11:52 AM
Blogging on the remains of a Friday morning. Not quite sure where the day went so far, but it’s raining and gloomy, so I’m happy for a change.
Not much to blog about. I’m actually working on new strips as we speak, so we’ll probably have something new up for next week. I know, I know, it’s been a month now since new stuff went up but dang, what a month.
Between my dad, TechLive changes and the end of seasons at work, there hasn’t been a lot of motivation to do new strips. I’m still not sure what our focus will be or how we’re going to handle writing out the key characters who lost their jobs in the changes (Laura, Stacey T., Steve, Anne and Jean). In the past we’ve used a mix of things to write out characters when this has happened. Most recently, Carmine was let go from the company right about the time I had him in a major story with Erica. If you notice, he sort of vanishes from the story line and isn’t mentioned again. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t planned more with Carmine since he was never a key character in the story (though I had something in mind down the line), I wasn’t sure that he was gone for good, and I really wasn’t sure what was appropriate. The result? He isn’t mentioned again. The door is left open for his return to the strip.
Before that we had the Boogie Bill situation. Bill got a better job and left the company. Since I loved the concept of Boogie Bill (and was getting more comfortable writing him), it left me with a huge hole to fill in the plot line. Something HAD to be said about his leaving, so he was set to be killed off (or as killed off as you can get in this weird story line), in a strangely funny battle with the forces of Microsoft. Well, the events of Sept. 11 changed those plans. His “death” was off camera and if there’s a place for him (and if I can get footage from his new show), we’ll see about bringing him back in some shape or form down the line.
Now we have at least five major characters who met the ax. I’m sure there’s more, but as the weeks go on there have been a lot of rumors about who is left at the station and no clear indication of who survived the layoff “massacre” of black Friday. Some folks who were rumored to be gone are back on the air, while others who are said to be left there have yet to appear. So it’s been a waiting game to see who appears on TV. So far I know that everyone that I’ve used from Extended Play, Call for Help, Audio File, Cyber Crime, and the Screen Savers (minus Scott Herriott) are safe to use. I’ve seen Gary N., Erica, Michaela, *Peter Barnes*, Farhan, Robert, Blanche, Becky, James Kim, Dvorak, Robyn Huggiebear, Kristen, David S., and Ray W. from TechLive the other shows so far, so I’m assuming they’re safe to use as well. I’m also pretty sure that Jim L. and Andrew Hahn are still there, since they’re big wigs.
Still unclear about Han C., Matt M., Stacee B. or Steve A. from TechLive. Steve’s been the most rumored to be gone, but TechTV hasn’t updated their “personalities” pages yet so you never know. We gave Steve a good send off with the last batch of strips so we’ll probably just leave it at that. Though I’m going to miss the zaaaaap segments. I was hoping to do more with Stacee B. down the line. She had the best job — she was the travel reporter so she got paid to travel. Man, would have loved that gig. 🙂 But I’m sure I’ll figure out some way of writing her and the rest off, if not directly on camera, at least in a mention in the strip.
That still leaves Jean Lee, Laura, and the rest. I have something in mind for Jean Lee. Might not be in this batch (5 strips in mind, which will bring season 7 and the old footage to a close), but it will be in the near future. Laura had somewhat of a send off from her TechLive days, but I have all that footage from call for help to use yet. So she’s going to get another go coming up. Stacey T. is a hard one. She wasn’t a big player, but she was a big presence on the channel (and THAT timing sucked, they sent her all the way back to NY, she was on the front lines for the network during 9-11, and then blamo, laid off), so she deserves some sort of send off.
Which, of course, leads us to the layoffs as a subject in the strip and how the layoffs have changed the fan community. I’ve seen fan sites fold because of the layoffs. TechTV Fanatics went. Others have either suspended publication or just plain vanished overnight. I will tell you that I did consider shutting this site down for a time. This last round changed too much about the channel and hurt a lot of people I cared about. I wouldn’t be featuring any of them here if I didn’t care about them, that’s for sure. What happened changed my daily routine (no more chatting in the TechTV chat since I have no clue if there’s even a TechLive chat any more), it changed the focus of the channel (ah, return to reruns!), and it changed the community. For a time the changes came so fast and hit so hard, it was impossible to think about doing strips. Heck, until the smoke clears I’m still cautious about what I do here, but when the time comes we will address the changes. No subject is taboo.
With that, I’m bringing a ramble to a close. Welcome to those from Lockergnome.com who are joining in the madness that is this strip. Also a shout out to those folks on Leoville who have always supported this strip. Glad to have you all here.
Take care,
k9
12:54 PM
P.S. RIP George Harrison. As a Beatles fan who was born a generation too late, you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.