Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The US Government: Working for YOU!
Learn more about the topic of today's strip. Must-read for any artist with any designs of making money off their work.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Still here, just getting the next 50+ years of my life set up
I feel like apologising to myself for not updating Da Blog more often. The comic strip, of course, has been updating every day come hell or high water, but it hasn't grown at all. Not only do I not have any regular readers who don't click on a link to arrive, but the ones I do have, who click on links? Most of them don't look at any other strips. (Maybe that's typical, and I just feel it more acutely because my strip is so small. I don't know.)
There has been quite a bit going on in my life, though nothing earth-shaking. I haven't been able to get any real job on-campus, which is a little distressing when you consider that, from what I've been told, I won't be eligible for federal work-study funds for an on-campus job unless I get one by the end of this year. I'm sort of cursing myself for not being more aggressive and less procrastinating at the beginning of the year. Another part of the problem is that I'm not eligible for many if not most of the jobs I see listed on the primary on-campus job listing service, sometimes because I don't have prerequisite courses, sometimes because I don't have a driver's licence (my own contribution to slowing global warming and probably the one most people should take instead of just getting a car that pollutes less, assuming they have good mass transit), sometimes because I don't have "experience" even if I would do well once I had the job, and sometimes because I'm not a freak of a student. (And sometimes in the past I would disqualify myself because my interpersonal skills - not to mention my handwriting - are... iffy, to understate tremendously. Then there are the two jobs I applied for, was told I would be contacted to set up an interview, and never heard from again.) I'm a little skeered that my life is going to devolve into me becoming the stereotypical geek living in his parents' basement with no job and spending his entire life playing video games and surfing the net.
I like to think I'm too smart for that, which brings me to my other point: my quest to determine what I will spend my college experience studying. I applied for college with a history major, because that was the academic field I already had the most experience and interest in. But now I'm interested in everything but history. Here's a list - possibly incomplete - of other majors I'm considering or have considered: economics, English (Creative Writing), psychology, communication (or journalism or a variant), public affairs, math, anthropology, sociology, business economics, finance, and computer science. (This last one I started considering after how quickly I picked up CSS and PHP on my own time for my web site and comic strip respectively, which gives me a pretty spiffy-looking web site for an amateur effort. Compare the home page - link at top right of Da Blog's sidebar - with my intentionally-retro-looking street sign gallery. In fact, at some point I need to try converting my sidebar to PHP so it can be dynamically updated.) As I write this I just got done meeting with an advisor who suggested "liberal studies" - an anti-major that can be oversimplified to "take whatever you want".
Oh, and my computer has fallen all to pieces again. This happened rather suddenly over the weekend, and wasn't even really caused by me banging on my laptop this time. First the sound card failed for no reason, and now all of a sudden the computer won't boot all the way and the CD-ROM drive isn't working so I can't go into the Windows Recovery Console and fix what I figure is probably a comparatively minor problem.
I'm still hoping to get someone to help on writing up movies for my 100 Greatest Movies Project, although between Da Blog's sluggish readership and the fact I don't intend to pay anyone for it, I'm skeptical about the prospects of getting anyone anytime soon. I'm actually starting to consider a system where I would start putting up the list first and the write-ups later, except for the ones I think are perfectly ready as-is. But even if you aren't up for the challenge, if you can lead me to someone who is I would greatly appreciate it.
So that's basically it, although I would like to see if you have any advice. Look over what I already have on Da Blog and the web site, as well as the list of majors above, and tell me if anything leaps out at you.
There has been quite a bit going on in my life, though nothing earth-shaking. I haven't been able to get any real job on-campus, which is a little distressing when you consider that, from what I've been told, I won't be eligible for federal work-study funds for an on-campus job unless I get one by the end of this year. I'm sort of cursing myself for not being more aggressive and less procrastinating at the beginning of the year. Another part of the problem is that I'm not eligible for many if not most of the jobs I see listed on the primary on-campus job listing service, sometimes because I don't have prerequisite courses, sometimes because I don't have a driver's licence (my own contribution to slowing global warming and probably the one most people should take instead of just getting a car that pollutes less, assuming they have good mass transit), sometimes because I don't have "experience" even if I would do well once I had the job, and sometimes because I'm not a freak of a student. (And sometimes in the past I would disqualify myself because my interpersonal skills - not to mention my handwriting - are... iffy, to understate tremendously. Then there are the two jobs I applied for, was told I would be contacted to set up an interview, and never heard from again.) I'm a little skeered that my life is going to devolve into me becoming the stereotypical geek living in his parents' basement with no job and spending his entire life playing video games and surfing the net.
I like to think I'm too smart for that, which brings me to my other point: my quest to determine what I will spend my college experience studying. I applied for college with a history major, because that was the academic field I already had the most experience and interest in. But now I'm interested in everything but history. Here's a list - possibly incomplete - of other majors I'm considering or have considered: economics, English (Creative Writing), psychology, communication (or journalism or a variant), public affairs, math, anthropology, sociology, business economics, finance, and computer science. (This last one I started considering after how quickly I picked up CSS and PHP on my own time for my web site and comic strip respectively, which gives me a pretty spiffy-looking web site for an amateur effort. Compare the home page - link at top right of Da Blog's sidebar - with my intentionally-retro-looking street sign gallery. In fact, at some point I need to try converting my sidebar to PHP so it can be dynamically updated.) As I write this I just got done meeting with an advisor who suggested "liberal studies" - an anti-major that can be oversimplified to "take whatever you want".
Oh, and my computer has fallen all to pieces again. This happened rather suddenly over the weekend, and wasn't even really caused by me banging on my laptop this time. First the sound card failed for no reason, and now all of a sudden the computer won't boot all the way and the CD-ROM drive isn't working so I can't go into the Windows Recovery Console and fix what I figure is probably a comparatively minor problem.
I'm still hoping to get someone to help on writing up movies for my 100 Greatest Movies Project, although between Da Blog's sluggish readership and the fact I don't intend to pay anyone for it, I'm skeptical about the prospects of getting anyone anytime soon. I'm actually starting to consider a system where I would start putting up the list first and the write-ups later, except for the ones I think are perfectly ready as-is. But even if you aren't up for the challenge, if you can lead me to someone who is I would greatly appreciate it.
So that's basically it, although I would like to see if you have any advice. Look over what I already have on Da Blog and the web site, as well as the list of majors above, and tell me if anything leaps out at you.
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