tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-194386992009-06-18T10:17:07.029-07:00All the other stuff I do in my weird and wacky lifeJeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-76754895872460495792008-10-13T18:21:00.000-07:002008-10-13T18:41:05.775-07:00

All's well so far! I've been taking the time to work on cleaning up my apartment and getting rid of old stuff that I don't need anymore, mostly. I've done the unemployment application and paperwork so that's all set. In the process of reducing expenditures by cutting out nonessential bills. Goodbye, land line long-distance service! Goodbye, housekeeper (that's a sad one). Once I'm finished

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-22458046458490010712008-10-07T12:51:00.001-07:002008-10-07T15:12:30.947-07:00

It's a beautiful day here in Los Angeles, maybe a bit warm, but not too uncomfortable. It's sunny and the sky is clear and blue.It's a nice way to start my first full day of unemployment. Yep, I've been downsized. Well, not exactly, it really wasn't a planned thing on the part of my company. Unfortunately, one of the two games we were working on got cancelled abruptly, and they haven't lined up

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-63163731161381712002008-08-25T14:00:00.000-07:002008-08-25T14:04:05.420-07:00

Right, so starting right now I'm going AFK for a couple of weeks for my vacation. I'll be in Cabo somewhere, in a pool that has a bar in it, with no internet access and no computer. It remains to be seen whether I can survive under such circumstances, but I believe the proximity to the bar will help a bit.The comic will update as usual!I will miss my hunny very very much. :\Have funs everyones...

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-83962215296671022232008-08-14T21:15:00.000-07:002008-08-14T22:01:58.506-07:00

Well, yes it's been a while since I did any life-blogging. This is because I've been very very very busy with many many many things, and also because in general, life has been kind of going along in a steady fashion.Of course, that means lots is happening. However, a lot of it I can't really talk about for a number of reasons, so those items will have to wait. Meanwhile, there's some important

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-51863599391311851722008-05-28T07:54:00.000-07:002008-05-28T08:03:31.624-07:00

OK, I know this isn't going to be a big deal to anyone, but it's something of an achievement for me, something of a milestone really, so I'm writing about it.This morning, for the first time EVER in more than 20 years of playing the game, I finally, finally, FINALLY managed to get 200 lines and reach level 20 playing Tetris, in the DS version, thus actually finishing the game and seeing the end

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-77806975941848166822008-04-21T18:41:00.001-07:002008-04-21T18:51:03.149-07:00

Apparently I am no longer able to sleep more than about 5 hours per night, even with the help of melatonin. I don't know if that's a healthy thing or not - I'd better start monitoring my blood pressure again, and it sure wouldn't hurt to start exercising. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Wii Fitness, which should help.The positive result of not needing 8 hours of sleep every night is that I

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-80669730662657805992008-04-11T10:50:00.000-07:002008-04-11T10:52:57.955-07:00

I now have a nephew. His name is Kevin. He weighs 7 lbs 12 oz.Woo hoo!!! Congrats to sister-in-law Lauren and brother Dan. :)

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-8890357181999042992008-04-02T11:35:00.000-07:002008-04-02T12:16:49.800-07:00

I'm now on Twitter. You can find me at: http://twitter.com/jeffzugale. I'll try to be interesting, but lately I've been kinda grumpy. Perhaps an instant venting ability will help! :)Look, it's even over there in the sidebar. On the right, below my links.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-45348079094503777082008-04-01T10:18:00.000-07:002008-04-01T10:19:38.755-07:00

I'm not doing anything for April Fool's Day.Yeah, I'm boring. I'm feeling somewhat curmudgeonly today. So sue me.No, don't sue me. I can't afford it right now.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-81488876532323194312008-02-25T16:40:00.001-08:002008-02-25T16:46:43.541-08:00

Went to the NASCAR Auto Club 500 with dotsara yesterday. Sadly there was much rain and most of our time there was waiting for the track to get dry, but we saw some good racing in the few laps that actually happened. I took some photos and put them up on my Flickr page, for any NASCAR fans out there. Dot showed me that you can take pictures thru binoculars, so I got some pretty decent close

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-71211615559148329542008-02-13T18:23:00.001-08:002008-02-25T16:48:10.099-08:00

SF writer and Real Cool Guy John Scalzi recently wrote a blog post about advice for New Writers, which deals with some practical things about trying to be a writer for a living. It's worth a read. I think it applies to anyone who's trying to do some creative thing on their own, like artists or musicians or even programmers. One thing he talks about is that unless you have a really good reason to

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-86889927445960897602007-11-21T13:56:00.000-08:002007-11-21T14:03:23.274-08:00

...what I had for lunch today, here it is:Yummy udon with beef and a big fat California roll. But I had to suffer with a Pepsi. Sigh.Why am I sharing? Well, since I got my new camera, I have to retrain myself to carry it everywhere and take some damn pictures already. I'm a pitiful excuse for a shutterbug, I need practice.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-1549829736194680902007-11-19T15:26:00.000-08:002007-11-19T15:28:49.369-08:00

"What do you call random nonsense words scattered all over a page?""I don't know, what?""IPSUM SALT!!"(Don't worry if you don't get it. It's superdorky and arcane. I just made it up and wanted to document it on teh Intarwubs.)

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-79792314588310230482007-11-08T12:41:00.001-08:002007-11-08T13:01:54.623-08:00

Y'know, so uneventful that I don't have anything to write.The Girlfriend is away on vacation for a couple weeks. This is a good thing. She needs to get away from LA for a while and relax her brain, while I need a bit more headspace in which to do some thinking and getting things done. Which I'm doing.Number one priority for me is to improve my art portfolio, so I'm going to take as much time as I

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-58317479943932613142007-10-25T10:03:00.000-07:002007-10-25T10:49:08.951-07:00

So yeah, finally, I cut my hair short. Like, military short. (I did a comic about it, too.) I seriously doubt it will ever be longer than about a half-inch from here on out, since (a) I'm no longer playing in hair rocker bands and (b) well, I'm just flat out going bald. Thanks, genetics! :) I personally just don't think having a bald top with long hair is a cool look, unless you're in a German

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-47751514929268858622007-09-27T15:38:00.000-07:002007-09-27T15:52:05.608-07:00

Ah, the new site design is up and it looks like it's working well. Uh, well you can't see it here on this blog, it's over at my main site. I will be updating the blog pages to match, eventually, but that's not a huge priority at the moment. I need to redo the art portfolio site first!That site work has taken a large part of the last 2 months... I bought some fancy store software, set up a forum,

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-24465197199661365812007-09-10T22:09:00.000-07:002007-09-10T22:43:19.457-07:00

Seriously, I haven't blogged here since the end of MAY?? WTF is wrong with me?Sigh.I've been a busy boy, as always, and haven't really been in the blogging sort of mood much. Right now I'm at Wumpskate and I don't have any caricatures to do, so why not type a bit, and put up some brief news and updates.Well... where to start? What's been going on since May?I already talked about the games we

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-22422503859220494852007-05-31T21:09:00.001-07:002007-05-31T21:45:07.574-07:00

Way back when, something like 6 years ago, I went to IKEA and bought a large computer desk workstation. It was just the coolest computer desk ever. Here it is:Pretty formidable, eh? The first time I sat back and took a good look at it, I laughed; see, when I was a kid, I used to build starship control panels out of cardboard and paper and the center extension for Grandma's kitchen table, so I

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-61275312811118272622007-05-22T13:20:00.000-07:002007-05-22T13:36:19.476-07:00

Sheesh, with all the stuff I'm doing and being generally self-absorbed, I've forgotten to blog in like, forever. Well!So, what's up. Well, at work we've shipped our two big games: Shrek 3 for Xbox360 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer for PS2, PSP and Wii (the Wii version rocks!). So far, F4 hasn't been reviewed since it won't be on shelves until next month, but Shrek 3 is getting

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-69446220841616680732007-04-23T13:42:00.000-07:002007-04-23T14:06:06.169-07:00

I haven't typed anything on this blog in a while so I figure I oughtta, eh? A post-con report seems like a good excuse...So, we went up to San Francisco for APE Con, which I have not been at before, to set up a table and do caricatures and sell comics. We had a lot of fun and we met lots of nice people and had some great Chinese food (which SF has lots of, but is very hard to find in LA), and TGF

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-67435765357532119882007-03-12T11:13:00.000-07:002007-03-12T11:31:26.060-07:00

Been a while, huh? Sorry I've been non-bloggy. I got out of the habit of blogging when our work internet access was so cruelly throttled to only a trickle. However, we've got the big fat pipes to the series of tubes working now, so I can get back to updating.Everything is going pretty well for me, job is doing okay and appears to be secure for at least another year or two (although you never know

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-7258676418142950952007-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:002007-02-15T14:38:44.247-08:00

It's just been full of things other than blogging, heh. I'm playing a lot more video games, for instance! :DDon't worry, more to come as soon as I can.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-57863772225818235082006-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:002006-12-12T13:40:18.713-08:00

Xmas came early today:That's right, I got my Wii, straight from Nintendo. It's gooood to be in the game biz, yo!Also Painter IX.5 for excellent arty goodness. Many, many improvements over version 8, which is kinda crappy on my Mac. My favorite additions are the custom palette (which was a feature on version 5, then disappeared) and the new "draw along shape" tool, which makes any vector path into

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-1164136835465705702006-11-21T10:28:00.000-08:002006-12-11T18:04:59.609-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I am teh oldz.Lots of people called me, emailed me and MySpaced me, which was really nice. Thank you everyone, you make me feel like I belong to the human race which is something I often don't feel, since I'm such a hermit these days and I'm lousy at keeping in touch with people even if I care about them a lot. I'm weird that way, sigh.Even better than that (which is

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19438699.post-1162855183666281222006-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:002006-11-09T06:30:40.516-08:00

That there is my new TV. It's pretty freakin' huge. Note that the green area in the image below represents the entirety of the space occupied by my former television, which was not really that small - a 27-inch CRT TV.So, yeah. This one is a 50-inch (diagonal) Samsung DLP projector unit. The screen is actually a bit more than 44 inches wide horizontally. As you can see, it's absolutely the

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com2