Monday, October 20, 2014

EXTRA LIFE 2014



I've done many really cool and even dare I say it impressive things in my life.  I have published several comic books, I once played on stage with the Pat McGee Band and I've seen shit that will turn you white (Ghostbusters reference, if you haven't seen Ghostbusters, stop reading and go watch it. You can thank me later).  Of all the things I've done in the past 35 years, the one thing I'm most proud of is my association with the Extra Life charity Gaming Marathon.  Over the last 4 years I have raised over $2000 to benefit the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and before that I raise a few hundred dollars for the Children's hospital of Texas, back when it was the only hospital involved with the charity.

The way this event works could not be simpler.  It's a charity marathon and like any other charity marathon you get people to sponsor you to raise money for a good cause.  Unlike most marathon, they is no running involved.  In fact I'll end up spending most of my time sitting on my couch.  In this marathon I'll be playing games non-stop for 24 hours.  It starts on October 25th at 8:00am.  At which time I'll start playing Kingdom of Loathing, like I have every year.  From that point on I'll be playing one game or another until 8:00am October 26th.  And it can be any game, video, card or board.  Heck I could even go out a play some horse shoes if I wanted.

I'm taking part in the Extra Life charity gaming marathon to benefit Children Hospital of Philadelphia.  It's amazing how fast the time has flown by, but this event takes place next Saturday into Sunday (October 25th into October 26th).  Besides reminding you that you have a little more than a week to donate (donations can be made online here: http://www.extra-life.org/participant/TMitchell ) I also wanted to share with you a fun fact the head of the Philadelphia extra life effort had emailed me.

"As of today, there are 640 Extra Lifers signed up to play for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia!  If every one of you collected a minimum of $200 in donations, you would raise a combined total of $128,000!"

I'm filled with so much joy when I think of how much good that money could do.  I think of how many parents will be able to set aside worrying how to pay for their child's treatment and focus on helping their child through an illness.  When you think about all of the horrible things in the world, it's nice to know that there are place like the children's hospitals that benefit from this fundraising, that will never turn a child away, no matter if their parents can afford to cost.

Sadly not everyone involved will be able to raise that much money.  For some raising $50 will be difficult.  This is one of the reasons I set my goal so high, I want to offset those that can only do a little.

If you have not yet donated, please visit my page, http://www.extra-life.org/participant/TMitchell  and consider donating.  If you already have donated, thank you so much and please send my link out to anyone who you think would be interested in helping The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Thank you

Till next time, go make things!

T.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Comics, Zoloft and The Doubleclicks


            Hi, I'm going to apologize if this post is a little more incoherent than normal, I have been waking up in the middle of the night and have not been able to go back to sleep for the last three night straight.  More on that later, now for the first order of business, my current comic book project has moved on the next stage.  All of the writing has been completed and editor approved.  Let the artist search begin!  Actually it started Monday when I posted the following ad around the Internet neighborhoods where the artsy kids hang out:

Ad Title: Looking for someone to illustrate and color 5 pages plus cover (paid)

I have written a five page comic book script and I now need someone to draw and color the cover and interior pages. The story is in the fantasy genre and called "I Hate When They Run." It's the follow up to an 8 page story I wrote called "Dangers of the Road," which can be found here: http://oldmanmitchell.blogspot.com/p/dangers-of-road.html I'll be taking care of the lettering for this book.

The budget for art is $150 plus 25 copies of the printed comic. Once this book is finished I'm planning on creating an ongoing series based in this world. If things go well, I would like to use the same artist on the full book as this 5 page project. The first issue will be funded via Kickstarter and the pay will be more in line with industry standards. Before any of that can happen "I Hate When They Run" will need to see print.

Please send links to samples of your sequential work to yommer16@gmail.com

Regards,

T. Perran Mitchell


So far we have some really good candidates and some not as polished candidates.  Frankly, I was hoping for more responses, but maybe posting it up the week of New York Comic Con wasn't the smartest of moves.  I hope that things will pick up over the next week or so.  If you know anyone who might be interested and willing to work for my limited budget, shoot them my way.

Speaking of things happening over the next week or so, I started taking Zoloft on Sunday and boy are they not kidding about the side effects.  As I said in the opening, I have had a lot of trouble sleeping since I started taking it.  Sleep and I have never been easy allies, but this waking up in the middle of the night is no go.  Not only am I a zombie all day, but it make it really hard to tell what other side effects are from the meds and what is just lack of sleep.

UPDATE:  This is where I left off writing this blog post yesterday.  I had to go get my allergy shot and had all intention of writing more.  However the effects of the Zoloft and lack of sleep sent me into such a funk I ended up just watching some TV and talking to my girlfriend on the phone for a long while. Or I should say being talked down from felling disconnected, like the whole world hated me and everything was going fall apart.  Know that it was just chemicals in my brain creating an artificial feeling only helped so much.  Talking it out with her and hearing it from someone else made all the difference in the world.  But I still woke up at 3am this morning.

As soon as I got into the office this morning I called my doctor.  We agreed that the Zoloft experiment was a failure.  He told me to give it a few weeks then give him a call if I wanted to try a different anti-depressant.  I have a feeling that after this issue I have had with Zoloft and Adderall, plus all of the trails and errors with ADD drugs as a kid, I'm not going to be rushing out to take any more brain meds.

On to something a little more fun, Sunday night I saw TheDoubleclicks play at Melodies Cafe in Ardmore.  What an awesome show.  I had never been there and was (surprise, surprise) feeling a little down, so it took forever to get myself out the door.  I ended up arriving just a little bit before the show started.  Luckily I was able to get a seat right on the end of the second row, maybe 10 -15 feet from the stage.  I ordered some sweet potato fries and the guy next to me was nice enough to offer to switch seats so I would have a table for my food.

Before my food even got there The Doubleclicks came on stage.  You could tell right away how happy they were to be at Melodies and how much fun they were having playing.  I always have a found the more fun a band is having on stage the more I enjoy the show.  I was really cool to hear the songs live and to get to hear their banter between songs.  I also enjoyed that the lead singer, Angela Weber, made sure to ask everyone to sing along for nearly every chorus.  After their set, I was able to chat with Angela for a bit and get some pictures with the other member of the band, her sister Aubrey.

Me and The Doubleclicks

Goofy face for the guy not knowing how to work my camera phone




It was a great time and I highly recommend going to see them live if your get the chance.  Here is a song they didn't play that night but is one of my favorites.





And just for good measure here is a song they did play and that I just so happened to also feature on my 2014 Summer Mix.  I'll be posting a track list of it and my other seasonal mixes soon. (I know I'm super behind on that)




One more thing before I go, I will be participating in the Extra Life 24 hour gaming charity event again this year to benefit Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  Last year I was able to help raised over $1000 to help offset the cost of sick children whose families have trouble affording their treatment.  The event takes place Oct. 25th in to the 26th. I'll blog more about it when it gets closer.  For more information and to donate, click the link below

Until next time, keep making things


T.