Em²a Studios

I have always grown up having a garden. Living in Texas and the Midwest, these were easy to maintain, and I always managed to have bountiful crops and lots of herbs at my disposal. I tried to continue this tradition in Arizona, only to find that my green thumb turned a horrible shade of brown (except with cactus). To grow plants in the desert, you need to be an avid waterer. With my busy schedule, let’s face it, this, I am not.

So I turned to waterscaping with lots of little fish, delighting in my ability to create a mini ecosystem that wouldn’t die a horrible death should I forget it for a day or two. All was good in the world.

Yet, there existed a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that constantly reminded me that my decorative ‘scaping yielded no return, and my bamboo was no where near edible.

Again, I turned to the internet to research methods of container gardening. I like raised beds, but, as I am now living in an apartment with no nearby access to a hose, those didn’t seem practical. Hydroponics seemed a bit more feasible, but I am not a chemist and felt that monitoring the nutrient levels would be too much for this scientist-by-hobby-only type of gal. After all, if I was going to have that much space taken up, I might as well get a larger fish tank.

That last thought sparked an idea, so I went digging. I started where every internet-savvy person would: Wikipedia. Let’s just say that Wikipedia has a phenomenal hydroponics article (Dalek aeroponics tripod!). Aeroponics was more my style, but I didn’t want to pay $150 for a table-top system that would only get me a square foot of growing space. I’d build my own, first!

I scrolled down to the related articles and accidentally clicked on “Aquaponics.” I was quite excited to find that I could put my fish hobby to use and get something for myself out of it. The idea is that the fish fertilize the water, which you pump into your growing bed, where the plants filter the usable nutrients (which are actually toxic to the fish) out of the water, returning the cleaned water back to the fish.

Now, there are a bajillion different designs, improvements, and substitutions that you can make to an aquaponic system. I found GardenGirlTV’s version to be the best design for someone like me with limited growing space.

Now, I know I’ve mentioned that my parents are all scientists, but my grandfather is an engineer-turned-geophysicist, and from him I learned to start things on a small scale. I just so happened to have kept my first 5 gallon fish tank (to use as a hospital tank), which I thought would do nicely to help me figure out a good small-scale design that I liked – that may even keep my water from evaporating. I do live in the desert, afterall.

So, I grabbed my supplies (some laying around the house, the rest from Lowe’s). The main components: my little 5 gallon (sans fish) – $30, a 30-45 GPH fountain pump – $20, a plastic bin (I drilled a hole in the bottom) – $1.50, 1/2″ outside 3/8″ inside clear plastic tubing – $5, marble gravel (rinsed.. I don’t suggest using) – $3, Perlite – $4 **DO NOT USE – The ammonia nitrate in it will kill your fish!**. I also bought a valve to control the water flow, but I didn’t end up needing it (and I got the wrong size – 1/4″ outside).

Day 1: I first rinsed the gravel. This is très importante as most of the rocks you’ll find produce a dust that will kill your fish. I don’t suggest using marble as I found that as soon as I shake it, more dust is created. Stick to aquarium-grade rocks.

While the gravel was drying, I used my handy-dandy dremel to drill a hole in the bottom of the plastic bin, then created a funnel-like apparatus with epoxy putty in which I attached the plastic tube. DON’T, I repeat, DON’T use epoxy putty on a flexible surface. I ended up needing to use my hot glue gun to seal the edges of the putty since I had no silicone caulk. I DO suggest using silicone caulk. Don’t be lazy like me! 😉

Day 2: I found a plastic cube to use as a shelf, set my plastic bin on top of it, feeding the attached tubing through a hole in the cube. I was originally going to hang it off the edge, but that seemed unstable. I also poured the marble gravel in to ensure none of it went down the tube.

I then rinsed the Perlite (do NOT use the Miracle Grow kind! It’s slimy with LOTS of residue which contains ammonia nitrate and ammonia phosphates that would kill your fish), added it to top off the plastic bin.

I then popped out the other hole in the lid, since all the tubing wouldn’t fit on top of the filter.

The assembly of the fountain pump was the easiest part. Pop on the adapter, then pop on the tube. Very simple. The harder part was adjusting the pump so that the water would actually go all the way up the tubing and into the bin. I think I ended up putting it on the full strength just to keep it moving. I also timed the water flow, adjusted the tilt height, and got it so the water filled in, ran across, and dropped back down without the water raising higher than the gravel layer. A broken hair clip was used to keep the tube in place.

So, that’s the small scale. I’ll be attaching a clip lamp to the bookcase beside it with a sunlight (6500K) adjusted fluorescent light bulb as my growing light. I’ve planted lavender, thyme, oregano, and corriander/cilantro.

Full-scale starts on the 19th, so, more then!

So I realized that I forgot to give an update as to what happened with the pitiful external hard drive.

“TS” took the HD to a local disk repair shop, who (after some confusion) opened up the case to discover that when the drive landed, it grounded out in 3 places. This means that there were rings of death burn marks in three areas on the drive board itself. This also means that whenever my computer attempted to read anything past the burn marks, it got stopped and couldn’t go any further.

In our attempt to recover my data, we managed to melt the connectors inside the drive. It would have taken three connectors to get past the burn marks, not to mention the hours of recovery, so, it has received the “Lost Cause” stamp.

Moral of the story: Organization can come second to reliability. Back up the new stuff before you start downloading the old to organize archives.

On my About Me page, under my Disclaimer Stuff, you might have noticed that I reserve the right to “edit, delete, and block any and all inappropriate or unnecessary comments on this blog, as I see fit.” I generally reserve this right because there are those people out there who like nothing better than to take all attention and focus it upon themselves.

Before you start telling me how I’m suppressing your rights, and how I must be afraid to face you and your comments, I suggest you take a look at this article by Greg Finn of Search Engine Land: Beware These Comment Saboteurs In Social Media

This article outlines 11 types of commenters that have little to no social benefit. I would like to point out the “troll.”

The troll

…These users seriously dislike you and want you to know it—publicly. Maybe you created better content than they did, or you downvoted one of their articles and they found out. The fact of the matter is that they are pissed. And they are going to follow you around to pester you.

I have no tolerance for trolling. Period and end of story.

Dislike of someone can be expressed via e-mail outside the public eye.

If you don’t like the content (see “the hater”), then that has plenty of room to be addressed in the comments, but please maintain a certain respect for the author. There is no law stating that you have to agree with every opinion I, or anyone else for that matter, may have. Offering opposing views ensures that the media is not skewed in any particular direction and ensures a good balance of opinions. However, if your hatred for me gets in the way of contributing to society and only proliferates hate, destruction, and negativity, then I’m simply not going to display it.

It’s so easy for people to hide behind their computer monitors and spout hateful and hurtful garbage pretending that everyone wants to hear their noise. Please try to remember that there is a human face behind everything and perhaps then there will be much less discord in the virtual world.

What do you do when your back up crashes? I’ll tell you what I did.. Freak out! Most of my crap stuff are backed up on DVDs and my .5 TB MyBook external. Had I known how crappy fragile the MyBook was, I would’ve jumped on my annual back up a lot sooner.

Here’s the scope: I bought my MyBook back in July off eBay. The “one year” warranty expired in October. But I haven’t gotten there yet…

January 17th, while moving my computer to RugDoctor underneath it, my poor little MyBook takes a tiny little spill from the top of my computer to the carpeted floor. Two foot drop at most, honest.

January 18th at 02:00 (wee hours in the morning on my BIRTHDAY), I decide I should do a quick birthday comic to let everyone know I am well and give them something to read. Lo and behold, my little MyBook tries to tell me that my MyArt folder doesn’t exist. (“WTFBBQsauce? I just double clicked on it, of COURSE it exists!“)

I then proceed as any person who has spent endless hours on the telephone with Tech Support; I unplug the drive, restart my computer, and plug it back in. Windows recognized that there is a USB drive plugged in, but no way to access it. (“oRLY?“)

Restart again, leaving the drive plugged in. My computer nearly dies. In a panic (again, wee hours of my BIRTHDAY), I call a more technical savvy friend of mine that I knew would be awake at the time, we determine that it is in fact the drive that is the problem and my computer is not dead.

Relief washes over me, and then I realize… That I hadn’t done my annual disc back-up, and I have photos of my artwork on there that was recently destroyed in the flooding of my mother’s basement. Panic sets back in, TS (for Tech-Savvy) assures me that he will look at it in the morning.

Hours later, amid chores and preparing for birthday celebration, I hand over my drive, and we discover the warranty is up… And attempt to access the data. After a few days of scanning, TS found font files (in the wrong folder) before the hard drive nearly melted itself.

Conclusion: Externals are not a fail-safe. Western Digital makes crap fragile drives that could easily destroy everything you hold dear. Oh, and their warranty policy for a year is just lame.

A new site design to top it off, too.

Heading offline for a bit. Time to visit the families.

Stay safe!

I updated the favourites icon (FavIcon) on the EmaCartoon.com page last week.  I told a friend subsequently thereafter, and was promptly thanked on behalf of all System Administrators.

What?  Why?  How could a measly 16 pixel x 16 pixel image have such an impact to be thanked on behalf of all SysAdmins?  So I did what any normal girl would do – I asked (and then Googled it so I could translate SysAdmin speak).

Here’s the lowdown:  Apparently, if a web host is managed in Apache (which most are), and a SysAdmin has to do some sort of work or other on it, Apache has a tendency to break or ignore a website if it is lacking a FavIcon.  This can be annoying and somewhat hazardous to their health.

So show your SysAdmin some love: Add a FavIcon to your webpage today!

FavIcon generators can be found here:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
http://www.favicongenerator.com/

Smashing Magazine has also ran a few articles with FavIcon examples/inspirations. Here is the latest:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/20/favicons-episode-8/

I for one am not a big fan of politics, and as such, decided to keep most political comments to myself.  This is mainly because I have strong opinions that don’t follow the main-stream of the blue-haired majority, and I don’t necessarily enjoy opening myself up to “trolling” and the like.  However, there are a few things that have occurred that I feel need mentioning.

Here are a few of my comments about this most recent election:

1. I like Mr. Obama; I see a lot of potential in him.  I was in awe watching the United States of America make history voting in a man who is of the top two races here.  I think he might be the one to bridge the gaps in Congress – that of the parties, of race, of social status, and more.  For the first time since I was a child, I have hope for America, and am proud of my half-American roots.
2. However, we simultaneously voted in discrimination and a bi-racial president.  Go us.
3. It is not the government’s job to save my soul and keep me from going to hell.  It is also not their job to tell me (or anyone else) who I can and cannot marry, nor what I can and cannot do to my body.  I strongly feel that the separation of Church and State has been breached.
4. For Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County: I want you to take a loooong look at the results of the state.  Yes, you were voted back into office (this is a Republican state.  It was bound to happen).  But Proposition 202 – Stopping Illegal Hiring failed.  Your job is to uphold the law, not create new ones, and not to target.  This does not mean you should “do it more.”  I ask you to target CRIMINALS, not people (read HUMAN BEINGS) that do not have the proper paperwork to be in the country.  Lack of paperwork does not a criminal make.
5. To Arkansas: Yes, you were targeting “gay and lesbian couples,” but you also made it so that a single man or woman in the nesting mode who has not found a life partner to marry cannot adopt or foster a child, either.  That means that if I lived in Arkansas and (heaven-forbid) something happened to my father or step-mother, I could not adopt or foster my much younger siblings – simply because I am unmarried.  Do you recognize heterosexual domestic partnership?  They can’t adopt or foster, either.
6. To Colorado and Nebraska: Thank you.  I am tired of being discriminated against (and punished) because I am a single white female who has not given birth to a child.  It becomes most obvious of this when I try to attend college and cannot file for my own FAFSA despite that I have supported myself since I was 14 years old just because I still talk to my parents.

I look forward to the changes to come.  Maybe I’ll even stick around to see them unfold.

So, James, tell me…  Do you like coffee?

I have silly dreams.  I call them silly, but they’re really exciting and generally remind me that I have an overactive imagination.

Take last night’s dream for example.  Studying under a “master,” I fell in love with a fellow apprentice assassin (James) whose master kills my master because she was jealous of my “date” with her apprentice.  According to the rules, my date and myself are now required to fight to the death so that I may defend my master’s honour or die because my master wasn’t a fit assassin (because she died).  Little did the opposing master know that my master was my birth mother, which made the assassination a personal vendetta, so I could bypass the apprentice and challenge the jealous wench directly.  I figured out that the jealous wench had fought my master once she figured out that I was my master’s daughter begotten from my mother and her master who mastered both of the women.  The JW was “cast aside” for my mother and so she killed him, leaving my mother to fend for herself… Etc., etc.

Might as well make it a book, right?

As a designer, I recognize that there is a time and place to jump on the bandwagon.  I’ve been seeing WordPress pop up everywhere from the 87 designer blogs I visit frequently, to web pages promoting the latest and greatest product for Such-and-Such Co.

This is my current project.  As today is day 2 of Em2a Studios’s web publicity, there’s not terribly much to be seen, and I’m still kicking around a few ideas.  I’m of the opinion that since this is a Designer’s page, my site should display my talents and the finest of my works.  I should be proud of my page (and it shouldn’t look like something I pulled out of a list of templates).

That being said, my question that I post to you is “What do you look for in a website?”  As a designer, I think it’s important to know these things.  There’s a lot of hub-bub over SEO, content, flash or no flash, scripts, and what have you.  Sure, these things are important, but it does nothing to keep viewers on the site.  Let me know your opinions!

I can guess by now that we’re all feeling the pinch. As you’ve noticed, I have not kept my promises in updating the webcomic. For that, I do sincerely apologize. My reasons? Mostly having to do with freelancing in addition to working and running registration at Phoenix ConGames (I was the one either in the belly dancing gear or the purple corset, depending on the date of arrival).

I do have lots to draw about, and many, many random sketches. I also have plans to redesign the website yet again, but I need to get my comics up to date in the mean time.

I’ll keep y’all posted. Maybe I’ll even be able to get the blog in an iFrame like Jennie Breeden and the likes.