Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Of randomthunk.net and winter break -
You're over! You're over in approximately twelve hours and six minutes! Ugh! I know not of a fate more cruel!

Alright, so first semester as a freshman is almost over. Just have to make it through finals...Of which, I need to really study for biology and German...sorta.

A list is what I need!

A Day Classes
+Art: Look over notes and associate with all those weird terms
+Freshman Honors English: No 'effing clue what it's over
+Earth Science: No problem
+Freshman Honors Biology: Ask Meghan for lifesaving assistance

B Day Classes
+German: Go over those terms I never quite learned
+Algebra: Look over things from beginning of the year
+Personal Fitness: What the hell?
+Band: Practice those damn-ass weird scales

I got really lucky. On the third day, the day with only two tests, I have Bio and Band...not bad, by my thoughts.

Oh yeah, I have to work at the Writer's Club breakfast thingie ma-bobber next week...on Tuesday, I believe. Jenna and I were going over this on AIM, and neither of us could quite remember what day it was. I thought Tuesday, she thought Wednesday. After a moment of silence, both of us popped out 'We'll just ask Erin!' Yes, that's bloody brilliant!
Still think it was Tuesday.

Onto other news...in another one of these weird but normal, Waffle-set-up (Waffle=one of my friends, as in a human) chatrooms last night, there errupted battles for DN Angel and peppermints. X3 I didn't even know who the peppermint person was, and even after being told the name, I still don't know who it was. -_-;; So then randomly, I suddenly burst out, "I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!" People stop talking and pretend to listen...
"I WILL SOON OWN THE WEBSITE OF www.randomthunk.net!!!"

...To which people just kinda go silent.

Alright, see, my mystical little site "Numbnuts Unite - An Azumanga Daioh Fansite" will soon be losing its nice, free hosting. The site it's hosted on, Golden Sun: Adepts Refuge, has decided to drop its Golden Sun fansite and go on to a general video game site.

About Feburary or March last year, they offered "free premium hosting" for those looking to get hosted. I jumped on and managed to land a spot with the URL of numbnutsunite.gsadeptsrefuge.com.

...And then things started to fall apart. In May/June, GSAR announced they would become 'ImpactGaming' in July (which never came in July, nor any other month until now). They had four 'premium hostees' including me. One moved, one shut down, and the other just kinda never updated...I was the only one still going on, as if ignorant of what was happening. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), I wasn't.

I talked to one of the webmasters last night and he said that yes, I would have to go back out and find hosting. At which, I pulled off my whole "sobs-in-a-corner-with-a-laptop" action, and he didn't respond after that. XD So I searched around and landed back on one of the free hosts I've experimented with, Host Ultra. They had a perfect plan for me, with 800mb of space and 20GB of bandwidth a month. That's a hell of a lot, considering the folder on my hardrive barely takes up 80mb and I have never had bandwidth trouble in the first place. ^^;; And it's only twenty bucks a year! Fantastico!

So I've registered. Haven't gotten an e-mail, even though they said I would get it "a few minutes after signing up". Whatever. I'll just wait for another three days before I get on their asses. And yes, I was reading their FAQ and forums and found a case like mine. The help guy said to wait three days. :3 After then, he said one could register a domain...You'll only get this if you've done any real web stuff. X3

randomthunk.net - You'll become a reality within the next two weeks.

And Lorenza suggested the name. At first, she suggested "randomthunked.net", which made no sense...so I just tacked off the -ed and have it as that. And c'mon, it's catchy.
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Sunday, January 1, 2006

Ai yai yai, I'm your little butterfly~
It's time for New Years. Again. God am I bored.
So this year, what have I accomplished? I've passed eighth grade - always a good thing. I've made two new friends - which is always a good thing. I've become closer to my goal of finishing Revival - a good thing indeed.
I'm not sure how much of a good person I've been. It's hard to say. I haven't been in trouble or anything...just once, and that was totally unfair...But I'm safe. I didn't get coal. :3
Last year, my post was very angst-full. So I was trying to think of a title for this post, because I would probably, once again, be all angsty. So I was going along the lines of "Katana's Second Annual Angst-Filled New Years Post". XD But it didn't turn out that way, it seems.
Um...
I'm bored. So we're gonna go over any random list that Katana can think of and see if she accomplished anything or not. X3

Product-Related Things To Get/Do For 2005
+Azumanga Daioh DVDs 4,5, and 6: Well, I got the fourth
+Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Never had the money
+Finish collecting at least one manga series: Yeah, lucky - Imadoki!
+Try a new manga series: Yeah - Hands Off!
+Get an mp3 player: Yes - the RCA Lyra

Things To Do For 2005
+Get a better host for Numbnuts Unite: Holy crap did I get lucky. I got a free "premium hostee" package at the now-dead-but-transitioning Golden Sun: Adetps Refuge. I need to clear things up now with Jake and Kemosabi...
+Spend more time with my friends: Err, you know what, I can't tell. X3
+Make more friends: Two more posse members were added - the freshman Brogan and the sophomore Justin. Thanks to drumline, I've made some great friends up with the juniors and seniors. ^_^ Drumline guys are great.
+Get in better shape: Sorta. Personal fitness definetly got me...hmm...different. Healthier, I would guess.
+Do homework before nine o'clock: YES! FINALLY!
+Actually finish a short story: Mmm-hmm. Maybe not until November, but I still managed to do it. XD

Goals For 2005
+Get Revival finished by Christmas: Damn, I wish
+Return the first Wheel of Time book back to Lorenza, completely read: Not even close
+Maintain a healthy level of getting music: Would you consider a music library growing by 400 mb healthy?
+Organize my room: Before it turned into a complete disaster zone with SCHOOL
+Do more things off of the computer: That's actually increased thanks to Photoshop = =;;;

Artistic Goals For 2005
+Learn to do CG in Photoshop: *parades around the room with pictures*
+Learn to make Winamp skins in Photoshop: That's for this year
+Enhance my drawing skills: Thankfully, yes. They don't look so chibi-ish anymore.
+Take more time on my drawings and add details: ...*shrugs*
+Spend more time practicing my oboe: Not a bit
+Improve my rating in the articles section of theOtaku.com: Indeed - second most popular (behind the webmaster Adam) with a 96% rating ^_^
+Branch out from anime drawings: Sorta. I drew half of a real-esque face. And a doodle on a biology packet. X3
+Have a clear difference between short-haired girls and long-haired boys in my drawings: ...To me it seems ><;;

Man am I confused and burnt-out. I need something to do and something to try. But first - finish a layout. -.-;;
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Thursday, December 15, 2005

3,000 Hits! - I can do freakin' CG!


That's right! 3,000 hits to myOtaku! Love ya guys! ^_~

So now...after years of wondering, I've finally started my Photoshop CG adventure. I found an awesome and amusing tutorial on DeviantArt, which generally taught me all I needed to know.

And here we go.

Step 1
It starts off with my poor usual test subject, this kid. The pic, entitled "left behind in empty places", has been my test subject for all of these random experiments. (And I was lazy and had ImageShack resize it.)

Step 2
We color it! The result is this, which I'm quite proud of. XD

But remember, that was just number one. ^_~

Step 3
With one done, I decided to try for a full background scene plus person. I couldn't do this with the Gankutsou techinique, but it was actually quite simple in CG mode.
Oh, it can be viwed here. It's mah .hack character, of which she has no name. >.<;;

Step 4
Add color! Unfortunately, the brushes were too soft, so the background looks too blurry and blendy. But it still roxor, and can be seen here.

Step 5
Hurrah for algebra class! I can draw in it! XD Staring a new note section in my five-subject notebook, I had a page of menola (yellow) paper to draw on. So I drew a slightly younger version of Naruto ninja. Again, I don't know her name quite yet, but she belongs to the Village Hidden In The Mist. So here she is. I dubbed the image "Sturbborness".

Step 6
The CG part of it didn't take that long at all, and went quite quickly. It's basically a fast sketch and fast color, so it's nothing to marvel at. :3

Step 7
Anime News Network, or ANN, is running a Christmas banner contest. What you need to do is design a holiday-themed top banner for their site and submit it to them by 11:59PM...tonight. (-_-;; ) Your graphic would be shown for two weeks, and you would also get the Wolf's Rain limited edition DVD box set - all thirty epsiodes plus the pimpin' soundtrack!
But you needed to have their elf girl mascot. And I knew this. :3 So I asked Lorenza to draw one for me, since she makes very freakishly adorable chibis.

Enter Renza's drawing, here.

Step 8
Once Renza gave it to me, I got home, fired up the computer, and scanned it in. After opening Photoshop, getting myself a soda, and popping up the internet, I began at about 3:15.
And CG'd untl 5:00, which was when dinner came via McDonalds cheap burger day. After that, I came back at about 5:45, painting solidly until 7:30-ish.
Pain. In. The. Ass.
BUT! The result is so freakin' amazing. And, the result can be seen here.

Step 9
Made the image into a Greeting. XD
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Sunday, November 27, 2005

*cough* Erm, 'kay
There are some things in life I don't get. Like the point of algebra. The purpose of war. Or just why the "Art of Otaku" is considered so freakin' great.
Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm too stuck-up in my ways. But when I looked over that sampling of the AoO, I wasn't impressed. First off, I was irritated by the fact that a lot of the images were messy and grainy. Secondly, I was questioning why the selected people were considered so great that other people should copy their styles. Yes, that's right, copy. Face it kids, whenever you look at a "how to draw" guide, you always end up copying a style.
I mean, all AoO has on the regular "how to draw anime/manga" book is more people and wasted space. Tons of steps were on half pages, making the 64-page sample really only good for about 35.
The chibi guide had me quirk an eyebrow. The coloring was like the little guy had been burnt to a crisp.
In general, what I hate about these how-to-draw books is the fact that they're dictating the way I draw. I hardly ever use those weird facial guidelines because they don't help. Why is it the male character is always so hulking compared to the female, especially since the drawing is of a teenager? Unless the guy is a professional body-builder, boys and girls generally have a pretty similar body structure. If anything, guys are a little lanky.
I dunno. I'm probably just ignorant and stupid and not willing to pay twenty bucks for a how-to guide. Eh.

-----

Yay for chakra! XD Throughout the course of time, I have managed to rack up 450 votes for my Articles profile! Still the number two, and I'll have to pull of a couple big ones to reach the top. But ratio-rise, I've done really well. Thank you alchemy~! ^.^

See, you don't have them asking for a writing guide, huuuuh? And why is there such a rank as "senior artist" but not "senior writer"? What the hell is a senior artist anyway? You submit a certain number of doodles and you get that title? You get randomly picked because you've submitted stuff? Mmmm...maybe.
Seriously, I probably work harder than a lot of those "senior artists", researching and writing the articles I make. It usually takes me about a day to do the research. Condensing down every millisecond spent reading/typing, a solid block of four to six hours goes to just research and type.
Sure, you can submit any random writing, but the reason I maintain an audience is because I know they came to be entertained - someway, somehow.
...And I just seem to have a damn good eye for picking topics.
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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Yay for turkeys and pie!
It's Thanksgiving! Ph34r teh turk3y! XD I haven't posted in forever, and that's because I'm a lazy-ass procrastinator. =_=;;
So you know...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Tomorrow is that big shopping day, ya know? You can go around and steal that stereo system for fifty bucks. Gotta love it.
Well, I'm posting from my aunt and uncle's house here in the exciting state of Wisconsin. The actual location is something like Wanuakee, and it sounds like "wanna key?". XD I dunno how to spell it, it's one of those weird cheese-state things.
We ate about an hour ago, and I go to snatch up a drumstick. The one thing that I didn't like was, well...drumsticks are dark meat. And dark meat isn't too fantastic. But I had three glasses of Coke Zero, two slices of pumpkin pie with the really good whipped ceram...the stuff you buy in a carton and add sugar to. ^_^
My uncle is one of those crazy Apple supporters, so I'm typing this up on an...an....*looks up*...an Apple eMac. It's white - everywhere. And well, I can say that I'm thankful my dad is a Windows person. - -;; I hate this keyboard, the keys have an awkward sorta stickiness to them that's make them not want to go down without maximum force. I've been constantly backspacing on this thing to add spaces or include letters. Geez.
And to top it all off, I have no way of understanding this frickin' desktop. I had to click all the buttons to know that "Safari" is apparantly Apple's attempt at being a rebel and calling that the internet. Plus, text is blurry. Blech. And it didn't recongnize my USB stick. WHAT?!

Um, anyways...

My brother just bought City of Villians, and I've been startlingly addicted to it. Although I'm not as bad with it as I was World of Warcraft, it is really, really getting there. My charcter is a Brute-Mutant who ended up with fire powers. Fire aura for a shield, and three fire spells for attack. Fire fire fire. ^^;;
It's a she, with a base type of athletic build, but the smallest chest possible (XD), the biggest waist possible, and then a mix and mash between the other options. No, she isn't fat, but she isn't the sex icon of CoV like all the other ones.
Her name is Kataoi, which is also my name on LiveJournl. It's a fusion between katana and aoi, which is blue. She has cat ears, white shaggy hair, a baggy shirt with "tribal" markings, frayed baggy pants, "wraps" for shoes, wrist protectors that attach to a finger, and a cat tail. I started yesterday and man, she's the most normal-looking of them all. Also, there are very few girls, but maybe that's just what server I'm on (third from the top, whatever it is).
I'm level 5...yay!

Alrighty now, so what is Katana thankful for?

1. My friends
2. My family
3. My health
4. My talents and abilities
5. My grades
6. My home
7. Photoshop
8. The internet
9. People visiting my website
10. Having a Windows computer and not a Mac
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Saturday, November 5, 2005

HA!
My random post because I'm a procrastinator...
I'm watching IGPX. Second episode. And Takeshi is talking to that French girl.
"What is your screenname?"
"Katana."
Hu-ZAAA!
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Bonkura Experiments Gankutsuou
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. Probably the most vivid and visual anime I have ever laid eyes upon. Never seen the actual series, but the artwork is simply gorgeous.
Inspired and also having Photoshop running, I decided to run a test. Now, I've tried coloring in PS before, and it sucks. But I seem to have found Gankutsuou-Style much easier and a lot more cooler.

So I started with some brushes and a picture of Shuichii from Gravitation - one of my absolute most favorite anime images ever - and began painting on a background. It turned out quite awesome.



Look familiar? The top section is my current avatar. ^^

The simple background of that image led to this one. The base image was made in MS Paint. Hairstyle is like Largo's of MegaTokyo. The original image was called "j00" in homage to Largo. XD

So I had down the basics. I was impressed with what I could do. I loved how you didn't have to show shadows - the texture of the brush pushed aside any doubt of artistic ability. Then I thought of something that blew my mind away:

This could replace using screentones.

Lorenza and I plan to enter Tokyopop's "Rising Stars Of Manga" contest sometime before we're outta high school, preferably within the next year. XD One of the big hurtles I saw was the fact that we have no idea how to use screentones, nor the money to buy all the ones that would've been nessicary.
With those thoughts in mind, I scanned an image of my supposed-pirate, Senka, and with two hours and nothing to lose, began to paint.
And paint.
And paint.
Then turn off the comp and sleep.
Wake up, go to school, come back.
And paint some more.

But in the end, I would have to say the end result is most certainly worth it.

Wha'cha think? You need to look at everything to get the full appreciation - the sword has two different texture. The shorts have a box texture. The coat, headband, and scarf have a continously flowing pattern.
How?
Easy, mundane fool (XD). You quite simply make a layer for each item you are painting. You glob on paint, then erase the parts that are covering things you don't want that color/texture covering.
The background is just more random spew. But if you turn off all the other layers, it has a perfect outline of Senka. XD

And now on to the articles!
Holy shitake mushrooms! I am the third most popular article writer! I'm gaining on Panda, just about 20+ more votes to go! Quite impressive, seeing as how she's written all those con reports and interviews, while I have just six...
Otaku on a budget...
Apart from the crowd..
The smash-hit "what-is" alchemy...
The classical elements of nature...
Sleeping positions and one's personality...
Blood reflecting who you are...
None of them have any official, really-big people.
I think...I'm just a kick-ass writer. XD

I LOVE YOU ALL~!
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A Quick Pre-School Rant
You know how, if you've submitted something to theOtaku, it's displayed down at the bottom of your page in an "anime portfolio"? I was wondering why you can't toggle between have certain links shown.
I mean, to me, my fanart is nothing to be proud of. I don't like to draw pictures of anime characters. I draw orginial. But that section is so flooded with these people going "ch3k out mi caraktr!1!11" that it bothers the crap out of me to add any more.

(Mmm. My mom just told me I'm on the computer "entriely too long". Eh.)

So, if given the choice, I would like people to see my wallpapers, my articles (duh!), my quizzes, and...my cosplay or my greetings, I really don't care between those two. But I would really like people to see the articles, not the fanart. I have a knack for writing random stuff like that, and people seem to go it like...like...lambs to the slaughter? Ouch, that's bad...
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Monday, October 10, 2005

Coolios!
To celebrate Columbus Day, we've approved no less than four new articles. You can learn about how the Azumanga Daioh girls' sleeping positions relate to their personalities (this one is really fun!), or why Naraku is the most important character in Inuyasha. And that's not all, of course. Just click the link to read more.

I am more than just awesome, I am TEH awesome! Finally, something of mine not only got "published", it was mentioned in a news article! ^^
The sleep decoder was a lot of fun to do, mainly when I was trying to write up the actual content. XD
Saw "Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" today. Claymation creeps me out but today I made an exception. That movie is hilarious, and has a lot of those background gags. People keep saying it will win the "Best Animated Film" award, but after seeing it, I have less confidence in those words.
I was never full-hearted for it, but I knew it would've probably won because hey - it's Wallace and Grommit! But after actually seeing it, I kinda go "what the hell?" about it being awesome. I mean, it's good, it's funny, but it is certainly not amazingly stupendous.
I can't think of what else to rant about, so I leave you with the glowing newspost and the article that inspired most of it. ^_^
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Sunday, October 2, 2005

Oops, crap
XD On hiatus way too long. I don't feel like explaing 'cause I'm lazy.

1: High School! High school sucks. School sucks. Yeah. I'm a freshman, and I really hate how uppity the sophmores are. Not the seniors or the juniors, the sophmores. Enough said.
I'm in Intro to 2-D Art, Freshman Honors English, Earth Science, and Freshman Honors Biology. On B days, I have German 1, Algebra, Personal Fitness, and Band. Come second semester, I have World History instead of Earth Science, because both classes are one semester.
English is on the brink of sucking, but not sucking. Why? Whichman, the teacher, is the most monotonous guy ever. He has no idea of excitement, humor, energy, etc. He's just boring.
Oh, and Oliver Twist is pretty bad too. We've read up to chapter 7 right now, and it is really, really boring. It might've been entertainig 150 years ago, but not now.

2: Quiz This is irritating me to no end. I submitted a quiz last Sunday entitled "What Cowboy Bebop Song Are You?", and it basically tells you what song best matches who you are. I know quizzes take a little while to put up, but...Yeah.
It can't be because it isn't good. I put a lot of effort into that quiz, particuarlly with the images. The results are of kick-ass quality, lemme tell ya. But with all the other craptacular quizzes going up...

3: The Rise and Fall of the Articles What the hell is going on with that section? Everything I read in there is c-r-a-p. Not kidding. Many of them are extremely biased and terse, some have horrid grammar, and still others seem to be n00bs and have no frisckin' clue what they're talking about.
In the recent Inuyasha article with the characters, the person's like "I try not to be biased" and crap, but she quickly loses that opinion. In a GUIDE you have to use facts. In an EDITORIAL, you can ramble to God-knows-what end. Grr.
I think need to submit an article again, just to show up these idiots...

4: Samurai Kyouran That's my latest RPG on the OtakuBoards. Sorry, sign-ups are closed, but the thread is going on in the Adventure Square if you even care at all.
It's kinda like Samurai Champloo, and it has no set storyline. A group of seven vagrant samurai meet up and wander throughout the countryside of Western Japan. They leave many things in their wake - death, love, fear, admiration - as they try to prove a point to the government.
However, they will all end up dieing in the end, which I think is a first for an RPG. I also think it's cool. XD

5: Hayachan11 Who is Hayachan11? Haya is my friend Liz, who is oftentimes mentioned around this site. Her posts are mainly short and sweet, but she's hilarious, which really shows through in her writings.
The "Hayachan11" name breakdown:
"Haya" was the name I slapped on to her in seventh grade when I wrote my long-ago mentioned story, 7th Grade, which was our posse set in Japan.
"chan". I call everybody I know with the "-chan" suffix tacked on, some more than others. Meg-chan is the most-abused victim of this suffix, where I took her name (Meghan), put a dash between the g and the h, and added a "c". XD
"11" Unlike most people, this has meaning. Haya is Number 11 of the Otaku Agency, which is, once again, made up of our posse. I am Number 6, while Aiyanna is Number 3. ^^ The OA was invented way way back in sixth grade - nearly four years ago!
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