Harknell and I have just gotten back home from the Virginia leg of this year’s haunted attraction blogging. We were in Williamsburg for Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Howl O Scream.

BGW is such a great park. We had a lot of fun during the day in their Lorikeet Glen. It is full of friendly birds that you can feed. While I am writing up the HoS review, I wanted to share with you what happens when a cute bird decides to commandeer Harknell. I happened to be there with my camera and took these pictures in this exact order.

First, the bird stared at us from his perch:

Then all of a sudden he darted for Harknell:

POUNCE!!!

Why hallo:

HE HAS MALEVOLENT FACE!

Then it fell asleep:

I’m serious. It fell asleep for over 10 minutes. He let me pet him for quite a long time. He was very small and soft.

I had to scoop him up to get him off. He did not like that.

Hey, we were all in favor of taking him home, but I doubt that would work.

BGT’s HoS 2010 icon, is the rocker chick Sylvie. The guys in Tampa have done an amazing job creating a world for her.

All of the parts of the mockumentary for BGT HoS’s icon Sylvie are now up!

If this wasn’t enough, the gift shop at the park actually features guitars you can buy and other crazy merchandise. I’ll get some photos for you!

If you can get to Tampa, Howl o Scream starts this weekend! In my opinion, it is a can’t miss event that holds it’s own against even Universal Studios. The houses are always well done, scary, and the crowds are manageable. It’s just a joy to visit BGT and I cannot wait to go again.

Halloween Horror Nights begins tomorrow, September 24th! At 6PM and 9:30 PM there will be some sort of live feed set up at HalloweenHorrorNights.com > News. My guess is that this will show you an opening stage show, but I am not sure. This is the first year they have done this.

Unfortunately and fortunately, I will be en route to cover Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Howl O Scream, so I can’t watch it. Oh well..I’ll get to SEE IT IN PERSON in a matter of days, so I am no too upset.

Speaking of new features, HHN now has a VIP cocktail lounge. They must have seen what an excellent job that Busch Gardens Tampa Howl o Scream was doing with their VIP lounge which is now free to enter. BGT really is a pioneer these days.

For $9.99 extra at HHN you get admission to a VIP bar area and the ability to view memorabilia from the past. I’m probably going to do this. I don’t care about the bar one way or the other, but the ability to see some art and design work is something that my creative self can’t pass up.

They don’t teach business or workflow in art school, so unfortunately a lot of creative people find themselves wanting to hide in their studio. I’m here to give you the power back to take control of your creative business and your motivation.
 
The human mind reacts very well to writing. I learned Japanese by writing, so after having yet another useless try and using technology to organize my life, I figured why not swallow my pride and go back to basics? What I found was that not only was it a better method for me, but it helped me stay motivated. I use index cards. A quick glance at an index card told me exactly what to do and prevented any time wasting. Now I will share my method with you.
 
The Method:
 
All of my To Dos are kept on a deck of index cards fastened together by a binder clip.

Card 1:
 
The top index card has 3 columns: Now, Waiting, and Goals.
 
Now:
 
Now has things that I need to do the next time I sit in front of my desktop computer. This could be a new piece of art for a promo campaign, the next Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos comic, writing a tutorial, or something as simple as answering an email.

Things that can be done in a few seconds or minutes get done first and immediately. Deadline items (like the next comic) get done before freeform art because the comic must happen above all.
 
Waiting:
 
Waiting is for things I can’t work on now because I need something from someone else. I check this column daily and and ping the people I am collaborating with periodically. Often this is handled in weekly review sessions or by just asking the person how things are going.
 
Goals:
 
Goals are big things. This could be attending a convention, a website or book launch, or something like “increase website traffic by 10,000″.
 
Card 2:
 
The second card is my shopping list. We are talking about things like milk, Count Chocula cereal,  or a new pair of shoes. I also keep errands like going to the tailor or returning something.
 
Card 3:
 
The third card has notes about the Stupid and Insane universe. I forget things I’ve written…like the fact that William eats brain trees and that I need to bring back the evil unnamed girl from the “Descent into the Deathside” story arc.
 
My sketchbook contains My Annoying Life ideas, since those come to me randomly. Sometimes I sketch them on post-its and stick them inside the book.
 
All other cards are used for spontaneous notes. As I check tasks off of the first 3 cards, the tasks are rewritten on new cards. Similarly, the spontaneous notes are integrated in this way. When I rewrite stuff out my mind is re-engaging with the priorities, so I almost never forget about a task. My index cards are my life. I feel I control my life in this way, so motivation comes naturally. The second I started doing this, I forgot about any depressive feelings and was able to focus on goals and the steps that make up those goals.
 
If you find yourself lost, unfocused, and depressed this might be a good thing to try. I think you will find that when difficult things are broken down into smaller steps that you can physically see – everything starts falling into place. The best part is that by utilizing your goals column, you can actually see your progress. Seeing your progress is so very important because you will be able to see what you have done when you are having a bad day. This is your motivation to keep going!

My friend Sa[N]sPants is playing Team Fortress 2 for for Children’s Hospital! If you don’t know what Team Fortress 2 is, click here!

Hello everyone, this is Sa[N]sPants. Some of you have seen me play on the server, so… hi!

I and a couple of friends are participating in the ExtraLife charity drive for our local Children’s Hospitals. As you may have guessed, this is going to involve playing a video game for 24 hours.

Straight.

With maybe one or two pee breaks.

Taraph75 has graciously provided us with slots on server 3 (all Payload, all the time!) with which to spend our 24 hours. During this time we are looking at losing our sanity and probably our dignity. And maybe not even in that order. We also hope to raise a bit of money for our respective charities, and use our love of gaming to help children in need.

So, to tl;dr this:

WHAT: Gaming for charity
WHERE: Server 3, [N]
When: October 16th, 8AM PST to October 17th, 8AM PST

Here is the link to our team page.

Please take some time to look over the site and if you can, please donate to our cause! And if you want to watch us lose our minds, join us when we’re on, say ‘hi’! Laugh at us, sympathize with us, blow us up!

Thank you all for your time, and especially Taraph and the other admins for all of their help, and a thanks in advance for anyone who donates!

So cool! Click to their team page for more information!