nenadi

I updated.

It was on time and everything, I just forgot to post yesterday to remind everyone.  Click the image to read, or CLICK HERE to read it on Smackjeeves.  This page was really fun to draw. I like drawing long hair-- which I rarely get to do with Heard.

It was mah birfday!
Last wednesday I turned 23. I'm so old!  I went out with my friends Alma, Amanda, and Holly to celebrate! We drank a lot and had a jolly time.


And then I got food poisoning!
I threw up all of the next day and felt nauseated for several days. I still feel a bit nauseated today.  I've never puked more times in my life, seriously.  It's kinda amazing how much puke can come out of one girl in one day.

Birthday, take 2.
Then some suckers came down to hang out for my birthday.  John, Raymond, my brother and sister went out with me a few days later to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately my stomach was still so sensitive that I couldn't drink at all, so I was the DD at my own party. Oh well! It was still a good time.


Korea: December 29
Also, my flight has been booked for Korea. There's no turning back, now! I'll be leaving early in the morning on December 29.   Also, some people seem to be confused about this-- I'm NOT going to Korea for a vacation. I am MOVING to Korea.  I will live and work there for a year or so-- after that, I'm not sure where I'll be going or what I'll be doing. I may move back to Japan, I may stay in Korea for more years.. I have no clue!

The end, for now!

Oh my. It's an update.
I finally updated again!

Click the image to read the page. Or, CLICK HERE to read the page on Smackjeeves.

Two weeks from now? Korea.
I've been working really hard on cleaning out my room. I can't believe how quickly time passes.. I'll be on a plane to South Korea in about 2 weeks. I've still got so much to get rid of.. yikes!

Everything is for sale & Seeecret bonus item.
So, check out my Sales journal. I've still got more stuff to list.. Oh, and check out the Heard merchandise for sale. I probably shouldn't say too much, but all orders will come with a SPECIAL bonus item (never before seen online or anything.)

Almost my birthday!
I've got a birthday package sitting in front of me. But I can't open it until my birthday~ Ugh, it's TORTURING ME! I just have no idea what it could be, that's why it's REALLY driving me nuts. Damn you, John. DAMN YOU AND YOUR GIFT! I've got some nice plans lined up for my birthday, so I'm quite excited! It's almost like a birthday/going away party.

If you'd like to give me a birthday gift, here's some awesome options!
Tell a friend about Heard! Post a link on your facebook or twitter or whatever.
Draw me some fanart! Or write me a fanfic! Or-- heck, anything creative is an AWESOME gift to me!
Advertise on Heard. Hey, it may not be much money, but it DOES help me out. :D
Buy merchandise or donate, if you've got moneys to spare. (But don't fret if you don't! )
Just keep reading and being a source of positive feedback. :D <3 Really, it's a great gift to me.

Poll results!
Thanks for all of the participation in my poll last time! You guys all seemed to like NenaOverseas the most, so that's what I think I'll be using! However, I think I'll use "Adventures of Nena" for something eventually. Hmm! Either way, it gave me a lot to think about, so thank you for all of your helpful advice!

Hey guys, I'm going to set up a blog for my friends and family to read while I'm in Korea. I previously had one while I was in Japan, but I want to start a new one that's more general. (I'll probably only live in Korea for a year or so before moving to another country, most likely also in Asia)

So, what do you guys think is the best blog name? O:

Poll #1492631 blogname
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

Which is the best blog name?

View Answers

Nena Overseas
12 (48.0%)

Nena in Asia
2 (8.0%)

Adventures of Nena
8 (32.0%)

Something else (comment please!)
3 (12.0%)

Also, if you didn't notice, I updated.

You can read the page by clicking the thumbnail, or CLICK HERE to read it on Smackjeeves.

As you can see, I decided to use some tones again for this page. The real reason is that I didn't have photoshop reinstalled yet, so.. I decided to do the toning while I waited for it to finish installing. After it was done, I did the lettering in Photoshop again. I just can't stand the lettering in any other program.

You might notice that the font used for asides (the little font used outside of bubbles) has changed. I've been changing it over and over in Heard because I haven't found the one that I like yet.. but I like this one so maybe it will stick?

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Heard Update
I updated. Go read it on the main site, or read it on Smackjeeves here. It's just a sketch cause my hand was killing me before I got a chance to ink it. Sorry. :/

Free stationary to good homes

Also, I have a ton of really cute stationary laying around. Japanese, korean, american-- all of it is mildly to extremely cute. Are any of you interested? I'm not selling it. Just giving it away. If you wanted to paypal me a dollar to pay for postage that would be sweet, though. *Friends get dibs first. I'm too lazy to take pictures or even sort the stuff, so it's just gonna be a grab-bag.


Going back to Part-time at work. WOO!
The new nurse finally started work today, so I'll be going back down to part-time. Tomorrow I've taken the day off to run errands, but starting Wednesday I'll only be at work for 4 hours. My boss says I can pretty much pick my hours so I think i'm gonna work 12:30 to 4:30.. totally awesooome~ That way I have time to get up and exercise in the morning. :D It also means being able to stay up later at night so I can get more pages done. And strain my wrists less at work. AND more time to finish selling and packing stuff. Woop woop! I'm pretty happy about it.

Help a friend out?
My friend Rachel's got some bad medical issues going on right now. You may know her from her many different websites. She has awesome webcomics, an awesome business serving the best webcomics out there, and she needs some help. Read more about the issue here. Thanks. :)

The job in South Korea
I've done plenty of research into the teaching market in Korea as well as my particular school. It is a hagwon (aka private language school), but it has a good reputation. Not every hagwon is a nightmare with asshole owners, though a good 75% are. I've talked to a current employee at the school, my future boss, and several other reputable business contracts.  Everyone confirms that this particular location has good owners and satisfied employees.  I've looked through all of the hagwon black-lists and forums for mentions of complaints with this school and found none. They've been open for over 7 years and there's not a bad word to be found, with over 10 foreign employees at a time.There's always a chance that they'll turn out to be jerks, of course, but I've done everything possible on my side to look out for myself. If I show up and things aren't as promised, I'll just walk out. I've got the money to relocate in Korea or back to the USA or Spain at any time, so it's not like i'm making ahe tn irreversible decision.

I appreciate the concern but a lot of people have emailed me with the same "OMG HAGWONS ARE EVIL!" message, so I thought I'd explain this here to avoid having to type out the same response so many times.  I'm trying to rest my arms, people!

My elbow hurts so bad today.
Seriously, my left elbow hurts incredibly today. In an effort to rest my drawing hand, I've been doing more with my left arm.  It's definitely taking its toll because today my left elbow and wrist hurt more than they ever have.  Oh well! My right arm feels better, soo... I win?  And yes, I realize that I should be resting both arms completely for 3+ weeks, it just isn't going to happen right now. :/  I have too much to do.

Emails / message replies will be slow for a while
I've gotten a lot of messages and emails and whatnot lately.  Mostly encouraging "Feel better!" notes and whatnot. I super appreciate them, but in an effort to rest I haven't been replying to emails except when necessary.  Just know that I am doing my best to rest my arms and I'm feeling better.  If my email replies seem really short or scatterbrained, it's because I'm trying to write the least amount possible. If I haven't replied to your email/message yet, give me time! I will reply eventually!! Sorry! :<

New laptop?
I need to buy a new laptop, or at least that seems most likely right now. If you have any suggestions for an awesome laptop, I'd love to hear them.  No more expensive than $1,500 please-- something around $1,000 would be awesome. The ram and processor are most important to me-- a decent graphics card is good too.  Harddrive space isn't of particular concern.  Brands that you've had good experiences with = bonus!

Okay.. that's it from me. back to resting the ole arms.

Computer is dying.
So, the virus I got was a major problem.  I ended up having to wipe my drive and re-install windows.  Unfortunately, the problem is worse than that. Even though I've reinstalled windows, I'm having a lot of problems with booting the computer and also shutting down.  Basically, nothing seems to be working properly.  This was happening before I wiped my drive, too-- my computer wouldn't boot for a few hours. Then suddenly it booted successfully, telling me it had recovered from a serious harddrive problem.  I chalked it up to the virus, but now it seems that the virus was distracting me from a bigger problem: the harddrive is dying. I've got everything backed up, so, if it suddenly dies, I'll be okay.  I guess the timing is okay, all things considered... it just sucks to buy a new laptop.  One thing's for sure: NEVER AGAIN, DELL. *I never bought this dell, it was given to me as part of my scholarship at my university.

I DONT KNOW WHEN I CAN UPDATE. My computer barely lets me open Word documents right now, much less run Mangastudio and Photoshop.  Great timing, huh? Now I can expect 10 times the whiney comments.  No, but seriously, all the whining in the world won't make a new laptop any less expensive. :/

I accepted the job in S. Korea.
Yep. I took the job. I'm in the process of doing the visa paperwork, which will take a while, but if all goes according to plan, I will be leaving very soon after Christmas. Less than 2 months.. yikes.  Expect to see a lot of posts about me selling stuff. I don't want to have anything sitting around in storage while I'm gone.  Anyway, I'll be living in Incheon, South Korea.  I'll post more details about the job and whatever as we get closer to that.

I've disabled guest comments on Smackjeeves. If you have a Smackjeeves account, you can comment. Otherwise, you can't.

Frankly I'm considering making impossible for ANYONE to comment. I'm sick of the whiney comments I get-- sure there are cool, encouraging comments, but the majority of my comments are from whiners, people who REPEATEDLY ASK why I'm not drawing (READ THE FUCKING BLURB UNDER THE COMIC), and spambots. I'm sick of it.

I may reverse this decision and allow guest commenters at some point in the future, but for now I've decided to stop nicely answering the same questions over and over. I'm doing what's best for me, even if that means ignoring my most vocal readers.

Cool readers: stay cool.  I know I've been really stressed, irritated, and bitchy. It's NOT at you guys at all. I love you guys. It's the dumb people who make no effort to read my 3 sentences of news under the comic before posting "ITS GRATE UR GOING TO UPDAET AFTER NOT UDPATING FOR SO LONG FOR NO REASON LOL!"  Dumb readers who bother me with the same questions over and over without bothering to read my comic news blurb or livejournal, look forward to having your comments/emails ignored and deleted.


The main site still has commenting open to everyone, but I will delete annoying things so that cool readers don't feel the need to respond to the douchebaggery.

Computer = Virus ahoy!
Neat! My computer seems a bit virus-fucked! I'm getting on it now, hopefully a night or two of work will fix it. Goddamniiiiiit.  This is the last thing I need right now.

MAH CAR IS IN DA SHOP
Nobody in this town can fix a Volkswagen: it's in the shop for the 4th time for the SAME PROBLEM.  Maybe this time it will be fixed! But probably not.

Job offer in South Korea
Self-explanatory. I got a job offer for an english-teaching gig in South Korea. I'll probably take it. I'm still reviewing the contract. FInal decision to be made soon.  More details if I accept the contract. (Though there's a limit to what I can share due to the very contract.)

Thats it for now.

Dream.
I had a dream last night that I was a zombie. I acted the same as usual except everything I did revolved around eating people. I remember going to my friend Warren's house, knocking on his window and asking him to let me in. Then I ate him. I ate a lot of my friends, in my dream. But they weren't screaming or resisting, really. It didn't hurt them or anything, they were like "Oh, YOU! I can't believe I let you eat my leg!". In my dream, everybody's body had a layer of cake on the outside and sweet beef jerky on the inside. No bones, for some reason. Despite the fact that I was eating my friends, it wasn't scary or sad at all. It was a fun dream.


Heard, art, and drawing.
As everyone is well aware, I've been taking a break from drawing Heard. It's more than that, though. I haven't been drawing at all. I just feel completely uninspired. I have zero desire to draw. The idea of drawing for pleasure seems entirely alien to me lately, even though I know that it used to be about fun.

It's not so much that I'm sick of drawing Heard specifically. I don't want to start a new project or anything. I just don't want to draw.  

Lately, I just enjoy being a normal person. A person who doesn't have to think about my hits, readership levels, merchandise ideas, advertising slots, etc.. At the same time, I know I enjoyed doing comics at some point. I know I'll enjoy it again-- I'm just burnt out. I've had a lot of wonderful experiences from being a comic artist-- meeting readers at conventions and in the streets.  I'm disconnected from that part of me that enjoyed it, but I know that it's still there.

I think my disinterest in drawing has very little to do with drawing.  It's mostly the stress I'm dealing with trying to find a good job, trying to reach my short-term goals.


Future job?
I'm talking to some different places right now, if it continues to go well, I may have a job offer soon.  But I still have to negotiate some things, blah blah blah,  I don't have anything concrete yet.  If I can seal a deal for a job, it'll take a lot of pressure off.  Not to mention that job-hunting takes so many hours a week it's practically a job in itself. :/

Although I'd originally intended to return to Japan, I've changed my plans.  It's now more likely that I'll move to South Korea instead.  I can't talk about any details, but I'll let you guys know if I sign a contract.


Current job. Good and bad news.
Also, more bad news for the comic! I'll be working full-time starting in a week.  Probably.  My job was supposed to be a part-time job, but one of the full-time nurses quit suddenly, so I'm going full-time to handle all of the paperwork so that the rest of the (short-staffed) nurses can get the nursely work done.  We've already found a replacement full-time nurse, but it'll be a month before she can start with us, so, I'm looking at 3 weeks to a month of full-time work. After we get that nurse working and trained, I'll go back to part-time.. probably. 


The arms.
I really need the money so I'm glad that I'll be going full-time at work, but it's a bad break for my arms.  I'm in so much pain lately. Having a data-entry job isn't helping the wrist pain. I'm wearing wrist-braces almost 24/7 now (including when I'm asleep and at work) and it's helping a lot with the pain, but the moment I take them off, the pain returns. Drawing with the brace on is uncomfortable, but hey.. I drew the last 5 pages or so with the brace, so, I guess I can continue.  I have emergency medical insurance, so I can't afford to see a doctor for my wrists.  I don't know how much damage I'm doing to myself by continuing to do wrist-intensive activities, but, I can't afford to do anything about it. :/  I need to save up money.

So.. yeah. That was a long post. I've been feeling really rant-y lately. I'm gonna start drawing now. I need to get built in ice-packs with my wrist braces, or something. 

Okay, I haven't posted in my livejournal in a reaaally long time, so I guess I should post something here so you guys know what's going on with me.

Since the beginning of October, I've driven 850 miles to and from Lawrence (where my brother lives) for special occasions. First, my brother's best friend & roommate John's Birthday on October 3rd. I said I'd be there, so I drove there, partied for a few days, drove back before the following Monday. I had hellish "Hospital Orientation" on Monday and Tuesday, got back in the car after it ended on Tuesday, and drove back to Lawrence.

It sounds crazy to do so much driving, but I promised to be there for the 21st birthday of Lucas. Lucas is the little brother of my childhood friend Liana, and my brother's friend Jacob. Back when I lived in Oklahoma, I was best friends with Liana. My older brother was best friends with her older brother. We both had younger siblings in the same grade, but of opposite genders, so they didn't get along, haha. Otherwise we would have been perfectly matched up!

But anyway. I hadn't seen Liana since I was .. uh.. well, I don't know how long it's been. 5 years or so? I've been in Missouri, Alabama, and Japan, and she's stayed in Oklahoma, so our paths haven't crossed. But I hope to see her again soon and do a better job of keeping in touch this time.


The special peeps that motivated me to drive a billion hours this month.

Aaanyway..

( Boring job talk- read only if you're bored or care for some reason )

Onto the next subject! Arts and whatnot.


The full image I did recently, upcoming project. (Working title is Electric Brain Delivery.)

The problem with having a job and trying to do comics at the same time is.. well, I'm tired all the time. At work, when I'm not on the phone, I'm doing data entry.. which means staring at the screen and typing nonstop. It's not really helping the wrist pain problems. AT ALL.  So after I do that for hours, the last thing I want to do is get home and do MORE of that. Ugh.  Once I get down to my own office area, I'm going to wear my wrist braces at work. I don't want to wear them in the main office because I don't want anyone to see them and worry about me.

Let me make one thing abundantly clear, though..

I WILL NOT QUIT HEARD. 

( Regarding the recent flamers.. )

That being said, I've set a definite date that Heard will resume updating, so that you guys don't have to keep checking the main page for news.  

HEARD WILL CONTINUE UPDATING ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 26th. 

Well, that was a mega-huge post. 

So I happened to find out that my old boss was hiring again. So, I called her up and got the job. I worked for her for two summers as a secretary in the Employee Health area of a hospital.

This year, I'm going to be the receptionist for Triage. I'll be dealing with all of the workers who have come down with flu symptoms, getting them seen by a nurse and sent home. I'm also in charge of guarding the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccines that will arrive, and then dealing with people getting THOSE, and regular flu shots.

Basically it's going to be utter CHAOS, and I'm going to have to deal with mean, sick people who yell at me because of the policies I can't break (set by the government).  The nurses I'm with are rookies and don't have the strongest personalities (according to my boss) so she wanted someone like me to keep the patients under control.  People are pretty riled up about the flu this year, and they predict problems.

Bring it onnnn.  If there's one thing I know I'm good at, it's being a stubborn asshole who won't back down.

The pay is crap and it's only 20 hours of pay a week, but it's better than nothing. 

Alright, so, there's a site around that's been gaining popularity for a while. It's called, Tumblr.

Tumblr aims to strip blogs down to the very bare essentials-- and does it pretty successfully. Think of it as a halfway point between Twitter and Livejournal.

The way that most people seem to be using it with image-intensive posting. A lot of photographers and designers are using tumblr because of the stripped-down interface and presentation. I must admit, it's a pretty simple system to use.

Another unique feature is the simple ability to "Re-tumble" something. Similar to "re-tweeting" on twitter, you can repost someone else's post easily, which seems like it could be good for marketing. So, what's the verdict? Is tumblr going to change the way people blog, or will sites like blogspot and livejournal remain king? Has anyone made the switch from a more traditional blog to a tumblr blog? How do YOU use tumblr?

^ My tumblr. I love the way it looks.. now I just need to find something to say.

Click the image to read, or CLICK HERE to read it on Smackjeeves.

I've been struggling to find anything to say in my journals. Well, I suppose I've never been good at journaling. It doesn't help that my life is incredibly boring lately.  I don't really want to talk about what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis because.. it's incredibly boring and depressing for me to relay to anyone.  All I have to say is: I am hating this economy.

Anyway. I've linked it a few times, but I figured that I should link yet again. A neat system for artists to make some money at conventions. I don't have the online store up yet, so.. yeah. :I  Pass it on, and feel free to contact me if you're interested or have questions!

Updated! Clicky click the image to read..

Or you can, yanno, click HERE to read it on Smackjeeves.

This page was somehow really easy for me to draw. I thought I was gonna miss the update cause my stomach was really upset last night, but then I just started drawing and it came out like BUTTAH.

Alright, I'm gonna go chill in the forum. Seeya!

Sorry I missed the update on Thursday. I wanted to get around to it, I really did. Personal reasons, blah blah blah, I don't really want to go into it in a public way.

Updates will resume as normal on Monday, though. Also, I went back and finished the page that had been posted in sketch form.

Let's see, news..

• I spent last night backing up my important stuff and cleaning out some more space on my main harddrive. Yay!
• Can't believe I'm getting Lasik eye surgery in like, less than 5 days. I'm scared.
• Found the 6 volumes of Sailor Moon that I had misplaced! So happy!
• I really want a Cintiq. :I  But I have waay more important things to save up for.

Ugh, My hands, wrists, and elbows are still really achey.  I'm gonna go cover my arms in Tiger balm and plan out the next few pages.

The update is up! Click the image

or you can click HERE to read the page on Smackjeeves.

I wrote about it on the site, but basically my tablet isn't behaving properly with MangaStudio, suddenly. It's working just fine in every other program, but I couldn't get it fixed last night, so just gave up and scribbled the sketch in photoshop. I'll be hopefully resolving the MangaStudio problem soon, so I can ink the page and replace the sketch.

Thanks for your patience! Until I fix the problem, I'll post the sketches. Even if the art's messy, it's better to have the story progress than to have nothing happen.

Also, I've scheduled eye surgery (lasik vision correction) for August 27th. I'm nervous, but excited.

New page is up! Yeahh, yeah, I'm really late. but it's still Thursday in some of the USA!


Click HERE to read it on smackjeeves.

I have more stuff to say but I forgot for now.

And, oh yeah, I've been meaning to encourage people to join the  FORUM. You can hang out in the Heard forum, but also in general chat areas, with creators and fans of other cool comics. It's the Sage Comics collective forum, so there are awesome people wandering around.  It's been pretty slow lately, so I gotta do my part to invigorate it!  (Though, really I'm the suckiest at staying active :C )

My wrist has been hurting a lot the last few days.  Uh oh?

Doodly doodly doo, the page went up early this morning.

Clicky-click the image, or click HERE to read it on smackjeeves.

I thought I had a cavity, but as it turns out: I totally don't! Hooray!  I'm gonna be extra paranoid about my teeth from now on. :c

Tomorrow, my parents are both flying out to Spain for about 12 days. WITHOUT ME.  (sob.) I'm gonna go stay with my brother in Lawrence (Kansas) while they're gone, so I won't be too ronery. Updates and everything will resume as normal, though.

Romy - Nude by ~BlinkyTheRed on deviantART



What's that? I updated my Deviantart?! That can't be true~ *gasp*

Yeah, I did. I scribbled this out tonight to practice coloring, liked it, and decided to post it on deviantart. And here. To reward all of you sexy people who actually read this thing.  I'll try to post art more often.

Image has BOOBIES, so it's not safe for work.. I guess. 

I updated eaaaarly in the morn today.

Click the image to read, or click HERE to read it on Smackjeeves.

Man, page #100, finally. Took me long enough.

Not much else to say.. lately, I'm really tired all of the time.

Hey guys! As everyone knows, we're in a pretty crappy recession right now, and money's tight for everyone! I've always been a cupon-clipper at heart, so I thought I should post some neat stuff as I discover.

1. Restaurant.com (be careful not to type restaurantS.com -- the sites aren't related at all.)
You can search for restaurants nearby that "Gift Certificates" that you can buy online-- for example, a $25 dollar gift certificate for only $10 dollars. There are usually stipulations for the usage (things like: an 18% tip is mandatory, the bill must be at least $50 total, etc), but they are very simple and easy to follow. You can buy the gift certificate and print it out and get a sweet discount at the restaurant! Hell yes.

2. PlasticJungle.com
This place is a bit similar to Restaurant.com in that it's mostly for gift certificates and whatnot. You can sell, buy, and trade gift certificates from other people and also from the website's own company. Say, for example, you want to buy your friend a gift certificate to Godiva (fancy chocolate store). You can buy a $25 card for $17.50 -- may not seem like much, but it's a 30% discount! Neat! In general you can save about 10% for most places. Not bad!  Most cards can be used online too, and MOST gift certificates are fine to combine with discounts/etc.

3. Coupons.com 
This one is pretty obvious, but if you're not into coupon-clipping.. start! Because you can really end up saving a lot of money if you find coupons for the stuff you buy all of the time. Pretty sweet stuff, EH?  Just select your coupons and print them out before going grocery shopping.

4. Hobby Lobby weekly coupon (Changes every week.)
If you're an artist with a good Hobby Lobby in the area, you probably already know this. But!  The online weekly coupon can be awesome.  My art desk, for example, was for sale in the store for $100.  The weekly coupon, that week, was for 60% off of ANY regular item!  So, I was able to save $40!  It obviously adds up fast for big items like a desk, but it's worth it to save on sketchbooks, ink, or any other item you use regularly.

5. Mint.com
Awesome way to keep track of your accounts (checking, credit cards, paypal accounts).  Also, they have a "ways to save" area where you can see better deals for credit cards and bank accounts-- these recommendations are great since Mint will analyze the way you spend your money to come up witih the best deals for you. (Naturally, Mint is totally free.)