New Website For Ava

Hey folks, I've been working hard on my comic, Axis of Ava: The Undead Adventures of Ava Perez. This weekend was made up of 30% work for next week's classes and 70% work on the new website. Yes, that's right, Axis of Ava finally has its own website with a comic-friendly design. Click on this link to visit her new home: www.axisofava.com!




There's a neat list of comics I visit on the regular on the website, so you can check out some professionals and their cool work.

Designing websites is hard work, and I'm kind of glad I'm too poor to afford a decent web designer, because it was a good, if not necessarily fun, learning experience.

I've even got my own nifty e-mail address: sandra@axisofava.com

The blog is still up and will be used for the wordy aspects of publishing an online comic. Research I've been doing, any progress Ava's made outside of my little group of readers who know me (if that happens), and anything else that I can think of. So visit the blog too.



For those of you who don't already know, Axis of Ava is my webcomic. I write, ink, and color the thing. It's my way of not just commenting on pop culture, but making it as well. It's about a half-vampire, half-human gal living in Long Beach, California who spends her time fighting vampires, saving humans, and sometimes vice-versa. Go check it out.

iTunesU

I noticed that the new Blackboard system at my work (the online course software we use to provide students with course materials, message boards, etc) had a new button for "iTunesU." So I did some investigating and found a treasure trove of stuff over on iTunes. Apparently, many universities have begun posting digital files of their course lectures and guest speaker lectures. You can go to the iTunes store and click on iTunes U and find all kinds of FREE stuff available on any subject, some of them from ivy league schools, others from private and community colleges. Some courses are completely online, including the first day (which is always boring!) and some have powerpoints. It's a great resource.

I downloaded a ton of lectures and put them on my iPod for future listening when I'm at the gym. I may even burn some on CD so I can listen in my car. If I had this before I started teaching, I would not have been so green going in. Listening to the different ways professors lecture is fascinating and helpful. Am I going to make my class available? Hells to the no. But if you want to hear what the academic word is on your particular subject, I'd suggest heading over there. Does everyone know this already? Am I like seriously late on the iTunesU thing?

I went to Ikea, ostensibly for a short Billy bookcase. But I took the whole tour of the upstairs and the marketplace because why not, right? I ended up buying a duvet, a mirror, and some accessories to dress up my bedroom. Our super cool Malm floating side tables kicked the bucket and so we had a bit more space in the room. I noticed that I had piles of books (novels mostly) that were stacked all over the bedroom. Hell, since every other room in the house has a bookcase, I may as well give in.

So now next to my side of the bed are almost all my novels, with an entire shelf devoted to vampire fiction. I moved Baron Von Pyre from the living room to his special place. I think he looks cute there. It's, as far as I know, the only stuffed animal in the whole house.

The mirror was cheap ($39) and made a world of difference in our room. It looks much wider and more open over there. The cover for the chair in the corner just cost too much, so I used a coverlet that we had been using as the new chair cover. It works just fine, since that chair is mainly our cat Stevie's sleeping spot.


Meanwhile, Radley was happy I kept the furry brown blanket on the bed, because it's his favorite.