Busy, busy, busy

I feel that I have been somewhat productive lately. I've reapplied myself to bringing my comic to life. I made a (rather feeble/lazy) attempt at bringing it to the web a while back, but over time it got shuffled to the back burner. Well, I've been thinking a lot about it lately. I've been making some tough decisions about which of my hobbies/interests I am going to continue to pursue and which ones I simply don't have time for. I've put the comic at the top of the list because, well, A. I enjoy it B. I've put a lot of work/thought into it C. It's the thing I've done the most with. I've got a lot of ideas for it, so many in fact that I write them in a notebook, which I then listed in a spreadsheet. However, they're in no order, and the strips I've already drawn are also in no particular order. I would just draw them as I thought of them, jumping to new story lines, not introducing characters, no chronology, etc. I decided I needed to organize all my ideas, fill in the holes and make it all flow properly. I needed to create a storyboard.

Each of the 833 index cards on my coffee table represents at least one strip.

Some of the cards just have an idea/notes that could lead to a whole series of strips, and that's not counting the stuff I have in my head or the filler for the holes. As I was sitting there filling out the cards I was struck by how many there were. Somehow, seeing it all laid out made me realize it in a way I couldn't before. It made me feel prolific, in a small, modest way.

It's not a storyboard yet, but they're all written down and sorted by relevant character or plot line. I'm probably going have to take over the entire floor to get them all laid out in order.

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Speaking of floor space, I've slowly been rearranging my apartment since my roommate migrated to Cleveland last month.
Here are a couple pictures of my rearranged living room. So much space! It feels so luxurious to have all this space to myself. And a bedroom that is just a bedroom instead of a bedroom/office/studio/whatever. Also, I've come to realize that I am quite lazy about hanging paintings and pictures.

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Another project I've been busy with is my garden. I use the word loosely as I don't actually have anything planted in the ground. I'm trying my hand at growing a container garden on my patio. I have tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers planted in pots and doing nicely so far *fingers crossed*. I also have a crapload of marigolds and geraniums along with a few oregano, peppermint and lavender plants. All of the plants are from seed I started indoors. Not all of them have migrated to the patio, some will probably stay inside. I'm also taking a crack at growing pumpkins. Crazy you say? It can and has been done. I did the research, thanks google. I've got a big enough container 18 gal, and I'm going to rig up a self watering system. Then as it grows the vines will have to be trained to wrap around the container so it doesn't take over. What I should end up with is something that looks like a shrub. Anyway, I figured why not? Go big or go home. I'm not expecting monster, prize winning pumpkins, but I'm hopeful for some decent jack-o-lanterns. I will post pictures as the garden progresses.

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I have to watch my spending for the next week and a half until I get paid again as my bank account is a bit on the low side. The upside of this is that it is only low because I made a big payment on my credit card and I am now officially, completely 100% out of debt. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I took out a personal loan last year to consolidate my credit card debt, but because of my credit they wouldn't give me enough to cover everything (seriously another thousand was going to be too much?). I'm not some crazy shopaholic, I just went through some bad financial times and relied too heavily on plastic. However, it's all gone now. It still hasn't sunk in.

Now I'm looking to save up for a down payment on a new car. Seriously, my car is great if you are ambivalent about reaching your destination. Also, I'd like to save up for a epic vacation. I have a week of vacation coming up in August, but that's going to be a laid back affair. Maybe some camping and/or a trip to the lake (still waiting to hear back on that), general relaxing, and I'd like to get a tattoo for my birthday. Still trying to decide what to get for the last one.

I've also thought back about cutting back on my hours at work now that I'm debt free. Going from 50 hrs a week to 40 is very tempting, even though it means a pay cut, but with higher rent (living by myself), and big things to save up for I'm not sure I want to take the pay cut. However, extra time not spent at work that could be spent, oh say, on the comic strip would be super awesome.

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Well, long post, but now you know what I've been up to. Catch ya on the flip side.