Michael Fri Dec 28 00:11:19 2001
I'm in over my head
Well, as much as it pains me, I'm going to have to declare an official hiatus for a while (which, knowing me, probably means I'll be daily all through January.) I've just got too much real work that's not getting done and even though I don't spend much time with Toonbots, I need to go cold-turkey on online comics for a while.
BUT. Since this is Toonbots, I hope that my "hiatus" will simply be a phase change to Something Completely Different.
Within a month, if all goes well, I'll have the time to put the Toon-o-Matic online, meaning that Toonbots can become a truly collaborative venture. In that spirit, I will henceforth accept submissions, starting now, for further episodes from all titled Jihad members, and these episodes will be part of the official canon. Particularly good ideas will earn titles for non-titled people. Submissions may be ideas, blurb text, or real XML. Please use this forum to hash things out. An episode will not be considered complete until it has working XML (I'll compile it and debug it) and a blurb, and I will help out as time and energy allow. Any titled Jihad member has a line-item veto over the storyline, and of course, if I decide to rewrite things, I WILL. Because I'm still the metacartoonist, dammit.
At the moment this system will be operated manually, but what the hell, the reason I'm so damned busy is that I'm writing a workflow-oriented content management system anyway -- so by, oh, next Defenestration Day I'd like to have it fully automated.
But I can't keep things up the way they're going, and this will remove one of the teeny-tiny little stress sources I can actually control. Don't disappoint me. Give me episodes. You've got that whole hostile-takeover story arc, you could figure out who's going to be Officer Obie, the whole CommieCon thing really never got resolved, the wolverines have yet to be drawn, N.A.P.O.L.E.O.N. and Ilya are still after Lenin, and the metacartoonist will not only probably never escape, he is now under the remote control of the Jihad. This has a great deal of possibility, if you all step up to the plate and help out.
The author(s) of each episode will be named in the blurb. I really want this to work out. Especially since Tirdun did Lenin's little dream sequence back in July, this has been my secret ambition, and in the last couple of months, the tone of the forum has really changed and matured; you've become a real (if small) community and I think it's time you all had the chance to be Real Live Metacartoonists. Or at least, being metacartoonists in the same sense as John Cusack was John Malkovitch. Yeah. That's got *real* possibilities.
Pretty please?
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mouse Sun Dec 30 17:36:10 2001
Re: I'm in over my head
> I've just got too much real work that's not getting done *snip*
> Within a month, if all goes well, I'll have the time to put the
> Toon-o-Matic online
why does this remind me of my plans to tidy up the second bedroom - which are dependent on my first constructing a database of all my books, so i can reshelve them in an order that will finally allow me to _find_ all that stuff i know i own?
> But I can't keep things up the way they're going, and this will remove one
> of the teeny-tiny little stress sources I can actually control. Don't
> disappoint me. Give me episodes.
ok - this is truly terrifying (sorry about the stress)
> Especially since Tirdun did Lenin's little dream
> sequence back in July,
which was truly great....hey, tirdun - i'll try a blurb if you do a strip.
> Pretty please?
will you still jump in occasionally? you know - just so we don't get too lonely.
(and truly, good luck with the work load)
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Michael Sun Dec 30 18:42:00 2001
Re: I'm in over my head
> why does this remind me of my plans to tidy up the second bedroom - which
> are dependent on my first constructing a database of all my books, so i
> can reshelve them in an order that will finally allow me to _find_ all
> that stuff i know i own?
Eh, heh, well, because great minds think alike?
> will you still jump in occasionally? you know - just so we don't get too
> lonely.
Well, since going on hiatus I've posted one episode. So far it seems to be working. My subconscious is fooled, anyway. My productivity gain is due rather to the cold-turkey abstinence from other toons, but just telling myself that I don't *need* to come up with an episode has done wonders for my stress.
Isn't that deeply weird? I don't even understand it myself.
So -- yes. I'll jump in whenever I feel like it.
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spinclad Mon Dec 31 15:58:11 2001
Re: I'm in over my head
> Eh, heh, well, because great minds think alike?
Damn. That _is_ uncanny.
> So -- yes. I'll jump in whenever I feel like it.
::blissfully defenestrates self in sheer joy::
uhoh. that's napoleum's job, no?
(hey, alaric, can i hide with you for a while for safety?)
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Michael Mon Dec 31 16:07:09 2001
Re: I'm in over my head
> ::blissfully defenestrates self in sheer joy::
> uhoh. that's napoleum's job, no?
Napoleon has never expressed any umbrage over autodefenestration, as long as she gets to watch -- and Otu fortunately captured it on video. (It's defenestration of *others* she gets all bent out of shape over. She hates to miss out on the fun.)
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Jenn Thu Jan 3 09:28:37 2002
The horror. The horror.
I'm with mouse. The prospect of making a toon is so particularly terrifying that I've blocked it out of my consciousness. Lalalalala!
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mouse Thu Jan 3 15:15:28 2002
Re: The horror. The horror.
> I'm with mouse. The prospect of making a toon is so particularly
> terrifying that I've blocked it out of my consciousness. Lalalalala!
actually, 'long to'd bedtime on new year's eve (what with the champagne) i had an idea for a direction - unfortunately, i have never been good at plots.
(i'll leave that one open to rejoinder)
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Michael Thu Jan 3 20:36:59 2002
Re: The horror. The horror.
> actually, 'long to'd bedtime on new year's eve (what with the champagne) i
> had an idea for a direction - unfortunately, i have never been good at
> plots.
You can't be serious. You're rejecting a *Toonbots* direction because you're not good at *plots*? Am I the only one throwing up my hands here?!? What kind of a hiatus is this, anyway? Jeez.
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mouse Fri Jan 4 13:50:38 2002
a plot in the night
> You can't be serious. You're rejecting a *Toonbots* direction because
> you're not good at *plots*? Am I the only one throwing up my hands here?!?
> What kind of a hiatus is this, anyway? Jeez.
knew that comment would wake _someone_ up.
ok, ok, so here's what i'm thinking - i'm thinking the michael avatar, in searching to get out, would be mistaken for officer obie by the rest of the cast, who are doubtless waiting impatiently to continue the masacree storyline. since the michael avatar (is that the word i want? daemon maybe? why do computer processes have daemons - should i be worrying about this) probably has a new-found sympathy for the toonists, which the metacartoonist dumped as garbage, he/it will have some interest in having the garbage picked up, which may provide him with a way out (which, by the time i work this out, we will _all_ want). i'm figuring the seeing-eye dog part will go to one of the wolverines (i'm thinking fenny, or maybe millicent)
anyway, as you can see, i am lunging off in a direction that can easily lead me over several cliffs - which is, of course, rather an asset in this situation.
more importantly, i haven't worked through any dialog or stagings or anything else that can actually be translated into toon-o-matic commands.
(so how are you at drawing nuns?)
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