The wonderful computer that you wonderful wonderful folks bought for me with your generous and incredible contributions about 2.5 years ago has verilee bitt the dustt.  Out of warranty, a deep hardware error that prevents it from staying up for more than a minute at a time has necessitated I must now build me a new one with the help of my buddies Jim and Daniel, who are old and young, experienced and brilliant, and knowledgeable and nerdy.  We will custom-create a white box to Zona’s specs.  Not sure where the finances and the time will converge, but I am in good enough shape this time that I need not ask you to help beyond what you have already done.  That’s not what this is about. *

BUTTT!!!

All is not lost.

My company recently purchased for my work use a laptop that has enough guts to keep me going until the new box is ready to take up the task of continuing the Zona legacy.  It is quite up to running Poser 7 and Photoshop and I am tippety-typing these words on it now.   It does, however, not have the power that the beastie that has just given up the silicon ghost had, and its renders go s-l-o-w-l-y compared to the Dearly Departed.  Frushtratin’.  But not Dead In The Water.  We’re still moving in the right direction.

SO

Given that I am also definitely coming down with some kind of headache-inducin’-snot-bearin’-cough-blowin’-mucus-munchin’-achey-breaky-craptoriffic crud -

I’m not going to stay up late tonight.

BUT –

Vote for Zona.

You will see the first panel of page 541 in HD.  That at least I got for you.

Excelsior!

The next full page will not be up until tomorrow PM sometime.

*This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t contribute, anyway.  Just that I will be able to manage to make the new box without it.  But you can contribute your ducats to the cause at your convenience, and please please DO!

Feeling really rocky.  And apparently page 543 was one of those files that just took it on itself to be difficult to render with no explanation and suddenly.  However, do but vote and you will at least see the first panel.  I will put the whole page up tomorrow — I think.

Snurk.

Cough.

Blaaaah.

JED

No other way to say it, but I think I may have to get stinking drunk and jump off a pier after stepping on a rake, then stepping under a convenient falling piano.

The computer died - you all know about that.  No problem, We have everything backed up on an external Seagate drive, use the nice laptop and wait for the new parts (already ordered) to arrive that we shall assemble into a new, reliable box.

The external hard drive died.   That’s AFTER my graphics tablet died.

I have a second backup, which is in the dead first computer.  It has MOST of what I need, but is (STEP ON THE RAKE, NOW) a few months out of date. All the most recent pages, scenes and acquisitions are missing.  Even so, I have not lost everything and can most likely reconstitute all the models and software if I can get to that.  After all, DAZ and Renderosity allow you to reactivate all your old purchase downloads, so I should be able, even in a worst-case scenario, to get back to production.

If the actual hard drive from the Seagate is still good, we can get everything back.  Word on that next week.  As of right now, I have no system capable of accessing Zona.  Period.  Full Stop.   The new parts should arrive in a few days, and it should be ballzier and more reliable than the HP, and should have bays and connections to accommodate all of the disks and we shall see what we can grab.

In the mean time, I am sitting and playing my ukulele and figuring out what to do.  I don’t know how many weeks it’s going to be.  If it comes to it, I may give you some of my prose to fill in, because ALL MY RENDERS ARE OUT OF MY REACH!!!!

It will be okay.  I know it will.  Seriously.

I just wonder what the hell, y’know?   Is Shuach projecting into our dimension or something?

Making another drink …

Warm regards,

JED

Told you I’d have something for you tonight.  Here is a nice desktop.

I could have made it a calendar, but I’m kind of burning out on those.  If you’d still like me to, I can try to keep doing them, but I think I’ll just try to pop a new desktop in sometime each month.

New page for sure on Friday, as by then I will have finished reloading all the software and stuff and gotten my little bit of sanity back.

Warm regards,

JED