Over a year since my last journal update? That just won't do!

OK, so I'm laid off for now while my company tries to get its affairs in order. I might be going back to work for them in the future, but in the meantime I'm applying for other positions. While it sucks to not have an income for now, I have more than enough to keep me busy.

I'm finding time finally to build some of the model kits that have been languishing in my cupboard for ages, including a Patlabor and an Orguss (Check out my 80s Anime Mecha archive to see what I'm talking about!). Unfortunately I lost the end of the Patlabor's main head fin somewhere along the way, so I had to make a new one out of Sculpey. It's not quite perfect, but it'll do if you squint at it.

I finished watching two anime series this month, "Gun X Sword" and "Overman King Gainer". I enjoyed both of them, but I liked GXS more. It was kind of like "Trigun" with giant robots, though that's not a perfect comparison. The thing that made that show for me was the characters and their interactions; I'd almost be tempted to say the robots were kind of incidental to the story. King Gainer had its good points too; the characters aren't quite as well-rounded as in GXS, but it's got an enthusiastic energy to it, and some really wild mech designs. King Gainer is by the creator of Gundam, Ideon, and Brain Powerd, and it's really interesting to see the contrast between those shows.

You may have seen my recent entry for Seventh Sanctum's 'Extreme Characters' contest, Violet Pandemonium. Originally I created her in a vacuum, with no intention of going any further with her. Unfortunately, my brain abhors a vacuum, and now my head is full of ideas for a series that is basically an homage / pastiche of 80s action sci-fi and fantasy anime. You might see a little bit more from her world pop up in my gallery sometime.

Well, that's enough for now, I think. Hopefully it won't be another year before I think to update this again.

Well, I was finally successful getting a job.

The good news is I got it just in time, as my bank account wouldn't have lasted another month. Plus, it's one that I find really interesting, but I signed a non-disclosure agreement so I can't talk about it.

The bad news is that I have even less time for art now. I know, I know, I've been lax at updating this site anyway, but I've at least had TIME to do things (which I didn't use); now I won't have that time. Just weekends now, I guess.

Other than that, I got a copy of the Maya PLE for my computer last week and I've been working on and off on a model of one of my ship designs. The PLE has the annoying feature that it renders a 'NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE' watermark all over the pic, but I have ambitions of doing renders of my machines and basing my drawings on THOSE, so I can keep the looks consistent. Anyway, keep an eye out for something like that.

Well, it's been quite a while since I updated... Looks like over 5 months? I've been very busy with school and such, but it looks to be winding down. Just my exams left now. And after that, I'm heading down to Vancouver for a summer job that my brother got lined up for me. It'll be good to be able to afford stuff again.

Anyway, I finally got off my butt and finished a few pics. Well, finished one, and finished the background for one. I have another pic in the works, and a story that I wrote but want to have proofread before I post it. I guess I had a burst of creativity this week. Might have something to do with the fact that my internet was down for 4 days...

OK, to all of you who might have been wondering why I've been so slow in posting new art, I have a confession to make.

I'm going to college and it's eating my time alive.

I'm taking a course that will hopefully get me certified as a Computer Network Technician by next year. I went to University for a few years and I have been having a lot of trouble finding a job with my BSc in Computer Science, so I decided to take this course so I can get some more qualifications, and to keep myself busy.

And *boy* does it keep me busy.

I'm talking from 8:00AM to 3:00-4:00PM, depending on how long it takes me to get my day's work done. Sometimes I stay as late as 5:00, though that's really rare. And of course, when I get home, I have very little desire or motivation to do anything other than crash on the computer chair and surf the net or watch TV for the rest of the evening.

However, it's not actually bad as courses go. I find the subject matter really interesting and helpful. It would have helped me a lot more a few months ago when my computer's hard drive died on me, but so it goes. Plus I seem to be one of the top students in the class, so that's always good.

My art muscles aren't getting rusty though; far from it. Anyone who knows me well knows that I doodle all over every piece of scrap paper within reach when I'm bored. Problem is, I don't think I'll ever post them, as I don't think anyone would be interested in reading my Peripheral Technologies notes when they come for drawings. XD

Fortunately I have some time free this weekend to devote to my own pursuits. Maybe I'll get something worthwhile done for once.

Finally, my computer is fixed!

Special thanks to my Dad, who worked all week on it for me.

I'll probably be spending a bit of time reinstalling everything as I end up needing it, but for now my machine is back and better than ever. I can actually play UT2004 without any slowdown now.

Speaking of which, I was playing around with making a mod for UT2004 before my computer went kaput. Fortunately, I'll be able to pick up right where I left off with it, no problems. I've nothing really fancy planned for now, not being too ambitious at this point... I may put up some pics of my models for it if I do any.

Well, maybe with my hardware / software issues resolved now, I can try playing Myst V again. I'm not expecting much from that, however... I may not have an ideally fast CPU for it.

Even more important than the games, however, is that Flash MX seems to be working again. You may see a few animations out of me in time.