The Phoenix Dance
Sometimes, you get ready to do something. And you're excited about it. It's gonna rock. So, you start doing whatever it is, and things start going wrong. Before you know it the whole damn things unravelling, and you're going, "Maybe this wasn't such a hot idea". Then, when everything looks like it can't get any worse, and the whole damn situation seems unsalvagable, just like that, things turn back the other way, and everything turns out alright.
What am I talking about? Welp, here's a couple of examples.
So, I've been wanting to make Pork Torta for about a month now. It's a sorta Mexican BBQ that I've only recently become aware of. The problem was that the recipe called for roasted pork, and didn't have the tools for the job. I got a crockpot for my birthday, though, so suddenly, I was in business. Gathered up the goods, asked Pa how to operate the crockpot, and I'm off.
That's about the time things start going wrong. First off, I'm making a mess. Hell, not just a mess, a super mess. I'm working on the Bolillos (Crunchy rolls you serve the BBQ Pork Torta on), and I pretty much destroy my new mixer in the process. I'm juggling fixing a bunch of stuff, and forgetting to turn on timers, and it's all going to hell in a handbasket. I finally have my Bolillo dough ready, I preheat my oven, wait a bit, open it up, and instead of being met with a blast furnace of heat, I get coldness and the smell of gas. Yut-oh. Called Dad, dealt with the potentially lethal oven (the top still works but the inside may be useless now), and ended up baking some of the Bolillos two at a time in the toaster oven. Here it was 7pm, I had been cooking for hours now, my kitchen was a disaster zone, one appliance was trashed, another may have been, and I hadn't even eaten yet.
Now, here's the Redemption. The Pork Torta was Freaking Awesome! Normally, I'm not a big fan of BBQ, but this stuff combined smokeiness, spicieness, and sweetness to equal a tast that was just excellent. So, in the end, it was worth it.
Second example is the latest comic, SDF: Lost Jigsaw Pieces (which, for the record I still have over half to go yet...). When I started this issue, I was pretty excited. But as I started work on it, the more I started feeling like the issue was boring, poorly drawn, slow, and kinda lame. Which is not good. When you're a small press publisher every issue has to kick at least a little ass, or people are gonna get bored with your dumb comic real quick like. No matter what I did though, the issue just felt like a meandering waste of time. Then, one day, while I'm putting on the finishing touches to a Mosquito Island story, and things start looking up. In fact, the MI story's pretty good in retrospect. Then, I start work on the aliceislost story, and suddenly, I'm cooking with gas, baby! And even the Cactus Joe story, which I was really afraid was gonna fall apart on me, has some really good character bits and some funny stuff. Again, just when I thought things were gonna go to hell, things have a way of turning back around.
What am I talking about? Welp, here's a couple of examples.
So, I've been wanting to make Pork Torta for about a month now. It's a sorta Mexican BBQ that I've only recently become aware of. The problem was that the recipe called for roasted pork, and didn't have the tools for the job. I got a crockpot for my birthday, though, so suddenly, I was in business. Gathered up the goods, asked Pa how to operate the crockpot, and I'm off.
That's about the time things start going wrong. First off, I'm making a mess. Hell, not just a mess, a super mess. I'm working on the Bolillos (Crunchy rolls you serve the BBQ Pork Torta on), and I pretty much destroy my new mixer in the process. I'm juggling fixing a bunch of stuff, and forgetting to turn on timers, and it's all going to hell in a handbasket. I finally have my Bolillo dough ready, I preheat my oven, wait a bit, open it up, and instead of being met with a blast furnace of heat, I get coldness and the smell of gas. Yut-oh. Called Dad, dealt with the potentially lethal oven (the top still works but the inside may be useless now), and ended up baking some of the Bolillos two at a time in the toaster oven. Here it was 7pm, I had been cooking for hours now, my kitchen was a disaster zone, one appliance was trashed, another may have been, and I hadn't even eaten yet.
Now, here's the Redemption. The Pork Torta was Freaking Awesome! Normally, I'm not a big fan of BBQ, but this stuff combined smokeiness, spicieness, and sweetness to equal a tast that was just excellent. So, in the end, it was worth it.
Second example is the latest comic, SDF: Lost Jigsaw Pieces (which, for the record I still have over half to go yet...). When I started this issue, I was pretty excited. But as I started work on it, the more I started feeling like the issue was boring, poorly drawn, slow, and kinda lame. Which is not good. When you're a small press publisher every issue has to kick at least a little ass, or people are gonna get bored with your dumb comic real quick like. No matter what I did though, the issue just felt like a meandering waste of time. Then, one day, while I'm putting on the finishing touches to a Mosquito Island story, and things start looking up. In fact, the MI story's pretty good in retrospect. Then, I start work on the aliceislost story, and suddenly, I'm cooking with gas, baby! And even the Cactus Joe story, which I was really afraid was gonna fall apart on me, has some really good character bits and some funny stuff. Again, just when I thought things were gonna go to hell, things have a way of turning back around.
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