youdontknow.net

A year ago today, YDK was born! And right from the start, video games started getting in the way. Right about the time that I needed to be doing the first comic for AoA, the long-awaited Final Fantasy XII was released, and I couldn’t help put off things to play it. Just a tad, mind you. I still made a comic, but it wasn’t the one I intended… Then came the X-Box 360. Then the Wii. After that there was a job that got in the way, but that wasn’t nearly as interesting as the video games and I’ve already blogged about it in length… so why am I mentioning all this now? It’s just to remind you that these things have been with us all throughout ydk’s existence so far, and the coming of another such thing should not be any different.

You see, after a long year in which I worked my butt off for no money and little thanks, and coming an AWFUL long way in that year with AoA and LDCB, both of which have improved in leaps and bounds throughout their first year (not so much with LoA, but I’m telling you now: Year 2 is the Year of Dock Traz!), I decided to get myself a little birthday present to celebrate the year of a job well done. And I thought it was only fitting that that present be the last of the next-generation video game systems I had yet to get my grubby little hands on. Yes, today, I went out and bought a Playstation 3!

Now, upon excitedly texting some of my closest friends with this news, I got a bit of a mixed reaction. Some were amused, but concerned that it would get in the way of writing. Some were equally excited for me. Some were interested. And some were almost scornful. Okay, so technically, I said “some” and for all but one of those, I probably should have just said “one” but I was trying to make it sound more generalized. But you know what? I think I deserve a little special something. I think I’ve earned it. And more importantly: I don’t think it’s going to interfere as badly as I think some might think. I mean: just look at me now. It’s midnight. I bought it about eight hours ago, and STILL haven’t hooked it up! I’ve spent my day as I needed to, despite buying the PS3. I went to the grocery store. I cooked dinner for the fam. I went to church. I hung out with friends when I could have been home drooling over it. I came home and I got to work on the comic and the site. The PS3 is still in the box, people! Tell me that that’s not commitment to what I do! Tell me that any lack of faith in my ability to juggle what I need to do, what I want to do, and what I do to relax might be a tad unfounded at this point!

Ahem… Sorry, but it apparently gets on my nerves a little more than I realized when someone acts like they know what’s good for me and my life better than I do and what I can, can’t, will, and won’t do… Bottom line: I’m a person who appreciates the need for some kick-back time. So I’ve factored that into my life. That’s aside from the 32 hours of a paying job I work every week, the anywhere from 20-50+ hours I may put into the website in any given week, and whatever else I need to do. And it is work. If you don’t think it is, then YOU try piecing together two or three comics a week, or editing Episode 10 (gives me shivers just thinking about it). It’s not as easy as it looks.

Wow… I had absolutely no intention of making this blog sound preachy and defensive… not even a little. I’m REALLY sorry about that. It’s not as big a deal as it seems like I’ve made it sound… Anywho… so I’ve more or less already told you some of what’s up for November, but here’s just a little more detail… There will definately be another blog at the end of the month, wrapping things up and letting you know how everything has gone. There may be one right in the middle as well to check up, but that one’s less certain. On the AoA front, this week’s comics are all set-up for the EVENT, so obviously, it has to do with Josh. You’re gonna be finding out a lot more about Josh, how he got to where he is, and how he’s very important to a lot else going on in the comic. It’s going to be a good time! Of course, you know: LDCB has been delayed, but don’t fret: We have a lot of new videos lined up which I’m very excited about. I hope to bring the first one to you next week. As for LDCB itself, I believe that with the delayed production, I SHOULD (yes, even with having bought a PS3; again: have a little faith in me here) be able to have the new camera for earlier in the new season than I had thought I would, which is good news because it means a better production quality for more (if not all of) Volume 2 now! And again: The Year of Dock Traz! Those of you who have read earlier incarnations are gonna be blown away by what’s coming for LoA. I promise!

Now, if you don’t mind, I think it’s time I FINALLY get around to opening the PS3 box up! See ya’!

So I was supposed to write a blog on Monday… but then I didn’t… true story.

Oh well. This will serve as Monday’s blog AND Wednesday’s promised “information.” What do you want first? An amusing anecdote or information? … I’m not sure if I have an amusing anecdote, so I’ll start with the information and see where it takes us…

First and foremost, I know there are about… er… thirty or so people (probably) out there (I don’t know who all of you are, although I think I might be able to figure it out if I really tried) who are eager to learn when the next LDCB is going to premiere… well…. As it happens, some things have come up. There are some personal issues that are going to need some time and there are some production issues that could benefit by having that time, so I’ve decided to postpone the premiere of LDCB Volume 2…. until 2008… I know: I’m sorry, but it has to be done. I can promise that Volume 2 will be better for it, okay? And what’s more, I can promise something else: just because LDCB is staying on hiatus longer than expected, does NOT mean that Traz Productions isn’t going to be shooting more videos your way! We are! And it’s going to be awesome! Coming this November, Traz Productions is going to MAJORLY expand our video line-up beyond just episodes of LDCB! We’ll still have LDCB and we’ll still have other LDCB-related videos, but now, IN ADDITION to LDCB, we’re going to have… well… lots of other stuff. The possibilities are endless, and we plan on taking this opportunity to go in a lot of different directions.

I will go ahead and tell you: first up, I plan on a little late Halloween treat, but I’ll tell you no more than that. Soon after, the socks will be back! And if you don’t know what I mean by that, check out Sock Puppet Theatre in the Extras section. After that… well, like I said: endless possibilities.

So that’s the LDCB portion of the news I promised… hope it doesn’t disappoint you too much about LDCB, and I also hope that you find our EXPANDED Traz Productions a worthy substitute! Now, I also have LoA news…

 I think I’ve mentioned it either here or elsewhere… but if it’s here, I’m too lazy to look, and if it’s elsewhere, I’m REALLY too lazy to look, so… you may or may not know that I’m going back to Square 1 with Legends of Az. Again… And really depending on how long you’ve been with me on LoA… again and again and again… but this time, it’s different… I hope. This coming month, I’m going to take my blood, sweat, tears, and story idea with me into National Novel Writing Month, and I plan to come out with a book! Or at least a really nice start to one. And if it is just a start to one then I plan on plowing right through the end of the competition and continue with the insanely persevering writing method on into December. During that time, I will also post SOME of the story on the site. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be skipping over anything. It’s just that I plan to write faster than I post anything, so even if I have 50,000 words or more written by the end of November, you’ll only have gotten a fraction of them on youdontknow.net. You’ll get more over time. But it might be a little slow-going. My focus here is going to be on the writing. I’ll post when I can. Hopefully, you’ll get an update a week. Which means: if all goes well, that’s an excerpt a week, a video a week, AT LEAST two comics a week… Yes, I do believe November should be a good month for ydk.

Now, let’s see… funny story, funny story, funny story… hmm… I got sick this past weekend, but it really wasn’t funny sick. Not even gross sick. Just annoying sick. I’m still getting over it… Hmmm… Nothing funny or interesting really happened at work… and the rest of the week, I do pretty much nothing but work on the site and buy DVD’s… well, sorry to disappoint, but my life sucks! Seriously: boring city over here! I can tell you an interesting thing I found out today: Dumbledore preferred the guys. Who knew? Ooh… that just gave me a really bad new idea………. heh… you’ll find out what evil idea I just had eventually, I suspect… until then… later, peeps!

This probably isn’t going to be a terribly long post for a couple reasons. First off, I don’t think I’m really in the mood to be writing right now. My head is all fuzzy and not-wanting-to-think right now. And also, a new episode of South Park (new, as in it premiered last night, anyway) comes on in thirty minutes, and I plan to watch it.

So Monday night after work, I changed out of my silly uniform and went to Denny’s with Jazznea. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily “recommend” Denny’s anyway, but I thought it was good enough and options are limited in the middle of the night, so… whatever. But I’m pretty much done with Denny’s now. As I was finishing up my meal, I uncovered buried in the pancakes what I first looked at and my brain just didn’t really grasp what I was seeing. As I stared at it for a moment, I finally realized that I was looking at a big black dead bug… a cricket… in my pancakes…

Now, I’m not particularly squeamish to begin with, but as I contemplated having eaten food that was mingling unbeknownst to me with this dead bug the whole time, I couldn’t help but feel a little wobbly in the tummy. I put down my fork, slid the plate away, and distanced myself from all thoughts of finishing that food that remained uneaten. And sadly, that’s pretty much the whole story. I showed the bug to Jannea. We showed the bug to the waitress, who was very nice by the way. She looked and reacted appropriately appalled by the fact that there was a bug in the meal, and I can appreciate that. What I can’t appreciate is the snippet of conversation I heard between her and her manager as she showed her my unpleasant surprise, which was, “… he could have put it in there himself…” I mean, I can appreciate the possibility, but even so, they should have comped the meal. They did not. They did give me a slight discount, and offered to make me more food, and offer to which I was just like, “You think I want the people who just served me bugs to make me MORE food? Seriously?”

So… yeah… I’m aware that I probably should have really gone off on them. The whole thing does rather disgust me and I never want to eat there (or at any of their places) again, and would recommend that you avoid them as well… but beyond that, I find that I just don’t really care to make any more of a stink about it. I’m not sure when I became such a mellow person, but… whatever. Sh** happens. So long as it didn’t kill me, it at least makes for a story… I suppose it would make for a story if it did kill me too… a better one even. But I wouldn’t get to tell it, so… eh.

So that was the start of my week. That came after an okay weekend. Work on Saturday and Sunday was fine. No big complaints from me. Monday was a little busy. And I marveled at myself for agreeing to work a little on Tuesday despite the fact that it was an inconvenience and I really didn’t want to and I keep insisting that I’m going to stop doing that… But that was fine too. It was only for four hours, and it wasn’t TOO busy. Although, I will say, working in the middle of the day on Tuesday was somewhat different than working in the afternoon and evening. Different types of experiences with the trucks, which in turn made me a little more nervous about screwing something up than I tend to be anymore. But it was all good. I finished the Cable and Deadpool collection I was currently reading and go to plan out a few more of the upcoming AoA comics.

Also, somewhere along the way this week, I stopped being stressed about the upcoming inconveniences in my life of Jury Duty and CLEET training. I figure I’ll probably end up waiting a lot on Monday for jury duty, but it should be good reading time, and I’ll take that. Potentially better than having to deal with work. And with any luck, maybe I’ll just end up being excused anyway, and all will be good. As for CLEET training, I’ll do what I have to do where I have to do it and when I have to do it, and there’s not much else I can do than that. Not worth worrying about. I’ll just do what I can to get it done and it will be what it will be.

And that’s all I’ve got to say for now. Later, peeps.

When I was a kid, I LOVED to draw. Not just a little. A LOT. Drawing was my life. I lived for it. I breathed drawing. I drank drawing. I sleeped drawing… I wanted to grow up to be a draw-er… didn’t realize till later that there was no such word…

I don’t know for sure exactly when that became my favorite thing to do. It just always was. I especially drew in church. It was my church-going activity. While everyone else sang, I drew. While the preacher preached, I drew. I was made to stop during prayers… but I would have drawn then too if I could have gotten away with it.

And it wasn’t just me. My best friend at that time was Keith Hensley, and he loved to draw too. We both sat in church and drew. And other times. We had notebooks (lined writing paper notebooks) that we filled with drawings. And when it came time for the Hartsburgs to move away to Germany, we traded notebooks… But even then, Keith continued to be a influence in my drawing because it was he who got me into comics even while we were in different countries. So of course, comics became my new primary influence in my artwork. I stopped drawing cartoons and started drawing comic characters. I lined my walls with my drawings. I had an endless slew of my own characters that were by and large decently-veiled knock-offs of the X-Men. I had hundreds of potential continuing stories for them in my head and I mainly drew what could have been covers for those stories…

Until, at some point, I realized that I had much more of knack for the stories than the artwork, came to lose faith in my ability to draw at all, and eventually let it fall by the wayside. It would be many, many years before I would really come back into drawing. Sure, I drew a bit here and there. I took some art and drawing classes in school. But I never really took it seriously again. And in time, I let the passion fizzle out and die. Or… at least, I thought it died… It wouldn’t be until I was about 22 or 23 years old before I would discover that the passion was just lying dormant, and when that happened, it was once again due to a friend of mine, this time: Jon Surber.

Although, Josh Turner deserves some credit here as well. It was he who basically pushed me into trying to take my love of writing and turning it into something I could do for God… ‘cuz that’s what Josh does… so he got it into his head that I should spearhead a newsletter for the singles of Eastside with various articles both humorous and otherwise… and Jon thought it should have comics. And Jon planned to make those comics… He made the first one. And apparently, I may subconsciously get a little competitive in the drawing arena, because I thought, “Well, hey, I could do that!” So Jon made one comic… and I made three. And I just kept going…

They were simple little, gag-comics, but they led me to wanting to do more… to make something with more of a continuing story but that was still funny… and that’s how Adventures of Josh was born… Now, here, you probably have more or less heard the story. Adventures of Josh was fun and really reignited the passion for me, but it still managed to fall by the wayside until ydk was forged in my mind, and AoA became something of a descendent of AoJ. That, you know…

So why am I telling you all this in this blog? Well, it’s not just to flesh out my history with art to you… It’s because this past weekend at work, the reignition of my passion took one more huge step forward… and for the first time since childhood, I discovered that I really LOVED to draw…

 See, with the birth of the Singular Times comics, I discovered that I wasn’t as bad as I thought I was. With the birth of Adventures of Josh, I rediscovered a passion for using artwork as a storytelling device. And over time, with Adventures of Ak, I rediscovered that I actually liked drawing. But this past weekend, I found that I loved it. I found that it gave me a joy I had not experienced in drawing since I was a kid, filling notebooks with my silly little drawings during church. I loved it then. It was my joy. And this past weekend, it became a joy to me again.

Once again, I realized that I may be a little competitive in this particular arena as it was my coworker Jimmy showing me what he draws (he likes to draw all sorts of snazzy little designs that mostly look like something people like to get tattooed on their bodies) that inspired me to bring my own work to… er… work with me… And as I sat there at the desk with the pad of paper sitting in front of me, going to work on drawings without my usual concern for who was looking over my shoulder at what I was doing that I rediscovered my love.

I know it’s weird that I have a comic in which I display my artwork for all to see online but still usually hesitate to let anyone see what I’m doing as I’m actually drawing it. But that’s what I do… But I made an effort to ignore that particular compulsion and started drawing at work. It was the first time since childhood I had drawn unabashedly like that, and it clicked something inside me. I reflected upon it as I drove around the golf-cart and that’s when I realized the most wonderful thing: I was really loving it.

I tell you all this for a couple reasons: First off, it’s hard to describe just how wonderful a thing that was to realize. I haven’t described it well enough here. It may not be something you can fully describe. It may just be something you have to feel. But it was wonderful and I felt I had to tell people about that wonderful feeling. Secondly… I want to use it to encourage you to find your own childhood passion. I don’t know what it might be for you… but there was something for you in childhood that created an incredible sense of unadulterated wonder and joy in you that, chances are, you haven’t experienced since then. You probably never thought you could again. But you can. And I want to encourage you to find it. Because there’s nothing like it. But it’s something that everyone should get the chance to feel, at least every now and again. So do what you have to do to find it. But DO make sure that you do it. Life is too hard not to let yourself feel that way sometimes. That’s the stuff that makes the hard parts worth the struggle.

Trust me: I know what I’m talking about.

The unicorn is an elusive creature, this is true. But does this mean it does not exist? Well… yeah, probably… but at least in the case of the “unicorn” of Episode 10, it absolutely exists, however elusive it may have been.

Technically speaking, Episode 10 was originally supposed to be on the site way back around March or August. But shooting of earlier episodes at the time became hampered and the gaps between new episodes started stretching out to as much as months at a time. Then came my new job, and we were probably lucky to get Episode 9 out when we did (it was pretty off schedule too, having been originally promised months earlier, then set for May, it ended up coming to us in June). Despite all this, though, I was optimistic about getting Episode 10 done and online by the end of June… and then by the end of July… and then by the day after Labor Day… and then the Friday after Labor Day… and then the Monday after that… and finally, it’s up (though work still needs to be done to get it on par or better with/than the presentation of previous episodes) on the following Tuesday…

There was such an unbelievably long time between Episodes 9 and 10 that many came to believe Episode 10 would in fact NEVER come… and I have to say: as much as I’ve insisted that it really was real and really would come, there were moments where I even had to doubt myself. When it came down to the wire and I had just a week left before my “final” deadline of the day after Labor Day, I was trying to arrange shooting like mad, and a lot of it was just falling through. Which is why I had to reschedule for the Friday after Labor Day so I could finish shooting that very same week. But I underestimated a few things.

First, I underestimated… or rather I OVERestimated my ability to say, “No,” to my boss guilting me into working extra hours. I suck. Secondly, I underestimated how much shooting really needed to be done and how long the script I had written really was. Thirdly and biggest…. er… -ly… I MAJORLY underestimated how long the editing process was actually going to take. Not only is this our longest episode (five whole minutes longer than the previous longest episode, which was in turn the ten-minute Episode 9), but it included a great many little tidbits from previous episodes and old footage only seen by the cast itself and seventy or so of our closest friends (collectively speaking). Which meant a whole lot of sifting through tapes that I’ve neglected to properly mark (I have a lot of unmarked tapes), uploading, editing, deleting, uploading some more, more editing, deleting, even more uploading, etc.

All in all, even if I had managed to start the editing process earlier, I never had a hope of finishing by my Friday deadline. There just wasn’t enough time. But there were all sorts of things ready to step in and eat up more of the time… and so they did. But I remained optimistic and insisted to myself (even as I had a nagging doubt at the back of my mind attempting to assert its presence) that I could at least finish it and get it online after I got off my 12-hour shift on Sunday so that it would be online by the time most got up on Monday… well, I actually almost succeeded on that one. Almost…

I worked for hours after my shift on Sunday and finished the editing process. I drearily kept myself awake at six and seven in the morning on Monday as I waited for the stupid thing to copy onto a disc (this was after, by the way, a fun little bit where I ran out of usable discs that I could record the episode on which resulted in a frantic search for a blank disc that eventually rewarded me). Meanwhile, I opened a new account on youtube, this one a Director account (having previously just used my original regular account to upload videos), because I THOUGHT that those with Director accounts could upload longer videos (I’m pretty sure that they could when youtube first introduced Director accounts anyway….), but I was evidently wrong…

I was running out of available time to get some sleep in before I would have to get up again to go to work on Monday afternoon, so I frustratedly gave up and resolved to get the episode up instead on Tuesday. It was a big disappointment for me. I had already pushed the episode back enough times. I hated doing it this last time more than any, but I had little choice. I started to make a go at at least informing site-goers of my failure before I crashed, but the computer was acting too slowly and I was too frustrated and tired, so I ultimately just gave up, and collapsed into bed.

And so… this was a much more interesting story when I thought about telling it several hours ago, but I guess exhaustion and accumulated frustration still present and reviving itself with the memory of all the trouble all combines to make this particulary difficult to make very entertaining… So… suffice it to say: I’ve caught the unicorn, it’s on display FINALLY, and I hope you find it to be the best unicorn ydk has ever given you.

That is all. For now… Come to the forums and we’ll discuss episode 10 in more detail. There’s certainly a lot of interesting new information from it that we could delve into. Plus, we could talk about the artists who allowed us to use their music. Much like Episode 9, the addition of this music added A LOT to the episode, and really helped to cement it into a solid finished product.

“The Director” has spoken!

So… it’s been nearly two months since the last time I blogged! What’s up with that? I guess that what was up with that is that Standard Iron was kicking my butt. Which is why I went and asked for a new part-time post, and now I have that. It’s actually more work than Standard Iron was, but it’s less hours and more money… at least in theory, it is. This week it wasn’t less hours at all. In fact, technically, it was thirty minutes more this week… but I don’t intend on letting that happen again. I asked for a part-time job and a part-time job I shall have… one way or another.

I did this so that I can get back to my favorite sometimes part-time, sometimes full-time job of keeping you all entertained on youdontknow.net. Now that the hours are somewhat more agreeable to helping me get stuff done, ydk is back as a top priority for me. We’ve already returned to regular Tuesday and Thursday updates on Adventures of Ak, and it’s only a matter of time before our other features are updated again as well.

Now, of course: Mousekitty insists that Episode 10 is a unicorn. Which is to say: it’s a mythical creature, and we’re probably fools for believing that it could be real. And it’s occured to me that it would probably be easier if this were true. I mean, if Episode 10 WERE a unicorn, then any episode that came thereafter would also be a myth. It would be easier because then I would have no webisodes to produce, and doing nothing does tend to make for the easier path. But no. I fully intend on provoing Episode 10 to be a reality. Not only that, but if all goes according to plan (and it would be nice if something finally did), then Episode 10 should mark the beginning of much more regular updates of videos in general. We have a limited series that will begin soon that I can’t tell you too much about (it’s all very hush-hush), the first three episodes of which should premiere in the time between Episode 10 and 11. Not to mention the Volume 1.5 Bloopers!

As for LoA… the only reason really I haven’t dug back into that yet is because I decided that I needed to first make it my mission to do some much-needed cleaning…

Once upon a time I was something of a neatfreak. Not necessarily the worst neatfreak in the world, but mainly, it was just that I was pretty particular about where things needed to be. I didn’t really freak out at a mess, so long as that mess was in the right place. (You don’t need to tell me I’m certifiable; I already know.) Well, about two years ago, that particular obsession of mine got pushed to the limits when it came about that my sister, neice, and (once he was born) newborn nephew would be coming to stay for several months. This would mean lots of extra stuff everywhere, including a vast amount of toys and baby stuff that could simply never be completely cleaned. In order to deal with this, I had to eventually come to a point where I could either just lose my mind completely, or try to shut off the neatness compulsion of mine. I more or less managed to shut it off. And so for the past two years, that compulsion has been pretty much in sleep mode. In sleep mode, it could still have minor flare-ups, but it wasn’t really a thing like it was before. As a result, I became decidedly messier in that time.

I think my time at Standard Iron may have woken the beast, though. I always came home dirty from Standard Iron, with very dirty clothes, and got my bedroom a little extra dirty in so doing. Also, we all know how it occupied so much of my time so that the papers and junk on my desk or in the floor or wherever else started to pile up more and more and I just didn’t have the energy or care to clean it. But the first moment I started to get the time where I could clean it, that old urge to do so started rising back up inside me, and now, with the new job, I knew I not only could clean up, but I really wanted to.

And so that’s what I did today. I cleaned. I moved stuff around. It’s not perfect and it’s not even done, but it was the first step. If I can devote another day to it next week I may actually have stuff cleaner and neater than they’ve been in many, many years. This thought pleases me. And although I can’t explain exactly why, but it also helps with my writing. When my desk is piled high and cluttered, and my bedroom is a mess… it doesn’t even matter if I’m in there when I’m writing or in another room. The mess in my bedroom seems to create a reflection in my mind, and I just can’t think as clearly. Again: I know: certifiable. Maybe it’s a feng shui thing… I don’t know. All I know is that I do better; I’m more efficient and more work-oriented when things are neat and clean. So hopefully, that’s going to help my writing…

The main thing is that I need to make certain that I don’t get hoodwinked into working any extra next week. My schedule cannot abide it (and neither can my sanity; I’ll spare you the details right now of just how working on Tuesday when it was supposed to be my day off really frakked me over this week but only because I’m gonna use that blog for myspace). I have a LOT to get done next week in order to prepare for the big return to form after Labor Day. So… yeah… that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Be sure to come back for more new comics next week, plus a new blog, a new poll, and maybe a new T-shirt or something (I’m saving the big surprises for the return to form, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have stuff to look forward to next week). And especially come back the day after Labor Day. There’s going to be a LOT to look forward to that week!

I’m fairly certain that just a couple days ago before when this blog was supposed to go up, I had some decently entertaining stories to tell. I’m sorry to say I can’t for the life of me think of what they could have been. It’s possible that it’s because I’m really tired and my brain is not currently functioning at full capacity. This happens a lot to me these days. It’s because I maintain a strange sleeping schedule, which causes me to have a routinely frakked up schedule on the weekends, tends not to help to keep me from staying up all night and sleeping during the day for the rest of the week, which all in all just causes trouble when there’s anything that happens that means that I have to be up and somewhere during the day… ever… which, of course, I do… often…

Today was one of those days. Technically, I didn’t HAVE to get up. But I felt I should. And wanted to. Kind of. See, for many, many summers since sometime when I was a teenager (say around… 14 or 15 years old or so), I’ve spent a large portion of my summers helping with Vacation Bible School, both at my church and on the road. It’s actually been awhile since it was really at it’s peak (around ‘99 to ‘03 or so, it wasn’t unusual for us to have six or so total VBS’s in the summer), but still… it makes up for a decent chunk of my life and a lot of really great and memorable experiences (including, I might add, the birth of Moonshine that plays a role in LDCB). And though it’s been a few years since we’ve had as many VBS’s at one time, I’ve mostly maintained pretty active and involved, and ultimately, it was also one of the advantages of working at the LRC: that I had a relatively easy time clearing my schedule when I needed/wanted to.

This summer is different, and not just because I have a new job, though that’s the biggest reason. And that’s okay. It’s not like anything’s going to fall apart without me. And I’ve been dragging my feet on them a little over the past few anyway. But when I found out (at church on Sunday night; somehow it completely escaped me before then that it was happening) that they were doing a VBS this week, I figured I oughtta go for at least the one day that I could: Thursday. So I did.

I suppose this story isn’t really going anywhere…. Hmmm… Well, it’s the explanation for why I’m tired tonight. Last night I intended to get to sleep BEFORE five or six in the morning so that I could have a halfway-decent night’s sleep before getting up to be at the church building at 10:30. It SORT of worked… I got to bed last night at about 4:30. Having shucked off the blog and the comic till Friday (this is the blog, obviously, and the comic is already up if you haven’t noticed), I probably could have and should have gotten to bed sooner than that, but… Oh well…

So…… um….. then I found five dollars…

I am happy that I managed to get what I promised up on the site this week. Good on me for that. It means that the chocobo that I’m raising on FFXI got a wee bit neglected, but oh well. Speaking of FF, I got the Anniversary Edition of the original Final Fantasy on the PSP on Wednesday. It’s nice. I like it. It will probably not come as a surprise to any who know of my love for 8-bit Theatre that I made a party of a Fighter (Warrior), Black Mage, Thief, and Red Mage. I also now have FF Tactics for the PSP reserved. Yay! And as you can tell from the comic, the anticipation for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is beginning to get to me. Just three weeks away. With my big reread of the series still in the early part of GoF, that leaves me with about a week for each of the remaining books before the last. If I get time, and feel so inclined, I’ll probably end up writing an in-depth discussion on Harry Potter and my theories for the final book on myspace… I don’t know why, but I figure myspace is the place for that blog.

Let’s see… maybe I oughtta wrap this up before I end up rambling on aimlessly forever (of course, if I did that, who knows how many five dollar bills I would end up finding!). I did promise an update on LDCB… Sadly, I can’t report that it’ll be coming too soon. Due to scheduling conflicts and Fouth of July vacations and what-not, we can’t really get much done until after the holiday. I am doing my best to get it to you as soon as possible though. It should be SOMETIME in July, but I can’t say for sure for anything more specific than that. I’ll do this for you, though: Whenever Episode 10 does come out, I’ll have the second Volume 1 blooper reel up for you within two weeks after that. I’d give it to you now but then that would leave out potential Ep. 10 bloopers… but you’ll have that to look forward to too…

But then: what am I thinking?! As much as I know we all want Episode 10, we all also know that July brings us Harry Potter as already mentioned, and best of all, Nathan’s visit. And while I know not all of you necessarily know Nathan (which is to say the few strangers that visit the site, plus a couple of known entities that just haven’t met him), those who do look forward to Nathan’s comings like little else. Seriously: I learned long ago that if you want to get people to come to a party, all you have to do is tell them that Nathan will be there. Even if it’s a lie, they’ll come in flocks in hopes of seeing and talking to him. Which is why I always promise Nathan… even if he’s not going to be there (when he’s not there, I typically try to cast a Special Guest Nathan, though in the past, this usually just turned out to be an inanimate object or picture of some kind).

So that’s the story… Time to stop writing now… Bye.

So I probably should have written this last night while I was still mostly awake, but I ended up going to Denny’s with JAZZnea at 1:30 in the morning instead. It was great fun, and we ended up with a brand new inside joke that is responsible for the title of this blog… And no, I’m not at this time sharing what the joke is. It’s also, in a way, responsible for my new voice mail message which is sure to confuse all who try to call me. And last but not least, JAZZnea and I now know what our weapons of choice will be if ever confronted with a situation in which we must do physical combat using video game consoles. JAZZnea will be using the Wii, whereas I shall choose the Gamecube. And I will simply hope that our opponents do not utilize the very heavy X-Box 360 despite the fact that JAZZnea insists she could knock it out the air with the Wii’s nunchuck…

So that’s life. Work is going all right. I plan on blogging about it and my future plans more over on myspace, but for here, I’m doing a different blog. And per usual, it’s primarily concerned with what’s to come and when it should be expected here on ydk. Adventures of Ak continues regularly, so I won’t bother going into that too much apart from a plea to please vote for us at the various webcomic ranking sites we’re listed on, and also: please feel free to tell me what you think about the comic in the forums or through at email or a comment to this blog; whatever. I’d like to hear feedback whenever you have it. What you like, what you don’t, and why that is. It’s all good. I want to hear it.

Then, there’s LDCB. Of course, Episode 9 premiered a few weeks back. I’ve heard good responses. It was evidently well-received. Episode 10 is on the way, albeit a little slowly now that my schedule is so messed up. But it should still be here, hopefully by the end of June, and if not then, then beginning of July. Yes, we’ll be going on a hiatus with LDCB after Episode 10, but I want to assure you that the hiatus won’t be quite as bad as it sounds. For one thing, even during the hiatus, we still have a few LDCB videos to give you, including the second set of bloopers from Volume 1 of LDCB! Also, one of the other good things about the hiatus is that I plan on shooting ALL  of Volume 2 during this time. The reason this is good news for fans of LDCB is that it means the scheduling of Volume 2 is going to be A LOT more regular than how Volume 1 was aired. No more gaping months in between episodes (barring some terrible calamity/act of God, that is, that might prevent episodes from going up, knock on wood). Instead, when Volume 2 begins (the plan is: November, as part of our one year anniversary celebration), new episodes will hit the site every two weeks, generally speaking, with a little break somewhere in the middle for Christmas and the LDCB’s 2nd Christmas Special!!! So I think that’s something to look forward to. It should really be nice for it to run so regularly, especially since the plot is really going to heat up in Volume 2.

And finally: we come to talk about Legends of Az. The fact of the matter is: Legends of Az is closer and dearer to my heart than anything else on the site. And yet, it’s also the one that sufferes the most neglect due to a busy schedule. As a result, I’ve decided that in order to continue LoA, I’m going to have to do more to MAKE time for it in the schedule. This is important to point out to you because it’s going to mean more weeks like this one where we have fewer updates in the week. These weeks won’t be every week, and I’ll space them out a bit so they don’t come all at once, but every now and again at least, for the time being, we’ll eventually hit a week that I’m trying to devote to things like LoA. So… just for your information.

For those of you who also read my blog on myspace, there will be another one on there within a couple days (hopefully), concerning some important matters. And for everyone: there will be a new comic tomorrow! Yay! Till then, see ya’!

So I guess I need to blog… I never seem to be in the mood to blog when I finally get around to being able to blog lately. But I shall do my best anyway…

 So I guess I’m starting to get used to my new schedule, although I’m still less than ultra-fond of it. Last week was rough, but we managed to get done what needed to get done for the site while working, and this week looks even more manageable without a new episode to edit and the pictures for the comics already drawn and the words already written… it just leaves coloring and putting it all together… so all in all: this week is looking decent, site-wise. I may even be able to successfully pull of some Legends of Az again FINALLY! … which means that there’s not really much to report to you about the site itself… so I guess I’ll tell you more about my job…

The thing that keeps me going back to it is the promise of money. If I didn’t need the money, it’s nothing I would care to be doing. But it’s not that bad either. At least not most of the time. It varies depending on what day it is, how long the shift is, and how deep into the shift I am. So I’ll start by telling you about Saturday morning… On Saturday morning, I work from midnight to 8 AM. This shift is in competition with my Sunday shift for the one I dislike the most, but I’m really not sure which one irks me more. It’s not really an easy shift. Eight hours at that time on Saturday morning is just hard. It starts out okay. I usually watch television on DVD with my sister and brother-in-law on Friday night (leave me alone if you want to make fun of me for having no life - I’m aware, and am okay with it). Lately, we’ve been watching Doctor Who, which has seemed like a good show to watch prior to working because it just puts me in a really good mood. I don’t know what it is, but after watching Doctor Who, I’m just generally cheerier, and more excitable, and so that helps me to remain positive while I make my rounds at work… for about two or three (at the max) hours… after that, it wears off, I start to get tired, aches and pains that had time to get better over my nonwork between Wednesday night and Saturday morning start to reassert themselves… and all this just ends up leading to an ill-tempered BJ. And while that’s bad enough, what actually annoys me most about Saturday morning is that the business opens on Saturday morning. And I have to deal with people. And I don’t like having to deal with people. Seriously: who gets up at the crack of dawn on a freakin’ Saturday morning and rushes on over to the scrap metal place before it even opens at 8 because they’re just THAT eager to sell some metal… From what I’ve seen so far, I can tell you they’re not really people I care to be dealing with… Of all the people who would come through the LRC when I was working there, there would occasionally be one or two people that… well, let’s just say they were bad enough to bring the whole job down… those are the sorts of people who get up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday and rush on over to sell some metal… So that’s what I don’t like about Saturday morning…

Which is why in some ways, Sunday morning is the most ideal shift for me. It’s the shift where the business isn’t open at all, and I shouldn’t have to come into direct contact with anyone. Problem is: not only is it on Sunday morning, making me miss church (which puts me into a foul enough mood already), but it’s a 12-hour shift… which is just a very, very long time. Now, if anyone can entertain themselves for 12 hours, it’s me. But still… Twelve hours of making those rounds every hour through the mud and the aches and the pains and the blisters and…. everything… It’s grueling, my friends. And I do NOT look forward to it.

The weekend in general is exacerbated by the fact that I have to work extra hard to get enough sleep in between shifts to be able to survive. On Thursday night, I try to stay up even later than normal so that I can sleep most of the day on Friday, but it still leads to getting tired at around the same times during my shift on Saturday morning, just out of routine. After I get off on Saturday morning, I go home and sleep until about four or five when I get up, eat, watch a little TV, and then go back to sleep for good measure (because if I didn’t, then Sunday as a whole would be even harder than it is). That extra couple of hours of sleep on Saturday night seem to make Sunday morning easier than Saturday morning, but by the end of it, I’m still a whole lot of crap on legs, and after a meal, I crash into bed on Sunday afternoon. I try to get three-hour increments of sleep… because it just works well that way… But three hours is as much as I can get on Sunday afternoon so that I can get up for church on Sunday evening. And I’ve found that although I liked the idea of evening services being at 5 when they moved it there years back, all of a sudden, I wish it were at 6 again… but oh well… I believe that it is the extra bit of sleep on Saturday night that allows me to make it through the rest of Sunday with just three hours on Sunday afternoon. So I make it and I go to church, and I stay up - albeit tired - for the remainder of Sunday night…

Monday through Wednesday, I work only 6 and a half hours. Which is entirely manageable. I don’t have as many complaints about those hours… Although I’m not terribly fond of the cleaning lady that comes in those nights. And the fact that she’s coming kind of tends to plague me all night because she comes at totally random times. There’s no telling when she’ll be there. So despite the fact that I don’t particularly like her, I feel bad if she shows up while I’m all the way on the other side of the grounds on rounds because I have to hustle back and open the gate for her… but since there’s no telling when she’ll actually get there on any given night, there’s not really anything else I can do. So that irks me. But oh well…

And that’s my week… I don’t really like it, but I pull through by thinking about putting the money toward buying cameras and a new computer and the editing system, and all that. Because with those things are my future, and if I can just bear through the job for long enough then… I just have to bear through it long enough… or win the lottery that one time that I play if I ever get around to doing that… *sigh*

Traz Productions and youdontknow.net (YDK) would like to announce the ninth installment of the web series The Life and Deaths of Cooter Brown (LDCB)!

LDCB tells the story of the professional wrestler wannabe and intelligence-challenged Cooter Brown. Somehow, he finds himself at the center of a twistedly complicated plot to end his life. Targeted by his own best friend, the deadly hit man known as Joe Killa, and the elusive Mr. Mister, Cooter will have to face these obstacles and more if he hopes to get to the bottom of it all. Though the bigger question may be: What does any of this have to do with the Moonshine Massacre and the mysterious deaths of over thirty people?! Or perhaps even the bigger question: Will Cooter even be smart enough to learn the truth before whoever is trying to kill him finally succeeds?

This fictional series was begun in November 2006 by Ben Hartsburg, “The Director”. Originally a revision of a college class project, LDCB has taken on a life of it’s own. Ben enlists the acting talents of several friends and family members, with very enjoyable results! Full of comedy and drama, LDCB provides something for everyone.

In Episode Nine: “First and Last”, we learn more about the fledgling hit man, Boyd Valentine, who is also Cooter’s best friend. This episode is also the first in the series to feature a musical score, courtesy of the great folks at Twenty Twelve Records. The song “Symphony of my Life” by 2012 is woven throughout the series, adding to the suspense with it’s entrancing sound.

You can check out this newest episode at the YDK - LDCB website. To here more of the amazing creations of 2012, check out their PureVolume site.

The tenth episode of the series will be released sometime in the summer, wrapping up the first season of LDCB. But the series is far from over! Be sure to stay tuned with YDK for that episode, as well as the premier of season two, scheduled to begin sometime in the fall.

Last but not least, YDK is searching for local talent to be featured in future episodes of LDCB (as well as added to episodes which have already been released). If you or your band would like to contribute music to be featured in the movies, email x.l.i.i@hotmail.com.

*This blog was originally posted in the MyNews section of NewsOK.com. You can see that article here.*