New look homepage!

Well not really. I just tweaked the code so that it's not the comic with the most recent date on the front page - it's the comic that was actually posted most recently!

It took so little work I really don't know why I didn't do it for all the time I was posting all those old Marmaduke strips! Ah well, live and learn. It's probably because I've been meaning to redo this site for so long now... I think a shiny new site would provide the incentive to get back on the comic wagon!

Just gotta find the time to do it. It will come, just keep watching this space and enjoy the yaks while they last.

iTunes Movies

Just looking through iTunes movies. Some are £10.99, some are £6.99. You can rent a £10.99 film for £3.49 but you can't rent £6.99 films. WTF?

Why use the same format as a video rental shop by making older titles unavailable when one of the best thing about digital distribution is that the less popular titles don't have to go to make shelf space for the new stuff? It seems a little short-sighted to say the least.

Now I've often thought it would be nice to bookmark tracks or albums in iTunes that I was interested in. I can see why Apple might have seen fit to not include this functionality - it doesn't take long to listen to the preview. If you like it you buy it; if you don't, forget about it. Once you've bought it you don't have to listen to it immediately so it's ready and waiting for you whenever you're ready.

With film rentals it's a different matter. I rent a film and I've got to watch it within 24 hours or whatever the time limit is. I can't buy a stack of film rentals and watch them when I'm ready because when I'm ready they might well have expired. As I was looking through the lists of films there were loads I thought I quite fancied seeing but as I don't have the time to watch any of them in the next 24 hours I didn't click on any of them. I will probably forget about them once they drop off the 'Most Popular' charts, too. Sale lost. Or 'Sale FAIL' if you will.

If there was a list I could make of films I want to see then I could keep my future evenings in all in one place and not miss any, despite the film decreasing in popularity. What's more, Apple could use that data to remind me of the films I want to see on the iTunes Store home page (a la Amazon wishlists). They could even use it to figure out what kind of films I like and therefore which films to advertise more prominently to me.

How can they have not made this yet? It seems so obvious, doesn't it?

When Yaks Attack...

Here we are again. I've found another stash of historical cartoon goodness in the Vault! I shall be posting them here as and when I find the time to do the necessary photoshopping.

This collection is from a little book which I made (yes I actually made the book) called "The Official Doodle Book (With Yaks)". It's a set of just 24 Yak drawings. Now I don't know where the original, first ever yak drawing is but I think these are among the first once I had a head for the concept.

So if you are a fan of the yaks, I hope you enjoy the following single-panel cartoons. They aren't supposed to be particularly funny but I enjoyed filling up that book so they have some good memories attached!

Oh, I intend this time to try and have the most recent strip posted on the front page but I haven't written that bit yet so for now: here's the first one!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arr me hearties, it be that time o' year again! September th' 19th be Talk like a Pirate day.

Today ye should be talkin' like a pirate and generally exhibitin' piratey behaviour, like swabbin' the decks, lootin' booty and runnin' yer colleagues through with yer cutlass, arrrrrrrr!

Here be a few links to be gettin' ye in the mood:

• Talk Like A Pirate Day
• Talk Like A Pirate Day (UK arm)
• Pirates of the Caribbean Music
• Monkey Island 3: A Pirate I Was Meant To Be (song)
• Cravendale's Pirate Radio

Edit: Link list updated with Cravendale's Pirate Radio. Nice.