06.24.2008 - Terrence Marks:

Five You Say it Firsts posted. We're still catching up. We apologize for the delays; all donors have an extra two weeks to make up for them

06.09.2008 - Isabel Marks:

We're moved in... almost. I've been spending most of my days after the initial chaos of the physical move trying to get the place livable... I've been trying desperately to play catchup... but without a regular, almost dependable Internet connection (long story short, we had a DSL setup scheduled from Time Warner, only they lost our appointment. >< Yes, they LOST it. We're going with their competitors for our Internet service, since they seem far more competent and are actually TRYING to help us get our Internet faster than that less competent company). It's a mess. We've actually had a phone line for a day, only Terrence didn't think we had a modem on either computer. Today, at 2:40am, I found out I did. It took some phone calls on Terrence's part and a couple trys, but we're now coming to you from lighting fast 56k!

Unfortunately, even though I HAVE been working on comics... I'm just not working fast enough. Wallpapers are updated and commentary is... worked on, but still lots to go... hopefully having some kind of Internet for the next couple days till our DSL gets in will help kick start me (at least I got 3 YSIF sketched today, on top of the updates...) Please enjoy and thank you so much for your patience through all this! We really did not think we would be offline this long...

06.02.2008 - Terrence Marks:

We're moving. Not the site. Us. We're getting a nice apartment. The PO Box will remain the same. We're working on getting everything moved over the next week. Isabel has been stressed out over the move, and feeling sick, which is why we're a few days behind. Comics are inked and being worked on now. That's also why I haven't had a chance to implement a blog here, so before I forget what happened:

06.01.2008 - Terrence Marks:

So, what have I been up to lately? Studying.

It began a month ago. I was going to get A+ certification. I had been meaning to get it for a while. My main concern was that someone else pay for it. My company, coincidentally, had test vouchers, so I got some.

The vouchers, it turned out, were only good for Microsoft exams, so I started studying to upgrade my MCSA to an MCSE (as an analogy, MCSA is to MCSE as an associates degree is to as a bachelor's degree. An A+ certificate is on par a sixth-grade reading test). I only needed 3 exams. I spent about two weeks studying, then I noticed something - the exams had been retired. In March.

Fortunately, you could still take the exams. Until May 24th. That was good. So I spent the two weeks studying. There were a bunch of little things: My company had online training videos, but they were about 16 hours per test. The only book I had was an ExamPrep - they're the size of a phonebook and equally readable. None of the bookstores had anything for the courses I needed.

I passed the first exam last Monday. 70-216, which is undeservingly nicknamed "The Beast". The books I got from Amazon had come in (1 cent each, plus, $7 shipping) so I scheduled the second exam, 70-217 (no nickname), five days after that. I won't say I understand the material entirely, but I knew it well enough to guess right most of the time. Fortunately, it's multiple choice and not essay, so I passed. I just had to do the design exam.

Now, a design exam is the Microsoft equivalent of "Let's put everything together and see how well you apply it". The books I had on the test were very short on technical information and very long on business philosophy. I don't care about business philosophy; it isn't on the test. So I took it on the 20th and failed.

Fortunately, I was able to get another voucher from my company that night. Why? Because it was going to expire the next day. So I studied the parts of the test that I didn't know. I woke up early and was able to schedule an exam the same day. I failed again, I could take a different (non-retired) exam later on, and get on with my life. I had been studying non-stop for about three weeks. I passed. The fact that half the questions were the same as the first time didn't hurt.

My plan from there was to show off my MCSE lapel pin, and take the two exams to upgrade to MCSE on Windows 2003 Server. Then I find out that the upgrade exams also retire on the 24th, and that Microsoft doesn't send out lapel pins any more. On the plus side, the company will reimburse me when I take those A+ exams.

05.26.2008 - Isabel Marks:

Hi everyone, quick heads up on the last, now gone news post... yes my birthday is still tomorrow, but don't worry about getting me any of the items on that list. If you had bid on the actions or started the bidding process with Ok! Shon to do so, please let us know as well. But please let us know and don't bid on the items (well, unless you yourself want them... ^_^). I thank you all for reading and helping the comic grown!

05.13.2008 - Isabel Marks:

Here we go, right on time...ish. The comics are back on track, and the RSS feed is showing the right date and comic. Why is this? The comics on the main page will be one big (lower quality) file that shows all the comics in order so people who only check the site every other day or so won't become too lost. So basically right now if you viewed the comics in the archive, you'll get double comics (with one of the sets being one file). However, higher quality versions of each file in the archive with their proper date. Tonight, once the Wednesday comic goes up, I will replace the Tuesday file with one comic (with a higher quality). Please note, the Wednesday comic is also a large file with the entire last week on it- you will have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see it. Once the Thursday comic airs, I will go back and place a one comic version of it (at a higher quality) up in the archive.

NamirDeiter.net readers: commentary will be updated over the next few days, and a bonus comic will air tonight (for the Wednesday update) (EDIT- .net readers, there will be bonus comics for the Thursday and Friday updates, not the Wednesday and Thursday update) to make up for the lack of a Tuesday update. As always, I thank you all for your patience, please enjoy!

04.28.2008 - Isabel Marks:

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've wondered what it would be like if I had continued to update the news with each new comic... I barely have enough news worthy information as it is...

You Say it First's cast pages (including the minor characters) got a bit of an update which I felt was needed. Also, both Namir Deiter's and You Say it First's archive pages and arc drop-downs have finally been updated. Funny how these things can slip from my mind... months at a time (funny how easily things slip from such a smooth brain).

Hope to have more news next week... enjoy the rest of April till then!