I’ve got a few items taking up space in my house. If you have some interest in taking these off my hands, make an offer.

1) NEC Accusync 90 18″ monitor (trinitron tube, I think). At 1280×1054 the lower third of the monitor is a teency bit blurry. Probably worth about $50, and likely luxuriously large at 1024×768, where the blurriness isn’t noticable.

2) gigging musician’s “carpeted” rack-box . The rack-box has 10 rack-spaces and is 12 inches deep, with panels closing the front and back of the box for safe transport (not rated for air-cargo though). One of the two front-closure snaps needs repair (re-attach female snap to nylon closure), but all pieces are present. Probably worth around $50.

3) Sabine FBX 2020 stereo feedback eliminator (occupies one rack-space in item #2 above). eBay says it’s worth around $500. I paid $900 a decade ago. I guess these things hold their value pretty well. If you run sound, especially in a theater setting with floor mics or “choir” mics it’s a godsend.

Naturally, Sandra and I would both love to get lots of money out of these, but we harbor no illusions about their actual value. We’d also rather not have to go to UPS to ship them (especially not the monitor).

–Howard

I’ve been “distracted” from working on the comic for the last two weeks, what with all the work involved in getting the book ready. I burned through a week of buffer, and woke up this morning with only 5 strips in the can.

After my morning routine (kids to school, me to the gym, come home and eat, then nap) I hauled my gear to Dragon’s Keep to get some work done. At a minimum I needed to get this coming Sunday’s strip pencilled and inked.

I managed to pencil and ink Sunday, and then pencil and ink the rest of the week. It took a solid seven hours (with breaks for eating, shooting the bull, etc), but I pulled it off. They’re good strips, too. (Well… next Friday’s strip is questionable. It’s an experimental sight gag, and while *I* like it, I’m sure there are those who won’t).

How do I feel? Awesome. Tomorrow I’m hoping to be similarly productive, coloring everything I’ve inked. And then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday can be spent putting yet ANOTHER week in the can. Only then will I feel good about the fact that I’m travelling to a convention a week from Thursday.

–Howard

Every so often I get email from some utter jerk who says “put your beard back, you look horrible.” I ignore these people, because I long ago stopped caring about what others think of my appearance. I dress, groom, and dance in ways that make ME happy, and the rest of the world can go hang.

I needed a good “about the author” photo for the upcoming book, so I talked to my friend Scott, who is consummately professional in everything he does. He directs the Ballroom Dance program at UVSC, and his team’s many national and internation awards reflect his passion for exactness. He also has a very, VERY nice digital camera, and while he considers himself a hobbyist, I know better. I’ve seen professional photographers with less skill, less training, and FAR less gear than he has. He agreed to shoot some head-shots for me.

He took about 90 pictures. This was one of my four favorites. It’s not the one we’re using in the book, but it’s still far, far better than any picture I’ve had taken in recent memory.

I compared it to the picture I USED to have on the site, and realized why the jerks were telling me to put my beard back — the old photo with the beard was a better picture than the quick-and-dirty beardless photo I’d been using. It’s like the old axiom from my record-production days: The customer always knows when there’s a problem, but never knows what exactly the problem is.

The Tesla Purple Energy Shield does amazing things, according to this web page. It will amplify your aura, repair your DNA, and stimulate tachyon energy. No, really. It says so, right on their web page.

They have kirlian photos to prove these claims. And at only $90 I don’t know that I can afford to NOT have one. It’s half off!

(I’m waaay too tired to do a full comedic deconstruction. I’ll let you folks hack away, though.)