Tuesday, June 27, 2006

   Hey everybody. Just woke up a second ago.

I watched the end of EVA last night…..and I am confused. I thought I had 6 DVD’s of EVA to watch but it turns out that the sixth one is just the “Director’s Cuts” of several episodes (I don’t even know what a “Director’s Cut” is). Thusly, the series ended way quicker than I thought, and on top of that, it was one Hell of a weird ending. O_o; It probably had a deeper philosophical meaning (like everything else in EVA, which I love), but I honestly had no idea what was going on.
The series itself basically ends with Shinji killing Kaworu. After that, it’s 2 episodes that consist of either deep psychological analysis of the characters…..or absolute nonsense akin to Pink Floyd: The Wall.

Oh, and while on the subject of Kaworu (whom most of you have already heard of), let me just say he is the gayest character I’ve ever seen. Thank goodness he’s only alive for one episode, because he made it so utterly obvious what he was after. Even taken in its most innocent context, everything he said was a double entendre. He tried to make it seem emotionally logical, but come on, you don’t make comments on “love” to another guy while you’re both naked in a shower-room. =P Creepy as Hell.

Anyway, Josh tells me that the ending in the series is the “suck-ass ending”, and the real ending of the EVA series is actually the movie (which Josh has also kindly loaned me). So, I’ll be watching that ASAP to but a cap on my EVA-fix.

Anyway, on other subjects, my siblings have managed to piss me off (yet again) within 30 minutes of me waking up. My brother also managed to lie to my own mother about me in that same time frame. He does that all the time, but this early?
And my parents wonder why I don’t have a good relationship with that little bitch. Bah.

Anyway, here’s today’s Art-Feature:
“With Bells On” by Celesse:


Usually I rather dislike Anthro-pics (the noses creep me out O_o; ). But for this one, I’m definitely willing to make an exception. <3
Celesse is one of my favorite anime-artists when it comes to smooth lining, bright colors and soft textures, and here we see all of those qualities plus an adept sense of character design.
This girl is part snow-leopard, as you can see. The choice of clothing is excellent, for both the lace top and the grey pants sewn from the sides with the pink ribbon.
I love the purple eyes and the face in general. Even the nose here doesn’t bother me. =) The soft, furry texture over the skin (for which “Furries” get their name) looks nice and soft, almost like plushy-fur.
Not to mention you’ve gotta’ love that long, fluffy tail, especially how it’s positioned as to accentuate the shape of the subject’s figure.
And I love the hair! Sure, it’s not really possible to have the leopard-pattern on hair, but Hell, that tiny aspect of unrealism is an element of creative design. It works for an anime character! Plus, that leopard-pattern makes the hair even better. I love its color, shape, length and soft, fluffy texture as well. It’s just so pretty!

So anyway, what do you think? Are you like me, in that you usually find a layer of fur covering a person’s body to be a slight turn-off, or are you a Furry-fan? =)
And regardless of your answer to the above question, what do you think of this character? Do you love her design as much as I do?
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Monday, June 26, 2006

   *crawls into computer-chair, still twitching and writhing while recovering from incredible EVA-induced brain-gasem*
Hey everybody. *pant* How’s it going?

Well, guess what I stayed up late last night doing.
If you said watching EVA, you’d be right. *twitch*
As you could probably tell, I’m still recovering from the insane level of awesomeness. @_@ I haven’t brain-gasemed like that in a while.

Last night I watched episodes 13 through 23. Yes, 10 episodes of EVA.
And you know how I like deep religious, political and psychological elements to my literature & movies? Well, most EVA-fans reading this will know that it’s around episode 13 that the series starts getting deep. O.o
*wipes blood from ears and nose* Seriously guys, that was the most delectable heaping load of hardcore action and thought-provoking symbolism it’s been my pleasure as an anime-fan to enjoy. ^_^ I didn’t get to sleep ‘till 4:45 AM, but it was all worth it.

But anyway, I’ll talk more about EVA and the brain-gasem it gave me some other time. I have other news that needs to be spread.
Namely, I submitted that new piece of Mahoro the other day (and forgot to tell you about it. ^^; ).

But, unfortunately…….The Otaku’s size-restrictions on submissions sort of butchered it. -_-‘
As always, votes & comments are greatly appreciated, but, if you were going to postpone commenting anyway (which I don’t mind one bit), I might figure out a way to get the original version on Photobucket, so that when you comment you can look at the one with all the details and depth. The only reason I don’t have the original already on Photobucket for you….is because Photobucket doesn’t seem to want cooperate at the moment. *grrrr*
Since the tiny amount of detail lost in downsizing might not make a difference to some of you, those who like can go ahead and check it out. You’ll see what I meant when I said it’d have a “Logan-style twist” to it, just like all of my fan-art will. ^_^
Those who’d rather wait feel free to do so as well.

In other news, I’ll be leaving for Williamsburg Virginia with my family this weekend and will be gone for all of next week for our yearly vacation.
As some of you may remember from the previous 2 years, we usually take our yearly vacation late in July, often over my birthday, but this year we’ll be doing it a little earlier.
But…..there’s a problem…..
The problem is, Josh got back this week, and we were going to go to the yearly anime/graphic-arts convention which is held this weekend, and with that being the time we leave I might not get to go. T_T
No solid Yes’s or No’s yet, but I sure hope I don’t have to miss the only anime-related convention we have down here in Charlotte. Keep me in your prayers on that.

As some will also remember, we usually go to the beach on our family’s yearly vacation, but this year my parents decided on something different.
Williamsburg has a lot of Colonial stuff my parents plan for us to go to, but I’m not too excited about that. -_-‘ That kind of stuff bores me to death. I sure hope they don’t load us up with a bunch of Colonial-crap.
But, we’re also gonna’ go to a water-park up there, which I’ll definitely enjoy. =D
More news on all that as it develops.

Let’s see…what else….
I caught an art-thief the other day.
Yep, I caught them red-handed, even though they fooled everyone else.
I hope they got what they deserved from the staff here.

Before I go, I have a few My Otaku announcements:
Please visit Vankala 86 and check out her site’s new theme. She told me about it the other day, but I haven’t been able to see it myself yet. But I will be checking it out right after dinner, so no worries. ~_^

Please also pray for Erin-chan’s dad as he recuperates in the hospital.
The doctors say he’ll be perfectly fine, but it’s always stressful to have a family member in the hospital, so pray for his healthy recovery as well as Erin-chan’s, Scooty’s and their mom’s peace of mind.

Oh, and though you’re probably already doing so, pray extra hard for our men overseas this week. I’m foggy on the details (I stopped watching the news 3 years ago), but I heard something big happened just recently, so please send some prayer out for their protection.

Here’s today’s Art-Feature.
“Resting”, by Beloved Creature:


Behold the Angel of Death, in a moment of peaceful pension.
What do you think goes in his(or her?) mind in a moment of rest?

Allrightie everyone, I’m off to visit your sites! ^_^
Comments (3) | Permalink

Sunday, June 25, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?

It doesn’t look like anyone saw my post yesterday, so if you haven’t I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d go back and read that first really quick (it’s relatively short, and this post builds upon that one).

So anyway, guess what I was up doing ‘till nearly 4 AM last night.
Yep, same thing as the night before last. *0* EVA is frickken’ awesome.
I’m currently on episode 3 of volume 3, meaning I’m almost halfway done with it. Man, that series is addictive…..despite Asuka’s voice. *_* I have no idea why, but I can’t seen to tear myself away from the dubbed-version and switch to subtitles like I said I would. Probably ‘cause Shinji’s dad’s voice sounds so cool….though his is the only one that sounds cool. Like I said yesterday, EVA’s like the majority of animes, meaning the dubbed voices SUCK!!! @_@ Seriously, Asuka’s voice is like ground-up glass being packed into my ear-canals with a wooden plunger. O_o’ Her shrill screeching is positively ear-splitting (that bitch ain’t from Germany, either).
Everyone calls Shinji a whiner, but after about 3 days living with Asuka, I would have to kill myself….and I might just have to draw a satirical cartoon about that and post it here. XD

But anyway, despite being 10-years-old this year (older than Cowboy Bebop), EVA’s animation still has me mesmerized. It has the technological intricacy and detail found in Akira and the facial-design, expressions and animation all nearly rival Akamatsu’s work (it’s good to see an anime that doesn’t make the faces look goofy. Lord knows we don’t need another Cyborg 009 or Boys Over Flowers).
In addition, I love the color schemes. Shinji looks OK, but Asuka and especially Rei look fantastic in their Plug-suits. A lot of the environment-shots are absolute works of art, and the detail used in the lighting is spot-on.

So, anybody else here an EVA-fan I can talk to? *_* Without spoiling anything for me, that is.

Here’s today’s Art-Feature:
“Twins” by Valkyrie Sorrow:



This isn’t normally my preferred style of anime artwork, but here I’ll make an exception.
First thing to be noticed is….the colors. @_@ They’re smooth and vibrant as can be.
In addition, the lining is smooth and crisp, and accentuates the beauty of the colors even further.
I also love the abstract layering used for the background. It actually came out better than drawing a realistic background, and I failed to notice until now.
As is appropriate for the current month, this is a summer pic. And on top of that, it’s a cute one. <3

But as for the subject-matter….I honestly have no idea what’s going on. We can assume that these 2 are the (fraternal) twins mentioned in the title (notice they have the same unique eyes; the crystal blue and the teal-green), but as for their actual actions, I’m not completely sure what’s going on between them.
Sooooo….I want you guys to explain it to me. ^_^ What do you see here? Explain the actions and/or event taking place based on what we can see here. This’ll be a fun artistic exercise. ^o^
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Saturday, June 24, 2006

Hey everybody. How’s it going?

I stayed up late last night (*yawn*).
Doing what you might ask? Well, I did do a little bit of drawing (for a project that none of you know about yet. =3 ), but I spent most of last night watching Josh’s DVD’s that he loaned me. Namely, 3 letters: EVA. *0* Wow, that is an interesting series!
I watched the first 6 episodes in one run, meaning I finished the first DVD and watched the first episode of the second DVD. =3 Man, that was actually far, far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. b^_^
I even watched the dubbed version and I still enjoyed it! (For anyone who doesn’t know, like the majority of animes, EVA’s dubbed voices SUCK!!!) Don’t worry; I’ll be switching to subtitles as soon as Asuka hits the scene. Her dubbed voice is like….a rusty nail being scrapped on the chalk-board of my mind! O.x

But anyway, EVA isn’t a new anime (ten-years-old this year, in fact), and the dubbing is less than stellar, as I mentioned above, so naturally I had to make smart-ass Mystery Science Theater 3000-style comments through the whole thing. ^.^
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve always thought certain animes would work perfectly with the MST3K formula, such as any episode of Inuyasha or EVA. And would that not be absolutely hilarious? The combination of MST3K and anime? ^_^ I’d just love to hear that awesome threesome’s analysis of a sample of “violent cartoon porn”. XD (MST3K fans like me should be laughing at that joke.)

Speaking of MST3K, my buddy Josh (another fan of the show) recently told me that they reviewed a movie called “Jack Frost”. The premise of “Jack Frost” was, of all things, a cheesy horror-film about a snowman that kills people.
……..
I’ll wait for your uproarious laughter to stop……

Anyway, for obvious reasons, if they did review a movie that hilarious, then I want to see it. =D
So, I asked EAMR if it was true (since she’s quite familiar with the series).
No word from her yet, but Rosa-chan (Vankalla86) has informed me that a movie with that premise does in fact exist. We don’t know if it was reviewed by the MST3K guys, but we do know there is in fact a horror-movie about a snowman that kills people. XD
I mentioned to Josh (and Lindsey) how I bet that in the final scene of that movie, the female virgin (who always is the one to live in these type of movies) gets cornered in a bathroom by the evil snowman, and kills him with like a blow-drier of something. XD How hilarious would that be!?

If nothing else, an evil, murderous snowman might just need to be included as a plot-line of Ghost Hunter, possibly as their Christmas episode. XD I’ve already thought-up a bunch of jokes I’d have to use. X) Maybe I’ll even draw this premise up….

Here’s today’s Art-Feature.
“Ageless” by Garrit:

Usually I rather dislike photos using dull colors and overcast skies, but this one really seems to make it work.
The ironic connotations of the title are obvious, seeing the dilapidated state of the subject-matter.
The angle the photographer picked was excellent, showing some basic principles of perspective in its positioning.
Also, the secluded location adds focus to the subject.

But, what do you think? =3

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Friday, June 23, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?
I just had an extremely stressful morning. My mom took today off (she has a bunch of extra days-off to use up before July), meaning I get to deal with her all day. *rolls eyes* She’s being a screechy wench, and my brother’s being a dink as well.
It also didn’t help they woke me up early to clean for them. >_< Like it couldn’t have waited ‘till now! Grrrrrr, I hate my family…..

Anyway, I got my braces tightened yesterday. X_x They’re hurting really, really badly. *tear* I can’t eat anything, and getting up early only made them worse! *throb*

So, how’s your day going?
Nothin’ much goin’ down with me, but I did get a hair-cut yesterday.
Don’t worry though, cause’ I’m still nice & fluffy. ^_^

Though I don’t know who made this, I thought this Kirby Gif was really cute:

Give Kirby a hug. ^_^

One of my favorite photographers, nephets, has an awesome avatar:

XD Cracks me up every time I see it!

Here’s Today’s Art-Feature…
“Sup’ Guys?” by Blueorca:

Can anybody tell me who this guy is? He looks pretty cool, but still kinda’ creepy (and I like artwork & characters like that! =D ). He looks rather demented with that weird little puppet, doesn’t he? Reminds me of Mr. Hat. XD

Oh, and by the way, Erin-chan had a tad bit of a bad day yesterday, so make sure to give her extra snuggles when you go visit her today.
We all know that’s what you need after a bad day. ^_^

OK everybody, I’m off to visit your sites!
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

   Sorry I haven’t submitted my original pic of Mahoro yet (check out the previous post if you haven’t already). I’ll be submitting it either later today or tomorrow. =D

I got my summer-reading the other day. >=( Ugh, stupid crap has always gotta’ ruin my summer. And I was under the impression that we wouldn’t have any this year! They didn’t tell us anything in school!
Meh, anyway, the two books are absolute monsters. First up is “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, a first hand account of a soldier’s experience in Vietnam. So, I might just enjoy that one.
Second one is “Catch-22”, a book about Lord knows what. This one’s even bigger than the first one! ToT
There’s no way I’ll be able to read both of these this summer without going insane. But I guess it’s just as well, because I really wasn’t planning to. If I’ve learned anything in my first 2 years of high school, it’s that summer-reading doesn’t matter. They give you one flimsy test at the beginning of the year, and then they have to start with that year’s in-class reading. I’m not gonna’ bust my ass reading these two giants for nothing, that’s for sure.
Anybody else read either of these 2 books?

Oh, something I forgot to mention on my previous post was that I went to Barne’s & Noble’s solo on Monday afternoon.
Not much happened there, and for the most part I didn’t really get much reading done (lousy B&N’s and their crap-tacular stock updates….). However, about halfway through my stay there, I found and started reading the most hilarious book I’ve read in a long while. Interestingly enough, it was a book I heard mentioned by several of my Sci-Vis classmates on our last day of class a week or so ago.
Tell me, have any of you heard about this recently released book called “The Alphabet of Manliness”? As you could guess by the title, it was friggen’ hilarious. =D
Seriously folks, I was stifling my laughter trying to get folks to stop staring at me as I read through it.
“The Alphabet of Manliness” is a satirical work; a book with illustrated diagrams and comments on the various elements of manliness, ordered alphabetically. Naturally, it was a pretty dirty read (“A is for Ass-kicking, B is for Boners, C is for Chick-fight, D is for Taking a Dump”, etc.).
The author is apparently a guy named “Maddox”. Has anybody here heard of him? All I know is that he wears a black barrette and a goatee, and that’s about it. Any information on this celebrity would be greatly appreciated.
And since some of you have probably heard of this book, let me just say that you shouldn’t be offended. Sure, taken word for word the book would be a sexist, ignorant piece of trash; but the author doesn’t mean a word of it. If he did, than he’d be homeless, jobless, carless, wifeless, as well as murdered by now. He writes what he writes because it’s funny, not ‘cause it’s true, and the ignorance is part of the humor. It’d be ridiculous to assume the book is a statement of any kind, so don’t let illusions of a political agenda scare you away. =P
Anywho, I highly suggest checking it out if you need some stupid humor to brighten your day, though I’m not sure how many of you ladies might like it; not because I fear you might take it seriously, but because you really couldn’t relate to a lot of it (half to humor is that some of the things he writes about has us guys going “Yeah, I had an experience like that”).

Here’s today’s Art-Feature:
“Valentine’s Day Commission” by Ivynajs:


Some of you may remember IJS from when I featured another piece of her work; “April: Kirby’s Birthday Party”, back on the Friday before last (the night I was studying for my Chemistry & Spanish Exams).
Well, I recently went back and dug a little deeper into her gallery, and to put it rather bluntly….she’s a twisted mother-fucker. Let’s leave it at that.
I’m a part of an art community, so naturally I’ve encountered tons of twisted mother-fuckers in my experience, just as I’m sure you all have. But honestly, out of all of them, this woman might be the most twisted mother-fucker I’ve ever met. Never would have guessed it by looking at these two pieces I’ve shown you, ne?
Of course, it’s a pretty close race between her and some of the other “Artists” I’ve met, so it’s hard to judge who the absolute worst is (perhaps we need some sort of “Twisted Mother-Fucker Comparison Challenge” to figure this out….).
It’s a shame too, because she’s extremely talented. In addition to that, I’m a fan of Kirby, so it was particularly ball-wrenching for me to have seen the kind of stuff she does.

However, twisted mother-fuckers aside, this is an extremely cute and well done piece.
Being a Valentine’s pic (duh =P ), this piece is heavy on the cute-factor, and portrays a joking and innocent event of mild romance.
For those who don’t know, the fairy on the left is Ribbon; a native resident of the planet Ripple Star. Ribbon became friends with Kirby when he helped her recover and save the fragments of the Magic Crystal from the invading Dark Matter, who’d use its power to become unstoppable (this all occurred in the game Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards).
Since that adventure, Ribbon’s developed a light crush on our pink and bouncy hero (don’t ask how Kirby of all characters could be involved in romance, being unable to talk and barely able to think. It’s just a cute puppy kind of crush). Here the artist portrays a scene pertaining to that crush, as well as a comparison between Ribbon and Kirby’s thinking-capacity and interest level. XD
For Kirby artwork vibrant colors are a must, and the artist took advantage of that aspect.
The background color was chosen perfectly as to contrast with Ribbon & Kirby’s color-schemes (Pinks, reds, etc.). This makes Ribbon & Kirby look bolder and stand-out from the background. Doing so makes the purple background look just as it should, which is like….well, a background.
The main figures, as well as the less detailed figures illustrating each thought-cloud are both immensely cute, as is another necessity for Kirby artwork. Realistic romance aside, you’ve gotta’ have ice-water in your veins if that chibi illustration of Kirby giving Ribbon a *chu!* doesn’t make you go “Awwwwwwwwww….<3”.
Of course, Kirby doesn’t yet comprehend such actions, and by his thought-cloud you can obviously tell what he’s interested in. XD
Kirby’s face is OK, but the look on Ribbon’s face is far more expressive and detailed. Plus, Ribbon’s tiny stature doesn’t make it easy to draw an authentic expression on her face without it looking goofy.

Cute beyond cute, this piece has earned the honored spot of being placed in my screen-saver, and hopefully it’ll be placed in your slide-show, too! ;D
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Monday, June 19, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?

I’ll be getting to your sites and commenting a little bit later tonight, after I post and have dinner. ^_^ Mmmmm, Turkey-burgers…..

Dang, you all remember that ditch my dad made me help dig with him 3 or so weeks ago (when my relatives were here)? Well, while working outside with him, my ankles got destroyed by the ants out there. My ankles are covered in bites.
And guess what….
3 weeks later, they’re still there and itching! Guh!!! It’s hard to sleep with these things still itching! >o< I may just have to take a nasty, gross-out picture of em’ to prove how painful these things are. >x<

I do have a new submission of artwork in my gallery I submitted yesterday, but don’t feel pressed to go see it.
In fact, unless you’re really bored, don’t even bother looking at it until you’re going into my gallery for some more interesting submissions.
What did I submit? It’s a sketch I drew for my dad for Father’s Day. He’s been wanting me to draw a sketch of the two of us for a while now, so I’m sure he’ll love it once he sees it (for whatever reason, we didn’t give dad his presents yesterday, so he hasn’t seen it yet).
However….I wasn’t really happy with the way this one came out. The proportions are off, and since I wanted to submit it on Father’s Day I rushed through the digital editing. Not to mention, I had to do it in MS Paint. (As many of you remember, I had a 30 Day Trial for Photoshop a month or two ago, but it has long since run out. T_T Even worse, my tiny hard-drive is too packed with stuff to have room to re-download the 400 MB file. *woe-anger-sorrow*)
It also didn’t help that MS Paint wasn’t cooperating….
So, don’t feel obligated to comment or even look at this piece. ^_^

If you got bored and skipped reading the top-part, start reading here ;p
However, speaking of art I would really like comments & critiques on my next submission, which might just be tomorrow.
For those curious, it’ll be a piece of fan-art for an actual existing anime-series (most of you are liking the idea of me finally drawing something that’s familiar and not an original creation =P ).
However, I’ve never been one to avoid being creative with my art (what else is art for?), so this piece of fan-art will have a Logan-kun style twist to it. ^_^

It’s a fan-art for the series “Mahoromatic”.
But since most of you aren’t familiar with that series, you won’t get what the fan-art’s about.
So, here’s a basic summary of Mahoromatic for those unfamiliar:

Mahoromatic is a romantic-comedy anime with cutesy characters, plot-holes and loads of adult humor….which to be honest, I don’t like one bit. :p
Anyway, the series focuses on Mahoro, a superior battle-android who saved the earth from an alien invasion.
Now that the conflict is over, Mahoro wants to pursue the life of a peaceful robot used for domestic service; namely, she wants to become a maid (don’t ask. Like I said: plot-holes).
That’s pretty much all you need to know to understand my next submission: That Mahoro is a super-advanced battle-android that is now working as a maid.

Here’s a picture of Mahoro (in her maid-role, which is the main focus of the series):

Isn’t she cute!? I love Mahoro’s visual design. That was the main reason I did this fan-art.
I’m showing you these so you can get familiar with how Mahoro looks. Accordingly, here’s another picture showing more of her visual design top to bottom:

In case you’re wondering who that is in the background, that’s another character from the series who need not be introduced right now (not important :p ).

Here’s another quick concept pic before we finish-up:

Soooooo cuuuuuuuute…..*melts*

Anyway, this coming fan-art will show you my take on Mahoro.
I hope my quick explanation has gotten you familiar enough with her to be excited about it. ~_^ Keep an eye out tomorrow for that new pic coming down the pipe.

Here’s today’s Art Feature (check out yesterday’s if you missed it. I want to hear your thoughts on these pieces!).
“Recce. Trooper” by Rub-a-Duckie:


I love military themes in artwork, and combine that with classic cartooning styles which I also love and you have yourself a tight piece of artwork.
As any authentic piece of military-art has, this one is loaded with detail. The gun, fatigues and equipment seen here are all rendered with fair accuracy, and the shading, lighting and color on all of them required a lot of time.
This piece is visually balanced well, a case in point being the wobbly antennae sprouting from a piece of his equipment.
The boots seem to be the only thing drawn out of proportion on this piece. I love the way the artist rendered the hat here.
And probably the focus of the piece, I love the way they did the facial-expression here. =) The look on his face suggests a tired and reluctant private, not too thrilled to be where he is or doing the Reconnaissance job he’s been assigned (who would be? War isn’t any fun). However, that doesn’t detract from or contrast with the piece’s overall humorous feel. This is a piece of cartooning; not a political statement. Like a better-drawn (and more entertaining) version of “Beatle Bailey”, this piece merely uses a military setting as its backdrop. Is it bad to see humor in war? Maybe. But that hasn’t stopped war-time humor or how it’s been used in the past 70 years, and thank God it hasn’t.
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Saturday, June 17, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?

Sorry for my absence lately, but I’ve just been particularly unhappy with the community here for the past couple days, and was just a bit too angry to post. Plus, not much has happened in the past week, so there wasn’t anything to interesting to talk about.

So, anyway, when you saw me last, it was last week when I was sweating over my Chemistry Final.
Well, guess what I made on it…..

An “A”.
=D That’s right. I got an “A” on my Chemistry Final. The Exam I was worried most about. =3 Thank you to all those who prayed for me. ^_^

I got all my exam scores back the other day, so if you’re interested I can show them to you all.
On an odd note, all my scores were pretty much the opposite of what I thought they’d be (case in point, Chemistry). :p Did that happen to any of you?

Anyway, Josh has been gone for the past week (up in Charleston), and he’ll be gone all of this week, too (the beach with Jess).
=/ Sucks, neh?
However, to keep me occupied while he’s gone, Josh has loaned me his weight in anime, so there’s a silver lining to it. XD

Here’s what he loaned me:
-His series Box-set of Neon Genesis Evangelion
-His Cowboy Bebop series Box-set. <3
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 9 (I’ve already read this one)
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 10
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 11
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 12
-The Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie
-The Matrix
-and the Vampire Hunter D Movie

I’ve only been able to watch The Matrix so far, but man, that was one Hell of a movie!
I’ve only been able to see bits and pieces of it up ‘till this point, so finally seeing it in its entirety was a major thrill! ^_^
Man, I love The Matrix. Kind of dark, but it has such a deep, philosophical premise combined with such amazing special-effects and hard-hitting action…. It’s a shame more people don’t like it.
Anybody else here a Matrix-fan?
Meh, now I want my own belly-button bug. XD
Anyway, I’ll have to get The Matrix: Reloaded pretty soon, now. I wanna’ see the story continued!

As for EVA (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Josh has wanted me to watch that for a while now. He says it’s deeper than any book he’s ever read. And remember, Josh is a heavy philosophical reader like I am, meaning he found it to be deeper than Lord of the Flies, Dante’s Inferno or The Chronicles of Narnia (all of which are stories that I’ve read, with the exception of Dante’s Inferno).
As you all know, I love deep symbolism above anything else in a story, so I hope he’s right.
Anybody else here an EVA-fan besides Living Doll?

Oh, and speaking of Josh, I showed him his birthday-present before he left. =3 He liked it a whole bunch. Heh heh, my first time drawing something like that….
I’ll be submitting that pic here on The Otaku in the near future, but I have another pic to submit here before that. It’s a piece of fan-art (for a pre-existing anime), but of course with a Logan-kun style twist to it. =) You all know I just have to be creative with stuff, even when it’s fan-art.
Keep your eyes peeled for new submissions in the coming days.

Oh, and speaking of artwork, please forgive me if I’m still yet to comment on a recent submission. -_- I’ve been mostly focusing on catching-up with all of Erin-chan’s submissions, so forgive me if I haven’t gotten to you’re art yet. But I assure you, I will get to it soon!
This stupid-ass time limit my mom installed doesn’t make commenting on artwork much easier. It’s hard to relax and comment when you constantly feel like you’re being timed. >=( Stupid parents and their obsessive control-issues….

Anyway, sorry for the long post. ^_^;
Here’s today’s Art-Feature…
“Simple Beauty”, by Youkai Yume:

Personally, I think “simple” is the wrong term to describe Tohru’s kind of beauty. “Simple” almost sounds like a degrading way to describe her. Personally, I think “pure” beauty works far, far better.
I’m not a Fruits Basket fan yet (I may be soon, though, if one of you can push me in the right direction! =3 ), but I love this artwork. This piece is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. I’ve shown you Youkai Yume’s work before, but this piece is one of my personal favorites by her, and it’s not even an anime I’ve seen yet.
The soft textures used for Tohru’s dress and especially her skin give this piece an angelic and ethereal quality. The use of negative-space is positively excellent, and the use of stark whit for the background works much, much better than a grassy backdrop or anything else in my opinion. That white combined with the use of shadows also creates the illusion of a soft but illuminating light.
The rose-petals were also an excellent addition and were spaced perfectly apart in terms of distance. The artist did an excellent job of not cluttering the screen with them. Plus, the bright red works well with the abundant pinks and whites.
In my honest thoughts, Tohru positively glows in this piece. A lively but calm essence can be seen in her crystal-blue eyes. Yuki sits atop her left shoulder here, well-incorporated into this piece. Kyo, in an unusually peaceful state, sits curled on her lap, also excellently incorporated into the piece’s feel despite his contrasting orange fur.

But I wanna’ hear what you guys think. What are your thoughts on this piece and the parts I mentioned? Agree or disagree? What is it that you like about it?
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Wednesday, June 7, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?

I gotta’ make this quick since it’s already 5:50 and my two hardest exams are gonna’ be tomorrow: Spanish, and the mack-daddy himself; Chemistry.
My chemistry grade isn’t doing too well, so I have to score well on this exam. It won’t be easy, since the past 2 or 3 Chemistry Tests I’ve taken didn’t go so well.
Spanish is a minute worry compared to Chemistry, but it’ll still be one tough cookie.

As for today, I had one of my more worrisome exams: Algebra.
Honestly, I have no idea how I did. Instead of being 90% sure of some answers, this test had me more like 70-75% sure on a lot of questions. There was stuff I knew, and a lot of stuff I didn’t know, so we’ll have to see how it turns out. I finished-up late, so I had to rush through the last 10 or so problems.
I also had Principles of Business today, but that was a breeze.

On the lighter side, I had Art and English yesterday, and I think I beasted both. >=) I might just make you all read my essay I wrote, just to show-off a little (the English test was a large essay, and then 138 fairly easy multiple-choice questions on The Epic of Gilgamesh, Things Fall Apart, Night, Schindler’s List and all the other books we read this quarter).
As for my Monday exams, I got an 89% on my Sci. Vis. exam (he scanned the Scan-Tron immediately after we finished), and I think I did fairly well on my Civics exam. Let’s hope for the best, neh?

Anyway, since I’ll have to spend all of tonight learning about enthalpy, solubility and the various uses of H2SO4, I unfortunately won’t be able to comment on your sites tonight.
However, like I always do, I have already read your posts, and will comment on them tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is my last day of exams!!!!! ^o^ Last day of schooooool!!!!! No more studying for the Logan-kun!!!

*ahem*, anyway, please forgive my delayed or absent comments in these previous 2 or 3 weeks, but my studies had to take priority. But fear not, for tonight is the last night I’ll have my nose buried in class-notes.
I’d like to apologize for being so behind in commenting on artwork to EAMR and especially Erin-chan. As you know, Erin-chan submits artwork like a mo-fo, and combining that with study-delays I’ve been playing catch-up since her pic of Axel. A week or so ago, I took a night off to give some in-depth comments on pieces I’d missed, but could only do a few. -_-
But, that’ll change come tomorrow, and all those comments I owe Erin-chan, as well as the rest of you, will soon be paid up. ;)

Speaking of new artwork that needs comments, please be sure to check out Lindsey’s new submission in the D.N.Angel category. To view the artwork, just click the link: Dark and Daisuke; One and the Same.
All you Fruits Basket-cases need to check out her second most recent submission as well if you haven’t already. b~_^ I’ll be commenting on both of those as soon as I’m done with school.

Heh, and in unrelated news, my brother is currently breaking-out due to an allergic reaction. He’s now itchy all over. ^_^ Heh heh, I’d feel sorry for him if it weren’t karma. XD

Oh, and by the way, thank you to all who commented yesterday, especially Elvzy-chan. I appreciate you being as nice as you possibly could, which is nicer than I’ve ever been able to afford to be.
Needless to say….it’s not over. There are still some serious, serious things to be looked at, which are hopefully holes you can fill in. Without that, it’s not gonna’ hold water.
However, I have neither the time nor spiritual energy to continue discussing it right now, so I’ll postpone it till’ after my exams tomorrow. Let’s just hope for the best.

Please be praying extra, extra hard for me as I take my exams tomorrow and study for them tonight! ^_^

Here’s today’s Art Feature:

“April: Kirby’s Birthday Party” by ivynajs:


Part of a small Kirby-calendar the artist made. ^_^
She picked April for Kirby to celebrate his birthday (which I guess is the anniversary of when he crash-landed on Pop Star).
As you can see, Kirby & friends are celebrating in Kirby’s friendly dome-shaped home, kept dry from the April showers. Waddle-Dee seems to have just arrived with a present, and is greeted by Kirby and Ribbon (the fairy dressed in red, who aided Kirby in saving her home-planet of Ripple Star from the Dark Matter). Adeline (the artist by the fire-place) is using her magical paints to create a Maximum Tomato as a present for Kirby (and yes, Adeline is in fact a girl O_o ). Meanwhile, King DeDeDe sneaks a quick taste of the birthday-cake.
Ahhhh….so cute! =^^=
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Sunday, June 4, 2006

   Hey everybody. How’s it going?

Well, I have my first 2 exams tomorrow. Civics and Sci. Vis.
Though it’s probably going to be my easiest day, I’m still pretty worried.

Sci. Vis. is going to be a joke, but even though I know everything I could ever need to know about Civics, I still think I might do poorly on the test.
Why? Well, our Final Exams aren’t made by our teachers, they’re made by some fruits & nuts that live upstate….who honestly suck balls when it comes making tests. We took a practice exam on Wednesday, and the questions were some of the crappiest we’ve seen. It’s not fair that they’re using questions that crappy to base 25% of our yearly grade off of. But, like Mr. Dickerson said, we can’t do anything about it, so we have to just take what we’re given. And that, honestly, sucks ass.

In other news, do you people really think the low-quality of submissions is the worst problem here on The Otaku? Most of you came to that consensus on my previous post.
I swear, I’d kill for something that benign to be the worst issue here.
It’s something that’s got me contemplating leaving this site, and I’d hardly do that over a few crappy submissions. Did you guys even read that part of yesterday’s post?
For fuck’s sake, the current state of the anime-art community as a whole is friggen’ ridiculous. It friggen’ turns my stomach just thinking about it, and after nearly 2 years of putting up with it I’m starting to get pretty tired. If this is the attitude of the anime-art community, then I don’t want to be a part of it, especially if my friends aren’t even willing to back me up.

I’m really, really scared with the way things are currently standing, guys, both with my exams and issues here on the Net. I’m fucking tired of it, and I honestly can’t be dealing with both.
Please, PLEASE be praying for me, and please spread the word to do so. If I ever really needed it, it would be about now.

Thank you, and I’m sorry to be dumping this on everyone at the moment. I just really, really need support right now, and I somehow doubt I’ll get it where I need it.

“Destined Hanyou and Miko”, by tomyu:


An excellent, excellent piece of Inuyasha fan-art.

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