12.04.2009 - Terrence Marks:

We've got a special promotion this month over at NamirDeiter.net. Santa Blue brings you the gift of stolen library books. Every Sunday night, donors will get another bonus book checked out to their account, for free. I won't tell the librarians if you won't.
The first book will be Spring Breakout, the second bonus book we ever did. It's a beach story from Year Six Namir Deiter. And if you sign up between now and Sunday night when I get the programming done Santa Blue comes to visit, it's yours for free.

11.25.2009 - Terrence Marks:

Namir Deiter's Tenth Anniversary will soon be upon us! We'll have a a free 3-day guest pass into the exclusive world of NamirDeiter.net. The username and password will be posted tomorrow.

Also, you've noticed that we're back on schedule (and staying there!). Thank you all for sticking with us. If you have a valid NamirDeiter.net account - expired or not - it will work from now until the end of the year. We're still working on catching up with the bonus content and hope you stick around to see it.

11.24.2009 - Terrence Marks:

I was at Best Buy today (Tuesday) and there were two people camping outside for Black Friday. That's a three-day wait, by my count.

Firstly, I thought what great publicity that was. Even if I had no interest in their Black Friday deals, I'd still give them another look - here's some people who think they're worth sitting in a tent for 72 hours. If I ran a Best Buy, I'd pay people to camp out just to make it look like my deals were that awesome - you know, better than 1% of your entire year.

Secondly, I realized how long it's been since I had three days I could waste like that. (And it is - the 20 minutes of actual shopping they do may be great, but the three days of waiting is wasted). I never camped out in line, and the last time I had that kind of time, I couldn't afford a TV. (Didn't have one for a few years - how do you think I had so much free time?). Now? I've been meaning to update the You Say it First FAQ for months. It says the answer to "Are Kimberly and Brisbane sleeping together?" is "Probably not". They've been married for a year and a half now, and trust me, it would've come up if they weren't. We owe you a con report from two weeks ago. The only reason this is getting written tonight is because it's rather time-sensitive.

I was telling Isabel all this (I talk a lot. If it's good, I write it down.) She reminds me, "You do realize you went to Strategicon about three months ago, right?".

"Well, yeah. Three days of gaming. But I didn't get to play the first day."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Mine. And I could have bought a TV instead, but my point stands".

Anyhow, if they started a game now, I bet they could get to ninth level by the time the sale starts.

11.23.2009 - Isabel Marks:

...anyone still here? Boy I hope so.

First off, Namir Deiter and You Say it First are now back on track as of today. Thank you so much for all your waiting! I'm really sorry about all the delays, but between being sick, jury duty, dying relatives and attempting to have a life (something new I've been trying) it's just been very difficult for me as of late. I hope things will simmer down now though. There are still lots of things that need to be done to the site, but that will have to wait till not right now. ><

Secondly, namirdeiter.net is still seriously behind, but I will make up the backlog of comics and commentary! As a thank you for all your patience, Terrence has updated the free bonus book section of the .net library! "The Secret Origin of Twix" is from Namir Deiter's book two and this is the first time it's been available online AND in color! You do not need an active .net account to view this story, just a user name and password! Wallpapers are also running late... most recently because I flat out lost them. >< They should have an update within a day or two.

Last, I'd like to remind everyone that they can follow us over at Twitter on Terrence and my accounts. Please, PLEASE message me if you want me to add you back, I'm not adding followers as often as I used to due to spam bots. ><

Well, that's it for now... happy early Thanksgiving to those of you in the US, happy good time day to everyone else!

10.26.2009 - Terrence Marks:

And we've got two more comics up! Sorry they're late. We wound up getting Isabel a new desk today, which required us to disassemble her old setup, build the desk, get everything set up, and re-assemble everything else. We just got the cables plugged back in, so we can finally update. Enjoy!

10.24.2009 - Terrence Marks:

Sorry about the lack of update on Friday. I've mentioned that October has not been a kind month to us. I have a very bad cold. In the last few days, I've gone from can't-sleep-because-of-congestion to can't-sleep-because-of-coughing, which I hope means I'm getting over it. Unfortunately, the writing I'm doing at the moment isn't of publishable quality. Sorry, folks.

10.20.2009 - Terrence Marks:

If you follow this blog, you've probably noticed that I enjoy listening to myself complain. So, what do I enjoy?

Firstly, I picked up Terry Pratchett's new book, Unseen Academicals. I've read the first two-thirds of it so far, while I've been waiting for Isabel's jury duty. It reminds me a lot of the Witches series in tone* or, to be especially precise, the bits of Maskerade before Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg got involved. That was my favorite part of Maskerade, so I'm enjoying this book very much so far.

Secondly, I played through Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. The puzzles seem more balanced than the first game's. It's hard to find puzzles in that narrow range between "can solve it by looking at it" and "will never solve it".

Thirdly, I recently discovered Top Gear. It's a British TV program. It's kind of like Mythbusters, only they break cars instead of myths. To grab a random episode summary from their website: "We build a big ramp and test cars from various nations to see who can jump the furthest. "

Regarding my previous post:

Firstly, there are a few puns in Unlike Minerva. Walt Kelly made complex, beautiful wordplay look easy. It isn't. I stopped doing them because I realized I was better at everything else. And I do mean everything. Tree-lifting. Disarming bombs. Telepathy. I'm better at any of them than writing puns.

Secondly, regarding failure and comedy, there was a recent You Say it First story, Lockout. Brisbane gets locked out of his apartment and one of the guys from the lounge tries to pick the lock When I first wrote it, he failed. He said something like "Well, I guess I never really learned how to pick locks in the first place". Then I immediately rewrote it and now I realize why. Not just because it's funnier if he succeeds, but because he's got a lot of character development in those comics. He's worked a series of interesting odd jobs, he's a bit jealous of Brisbane's marriage and career, and he's got stories to tell, but nobody stops to listen. But if he didn't open the lock? If he was just playing at it? Then he'd be a clown and none of it would matter. So he opened it.