While talking to my son today and his mentioning how difficult it was to find a particular strip to show his roommate, I’ve decided to undertake something I should have done from the get-go, when I started using WordPress & ComicPress to display Willow’s Grove…over 1084 comics ago…using tags. This would have allowed my son to type in a tag or keyword and search for the comic he wanted to show off.

Now comes the fun part: Going through all 1084 published comics, plus the ones from the very early days, and create tags for them that best describe what is going on in each individual comic. The good news is I have all of the published strips in a folder on the hard drive so I can do it offline, create a spreadsheet to organize, etc., and then cut & paste the tags back in to each post. The bad news is, I have to do this for 1084 comics and try to make them unique to what is going on in the comic. I’m quite sure there’ll be overlaps and tags that fit multiple comics, but at least, once it is completed, readers can search by tags to find a strip they want to read again.

Serves me right for not doing this in the first place to have such a large backlog to tend to.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have noticed my recent profile picture change to this:

The reason behind it is simple, during the Oscars this past Sunday, Ang Lee won best director for the film “Life Of Pi.” During his acceptance speech, he thanked all the 3000 people behind the making of the film, but failed to mention that the VFX company behind all the magic, Rhythm & Hues had to file for bankruptcy and fired 250 people last week. During the acceptance speech for Best Visual Effects, the VFX Supervisor Bill Westenhofer was cut off by the orchestra before he could mention the travesty that befell Rhythm & Hues. Mainstream media outlets have also turned a blind eye towards it and aren’t reporting on this injustice. This is an outrage! How can Hollywood ignore the way the VFX houses they use to create their films are treated? They barely get 5% of the profits from the movies they help bring to life!

What would the Hollywood movies look like without these VFX houses doing their spectacular jobs to make things look so real? Do a Google search on what movies would look like without VFX and tell me if they would be as good. I didn’t think so.

I may not be in the industry, but as a struggling artist bringing my craft to you, my readers, Monday through Friday, without fail, without missing an update, I cannot stand to watch my brothers and sisters in art get screwed day after day, month after month, year after year. That is why my Facebook profile picture has been changed, to show I stand behind them in solidarity.

If you feel the same, find a green screen photo square and join in the protest against Hollywood’s screwing of the VFX industry. The more people who join in and spread the word, the more this outrageous injustice may be brought to light and corrected.

*steps off soapbox*

It seems the site has been down for a few hours without me being aware of it until I was trying to upload some new comics. Apparently, the database got hosed (AGAIN!) so I had to jump in and repair it. I sure as shit wished Yahoo Small Business would send out an email if the site goes down because of this type of error, as it happens about three times a year. Stupid YSB!! I really need to find a way to jump to another host. Was all set to get my own server via a networking group peer, but that deal fell through when cash disappeared….onwards and upwards, Grovers!

[UPDATE] 11/1/12 – 5:54PM EST
Well, it appears the site is bouncing up and down due to YSB having a problem with their MySQL server. Their solution is one that I have been doing all frickin’ day! Sign on and request a database repair to run on your database. Doesn’t help the fact that I couldn’t log in to my database directly to work with, that I have to use THEIR ungodly tools to fix it, but I ran about the 15th request for the day and it brought the site back up. Keep your fingers crossed that this will stay up and the yahoos at YSB get their fingers out of their collective asses and it stays up. I’d say if you can’t read this, it means the site dropped again, but if it is down, you won’t be able to read this. Be patient. One day I shall be able to afford a new host and move far away from YSB! Thank you for your understanding.

I’ve started a new t-shirt line for Willow’s Grove. It doesn’t feature any characters, but businesses within the Willow’s Grove universe. The first three released via Zazzle are Squirrel Manor Inn and two versions of the Cho’s Bar & Grill signage (standard and distressed). There will be more to follow, but what place of business or landmark would you like to see on a Willow’s Grove t-shirt? Drop your suggestions in the comments.

Here’s the links to the new shirts:

Squirrel Manor Inn

Cho’s – Standard

Cho’s – Distressed

Don’t ye be alarmed! Thar’s nuttin’ wrong wit’ the site. Tis’ a plug-in for International Talk Like A Pirate Day what makes all the CSS go haywire. All will be restored on the 20th.

This drove me absolutely nuts last year, tearing apart code, analyzing and such only to find it is this blasted WordPress plug-in to blame.

In the meantime, have fun talking like a pirate today!

Yarrrrrr!