Er, I mean happy Father’s Day.

You can download that podcast from this page.

The next episode, episode 5, will have a little more discussion about BlendShow and be considerably shorter. Episodes 3 and 4 are pretty long because we’re old friends and don’t get to hang out much anymore, and believe me, there was a LOT cut out for your benefit, heh. I am not on episode 4, nor have I heard it yet, so I won’t pressure you into listening to that one.

ADHDcast doesn’t have an iTunes-compatible rss feed(yet?), and the blog’s rss link isn’t displayed anywhere(yet?), so if you want to subscribe to it, add this url to a blog-friendly rss feed catcher.

In other news, my backup computer is useless. The hard drive has been clicking, which means it’s close to dying(my main laptop didn’t give ANY warning), and installing an older graphics driver didn’t fix the issue on display in the photo here. The graphics hardware might just be getting old. Lately, the computer has had trouble booting up, so I’m finally giving up on it. I am now down to a shared computer and a Nexus 7. Thankfully, my backed-up data is almost finished downloading to the shared computer. It’s a nice reminder that I really need to also save up for an external hard drive, because online backup is SLOW and my super-fast internet charges extra if I download more than 50 GB in a month, not counting between midnight and 8:00 AM, when I’m limiting my backup restoring to. At least with online backup, it’s extremely automatic and extremely off-site. Both key factors in choosing it.

Before…

After…

Today, the region that Kennyland resided in has closed. This screenshot was taken while they were returning all of the objects, there is nothing left now. With a single day’s notice, less than a day after I paid for another week’s rent(I was refunded some of it) and about an hour after Second Life charged me to list the park in their directory for another week(13 cents). Thankfully that was enough notice for me to pack parts of Kennyland together for easier re-deployment. Stray bits can be difficult to reposition. I wish I could have given advance notice to you about this, but I didn’t have much notice myself. This wouldn’t be the first time a FurNation region containing Kennyland has shut down without notice.

I don’t know that I’ll re-open Kennyland. The park got fewer than 10 visitors per day, attracted fewer than 200 subscribers over the course of 3 years(Barely anybody clicks the link in the notice), and nobody buys anything from it. I check my transaction history occasionally, and all of my Second Life sales are through the Second Life Marketplace, which doesn’t require any land. Anymore, I only get on Second Life to update the comic subscription notices and the comic display in the park, and very occasional tweaks to the park. I don’t socialize there AT ALL, and that’s what Second Life is really for. For me, Second Life was for building things. Well, I’ve graduated to Blender, now. And for the cost of keeping land there, I could invest that money more effectively in banner ads on other websites. I definitely got new readers from it, but for US$6 per month and the added complication to the comic updating process(slightly longer than updating a website with the comic), there really isn’t enough return on the investment. Especially with how the comic’s update schedule is right now. If I were to re-open Kennyland, it will inevitably cost more than before, because Furnation really did have the best price in Second Life(L$1 per prim per week, 350 prims in a 28x28m parcel). Adding to that, Furnation had a LOT of traffic(people could read the comic without actually entering the park), so there isn’t a chance of losing less money on this than before.

If you’re subscribed to the comic through Second Life(they’ll be email notices for most of you), you’ll have to re-subscribe via rss or email. There’s also my FurAffinity page, if you prefer to subscribe there.

Even though I might be through with Second Life, I still hope to create more products, because for the past few weeks I’ve actually been making back that US$1.50 per week that I spend on the park. The more products I have, the higher that profit will be. Without Kennyland, I might actually make back what I spend on web hosting! It’s sad that this is the highest-earning thing I do, not including my fast food job. Hopefully I can monetize the BlendShow software more than that.

I will miss having the only theme park based on a webcomic, though.

It’ll be difficult working on the software using only borrowed computers(until I can afford a replacement computer), but this is a project I’m really excited about and can help a lot of people. I don’t have a download available yet, but Ton Roosendaal(chairman of the Blender Foundaton) encouraged me to go ahead and share my plans sooner than I planned, and you know what? I think my plans are finally fleshed out enough to share now.

Since the Memorial Day commercials are playing right now, I figured it wouldn’t be too early to have a comic about them.

So, where have I been the past month? On a barely usable 5 year old laptop, and occasionally on a powerful laptop that’s usually occupied by somebody else. I simply can’t afford a new computer right now. Therefore, comic updates are going to continue to be sporadic. In fact, since this is a Memorial Day comic, I don’t plan on having a comic update for the next two update days so that I have a relevant comic up through Memorial Day.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE, I’m releasing details about that software I told you I’m working on. Go to BlendShow.com for all the details!

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While I’m stuck with ineffective computing equipment(yeah, no comic today either), I’d like to share this Kickstarter project with you. There needs to be a documentary about the legendary Dr. Demento, and there are just a few days left to make it happen.

I expect this post to reach maybe 20 people. I’m going to bed.

UPDATE: IT GOT FUNDED!

Song is “Heart Skips A Beat” by Olly Murs. Nothing special, in my opinion, but it does inspire comics about heart problems.

In other news, the comics will be on a reduced schedule as a result of my hard drive dying, as well as not having enough money in general. Quite simply, they’ll be posted “when they’re done”. I’ll still only post comics on Mondays and Thursdays unless I have a good reason to post a comic on another day, BUT if I don’t have the comic finished before midnight Central Standard Time, there won’t be a post on that day. Quite simply, there will be no late comics, but sometimes there won’t be a comic at all. I’ve posted a blog entry with more details.

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The death of my laptop’s hard drive forced me to make some hard decisions this weekend. Should I put the comic on hiatus? No, I have too many ideas written down and they’re just going to keep building up. I’ve decided to change my update schedule to “when the comic is finished”. Quite simply, I’ll still update the comics on Mondays and Thursdays, but only if I have a comic finished before midnight. If there’s no new comic before 1:00 AM in the Central Standard Time Zone on Mondays and Thursdays, there won’t be a comic that day. On the bright side, that means that you won’t have to wait for late comics(also I get some sleep). If you check the comic at sunrise and there’s no comic, you can be sure that there is simply no comic instead of waiting and waiting. No second guessing.

As you may have noticed, I can still create comics without that computer. I have 2 other computers available to use, but one is shared and the other needs some fixing(5 years old). The comic keeps me awake at night enough already and has never shown any profit. It is time that I stop treating this comic like it’s my job. I need to focus on earning enough money to replace that 4 year old laptop with a powerful desktop, as well as various living expenses that I’m behind on. Because of this, just replacing the hard drive won’t get me to change the schedule back. My new pet project is going to be the software I’m developing, and it actually stands a chance of making a profit. I’m not revealing what it is until I have something to show off, though. I am excited about this project. The comic, however, just has me sleep-deprived. Having no deadlines for the comic will help me actually enjoy creating the comics again.

Surprisingly this won’t affect my traffic at all, since I get fewer than 50 visitors per day and a few hundred people just get the comics sent directly to them. If you’re not subscribed, there are several ways to get subscribed:
Via email or an rss reader. If you’re on the Furaffinity or Inkbunny art-sharing sites, you can subscribe there. You can click the comic in my Second Life theme park, although that’s basically an email subscription anyway. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google+, although updates are easily buried there.

And for more fun, I also run ICWutUDidThar.com which is still updating once daily for the foreseeable future because really, I’m mostly just reblogging things on Tumblr there. I have a decent queue of quick, funny posts.

I shouldn’t have expected him to take the same path. Still, I was able to easily get him into his cat carrier and he got his yearly vaccinations yesterday.

In other news, my hard drive died and I don’t know yet what the status of future comics will be. We had a tornado warning while I was inking the comic, and when the clouds that COULD turn into a tornado got close, I shut down the computer to prevent a power outage from damaging files while I took shelter. After the clouds passed by without producing a tornado, I turned the computer back on, but it couldn’t start Windows. I haven’t even gotten it to boot from my SD card with Linux on it(I’m sure I did that before on that computer).

I finished the comic on my mom’s computer thanks to frequent online backups, including one right before shutting down. I COULD continue to do the comic on her computer, but I’d rather not continuously borrow it. There’s another laptop I could use, but it’s older than my computer & has its own problems. It’s 5 years old and mine is 4 years old.

I’ll have an update on Monday letting you know how things work out, but the simple fact is that I can’t afford a new hard drive(or my car payments at the moment) and I’d rather put my money toward a replacement computer anyway. Considering this comic doesn’t earn any money, a hiatus is more likely than putting too much effort into using a different computer. Maybe having no computer will force me to sleep at NIGHT and maybe fill my morning hours with a second job? Seriously, I work fewer than 20 hours per week, so I should be using my time more productively.

Also, I DO have backups of my files. However, it’s online backup. The backup service(Carbonite) doesn’t back up all file types, so I don’t know what files I will lose if I can’t recover them directly. Online backup should really only be considered a supplement to an external hard drive. Ideally, you should have at least 2 backups of everything. Thankfully I do have 2 backups(or more) of some things.

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You’re such a doll.

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When a cartoonist watches a prescription drug commercial, especially those for allergies, this is what happens.

Also what happens when you watch Italian videos like this(all lyrics are gibberish intended to sound like English).

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I overheard the word “hissyfit” used on June 5th 2012 and my first thought was, “I should name a character that!”. My second thought was, “I should make note of when I got that idea”.

And don’t forget, you can edit the menu at Wiki Deli. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the response so far. Some good edits from people who clearly understand what Wiki Deli is all about.

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Roger Ebert died yesterday and a comic naturally popped in my head. That comic was boring, but had the same idea as this one: Siskel & Ebert gave cancer two thumbs down and cancer took revenge on both of them. It was a long, valiant battle, and it ended yesterday.

Man, cancer is a jerk.

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I created Wiki Deli back when I was making Kenny Chronicles and have been waiting until the right storyline to introduce it. I had it installed and everything. The right time never happened in the plot.

BUT NOW, I have a character that can accurately relive things that happen at my workplace. Considering I’m not going to tell the internet where I work, Wiki Deli seems the perfect location for Ferret Williams to work. Wiki Deli also has a much wider variety of food than… well, anywhere. The menu may be small right now, but it’ll constantly change.

Bringing Wiki Deli to Ferret Williams took longer than expected, though, because I also want to include the best spam-blocking, considering my experience with the foreign sound effects dictionary(which I moved to Wikia as a result). Wiki Deli is one page, so I expect it to be easier to manage, and I’ve installed a few more security plugins as well as blocked editing/creation of any other pages. However, if anybody knows how to require a piece of text to be on the page(bots like to replace ALL of the text), I’d really like to implement that. I couldn’t find that feature anywhere.

If you want to see what’s for dinner at the restaurant that Ferret Williams works at and maybe add some food you’d like to see in the comic, go to FerretWilliams.com/wikideli

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I’m doing my best to keep up with my tradition of making my big announcements on April Fools’ Day, preferably unbelievable ones like my amusement park that actually does exist(on Second Life). I wish my program was finished enough to announce what it is, but it’s best if I delay the announcement until I have something to show off. I considered posting an outright lie for April Fools’ Day, but I have STANDARDS here.

However on ICWutUDidThar.com, I don’t have such standards. I made an announcement there, as well.

UPDATE the next morning: Oh, I just realized I have sway over the software choices of 7 different churches(only 3 that could make use of it). Yeah, I live in a family of preachers. Not sure about business connections, but I expect it to be found by the right people.

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In February, we seemed to be sharing Australia’s weather.

Then 4 days after Spring started, on Palm Sunday, it snowed. FOUR DAYS AFTER THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING.

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Based on an actual contest that ends on April 4th. Seriously, it’s a speaking role, talking directly to the main characters in a clear voice. The scene is a video call, so they don’t require a high quality camera. That sort of part would typically require more than $100, a movie credit and access to the all-you-can-eat buffet backstage. Nowhere on the website does it mention getting anything in return.

I considered submitting a joke video that couldn’t possibly get selected. One that includes a snarky mention of my character doing this job for free and where I point out the product placement right in front of me(which I don’t get a dime from). However, I don’t think even that is worth my time. It would be tempting to throw in some CGI effects, for good measure.

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It especially scared him when he accidentally pulled it off the table, despite being secured with a suction cup. Even so, it only took a day for him to start ignoring it completely, even while it was moving.

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The Konami code was entered at one point.

The Metal Gear Solid reference made me laugh, as did many other things.

This movie makes me feel like designing a racing game track.

I took photos of several of the changes made to the Spanish version, too. Yes, photos. It’s hard to hit “Print screen” on a stand-alone Blu-ray player. Really interesting how they actually translate the printed text on things directly in many of their CGI movies. You can see the gallery here.

The line “Well milk my duds” was actually said in the movie.

Less than 12 hours after renting this at Redbox, I got a text message from them with a code for a free rental. Right. Nice timing, there.

I posted the following tweet on The Fake Death’s Twitter account last night…

Really holding my liquor well tonight. Ordered the most Irish-sounding beer I saw and have been drinking it all night. Mmm… O’Douls.

— Death Golden (@TheFakeDeath) March 18, 2013

…and after I scripted a different comic for today, I decided to go ahead and make that tweet be a comic. So, the comic I finished writing for today will instead be used for Thursday’s comic strip.

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