Well, as you can see, ever more changes to the art style. I'm not terribly happy with the underlying drawing, but the line art and coloring came out okay. This was a very tedious way to do it, and I don't know if I'll ever use it for the comic again, but it may come in handy for a project somewhere down the road. The difficulty was making sure that every single pixel was colored in some sort of meaningful way so that I could lower the line art to 50% opacity without developing holes behind the black areas.
     I also threw together this pencil drawing as a sorta "oops... forgot to update for 2 weeks" sort of thing. You'll notice that updates usually come mid-month or end-of-the-month. That's because when I get my paycheck, that's usually when it dawns on me that I haven't updated since last paycheck. Also, I'm very lazy and can't keep to a regular schedule.
     Here is another image that I threw together tonight. Still hammering down the whole coloring process. It came out looking good, but I did some corner cutting to speed things up with the wings. I'm trying to emulate the art style of someone Ian linked from Mac Hall. I don't know what the artist's name is (my Japanese reading skills aren't up to the task of this page), but the site is called Cowbell Tiara.
     I'm editing in a paragraph here about something kinda dumb/odd that Matt linked on MacHall that wasn't up when I orignally wrote the rant last night. Senator Ted Stevens indicated that there was a possibility that regulations for decency on the internet could be introduced as part of a bill that would boost fines for regular old broadcast indecency (i.e. TV nudity, seven dirty words, etc ...). The quote was "We ought to find some way to say, 'Here is a block of channels--whether it's delivered by broadband, by VoIP, by whatever it is--to a home that is clear of the stuff you don't want your children to see.'" Okay... it's obvious that Sen. Stevens is not 100% clear with the technology, and that he probably doesn't understand what VoIP is. That aside, I believe his heart is in the right place. Before you let your "OMFG CENSORSHIP BAD" reflex kick in, think of what he's saying. To paraphase... it's a list of content sources, regardless of content delivery method, that has only the content you want your children to see.
     What we need to do with this guy if we really want to keep the internet free of censorship is to (a) give him a bit of a refresher on the technology. He seems to be thinking of the WWW and VoIP like television.... content delivered over channels that you can flip through. And (b) explain to him that there are various groups and ISP's that provide free "filtering software" for web browsing. This software works on the "safe list" model that he seems to be referring to. The software also allows the parents to set exactly what they do and don't want their kids to see, and then the list is re-compiled to suit those specifications. Finally (c) that the internet (and most commonly the web) is filled with content provided by individuals expressing their personal points of view. Allowing the governments to say that a TV station can't broadcast something offensive is one thing, as a corporation doesn't have a right to free speech. A lot of the content on the internet, though, is provided as the "voice" of an individual who does have first-ammendment rights. It's a tricky subject, and must be treaded carefully.
     UPDATE (4/8/2005): The observant readers will notice that there's been an alteration to the post here. Instead of whispers and rumors of removed content, I figured I'd be upfront about it and let you know that I posted some information relating to my job, and more specifically my workplace that was inappropriate. When writing a quick rant in the comfort of your own bedroom, it's easy to forget that what you say goes beyond those four walls. Under the cold, hard light of day, however, I realized that what I said was not suitable for publication. What I wrote in a mix of frustration and exaggeration was insensitive and that I may have offended people. To anyone whom I may have offended with my remarks, I would like to take this moment to appologize sincerely for what I wrote, and to assure them that I meant no ill will.
     Also, one of the factors that contributed to this was that I work for a company that consults for another. I often forget that many of the people I work with are the people that I work for and that the comments which could offend someone I work with reflect poorly on the company that employs me. With this in mind, I would like to appologize to my fellow employees. I should've thought twice before writing, and I'm deeply sorry for any embarrassment I've brought the company as a whole.
     Right now I feel a lot of shame and embarrassment, but also a little angry at myself for being so rash and thoughtless. One positive thing has come out of this, though. After writing the original rant, I decided that sitting around and feeling disused was not going to get me the assignments I need to feel like a productive and effective team member. I've started asking for more assignments, and it was revealed today that my immediate supervisor did read what I had posted and he's made some efforts to give me more assignments to do. This previous week, because of my increased workload, has been a lot better. As I've been completing assignments this week, the feeling that I'm "spinning my wheels" has kinda melted away, and I have a feeling that I can take on an even greater workload in the coming weeks.