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Howard Tayler Profile picture
Howard Tayler
@howardtayler
Vaxxed & 4x-Boosted, Legacy Blue Check, He/Him, Husband to @SandraTayler, Father of Four, #mecfs/#LongCovid, https://t.co/dPerQqc70d, https://t.co/JzAr1QWHjT
Nov 6, 2022 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
I watched ENOLA HOLMES 2, and WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY and now I have big thoughts about the significance of "old" art. I didn't realize I was sitting down to watch two sides of the same coin back-to-back, but here we are.

ENOLA HOLMES is (obviously) based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

WEIRD shows how @alyankovic's musical genius is expressed through subversion of existing music.
Nov 5, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I told Sandra that I was down to the last four "canine/anthro" sketches, and she told me that there was at least one more in the "too complicated for now, save these for last" stack.

Turns out there's EXACTLY one, and it's for @ksonney. Me, queuing up the fifth of tonight's sketches as a reward to myself...
Nov 5, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
As a cis/white male my experiences with this site have been predictably more pleasant than many other people's, but the real game changer for me was 2016-ish, when, for no particular reason¹, I got aggressive with the blocking and muting. ¹ 2016-ish? There may have been a particular reason.
Nov 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I was busy paying attention to my hand injury and the stack of books that still require sketches. Meanwhile, the latest Schlock Mercenary book project crowdfunded its way through the last stretch goal.

kickstarter.com/projects/howar… I thought I could wait until next week to start showing off pin designs, and now I'm going to wait until next week anyway (because weekend) only now they'll be late.

I love that this is doing well, but I strongly dislike not being on top of things.
Nov 4, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Yesterday I sketched in books until my hand hurt. ROOKIE MISTAKE which is kind of terrible considering my non-rookie status.

Hand feels better today, because I didn't OVER-over-do things, but still... I need to be more careful. I'm identifying (or at least paying more attention to) the strain-inducing things. The worst, weirdly, is putting caps back on the Copic Pigment Liners. They need quite a push compared to the markers, and the simplest way to do is also the wrongest way to do it.
Nov 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I have tried making yakisoba several times, using sauce recipes I've found online, and using the amazing noodles from @umiorganic, and I've been either underwhelmed or disappointed *every time.*

The noodles are amazing, but apparently I don't like yakisoba sauces.

1/ This morning I tried something new. I put 1/2 cup of my homemade broth (carrot/onion/ham, heavy on carrot) and 2 tbsp of butter in the skillet, and brought it up to a shallow, sizzling boil.

Then I added the noodles, and let them sit for a couple of minutes

2/
Oct 19, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
We've updated the Kickstarter page to include links to a free desktop wallpaper, and we've revealed the (already unlocked) $90k stretch goal *and* the brand-new $125k stretch goal.

kickstarter.com/projects/howar… On a related note, *now* I remember why I hate trying to do desktop wallpapers for phones. Since this design has circles in it, stretching it between different aspect ratios is NO DON'T DO THAT but oh geez there are so many.
Oct 19, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Our 800-backer stretch goal has been met, and I've just finished creating the promised desktop wallpaper. Here's a thumbnail! Image We're about to cross the 90k threshold which means Sandra and I must very quickly decide what we were hiding behind the TBA label.

Because no, we had NOT yet decided. We had a list, but didn't expect to be consulting it until early next month.

kickstarter.com/projects/howar…
Oct 18, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
We funded, but in the spirit of not following instructions, I spent about two hours sketching in XDM2e books. Stopped when my hand began to hurt (but LONG before 2019-me would have stopped.) Oh, dear. While I was sketching we not only funded but we blew past the first two stretch goals AND the first backer-count goal, so now I need to make stuff so you can see what you've unlocked, you monsters.

You wonderful, awesome, heroic monsters.

kickstarter.com/projects/howar…
Oct 18, 2022 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
So, we're already around 60% funded, which is awesome. Instead of sitting in front of my PC and pressing F5, I'm going to scoot over to the drafting table and get to work finishing the rewards for our previous Kickstarter.
kickstarter.com/projects/howar… Is this kind of embarrassing? Yes. When I began the XDM2e sketch editions, I was confident I could knock them all down in a month. I was on track to do exactly that until I pushed too hard, and had to spend EIGHT WEEKS rehabilitating my hand.
Jul 28, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
It's official. This is the worst timeline. “Prior research has focused on bioinspired systems [...] Necrobotics, on the other hand, uses biotic materials, which are non-living materials derived from once-living organisms, such as the necrobotic gripper sourced from a spider in our work.” — Faye Yap, mechanical engineer
Jul 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Adding "Hot Snakes" to the pre-apocalypse bingo card. Is it time to rotate "Murder Hornets" off the list? Speaking of hornets, Sandra found a hornet nest in our apricot tree, and they turned out to be THESE GUYS.

She poisoned them with an entire can of HornetMurder¹ brand Hornet Murder that very evening.

pestco.com/9-reasons-to-f…
Jul 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The actual study is not anti-nap.

Taking naps *may* be a sign that you're suffering from sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea can lead to a number of problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, heat death of the universe, and other stuff I maybe misremembered. For my own part, I'm pretty sure that my 15-to-25-minute midday naps are good for me, and are NOT a sign of bad nighttime sleep. I take them to let my subconscious rear up for a few minutes and perhaps solve a problem ore two before I begin my afternoon.
Jul 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Since sometime back in '08 the advice I gave anyone who would ask was "own your platform."

Maybe your website doesn't get all the traffic, but never let it lapse, and never get baited into exclusively putting your content on someone else's turnkey solution.

And this is why. This.
Is.
Why.
Jul 12, 2022 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
TIL: James Webb was complicit in the State Department's purge of homosexual individuals from the federal workforce, and NASA whitewashed it so they could name a telescope after him.

For my own part, the JWST is now the NFST: "Newer, Fancier Space Telescope."

Because it is! This blog post is a good starting point, should you wish to check my sources.

tl;dr—Webb's complicity is a matter of public record. NASA's cover-up is a matter of reports from behind-closed-doors.

galileospendulum.org/2022/07/11/why…
May 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"Anybody got an accordion" is my favorite cinematic reference to an accordion since (*checks notes*) ISHTAR. "Telling the truth is a dangerous business
Honest and popular don't go hand-in-hand
If you admit that you play the accordion
No-one will hire you for their rock-n-roll band."
—ISHTAR (this is literally the ONLY PART of that movie I remember)
Sep 7, 2021 • 51 tweets • 10 min read
Yesterday I worked on some brand new material for the #XDM2e appendix. It's "The X-Treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling," and in this thread I will share the core concept for free! So: conversational storytelling, aka "shooting the breeze," is that thing where you're in a conversation, and something reminds you of a personal experience, and you decide to share that experience during the conversation.
Apr 8, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Adding "get the flu shot every year" to my list of "new normal" behaviors.

Yes, Covid-19 is worse, and terrible, and all that, but the flu ALSO kills people and saving just one life is worth a bit of discomfort. It's not that I was anti-vax, mind you. I was just LAZY, so some years I did and some years I didn't, and I never thought much about it.

I am thinking quite much about it now.

This pain in my arm, this ache in my day? It's a price I will cheerfully pay to save your life.
Apr 7, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Moderna dose 2 received! Got vaccinated at 12:50pm. Played STAR TREK ADVENTURES on Twitch until just before 10pm. By 11:30pm I was set upon by flu-like symptoms. Didn't actually run a fever, but with the chills and the shakes and the aches it sure felt like I did.
Apr 6, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The title slide for my keynote speech later this month: Image I could have spent another hour skewing the individual stencil letters for more of that on-brand slap-dash look, but at some point I have to turn the camera on and begin recording.
Mar 30, 2021 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
After literal *weeks* of staring at blank pages and musing non-productively about how best to proceed, I'm now laying out bonus story pages for the next Schlock Mercenary book, and everything appears to be working. Part of the roadblock was that I can see how any given problem, especially a small one, will amplify itself during the process of grinding out multiple pages. Like the flatting thing, where I was getting uncolored jaggies despite using (I thought) settings to prevent those.