It's also why they don't have a lot of friends.

I’m a cave dweller. The longer I can put off turning lights on and still see what I’m doing, the happier I am. You’d think this means that I’d save lots of money on my electric bill, but because I’m running so much electronics while sitting in the dark, it doesn’t work out that way.

It’s not just me, but lots of programmers I know feel the same way about the lights. There’s a contingent of early risers at my office that sneak into work early and get stuff done before the lights above our cubicles get turned on. When they do finally get turned on, there’s often an audible hiss from those present. The light, it burns us!!

Fortunately for me, the Gnome shares my aversion to lights. What she does not approve of is me randomly disappearing when inspired with a new programming idea. That’s probably a good thing, because that keeps me out of weird places where I might otherwise get myself into trouble.

When Kris started doing his graphics design and digital art, he decreed he’d do it without using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. It’s not only the exorbitant pricing that he objects to, but the blanket disregard in the industry to experiment with the other tools available. Initially, he had been using Pixelmator to do the comic. While Pixelmator is good, it - like Photoshop - was really designed for photo manipulation, not comic drawing. He’s recently switched to Manga Studio and feels it’s improved his workflow and art work considerably. I can’t explain it as well as he can, so I’ll have to make him do a blog post later about what he likes with Manga Studio. Bottom line is that since his general process is improving, we’re going to start experimenting with more aspects of the comic - like the color in today’s strip. I’m not saying we’re going to go full color any time soon, but I’d definitely expect to see more highlights here and there.