Dead cat

I doubt I could make this stuff up if I tried - but that's a real quote by a real person on the train this morning. She also said, during the course of the half hour that I had to endure the conversation between her and some guy, presumably her boyfriend, that she had a fight with her mother last night. When the b/f enquired why they fought so much the response was: "Because my mum's a bitch and I'm stubborn." Riiiight...

Nice idea. Needs work.

Some months ago I had a brief dalliance with the idea of a visual travel blog - which I called a 'Trog'; this may or may not have been a clever name, I still haven't decided. My thinking at the time was that since I spent two half hours a day crammed into a train carriage commuting to and from work it was time that could be used to sketch some of the more interesting, annoying and or obnoxious passengers onboard and then posting it online.

What I realised, once I started working on producing Trog, was that most passengers were not all that obnoxious or interesting, and if they were annoying it was usually loud iPods or half heard phone conversations that were the cause of it - pretty dull stuff. Additionally I tried drawing the subjects covertly (really hard in a crowded, swaying train BTW) and the sketch from the day's journey was what went online, no corrections, no embellishments - so the overall quality was, well, sketchy!

In the two weeks or so I tried this little experiment I only had one truly bizarre moment:
Yes, she really said that! From what I could tell (and it wasn't too hard to deduce because she talked loudly and frequently, mostly about herself) was that she was studying to become a pediatrician (parents - do you know who your children are being examined by?). Anyway, no other Trog entries were anywhere near as interesting as this and I soon lost interest myself... another project bites the dust.

It occurs to me though that Trog still has some merit. Probably the following would improve and sustain it:

• only do worthy subjects (usually those having loud un-self-censored conversations with others)
• do a sketch, take down some lines of dialogue but do a proper job of it once not on the train (or bus or whatever)
• accuracy of the subject's appearance isn't that important, go for caricature but ensure the dialogue is spot on
• don't worry about keeping any kind of update schedule, when gold is there - gold is there!

This was all precipitated after my trip home yesterday. To sum it up here would do it no justice, but maybe a Trog posting at some point in the near future might!

So what do you call a dead blog?

I guess the internet must be littered with them. And it's probably clogged up with zombie blogs too... those that were dead and which get reanimated from time to time - usually only when the writer can be bothered, or is bored, or is depressed, or is procrastinating about something else or all of the above. Fortunately, for the moment, for me, it is none of the above.

OK - I am actually bored. But the current state of Sequential Daze (ie not updating) leads me to do some pondering over what happened to flat-line it in the first place...

Everything blogwise was doing quite well in the earlier part of the year then I just failed to update it. For the longest time I did intend to get back to it - but somehow I forgot I about it altogether as other life priorities took over. Before I knew it, it was eight months later! The other day something jogged my memory and today I checked it out. Oh yeah, there it is... still alive online on the internets! Had this blog been a small mammal instead it's fate would have no doubt been much more tragic.

Anyway. Is this a 'dead blog' or a 'zombie blog' or can it even become a 'made a full recovery blog'? Possibly the trick is to write smaller, less time consuming entries that are still worth reading. A challenge!

That was a big sleep! Feeling better now!

So, a bit of time since my last entry! The move went well and for a brief moment the xmung caboose was running along nicely, until a wheel or two fell off and I realised how over the top busy I was. Hiatuses (hiatii?) were had all around, the stress factor has abated and I feel reasonably normal again.

I do want to continue with this blog (I got it, might as well use it!). What's more I want it to be a record (in brief not in detail) of anything particular that I might be working on at any given time, and updated at least once a week (haha!).

Currently:
Magellan

• working to finish of the current chapter (#3 - Daze). Looks like it will go to 42 pages in total, a few more than I anticipated - but required to ensure I don't rush the ending. It's gonna be a shocker - maybe, not quite what everyone thinks either...
• working on the next chapter (#4 - Fractures) - the story is plotted and the first 12 pages written... you'd think I'd have more of it done at this stage given that it's going to kick off in a few weeks!
• "Magellan ++" is the new working title for my side-project in Magellan with short stories (up to 30 pages) spotlighting the various characters and history of this vast universe. Currently have numerous plot outlines but no scripts, which I'm really going to need soon if I want other people to be drawing them.
• Site update - I've been totally slack in updating things like the Cast and Magellan History section of the site. Am slowly trying to rectify this. I have more accomplished offline awaiting an upload.