- I'm actually part of an Art Show at a local gallery! = D

- I'm giving my personal site, House of Amill, a proper update! O.O

- I've sunk so much time into those two things, I'm behind on the writing and drawing I wanted to get done before year's end for here! o.@

Hope folks had/have a Happy Holidays! >.<

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Long Version:

- I am currently part of an honest-to-goodness art show at a brand new gallery that recently opened up in the East Brook Mall (Like... The real place where all the mall stuff in the strip happens).

I was offered a spot even after I explained that I'm a cartoonist and took the shot. This meant that, after I fixed up the laptop I had planned to start this working vacation dealie doing, I found myself knee deep in gallery prep. I also didn't think this would happen so I kinda' kept it as a relatively low key thing until it was too late to really shout about it like I would a con appearance or something.

Again, this stuff doesn't happen for me for I assumed it was just a matter of time before someone said "Nope!" and I walked away with a few nice prints of my work.

Thankfully, that was not the case and you can currently see my work as well as a crew of awesome artists hanging in The Gallery at the East Brook Mall in Mansfield Center, CT until January 2nd (I think?). Come to see my pics, stay to marvel at the other work there 'cause Hot Damn! The rest of the folks in the show have some outstanding pieces and the are seriously amazing. Everything from pencils and watercolors to acrylics and tattoo art. It's so cool! = )

- After far too long (and more than a few false starts), I'm giving the House of Amill site a proper makeover. New code, new tech and a fresh coat of paint. It's my way of dragging my HTML-based butt kicking and screaming into the current century. I'm forcing myself to figure out things like current CSS and HTML standards while playing around with goofy things like sticky navs and Flexboxes.

Turns out that, in my hands, I can screw up even the most well-crafted things enough times to figure out how they work and fix them again. = P

For the curious: Yes, the gallery thing did prompt me to think that Maybe I should update my ancient site so folks have proper up-to-date information to work from. Not gonna' lie... it has been very slow going.

The learning curve was expected but the lack of non-WordPress focused tools has been a pain. I just recently found a bit of Gallery code that was easy to figure out and did the old "Image over a Filmstrip of Thumbnails" thing that used to be the way things were for a visually light setup. All I could find for a while there were gigantic image grids that seem to be all the rage the last few years. Great for desktop viewing, not so much for mobile.

I plan on getting the bulk of the site's four main parts done before I work on the strip. I know that, once I walk away, it'll be forever until I get back to it. The very fact that I'm working on all this Now instead of two years ago is proof of that. -.-

You can see the progress here. -> [Test Site LinkTastic!]

- Between those two activities, I haven't gotten around to much Biff-related stuff. I have the printable bluelines built so I can try my hand at drawing the strip on different paper than in my strip book but I haven't gotten to printing them yet. Instead, I bought ink for my printers and ordered a bunch of prints for the show. I haven't gotten to writing anything yet 'cause I've spent that time writing code for the HoA site.

Needless to say... I've gotten a lot of things done yet I still haven't worked on what I planned to work on during this Working Vacation so... Yeah! It'll be a little longer.

I do want to get a Biff-related pic done (in part so I don't get rusty) sometime before Year's end but I'm really just pushing to get even this posted after far too many starts and stops. I kid you not, every time I've sat down to write this, I've ended up opening Dreamweaver and started back in on HoA. It's taken over my life. o.@

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So that's pretty much an update on things on my side of the 'Net.

Christmas was... fine. Got some fun stuff like that Destiny 2 Alexa-powered Ghost (which is in desperate need of a paint job) and the SNES Classic (which I modded less than 24hrs after getting it so I could play my fave translated JRPG ROMs on better hardware). Ended up with a delayed package so I couldn't be the holiday hero I was planning on being so that was a bit of a bummer. At least it all arrived in one slightly ragged piece.

Although I Really wanted to get some Holiday stuff out for folks this year, I don't think it'll be possible. I'll try but yeah... my main site is kinda' eating stuff up right now. The Plus Side to that is all that new info will make updating This site less of a confusing pain in the future.

From the folks here at the House of Amill, I hope you and yours had/have a Happy Holidays. Here's hoping 2019 is less chaotic than 2018 has been.

'Till next time! = )

Exactly. = D

Seriously, that's the reason. Updates are erratic, my motivation is falling to new & exciting lows and spending that extra time on this year's Drawlloween pics made me realize that - if I don't stop and breath for a minute - I won't be able to get the results I want from this next story bit. It's either I step back properly and get my house in order or I keep going like I've been and things fall apart.

Unlike this summer, I won't be traveling. I'll be home to work on the things I want to. Things like some pics for a possible gallery showing in December. Or clearing out my backlog of digital pics. Or printing some proper Double Decker sized templates onto cardstock and drawing the next story bit in a way I haven't been able to before. = )

Also scripts. I need to write some scripts. There are two ideas on the board and a handful of one-shots written. That's... not enough. At all.

And I don't plan on this lasting forever. This is strip No.499. I want to get No.500 up for all to see ASAP but I also know that this is very much one of those "Do you want it done Fast or Good?" situations. I'm going to side with Good (or at least give it my all).

Here's the details for those who skipped to the end:

- Vacation time is Now.

- It won't last forever but it will be a bit 'till the next update.

- I will still be doing work just not trying to get things done at the strange pace I have been.

- Best places to keep tabs on things are the Patreon [Link], my Instagram [Link] and the Biff Twitter feed [Link].

I have no plans to drop out of existence. I'm still going to post things as I go but I need to allow myself to breath a bit on this. Both for myself and so I don't royally wreck the next story bit.

'Till next time! = )