01.19.2010 - Terrence Marks:

And the rolling upgrade of YouSayitFirst.com continues. The archive pages have been adjusted to the new style (check out the new banners for each year). The donation bar has been revamped. And the wallpaper-of-the-month has been updated...for the first time since last May. Sorry. The wallpapers have been updating monthly; I just forgot to update the little previews.

In my defense, I don't usually scroll that far down when I read the site since I kinda already know what the news is going to say.

01.15.2010 - Terrence Marks:

Isabel and I had a very nice day out; so nice that I'll need to write up the details in my blog real soon now. However, it's 3 AM and we're still working on comics. Expect them tomorrow.

01.10.2010 - Terrence Marks:

As I've mentioned, I work evenings and weekends. That means that I have to do all my errand-running early in the day. This also means that "early in the day" means noon.

So I had two things to do this morning: get another SIM card for my phone and recycle the cans. I drop by the t-mobile store and the network is down. No idea when it'd be back. As I left, I realized that I didn't ask if it was national or statewide. Then I realized that I wasn't about to drive to Nevada for it, anyhow.

I head over to the recycling center. They're closed today, but the automatic can processing machine is on. It's a two-step process.
Step 1: Insert can into hole.
Step 2: Repeat.
I got about twelve cans in before the alarm went off. I think I messed up on the first step, and I'm still not quite sure how.

My point is: there's some days I feel like I have to go to work. There's some days I feel like I get to go to work. Today, I got to go to work, because it'd suck to have just two things to do and fail at both of them.

01.05.2010 - Isabel Marks:

I caught a nasty cold the week before Christmas and it's only gotten worse... I pretty much lost my voice (and lots of sleep) from coughing a lot. Because of this I've been having a lot of trouble writing. I spent today getting a small script buffer written. It's just till the end of this week, but it's a lot for me with the way I'm feeling right now (I've been writing a comic a day- which is not the usual way I write story arcs). So this week should just have one more make-up day, then be back on track for the rest of the week.

Site news: all our sites have had their Christmas overlays taken down. I was sad to see them go, but there's always next year to look forward to... and hopefully then I'll be able to do what I actually planned. >< Terrence is working on a larger version of the site (I think the site's layout is still for 800x600 sized monitors), as we march into this new century, it's time. Once Terrence has a rough design down, we'll post a link to it for feedback.

Terrence is also planning on setting up a reader's survey for You Say it First, look forward to more news on this later! And one more thing: the site is in dire need of updating, all the archives and character pages direly need it. Hopefully a weekend from now that will be updated.

And another note, if you want to find out if (and why) comics are late, follow me over at Twitter! You'll also get stuck with banter about my life or my cats from time to time. Enjoy the new year and make the most out of this century!

01.03.2010 - Terrence Marks:

The first two entries mostly concern various changes of mood and acceptance of the past. The third, finally, touches on stuff that actually happened. If you read our comics, you will find this entirely appropriate. Most of our big stories were more internal than external.

So, what happened in comics?

Tipper and Charles finished getting married. Falco, Isaac, Cedric, and Joy's relationships went from less complicated, to more complicated and appear to have stabilized, at least for the moment. Falco and Cedric moved to Durri, then moved in with Taimoor and Dahlia. Joan started going out with Gabby, moved in with Tipper and Charles, and
did some remodeling. Isaac met Joy's family, and spent some time with his niece

You Say it First has added Caleb's manager, Michelle Hickman (note to self: put her last name in the comic some time) and Bram (note to self: give him a last name). Sofia and Patrick broke up. Dan and Lola seem to have hit it off. At least one of the lounge guys is good at something. Brisbane and Kimberly finally redecorated their apartment. And Brisbane and Kimberly have a better understanding of their pasts.

And there have been quite a few Spare Parts comics over at NamirDeiter.net. Todd and Shandra's relationship appears to have made significant progress.

We'll have an offsite backup within a week or two (30 DVDs! And it'd be more if we still had the high-quality files for the first few years of ND and Unlike Minerva).

There were some issues with NamirDeiter.net last night; everybody had to log back in. This was because I set the cookies to expire on January 1, 2010. Back when I designed it, this seemed far enough in the future that I'd never have to worry about it. Or far enough in the future that I'd be able to install a more elegant fix before the deadline hit. My point is that the indefinite future became the definite future.

We've got a lot planned for the next year. Including finally updating the cast page and FAQ in You Say it First, finishing up the FBAORPG arc over at NamirDeiter.net. I've got ideas for two large arcs and one medium one, once the Singles Cruise reaches port. We're going to take vacations; we're still discussing the details, but expect us to take a week off in some form. We're going to look into reprinting our old books, opening the store, and maybe getting some new books made. Then there's the secret plans. And I'm going to play through Super Mario: RPG.

Happy New Year

12.30.2009 - Terrence Marks:

Santa Blue's last heist has concluded. Enjoy Brisbane's Quest.

12.27.2009 - Terrence Marks:

Our year in review, part 2

Kevin & Kell is runs in color in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Now, I don't claim any credit for this. That goes to Bill Holbrook, the paper's editors, and an Internet campaign. When you contribute to a comic in some way, seeing it in print is awesome. The Sunday comics look amazing in print, and I'm glad to be a small part of the process. (The dailies look ok; there's always a 1mm offset between where the colors are and where they're supposed to go; it's a limitation of the technology).

Secondly, we started doing promotions this year. Santa Blue giving you stolen library books, letting everyone back in for December, the $4/month subscription we had going for the fourth anniversary of NamirDeiter.net. I enjoyed it. I appreciate the turnout and thank everyone who helps support the comics.

We had gotten away from that kind of thing, I think around when we stopped going to conventions. If you look back at my old news (which you can't, easily, because they're scattered throughout a large number of sites [to do: put all my news-updatey things in one place]), you'll see that we've been to a few cons but didn't have too much fun at most of them. A few years ago, we decided that it wasn't them, it was us. Since then we've been fairly quiet online, putting out the comic and letting it speak for itself. I think we're going to take a more active role in promoting the comic next year.

And to follow up with the last Year in Review post, the count in 2008 was 172 - 153, with Isabel in the lead by about 19 (and I say "about" because there are enough times when one of us contributes strips, punchlines, or ideas to the other's stories that there's a margin of error here). In 2007, it looks like around a 2:1 ratio; I'm not sure about all the arcs (there were a lot of 1-2 week stories that year). I know that Some Day, and The New Guy are mine, and there are a few that neither of us are sure about. I think that we wrote A Good Question together, which is fitting since it's the engagement story. Normally, I'd say that it was because I was working on Spare Parts, except that's not much of an excuse. Firstly, Isabel was working on Namir Deiter, herself. Secondly, she wrote more Spare Parts than I did that year, too. 2006 was 145 of mine to - 123 of hers if I'm counting right (with 9 comics that are 50/50 collaborations). But then, I think she wrote all of Spare Parts that year. And, as always, all of Namir Deiter. And most-all of the bonus content on NamirDeiter.net. Now, this is all just trivia to most of you. I'm not asking anyone to pick out what I wrote or what Isabel wrote. But to me, it's an important reminder that I'm (usually) an equal contributor. I mean, Isabel is one of the hardest working women in webcomics. She's not easy to keep up with.