You know, talking about the birds and the bees with your kids is probably one of the things that strikes the most terror into the hearts of parents. I am pretty comfortable about that kind of thing, and still I find myself stammering through any discussion with my kids. That’s why I love this comic (Issue 253) , because I think it really conveys that feeling well.

I do have to admit, this actually wasn’t my idea or joke. This actually happened to a friend of mine. Her child asked her, and true to her cool cucumber nature, she just did the “we’ll talk about it later” thing–to then learn where the word had been picked up. I thought this was so funny, I had to use the joke, embellishing it a bit with Harry’s reaction. Of course, thinking about this, I have to go back to the old Art Linkletter show, “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” Anyhow, a big thanks to “El” for sharing that story with me and being the inspiration for this strip.

On another note, the comic is up on time today! How did that happen? Maybe it’s because I don’t feel quite on death’s door being sick and all. Let’s just hope the “wellness” streak continues in our house. The particular bug that’s hit us has already gone around twice to everyone in our home! That’s more than enough for me.

Oh, and for any kids reading this who don’t know what that means, in the context of this comic, the word simply means “pure”–not having anything added to it.

I have wanted to give the Pixel kids a swingset/playfort since the beginning of the strip. My original plans were to have Harry build them one shortly after they moved in. But the story just took another direction and we never were able to fit it in. With things wrapping up with Rasterman, I wanted to go back to something ordinary and family-related, so the timing was good now. (Issue 251)

Our kids have a playfort and I have to admit they live on/in it during the warm weather months. It provides them with so many opportunities for imaginative play and just plain fun. The whole story about setting up the swingset is loosely based on how we built ours. Much like the Pixels, we just didn’t have the money to pay a company to build one for us. So, we went and got the plans, bought the wood, and then decided how we would do it over a series of weekends. As it turned out, my sister suggested that maybe my family would offer to come over and pitch in. Thus, we turned it into a small party. Now, in our case, we did not have 200 people show up. My family came, and a few neighborhood kids dropped by to watch the activities–and grab a burger or two (we actually grilled, not doing the pizza thing). It was hardly an hour and a bit of work. Everyone put in a good 8 hour, and during that time we managed to get the main frame up. Jim and I finished the project up an hour here, an hour there in the evenings and weekends over the next couple weeks. Anyhow, that is how fiction is often written, taking a bit of your own life and exaggerating it a bit. I am looking forward to all the fun the Pixel kids will have on that swingset, and the potential for storylines it will give us.

Now I guess it would be good to note, however, that if we did do something like this we could totally see it turning out like it did for the Pixels. Harry’s line about how these things always turn out that way for them is pretty much something we say regularly. We can plan and plan, but things never quite turn out the way we expect, and usually involve some sort of disaster!

That also said, I am truly yearning for Spring. We got teased with some 60 degree weather this past week. Now that it’s back to a more seasonal 30, I am longing for warmth and greenery. *sigh* That and the fact we are STILL sick. Yes, over a month of it bouncing back and forth between family members, and I once again have a horrible head cold. The doctor says it is simply bad in this area and everyone seems to be getting it. Either way, I can’t wait for some nicer weather and for everyone to feel better so we can get back to doing stuff rather than sniffling and sneezing.

I recently got an email from Jenni over at One Thing. She wanted to tell me that several of her kids are fans of Bitmap World. In particular, her 12 year old daughter was so inspired by it that she started her own webcomic. Right now, Jenni is featuring her daughter’s work every Sunday on her blog. But who knows what the future will hold! Perhaps Jordan will have her own site in the future.

Jordan uses Paint to do her comic, something Jim/Ravenswood would be proud of. I know there is a lot of negativity about Paint, but it really is a great free utility for those starting out. Even though Jim uses Paint Shop Pro, he still does the majority of the work in Paint.

It really does warm our hearts to hear that our comic is loved by kids, and also inspires them to be creative. In fact, we have learned that 2 separate schools (one in the States and one in Europe) offer classes on how to do comics, and Bitmap World is included in their reference curriculum. We are very proud of that, because our goal from day one was to create a strip that would be safe for kids to read, but still enjoyable by adults.

Anyhow, thanks to Jenni for letting us know about the strip. Here’s a link to Jordan’s comic. Kudos to her, and best wishes for a long comic career!

Quick entry here. This past week our kids started school. We thought to do a strip to commemorate this, but since in the BMW world only a couple of months have passed, it wouldn’t work well in the timeline. Anyhow, Jim came up with the Helpdesk joke, which is so surreal it’s funny. Sad thing is, I have talked to a lot of helpline people, and this joke is not as far-fetched as you think. As for the Mr. Smiley joke, this is actually a strip Jim thought up in the very early days when we just came up with the idea for the comic. Funny that a year and a half later we are just getting an opportunity to use it. Other than being a very funny joke, it certainly tells us a lot about Mr. Smiley.

And before everyone gets really upset about the comic being late, note that we have not been idle on the site. Jim has been working hard on finally getting our Wiki together this past week. Since we have enough content, we think we can finally open it. So, stay tuned for its premier at the next Booyah.

Yes, lately we’ve been doing the slice-of-life strips.  You know the old saying, “write what you know.”  Today’s strip is actually one that hits home for me. I have to admit, one of my worst pet peeves is when my kids run around the house saying they are starving to death, asking every 2 minutes when dinner will be done, then when it’s time to eat, I have to yell and scream for them to come to the table!  I mean, if you are truly wasting away, I shouldn’t have to call you 3 times to come to the dinner!  So, I instituted a rule that if the kids don’t come in, I’m not chasing them.  Everyone who comes will eat, and the rest will just have to wait.  Granted, I haven’t resorted to PB&Js for the kids yet, but they do have to eat alone after everyone else.  And if it’s so late the leftovers are put up, they have to go and make their own plate.  Since I made that rule, the kids are much better at coming to dinner right away–though on occasion I’ve had the straggler come in after the fact, upset they were left out. Another true-life element is how the kids pass the buck all the way down when telling the other to tell the others it’s dinnertime. Including telling the baby. That is so how it is in our house.

I want to go back and talk a little about the previous strip.  I’ve gotten a lot of nice compliments about the fireworks.  I really wanted to do a 4th of July strip, but realized that holiday may not translate well to the inhabitants of a computer server.  Not that that stopped us from celebrating Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, mind you, but I figured this one might be a bit too America-only.  Anyhow, I liked the challenge of interpreting that holiday within the confines of that universe, and I was pleased when I came up with this.  As for the fireworks…major work!  There are over 20 cells in that animated gif, and it took me well over an hour just to do the fireworks part. But we are happy with how it looks, so it’s worth it.  Another thing to note, another reason I went with this is because I have been doing animated graphics for another non-BMW project.  Since I was already messing around with Animation Shop, I figured another “moving” Bitmapworld strip would be fun to do.

Remember I mentioned trying to fit in some reference to Jim cleaning out that house? Well, today’s comic Issue 173 was it. Well, to a degree. This comic is one of those true-slice-of-our-lives strips. When Jim was cleaning out that house, the woman’s pantry was filled with daddy long legs. In his own words: “I didn’t know they could get so big!” Most of our kids hate bugs and totally freak at the sight. That is, except Paige. She’s Paige the fearless, and will stomp bugs, go into a dark room alone to turn on the light, and a myriad of other “brave” things. It’s a bit comical to see our 12 year old run into room to grab Paige so she can squish a bug somewhere else in the house. I have to admit, even though I have to roll my eyes at my older ones being such “babies”, it’s quite hysterical to see this little 4-year old go to town on a bug. Paige (effectionatly called Ram-Paige at times because of her ability to trash a clean room in 10 second)–the courageous vanquisher of spiders and all things ick!

Whatever you do, don’t ask me about my computer. I might just tell you, and the strip’s up late already. Just suffice it to say I haven’t gotten home earlier than 9:00 all week and I’m less than a happy camper. Tonight looks about that same. At the very least, I can say I got the comic up!

In today’s strip, we get the first glimpse inside the K’s house. For reference, this is Tooey’s room. Of course, I had to go about “building the set” as Jim calls it, and that took a while. I get picky about these things I want them to look a certain way, but know my limitations with the pixel art and our style in this comic. Anyhow, I wanted something a tad nicer than Leroy’s room, considering the K kids’s father is a politician and would be a little more well-off.

Oh, those poor kids. I have to admit, I have been the “mean ol’ mom” on more than one occasion. As with most families, our kids play video games, and even did a short stint on WoW. Most of the time they are good about getting off when I ask. But, on the times they don’t, I have been known to pull the plug mid-game to teach them a lesson. I do admit, most of the time I wait until a lull in the action, and sometimes I’m generous and even let them go quickly save their game first. But, there have been a couple of heated battles with bosses which I’ve interrupted. Though, truthfully the BMW kids handled it a wee bit better than our kids. There is usually a lot of screaming and crying and lamenting when the switch goes unexpectedly off here!

Anyhow, I enjoyed this little detour into the game, and I’m also happy to get back on track on other storylines. Be sure to check in tomorrow.

Actually, more like *several* days late. Though, the dollar part is argueable. Despite being a bit behind, our Booyah is up and we’re pretty pleased with it. 

Of course, fresh off the frustration of a server move, I am tempted to spend a page and a half ranting and raving.  Honestly, the move went relatively smooth.  The problem is that our new server has more advanced security, which is good from a general standpoint, but not good that a large number of our scripts and programs didn’t work properly.  That included this blog and a bunch of other stuff.  Not to mention that BMW had a longer time propogating than some of the other sites.  Ah, but I promised not to rant, so suffice it to say it was a pain, but we’ve got it (mostly) taken care of now!

It’s amazing that Bitmap World has been around a year! It truly doesn’t feel that long at all. There was so many plans we had when we started, and we’ve only begun to explore some of them, and there is so much more to come.  We had hoped to start one storyline in particular with this Booyah, but instead decided to do a “birthday” strip with Issue 134. Wanting to do an Easter strip too, we figured we’d just do a few stand-alone strips and will begin the planned storyline next week.

Speaking of the birthday strip, this is again one of those comics that is more real-life than not.  Our kids LOVE bubble wrap and fight over it.  While I have never actually gotten them a roll of it, I’ve considered it.  And I have to admit, I love popping it to.  Why the heck is that so much fun?!  Whatever the reason, it is.  I can totally see my kids having a great time with a big roll of that stuff.  I’m not sure if Jim would be like Harry, thought I’m sure he’d pop a few anyway.

One of the big complaints about some comics in general is that white space is not good.  We have always held that Bitmap World is deliberately minimalistic, since we want to invoke the feelings of the old computers of days past.  Still, adding some additional color is something we have wanted to do, and have made the leap to give many of our “sets” a splash of colors. In all selfishness, we didn’t want to have to go back and color all the past strips, so a convenient little explanation was crafted.

If you visit YouTube, be sure to look up the song, Code Monkey.  It’s a great song written by a talented free-source musician, Jonathan Coultan Jim and I both love that song, particularly since we are the programming types.  I have dreamed of doing a mini-movie to the song using Bitmap World characters.  I may still yet…perhaps when I get more time in the future (whenever that will be).  Still, I wanted to somehow give a nod to the song and did so through this comic.  This is another slice-of-life strip.  My kids can’t stand when we like their stuff, even though we’re the ones that got them interested in certain types of music/movies/shows.

Last, the Easter strip. Honestly, we didn’t plan this one to be a big commentary piece. We were just talking about the Easter Bunny and then the idea was tossed around about the Macrohard bunny being at the mall, and then it went from there.  That said, both of us do find it ridiculous that there has been a trend of companies to “claim” holidays, and even seasons, as their own.  Did you know that Country Time Lemonade, Corona, and Borden’s Ice Cream all claim to be the official sponsors of Summer?  I wonder who they pay royalties to, Mother Nature?

There’s a ton to this Booyah, so remember to check out our News page for details.  We actually had more planned, but our server woes had to come first. The good news is that next month we’ll have a nice Booyah too!

Happy Spring, everyone.  And Merry Easter, too.

This issue and the storyline to come are actually inspired by real events. Recently, a couple of our kids have been bitten by the “love bug.” Of course, in grammar school, there’s no real love, just little crushes. Still, it’s incredibly cute. Our son received a gift of little trinkets from a girl for his birthday. One of our daughters recently got a letter from a secret admirer. I still remember my first “kindergarten crush” and I hope that this little arc will bring back fond memories for our readers. Who was your first crush?

The Pixel kids do come off as a little dense at times. I never view them that way, though. They are just kids. They are caught up in their own worlds and don’t know everything–even if they think they do. The Pixel kids are quirky, though. It makes for good comedy, but our own kids tend to be that way too, so we personally find it endearing. Speaking of today’s strip (Issue 115), I think we can all relate to talking at cross-purposes.

The bonus of this new storyline, is that it is going to allow us to work in a few things that we have wanted to for a while. We also wanted to mention, we got a lot of positive feedback from the strips with the robbery and Blip. Don’t worry, there will be more to that arc coming soon. If you’re a regular reader, you know we take pride in pacing things out. All in good time. As promised, there will be some exciting things coming at our year anniversary mark in March!

As much as I like to think I’m a “hip” mom (and the fact that I use the word hip probably proves I’m not), there are sometimes the generation gap hits me. Usually any time I see some piece of pop culture which seems absolutely idiotic to me, but keeps my kids enthralled for hours. Of course, the kids–my kids and the generation of 20-somethings–are the ones that are target audiences nowadays. They have the disposable income, and the naivity to truly believe they need everything that advertisers tell them. While not quite as exaggerated as in Issue 114, there is a trend where news is focusing more and more on entertainment and fluff as a way of keeping viewers. One of our major newspapers has a spin-off paper that is actually performing better than the main paper. It is “tidbit” news, where you get just a paragraph or two synopsis of the story. The rest of the pages are filled with news of the moment. What happened during Britney’s breakdown. Is Angelina Jolie pregnant? That’s what people want to know. In the last major election, there were polls that showed that most people cared more about the outcome of American Idol than the presidential election. It’s sad, but certainly a true statement of the world we live in.

As for Harry running around after all the kids, all I can say is that is Jim’s life–almost verbatim. 90% of the time our kids want daddy. Be it getting a bottle, changing a stinky, or kissing a boo-boo, they want their daddy. Of course, I win in the food category, but only because Jim can’t cook! Oh well, having grown up in a single-mom home, I don’t complain. I’m really happy and lucky I have a great husband who’s such a good dad. Though, I’m sure–particularly at key moments–Jim wishes that for a little while those kids would want their mom instead!

One more note, we are totally proud of our very techno, pop-culture sounding celebrity names! Can’t you totally see a rock star with the name of Xeon Neon?