"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

Ah, so sad. Summer does hang around for an extra-long time here in Cali, but it tends to vanish all at once. Yesterday we actually had (gasp!) rain, and whereas overnight lows had been only creeping down into the 60s, tonight it’s going to hit 50, which means we’re going to start back into the 40s…all of which is hilarious to most non-Californians out there, the idea that this is a reason to whine. Just a little sad for me, as much of a summer addict as I am. Yesterday, for me, was the annual official end of summer – the day when I actually take my leather jacket off the back of my desk chair, where it sits from the day back in May when I put it there. Wasn’t cold or anything yesterday, but with the rain, I figured I could use it. And no more writing on the patio in a tee shirt at one in the morning. Hoodie for now, jacket coming soon. I try not to let the cold break me out of the pleasantries of patio writing.

Hey, got my new laptop. The old ThinkPad, which I still love, is about a goner. So figured it was time. Got myself a Dell XPS M1450 (or something). And it FREAKED ME OUT! Because of the Vista. Dell didn’t allow for the downgrade on my model (and I liked my model, because it was on sale for $500 off) to XP, and I have NO idea how to use Vista! Plus, it’s bigger than my nice compact ThinkPad (15.5” widescreen monitor on the Dell), which ain’t necessarily a plus to me. So I was having a little trouble warming up to it. This became a BIG trouble when I couldn’t figure out how to get it on my wireless network, and I thought I’d do the smart thing and call Dell. D’oh!! The guy managed to not only NOT get it networked but blew out my internet connection, period, even to my PC. By the end he couldn’t figure out what he’d done, so he just told me I had to call my cable company and quickly ended the call. All the cable company was able to do was confirm that the cable modem was fine, and that it was the router the guy had screwed up. THEY told me I had to call the router people. So I was sans internet from home for a time. But A.T. came to the rescue. He came over with his son (and a rat named Rickshaw...) and spent most of a whole day trying to figure all this out. He managed to get my internet back, and get wireless internet working on both the PC and the new laptop. But internet won’t work on the old laptop now. And the computers are unable to see each other on the network, so I can’t transfer any data back and forth. So until I figure this out, I’m having to plug a flash drive into one computer, copy data, then go plug it into the other computer. Kind of a pain in the ass, but I’m at least happy to have the internet working on the new laptop.

And I’m finally starting to warm up to the new one. Tough getting used to a touchpad (my ThinkPad had one of those little red pencil-eraser-looking things on it, and that became very second nature for me to use), and, of course, it’s a whole new keyboard, which is always awkward to adapt to. But now that I’m getting some use on it, I’m getting happy with the purchase, finally. It really is a badass laptop. Great media machine. I didn’t plan to use it for that so much, but since it works so nice, I’m finding myself jumping onto Hulu and watching a TV show or two on it. Nice to know that if I feel like it, I can stick some earphones in it and sit out on the patio and watch a DVD if I like, and could do so on vacation if I so pleased (and could even finish it, since I bought thte badass oversized 5-hour battery). Plus, I now have my first webcam. Which I have pretty much ZERO use for. But you never know. It’s a neat addition if I feel like video chatting with someone. But mostly importantly? I just found out that Hero Designer works with Vista, so, now I’m officially cool with it.

Work has been very challenging again. Had a girl take off for a couple of weeks to get married, so I’ve been handling two desks, and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing the whole time. Bad flashback to what things used to be like. Hopefully that’ll be over when she gets back Monday, but I don’t know how long she’ll be back. There’s a possibility she may be getting laid off. We just had a layoff day happen out of nowhere this week. 85 people, company-wide, but only three from my office. Two of them (one of them was a guy on my team) got shown the door and are gone. But word has it there’s one more left to go. And there’s no reason why that one more person would still be hanging around – unless, of course, that person was on vacation and wasn’t at work to get officially laid off. Oops. Mostly people are pretty sure, because of that, that it’s her. Hope not. These layoffs suck. That whole thing where you don’t even get to say goodbye to anyone, they just make you leave the building, for fear that you might go postal? Very sad. I feel really bad for my buddy that got the ax. He’s got two kids to worry about, and his family is already living at his mother-in-law’s for financial reason. Ah, corporate living.

This Time Around

Well, sad to say, not that much stuff this time around. That’s for a combo of reasons. The main one probably has to be that, as I said on the board, I had to make the choice to really start writing – like, writing for possible publication. And I had to back away from some pleasure writing (‘Times) to be able to do that. So I cut out that, and many other things, and just spent my evenings working on writing until I got at least ONE thing done. Which paid off. Got the first 62 pages of a graphic novel fully scripted. Working on the second half. However, that also meant everything else went on the backburner, so all KINDS of stuff backed up on me. And catching up with a lot of that meant less time than I wanted for making the CT deadline, so didn’t get to the stuff I wanted. Ah, well.

Oh, and notice no art this time around? I think that’s the first time that’s EVER happened (since I first discovered eBay art). That’s a testament both to a lack of time to worry about it and a lack of money. Remember my tale of artist Dennis Martin Willman? Great guy, great artist, but claims he mailed the art that never got to me? I’m using the word “claim” not because I have any real reason to not believe him, but because he used the same word on his eBay auctions after that to refer to me (“Some people have claimed the art I mailed them never got to them, so I insist on tracking info now”). He had said he was going to re-do my art, and even talked me into new commissions (since that seemed only fair, to me, if he was having to do the same art twice). And they were all ALMOST DONE back in, like, May, he said. Haven’t heard anything. Been too busy to care. Since I realized I had no art this time, last weekend I decided to drop him a terse note (“Any status?” was my only text) and see what the deal was. I got a response back, saying I’d have ALL my pieces by Monday, and I was going to be blown away by them! Yeah. THAT seemed likely. And here we on Saturday, and still no art and no word. Whatever. Eventually, it’ll happen. Would have been nice if it happened this time when I really needed it!

So, all I’ve got for you this time on the Forte front is a new Forte email over on the Forte.com page. This one’s called “Email from Space” – and it’s exactly what it sounds like. This was written by Anvil while he, Dyna Girl, Lightsedge and Tomarssuk were stuck out in space on their whole Realm adventure. Thought it’d be fun to get some of his thoughts for the Forte gang back home about what he was going through, while he was still out there going through it. Hope you have fun with it.

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

We’ll see what happens next time. Got to get that second script done (so I can sell this thing and win my Eisner…), but hopefully I can squeak in time to do both kinds of writing. See you all next time, and again…happy 20th!!

Michael O’Connell
Who Loves This Forte Like McAdams Loves Gosling