Ginger's Bread

So I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but this blog sees too little activity. And I’m debating how I’d like to change that. I’m debating a few different options at the moment. The first is use as it is. That is, the blog will get site news posts, such as the new donation image going up, schedule notices, new fanart announcements (which I haven’t done in a while because, well…) and the like. Maybe one day get to announce con things as well. Occasionally it will get another post of another topic. So business as usual.

The next option would be using the blog more like a blog, post more stuff about my life even if it doesn’t have an effect on the comic’s updates. I tried touching this a little bit in the previous post, going into slightly more detail than I needed about the impending difficulties of updating, but I got distracted and forgot a lot of what I was going to post. Just kind of a get-to-know me thing.

Another idea would be doing more like the occasionally music posts I make (but I swear, with a wider variety of bands) and the Follow Friday posts of old where I was linking other comics. Basically, just doing more pop culture commentary stuff. This is a little limited right now being up in the mountains, but I’ll figure something out if I do more of these. (By the way, I’m not bringing back the Follow Friday posts, it’s too easy to run out of material when you don’t have time to read more comics.)

And one more option would be to get rid of blog section entirely, just make more expansive comic-blog posts. But that would often leave a lot of white-space and I’m not really keen on a major redesign right now. I could do a blog proper on another page, do stuff like formspring.me and tumblr, but both of those to me feel like a step between twitter and blogging and would need me online more to properly do them.

The best option would probably be doing what I’ve been doing but be less afraid to throw up the pop-culture or personal posts as need be. I just don’t want to post too much that’s not related to the comic. It’ll be a balancing act, surely, but I’ve got some ideas on what I could do. What all do you think since you’re the folks visiting. Want me to talk more? Want me to shut up?

Well, it feels like it sometimes. The worlds of the Internet and the mountain forests.

As occasionally mentioned, sometimes here, sometimes on the Twitter thing, I am an archaeologist in my day job. The problem is that I’m an archaeologist up in the mountains. This isn’t a problem as far as finding some kick ass things in the woods and seeing some great views. This is more an issue of convenience. For example, there’s a good drive between me and solid Internet connections. The solid Internet connections being pretty damn useful when it comes to uploading comics, checking e-mails, things of that nature. Also, I’m a bit more of a city boy than a backpacker, so I seem a little out of place in the mountains.

So it’s a source of mild stress. Spending a bunch of time driving to find Internet to keep the site going, updating comics, and all that. And I need to move soon. Sometime between two days and a month (Long story…). Moving even further from my Internet sources. The housing is provided by my job so I can’t do too much as far as getting Internet installed. (Bonus – I save gas with less driving to work!) But now my housing will no longer be in cell range. At all. For any carrier. So I can’t tweet from home. Basically, once I make the move, I’ll be extremely limited Internet wise.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m stopping the comic. FAR from it. I’m going to try my damnedest to get comics up every update (the opportunity to upload may sometimes be later in the day than I’d like though). E-mails/comments may take a couple days before I can respond to them (but don’t let that prevent you from sending an e-mail or posting comments)! Basically, once I have to move, for the duration of my day job, my online presence will be stunted.

Now, real quick, I don’t want to sound like all negativity about my job as an archaeologist. I love it. I love the work we do, the people I work with, and the places I get to go to and see. (Some things I don’t love so much include Manzanita, Bear Clover, and oh so much fucking Poison Oak.) It’s just that my work as an archaeologist and my life as a cartoonist don’t always match up. Well, what can you do? Me? I’m going to continue to do my best at both jobs. Just thought you’d like a little head’s up to why there may be some rocky updates up ahead. (And maybe a little into the non-comic day life I live.)

We are fast approaching comic 200 (which should be July 21st). So I’m thinking the week after, the week of July 26th, I’m going to do a guest week. There’s a couple reasons for this. 1) I’d like to really have a chance to work on the buffer because 2) There’s going to be some upcoming weeks where I’ll be camping for four days at a time for work, so I won’t be able to draw the comics, much less upload them, unless I have them in the buffer. Comic #200 seems like a large enough number to celebrate a week off with guest strips to give me that opportunity to draw some up. So if you’re interested in doing one, send me an e-mail (Carl -at- CrazyCStudios.com).

Per usual, after the guest week, the comics will be removed from the archive to keep it clean and uploaded to the Fanart and Facebook pages.

Whoops, it’s going to be 2 weeks so I can be more effective.