Ker-Birthday!

Some of you may recall that last year, I posted a list of five impossible things I'd like for my birthday.  This year, I've got a more reasonable list - a birthday present from the internet, if you will.  I would really like to break my pageview record for my webcomic.  Not a huge target to hit, I have a fairly steady readership, but not overwhelming numbers.

This weekend, I'd like you to take a look at it - tell a friend to check it out, post a link on Facebook, whatever. Maybe some of you will like it enough to come back for regular doses, maybe you won't, I'd just like as may people as possible to give it a look. It's a weekly comic, just sort of random one-shot jokes, no continuing storyline to speak of:  Ooh Shiny

If the record gets broken, I may do a little something extra for next week's comic - maybe color, maybe a bonus strip, we'll see.

While Twitter Was Down...

I know I've got dozens of other things I should be working on tonight, but when I went to check Twitter and found that between E3, an earthquake, and a giant statue of Jesus being on fire (no, really), Twitter was over capacity, I was struck with inspiration!

Voila! My very own Fail Whale.  Mostly backstitch, though I did a split stitch to make the ropes look more 'ropey'.  Also, those are two very buff little birds, because I didn't feel like stitching the full half-dozen or so that normally keep Fail Whale aloft.  To give you a sense of scale, this is in a 4" (10 cm) hoop.

No idea what I'm going to do with this guy - maybe sew him onto a laptop carrier as a patch? Sometimes you just have to go with your first instinct...which in this case was embroidering a whale...I haven't even had anything to drink tonight, I have no excuse besides my own inherent randomness.

The Wild Goose Chase Ends!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the two most difficult things to find in my town: Russian Standard vodka, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease color #179.

 

I'm not joking.  Finding each of these items required trips to at least three different stores over the course of the last two weeks, and in each case, I got the last one the store had.  Watching Iron Man 2 was particularly difficult, because I couldn't help but notice what brand of vodka Whiplash was drinking...it's a distinctive bottle.  All I can assume is that a strangely large number of people in my area are sitting around drinking vodka and knitting Dr. Who scarves.  I wish I knew who they were, they sound like they'd be fun to hang out with.

Regardless, the expedition has finally ended in success, and I can take my Fourth Doctor scarf off hold! And have a screwdriver, since for once I actually have good vodka and orange juice in the house at the same time.

Busy Busy Busy...

Everything's been kicking into high gear, and it looks like it's going to be a busy summer.  I finally found a new host for my main comic, Ooh Shiny, and I'm really happy with it so far.  The hosting service is great, the domain transfer went over without a hitch (from their side, at least...the old hosting service kind of dragged their feet), and I've got such an unbelievable amount of room, I'm thinking of resurrecting a couple of old NaNoWriMo ideas in graphic novel form as side projects.  They'd be on an irregular schedule, unlike Ooh Shiny, but they'd be actual stories rather than the mix of autobio and wackiness I've got going at the moment. All Our Yestertomorrows is finally getting some actual content as well - I'm still working on character profiles, but I hope to be able to get into the actual story soon.

In the world of knitting, the thought occurred to me when I was setting up my Ustream to let everyone watch me work on the comic, I could use Ustream for an online knitting show.  I'm still working out a few details, but so far I'm thinking I'll broadcast once a month, first half of the show will demonstrate a tip or technique, second half you can call in with knitting questions.  If there's enough demand, I might do a show more often, but I think once a month should be a nice reasonable schedule.  I'm thinking for the first show, I'll go over different types of increases, what they look like, and where you might want to use them.  If you've got any other suggestions, I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Fair warning, I just got my hands on a concertina, there may be some very odd theme music involved with this...