Vlog 20170107 - Taking a bit of a breather! (Patreon)

I did it, I hit all of my critical deadlines! So for the first time since September I'm going to actually, seriously  take a step away. It's important! Just two weeks, I will be back on January 28th. In the meantime, if you're a Kickstarter backer you  might not know that I post biweekly updates there! I don't email blast them out because that would be overkill, but it's fun if you want to see some extra behind the scenes stuff: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wastedtalent/wasted-talent-comics-by-an-engineer/updates 

**Transcription**

Okay (start my timer..) Hello patrons it is Saturday! It's technically still Saturday we have a little under an hour left to go today but... As of a few minutes ago I just shipped off the stickers for the Kickstarter. Which sounds like a really small thing (although I'm spending like 1000 bucks on stickers -- just a typical Saturday!) but that is the last long lead time item that I had to get out the door to start production of Kickstarter. So since (*coughs* sorry, I'm coming down with something) since the Kickstarter has ended I've finished these two sticker sheets, I finished the two prints -- [Dragon (the software I use to transcribe) is screwing up ...okay apparently "print" is a command for Dragon and every time I say that word Dragon freaks out trying to figure out what I'm trying to actually make it do haha]. 

So I also finished the pins which required a lot of back-and-forth negotiation with the manufacturer-- getting that just right. The magnet was finished, and that was shipped. I finished some "thank you" cards which basically I only needed to hold the bookplates to make sure that they don't get bent in the post but -- still something that needed to be designed and made and that got shipped off today. And I made the bookplates themselves so those got finished, sent out, rush produced and back and I've already received them (because I need to find all of them and then do all the extreme editions, that's a lot of work) but that's all done. That'll out. I'm still noodling a little bit back-and-forth with the book but largely that is in Mia's hands, my designer's hands. And there's nothing really more for me to do on that. 

So... What that means is that for the first time since about September when I really started my serious crunch trying to finish these books-- get the Kickstarter finished, manage the Kickstarter, do the end of Wasted Talent, now all of this production stuff... Tomorrow will be the first day in all of those months where I haven't been under, like, a serious deadline. And that's huge. That's a really big deal for me. I've been quite stressed out. I've been working a lot of late nights and I haven't really had a lot of time to stop and think, and absorb and recalibrate myself. So that is the next thing that I want to do. Now that I have a little bit of time to breathe... Basically I am just sitting, waiting for the mail. Like, I'm waiting for stuff to come in. And I'm really looking forward to taking a breather taking some time where I just go at my own pace and think about stuff and live my life and reconnect with friends and stuff like that. So for that reason, I'd like to take a break from this vlog, specifically. It is the one remaining thing that is -- [ I don't know what's happening with my camera focus, I apologize] it is the one remaining thing that is a weekly obligation-- like a committed/ time committed obligation that exists in my life. And I've been doing this pretty regularly, pretty consistently for about a year. On January 25 I will be putting out my annual Patreon update, so it's been almost a year of vlogs which is exciting! But, that being said I'd like to take a little breather of from it-- just two weeks, returning on January 28. So... I'm gonna take that time to sit, be myself, calibrate...

In the meantime Patreon won't, be quiet, don't worry-- I'm going to spool up a lot of posts as I mentioned before. I've done the work to collect those posts and there will be steady content throughout the month where I talk about some of the other ideas that I've had on the back burner and things that I might go and do next-- but I'll be chillin'. I'll be thinking about that stuff and maybe doing some crafting and going around the city and maybe riding my bike if the weather is good. 

That's it! That's all I have to say. I'm so happy that I have all the stuff out for production, it was so much work! It's hard to believe how difficult it is to manage getting so many small things out the door! I mean the books themselves are such a big thing that you know--every page needs, discussion every page needs consideration and that has so much complexity and risk involved in it. But all the small things also take quite a bit of time and effort to get done. But it's fun for me because you get to see something happen really quickly and then it comes into real life, like, it gets made! That's most exciting part of being a creative for me. So I'm really excited to this stuff come back. But man... I am excited not to be forced to stay up 'till 10 and 11 every night and wake up at six in the morning and start drawing again. That's been quite a crunch. So that it. Happy Saturday, I'll see you guys on the 28th! Back and better than ever!! Baiee :)