Arrrgh!!!!
Changing mental gears when you're working creatively is just too hard :(
I cannot easily move from drawing to writing to sewing to making… it's just not a smooth process -_-

Hi. I'm Jeff Salty, artist/writer of Belle Starr.

I'm probably in the wrong place to get this fixed…but I hope maybe someone here can point me the right way:
I have messed up my password and cannot upload new material to my comic site.
When I try to access HELP it says I don't have permission.

What should I do?

jeff salty wrote:
Hi. I'm Jeff Salty, artist/writer of Belle Starr.

I'm probably in the wrong place to get this fixed…but I hope maybe someone here can point me the right way:
I have messed up my password and cannot upload new material to my comic site.
When I try to access HELP it says I don't have permission.

What should I do?

Sounds weird

Hi Jeff
I changed your password to and emailed you a new one!
I tested your account and it uploads new comic pages fine :)
If you don't get the email please contact me on ozoneocean at yahoo dot com.

bravo1102 wrote:


So I come back with what Tantz_aerine calls “self flagellation”

That's what you're doing. You are projecting your opinion of your work onto others as it being awful and beating yourself up mercilessly when none of it is true or borne out by evidence and majority opinion.

To find out if you're really any good, answer this quick question:

IS YOUR WORK ANY GOOD?

1. MY WORK IS AMAZING!
2. QUITE GOOD ACTUALLY.
3. NOT GREAT BUT I'VE SEEN WORSE.
4. PRETTY BAD BUT I'M WORKING ON IT.
5. IT'S HIDEOUS, AN ABOMINATION I TELL YOU! WHY MUST THEY TORMENT ME SO?

HOW DID YOU ANSWER?

1. YOU SUCK.
2. NOBODY IS GOING TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE. I ENVY YOU.
3. SHAME ON YOU.
4. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE IT!
5. YOU PLAYED IT LEFT HAND, BUT MADE IT TOO FAR. TALK TO A FRIEND.

Ironscarf wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:


So I come back with what Tantz_aerine calls “self flagellation”

That's what you're doing. You are projecting your opinion of your work onto others as it being awful and beating yourself up mercilessly when none of it is true or borne out by evidence and majority opinion.

To find out if you're really any good, answer this quick question:

IS YOUR WORK ANY GOOD?

1. MY WORK IS AMAZING!
2. QUITE GOOD ACTUALLY.
3. NOT GREAT BUT I'VE SEEN WORSE.
4. PRETTY BAD BUT I'M WORKING ON IT.
5. IT'S HIDEOUS, AN ABOMINATION I TELL YOU! WHY MUST THEY TORMENT ME SO?

HOW DID YOU ANSWER?

1. YOU SUCK.
2. NOBODY IS GOING TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE. I ENVY YOU.
3. SHAME ON YOU.
4. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE IT!
5. YOU PLAYED IT LEFT HAND, BUT MADE IT TOO FAR. TALK TO A FRIEND.

Oh that's so easy for you to say, you're so great and people line up around the block to tell you how great you are.

Come on Scarf, you gotta know the whole psychology of the negative self image.

Never good enough and everyone else gets showered with praise but not me. Nope, still come in second even with no competition.

Evidence. Show me evidence that totally validates the opinion. No over generalizations– specific. Is it one or two out of twenty? Really?
Is it a realistic expectation to please 100% of people all the time?
Reality testing.

Whole therapy program and it works.

bravo1102 wrote:

Come on Scarf, you gotta know the whole psychology of the negative self image.

For ten years or more I couldn't finish a page. I just kept starting over and over, disgusted with my own efforts. I still fall somewhere between 4/5 on the question above. Positive comments are motivation, but don't change how you see your work.

That said, where's this block you speak of?

Ironscarf wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:

Come on Scarf, you gotta know the whole psychology of the negative self image.

For ten years or more I couldn't finish a page. I just kept starting over and over, disgusted with my own efforts. I still fall somewhere between 4/5 on the question above. Positive comments are motivation, but don't change how you see your work.

That said, where's this block you speak of?

Just imagine every person who comments on one of your pages queued up. That's the line around the block.

Whereas my commenters wouldn't fill my wife's crossover SUV.

I didn't draw at all for ten years. Not even touching a pencil. Yet my sister kept buying me art supplies. The inks and paints dried out and the paper and canvas still remain blank.

But I was able to amass those thousand odd pages of comics such as they are. Cognitive behavioral therapy like I keep going over. I even had one of my therapists say I should start a support group because I'm so good at dispensing advice and giving useful hints.

But I won't because I'm sick and tired of people not paying attention to what I say as opposed to what they want to hear or read.

I wish I was sewing right now, but I'm in the office… And then I have to edit the Quackcast when I get home.
I'm really on a role with sewing at the moment.

I work outdoors. It's been raining the last two days and won't clear for another day.

My pants didn't dry out from yesterday so I just wore them again. Not worth getting two pairs of pants wet. :D

Get more pairs of trousers? :)
You lazy bugger XD

ozoneocean wrote:
Get more pairs of trousers? :)
You lazy bugger XD

Lazy? Try poor. I can't afford more trousers.

OMG man, one is never too poor to collect trousers! O_O

What do you do when a friend is turning to garbage alternative medicine for medical care and they actually think it's the same thing as real medicine?
It's really disturbing. When I confront them about it they just say “What would you know? you're not a doctor so what you say means nothing.”
There's a huge logical fallacy there… but really I think the people she's going to for treatment aren't doctors either XD

You can have all the lasers, electricity and magnets on your leg that you want but it's going to do effing zero to fix the issue of referred pain due to a compressed disk in your lower back. You bloody idiot.

ozoneocean wrote:
What do you do when a friend is turning to garbage alternative medicine for medical care and they actually think it's the same thing as real medicine?
It's really disturbing. When I confront them about it they just say “What would you know? you're not a doctor so what you say means nothing.”
There's a huge logical fallacy there… but really I think the people she's going to for treatment aren't doctors either XD

You can have all the lasers, electricity and magnets on your leg that you want but it's going to do effing zero to fix the issue of referred pain due to a compressed disk in your lower back. You bloody idiot.

Let them try it, it probably won't do any harm, as long as they see actual doctors as well. The question is, if it did help would you be willing to consider why it just dismiss it as placebo or the effect of something else entirely?

Genejoke wrote:
The question is, if it did help would you be willing to consider why it just dismiss it as placebo or the effect of something else entirely?

Weird question XD
It's exactly like saying “If I say a prayer asking for money and I win the lottery the next day would that convince you of belief in god?”
The answer to both is “of course not” :)

The unfortunate problem with nerve issues is that they are particularly open to medical conmen for 4 reasons:
1. Pain is subjective. You can easily make someone relax and imagine that their pain isn't as bad as it is, pretending your fake treatment works.
2. Medically there isn't too much you can do to treat nerve issues, unless it's something extreme like an operation, so fake medicine fills that gap with “treatments”.
3. Nerve issues cause referred pain so there's generally nothing at all wrong with the part of the body that hurts. Which means the fake doctor can get away with doing whatever they like to your limb and not risk affecting the problem.
4. Nerve issues will often get better on their own so it's very, very easy to pretend that they worked and gain credibility for the fake doctor. (which obviously leads to longer term issues).

I'm well aware how much back and nerve issues are infected with alt-med parasites and it disturbs me. We need to take an educated view of the problem and a zero tolerance approach to those who exploit it. it causes real harm.

Not a weird question at all, I knew precisely how you would answer it. 😂😂😂

This is why there are pain management specialists. There are various treatments that work according to established research that provide relief as opposed to hoping for a placebo effect.
Science works. It's a great way of proving something based on evidence and sometimes you can actually see it work and like know why and stuff.

I support the fight being made versus the drugstore chains in the US about homeopathy.

Science works. It's a great way of proving something based on evidence and sometimes you can actually see it work and like know why and stuff

No really? 😂 Maybe that's how medicine evolved 😉 some quackery has scientific reports backing it up, even if largely as a placebo, does that make it good or bad? If it helps someone and doesn't do any harm I see no harm in it, but yes definitely worth getting a consultation about it with an actual medical professional.

If quackery has science backing it up, it's no longer quackery. That's how medical science works.

If something works no better than chance or the slight percentage of the placebo effect, it's still quackery.

And if you're going to medicate yourself with something that is basically water, as in homeopathy, might as well save the money and drink water.

Though of course both quacks and charlatans can lobby lawmakers and most of them are lawyers not doctors. They can be bamboozled too.

Seeking an alternative treatment that doesn't work does a lot of harm by causing folks to delay getting proper help. My grandfather died because he trusted to charlatans and quacks and only consulted a real doctor when it was too late. If he'd gone to a real doctor, I might have met him.

That's the difference between complimentary medicine and alternative medicine though isn't it? For myself, a doctor is always my first port of call, after that I'll look into things and weigh up the potential merits. For the record nothing has actually made me try any, but I know many who swear by stuff I've dismissed and it seems to have done them good. Granted in these cases the people have seen actual doctors first and consulted with doctors before trying alternatives.

On a different note, life is about to have a few changes. If anyone recalls I separated from my wife back in 2013 and two years ago we decided to try again. Well, it didn't work out and now I'm looking for somewhere to live again. I'm glad I tried but I guess there really isn't any going back with these things.

That sad man. Good luck finding a new place.

—-

As to complimentary medicine: nope, no difference. It's bullshit, won't actually help you at all. It only has a different name for marketing purposes and for what they can squeeze past regulatory bodies to get on the funding gravy-train with insurances and government agencies.
It “works” like any fake treatment: placebo in the form of “good bedside manner”. A magic trick basically.
Practitioners should be jailed.

Thanks man, it'll all come good soon. It's just the transition period and finances are Spain, but once I'm settled I'll be able to knuckle down and get back on track.

@bravo1102-

With all the media press centered around the tanks in DC for the 4th of July, all I am thinking right now is: those are bravo’s tanks!

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
@bravo1102-

With all the media press centered around the tanks in DC for the 4th of July, all I am thinking right now is: those are bravo’s tanks!

Dog and pony show. Did some of those even a parade with a tank.

I'm flat hunting, it would be so much easier if I didn't need it to be ground floor and have parking. The only one I can find right now is about £100 a month over my ideal budget. I could afford it but it wouldn't leave anything for emergencies. Fingers crossed something better will come up soon.

I thought I was done with my last comic but I can't get the thing out of my head - the next story is writing itself without my permission.
Has anyone else had this experience? What does it take to stop the blasted characters carrying on their lives inside your brain?

Ironscarf wrote:
I thought I was done with my last comic but I can't get the thing out of my head - the next story is writing itself without my permission.
Has anyone else had this experience? What does it take to stop the blasted characters carrying on their lives inside your brain?

Write it. Then file it. When it's coming that easy, let it. Get it on paper in the roughest possible way. If you knew how many story seeds, outlines, and even whole scripts I have filed waiting for their day in the sun.

Ironscarf wrote:
I thought I was done with my last comic but I can't get the thing out of my head - the next story is writing itself without my permission.
Has anyone else had this experience? What does it take to stop the blasted characters carrying on their lives inside your brain?

Haha ! No, ‘Scarfie old fruit, I’m afraid they're there for good ! Sometimes it's not even one set - I've got a bunch that visit me at night ! Stories, characters, incessant bastards ! - I just don't have the time or inclination (I'm totally burnt-out lately, as far as art is concerned) to commit all their stories to ‘electronic paper’. I don't have enough life left in me B-)

p.s. “Snap” Bravo'

bravo1102 wrote:
Write it. Then file it. When it's coming that easy, let it. Get it on paper in the roughest possible way. If you knew how many story seeds, outlines, and even whole scripts I have filed waiting for their day in the sun.

Strike while the iron's hot eh? Good advice bravo.

BearinOz wrote:
Haha ! No, ‘Scarfie old fruit, I’m afraid they're there for good ! Sometimes it's not even one set - I've got a bunch that visit me at night ! Stories, characters, incessant bastards ! - I just don't have the time or inclination (I'm totally burnt-out lately, as far as art is concerned) to commit all their stories to ‘electronic paper’. I don't have enough life left in me B-)

I've always found it easy enough to move from one idea to another and back again, but that is increasingly not the case. A few years from now I envisage myself sitting in an armchair in a forgotten corner of some institution, babbling incessantly to a series of invisible friends.

Still I refuse to believe there's no art left in you. How else will you keep the demons at bay?

A few years from now I envisage myself sitting in an armchair in a forgotten corner of some institution, babbling incessantly to a series of invisible friends.

Everyone will just assume you're on the phone. Put a little earbud in your ear and no one will notice.

I'll probably have an app to take dictation. I still like the feeling of a keyboard.