Friday, January 20, 2006

Carpe Diem

I'm still working on that dragon, I'll have a lot of time to devote to him this weekend so hopefully I'll get him done in a couple weeks. I've put together a relatively simple guidebook from the sources that were provided for me by members here and it's turning out to be a good thing. When I get good at dragons, I promise I'll do up my own dragon tutorial. Comments: Outlaw Melfina: Yeah, it's in the past for me, once in a while though something comes up that makes me remember one experience at a theatre conference that wasn't overly bad, but all the same I was shown that even among the people I was supposed to share the passion for the theatre with, I didn't really fit in. I don't think they fully understood why I was never as friendly with them after that conference, but I don't play around with things like that, friendships are serious things to me. I had to be honest with the review, so I didn't pull any punches. The content is very well done, but there are technical problems with Adobe Reader 7.0 which Art of Otaku recommends using. If you haven't upgraded your Adobe PDF reader from 6.0, don't, you'll have no problem with it. Another thing to consider, you're in the UK, which unfortunately means the CD version isn't available to you yet. It's shipped by a private carrier here in the US from a fulfillment center, so I can't even begin to calculate the cost for sending it overseas(If the carrier or fulfillment center even ships to overseas addresses). If you know someone with a way to buy the downloadable version(it would be easier with a paypal account or credit card, and a high speed internet connection[DSL or broadband] is also suggested), that's the recommended way for overseas purchasing of the guide(not to mention it's cheaper!). I forgot to cover that in my review. If I had the time to rewrite it I'd add that to it. Mamma Vash: Oh, I hate those days. I have them a lot, so one of the servers here at MyO must be going on the Fritz again. The page backgrounds come up, but it takes anywhere from one to five minutes for the content areas to show up. I just log off, and come back later and things are usually working faster by then. Here's a tip I got from a member here to make the 200K limit, aside from resizing the image, reduce the image quality. When you save a picture as a JPEG, you should have the option to adjust the image quality, don't leave it set at 100%, back it down in 5% increments till you make the file size you want and still have a decent looking image, for me with pencil and ink drawings (no color) that's around 80%, but our art is different, so that number isn't set in stone. Play with it till you get the results you want. And no, a digital camera will not make much difference on the file size, I tried that one myself, unsucessfully. I was an average student in schoool myself. I'm actually a lot smarter now that I'm not in school anymore, but that's just my way of proving to the locals here that things aren't always what they seem. Drop me a PM (this is only to Mamma Vash) if you want me to explain the details, I don't really want to post them here in my blog publically. Simply put, yes. OnDecember 15, 1967, during the height of the Mothman activity in Point Pleasant, the Silver Bridge which joined Route 2 in WV to Route 7 in OH did suffer a structural failure and collapsed. It's hard to image that this is where the bridge once stood on the Ohio River. If it were still there, the train trestle would be obstructed by it. In all 46 people lost their lives in the tragedy. Their names are engraved in the brick sidewalk where the Silver Bridge once ran into Point Pleasant. It's a powerful, moving, experience to actually be in the town where that very strange stuff took place so long ago. They say the land was cursed by Chief Cornstalk, and I don't know if it's just my imagination playing tricks on me or not, but that whole area there does have a lot of "energy" to it. Image hosting credits go to Photobucket, Thanks guys. I'll point out that the movie the Mothman Prophecies was not filmed in Point Pleasant, or West Virginia at all, they filmed up in Pennsylvania somewhere. I think that's why I like taking pictures in Point Pleasant, to show people what the real place looks like. I linked the pictures instead of embedding them, it's easier for me to do that, just click the links, they'll pop open in a new window. No thanks on the biscotti, but I'll take one of those hazelnut cookies! Anime Dreams

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Thursday, January 19, 2006

Well Now. . .

I've been promising a review of Art of Otaku for a long time now. You can find it Here. The bandwidth is limited so try again in a day or so if you get that annoyingly vague Yahoo! error when you try to access it. I've got a lot to be doing if I want to get it done as soon as possible, so I'll get right down to business. Comments: Not a single comment. That brings back the unpleasant memories of high school. Anime Dreams!

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

A Casual Day on the Desert

I'm getting back on track with a few things I've neglected long enough. I'm keeping on top of projects I've started on and offline, so I'm doing good at the moment. Not a lot to talk about on the home front right now, which is the way I like it, noce and easy. Comments: Caprice I know I had been wondering when you'd be back, and thought I'd pop that odd bit of google trivia into my post hoping you'd see it. I guess it worked. I can't comment on TheOtaku.com's or MyOtaku.com's advertising policy, methodology, or reasoning for running (or not running) particular ads. I do admit it would make a lot of sense to see Art of Otaku advertised on the main fan art page. I'm also a bit embarrassed to admit I don't regularly go to the fan art pages here, so I haven't really noticed the ads being run there. I'm too good natured for my own good at times. I have to be honest about my dragon picture. I was going to keep it a surprise for everyone who reads my blog, but I will try to upload the dragon picture when I get it done, so aside from it being my new background here, it may also be one of my fanart pieces. Since I don't update my fan art often, it won't be too hard to see if and when it's added. The picture is still a few rough pencil scribbles on the paper right now, but it's coming along. It still looks like a couple weeks for everything to get done on it. I'm in new territory as this is my first whole body dragon picture attempt. I know I responded to a comment you posted a while back. I can pull the text up here and add it to the end of my next response if that would be easier. Shireishou I apologize, that slipped my mind. Actually, I used the term irony incorrectly. Irony Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. I just wanted to point out that I was amused by seeing an advertisement on my page here for the very same art course I'm taking at the moment. It's not up there all the time, but the Art Instruction Schools' advertisement is up in the google ad banner one in a while when I get on here to check my comments and such. I guess for everyone's sake I should tell you why it's so amusing to me. It took me four months, several letters, and finally the threat to find an alternative art course to get the school to schedule a meeting between me and one of their representatives. I had to go four hours out of my way to meet the guy, so it wasn't easy for me to get involved with the program. I like it, it's a correspondence course, so I do my assignments then mail them in (for obvious legal reasons I can't and won't think about posting any course related artwork online). I will try to screencap the ad the next time it's on, so I can have a visual to show everyone. Anime Dreams

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Sunday, January 15, 2006

Just an Odd Observation

How's this for irony? Once in a while if you check the Google ads on my page here, you'll see one for Art Instruction Schools. It's ironic that the ad would be up there, because I'm taking that correspondence course. It's a tough one, and they focus on realism, but I'm committed to completing it, and will do so probably late next year. I'm still hard at work on my dragon, I expect he'll be another two or three weeks before being done. I'm in love with the big paper though, like you wouldn't believe. When I get done my first dragon, I'll do a second right there on that same size paper. An interesting note to add, the word of the day, according to my Gmail account, is capricious. Just thought I'd mention that. Comments: Note: If you haven't been on this past week, check my archives, I might have responded to a comment in a previous post. Mamma Vash: Yeah, it is kind of neat, anyone born on January 9 from 1900 to 1999 can do the same with the date/year of birth, I don't know of any other dates in our lifetime that will do that, unless you go with the day-month-year format for September 1, which would also be 1-9-insert digits of year here. I saw the one on your page (I hope it's still there) and I did like the effect, but I'm not a flashy person, so I'll stick with the basics of image hosting for now. Thanks for the thought. Anime Dreams

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Whispers in Stone, More Tales from the Desert

The answer to my trivia yesterday was President Richard Nixon. I should look up other celebrities who share my birthday, but I'm too lazy to do it. Here's another odd bit of trivia for everyone (you'd know the year I was born anyway considering I gave you my age already) if you abbreviate my birthday by month day year like this: m-d-yy, you get: 1-9-81, or take out the dashes, and you get simply the year I was born, 1981. How many other people are born on the day that turns into the year they were born? Comments: Caprice That is one way to look at it. Here's some of the benefits of being 25: If I was driving, my being a male, my insurance premiums would be dropping this year, I only have to hold onto that Selective Service (which I am adamantly against) Confirmation Card for one more year (again a male only thing 18-26), and I now fall into the 25-34 age group on surveys and other demographically influenced data collections. I don't feel any older though, and that's a good thing. I was tired, so I couldn't think straight enough to respond, I'm lucky the writing on my birthday picture is (reasonably) coherent considering I was up alomst a whole day straight by the time I go t to doing it. To get to your previous comment: I hate to say it, but I won't know the value of Photbucket till I have a problem with them and see how they resolve it. If I never have a problem with Photobucket that would suit me just fine though. I do like tha ability to upload more than one picture at a time, where Image Shack makes you do individual pictures (or a zip file with the pictures in it). That made it a whole lot easier for me since I put all my hosted pictures in one place. So far I'm liking Photobucket, and I know I'll be sticking with it. I'll use Image Shack, which is inexplicably working for me again, as a back-up to Photobucket. I feel better knowing it's done, and I'm telling my family to do it too. It's something I'll be doing every six months, regular as clockwork. Data back-up should be a habit everyone gets into. I decided I'd try to do a dragon after going through those tutorials you pointed me toward, and whtdragon's reference sheets. I think I can handle doing something that'll look good, but it will take time, since I've never worked with 18x24 paper before, I have a lot to get used to doing. Although my only major complaint about the sources you pointed me toward is they aren't printer friendly, so I'm having to try to memorize all the steps and images, which isn't easy for me, my mind doesn't work that way. I'll come up with something, I'm creative that way. Now back to yesterday's comment: You got it. That's the answer. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, I've only seen one movie she was in, and didn't like it. Thank you for the birthday wishes. Mysterious Rei Thank you for the card, I did get it and responded to the PM. I appreciate the thought a whole lot more than I can describe. Outlaw Melfina: I did tell you my handwriting was horrid! I may be ambidextrous, but both hands write so similar even I can't tell when I've switched, and they're both that bad. I think I did this one southpaw, left handed, but I may have switched off at some point. I'm not too worried about the dragon, I've got some excellent resources and tips from people right here on MyO, so I'll be all right. I just hope I can make one that looks really good, even if it's for myself. Don't worry about it too much, it's just an odd bit of trivia I like to tell people about. Shireishou Nihongo wa amari yoku wakarimasen. All the same though, Arigato gozaimasu, I appreciate the thought, no matter what language it's spoken in. female outlaw Thank you for the birthday wish and impromptu confetti shower. Since I use the phrase "Don't ask" quite often myself (and have a myriad of really bad thoughts about why I shouldn't ask running through my head), I'll just leave it at that, and not ask, and say the same, please don't ask. Anime Dreams

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Monday, January 9, 2006

Happy Birthday. . .to Me!

Yeah, I know, wishing oneself a happy birthday is kind of odd, but, I'm hardly an average person. It's hard to believe I'm 25 years old today, that's kind of scary, because as my card says, I sure don't (look or) feel it! As a gift to myself, I'm drawing a dragon picture to use as my background, but it will be a while before I get it finished and up. It's on 18x24 paper, so I'll have to take a good picture of it since my scanner won't handle it, nor will my computer's memory to stitch it back together if I scanned it in pieces. Oh well, one step at a time. Caprice, I know you posted comments to me the other day, and I'm not sure if anyone else did or not, I'll answer those with my next post. I'm just being too lazy to do it right now. Bit of trivia for everyone who's into US History, I share my birthday with a former President, he is probably well known for several sayings, and his is a popular Halloween mask, his tenure in office was marked by controversy, and there is a popular Star Trek quote about him. Post your best guesses, I'll have the correct answer in my next post. Sorry, there's no prize or anything, but it should be a fun challenge. Anime Dreams!

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Saturday, January 7, 2006

Why is Anger so Tiring?

I'm taking the weekend off to regroup after this chaotic week. I'll be posting monday though, and something special too. Comments: Caprice Another online friend of mine would probably tell me to take a breath and calm down (especially after the message I sent him the other night) and to try not to stress out about it. I'm not stressed, I'm furious. I handled the situation very well for me, by going right over to Photobucket, setting up an account with them, and starting to rehost the images I had on ImageShack. See, I keep a folder on my computer with a copy of all the images I host, so I know what I'm hosting, just in case something like what ImageShack did happens to me. I got the important ones up first (the avatars and banners for message boards), I'm still in the process of getting to the Mothman and Lakin pictures though, but they'll get there eventually. Funny thing with Image Shack though, just for kicks I tried out my activation link last night and it worked. If they were having technical problems, the least they could have done was put up a message on their website, or send an e-mail saying "your account access may be down a few days please wait". I don't think the people running that one know the basics of IT courtesy, or internet etiquette. Right now, I don't know what was going on, but I know I can't trust that kind of thing for my images. Since I want to do this thing right, I won't be putting that dragon BG back up, it's not mine, and I don't remember where I got it, but ignorance is no excuse. I'll try to draw out my own to put up there (maybe this weekend). Oh, remember how you told me to back up my data way back before Christmas? Well, I got the data on both my desktop, and my laptop backed up. 1.64 gig on this desktop, over 3,000 files, I didn't realize I had that much stuff (My laptop I had to do manually, got no stats for it). I'm encouraging my family to do the same with theirs. I know I feel better knowing it's done. Anime Dreams

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   Ugh!

Sorry I haven't posted anything here in a while, been busy taking care of some . . .unexpected problems. ImageShack Hosting has been downgraded to "less than trash"(The next to lowest level) on my W&VAS (Worth and Value Assessment Scale). They are preventing me from accessing the images I uploaded to them, and they are preventing me from recovering account data to gain access to those images, for no legitimate or justifiable reason. I posted pictures (mostly BG, and avatar/banner stuff) that were in compliance with their Terms of Service, I recommended ImageShack to people, and I linked to it almost every time I put a picture up (if I didn't put a credit in the ALT tag for the picture), yet I get the garbage treatment from them? They didn't even have the nerve to anser my e-mail demanding an explanation as to my account's access being blocked (the images are still there, but ImageShack can go [Censored] themselves, I'm not giving them the satisfaction of linking to the images I have the URLs for). I am in the process of getting my images up on alternate hosts (yes I will be hosting some images in more than one place to prevent this kind of [Censored] from happening to me again), so please expect anything I've posted here (the kanji, the Mothman Statue pictures, and so on) to be down indefinately. I hope I didn't miss any comments, I'm working in PM on Outlaw Melfina's last one. If I did, I'll post an answer another time. What a way to start off the year, huh? Anime Dreams.

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Monday, January 2, 2006

Whispers of Winter Rain

All right, another day, another dollar I don't have. Anyway, light activity on the home front, so I'll get right to the important stuff. Comments: Kout3uka In my case, I say stuff in writing before I think about it, so there's no way for me to deny what I wrote. I'm trying to work on thinking before reacting too. Can't help with the lazies though, I've got that myself. Mamma Vash: The guy with Jeep and dragon is my Yahoo! Avatar (the dragon is a running gag and personal joke with my family, he's in all my Yahoo! avatars), I didn't draw him I wish I was that good with coloring. Further down the blog page with the birthday card picture (and some not so nice things in print) would be a larger version of my envelope sprite, a wickedly huge nasty faced smiley I made for a relative (I made it for an iron on t-shirt transfer, a long story), and I believe my reptilian self is on there too. Just go the the blog page and click the "photos only" link at the top of the page, you'll see all the pictures I posted there with my blog entries. To the right on the main page that comes up from the link is the photo album, I still haven't gotten the Lakin pictures in it yet, but you can see my katana rack, and the little joke I have going with it too. Oh, you're using one of those "All in One" deals. I had to get a flatbed scanner because the Lexmark All in One we got wouldn't take a photo that was important to scan. Those things do scan differently than a flatbed, and if it's HP I can't help you with specific settings but you should have something like a contrast and color adjust (maybe in the software driver, or built into the machine itself), along with a default format (mine is set to TIF, but use what you're comfortable with, and what yields you the best results - you'll have to play around with it, use the same picture with different settings). The HP flatbed I have has all kinds of things to tweak, the minimum scan resolution is 200 DPI (dots per inch) Normally I scan my art in at 600 if it's colored so it looks good when I side it down to put on the cards. I can't go much higher than that, not enough memory to hold the scanned image. Consult the software that came with the thing, and the owners manual to get some ideas on how to make the scans look their best. I know that, especially if you've got the signal light posts, the trestle bridges, and the tunnels from the railroad days of the trail to shoot. There's even a creek that flows along the trail. I just can't do it in the winter, the cold is not good for me, my psoriasis, or the digital camera. I will have some more pictures come late spring (I hope), that much I know. I'd love to have a place where I could learn to work all the features of the digital camera I've got (and how to take higher res. pictures without the shutter lag motion blur), but I don't have anything like that near enough to me. 60 Miles is an hour's drive, that would put me near three major cities in WV and one in Ohio, but none of them have gardens or zoos that I am aware of. Laughing isn't my problem, I'm 24, and up till now I thought I knew what being an adult was, I thought I knew the responsibilities, but I'm finding out new stuff every day. I'm out of work, and the people around here seem to think that because I haven't worked in the past five years, I'm a liability. It's ignorance like that that costs companies money when they hire a person who has a novel for a work history over someone who's teachable, and has "no" prior experience. They end up rehiring for the position when that flighty employee decides to quit and look for a different job after two days of work (not mentioning any names my sister-in-law). The only talents I have are my art , and my skill with make-up effects, not high demand (heck, those are no demand) fields here in WV. I've had four interviews in 2005, and one of the guys even told me "this job isn't rocket science" but didn't hire me. I'm learning the harsh, bitter side of adulthood early. Anime Dreams

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Sunday, January 1, 2006

A New Years Dawns on the Desert

Since this is the first post of the new year, and I don't do resolutions, here are some of the goals I have for 2006: Get caught up with the correspondence art course I'm taking. Improve the quality of my art. Find a job. Promote my Website, Blogs, and Message Board a whole lot more. Keep in touch with old friends. Make some new friends. Post worthwhile and interesting content Bug Adam (the founder here at MyO) less about trivial matters. Those are just a start. What are some of your resolutions, or goals, or whatever for 2006? Comments: Mamma Vash: I'm glad to hear that, I like taking them. As I get more photos of various subjects, I'll put them up here for you to see, and in my photo album on my other blog. I'd really love to get an adapter that would let me take photos through my telecscope, the moon is beautiful when you can see the craters on it's surface. I don't have anything like that (Botanical Gardens, Zoos, and such) really close to me, the foothills of Appalachia are devoid of many cultural and interesting things (we do have a radio telescope in state, which I'd lke to visit one day, I wonder if they let you hear pulsars there). I have to settle for the natural beauty around me, which is only accessable when it's warm enough to take pictures without freezing my fingers (or the camera). I'm not technically "hosting" my art anywhere but here yet. On my other blog site, I do have some of my pictures up in my posts. I have the option of uploading a "photo" with each blog entry, which I've used to upload some of my art as the mood of the post warrants. The little green guy (a self portrait "joke" actually) on my web site is being hosted on Geocities, specifically for that page. When I do find a comfortable place to put my art to show off for the world, I will put the link here. For now, if you want to keep up with what I'm doing art wise, once in a while check my other blog, I'll put up a piece of my artwork be it hand done or CG as I take the time to learn and create more. It does me good to hear you liked the sketches, thanks for the compliment on them. Which ones did you see by the way? Editorial: Not being a sentimental person myself, I don't really go out of my way to get all gushy about those times of year when others take the time to reflect on their lives, where they've been, and where they're going. I usually more way to fast, keeping up with too many different things to take that time myself, and I guess I'm still trapped in my shell a bit, not wanting to open up and be honest about how I feel, or what I'm thinking. Maybe I should make that one of my goals too, to be more open and honest about myself to others. Though I'm not sure how it would work, I can certainly try. So as another new year begins, and I find myself on a stretch of Sentimental Sands of the desert, I look back at a year that was rough, but fun. I tried to take on a major music download service (failed miserably), I survived Art of Otaku, from being critical of the way it's conception was announced, to disagreeing with the Beta release, to finally getting it to print correctly after getting the CD. I think the Fates had it in for me on that one. I fought my local Job Service on an injustice they still refuse to resolve, so that fight's over, I'm learning and improving my art, which is my passion, and I think I'm finally understanding (a few years late), what it means to be an adult. I'm more fully understanding my responsibilities, though I have few at the moment. I hope the new year can be as fun as the last, with more welcome challenges, and not stressful ones. I hope to be able to have the energy to take on just about anything, and I hope to have the time and ability to enjoy life, in it's quiet splendor. Here's to 2006 being one better than 2005. Anime Dreams

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