Maker a bit more, and flesh out the plans I have for the project. Basically, it'll be a major hybrid kind of game with tons of subsections that will somehow, mystically, have to work in sync. We'll be needing programmers and sprite artists like we've gone crazy, but once we've got the manpower and the motivation, we'll take care of the versions and such on the server.

In other news, there's a site out there that makes pure Sailor Moon webcomic material. It's called The Realm of Sailor Energy. I'm not affiliated with it, but there's some funny material there if you look hard enough through it. Reading through this reminds me of a major difference between NETTG:TEY and pure Sailor Moon material: the characters used. We're using mostly extrapolations and a few originals here, whereas any true SM fan would try to do an expansion on the main character set--perhaps adding one or two Otakufic characters to outdo the rest. Oh, sure, we do some of the same, but with style. ^_-

The server's just been upgraded. The forums and other things running on it should be ever so much quicker and smoother now.

Pardon our dust... we seem to be smashing a lot of bugs as they creep up...

The latest one seems to have something to do with heat, since it causes random, impossible problems similar to what happened with my machine. It seems that some board manufacturers insist on having Intel chips running Windows in mind when they design them. As such, the automated fans miss the mark when the chips heat up.

And if that's not the problem, we'll strip that Linux kernel down and recompile it until it will comply with our wishes. You can't do that with Windows stuff--all you can do for WinXP is cross your fingers and hope Microsoft didn't hardwire any more "helpful" automatic features into the operating system.

No, I'm not bitter. Where would you get that idea? ^_^;;;;;;

Whoo!

On other news, there\'ll be a new Extra, and chances are, there might be a new comic within 24 hours, too. We\'ll see how it goes. As I\'m writing this, there\'s still a ton to draw, but now I know _what_ to draw --- more or less. My financial situation is horrible, as per usual... I may need to look into getting a part-time job, if things don\'t improve. The time-management stuff is helping, although I still goof off about 4 hours every day, which would be better of spent elsewhere.

In other news, is there a webcomic review site, or somesuch around? Might be interesting. On a totally different topic, I\'m trying hard to avoid Warezing Matrix Reloaded.... Mentally repeating \"It\'ll be out on DVD soon, it\'ll be out on DVD soon\" seems to help a bit.

Even as new comics finally start to appear... no, seriously! Stop laughing! *AHEM*, where was I? Right. Don\'t expect that we\'ll instantly get back to a decent schedule --- My time is still managed pretty much day-by-day basis, but my goal is to manage put about 3 hours every day on NETTG art... Either comic, or the GDM stuff... Let\'s face it, there\'s a definite need for it.

No fan-art, yet. ;_;

Ah, well... not that I have high expectations in the first place --- most of you are here from various fiction lists --- Which seems to lend itself more towards writing/coding type stuff. Seems logical. Anyway, I\'d better get to other stuff, now... (like the comic ^^) so that it\'ll get done, eventually.

We're getting close to having a new page done... ever so close. So, if there's not a new page within a couple of days, there'll be a creative new Extra to read through.

In other news, the server's getting upgraded soon--like, within a week. That means the forums and other sections of the site will no longer run so slowly. It'll be a rather quick machine, actually, with tons of RAM and processor speed. That'll be a welcome change, since it's currently running on a 133 MHz machine with, like 80 MB of RAM and a few scant Gigabytes of diskspace. Ah, the miracles of Linux!

Of course, you can run streaming video from a Commodore 64, but that's not the point! The point is that we'll be running ship-shape in a short time, with any luck and if all goes well. ^_^

Ah, Ben... Your seemingly unending vigor and enthusiasm is a aource of inspiration to us all - Or, to me, at least.

On a more general topic, I sorta-kinda-accidentally promised Ben I'd finish the comic by Monday.

Place your bets, everyone!

Actually, that means the art should be done by then, and we'll just go over last-minute text placements and changes... (Like, I am notorious on forgetting certain details --- like tiaras and Arby-head-crescents.)

I _do_ have enough time for the comic --- I guess part of the problem was that, instead of working on the comic, I've been trying to finish it.

An order of magnitude harder, that be.

I'm trying to take the advice from articles I found on Dexterity Software's site, under "For Developers" tab. We'll see how it goes.

Ey! I might!

I mean, not _in time_, but...

It is within the realm of possibility.

Probably, anyway. Maybe.

Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates, everyone. First I went on a "vacation", consisting mostly of building a Sauna out of logs, and... well, I got back here a week ago, as I started my summer classes, and I found out, not having drawn much of anything in a few weeks that my skills had completely deteriorated. I do have one frame finished, though...

...

Wait, no. I don't. It's still missing the text.

Anyway, the speed should pick up after I figure out where to scrounge the money to pay my rent, which should cut my depression levels back to manageable.

In the mean time, I'll be providing Ben with more blackmail material as I try to get my skill level back somewhere above "Oh God It Burns! My Eyes, My Eyes!"

Hmm... Esa may or may not be able to come up with a page this week, so I'll have another Extra ready for posting in the next day or so. I already have the images and the topic picked out. Hang tight!

All right! I finally got that next Extras page up. Check it out--it's an explanation of how the Galactic Destroyer Maker game got moved from the weird idea phase to the actual production phase.

Esa ought to be back soon, so there should probably be another page or few in the next week or two. Let's try to keep hopes alive here! ^_-

Sorry about the delays in things. It all appears to be sorting itself out, however. There have been some promising developments in the programming aspects of the Galactic Destroyer Maker game--namely a few volunteers and a lot of help in the design aspects we've been getting.

Esa's busy doing manual labor at home for his family and stuff for a few more days, so I'll look into getting another nice n' spoilery Extra page ready before too long.

In other news, the artist of Ammon's comic, the Ezekiel Project, has apparently sprung back to life. She's a decent artist and from what I've heard of Ammon, the story has promise. Plus, Danny ended up doing filler for it a few times when the artist was out of commission, so there's still a bit of ArbyFish left in it. Follow the link and check it out when you get a chance. It's actually fairly unique.

Okay, the New Extra is up finally, now that I managed to get the message through to Larry. It's your basic rant article with a bit of art in it. Also, in the forums, there's a topic about whether the character shown there should be a good gal or a bad gal.

Just this morning, I saw the first frame for the next page done, so hopefully we'll have something this week. In the meantime, I've gotta get the documentation written for that game we're planning.

Hmm... Esa's still kind of on vacation, so we may or may not get a page this week. (I'm REALLY hoping we will, though.) Vacation for Esa ends next week, I think. So, within the next day or two, I'll have an extra made up. I already have the images selected, and now only have to come up with a more or less coherent article to compliment the art. It could be the other way around or something to that effect, but that's the plan. Thanks for sticking with us!

In other news, the forums continues onward, with a nice 33 people signed up, and we've recently made public a subforum for developing a game called Galactic Destroyer Maker, a sort of parody of Gainax's Princess Maker (I can't find a good official link, otherwise I'd have posted it). We have high hopes for that one, and I've apparently got the whole concept design job for it. Lots of potential work, but it's not like I get the chance to work on something like this every day. Not much is done so far, but like I said, we've got high hopes, and I can be incurably optimistic, sometimes. ^_-

All right! The Extra I promised is now up, thanks to Larry. I call this one "Artistic License," because that's exactly what we're taking with everything. Actually, a better title would have been "Artistic UnLicensed" because this is sort of a fanfic adaptation.

Esa's hoping to get more work done on the next page soon, so in the meantime, enjoy the extra! ^_-

I blame the lack of ArbyFish post on finals, my birthday, and psychosis. The real reason is that I've run out of ideas... at least any good ideas. Don't worry, though. If I can't find anything good to do in the next few days, I'll just post something random like usual. It's hard to tell what's good, anyways, because I've fed people some stuff that I think is total garbage and they think it's the best thing in the world. I've also spent many many hours working on something that I thought was a total work of art and sublime poetry only to have people kind of look at me funny, shrug, and go about their business. So, you can never tell. ^_^

Esa's exams are over, and now he's got a couple weeks of vacation. I saw a preliminary sketch of the next page, and I think it's going to turn out pretty good. Sorry about the delays. ^^;;;

In the next couple of days, I'll put together another extra so the page won't look so lonely. Speaking of which, the Extras might need a spiffy new index or a new name of one kind or another. Some of the older links look like they're tough to maintain all the time.

Thanks for sticking with us! We'll pull through.

I've begun work on next page, but can't define ETA yet --- probably before next monday, or tuesday, latest --- I have another exam coming up and I need to study for it quite a bit, 'cuz I'm stupid. However, I'll probably take breaks, and I'll put those to making a comic. Running to some design problems, mainly because of my high standards for the art. (Then how do I explain the previous comic? Ehehehe ^_^;;;; )

I guess it's because of all the time I've spent lurking on Conceptart forums.

Oh, I finally took a look at Unicorn Jelly, now that it has ended - good stuff, it was.

Um, Ben's mentioned Acid Reflux, before I think.... What else? Well, if you want a comic that's much better than Nuke 'em (Because my art is just awful, mope mope mope), I recommend taking a look at Saturnalia. Mmm... Sysreq....

Now that I think about it, I guess you could consider me a webcomic enthusiast or something. I have about... 50 webcomics bookmarked, and there are quite a few more I've read at one point or another, and quite a few I feel I haven't paid enough attention to, lately... Ah, just go to Faith's site and, check out D101, and then, check the links - plenty of quality comics listed there.

The new Extra I promised is up now. I wanted to focus mostly on ArbyFish, but I ended up explaining a bit more about how NETTG came about in addition to that. Given the site's content, I believe it's still appropriate. :D

I'm going to be out of touch until Sunday, but don't worry: the rest of the site maintainers will be available for questions, whether by email or in the forums.

I heard through the grapevine that the server may experience an upgrade within the next while. Whether it's a matter of weeks or months is another question, but I'm certainly looking forward to it, especially in the forums.

Finals are coming up for a lot of us, including our beloved artist, who may or may not be able to get another page out this week. It's pretty much par for the course for any webcomic, especially one with art standards like the ones we've got. ^_-

In the next day or so, I'll try to have an Extras section made up about perseverance and such. Contrary to what Esa thinks, the Extras are not punishment for not getting a page done--on the contrary, they're a tribute to how much work he has actually gotten done and an insight into what it takes to get a project like this going.

In other news, I did get the chapter two script for the comic written up, at least in rough form. Odds are pretty good that I'll be able to get back into the fanfic writing mood soon as well, since I only have one final remaining this semester. Thanks for sticking with us!

Well... I 'spose that is true. :P

Well pthbbbt to you too ;P Seriously tho, you really did write nihon no jugyou not nihonGO no jugyou

muahahahahahaha

Kay, since Ammon's translation is foozled, and he can't read kana anymore, everyone gets more spam! :p

-ni suru = become

kabi ni kawatte oshiokiyo = in the name of mold I'll punish you. (It's a Sailor Moon entrance statement. It's possible that it might be oshyokyou, but since I can't seem to muddle out the components of it, that's what was on a couple of Japanese fan sites.)

Mite hoshii = want to see (-te hoshii form, not command form plus want)

The phrase at the bottom really says: basugasubakuhatsu

The real translation is: Good morning, everyone! I have made today Daniel's Japanese class! I want to see the ArbyFish drawing. However, if it's not pretty, in the name of mold, I'll punish you!

Today's word: Mold(kabi)

Today's phrase: Bus gas explosion(Basu gasu baku hatsu)

Later, eh?

Well, since Danny decided that he wanted to spam everyone with Japanese, I'll do him one better by spamming everyone with a translation ;) It goes thusly (every possible effort has been made to preserve his wonky grammar):

Good morning, everyone! Today, we're going to have Daniel's Japan class! I want you to look at the ArbyFish pictures. However, if it's not pretty, replace it with mold, oshiokiyo! (the meaning there escapes me...)

• The word of the day is kagi (mold).
• The phrase of the day is basu gasu hakubatsu (bus gas explosion).

Bbye

‚¨‚͂悤�A‚Ý‚ñ‚ ‚³‚ñ�I�¡“ú‚̓_ƒjƒGƒ‹‚Ì“ú–{‚ÌŽö‹Æ‚É‚·‚邼�I

ƒA�[ƒr�[ƒtƒBƒVƒ…‚ÌŠG‚ðŒ©‚Ä—~‚µ‚¢‚¾�B‚µ‚©‚µ�A‚«‚ê‚¢‚¶‚á‚È‚ê‚Î�A‚©‚Ñ‚É‚©‚í‚Á‚Ä�A‚¨‚µ‚¨‚«‚æ�I

�¡“ú‚ÌŒ¾—t�Fê€�i‚©‚Ñ�j

�¡“ú‚Ì�¬‹å�FƒoƒXƒKƒX‚΂­‚Í‚Â�I

‚¶‚á‚Ë

As Esa mentioned, the page has been tweaked from its original sketchy state. It's much better, actually. Starting next update, we'll introduce some characters that were neither in Sailor Moon, nor were they in the NETTG fanfic. However, they're of the sort that one could imagine having been there at one point or another, only nobody really ever noticed them.

Take the woman on the lower-right of this week's page, for example. She's been in development since I decided that the past-life personas of the regular SM cast would still be fairly young children, probably rarely ever leaving their home worlds. Some fanfic writers explored the concept of "Younger" and "Elder" Sailor Senshi/Scouts/Soldiers, but I can't seem to recall any that tried the concept in reverse, rather than trying to guess what, say, Makoto's kids would look like.

This comic/graphic novel wouldn't really be all that much worth doing if it didn't involve its own hefty share of originality--there are already 200 SM anime episodes, plus I-can't-remember-how-many volumes of manga, so telling the story over again or doing an aftermath sort of thing would really evoke much more than a "meh, whatever" sort of response.

Indeed, if this story weren't a completly off-the-wall alternate universe sort of deal where a Galactic Destroyer comes in and makes herself at home, there wouldn't be much point at all. But the thing is, it DOES contain a really cute Galactic Destroyer-monster/girl and it WILL contain hefty amounts of originality, and it WON'T have quite the same ending as the SM past storyline went.

Besides, we're going to have ArbyFish in the main comic. What could be better than that? =^.^=

Tweaked the comic a bit. See if you can spot any difference. ^_~

Okay, since I have a loong weekend coming up, I'm debating whether I'll take my scanner with me. I doubt I'll have _that_ much time to draw the next comic, since I gotta study for a test I have next Monday, so...

Hum. Okay, I'm not taking it, unless someone can convince me otherwise, within the next hour or so...

Okay, seeing how we were supposed to have two comics up by now, and we actually have... kinda a half, it's Emergency Explanation Time!

Not much to it, really--- I've only slept about 5 hours the last two nights, so I wasn't at my sharpest, really. So, anyway, I got back from school (uni), around... 2 PM yesteday, and... around 4 PM I figured, "I think I'll nap a bit before I start drawing"... and... well, I just woke up. ^^;

Oh, and whatever the Timestamp says, it's half past seven (AM) here...

Now, lessee if I can manage any drawing before I gotta go. ^^;

Amazing Sketchy Version of next page up!