It’s been a while since I last wrote on the blog. My last post was musing about the awfulness of Trump and the horror of his possible presidency…Now the nightmare has come true, and I can only hope it will end somewhat soon-ish. With the way the world works, I’ve got my doubts…But let’s talk about less depressing things.
Updated website!
Re-vamping my website has been on my to-do list for about a year now, and I’ve finally gotten around to it. I bought this new theme in November, but because of work and lingering anxiety about using a new, more complicated theme, I put off working on the site until December 25…that’s the day I learned someone hacked into my site and was using it to host some “Muslim porn” (I’m kind of amused the religion of people really matter in porn) and ads for a guitar shop. Not only that, but the malware took down my site for about a couple of hours. Thanks to the people of Godaddy, who answered my call late on Christmas night, for helping me get the site working again. I’ve taken some precautions so this won’t happen again. The lesson here is that I should check my site more often and ALSO, take some time to decipher ominous emails from Google.
When I think about it, last year was ripe with hacking attempts. I’ve never had to worry about sensitive information being stolen, but last year started with some #$%@ stealing money from my bank account. Then about midway through the year, I get a warning email from Amazon.com that my username and password was compromised and that I needed to change all my passwords ASAP, AND THEN my website gets hacked…Combine this with the Russians hacking the U.S elections, and it seems like last year was the year of hacking.
Anyway, back to the site redesign: I’m not completely done. I need to load a few more photos, replace some icons, rewrite my bio and rebuild the shop section, but most of the heavy lifting is done. For now, my site redesign places heavy emphasis on “The Paleozoic” because…
My Kickstarter Project is Complete!
If anybody followed me on social media, you might remember I launched a Kickstarter project in August which was successfully funded. The project was to raise funds to offset print my prehistoric accordion book series. After 4 months, I received my books from the printer and I spent Christmas break sending out all the rewards to my backers. Today I sent out the very last package (there’s still 3 backers who have been MIA, but for all intents and purposes, I’m done).
So now I have about 2000 books I need to sell, while I need to think about new projects.
Old and new resolutions
Sadly, I couldn’t complete as much work as I wanted to last year…The Kickstarter project took a lot more time than I thought it would. I did finally complete a flipbook. so there’s that. I also took a RISO class, as promised, and I printed three new pieces/books.
This year, I need to finish up the book I started last May: it’s a book that takes place in the desert and uses some specialty inks. I also need to start working on the next prehistoric book, “The Triassic”, which will kick off the series “The Mesozoic”. I’d like to finish up my Alien Encounters comic with the giant ants. And once again, I would like to do an After Effects video….I actually have a lot more project ideas, but these four have the highest priority.
As for resolutions that don’t deal with work, I’m aiming to move out of the U.S.A. As a cancer survivor, I feel it’s important for me to live in a country with universal healthcare, and with the Republicans gung-ho on making healthcare even more expensive and inaccessible, I think it’s clear that I need to go. Also, the thought of a Trump presidency makes me want to retch. I’m not exactly sure how or when I’m going to move. I’ve renewed my French passport and I’ve slowly been getting rid of stuff in my apartment. But I still need to figure out the lodging and employment situation in France. I’m going on a trip to Europe in the beginning of February to try and figure things out.
Another resolution is for me to post more often on my blog..Mostly so I can log in to my site and make sure some jerk isn’t filling it with religious porn and malware. I swear it feels like all the sociopaths are coming out of the woodwork lately. But I digress…Until next time!