Monday, March 13, 2006

Every planet we reach is dead. There isn't really a lot to add in this update, but I did want to mention a couple of things. First of all, I am seriously thinking of handing over my Guild Wars guild to someone. Originally, it was intended to be a guild for OtakuBoards members in general. But as time has gone on, many of our Guild Wars players have become highly inactive and since OB isn't a dedicated GW location, that hasn't really changed. And of course, because of my major change in living situation, I haven't been around to monitor the guild and set up events or anything like that. So nothing's happened. A few senior members left the guild and are now doing their own thing, so without them (and effectively without me), there isn't a whole lot of point to keeping the guild alive. There are still a couple of relatively active members though, so I thought I'd give them the chance to take the guild off my hands if they are interested. Afterall, starting your own guild and saving for a Guild Hall and cape can be quite an uphill battle unless you either have a lot of members or a few members who are very rich. So I figure it might be a good head-start for someone who is interested in running their own guild. So if anyone's interested, please contact me via PM or email. I think for a while I will just go it alone, without a guild. But I guess there is always the possibility of joining another guild soon, especially as everyone gears up for Factions. I also want to thank Aaryanna, SunfallE and Mariskah for their cool email with the photo. It reminds me how much I may actually miss seeing an autumn day, as Queensland really has no autumn to speak of. It's just a dry season and a rainy season pretty much, whereas Melbourne experiences each season in a real way. Also, I have been making slow progress on what I'm currently calling Hungry Head. My portfolio site - or at least, the somewhat vague ideas about it - have kind of transformed into this new project. Although it will be my own space online, I have been thinking about how I can also use it to benefit others who have helped me over the years. I suppose that in a way, you might say that what I'm thinking about constructing is a little bit like deviantART. But that would kind of be incorrect, in the sense that I don't want to make some site where people sign up and where it's all numbers and stuff. Instead, I'm thinking about something much more intimate - a particular kind of collaboration between artists and programmers. It's still a somewhat vague notion, but I've always been interested in collaboration and I'd really like to see what can be done in this area. In terms of design, I am still using the head silhouette theme...with some fairly radical changes. The design is probably a combination of the silhouette and the mouth from Luna Park (Melbournians and Sydneysiders will know what I mean there). I was thinking about having a kind of carnival poster theme for the site's layout and art design, but even that is proving tough...it's quite different from what I normally do. And then there's always the need to make something interesting without necessarily making something frightening. I've been veering dangerously close to the latter in my experiments with it, so I should try to keep that under control, lol. Other than that, there's not a whole lot more to say, so I'll comment on the comments now. indifference: Well, not having to worry about theOtaku/myOtaku/OB right now is certainly a positive thing, although I am actually looking forward to focusing on myOtaku once more. It's just good to have the break to work on other stuff. SunfallE: The whole trading services thing is something I'm wanting to experiment with on the new site, but probably to a slightly broader degree than what I've done before. So hopefully that'll work out well. I hope that I'm never too old to appreciate dressing up and having fun like that - I always try to remember to enjoy lighthearted things and not to be too serious. ~_^ Aaryanna: Luckily I don't have to worry about programming in a very direct way, but then again, it's something I always have to think about. In some ways it's easier not to have to deal with it specifically...but at the same time, I can't do effective web graphics without having some basic understanding of how it all works. But working to those limitations is often good fun. Anyway, I am happy that things worked out and that you are now on staff. I'm also extremely pleased that indifference and SunfallE accepted. For a while now it's been my goal to have all three of you working at OtakuBoards, because you each have the right kind of personality for it I think. I didn't ever expect to be lucky enough to snare all three of you, so I'm very happy about that. ^_^ CosmicSailor: Perserverance is definitely not an idealistic dream. Perserverance usually means the difference between work and unemployment. I can tell you right now, if I didn't push very hard, I wouldn't have my foot in the door with my new employer. I actually had to do some work for them for free - as a kind of test of my skills - to convince them to hire me. And it worked. It took that added effort and that added push to actually get the ball rolling. So it does make a huge difference. I understand the difficulty of being knocked back though, believe me. In my life so far, I have had plenty of knock backs; probably more than I want to even think about. But for every few knock backs, there's one breakthrough. It takes a lot of hard work and effort, but that's usually what gets you there in the end. When I get knocked back I often feel kind of hopeless and upset at first. But I try to turn that disappointment almost into anger or something - I try to use it to say to myself "No, I'm not going to allow anyone to knock me back, I'm going to push twice as hard as last time." Getting that steam behind you can really help. Baronness: Oh Baron, you know me all too well! ~_^ And thank you. I always like your art, so I'm always honored when you like my work.

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