Thursday, December 14, 2006

   An Early Post Is Not A Good Thing

Well, that's it, I give up. What's the point in trying to put together a campaign that no one will follow? What's the point in trying to reach some measure of common ground for those of us who call ourselves animé fans? Why should I be the only soldier in the fight to get content meaningful to us shown in local theaters? Those are things that I have to ask myself now that I sit here having just closed out an unfinished "mission statement" for the campaign that will not be. I'm not sure I can answer those things, I'm not sure I'm even the one who should answer them. The level of negative feedback I've gotten for this Regal Cinemas thing makes doing it seem pointless. The logistics of running a one man army are just too much, and I'm not going to do it. I have neither the resources, nor the energy to devote to doing everything myself. If animé fans are content with the Status Quo, then who am I to rock the boat and try to make things better for us? Thanks for the support guys, remember it next time you're in a theatre watching a movie. Comments: DarkFaerie88: Well, I don't have too much of that left to collect. Since I only just noticed them there, I haven't been getting them, but I might start picking something up once in a while when I have the extra money to do it. scorchbird12: I happened upon all the magazines in the same night, the graphic novels I'd seen a previous night at a different store. There's a lot more than anti-animé sentiments going on with Regal Cinemas, too bad more people don't realize it. It happens to all of us. I set the deadlines because if I didn't, stuff wouldn't get done, like a couple things that are months overdue because I didn't set a deadline for them. I never did care for that attitude, but I got through everything just to spite the teachers trying to slip the students up. I don't understand that whole thing myself, maybe no one's ever tried growing them here is all. sikaurai Yeah, that's one of my favorite overall results. I'm kind of like Kenshin in a lot of ways. You shouldn't have to do that. You shouldn't have to beg, borrow, or steal your animé You should have the opportunity to see animé films in your local theatre when they hit wide theatrical release. Those films were meant to be seen on the silver screen. Having to resign yourself to watching them on the computer screen or TV just isn't enough. Yes, do that. Yensid: That's another reason for me to really think about moving up that way. K-Mart is garbage now that they merged with Sears anyway (15% restock fee anyone? You've never heard of it because they don't explain it to you on checkout like they are supposed to), Target is probably the best store of all three of them, but they're not close enough for me to get to them regularly either. I went into Borders, and while I was moderately impressed by the three and half isles of graphic novels (Compared to the single one in Waldenbooks which equates to half a Borders isle), I was grossly underimpressed by their overly inflated prices on everything. It'll be a while before I go back in there for any of my wants, I know I can get them cheaper elsewhere. When you play Devil's Advocate, you will get burned. "We seek to locate each theatre where it will be the sole or leading exhibitor within a particular geographic film-licensing zone." (From the Regal Entertainment Group website - About Us page) Given that they admit they are trying to monopolize the market, I wouldn't be bothered one bit if Regal got themselves shut down. The nearest any animé film got to me was Howl's Moving Castle in Pittsburgh, at a non Regal cinema. To put things into perspective for you, it would have cost me over $100.00 just to go see that movie, five hours away from where I live. I'm already saving up the money to try and see the Studio Ghibli Tales of Earthsea movie when it comes to the US because I don't expect it to be shown locally. I'll be lucky to be able to save up that much for it. Not being employed, I don't often get the cash to work with. Money doesn't fall out of the sky at me. You tell me, is that right? Should I have to save up the money to go hours out of my way to see a film that's in wide release(available to all theatres to show), because the only theatres in and around town (all owned by Regal) refuse to show it? I haven't seen one single animé film in the theatrical setting in the past few years because I've not had the money to do so each time one has come out in wide release in the US. Regal Entertainment Group consists of: Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres, and Edwards Theatres, your local "major theatres" wouldn't happen to be one or more of those, would they? One man can't move mountains, that's for sure, and right now, I'm the only man on this campaign, that's why it's off. Magnus Lensherr Animé is a passion of mine, getting it into theatres will have to be someone else's cause, I guess I'm not important enough to rally people to it. It's not a lot, but it's a start. Too bad it's not the stores closer to me. I'll have to get into those to check next week, if they still have copies left. I'm not sure if this is right, so I'll just ask if Dartmoor means anything to you. I think that's the name. Yeah, because Oedipus Rex comes first, then Oedipus at Colonus, I hate to spoil it, but that's the one where Oedipus dies, I think, then Antigone is the last of the trilogy. The character Anitgone seen in Oedipus at Colonus with Oedipus, but Oedipus is absent from Antigone the play, so it must come after. In terms of character relations, Antigone is Oedipus' daughter, so she's not in Oedipus Rex. Animé Dreams!

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Holiday Stresses

While I was out shopping in the last few weeks, I happened upon something very interesting. I found graphic novels in several Wal-Mart stores, and just last night I found Shounen Jump, Shojo Beat (I think that's what the cover said) NewType, and Anime Insider all being carried, but it wasn't in my local store (Got to love road trips to nearby college towns for decent content). Anyway, that gives me a little hope for seeing some of that stuff in a local store hopefully soon. I also had a Borders store open up in town, so that may mean I'll have a place to find more anime/manga stuff, but I haven't been in there yet to know. But all that good news doesn't nearly cover the latest affront perpetrated by Regal Cinemas, yes the same Satan's spawn corporation that's anti-animé. You will see in the next few weeks a lot of promotionals for a movie We Are Marshall. It's a football movie about Marshall University in Huntington WV. The official release date for that film is December 22, so imagine to my surprise seeing that film's name already on the marquee of my local Regal Cinemas theater, yesterday, December 13, 2006. Shakespeare wrote it best when he said "There's something rotten in the state of Denmark." A theater chain that routinely goes out of its way to not show "niche" films actually covering one before it's official release? That seems to be out of character for Regal Cinemas. When I saw that movie on the marquee last night, I didn't think anything of it at first till I found out the release date isn't till later this month. That's when my mind snapped. I don't know about any of you, but given Regal Cinema's bias against animé films (as well as another more locally filmed[physically closer than Huntington] picture), I was offended by their callous antics with this movie. I am in the process of putting together a massive campaign against Regal Cinemas as the result of their biases and industry politicing that keeps good animé films out of their theaters, and lets hogwash and trash in without challenge. Right now I'm preparing an information package that I intend to distribute to allies in the fight to spread the truth about Regal Cinemas. I had planned to do a special picture for my 100th guest book signing yesterday, and a special Season's Greetings picture for you all as well (including the ones who don't celebrate Christmas or other holidays this time of year), but those have to be scrapped completely as all my time not being spent on my story will be spent on getting things organized for this cause so I can get it off the ground by next week at the latest. I'm not going to stand by and watch Regal Cinemas monopolize the motion picture exhibition market in my area, nor am I going to humor their unfair screening practices anymore. Regal Cinemas has to be stopped. If you want movie info for that horse s[Censored]t, run a search, that's what Google is for. I won't tolerate being insulted by questions about the movie's details if they don't relate to Regal Cineams picking it up and showing it early. Comments: DarkFaerie88: Yeah, the artists did a great job on them. Each one is unique and creative, I like that. The only thing that puts me out of sorts mentally is Mountain Dew, nothing else, candy, chocolate, soda, combining any of them, nothing makes me wonky in the head. As for my sanity, you can have it, "sanity" is over-rated. scorchbird12: I thought so when I saw them the first times too. I've done that before too, no worries I never understood the need to compound the workload like that, it's just annoying and asking students to fail at one thing because they don't hav eth time to devote to it. I set the deadlines because if I didn't, stuff wouldn't get done, like a couple things that are months overdue because I didn't set a deadline for them. Yeah, getting the silver leaf should be easier than getting the white strawberries, but I've nevber been in my local cook's supply houses so I'm not sure if they have something that high end in their stock, or if they could get it. At any rate, I'm more worried about getting the strawberries in terms of simplicity because I've never seen one locally, and there's supposed to be a variteyt from the next door neighbor state Virginia. sikaurai The first time I saw it I laughed so hard I couldn't breath. I had to make myself calm down so I could coherently type my comment. I still laugh every time I look at it. Each picture is unique and wonderful in its own way, that's the great thing about a challenge. Don't worry too much about getting it done right away, I'm still open ended with the challenge, so there's no pressure for time just yet. When you do get it done you can expect the same kind of link for it (given the share box is still there) that these three are getting. To be honest, I couldn't tell you exactly what I did to make my own button, I just played with Pixia till it came out right by my eye. Anime Dreams!

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

A Little Late and Something Special

I forgot to put this up in the last post, sorry for not getting it up sooner. Here's the current list of submissions for the Lizardman Soda Jerk Challenge, listed in the order I received them. The thumbnail thing is a new TheO feature that caught me by surprise, so, here you go. Breakfast Squid's submission: whtdragon's Submission: Sage of Magic's Submission: Lizard Soda-jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. I Don't Think This Is What Cs Ment Hosted By theOtaku.com. Lizardman Soda Jerk Hosted By theOtaku.com. Since those links aren't my own coding, I doubt they'll open up in a new window, so don't forget to come back here when you're done looking at the pieces. They are all great submissions so far, I'd like to see a few more if anyone out there is interested in trying. Oh, I'll have something special up in the next day or so, well, two something specials anyway. Look for them when you can. Comments: Breakfast Squid Yeah, I'm making good progress on this draft, I still have two points to cover, but I've wrapped the "hanging" point yesterday and now am only 36 pages away from my draft page goal. Let me tell you, if I go over my goal, or fall short of it, I'll still be happy with it because I've come close to it. The Pixia stuff will get worked in when I'm not feeling up to writing a whole lot. It got warmer here yesterday actually, close to 50°F which is fine by me. It's not hard to keep a room warm with weather like that, unlike 15° weather when heaters run for hours without kicking off. Later on in winter (Jan-Feb) 30° weather would be average, but for December, I think the average is 40-50° Yensid: I'm the freak who says snow is the only thing that makes cold tolerable actually, so no snow, and I don't like the cold. :P The cold wouldn't be so bad if the winds weren't blowing, that's what cuts you to the core, the wind chill. Interesting enough, I've been getting headaches too, and my ear's been itching so I know some weather is on the way toward me, but what, I can't say. The ear just says it's coming. Yeah, I'm keeping busy. That reminds me I still have to get you that Lily photo so you can work with it. I'll try to have that done as soon as possible. alphonse13: Yeah, it is good for me that I'm that close to the page goal anyway, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm close to being done, but it means I'm on track. Bien, la vérité de la matière est, toute la recette n'est pas que grand ainsi j'ai dû la tordre pour travailler, et toujours fini vers le haut avec trop de tranches de pain pour enduire du mélange. Just routine cooking stuff for me anyway. Cold and wind with no snow bugs me. Yep, and there's a lot science doesn't understand about earth's very own "Final Frontier" in terms of the way animals move and so on. Without champions of the sea like Jacques Cousteau around anymore, the seas will unfortunately be neglected, and animals like the shark will continue to be misunderstood. I read about that eel thing in my search the other day, that's a fascinating story. I should get on the WV angle just to see if anything other than Mothman turns up. sikaurai No thanks. Oh, I saw a study the other day saying that Minnesota is the healthiest state, congrats on that. I'd tell you the "guys stranded in the desert" story, but I don't think you'd laugh. Look at it this way, at least you've got the rest of the car, when I need to get somewhere and no one's around, I have to walk, rain, shine, cold, or hot. And since it's formatted for the printing size, there won't be any surprises later in terms of page count discrepancies. It's a milestone for me that was a long time in coming. I'd love to see the look on the face of that twit from the Sentor's office when I do get this thing in the publishing phase. Payback's a real b[Censored]h sometimes. Magnus Lensherr Maybe, I won't know till I'm done, but I won't discount the possibility. It's not normal to have warm weather in winter here, I'd just like it to snow for a month (or three) so the cold is worth having around. I'd like to have snow on Christmas for a change too. I can't really comment on that one, to each his or her own I guess. No, the lack of visits doesn't get to me, the updates that I can't comment on does. Those video clips are nice and all, but I'd like to see more to a post than that kind of thing since my computer doesn't always want to play those videos. It means I can't comment if I can't get the video to load or play. I don't want to post all the time saying the vid isn't loading, that's a bit rude. Yeah, there's another one. I'll have to read it just to get to know the story. The only thing is, the book put the three plays in the wrong order, they started with Antigone, then did the other two which is annoying. I don't think they were written in that order, so they should have been put chronologically. A few reasons actually. Besides being one the the best "creepy" places on the planet, they are England's equivalent to the Pine Barrens of NJ (where the Leeds Devil is said to reside - never really been there myself, but I'm not sure I want to go), and they are the setting of one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories of all time The Hound of the Baskervilles too. I have this thing with desolation also, I like to see bits of nature that are devoid of of human life sometimes, it's easier to hear Mother Nature when no human distractions are around. Poison Fangs That's all right, you get around when you can. I missed a couple updates a short while back myself. Thanks, it's actually coming along pretty good right now. I have 36 pages to reach my page count goal as of the time I'm writing this, and still two main points to cover, so I'm in no danger of falling overly short, though I may not actually hit 150 in this draft. Oh well, even coming close will make me, and Emeril puts it "Happy happy happy." Anime Dreams!

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Minty Weather

Good news on the writing project front. I hit page 100 yesterday wheile writing, so I only have 50 more to go to reach my rough draft pae count target. Now, I also have three points left to cover in the main body of the story, so I'm thinking I'll be able to get it all done by my new deadline, if not sooner, depending on how well my draft sessions go this week. In fact I'm going to plug away at it some today after I post this. This is good news for the Pixia projects too, because I'll have some time to work on them too, but no promises on them yet. Other than that, I do't really have a lot to talk about today, unless you want to know every little details of my making French Toast yesterday. I do have to whine about the cold though, it's still chilly here, but the temp is supposedto go up in the next few days, so hopefully things will be warmer sooner. Comments: scorchbird12: I'm a lot closer to being done my writing project draft, and the Wallpapers, well I'll work on them in my spare time and hope to get them up soon. Yeah, I can remember that kind of thing myself. It's liek the teachers get together and find out when everyone else is doing major projects so they swamp you with work. It was frustrating, but I managed to get through it then, so I will now too. Since I'm not in school anymore, or I don't have a job, I don't have to worry about projects not getting done by a certain date. Still, I like to set deadlines for myself so that I can have a sense of accomplishment for getting something done by a set date. In terms of cost the silver leaf (or silver foil) might be difficult to acquire, but finding it shouldn't be that hard. A good chef's supplier would have some of that (as well as the gold -I'm not even going near the stuff it's that far out of my budget- leaf). The white strawberries are the tricky things to get. Mistee05 I try to resond as soon as I am able. Since you're coming into the middle of things, I'll be glad to explain. Pixia is a freeware image manipulation program that I've used for three years now in place of Photoshop since I can't afford it. Recently I posted (linked in blog here) a couple projects Idid with Photoshop elements, and I showed them off on other sites too. Since then, every time I've mentioned Pixia, someone somewhere (not here on MyO) has implied that I'm either speaking ill of Pixia for being "inferior" to Photoshop (it can't do a lot of the higher end stuff, but it's a great tool), or that I'm telling tales about eing able to do decent graphic stuff with Pixia. I posted here that I was going to be proving that with a couple things, including the wallpapers I mentioned. It's just going to take me longer to get those things up here that I originally thought. I promised Caprice that I wouldn't publically post the details of the scene that's my hook moment for Escaflowne until she sees the episode herself, but I can say it's in Episode 7, and it hooked me on anime in general. Being hooked on the music came later (It was "Change the World" from InuYasha that really hooked me on the whole Japanese Anime music scene), but the art and visual style of the animation was an early on thing for me. I had that happen to me in a store once too. I went into one of my local Radio Shack stores to price a signal Amp for a TV antenna. Well, I went into the store and like they are supposed to do the guy asked me if he could help me with anything. I said "no" after that, they are supposed to leave you alone, this guy didn't, he followed me over to the amps. After he babbles on about one particular model, he gets quiet, I think he went to go help someone else, then he came back over to me. Anyway, As I'm looking over the amps I catch this shadow in the corner of my eye, so I said in a rather loud voice "That's why I like the other store, at least they leave you alone there." thinking the shadow was my Mom who'd come into the store with me. It was the store person, and he couldn't move fast enough to dive behind that counter and pretend to be busy as I left the store without buying. It's a shame they closed the other store, it was the better of the two. That snow came and went like sneeze, I knew it wouldn't last because the forecast said an Inch, they always overshoot the mark. Are you using Celsius or Fahrenheit degrees for the temps? Cause -24° would be wicked cold if thats a Fahrenheit temp, if it's Celsius it converts to about -11.8°F which is still painfully cold. I'm not sure how low it's gotten here before, but I know it's gone below 0°F in the winter before, and I'm not even adding the wind chill in there. I love to shovel snow, I'm weird about it, but I doubt I'll be doing much of that, it hardly ever snows enough to need it here. alphonse13: Since I gave myself till my birthday, I'm sure I will get it done by then. The polish will come after a week's rest from it. Well, I have to see the snow on the ground before I believe the weather forecast about it. It's sunny (I think that's what that big bright light in the sky is called, I'm used to being up after dark) and clear out there now. I've seen those guys blow up, among other things, a log, a drainpipe, a toilet, a cement truck, an airplane, and a house. They test some of the weirdest stuff, and do it in a funny way too. It's a good show. Ocean currents shift, and change the migration patterns of fish, and the food supply for the predators like sharks is altered, so they go looking for food elsewhere. They are attracted by the vibrations of swimmers in the water, that probably lures them closer to shore when food runs scarce further out. I'll have to add Bessie to my list and keep an eye out for further info on it, that kind of thing is fascinating to me. New species of animals are being discovered all the time, so it's only a matter of time before these "myths" are exposed as real creatures. Interesting, not something I would do (I don't have a car anyway), but interesting. There aren't any tales like that around here, but there might be a couple in WV somewhere, I'll have to do some digging on that. Magnus Lensherr I gave myself another month to get the draft done. With the holidays and all, that should be enough time for me. I don't like to have people read over my shoulders either, but they do sometimes. I only play Chess on the computer anymore since no one woill play with me in person and there's no Kibitzing in Chess. I like the snow, but I'm weird that way. I go by that to know who's updated in the last day, that tells me where to direct my comments. It's a public forum thing here, so I assume that the comment responses are being read by others too. On a side note, Oedipus Tyrannos (or Oedipus Rex) is the first of three plays, the second being Oedipus at Colonus, and the third being Antigone. I haven't read the second one yet. That's the name I couldn't find when I went to look it up. Anyway, if I could travel to England I would love to go just once to see some of the things I've only read about. The moors are still ther right? Anime Dreams!

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Friday, December 8, 2006

Snow and Sleep

From the look of things, the Pixia projects are going to have to be held off for a while. Right now I just don't have the time I need to devote to putting together really good projects for you all to see. When I have the time to work on them, I will, there are at least two wallpapers coing, a revamp of my old Gasaraki one, and an Escaflowne(go figure) one. I have a lot of creencaps from Spirited Away, so time permitting I'll put together a wallpaper for that too. I have decided it would be best to push the rough draft finish date back a little, I'm now giving myself till January 9 to get the first draft done, this time there's no pushing the date back again. I think I need the extra time since it's getting too cold to work in my bedroom, I'll have to bring my laptop downstairs and work in the warmth on it, which I can't really do with people around. I'm just weird about having people look over my shoulder when I'm writing. It snowed here today, but nothing stuck to the ground, after an hour or two of flurries, it all vanished. The weather forecast said, we were supposed to get an inch but they always overshoot the mark and say more than we actually get. It was nice to see flakes of white for a change. At 5:50AM (right now) it is 16°F out (that's -8.8°C), and that's not couting the wind chill. Comments: alphonse13: Good luck with the decorating, my family doesn't do the outside of our house, except for maybe a wreath on the door. I do try none the less, and it's nice to know that people don't mind mising a day of my unenlightnend nonsense. I have heard of the show, they do some entertaining stuff on it. I liked what they did for Shark Week last year(or was it the year before last?). They tested a whole bunch of stuff from the movie Jaws, as well as real-life shark myths too. I don't get to see that show often anymore, I always forget it's on. Really? My Mom is from New Jersey, where it's unusual to see sharks close to shore at all, but get this: In 1916, a great white shark swam up a creek in Matawan NJ, killed a few people, and is the real-life basis for the Peter Benchley novel, and later the movie, Jaws. The most interesting thing is, Matawan is in the bay, it's not on the ocean side, and it's right in the heart of the area where my Mom grew up. I've never heard of the Lake Erie sea monster, I wonder where I've been. I try to be up on all those things like Champ (Lake Champlain, VT), Nessy (Loch Ness, Scotland), Ogopogo (Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, Canada), Chessie (Chesapeake Bay VA) and all those other ones, but I've lost track of more than I follow anymore. Cryptozoology is a fascinating field of study, and it's sort of a hobby of mine too. We don't have any monsters like that here(not counting the Mothman further south of me), just monster catfish that can be as big 6' in length. There's a lot of local lore regarding various things though, a couple local haunted buildings, Harry Houdini is said to haunt, well it's a telemarketing office now, it used to be a radio station studio, a Banshee, some Civil War stuff, and other things as well. scorchbird12: I've just taken on too many hobby projects at once, this is the last time I do that, I can assure you. One or two at a time for me from now on. Of course I understand it happens to all of us. I never completely give up on my work, I usually put it away for a while then take it out again and work on it some more later. My mind works in moods when it comes to creative ideas. I can't help with the Silent Hill experience, all I'll say is that for me, once was enough to last a lifetime. That would be neat to see an edible silver, or blue strawberry. I'll have to keep that project in the back of my mind for when the farm markets open up around here, maybe one of them will have the white strawberries to work from. Being able to get the white strawberries is probably the most difficult part of the whole project. Caprice Things are going okay for me right now. My mom talked me into shopping for my sister and her friend, I'll do that much. Actually, I know what I want to get both of them, I just have to get it and wrap it. Luckily for me, I can't wrap for beans and use those gift bags all the time, saves time and frustration. You too. Magnus Lensherr I know that feeling. The other day I was so tired I could look at all the names highlighted in blue and couldn't get myself to go to any page to comment. I get distracted by the littlest things, for instance the cursor blinking as I type this out. As for not visiting, it's not going to happen often, but once in a while I'll need a break myself, but I'll usually warn you all ahead of time when I go for it. Yeah, she's into the creepy fonts like Dracula and Chiller(Chiller came with Windows XP I think), the ones that look like serial killer ransom notes and the like. Actually, I agree with you there, it's easier to remember that each higher number is half the size of the previous number (A5 is half of A4). It's easier for me to remember the dimensions rather than the designation most of the time "letter" paper is 8.5"x11" "Legal" paper is 8.5"x14" then there's "Executive" paper at 7.25"x10.5" and "Statement" 5.5"x8.5" papers too, but those aren't used by most people ouside of businesses I think. That's a loaded question, but I'm too tired to go off on a rant today, as of September it was over six years. I explained the basic relation of Antigone for the benefit of the readers who might not know it. I have both plays as part of a trilogy of plays I picked up from a used bookstore here in town. Oh all right, you go right on believing that. ~_^ I stay away from politics for various reasons, including the ones that are breeches of free speech rights. Two rose bushes and a couple lilies would hardly be called a big garden. the whole thing (yard and house) would fit into a high school Gymnasuim with a lot of room in the gym to spare. I don't like the cold so much, so I'd have to be where it's warm. Transylvania, I wouldn't even want to visit there. A lot of ghostly tales surrounding that area, including the tales of rules whom Dracula is said to be based from. Sage of Magic I'll definately look for it, and I'll get all the links together and get them up finally too, so that everyone can see what kinds of pictures are coming as the result of my challenge. I think next time I'm going to give you all a keyword (or tag) to use with your submissions so it'll be easier to link to all the artwork at once. Yes there will be other challenges when this one is through. Thanks for taking the time to do it for me. Anime Dreams!

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Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Make it Stop

Another delay in getting some of those Pixia Projects up. I'd forgotton how much time it takes to do that kind of stuff. I'm also considering extneding my deadline for the first draft of my novel. All told building a gingerbread house and putting up Christmas decorations is tiring work. If I haven't gotten to your site lately, Sorry about that, I'm really too tired to go through them all right now (see previous statement). I will try to get cuaght up in the next day or so, but I can't tonight, I'll be out *cringe* shopping. Well, my family is doing the shopping, I'm just going with them. Comments: Magnus Lensherr Pixia is an image manipulation program like Photoshop, but it's not that high end, and it's geared more towards artists rather than web designers, but it works. The dripping blood font is called Dracula, and my sister found it somewhere. Given the Mothman's rep, I thought it appropriate. I had to look up your paper references there (we don't do the easy standards here in America) and A5 is a little smaller than 6x9" paper. Since I'm typing in the 6x9" paper format, I have no clue what it would come out in terms of length on letter (8.5x11" closest to A4 in size) paper with basic formatting. I'm guessing it would probably be about half, but I don't know. When I get it all done and edited, I'll do a check on that just to humor my own curiosity. I can't afford not to at least try to find a job, I need the income, really I do. It was part of our Theatre history that we read Oedipus, and Antigone, which is like the sequel to Oedipus (Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and his mother, so she's like his sister too, those Greeks were confusing, and really sick minded sometimes). The only scripts I have trouble reading aloud are Shakespeare, but that's because I can't get the rhythm of Iambic Pentameter down. I made it a point to do things right, just to show everyone else in class how it was supposed to be done. I had one of them so startled that he routinely missed his cues, even when our characters weren't dialoging with each other. I used to talk fast when I was nervous, now I just do a really low grumbly sort of Bebopesque Spike voice when I'm talking to people, especially the ones I can't stand. You think what you want, and wonder if you're doing it on your own, or if I'mn tricking you into thinking the way I want you to. Now that's evil, or is it? I think role play message boards have some measure of leeway, given the people on them are supposed to be pasty faced teenage computer nerds with no social lives and rich fanatsy worlds exisitng in their heads. I'm not sure how they do things over there, but there was an article in the news about the Secret Service harrassing a High school student for a comment, or picture or something she posted in a blog, more than a year before they contacted her. It's one of those tread softly areas, so keep your guard up when discussing politics. Why do you think I don't discuss politics at all if I can help it? It's not a mansion, if my family had that kind of money, I'd be posting this from the Bahamas, or Rio, or anyplace that's warm. It's a lot smaller than it sounds, it was built up instead of out considering it's in the city and the lot it's on is only so big. Hard to believe it was built over a hundred years ago, but it was. Breakfast Squid Yeah, I posted that first one with the idea that I'd have more to follow, but that didn't happen. Pixia is a lot easier to use than some ofthe higher end programs, but it has it's quirks like all of them do. If you need a good basic image manipulation program Pixia is the way to go. There's a lot of user built filters for it that are good, and you can make your own pen tips too, and it has tablet support now too. As for my story, I haven't revealed plot details yet. I probably won't do that till I've got the thing in publication, just to prevent any possibility of my storyline being "borrowed" without my consent. I did say a while back that is was a Sci-Fi/Real-Fi blend, but that's about it. I'll have some info on the characters up another day, I'm really worn out tonight and don't really feel like typing out all that info. alphonse13: By all meas do set up the button, that's what it's there for. On the welcome banner, I should mention that I used some Pixia user defined filters (An extra installation) to make part of that banner (the curved text). If it's important, you make the time. I think that what Kirk said in one of the Star Trek Movies. I'll make the time and get tha draft done. What made Jaws was that penetrating, creeping Double Base riff that you heard to symbolize the shark. Speilburg (yes, the Steven Speilburg directed the first Jaws movie) had many challenges with that hydraulic shark when filming (They filmed on Martha's Vinyard), so he had the composer work up a "theme" for the shark which they used in the final cut to portray the shark which actually wasn't seen the the move as often as you think it was. My Mom grew up in New Jersey, in the era that movie first came out, and even she said a lot of people (including herself) wouldn't go into the ocean for a while after seeing that film. My most memorable paranormal experience would have to be Captain Demming. We have an old cemetary in our town here, and there's a man, he was a sea captain, who moved here in the late 1800s to seek his fortune in the oil industry I think. Anyway, he's buried in that cemetary, and his tombstone had fallen (it's been repaired). I was standing with my sister looking at his stone, and for a split second, I smelled burning pipe tobacco. It was only in that one area in front of his stone, and aside from my mom, sister, and me, no one else was around, much less anyone with a pipe. I have a couple experiences from when I worked at the Ramada Inn too which were unique to me, and a few that others had similarly shared too. That was a nice sentiment on your grandmother's part. Even in passing she was concerned for her family's happiness. Yensid: I've been behind the times too long, I figured I needed to start looking somewhat contemporary in style. I'll try to get over there when I'm on dA again, just to humor a look around. If I want to find her page here, all I have to do is type the username into the "Jump to User" thing at the top of the page, and it'll take me there. dA really needs something like that. The first one's on the house, that much I'm sure of right now, there's no snese in charging for a trial run anyway. Snail Mail is out right now, I've been wating for two months for someone to replace the black ink in the think, so I can't print it out myself. I don't think I have photo paper either. I know a little about Creative Commons, I like their attitude on licensing and making materials accessable for people to add to another's creativity, but since I'm in the position where I'm thinking about starting a financial stream for myself, I have to be careful how I let others use my works. I'll have to do a few things to the file to make it fit those specs, but that won't be hard. I have no distinction between my works yet since it's all hobby for me right now. When I get paid for something, then I'll begin to categorize things into hobby and professional. I wouldn't put anything professional on dA either, that's why I hesitate to put my other rose pictures up, some of them are really well taken. KyuubiKhaos There's only one field where my actions don't speak for much, that's trying to find a job. Otherwise it's better to show someone what you can do rather then tell them, because most of the time, they don't believe it till they see it. That one was more fluke than intentionally done, but it did turn out well. Once the rough draft is done, I won't have to worry, editing and polishing is gravy becasue all the material is there. I just need to finish up that rought draft first. Anime Dreams!

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Sunday, December 3, 2006

Pixia, or Publishing?

I got a few things up right now, my welcome banner at the top of my page, and my button at the bottom of every post were both made in Pixia, My Mothman Avatar is also a Pixia creation, and the site background as well. I'll have more stuff up another couple days, I'm thinking about, maybe a wallpaper or two. I think that would best show off what I can do with Pixia better than trying to do wholly original art with it(I'm not good at doing original art from scratch with any digital program!) I'll decide that when I go to work with it later, and look at what captures I have and can get to make stuff from. My priority right now is still my story, so I'll be devoting more time to that than settling the Pixia thing. I have done a little work on it, and I'm closer to being finished which is a relief. I'll be happy when I'm finally done the draft do I can take a week off, then regroup and start my editing, which has a target end date of "early" next year, I haven't set anything specific about it yet. Comments: Magnus Lensherr Well, I think the best way to make things 100% clear is to just prove it. Leaves no room for doubt when someone sees what can be accomplished. It's not so much I can't finish it, I've been busy since April. I'm always looking for a job, I've been taking some photos, I've been helping my sister's friend move (twice, into and out of the same building). I've just had so much to do that I can't get a spare moment to sit down with my story when I'm not tired. I put some time into it Yesterday, and I'll put some more into it today just to see what my pacing is, once I get a feel for that, I'll know when I'll be done. I do have a target goal of 150 pages for the rough draft, because I know by the time I'm done all my edits and rewrites, it'll probably come closer to 200 pages which is about right for a 6x9" format novel that's intended to be "light" reading. We read Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannos in Theatre, but that came later when I was in High school. It was in 7th grade literature that I read the Twilight Zone episode, and I swear some of those kids expected me to show up in the dark suit and tie and stand there in the corner of the room narrating, the teacher even told me I sounded like Rod Serling when I readthe narration. We read a teleplay in 9th grade called "Thunder On Sycamore Street" (Studio One1953) written by Reginald Rose. I played Joseph Blake the ex-con who was going to get kicked out of an upper middle class neighborhood. I never saw it on the air, but I surprised some people when reading that script too, just by following the script directions when no one else would. Let me just say Mr. Blake yells a lot in the last act. Nothing irks me more than seeing lines with direction and getting a monotone, droll, dry, reading instead. No, I'm not evil, at least, that's what I like to tell people. Let's just leave it with we don't have high opinions of our political leaders. That's the safe, peaceful out that won't get the attentions ofthe CIA, Secret Service (for me), or MI5 (I think) for you. Yes, they pay people to scour the internet looking for material that could even remotely hint at potential threats against the political leaders of our countries. It's not a big worry right now, since it was windy with the rain the other day and nothing came through. We're most likely in the clear. And I don't think our water pressure is that good, the roof is three stories up. I don't think the final report has been made yet from the fire investigators, but that should be a matter of public record when it does get issued. I'll keep my eyes open for it. I'd be interested to know what they conclude too. You know, a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches is all you need to rig a time delay that'll look like a natural source of ignition. As for the insurance company(ies), I don't think they'd ever publicly state their findings, but if they believe it's arson, they'd have the landlord in court faster than he could blink. Angel Slayer: I changed the BG a couple weeks ago, I'm not sure if you've been by here to notice or not. I have trouble keeping track of all that stuff myself. Thanks for saying so. No I haven't seen the Ghooneys(???). sikaurai I'll certainly try to get some good stuff up soon, I have some good source material (my photos) to work from if I need to use it. You'll have to continue being curious for a bit. Yensid: Yeah, I'm going to stick around over there for a while. I'll get used to the headaches eventually. It usually happens to web sites that adding something will most likely break something else, so I'm not surprised to hear that new glitches are around as things are being added to the site. I know which one you mean, the red lily with the orange in the bloom. I don't have the full size version available over on dA, but I can get you the original size image (1280x960) to work from, and I think I'd have to look at those license options they have available through Creative Commons, so we do this thing the right way all the way. That's actually one of a few photos I want to make into a print to sell, but I don't have the money for registering copyrights for a couple photos, so that has to wait. I suppose if I get enough interest, I could start professionally licensing my works (fee for use), but for now that's not an option. As I said before, artists have to be willing to give a little in order to get, so this one's on the house. I'm familiar with the username, but telling me she's a mod only makes me nervous. There's fine line that has to be tread when associating with staff, a delicate balance that has to be maintained, otherwise a lot of trouble could result. I post regular comments to the admins and a mod or two here, but that's about it, I don't need to know every staffer here on a personal level. I'll take a look at her gallery over there if I can get to it (that search feature is stupid, it doesn't let you search by username), but no promises on actually making much contact. The liver and kidneys are your body's filters, they get clogged or damaged, the body doesn't get cleaned out like it should. That's a wise precaution your doctor is taking. I'm glad to hear you're doing all right with regard to your wrists. Is your keyboard set atg an appropriate height (not too high or low)? Sometimes that contributes to typing fatigue without being really obvious as the cause. Your mouse needs to be at an appropriate height too, too high or low wears out the wrist. KyuubiKhaos I'll do a couple anime wallpapers and see if they make it online here as part of my proof. I really need to redo my Gasaraki one anyway, I can make captures now and I did that one with screenshots. I'm always ready to back up my talk with action, that's the way I do things. alphonse13: I'll certainly try. I used to do that, but I think better under pressure when it comes to assignments like that. Hitchcock was a master at suspense in his day, and he didn't have to be gory to do it. A lot can be learned from the classics in terms of how to get into a person's mind without needing all those corny effects. That's very creepy is all I'll say. beyblader Yep, proving that I'm not all talk when it comes to Pixia. Anime Dreams!

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Saturday, December 2, 2006

Pixia Attack!

I seem to have leave people with the impression that when I say I can do things with Pixia, I don't mean it. I guess I'm going to have to prove my mettle so to speak and show what I can do. There's only one way to dispel doubts, and that's through proof, which I am prepared to offer. I don't have any works to put up right now, but I will have a couple soon enough. That's a promise. Comments: Yensid: I'm just in the free account there too since I don't have the money, or means to spend money online anyway. The Ad blocker (built into Avant Browser) actually works 90% of the time and the pages load faster wiothout those ads sometimes too. As for the warning, yes you, as well as others, did warn me about DeviantArt's backroom headaches. I weighed those issues among many things, and the pros of joining outweighed the cons when I registered. Adam did mention last year that he was considering a premium service (also mentioned here) offering here at MyO, but I don't know if it's still on the table or not. 1 It was supposed to be in place October of last year. At any rate, I don't think TheO's paid option, if one ever does come about, would sacrifice quality in the free accounts. Somehow Adam doesn't strike me as the type to put profit above the user experience. I wouldn't be adverse to paying for a more featured TheO, as long as there's a way to do it without needing to have a Paypal account, Credit Card, Telekinetic Osmosis or any other means of electronic funds transfers. I'm not really on dA to make friends and play well with others, so I'll stay off the forum if I can help it. The category browse thing is a button near the top left of the page, it says catergory with a downward arrow on it. I can get some screencaps if you need to see them. It's not my place to comment on your choice to waste money like that, so I won't. All I can say is that my tablet never came with a coupon. I don't have plans to be a web designer, so I don't really need name brand software to make logos, buttons or basic web page decor, I can do things with Pixia, Irfanview and MS GIF animator when I need them. I started out on paper and pencil myself, and I'm still learning digital art, but I'll never let digital completely replace the pencil and paper. There's something to be said for tangible media that you can't get from a PC screen. It's a wondcerful tool and all, but it just doesn't feel the same. I've caught some eyes over there too, not as many as I'd like to have, but it's a start. You asked me if I'd do photoreference for artists over there, actually I would be willing to work something out on those lines for interested artists because I'd be impressed to see someone turn a photo I took into a painting or something else. And it would get my foot in the door for other things too I would think. The weather can't be helping your hands out any, Hope you feel better soon. Magnus Lensherr Well, I told myself in April that I would have Draft 1 done by Christmas this year. Given that I've had most of the year to do it, I should be a lot closer to done than I am. I'm only pushing myself to get caught up, and I'm always careful not to overdo it. If I need more time I'll allot it. I don't know them by memory yet, I had to look it up. I don't watch them anymore, but I did read "The Monsters Ae Due On Maple Street" the script for the episode, and I loved it. If I recall, I was the narrator when we read that in Literature class, I did my best Rod Serling impression while doing it too, creeped some of the kids out. Not to their faces, but in written letters which is worse because it's documented and preserved. The President has came to my town twice, but I don't have a high opinion of the man so I didn't go see him speak. So far it looks like they did good. It wass raining today, and ther was no leaks. We'll have to wait till it's really pouring to know for sure if it's 100% fixed. I don't know what the landlord is planning to do with the building. He most likely got some insurance money from the blaze, which din't do as much damage as it sounds like. He'd have to gut the interior just to get rid of the smell, but the outside is brick so it wasn't affected at all. My sister's friend thinks the landlord will either sell the building as is and make it someone else's problem, or he'll fix it up and make luxury apartments out of them. Either way, he'll be off the hook with HUD. Isn't that convenient? You too. Angel Slayer: There's no such thing as a stupid question. I do absolutely nothing. I don't have a job. Good luck on those finals and all. scorchbird12: No artist worth his salt will ever be 100% satisfied with his own work. Having been there myself, it's creepy, really creepy, and cold, and smelly, and unsettling. Just like walking through the game. It's something I hope I don't have to experience again. I suppose one could dye a whte strawberry blue, it would look kind of funky and unnatural, but it would be blue. Now I'm going to have to find white strawberries just to try that I think they're in season in spring so that'll be a while. I don't think I can pull off the silver though, too costly for the silver leaf. alphonse13: Well, sometimes I had to just stop and not do my homework to let my mind open up. Don't slack off too long now, you don't want to fall behind. Yeah, some tutorials are helpful, some aren't for one reason or another. The ones I posted or mentioned are all good ones. Part of my soreness is from typing when I should have been resting my arms so they kind of overworked themselves. I do feel better after letting them rest a bit. Like I said, it's just the international astronomical community politicing their own agendas for whatever reason. Pluto was a planet in 1930 when it was discovered, and it's a planet to me now, it always will be. I might entertain weatching it if it ever makes it to cable TV like I did with Mothman and Tombraider, but that's to be seen. Horror isn't really my thing. There aren't any stories like that in my family, but my sister has this thing she does at funerals. If you're eating something, you'd better put it down, and as far away from you as you can. She'll actually touch the body. She did it with our grandmother, she did it with our grandfather and almost made my brother (who's studying pathology) sick. What that does for her I don't know, but she's the most in tune to spirits from what people tell me, and that action does something. sometimes spirits watch over us, whether we want it or not, they do. Chances are your grandmother didn't completely stop seeing things, she just put them in the back of her mind as people do sometimes. I don't mind hearing what you don't mind sharing. I can't return the favor, I've told all the tales from my family. So am I. Anime Dreams!

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Friday, December 1, 2006

I'm Back

After trying my hand at those tutorials, I think it's time I put Photoshop Elements on the back burner for a while. I do like learning how to make effects like that look good, but I just don't really have the energy to experiement with things to get my PSE2 to deliver a similar look to what a full Photshop program can offer. I have to say I surprised myself with what I was able to produce following those tutorials, and I would like to have another go at making those things again, maybe when the holidays are over and I'm not feeling so weighed down with myself I will try a few more things. Actually, with this lazy week, I'm behind with my writing project, the novel I briefly mentioned in a post weeks ago. I'll have to spend a lot of time working on it if I want to meet the Christmas deadline for the first draft. I am nowhere near the point I should be, so I might have to take a couple more days off just to get caught up. I'll decide that after I put a good hour or two into it this weekend though. I may get ahead of myself which will be a good thing. I am well rested now, though I do still feel the effects of lifting heavy things. Since I'm not used to doing that, I probably will feel that for a while to come yet. Overall though, I'm doing better than I was before, and I'm glad to be back on here again, I kind of missed it. Comments: Yensid: I finally broke down and joined up there, I sent you a "note" so you'll have my info without me having to post it here. I don't want to link to my dA gallery here yet because I'm already so annoyed with DeviantArt that I may just delete my account and say F[Censored] it! They really need to fix that gallery thing so it actually refreshes and shows all of the newest submissions under the "newest" sort option. I don't think they have a guestbook over there, but they do have comments on practically everything, and the "notes" system is closest to a PM system that I can tell. I have a lot of issues on the technical level with dA right now: I couldn't upload any of my tunnel pictures, because there's at least three different places they could "correctly" be catergorized based only on the descriptions on the upload page. The requirement of keywords for submissions is just nonsense, the lack of pop up tool tips, or text tags for anything in the backroom areas (like the friends list) is frustrating, there are no FAQ or site help pages anywhere, but my biggest issue with DA is their rather callous "pay us money to not see ads" garbage. I think I'll turn on my adblocker for DA, just on principle alone. I have no issues with figurative art in general, I just don't do "realism" in my art when it comes to people. That does not mean that I am so blinded by my dislike for doing that style that I automatically don't like figure drawings and the like, quite the contrary. I like to see good figure drawings, portraits, and so on. At any rate, even if I wanted to go that direction with my art, there's no place near me that does "drop in" sessions or anything similar. My local "art center" is a sham, oops, I mean scam, no wait, I think I meant both . . . yeah, I did. They want some ridiculous figure of money to become a "member" to only knock $5.00 to $10.00 of the cost of everything they offer in terms of the few classes and other things they offer. They do nothing for the benefit of the community (pro bono, free) either, and to me, that's just not worth it. There's a semi-local artists/photographers group, the Allied Artists of West Virginia, that exhibits at the art center once in a while, but they want money for people to become members of that too. Someone just starting out in the art community isn't going to be able to afford a "status symbol" club like that. The organizations that claim to support the arts should be willing to give a little if they expect to get something back, especially in an area that's not to keen on the arts. Oh there area lot of wannabes and players in the "fine arts" community here, but no one's overly serious or passionate about the creative process, or giving up and coming artists the exposure they need. They're all just out to make a quick buck on someone else's labors, that's all West Virginia is good for. The star and planet tutorials are not whtdragon's just links she posted to someone else's. She did sparkles, flames, water and a few others that I'm in the process of learning. Those are in her portfolio here. She does have great ideas when it comes to faking some of the more advanced Photoshop effects using only Elements, and her suggestions have been immensely helpful to me. I am satisfied with the resulting images I got, but I am still working on getting a few things to look right by my eye. Hopefully I'll have a planet with atmosphere up in a couple days, I'm fine tuning some tips whtdragon gave me regarding that. If you run into any snags, you can ask me, or whtdragon about them, preferably whtdragon since I'm learning this stuff myself right now, and one of us could probably figure something out. My biggest gripe with both PSE and CPE is that the resize selection tool is not intuitive. You have to manually choose the tool in Corel Painter Essentials, and I still can't find one at all in Photoshop Elements. That should be a matter of hovering over the dotted selection line and being able to click and drag to resize, not a complicated routine to do something that simple. It makes it harder to fix the slight mistakes to move on to the more important parts of creating. I've slept till really late the past few days. My arms are still sore, but I guess I am rested up enough to get back to my routine here. Angel Slayer: Never saw the movie, and never will. Movies based on video games are all trash, I laughed all the way through both Tomb Raiders, and neither one was supposed to be funny. Anyway, Horror isn't my thing with movies. Two weeks till finals huh? That's great, best of luck with studying up for those. As for me, well, I'm doing better now that I've got my rest. scorchbird12: Yeah, I like the planet, but I can do better if I really apply myself, so I'm still working on it. Oh yeah, just like Silent Hill. The first floor has about three foot of smoke stains from the ceiling down the walls, and long thin drip marks like black tear tracks where the fire department sprayed water on everything on the first floor near the burned apartment, the line of smoke stains actually goes up the stairs to the second floor, the floor is covered with ash footprints, going up and down the stairs too. It's an older building, so the natural wear and dinge adds to the effect too, as well as the dim lighting and the fact that the building was completely empty both days we were there. The haunting is completely unrelated to the fire, but something like that is bound to stir up the activity. People report spies in activiy when they remodel an older place sometimes. The building was part of a Catholic Hospital, it was used as a rooming house for Nuns, and there are many deaths which occured in the building when it was apartments. There's a lot of energy there. I'd love to get back into the place with my camera and DVR and do a real paranormal investigation of the place, but that's not likely to happen. Even if I asked the landlord, the guy is a complete idiot and probably wouldn't allow it. That would be neat. I wonder how much food grade silver leaf costs. sikaurai I'm back to my abnormal self now I think. Thanks for the wait. In my case I have so much idle time I have to teach myself stuff like that just to keep my mind occupied. It is a neat effect, and when I get it all together, I'm sure it'll look even better. If you want to use them as wallpapers, go ahead. I uploaded signed versions of both the planet/star combo picture, and the plain starfield one. The neat thing is, if you resize these up (original pics are 800x600), the blurring of the edges actually helps the pictures out. They look more natural. I'm using the plain starfield as my wallpaper right now myself. Magnus Lensherr "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is an area as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone." - Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone; Season One I've told US Senators that I don't feel at home in this farce of a state, I've told people in the State government that West Virginians are the rudest, most arrogant, ignorant and self-absorbed people I've ever met. I stand firmly behind everything I say, when I say something, I mean it, you can count on that. As for the contractors, we won't know till it rains if those idiots did the job right. If the roof still leaks, I'll have to insist a more professional crew be called in and the bill sent over to the iditots for their neglecting to do the job right twice. There's no way I'll allow them back on the property. The building is creepy, it is very unsettling to be in, to walk by the burned apartment, to see, smell, and feel it all, but it'll only be the Twilight Zone for the landlord, and maybe the guy who lit the match too. Actually I'm doing better now, I think I just needed a little rest, that's all. You too. beyblader I suppose the planet thing is kind of random, even for me. The tutorials were brought to my attention only recently and I had to try them out just to see what I could do. It's very easy to overcomplicate simlpe things in Photoshop, which I think is what the planet tutorial does in most respects. I'm not as patient with Photoshop as I make it appear I am, I just want to be able to fake my way through some of the basics should the need arise. Yes, Adobe thinks that people will use something like Photoshop Elements and be so impressed with it that they'll go out and spend $600.00 on the latest Photoshop version. More like be annoyed that there's nothing overly useful in Elements that is. At any rate, I could get a whole computer, running Windows XP for that price, and when one software program that's not an operationg system costs as much as a computer, that's when you know that program is garbage. Anyway, I like the think of myself as "gray hat" when it comes to the whole net download thing, since what I do falls into the "of questionable repute" (a long story you won't get me to give details on). I'll have to decide if having a full version is worth the risk, but I have thought of that before. alphonse13: The only reason those baboons in The International Astronomical Union (IAU) did that was to appease their own agendas. I REFUSE to acknowledge the very definition of the term "dwarf planet" as applied to Pluto. Pluto is the ninth planet from the sun right now, it switched back from being the eighth in 1999. If you don't know, Pluto's orbit is kind of wonky, and for a person of about 20 years every so many years, Pluto actually orbits inside of Neptune's, making the two "switch places" in terms of planet numbers. As for the other planetary bodies, I haven't really been keeping up with those, so I can't really comment on them. If they fall under the bogus "dwarf planet" thing, chances are I'd have to know more about them before making my own conclusions as to what I want to call them. No, I haven't seen the Silent Hill movie, I don't think I want to. As I previously mentioned videe game based movies are usually so absurdly out of character that they end up being giggle fests. I laughed all the way through both Tomb Raider movies when I caught them on the TV. I've had people who are definately in tune with the spirit world tell me that members of my family are more in tune to spirits than most people are. In my case, it's usually just those really heavy feelings, you know how you can tell when someone's being a jerk and walking right behind you in a store? It's kind of like that for me when I'm in an area that's know to have activity, and sometimes even when it's not known. My sister and mother are more likely to see, hear and feel things, but I do hear and see things on ocassion too. Actually, one of my cousins has a Gypsy put a curse on him and my Aunt (his mother) when he was really little. My Mom always talks about my aunt saying something like "I should have let the Gypsies have you" or words to that effect when he was getting into trouble. Basically, the curse thing doesn't surprise me, it's your choice to tell it if you want to or not. There are times I don't like to deal with spirits and all that, but there are times it's actually a blessing to experience those things. My only thing is, I can't really stick around in cemetaries for too long. That's a little too much for my senses to handle right now. As for the apartment building, only the one apartment was burned, and the door to it was closed and locked (Fire Marshal probably still investigating it), but the smoke damage was everywhere, and the smell was in everything. I'm rested up now, and feeling much better. Thanks. Anime Dreams!

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Silent Hill and Sparkling Stars

You've all seen my starfield from the other day right? Well there it is again if you haven't. I did take some time to work through the planet tutorial I mentioned having trouble with earlier, and while I didn't get exactly the results I wanted, I have to say I am pleased with what came out of the program. On a techncial point I'm impressed with Photoshop Elements, but it still won't make me go out and throw away six hundred dollars or more on a full version of Photoshop. I do have to thank whtdragon for her tips on getting that textured planet surface to show up. This planet is just a start, I will be trying to do it again, because there are a few finishing steps I could have done but didn't do for this one. I can't think of everything when I'm tired, so I'll give it a fresh look when I'm more awake later, and hopefully get something that looks better. I do still have to figure out the planet's atmospheric glow, but I can just as easily do planets without atmosphere as practice while I look at other programs and available settings to see just what I can come up with to pass for that effect. Right now, I'm not really bothered that I can't do it, because I know I'll figure something out, one way or another. I'll keep posting the results of my experiments as I do them, I kind of like showing off my attempts at things. Once I get this planet thing down (with or without the atmosphere I don't care), I'll them be able to move on to some tutorials whtdragon wrote up (check her portfolio for them) and see what I can do with them too. I couldn't resist taking the planet attempt and putting it with one of my starfield attempts, just to see how it looks. I think it'll take a lot more work to make the two look good together, but I have a really nice start in that direction. Funny, when watching Star Trek back in the 80's and 90's, I never thought there would be a day when I could make my own snapshots of space like you'd expect to see in Sci-Fi. And while I'm getting the idea how to do these things in Photoshop Elements, I am also trying to figure them out in other programs too. I would like to be able to make something that looks like it came from Photoshop, but actually didn't. That's going to be the biggest challenge for me. Sunday and yesterday, I was helping a friend of my sister move, as I mentioned. The building he was living in had a fire, and everyone was pretty much told not to expect to be aloowed to live there anymore (HUD was coming down on the landlord hard). Let me tell you, walking into that building was like walking into "Nowhere" in the original Silent Hill game. Everything about the place just looked like a creepy scene from the game, and it smelled like burnt wood. the walls from the ceiling to about two feet down were stained with dark ash, one fluorescent light's UV shield/cover was twisted and contorted from the heat, the smell was so strong it reached outside the building, and penetrated clothes. It was more than a little unsettling to have to walk right by the door of the burned apartment to go up the stairs to my sister's friend's apartment, and even though the rest of the building is clean in appearance, the smell is in everything, and every floor (the building is 4 stories) is it's own brand of Silent Hill creepy. I'm just glad the moving is done with, being in a haunted building like that when it's empty is murder on the nerves. Aside from numerous glimpses of shadow people, at one point during the moving process, I heard the voices of a few nuns (the building used to be part of the Catholic Hospital that's in town) either praying or practicing Gregorian chant. My mother heard a male voice calling to someone on the stairs, and my sister's friend would always hear his own door being opened and closed, even when it was shut and locked. At any rate, that building's spirits have been stirred up, and I hope for his own sake that landlord (he's a shady character, let me tell you) didn't have anything to do with the fire, because he'll have an interesting time of dealing with those spirits if he did. So basically, I'm tired right now, and I'll be tired for a while. My arms are sore too. I'll be off for a couple days to take some time to rest up. I missed a whole bunch of pages yesterday, and I'll probably not comment for the next few days because I'll be offline and away from the computer as much as possible. Mty apologies in advance, but I really need the rest. Comments: Magnus Lensherr It was amusing to read. Feel free to cut loose like that here any time. No there's no really deep meaning, I just happened to mention that Photoshop Elements doesn't have all the tools to make a planet like the tutorial I linked, but I would try anyway. As you can see, my attempt at it does lack the "atmosphere glow" that the tutorial put in, and I didn't take the time to do the embossing thing to give the planet a 3D texture like the moon and all, but I'm still figuring that tutorial out. Actually, he didn't really like the old place (the landlord or his neighbors mostly), but it was close to some things downtown that he walked to (he doesn't drive), but his new place is bigger, and I think he does like it better, though it's up just as many stairs as his old one was. Actually, no, he's getting help with rent, so HUD found it for him I think. I guess it's permanent, I don't think even he would want to move again. I think so, it's kind of nice to sit with the family for a change. I can't promise anything, but I certainly hope I've got a new theme by then. This last one was inspired by a comment from Yensid when I posted a picture of the statue a little while back. My previous one related to my dragonish self, that's all I'll say about it ~_^ You too. Yensid: He's been a world of good for my sister, that's all the reason I need to help. A kind heart, and an honorable spirit, that's me. Oh, one of those. People like that get on my last nerve from the start, and he's a liar to boot. Flash is poison for websites. I've had to leave sites because their Flash apps were choking my browser, and Mozilla Firefox doesn't get along with some Flash apps at all. I don't know about file sizes, but they do not load fast. The Flash apps are the last things that load on any web page I go to with them, and I'm on 1Mbps DSL. He also didn't consider that not everyone is paying for an unrestricted file hosting service, where are you supposed to put those files so you can use them in blogs or whatever? That guy's head is screwed on backward and upside down or something, a real life QUACK if ever I heard of one. You can do animated GIFs in Photoshop Elements too, but I'll stick to Microsoft GIF Animator, it's simple for me to use. I tried to do a GIF in Photoshop Elements once, I had to make the thing in GIF Animator eventually. But, I remember my first experience with Pixia, man was that something. The whole layers thing was new to me and I had to get used to it, now, I work with programs like that, and don't even realize I'm doing it anymore. I saw your link, and checked it out, nice work. I'm not really a fan of "people" in fine art, like portraits and what have you, but I can still appreciate seeing that kind of art done well. I think you do have to be a member to comment on DA, and not see those annoying ads (they do more harm than good to the site), as well as other things. I am seriously considering joining up over there, if only to post my photos somewhere, I need the exposure. They do photos over there on DA right? scorchbird12: The most interesting thing is, most people who are allergic to red strawberries can eat the white ones without problems. It seems the allergy is triggered by the protein that makes strawberries red. White strawberries don't have that protein. I haven't tasted the white ones yet, but if I see some in a store, I'll have to try them, just to know. People say they do have a different taste to them than red strawberries though. There is food grade silver leaf, I suppose dusting a white strawberry with that would in effect turn it silver, and would look really cool too. A blue one would be harder to come by because it would have to be grown (scientists out there, start playing with those genes already), but would also look really cool. Never apologize for your imagination. Being imaginative is never a bad thing. Sure thing, I like to do that for people, even if my methods are unconventional. I love Lestat: Actually, he got most of his stuff before I helped. I was just the muscle for the big heavy stuff like his snake's aquarium, and some other furniture. He's doing all the annyonng pack and upack stuff himself. alphonse13: I know, and while we were in the building he was showing us how thick the smoke was on his floor(about three feet from the ceiling down, it would have been right over my head, and I stand six foot tall) and really creeping us out. It's one thing to just hear about it, but actually having a person describe it while your in the place it happened, that's unsettling. The only thing worse was having to walk by the burned out apartment to get up the stairs. You are right, it's a real blessing that no one got hurt, even the guy who lived in the burned apartment is all right. Guess I didn't really do a good job of not wearing myself out, I'm beat. Sage of Magic That is the best thing about the whole situation, everyone got out, and no one was hurt. The tenants of the building may not have been the most fortunate people, but at least they had level heads on their shoulders to handle getting out of the building on their own, or to help the ones who couldn't get out make it too. Yes, please try the challenge, I've only got one submission so far. Let me help you out with some image reference courtesy of Google. A soda jerk is something like you'd see on an older TV show or cartoon. Think 1940's and 1950's ere stuff. Lizardmen are staples of video games and sci-fi I hope the links work. Don't worry about making it look great, just try, that's the fun part, trying to do something you don't normally do. sikaurai She doesn't realize it herself, but yes, given all that's happened to her recently, yes she's very fortunate to have a friend like him. I agree whole heartedly, it's just a miracle that they all got out and no one was hurt. It's nice to have someone to count on sometimes, and I like being the guy people count on to help too. I helped the guy more into the apartment, and I helped him move out of it. When he thanked me for helping both times, I responded with "Anytime." And I meant it. If he had to move again tmorrow, I'd be right there helping him all over again. Well, there's a lot of coincidences and conveniences dealing with this fire that make it seem like no accident. HUD was going to shut the building down because none of the apartments had thermostats in them, and there was little to no heat in any of the apartments (aside from space heaters the tenants themselves used), the apartment that caught fire was right across the hallway from the building's business office, and it was between the main stairs leading up to the upper floors and the back exit, the damage was localized to one wall of the apartment, the damage was only severe enough to force the tenants out of the building, while keeing the majority of the building intact, and get this, the guy who was living in the apartment that burned had right outside his door two things, a fire extinguisher (hanging right on the doorframe of his apartment), and the fire alarm (straight out the door on the opposite side of the hallway). He used neither one to either attempt to put out the fire (which he claims was a candle left unattended or something like that), or alert the fire department to the blaze which doesn't make any sense. It was my sister's friend who called the fire department while he was on his way out of the building. I don't think this landlord is relocating anyone, only because HUD is involved and they have certain standards that have to be met, so they're relocating the tenants. There's a lot of things that just don't add up to this being an accidental fire. Anime Dreams! Edit (Added 2 hours after original post) Sage of Magic It just came to my attention that whtdragon put together a Lizardman soda jerk as well as my only other submission so far, done by Breakfast Squid, so I have two submissions instead of just the one.

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