An itch to scratch

I’m currently in Greece for a full 2 weeks. I’ve been looking forward to this break for well over a month now, hell I’ve been looking forward to this break for at least 3 months. I didn’t go anywhere during the summer period, which was probably the worst thing to do for my psyche to be honest. The summer was a very dark time for me with very little bright spots which was clearly reflected in my mood and how I dealt with those around me. Being a traditionally pretty patient person, I noticed myself getting more irate with things and situations that I would normally brush off, or at least see the funny side. Hasn’t been the case for at least 3 months now.

I guess I can attribute this to the situation in Lebanon which seriously hit me very hard. I can probably attribute it to work which has been very far from enjoyable these last few months, or I can attribute it to unfinished business from several areas that kept me down (my list of unfinished projects is pretty extensive). Needless to say, I need a break and a break I shall have. However I’m never happy until I’ve got things off my plate and I’ve been very good at not putting anything new on my plate but actually finishing those projects that I had opened/started/committed to first, after all I’m a finisher, not just an instigator.

Since it’s good to have a list I think I’ll make this list to remind myself what I have to look forward to in getting these monkeys off my back:

Finish the Splash Panel Redesign.

The site is nearly a year old now, and I’m still using Fauna, which has done the site proud but I’ve got a lot more in store for this site. The break in Greece is going to do wonders to the amount of writing I get done for the site. This time round however I’m going to be sure to stock up on the reviews and release them at a slower but regular pace. Expect a lot of European comics and some more indie revies (as that’s the majority of comics I have in Greece).

Stathi’s and Priya’s Websites.

The other two websites that I have promised and have actually done most of the work on (ie all the artwork is complete) it’s just a matter of coding the damn things. These will be done once I get back from Greece, although I might get the urge and sort them out while I’m in Greece, who knows I’ve got two weeks to fill in.

Broken Kode Season One

Book’s been done, edited by hand and just needs those tweaks to be put into the file and thrown out to lulu. This is probably 1 day’s work or something like that so I think I might be doing something about this in the not too distant future. Just get another thing that I said I’d do off my plate.

Broken Kode Prints

This is an interesting one. For a while now I’ve been asked if people can buy prints with my artwork. It’s been in the back of my mind and I did it once, but to be honest it was a great deal of hassle and not enough benefit. So I might go away from the DIY route and use a service like Zazzle or something similar. If any one’s got any recommendations that can cater for Europe at reasonable prices I’m all ears.

Chameleon Theme

I talked about this ages ago. Obviously life got in my way and I wasn’t really able to go forward with this one. It’s a very simple idea, which I’m going to elaborate on in a massive post in the coming days. Once I’ve done the design I’ll contact the souls that answered my call the last time. Don’t want to be wasting anyones time. Needless to say that the current Broken Kode redesign and believe it or not Crazyegg have both enabled me to have a clearer view as to what works and what doesn’t in the design of a site (once again more on this at a later stage down the road).

Also on a completely different note, I really need to get myself a laptop (any recommendations for small dinky laptops, like the Fujitsu Lifebook or a Vaio would be welcome) as I’m currently using my dad’s windowz install using an ADSL connection that might be a little difficult to sort out on Ubuntu and it’s seriously painful to get anything done (which isn’t helped by the fact that it’s a shitty CRT screen that’s got a tinge of purple going through,…nice), the ‘Kode has never looked this bad.