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Happy Blogiversary to Bean!

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Way back in August of 2010, I used WordPress for the first time.  I had migrated my website to a WordPress installation.  Up until 2010 I had been blogging on an Angelfire account.  For the most part, migrating to WordPress also changed how I blog.  My early years of blogging were similar to some of the blogs I follow- combing the internet for cool things and then putting all those things into one place for my imaginary readers.  For me, really. Purely consumptive. And lost to y’all, I’m afraid. I backed as much of them up as I could, but I never migrated any pre-2010 content.

Since that 2010 post I have written over 1,200 posts on the Bean. Now I tend towards more ‘original’ content, when I manage a post at all.  I’ve combined my blog with art and comic posts, and then separated my comics from the blog once again. There are still some consumption based posts, but nothing like the stream of links to other people and places that I began with. 

Well that post back in August 2010 was about I Write Like.  I fed it a blog entry from the old site and was told that I wrote like Ursula K. Le Guin. I had not read Le Quin’s work at that time and I am sorry to say, I have not read it still. Obviously this is a missed opportunity that I will have to address. Guess what! I Write Like is still around! And now it includes a full markdown editor and AI manuscript editing assistant.

I fed it some more of my writing to see how I may have changed. I haven’t been doing much fiction or blogging recently, but I write all the time for work: proposals, guidelines, articles, etc. According to I Write Like, a book chapter draft that I wrote within my research assignment at work is written like Isaac Asimov. A blog post from my Every Month Is History Month series is like Kurt Vonnegut, and my kid’s story, Penelope Sea is like J.K. Rowling. I think I Write Like is just trying to butter me up.

Belated blogiversary and Happy New Year

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I haven’t gotten a lot of art up on the site this year and I am late in celebrating the birthday of my dear blog. Happy 15 years, Bean! And, Happy New Year to y’all. Thanks for sticking around. Here’s the doodlin I got out this year:

Happy Blogiversary to me!

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I missed the last year or two of celebrating the Bean on its anniversary. We’re getting pretty old here, but I’ve been through so many migrations its a little hard to tell how old. I can say for sure that the Bean, as a blog, was started in December of 2007. Happy 14th birthday, Bean! 2007 is also when theLeEMSmachine.com first came about, giving a really real URL to a website I had build at the old Angelfire free pages in 2002. So, happy 19th to LeEtta’s online persona? Only, I am not sure of the month.

When I migrated to a new internet host and started using WordPress for the Bean in 2010 I lost a lot of the original Bean content. I also decided it was an opportunity to change the way I blog – less consumption, more production, and I think it has worked out rather well. Since 2010 we’ve had over 1,100 posts, mostly drawing, a lot of comics, and, especially lately, a handful of research:

#DRAWLLOWEEN #modernwitchesdaily #witchyartchallenge 24 hour comics day art books challenges characters Christmas comics consumption copyright crafting doodling drawing fabulous ideas gardening halloween history holiday Holidays in Movies inktober language LeEMSmachine Levi Levi librarians movies music NaNoWriMo Octoberfest Penelope Sea projects ranting recipes research shopping site updates stories television the house traveling webcomic witches Wolf and 7 Kids writing

I can’t say I was super productive drawing wise this year, but I have dug up a handful of year in review doodles:

For those of you who sometimes drop in on my comics, like Levi Levi and No Evil, I am still working on those and more. I also have a handful of zine projects ongoing that I will be dedicating more time to. This is starting to sound like a new years resolution post, too. Well, there you have it. Thank you all for stopping by and for hanging in with me! I hope you like what you see most days.

Changes round here

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Idge001atinyIf you have clicked around on the site lately,  you may have noticed some changes, especially where the comics are concerned.  In an attempt to raise the profile of the comics, I have given them their own mini-sites within the LeEMSmachine.

This means, for you RSS feed reader readers, that the RSS feed you are currently subscribed to for the Bean will not show the comics.  I’ll post alerts here when there is a comic posting, and especially when a new comic story line is debuting…which will happen soon.  In the meantime, explore and have fun!

site breakage

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I’m pretty sure that one of the last plug-in updates broke my image galleries. I don’t use them that much, but if you are perusing a post that has a big old blank spot in it, this is why. I am looking for the solution.

Site updates

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I may not have had enough completed artwork to do an end of year roundup at the New Year, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have enough to update the website in May.

Oh hey, site updates

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I almost forgot, a couple of weeks ago I gave theLeEMSmachine a bit of a facelift.  A new, click-able, front page directs to some new landing pages for my biggest projects of the moment.  Levi Levi and No Evil both have character galleries that I will continue to fill out.

 

Announcing a return

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Yo duders.  I know Levi Levi and I have been well nigh silent for a long time, but October approaches now and it is always my month of prolific posting.  This year will be no different.  Keep your eyes peeled for a special October drawing series and Levi Levi’s return to the now.

when pigs fly

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pigsfly It feels like an eternity already since I properly posted anything, especially a Levi Levi update.  And sadly, I’m not ready to jump back in with two feet, yet, either.

I’ve hinted already, but we have bought our first house and it is currently sucking all our time and money away.  Even so, it’s terribly exciting.  Wrestling with thorny, overgrown bushes in the hot Florida summer sun doesn’t even make it less exciting.

Expect more and more posts on house and garden stuff inspired by my house and garden.  Eventually, I might even manage a before and after slide show.  Aren’t you excited?

All about Levi Levi

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Hello lovely peoples!  I have made a tumblr for Levi Levi to gather all the character art, updates, and news in one place.  I will talk about chapter ideas that I have previously only hounded friends with in the speaking world.

I am also planning on an exclusive tumblr release of a bonus Levi Levi story that I did for mini comics day and that only 3 or 4 people in the world have seen (’cause it’s never been online).

We’re gonna test this out ya’ll.  Tell me what you think.

unicorn

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unicorn026So, a unicorn is a mythical single horned horse, or, if you are familiar with Gone in 60 Seconds, which I admit to seeing way too many times, a unicorn is that un-obtainable thing that you are always chasing after.

Right now, I feel as if my unicorn (re Gone in 60 Seconds) is feeling completely normal.  This is the entirety of my boo-hoo:  chicken pox as an adult sucks.

Okay, on to other updates:  I did not complete the NaNoWriMo challenge of 50,000 words in November, but I did get a start on what will be the most complex and character heavy novel I have ever thought up.  I have no reason not to finish it, so it will be finished.  Finishing it may even create a comprehensive character guide, ’cause I like them all so much.

I am working on new pages for Levi Levi and am looking forward to sending him to the past (not just in a flashback).  Apologies again for the long silence there.

And I am flexing my web design muscles on a business site, pro bono.  Do ya’ll know of any code/design widgetty thingy that creates forms based on a grid system and has awesome logic that will add/subtract fields based on previous choices?

24 hour comics day comic posting

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Hey, the 15 page comic I worked up on 24 Hour Comics Day will post here on the Bean on the 28th of October.  In the world of my head, people have their Halloween Parties on Monday.

web site updates

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I’ve been letting some of my more labor intensive artworks get lost in Bean history.  I’ve pulled out a selection of art that I want to make sure has a permanent home and I gave them it.  A permanent home that is, on theLeEMSmachine.com.  And I did a fancy uniform crop thumbnail arrangement.  Not ground breaking…but a first for me.  🙂

Guess what came in the mail yesterday

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And guess what is now for sale on my shop?  Come on!  Do you need me to spell it out for you?  Levi Levi Chapter One:  The Long Assignment and the Wyvern School for Girls Yearbook 1978 are now available for purchase in the LeEMS store.

Shop

ridiculously tiny site update

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greenbubbleEven thought it’s itty bitty, it tickles me.  Allow me to draw, for you, a picture:  I am adding a link to my homepage. While making the update, I am simply not satisfied with how it looks.  I want some type of line highlight to indicate a new item, but I don’t want to use a bullet list tag ’cause I don’t want the indent.  So I open up my handy dandy Corel Paint and make a teeny tiny, itty bitty dot.  I name him dot, and I load him up as an image.

Now let me explain why this is big for me.  I’ve worked on several web pages that have itty bitty image files to fancify their icons and type, but I’ve never done it before.  This is a fancy first.  I love my dot.  I do.

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