hi all. to sum it up: my mother and i both managed to spill glasses of water onto our laptops within a week of each other (i did it first though #trendsetter). i got the call today that the motherboard had corroded and was therefore unrepairable, so i decided to start migrating to my backup laptop in earnest. thank you ancient HP i was only going to use for GIS software. it's hard not to be sad about the loss (and frustrated with myself because it feels wasteful and i hate that), i'm disappointed i lost a bunch of bookmarks and my clip studio paint brushes.

the good news is that i'm a fastidious archivist of my own data, so no real harm has been done. the even better news is that it happened AFTER i finished and submitted my shortbox comic so i wasn't scrambling to replace everything while trying to finish it. the slightly bad news is that i have a zine fest coming up and have to put together several zines from scratch so i'm going to have to get used to the windows os asap so i can create those. wish me luck.

the summer has otherwise been good; i've had just enough structure from my projects and random odd jobs to not completely lose my mind despite not working consistently. i've been missing my website though, it's good accountability for my goals. after i submitted my comic i did enter a period of lethargy in which i only really watched tv for like a week and a half. it's also exceptionally hot, which i hate, so i've been laying low.

as for my summer goals... (click to expand)

artfight

july got pretty much consumed by comicmaking and when i wasn't working on my comic i was letting my brain and my shoulder/wrist rest, so i didn't do as much artfighting as i wanted... i only managed 4 attacks but i'm counting it as a win anyways lol i did my best with the time i had

horticulture

i did finally establish my greenhouse lettuce! it's growing so fast and happily, i'm thrilled. it makes me sad to thin them though LOL. i need to start reading my textbooks again! another win: ive finally gotten in the habit of watering regularly and now my calamansi tree is no longer dying.

shortbox

not only did i submit my shortbox comic on time, i submitted it early by a few days, which really pleased me! i made my mom proofread it 16 times so there shouldn't be any typos. it's not the proudest of my ART i've ever been but it is the proudest ive been of a particular project. it's awesome to know that i have the stamina for a 30 page fully colored fiction comic! i am happy i made so many smaller projects these last couple of years; it felt like all my short comics were leading up to this one.

piano

haven't been practicing my piano because. well. i forgor. ill be back at it soon.

graphic design

looking bleak on this front since my laptop with adobe products died and my new one can barely run them.

field notes

horticulturally speaking, i recently acquired a staghorn fern from the alley that i took into the zoo to get help mounting today. photos will be posted in hort log soon. i stretched the limits of my friend's memory of her college lectures when i inquired upon the naming of the staghorn fern (which is not actually a fern) and then asked about plants with spores and the differences between them since i was under the impression that ferns were special because they had spores. what can i say, i'm inquisitive.

i read a lot in july but haven't as much this month. i stick to a very specific order of books based on cover color because i'm funny like that so when i fall behind i find it difficult to just pick up a new book. i have to finish the one that is next in line!!!! i spend about a quarter of my time on my laptop rearranging book covers in my html editor so i know which ones to order from the library next. it's very meditative.

of the books i have in my plan, i'm most excited for karin tidbeck's the memory theater and susanna clarke's piranesi. i chose a lot of nonfiction in a row with elements of lavishness, a collection of letters between sylvia townsend warner and william maxwell (which i'm enjoying but also isn't all that engrossing), carbon democracy by timothy mitchell, and barrow's boys by fergus fleming. i have a few other books mixed in that i've been picking at, i like reading lots of things at once so i have options. maybe not having my friend the laptop around will make me spend even more time reading this month. we'll see.

i do also have yet another deadline, a zine fest i'm tabling at in september. unfortunately most if not all of the zines (i call them comics) that i've done in the past year and a half have been too personal and include other people's names and faces and i find myself unwilling to sell them. coming up with a few zines from scratch within the span of a month will likely be a prodigious task, but such is life. if anyone has any suggestions for zine themes i will gladly take them. i might put a few up them up as downloadables here as well so, something to look forward to.

sitedreams

now that i have marginally more free time on my hands i'm hoping to get back on my websiting game. i have visions of a new lab page, which i took down because it was frustrating me, and some new shrines. i've been happy with my site for a while now, but it does get a bit boring when you're not making any new pages. here's my little to-do list while i'm thinking about it:

• restore old shrines (ticoap)
• /canon page
• antilibraries essay
• restore lab page
• polarisms overhaul
• blog functionality; add previous/next buttons
• shelf for tracking academic articles -> media maze
• magazine collection
• potential tweaking of splash

updates as of 8/21

finally recieved my replacement computer this monday 8/18 and i've been spending most of my time trying to restore all the necessary components for my workflow. it's both funny and irritating how fussy i got with the settings previously and what the implications are for my transition to a new laptop. i hate change lol. in any case, i've finally settled 90% of the issues i was having and i've been working doggedly on my site as a way of emotionally regulating myself into liking this new laptop. #pavlov.

i've made minor css tweaks (adding new header font etc) for visual clarity across the site which i felt was missing. i'm very excited for what i've got cooking, i missed coding. i'm trying to pace myself and remember to work on my zines as well (not working).

ill be fiddling around my site a lot more often now, feel free to send an email if you have thoughts or anything :-) hope everybody's augusts have been better than mine lol

much love!
~ bon

links roundup

• hypertext
• weird fiction and fiction that happens to be weird
• f-o-c-a
• a book like foo