I feel like I don't know what day it is today...All I know is that I have to work and I don't want to. I'm getting tired of Macy's, its not hard by any stretch of the imagination. Its just boring and meaningless. I haven't drawn in days either, I usually don't go this long without drawing. I guess its also the fact that I'm working when everyone else is off. Or at least my friends and fiancee. Honestly I don't know how anyone could make a life style of working retail. Especially when you are open all hours of the day. I am glad to have a job though. However I do also feel like I'm wasting my time. Ok time to end this before it gets too depressing.

So while surfing the net I came across Onaholes I think this is just funny as hell. Still I know some dudes must buy them out of burning curiousity. Hell it would be cool to have one in my art studio just hanging around to freak people out. Of course you would have to dust it off often...or rather let it get dusty.

I like Soundgarden's Down on the Upside better than Badmotorfinger. Although BadMotorfinger has some of my favorite Soundgarden songs like Jesus Christ Pose, Outshined and Rusty Cage lets be honest and admit that the album totally loses momentum after the the first half. While Down on the Upside is just one great song after another. I sorta wish that I had paid more attention to Soundgarden at Lollapaloza 96' instead of the girl that I was talking to. Because even though I think that they will reunite its never the same. I count myself as lucky to have seen some of my favorite bands at their peak. I wish I could say the same of Soundgarden. Then again they were sort of burnt out by that time so I guess I might not have missed much.

I know some of you know about The Society for Creative Anachronism. When I had first heard about the SCA when I was 12 or so I thought that it sounded pretty interesting and cool. However, having discovered more about it as an adult; I just think its sort of weird. It seems to attract a certain type of person, a new stereotype. A stereotype without a name. These people tend to be a) gamers (this actually makes a lot of sense) b) pagans ( sort of makes sense, but not really*) c) Polyamorous( this makes no sense whatsoever) d) Bisexual( again where is the link? ) e) Bad fashion sense( I can see this, see a) for the reason)

Can any of you shed any light on this for me? Is there a name for this type of person? This is a subculture that I was pretty ignorant of until I got on LJ. But I have to confess that when I see a person write about ren fairs or SCA I check their profile and 8 times out of 10 they are polypagan and maybe Bi. I just want to know why? I understand the gaming thing. It makes sense if you have played D&D you might want to actually swing a replica sword. You might want to dress up in a hose and tunic. The pagan thing? Again this goes hand in hand with D&D. How people express their sexuality? I don't see the connection. I really don't. I think that fenmere should do some investigative reporting. I think that he is really good in front of a camera...as is ninjaguydan but fenmere is a much better striaght man so it would be even more entertaining.

So that was my silly thought for the night.

Good night.

* The pagans were actually put to the sword in the dark ages. 99% of the people were christians of some sort. Except for the Vikings, but even they became christians after the 10th century I believe. Yet you don't hear about christian SCA people. Then again it is called the Society for Creative Anachronism....

Right now I've picked up something I that pretty much had just hanging around my drawing board for the last two months. When I started work on it, I just felt that it was going to suck. The drawing had a lot of problems that I felt I couldn't solve. So I left it on the drawing board....But then I thought well, no one other than my fiancee had to see it. And the only reason that she might is it is that my drafting table is in the living room. I have to remind myself that its okay to fail. But I don't have to like it! Also that its good to fail every once in awhile because you tend to learn more from failure than from success.

That game that I was telling you about Gamma Bros. just rules. Seriously download it now! For you fellow Mac users download this to use your gamepad to play since playing with a keyboard sucks. And when you configure your analog joystick just remember to reverse the directions for the x and y axis. So the x axis would be right arrow then left arrow, y down then up arrows. Have fun!

So I fixed the problem with my Wacom tablet. I simply smacked it against my chair's arm a few times. I found something on the net that suggexted that the nib was jammed. So I have saved $30 buck. And now I can attempt to create some pixel art!

So the reason that I was using the Wacom Tablet earlier and thereby descovering that the pen was fucked; was that I was trying my hand at pixel art. Because I want to create a cool retro game. Which has been done before and done well by Cave Story Which if you haven't played, you should. Its one of the best platform games ever. The best platform game in my mind though is Black Tiger it was an arcade game that you could actually beat! I can't say enough about that game.

So after playing the cool but flawed Castlevania games for the NES, I though I'd try my hand at it. So while looking up info on the net I found this game Gamma bros., this game is pretty damn awesome as well. Sadly I can't play it with my gamepad and it hurts to play with my keyboard. But I thought that I'd share. Pixel Jam also has a few other games so check the site out here.

Don't say I never did anything for you : )

Does anyone else have a wacom tablet? I've had mine for around 3 years or so, I've never really had any problems with it until this morning. I was trying to do some pixel art work when I noticed that the pen wouldn't stop drawing if I pulled up from the tablet. It even would draw if the pen was a few centimeters off the tablet. The tablet itself seems to work fine with the mouse, because I use it all of the time, its just the pen that is acting up. I tried deleteing the preference file and that didn't help. I also installed the latest driver. I'm starting to think that I might need a new pen, which really wouldn't be that bad since my pen is getting gross looking anyway.

Anyone have any advice or tips.

Thanks in advance!

Seriously derbyartist looks like he has been working for the New Yorker for the past 40 years! But he is only 21. Unlike hughferriss people already seem to know that he is awesome. Great stuff, honestly I don't know when he got good, it just seemed to happen. Most guys you kinda see the progression, but with this guy its just there. Go check it out.

Last year I finished my election comic after Obama won and this year I finished my Halloween drawing a few days after halloween.



Honestly it bugs the shit out of me to put the whole picture behind a cut. Because honestly what is so wrong with nudity? But someone might be looking at their friends page at work and their co workers or bosses might be uptight fucks.

( Because some people are uptight fucks. )

I found master_post on here and while I was looking through his journal I came upon a Frank Miller post with " The Philistine". A classic short comic he did back in the day. Check it out here.

Other than Super Metroid and Zelda are there any other cool Super Nintendo games other there? I wasn't too impressed with Super Castlevania or Super Marioland.

Also what is a good nes emulator for macs?

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't get along with the California state legislature and let them know it...Subliminally.

Check out what he wrote in response to a bill he recieved.

Here.

In 12 years, Antoine Walker made more than $110 million playing professional basketball moderately well. Take away taxes, throw in some adidas endorsement money and , a "NBA '99 Live" cover and he's left with, what, $60-to-65 million?
Whatever the details, it was a big chunk of change, which, amazingly, it wasn't enough. That's right, during the last several months, the once multi-millionaire athlete has been pursued by multiple financial institutions for unpaid debts.
In fact, according to The Boston Globe, "Employee No. 8" owes more than $4 million to his creditors and is facing felony check fraud charges in Las Vegas. All of this at the age of 33. Wild.
Now I know what you're thinking: How in the world does somebody not named Montgomery Brewster even begin to blow through that amount of money?
The answer: fairly easy.
"[Walker] liked to move in an outsized entourage; his mother estimates that, during his playing days, he was supporting 70 friends and family members in one way or another. And speaking of his mother, he built her a mansion in the Chicago suburbs, complete with an indoor pool, 10 bathrooms, and a full-size basketball court. [...]
Living at the Bishops Forest condominium complex in Waltham during the Celtics season, Walker turned the pavement surrounding his home into a virtual luxury car lot — two Bentleys, two Mercedes, a Range Rover, a Cadillac Escalade, a bright red Hummer. Often, the vehicles were tricked out with custom paint jobs, rims, and sound systems at considerable added expense. He also collected top-line watches — Rolexes and diamond-encrusted Cartiers."
Condos, luxury cars, watches ... I guess that'll eventually force you into bankruptcy. Especially when you're not investing any money or collecting $200 with every fifth or sixth roll of the die.
But Walker's lavish lifestyle wasn't all "me-me-me." He was also a generous friend and teammate who had custom suits made for coaches, routinely picked up giant team dinner tabs and, when there were funds to spare, gave to underprivileged youngsters. He was basically spending money like it was going out of style.
And it did.
I guess Biggie was right after all: mo' money, mo' problems.

Orginal article here.
So yeah I feel bad for this dude because he spent his money taking care of his family a few friends and a bunch of leechs. People who are nowhere to be found now that the good times are over... Now I know some of you are going "Good those altheles make too much damn money anyway". To which I say to you what about the CEO's that make insane amounts of money, even if they do a bad job? Even if they outsource a lot of jobs, further eroding our ( american) economy? Nobody talks about them. And if sports stars are making so much money what about the people behind them? Why is no one mad at the team owners? Because trust me those dudes are really raking it in. But no you people are too short sighted and go for the easy target.

Everytime I go on facebook I feel like my IQ drops. Seriously facebook is really dumb in my opinion. Its like Livejournal lite. But I use it to share stuff with family so I do get on it every once in awhile. I feel like no one really says anything at all of any sort of consequence. Its all quizs and stupid status updates. I really don't know how people are feeling, what they are thinking or who they really are. At least with LJ you tend to get a feel for people for better or worse. You get to hear their thoughts and opinions. Facebook is like Idiocracy come to life.

Don't get me started on Twitter...

So I checked my hard drive status like a good mac user and I got a repair your hard drive with disk utility. The first problem really is that my cd/dvd drive is in need of repair. Yeah I guess I could shell out the cash and just get an external one. Which brings me to problem number two. I don't have an OSX 4 install disk. I just have the disk that came with the computer. So do I actually need the OSX 4 install disk or can I use the one that cmae with the computer itself?

I have a powerbook 1GHz PPC G4 with OSX4.11

And here is the message that I got. ( cut for largish image )

So any advice would be helpful. Thanks for your time : ) BTW my computer seems to be running just fine, I'm worried about the future though.

I've been pondering why I feel so strongly about good and bad art lately. Why does it bother me so that artists out there are lazy about their art. Or rather why does it bother me when they don't take it as seriously as I do. And I do take it seriously. Its like the scene from Pulp Fiction when the get away cab driver asks Butch about how he felt about killing a man in the ring. That is how I feel about art. I don't care if lives are ruined or feeling are hurt. If you aren't serious about it then don't step in the ring.

A bit extreme..yeah.

But then again you didn't have to endure my first semester in art school. I had a teacher that would make students cry on a regular basis. " Oh did I break your concentration". She was like that hard. I'd have a headache by the end of every class. I had her at least 3 days of the week and often for at least 3 hours of the day. It was hellish. You would be trying your best to do a great drawing while you were worried that she wouldn't like what you were doing.

And the weird part? She liked me, she called me a true artist which was the highest praise that you could get out of her. But she said that I wasn't really an illustrator, which was fine with me. Because at least she knew that I was serious about what I was doing.

Now that I look back on it I almost feel like it was a traumatic experience, sort of like what movies make basic training out to be. Honestly I don't know if it was worth it, but it definitely shaped me. I reinforced that art was serious business, life or death serious. In fact it wasn't much fun after that. I didn't stop drawing, but I didn't like going to class as much. I guess her classes really let you know how you felt about art. The fact that i could find joy in the middle of that shit storm is prtetty amazing. But I definitely had moments where it was just me, the paper and the model.

I should also say that I grew to dislike most of my classmates. And the feeling was mutual. So yeah i feel like I have paid a lot of dues. Every artist does really in one way or another. You will suffer for your art. But I will have to say that its worth it. Because I can really get a sense of how far I've come with it. Which to most isn't that far at all, but its enriched my life and given me purpose. You can't really ask for more than that.

So yeah now you know something else about me that you might not have before.

Why do once great artists start to suck. I guess this could be related to my last post about why some artists never get better. Although that was more about amateur artists. This is about pro's like Boris Vallejo. I used to love that dudes 70's and 80's work. Now... yuck I can't stand it. John Byrne is like that as well, back in the day he could do no wrong. Now? his comics are pretty sad. Although the commissions that he does are pretty tight.

Some artists keep getting better like Gil Kane, George Perez or Larry Elmore*. But most start to suck or they never get better which I guess is just as bad. I guess this really applies to bands even more than artists. A lot of the musicians that I liked fell off big time.

* My friend that has that Elmore painting doesn't like his new stuff. But I still think he is getting better. Part of that is that we grew up on all of the TSR artists back in the day and nothing tends to be as cool as it was when you were 12.