I'm having trouble getting notification from comic genesis, so the webcomic isn't up yet. I suppose I should've taken this delay/spare time to get some comics done. Whoops.

I won't lie, I've been lazy. Been playing games a lot. I started up an Onimusha 3 critical mode save file a couple of weeks ago, and I'm currently stuck right before the 2nd fight with Gertrude. :( I just can't critical those man-eaters that block necessary doors. I also can't finish up critical training for the black vest, no matter how hard I try.
I'll finish it later.... in 10 years. :P
Anyway, I lent my brother my LoZ Majora's Mask game guide a month or two back, and now he's lent me the game. Ah, it was my first 3D game... not the best game by any means, but it still holds some fond and aggravating memories for me. Unfortunately, since it's an old game (put out in 2000), the cartridge is kinda fuggered. I keep thinking it's gonna glitch up and erase my game at any moment.

I've also been distracted by Whirled. I joined up so I could submit an entry for the Design Your Whirled contest, but when I saw the previous year's winners I just knew I was in over my head. So I've been playing games over there, too, mainly puzzle stuff.
I dunno about that site. It has the potential to be fun, but I'm not very sociable online-- especially when there are mostly narutards and sonic fans hanging about. It also peeves me when all these whiny spoiled brats complain about the good quality stuff in the store being too pricey. Since every item has an option to purchase in bars, and bars cost about 10 cents american, about 90% of the stuff in the store is cheaper than a can of Pepsi. Plus... LEARN TO SAVE YOUR COINS, PEOPLE!! Sheesh! Even if you can't purchase bars, all store items can be purchased with coins as well. Coins are free currency that you get from playing games, selling items, and just DOING THINGS IN GENERAL. I've only been there a couple of weeks and I've already got 20,000+ coins! (now if only it were that easy to save money in real life...)

I gotta get my To-Do-List marker board back up so I can focus on progress. All this gaming is rotting my brain and stagnating my drawing skills. :P

I need to make my own site, but I can't code worth diddly. I would like to ask a bunch of successful people how they make their site(s), where they're hosted, if they use Dreamweaver, etc., but I can't stand forums and PMs get blocked. I'd email, but it would probably go straight to the spam folder.

I guess I'm just kinda sick of joining "communities" where the site is essentially a porn/anime/fad/garbage dump or a clone of an already existing site and thus all of the content is rehashed. Sure, creators of such sites are entitled to give a go at their dream of having their very own online utopia, free of the hangups of the other similar sites and I don't fault them for trying. ...It's just that it's impossible to have a community site that's 100% free of glitches, thieves, and idiots of of all kinds.
I guess I'm also a pessimist, but anyway...

I just want my own site where I post up my animations--finished or not, crappy doodles, maybe have a mini-webcomic, links to all the other sites where you can find my official stuff, and a place for me to be me... something a li'l bit sweet and a li'l bit feisty, some silliness and some horror, and hopefully some things tastefully intelligent, yet entertaining.

I've been away from NG for a while now, mainly because I felt like I needed an immaturity detox. That, and I've got a lot to do soon. I need to find me a scrap piece of wood so I can start making lino-cut Christmas card prints, locate some cheap malleable wire, plaster of paris, and cotton bandage for a sculpture gift, finish a thank-you animation and put it with a demo collection on DVD, find a job still, and plan me wedding.

I've also downloaded the ToonBoom Animate demo software and trying to learn the ropes. Bluh. If there's one thing I hate, it's feeling like a brainless noob as I try to learn something completely new by starting at the very beginning. I wanna know it all NOW!!!

---

As one becomes an adult, there are a lot of new experiences to be had, new responsibilities to take on, and unfortunately a lot of things that get the fun sucked out of them... winter being a major one. Snow angels, sledding, and making snowmen are replaced with shoveling the walk, scraping off the car, and trying not to slide off the road while driving through a snow/ice storm.
Thankfully, there are times where we adults can return to the season's delights and make snow angels, ski, snowboard, and in my case, make a snow sculpture.

It's been over a week now, and I'm still very reluctant to start back on my animation projects. The neglected house cleaning duties had my name all over them and I no longer had the deadline excuse. :(

I've gone back to playing Okami again. It's one of the few games in the apartment that I like and haven't played 10 times over.

Also, my sweetie brought home a free pumpkin from work recently, so I'm gonna carve it up tomorrow. :3 I think I'll save the photos for next Halloween, though. Never know when they might come in handy.

Not much else to report on.

Here's a progress shot!

It's very rare for me to lose my temper, but there are just certain things that are the perfect kindling for RAGE.

Here's a simple concept: Backing up files on a CD-RW. Seems simple enough... just drag 'n drop your files onto the CD, hit "burn files to CD", the files get burned to the CD, and you have plenty of room left to burn more files in the future until the CD gets filled.

At least, that's how I'm used to things working on a PC.

On the Mac, I've just wasted 2 hours trying to back up 2 PDF FILES. 2. FREAKING. FILES. And guess what... I failed to even do that.
Apparently, if I just copy/paste a file onto a blank CD-RW, it only allows that file to be burned onto the CD and that's that; no more burning to that disc, coz' it's full now!
So according to the help files I've got to find the Disk Utility program (now where's that thing... System Preferences? Finder..? Applications... no? Crap! *searches for 10 minutes* fine, Utilities.), go through a whole schpiel of making a new disk image and tweaking all the little pull-down menus that go with it. I'm trying to make sure this thing is being made right, having to redo the process 3 times over because of little mistakes and overall confusion, then when I finally think I have it done right and set up, there's a half-hour wait for the "disk image to burn" or whatever.
So I putz around the apartment waiting for my computer to finish up, it finally spits out the disc. I pop it back in, and 2 things pop up: the disc image called "disk image" and the CD-RW called "disk image".
D:
So now I'm confused about how a disc image is supposed to help me burn my stuff to disc. I try a few combinations of copy/paste to either the image or the CD, and nothing seems to work.
Of course, the main frustrating thing is that early on when I read the how-to page for this process, it said that I would have to go through the whole thing again for every single time I want to save to disc.
WTH? You mean I have to re-learn that stupid, overcomplicated process --and FAIL-- each time I want to update my backup disc???

So I've had it. I chucked the CD twice across the room, banged my keyboard on the desk and wanted to strangle this Mac so badly.

And this is why I prefer flash drives.

Why yes, I am Arnold Schwartzenbeggar underneath this mask.

*ahem* Okay, so I've got another bout of insomnia. Some of it's from head pain, most of it is from a combination of stresses, with the Halloween flash taking a good 1/3 chunk of the pie chart.

I didn't realize the importance of it until I got a comment from MindChamber. (btw, thanks man! You made my day!) Then I remembered other important people who are waiting eagerly to see what all the secrecy's about, plus the regular viewers in general. It would also be cool to send word of the completed project to the local news station. (Hey, if a chicken wearing a sweater can get on the news, then so can I.)

I'm really trying hard not to get distracted or discouraged. At least this time before getting *too* far in with progress, I decided to write out a flow chart with scene indication, everything that needs to be made into symbols, the necessary sound effects, and which parts need self-contained fbf. So I'll be working on the backgrounds piece by piece, then the timing, special effects, and then the sound effects and fbf animation for last. >_< I hope this all comes together before the deadline.

...And even though this has nothing directly to do with the project, I feel like posting a recently redone pic that has a nice Halloweenie feel. :3
I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUUUUULLLLL!!!

Riiight, the Halloween flash... >>; I'll get to that later if I can. Actually, I've been having some major wisdom tooth problems lately that's been making it very hard to eat sleep, or concentrate on anything except the pain. It's gotten a little bit better, but I still want them yanked ASAP. >:(

Anyway, I thought I'd take a break and make a small flash concerning Kimbo Slice's VERY quick defeat in his recent match with Petruzelli.
Now, I'm not a fan of wrestling or fighting sports of any kind, but when you've only got 5 public access channels (and 2 religious channels) to choose from for background noise, you take what you can get.
So we're watching the game, keeping in mind the last bout we saw with Kimbo and his alien-embryo-eared opponent was just barely won by Kimbo popping that pustule wide open. We know that Kimmy boy isn't the greatest fighter in the world by any means, but he's got the fighting network backing him and an army of fans cheering him on.
20 seconds after the round starts, we're wondering, "...did he just get KO'ed? HAH!" and Petruzelli's circling the ring, showboating with in-your-face glee.

Unfortunately, I just found out that I screwed up the sound on the file by keeping it on stream, and I can't remember how to fix it. :( Right now I don't have the time to mess with it any further, seeing as I've got some cleaning to do.
--Edit-- I think I managed to fix the timing on the keyboard click sounds, but the ending voiceover would either be as simple as changing it to event or as difficult as tweaking the keyframes until juuust right. -_-; ...But I've re-uploaded that thing like 3 times already today. I just wanna take some aspirin and go to sleep.

Having a bit of a meltdown.

Aaahhhh, I'm so happy to see the collab get front page and an award! ^w^ All that waiting paid off in the end!

Now that it's out of the way, it's time to set my focus entirely on my next project: A Halloween contest entry!
Hopefully, the story will be kept a secret until submission, but it's going to be difficult... especially when I might need to call upon someone to help with sound.
The look is going to be different from my other submissions (I hope), since I'm going to go for a more realistic look. ...Sheesh; too many people on this site complain about "anime style". >:X

Anyway, I'm mightily overdue for a solo submission, and now's a perfect opportunity to get out a good one!