Congratulations, Scott Johnson

I've gone back and forth over the last few days as to whether or not I wanted to write about this, but in light of recent events, it seems kind of important.

On Thursday, June 18th, Scott Johnson of MyExtraLife and podcasting fame announced on CNET's Buzz Out Loud that as of Monday (today) he would no longer be a slave to the 9 - 5 but would be working for himself. Somewhere along the way, Scott discovered that his web work and commissions were bringing in enough that he could do it full time.

That. Is. Awesome.

Even though I don't know Scott personally, I find this turn of events very exciting. I know there are other people who make a very good living as webcomic artists. But I wasn't there when Gabe and Tycho quit their day jobs or when Scott Kurtz decided to do his art work full time. I am here now, following Scott through his Twitter and his blog. And now he's living the dream.

So many people have commented on how Scott seems to do everything. I agree. He does. About a month ago, when he announced on Twitter his new iPod and iPhone application podcast, Appslappy, I retweeted this information with the comment that "Scott must be bored." He direct messaged me back with "Bored? Hey!" I told him that he clearly didn't already do enough if he was adding another podcast.

His reply... "Easy when you love it. :)"

Now, just a short few weeks later, he is doing what he loves as a career. I couldn't help but draw hope from this. One more of us regular people (albeit a very talented one) had done what everyone dreams of. I never seem to find enough hours in the day for everything that I love to do, let alone progress those things to a level where they could become profitable. I may have worked in the art department, but it certainly wasn't the art that I wanted to make. Seeing Scott succeed with his own work made me think that maybe I could find a way to do both.

Here I sit, no longer having the job that I liked well enough, but didn't love. Being downsized sucks, no matter who you are, but I'm having a hard time being completely unhappy about it. I have a singular chance to do what I love, at least for a little while. Maybe I can find that opportunity that will let me make my creative works a career.

It's comforting to know that someone made it.

Congratulations, Scott, and good luck.

So help me, I'm blogging.

Alright, here we go. An hour for lunch and I'm going to try and cram in most of what I've wanted to write about for the last two weeks...

First off, I am so very excited that yesterday was the beginning of COMMISSIONATHLON 2009. For those of you not in the know, Obsidian of Commissioned Comic has this mad plan to do one commissioned piece of art a day for the next month. All of this is to fund his trip up from Colombia to Conneticon at the end of July. O's first piece was Scott Johnson's WoW character Gerp and his tiger pet Henry. It looks awesome. It may be my favorite of the WoW character drawings I've watched O do so far. I was fortunate enough to get to see the whole thing, and I am not so much more excited for the commission that I have coming. Brian and my piece is scheduled for next Tuesday, June 9th. I'll be sure to tweet about it when it's happening and I'll put the finished piece up here when I get it.

Along those lines, I got a wedding invitation from two of my good friends, and their wedding is on the first of August. This is squarely in the middle of Conneticon, solving my on-going questioning as to whether I was going or not. I'm sad I won't get to go see O, but maybe the 'con means that more awesome stuff will be going on sale in his store.

E3... It deserves it's own post, but I want to at least get my initial impressions out in case I don't get another chance to write. The big news: I'm going to have to buy a PS3. I don't really want to. But I must. Team Ico announced The Last Guardian, which I have been waiting for years to hear about. It's nice to have an actual trailer (even if it is only a teaser) rather than whisperings, hopes, and the occasional blurry screen shot. Shadow of the Colossus is very likely my favorite game ever, and now I'm trying to get my hands on Ico. Along with Little Big Planet, that I've wanted since it came out, and God of War 3, Brian and I just can't fight it much longer.

I'm sure my WoW characters have been weeping uncontrollably at my absence. I miss them, too. Daniora is working on getting her last Champion city, Orgrimmar. She's also gathering up enough Champion seals to get her hippogryph. Amelinda of Earthen Ring is leveling... slowly. She's still in the Ghostlands, but I have got to tell you, I am loving AIE. It's really nice after a hard day at work to be able to surround yourself with a wall of friendly green text. I think people have the impression that there are so many jerks on the internet because all the nice people are tied up playing in the guild.

Scott Johnson's got a new podcast, this time pairing up with Eric, otherwise known as SkyHawk. It's called AppSlappy and covers apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Very nice. I can't officially review it here until there are at least 5 episodes, but expect something soon.

Brian Dunnaway of Mission Deep, ELR, and Comics Coast-to-Coast has said he's been working on a few new things for the site. I can't wait for that!

Phew. That was quite the linkfest. Hopefully I'll be able to get more regular and less insane posts out in the near future.

Also, I'd like to give a big internet shout out to Beth, the greatest office manager any company could hope for.

[Podcast Review] How I WoW

How I WoW might be a bit of a misnomer. Their tag line is "@ the intersection of Real Life and World of Warcraft". This is a more accurate description.

Patrick and Shawn began as (and are still) regular contributors to The Instance. They've branched off to make what I find to be a very entertaining, if not entirely WoW-centric, podcast. It's an interview based format with guests who are WoW players, very often those who are also what I will call "WoW Web Celebs".

It's still a young podcast, especially in terms of number of episodes. Their 1 year anniversary show is episode #17. The earlier ones are definately a bit rough. Both Patrick and Shawn are a bit overly concerned reigning the subject back in to WoW and a time limit. Later episodes become a bit looser and, consequently, more enjoyable.

While some of the more hardcore WoW players might argue that most interviews don't have too much to do with Warcraft, but I find that to be to their credit. It is "How I WoW". It's people who game and how it fits into their lives. The longer format allows the guests to really be themselves, which is extremely enlightening.

If you don't have enough time to listen to anything but the most hardcore podcast, there are still a few episodes that are must listens. Episode 1 has Scott Johnson, who is always fascinating. Turpster is on episode 9, and without Mike Schramm from WoW Insider to reel him in, he really gets to run a bit wild. It's fantastically funny.

This isn't to say that the other episodes aren't worth listening to. They're all wonderful, and the format just gets better and better as Patrick and Shawn become more comfortable with their positions as hosts. Felicia Day is precious and makes me question things about myself (Sorry, honey) and Curt Shilling's episode is great for us baseball fans to see this whole other side of him.

I need to mention the two part anniversary show. The first half (Episode 16) has a bunch of the most popular guests from the past years' podcasts all on together. It is a laugh riot. The second part (#17) is interesting in that the person interviewed does not play WoW. But it's Jonathan Coulton, so that makes it awesome. It works because so many machinima set to his songs have been made using WoW footage, and he is a huge nerd at heart. If you're a fan of JoCo, it's a good listen.

How I WoW is a great listen. Highly recommended for it's entertainment value.

[Podcast Review] The Instance

This is the first in my series of podcast reviews spawned by my new found love of podcasts. Most of them will be World of Warcraft related, but the rest will be pertinent geek life.

I'm going to start right off and say that I love The Instance. I'll admit, I'm a bit of a fangirl of Scott Johnson. I read all his comics, listen to all his podcasts, read his blog. But I digress...

Scott Johnson and Randy "Deluxe" Jordan have fantastic chemistry. They balance each other perfectly. This does a lot to do attract the high numbers of listeners that they have that don't actually play World of Warcraft. If Scott goes off on a rant about this or that, Randy is there with the hard facts to bring him back again. Randy and Scott can be on opposite sides of an issue, but it never decays into an arguement. After so many episodes together, they've developed a rapport and inside jokes have developed. I mean, who would have thought that Scott's wrestling name in high school would be the same as the band that Randy played bass for?

It's very clear that both of them have a passion for the game and truly enjoy playing. It is not a podcast that's going to teach you how to get that extra 5 points of DPS in 25 man Naxx. It's more concerned with making sure that you get the most out of the game no matter what your play style is. They strive to make sure that listeners know what's going on in the game and with Blizzard in general so that no one misses out on anything. Most refreshing is that unlike some WoW players, they never loose sight of the fact that it is a game and should be enjoyable, otherwise it's not worth playing.

The format consists regular segments for every episode covering the biggest news, WoW rumors, and questions from listeners. Episodes generally run about an hour and a half, but if the particular episode happens to be jam-packed, Scott and Randy are more than happy to let it run long to cover everything. I have to say, this is a rarity in WoW podcasts. Many others tend to be a bit too tied to their "time limit" and will cut off topics without letting them progress to their logical conclusion. However, they also know when someone (like a guest... ahem, Turpster) is wandering a bit too far off target and Scott and Randy are excellent at reigning them back in without stifling conversation.

Regular contributions from listeners like Patrick (from How I WoW), Mean Gene, Buxley, and others provides a variety of information for listeners. These segments contain information in little snippets that if they were the basis of the podcast would bog it down in number crunching and urls. There's the Mod of the Week, PvP tips, twinking tips, and many others that come and go from week to week. This might be one of The Instance's best qualities: Anyone can contribute. My favorites, by far, are the WoW parody songs. Those get stuck in my head, and I sing them for days.

The Instance has the highest production values of any WoW podcast I've yet heard. The segments submitted by listeners vary in quality, but all are better than many whole podcasts I've heard. This does a lot to make it enjoyable. There aren't any sound problems to distract from the content. A lot of smaller podcasts suffer this fate, I feel, making me not want to listen even if I am completely interested in the subject matter.

The Instance has been described to me as "listening to a couple of your close friends talk about WoW." It's true, Scott and Randy feel like friends to me now. I follow both of them on Twitter. (You can follow me too!) But I've got to tell you, it's way more interesting than listening to my friends talk about WoW. And while the expansion and all the new content had a lot to do with it, The Instance has really gotten me "into" WoW again. I'm even thinking about overlooking my distaste for leveling alts just to join the guild they started, Alea Iacta Est. I find that even though the podcast is all about playing WoW in whatever way you find enjoyable, it makes me want to be a better WoW player.

So, thanks, Scott and Randy, for setting the bar so high for other WoW podcasts.