So, yeah. I hear the economy sucks. I hear it from the news. I hear it from relatives. I hear it all over. I suppose that it's bad in general. However, for the people who were already in financial difficulties, the "economic crisis" is business as usual at worst. I need to point out that when the stock market crash of 1929 happened, the dudes waiting in line for soup were not the ones killing themselves because they lost everything. Like usual, when big business is doing badly, the government screams, "Oh, the humanity!" but very little changes for the people in the middle or at the bottom. I'm not saying that you should live in abject poverty, or anything, but I need to point out that my broke friends are having the same kind of lives they had before the economic crash. The next time I hear someone who was already living beyond their means complain about how hard life has become, I'm gonna punch them in the trachea.

On a related subject, I am looking for a job that's more lucrative than the freelance design/art thing I've been doing. Working freelance just doesn't pay the bills, sometimes. With a lot of people out of work, the workplace has become more competitive, so getting a job in which you are not specialized just got harder. I made this decision to seek other employment when I was on a freelance site and I saw a posting where a guy posted some jobs. He wanted to find non-US artists so he could play less. He actually changed the job description after I posted a proposal, to reflect this. This pissed me off because he's trying to take advantage of a US based site, to find some cheap assed, third world labor and fuck those of us who live under comparable economies. I decided that it was time to get out of the freelance business for a while, at least until the Bush Effect deteriorates and foreigners stop only being good for cheap labor and instant short term benefit.

I've been having weird dreams for the last few weeks. Last night I had a dream that I can't clearly remember but it involved being chased and having sex; at the same time. I don't mean like in the Terminator, where they were being chased and got themselves some when they had a few minutes. I mean, running and screwing at the same time. It was disturbing and now, somewhere in my brain, sex just became a little unpleasant because I associate it with running for my life. Stupid brain.

That is all.

I hope everyone's new year is going well and that none of you feel terribly bad about not living up to your resolutions. I am going through some personal adjustment issues, currently, so I've been doing stuff on the web less than usual, of late. It's nothing personal, I am just otherwise occupied.

On to the rant. I know that Internet=Drama. I know also that, largely, Furries=Drama. So when you meet furries on the internet they are like DramaxDrama or Drama². I know this. I understand it. This knowledge is in place to buffer me against the drama to one degree or another. It keeps me from caring too deeply when somebody goes more emo than a 13 year old listening to the Cure, because it's the only music that "speaks to them." I have to point out that depsite the fact that I am the member of several art communities and several online communities of varied description, this site is the only one where I regularly get notified of journals that go something like, "Oh, my god! I can't believe the horror that is my life! 'Kay. Bye." No details and no explanation. If you want sympathy, you need to post more than "Oh, the horror!" If you don't, I suggest you leave your subtle-as-a-box-of-razor-blades-in-your-school-locker hints that you want people to dig out the misery somewhere else. If something is bad enough to post a journal about it, it's bad enough to explain or have someone else explain it if it's too painful. If you don't want people bothering you about something, don't say, "It's too horrible. I can't go on like this..." if you won't tell us what "it" is.

I've said it before and maybe it makes me seem like a callous punk, but, look, people, we all have our issues. When you are part of a community, you can talk to the community about it. If you don't want to share it with the whole community, DON'T FUCKING SHARE IT! Don't tell people that something is wrong and stop there. It's analogous to calling 911 from a pay phone, saying, "There's a small problem," and then hanging up and running away from the phone. You don't get help, you just piss off the people you've contacted. If things are so bad that you want to leave the community, leave. If things are so bad that you want to die, then die. Make sure it's what you want, though. If you want help, ask for help and then accept it. It's not acceptable to ask for help and then turn it down. It wastes your time and the time of whomever is trying to help you. We are not here to give you the attention your parents never did. If you're not going to give the fuck up, stop saying you're going to and for fuck's sake, stop posting the minutia of your internet relationships here. I don't need to know who's breaking up with whom for fucking whomever else and neither do the rest of us, and this is coming from a guy who met his wife online.

In years gone by (read: somewhere around adolescence setting in), I used to play a game on New Year's day. The game went like this: I would make a handful of predictions for the new year and we'd see what came true. My friends would do the same. Everyone would pony up $10 and we'd compare notes at the end of the year to see who got the most right. The rules are, you can't do obvious things, like, "The sun will come up," "there will be a Superbowl," or, "That pregnant woman will have a baby." Also, you can't predict events in your own life that you already have information about. Anyway, no money goin' up this time, but feel free to throw in your two cents.

Prediction #1: "The X-wing." A line of sex toys themed around Star Wars movies. Their flagship piece will be a virbator shaped like the X-wing fighter.

Prediction #2: The big 3 auto makers will create a joint venture primarily turning out Hybrid cars.

Prediction #3: George Lucas will make a long awaited sequel to American Graffiti, in which all the grand children of the original characters will all gang up and develop psychic powers due to "midichlorians."

Prediction #4: There will be violent riots at the first sci-fi convention following the release of this year's Star Trek movie.

Prediction #5: Will Eisner will rise from the dead to kick the ass of Frank Miller. This will be the first indication of Judgment Day.

A while back I submitted designs for a group of mood badges.

NOW THEY ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!!!

Rage!
WTF!?
DEAD!
Happy!

Get 'em while they're hot! Get 'em while they're buttered!!

Get 'em soon! I need to eat!

 cheska has a journal up about keeping a healthy level of insanity.

I feel I have a few things to add to this but didn't want to hijack her journal.

1: While in any setting where it is possible to see a wild animal, spot a critter and yell "BUNNY!" and run after it. This includes cats, dogs, squirrels, raccoons and, yes, rabbits.

2: When crossing the street, run as fast as you can, flailing your arms, when there are no cars coming.

3: Carry a small jar labeled "urine sample" filled with apple juice. Drink it on the bus or in a mall. If you catch anybody watching, say, "What? It's mine."

4: Go into a Starbuck's and order a tall, skinny, non-fat cup of hot water. Pull a tea bag out of your pocket and steep it at the counter. (recommend not trying this during rush hours.)

5: Go into a McDonald's. Order a Whopper with everything. When they tell you they don't serve Whoppers, order a Cheesey Gordita Crunch.

6: Stand just inside the doors of a public restroom reading a book and shush everyone who comes in.

7: Wear ear buds obviously not plugged into anything and dance like you're on an iPod commercial.

8: Put an earplug (hearing protection device) in one ear (the bright orange ones work best for this) and act like you're talking on a bluetooth earpiece to a lawyer about your murder trial.

9: Wear a fuzzy article of clothing (big hat, furry coat, etc.) and keep a leash clipped to it. When anyone notices, throw the article on the ground and say, "NO! Down!"

10: Hang a tampon from your rearview mirror. (unused please.)

11: Hot glue old gloves to an old pair of earmuffs. Wear them and refuse to pull your hands out of your coat pockets.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for the inspiration, Cheska!

I've been doing some reading lately. I don't know if the following will count as reviews or rants. Let's see where this takes me, huh?

I'll start off by saying that mostly this is due to a trip to my local library, seeking something out of my normal reading patterns. I got a book entitled, "Oh Me of Little Faith," by Lewis Black. It was an interesting book which I found in the religion and philosophy section, though I think it should've been considered more autobiography section. It was one man's exploration of why it's so hard for some people to stay religious. If you like Lewis Black's stand-up stuff or his rants on the Daily Show, it's a good book. No complaints and nothing really learned. Good laughs.

The second book I want to talk about, I got "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I've had it recommended to me by several atheists I know. I always get into a contemplative mood in the cold season. It makes me seek out fresh perspectives on things like religion and philosophy. I opened the book and in one of the first paragraphs, the esteemed Dr. Dawkins relates that atheism isn't dogmatic as organized religions and his intent isn't to force his beliefs on you, the reader. Halfway through the first chapter, I had to put the book down. Despite the fact that the guy is obviously intelligent and has some really interesting information to put out there in the book, he shouldn't have written it. He should've hired a less condescending, less arrogant, less bitter person to write this book based on his research. I dislike, intensely, being talked down to. Even when I was a toddler, when somebody tried that baby talk bullshit with me, I would call them on it. Atheism, as seen by Dawkins is not at all dogmatic. On the other hand, the way he depicts his point is to, in essence, tell you that only an idiot wouldn't already have come to all the same conclusions he has. If this is the basis for atheism in the western world, its bible, so to speak, I'd have to assume that western atheists are all pompous jack-asses who don't have the respect for anyone's beliefs that they, themselves demand from others. I had to put it down, feeling more insulted than I have been by most other religious nuts trying to convince me of their mandate. At the very least, they have the excuses of dogma, tradition and blind faith to justify having no respect for an opposing point of view. Ignorance is the breeding ground of disrespect. When someone who is so obviously intelligent tries to talk down to me, I have to come to the inevitable conclusion that either I am not as smart as I think or (I'm going with option B, here.) they are a prick. So, if you wish to read the rantings of a self professed genius (think Wile E. Coyote) who hates you, by all means, read this. Otherwise, pick up the Book of Mormon and laugh at all the grievous bullshit.

The third book I'd like to talk about was an audiobook I listened to as I moved around town in the last few days: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It's a fiction piece about a little boy who gets raised in a graveyard by ghosts. It's a very interesting story, a quick read and in the tradition of Gaiman, lots of subtle mythical references that establish the world in a very solid fashion. Give it a look. It's pretty kid safe despite starting off talking about murder. Figure, your average 8-10 year old should dig on it.

Well that said... back to the toil of webcomicking.

There is now a FORUM for your perusal, use and submitted for your approval.

Check it out here.

I dunno how many of you haven't heard yet. I'm pagan. Because of that, this whole holiday season thing gets to me. I don't force my religious beliefs on others. Forcing someone to agree to your way of thinking is not only asinine, it's also the best way to turn them against your viewpoint. Originally, the reason that there was celebration in the winter-time was because as relatively primitive folk, paganism was all we had and so we worshiped elemental confluences and such, equinoxes and solstices. In some parts of the world the winter solstice (longest night of the year) was called Yule. Due to largely fluctuating calendar dates and such, the date for the winter solstice was always somewhere in the neighborhood of what we now think of as between December 21st and the 25th.

When Christianity first came about, it was not very widely accepted. It was widely thought of as a dangerous cult. The primary danger was in the idea of religious intolerance that the followers of the dead prophet practiced. This was one of the reasons that the Romans used to throw Christians to the lions. When a member of a kingdom starts talking shit about the king because of religious differences, the king's got to do something. It's even worse when it's a sect of cultists that have wandered into your kingdom to convert, by preaching or force, your population.

Anyway, back to my original point. When the Christian establishment (I call them the Pope Brigade) realized that the main reason they were failing as missionaries was that people don't like it when you tell them they have to give up all their beliefs and traditions, they decided on a new tack. They connected all their major celebrations to the dates, or nearly, of all the local pagan celebrations. Instead of taking away the right to party, they taught them new ways to party and attached to them new reasons. This is the reason why Christian holidays don't correspond to Jewish holidays, despite one religion giving rise to the other.

The early Christians decided selling out for a better turn out in the pews was okay. So, in this spirit of "selling out" to occlude the pagan celebrations and breed the pagan out of the general populace, they decided that the biggest celebration of the pagan year, the winter solstice (a.k.a. Yule in the Celtic traditions), had to be blocked by something pretty huge. They decided that it was the birth of Christ, despite not being certain what year he was born let alone the month or day. Most evidence points to a spring or summer birth. The shepherds had their flocks and lambs a-field. It's too cold to do that, even in a Palestinian winter.

Anyway, having totally eclipsed the spiritual meaning behind the season, (the world has died so that we may rise again in the spring) they named it Christmas and began promoting it as the gift holiday of the year (also a tradition taken from the pagans. You are "dead," so you give your prized possessions to loved ones in a symbolic bequest.) and promoted it that way which lead to the modern consumer slugfest that is the last three months of the year. I'm pretty sure that the birth of a savior isn't supposed to be the justification for trampling an eighty year old woman to get the last hot toy of the year from a shelf.

I don't have a problem with Christians having the lion's share of the religious attention in the western world. They promoted and have backed themselves up with really good spin doctors and armies, depending on the era. They earned the attention. What I do have a problem with is ignorance, intolerance and that inclusive, "Everybody's Christian at Christmas time," shit. I'm not Christian. I've never really been Christian. I've never been baptized or christened or whatever. I've studied Christianity, largely because I wanted to know why all the little Catholic fucks I grew up with wanted to kick my ass in the name of Jesus. Still don't really have a good answer, there.

I don't make a big deal that I never get wished well by anyone on the solstice, because it's not a highly promoted holiday. Why isn't it okay for me to wish someone whose religion I don't know, a Happy Holidays? I say,"Happy Holidays" because you might be a pagan, or a Muslim or a Jew or a Christian or any of any number of faiths that celebrate their holidays in a cold and slushy clump(in the northern hemisphere). I am trying to be cool to you. Why does it become okay for you (not you, specifically, I'm sure you're all very nice and considerate people, but more of a general "you.") to yell at me about taking your "Merry Christmas" away. Christians aren't quite the majority in the western world that they seem to think. If you guys were all the same kind of Christian, that'd be one thing, but you've fractured so far that you don't count as the same religious group, really anymore. You can't claim majority if you can't even agree on what day to worship on or whether or not dancing is a sin. Seriously. Get over yourselves.

Next time I get a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Chanukah" or "Happy Holidays," for that matter, I'm going to do everything in my power not to hang nine men at a gallows, cut the throat of a calf on a big rock and tie that person into a big, wicker, man-shaped cage and set it alight. I'm gonna try really hard, but I don't know if my primitive religious leanings will give me enough moral fibre not to rid the world of one more crazy, imperialist cultist.

First, folks, sorry I've not been around much lately. I have not been feeling the arts as I should. I have also not really been paying too much attention to FA, lately. I decided to take some of today and look at my massive influx of new art. Here are some things I need to vent about.

1) Is it at all possible to keep the fantasies on a furry site even remotely in touch with reality? I mean how many penises can a woman with boobs the size of 1968 Volkswagen buses have? And the huge boobs? There's a point where they stop being even fun to look at. Coming from me, "That's too much boob!" is a statement bearing some weight.

2) I realized today that any movie that has any relationship, however tiny, to Eddie Izzard, sucks a fat sack of ass. I don't dislike the guy, but seriously, 5 Children and It, sucks in premise and execution. It would have been okay as a movie in the early eighties but as it stands: SUCK! Igor: I reviewed it here. It's the movie equivalent of a lobotomy. Prince Caspian looks less interesting than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I actually fell asleep during that. Eddie Izzard isn't really family fare when he does comedy, he should stick to the comedy and avoid the family fare before he kills again.

3) Enough about Obama, already! Okay. I get it. He's going to be the president soon. YAY! No more Bush! But Jesus H. Christ in a bucket, people, give it a rest! The big problem I have with the U.S. news content is that we have entire shows dedicated to entertainment news and still have entertainment segments in real news. Gossip is not news and real news shouldn't be given the paparazzi treatment. Obama=President of the USA. I get it. I don't need to be following him around while he's doing shit anymore than I need to know who had what cosmetic surgery or who's boning who in Hollywood or who is in rehab.

4) The economy. What can I say? Everybody bitched about how much gas was costing. Now it's pretty cheap. Look what that got you. Learn anything about asking God or the government to handle your financial situation yet?

5) Christmas shoppers. HOLY SHIT! I damn near got tackled by this 60 something earlier today because she thought I was trying to grab something she was going after. I wasn't even looking at it but she grabbed my coat and gave a yank to throw me off balance. She apologized profusely when I gave her "the look." This is the look I cultivated over the years of living in and around Chicago that was reserved for anyone who thought it was okay to get unnecessarily aggressive with me. It amounts to, "I don't carry a gun because it ends your life too quickly." It had the desired effect but then, having edged passed Psycho-Granny, I am faced with people walking around with a "But where are the pans?" look on their faces moving just slow enough that I need a shave if I wait for them to move. Dude! MOVE! If you don't know where you're supposed to be going or what you're supposed to be doing, kindly STAY THE FUCK HOME AND LET ME GET TO WHERE I NEED TO BE!!!

6) Who do you have to ransom to find a Wii Fit not going for two arms and a kidney? The wife wants one and I have an anniversary coming up.

That's it for now. If I think up anything else I can bitch about, you guys will be the first ones to know.

Thanks for listening.

In case you guys missed it in my last huge journal, Zazzle now accepts Paypal and to celebrate they're having a 10% off sale on everything paid for using Paypal. Go check out my store and get while the getting's good! Sale ends tomorrow!

Firstly, Wrath of the lich king rocks pretty well. I love my death knight. This has not been taking up all my available time, however. Real life has been conspiring against me. About the middle of last week, I started to come down with a cold and not one of those good, comfortable run-through-it-and-recover type colds. This is more of the slow, achey, debilitating goes-on-forever-and-a-day type of deals. I can tolerate a cold. However, the aches and pains caused me some minor back spasms and I couldn't sit at my desk for more than a few minutes at a time. Hence, all my projects had to weather for a weekend and there were no new Hell Sweet Hells for Friday of last week or Monday of this.

Saturday is the day my family takes care of our weekly business. We take the kid to her swimming lesson at the Y in the morning, do lunch and go do any clothes or supply shopping (not groceries. there's a grocery store across the street.) in the city centre. This is a sort of ritual thing. We don't drive, so we take the bus, which is reliable enough where we don't really need a car, here. Anyway, we decide to break our normal routine and take care of the shopping before lunch to speed things along. We take our items to the check out to pay and lo and behold! Our bank's fraud division has canceled both my wife's and my debit card. We have little cash on hand (about enough for lunch) and end up paying for the things we really need with credit card (we are really trying not to use it.). I place a call to my bank's toll free number and they tell me that the cards have been canceled because there might -MIGHT- have been fraud in our area. We now have to come in to the bank, which is near our house, nowhere near city centre, to get them to give us new cards. Luckily, our bank is open on the weekend.

A side note, here: this is the second time my bank has done this to me within a year's time. Nice to know that the fraud division punishes me because there may or may not be a criminal operating near my home. Everyone I've spoken to at my bank seems to think this is humorous, to leave the house with no money in your pocket, relying on your trusty debit card which DOESN'T FUCKING WORK! "Sir, would you rather that someone stole all your hard earned money?" "How is that different from the money not being accessible when I need it? Either way I'm screwed, right?" "Well, sir, the money is still there." "I'm so glad it's making you guys interest. Glad your interests are being seen to at my expense."

The bank is open on Saturday, as I said, which would be good but apparently the urgency meter of the average bank teller on a Saturday is set to "meh." The whole thing is moving incredibly slowly. We finally talk to someone who destroys our cards and gives us temporary or "retard cards" as I like to call them, because people see them and assume you're a retard who lost their bank card. Because the operation took so long and the buses are running on a slower schedule, we missed our bus and would have to wait for another one for about 45 minutes. It was damp out and just above freezing. We were going to walk the mile or so home, just to keep warm. Two blocks later, it starts to rain. A block after that, I feel a wettish "pop" behind my knee and fall on the ground. I spent the weekend off the leg and things got better. Sunday night, the wife went out of town again. (If you live in North Carolina, wave at her.) My leg was still kinda hassled and I can't run, but it got a little better yesterday, and it's a good thing, too, because she's gone for the next eight days or so.

Anyway, that brings us to today. Cold finally is catching up on me. The aches suck. The hot and cold flashes suck. I'd like to able to breathe through my nose with any reliability. Not sure if tomorrow's Hell Sweet Hell will be happening either as I'm nearing the end of my tolerance for sitting in a desk chair.



Secondly, (see? I had two points.) I have news about my Zazzle Store. Zazzle now accepts Paypal and they're giving Paypal customers a 10% discount. Please. If you're buying people stuff anyway for some sort of winter holiday, look in my store.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion arrived on my doorstep today.


There will be much suffering in the World of Azeroth this day.

As everyone has already heard and said, nigh unto nausea, Proposition 8 and it's compatriots in other states has been passed. In the words of the illustrious Governator, "The people have spoken." True enough. People have spoken. At length. About things that don't concern them. The only people with a right to vote on whether or not gay people can marry is gay people. They are the only ones concerned. To quote Chris Rock,"I wouldn't want women voting on my balls." If you are not gay, your vote shouldn't matter on the subject of gay marriage because, hey look, it doesn't apply to you. That's like having a vote as to whether a minority can be educated in public schools and asking everyone to vote, knowing that, of course what the effected group wants will be ignored: THEY'RE OUTNUMBERED!!

My biggest problem with the whole issue is the use of the word "sacred" as part of the argument against marriage. I hear it again and again, "Marriage between a man and a woman is sacred." Well then that takes the vote in the U.S. out of the equation. There's a little principle lovingly known as "separation of church and state," meaning for those who are not in the know, "the church and government are two separate entities and one can not, in a free society, have domain over the other." If the objection is that marriage between a man and a woman is sacred then go talk to your preacher. He can condemn it and forbid it from his church. He can talk to other preachers and have it made a taboo in their churches as well. He can't pass it into law as it's unconstituional. "Sacred" aint "law," you homophobic fucks. If your marriage fails and you don't go to jail for it, that's proof of the fact. If marriage between a man and woman was sacred and the marriage failed and God's law and Man's law agreed on the matter, then whomever was responsible for the break-up would be jail bound. That's not the way it goes so, that aint the way it is. God can't prevent the marriages, and congress can't send your soul to hell. Let's keep it that way, huh?

I still have my web comic going.

Hell Sweet Hell! It's not just for breakfast anymore!

Remember a while back I made a bunch of DeviantArt style stamps? Well, I have an account at Zazzle.com (in case you didn't know or have forgotten) and they have the option to make images into legitimate U.S. postage.

If I was to make the stamps available as real postage, which designs would you like to see/buy? (pg or under rating, please.) The ones I see as most marketable are the following:

The Stamp!
Respect!
It's True You Know
The Ultimate Anti-Drug
Angry Little Monkey Club

Would anyone of you buy them? If so which is best?

Now back to your regularly scheduled porn surfing.

I won't say I fell off the wagon. I did this on purpose. I am once again among those who play World of Warcraft. I started back up with (hopefully) enough time to level my top characters to 55 and make me a Death Knight or three.

Well, the Wrath of the Lich King is now running as the world scenario, despite the fact that the game won't be running until November 13. Upside: cool new opening log-in screen with a dragon. Downside: I think the dragon ate the game because I haven't been able to log in since the update went "live."

I dunno which is worse, playing the game when you really don't want to or not being able to play when you really do.

I'm trying to expand my catalogue of photoshop techniques and I'm about to embark on a new larger scale project and to this end I need a little advice/assistance.

I use a lot of different techniques to introduce texture into my stuff and I'm looking to see what other techniques are used by other artists. What works best for you? Do you introduce your textures in full color or do you desaturate them or something in between? Do you apply textures to individual layers or as a top layer to your image?

I ask this because I'm not always happy with how my textures come out and the big project I'm about to embark upon is an order of magnitude more intense than my usual fare. Thanks for any artists out there who wish to assist and to anyone who reads this and knows an artist that they'd be able to point in my direction.

Check me out. Not enough sleep (what else is new) and I'm trying to do inks on a pic. I've been inking the Jiggly Bear pics at about 300 dpi and due to the fact that I have about three and a half hours sleep, my hands are jittering all over. I upped the resolution to 600 dpi and it seems to smooth the jitters out nicely. My eyes feel like they've been sanded. Anyway, working on the next Jiggly Bear, Elspeth. Pic should be up today or tomorrow.

I'm in a depressive mood. The wife's in Denmark for a while and I always get depressed when she's out of town. Depression makes me crave new or rarely heard music. I went looking for tracks, today and I downloaded three versions of Lil' Red Riding Hood and two of I Put A Spell On You.

Halloween's in the air and I feel a little better.

What music are you guys doing?

My wife is due for another out of town trip, soon, so we made sure to do a family outing this past weekend. We went to the movies to see the only real family movie playing at the moment: Igor.

I went in with no expectations. I saw the commercials and they looked good from an art standpoint but didn't really tell me how the story was going to be. After having seen it, I've come to the conclusion that the reason they didn't delve into the story in the commercial more than basic tone setting is that setting the tone was all the writers really did. The movie is about an hour and a half. Forty-five minutes in, I made no connection to the characters, was not really aware if the plot or the morally ambiguous setting/world actually had tried to reanimate the old "Don't judge a book by it's cover," chestnut or if, somewhere in there, there was a plot or moral that I had missed completely by trying to wring sense out of what I was seeing.

I won't synopsize it as I've already wasted enough of my life on this lack of a story. Why belabor the painful absence of story telling? The good part of the film: The art direction and animation were astounding. The attention to detail, the character and setting designs, the textures, my gods, the textures! This movie was like early Image comics (for anyone who remembers the big launch of the company): A bunch of artists got together and started making a movie, set in a Transylvania-esque setting only to realize about a month before they started promoting it that they didn't have a story, voice actors or writers. They hastily recruited these, had a quick preliminary plot made up (which they decided was "good enough") told John Cusack, "Hey, man. Be a lovable dork. You've got a lot of practice," told Eddie Izzard, "be a pretentious asshole, you've got a lot of practice," and told Molly Shannon, "Be a neurotic, unattractive, talentless, irritating puddle of whine, like usual."

The voice acting was unremarkable. The writing was nonexistent. The point or focal idea, whatever you want to call it, was sort of confusing. The main character, who was voiced by Cusack, wanted to be a bigger and more successful evil guy instead of serving an evil guy. I didn't know if I was supposed to be rooting for him or not.

If you are REALLY into 3d animation for its own sake, this movie is a triumph. Go and see it a lot. Bring your MP3 player to drown out the sucking noises and revel in the detail and beauty of it. Otherwise, wait until you can see it on TV for nothing in three or four years.

Before we start, we need to look here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/464978/

Okay, now that we know why there's a new bug in Pyro's metaphorical ass, here's what I have to say about it:

The culture of entitlement is the nature of many areas of the modern era. People think that because freedom of speech has been ground into their bones, especially since the advent of the internet, that somehow freedom of speech has grown to the next level: The Right To Be Listened To. There is no such right, for anyone who has yet to realize it.

I, as a human being, have the right to speak freely on any subject without criminal prosecution, as long as I don't incite a riot or foment anarchy. This also entitles others, upon hearing my free speech to speak against me or, even more of a radical idea, ignore me for being a loudmouthed crackpot who talks out his ass. When you speak your mind, that's covered by laws in most modern governments. There's no law saying that the whiny bastards have to receive attention or have their speech acted upon by anyone. The need to "shut up the loud and embarrassing child" is near the top of the list of what's gone wrong with our society. When your kid doesn't get their way, they throw a tantrum. If you give them what they want, they throw a tantrum every time they want something. Eventually, you get nothing but tantrum from them and it's your fault for promoting it by giving them what they want simply for behaving as though they were an asshole. Parents with no momentary patience to deal with tantrum-ing kids have created a society fraught with whiny, self-important, self-indulgent prudes with a need for immediate gratification and zero consideration for the opinions of others. "I don't want to see it, so, no one else should be able to, either. Why would any sane person want anything I don't?" Add to that the relative anonymity of the internet and you've got a situation like what currently exists in the inquisition known as DeviantArt.

Rather than spending some time investigating the complaints about "Mature Content," the DA mods just label or remove anything that gets complained about, almost immediately. They don't make people discuss things. They don't try to come to any kind of accord between the artist and the one making the complaint. They just "shut that damn kid up, now!" And we wonder why there are religious nutters programming ranting about "morality" and "intelligent design." It's because if they took the time to look for answers, spent the required patience and engaged the brain, it'd, eventually, give people some real answers, but that hardly shuts up the screaming babies right now, does it?

...Since that last journal pissed off and got agreement in roughly equal measure, I'll call it a wash and post a different journal.

Are there any Mac Hall fans out there, besides me? Ian McConville is one of the guys who inspired me to do digital colours and was the driving force behind the art of Mac Hall. Now he and the writer, Matt Boyd, have moved on to do Three Panel Soul. It's more artsy and experimental and has some moments of autobiographical stuff, but it still has top notch art. Case in point.

If you don't get the joke, you either don't play WoW or are uninformed about the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Either way, just look at the art.

Maybe it's the change in the seasons. Maybe there's something hormonal that goes in a seasonal cycle for me. I don't know. Now it's time for me to do some talking again.

Has anyone else noticed the amount of shitty "art" that goes up around here? I made the mistake, today, of clicking the "browse" link on the main page to see if I could spot some new, undiscovered talent. I went through four pages before I found something (3d renders and photos notwithstanding) that didn't look like it was drawn by a six year old, holding a pencil clenched between their ass cheeks. What the fuck? I know there's some talent hereabouts but is the need to do mediocre, self-masturbatory pornographic shit so strong that you don't bother trying to learn your craft before inflicting it upon the rest of the world?

I am by no means saying I'm one of the best out there, but I paid my dues. I labored in obscurity for years, decades even, before I subjected the masses to my artistic offerings. Everything that is done in an artistic fashion is not necessarily ready for human consumption. You need to look at your art and compare it to that of some other artists. If yours doesn't compare to something you'd like to look at, maybe you aren't ready yet!

I'm not saying don't try. Not even close. Try, by all means, to get better. Post something every now and again but the fecal heap of "art" that splatters the so-called art communities is nothing short of shameful. When I was an infant, I shit myself. Regularly. My parents didn't post it on a bulletin board in the neighborhood so people could see how skilled I was at it. They never even thought to mention the situation to people until I got over that part of the experience and started using a damned toilet for my damnable excretions.

See, the point of that little diversion was to inject a moral to my high-handed rantings: When you're done producing shit for the public forum, feel free to start sharing your accomplishments with the rest of the world. If you can't stop shitting in public, perhaps you could try to contain it somewhere where the rest of us aren't subjected to it quite so readily. Perhaps shame for lack of ability or inability to grow as an artist should keep you suppressed until you have matured enough and developed both your skill and your talent to a point where others wish to share in the experience. Not everyone is good at everything and if you enjoy it you should continue to do it, that doesn't mean your mediocrity gets to share space with real artists who've paid their dues. I enjoy a good wank from time to time. This does not make me a porn star, so I don't sell videos of it.

If you have the urge to draw and a wish to get better, that's great. Find a mentor, find a friend who has some ability and share it with them but this, boys and girls, is not your mommy's refrigerator. We don't want to see digital equivalents of finger paintings of stick figures. Get your shit straight and then feel free to show us things of beauty. Perhaps if you can't create things of beauty, this is not your point of creative outlet and you should look into some other form of expression. Maybe you should just wring your thing out somewhere where I don't ever have to see it.

Thank you.

Now that it's out there, I think Gabe and Tycho pretty much said it for me.

I don't know what the hell Microsoft ad guys were thinking.