Anise & Cloves

QotD: Looking Back...

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:33:38 -1000

What part of your childhood do you miss the most?
Submitted by Maretta.
I really miss snack time of milk/juice and cookies and nap time.
The funny thing is, at the time I just wanted to play outside. XD; It was hard to rest when you didn't feel up to it!
Ah~ all the things I took for granted! ^^;

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QotD: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:43:40 -1000

How do you choose your Vox neighbors and friends?
Submitted by gcgal.
Totally depends on the content of their blogs. If they are interesting, well-written, and complete thoughts, I'm more likely to add them. :D

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On Using VOX

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:16:58 -1000

I still find that I'm running into the same problem with VOX that I've had since I opened this account - I have no clue what to use it for. ^^;;

I attempted to use it for dolls, but as of late, I haven't had the time or money to invest in them. Then BPAL came along, but I found that most of the scents triggered migraines. Then, it became the secondary post ground for my nemu*nemu blog posts, but since we switched comic formats, it's become increasingly complicated to link my comic previews.

Hrm... what to do... I have to rethink things for a bit.

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iPhone lines

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:13:22 -1000

So, here I am at 6am, standing in line at our local AT&T, hoping to get an iPhone before 10am.

It looks like it rained a little this morning so the ground is a little wet. T_T

We planned to line up at 7am, but KS heard about the line forming at the Ala Moana Apple Store from midnight last night... So we decided to get an early jump start this morning. It also looks like there were nationwide activation server problems and the original 15 minutes it took to get an account set up is taking longer.

Regardless, I'm hoping that all goes well here with 1 hour and 45 minutes to go. *sigh* I'll be tweetinf more of my progress via twitter.

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Lots of Stuff Cometh!

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:45:47 -1000

I don't often get to splurge lately, as I'm a full-time comic artist and income is pretty unstable. Medical bills and other miscellaneous expenditures also don't help my budget much. ^^;

AkashiyaSaiPens

Anyhoo~ I had hopes of getting back into practice with traditional mediums. (I've been using Photoshop to do most of my work as of late and the "undo" feature is a comfortable crutch. ^^;) JetPens sent out their latest e-mail newsletter for the month of June and inside were recommendations for Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush Pen - 20 Color Set.

I really like watercolors, markers, and colored pencils, but often find they are either bulky to carry or just plain a hassle to set up and take down. I was looking for a much more portable alternative - and these pens were just what I was looking for!

I decided to get their Sai Watercolor Brush Pen Sketch Set in Denim, which came with all 20 colors of their pens, 1 mini plastic palette, 1 collapsable water bucket, an inking brush pen (with waterproof ink), and a pouch to carry everything in. Considering all orders for $25 are shipped for free, it's almost a no-brainer for me, as we don't have any Kinokuniya Books here in Hawaii.

So far, they've been great! I really like how vibrant the colors are and they are so easy to use. While we were waiting for breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Kalihi, I pulled out my pens and started drawing the condiments on the table with my Aquash watercolor brush (a brush with a water cartridge). The pens don't blend perfectly, but I can "pull" color and tint surrounding areas, which is nice. I'll have to test things out with the palette later.

I really look forward to doing "sketchcrawls" again - it's great practice to draw from life!

Special! Best Mini-2.5 Maime No Kare

Anyhoo, that package came 2 days after I ordered it. I can't beat awesome fast shipping like that! Thanks JetPens!

To top things off, we went to the Shirokiya Book-Off after dinner last night to check for any good deals. The next shipment comes in next week, but I actually found the Berryz Koubou Special! Best Mini 2.5 album! I'm a relative new-comer to the H!P Kids, but I really like most of the songs on this album - especially "ギャグ１００回分愛してください"... which doesn't seem to be released on any of their subsequent albums. For some reason the Berryz Koubou and C-ute releases are hard to come by?

I also picked up 3 volumes of "Chi's Sweet Home" and "きゅとんチャン。" The funny thing is, I saw short comics of "きゅとんチャン。" at the Friends of the Library Book Sale this past week in "Comic Essay" compilation magazines. I didn't want to buy the whole thing for just a picture or two, so I put them back. Boy, was I surprised to see the compiled book at Book-Off! I had to pick it up - the expressions are just adorable. XD

Hard to believe it's the 4th of July weekend already. Kids are popping some fire crackers outside, but I'm crossing my fingers it won't be as bad as New Years here! Happy 4th America~ Here's to many more!

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Happy 4th of July!

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:41:34 -1000

I wonder what's been going on with our net connection when we sleep? For the past couple days, the server goes down right after we turn in for the night. Because we've both been trying to catch up on sleep, we miss hearing the alarms. In turn, the site is down for 5+ hours until one of us wakes up.

I'm going to try and turn off my computer backup function and see if that makes a difference. It usually starts at 1am and finishes within the hour.

Anyhoo- today's comic is a bit special. It took longer than most, but I think I got the feel I was hoping for. I'm definitely not a landscape artist by ANY means, and to get things to look right can be a struggle for me. I've been slowly challenging things that have been problematic for me and feel it can only help me improve in the long run~ ^^

Today's comic: The Journey

Click on the preview to see the rest of today's comic.

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Library Talks Continue and CultureSHOCK! Revisited

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:21:56 -1000

We are finally winding down to the very last of our Teen Summer Reading Talk Tour. We have 5 more stops (out of 20!!!) and we're positively looking forward to them. Tonight's stop is Kapolei - one of the state's newest libraries on the West-side. Thankfully we have a break this weekend (due to the 4th of July weekend), but things start up next Tuesday with Salt Lake-Moanalua, then the Hawaii State Library in Downtown on Saturday the 12th, Kaimuki on Sunday the 13th, and our final stop at Kaneohe Library on Sunday, the 20th. :D

Something we've noticed is that we can tell right off the bat which librarians really understand what we are doing and if they sincerely support their programs - the turnout numbers really show. Any effort they put forth to publicize their own programs really are returned ten-fold.

This goes to prove that you shouldn't be expecting miracles to fall in your lap if you don't work towards anything - be it a goal, strengthening a belief, striving for greatness, learning something new, etc.

We sometimes forget that we have to put in our due efforts to reap some rewards. I know I do sometimes~

***

Anyway - the countdown finally begins for Anime Expo 2008. We're not going this year - it's a little out of our league at the moment, but Pat ofVUDUBERI will be hosting some of our select goods from Fanime at her booth in the dealer's room! So, if you're looking for shirts, books, or even pups, they'll have a few on hand. Regardless, folks should REALLY check out their stuff. Pat, CP, FSc, and Saka are all superb artists in their own right and will likely have stuff you'd be interested in. (I'm a fan of their shirts - super stylish and comfortable. I wear mine all the time... *__*)

For everyone going, HAVE A GREAT TIME! :D POST PHOTOS!!!

And lastly, I'm continuing with Kana and Nemu's adventures in Hawaii~ I think I missed posting the shave ice strip from Monday here, but we're moving head to the aftermath with a couple special cameos from some of my old CultureSHOCK! strips from college.

Talk about a blast to the past - I hope that I've grown as an artist since 1998...

I have about 20 of the original strips re-scanned and cleaned up for viewing - I intended to have all of them ready by the time I posted today's strip, but I ran out of time. I'll be slowly adding more and more strips to our make-shift gallery.

Enjoy!

Today's Comic: Young at Heart

Click on the preview to see the rest of today's comic.

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testing out blog it

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:24:20 -1000

typing this from my iPhone! It's a bit bare bones, but gets the job done, I think? :D

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Catching Up To Life

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:19:43 -1000

Boy, when you're self-employed you really see how time does NOT slow down for you when you're out for the count. o_o; This whole past week has been nothing but catch-up correspondence and phone calls. I've only gotten back to drawing last night and I'm still pretty seriously behind on my strips.

So medical update: So far, so good! The sutured skin that scabbed over is healing nicely - most of the biggest ones have dried up and fallen off. The downside is that the area still feels rather "tight" and uncomfortable when lying down. I've had a few restless nights since the surgery, but on the whole it's a HUGE improvement from pre-surgery. (I'll take these occasional aches and pains over constant, severe abdominal pain any day.)

I have yet to see my OBGYN for my depo shot as the nurse is on vacation until ... well, today. It might be for the best as I have a pretty busy schedule starting this evening. As mentioned before, I'll be hitting 20 libraries state-wide to talk about webcomics over the next month and a half. Our presentation is ready to go, which is a relief. I'll be prepping more throughout the day. *__*;

We're also scheduled for a morning news interview for KGMB9 next week. More on that as I get further confirmation.

Aaaaaand... it's been a while since I've last updated with my comic previews...

Click on the link to see the full comic!

...and to save me from posting every single one since then, just click on the "next comic" button~ XD;

If anyone has time and would like to help me out next week, I'm looking for a single strip guest comic? I'm desperately trying to build up my strip queue again, since my surgery and recovery time ate through my buffer. X_X; E-mail me if you can help out~ ^^

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Vacations and Cameos

nobody@vox.com(Anise & Cloves) — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:11:26 -1000

What a day!

For those who are familiar with Ryan Estrada, (comic artist of "Frank the Goat") he just featured a guest cameo appearance of Anpan and Nemu in his latest "Life's a Bluff" webcomic strip, "Damn Dog"! :D

Whee!

I also have a whole new slew of (backlogged) avatars for grabbing! More to be seen at our photobucket gallery. :D

Today's Comic: Vacation

Click on the preview to see the rest of today's comic!

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