Articles Written By: Ben

Remember You Can’t Do That on Television? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

I’ve been a raw nerve all day. I went to bed at 10:30 after finishing the first bit on my NaNoWriMo project. The cat was already in my room so I let her stay, meaning she purred and walked all over me any time I stirred in the night. I’d stayed up late over the weekend but thought I’d balanced it out with sleeping in. Apparently not as all day I’ve been irritable and unable to think. I’ve been stressing as my buffer of YouTube vids has run out and I haven’t been in the proper mindset to put together new ones. I uploaded two comics to Tumblr’s queue and it ran them both today. Their scheduling system is rather annoying. I’ve been trying to find something to properly schedule all my social media stuff (the comic, the videos, and links on other sites for people to check them out) and have yet to find anything that works properly.

I’m going to type my word count for NaNoWriMo, sleep in tomorrow, and see if I feel any better. I may take something of a vacation/hiatus from regular posting for a bit.

Happy Halloween from Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Got in the studio this morning and started putting together a pull list of subjects to draw during sketch breaks. Wrote down the basics then expanded them into fuller categories, grabbed some names off some lists online, and aded a few that came to mind. There’s still plenty of customizing and adding I can do when I get the time but it’s a start. I just want to be able to have concepts ready where the design part of my brain can go, “Oh, I know how to make that interesting!”

Took a nap once that was done and went for lunch with my dad. Ran some errands with him and then I came home to color/shade some comics. Ian got ahold of me asking if we could record this week’s show tonight. I messaged Doug and Frank about it then did some link hunting on the topic I wanted to talk about. Managed to get two comics finished so I’m happy.

Happy Halloween from Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Got up to my alarm at 5 this morning. Worked in the studio inking and lettering/ballooning pages. Took breaks like I mentioned on the podcast and felt rather productive. I was taking an extended break and considering a nap around noon when my dad called to do some running around. It was good to get out of the house for a bit.

Spent some time this evening looking over the RAID options I was considering. Debating if I really need the extra processing power and if it’s worth the speed hit for NAS. I just want to figure out the ideal configuration for me. I’m also only allowing myself to fuss over it after I get work done for the day.

Happy Halloween from Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

I was still dragging this morning when I tried to get up. Ate some sugary cereal, drank some frappuccino, and listened to metal covers of NES tunes to try and wake up. I had some baja blast and that seemed to help.

I’ve decided to invest in a NAS RAID for backup. I’ve narrowed it down to two machines. One has a better processor and more RAM but costs more. The cost impacts which size HD I use which is also going to impact the scalability should I get more drives later. I’ve spent today bargain hunting, tracking down the absolute minimum I can get things for. I’ll sleep on it tonight and decide when I don’t have all these numbers swimming in my head.

Happy Halloween from Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Went to bed at 8 last night, woke up at midnight. Showered, got dressed, and came down to the studio. Spent some time researching RAID solutions and went back to bed about 3:30. Woke up around 1:30, dad invited me over for pizza. Came home, napped until almost 10 to find invites from Frank to craft some mines. Just got done with that a little bit ago.

I think this cold weather is making me tired. I can’t sleep enough and when I wake up I need to do things that keep me busy. Night seems to be the only quiet time I can get, though, so I’m gonna try and make use of that.

Happy Halloween from Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Stayed up after recording the podcast Saturday night, first crafting mines with Frank while Ian hung out on the hangout, then I decided to finish a game I want to review. Sunday my dad wanted to do some running around and after a nap I worked in the studio until around 1:30 in the morning. Thumbnail art for the next episode of NoRights Plays…, wrote up and scheduled the blog post/made a preview image for today’s Billy Badass comic, and fiddled with some site stuff I’m not done with yet.

Today’s been kind of a blur as I slept in, started getting a headache, then had lunch with my dad. He dropped me off then needed me to drive over and do tech support for his computer that was giving him trouble. It’s been busy and I’m tired. I’m looking forward to finishing the inks on November’s pages after I get some sleep.

NES memories in this week’s Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Frank and I were up to about midnight seeing if he could get on the modded server or if we had to go back to vanilla. He was able to do more this time, though he still has to sort out why his escape key doesn’t work in game. I left my alarms off today and woke up thinking it was around 4 in the morning because it was so dark. Turned out to be 7:30. This season does funny things to you, man.

Tried KanbanFlow today instead of TeamViz. It requires manual restarts, too, but with desktop notifications they’re easier to deal with. I had a nice rhythm going until my dad called to go for lunch. Spent the first session doing some free drawing in Mischief, letting myself draw whatever I felt like at the moment. Realized I should probably have some specific subjects to doodle. I have a short list of things – pin up girls, monsters, supernatural creatures, aliens, space ships – that sorta thing. What I need to do is jot down some character and scene descriptions to run off of. I should be spending time thinking of how to draw the thing, not figuring out what thing to draw. This is good though. It means I’m breaking things down into smaller tasks so I can handle them efficiently. It’s why I was looking for a pomodoro timer/task manager in the first place.

Speaking of figuring things out, I’m thinking more about the time I’m spending not working. It’s often reactionary to things. I’ll want to work but need to spend some quiet time first. I’m sure it comes from being an introvert. I go out with people and then I need some “me” time before I’m able to work again. I’m trying to roll drawing into that time instead of lumping it in with work. Fun drawing exercises will help with that. Having prompts so all I have to worry about when drawing is the act itself will, too.

NES memories in this week’s Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Stayed up until 11 last night trying to work out a modded server with Frank. I couldn’t connect myself from some mismatched mod error so I opened my singleplayer world up. Somehow his machine is having trouble running it smoothly. Considering his vanilla install won’t let him leave the game window I’d say he’s got some figuring out to do. Fullscreen mode wasn’t working properly on my end either for some reason.

Today hasn’t been very productive. I’ve been very tired and the only thing I’ve had on my mind is sorting out that timer problem I was having. Been looking at other apps, still haven’t worked out a solution yet. Bought Jazza’s Animation Foundation yesterday figuring I might pick a few things up form it. Plus watching another animator work for 10+ hours is my idea of a good time.

NES memories in this week’s Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Went to bed early last night since I’ve had trouble getting up in the morning. Woke up thinking, “It’s gotta be like 3 or something by now,” looked at my clock to find it was only 12:30 and got mad. Stayed in bed until about 4:30 trying to fall back asleep. Finished the half page I left off and another before going for a nap. Went for lunch with dad and got groceries this evening.

I started using TeamViz today. Timers work a little differently than I was expecting. You edit the default, break, and long break lengths for all tasks instead of individually, which I guess is fine since you can set how many pomodoros you need on each task. Also it immediately switches to break after you complete a pomodoro (as long as you have more than one to a task) but to start a new one even on the same task you have to tick the start button. I’m curious the point of configuring a daily list if you have to manually start it each time. I was feeling the flow when it moved between pomodoro to break but having to check if it’s still running either makes me forget to start it again or gives me an opportunity to procrastinate.

I’ll look into automating things better. I’d like to be able to pause if I need to but the norm should be, “Here’s what we’re doing! Let’s go!” It divides up the hats I need to wear at a time and separates Boss Me from Worker Me.

NES memories in this week’s Billy Badass!

Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!

Frank and I played Minecraft until about 10 last night. I think next time I’ll boot up the server I was going to use for the next Crafting Mines series. (I made it a single player world awhile ago after some issues with multi player.) I had stuff on my mind when I went to bed and didn’t get to sleep until about 11.

Today was kind of slow as I spent the morning looking for a good pomodoro timer. I wanted something with task tracking that was easy to organize. A lot of them were either simple timers or overly complex systems for teams. Funnily enough I settled on TeamViz which has a good free single user version. I can divvy my projects up into lists of tasks and view reports on my progress. This is good because usually there’s a divide between the planning and implementing stages. Now I’ll have running lists of tasks to spend 25 minutes at a time on rather than some big thing I’m trying to chip away at. I’ll also be recording what I’m actually doing each session so I can catch anything unproductive I’m sinking my time into.