I'm tryin' hard. You can follow my progress over at Twitter:

RIGHT HERE!!!

We'll see if we can get this thing back on track while addressing some other areas that need work...

In case you haven't noticed, I've been going through the past several pages and getting them finished. I have three more to go, which will hopefully be done this week. This means after that I should be able to start working on actual new stuff again.

Sorry for being practically non-existent for the past four months. I may have finally found a balance between real life stuff and my hobbies, such as the webcomic, although I still feel like it's walking a tightrope.

The time off has rejuvenated me, though, and I'm eager to get back to it and give you conclusion to the story! Before I return, however, I need to be sure to build up a proper buffer again, so give me some time... otherwise we will end up right back in this situation.

To anyone still checking, thanks for your patience!

--Jacob

Man, I miss drawing. I really, really miss drawing.

unfortunately, I just don't have the time right now. My focus has to be on helping my family right now, getting myself finacially right, and making sure I don't let all the real life stuff affect my job. It ain't easy, and unfortunately it's cut into things like the comic. I really tried to avoid that, but it was a losing battle.

Still can't promise when things will return to normal, but I'm trying. I'm really looking forward to the latter half of November and December when I get some time off and things lighten up a bit, but until then... thngs are what they are.

I'm trying, though!

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Well, I've made it through the horribly busy two weeks I mentioned before. It... was not fun. In fact, I took a couple of vacation days just so I could have some kind of time to catch up on things.

And no, I can't promise this will see an improved effort on the comic. My focus is still on the couponing thing, which is actually a huge help to my and my family's grocery budgets. In fact, I'm getting so good at it that the last couple of times (plus a list I made for my sister) has been seeing me average $60 worth of stuff for literally pennies (one trip saw about $60 of stuff for only fifteen cents). I'm trying to find ways to streamline the process and make it quicker to deal with, so I can free up more time (and space on my desk) to do comic stuff. I think I have found a better way, but I'm still working on it.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with the real life stuff and still checking in. I have not given up on getting things back on track, and I hope to have time to focus on it soon. All of October from hear on out will be insanely busy at work, but I should still have most of my weekends. If I can get to November unscathed, I will see a ton of holiday time that will help out.

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I promised an explanation of why I missed last week, so here it is.

I've vaguely explained a few times before about real life interferring with the comic. I've tried my best to try and get things back on track, but I've yet to actually find a way to keep a stable schedule. This does not make me happy, but I've kept trying to find a way. I'm come to realize that in the battle against real life vs. tiem spent on the comic, real life has won.

It's been a turbulent few years. About five years back, I had an awesome paying job that let me do all the things I wanted to do, including preparing to buy a house. Unfortunately on December 26th of that year, I found out the business lost it's major supplier. That first year saw work steady decrease, and despite my boss' best efforts to keep providing me a weekly check, that had to come to an end at some point. After that first year, I spent the next one looking for work. This was the year that caused me to run up my then paid off credit card to a very uncomfortable level.

It was the following year that I, about a week away from missing bills because I was out of money and credit, got a part time job with the library. It wasn't enough to make a dent in the debt, but it at least helped pay the bills and prevent me from accumilating any more. Two years after that I was hired on full time, which I've been doing for a year now this month. Despite some other extremely difficult obstacles that have popped up due to other people in my life, I've been slowly but surely getting that debt from four years ago knocked down. Unfortunately, it wasn't knocked down enough.

And now things have changed. High gas prices were making it difficult enough, but I could manage. But when I started paying $60+ a trip at the grocery store when it didn't used to reach even close to that before, I saw my attempts to bring down my debt stop cold. This has had a big factor in other parts of my life.

For instance, my living situation. When money got as tight as it did, I moved in with family. I thought it would be for few months, but we're going on three years now. I'm not happy about this, either. But now that I have an awesome stable job that pays decently again, my plan has been to take advantage of the cheap housing market and finally become a homeowner. Honestly, it would be cheaper to go that route rather than renting.

But with the double whammy of high costs of gas and groceries, that's kept my credit card high and put me out of the running for any kind of loan. So it's time to get serious. As silly as this sounds, I decided to try something I never thought I would do before: extreme couponing.

I desperately need to get my grocery bill cut in half, and with all the stories of what people save with coupons, I figured I would give it a shot. I have nothing to lose, really. So the past two weeks have been spent learning, clipping, and preparing for my first go at extreme couponing. This past week was my first attempt, and I'm proud to say that I successfully bought $195 worth of groceries for $59, saving me $136. A lot will go into storage until it's needed, but taking advantage of sales and coupons combined now will help me in the coming months.

But this takes time, and if it continues to pan out like this past week, it's something I will need to do out of necessity to free up cash for my debt. This means no longer trying to cram the comic into my schedule while trying to accomplish everything else I'm involved in. It means the comic can't be priority.

To be clear, this isn't me saying the comic is done. I would feel bad, plus we're so close to the end anyway. This is me saying I can't promise having one ready on Mondays and Wednesdays, and that when I have only a few spare hours and have to chose what to work on, it is at the bottom of the list. It could mean me posting pencil drawings with no color like I have been, which isn't great but at least something. But it does mean that the comic has to be something I do when I can get to it, rather than a responsibility that HAS to be done.

Fortunately I have several pages already sketched out, so I don't see things coming to a dead stop any time soon. But you might not be getting finished comics for a while.

I would say I hope you understand, but we've been through this before. I know you guys do. You guys are awesome about being so patient with me. I truly hope I can get out of my current situation soon and be in a new home within six months. With a more stable environment again, I'm sure I can get back on track. But as things are now, as chaotic as my life has been for the past several years, it's a losing battle. The comic will still be here, and hopefully will still see updates every week, but if I miss one you now know why.

Thanks everyone! See ya Wednesday (I hope)!

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Ran out of time. Will finish this later (and add a background to the first panel!).

See ya Wednesday!

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Hey, congratulations to Gina Biggs of Red String who had a baby girl yesterday!

See ya Monday!

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Aaaaand we're back to status quo. To be fair (and you know this from the note on the sketch comic), I was at Motaku this weekend with our anime club. So, you see, it was a work thing. Yeah.

I only went for one day, and it was an interesting experience for my first anime con, but I was told Naka-Kon is much better. Which will likely be our next library-backed trip after next month's Japanfest. Anyway, no promises on having a 100% complete comic this week, as I need to memorize a story to tell a daycare on Tuesday. A lot of my prep work on the comic is done the day before, but the last few months have seen my Sundays and Mondays really full.

I hate doing this to you because it feels like I'm yanking you all around, but it's just my life is in a place right now that the comic isn't as much priority (which you guys have expressed a LOT of understanding over). I'll never stop doing it until it's completed, but unfortunately there's no time table on when I'll get this thing straightened out. Sorry!

See ya Wednesday!

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Holy crap, a second finished comic! Took me 'till nearly 6am, but dammit, it's finished!

See ya Monday!

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I missed last week. I'm scum.

I was on vacation from work, but oddly enough even more busy than usual. I had been hoping to get pretty far ahead on comic work, and while I did get pages sketched out, I didn't get to do what I wanted. But every little bit helps, I guess! I'll get the last page colored sometime soon.

See ya Wednesday!

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Yeah, you know the drill...

See ya Monday!

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I get paid to do some weird stuff: making crafts, set up clown class programs, etc. It's a fun, FUN job but a lot of work organizing things.

Yesterday the library I work for and the rec center it's located in attempted (and succeeded!) to break the world record for the longest ice cream dessert! You can watch the news clip here:

This was two months in the making, so I'm glad it's finally over! Also: 600+ people in the same long hallway generates a LOT of body heat. Wow. Not comfortable.

Yes, I missed Monday's update, but at least it wasn't my fault this time!

If you happened to notice my message in the shoutbox, which I posted via my phone, my computer kicked the bucket over the weekend. I knew the motherboard was on its last legs; I had been initially told it had maybe six months at best, but I made it last a year and a half. I got my use out of it.

But when it's time to go, it's time to go, and I began experiencing hardware failures. My cousin was kind enough to frankenstein me a computer using parts from my old one and an outdated machine I managed to pick up for a little bit of nothing. It isn't as good as what I had... in fact, the limitations are annoying... but it works and it lets me do what I need to do, so I'm not complaining. Hopefully my cousin can find the replacement parts for my old machine cheap and I'll have it back sooner rather than later.

So, I've spent the last day or so putting stuff onto this machine, which is why tonight's comic isn't finished. I'll try to get a color one up sometime this week.

I know things have been inconsistent for a while, but thank you for your patience during all of this!

See ya Monday!

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Comic up! Bed time!

See ya Monday!

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Despite everything seeming to conspire against me (and the fact I'm looking at three hours of sleep before getting up for work), I got the comic done, dammit!

First my printer/scanner died on me, so time spent on working on the comic ended up going towards getting and setting up a new one. Then, at the crucial moment of needing to color the comic, Photoshop wouldn't detect the scanner. I did finally get everything worked out, but it certainly has cost me sleep. But I was deterimed to get a comic done today, because I'm tired of being so inconsistent!

Anyway, I really couldn't afford a new printer, but the last one was a cheapie and lasted at nearly three years. I figured I would spend money on a GOOD printer this time around, so I picked up the HP Photosmart C310a. It looks to be a nice little machien, although reviews indicate it's an ink hog. But if the photo quality printing is what it's supposed to be, I might be able to make some high quality comic prints to offer up. I'll play around with it and we'll see.

See ya Wednesday!

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