Kenny and Avi, the editors of Oztaku, decided to play an April Fool's joke on their various artists and board-members. Kenny started by pretending to resign, followed quite a bit later (Apr 2nd, 2005, 12:00am) by a post purporting to be from Avi's girlfriend, saying that Avi had reacted badly, stormed off and subsequently been hit by a truck, leaving him in a critical condition in hospital. For various reasons - including the timing and Kenny's name disappearing from the moderators' list - quite a few of us took it seriously. I even thought through my ongoing plans for Moth & Tanuki - what it would mean and whether to continue or not. Possibly I've just lost too many friends along the way to find this sort of stuff amusing.

Writing vs. drawing
I finished the best Moth & Tanuki script over Easter, though it came out a bit longer than expected. However, that April Fool's stunt stopped me drawing for a few days, and on Sunday I found I was writing instead. I scripted the second part of a comic serial I've been researching (the one I toyed with turning into a straight novel instead) and also put together the basic concepts for yet another one. Yesterday, I finally got a character design right that I'd been struggling with - I'd like to show it here, but for copyright reasons, I'll hang fire until that project is closer to being in print somewhere. I'm definitely now looking for paid comics work!

The writing/drawing things are fairly separate activities, I find. There are patches where I seem to be able to do nothing but draw, and others where I seem to be able to do nothing but write. When I'm doing one I have doubts about my ongoing abilities in the other area, but fortunately the other side kicks back in at some point. It's probably no accident that my illustrator side has taken on a couple of collaborative projects with other writers :). The criteria (apart from time) remains the same as ever: if I'm collaborating with another writer they have to be able to write at least as well as I do - preferably better! Both these writers are strong.

Blood
Apparently, I have high blood cholesterol. I guess when you get to my age you have to start thinking about such things. The pains in my calves were probably a warning that I spend too long staring into a computer or drawing, though I do try to get a few long walks in every week (bushwalking's always something I've enjoyed, but I don't seem to have as much time lately).

I only go to a doctor once a year or so. The last one I went to (around Christmas) told me I didn't have whooping cough and lectured me on keeping going to work - from the blood test I just had, it turns out I did have it, and going anywhere would have been irresponsible (even if I could have)!

Anyway, I went to Jill's doctor this time. It's funny - due to my cholesterol level she says I'll have to give up cheese, ice-cream, processed meat, fatty meat, etc. - but I already don't eat any of those things! On the upside, I'm thin, don't smoke and have low blood pressure. We've been thinking about going onto Pritikin for a while, but I think the time for me has come.

Mice
The strange shufflings and scratchings around the house have revealed themselves to be tiny mice, mostly living in the back of the piano (aren't we playing it enough?). The kids seem to want to catch them and possibly make pets out of them, and it's not like I enjoy using mousetraps or rat poison, so I'll see if we can get a humane trap.