02.02.2006 - Terrence Marks:

We did make our $600 goal in January, but not our $800 goal. What does this mean to you, the reader? We're going back to our original schedule, instead of our premium bonus schedule. You'll get five NDs a week and three YSIFs. Those of you who are kind enough to donate will get two bonus comics a week.

Isabel is working on the February book (and December book and January cards) , and we should have the donation bar updated in the next day or two. February's donations are off to a good start.

01.15.2006 - Terrence Marks:

So what's been happening the last few days?

On Friday, we had an appointment to get Buttons neutered. He was about five months old and it seemed like it'd be time. Isabel spent most of Thursday getting him prepared.

I took Buttons in to the vet - we found another vet last week, one who's friendly and speaks English fluently - on Friday morning. An hour later I get a call - they can't neuter Buttons - she has to be spayed. Buttons was a girl the whole time and we never even suspected. Isabel felt like a negligent cat-owner for a while. Me? I figured that if Buttons' regular vet didn't notice it, then what chance did we have.

So, anyhow, we spent most of Friday getting used to the idea. We figured that since we had two female cats we should try to find a boy-cat to balance things out. So we spent the day touring local shelters, trying to find one who was younger than our current cats. We couldn't. Seeing all the cats, trying to get our attention, friendly, needing homes, and having to leave them all behind because they'd upset the delicate power balance between our current two cats - it's difficult. It takes a lot out of a person.

We got her - it still feels a bit weird saying "her" - back. Isabel spent most of the day building a separate enclosure, so Momo doesn't play too rough.

So, there's your dose of kitten drama for today.

01.02.2006 - Isabel Marks:

First off, I would like to give a big thank you to all of you for being so patient with the sporadic, "what the crud is going on?!" nature of updates during December. Even mid-month, things were getting kind of funky, so thank you all for your kindness and patience throughout all this.

Ok, so now... what on Earth happened then? Well...

Mid to late- December, Terrence and I headed off to Florida to visit his family for the Holidays for a week. I decided not to mention this on the site because it seems whenever I mention when I'm away, the site seems to go down. The original plan was to continue to do comics while we were out there. Unfortunately, the shift in my schedule/Christmas/visiting family/a ton of other things did not allow much time for comics, I only did two for Namir Deiter and one for You Say it First. By the time we got home, I thought, "Well, it won't be too bad... just do double comics for a week to make up for it... But the weekend before Christmas I could not get myself to do anything, I would just sleep and lay down and rest.

Christmas came and I got through it, I don't know how... but that afternoon I absolutely crashed. The flu hit me and it really meant it.

Have you even been sick to the point where your sanity was affected? I've only been that way three times, my first hip operation (but back then I at least had morphine), four years ago I had a stomach flu that I caught while working at an Elementary school, and last week.

Between hacking out my lungs, I had to deal with extreme hot flashes and chills (that would alternate every 10 minutes) and a soreness that you would not believe (my tail bone was really killing me during the whole thing, which makes me worried). The strangest thoughts flashed into my mind, including the idea of Cinderella sports stories, boxing, and how to create flowers out of a 9x9 square grate (don't ask, it doesn't make sense now that I tried to think about it). I think I lost a few brain cells then.

But, finally, I feel like I'm feeling well enough to sit up long enough to work (don't get me wrong, I'm still really sick and hacking out my lungs, but I can at least eat now and control my body fairly better) to try and complete the daunting task of 56 comics to make everything up ><, not including scripts, which I still need to write.

So, how is this going to affect things around here? For starters, double comics till the web comics are back on track, then from there namirdeiter.net will receive it's wallpapers for January, then namirdeiter.net will get back-logged bonus comics it deserves and after THAT, I will finally start work on the bonus for November/December. o___O

There will be NO BONUS BOOK for donators until further notice. It's the start of the new year and I'm already stressed out, and I really need to get back to work on the books for the store...

Not a great way to start the new year, but I'll try and make it better, thank you for your continuing patience in all this.

12.06.2005 - Isabel Marks:

Here's a run-down on the last week or so...For starters, I've been having a lot of difficulties sleeping lately, I'll get two or three hours each night if I'm lucky. I'm chalking that up to stress from book preparing, stress from writing You Say it First's recent huge arcs (which I've more or less hit a wall on right now) and getting over the cold I caught from Momo (who is back to mostly normal).

What does that all have to do with the lack of comics? Not much, actually. It's just been a really odd week for me and I felt like mentioning it. :P

Then last night while making dinner I fell really hard on my tailbone (long, embarrassing story, so all you get is the outcome). I have a lump on my tail bone and my spine is really sore (which I assume is from the trauma of the fall). I figure I'm still moving, although it really bothers to move and choose not to right now, so I must be ok - probably just bruised it and my bad back only makes it feel worse.

So all day today I've more or less been in bed, only getting up to try and write and feed the kitties. Terrence, Mt. Morhibiki (as well as a few other places) best husband ever, came home during his lunch break and bought me Animal Crossing: Wild World to keep my mind off of my back (and that it did).

So I've spent most of my day either sleeping it off in bed or Animal Crossing it off in bed, either way I'm really not in any shape to do anything as back-stressing as two comics (I hunch when I work, I try not to, but I always end up doing it), so I'll have to make it up to you all.

On the bright side... if you have Animal Crossing: Wild World yourself... we're going to eventually set up some kind of in-game party for all you ND/YSIF/SP fans who also play the game! Just e-mail me at isabelmarks @ namirdeiter.com (remove spaces of course) with your friend code, the name of your in- game town name and of course your in-game name and I will send you mine (so we can be buddies). If you invite me over I'll put some ND graffiti and some other crud (that won't be mean, or anything like that) in your town. And I also got to get a little more sleep.

Ok, that's it... comics tomorrow or when I feel better (either way, I'll make up for any comics I miss).

11.26.2005 - Terrence Marks:

We'll be closing the ND Store from November 30th until mid-January (possibly February) so we can take a break, avoid the holiday rush at the Post Office, and restock. Expect several new items when we come back. If you want any ND goodness-in-book-format for December, order soon!

11.20.2005 - Terrence Marks:

People have been asking "How can we be sure that we get 13 comics a week for December?" So if you get halfway to our two-month goal by the end of the month, we can guarantee you the full dose of Namir Deiter and You Say it First for the month of December.

11.13.2005 - Terrence Marks:

Hi, folks. Storywise, we're in the middle of something big here. Of course, you've probably already figured that out by now. I hope you enjoy it.

I've been doing a lot of programming lately. Most of it has ended up on NamirDeiter.net or functional improvements that should be invisible to readers. So there's a moderate amount going on but not much to report. I'm back amongst the working (and have been for the last two months or so - I just now noticed that it hadn't been mentioned here). The kittens are doing fairly well, and I'm up to Following the Equator in my Twainathon.