News: May 2000

         

Wednesday, May 31, 2000
    Well, registration has ended for the 2000 Avalon NHL Playoff Pool, and I'd like to thank everyone who participated... it was very cool, and I fully intend to do it again next year. :-) And speaking of which, what were your opinions? Was there anything you thought could be improved? Any new features you want to see in the hockey pool? If so, tell me so I can make next year's even better!
    Meanwhile, we just have to sit back and relax for a couple of weeks until the finals are over (and Dallas has won... ;-) ), and then I'll get around to the prizes part...

Tuesday, May 30, 2000
    Today's the final day to enter in the Avalon Hockey Pool! You have until 8:00 PM Eastern. The two points you can get from this round might just be all you need to slip into the top three and win a prize!

Monday, May 29, 2000
    There's an interesting discussion going on in the Avalon Forum... let us know in which panel of which comic did Ceilidh look the most attractive. :-) You can find the particular discussion (titled "Slightly strange character obsessions...") here.
    Hey, and everybody feel free to chat in the Forum! It's free to register, and you also get to participate in every other Keenspot forum too.
    Oh, and as usual I completely forgot... but this current (yet-unnamed) storyline is thanks to Jonathan Ng. Without him, I'd still be doing those dumb rainy-day comics. ;-)

Sunday, May 28, 2000
    Thanks to Miguel Gervais for his strange mix of politics and murder/intrigue. Thank goodness Miguel has no interest in politics himself (however, he is doing quite well in the medical profession... ;-) ).
    Also, Final Round registration has begun in the Avalon Hockey Pool! The deadline for entry is Tuesday, May 30, at 8:00 PM Eastern.
    And the results of last week's web site opinions poll are in... half of all readers are happy with the site as-is. 34% think it's okay, but could stand to have less mass. 7% think it's way too big, and another 7% think it could actually use *more* stuff. And finally, 1% of people demand Flash animation and Java galore. ;-) This week's poll is a vain attempt to remain topical.

Saturday, May 27, 2000
    Aaaaaaaand there's Friday's comic.
    Attention Hockey Pool participants: Final Round registration begins tonight! The registration form should be up shortly after the Dallas-Colorado game is over.

Friday, May 26, 2000
    Up there is Thursday's comic, so Friday's comic will be up tomorrow. Also, there still haven't been any Guest Artist submissions for this Sunday, so if you're looking for an easy link to your site, feel free to submit something. ;-)

Wednesday, May 24, 2000
    Okay, I'm playing Guess Josh's Time Zone again. :-) I promise to get caught up sometime this week. But it ain't gonna be tomorrow. :-)
    And check this out... I drew Unlike Minerva yesterday! Terrence Marks (writer and artist-wrangler) commissioned me on the spot last night over IRC to draw a strip, and unbeknownst to me it was yesterday's script he sent me. So I drew him a proposal sketch, fully expecting him to want a final copy later, but my sketch ended up being a last-second submission for yesterday's comic. :-) If you missed it, you can see what I did here.

Monday, May 22, 2000
    Sorry, no new comic yet... it might be up later today. Y'see, it's Victoria Day... I'm not legally permitted to be working... yeah, that's it... ;-)

Sunday, May 21, 2000
    Okay, no guest artists have stepped forward, so unfortunately there's no new Sunday comic. However, as some poor excuse of a replacement, I'm announcing the Avalon Store! It's not completely finished yet, but you can check out the stuff already available. There are two themes so far: Classic, and Friends. I plan on adding three new themes in the future: Cast, Cats, and cei·lidh.
    And the results of the latest poll show that there's a 4:1 male-to-female ratio among Avalon readers. I didn't expect there to be as much as 80% males... maybe 60-65%. Perhaps it's only a 2:1 ratio, and males tend to vote twice as often as females. ;-)
    This week's poll is an attempt to guage popular opinion of this site. I occasionally get complaints about the site being too slow, and even less often people tell me that they like it. :-) So use the poll to tell me what you think I should do about the site. Alternatively, feel free to e-mail me your opinions (or comment about anything you want).

Thursday, May 18, 2000
    I apologize profusely for today's lack of comic. After a late day of work, an evening class in Symbolic Logic, and the requisite long bus ride home, it was all I could to do apologize. ;-) Two strips tomorrow!

Sunday, May 14, 2000
    According to last week's poll, Unreal Tournament is better than either Quake III or Doom II. It won with 47%, while Q3 took 30% and Doom II 23%. I thought far more people appreciated Doom II than that! ;-)
    This week's poll is far too elementary, but I thought it would be neat to find out what the male-to-female ratio is among readers.
    Huge thanks to Vincent (creator of Ein Stück Natur) for today's Guest Artist strip, and huge apologies for putting it up late!! This may be my favorite Guest Artist strip to date (up there with Esyla's conspiracy strip. :-) ).

Friday, May 12, 2000
    The official deadline for Hockey Pool registration is tomorrow! It's actually been pushed forward half an hour; so make sure you register before 7:30 PM Eastern (4:30 PM Pacific).

Wednesday, May 10, 2000
    The 2nd Round is over in the NHL playoffs, which means it's registration time again! Head on over to the Avalon Hockey Pool before Saturday!

Sunday, May 7, 2000
    And up above is Friday's comic, dressed up as a Sunday comic. I hope I've repaid my debts by now... if not, you have to e-mail me with what you expect, such that I may laugh at your request personally. ;-)
     Oh, and new poll. The previous poll revealed that a third of those who voted read about 10 webcomics daily. Another third are a bit more picky, only reading about 4 or 5. 21% go nuts on about 20 or so webcomics, and 10% are rabid junkies with nothing to do but read countless webcomics each day. ;-) And finally, a whopping 4% claim to read only Avalon. They may actually be worse off than the 10% who read countless webcomics. ;-)

Saturday, May 6, 2000
    Okay, there's Thursday's comic. I'm gonna postpone Guest Artist Sunday tomorrow for my *own* Sunday (aka. Friday's) comic.

Friday, May 5, 2000
    Well, only one comic for today. However, this means I'll be running weekend comics! That's right! You're not angry, you're happy, now that new Avalon strips are available on weekends!
    Hm, still not convinced, huh? :-) Okay okay, I'm working on some means of redemption.

Thursday, May 4, 2000
    No new comic for today either. Sorry. :-( I'm gonna have to come up with something big to repay you guys for this... but basically, I'm working at my new job and I suddenly need a lot more sleep than I used to. :-) There should be something new here tomorrow, and with any luck that something will be three new comics. And I'm gonna learn to start doing a week's worth of comic strips on each weekend. :-)

Tuesday, May 2, 2000
    I'm being a bastard again. :-) Well, half a bastard... yesterday Keenspots server was down for an extended period of time, preventing me from uploading anything. Hence the lack of new comic strip yesterday. However, I didn't get today's done yet (there's the bastard part. :-) ). So here you have yesterday's; sometime this week there'll be another double-cohort to catch up.