Archive for May, 2003
29 items.
Today’s blog will be uncharacteristically short for once. If only because there’s very little I can add to the comments I’ve made so far about X-Men 2.
All I know is that everyone in my circle of friends is still talking about it. “Did you see it?” “What did you think?” I’ve also been getting my fair share of e-mail pointing out that Gambit was indeed in the movie. Apparently a file on the Cajun appears when Mystique (disguised as Lady Deathstrike) is looking up file information on Magneto. I must be slipping in my old age because I totally missed it.
While I have your attention, can I ask you to vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics. Please remember to do it everyday. I’m just kind of hovering around 18 on the list and want to see if I can crack into the inner sanctum a little further. Many thanks!
Other notes of interest.
I watched the MTV Icon Award ceremony for Metallica tonight fully expecting it to suck. I was pleasantly surprised to see the boys still have their chops. It gives me hope for their new album and makes me want to dig out all the old ones.
Of course, right now, I’m swimming in the deep end of audio bliss. The White Stripes new album “Elephant” is totally kicking my ass. It’s a little more rockin’ then their last one. Actually, you can consider it a return to form if you compare it to their earlier works. It’s very good.
I’ll be back later with more news.
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I’m becoming concerned that Theater Hopper may be getting a little too big for it’s britches. I checked my server statistics for April, and we’re pressing up against 12GB in bandwith transfer. My account is only alotted 15GB.
A lot of the drain is due to the information that appears on the left and right hand side of the comic. Every time a page is called, it’s reloading that information. And while the images there are less than 1k in size, after 300,000 reloads, it all adds up.
I’m beginning to think the site will need to undergo a redesign soon. I’m reluctant to do it because I’ve yet to re-enter all of the blogs from when we converted to PHP about a month ago.
If anyone out there is proficient in web design or perhaps has some database knowledge, please contact me. If you have any tips or tricks to help me reduce bandwidth consumption. I am eager to hear those as well.
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I’ll just get this out of the way because I’ve noticed the closer to the top I place my plea, the more people see it and consequentially lend aid to the matter.
Please remember to vote for Theater Hopper every day at Top Web Comics. I want Zach over at No Pants Tuesday to know the bitter taste of defeat! 🙂
With that out of the way, aren’t you glad today’s strip wasn’t about the X-Men? I know I kinda am. Frankly, I was running out of ways to make fun of mutants. Funny, because you’d think that would be an unlimited well of ideas. Oh, well.
Today’s strip cuts pretty close to home. Cami is quite interested in seeing Daddy Day Care. Personally, I can’t stand the new and improved “Family Friendly” Eddie Murphy movies. What happened to the whip smart, fast talkin’ (often cursin’) bad boy of comedy we came to know and love in 48 Hrs and Beverly Hills Cop?
I’ve always been a little luke-warm to Murphy’s latter career choices. The Golden Child was an interesting adventure. But movies like Metro and Holy Man landed like a ton of bricks. Then he started doing all of those Nutty Professor and Dr. Dolittle movies – which, to this day, I cannot distinguish the difference from. Daddy Day Care seems to stem from this ilk.
Maybe it’s a deep-seeded desire to make films that he can show his kids. Or maybe it’s part penance for that time he picked up that transvestite in Hollywood. Is it just me, or was it right around that time he started making the kiddie stuff? It was like he tried washing his hands a million times, but could get the dirt off. So he started making movies for 5 year-olds instead.
Remember that Mother’s Day is this weekend. Be sure to let your Mom know you care. She’s put up with your crap for an awful long time…
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Yes! I just cast the vote that put us at #15 on TWC. That’s just ahead of NPT! Rock it!
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May12
So the full media assault for The Matrix Reloaded is in full swing. After spending months intentionally trying to save myself from any plot points, the coverage for the movie is unavoidable.
It’s on the cover of Time (where I guess they let some major plot points slip) and all over television. Everywhere from MTV, to E!, Access Hollywood – hell, I think even Dateline did 30 minutes on it this Sunday! It looks like I’ll be spending the rest of the week running around with my fingers in my ears yelling “LA, LA, LA, LA, LA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Still, despite the onslaught, I can’t contain my excitement for the film. I remember back in ’99 when Cami and I saw it with a bunch of friends. We both thought it was going to suck. That may sound blasphemous now, but think about Keanu Reeves’ record with sci-fi films. Remember Johnny Mnemonic? On second thought, don’t.
So, yeah. Look how right we were.
Expect nothing less than a week of strips relating to the new Matrix offering. It’s my duty.
Speaking of duty, I’ve taken the liberty to decrease the file sixes on some of the supporting images around the site. I was saving some of these files as .jpg when I could have gotten away with .gif. Most of these images aren’t even above 64 colors. It’s not a huge improvement, but hopefully the site will load a little faster. The background, which was around 33k has been trimmed back to 13k. You can barely detect the difference.
Of course, none of this will mean anything to you if you aren’t a web designer. But hopefully the site will load a little faster.
Two more things I’ll mention:
1.) I currently have another guest strip floating around over at Briworld to help him close out his last week of the strip. If you want to see it, you’ll have to go here. I guess Brian mentioned that his girlfriend is totally in love with Theater Hopper. I guess she must have received my bribe!
2. Your voting put us over the top this weekend and we’ve trumped No Pants Tuesday on the Top Web Comics Top 150 list. It’s a friendly rivalry, by the way. Zachary and I aren’t mad at each other, or anything.
But if you could twist the knife, that would be great! 🙂
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Something I totally forgot to do last week when this would have been, y’know… relevant – was post a link to www.iisageek.com. It’s a great new web comic resource that keys the audience in to the “behind-the-scenes” aspect of making comics.
Theater Hopper was the featured strip last week and I totally fell asleep on the job. But it’s not too late to check it out! Expect it to be added to the permanent links section soon!
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I just wanted everyone to stop what they were doing and check out a great new web comic called Bug and Slug.
The site just launched this Saturday, but I can confirm with the utmost authority that I have NEVER seen a web comic look this good right out of the gate. You should do yourself a service and check it out. Need more prodding? It’s got aliens!
Bug and Slug is created by a very talented fellow named Tim Andress – an enthusiastic young lad I consider to be a friend of Theater Hopper. You should be his friend, too.
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May14
I have to admit I was a bit nervous trying to come up with an idea to follow Monday’s strip. I had received so much positive feedback for what I felt was a relatively simple notion, I felt pressure to one-up my previous effort. If today’s strip is a case of over-kill, I wouldn’t know it. I’ve been stressing too much to see past it.
All things the same, I think it turned out pretty well. Can you figure out all the geek-related material I’m spoofing? They’re all pretty easy to identify. I was going to label them in the blog, but then I realized my audience isn’t a gaggle of dum-dums. Thank God for that!
Like everyone else, when seeing The Matrix Reloaded, the question isn’t “If” but “When”? I’m trying to figure it out. Part of me would like to be in line Thursday night – to experience that anticipation like the event it is. Then I step back and realize that I’m supposed to be responsible and go to work on Friday. That, coupled with the fact I would draw Friday’s strip Thursday night all but nix the option to see it opening day.
Fortunately, one of the side-effects of being responsible is being patient. I can wait – barely.
I’d like to point out that posters are still for sale and that if you would like to support the site, PLEASE BUY ONE! We’re nearly reached the half way point, now let’s finish strong!
I’ve received several orders through the mail – checks, money orders and cash. So if you’re not comfortable mailing a payment through PayPal, e-mail me and we can make other arrangements!
Last thing I’ll mention: I know I’ve talked about it a million times before. But I am very close to bringing back the forum.
Early fans of the site might remember I had one for a month or two, then put the kibosh on it when I decided the readership wasn’t large enough to support it. I’ve always maintained that I would bring it back if I felt it could stand on it’s own two legs. It looks like that time is rapidly approaching. So get ready for that.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you’re not too busy, could you be sure to Montana Hills and would love to settle in to the number 13 spot on the list sometime soon. Lucky 13!
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I received a few e-mails yesterday regarding the vote system at Top Web Comics. Apparently, many of you were trying to vote for Theater Hopper and were being turned down.
I don’t know what went wrong over at TWC, but everything appears to be okay now. So VOTE VOTE VOTE to your heart’s content! We’re sneaking up on the Top 10. It’s only a matter of time!
Thanks, by the way, not only for voting, but for e-mailing me to let me know there was a problem with the voting. That shows special care!
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Well, I finally got off my keister and have launched the forum. I’m not sure how much fanfare I’ll surround the occasion with, opting rather to let it evolve organically. If you’d like to sign up, I encourage it. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with it.
It was totally a coincidence that Carrington was having trouble with his forum and decided to plug my efforts to bring a community to Theater Hopper – I swear to God!
But I appreciate the support none-the-less!
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