My New Hat!

I love Bowler Hats.  They make me think of The Avengers.  You know, the old black and white british tv show, as opposed to the Marvel comics superhero team.  It's probably because I don't have a very strong culture or style to fall back on that I cherry pick interesting cultural props from other countries.  I suppose there's the whole 'southern gentleman' kind of like Colonel Sanders.  But there is the whole British coolness thing that you just can't deny.  I guess I'm just trying to justify my weird love for bowler hats.

Joy of Persuasion

I have a new blog.  It's called Joy of Persuasion.  If you like the 'mature' selections from my DeviantArt page then you'll love the new blog.  Otherwise I would recommend you steer clear.  I've taken the 'mature' tag off this blog as I'll be using it for more general topics.

Clay

Purchased a pound of clay at the local art supply store. It's a lot smaller than you'd think. I'm working out of a book on creating fantasy figures in clay. It's an awesome book that takes you through the whole process step by step. The clay was way too soft to begin with, so the book gave a technique for leaching the softening ingredients out of the clay by squeezing it between sheets of paper.

I won't be able to work on it again 'till tomorrow night, but it feels stiffer as I'm putting it away. I'm excited that I'm progressing towards making people and DnD characters with clay.


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Content Change

I've adjusted the settings on the blog.  Most of the links I noticed that still pointed to my old defunct website have now been adjusted to point to my deviant art page.

I've also adjusted the content to 'adult' since I plan to post the racy posts that can't be posted on DeviantArt.  I'm a little on the fence about that, since I'd like to post my stories with a more general appeal.  I hate decisions like this.  Maybe I'll maintain separate blogs.  I dunno.  I could post the more vanilla blog posts to DeviantArt I guess, since it comes with it's own built in blog.

Blogging from my iPhone

I'm trying a new blogging app in the hopes that I'll post more often. It's working today. Tomorrow is another story. :)


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Look a new post.

Wow, I still remember the password for my blog. Awesome.

I've decided to try and start blogging again. I'm not confident about the look of the blog in general, there are so many other really awesome designs that people are using. I really should try something more imaginative than basic black. Although, if you can't think of anything else black seems like a good place to start.

Anna is sitting across from me saying "I can't do it" as she's playing Lego Indiana Jones. I feel like I've lived for a while with that thought bouncing around in my head about everything I try to do. So she comes by it honestly. Perhaps it's time for a change.

-j

Moving?

Ok, so with the hit to the economy and the soon to be paycut at work I'm looking to cut expenses. What this also means is that I'll probably be moving the page. I'm going to work at re-posting the art and stuff at my deviant art account: jallen327.deviantart.com. That's the first step. If that sucks too much then perhaps I'll re-evaluate. The Yahoo account that powers the down-time.org page costs me $20/month. Not a ton, but not free either. Moving the site to deviant art will probably be for the best. Traffic has fallen off at down-time.org given how seldom I update. Hopefully a community like Deviant Art will be better for exposure and my wallet.

This blog will stick around, mainly 'cause it's free. I may look into changing the name, to get away from the whole Down-time thing.

I'll post some generic redirection page once I've got things up on Deviant Art and I'm ready to make the move.

Seemed like a good idea

I'm trying to cut down on my xbox usage, and do good things like exercise, blog, write and draw. So far it's only kind of working.

So the other day I thought it would be cool to combine activities. So this afternoon I setup my xbox at the end of my treadmill. Now I can play while I walk. The downside is: this is really (dangerously) disorienting. Hopefully I'll get used to running in the game and walking in real life soon. Because it's either that or I'm going to develop a serious balance disorder or I'll fall and hurt myself, maybe both. After the dizziness subsides I'm sure I'll decide that falling wouldn't be so bad after all.

There are some minor tweaks to the experience that I'm working on. First, I keep zapping the controller while I walk. I can't imagine the static electricity is good for the xbox. I'm switching to the wireless controller, which I presume will solve the static problem. Secondly the headphones I started using leave a lot to be desired. Now I have a different pair of headphones with built in volume adjustment. So now the experience is as good as it's going to get. If all else fails I can always put in a DVD and just watch a movie instead of trying to control a video game character while I'm exercising.

My Personality

Ok, so I did the whole personality test thing and added a gadget/widget to the bottom of the blog. I always score way out to the INFP extreme on these things. I've read the INFP profile they have on the Personality site. It's pretty spot on, except for when I'm driven to get something done. Then I'm all up with the go-get-it attitude and outgoing etc. I suppose it's part of the whole 'values' thing kicking in that the profile talks about. Not like the profile is an authority or anything, it just calls out a few personality characteristics that I think are relatively accurate.

DnD and a blog update

Allright! I finally remembered my Blogger.com password. It'd been so long I'd kinda forgotten what it was. Hard to believe it's been five months since I've published.

Got a group of 5 other players together and played 4th edition DnD this afternoon. We spent about four and a half hours doing it. It was fun, but it takes a long time to play, and so we only got through two encounters after all the initial introductory stuff. And since we're all pretending to be grown ups (I'm deeply suspicious of those who might not just be pretending) we don't have much time in our regular lives to get together and do this kind of thing. So, the plan is to meet next month and play again.

I ran this particular game, and frankly I'm exhausted right about now. It feels like I spent a ton of prep time getting ready for this afternoon, only to have it be over way too fast. I would gladly do all that prep again, but my hope is that things will go more smoothly next time and not take as long. It seemed like everyone had a blast. Once we get the hang of the rules I'm sure things will move along faster and we'll be able to focus more on harassing the various elves and dwarves in the party.

I was hoping to get some story inspiration from our play experience, and I suspect I may have. It'll just take some time to percolate through my brain. I don't know how much of it will be usable, because all I can remember right now are the funny bits:

I now have newfound respect for dwarven holy water. 'though the jury is still out on what the 'proof' of that particular drink would be, and exactly how fast it would put you under the table.

The Gnome in the picture is from a screen grab of the DnD 4th edition introduction cartoon that Wizards of the Coast put out, edited to be usable as a paper miniature.

What's the fun in that

I've messed around with various XBox Live avatars and finally settled on Loraina, one of the characters from my comic.

The trend, judging by what NonCharon and my Brother are doing, is to do up an avatar that looks exactly like you, or as close as possible.  There's nothing wrong with that, but where's the adventure in doing something so mundane?  When I play a video game, or read a book, the main character looks nothing like me.  When given the choice in a video game I usually pick a character that's easier on the eyes.  My rationale, not that I think I should need one but everybody comments on it, is that  if I'm going to stare a the back of some character for 10-80 hours I'd prefer to stare at a girl. 

Killed by Television

Umm... my productivity that is.  We added a cable television in my office.  That and Gears of War 2 have been soaking up all my time lately.  Oh, and Dead Space too.   Dead Space is fun to play while you're playing it, but hard to point out exactly what makes it so special afterwards.

I have been puttering away at my drawing, but it was mostly finishing a reference for the female character clothing in my comic.  Useful, but not necessarily very interesting.  Hopefully as I finally shut off the TV for a while I'll get back to putting cool pics up on the page.

I watched the Hitman movie, recently and really liked it.  It was kind of a different take on the James Bond style characters.  It was inspired by the video game series which I liked.  It didn't get very good reviews, but it had cool action sequences if you could overlook the wooden acting.

I also caught the movie Aliens, which I've seen before.  It was a lot more cheesy than I remember from when it first came out.  Kind of like an exercise in 'how bad can things go wrong.'  It was a horror movie disguised as an action movie.  In an action movie you figure the characters have a chance, but in this one the writers systematically kill everyone off.  They actually finish the job in the 30 second introduction to the following movie.  It was fun and exciting, but a little depressing at the same time.   I guess seeing it after so long made me realize how artificial and predictable it felt.  Reminds me of Dead Space for the Xbox 360.  Or maybe the other way 'round.

My latest toy

I have a new toy... I've been using a wacom tablet for almost as long as I've been doing the comic, and they've gradually gotten bigger and fancier.  I finally got my wish and purchased the grand-daddy of them all: a Wacom Cintiq 21ux. 

Drawing with this is almost like using paper, with all the benefits of Painter or Photoshop thrown in.  I love it. It feels SO much more natural than using a tablet where you're drawing in one spot and seeing it appear somewhere else.  I'm not sure if this would be 'natural' if you'd never used a tablet before, but for someone who's used tablets forever it's nerdvana.  I'm working on the next two pages of the comic at this very moment.

The only thing is, I've had to rearrange my desk twice to try and find a configuration that works.  It changes my seating position a bit 'cause it's HUGE.  But that just means there's more to love.  Right?

I'll give another report in a week or so and let you know how it's going, and if the new-toy-shine is gone.

Places you should visit, and Zombies

Roger Ebert's blog:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/
If you want a guide to movies, ebert is your man. I may not agree 100% with each of his movie ratings but from reading his blog it's clear that he thinks deeply about things. You can't have enough of those kinds of people around you. He's kind of like the movie evangelist telling you where the good stuff is. He's spent his life drinking in a particular art form and now that he's reached an age of wisdom he definitly has some profound things to say. I get a thrill reading his blog, and that's not a common thing.

Wil Wheaton's blog:
http://www.wilwheaton.typepad.com/
He traded an acting role on Star Trek the  Next Generation for a spot in the competitive world of blogging... To quote PVP. He's another one of those creative types that I get a thrill from reading. He's more on the creative rather than the Consumer side like Mr. Ebert. If you've Got Geek? Wil's your man with some pointers to good stuff.

Lastly: Lessons learned from Zombie stories.
After reading  "zombie contingency plans" I've been reminded of one of the fundimental aspects of writing. You don't just ride along like you do in a movie or a comic, you actually get inside the character's head for a time. That's both good and bad. The Zombie story character referenced above clearly has something wrong with him. I felt a bit crazy by the end of the story, or as much as I was able to stomach. It was a good story, there was just... something wrong with the main character. It kind of messed with my head. I guess the threat of most stories is that you really don't know what you're getting yourself into when you first pick the book or story up. In this case I didn't actually finish the story because I felt so "off" after a while.  I guess I'm just a wimp when it comes to those kinds of things.

Jackassery

I read a few books to Anna, my youngest daughter as part of the getting-ready-for-bed process.  Most kids books are fine if a bit sappy, heavy handed and poorly written.  However there's one series of books that I can only take in small doses.  That is of course the Berenstain Bears. There's only so much I can take of an author portraying a father as a complete and total asshole.  Occasionally there's a book that's more neutral, but on the whole they're pretty bad.

It isn't quite time to say enough and hide the offending books, but I'm close.

Darth Barbie

Angela found this picture online over here, and I couldn't resist passing it on.

Batman

One last thing.  I tried to see the latest Batman movie at 8 this evening.  I was blown away that the movie was sold out.  For crying out loud it's Wednesday!  People should be doing something else besides watching the movie I want to see. Apparently from talking to the ticket seller the movie has been selling out for all the evening shows so far.  Wow,  just wow.

Last Gasp for learning Japanese

I loaned out all my Japanese books to a friend who was interested in learning.  As usual this got ME thinking about learning Japanese again.  I even looked at the latest edition of the how-to book I like on Amazon.  But as I thought about it, I realized I should once again pass on learning Japanese.  First of all it fails my litmus test for learning a cool new writing system: Can I use it to write my passwords?  Unfortunately Japanese is phonetic, so there's no equivalent for the letter V or writing capitols.  I admit this is a pretty flimsy reason, but it's either a tip of the iceberg kind of thing or a red herring.   I'm not sure which.  Perhaps, someday I'll pick Japanese up, but for today I'd rather spend my time doing useful things like writing inane blog posts and learning elvish. 8)   

The main reason I'm going to pass is I want to be devoting my time to telling stories.  Because more than anything else that's really what I want to be about.  I'm just easily distracted by shiny new concepts.  I guess I'd better get back to it.

Hancock and Wall-e

I liked Hancock. I'm not sure where I would place it in terms of the summer superhero movies, but I thought it was good.  As in the picture above, he goes from being the drunk homeless superhero, to being a respectable hero with a 'family'.  I dunno.  I thought the last half of the story lacked some of the punch it could have, but it definitely had it's moments.  He was definitely a flawed character who was digging deep and trying to change.  I think they could have upped the conflict level in the second half, or spent more time on his drunken rampages.  The move was short at only 1hr and 25 minutes.   I felt like I'd seen almost all the good moments in the trailers, that they hadn't really saved any gems.  Which is too bad.  I think I'll probably rent it when it comes out again, hoping to see some of the footage that ended up on the cutting room floor, but I don't think it's a movie I'll own.  Iron Man or the new Hulk on the other hand...

Wall-e was fun too.  Angelina didn't think it was up to the level of 'Cars,' but I think we all enjoyed it.   I liked the Sci-fi aspect of the story which she didn't appreciate quite as much.  I of course liked the romance in the story between Wall-e and Eve.  I also enjoyed how they told you what happened after the end of the regular story in the form of a hieroglyphic motif that played while the first part of the credits were rolling.  I would consider owning this one.  I guess it depends on how much the kids like it in the long run.

In coming back to Hancock I feel like the movie needed in the second half, better or more development of the conflicted romance and definitely more angst.  It felt like it got all rosy after he really started trying to be a better person, even though at one point you can see him going back to the bottle.

I kind of see Durin in the superhero mold, even though he's in a fantasy setting.  So I empathize with superhero themed stories a lot.  So I'd have to say that I liked Hancock, even though I felt it was flawed.

First post from iPhone

Ok this will take some getting used to.