18 months ago we bought a 3-year Gold’s Gym membership for Sandra. I didn’t need one because there’s a gym on the Novell campus.

Today we transferred her gym membership to me, and that was hard.

Not hard in the “man, they make this difficult” sense. Hard in the “who really needs it more?” sense. Sandra loved the gym because it had day care, and provided time-away-from-the-kids time. She didn’t use it more than a couple of times a week. During some times of the year I’d use the Novell gym five days a week, and those were my healthiest, happiest times. So we decided that I needed it more than Sandra did.

I went to Gold’s for the first time today. It’s much better equipped than the Novell gym, but not as friendly. Specifically, I don’t have my own locker, and there does not appear to be a towel service. Still, I had a good workout — I ran for 20 minutes while listening to some Alan Parsons instrumental tracks. (Incidentally, A Valid Path is Alan Parsons’ latest album, and there’s a new version of Mammagamma and a remix/medley of some tracks from the very first album.)

I need to be hitting the gym 6 days a week. I’m up to 185 pounds, and that’s 30 pounds over my “lean” weight (where I’d be if I had an olympian’s 5% body fat). I figure I can shed 20 pounds in a couple of months if I really get to it. I’ve done it before, and it always leaves my mind clearer.

I need a clear mind. This cartooning business thing is going to require a LOT of very, very clever work.

–Howard
p.s. Thank you, Sandra. I know how hard it was for you to part with this. I’ll make it up to you.

Today was my first day of class.

Monday I signed up for “Photoshop CS Basics,” which hopefully will give me the necessary skills to navigate this monstrous application I’m not running. See, I do all my wuss-grade flood-fills in LView Pro, and while it WORKS, most of the “how to color your comic all kewl-like” tutorials out there are geared towards Photoshop users. And don’t even get me started on the file-format issue. You want layers, you have to ship people PSD. The LVP format is unreadable by any app except LView Pro.

Up until Monday I’ve not had time to ascend the learning curve, and since the strips have to be colored, I’ve just stuck with what I know.

So I registered for the class, in hopes of being able to start doing all my coloring in Photoshop in a month or two, and start doing some really TASTY coloring shortly thereafter. Maybe just for posters and book covers, but certainly tasty.

Tonight was the first class. I showed up 20 minutes late, because Sandra told me it began at 6:30pm when in fact it started at 6:00. Fortunately for me, the teacher was also late. Like, a WEEK late. He was a no-show.

My arrival was a little uncomfortable. I sauntered in thinking I was 10 minutes early, and was greeted by a UVSC staffer who looked at me with angry anticipation.

   “Paul?”

   I said “No. I’m Howard Tayler.” I gestured at an empty PC in the corner. “Sit anywhere?”

   “Yeah. The teacher’s not here yet.”

   “Oh.” I went and took a seat, wondering why everyone was here 10 minutes before the start of class.

I still didn’t realize I was 20 minutes late. Fortunately, by the time I figured out that I looked like an absolute slacker bozo, everybody was completely peeved at Paul The No-Show Teacher, who had raised the bar for “slacker bozo” beyond my clearance.

I had just enough time to log in to the lab PC and enable a Dvorak keyboard layout on it before the UVSC staffer announced that the class would be extended a week to make up lost time, and that we should all go home now.

*sigh*

Richard took me out to lunch at Wendy’s yesterday. As we were enjoying our meal (we both got Dave’s Big Bacon Classic, which is easily the finest fast-food burger on the market today) I reached down to my hip to check the time.

No cell-phone.

   “Do you know what time it is?” I asked.
   “Why do you care?” he shot back with a grin.
   “You have a 1:30 meeting, right?”
   “Yup. I’ll worry about getting me there on time.”
I sighed during the pregnant pause, and realized that not only do I not need a cell-phone, I don’t really even need a WATCH.
   “It’s 12:05,” he said after chewing and swallowing.
   “Oh, good. Plenty of time, then.”

My first day in my new office was spent tidying it up. It’s a good little space in what used to be referred to as “the sewing room” or “the guest room.” I’ve got a north-east window level with the lawn (I’m half-way underground), and lots of space compared to my office at Novell.

And there’s a drawing board in it.

I went out to lunch with Richard Bliss, and we talked about all kinds of stuff. There was some Novell gossip (we’re both former Novell employees, and Richard is the VP of marketing for one of Novell’s most successful partners, GWAVA), some discussion of cartooning, but mostly just a good time between a couple of old friends.

Richard brought me a video montage of photos he has of me at various Novell events, and at Comic-Con 2003. It was really, REALLY neat, and it nicely illustrated my transition from a product manager to a cartoonist.

I did some scripting first thing in the morning. Schlocktoberfest is going to be dark, like I’ve said before. I just hope nobody thinks it’s dark because I left my day-job. I’ve been planning this story for YEARS now, and it’s just COINCIDENCE that it airs the month after I leave my 11-year career in I.T.

And now, my son wants me to play a game with him.

–Howard