Honing the Graphite Bedlam

Displacing Matter

2009-06-04T01:18:00.003-05:00

Been away for awhile.

Helping the family retire by moving West. So roughly in one week (June 10) I will be heading out with them in search of a better hunting ground. Ripe with opportunities in my chosen field... game design (hopefully the art side, but if I can toss my severed foot through a window I will).

Leaving a home/city/neighborhood I've known for, nearly, 12 years is difficult.

As well as moving away from the greatest friends I've ever known and will ever have the honor of knowing. This is also trying, but at least we are all gamers and as such will have ways to communicate and frag from afar.

Starting to 'well up' >.<

So in a week its California or bust, and by the looks of California it'll probably bust before I (we) get there. *rimshot*

The housing situation has been foiled by a brainless twit of a "realtor". He didn't figure out there was a lien on the house until we had put money down and were just about to close. Now due to that incompetence we will be living in an apartment somewhere in Chino (and for the same price of a foreclosed house and the time it has taken us we could've had a brand new house built... $300k, 6mo)

So I'll see you all on the flip side of the states.

Let the graphite fly and the bodies fall.

Still alive... kind of...

2008-11-30T23:59:00.009-06:00

What the title said. Working in the background, toiling day and night on art and improving that art to a state of "professional" quality. Even though social media dictates that constant updates no matter the state of the product is key to retaining interest, I still am steadfast in my old ways.

The ways of one who shows his work to friends that give no bias and critique to the fullest and keeps everything under wraps until it is "complete". Admittedly that is a double-edged sword, I won't post anything until its complete then again it's never really "complete" (just the best it can be in its current state... for lack of a better comparison: its like a level 60 WoW character, its the best it can be now, but with more time and money it can be level 70 or 80... "better").

Also, I'm never satisfied with the options of photo/picture galleries that I can use for this Blogger site (where not just textual updates supposedly reside but visual as well), most seem either too clunky and too overly stylized (ex: photos spread on a canvas or a spinning carousel) or just cheezy and hard to customize (various free site based galleries). This brings up the argument of creating one myself through Flash and/or HTML. Not being a programmer and wretching at the mere sound of the word makes it difficult for me to get close to those environments... bad experiences. >.>

With that conclusion of the starving brooding artist segment. Moving on to games.

Currently Playing:

Fable 2 (Pub Games)
Puzzle Quest
Command & Conquer: Generals (Zero Hour)
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Kane's Wrath)

With a heavy heart I condemned all the poor sods that toiled in the Spire spanning decades; in exchange for the love of my wife and child, the loyalty of my furry companion, and the memory of my sister Rose... with that I completed the story of Fable 2. This was a couple weeks ago, so I've had time to digest what I had experienced in my days of immersion in Albion.

The first time through playing as a morally ambiguous hero see-sawing from evil in the beginning to the purist in Albion with a mastery in all 3 fields (Skill, Strength, Will) and over 12 million gold before the final sequence (thanks to a 1 million gold benefactor). My first character ended up with a total play time of >>>EDIT_SECONDS_L8r<<< (>>>EDIT_HOURS_L8r<<<). Many pitfalls abound in the game most are small bugs and errors that end up as a bigger problem as it keeps coming together with other bugs forming a massive creature that takes either a system reset, a reloading of a last save point, or in the most dire case a complete game redo to overcome. I've seen one of those happen, fortunately I lucked out on everything but the minor bugs (trapped in geometry, remedied by teleporting to the same region; falling through terrain, same remedy; citizens of Albion stuck on geometry in their paths) most of which are so small that I've overlooked them and forgot about.

Despite the several bugs and pitfalls (including the exclusion of my premium 'Fate' cards and Hobbes figurine!), and the obligatory grandiose vision of Peter Molyneux that comes up short. Fable 2, overall, is a great successor and evolution of Fable 1. Even leaving the end open enough for the possiblity of a Fable 3 (4?) in the same time period or at the least an expansion pack or two. Now I'm off, back into Albion, this time as one heartless sadistic Motha... Shut yo mouth!

-----------------------------------------

Puzzle Quest still retains the enjoyment and sense of accomplishment since the day I bought it and beat it during my several gaming binges. To this day even though I beat the story (including the expansion) and reached the level cap shortly there after PQ still gives me countless hours of fun and puzzle solving (MUST unlock ALL spells and Godlike items!!).

Command & Conquer... what else is there to say besides that?! It is the only series that I've sworn I would never pirate that alone should show how devoted I am to it. Its no "Dawn of War" but also its not as hardcore or time consuming. So 'nuf said, just need to bide my time and snatch RA3 Premier.

So until next time, when I feel the need to update (I still don't like to use blogs... it's so... egotistical and pride driven)...

Let the graphite fly and the bodies fall.

DING!! You Have Achieved Level 24!!

2008-10-16T01:25:00.003-05:00

24 and a year closer to a nice cozy coffin/urn/mangled vehicle... >.>

What have I been doing this past year?

Working on my CompTiA A+ Certification. Certificates are always a nice plus on a resume next to that Bachelor of Science in Game Design & Development (which I whole heartedly believe wasn't for naught).
Hopping back and forth from one project to another on a near daily basis... damn ADD >.<
Applying to every job I can get my hands on, but in this (Crutch Alert!!!) economy hiring is few and far between (not that minimum wage is bad, its just... minimum wage).

As a gamer what have I been doing this past year?

I haven't touched a PC/X360 game in nearly a month or more.
Eagerly anticipating the releases of Fable 2 (the Limited Edition version which i pre-ordered, optimistic that I'd have a job by now :\ ), Gears of War 2, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Champions Online and CoH/V Issue 14 are on the short list).

All in all I think I've come out of this year breaking even, but falling in the red just might be inevitable. As I look around at childhood friends, they have let their dream jobs pass by in favor of stability and practicality, in effect abandoning their dreams...

Is it wrong to except anything less than your dreams for your career?

Is it wrong to believe that the "American Dream" is still possible, just not probable?

If so, I don't know why I'm still "alive" and why I'm fighting the norm to be a hamster tapped on a wheel for eternity. Idealist? Dreamer? A resounding YES on both counts. Unrealistic? Perhaps, but to be "unreal" is to dream beyond reality, to hope for something outside of a 5'x5' box.

An interesting comparison of me a day after my 21st birthday, 3 years ago:

21st Birthday Journal Entry

SitRep 20080728

2008-07-28T23:26:00.000-05:00

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