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I think I'd rather go through a printing service and self-publish and at least have the rights of marketing/distribution for my copy(ies).  Of course, that's the only way I'd get published so it's a given.  My future-ex-mother-in-law works for a printing company for self-publishing authors.  They see all kinda of crap flow through there but at least they give it a good treatment before it leaves their offices. 

It's an interesting concept, but never could get into book-based RPG's.  Out of curiosity, was browsing PA's "Gaming" section to see if I could locate your books (before you were kind enough to give the titles) and found a book about dealing with Prostate Cancer.  If only I could put that down to a strange sense of humor.  I have to assume, after reading the P&E write-up, that you used PA before you found P&E.

I'd be more likely to go for it if it were CD-Extra style with Apprentice I and/or II on the disc.  I haven't played A1 in talkie format yet, so it'd be nifty to have a hard copy.  I'd still have to pay postage because I'm too bloody lazy to drive 10 miles.

It's difficult enough to write a story, let alone communicate your ideas in comic format.  After Eggie's tough-to-follow, excellent entry, I had a pre-conception about the direction of the storyline.  Intervening entries modified that somewhat. 

Without the ability to work on it ahead of time or even figure out what you'll be drawing, the entire thing's on hold while waiting for somebody to submit.  The competition for next page is a worthy idea, but would slow the already sluggish activity to a grinding halt, even if it meant ensuring all entries are aesthetic and make logical sense. 

I submit that a "Director" takes the reins, writing up a short story with X number of scenes.  As people volunteer, that director PM's them the scene number they'll be doing (descriptive narrative becomes pictures, dialog in comic bubbles).  Each scene should be no more than a paragraph with fairly simplistic summary.  Panels are only posted sequentially as available.  Readers get the writers story, illustrators show off artwork & style, director gets to see their vision realized (or massacred). 

My idea might be too restrictive.  Without any creative lee-way, activities are stale; with absolute creative license, however, it's chaotic.  [if activity continues as is, feel free to wipe out my lengthy post]

If it stays nearly the same or the existing images stick around with transfer to new rules, it'd certainly help if someone could summarize "our story thus far . . . "  I was starting to, but to be frank, there's a couple panels that completely lose me.

I use Nero for most of my Burning/converting stuff.  It'll do Mini-DVDs as well (DVD files, CD's worth of space). 

If you're looking for freeware alternatives, TMPGenc can combine files.  It'll work with most any file you've got a codec loaded for.  The drawback is that MPEG-2 encoding is 30-day trial use (because the license costs) but it should suffice for your project.  It'll get the files into proper formatting so you've got a single file, but if you're looking for a viewable DVD it'll still need conversion to the standard .vob .ifo format. 

There are freeware DVD creation suites and utilities, but I seldom mess with them.  A decent place to check is Afterdawn.  Speaking of free, you could always try Windows Movie Maker.  It's got lots of options for filetypes and it should be easy enough to load both files (and sync them if need be), I just don't remember if it'll handle DVD/cd burning for you(in appropriate formats).

New socks and a hot meal. 

You guys are expensive. 

The simple enjoyment of a person's company is one thing.  It's also another to take it slow and let it solidify if it's going to.  It's quite another to reverse course.  Even if it doesn't seem like a reversal to one person that's debating living in another place, it might to another (and in this case it seems it does).  If I were in an intimate relationship with someone and it wasn't progressing towards the canon of generic goals, I'd have no problem with it.  However, if I knew that it was going to disintegrate eventually, or even that it would never progress, I think I'd begin to wonder what the point was.  I wish I didn't have to be so dogmatic about it, but I'm not sure I'm capable of thinking about it any other way.  Of course, spending 4/5ths of your adult life married might tend to cement one's opinion before it has a chance to mature. 

Returning to the initial subject, even if he's capable of moving to an apartment and keeping the relationship at the same level of priority, obviously she's not.  Even if the idea can be communicated to her, the inability to leap into another's mindset can be too large an obstacle to overcome sometimes. 

Phrased poorly by me, 'twas.  Not the 'point' as much as goal.  You don't expect that every relationship will go that far, and I'm sure people get into many they're pretty certain won't.  Isn't the point at which one party or the other realizes that it's not progressing the time that they either break up or something traumatic is caused to happen?  Maybe I've just been sucked into the whole look->like->love->marry->babies outlook.   My view's skewed anyway from an early marriage, lengthy relationship, divorced and not pursuing anything perspective.

The font looks like it's meant to be a pixelated old-school font.  However, the blending towards the edges and some of the thinner lines of it make it a little less obvious than it's meant to.   Overall, I don't think it goes with the concept too well and would be better suited for an 80's compilation or CD's worth of retro arcade games. 

As for the background, it doesn't seem to fit the them and distracts from the foreground.  I'd either go with 1) Absolutely nothing, 2) Random design or 3) more high-concept art, like a color-filled room peering on a black-and-white cityscape or commercial symbolism or somesuch. 

For the foreground, some subtlety to the punctures and, preferably, some reference material used for the design of the holes (all previously mentioned).  They look okay on the shadowed side, but I'd almost rather see nothing on the left than the out-of-place holes.  A quick fix would just be to give them less contrast and saturation.  It all depends on what you're going for.  I quite like the idea of the foreground as accompanies the title of the compilation.

Most standard TVs won't support 60hz.   Depending upon whether the card supports dualview (displaying both outputs at once) and maintaining each at difference refresh rates, you may be able to override the display settings to put it at 30-ish Hz (Standard NTSC likes a 34Hz signal if I remember correctly).  Obviously, this would look like crap on a monitor and even potentially damage a monitor trying to display it.  Since you're talking LCD, it shouldn't give a rat's ass.

As for the custom refresh, if you can't find a setting in the control panel to obtain a rate that low, try going with TV Tool.  It's got a lot more customization ability.  For some reason, the graphics cards manufacturers don't really take into account various ways that TV-out might be used.  My old GeForce 2 GTS wouldn't work with any nVidia software, but worked perfectly with TV Tool. 

If it's really an apartment v. house thing, isn't there some sort of compromise?  It's a strange statement anyway, as I can't think of any benefit to apartments aside from expense. 

Isn't a romantic relationship's point to grow closer and eventually make some sort of long-term commitment?  I haven't heard of too many relationships based on wanting to be with a person for a few years before moving on.

It sounds very much like you care about her but you also would like to be your own person.  Whether its due to lack of time or space, there's something you're not able to do (feel relaxed, work on a hobby, have male-bonding time with friends, whatever).   What keeps you in the relationship is inertia, apparently.  You've been with this person for awhile.  You do care about them, can't imagine at the moment *not* being with them, but there's no determination to either stop the relationship or progress into greater intimacy. 

If it's only a physical-dwelling problem, surely it can be worked out somehow.  If it's that you actually want to live on your own, it seems like it can't be anything other than dropping the relationship back a notch, and it's probably winding down. 

All the typing and re-reading of my redundancy and I find myself unable to give advice due to this being the InterWeb. [Edit: Screw it, you know enough to discount the quality of the on-line assessment.  It's doomed, maybe you can salvage a friendship from it.]

I was going to say that it reminded me of doing QBasic tunes..  it took me great lengths of experimentation to get the Space Quest tune out of it.  Of course, it'd take me just as long to experiment with the alien language of B sharps and 1/4 C notes.  I'll definitely muck around with this one.

I really think it's time to go on to the next BG.  This one's excellent. 

In case you're not () the stain at the bottom of the front-most building still stands out a bit.  Some lightening or some dark-wash on the sidewalk to blend it might help. 

The lamp's frame shows a bit of aliasing, even in the small view.  Some medium-dark gray to blend it in might help. 

As far as that car, checked the photo-reference again.  If you watch the fade-to-drawing, you can slowly see the roof of the car vanish.  It does seem odd that you can see so little of it, yet so much of cars' tops in the rear, as well as top of the fenceline. 

On a side note, DaVinci did many intricate diagrams of machinery but also did studies of "ideal" proportions.  Many artists since have utilized some of the basic facial proportions and structures as a reference point.  It does sound more like a request for model-reference points than a style-blending. 

Kinda like this:

Get a Shure SM57... that's pretty much the record-anything mic. Good quality, too. It'll get you started.

And what about someone like me who knows jack about recording?  Between the $85 mic and a $50 pre-amp with an XLR input, XLR/RCA output, it seems like a costly option (not to mention complicated for a single peripheral).  What's about the minimum you'd need for spoken word recording (like with the Shure SM48 ~$50-$60) to a PC? 

I was considering an SM48, Beringer Tube Pre-Amp (aforementioned $50) with an RCA-SPDIF out to my Audigy 2ZS front panel.  Is there anything there that would severely compromise sound quality? 

I was also wondering about the Samson USB studio condenser Mic.  It's got many of the same features of the Shure, but a simple USB-powered/USB input microphone sounds too easy to be true.  Any experience with these?

Yak dashes back into the terminally-hijacked thread in order to giggle to himself after reading the phrase "high-ranking . . . monk", maybe because it's 6:45 AM

I would express whole-hearted disapproval at your anti-Christian rant, except that Christians feel the need to spray their preachings my direction.  All the same, I'm hoping that you're dealing in basics and stereo-types as I've met quite a few that claim the Christian faith but are very down-to-earth, logical, or otherwise provide enjoyable company. 

Any religious person who is capable of proclaiming their religion, opening themselves up to ridicule, debating their religious and then cheerily laughing with their opponent over a beer (or Near-Beer (TM) if you prefer) is perfectly tolerable in my book.  Exceptions made for those that show up on my doorstep and can't take a little critique or take a light-hearted joke, they are surely damned to hell.

Religions and politics seem to be taboo subjects in public forums because discussions thereof seldom have any usefulness.  Unlike a discussion of different nationalities, a religious exchange isn't likely to help one group learn about another.  Personally, I don't particularly care for any zealout regardless of the subject matter.  They tend to resemble chihuahuas.

So, more like something that'll let you adjust lines and basic shapes quickly, move them around if you like and get a general outline before moving it over to a rasterizing program (like MS-Paint)? 

If that's the case, you could try something like Inkscape.  It's got loads of options, does most vector-type effects & manipulations, is free, works alright for basic animations, allows point manipulations, can convert that MS-Paint bitmap you posted to adjustable vector lineart, and is free.  It's also free.  I like free.

(or you could do it by hand, way to ruin the mood Helm (avatar's looking awfully I Have No Mouth-ish))

And for god's sake, man, wash your hands! Sit up straight! Mind your manners!

Sorry, something about the last line of that critique reminded me of me dear old mum. 

I've got no idea how I would arrange it better or more appealingly, but have to agree on the colors.  Either reduce the overall photo contrast or lower the saturation a bit, but it's coming on so strong against the text that none of it becomes eye-catching when everything's eye-catching. 

There's some confusion to me of Christian, American and European traditions there.    The Easter Bunny's only prevalent due to marketing and secular celebrations of Easter.  In my upbringing and that of every Christian I know, the Easter Bunny is a bit of a supplanter of the "real" meaning of Easter.  Santa Claus, likewise, is often preached against as being akin to the anti-christ, seeking to remove Jesus from the holiday.  As for good ol' Jack and Halloween, they're widely despised by the Christian church, with more hardcore Christians not doing anything on that day because it's "A celebration of evil and darkness where demons and monsters are glorified". 

--edit--  realizing that I'm speaking primarily as an ex-protestant and have little knowledge as to what older branches of Christianity (and less psychotic protestant sections) might include in their religious celebrations.

The use of an Aryan Jesus in movies is less the fault of Christianity and more Hollywood's, I would imagine.  Now, the religious paintings, that's another story.  Of course, taking the basic purpose of God's son Jesus into account, it hardly matters what his nationality was, as he was coming to give us a representation we could understand and associate with (and seek to emulate).  Christians seem to concentrate on the man's works, words and general idea more than his being a human being, so race becomes an unimportant detail (though you'd think at least attempting historical accuracy would be more conducive), similar to the unlikely hairstyle that's often portrayed (seeing as how he was a Nazarine). 

This has swung way out of the path of thanksgiving and gone into yet another religious discussion. Yay.   I really don't think non-religious Thanksgiving traditions / patrons give two hoots about its potentially religious uses, nor address their thanks to God, so much as Earth/Life itself or to their fellows.