Bifurcation, Compartmentalization & Optimization

posted 2011.11.22 at 14:44  | comment

I've been thinking about creating an "Entertainment" category, as a means of consolidating several old-blog topics into a single new-blog topic. I may do this eventually, when I have something entertainment-related that isn't broadly loc-applicable to unload about. In the meantime, loc.dcr's media category is serving the same function. My recent posts on TES4 : Oblivion are a better fit for loc.dcr, at least for the time being - xeno has logged something like 300 hours on the title and may (or may not!) add his thoughts on Skyrim at some point.

This is in keeping with a general trend towards Total Compartmentalization. Comic things contained on the comic website (and twitter, which hasn't "clicked" with me otherwise), general Beavis & Buttheadishness on the loc website, my business dealings in email, my emo on facebook, etc. Websites as file drawers, dcr.org as a sort of master index or rolodex, at least for now.

While I could burn some time pondering why I compartmentalize, I think the lemming-like urge for escapist timesinks like Stalker, TES, Fallout, EVE, etceteras is the thing that merits further investigation and analysis. Why I burn large chunks of time instead of using as much of it as possible, as opposed to why my "filing" habits have evolved into their present state. That behavioral "glitch" is one of my biggest character flaws and like most of my habits it's extremely - and fortunately - cyclic.

Thanks to a recent blog post by former CAM Mafia cohort Justin, time management (more appropriately, avoidance management) is on my mind again. Hence the above paragraph - my Escapist Sandboxes are his Sports Illustrated. While I'd certainly be better off (read: more efficient) without them, going cold turkey without some understanding of the root cause wouldn't necessarily be a change for the better - the need would fulfill itself some other way. For the moment, digital Oblivion is healthier than blackout drunk Oblivion. While the game is enjoyable, it's the avoidance equivalent of a Dry Drunk - while resident in memory, nothing of value occurs.

If blog archeology is anything to go by, I was a production powerhouse until Q3 2006* when I bought a Nintendo DS. While I'm still reasonably productive, the amount of time that video games have consumed since then is considerable. Five years later I find myself in a position in which the need to get shit done greatly outweighs any practical benefits gaming may offer.

Not that I'm going to delete Steam (any time soon), not that I'm going to not log some time on Oblivion tonight. I am, however, going to get some work done before that happens.

* In terms of total output - by volume as opposed to quality - the period of '05-'06 has no equal. While quality has certainly improved since then, quantity is down across the board.

Viz Backloading : Request For Comment

posted 2011.11.14 at 16:24  | 2 comments

I'll admit, I have no idea as to who still reads or frequents dcr.org - outside of the marked popularity of a couple of Castlevania-related posts on the old blog, analytics traffic doesn't add anything relevant to what the subject alludes to. Namely, the fact that I'm pondering loading carbon_ and the rest of the 2003-04 era viz into the new viz blog.

Not just the mercury content, mind you - I'd be shoveling in everything from the old dcr.org blog while I'm at it. The primary advantage is analytics and commenting capability - you'd be able to add your thoughts to the entry and I'd be able to tell how many people are looking at what.

The potential downside is that with few exceptions the vast majority of "hobby" viz - that is, digital art for the sake of digital art - has been almost entirely support material for ATC since then. The flow of entries would look like an initial blast of digital art followed by a stream of photography, buckshot with the occasional logo or illustration. It might be thematically irregular, but it would ultimately be more inclusive than the present state of affairs, or the viz category of the previous blog. As balkanized as my web presence is, there's no reason anyone should be expected to hunt down three websites from three different eras of personal development to see all of my digital art and photography.

There is the fact that I consider a lot of this stuff crap by current standards. This clouds my judgment as to the appropriateness of the exercise. Hence the request for an outside opinion - you see my work in a way that I don't. Modernizing its availability is fairly trivial, and may lead to unseen benefits. Loading it all in may lead to a few surprises. It may ultimately be padding. I'm not entirely sure just yet - what do you think?

On Viz, Viz Templates, and Viz Policy

posted 2011.11.12 at 19:53  | comment

The Viz blog and templates are in place. I've created a number of seed entries to flesh it out a bit - far from inclusive, the initial entries are some of the more striking samples from my old Canon PowerShot A95 (long since retired) and the three spiffiest pictures I've managed to take with my iPhone.

I'm not a professional photographer - my snap-happy approach to quality is to keep hitting the button until I get something that looks decent in the camera viewfinder. Given my aesthetic preferences and budget, what looks good in thumbnail is frequently pretty damned gritty at full size. I have managed to get a number of shots that I like over the years, and will eventually get a number of them loaded in. There will be (there is) some overlap with the old blog. There's also some new stuff that was previously exclusive to Facebook. Here's an example.

Read the rest of On Viz, Viz Templates, and Viz Policy.

A Vague Sense Of Accomplishment.

posted 2011.11.11 at 00:11  | comment

loc.dcr has been dragged out of the stone age and into the bronze age. The new site evolved from the same base templates as the new dcr.org, and doing a new build gave me the opportunity to get a feel for how this blog will eventually evolve.

Two down, and no work planned for ATC any time soon. No web work, anyway. That leaves ppac.dcr (which I intend to do something completely different with) and the three or four sites I'm getting paid to develop or tweak.

Oh, and the viz section. Still gotta figure out what I'm doing with that. For the time being dcr.org is totally functional without it, so I can put that off until I'm good and ready.

Practically everything else I'm working on has incredibly long lead times, highly variable client communication, mission creep, and no real sense of urgency. I exported the database entries from gridlock on the 8th and had a fully functioning site on the 10th, with most of the grunt work done today. While burning quite a few valuable hours on a "lulz" website could be considered questionable behavior given the breadth of my present obligations, the fact that this little project is effectively friggin' done is a bit of a morale booster.

Lately, the value of such a thing has risen enormously.

The Extent Of Buzzword Compliance

posted 2011.11.09 at 01:35  | comment

Work on other sites, work on work, teleconference work, commission work (inks and flat colors on one, thumbnail for another). Massaged templates some more - Meta description and keywords are in place, the RSS feed is back online. Access is now even more minimal than ATC - modern browsers all give some indication that a site has a feed. In my opinion that removes the need for notification on the page, as it's already in the browser bar. Less clutter, less reinventing the wheel.

I don't actually use RSS, mind you. My exposure consists of proofing the feed to make sure it looks decent. Support went in back in the day at the behest of bda and/or xeno (if memory serves). I know xeno uses it, and I know he has a hate-on for the recent changes to google reader. RSS support on various web things I've worked on goes back to at least 2005, possibly earlier. Six years later and a noticeable chunk of the webcomics I read still don't have feeds. Some of the comics that do have feeds don't give you Interface-Free Updates - their feeds act as grudging, sullen, passive-aggressive update flags.

Not here!

Read the rest of The Extent Of Buzzword Compliance.

2011 TDL (notebook salvage)

posted 2011.11.07 at 23:50  | comment

Most of the major bits of the dcr.org (not to be confused with dcr.atc) relaunch have been taken care of. The front page works, the pages work, the blog test entry has been beat on fairly extensively and comments have been thoroughly worked over. All this without any "content" to speak of. I'm going to need more of it in order to fully develop the templates, which means dcr.org is going to be on my to-do list for some time to come. Huge chunks of the bits I'm picking up now will be applied to the loc.dcr relaunch, another MT site, and possibly to ATC - specifically the comment bits. I still need to figure out what I'm doing with the meta Description and Keywords, among other things.

What follows is a breakdown of everything else on my plate at the moment, which should give some indication as to why the domain has been largely inactive for almost a year.

Read the rest of 2011 TDL (notebook salvage).