scribble

Feeling flush with the arrival of another advance check, I picked up a new Wacom Graphire2 tablet from Micro Center last night. This replaces the monstrously huge Wacom I got last year, the one that neither fits anywhere on my desk or lap, nor works with OS X (for it uses an ancient ADB connector). I had been pleasantly surprised to catch myself doodling again while working on the book, and in the last month or so have been receiving a smattering of random ego-massage that has been encouraging me to mess around with cartooning again, so I figured it was worth dropping a c-note on the thing, especially since I should be able to recoup most or all of that by eBaying the giant tablet.

Design kudos to Wacom for building the penholder directly into the tablet, rather than relying on a separate, freestanding penholder thingy which I would permanently misplace minutes into ownership.

I haven't played with it very much yet, but you will probably know, once I do.

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Got up a little after 9, due to the fact that I am a little sick with a cold or its functional equivalent. That's not too bad, but I should make it a goal to be outside my bedroom door every morning before my housemates have all left for work. That is the cue that I'm slipping again.

Careers

Seeing a link labeled "Careers" atop a website makes me smirk internally. Unless they mean it as "out-of-control maneuvers". Yes, I will apply for a job and career through your company for about one year before either you lay me off, you are bought out, or you convince me that you're dangerously insane. This has been the way for the last five years (and five employers).

I wonder if this is the shape of my whole professional future. But, really, I should put off thinking about anything work-related for another week.

Journalism

Bill Burkett just mailed me -- he found the silly con report I wrote that mentioned his talk (among many other things) from the XML 2000 Conference, over a year ago. He just wanted to express amusement, and say hi.

How wonderfully random... I actually know very little about this fellow or what he does, but still.

That reminds me: I got a call last week from a reporter who was interested in ComicsML. We gabbed for more than an hour about that and other cool XML applications, and I found myself plugging the book to the media for the first time. And caring how my name was spelled. (And Erik's.)

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Good timing: ORA is publishing a book about SVG just as we're sending The Book off to production, and SVG is something that factors in greatly with two big projects I can't wait to dive into full-time for a while: ComicsML, and MIGS (the game system). Tasty stuff!