Wow, I have a lot to type about right now. Let's get started!

I had my first mentor meeting Wednesday. It went well. He liked my work so far (but spotted a spelling error in Dryad), and helped me pick out this comic for this week, as well as the one slated for next week (I have a healthy buffer).

I wasn't sure about this comic because of the drawing style. When I did it, I felt like I should work in a sketchy style so that the ideas flowed better--sorta like stream-of-consciousness writing versus regular-type writing. That's actually how I took the task of writing this one. I had deep space on the mind (as I have power beam fights--like in that "The Phantom" film) and wanted to just write in such a setting, instead of attempting to come up with some sort of story in space. So I started sketching a Martian scene, and then thought about what the characters were saying. It went from there. In the end, I think the writing result was good, and the drawing... sketchy, yes, but (as Mr. O'Connor, my mentor, pointed out) the color scheme is kinda cool. So yes...sketchy is okay.

This sentiment is echoed in the interview I carried out with an old friend in Seattle (Hi Ilja!). He said that the art wasn't so important to him as the writing, if I remember correctly. This in turn reminds me of reading somewhere (possibly Websnark) that snazzy art gets a reader's attention, but that only good writing can keep them coming back.

This was how I felt as I read through the Applegeeks archives this week. Hawk is an amazing artist. That is, the "holy crap"-kind of amazing. The writing, however... after reading all 176 comics, I really didn't feel like I had a connection with the characters at all. I'm not sure why. Maybe the characters didn't have their own individual voices? Maybe it was because the gags (while there is continuity there isn't much story) were too short to develop personality. In any case, something bugged me. Chugworth Academy has similar problems. The problem here, though, is what if I have the same problems writing as he who writes Applegeeks (I can't remember his name)? What if my comic "sucks" just as bad? I hope it doesn't, but I don't think I can honestly evaluate my own writing.

I listened to both Dashboard Confessional and The Postal Service yesterday. I "borrowed" the music from Hannah, a sophomomore who also comes to the school way early. I thought Dashboard was waay generic and uninspired, like instant mashed potatoes without butter, gravy or seanonings. The Postal Service, however, was kinda cool. Then I typed to Nik Zografos over MSN about music for a few hours. That guy is a pretty heavy critic, a media connoisseur.

So...after Academic Decathlon, the Anchorage Hilton blamed us for a bunch of missing stuff--a cheap hotel painting and some sheets--and burn marks in our countertop. Let me just say that we did none of these things, and that this is obvious through circumstantial evidence at least. Luckily, they dropped the issue after a little chat with Mr. Stull (our coach) over the phone. Sadly, I still feel oligated to say to the Anchorage Hilton: See figure 1.

Also, this weekend marks the beginning of Spring Break. This is good. Usually, though, Spring Break is a time to party and relax. This year, though, it is a time to get some real work done--catch up on the book in College Comp (finally), fill out some scholarships and draw all the comics I've wanted to draw but haven't had the time to do. I have some grand ideas--seven of them, waiting impatiently upon my whiteboard for me to mold them into grand objects of beauty. Woo!

Finally, I have to tell you the harrowing story of how this rant almost had to be retyped. so there I was, Friday in fourth period, working on this very piece of literature, when the laptop suddenly lost power! This shocked me, as it was plugged in. So, I did some investigation and found (with my ninja intuition and Tyler's LED light) that the pin in the power connection had broken out. So, for the second half of fourth period and all the way throught lunch, I dissasembled this very laptop in Mr. Stull's room. Later, during math, I brought the parts in to shock and amaze the students. That was kinda funny.

Then, today (Sunday), I was finally able to get Dad to help me solder the joint (on a side note, I found out that I had been misspelling "solder" for years now, spelling it like "soldier", the GI-Joe type). It was a fairly delicate operation, because of the small size and constricted location of the connection.

However, in the end, we got it fixed, and the lappy runs again. I also got this really old laptop to finally boot freeDOS without the CD, and I got Dad's friend's laptop to display better-than-safe-mode colors. So, that's three laptops I've fixed this weekend. Does that make me 1337? Or at least a techie? I dunno. To me, calling yourself 1337 is kinda like trying to make your own nickname--you just don't do it if you don't want to come across as dumb. What I DO know is that it made the comic update at least 15 hours late.

Until next week, where I will hopefully have less technical difficulties to battle,

--Josh