Monday, January 22, 2007

MSTG: Obligatory Snow Statement - Rule 23

It actually snowed yesterday. A rare sight for WV these days, but a beautiful one none the less. Pictures from around my neighborhood, of things, streets covered in snow. They look wonderful. Those photos don't do the snow justice, that's for sure. It looks to be about 2 maybe 3 inches out there, but I'm not complaining. Now all that cold is worth having because of scenese like these. It's a nice winter wonderland, till the snow melts again anyway. Today I'll be doing something with the possibility of earning a little money, it's not really a job per se, it's a one time thing, but I hope it opens the door to other similar ventures in the future. I can't say too much about what it is I'll be doing until after it's done, but I will update with that info in my next blog post. Comments: Kiki-tink I hope someone who was there says something, there was a lot of publicity going into the thing, and nothing seems to have come out of the adventure. This mouse has had issues for a while, and one of the shorts in the wire finally decided to give. The mouse tried to open everything on my desktop before I finally unplugged the thing, I had at least 20 windows open. It's back to the lazy trackball mouse for now, hopefully we can pick up a new optical one at Big Lots or something. Yensid: The people at AnimeFF did the determinations of which artworks were featured in their live gallery, and since not many people from MyO actually went to the con, nothing is known about how that went, or what it looked like. The entries that came in after the 21 of December should have been DQ'ed on the spot for not making the deadline (I see the count has gone down since I last checked, so a couple pieces were removed, but there still are 3 with dates after 12/21/06), and people who enterened more than once should have only had one artwork featured to allow more space for other artists' works to be exhibited. those are the ideal conditions under which something like that should have been orchestrated. How Anime FF actually did it is anyones guess till one of the people who attended the con tells us how it was done. Adam did say: "Due to the small turnout and space limitations, we weren't able to feature all 300 entries. The convention organizers chose the entries that made it, we had no input." in his response to some comments Here, read the comments on that article, and you'll see it in context. I hope we know the winners soon, and I hope we get an indicator of who's artwork was featured. Outlaw Melfina: Yeah one of those. It's been on it's way out for a while, so it was a matter of when, not if. I just didn't expect the thing to go that crazy on me. alphonse13: I think Verizon was playing with something and didn't have the decency to tell it's customers they were going to be doing it. It's worked fine ever since then without problems. He does a good job avoiding it, which tells me something serious is bugging him. People always avoid serious issues that way. I hope for his own sake he lets it out. death alchemist03 It's strange because it's worked fine ever since it came back on. I don't know what the problem was, but it seems to have fixed itself. It's one of my favorites too, in terms of the work I've done. So do I. So do I. scorchbird12: I'm not that good yet, but I'm getting there. My sister had the Hibachi chicken, wich is like a teriyaki chicken and she let me take a taste, and it was good. She doesn't like rice so she got it with yakisoba, fried noodles, and she told me the noodles were good. I have to be careful with it, but the light is great for doing artwork under, things always look better in natural light, since I'm up at night, this thing will be a help in that area. It certainly is, but I hope I can manage to pull enough together to get it out there on my own. Going with a normal publisher is fine and all, but I'm a little leary of trusting one to handle my first novel very well. There's nothing wrong with looking up the lyrics to a song to get a deeper understanding of it. I do that all the time myself. I know what your saying. If a song doesn't move me, generally I don't like it, regardless of where it's from, or who sings it. It's a security thing for me, I don't feel out of place listening to Japanese music the way I do listening to a lot of American stuff these days. It's worth it, that's for sure. I've never played a co-op game, don't have the equipment to handle it. I would probably like that kind of thing, I don't really know. It depends on just how domineering the others on the team get. Too many cooks spoil the stew so to speak. sikaurai You two aren't the only ones who noticed that. I said before the entries after 12/2/06 should have been DQ'ed on the spot for that alone. It wouldn't be fair to the people who got their entries in on time to be pushed out of space for entries that came in late. I get distracted by things all the time too. He's put some work into the AoO Sessions (The ReImagined AoO project) lately, and it seems his mood is subsiding, but I'm still not 100% sure he's out of the woods yet. I'll keep my eyes on his posts and we'll just have to see what becomes of things. light shadow Yes, Adam (the one linked on my friends list) is the founder of TheOtaku.com and MyOtaku.com. His blog is the one to watch for sneaked in little tidbits of what's up and coming for the sites. I certainly hope he gets through whatever's bothering him too. If you're asking about the writing project I talk about often. It's not quite ready for publishing just yet. I have a few loose ends to tie up, then some polish work to do, and funding resources to locate first. When it's ready, this will be the first place I mention it's availability, and ways of going about getting it for those who are interested. KanuckGrrl That post was scary. I'd never seen him make a post like that where the subtext actually reads in as serious a tone as what was written. I hope he sorts out whatever's bothering him too. Start with your disc defragmenter, run that, if the speed doesn't pick up, do a virus scan. If you need Anti-Virus software, I recommend AVG Free Edition. I still have to get used to the ball mouse again, it's so slow compared to the optic ones. If your' mouse is just acting more sluggish than usual, pop the ball out and clean the rollers with some rubbing alcohol. It does improve the tracking speed of ball mouses. Hop-Frog We'll know soon enough. Shireishou That's a possibility I never thought of, I suppose it could be work related, his post was vague enough to go either way. I guess we'll know the truth soon enough. Art of Otaku is a great resource, but right now Adam's temporarily stopped accepting orders for it, probably till he gets the new version, Art of Otaku Sessions, off the ground. I'll keep my eye on that and let you know when things change. It seems like a lot, but my sister assures me it was a reasonable price. She's eaten there before, it was my first time, so I can't vouch for that. I did see the one clip you got up on your site, I'm glad to know you're able to upload some things like that again. Audio work is as much experimental as it is creative, so you'll have to work with the recorder you're using and try to get the most out of it. If you record onto the recorder then upload the files to your computer, check the compression on the recorder. If it's set up to make the recording time longer, then it's overcompressing the files which will distort the sound. Set it up for higher quality recording, which shortens the record time, but gives you better sound. Other than that, I'm afraid my knowledge of recording applies only to analog recording. I can tell you to find a recorder with a mic jack on it, so you can get a reasonably priced mic and plug it into the recorder. A good external mic is always better than the built in mic on any recorder. The "Big Business" software companies bring piracy on themselves by either not making their software available in certain markets, or by charging way too much for it when they do release it there. I can't say that I condone piracy, but if it's the only way within your means to get something, what can you do? I'm a big supporter of freeware, programs that people make and give away for nothing, but you can't always find good freeware to do what you want to get done (I'm still looking for a good text to speech program that's independant of the Microsoft Speech API, and a good voice recognition program also indepndant of the MS SAPI), so you do what you have to in order to get the job done. I probably should download the demo of Manga Studio, just to try it out, maybe I'll do that later. Mamma Vash: I keep up with Adam's blog to know what's going on, and up and coming with the site, though not everything he writes about pans out. It's an interesting look at the site through the eyes of the person who put it together. Anime FF was two times zones away from me, so I couldn't go. I would have liked to be able to see the art exhibit though. The internet crash had to be Verizon since it's not had any difficulties after it came back on mid way through the day it was out. The time it went down kind of tells me it was them doing something. The mouse just decided to be difficult and die on me while I was trying to navigate MyO, not pretty since it managed to pop 20 some windows open before I pulled it out the back of the computer. Not fun to navigate and close programs with the keyboard I tell you. I try not to think of the little monster as a creature because that would only make me hotter at it for not being good. Breakfast Squid Yeah, I guess Verizon was playing with something somewhere, it hasn't caused problems since then. Yeah, I hate to get rid of something that still works, so I never actually gave up the original mouse. It's sluggish compared to an Optic one, but I'll take what I can get as long as it works. No, I didn't get to the con, that's why I'm going stir crazy over that whole art exhibition. No one who was there has posted any info, and pictures of the exhibit were promised and haven't been delivered yet either. Those of us who didn't go will probably never really know the true extent of what went on. He seems to be getting over whatever was bugging him, either that or he's avoiding it, which wouldn't be a good thing. I'm sure we'll know soon enough. Animé Dreams!

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Friday, January 19, 2007

Odd Upload Time, Too Sleepy Earlier

Couple bits of bad luck to talk about today. The other morning my internet connection wnet down and it was out for most of the morning. Obviously it's back on now or I'd be really mad. My optical mouse also finally died, and it tried to open everything on my desktop before it went. Good thing I kept the computer's original mouse. Those things really need to be built better. A Dragon's Traits Hosted By theOtaku.com. I'm sure some of you remember my mentioning AnimeFF, the con that was last weekend, the one featuring the Breast Cancer Awareness artwork. Well, I'm a little worried about Adam(the site's founder), since he got back from that con he hasn't been himself. His latest posts seem to be filled with much more stress than usual, and he's avoided mentioning the con in any detail as well. I don't know what's going on, but I'm sure it had to be something pretty big to rattle him. I hope someone posts what happened soon, because I'd like to know why he's not himself. Comments: KanuckGrrl I know, it's so hard to get them looking just right sometimes. I'm taking my time with it so it comes out as good as I can get it. The delay won't really affect my wirting too much, I have 99% of it done, I just need to wrap the end a little tighter so the readers know that's the end of the story. Currently it kind of just hangs, like there's more to come. I was never as expressive in school with my leterary works, I kept things close to the vest. I have had my sister tell me I wrote well, along with others on various message boards where I've role played. I did do one really good story for the sixth grade, and believe it or not in looking back it was a Star Trek Fanfic. I can't find that story, I think the teacher kept it. I don't consider that gloating. Gloating is making someone else feel inferior to your skill in some obvious, demeaning way. To me it is anyway. I will try, and if I take my time with them, I will get them done in due time. scorchbird12: I haven't set a specific deadline for publishing yet, I do want to have the polish done by later this year. I think publishing is going to have to wait till I can investigate some writing grants first. Sushi isn't a dish for everyone, I just like weird things. Yeah, the lamp is a normal floor lamp, but the bulb is a specially designed fluorescent bulb. The light it puts out is similar in wavelengths to that of natural sunlight, which is good for people with certain types of depression anyway. You might try just looking around a hardware store for a "compact fluorescent sunlight bulb" or something to that effect. They screw right into a normal lamp socket. I should warn you thought that if you burn easily like me, you might want to be careful, thos bulbs do put out a lot of UV radiation. Yeah, I've gota conservative estimate of $700, I added all the figures myself, for self publishing which would probably be the way I'd go if I could. I would like to be able to design my own cover, only because I wouldn't want it too elaborate for a first book. Emotion isn't a communication of words, it's feelings underlying the words. Being good at subtext, I can listen to almost any song in any language and appreciate it for the emotion that's in it. I happen to like a lot of the musical arrangments in Japanese music along with that emotional underlay, so I'm hooked. The people who won't listen at all just becuase it's not in their native language, well, they just prove their own cultural ignorance. I think it's quarterly because it's a free thing, if they had more sponsors and stuff, they could probably offer it monthly. Actually, that whole program went downhill after the second issue. It used to be about the anga, now it's packed full of other "articles" annd things that waste page space. Looks like they're not too interested in giving away much for free, but I can't complain, you get what you pay for they say. That whole "turn based" system frustrates me, I know how I want to do things like that, let me do it my way. I'm not really into that whole "group dynamic" when it comes to playing games, I'm a lone hero kind of player. Needless to say I don't do many multiplayer games either, and I don't game online at all. Yensid: The tequila came later, I had green tea in the sushi bar, come to think of it, it tasted a lot like Oolong tea, but they called it Japanese Green tea, it was good. Generally I don't drink when I'm out with people, mostly because I don't really know my limits with such a thing yet (I like to be able to remember what I did the night before thank you). I think if I get up to that sushi bar again, I'll try the sake though. It was nice of my sister to take me up there. I used to joke that I lost it a long time ago, but I guess I found it again since I'm finding it easyer to take my time with things. That's certainly the truth. Art is one of the easiest things in the world to do, it just takes a lot of time to get it right. Kiki-tink Ooh, that sounds good, but I'll take it on the rocks myself (or in a good Irish Coffee). It is good, not too minty, not too chocolatly and all Bailey's. I know, I give people adivce like that and don't practice what I preach which reflects badly upon me. I am trying to be more in line with how I advice others. light shadow There's an old Pennsylvania Dutch saying "The Hurrier I go, the Behinder I get" so don't rush too fast. Glad you could stop by, even for a moment. Shireishou Sushi is expensive, my sister paid about $65.00 for the three of us (herself, her friend and me), but she wanted to do it. I was glad to go for the opportunity because that's not something that people offer to do everyday. If I lived by the ocean though, (My mom is from a coastal state) it would be less costly than inland where I am now. Funny thing, I wass actually having connection troubles with my internet the other morning, it was strange. That seems to be fixed now, so I'll certainly try to help you out wiht that. Actually I've been meaning to get me one of them MP3 recorders (the physical ones, not just the software) for a project or two I'd like to get underway sometime in the near future. You might want to be sitting down for this. If we're talking about the same software, Manga Studio, the full version is about $300. They do have a reduced function version $50.00 though, which I might entertain buying if it's sold in stores. I hate buying "download" software, I like to have a physical disc, that and I can't pay online for things like that anyway. There's a couple different versions and they all cost different. Animé Dreams!

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Microsoft Title Generator is Not Responding - End Now or Cancel?

All right, quick update on the art trade with KanuckGrrl. I should be getting started on the pencil work today, I did some reference lookup for part of it (the other part's going to be from my imagination, you'll see why when it's done), and I think I'll be able to do a good job with it. I'll try anyway. I need to go back through and check up on the others I've done art trades with here, see if their works are up yet. I'm not in any hurry, I just want to be the first to see them if I can manage it. I'm probably going to end up delaying any work on the novel till next month because I've got way too many art projects to get done right now. That's a safe bet since the novel is complete and just needs a little polish to get done. Actually, I'm thinking I may have to add another chapter or an epilogue to wrap things up a little more tightly than my current ending does. If I do that, it'll delay the polish a little longer, anyway, I'm not touching the book till February right now. Since there were a few comments which mentioned it, and I was seriously out of it yesterday(don't ask, please), here's a little scoop on the belated birthday party for me. My sister and her friend (the one I made potato salad for last year), too kme out to the local sushi bar, and they weren't kidding when they said the food was good. I tried an appetizer called Tako Su (octopus) and I had a sampler thing, it had 8 different sushi on it plus Tekkamaki (tuna rolls). Really good stuff, but not for the squeamish. After that, we went to his house, for a Margarita, and a tequila shot for my birthday. I tell you I have new appreciation for the Jimmy Buffet song now, that's for sure. I should also note that he showed me his electronic drum set. I knew he was talented, but you just can't appreciate something like that untill you seee he plays awesomely. Anyway, after that, we came to my house for a cookie (one of those oversize deals instead of a cake, easier on my teeth that way), and after a short little thing everyone whet their own ways and that was it. This is the liquor year for me, one of the gifts was the mint chocolate Baileys (Irish cream), it goes great in coffee, just like the original. I also got a lamp, but not just any lamp, this one is for a sunlight bulb which puts out a really nice natural looking light that's great on the eyes while reading, or writing , or drawing a picture. I'll mention the other gift I got later, I want to make sure about something with it first. Comments: < a name="hop"> Hop-Frog Thanks Shireishou If you're talking about YouTube, when I figure it out, I'll let you know, We've already handled TokyoPop. That's just annoying. I'll have to ask around and find out what that "Quick Capture" tool is. I'm still thinking that may be a way around the bandwidth limit, unless there's a way you could go to YouTube through a proxy or something like that. Wow, 3 discs, no wonder it's so expensive. I see it's matter of preference then. If it works ofr you, stick with it. Thanks, and yeah, he's an "alien" (they prefer the term "intersteller neighbors" now though, go figure). sikaurai I'm just not in the frame of mind to come up with witty titles lately. Todays is on the same vein, but it's an XP thing that gets on my nerves because it never solves anything. I'm glad you happened to be browsing the main fanart pages then. i did say that I'll toot my own horn with my art here for a while since I don't have a whole lot submitted yet. When I'm sending stuff in more regularly, I'll tone down the features here. I'll post the description I got to work with when the picture is ready so you all can tell me if I came close with the final result. I hope I can do it justice. Yensid: I am certainly trying to improve, if that means I have to slow down and take more time with a picture, then I'll do that. I've rushed myself through pic after pic that I never really took the time to appreciate what I was doing. I dont want that anymore. I want to be able to know when I'm getting better, so slower it is. Thank you for noticing my improvement. It's amazing what a little patience will do. Road Kamelot I made the mistake of saying I could make an old boot interesting (in terms of writing a story) on a message board once, and was actually called on it. Adding the human element (personality, character, and emotion) to anything in art is on the same lines. If I focus and take my time, I can give anything that humanity, even intersteller neighbors like my friend there. light shadow I'll post information here when it comes time to get the novel out to the public. I just need to get a few things squared away in the edits, add an epilogue to really close it off, the current ending seems to not really terminate very well, and go from there. But I promise you'll know her first when it's available. < a name="alphonse"> alphonse13: Humans are overdone in art, it's time to give other creatures a spotlight. I like doing trades because I never know what's going to be asked of me, and I like that because I'll try to draw anything at least once, just to say I tried. I try to look at the art every time I'm on, but I don't always get to do that. Kiki-tink I think her comment on the pic speaks for itself. Thanks, I'll try nad I need it. X Shadowme X Well, I don't prioritize very well actually, that's why some of my projects are half a year old and not done yet. I will get them all done though, I'm working at them reasonably so I don't tax myself too much. I'm not familiar with Neopets so that's kind of an accident that he resembles one. Thanks for the luck, I'll need it. scorchbird12: Don't feel bad about not commenting. Thanks, I did try. Normally I don't think about that kind of thing, but when you read it's different from when you write. You tend to notice things when you write that never come to mind in just reading a book. I never knew just how expensive publishing a book could be till I started looking into it just last year. I usually download even the bad ones just to use as an example of the song for people (I'm obsessive, I try to convert t he non-belivers to the ways of Japanese music and anime!). If it's really bad though, I won't download it. Give me Variable bitrate any day, that's a good way to keep file sizes small, but get the full range of the music's sound., usually when I rip, that's how I do it, VBR. I know, it's Quarterly, so there arne't many issues per year. It's still a great idea on their part to do the free thing. Now if only their web pages loaded better. It's only bad when it inhibits something important. I don't like it because I can't figure out how it works. I have a demo for one of the FF games (I'll not waste my money on a full game after my nightmare with that demo), and I had to give up after a while because it was too difficult to control, and fighting the enemies was overly complicated and unneccesarily aggravating. Animé Dreams!

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Warning: Microsot Title Generator Has Performed an Illegal Operation

Creature (old Concept) Hosted By theOtaku.com. Here's a little gift from me to whtdragon on her birthday, I hope she likes it. Funny thing about this picture, I was actually going through my old character descriptions and found a stack that I haven't used in stories. This particular character caught my eye, and reading the description made me think of whtdragon, so after doing some reference research, I managed to get him on paper, with a few modifications to the original description of course, but I'm not going to say what those are ~_^. Oh, he's not a lizard, he's not a reptile, and he's not a dragon, he's an alien creature who happens to look reptilian. Anyway, to make a long story short, Happy Birthday whtdragon. Let's see what I've got on my plate for the rest of the week. Later today sometime will be the birthday party that was postponed from last week because my family had to work, I've got a really sweet art trade with KanuckGrrl to work on (you'll see why when it's done, if I do it justice), I've got a couple of my own art projects to finish, and I've got my novel draft to begin polishing. That's a lot of stuff, but I know I can't get it all done in one week, so I'm prioritizing and will handle things in due course. That also keeps the pressure off of me to get everything done at once. There isn't much else to tell right now, so I'll let you all get to the juicy stuff you come to my page for in the first place. Comments: sikaurai Given that I posted after you, I think that should be reversed, I should be the one saying "I didn't steal your title!" Guess I'm as guilty of not paying attention to others' titles as I thought people were here. At any rate, they say great minds think alike, and it looks like we were on the same page when we posted with similar titles like that. I try to "raid" portfolios every time I check a page, though I don't always get to do that, or remember, so I go through once a week or two and check everyone's portfolio on my friends list. Kiki-tink Naturally, rest is good for the body and mind. And yeah, those artists all did great work with the challenge. foren I think so too. The artists who draw them will appreciate hearing that. KanuckGrrl Yeah, we're in the middle of a trade right now. I think if I work on my end vigilantly, I can have it done by late week, or possibly early next week if I run into any problems. Keep it in mind for one of those times you get bored and want something to do. Shireishou I've seen ads for Manga Studio. If I had the money for it, I'd definately be using that program. It looks like one I'd get a lot of out of using. Open Canvas has some nice features to it, I like it's pressure sesitivity, it gives the drawing lines a more natural look. Other than that, I've not really worked in depth with it so I don't know much about it either. I'm curious though, doesn't Manga Studio have toning tools, or is it just easier to use the other programs to get the effects you want? That doesn't surprise me actually. One thing I did notice when I was helping you out the other day was that YouTube has two buttons at the bottom of that first upload page. a "go Upload file" button and a "Use Quick Capture" Their help pages over there are deplorable (I set up an account over there for myself to try to figure some things out, checked out the upload page again too while I was there), so they don't actually say what that does or how it works. I'm wondering if that could be a work-around for your limited upload bandwidth. If it works like I think it does, it could be a solution for you where you wouldn't have to rely on someone else to upload the file there for you. Till everything gets squared away though, I'll be happy to help out with getting the videos uploaded for you. Road Kamelot I thought so too, the artists did a great job. death alchemist03 Glad to help out. Two things you want to do, make sure there's plenty of light on the artwork, and if the camera has a "macro" mode, use that, it's for extreme close-up photography (less than 2 feet fro mthe camera) and is ideal for shooting drawings on the standard sized letter or A4 paper. Also, make sure the camera is completely stable, set it on a tripod or anything sturdy. The "scale in my drink" one would be whtdragon's picture. she's got a sense of humor as unique as her art style. The first time I saw that I laughed, hard. All of the art is well done. I'm glad I decided to put the challenge up after seeing those results. alphonse13: Go check out their work, the publicity they get from this is the least I can do for them taking the time to draw the pictures. I know, it's amazing what some people can do and what they can create from their own minds. That's a talent I hope to have one day. I don't trust my own opinion of my works, that's why I have to have others tell me it's okay. I am a brutal critic of the work I do, so I'm hardly a fair judge of my own content. I figure if others tell me I'm good at something, it must mean I am, so I go with it. Mamma Vash: They are aren't they? Ah the dancing pickle, yeah, my muses are all nuts, but we get along so I'm not complaining. If it inspires you and gets the creative energy flowing again, why not draw something completely silly off the top of your head. I mentioned this already, but if you ever need a silly idea to get out of a rut, PM me the word "random" and I'll have my muses come up with all manner of crazy stuff for you. Sorry to hear you're still sick. Most OTC meds do take a while to have an effect, so hang in there. I've lived in WV for, well 17 years now and I still hate the cold. This dragon needs warm weather! I feel for your parrots, I'm not one for the wind either. It's probably the only force of nature, second only to water, that I'm afraid of. Miso Soup, that hsould help with your illness too. That sounds good right about now actually, but I don't have the stuff to make it. Yensid: they are good, the artists who made them did a great job. I keep saying that, but it's true. Slow days are nice once in a while. Animé Dreams!

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Error: Microsoft Title Generator Could Not Load Default User Settings!

Breakfast Squid's submission: whtdragon's Submission: Lizard Soda-jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. I Don't Think This Is What Cs Ment Hosted By theOtaku.com. Sage of Magic's Submission: Hop-Frog's Submission: Lizardman Soda Jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. Lizardman Soda Jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. There's the current thumbnail table for my Lizardman Soda Jerk Challenge. Any other takers are welcome to step up, just let me know when you're done so I can put your picture up here in the table with the others. Other than that, not a whole lot to mention today, so I'll get right to the good stuff. Comments: death alchemist03 I'm glad you liked mine, I did try to do this one right. The other one was serendipity for me, it was a good picture, and it solved a problem I had where my personal limitations were the major factor. A lot of people without scanners do that, it helps if the camera is a digital camera. Basically you set up the artwork where you can get a clean shot at it, please use the flash on your camera if you have one, a lot of photo shoot of art come out dark because the flash wasn't used ro something. and you'd save those files to your computer, make them fit the specs required here (1500x2000 400kb) and upload them like normal. I'll pass along the message, I'm sure she'll appreciate it. beyblader It's so easy to get distracted, or to start a new project when an old one needs to get done. I've still got a few I have to get done and will work on this week to finish. The nice thing about Pixia being freeware from Japan, the color palate has by defaul a fleshtone color in it, and it comes with toning textures too. But the tools are only as good as the artist who uses them, and that picture is certainly proof of that artist's skill. Shireishou The toning caught my eye in that piece too. Yeah whtdragon's got a lot of art up, she's pretty good at doing quick sketch stuff in a program called Open Canvas (Don't ask me, I haven't worked with the program a whole lot yet), and her style is unique. I hope you get something too, waiting is always the hardest part of doing anything well. Good luck, let me know how it goes for you. alphonse13: Yeah, I started out as an art lurker. I loved looking at the fanart, I still do. Oddly, I find myself gravitating toward the Original Art category mostly. Seeing existing charaters is all well and good, but I'm more impressed with original stuff. I try to make the time to do a picture now and then, even if it's just a quick little doodle on paper for myself. I even draw during job interviews sometimes when the interviewer thinks I'm taking notes. Creating dreams, that's what writing, and drawing does, it creates dreams for the people who read or view the work, is something I like to do because it comes from the heart 100% I accept that I'm good at it because others tell me I am. My own mind can be brutal about little things, so I dont listen to me and let others decide if I'm good or not. The survey says I am, so I roll with it. Your drawing is good, so do keep at it. Mamma Vash: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the picture, I did do things differently with that one because I wanted it to look better. Things are going well in the creative department right now, I'm doing all right. All this energy will help me improve my art too, which is a plus for me. If you ever want to do a trade with me, or have a picture idea you want me to try my hand at drawing(i.e. a request), let me know. Yensid: I've been doing a little bit of homework on my art, and trying to slow down. I find that I normally rush through completing pictures, which usually ends up costing quality. I'll dstart to work on digital coloring this year sometime too, I really want to be able to do it. I've got two more years then, I'm 26 now. I'm not pushing to learn right now because my family can't afford to have another driver on the insurance, much less another car. Being able to drive isn't a guarantee I'd be able to get a job to support the vehicle I use to get there. I walk out on applications that demand vehicle information, which should be gainst the law. It's none of the employers business how you get to work, all they need to know is that you can and will get to work when you need to be there. Only jobs like rural mail carrier and newspaper delivery should really expect "reliable" transportation. The Pea Patch is closed. Glad to know you're inspired by the works, even though the one wasn't mine. I took my time with this work, normallly I can get piece done in 5-6 hours, this one took me 12+ to complete. I really slowed down, studied some references I found online, and took my time to get it exactly the way I wanted it. Actually, I haven't "celebrated" yet. On the 9th, I did some meditation and relaxation, but the family is palnning something for this week sometime since that's when they're all off work. I'll have to get back to you on how that goes when it does. light shadow Thank you for saying so, I am trying. Though only one of the pieces I had posted in my blog last time was mine, the others were pieces I wanted to show for various reasons. In my experience, a person's worst critic is him or herself, I'm brutal with my own art most of the time, but I'm getting better about lightening up and letting the art speak for itself. I'd be glad to take a look at some of your work sometime. The statue, he's the famous Mothman of Point Pleasant WV. sikaurai I had to feature those pictures, the challenge pic from Hop-Frog, the Pixia done one from Heiros, those wer worth featuring because they wer good pieces, and I threw mine in there for some shamelss self-promotion. So noted. Kiki-tink I'll certainly try. Anim¨¦ Dreams!

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Sunday, January 14, 2007

Making Progress on the Art Front

I got another submission in for my open challenge of the lizardman soda jerk. Check out my response to Hop's last comment for more info, and a really neat looking thumbnail of th picture. Double Trouble Hosted By theOtaku.com. That's a piece of art I stumbled across on TheO and I thought I'd share it. Why?, Well, I liked what I saw. The artwork was very nicely done, and I kind of like that two-tone manga quality to the piece, and the caption surprised me too. Heiros used Pixia to make that artwork, remember Pixia? The program I talked about a while back? It's nice to know I'm not the only one using that program here. If you feel up to it, take a look at the art for yourself. Mysterious Eyes Hosted By theOtaku.com. I have to show off my latest piece too, since I rarely upload art, I'm going to make a big production of each piece that makes the cut here. My piece is actually a second art trade, this one with Shi-sama07, oh and it's an early birthday gift for her too, her birthday is the 21 this month, coming up next weekend. I'm just glad I took the extra time with this one. I'd have been a little ticked if it was accepted. If I add up all the time, it would come out to half a day, maybe longer, I spent a couple two and three hour stretches on it. On that note, I need to go back to the drawing board (literally) for the "Something Mecha" piece for Breakfast Squid, I'd like to do something that's quality enough to be accepted on the site here. I am running new ideas through my head and I hope to have something better submitted soon. Every time I finish one art project, I create two more for myself, no wonder none of them get done quickly! Anyway, I'm working on that too, but it's kind of on the back burner since I did get the one attempt at it done. Actually, I like the idea of doing art trades with people, it lets me be creative in a controlled way, and it forces me to work more quickly on my artwork. I think I'll take tomorrow to finish up the Chibis and the other picture for my sister who's waited half a year for them already, just to get on top of things, add to that a special project for whtdragon (her birthday is Tuesday), and I'll have a full week, then I have to work on those pastels for my nephew, a promise is a promise. Comments: KanuckGrrl Best of luck to your brother on his project. I can write scripts, but I do that for hobby, not seriously. You can start your own project any time, even if you only work on it five minutes a day, you can still do it. Honestly, I have the same problem with my writing, I almost always end up rewriting everything while I'm still writing the story. This time I wouldn't let myself do that. What you do is pick a target date, say November 20, this year, now you start writing, take a few minutes every day, or every other day, or once a week, whenever you get a spare moment to think, and just write. Don't reread what you've written (I recommend OpenOffice.org's Writer program, it saves your cursor location so you don't have to scroll through to get to where you left off typing), when you get it done, then you take a week to not even look at the thing, put it away, then pick it up and read through it, and make edits, but go through the whole thing once, don't hang in one area, when done, put it down for a week again, then pick it up and edit it some more all the way through. Keep doing that till you're satisfied with your work, then publish it yourself if no one will do it for you. In all honesty, I don't care what the people who "knew" me growing up think of the book, I didn't write it for them. I just don't feel it would be appropriate to lift them up when they never gave me a hand in the years I needed it most. I'm an unemployed, anti-social grump now because of them. Why should I let that bunch of freeloading leeches try to ride my successes when they were the ones who wouldn't accept me while growing up? That's why I'll use a pen name. I'm not going to give the people who I went to school with, most of whom were bullies and ignoramuses, the satisfaction of being able to claim an association with the book through my having written it, because they don't deserve that honor or privilege. Shireishou I've heard from a lot of people in other countries that English is a tough language to learn. Business, and Legal, English is like speaking Klingon to most people who speak English as a native language, it's very different, and there are lots of words most people, including myself, wouldn't recognize right away. Good luck, I hope you do well on that. I'll be blunt: that jerk doesn't belong on that forum at all. He's in the wrong place if he wants to keep his code to himself. For that, he should sign on at Microsoft. I have seen nothing in any of the licensing agreements, or on any of the newsgroups or forums I've visited regarding Open Source programming that says College students can't use it. I have a feeling it wasn't your English that caused the misunderstanding, from the sound of things that guy just didn't take the time to read your e-mail thoroughly before answering it. People like that frustrate me to the point I'm exhausted too, keep trying, and try to find other places, other people, who might be less egotistical, and more willing to help. They're out there, it's just a matter of finding them. All good authors should start in their native tongue, worry about branching out from there if you happen to be multi-lingual. Outlaw Melfina: The nice thing about computers is the price of typewriters is way down. Check local classifieds in newspapers too, you might find a good used one cheaper than a new. alphonse13: I just go by what people tell me, and they tell me I'm good at drawing, I'm good at writing, and I'm good at cooking! Three things that I can't get a normal job doing, so I'll do things my way. The whole process is fun for me, because I like to create. Actually, I just took the most comically off base typos from mail addressed to me to make my pen name. That's the bizarre humor in my pen name, and it's enough to keep people guessing. Yensid: No, I can't be funny to save my life. The book itself is fiction, Sci-fi/Real-fi blended together with a bit of a *bracing for collective cringe* love story angle to it, but that's all I can say about the story without giving away too much, and if I do that, there's no point in trying to sell it later. I'm working with the pseudonym as a means of self-preservation. After all I've blasted this state for, and depending on how well the story does in the marketplace, I don't need people thinking they can bank on my story to promote the state, I won't allow that. I also won't allow those jerks I knew in school to try to ride the success either. Since I was, well, that ¡û, when I got behind the wheel of a car almost twelve years ago, it might be better if I kept my vehicular notions to myself from this point forth. I deal with the "assumption of ignorance" in my job search all the time, having it applied to my amaxophobia too, well that hurts. death alchemist03 A true Renaissance person, that's nice. I do more short stories than long ones, maybe I'll make my second book a collection of my short stories. I'm currently trying to learn to play the recorder, it's got a nice flutie sound to it and I'd never play for fortune, I just want to be musical too, and since I couldn't keep up the violin lessons, I'm going with a self taught cheap route. Don't forget Osamu Tezuka, that was a pen name too. I highly doubt I'll live up to their caliber, but I know my name will be kind of cool anyway. I hope it's a success too, then again I wrote it so it being a success would be better for me! Thanks for the luck I'm sure I'll need it, now if only a little start up capital would fall my way. Maybe time to investigate a writing grant to try to get this thing off the ground when it's ready. Kiki-tink The Pen Name is already chosen and written on the title page of the book, and it's one that I won't have to pay to use. I intend to announce the book formally here before I do it anywhere else. Depending on the publishing method I choose, it's availability might not be obvious at first (i.e. the bookseller might have to special order it). It's a promise that I'll let you know what's going on. scorchbird12: Just the technical stuff there, the boring statistical data that most people don't even bother with looking at when viewing a book. It was easier to preformat the word processor to the size of the finished pages and type that way, so I can get an idea just how it should look when it's published. Clever idea that I got from one of the self-publishing houses. When the book is ready, then I'll tell you. When I go on my searches, if I find anything at all, it's usually a low bit rate file that makes old time radio sound Hi-Fi. A lot of my current collection is like that. Then I don't need to go on about it then. It is a nice little mag to get, I think the first issue for 07 comes in March. It's quarterly so you only get 3 or 4 a year, but it's better than nothing. I've got the first issue they ever put out, that was when they were calling in Manga Takuhai. Thats' my stubborn streak, it can be vicious at times. Gets me into trouble a little, but it gets the job done too. I guess so, I'm not familiar with Final Fantasy to know. All I can tell you is they take the same characters and tell different stories with them. I'd love to get my hands on the PS game, the storyline in that one seems interesting. Hop-Frog (Back) I'll tell you that when it's ready to come out. I don't want to jinx it by saying too much too soon. Lizardman Soda Jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. You mean this one? It looks great to me. I'll add it to the thumbnail table with the others and get that up again in my next post. Thanks for working the project, if there's anything I can do for you, let me know okay? sikaurai I haven't mentioned this little project to the family yet, I don't want them to get all gushy with support for it, just in case it doesn't pan out (I'd especially hate for anyone to put money into the project for me and lose it in the end). If it's a success, I'll be letting them in on it. I've said before that the Pseudonym is more for my protection, and it's to prevent the free ride effect. West Virginians in authority (i.e. Governor, Congress, etc) like to latch onto the fame of a person even when they have no claim to such fame, nor the right to association with the person or project getting the spotlight. I'm not going to allow that to happen with my work. I won't let my writing be poisoned by the self-serving government of West Virginia. That's the worst kind of publicity and I don't need it. To be honest, I'm not really sure. This is my first completed major project, I've never gotten this far before. I am a little concerned, but I know where I'm going with the story. To borrow the Geode example from Whisper of the Heart, the story is rough right now, it's the course crystal embedded inside a rock. What I have to do now is clear away the rock, and crystal, and polish the gems I find inside there. To use my own analogy, I have to iron out a few bumps, and patch a few holes. Given the conservative estimated costs run $700 should I choose to publish this myself (that's copyright registration, acquiring an ISBN, getting the proper software to publish the file correctly and so on), I have to make it really jump out at some prospective publishers with whom I'd like to submit it for consideration. All I've edited before were my short stories, and those were all necessary edits. How editing a big project will affect me is yet to be seen. I hope it makes rather than breaks me though. Anim¨¦ Dreams!

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Friday, January 12, 2007

Resting but Working

I did promise last year that I would give you more info about my writing project, so here's some technical data regarding the project right now. The first draft is 130 pages, 20 shy of the 150 page goal I set, but I'm not complaining. The pages are formatted for a 6x9 inch book, typed in 11pt Century font, with 1.1 line spacing. There are currently 30,262 words in the book. Kind of boring stuff actually, but it's a start. I do want to say that I'll be publishing this work under a pseudonym, a pen name, that I chose to demonstrate my sense of humor. I'm going with a pen name for several reasons. I want to be able to distance myself from the project if it does flop, and by using a pen name, the people who didn't give me the time of day in school won't know I'm the wone who wrote the book. Basically, I won't have fair-weather friends that haven't spoken to me in years, and before than only because they had to, crawling out of the woodwork wanting to know me. I don't play the game that way. What clever pen name have I chosen? Well, you'll have to wait and see about that. Comments: death alchemist03 Yeah, you came in after all that stuff went down, basically when my state government screwed me royally, I decided to write a novel. I've mentined before (before you were visiting here) that the novel is kind of a sci-fi/real-fi blend, and that's about all I said about it in the past. I'm remaining relatively tight lipped about it till I get it published one way or another. Kiki-tink Don't keep yourself from visiting the state just because some of the people here aren't the best in the world. There are some wonderful sights, and a lot of history to this area that are worth a visit to appreciate. So the Senators are self-serving, arrogant b[Censored]s and the privatized Job Service is the worst kind of garbage on the planet, that doesn't make the beauty of the state any less appreciable. It doesn't change the significance of this area, it doesn't change the richness the land offers in terms of historical importance, and natural beauty. Actually, I'm taking a few days rest, then I'll work on all that other stuff. I'm pushing too hard to get everything done again and that isn't fun for me. I need a little time to completely unwind, then I can attack all these projects full force and get them done. I know I'll really love it when I get my last overdue project done. The draft is done, and that's good for me, I didn't expect it to run as smoothly as it has. Editing is going to be easy, but tricky since there's a lot of bumps I have to smooth out to make it flow. I hope I can do all that in a timely manner, I'd like to get the book into possible publishing by the end of this year. scorchbird12: Actually, I posted kind of late in the day, so no big deal. Well, the industry in the US is encouraging piracy with their strong-arm bully tactics. Thinking that makes it a whole lot easier to click that download or save button. I haven't been on a music search yet, there isn't a particular song I'm looking for right now. I will try to keep in mind that using variants might yield better results to my searches too. What you want to do is go on the TokyoPop website, and click "Create my Profile" Somewhere will be an address field with a checkbox to receive the free manga magazine. That's primarily the only reason I'm over on TokyoPop because all those flash and script heavy pages are a pain in the butt to load (on DSL). I do blog a little over there, but not often, I've got like two entries to date. I have to agree that some of the stuff they put out is good, but I'll take anything for the right price, and you can't beat free for anything. That's the plan, and I'm going to take it in as many directions as I possibly can take it too. I really don't know when to quit do I? Escaflowne started out with the series, it had two graphic novel series (shojo and shonen) done, a Playstation game, and the movie. The neat thing with Escaflowne is each part is independant of the others. The series tells a different story than the movie, or the graphic novels, or the PS game, and you don't have to see one part to see the others. I thought the movie was a little dark when I saw it, it just didn't appeal to me the way the series does. I'd be thrilled to see Escaflowne come out on TV again, if it isn't handled as poorly as Fox did it a couple years ago(they had it running on Saturday mornings after all, it's not really a good series for that kind of thing), then it would be spectatular to see it on TV again. MillenniumChaos It's not so much clearing the unnecessary bits as it is smoothing the bumps of rough transitions that I'm most worried about. If anything, I'll be adding more content to fill some space and expand upon some of the points I mentioned without really elaborating on them. Still having the base material down will make it easy to polish and present. Shireishou Sorry about that, if there's anything you need me to explain, just ask I'll try to clarify it for you. I haven't started to edit yet, but I don't expect to run into any major issues on that front. I won't really know if I'm cut out to be a writer till I try to sell this thing, but we each have our own talents to work with, one of mine happens to be writing. The nice thing about my project is, I'm the author, editor and probably will be the publisher too, so I can give myself a break so to speak on that front. I would be livid if I had a boss tell me I had to do something over again like that. Hopefully, I can get a couple more of them up as soon as I make them. I'm glad I can do something digital that others enjoy. Mamma Vash: I'm not ready to say the whole thing is finished just yet, that will either be the day I see it on a shelf in a store, or get tthe first royalty check in the mail, depending on how I handle publishing. If you're talking about my keeping you all in the dark about the project, well, I don't really want to jinx or curse it by revealing too much about it up front. When it's officially released, I'll gladly share all the details with you. If you're referring to Alvin Toffler's book, which I haven't read, that's not the kind of material I write. I'm not interested in getting attention for my beliefs, I'm not interested in editorializing everything that's wrong with the world today, I just want to tell good stories like I used to do when I was bored, and try to share those with other people. Fiction is my element, that's where I'm most comfortable with my writing. Wow that's quite a gift, wish I could have joined you for that celebration, but I'll have a quiet toast to my small success then go right into the other things so I can start the edit next week. Speaking of which, did you hear about the Japanese Postal Service releasing a set of Evangelion stamps? It's supposed to come out in February sometime, and look something like this. Being a Philatelist myself, I've got to get my hands on one of those panels, unbroken if I can manage it. Anim¡§¦ Dreams!

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Hang On to Your UnderWear, This Post is a Deusey!

Friday, September 16, 2005: The day the wheels of fate were put into motion and my priorities were changed forever. This was the day I went into my local Job Service office to apply for jobs and was turned down because I had no references. This was the day I wrote three letters and put them in the mail, not knowing what would become of them. Thursday, October 6, 2006: After a few letters bounced back and forth between myself, one of my Senators, and the Acting Director of the Employment Service Division for WorkForce West Virginia, I received a telephone call from the local Job Service Manager. He wanted to meet with me in person to provide assistance with my application. Tuesday, October 18, 2006: The meeting with my Job Service General Manager, the meeting that was more show than substance. It did not address, or correct the issues which started the affair the previous month. Monday, November 21, 2005: The letter that would bear the most weight arrives at my house, this letter, from one of the Senators' offices, indicates that one of the Sentator's staff would like to speak with me over the phone about the incidents I had reported regarding the Job Service Office. I respond saying I would be willing to address the issues over the phone. January 9, 2006: The date on the last letter I received from one of my Senators regarding the Job Service issues I had been fighting so hard to have corrected. I had only finished up denouncing the Job Service the previous year, and receiving that final follow-up letter was bittersweet. Wednesday, February 8, 2006: I enter the Workforce West Virginia local office unannounced, and undisclosed to anyone, to give the system one last chance to redeem itself. I attend an "orientation" where I was told to rapid-fire sign a pile of papers without reading any of them over, or without having them properly explained to me (the whole group was dumbfounded by the pacing fo the orientation), among them a grievance procedure which would later come into play and be the end bringer for the entire incident. Friday, February 10, 2006: The initial interview with my WorkForce West Virginia Case manager takes place. She provides inadequate, textbook advice on improving my r¡§¦sum¡§¦ and provides minimal follow-up instruction. She also commits me to attend an Interview workshop, to attempt to assist me with job interview skills. Thursday, February 16, 2006: The interview workshop that wasn't. I arrive at the WorkForce West Virginia Office to attend the interview workshop, to learn that it is a "mock interview" scenario, not a workshop. Needless to say I was ill-prepared for the event, thinking the workshop was formatted differently (I was not informed of the format when I was signed up for it). The mock interviewer proceed to provide me with the same inadequate, text-book, unprofessional r¡§¦sum¡§¦ building advice, advice that professional paid r¡§¦sum¡§¦ bulders indicate is not necessary for entry level r¡§¦sum¡§¦s. Monday, February 20, 2006: I send my first follow-up e-mail to my WorkForce West Virginia Case Manager, indicating my lack of satisfaction with the interview workshop, and my displeasure at being incorrectly informed as to the nature of the workshop's format. I indicate that the issues I presented to her should be handled as an official grievance, she responds asking me to call her to speak over the phone. Friday, February 24, 2006: The Lead Case Manager for the local Workforce West Virginia Office contacts me with Word document attachments to the e-mail. Those attachments contain an "updated" grievance procedure, and the forms to fill out to process the grievance correctly. This form was not signed by me, nor did I sign any documents saying I agree to honor any revisions to the documents I signed on February 8, 2006. the "updated" grievance procedure required an in person meeting with the Case Manager to facilitate the filing of a grievance, where the older form only required the issues be presented to the Case Manager, the method was not stipulated. Upon reviewing the files' properties, I discovered that this new procedure was created less then one hour before it was e-mailed to me. That told me the procedure change was intended to force me into meeting with my Case Manager directly. I responded with a simple demand, to be removed from the system completely. Wednesday, April 12, 2006: I receive a phone message from the Staff Assistant to one of my Senators, the one who requested the telephone contact to begin with. As I received the message late, I chose not to respond right away. Thursday, April 13, 2006: First thing in the morning, I returned the phone call to the Senator's Office and spoke with the Staff Assistant. She attempted several times in hte conversation to shift the fault of the issue onto my shoulders, and took a hands off attitude toward having the corrupt system repaired or replaced. The conversation of less than an hour ended with no resolution, and no indication anything was going to be accomplished. It was during this conversation that I came to the realization that I would have to use my talents to get out of the situation I am in, I would have to create my way into a steady income. As I set the phone down on the charger, the initial seed of a story began in my head, and I started writing. I began to put the idea to paper and just let it flow. I told myself I would have the makings of a fiction novel by the end of 2006, it was a start in the direction of becoming published. What does that timeline all mean? What does any of that have to do with my big announcement? Simply this: Late yesterday evening/early this morning, I completed the first draft of the novel I started writing when I learned that the State of West Virginia was complete trash when it comes to helping the victims of discrimination by their own bureaus. Upon completion of that draft, I must now begin the editing process which I expect to take most of this year to complete, but I will take a break first, and work on a couple pieces of art I need to get done for some people, and for myself. I certainly feel better now that the draft is done, that's the hard part, I have the easy bits left to complete now. I do want to leave you with a quote, my favorite line from one of the letters I wrote during that whole thing. This line was in my response to the November 7, 2005 letter I received from the Acting Director of Employemt Services Division WorkForce West Virginia: "I mean no offense by this, but your confidence in Mr. [Spelvin]'s knowledge of your system does not reassure me in the slightest. Your confidence alone will not magically knock away my doubts, insecurities, and distrust like "Little Slugger's" golden bat." Probably my best line in the whole fight, and not a single person asked for an explanation of what I meant. And for the record, "George Spelvin" is an in-joke in some theatre's, that's not the guy's real last name (censorship indicated by the brackets wrapping the name). Comments: Outlaw Melfina: Yeah, My birthday is early in the year so I don't have to wait long for it. The wishes are enough for me, I don't need anything special. There's a really bad joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going to say it (dancing bananas and Micheal Jackson in the same discussion - I'm not going there). scorchbird12: Thank you. I hate to borrow money from relatives, and I can't ask them to do something I wouldn't be comfortable doing myself (I wouldn't shop online if I had a credit card for security reasons, unless the item was unavailable locally), so I just have to make do with what I can find in stores for now. You got me there. I never thought of that one. Maybe that's why I have some issues finding some of the stuff I'm looking for. Time to change out my search strategy! I'm just anti-social and really hate shopping. I don't have many subscriptions myself actually, the one free mag from TokyoPop is about all I get regularly, and even it went downhill from the first issue on. All Regal would need is a little anime friendly competition, and I guarantee they'll change their tune. Big corporations don't take threats seriously until those threats hit them in the pocket books. Oh, before I forget, Thanks for your comments on my wallpaper. The series Escaflowne is lesser known now than it was a few years ago, but it holds a strong place in my heart all the same. Mamma Vash: Thank you. I only wish I had the talent and energy to make an animated GIF like that. Actually, the smilies and gifs I post here are all things I've found in oddball image searches that I've run, or creatively "borrowed" from Yahoo!'s Messenger, though the good ones I use a lot in IM are all corrupted and I can't rehost them till I figure out how to fix them. I'll certainly try. Magnus Lensherr Thank you. I posted on January 8th a little after 1PM (that would be around 6PM Greenwich), so it was unusually late on my part. The wallpaper seems to have been well received, and I'm happy about that. Angel Slayer: Yeah, I changed my site a little bit from my previous mothman thing (or was I still on the dragon last time you saw my site?), this one works better, and looks good doing it too. Caffeine can be a problem for some people, but I tend to have stronger reactions from the FDA approved LSD that is Mountain Dew. You want a trip, have a couple bottles of that in the morning, you'll be up for two days straight if not longer. sikaurai A lesser person would resort to a dirty joke about the banana, but I won't go there. Thank you, and yeah, I was born in the year of the Monkey. I knew a person who was always looking for people with what she called "old souls" Somehow she could look in your eyes and tell you if you had an "old soul" I don't know what it meant, I never took the time to ask her, and I couldn't sit still long enough for her to tell if I have one or not. She was the best make-up artist my Theatre class had, I was the second best, and I'm proud to say I took second to her, she was that good. It turned out better because I wasn't in a good mood when I made it. Frustration is a powerful motivator sometimes. Thank you for the compliment though, maybe I'll get a couple more up if I take the time to make them. I'll try, and if I can talk my family into doing it, I'll have one of those jumbo cookie things (less icing = less pain for my teeth). We're having the party next week since that's when everyone else in the house has the same day off. I noticed you got the code working on your site okay, sorry to hear about the post being deleted inthe process. If you want to make things easier on yourself when you update, you could actually put that code in the "post styles" under the Manage Content heading in your backroom. There's a trick to doing it right, but once it's in there, it'll make all your posts come out the same and you won't have to worrk about putting the code into every post. Yensid: Yeah, it's a color that comes around quite a lot. Back in the 80's I didn't really have much choice as to what I wore, but then again I was too young to decide that for myself anyway. My style has changed a lot since my early years. It used to be polo shirts and blue jeans, now it's a little more casual than that, and I have my ear pierced too, got that the same day I beat A Bug's Life for Playstation (Dec 3, 2003) I couldn't in good conscious just give sikaurai the code to do the scrollbar thing without testing it myself. I don't like to do that to people. I like to be able to say that the code works, and this time I can, even though I gave her the code before I tested it. Besides that, my posts aren't getting any shorter (As today's can surely demonstrate), so I figured it was time to make things a little easier to navigate on the page. I know what you mean about that, and the code I'm using should be able to do that for you, you'd just have to tweak the Division's margins (that's the "secret" to the scrollbar, the content is in a division within a table cell) to get it to float on the picture where you want it to float. I can try to code it up for you, but I'd need the image, and you'd have to tell me where you want the text to float on it. That's a lot of things to learn at once, and while it may be helpful to compare the programs while learning them at the same time, I'm always telling people to take things one at a time. Decide what is most important and learn that first, then move on to the second, then third and so on. I certainly will, and thank you. Thank you for commenting on my wallpaper, I really appreciate that. It is aamazing what a person can do when one isn't in a pleasant state of mind. If I inspired you, then I've done well with the piece. death alchemist03 Thank you. On the wallpaper, thank you as well. and naturally, the banana lures everyone in with his cooky charm. Kiki-tink Thank you. I'm glad to know you liked the paper, and of course the cards were great. And thank you for commenting on my wallpaper too. The sentiments are much appreciated. Shireishou Thank you, that's a fascinating piece of your culture to share with me, I appreciate it. Thank you for taking a look at it, and thank you for commenting on it too. I read all the comments I get, and I appreciate each one. KanuckGrrl Generally for me, my art doesn't lend itself to wallpapers very well yet. Maybe once I learn to color digitally I can make some good original ones, but for now, I'll stick to making stuff from the anime I know and like. Thank you for the comment on my wallpaper. I'm glad you like it. Jaguar Given that ours is a day apart, yeah, we should stick together. Since the family all works, we're having the party next week when they all manage to have the same day off, so, I'll have to hold the suspense a little while longer. I thought is was funny too. MillenniumChaos Yep, he's Baa-aack! He was last time anyway, not today. Actually, I only caught my mistake because I was updating my anchor tags so I can skip right to people's individual responses when relevant. (for example, if I wanted to link directly to my response to your comment from last post I would do this and it should take you right to my previous response). Don't forget to come back, that's not a new window link. You would think that having the username in the URL not even 20 characters to the left of the blunder would tip me off sooner, but oh well, it's fixed now and that's that. Thank you, the day itself was nice and peaceful for me, which I like once in a while. Anim¡§¦ Dreams!

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Tuesday, January 9, 2007

D for Draft Day

Stealthily I slipped one past you guys and, and not many people noticed. In all the excitment of the Mecha art, I managed to get a wallpaper accepted here on site yesterday. Time to head off and have a quiet day to myself. I think I deserve it. I'll have something semi-big to mention tomorrow hopefully, I hate to be a tease with just that info, but just wait and see. Comments: MillenniumChaos(Spelling corrected!) Good luck trying to resist. The only name I recognize on that list is Haku from Naruto for January 9. I do want a second source to verify it though. I want to be 100% sure of it, but I'm picky about things like that. The Anime Birthday Calendar is a great resource though, thanks for posting it for me. It is neat to know that kind of thing. I just noticed that I've had your username written wrong for ages now, probably since I first wrote up the link for your site(I left one "n" out of Millennium). Anyway, I corrected that so all's well in the desert wastelands of my mind. Yensid: Thank you. Yeah, I'm a Capricorn by that Zodiac, and according to the Chinese Calendar, I was born in the year of the Monkey, because Chinese new year is off the Western Calendar year a little, I'd originally looked it up and thought it was Rooster (for 1981), but a more thorough check reveals that the year of the Monkey went from Feb 16, 1980-Feb 4, 1981, so I fall under Monkey. I don't agree with 90% of the Monkey's personality description, but some of the things ring true for me. Offline, I've never met someone who shares my birthday. That would be neat, just to see how our personalities match or differ. I didn't spend two and a half hours debugging that form (it's actually an e-mail form, I did get the comments) for it not to be used. Thanks, I appreciate your input on all my projects. scorchbird12: I would take the time, and put the money together to actually buy every Japanese song in my collection if they were available on a music service that let me pay with a prepay card. I can't get a credit card (I couldn't afford to keep it up even if I did get one anyway), so I'm limited in my choices of download services for that, I also can't buy CDs online either because of my financial limitations. I'd like to see more stores carrying Japanese music, I'd like to see more music download services offering it too. Generally when I look for a Japanese artist, I go by song titles or album names if I know them, not the artist names. You'll probably notice you get further with a song or album name than an artist name when it comes to Japanese music, that's how I found 90% of my Japanese music collection, the other 10% was just dumb luck on my part. You figure the newstand price of that is $4.99(that's the number I saw in Wal-Mart), so that's a monthly magazine in the US, which means 12 issues @ $4.99 and that comes to a grand total of $59.88. A subscription runs close to $30.00 right? (I don't know, I'm just going by the results of a quick search, looks like that's not the standard rate though). I think I'd take the subscription over buying it on the newstand every month, given that it's cheaper, and delivered to the door (I hate shopping and stores), that would be best for me. Evil schemes, LOL. In terms of Regal Ent. Group, the best thing for them would be a little competition. I think that's all you need to get an idea of where I'll be going. Just know that I'm scheming something big that bypasses Regal all together. Shireishou Thanks, and take your time with the comment. beyblader At least it made someone laugh. I forget where I dug that one up, but I found it online somewhere. Yes, Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of 13, Stephen King, the suspense/horror writer is Triskaidekaphobic. I'm not either, it's just another number to me. Thanks for the comments on the artwork, I really appreciate them. Kiki-tink Thank you, I'm glad to hear that. Check out the link in my response to Millennium's comment, you might find a character who shares your day at least. Thank you. Comments on my art are always welcome to me. death alchemist03 Thanks, I always appreciate comments on my artwork. I never met anyone offline who shares my birthday. Thank you. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. I had to post the dancing banana again. It is my birthday after all so I might as well have a little bit of fun with it. Don't underestimate the power of the dancing banana. Give in to yellow side, the you know you want to. Join the banana and rule the world through rhythmic movement and bright yellow attire. All right, all right, I'm done now. Anim¨¦ Dreams!

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Monday, January 8, 2007

Manic Monday My Eye! This is Chaos!

Something Mecha Hosted by Photobucket and Yahoo! Geocities Here's the artwork I did for Breakfast Squid as an art trade. I'll only say that I would have done better if I'd had good resources, but it's an okay attempt for my first mecha artwork. Otherwise, there's not much else to mention about it, it's pretty much a face value thing. An early Happy Birthday to Yono, who's birthday is tomorrow (glances left), along with someone else I know. Since we're on the subject, have any of you ever met someone who's birthday was the same as yours? And for those of you who know(you'll have to tell me how you find this out anyway), do any anime characters share your birthday? Comments: Shireishou That's very true. Let them know in a polite way that this is an international community, that's about all you can do. Magnus Lensherr I didn't know all that at first either. Of course I didn't know Miyazaki directed a Lupin III movie till my sister saw it in the store and I did the homework on it. It's really neat to learn things. I'm not 100% happy with it, but a first attempt is always going to be the worst in terms of art so, I've got a foundation to build from which is something I'm happy about. sango87: It happens sometimes, at least this one's by choice, but that doesn't make it any easier. Kiki-tink The Sad thing is, kout3uka had been here longer than I was, by almost a month. I've seen people come and go in that time, some by choice, other by force. I'll always cherish the friendships I have here, that's why mentioned kout3uka leaving, that's my way of saying farewell to someone who's decided to move on. One thing at a time, and hopefully they'll all get done soon. U3d@ I know, and you guys and gals have been very supportive to me. I really appreciate that. scorchbird12: Only time will tell. There's a reason I use the term "gray hat" to describe people like us, we fall into the ambiguous areas of copyright law and enforcement. If those greedy little s***s who run the US music download services would get off their backsides and make deals with Japanese record labels (they've done it for Latin America, Europe and Africa, what do they have against Japan?) they'd be doing something. iTunes comes close, but those baffoons need to get their prepay cards to work internationally, and I know they can do it. Last time I ran a search on Yahoo!'s audio search, it only wanted to refer me to paid services(particularly Yahoo!'s own service) for music, that's not always what I'm looking for since paid music services in America suck big time and blow even worse, especially when it comes to Japanese music. Avex Group used to have a download service in the US but Liquid Media, the company running the player software and file storage they used up and went exclusve to Wal-Wart's trash so Avex lost their whole serivce, the page was up a while ago, but last I checked even that was down, so the finally figured out they got screwed I guess. I'd like to subscribe, but I have to get that one issue to be able to do that. The theatres only make themselves look bad by excluding certain content, and it will come back to bite their Captain's Quarters big time. They think ignoing the issue will make it go away, but that's hardly the case. I'm a viciously stubborn dragon when I set my mind to things, and I won't let this one go. beyblader It's primarily a matter of motivation and inspiration. I had both of those, but nothing I churned out was to my liking so I had to keep redoing the same project which was wearing at me. I think I got the hardest one done, the rest should be easy compared to it. I've been noticing that too, I've got two friends on my list with 13 in their names, I've seen at least two or three others that I was consciously aware of seeig the number 13 in the usernames. Good thing I'm not Triskaidekaphobic, that would put me on edge. Your not are you? All that complicated nonsense is exactly why I say screw Paypal, I'll pay by good old money order any day. I wish I could dumb luck my way into a steady income, that sure would be nice, but I make do with what I get. In regards to your brother, he was still irresponsible. He should have known when to stop putting money out of his account. Most banks have minimum balance requirements before they start charging daily fees to maintain the accounts ($200.00US is the standard minimum here - the main reason why I can't open a bank account given that I only have $20.00 right now), so it's not smart to just let the balance hit zero. Road Kamelot No one can resist the dancing banana! Give in to it's hypnotic yellowness! You know you want to! Dance with the banana! If you're not laughing by now, I got nothing else. sanzolover13 So was I, but those are the breaks I guess. Yensid: That was happening to me for a while too. The ones who deleted their accounts by choice were usually in protest to TheO banning someone else without due course (the opportunity to defend oneself). It happens, I lost a couple good people to bans over misunderstandings regarding artwork, and I lost people who were forced off to false, and malicious plagiarism accusations, and some people left by choice to pursue other things. At least this one is the latter which makes it sad, but it's not a bitter thing. I joined up here long ago to be able to comment on artwork that I liked, I don't think any of those comments are still there because the users who I commented to are long gone, but that's why I started here, and the blog thing intrigued me, I wanted to try it out too. Since then I don't just go on voting sprees, I browse the art and vote when a picture catches my eye. I've only ever really read a few fan fics, I've been trying to keep up with a few that are being done on site here, but I mostly go the the Den (the message board I linked a while ago) for that kind of thing. You know, I'm on at least four different sites that do blogs. Here, Deviantart, TokyoPop, and Yahoo! 360 (part of the whole yahoo! account), of all of those, I update this one the most consistently and regularly. My last post in Yahoo! was last year I think). Anim¨¦ Dreams!

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