slr2moons

I just finished the first pass of Clay 22, right on time. ^^ I also did a little experiment with the pdf. Those of you who have no interest in lettering or publishing can skip this part. Here, I'll put it behind a cut. ( PDF crunchings! A comparison by s2m )

In other work news, for Skip fans who have hard-copy vol 29, you might have noticed the white margin around almost all the pages. This is because the page files we were sent from Japan were actually cropped across the width smaller than normal. To preserve as much artwork as possible, the pages were set up by Viz for printing without full bleeds. Thus, the white margins almost everywhere. I'm glad Viz was willing to show the white around the margins, so readers can see all the available art! And thankfully, Skip 30's pages were sent at a nice, fat size. In fact, the largest of the three sizes Skip has come in so far. C: Yay!

Now that work is done until Natsume 14 or a new title arrives, it's back to artwork for me! I'm still working on the bday present for Star-chan, but she kindly said she doesn't mind if I put her pic on pause so I can finish the bros calendar pic for this year. The official deadline is the 15th, in four days. All I have is a rough sketch. *has huuuuuge sweatdrop* I know, I know!! >< Thankfully ensuing knows I'll probably be a little late. I'm going to work on the pic full-time until it's done.

I've waited too long to make an LJ post. I keep thinking of all sorts of topics to babble about, but I don't want to post a novel here. :B I'll save them for the next few days!! I'd like to post more often again.

Time for me to upload those pdfs to Clay Editor 4 and then fire up the bros calendar pic again. Busy busy busy!!

I've been quite sociable the past two weeks! (Shocking, right?) Saturday the 19th I helped knastymike with the heavy lifting part of his move into a new apartment. It wasn't that bad...except the leather recliner. That thing was SO HEAVY OMG. >< I was sore for two days! Small price to pay for good company, though. And Mike boughtinkytwist (who tackled packing and unpacking the kitchen...YEEK!) and me food at Old Chicago Pizza (OM NOM NOM), and frozen yogurt after we saw the Avengers.

Speaking of which, fun film! Even with me not knowing much Avengers canon at all. :B I do know enough to want a Loki movie, where he can be badass and awesome and crack that smile and wear more tuxedos. :3

The next day, I drove down to Salem to meet up with one of my Sci-Fi book club buds, Acacia, and we went to see Battleship. It was fun! I liked it more than Avengers, too. *dodges tomatoes* It's true! Even if they killed off the actor we went to see the film for. :P~~~ At least he took his shirt off at one point. ^///^ And yes, he also appeared on-screen in uniform, which is what we bought our tickets for in the first place. This was Alexander Skaarsgard, BTW. Best-known as Eric Northman, sexy Viking vampire in True Blood. Rowr! We ate at an El Salvadorian place. It was very tasty. :9

After that, I scrambled like mad to finish Naruto 59 and Skip 29 on time, which I did manage. ^^ Skip is now completely in the can, still awaiting corrections on Naruto. Clay 21 is almost done, I'm waiting for either more corrections or the go-ahead to upload. Now I'm powering along with Natsume 13! And this volume is making my BL-loving heart just pitter-pat. *giggles like she's 14*

Then this weekend, I lost my beloved pocketknife on Friday morning, during my usual run. I didn't notice it was gone until I was emptying my pockets after finishing, and the knife wasn't there. I immediately retraced my entire 3.5 mile loop, and no knife. T.T As much foot traffic as this area has, it could have been on the ground as short as 20 seconds before someone scooped it up.

I've had that knife since 1998, when my Dad gave it to me before I headed off to art school. *cries* I keep telling myself it's just an object, and if someone decides to commit murder with it, that they'll wipe my fingerprints off it, too. >< My mom says Dad will have fun shopping for a replacement for me. This gives me something to anticipate, at least. I feel naked when I go outside without my knife. I alllways carried that knife with me everywhere. *sniffle*

On Friday evening, knastymike and inkytwist sent me an impromptu invite to Mongolian grill, after they finished cleaning up knastymike's old apartment. I'd just eaten dinner, so I had ice cream while they had real food. Good company and conversation!

And on Monday, it was saladbats' birthday! I headed out to a Doctor Who-themed room inside a fish-and-chips place in the NE of Portland. Only took me 15 minutes to drive! I could have ridden the Max, but by the time I realized how simple it would have been, it was already too late to make it that way. :P No matter, driving was fun! I made a new friend,winnett, sawsnottygirl again, and hope to hang out with all of them more, soon! We are all writers or appreciators of same, and the whole lot of us are complete geeks. FUN! XD Even if all the Doctor Who themed stuff was wasted on me. *makes flyby noise*

Oho, and I ordered a Scottish soda. "Irn Bru". Tastes like bubblegum. I liked it, though I couldn't drink it every day. Far too sweet!

One of the webcomics I enjoy every week, Candi, is asking for guest strips. I'm going for it! OMG SO EXCITING!! XD I'm going to try to finish it before the 1st. KYAAA!! It will be my first guest webcomic strip, the first of many I hope! :D

And finally, I have a dreamwidth account. Not sure how much I'll use it, but it's there if I need it! I'm slr2moons there too, of course. ^^ 

Wednesday night, winter said goodbye with a beautiful snowfall. My area had about an inch of snow, I think. I walked in it twice, once Wednesday evening when it had been falling for about half an hour, and then the next day when it was already melting. It lasted until 3 PM, I was impressed. Today on my walk, I saw the sad remains of a couple of snowmen, fighting to live on lawns in my neighborhood.

Good-bye, snow! See you again in 9 months or so. *wistful sigh*

For the record, having grown up in north-central Texas, where snow falls maybe 3 times a year and actually sticks once every other year, it will always hold a magical place in my heart. I'm sure I'd have already changed my mind if I'd moved to, say, Minnesota...but here in my part of Oregon, it snows maybe 7 times a year and sticks for 2, so it's still magical to me. :3

I am also happy to say that I am as caught up with Bleach manga as it is possible to (legally) be in North America! Thanks to my subscription to SJ Alpha, I can read the new chapter only 2 weeks after it appears in Japan. The chances of me happening across spoilers in fic or art are negligible!!! I can now read almost any fic without fear!!! Yes, this pleases me greatly. ^^

Next on my manga catch-up list...Bakuman. XD I have...*checks* 100 chapters to read. Not as bad as Bleach, for which I had about 170! ^^V

I'm hard at work on Clay 21 and Naruto 59. Trying to finish as many difficult pages as I can before Skip 29 and Natsume 13 hit. I have scripts for both, but no raw pages from Japan. Oh yes, and I finished the 2nd one-shot book I did for the new genre sort-of being released by Viz.

( A little health stuff, under the cut to save those who'd rather not. )

Back to work for me! I have no idea what is going on in Clay 21, bouncing around from difficult page to difficult page as I am. Everyone is fighting everyone else, I swear. :P

ETA: Fish skin is sticky!! (Apologies to any vegetarians or vegans or see this.)

I am almost done lettering my first book in InDesign, and the jury is still out on whether I like the program or not. Sure, it's nice to be able to change all font instances in an ENTIRE BOOK with a click, but...the program is so very not intuitive. Ugh.

Today, for example, I had to learn how to do three things:

( The point of this post is that all three of my InDesign problems were NOT answered or resolved by Adobe's official site. )

Hi, BTW. ^^ I am still alive. Feeling pretty good, now the frustration I ranted about above is done. Whew!

I post so little these days. It's not that I've abandoned LJ for Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr like so many have--because I don't post at any of those places, either. I just don't feel the need to talk as much as I once did. I guess.

Kakashi-the-kitten is at the vet, being removed from the gene pool and tagged for tracking by Big Brother. I'm grateful for both, as he's been really rambunctious the past few weeks, and keeps attempting to escape through the front door whenever I come home. With no more testosterone in his system, he should calm done somewhat and stop running me and Spicer-kitty ragged. And if he ever DOES escape, then I'll have a much better chance of recovering him with that microchip under his skin.

Anyway, Natsume 12 and Skip 28 are both done, except for corrections. At the moment, I'm wrapping up Clay 20, then I'll be officially without work until Naruto 59 or Skip 29 arrives, whichever happens first. With all four titles caught up to the Japanese release, and me being backup for Naruto anyway, it's probably going to be feast or famine in regards to my workload. Famine like now, with only one title, feast like a few weeks ago, with all four at once. The upcoming months will be most interesting.

I find it ironic that the one holiday season I won't be visiting the hometown in TX is the one where I will barely have any work to interfere. Of course. Also just watch: since I won't have to worry about weather interfering with my flights, it WON'T freeze or snow or otherwise grow nasty this holiday season. Never fails!

( Fannish concerns, ala Big Bang art, Yuletide fic, and meeting fellow writers IRL OMG! Also shopping and reading. )

Look, I actually managed to write an update. Yay!

 Yesterday, I spent a lazy day with the wonderful neekaneeks  and mcruthless. We talked about art, and comics, and manga, and anime, and webcomics, and movies, and all sorts of other fun stuff. They also introduced me to the Showtime show "True Blood", which I've been vaguely curious about, since I've been a fan of vampires for a good 20 years. I ended up enjoying eps 1 and 2, so now there's yet another entry on my list of Shows to Watch. :B

knastymike  joined us after he was free from work and the great glorious geekout continued until sleep was required.

That will likely be my last guilt-free day off for quite some time. Script for Clay 19 is here, and this volume is pretty much one long fight scene. ^^;; Skip 25 is almost halfway finished. This vol is a little bit (just a little) less crazy than 24, which is good! Natsume 9 is halfway done, but it is on pause while we wait for more script. Saiun 4 could arrive any day now, and of course when it does, it will be a rush job.

Thus: no more (guilt-free) days off for me for a while. ^^

Oh yeah, and I repeated my previous posts' running performance this morning. ^^V It wasn't a fluke! XD

I heard from Naruto Editor this morning, and starting in the next few days, I'll be lettering 7 or 8 chapters of Naruto, while the normal letter takes a vacation. My first chapter will be #500. Kyaa! XD

This pleases me greatly, for I do miss lettering Naruto from scratch. This will let me sink my teeth into Naruto lettering proper again, instead of just the odd FX they want changed or added in for the GN!

Also: spoilers liek whoa! *blink blink* Oh well! Naruto is the one series I love that I don't mind spoilers for. Kind of pointless to get upset since I letter random volumes (and now chapters!) Eeee! *hugs for Foxy Boy and Angst Muffin*

( A couple paragraphs about the heat and swimming, which I dearly love! )

In work news, Saiunkoku v1, Skip 22, and Naruto 50 are all completely finished. At the moment, I "only" have Clay 17 and Natsume 5. I have 7 pink Clay pages left in this vol, and I'm trying to finish them before I have script for New Title 5. Speaking of which, at Expo, Viz announced their new licenses, which includes the true identities of New Titles 5 and 6. *drumroll*

New Title 5 is Mistress Fortune, by Tanemura Arina-sensei.
New Title 6 is Sakura Hime Kaden, also by Tanemura Arina-sensei.

And now those of you who are familiar with Tanemura-sensei's work will understand why I've been collecting screen tones and trying to clear my other titles like mad. Heh heh heh. ^^;;; If you don't know her stuff, next time you're in the bookstore check out Gentlemen's Alliance + or Fullmoon o Sagashite and you'll understand. This mangaka appears to believe white space is wasted potential. It will be interesting to see how lettering these two Tanemura titles compares with lettering Hino-sensei's Captive Hearts, which was also a lesson in cramming as much as possible onto every bit of page.

I have yet another pink Clay page mocking me from Tsukushi's monitor, so I'd best get to work. It's going to be difficult going today, but I must persevere!