The Ferret Interviewed On A Podcast

on May 30, 2013
Posted In: Blog

Just a late heads-up, I’ve started being a somewhat-regular guest on the ADHDcast, a new podcast put on by an old friend of mine, Dustin Lawson-Hart. In the third episode, he interviewed me about my comics, followed by another friend of ours talking about his current video game project, Age Of Blood. This was recorded before I announced BlendShow, my upcoming presentation software, so just so you know, that’s the secret project we’re talking about at the end of my segment.

You can download that podcast from this page.

The next episode, episode 5, will have a little more discussion about BlendShow and be considerably shorter. Episodes 3 and 4 are pretty long because we’re old friends and don’t get to hang out much anymore, and believe me, there was a LOT cut out for your benefit, heh. I am not on episode 4, nor have I heard it yet, so I won’t pressure you into listening to that one.

ADHDcast doesn’t have an iTunes-compatible rss feed(yet?), and the blog’s rss link isn’t displayed anywhere(yet?), so if you want to subscribe to it, add this url to a blog-friendly rss feed catcher. Update: iTunes-friendly url is this thing.

 

startIn other news, my backup computer is useless. The hard drive has been clicking, which means it’s close to dying(my main laptop didn’t give ANY warning), and installing an older graphics driver didn’t fix the issue on display in the photo here. The graphics hardware might just be getting old. Lately, the computer has had trouble booting up, so I’m finally giving up on it. I am now down to a shared computer and a Nexus 7. Thankfully, my backed-up data is almost finished downloading to the shared computer. It’s a nice reminder that I really need to also save up for an external hard drive, because online backup is SLOW and my super-fast internet charges extra if I download more than 50 GB in a month, not counting between midnight and 8:00 AM, when I’m limiting my backup restoring to. At least with online backup, it’s extremely automatic and extremely off-site. Both key factors in choosing it.

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Kennyland Has Closed

on May 21, 2013
Posted In: Blog

 

Before…

Furnation-last-map

 

After…Kennyland-gone-2013

Today, the region that Kennyland resided in has closed. This screenshot was taken while they were returning all of the objects, there is nothing left now. With a single day’s notice, less than a day after I paid for another week’s rent(I was refunded some of it) and about an hour after Second Life charged me to list the park in their directory for another week(13 cents). Thankfully that was enough notice for me to pack parts of Kennyland together for easier re-deployment. Stray bits can be difficult to reposition. I wish I could have given advance notice to you about this, but I didn’t have much notice myself. This wouldn’t be the first time a FurNation region containing Kennyland has shut down without notice.

I don’t know that I’ll re-open Kennyland. The park got fewer than 10 visitors per day, attracted fewer than 200 subscribers over the course of 3 years(Barely anybody clicks the link in the notice), and nobody buys anything from it. I check my transaction history occasionally, and all of my Second Life sales are through the Second Life Marketplace, which doesn’t require any land. Anymore, I only get on Second Life to update the comic subscription notices and the comic display in the park, and very occasional tweaks to the park. I don’t socialize there AT ALL, and that’s what Second Life is really for. For me, Second Life was for building things. Well, I’ve graduated to Blender, now. And for the cost of keeping land there, I could invest that money more effectively in banner ads on other websites. I definitely got new readers from it, but for US$6 per month and the added complication to the comic updating process(slightly longer than updating a website with the comic), there really isn’t enough return on the investment. Especially with how the comic’s update schedule is right now. If I were to re-open Kennyland, it will inevitably cost more than before, because Furnation really did have the best price in Second Life(L$1 per prim per week, 350 prims in a 28x28m parcel). Adding to that, Furnation had a LOT of traffic(people could read the comic without actually entering the park), so there isn’t a chance of losing less money on this than before.

If you’re subscribed to the comic through Second Life(they’ll be email notices for most of you), you’ll have to re-subscribe via rss or email. There’s also my FurAffinity page, if you prefer to subscribe there.

Even though I might be through with Second Life, I still hope to create more products, because for the past few weeks I’ve actually been making back that US$1.50 per week that I spend on the park. The more products I have, the higher that profit will be. Without Kennyland, I might actually make back what I spend on web hosting! It’s sad that this is the highest-earning thing I do, not including my fast food job. Hopefully I can monetize the BlendShow software more than that.

I will miss having the only theme park based on a webcomic, though.

 

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