tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95573192024-03-13T11:30:33.494-07:00Vexxarr NewsNews from the world of the online comic VexxarrHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comBlogger328125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-54588012311893216902010-03-26T01:32:00.001-07:002010-03-26T01:34:17.139-07:00Work Delays Vexxarr...But Not For LongYou know the drill. Someone waved money in front of me so now I'm making <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">them </span>happy instead of <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">you</span>. You know this turn of events won't last for long. First of all, there is never enough money and second, one of the many people I make happy with this comic is <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">myself</span>.<br /><br />And who doesn't want to make him happy?<br /><br />Well, for starters, the people with the money...Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-27886620704140405572010-02-08T11:44:00.001-08:002010-02-08T11:46:18.768-08:00Because You Asked<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Sploorfix_Paints_The_Hull-copy-726090.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 351px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Sploorfix_Paints_The_Hull-copy-726076.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">And he was very fast...</span><br /></div>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-71805266238028788442010-01-22T23:59:00.000-08:002010-01-23T00:11:20.373-08:00SpidersSorry for the silence gang. This is to reassure you that I am neither dead nor finished with Vexxarr. More to come this Monday. I just have had no time away from work to do anything else. I would never try to sway you with exaggerated tales of my herculean endeavors...but I would try to ply you with tired excuses.<br /><br />Here goes.<br /><br />I'm trying to produce twenty or so "bumps" for the programming channel of Chattacon while and at the same time finishing four foam mascot costumes designed to be worn by humans obviously suffering from exotic thyroid ailments. That is to say, freakish giants. God forbid the actor cast to play a hammer in this spot be tall and thin.<br /><br />But I digress.<br /><br />Suffice to say I've been getting about three hours of sleep a night and now all these damn spiders just keep crawling all over me. So between the spiders and sleep deprivation, Vexxarr has gotten a little behind schedule.<br /><br />Fear not.<br /><br />Vexxarr will rally in full compliment and you will have a lot of reading in the near future. And as is my solemn oath, there will be (retroactively) three comics a week until I die.<br /><br />Or these damn spiders eat me.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-6463217639727600062009-12-14T01:42:00.000-08:002009-12-14T01:48:36.625-08:00Why My Comic Was LateI had work. What work...I cannot say. I can say that it will involve these images. Why they kept me from my solemn pledge, I will leave to your fertile <span style="font-style: italic;">imagination</span>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Heart-730318.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Heart-730315.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Nail-708952.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 360px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Nail-708950.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Hammer-757337.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 397px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Hammer-757332.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Stopwatch-728530.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 392px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Stopwatch-728527.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-13461046319436724812009-11-23T00:44:00.000-08:002009-11-23T00:45:03.477-08:00TestEh?Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-88940540385804606832009-11-12T10:17:00.000-08:002009-11-23T00:44:19.729-08:00What I Did For HalloweenOK, you may have noticed the absence of a Halloween strip this year. And while it did fall on the typically content-free Saturday, I usually cook up something special for you anyway.<br /><br />Well maybe <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">this </span>is what you had in mind:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Halloween_costume_2009-788113.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 287px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/Halloween_costume_2009-787988.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Surely you have guessed it. I am wearing a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">steam-powered articulated work suit</span>. I'm sure you have one of your own. I capped the outfit off with a pair of period goggles but some throwback from the human gene pool stole them while I was resting out of costume. If you see anyone around Southside wearing a pair of Qidditch Goggles...<br /><br /><br />...and it is not me.<br /><br />You may assume they are a thief.<br /></div></div>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-90966255165542479262009-09-28T16:46:00.000-07:002009-09-28T16:47:52.706-07:00Because Something Like this needs To Be SeenFrom the OMFG department NFW. Comes this little jewl.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qEcSDwGLDC4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qEcSDwGLDC4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />It's in German but you'll quickly realize that astounding idiocy speaks a kind of universal language all its own.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-54639375002557099962009-08-21T16:29:00.000-07:002009-08-21T16:41:11.026-07:00TV Commercials And ComicsAmong the many things I must do this weekend is a complete <span style="font-style: italic;">site redesign</span>. I've been promising people updated links to their site (sorry Stephanie) and my twitter feed ought to be where people can <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">see </span>it.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Just a thought.</span><br /><br />I am a strip behind now but I have scripts for two strips in the cue (yes I actually write this crap). And the script is the hardest part.<br /><br />If I am late but not whining about how much work I have to do, likely it is because I haven't gotten 'the giggle'. See, when I write your comic, I have one rule. If it doesn't make me at least giggle, I don't write it down. So know that however putrid my comic offering, the script elicited at least a snerk from me. Take this as evidence of my commitment or the extent of my madness, either one.<br /><br />So know that it was fully 3:00am before something funny crept into my fore brain (no parasite jokes). I quickly wrote down two ideas and finally went to sleep around 4:00am. Today I have spent too many hours trans coding HD media and cutting a 'simple' spot for the Birmingham News. I am no where near finished with either task.<br /><br />The only good news I can put forth is that when I finally get this strip up and on the site, I don't have to bash my forehead against a wall to also produce Monday's strip. It's already on 'paper' as it were.<br /><br /><br /><br />That and most of my '<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sanity</span>'.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-38078480057369569512009-07-16T11:00:00.000-07:002009-07-20T01:34:59.672-07:00Mac, Mice and Men<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11px;" >This is me, logging in at Best Buy. Apple has a new keyboard which is 40% less crappy than the design you see on Dr Who (which was so useless that the props department screwed them to the walls of the Tardis). I am happy to report that based on user feedback, Apple has restored a sense of key-press "feedback" to the little chiclet toy. So now you know if you tapped any given key past the pressure point required to place a character on the screen. While Apple still stubbornly refuses to place a physical, 2nd button on their mouse, the improved "Mighty Mouse" does function more like an actual user, pointer interface than in past incarnations. In short, the user input experience of the "nouveau" keyboard and mouse sucks considerably less than in models past. I still buy my classic G5 USB keyboards on eBay. Wouldn't have one of these Cal Arts design experiments in my office for love or money. Call me silly but I believe that carpal tunnel is a condition to be avoided, not aspired to. Steve Jobs may have a different opinion...</span>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-82082207707637304942009-06-23T09:37:00.000-07:002009-06-23T09:47:45.607-07:00My Head Is Going To ExplodeI just heard President Obama say in simple terms that carbon emissions "<span style="font-style: italic;">pollute our water and air</span>". He said exactly that. Lord knows what he actually meant. It should be stated that at this moment, I am drinking a carbon-polluted can of Diet Code Red.<br /><br />In an age where it is becoming apparent that atmospheric carbon does not increase terrestrial, ground-level temperatures (there is laboratory evidence that CO<span style="font-size:78%;">2</span> may in fact be a solar energy deflector akin to O<span style="font-size:78%;">3</span>) we do not need to confuse CO<span style="font-size:78%;">2</span> with actual <span style="font-style: italic;">pollutants</span>. Whatever your political (as opposed to scientific) position on CO<span style="font-size:78%;">2</span>, it must be conceded that actual toxins such as <span style="font-weight: bold;">PCB</span>s need to be handled and regulated in very different ways.<br /><br />How long before we simply referr to anything we do not like as an <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">addiction</span>?Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-6120295514821463162009-04-27T11:16:00.001-07:002009-04-27T11:29:26.225-07:00End Of An Era - And It's A Good ThingThe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek">Pontiac Aztec</a> is dead. General Motors <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/27/gm-discontinue-pontiac-brand-announces-major-restructuring-plans/">announced today</a> that their nearly ten-year-old threat to shut down Pontiac is now a done deal. This is a surprise to anyone only recently immigrated to the Planet Earth. Pontiac has been on the cut list since 2001. So at last, it's possible to visit a GM dealership without wearing<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_There_in_Truth_No_Beauty%3F"> those goggles</a> used for viewing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusan#Medusans">Medusans</a>.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-83589125490109787152009-04-10T00:54:00.000-07:002009-04-10T00:57:40.189-07:00Happy Birthday To Me!For those of you who haven't guessed, I'm a year older. <span style="font-style: italic;">I'm 42</span>. I wish Douglas Adams were still around to curse.<br /><br />So either I am to ponder the question to the ultimate <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">answer</span>...or I'm to have my brains extracted by a couple of white mice.<br /><br />Not sure which I would dread more.<br /><br />At any rate, I'm 42 and no closer to understanding Life the Universe and Everything...Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-29394166466960250852009-04-07T20:48:00.000-07:002009-04-07T20:54:35.006-07:00For Those Of You Playing At Home<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/scorecard-710630.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/scorecard-710627.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>Meet the engineering leads of the Protectorate Space Platform. Yes, I do name my aliens. I leave you to struggle with pronunciation. Don't email. I won't help you.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-72448508194896373492009-03-18T13:29:00.000-07:002009-03-18T14:03:44.840-07:00An Open Letter To the Sci Fi Channel and Mr. Tim BrooksFor those of you who don't know, the <a href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php">SciFi channel is changing its name to SyFy</a> (pronounced SiFee and an accepted short name for <a href="http://industry.bnet.com/media/10001337/syfy-lends-itself-not-to-sci-fi-but-syphilis-jokes/">syphilis</a>). Stupid, yes but nothing worth getting worked up about. After all, we've known for some time now that the SciFi channel executives weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. Spoons, some would say. What upsets me is the opinion that the SciFi channel has of its own viewership. Says Mr. Tim Brooks one of the "founders" of the network -<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">"The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular..."</span></div><br /><br />For those who wish to express a dissenting opinion, Mr. Brook's email can be found <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.timbrooks.net/Press/">here</a>. I sent him my thoughts. You may read them below, if you wish...<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. Brooks,<br /><br />With all due respect,<a href="http://www.timbrooks.net/"> your expertise on television, the recording industry and copyright issues</a> clearly has a hole in it where SciFi fandom is concerned. The impression that SciFi fans are dysfunctional only pervades those professions which require little if any creative work. I imagine that many investment brokers, accountants and bureaucrats would agree with you. But if you polled surgeons, pilots, editors and physicists, you would find many who not only vehemently disagree with your generalization but count themselves among those ranks.<br /><br />In short, you are wrong.<br /><br />So to say that the SciFi channel is stigmatizing itself by remaining with the ScFi moniker, is to ignore the fact that anyone who might watch the SciFi channel wouldn't be aware what a minority of the public feels about its name.<br /><br />In short, your assessment skews well outside the SciFi channel's demographic.<br /><br />I guess the reason that your assessment angers me so is not that I fear that it is right. Not that I fear others might agree. But that others, being uninformed might trust you because you should be. And sadly, you are not.<br /><br />I could point out that there is (and verifiable so) a general belief that people who love books, write or pontificate on the value of literacy are antisocial, reclusive and add little of value to society. In short, they are 'bookish'. While both you and I know this to be false, it does little to dissuade the general public of this notion. Is Book TV doing itself a disservice by tying its programming to such an image? Should Book TV become BTV to avoid appearing 'bookish'?<br /><br />All this is to say that only those who wish a stigma upon fans of science fiction see a stigma there at all. Science fiction is mainstream today and only those who are themselves reclusive and uninformed see a disconnect between SciFi and pop culture. I do not wish this letter to be a direct attack on you, Mr. Brooks because I truly wish no malice upon you. But I do honestly, keenly longingly hope that you take an opportunity to see where science fiction is today. Where its fans are. And generally notice how much science fiction shapes the way average people everywhere view their own lives, their jobs and their futures. You should take time to ask them but when you do, don't look in basements, libraries or comic book stores. Look in cockpits, barracks, hospitals, universities and the halls of government. Because that is where fans of SciFi hang out today.<br /><br />With optimism,<br /><br />Hunter Cressall<br /><br /></span></div><br /><br />Mr. Brooks won't listen. Neither will SciFi. But we owe it to ourselves to be heard and not <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">herded</span>. I find it ironic that the group of Americans most unequivocally sheltered, secluded and uninformed - specifically <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">network executives</span> - believes that their own <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">audience </span>is more reclusive than themselves. Some support a wall along our southern border. I'm thinking that one around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Center">Rockefeller Plaza</a> would do more to serve the interests and security of the United States.<br /><br />I mean network execs - they are fine folks and all - but would you want your daughter to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">marry</span> one?Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-13336145668423067212009-03-18T02:00:00.000-07:002009-03-18T02:19:59.197-07:00Asteroid Misses Earth By Inches...Spotted Only MondayThat's right, an <a href="http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2009%20FH;orb=1">asteroid discovered only this </a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><a href="http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2009%20FH;orb=1">Monday</a> </span>will whiz past only 85,000 km away or so this morning.<br /><br />We didn't see it coming.<br /><br />It didn't hit - <span style="font-style: italic;">this time</span>. But had it been <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">slightly </span>closer and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">slightly </span>larger, we would have had sufficient time only to rethink our transgressions. Nothing more.<br /><br />I reiterate and I can not say this in a more serious or forthright manner: If you do not support the space program and Near Earth Asteroid intervention, please select another phylum to inhabit. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Mine does not need you.</span>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-10929381374390205802009-03-11T12:13:00.000-07:002009-03-11T12:29:07.158-07:00New Shirt! And it GLOWS!<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Have you seen <a href="http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >The Watchmen</span></a>?<br /></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">If not, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">why not?</span> It's about as good an adaptation of <a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=1462">The Watchmen</a> as you are likely to get in a two hour and forty-five minute movie made by simian descendants.<br /><br />If you have...then you saw <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">it</span>.<br /><br /> You know - <span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">IT</span></span>.<br /><br />So if your inner child was trampled flat by Dr. Manhattan and his...er...<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Lower East Side</span>, then <a href="http://www.vexxarr.com/Blue_Winkie_T_Zoom.htm">I have a shirt for you!</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/T_Winkie_Large-791646.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 368px; height: 400px;" src="http://www.vexxarr.com/uploaded_images/T_Winkie_Large-791642.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Buy this new, <span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">glow-in-the-dark</span> shirt and proudly announce that you've been to see <span style="font-style: italic;">The Watchmen</span> and that yes, it <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">is </span>impressive!<br /><br />(and the movie is impressive as well)<br /><br /><br /></span>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-57468551710097497852009-03-09T00:04:00.000-07:002009-03-09T00:07:30.898-07:00Late late lateTraveled this weekend, Daylight Savings Time begins and I found an important meeting suddenly moved to Monday morning.<br /><br />You know what this means...<br /><br />Monday morning will begin at 4pm CST!<br /><br />Or the comic will be a tad ate today...<br /><br />Whichever.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-91647574385261047942009-02-23T00:14:00.000-08:002009-02-23T00:23:04.729-08:00The OscarsThis is the first and only thing I will say about his year's Oscars.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Travesty</span>.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>It is clear that the academy has drifted too far from the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">process </span>of making motion pictures and has a frail grasp of even the individual categories over which they preside. <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(BTW, I'm not really talking about actor/actress / leading / supporting here)</span></span><br /><br />I saw nearly all of the Oscar contenders in the major categories. I enjoyed <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">all </span>of them. Virtually none of the winners displayed excellence in their field.<br /><br />Loved <span style="font-weight: bold;">Slumdog</span>. Best editing? It would have been nice for that film to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">have been</span> edited. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Best</span> makeup? Same complaint. The list goes on and on.<br /><br />Academy: Retire. Leave. Change careers. Your gray is showing. Please let working filmmakers and professionals in their respective fields have a go.<br /><br />One last thing. Is it time to allow a little transparency into the process?<br /><br />You tell me.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-68777490207659056132009-02-19T20:25:00.000-08:002009-02-19T20:28:16.148-08:00No News is...Well...My FaultI retro-reposted my News Section.<br /><br />Read: wrote over the archives online with older archives from my laptop resulting in a loss of several recent postings.<br /><br />Thank god for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing">the cloud</a>.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-61875795482013475002009-02-13T02:02:00.000-08:002009-02-13T02:10:53.537-08:00Let's Party Like It's 1234567890!Because it <a href="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/unix-lovers-to.html">is</a>.<br /><br />For those of you who are potentially nerdier than am I (I count six on Earth) you already know that at 23:31:30 UTC, the Unix epoch clock will tick up to 1234567890. That's an <a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 51, 204);" href="http://www.1234567890day.com/">event</a> worth cracking open a can of Jolt and watching your variable internet clock roll up to the sequentially significant digit.<br /><br />Making this stranger for me is the fact that just last Tuesday, I deposited a Dollar amount which was exactly $1234.56 into my checking account. I noticed no significant folding of space or shifting of causality.<br /><br />There was a mild odor of brimstone but I was at a bank...Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-66477411198789984862009-01-16T15:56:00.000-08:002009-01-16T15:59:57.898-08:00Professionally SpeakingMy professional website is up. I'm the professional. It isn't. AT the very least it shows what I do and why I ask for money when I do it. So if you need audio/video media produced for your business or <a href="http://www.sea-monkeys.com/">sea monkey</a> farm. <a href="http://www.huntercressall.com">Here</a> is where you can find me.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.huntercressall.com">(www.huntercressall.com)</a>Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-66048452406927519802008-11-14T01:38:00.000-08:002008-11-14T01:55:14.436-08:00Happy 600!!!That's right, 600 strips. I know the exact figure varies depending on whether or not we count holiday strips, joke strips or whatever. All I know is the wordfile .doc I used for today's comic was numbered 600.<br /><br />Woot.<br /><br />So this ends the long run of Vexxarr. Hope you enjoyed the trip. I just lost interest and decided that I had batter things to do.<br /><br />No.<span style="font-weight: bold;">..Not </span>seriously.<br /><br />Many more strips to come. A book <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">IS </span>in the works. <span style="font-size:78%;">(Adobe Acrobat is the Devil)</span> I would ask that as a celebratory measure you go out today and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">force </span>someone to read this comic. It will make you feel better. I know it will raise <span style="font-style: italic;">my </span>spirits.<br /><br />I promise.<br /><br />Anyway, I just wanted to send out a special note to all my readers who were with me from the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">very </span>beginning...<br /><br />I'm sorry. I'm <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">very, very</span> sorry.<br /><br />I'll burn in hell for this.<br /><br />Tell a friend...or a bitter enemy.<br /><br />Oh, and for those who obsess over stuff like this, here is the alien's dialog:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Giant Alien - I do not understand you little green thing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Giant Alien - I am working as fast as I can!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Giant Alien - Strange, tiny alien...I have no time for this. We have a schedule to keep.</span><br /><br />I hope this brings peace to your strange, fitful world.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-75591661965787445022008-11-03T22:03:00.000-08:002008-11-04T06:34:45.543-08:00Not A RantToday is Election Day in America. Hopefully everyone reading this will be either on their way to or returning from their polling place. If the media is to be trusted - and why start now - America is going to see voters turn out in record numbers. Given that it is all but a forgone conclusion that Barack Obama will emerge victorious, I wanted to clarify an aspect of his tax reform platform that often goes ignored or misunderstood. Actually, I wanted to clarify something about our attitude toward taxes and who pays more - but I'll get to that in a bit.<br /><br />First, a bit of melodrama:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">IF </span>Barack Obama passes his tax reform bill as outlined on his website, I will likely be unemployed.<br /><br />Let me restate that.<br /><br />Should the tax reform program - as outlined on Barack Obama's website - become a part of the US Tax Code, it is very likely that I will no longer be able to make a living as an independent contractor in the commercial video industry.<br /><br />Honestly, I'm not an Obama detractor. He has a lot to recommend him. Obama and I see eye to eye about Iraqi oil financing the US presence in Iraq. We are both firm supporters of a sustained manned presence in space. Both fine voting issues.<br /><br />But what disturbs me is the fact that his economic plan - far from being counter productive or evil or even <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">socialist </span>- is simply nonsensical.<br /><br />I'm not a fan of McCain's economic policies either - so don't start with that old saw. McCain offers more of the same play-both-ends-against-the-middle tax policy which congress has tossed around for over one hundred years. But reading through the Obama case for reform leaves me scratching my head. Couldn't anyone in the Obama election office hire an eleventh grader to point out the spiral of death his tax structure will create?<br /><br />But I'm getting ahead of myself.<br /><br />OK, so how exactly does a tax cut for <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">my own</span> tax bracket lead to my unemployment? Easily. I'm being <span style="font-style: italic;">given </span>money that, by rights, I should simply have been allowed to earn on my own.<br /><br />OK, I'm being intentionally obtuse. Forgive me. Let me start over.<br /><br />The Obama Tax plan seeks to increase or at least not mitigate the tax burden on households or business grossing over $250,000 annually. His platform insists that 95% of small business in the US make under this amount. I can pick at his numbers but in a sense, he's dead right. The problem is that most of those "small businesses" aren't operations anyone would normally <span>consider</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">businesses</span>. They are more typically referred to as a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sole proprietorship. </span>And like myself, they actually could use the tax break.<br /><br />Problem is, our <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">clients </span>are business grossing well over $250K. Worse still I'm in a sector largely considered discretionary. When my clients feel the pressure of an increased tax burden my line item is the <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>first to be cut - right before the coffee and hot coco at the office sink. What will happen - what has happened in times passed - is that video will become internalized. Cameras and computers are tax deductible expenditures and unlike myself, they <span style="font-style: italic;">depreciate</span>.<br /><br />What makes this situation all the more painful is the fact that many of my friends seem to think that the "big" business who employ me (I do not currently and seldom ever work for anyone earning less than $500K ) have it coming. I was told just last week that these new taxes "...will simply come out of their profit margin...right?"<br /><br />OK, fair warning. My degree was in Economics. Don't use a term like "profit margin" in my presence unless you want the full one-hour lecture. And take notes because the quiz is a <span style="font-weight: bold;">bitch</span>.<br /><br />Let's start again at the top.<br /><br />Businesses don't pay taxes. Let me rephrase that. Business don't take taxes out of their earnings. Businesses have accountants who can calculate estimated taxes based on their offsets and revenue. They then roll those taxes into their variable costs of doing business. Given that the market, for all intents and purposes, determines the price they are allowed to charge for what ever the hell they sell, they then have to balance these new tax outlays against their revenue stream. The extra expense therefore, has to come out of operating expenditures.<br /><br />Advertising is always the first to go and <span style="font-style: italic;">that's me</span>.<br /><br />After advertising, any outsourced activity that can't be cut is internalized. And there goes my<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">other </span>job. Anyone with a camera and a laptop can do what I do, <span style="font-style: italic;">right</span>? Well as it turns out, no...but it typically takes two years before they give up trying.<br /><br />OK, let's ignore my specific plight and look at the bigger picture: The Obama Tax proposal is aimed at households and businesses that earn more than $250K. Smaller businesses and households will be given a tax cut.<br /><br />Fine.<br /><br />Only problem is that businesses earning less than, say, $300K don't usually have <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">employees </span><span style="font-style: italic;">per se</span>. And those business and households earning less than $250K (or $200K or $150K depending on which proposal you read) basically work for those business who earn $300K and over. The next line item that goes after advertising, outsourced services, coffee and coco is <span style="font-weight: bold;">manpower</span>. Given that the price of goods is set by the market. Given that operating costs are generally fixed as well. Given that most businesses don't make profit beyond the salaries of their employees, what happens when they need to find a few extra dollars to shed?<br /><br />How much is a tax cut worth to a man who has just lost his job?<br /><br />Yes. It really <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">is </span>like that. Basically, I'm not saying that Obama's tax plan is bad. I'm not calling him a socialist. I <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">am </span>saying that his tax plan is <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">silly</span>. It's silly because it just patently, obviously, rationally <span style="font-weight: bold;">does not work</span>. It doesn't work on any level. Accountants know this. Businessmen know this. Eleventh graders know this. Why doesn't Obama seem to know this?<br /><br />And yet there is a bigger picture still:<br /><br />Placing taxes on those earning above the $250K mark does, at the very least, discourage wage increases. Employees not losing their jobs as a result of increased taxes will at least not receive their usual cost of living increases. That is a proven historical trend. I've personally lived through it <span style="font-style: italic;">twice</span>.<br /><br />As wages slip next to inflation or simple cost of living, consumers tend to spend less (obviously). Worse still, what money they do spend will be spent at larger discount retail chains - yes, Walmart. The smaller business simply can't offer the high volume-low prices that the large retailers do. The consumer then chooses Walmart over small business with their reduced income. In the end, despite a tax cut, the small business winds up suffering <span style="font-style: italic;">anyway</span>.<br /><br />What you create is a situation where, due to tax increases on larger entities, those earning below $250K are left with with so little taxable income that they don't benefit from the proposed tax break they were target for in the first place.<br /><br />Honestly, I have to assume that Obama's election committee was just making campaign promises here. I have to assume that when he does present his actual tax plan it will look more like a functioning, job-generating tax package than the employment depth charge he currently touts.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Because he has smart people working for him. They won't let him worsen an economy already on the brink of recession.<br /><br />So why is this happening?<br /><br />Somehow in America, we've gotten the idea that those earning '<span style="font-style: italic;">a lot of money</span>' aren't contributing to the market. We see successful businesses and imagine huge bank accounts with Scrooge McDuck money bins and surfboards. What we forget is that any money we take home, one way or another comes from these successful enterprises. To the extent that these enterprises have enough revenue to spend with discretion, we can negotiate a portion of that money into our own accounts. We look at companies like Microsoft and wonder what exactly they do with all that money. Apart from employing 39,000 some odd people, they cut me a check every year in the form of dividends. <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">I</span> own Microsoft. Lots of people do. When you cut into those earnings, you cut into <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">my </span>bottom line.<br /><br />I guess what I'm disturbed by is the fact that people are so quick to blame successful enterprise for their own problems.<br /><br />I don't think Obama feels this way.<br /><br />I do think that he believes <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">we </span>do.<br /><br />When the stock market dropped last month, I pulled out the last of my meager spending money and sank it into some very large companies. Their stock had dropped precipitously and I knew that an opportunity like this comes around maybe twice in a lifetime. The experience only served to reinforce something that I had always felt. Tearing down those who achieve success helps no one. Taking part in something that has earned others prosperity helps everyone. And even if I felt that the government really was correcting an injustice by placing the tax burden on those with more money to lose, what was going to do me the most good in the long run?<br /><br />A few hundred dollars from the IRS once a year?<br /><br />Or a contract with a company that could afford to pay my invoice in-full every month?<br /><br />So please, please, please vote your conscience. I would never tell anyone not to vote for the candidate that served what they felt were <span style="font-style: italic;">their </span>best interests. What I do suggest is that as you vote, make sure that you are voting <span style="font-style: italic;">for </span>something you feel will improve your life and not <span style="font-style: italic;">against</span> something that improved someone else's life more than <span>yours</span>.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-9872723024084388912008-10-22T00:41:00.000-07:002008-10-22T00:48:06.588-07:00Been AwhileJust a note to let everyone know that I'm still alive. I know that all the recent on-time updates have thrown everyone for a loop. I must apologize for my timeliness and promise that it won't happen again...until it does. See, I've actually gotten ahead <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">AND </span>managed to keep up my schedule. This of course can only mean one thing...I'm unemployed. Well that isn't <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">entirely </span>true but for the purposes of my blog and your sympathies it's true enough. One good thing about this global economic downturn is that it will push me all the harder to turn this web comic into an actual revenue stream. That isn't a hint. Rest assured, when I do drop a hint, you'll see the <span style="font-style: italic;">donate here </span>button next to it.<br /><br />I'm working on that.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9557319.post-66436401961735414362008-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:002008-09-01T23:13:00.074-07:00Dragon Con...Who Knew?I don't announce my Con attendance because it is always at the last stinking minute. This year I was not going to Dragon Con - Absolutely Not - but then The wonderful people at the Film Track (Matthew Foster) and the Webcomic Track (Scott M. Jones) agreed to let me pontificate about things which only I and a few thousand other nerds would care about so I was in - IN!<br /><br />Four days, Little sleep and the complete loss of my voice conspired with hurricanes, late paychecks and client revisions to make it a hectic, exciting and slightly disturbing trip. No, I did not meet <a href="http://www.sluggy.com/">Pete Abrams</a>. Yes I got to shake hands with <a href="http://www.jerrydoyle.com/">Jerry Doyl</a>e. The bastards at the Hyatt and Marriott won't give up wireless internet for less than $29 a day so I was forced to drag myself home and promise you two strips Wednesday. There was free wireless at the food court but either the crushing weight of nearly 40 thousand attendees rebooted the router or the owners pulled the Ethernet cable defensively less our digital thirst exceed their bandwidth limits.<br /><br />Which reminds me - if you have Comcast. Drop them. They are adopting bandwidth limitations that in effect put an end to streaming media usage. You can read about it <a href="http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/16701">here </a>but the only option is to drop them cold and tell them why. Seriously, pay an extra $20 a month and use anyone else. These guys need to understand that the consumer decides what is and what is not broadband. Comcast is just the mule.Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11788266713047621450noreply@blogger.com