Thanks to your support (and your love of all things shirty-ninja...y... the figurine order has been finalized. They're being produced, and will be on their way here shortly. I'll keep you posted as to their arrival date.

However, it's possible that you may NEVER get them, because the world is clearly going to end soon. The reason? The unthinkable has happened - preorders for Book 2 have officially begun.

If, for some reason, the skies do not in fact fall upon us and the oceans manage to avoid being boiled away, you will find that Book 2 is in fact very, very real. And not only is it better than Book 1 by leaps and bounds, we're even doing a special run of 500 limited-edition hardcover copies which are signed, numbered, and stamped with our official Real Life Seal of Awesometicity. Those hardcover editions aren't simply case-bound, either... they've got a DUST JACKET. That's just fancy-pantsy right there.

The paperback edition ain't no slouch, though... the cover is a satin finish, a definitive upgrade over the easily-scuffed glossy cover of book one, and both editions of the book are printed in glorious, vibrant full-color on semigloss paper. It's just a beautiful book, and I'm excited that it's finally becoming a reality.

I'm still finishing up some of the commentary, and Hawk (Yes, THAT Hawk) is working on the cover for me right now, but I'm aiming for shipping these in time for Christmas, and in order to do that, I've got an ordering deadline of October 20th. So, frankly, the sooner the better. This is gonna be a srs bsns type of order, so it's gonna take a bit, but we can get there. And this is gonna kick of a renewed dedication to books - I'm going to be aiming to release 2 per year - that should continue for many years to come. Get your copy of Book 2 preordered today - after all, the world may end tomorrow.

Office space

by sagus

Posted at 03:09 PM on Monday, January 5, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen... I am currently writing this post in a place that, to be honest, I never ever saw myself residing in again.

An office.

Specifically, a cubicle IN said office. The place where I now go to work. Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am now once more a part of the working class, and if there were such a thing as a drudgeon, that is what I'd be. It is, however, something of a funny story.

See, I've been telecommuting with Dave's Gourmet for pretty much the entire last year while I was in Texas. Yeah - I was at home all the time, and it gave me ample time to work on the comic, but the comic doesn't really pay the bills. Anyway, long story short, I was working from home, but last wednesday, I found out that there was basically no work left for me. Poof. My income dried up like that.

Never fear, though - I had a degree in the Culinary Arts! Except, see... one small thing. I might kill myself before I wind up working in a kitchen again. It's grueling work, the pay is shit, and the hours suck ass. I'd never see Liz, and I'd wind up having no social life. While my degree is nice and all, like many others out there in the world, I just don't ever really plan to use it anymore.

So, that pretty much leaves me with my only other fallback - graphic and web design. So I shotgunned some resumes, and believe it or not, I got a callback within HALF AN HOUR. Quick phone interview, and we set up an in-person interview for 10 AM the next day. (this was New Year's Eve) 2 hours later, I had a job. That's right - I was officially unemployed for a grand total of 18 hours.

And though I may not be excited to go back to work, it's kind of right up my alley. I spend ALL my time doing graphics and web design, which means I can actually study PHP, CSS and SQL and not get in trouble for it, and it's my first-ever salaried position. None of this dickering about hours. Small, quiet office, and I get more or less left to myself. I couldn't ask for more.

It remains to be seen if the office will wind up in the comic at any point, just 'cause I kinda gotta make sure my boss is cool with it, but at least I'll be able to have a roof over my head for the forseeable future, now. :)

NUVO - The Un-Liqueur.

by sagus

Posted at 12:12 AM on Friday, January 2, 2009

You may doubt my claims of it's pinkness. I have but one thing to say to that:

The only thing more pink than the liqueur is the website. My eyes bleed just lookin' at it. That said, the bottle is freaking AWESOME. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it's a square-shaped bottle. It was cheap enough at the local wine store that we bought it on virtue of the packaging alone. (We're package designers at heart - it's kind of what we do.)

And it really does taste pink. It's described as a blend of premium vodka, french wine, and fruit nectars. I'd say that's about right. It's only 15% alcohol by volume, though, so I say it only BARELY squeaks by as a liqueur... some strong wines approach 15%. Save your taste buds and just drink a couple good beers instead. :)

Results of the massive fan shout-out

by sagus

Posted at 11:42 PM on Tuesday, December 30, 2008

After calling on you guys for help finding the ideal soundboard-type program, I received DOZENS of different suggestions. Many of you even offered to program something for me - though the offer is appreciated, it's unnecessary. :) The really truly interesting part is that no two suggestions were the same. Nobody recommended the same program as someone else.

That said, after looking at all the different options, there's a clear winner for what I'm looking to do : Jazler Show. It's a freeware cart replacement program designed specifically for use in a radio station studio. It can play multiple tracks overlaid over each other, you can queue up a bunch of things to be played in order, (so it can handle commercials) and you can see how long any given sample has left in it to play. It's even designed to be used with a touch screen, so if I ever spent a few bucks (I wouldn't) and got a small touch screen to go with the laptop, we could do sound effects all official-like.

Thanks to Mike for the suggestion - and thanks to everyone else who helped out. You ALL helped me out - I got to see the variety of options open to me. That's worth more than you know.

And stay tuned - if all goes according to plan, the (NSFW) Greg, Liz and Ben show should be coming back to the intertubes in only a few weeks. We're discussing doing our live broadcasts at ~7-8 PM PST on Sundays, and then putting that up as a podcast after that. Just so's ya know, and whatnot.