There’s a lot I didn’t say in the Open Letter (which I cross-posted here for your commenting pleasure) about the year I’ve spent working out of my home as a cartoonist.

At the top of the list is how much more I appreciate my family. I’m with them all the time, these days. As I write this I can hear Patches and Gleek (2-year-old son, 4-year-old daughter) playing together in the family room. Patches keeps saying something about the “Daddy Car,” which is one of the two green “new beetle” toy cars we have. I think he’s playing a game where Daddy drives very, very dangerously. I’m afraid to go look.

Speaking of driving dangerously, I totally and completely do NOT miss commuting. The pleasure I get from my automobile is now unmitigated by hundreds of hours of my life spent wasted on the freeway. Driving is more fun these days — especially when I take care to not hit certain roads between 4:30pm and 6:30pm.

Another pleasure is cooking. We can’t afford some of the really fancy ingredients I used to love (it’s hard to go wrong with fresh tiger prawns, for instance), but with the money we save not buying pre-packaged crap (you know, that stuff YOU are eating, RIGHT NOW IN FRONT OF YOUR COMPUTER) we can still afford things like olive oil, rice vinegar, and coconut milk — key ingredients in some of the fun things I’ve learned to cook since leaving Novell. Often my “lunch break” here at home is 90 minutes long, and involves cooking something complex, aromatic, and delicious. Equally often I do something simple, like grill burgers on the back deck. Sandra and I get to eat together a lot.

There are things I’m not doing right. I waste a lot of time in front of the computer. I don’t get enough sleep. I’ve not gotten decent exercise in several months. But these are all things over which I have complete control. My schedule is my own, and if I want to create better sleep and exercise habits, I don’t have to clear it with the VP of Product Marketing first.

And now, I need a shower. It’s almost 9:00am, and I’m still in my underwear.

I put my Lodge 12″ dutch oven in my Weber Sub-Silver grill to re-season it, figuring I’d let the temperature get up to around 450 degrees farenheit before turning it off.

At about 425 degrees the usual white smoke my grill emits (the remains of the last grilling project burning off of the grill surface) turned oily and black, and I realized there was flame coming off of the grease “funnel” (the removable piece below the burners, which has a hole in the middle through which grease will drip, ending up in the small, also-removable grease pan.) The whole surface of the funnel was on fire, which meant there were flames BELOW the burners. I turned the burners off, and the grill kept burning merrily. I’d say “cheerily” but the smoke was too black and stinky to be cheerful.

Long story short: no damage to the grill. What should have been a 20 minute “clean-and-season the dutch oven” project turned into a 90-minute “extinguish the grill, clean it up, then re-clean and re-season the dutch oven” project. The good news is that I didn’t have anything better to do with my time, and now the grill is nice and clean. Burning the stuff in that funnel, dangerous though it may be, made it a darn sight easier to clean than last time. And hey, I got to play with fire. Any day that has THAT in it is all right by me.

–Howard

My 18″-viewable CRT (NEC Accusync 90) is about to give up the ghost. In order for it to be bright enough for movie viewing or game play (not that I do much of either) I have to crank the contrast and brightness all the way up. In that mode, though, the display of large white areas (like a document editing screen, for instance) starts to fuzz out badly. That, and the screen just doesn’t seem as sharp as it did three years ago when I got it.

I’ve been looking at possible replacements. For around $400 I can get a digital flat-panel that’s about the same size, but that has less actual screen real-estate to offer. I’d love to have a full 1600 pixels (or more!) of width, because that would allow me to do my coloring at 25% zoom (a comfortably non-distorted factor of two) without having to scroll left or right. But that’s a convenience I’d be paying an extra $400 for.

The FIRST $400 was over budget. The second one, well… let’s just say that the cartoonist doesn’t get to splurge so wantonly as the product manager (may he rest in peace for effing-ever, please) did.

I’m not asking for donations. I’m just musing aloud on my computer needs. If any of you out there have experience with large TFT/DVI displays, feel free to post your horror stories. I could use a big bushel o’ them sour grapes right now.

–Howard

The melatonin seemed to work last night. Either that or I was just ready to go to bed when I went to bed.

A sleeping drug whose effects I’m unable to distinguish from natural sleep is probably a good thing.

–Howard