SHIRTS, Y'ALL Oh man, this week has some real bold moves. I feel like I am now post-taste, I can't even tell when I'm making insane things anymore. Pictured here: the best my hair has ever looked, and a flannel dinosaur shirt. The fabric is all black and white, but I had the idea of buying some fabric markers and treating it like a coloring book. I plan on carrying around the markers with me when I wear it so that other people can fill in a dinosaur if they want. Horrible horrible quality, but here's a picture pre-washing. Picture one is after the first wash, the colors become a bit more muted and pastel. "You're not actually going to wear that in public, right?" - My Mom, 2k16. Birds and flowers and flowers and birds. Did some fitting after I took this picture. --- It now takes me about 2 hours and 1.75 yards of fabric to make a short sleeve shirt, which is pretty exciting. I will probably be making a new shirt every other day until I leave, which leads me to: Leaving for Portland in 15 days! I am very excited. EDIT: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been giving me support and advice, I really do appreciate it. Thank you for finding value in my work.
Dude I would buy one of those dinosaur shirts.
Consider it flac. You could turn this into a legit business venture, but only if you appropriately compensate yourself for your time and effort. I honestly wouldn't hesitate to consider $60-$70 a shirt myself, especially since I'd be able to brag that it's hand made and that I know the guy who made it. If you ever want to give denim another shot, let me know. I'd love a jacket. Dala says she could never have too many shoes. I say I could never have too many jackets.
The garments you're buying ate mass produced at a factory for ridiculously cheap. You're not a factory mass producing clothing. You're a single person and an artist. There's value in that. I don't know how much you check out the local art/artisan scene around you. Look at what people in your community are willing to pay for handmade quilts, hand blown glass, statues made of welded scrap metal, etc. You might find yourself surprised. Keep in mind though, "starving artist" exists as a term for a reason. Artisan works and art is not a get rich quick scheme. Often a lot of times these people have a very supportive and a very understanding spouse bringing in a regular 9-5 paycheck to make things work.
The artisan scene is part of what makes me really excited about Portland, not much of one where I am in CT though. I only buy/acquire clothes secondhand, but I do think taking into account the terrible system that makes insanely low first-hand prices possible is worthwhile. I mainly think that it's hard for me to look at the artificially deflated prices of places like Walmart and not feel like I'm artificially inflating my prices if I charge, say, $60 a shirt.
Think of it this way: If you charge $40 a shirt, you will be making basically $20/hr (at best), and you will be SLAMMED with orders. Say, 40 shirts a week. (Because sewing time is quickly going to be way overshadowed by fabric/button/fabric store time.) That's $1600/wk. at a break-neck production pace. Your hands, arms, shoulders, and eyes will quickly tire. The quality of life you have outside of "work" will deteriorate as you spend more time in pain, and less time on social things. Or... You could charge $100 a shirt, make 3 shirts a day, and still take home the same amount of money without damaging your body, health, or social life.
I think he could definitely command $100. That said, it's all about having access to the people that would pay $100. If you do't have access, you don't have sales. I think that a $50 shirt, including shipping - which shouldn't be more than $5 to anywhere in the US, is a good start. Once you can't keep pace with those orders, raise the price to $80 and so on... You can always raise the price. No shame in that at all. But find your market first. Have people asking them "where did you get that shirt...?" and go from there. Edit: Also, when you're starting a business you almost should be so busy your hands fall off. The more shirts he's making the better he will get. Much better for him to be cranking out 6 a day than 3, if nothing else so that he can further hone his craft.
The people who make Ferarri's don't drive them... In college I made loudspeakers that cost $225,000 a pair... Trust that there is a market. I really, REALLY think you've tapped into something with the color-your-own-shirt thing.... above and beyond the awesomeness of your other shirts - which are nice enough to charge custom dollars for.
The "Value" comes from the custom tailoring. There was a company in Seattle that was selling custom sized shirts for about 80-100 each. They would take your measurements and then send those to their sweatshop in chindiadesh to be made. If you are hand making them for your customers thats how you earn your value. High quality materials, made locally and fits perfectly. Your time is too valuable to use the cheap fabrics but once you use high quality fabrics you become somewhat competitive on price and quality especially when you add in a $10 made in the USA/Local markup.
just ask TNG what he spends on his nice work shirts - I'd wager it's hella more than $30. Now... I get that you're being super cool and giving a great rate to our little family here... but I tend to agree with rd95 - you could seriously make this into a thing. The minute I saw "including markers" I realized that you're sitting on a gold mine. Seriously.... this "Color your own dinosaur shirt" is so genius that it's FUCKING GENIUS. People will buy that shit up so fast it will make your head spin. b_b's right - I don't doubt you could make bespoke shirts for $60+.... add in the markers and the cool factor of coloring? that's a $90 shirt. ALL DAY LONG.
Yeah flac, not to overwhelm you or nothing, but I just re-read one of your comments that says you spend about 2 hours a shirt. You should pay yourself a bare minimum of $10 an hour. $15-$20 is probably more fair to yourself. So down the road, if you do make something of this, don't hesitate to ask for more for your shirts. People who understand what "hand made" and "one of a kind" mean are willing to pay for that.
I agree. He wanted to charge me $25 for my Hubski shirt. I insisted on $40. I still think I ripped him off. flac, drinks are on me when we meet in Portland this year. -Which we will!
I like the flowers and birds shirt, but the dinosaur one is awesome.
Well, I'm back home without a job, without local friends, and without any real responsibilities, so I certainly have lots of time on my hands. Basically whenever I'm not working on music, I'm working on sewing. Short sleeve shirts are super streamlined for me now that I have the patterns cut and understand what alterations I need to make to them. I actually don't even use pins on most of it now, which I know is a pretty horrible tendency, but it cuts out some time, and my standards are a lot lower if I'm going to wear it vs. if I am making it for someone else. I actually made both shirts seen in this post on the same day - one from like 10 - 12:30 PM, the other 4 - 6 PM. Also, the desire to not have to ship my fabric to Portland is currently a nice motivator :p
I've been programming a lot this week for a bunch of projects. Programming is something that really makes the hours fly by. It's frustrating at times but a fun mental challenge nonetheless. Because of this post I wanted to see if I could run the numbers myself, to compare the shift in voting behaviour since the last time a GOP candidate won (so, Bush) with the shift in racial diversity from 2000-2010 on a county level. My apologies to people who are sick of politics right now but I wanted to share what I've found so far. Here you can see clearly the shift towards Trump; you would expect counties to be on the black line if their voting behaviour didn't change. Above the line means a county voted more for Trump, below means that it voted less for Trump and more for Bush: I also made a scatterplot comparing the change in diversity on the x-axis and the change in vote behaviour on the y-axis. If a county is in the top right quadrant, this means that diversity increased between 2000 and 2010 and that it voted more for Trump than for Bush. Strikingly, 62% of all counties fall into this category: (ignore the line, it doesn't mean anything) edit: 
I had possibly the best weekend of 2016 right at the end of the year. Spent it out of town, out of my head and present with good friends, some new and some very old. Friday Get into town at 11:00, immediately begin whiskey tasting with a friends dad. Make it to our first bar before midnight, close down the second bar with a duet of Hooked on a Feeling. Back to my friend's place where I actually learn how to play euchre properly for the first time in my life, and continue to drink liquor far above my paygrade. (Never tasted the bottle with the three dimples before) Saturday Slept in, beat the hangover with eggs benny, took the dogs for a walk along the frozen beach. Went to a craft show and got a surprising amount of my holiday shopping done while supporting local businesses. My friend's younger brother opened up for Prob Cause and The Floozies at The Intersection in Grand Rapids and the show was a lot of fun! It was refreshing to see physical instruments used in conjunction with CDJs and DJ iTunes. Invited my high school sweetheart to the show and she really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed catching up with her. She had just finished her last clinical of nursing school and said she appreciated the chance to let her hair down. She gave me a kiss on the cheek as we said our goodbyes after, and we have dinner plans for the week after Christmas. I was DD back from the concert, and I had a good conversation with my friends (Relatively new) girlfriend. I'd met her several times before but this is the first time we'd spent much time together for long. She's a Catholic, who chose the faith as an adult. She's an oncology nurse who works with mostly terminal patients. She tends her faith and positivity like a garden. Cultivates it with great care and deliberation, making sure to select only the proper plants, nourishes them with what she knows to be effective. She doesn't try to be everything to everyone and this makes her more effective at being the things that people do need her to be. To continue the garden metaphor, she doesn't try to grow industrial-scale animal feed in a rose garden. She gave me a lot to think on, and was the precipitating factor in that post I made on Monday. Sunday Woke up to almost a foot of snow and more accumulating. Spent the whole day just driving back to Metro Detroit. What should have been a 3 hour drive maximum turned into almost 7 hours on the road. One near-death experience later, and we made it back home. Now I'm happily typing good things into pubski while I wait for some scheduling requests to process. Feel good Hubski :3
Dimple Pinch I'm an uncultured barbarian. I tasted some old scotches but I just don't appreciate peat. It's something I endure to get to other flavors.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the peat either. Only Scotch I've found that I genuinely liked was Aberlour, but I much prefer either Kentucky bourbon or Irish.
I got quite a big promotion this week, one I've been working towards carefully for almost two years. Currently, I do clerical work for a medical clinic, making appointments, handling records, dealing with insurance companies, and telephone triage (which is my main task). I've been trying to get a job in the very small behavioral health team for several years, and it finally is going to happen. I was vaguely aware it was possible, because the Psych Assistant is leaving come January, and several of the BH providers have been asking me if I'd heard anything. I was pulled into a meeting Monday which was the most informal interview I've ever had. "This is the job, the providers and management both think you'd be a great fit, we're not interviewing or considering anyone else right now. If you want it, it's yours." So I've been starting my training while HR preps paperwork for it. I'll be the Case Manager for the program. I'm pretty excited and nervous.
Good to read things seem to be on the up and up. In my Pubski post a while back surveying the crowd on ways to relax you brought up (team?) sports (along with others pointing to exercise). I have yet to join an intramural team, but making a point heading to the gym which has made a noticeable difference. I hope you find similar relief.
Dear god, I'm a fucking mess. Almost punched the mirror of my hotel bathroom when I was seeking shelter so that the cleaning ladies out in the hall couldn't hear me sobbing. Gotta pull it together before my Chinese roommate returns. I've worked 80 hour weeks for six weeks straight doing research and studying. Took my final exam today after presenting my research at a conference yesterday, and I fucking bombed it. I'll probably be expelled. Got put under pressure and spent too much time on research. Overdrafted bank account, completely out of shape, thousands of miles away from home, no privacy, but no one to talk to. I'd make a joke about how the Golden Gate Bridge is only a short walk away, but one of my classmates killed himself earlier this year. Apparently it happens every few years or so, and it's a very small department. What the fuck is going on in graduate schools? The situation is ripe for a journalist to come in and blow the lid off this shit. Edit: and the only reason you poor chaps are reading this pile of dogshit is because my girl isn't around to cuddle me into contentedness. Sorry, I'm better now. Would you rather have a degree from a prestigious university that you felt didn't appreciate you, or have a degree from somewhere of lesser note that made you feel appreciated? I can't decide. Christ, I'm vain.
There is nothing you're experiencing right now that has any serious long term consequences. You're not going to be expelled. Worst case is you end up spending some remedial time not working quite so hard. You're a bright kid. You have a great presence. Your school isn't supposed to appreciate you - they get to brag when you make something big of yourself. It is in their best interests to help you make something big of yourself. Hang in there. This too shall pass.
Final for my worst class in 6 hours. If I pull a 69% i pass Chem. If I don't, I risk separation at worst and 5 weeks of summer school at best. Losing my beans, this was a timely comment to read.
Stop, reassess, get help if you need it. I'm sure your university has a help line. There is no shame in using it and nobody will know. See that panic button its probably attached to a blue kiosk on campus, if you dont know what to do hit that help will arrive shortly.
Oh, I'm not suicidal, don't worry. But it doesn't feel good when someone takes something I'm passionate about, puts a gun to my head, and says "Now do it better, you piece of shit." P.S. appreciate the concern though :)
Edit: The Chinese roommate turned out to be awesome. It was his first time stateside, and he was attending the conference just like me. Just wish I could have showed him a better time, but we had some good conversations. Had more in common with him than a shockingly large percentage of Americans. (This is now an actual edit): OK, remember this. This is the time that I failed at editing a post and made an entirely new post because that's how stupified I am. I'm not even going to link anything, I'm done, peace.
Prestigious University: "PU! something stinks in here." Pennsylvania just got lucky that the established convention was University of [state]. And yeah, lil, I definitely blame you for all of this (/cannot thank you enough).
What about a degree from somewhere of lesser note that doesn't appreciate you?
In just a few more years, an academic study will suggest that we've overemphasized the importance of academia.
Thanks man, but it's all good. :) The moral of the story? NEVER get a good-paying and important job that you enjoy before graduate school. Also, beat your children until they can physics.
Had this weird moment a few days ago where I just felt...happy and in the moment. Was at a bar with some friends before one went on a few week vacation, and just felt very in tune with everything, it's really hard to describe but I had absolutely no feelings of anxiety, wasn't thinking much, and just enjoying the conversation and the way I was feeling at that time. This partially carried over to the next day, but I think it's getting to the point where because of everything that has happened this year, it's easier to be happy and appreciate what I do have. Especially physically now that I'm back to heavy running. As a birthday present I took myself to a welding course at a local fab lab. Really glad I did it, wouldn't mind practicing more often but I'm not really sure how to go about that shy of getting a membership at a Fabrication Lab somewhere. Look at how ugly these welds are! (Note: I have never touched a welder prior to last night)
once at large dinner with friends... I had this same sensation... it was like I floated outside of my body and could look down on the situation with pure joy and "presentness". strangely - as I looked around the table, I happened to look at mike and after discussing it later - we were both having similar, happy-in-the-moment-completely-present moments. Crazy synchronicity. Cherish that... it's a beautiful thing. but like remembering a dream - the harder I search for moments like that - the quicker they flee away.just felt very in tune with everything, it's really hard to describe but I had absolutely no feelings of anxiety, wasn't thinking much, and just enjoying the conversation and the way I was feeling at that time.
It's carried over since that day, to some extent I don't feel quite like the same person I was and the only thing I can somewhat attribute it to is all the running/fitness as of late...which half-serves as a meditative 30-60 minutes and release of endorphins/what-have-you. No need to search for it, that's for sure. Which is how I feel about a lot of things right now.
They were pre-cut HOWEVER! the same place offers a course in plasma cutting which I fully intend on taking the next time they offer it.
Lost another friend to cancer today. Catherine was a beautiful young woman who went to the doc for a toothache three years ago, and found that her entire jaw was cancerous. Fought it, got a new jaw, won, fought it again, won, fought it again... and this time was just too much for her body to handle. She went into hospice care on Thanksgiving, and died this morning, with her husband and parents by her side. Damnit. And now I am leaving work to go see the Burlesque Nutcracker. Life: it doth yank one's chain mightily. Damnit.
Reddit seems to not so discretely track outbound clicks now. I've told my friends I know that use Reddit and they're all displeased, just not displeased enough to give up that website. I can't judge them though, as even I fall to its siren song during a boring lunch break. That said, since I've been using it a lot less, I've also noticed I've had less of a desire to get stuff. I don't feel an urge to keep track of what's going on in the world of comics, movies, music, etc. Hell, I completely forgot the new Star Wars is coming out this month, though I am gonna see that. Saw a Hyundai Elantra Sport yesterday. I kind of want to test drive one, just to see how it is. Winter is here. The snow tires are going on my car. This makes me sad. I have yet to post a Craigslist ad for the comic shop. It's been an interesting month. That said, I'm slowly working on expanding my social circle. We'll see how that goes.
I'm gonna borrow a table at my local comic shop and play random games with random people. I think if I post something on Craigslist, someone might actually show up instead of me just sitting there, twiddling my thumbs and feeling all embarrassed.
embarrassed? No way man... it's badass. Show up like the badass you are. Set out the table like you're expecting a dozen people. The worst case scenario is... the few people that come through the door that WOULD LOVE TO PLAY but weren't planning on bumping into a BADASS gamer on their lunch break... WILL ask for your contact info and find out when you're doing this next. BADASS!instead of me just sitting there, twiddling my thumbs and feeling all embarrassed.
I do. I play mostly Scum, though I have quite a few Imperial and Rebel ships as well. We got a decent scene around here, though at this point I'm thinking FFG has been releasing so many waves and rules update, people are starting to burn out. Still, I like it cause unlike with Magic for example, you know exactly what you get in each expansion pack.
I haven't bought anything the past couple of waves. It's ships I don't care about and I don't play hardly ever anyway, much less try to keep up with the meta. The comparison to MTG is pretty stark. Watching people toss boosters into the trash by the dozen looking for good cards really turned me off of trying it out at all.
http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/warrior-rogue-mage/ This has been really fun and less daunting than a full campaign the few times I've played it with friends. Also a lot easier for newcomers to pick up than D & D, imo.
The nice thing about Star Wars is that it's a universe so many people are familiar with and are excited about. While it takes away some world building aspects for the GM, it makes it slightly easier for players to get immersed in the game, especially if they're new to pen and paper games. I'm still surprised I have yet to pick up Pathfinder. I honestly think 3.5 is the best D&D ruleset by far. It had the perfect level of depth and detail without getting too bogged down. 4th ed was awful. 5 has felt bland. The more I think about it, the more I think I might need to give Pathfinder a shot.
Pfft. Whoever you're talking to doesn't know their Star Wars all that well. Were there Palpatine clones? Sure. Maybe. Thankfully that was retconned after Disney bought the property. The Empire didn't topple right away either and there were generals and politicians to fill in the power vacume. It took the rebel alliance another five years or so before they could capture Coruscant and even then there will still remnants of the Empire to deal with. That said, the EU was an utter mess between the novels and the comics, so it's kind of nice the universe is getting started with a clean slate (though I hear the Marvel comics are quickly making a mess of things again). That said, the universe is HUGE. It would be so easy to create a story that never even comes within smelling distance of any of the main characters. Anyone who doesn't probably wasn't trying too hard in the first place. As for the thread? You're fine on bailing. You gotta see to life first. It'll still be there if you ever want to pick it back up. :)
I'll think of some good stories. But . . . Does your college have a nurse or doctor you can see? If you're feeling worse, you should get that checked out, especially with what's going on with your brother.Thans in advance, feel free to respond at any time. I actually don't think like Il be able to respond or come on Hubski fora few days. I feel even worse than yesterday and can;t seem to even focus my eyes on anything.
Life is good. Work is in the slow, mostly just a push to get all the technical data organized before Christmas. My wife and I have been reading The Hobbit aloud to each other in the evenings. I am really starting to like reading aloud and listening to her read. I get more absorbed in books than I do in most movies or TV shows. And reading a book aloud is way more communal than TV is most of the time.
I have a bunch of great nostalgic memories of my parents reading to my siblings and me. Reading aloud to someone is a gift of time and attention. And the person listening has eyes and hands free for things like crafts or cooking or cleaning.
So my family is planning to head down to Florida for the holiday season to spend time with family down there. I'm going too, which sort of spooked my parents a bit. They are convinced this is the last trip I will get to take with them, but I honestly doubt it is the last one. I will eventually have a lot more responsibility that's for sure with the prospects of jobs, relationships, etc. I'm excited to see my grandparents, but part of me wishes I could spend the New Year with my friends up here. I'm not too bummed about it though, my friends will be here when I get back. Finished my holiday shopping yesterday. I hope the gifts I bought fill that practical need in the peoples lives.
Enjoy the weather whole you're down here. Could be in the 70s or more at night depending on where your grandparents live. I'm currently putzing around FL with family for so many holiday/celebratory reasons: Miami, then Lauderdale, finally back to Orlando. If I see your plane, then I'll wave!
Morale has not improved, so I guess the floggings will continue. It's a shit time to work for the government. As morale dips, everyone else seems to put less thought into what they're doing, which in turn means I spend more time cleaning up others' messes. So today was definitely a day of frustration. I would be more annoyed about this if I gave even a portion of a fuck about my own productivity, but meh. My best-case scenario right now is to stand still, but there's still a lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen with us specifically and the civil service as a whole. My shrink said something a little while ago that has stuck with me. She said (paraphrasing) that it seemed like I was walking in circles in the snow, but couldn't see my footprints. In other words, I struggle to have any conception of my effect on the world, and the result is that few things are especially satisfying. This in turn means I spend a lot of time frustrated and restless. But identifying the problem is the first step, so progress has been made. I'm looking forward to the holiday break, and I think the time off will do me some good. We'll be spending Christmas proper with my family (as we do every other year), and I think it'll be easier than last time, since my daughter is a good 2 years older and so is much lower maintenance. We don't see my family as often since they're not local, even if they're not far, so that'll be good too. Mostly it'll be nice to just hang out and not have to think about work or the rest of the world. I have my reading list all planned out: more Greek (I asked for a Greek edition of the NT for Christmas), more Dune (Children of Dune, specifically), the odd foray with the Dao De Jing, and I think I'm going to take my copy of the Kuen Kuit, a book on Ving Tsun written by my sitaigung (great-grandteacher) Moy Yat. I'm of course also taking my laptop with as many games as I can cram onto it. As an aside, can any of the Linux folks on here recommend some good resources in that regard? I already have Steam installed, and have as much of my GoG library as is cross-platform installed too.
This weekend I reconnected with a drummer from an old band and we jammed out some ideas for an atmospheric bass-heavy music. I'm actually pretty excited about seeing what we can do with it. I need to learn how to use my little synth unit now and come up with some stuff to go with it. Also calculated the driving route I take to go to practice with my existing band when picking up people to carpool. 100 miles. Twice a week.
Started doing stuff this week. Academic debts, which looked terrifying but is, in fact, but a heap; learn some things, make others. Cooking, which has always been difficult when energy is low, like it is now. Making healthy choices, body and mind. New Year hasn't come yet, but that's no reason to sit around waiting for the miracle to happen. Talked to the dean today. She said she'll see what she can do about financing my trip to the forum; said she'll get to it next week. Can't wait. Had a nice time with a girl from the French division and a British exchange student. Didn't plan to: the opportunity just turned up, and I thought I didn't have any classes for the time, so I asked if I can join them, without thinking about it. Thinking would've killed it, now that I think of it. Been the finer version of myself during the time; fairly outgoing, too. It took some energy but was well worth it. Turned out that conversations on a single topic are difficult to hold up even among three people. Been revisiting previous relationships in my head, learning from past mistakes without keeping blaming myself for them. Self-acceptance and being honest with myself has gotten me places; accepting the way I am has relieved me of worrying about what others might think of me. By accepting myself, oddly enough, I seem to have come to accept others, too, and not asking a lot from a relationship made those relationships lose the anxiety and frustration that I've so often attached to them alongside high expectations. People in my life have left plenty of mental treasure to recover, and following the leads is both exciting and leading to self-improvement. Learning a lot about what I want, about boundries that shouldn't be crossed and about what it takes to establish trust between people; time is one of the main components, others things being positive, and in the past I lacked patience necessary for the trust to be built. Been thinking about my relationship with my groupmates, too. They were fun to return to at the beginning of the year, back when we were eager to spend time together again, but now I see that I barely have anything in common with most of them. By now they came to resent me again, not in the least part because I've been a jerk due to personal problems spilling over; I guess I still have higher expectations of them than I should for my own good, and that led to tension. It dawned upon me, however, that, as unpleasant as it may be, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I realized that if I can't lead the group into a better place, I can frustrate them into it, instead. The idea that I can be the common enemy they'd team up against has been a relief. If they'd want to do better just to spite me, I'm okay with taking the flak. I miss my hometown. No person or thing about it, but the feeling that I've always had when walking through it. It brings me a peace of mind no other place did, so far. Going back would mean staying at my family's apartment, and I don't like the idea quite a bit, but I'd like to go back for a few days still. Been tired the last couple of days, in a good way. Working through the tiredness makes me feel badass.
It's late, bartender, and I have a long drive ahead of me. Can you find some of that new Bailey's Chocolate Cherry liqueur to add to my coffee? mmmthanks Now it's off to the airport. mivasairski is arriving from Vancouver for a month! Unbelievable. There will be much more to say and do, but meanwhile: I just skimmed through 15 hours of pubski comments and felt moved and touched and transported by all the thoughts and feelings in this pubski thread.
Going to Germany for a week at the end of this week! open to suggestions for things to do/see if y'all got em :)
flying into Munich and then just kinda winging it. i was planning to go to berlin for the thai market but i found out it probably won't be that busy bc it's cold :( probably also going to pop over to salzburg and see the ice caves too
that's part of the plan! kosovo has a dinky lil xmas market and i love it so i wanna see the real thing. what do you recommend seeing in innsbruck?
Nope! The Duniverse is really really dense. Back in highschool I heard that his son had found a lockbox with notes in it that allowed him to 'finish' the series and write the prequels, but I've come to learn that's most likely hogwash. The 'Extended Universe' books aren't terrible. They scratch my sand-textured itch. But they don't live up to the majesty of Dune.