Category Archives: site updates

Tumbling

I recently created a Tumblr account for my comics. Hopefully this will make it easier to read and share. All the existing comics are queued there, but it’ll catch up soon.

Only the comics are being posted to Tumblr, so if you’re not interested in my other posts about sketchbooks or whatever, then that’s the place for you. However, I will still be posting them here as well, so if you’re happy here, you don’t have to switch your RSS feeds.

Remember, it’s Utter Randomonium dot Tumblr dot Com. :)

The Road Ahead

So hi. You may have noticed a distinct lack of posts over the last, oh, four months or so. I’ve been terribly busy procrastinating, you see.

In short: I’m sick of writing book reviews. It stopped being fun ages ago. Unfortunately, it took me this long to work up the courage to do what I’ve wanted to do from the start: an art blog.

I’ve always liked drawing. When I was a child I wanted to be a cartoonist. I’ve pondered doing a webcomic for years, but it wasn’t until recently when I randomly started illustrating my Facebook statuses that a diary comic was born. Those will now also be posted here.

What else can you expect? First off, I’m ditching the Tuesday-Friday schedule. This blog is called Utter Randomonium, after all. We can’t be having too much structure around here. I will probably still post the occasional book review, but only when I have something to say. (Most of the time, I finish a book, go “huh, that was a book,” and move on.) I’m going to start a series of posts called RSS Love, where I share the blogs and webcomics I follow on Feedly. I’ll chat about art classes, outings, projects, and groups. And anything else that strikes my fancy.

So welcome, one and all, to the newly revived Utter Randomonium. Comments are open.

Resurfacing

And we’re back. I’m going back to a regular Tuesday/Friday schedule, which will be 99% book reviews. Everything else will be posted on whatever other day I feel like. ATC Sunday is still on indefinite hiatus, but I’m hoping to bring that back some day. Anyway, starting tomorrow the posts start up again. I have a few other posts up my sleeve as well, so stay tuned. Thanks for sticking with me.

I just don’t know what to do with this thing.

The fact of the matter is that this blog has gotten a bit boring. Book reviews are all well and good, but wouldn’t you like to see something else on here from time to time? ATC Sundays were fun, then I ran out of ATCs and promptly failed to make any more. Art blogging is very difficult for me anyway because I’m very bad about photographing or scanning things, even when I do manage to actually finish something (which is rare). My primary medium is and always has been language.

I’ve thought about adding some new features here, but I shy away from any kind of schedule because I’m terrible at keeping such commitments and the last thing I want is for this blog to become a chore. That said, I could do recurring themes, assuming no one expects anything to recur with any kind of regularity. Some ideas I’ve had:

  • Hyper-local tourism – that is, posts about places within the city limits of my hometown
  • Movie/television commentary – mostly older stuff as most everything I encounter anymore is via DVD or Netflix Streaming
  • Art experiments – to include playing with assorted art supplies, participation in the occasional art challenge, working through books, that sort of thing

…okay, so I don’t actually have that many ideas. I’m open to suggestions. I already have separate blogs for glue stick tourism, my 101 Things in 1001 Days project, and assorted silly stories from my daily life, so that leaves me unsure with what to do with this, my “main” blog.

Another thing to ponder is post frequency. I was doing really well with the Tuesday/Friday posting schedule but it all ended up being book reviews because I am very bad about doing anything else on any kind of regular basis. I used to just schedule everything for the next available day at noon, meaning I’d often have a string of daily posts and then nothing for weeks. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than the regular twice-a-week gig, especially since the book reviews meant I could get many weeks ahead so every post was kind of a trip down memory lane for me because whatever book that day’s post was about was certain to be something I’d read and reviewed multiple weeks prior. The “daily” posts are more immediate but also far more irregular. Another option is to keep the T/F schedule for book reviews and just post everything else on the next available day as it comes up.

So what do you think? Should I branch out? Should I post more randomly or keep a set schedule? Do you mind the dearth of images on this here blog? Anything in particular you’d like to see more of/at all?

Little Update

I am having some ucky medical problems right now, and it has caused me to fall behind on everything. I currently am some nine book reviews behind, and my symptoms make reading complicated, so I don’t know how much additional progress I’ll be making on my TBR pile over the next couple weeks. I am trying very hard to catch up and start posting again, but for now I simply cannot make any promises beyond that everything will get done eventually – I just don’t know when, exactly. I had also hoped to start making more non-review posts but that hasn’t been happening either. I offer my apologies. I’ll be back sooner or later.

Mah Birfday

Today is my birthday, and so I’ve decided not to review any books today, or post much of anything about anything. Instead, here are some other things to keep you occupied for a while:

Snarfari Map Tutorial

I have become moderately famous among my fellow Markeroons for my snarf maps. So for their (and your) edification and entertainment, I have created a complete, step-by-step tutorial of how I make them. This is very probably not the smartest/fastest/bestest way of doing things, but it’s the way I do them, and that’s really all I know. Click here for the tutorial and happy snarfing!

Snail Mail Ahoy! (maybe?)

From time to time I get into a certain mood and decide to send a bunch of mail, mostly in the form of postcards. I also answer mail art calls on occasion, but in general I just like writing letters to people. Receiving them, too. Alas, I don’t have many people to whom to write, so I tend to just browse mail-fan blogs and see who has their address posted publicly. If you’d like to receive a random postcard from me every so often, let me know.

So, in the grand tradition of snail mail bloggers everywhere, I’ve finally decided to add my address to the sidebar. Feel free to write anytime. I promise to write back.

Site Wonkiness Alert

Just a quick note to let y’all know that we’re switching webhosting services this weekend, so things may get a little weird over the next few days. More information here: http://www.bsodcomic.net/2011/12/30/time-to-switch/

(And in case you’re confused, this affects my blog, zoiks.org, BS/OD, BCinDC, and Pure Shift Productions, but NOT The Glue Stick Tourist or Sine Fine Films.)

Thank you for your patience.

Survey Says…

A little over a month ago, I posted a survey asking what people would like to see and not see on this here blog. The responses were interesting. In general, people seem to want more of everything and less of nothing. But here are some bits that particularly interested me:

  • A request for more color. That’s fair. I’ve had intentions for months to create a blog mascot (which is a little doodle I already draw everywhere; I just need to vectorize one so it’s easily resizable), and once I have that I’ll probably be able to move on to a color scheme. I’ve kept my site design purposely minimal because I’m kind of crap at those sorts of things, but I think it’s time to make things more interesting. Alas, I don’t have two minutes to rub together these days for such things, but hopefully once things have quieted down (this Autumn, with any luck) I’ll put in some time on a redesign.
  • Most people wanted to see more projects in progress and personal essays, with finished drawings and photography in a close second. I am the first to admit that I am absolutely terrible about scanning in stuff, largely because my study is on the second floor and the scanner is in the basement. It’s encouraging to hear that people actually want to see that stuff, though. As for the personal essays, most of that ends up on my LiveJournal but if there’s anything of more general interest (that is, stuff you don’t have to know me personally to appreciate), I’ll post it here.
  • Very few people wanted to see less of anything: one each of book-related stuff, memes, and gluebooking. Which is fine. I became a book blog completely by accident, and I read/review books frequently enough that there’s no need for additional literary posts. I will probably post some more about gluebooking, but only when I finish projects. I currently have two completed that I need to photograph and write about, and two others in progress with no end in sight.
  • People have no particular opinion on how often I post. I’m thinking, what with this insane summer I’m currently having, that I’ll switch to twice a week for a while. I hope that way to be more consistent, rather than having weeks with five days of posts and weeks with none (like, oh, last week). I’m thinking Tuesdays and Fridays. That way I’ll have more than enough content to keep up for some time to come.
  • People would like to see more new stuff in general, but the interactive stuff (interviews, tutorials, and blog hops, with giveaways and guest posts as runners up) won the day. I have absolutely no idea what I’d do a tutorial on (I don’t really know how to do anything), or whom I’d interview, but I’m certainly open to looking into it.
  • I was asked what a blog hop was. As far as I have experienced, it’s a bunch of blogs all posting on a similar theme on the same day. The person who hosts the hop has links to all the other blogs on their post, then provides that list for inclusion on all the other participating blogs. I’d like to note that all the blog hops I have seen have been giveaways, but I don’t think that’s a requirement. Here‘s a little more information.

Thanks for participating; I really appreciate it. As always, comments are welcome. This summer may be a little sparse in terms of non-book-review content, but I’m looking forward to Good Things for this Fall.

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