Okay, first of all, how are you?

Now that the pleasantries are covered, I need to know a few things.

My online store that I'm going to open once I've solved my ugly production problems can have anything I want to put into it. I'm thinking of selling stickers and perhaps prints and other things (calendars, art books, etc), And I'd like to know what you guys would like to see there.

Would you like my stamps available as stickers? Should I sell them as groups of designs or single design sheets and what would be the optimal number of stickers per pacakage?

Would you like some prints of my stuff you see here or at DeviantArt?

What would you like to see that I haven't mentioned?

I set up the store as a way of trying to share my ideas with the world and I would like to make money with it but I'd like to make people happy too. The best way for me to do that is to ask people, whose opinions I trust, what they'd like from me.

It's your chance to help out a guy who'd like to be something be that thing. Thanks for caring.

(EDIT: WARNING! THE FOLLOWING JOURNAL ENTRY CONTAINS SOME OVERT SENTIMENTALITY. THE CALLOUS, COLD-HEARTED AND SUPER MANLY MEN SHOULD NOT GO BEYOND THIS DISCLAIMER!)


I watched V for Vendetta the other day. I really dig the movie, and despite his protestations to the contrary, I really believe that the movie captured Alan Moore's idea pretty well.

I'm a generally passionate person. I keep it bottled up because if I don't I become overwhelmed with the ebb and flow of every day emotion, but I really am quite passionate. You may think that I'm some angry little monkey that flings handfuls of sarcasm and spite, and if you do, that's good. It's an image I've worked really hard to promote. It means I've been doing my job.

Just so you know for sure, who you're really talking to when you note me or post a comment, my favorite part of the movie "V for Vendetta" is a single line that breaks me down like a kid every time I hear it.

"What I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that though I do not know you and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you."

This is what Jesus meant. This is what Buddha meant. This is what Krishna meant. This is what so many other great people in history have meant to say and have been misinterpreted and misquoted and misunderstood and misrepresented.

This is what I mean when I say that something you said was, "cool," or, "I agree." I know who my friends are and who are not my friends. I know how few and far between real friends are and that you can be surrounded by your "friends" and be totally alone, or a thousand miles away and communicating over a super thin fiber optic cable and in truly good company. Thanks for being there.

What inspires you most to do whatever creative thing you do?

For me it tends to be anger, frustration and outrage.

But I got myself involved in a "Samurai vs. Knight" discussion on some other journal. Gods help me. Only one person responded to my well thought out and considered answer, and he made a point of using scattered information and irrelevant references to try to "disprove" my opinion. (Get that? O-P-I-N-I-O-N!) I don't remember the old axiom, "when logic fails, find the exception and use it as a talisman to argue the facts into submission, right? Who needs fact or even educated conjecture, when I could throw out fifty pounds of rhetoric and look smart to other uninformed people who don't care enough to research it themselves?" No offense, guys but every time I falter in my "Don't get involved," attitude about debating on "t3h internets," I come to this conclusion again: I hate people. Even more than that, I come to this conclusion: Fuckin' know-it-all, know-nothing teenagers!!

This isn't a blanket philosophy toward teens in general. The ones I know well were well worth getting to know, however, there's a fair cross section of this demographic that have, "read a book, once," or,"know a guy," and, well, that makes them a god damned expert on whatever subject is at hand. I've said it around here before, I'll say it again: It is better to remain silent and look the fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Mark Twain.

The worst of the aforementioned situation is, I'm not sure the guy is a teen, but when I get drawn into a pissing contest for no valid reason, my first instinct says, "This guy is sixteen, tops." My second instinct says, "This guy has a little dick and no friends and has to win at something in his pathetisad life. I'll bow out before I feel the urge to make him appear as dumb as he really seems to be."

I think I'll put away my soapbox now.

As an aspiring comic artist and artist in general, I feel the need to mention that a comics legend died over this weekend past. Mike Wieringo created the comic series Tellos which had a number of furry characters and a really homespun feel to it. It felt like a comic idea that was not quite ready to read when I first saw it. The art was amazing but I stopped buying it because the story wasn't its strong point. I like comics with story. I stopped buying it for years and every time I'd see a new issue I'd think, someday they'll collect it and I'll buy more. I hadn't even known the name "Wieringo" or "Ringo" yet.

I really haven't collected or bought many comics in years and I kept seeing these sumptuous covers done for Flash featuring a character I later knew to be Impulse. This is one of my favorite character designs in comics history. I never bought an issue. I didn't want to get caught up in drawn out storylines and crossovers and this was the flavor of the month in comic publishing so I avoided contact with Mr. Wieringo's work.

I rediscovered his work, and finally put a name to the art, yesterday when I first read on the PVP site that he'd died. I've discovered who one of my favorite artists is, and it's after he's gone.

I don't often mourn. I don't go to funerals or wakes. I see them as barbaric old rituals that have no place in the modern world. I don't feel loss over many deaths, but Mike Wieringo's passing feels like a part of all that's beautiful in the world has gone away and will never return again.

He had so much left to do...

Nothing huge going on. I've recently fed my Galactic Heroes collecting obsession. If anyone's interested, just ask.

Check out the deviant art page for Jolly Jack. This is the guy I referred you to the other day that does Sequential Art. Thought you might want to see more of his stuff.

I adjusted my commission info. Prices went up a little, but I'll still be maintaining the same level of skill and professionalism you could always expect from me.

For more info on my new prices, check my Commission Info page.

LOOK AT THIS NOW!!! Seriously. Sexy cat, squirrel and rabbit girl in Sequential Art, not to mention all the other crazy shit.

How is it that so many kick-ass artists have escaped my notice for so damned long?

You should check out his comic and his artwork. I think I may've found a candidate for some comic page coloring.

Still workin' on commissions as anyone watchin' me can tell. I'm dying to try out some new color stuff I've picked up from Hawk. Once I make or find an inked comic page that suits me, I'm gonna color it.

I'm still workin' on learnin' how to screen print properly. Once I get it right and can reliably produce t-shirts of the highest quality, my store will be open for business.

And finally, if I wasn't married already, I'd be off hunting these two lovely ladies. Wouldn't you? You aren't married yet? What the hell are you waiting for?

Pokemon is still frustrating. And funny.

Or so I'm told.

If that's not your cup of tea, maybe you should look over here, instead.

You should check this out I just finished listening to it and it was pretty damned interesting. A couple of new takes on a favorite subject of mine by a master of horror, and a really smooth performance. It's roughly three and a half hours of audio, but very interesting. Burn it to disk and listen to it on the drive to and from work or stick it on an mp3 player and go sit in the park some sunny afternoon and listen. Good stuff.

Also, if you can't find a converter to make it mp3 player friendly, get it here. It requires a sign up and a bittorrent client.

On Friday. I was gonna post something about it before now, but FurAffinity went away with no warning. I am aware it was all able to be found at furaffinity.info, but that's hardly common knowledge to people who can't get to the forums without visiting the main page. Why make a post if most of the people who would be interested aren't around to see it?

Anyway, the book is easily the best of the series. I'm not into posting spoilers. I had a friend once who used to see movies before me on a regular basis and would tell me the ending, like the only reason I had to see the movie was for the ending. I stopped being friends with him. It may have involved fireworks and the place he slept. It's all kind of hazy. I've drifted again, haven't I?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a book that is much less about Harry Potter and the wizarding world than it is a general lesson of understanding. Each of the books has had an overt theme; some of them have been more overt than others. The theme in this book is a bit more obscure. The real theme is that everyone is a person. Everyone is good and bad, selfish and generous, courageous and cowardly. No person who doesn't have both negative and positive aspects is a real person. The book reads quickly (I finished it in a day and a couple hours) and has some definitively great moments. There are things that have been hanging over the series for a long time that have been glossed over for years that are finally brought up and resolved in this one. There are questions that are treated as the background material that they truly are. J.K Rowling has matured as a writer since the inception of the series, back in 1997, and this is, if not her greatest piece of writing in her career (which has a long time to grow and continue or dwindle and die) is certainly the deepest and best penned piece in the HP continuum.

Ms. Rowling has made a lot of money off of this idea, because she brought something back to the world that has long been forgotten: Children's entertainment doesn't have to talk down to kids. An idea that is truly entertaining isn't for kids or adults. Real entertainment is good for all comers. People don't need entertainment tailored from them. Entertainment comes as it comes and if it challenges the viewer/reader/consumer it forces them to grow. It's in this growth that J.K. Rowling has struck gold all over the world, with the series in general and with this book itself.

While HP may not be everybody's cup of tea (obviously, not everyone is into fantasy novels or wizarding schools) it can't really be said that it hasn't brought something back to the world that has been absent for a long time: Common experience. Common experience transcends the particulars of your life and gives all people involved a shared frame of reference. This can lead to people learning to see past their differences to find their similarities, kids reading because they want to and even fewer wars. When was the last time christian, or any form of, for that matter, fundamentalism could lay claim to any of those?

Remember kids: the root word of "fundamental" is "mental." Either that or "fundament" which is a synonym for ass. Whatever.

Somebody suggest some stuff for me to draw!!!

And it doesn't cost you anything. My brother did some special effects work for a movie in a myspace contest.

Here's the contest page!

The name of the movie he worked on is Ruthless. Please vote for it each day. As of right now, Ruthless is in a close second. If my brother wins, it looks good on a resumee and as a special effects wiz, just starting out, every little bit counts. Thanks for supporting.

Downside, you have to be a member of Myspace, to vote.


Thanks guys.

P.S.: Vote early and vote often. (you can vote every day.)

I've made myself an animated avatar.

I have a project I have wanted to get underway for years and I need someone who's talented at the doll/plush making end of functional stitchery to contact me. I needs me a prototype or three or so. If you know personally (I don't need somebody's yahoo/aim/msn contact info. I could track them down on my own if I was going for that.), or are yourself, said person, let me know. I will come to some sort of arrangement with you on terms of payment, etc... This is a really cool idea that plays to the G rated side of the furry community.

Here's what happens:

Harry realizes that he's a normal disaffected teenager and, as such, isn't really a wizard but has actually been wacked out of his mind on mushrooms. Ron is a cardboard standup of Mick Jagger that stands in the corner of Harry's bedroom and Hagrid is actually a tree that grows outside of his window. Snape is real and is a bum who lives in the garbage bin about a block away from Harry's house. Voldemort is an angry french guy who always tries to stop Harry from stealing his mushrooms. Hermione Grainger is actually a witch who finds Harry and carries him home one late night when he's passed out in the middle of a road. The climax of the book is where Harry stands up from his stupor while Hermione is getting dressed and yells, "Capital knockers, Madame!" and then vomits on her cat.

Harry kills Ron (Mick Jagger cutout), his pet toad, Neville, and Voldemort and goes to a home for the criminally insane where he gets clean and is discharged in twenty years to open a hotel and dress like his mother while killing women as they drift through town.



At least, it's not as ridiculous as the other things I've seen about it.

Today is my birthday.

I got DVDs of Clerks II and Die Hard 3. I am all bloaty with the afterglow of my favorite home-cooked meal. Not a bad birthday.

I saw Transformers and as long as you don't expect too much of it, it's not a bad movie. In fact, it's pretty good.

I have an idea I'm trying to develop past the idea phase for some 3D animation/comics: the Littlest Samurai. Expect some painful sketch posts.

I am tired. SO very tired. Anyway, that is all. Breckenridge.

Muffins. They're all full of tasty goodness. In my morning wanderings today, I realize that I have forgotten to eat breakfast and I am quite hungry. I wander into a gas station that has a tiny Tim Horton's in it. For you non- Canadians, Tim Horton's is like Dunkin Donuts, but not crappy. I am trying to eat a bit healthier, so instead of getting the obvious donuts, I get a pair of blueberry muffins and a sweet iced coffee drink (yum. Ice Cap.). I then head out to a park and grab a bench to eat my muffins in the peaceful surroundings and warm sunlight and chill for a bit.

I take my first bite and press my back into the backrest of the bench, contented and happy, ( I might have smiled. there may have been some upward curling at the corners of my chewing mouth.) when I notice something out of the corner of my eye. I look to my right, and on the other end of the bench is a grizzled old squirrel sitting up on his haunches and looking deeply, nay, imploringly into my eyes. I clutch the muffin I'm eating closer, in an obvious, "My muffin," gesture, that, in retrospect should've been accompanied with a hiss. Message recieved: No freebies. the squirrel hops down from the bench and I assume he's gone. There's a dog park visible from where I sit. I'm watching a couple of dogs wrestling over who's stick it is when my spider-sense begins to tingle. I look to my right and the squirrel has opened and is peering into my bag that contains my other muffin. "Hey, what the fuck?" The squirrel glances up and starts to reach into the bag. I snatch the bag and he retreats a step. I wave my hand at him, thinking, "Squirrels are chicken-shits for the most part, he's gonna bolt." He sniffs my hand, actually touching his nose to it as it whips past. I slap the backrest and he backs off another step. I start to look away from him and he sidles up and begins sniffing my Ice Cap. Turns out crinkling paper is WAY scarier than a possible punch in the face. I swing the bag toward him and he bolts.

As I start on my second muffin, he jumps onto the backrest and perches inches away from my shoulder. I took a full open handed swing. Now I'm more than a little miffed. I get up and chase him, stomping like a giant that might be slain by a well intentioned young lad named, perhaps, Jack. I chased the little fucker to a tree and up it. Normally I love squirrels, even begging squirrels, but I have to draw a line somewhere.

I'm stuck in this headspace now. I don't know what's more ludicrous, the fact that I was nearly mugged by a squirrel, or the fact that I wanted to have a fist-fight with one.

On an entirely unrelated note, on the 3D subject, I need to pick the brain of anyone who's versed in advanced modeling. I have Maya, 3dsMax, Lightwave and Blender at my disposal, should I need them. Which is the best for this task?

Okay. What's going on in my life?

Stuff.

What am I doing?

Things.

I saw the Harry Potter movie today. Due to some circumstances beyond my (guru-like) control, I haven't a single clue whether or not I liked it. Okay, the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix experience summed up: I go in way too early because it's fucking hot outside and I hear that there's this place called indoors that's air conditioned. I have 40 minutes before the early showing starts. I'm sitting there drinking something akin to a frappucino (Crappachino for me bunghole) and I get surprise number one: (Warning: Spoilers ahead!) people are fucking assholes. (End spoiler alert.) There's a group of early twenty somethings in the seats behind and immediately to my right. They all have their feet up on the seats which, apparently they are unaware are attached to my seat. They are cute but excruciatingly whiny bitches, one of whom says, every thirty seconds or so and in the whiniest voice achievable by modern shitty human breeding, "When is Harry Potter gonna start!?" Every time they get bored, excited, unhappy, happy, giggly, sad, afraid, hungry or any other state a human being can achieve, they use the seat backs as their own private applause meter. The nice gentleman who did the oh-so-thorough search of my backpack (I have ADD. This means I need constant entertainment. Magazines, mp3 player, etc.) keeps making eyes at the aforementioned cute girls and ignoring the fact that they're being assholes. This goes right on through the movie. The movie finally starts, and of course, the girls couldn't find and fellatiate Daniel Radcliffe so they had to continue kicking the seat backs and headrests with a vigor usually reserved for fellating Daniel Radcliffe.

Apparently, Harry Potter is some sort of wizard or something who has adventures. He has friends and people who don't like him. People do magic and fly around on brooms. Somebody cries. Somebody cheers. Wands go SHOOOOM!. Hope I didn't spoil it for anyone.

So, that (apparent) anathema of the twenty-something asshole brain, "plot development," begins and the kicking becomes more frantic. I turn and say, "I'm sorry. You must not have noticed that my seat appears to be attached to your footrest, so could we give the kicking a rest before I become a shade unpleasant?" There is a quick murmured apology and then I get the worst case of movie theater bladder in the history of the malady.

I get up. Mind you, this is the middle of the movie. I hate doing that. I sat through every theatrical and even the extended DVDs of Lord of the Rings without a whisper from the bladder department. This time, however, one hour and six minutes seems to be the cut off. I make my way to the (ug) facilities and proceed to pee for what seems to be forever. The nature of movie theater bladder is to empty slowly and repeatedly give the impression of being done only to start back up. After what feels like an eternity, I return to my seat. Apparently the girls had found a new supply of sugar because my seat felt like one of those vaguely obscene massaging chairs when I got back. That wasn't the obvious problem at this point. I apparently had nodded off in the bathroom, standing up at a urinal, no less, or become hypnotized by the continuous stream of whiz that droned slowly past like the lines on some god-forsaken stretch of desert highway, because it appears that I have missed something like five chapters worth of story. I'm confused, I'm uncomfortable, despite the lumbar cycle having started, and now, I'm not having a good time any longer.

All in all, from what I could actually focus on, this was a pretty good movie. I dunno how it compares to the second or fourth ones (my faves in the movie series) but it seems alright. I'll say again, though, people are assholes.

Also, in other news, I am now beginning to do character modeling in 3ds max. I'm also looking into Blender. I've had some limited success with 3ds max, but I won't subject you folk to that kind of crap. You've done me no harm, with the glaring exception of  universallord who keeps stealing my water.

And Ratatouille was feckin' hilarious. I laughed harder at that than any cg movie and even enjoyed it more than any previous Pixar flick.

I haven't seen the Transformers yet.

...Check out my brother's blogspot page!

Click the ads if they interest you in any way. Dude's tryin' to get paid.

Years and years ago, I inspired him toward special effects. It was , at one point, my life's dream to be a special effects artist.

For any interested parties, Coming soon!

Who would win in a fight? Wolverine vs. Batman.

Ponder that.