Shake rattle and roll

(Early) mornin all,
Just a quick note to say woot for earthquakes, just before 1 o'clock this morning a minor earthquake powerful enough to shake buildings hit the UK.
Its effects were felt as far away apart as London, Manchester, Derby and Northampton, no reports yet of the epicenter but my bets on the some where near Hull on the west coast (or France has been wiped off the map as a precursor to an alien invasion).

I for one welcome our new off-world overlords and wish them a quick victory.

T/K

New-Manhattan is going to F.L.O.P

As the Hollywood war machine marches on, we see IP after IP picked up and systematically raped at the hands of the executives, who are on a mission to market, sell and profiteer at the expense of the cinema-goer/film watching audience. They don't seem to care, and they care even less about stories and characters that some people hold dear. So imagine my wonderful surprise to hear there is a live action Akira film in the works. Not only that, but as its Hollywood, it can't possibly be set in Japan (replacing Neo-Tokyo with this blogs titular 'New-Manhattan'), and they cast the project to Leonardo DiCaprio, as on of a trio, of producers. Wow. Holyshit.

Seriously though - they just want to make an action film with big fucking bikes in it. Though I am lead to believe there will be 2 films - but c'mon, lets face it, we all know they will draw it out to a trilogy - based on the manga, by splitting it in two. Now hands up here, I have not read the manga. Though if this film is going ahead I will. I also will buy it eventually, film or no film. Beside the point.

All that can be done by I, is sit, wait and pray that the film is either not made, or miraculously made well. All that needs to be done now is see who wins the race to Americanisation; Akira or Evangelion? To be honest, I'm far more excited about the 4 Rebuild films, and the prospect of reading the Akira manga, than the possibility of those two live-action films.

JB

Something something something, outside.

Mornin all,

Yes its that time again, my weekly (for weekly read when I get round to it) informative (for informative read irrelevant) musings (for musings read something else).

First of all it looks like Final Fantasy XIII(fabulous Vauxhall Nova or whatever its called) has been “delayed” again so at the rate johns knocking out fire mages and stylized knights I expect he'll have a finished game before they do. Also Mario Kart : Wii has been given a release date for Europe (April 11^th) along with a few further gameplay details leaking including an increase to the maximum number of racers on a track at any one time, and the addition of bikes to the game. In the interest if fairness I should also mention Microsoft, done.

I suppose I should mention the “death” of the HD-DVD, it seems after countless attempts Sony have successfully managed to to force an unneeded proprietary format on an indifferent world.

John briefly mentioned listening to The Feeling, I wont hold it against him but will force my own media preferences for the week upon you,

Album of the week – Because of the Times : Kings of Leon, a few months old now but in that time its never been removed from my regular playlist, get it, now.

Single of the week – Time to Pretend : MGMT, beep-ey electro funkiness with some interesting dual vocals.

Movie of the week – Cloverfield (still) – I've seen a fair few films this week (The Godfather included) but whilst I can recognize that some of them are more masterful examples of film making as an art form, at least Cloverfield didn't bore the pants off me (I'm looking at you Godfather)

I think at that point I'll call it a day, as I need to be up early tomorrow to go do something something something, outside.

Until next time
T/K

P.S: The always modest, John, lord of the artistic domains, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, grand moff and gracious host, has written briefly about his day but he says nothing of his great works, just this week he has been exploring multiple dimensions, grappled with symbolic commericialistic representations of unimaginable size, created an immutable link between a midlands town and a talmudic deity and banged his knee, several times, which isn't strictly classed as a great work, but did give me a great laugh.

My (Own) Boring Ass Life

I have recently got into Kevin Smith's book 'My Boring Ass Life', his diary of a year-and-a-bit in his, apparently, boring-ass life. He describes the book as being very boring and uninteresting, and he couldn't be further from the truth. It's twice as bad as that. Yet I continue to read it - possibly as I read so sporadically, that once I start, I have to finish.

So how hard can it be to write a daily log of your eating habits, media consumption and social structure?

February 19th, 2008.

Woke up at 08:30, on my own as Rachel had a night out last night. I stumble to go have a shower, and then hit the PC for some internet frolics for 30 minutes before I trudge in. It briefly snows as I'm walking past Ikea and Iceland - the sort of snow British people now call 'snow' where its basically frozen drizzle. As I get to Uni, my thighs feel oddly cold. I make my way up the 4 flights of stairs, to meet my group for our weekly meeting for our Group Project. 2 out of 5 members turn up, so we get bored and we scurry to a open access lab and I show them the poster I've been working on. We part ways, as I'm meeting the surprisingly un-hungover Rachel at 11:00. We head back, stopping at most, if not all, the cafe's and eateries, for Pizza bread and B'nB pudding. We head to my place, and she eventually decides that she's off home, so we part ways for the afternoon.

I end up finishing some JavaScript work, and then decide I'm going to chill with the new album from the Feeling, and the pen tablet. I draw yet another mage-thing, but then decide its time to actually eat today, so whip up some Tuna with a block 'o rice. Then chase that with a whole Pizza. Rachel is coming back over later, and me and my house-mates decide to (finally) watch Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Didn't realise exactly how long the film goes on for and end up getting into bed for 1am.

Hard at work, or hardly working...

I come complete with excuses for even a lack of posts, let alone images for all you hungry viewer. My workload at the moment is at a point where my free time is taken up by it. Any other time, I just want to get away from the damn computer! Also, me and Rachel tend to celebrate Valentines day on any other day than the 14th... We had a meal, watched a film - Jumper - it was brilliant, kicked a dog. Nah I'm lying there - Jumper is crap.

Other than that, you'll have to make do with the Master Chief, in his draft form, and the new site layout. Minimalistic style, or plain laziness - don't ask me. Though I'm still not sure how you can call 'a black background with white lettering' a template...

My near-bloodthirsty quest to obtain a Mac picked up even greater pace recently. A1 paper is roughly 10000x7000 pixels, and my PC really can't keep up. Granted, the use for such processing is few and far between, but the way I figure it, I'll be drawing epic-scale masterpieces in no time, so I'm going to need something to fall back on. Only problem now, is the Mac Pro's start at £1749 - a price that can be dropped to £1459 by dropping one of the processors... And there's little point in the Mac Pro without its multiple cores! So, this means, that with the additional CPU, double the RAM to 4Gb, slap a 8800GT in there, and a 500Gb drive for Windows XP/Vista, then the average gentleman is looking at £2,444. I barely get that much in my student loan per year, let alone, you know, living off it as well.

It would appear that my hopes of getting a Mac will be dashed until I finish University, and start my career as a well-paid rich person. Or I can save my pennies and get an iMac for half the price.

Meh.
JB

Redesign - blog2.0

Wanting to move from the standard layout from Blogger, I felt changing it substantially will make me feel better. I'm giving the black theme a trial.. I'm hoping it will extenuate white images more. Also, it's easier to read in dark rooms.

Sorry for the confusion there Terry.

JB

A change is as good as a rest?

Either theres been a redesign or someone has stolen all the colors from the interwebz!.

If anyone has information on this most heinous of crimes please leave a message on my answer phone, also please buy me an answer phone.
T/K

the Master Chief

A character now so famous, he is pretty much the gaming icon of the century (so far, of course...) You think of the media exposure he has received; the 3 games, that combined, have sold in excess of 20 million copies - meaning that, on average, there is approximately 1 of the 3 games for every 300th person in the world. A back-story - something that I have been reading up on online - spans hundreds of detailed years. In my opinion, it is the best console based multi-player FPS (yes, better than Goldeneye) and is the sole reason I first bought an X-Box (and nearly a 360, even though I could definitely not afford one).

There can only be one character that I am talking about. It is John-117. The Master Chief. And this is my homage to him (work in progress ^_^):


P.S. - If they make the film, Bruce Willis plays the chief. Or Steve Downes (the voice actor - do a Darth Vader, and have him portrayed on the film by a body-builder, but have the lines dubbed over.) Those are the 2 and only 2 options. Else there will be blood!!

JB

To finish the weekend:

As I just know this would have distracted me tomorrow, I decided to push on and get the first sketch of the 'dark knight' done. I also think from now on it will be called 'Dark Dragoon', as it resembles that more... But then again, it should have a spear... Hmm, the confusion reigns still.

Anyway, hope you like it. Obviously not finished yet. Even the inking isn't finished, even though the composition looks complete... Watch this space!

JB

My New Facebook Picture...

Though many more people will see it on Facebook than they will here, I feel that the limited size and quality of the profile picture does not do it justice. I'm quite proud of this, as its my 'turning point' with the tablet, as I am now finally getting the hang of it. Anyway, behold:


And, I also have a quick 20-30 minute sketch that I did of some sort of fire-based Mage... From his appearance, I'd say he was still low level, but confident, mastering basic fire-type magic, probably with a high magic attack base, as I imagine that he grinds, to raise his stats. The years of Final Fantasy are clearly starting to take their toll on me.


JB

Reading Week

Well, I've got a week almost to myself now. The 'reading week' students are allotted is this coming week, and unlike most, I will be spending it at my digs, actually working. Finally the UK taxpayer is seeing something like what they are lead to expect happening, at their multiple money-sink educational institutions.

I will undoubtedly see 'New Soul' by Yael Naim hitting the double (...maybe triple) figures on my iTunes played count column. I can't help but love the song. And it reminds me that in a world of infinite wealth, I would be writing this blog on a over-priced, but infeasibly attractive lump of 2cm tall, Apple-branded aluminium. Speaking of which, if you have a Macbook Air, can you please e-mail me so that I can come over and giggle like a child as I zoom in on things and trick it into lighting up its keyboard.

Hopefully the free time this week will see my coursework developed sufficiently, but also, with the free time in-between to work on a new comic, or some erroneous image content for this 'ere blog. And not just spent playing Garry's Mod, or finally taking the plunge into World of Warcraft... Don't do it! Think of the children!

JB

Morning, and other such lies.

As John mentioned I've been given access to posting rights here, possibly the biggest mistake since someone told George Lucas what prequel means.

So i'll be posting on here occasionally if I can find anything worth saying, I will not however be posting any sketches/pictures, i'll leave that to John who can operate a pencil like the tool it is meant to be rather then wielding it as an implement with which to carve words from out of the ether as I do.

Oh I did see Cloverfield, and it was great everything I expected and more nice work Mr Goddard.

So until next time John and I will continue to debate the Cloverfield monster, was it sea-creature, alien or simply Joan Rivers attempt at an action movie comeback?

So until next time sports fans, same dotgif time, same dotgif channel.

T/K

P.S: I dont suck at halo 3, I merely discovered that passive resistance is not a valid tactic for console shooters (damn you Gandhi! thats what I get for trusting a vegetarian) next time I promise I shall “bring the pain” (please note I reserve the right to refuse comment on exactly who's pain i'll be bringing.)

For your consideration...

A quick post to show my latest attempt at mastering the Bamboo, this time featuring the character Rei from Evangelion - a character I know from memory how to draw, so a bit easier when sketching it out. Yes - I know its not a copy of the style Sadamoto uses, but it would look like a trace otherwise. And the die-hard geeks fans of the show will point out she is missing her head/ear/things on the top of her head. Bite me.

Also, I've added Terry to the authors of the blog now, so he can ramble incessantly about topics that may bore you to death, as they only matters to him. So like what I do. Only possibly with longer words. He is about to go and see Cloverfield, as our current conversations have been limited to say the least. Expect his vastly educated opinion to be shared unabashedly. The appropriate equipment for doing so can be found under your seats.

Additionata: Terry sucks at Halo 3.

Things to come...

Currently at home, which for me is Banbury - a relatively quiet, out of the way place, on the M40 corridor. Picked up a big wad of drawings from home, that I hope to scan in (with my fancy-pants new printer), or if it calls for it, get a bit of Tablet practice.

Ill pop them on here as I get around to them, or leave it hardcore and just post pencil images. Might look into getting a flickr account, so that there is a big place that these images are kept... Or just modify my main website with a new interface. Who knows. I should. But I don't.

Oh wells.

Tabletty

And one last post for today - after a brief tutorial about it, I have snapped up this as my 'first try'... So, though it looks crummy and sketchy, this was done freehand, on a tablet, by me, who has had experience to the equivalence of drawing the above sketch on a tablet...

Also...

PINCH-PUNCH FIRST OF THE MONTH !!!11

NO RETURNS !!1!1one

Hahah, fucking owned... Still got time left. Leave your appraisals of my excellence in a comment. Or gold doubloons - I'm not fussy.

Home time

Off home this weekend. Hooyays.

I'm just waiting for my new printer and graphics tablet to arrive. I believe it will be 'delivered' by CityLink. I say 'delivered' - more accurately is 'put in a big-yellow-fucking-van, and driven erratically around the West Midland's, amusingly NOT being driven to where I live'. By the way, I've had problems with CityLink in the past. I realised that you may not know that.

Other things that annoy me greatly - that fucking advert for Tabasco sauce they are putting in front of films (on the topic of films, Cloverfield this weekend! YAYS!). I don't understand why that advert is there. Its not funny - even the retarded chavs in the audience don't laugh at it - (another thing that annoys me there - people who laugh in the cinema at the smallest thing. I'm truly embarrassed for you, for your weak, weak sense of humor). Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, a fat American eating pizza with spicy sauce on it.

I suggest a nationwide embargo on Tabasco sauce, just to make them feel silly and insignificant.

Ahhhnayway, I'm going to wait for Dave to finish mucking about and then I *should* be able to start with some arty postings.

Bullshits!