Today, as I was driving to work, there was this dog sitting in the middle of the road. I slowed my car and came to a stop before him. He looked at me. I looked at him. I then raised my hand and pointed to the side of the road. He looked at my hand. I snapped my fingers. The dog moved. I continued on my way.
I’m like Aquaman for dogs.
Posted by marvelous patric on July 13, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Today is the 1600th Freaks N Squeeks comic. I think that’s so weird. If you would have told me 8 years ago I’d still be making this comic, I would have laughed at you. Mind you, I’ll laugh at you if you tell me now I’ll be making this comic eight years from today. FNS was supposed to be the side project I just crapped out. It wasn’t going to be the thing I made for serious. I was going to make all these super hero epics and stuff like that. I still want to do that, but I really have fallen in love with daily stripping. There is something amazing about having only three or four panels a day to work with. I consider myself very fortunate to have been making this comic for 1600 strips and even luckier to be able to keep going.
Posted by marvelous patric on July 6, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Hi everyone. I have been terribly remiss in blogging. For this, I apologize. I also apologize that there hasn’t been a new Weekly Podcast Show in like two months. We’ve been busy.
Did you know that next friday, June 25th, is the 1600th Freaks N Squeeks? Cool, huh? I think I’m going to take the week after that off from the strip. I’ve got some other things cooking at the moment. If you are dying to do a guest strip, email marv (at) freaksnsqueeks (dot) com.
I hope everyone is having a good summer! I know I am!
Posted by marvelous patric on June 18, 2010 and filed under: comic, random post! : No Comments
It’s been a while since we’ve seen or heard from Dixie. For those of you who don’t remember her, she made her first appearance here, and went on to annoy Janis numerous times over the years.
Posted by marvelous patric on June 1, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Posted by marvelous patric on April 22, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Dateline: Gilman
Today, the Marvelous Patric Lewandowski announced the launch of a fundraising project at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2056518778/terminal-life-graphic-novel-memoir. Terminal Life is the working title of Patric’s graphic novel memoir and he needs YOUR support to make it a reality!
According to Patric, “This graphic novel, tentatively titled “Terminal Life” is about that first year when my father was diagnosed [with lung cancer], had surgery, and it became apparent that my life had changed forever. This is the story of how, as a child, I came to the realization that my father could die at any moment and how I tried to live with that.”
In order to do this project, a project Patric considers to be one of the most important of his life, he needs YOUR support. Go to http://kck.st/cwlFBb and watch the video. Then, please pledge to donate to the project! Every donation helps! Patric set a goal of $6000 to do this project. These funds go to the physical printing cost of the graphic novel as well as trying to pay some living expenses while he concentrates on drawing the book.
Every pledge level has its own set of rewards….
PLEDGE $5 OR MORE
A PDF of the finished book is all yours!
PLEDGE $10 OR MORE
A PDF and a physical print copy of the book, just for you!
PLEDGE $15 OR MORE
A PDF plus a signed copy of the finished book!
PLEDGE $25 OR MORE
A PDF and a signed and sketched in copy of the finished book!
PLEDGE $50 OR MORE
A PDF and two signed copies of the physical book!
PLEDGE $75 OR MORE
A PDF and three signed and sketched-in copies of the finished book!
PLEDGE $100 OR MORE
The PDF, a cameo in a background in the book, plus a signed and sketched in copy of the finished book!
PLEDGE $200 OR MORE
The PDF, the cameo in the book, and three signed and sketched in copies of the finished product!
The fundraising drive will go until 11:59 pm CST on May 21st! Pledge early, pledge often! Only with YOUR support can this project exist!
Thank you in advance for your generosity and support of independent comics!
Posted by marvelous patric on April 20, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Here it is! My iPad review. I have now spent two whole weeks with it. The short is I love it. The long is the rest of this entry. For a more condensed review, check out the Weekly Podcast Show #12.
The OS
So let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. Yes, it runs the iPhone OS. But, I would wager it does it better. Multi-touch on an area large enough for actual multiple points of touching is awesome. The OS impressed me after I got to thinking about it a bit more. This OS is snappy and efficient. The iPad runs a chip at one gigahertz with 256 mb of RAM. These are specs for a computer from a decade ago, yet the iPad is fast. Very fast. I don’t wait for anything. I think this harkens back to Woz’s original Apple ][e in that it’s about using resources the most efficiently. I actually worry about the multi-tasking in the upcoming 4.0 release of the iPhone OS because I wonder if we’re going to sacrifice some of that speed for a feature I’m not sure I need.
Usage
A lot of people aren’t really sure what the iPad is for. The iPad is for those users who have one computer and need to take something else with them to use briefly. It is an extension of your normal computer rather than a second computer. In the two weeks I’ve had it, I find myself using it for a lot of the tasks I was using my laptop for before and enjoying those tasks a lot more. Wake up and check my email while lounging in bed? iPad. Need to quickly look something up? iPad. Have a few minutes to kill before moving on to a new task? iPad. Basically the only thing my iPad doesn’t do that I use my laptop for is grading papers, and that’s simply because Pages doesn’t offer the commenting feature MS Word does.
For those complaining there aren’t any ports on it, USB or otherwise, save for the dock connector, they clearly don’t get the iPad. What do I need to hook up to this??? If the whole point is a lightweight device that extends your computer experience by syncing materials, why would I want to lug around additional hardware? I have nearly every computer peripheral ever made and I can’t think of one I wish I could hook up directly to my iPad. The point of the iPad is the tiny thing to take with you to fill in. It is not content creation – save for minor word processing documents or email – it is content consumption. And it is that idea which leads us to the apps.
Apps
Let’s face it, no hardware is worth anything without programs to run on it. Yes, nearly all your iPhone apps will work on the iPad and they work really well. But, it’s the native apps we care about. I downloaded a bunch, but not a lot. Here’s what I use and why I use them.
Kindle Yes, Apple has its iBooks for your reading pleasure. And it is pretty nice. But, who are we kidding, Amazon’s Kindle is _the_ ebook reader. With Amazon’s native iPad Kindle app, the iPad is a Kindle. It is now a giant, full-color Kindle. And it costs $100 more than a Kindle. And it does internet. And email. And other apps. My predictions is within 3 years the Kindle device is gone and Amazon and Apple turn iBooks into the Kindle in a mega-partnership.
As for the Kindle app itself, reading is awesome on it. I honestly get no eye strain (iStrain?) from the screen and I’ve had to do a lot of reading on it lately for a Shakespeare class I’m in. E-Ink may be cool, but it’s not ready for primetime.
Comixology / Marvel Comics As long as I’m reading stuff, let’s face it, I’m reading comics on the iPad. Marvel’s App is essentially a special Marvel version of Comixology. I love reading comics on the iPad. It feels so natural. The images are bright and sharp. The text is easy to read. Oh, and a lot of comics are really cheap on the iPad – far cheaper than the dead tree version. Currently, I’m reading Matt Wagner’s Mage series – all of it on Comixology with 180+ pages for 2 bucks. That’s the great thing about Comixology, there aren’t just single issues, but collected volumes as well and usually those are far cheaper than the singles. I find myself finally getting to read a lot of comics I’ve always meant to but haven’t been able to pull the trigger on. All purchases for Comixology / Marvel go through your iTunes account, a feature I wish the Kindle app had.
(I also tried iVerse’s app, but I found it lacking, both in content and interface compared to Comixology.)
Pages I could be using the iPad to write stuff. This is a huge deal. The Pages word processor, while feature slim, is only ten bucks and highly useable. I don’t mind the built in multi-touch keyboard for writing. I’ve been working on some stuff on it, side projects, simply because it’s convenient on the iPad. I did find it amusing that Pages was actually more compatible with MS Word than other versions of Pages. Pages on iPad will only open Pages documents from the latest version of the Mac OS version, but will open nearly any .doc file from MS Word. I found this out when I tried to send a Pages file to my iPad from iWork 08 and it just didn’t open. I’m not really sure what Apple is thinking here. Pages ability to both open and save MS Word documents for only 10 bucks makes it an awesome tool. I do think that if I were typing a longer document I would want to use the bluetooth keyboard option for the iPad simply so I can use the full screen for my document.
The End
All in all, I love my iPad. It does fill a niche I was trying to fill poorly with my iPhone. It is a great device for simple tasks. I haven’t watched much video on it or gamed much on it yet, but that’s simply because those aren’t tasks I usually do on a portable device. The internet use and email functions are perfect. I know the 3G enabled version is coming, but I didn’t see myself needing a third internet bill for the few occasions I needed internet somewhere there wasn’t WiFi and my iPhone wasn’t enough. I imagine if this was your only device, the 3G would be nice, but honestly, I need 3G in my iPad as much as I need it in my laptop. And that’s really the point, I’m not sure I need my laptop anymore. The iPad very well could become portable computing. Anyone that dismisses the iPad is incredibly short-sighted. This is the future. Within 5 years, iPad-like devices will be everywhere and everyone will use them to consume their media.
Posted by marvelous patric on April 17, 2010 and filed under: random post! : No Comments
So I got the iPad on launch day, which is a new experience for me. I never got an Apple product on launch day before. I’m going to post a pretty in depth review of it here, but we’re also going to talk about it on this week’s Weekly Podcast Show, so the review will come up when that is posted. Stay tuned!
Posted by marvelous patric on April 7, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Posted by marvelous patric on March 26, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments
Hey everyone. So not only are we back from our short hiatus, I’ve also decided to go back to a Monday through Friday schedule. Fun Factory is taking a short break at the moment, so I can totally get this done. At least until finals come. Bleh. Only seven or so weeks of school left then I’m a master. Crazy, huh?
Posted by marvelous patric on March 18, 2010 and filed under: comic : No Comments