A collection of appearances of "sailboat paintings" in UnCONventional.
I don't tag those, so I had to actually go looking... so at least pretend to be impressed.
So one one of my favorite visual shorthands for "hotel room" in UnCONventional is to put a bad painting on the wall. I've stayed in a lot of hotels over the years, and I've seen a lot of bad hotel art. My picture of choice for the backgrounds is, as depicted above, some sort of sailboat. They're easy to draw in a few lines, and it's sort of a universal cliche.
Isn't it?
I mean I thought it was..
Here's the problem - scanning my memory, I can't actually remember seeing a sailboat painting in a hotel room. It made me question if I had ever seen one in the first place. Maybe this is some cliche I'd gotten from movies or television, which are written by people living on the coasts. Maybe its prevalent there, and I'm just not seeing it at all. In any case, I have no actual memory of seeing one in a midwestern hotel.
Yet I continue to draw them in the background.
So here's my challenge - if you have a photo of a sailboat painting in a hotel room, for the love of god, share it with me.
Just to prove that I'm not crazy or something.
- Traegorn
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So the opening splash page for Chapter Nine of The Chronicles of Crosarth features the "50 year old" airship mentioned back in Chapter Six. I really was fond of the image in full color, so I thought I'd share that as a "random art" post today.
Designing this particular ship was interesting, as I had to make something that looked old compared to Kellin's sailing airship seen briefly in Chapter One, yet appear fast enough for the story to move at a logical pace. So this rambling, beat up machine was the result - something that was probably fast as all get out compared to everything else from its era.
This thing is so tiny too - I always immediately add each new ship to my comparison chart, and this is the smallest ship on the chart yet. It likely won't be seen again after this chapter, but hey, these things amuse me.
- Traegorn
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 So I have to admit here that I shop at Target quite a bit. It's on my way home from dropping off Crysta at the University every morning, so it's the easiest stop for whatever we happen to be short on at any given time. I have other options at my disposal which are probably equally convenient as well, but they're also equally corporate anyways.
There's a point where you have to shrug and say "It probably doesn't matter where I buy this Diet Coke."
Anywho, one such item I needed to buy a few weeks ago was liquid hand soap. Crysta and I prefer it over bar soap, and traditionally Target has stocked the larger size refills. I went to the store expecting to find it in the same aisle as normal... and found it missing.
My first thought was that it was a simple planogram change, and that I'd find the soap in a neighboring aisle. As I awkwardly circled the hygiene sections of the store though, I soon discovered I couldn't locate the hand soap anywhere. I found bar soap, body washes, shampoos... but no liquid handsoap. Neither refills nor dispensers seemed to be in any sort of obvious position.
I ended up giving up and driving to the Marsh down the street where I purchased a couple of smaller refills. I've been to that Target several times now, and each time I've searched for liquid hand soap... and have yet to be able to find it.
And this drives me nuts. I mean, they have to have it somewhere. Even if they stopped stocking refills, I find it hard to believe this common a product is no longer in their inventory. Is it me? Am I just unable to find it?
And that's when it struck me - why can't finding a product in a physical store be as easy as finding it online? Why am I spending so much time hunting down aisles when I have this wonderful smart phone in my pocket? Stores like Target don't get to pick their local layouts -- those come from corporate. Heck, the Lafayette, IN location is almost a perfect mirror version of the Eau Claire, WI location.
Why can't Target put their store maps in their iPhone and Android apps - picking the store you're currently in by geo-location. Then you'd just search for the product, and it tells you what aisle and shelf it's on. It'd also be able to tell you if its in stock and what similar products they carry.
All of this data is sitting in separate databases right now, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to merge a few tables. I'd pitch the idea, but I'm not really capable of developing the app myself. So this is me, putting it out in the ether as my gift to the world: someone build this app.
Because I can't find the f***ing hand soap.
- Traegorn
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Some of you have figured out (and others I've outright told about) some major events which are impending in UnCONventional over the next couple of weeks. It's a storyline I've literally been planning from day one of the comic, but I still think it'll take some of you by surprise.
I had originally thought about doing it in the style of the "I Hate November" storyline, but I think a solid month of melodrama to this degree would be overkill. Well, either that or I'd want to stab my eyes out.
One or the other.
I have no idea whose side the readership will end up on - it's not really designed to be a storyline with a "bad guy" and a "good guy" per se, but I've done that before and y'all have still chosen a hero before. The stories in UnCONventional are human ones, and most of the time we only think we're the good guys because that's the perspective we're seeing our own narrative from.
Everyone thinks they're the hero.
Well, most people at least.
Anyways, I'm trying to balance out the interpersonal stuff with jokes on this little journey, and I hope you guys come along with me.
This is overall going to be a big year of change for UnCONventional.
- Traegorn
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So I got home yesterday evening from No Brand Con 2013, and as always I had a blast. I want to thank everyone who came out, and especially those who were kind enough to give me their had earned cash for terrible books I've written. Sadly I sold out of copies of UnCONventional Book 3 by Saturday morning, but if you're still looking for it you can find it for sale here or over on Amazon. Even if you didn't buy books though, I want you to know you're appreciated. Y'all are awesome.
The current staff did a great job with the convention this year, and I feel good knowing that something I helped build is in such capable hands. I like being able to show up and not have to put out any fires, and this was my lowest effort year ever.
(...it's impossible for me not to help out in some way shape or form -- I'll never be done doing that...)
I don't have a whole lot else to say today, as I'm exceptionally exhausted... and any good stories need to be saved for the comic. I'll just say it was an awesome time and I love you all.
Now back to catching up on everything from when I was gone...
- Traegorn
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 So tonight I hit the road and head to No Brand Con 2013. It's my home convention, and the last con I'm doing for several months (my next one is in August).
No Brand Con is always a unique experience for me. I co-founded the event and was on staff for a very long time -- but I'm no longer actively staffing the event. I still host events for the convention though, so the outside perception is that I'm more involved than I really am. So I walk a line, making sure anything I do doesn't reflect poorly on the con, yet unable to comment on anything further than skin deep.
Oh well, it could be worse.
Crysta and I drive up to Milwaukee tonight, where we'll spend the night, and then go the rest of the way to Eau Claire tomorrow morning. It'll be nice to be back in Eau Claire; I spent over a decade living there. It was my home for a long time, and I often find myself missing that place. It's always strange to go back - to drive around neighborhoods as a visitor that I used to live in - but it'll still be enjoyable.
Nostalgia aside, you can find me in the artist alley for most of the convention. My table will be near main programming and the table top room entrance. On Friday I'll also be co-hosting Opening Ceremonies, which you should come to, as well as Hanzo the Razor at midnight in the No Mercy Room.
Saturday, I'll be cohosting the cosplay contest, and Saturday night I'll be doing a panel called "Trae Overshares" -- an 18+ panel in which you will hear things that I don't really put up on the internet.
It'll be a good time, trust me. It's worth missing an hour of the dance for.
I hope you decide to come out -- the con season is a little crowded in that region right now this time of year, so I know a few regulars are skipping the con this year.
- Traegorn
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 Right now there's a breeze coming through my office window. Birds are literally chirping, and leaves are beginning to bud on the trees around my apartment complex. It's official, spring has finally shown up in Indiana.
Since moving to Indiana, most of the things I've found I love about this place involve putting me outdoors -- so being cooped up inside all winter has been obviously frustrating. I mean, I've literally had nothing to do. Now that warm weather is back though, life can return to a much more pleasant state around these parts. The drive ins have reopened, the parks are pleasant, and pretty soon even the zoo will have its doors open again (if they aren't already).
Spring is here, and I'm quite happy about that.
Spring brings its own stresses of course -- I'm in the middle of convention mania 2013 -- and life always has its complications... but right now, at this moment, I'm just happy that (as previously stated) there's a breeze coming through my office window.
It's the little things.
Of course, while it's nice and sunny here, the weather is still mediocre at best up in my old Northwestern Wisconsin stomping grounds -- which is where I'll be this weekend. No Brand Con is taking place this weekend, and I'm super excited about that. Most of the weekend you'll find me there in Artist Alley. If not, I'll be doing things like hosting events and the occasional panel -- in any case, it's going to be a ton of fun.
And you should come to it.
Because, again, it'll be fun. Or, as we occasionally misspell it on purpose, it'll be "funn."
That never really caught on like we hoped it would.
In any case, lets hope awesomeness abounds and the weather gets nicer up north before I get there. Because let's face it, nice weather is great.
- Traegorn
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 The problem that happens every time I take an extended trip is resettling back into my day to day life. All my patterns have been broken, my internal clock is off, and I just feel off in my routines for a week or two. So assuming everything settles back into place, I should feel back to normal in about a week.
Which is, of course, when I take an extended trip again -- this time to No Brand Con. I figure that should knock all this stuff off kilter again.
That's how this works though, right?
Honestly, I know it's Thursday, but I'm still exhausted from this last weekend. It doesn't help that I only got back Tuesday night, but still. That amount of travel and shifting timezones is enough to kick anyone's ass. I'll be on the road this weekend again, but only for a day - so that shouldn't muck with my internal schedule all that much. It was supposed to be my weekend off in the middle of the chaos, but familial tragedy struck hard.
Mostly, the universe is a sh**head bastard, and can go f*** itself. My weekend is kind of the least important thing in that situation.
That's not a happy subject though, so I'll move on. Stuff is chaotic now, but it will soon be back to normal.
Then not normal again for a week or two.
Then back to normal again.
Warm weather is finally returning to Indiana after a cold and long winter. There are plenty of things for Crysta and I to do around here when its nice out, but in the cold we end up pretty cooped up. I look forward to settling back into our warm weather routine soon, which is really the best time of year around these parts.
In any case, I'm home.
I just need to get used to it again.
- Traegorn
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 So anyone who regularly reads this blog knows I spent this weekend at Anomaly Con in Denver, CO. I had, overall, a fantastic time there. I met some cool people, talked to some fans, and got to look at some mountains.
Seriously, it is unfair that even the view from a Walgreens parking lot is beautiful here.
I want to sincerely thank the staff of Anomaly Con for having me out here as a guest. They are a bunch of awesome people, and treated me very well. This convention is a young one, so it wasn't without its hiccups. But as we all know I can be hypercritical, in this case I'll keep my mouth shut. It's far more important to point out how much fun I had and leave it at that.
Because I truly had a ton of fun, and I mean that. You guys rock.
I don't normally do cons in this area, so it was nice to see that they're the same here as they are anywhere else I've been. I mean seriously, like I said last week, everyone at every con looks the same. Well, especially when you have trouble with faces like I do. I spent half the weekend thinking I recognized people from other places, but rationally knew it wasn't true.
Well, except for the five minutes I spent talking to "Hydra," but that doesn't count.
I hope to eventually do another con out in this area, but it's a bit of a haul to get me out here. I don't know when I'll get a chance again, so we'll see.
My next con is No Brand Con in two weeks, so I look forward to returning to my homeland of Northwestern Wisconsin. As always, I'm excited. Right now I'm still in Colorado, and have a lot of travel ahead of me. Today I will cross Eastern Colorado and Nebraska, and then complete my trip home tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the interesting drive, today is the boring one.
Nebraska is just flat and yellow. I'm just saying...
- Traegorn
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