Uh yeah.

I usually put my art more quickly on my art twitter

https://twitter.com/Spottycheeked

Lately haven't been doing too much art but with some of my schedule freed up I may be doing more.

I wasn't planning on making one of these but I just had a peek and saw that my latest journal was 3 months old so it might be time for an update.

I'll see you con-going folks at BLFC! Its been about a year and a bit since I had any sort of vacation so I figured a con might be a nice break. Planning on being there Thursday evening to Monday afternoon. Hope that everyone going has fun!

I may also be looking to open for a commission or two once I get back so keep an eye out for that if you want one. It may or may not be in the form of an auction, however.

See you around!

So big news: I landed a job!
Its been a long wait, but I'm glad something finally stuck. It ain't the most exciting or most well paying job, but its in a stable business with decent benefits and pleasant people, which is more than I could say for from some of the other jobs I've interviewed for in the past.

With some luck and a few years experience at this place, I may be able to continue progressing down the road. Or grow up through the business. But for now I'm satisfied. The idea of having salary pay in a career-like job is new to me so we'll be playing this all by ear.

For privacy reasons I'll just say that I'm working on graphics/visualizations for user controlled systems in a rather technical industry. It sounds pretty boring I'll admit, but at least I still have some fun with art on the side. :]

Sometimes persistence pays off. At least I got really good at interviews in the meantime!

Cheers.

I won't be there this year, but I hope you all have a blast. Will miss seeing you folks again :]

PS: Kobolds <3

That is all!

If you read my last journal, you may understand the context of what I'm doing here. Its probably something I should have done years ago. I'm doing my research to find out what my next best steps are. I've found some ideas to consider, but would like some help making a decision.

I'd still like to do UX/UI design one day, but it seems the demand right now is for those who have a strong foundation of front-end coding skills (at least this is what my job browsing suggests) or very strong well experienced visual design skills in a studio environment at the very least (which is hard enough to get in itself). As it stands right now, I'm in the middle ground of "I can do a little bit of everything and fill in the gaps by doing online research" which works for me, but it doesn't look appealing enough to employers. So I need to get really good at something and since programming seems to be something in demand as well as something I'm comfortable doing, I figure that route is best.

My concerns are still floating around, however. I know that even grade 10 students can program websites now. There's still going to be competition. But I gotta do somethin'.

In general I will be looking for something to teach me a solid markup of html/css (to enhance my existing knowledge), javascript, and possibly php, jquery, xml and MAYBE ruby on rails. Bonus points for SEO, mobile design, and browser compatibility.

So I'm looking at a few options:

a) Find a solid, year long or less program in a school to teach me some front end programming skills. I have found some programs that start in both January (online distance ed.) and September (in class).
Pros: It'll have stronger instruction and assistance and also keep me inspired with new projects and direction.
Cons: Somewhat costly and a large time investment.
b) Find a smaller online program with specialized instruction in specific languages. I've found some places like Udacity, Udemy, Learnable and Tuts+ that all have subscription based tutorials/lessons/videos.
Pros: Can work at my own pace/speed and get done quickly/cheaply.
Cons: No certification or well defined instruction.
c) Find some books to help support my own projects. I've found some from A Book Apart / A List Apart that are very good from when I read them in school. They have quite a few out now. There's probably tons of others on Amazon as well.
Pros: Inexpensive and provides good, organized documentation of hows and whys.
Cons: No instruction or direction.
d) Bootcamps? Something I've found recently.
Pros: Very fast and concentrated learning. Pretty quick learning curve.
Cons: Really expensive and the possibility of falling behind if not enough time is put in.

Ideally I'd like something that pushes just a bit further than your typical web design/development class to simply teach enough to build a basic website with interaction. I can probably do that already. I just need something to make me look more appealing and skilled to employers.

If anyone with web experience could give their two cents in any form, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers and thank-you.

A number of you, both close friends and not, probably are wondering what is going on with me. Beware as this may end up being long since I'll just be thinking and writing as I go.

As my journal stated about a year ago, I graduated from university. After being enrolled for 5 years (and 2 years in another program that had an unfortunate ending) I finally completed my education. I aimed to be a UI/UX designer and had a portfolio which felt like a step in the right direction. I had some co-op experience for 8 months and work experience in plenty of other places before school, so I'm not a school-only newbie.

Months passed and my job search started picking up. I wasn't necessarily surprised to see that I wasn't getting many interviews - but I did get some. I even had some interviews from some pretty promising places. Ultimately this didn't lead anywhere. Half a year went by and I started to worry. My job search spread out to other areas. General design, graphic design, motion artist, web design, marketing/communications, QA.. but again and again I would find that, even if I was commended on speaking strongly in interviews, it would always be given to someone else due to experience or more specialized skills.

Same story I'm sure a lot of you are used to hearing from University graduates. Likely from art/design programs. Lots of other programs fall into the same fate, too. Yeah I probably didn't make the smartest choice all those years ago but being naive about industry demands and expecting that "school means a better job" from high-school and parents, I just went on with it without doing enough research. My program was too broad. Covered too many useless topics. Didn't do enough with things the world actually needed. I was blind but there isn't much I can do about it now.

Now you may be thinking "why not make art your career?" and the short answer is: "I don't want to". I want to keep art a hobby so I can enjoy it. I could make some amount of living by doing it, sure. But it'd never be consistent and I would be isolated in the furry community without making progress to work myself out into a more professional illustration industry unless I stopped drawing smut (which is competitive industry enough as it is).

This is why I've slowed down with drawing a lot. I realized that drawing furry art was a time sink. It would be something I could only do for pleasure. If I did it in the place of "progressing my skills" then I would be wasting my time because I should be getting better at something I want to do as a career. I would feel guilt every time I picked up my pencil to draw because I -should- be doing something else. It's pretty agonizing to feel this way.

But what would I work on? My skills were so broad from school that I'd have to pick something and focus on it. But what's good to focus on? Something that people demand or something that I want to do? How much time will it take? Will it actually help me? The indecision is eating away at me every day. I run in circles.

Some may say that I need a goal. I had a goal when I started all this. I set a goal when I came out of school. Now I have to change it. I have to consider more than what -I- want because what I wanted didn't work out due to competition and industry demands. I'm not good enough yet to get the experience I need to move on. Do I need more school? More projects? In what direction? Practice what skills? Start anywhere? Do anything?

And my close friends and family are frustrated because they can't help. They don't know how or they don't have the resources to do so. Its agonizing to me to be the source of their frustration. It spills over in bouts of "what is your plan? What are you doing? How can I help? I'm sorry I don't mean to get upset at you I just don't know what to do". It's something I've never felt before. No direction. No solid advice. No foundation to fall back on. I'm just floating.

My last few interview rejects felt like the breaking point. I had a few promising opportunities fall through my fingers. Some I even expected to get because I was overqualified. But nonetheless, here we are. I'm trying to re-evaluate my plan.

I don't know yet where things will take me, but I'll keep.. doing something until things fall into place. I'm not looking for help here. I know some of you may have suggestions, which I'd be happy to hear, but this is something largely in my control. I think I'm in this mess because I listened to people too much instead of making my own choices and being sure of them. So. That's why there's not much art here. Just thought you might like to know.

Cheers, and enjoy the Halloween season!

http://youtu.be/3Rjlk5DJUmQ?t=11s

Figured this would help some folks. I've had ads disabled for a while and its lovely <3
No idea how long this fix will last (probably not forever) but considering its a messenging/voice system that most people use, its nice to be able to get rid of them.

Yes I know there are alternatives but unless you can convince a mass of people to move, I don't wanna hear it. I think everyone knows how hard it is to move people onto a new service and make it stick (Weasyl anyone?).

I've not been doing a lot of art.. but I have been doing some gaming! I felt like doing a bit of writing (as well as updating my journal) and figured that since a number of people have asked me about WildStar, I may give my thoughts about it now that its been out for a month.

Just for starters, this isn't an attempt to get you to stop playing your other MMO for this one. Nor is it saying that it's better than other games. As a whole, WildStar doesn't do much in terms of being innovative. You won't find a lot of functionality or game play that has you going "WOW" if you've played an MMO before. But the game shines to me because of how well executed the game play is in terms of FEEL. It feels good to play (and the art direction/style is fucking fantastic). I think that's something a lot of MMOs miss out on these days.

A lot of folks complain to me these days that "the questing system is boring and outdated." And I wouldn't disagree! People seem to remember vanilla WoW so fondly back when it was most people's first theme-park MMO experience. WildStar's quests are much the same and that upsets some people. Why? Because there's no established nostalgia to tie you to the game anymore. I'm also willing to bet some people stick with WoW not because its fun, but because they have social circles they enjoy, or simply because they can't let go of all the time they invested into it. You've done the grind already and don't want to do it again with a new coat of paint. Understandable! However I feel like I learned something while playing WildStar as opposed to doing my typical MMO grind from 0-max level by myself.

It's the experience you have with -people- that makes it memorable and fun.

Sounds pretty common sense right? I mean its called a MMO for a reason. But so many people are in a rush to get to max level and get the endgame content for ???? reasons and then discover they hate the entire process of getting there. You gotta play with people or the entire foundation of the game makes no sense. Sure there's a story and RPG elements but we all know by experience that a level/gear grind wont hold people in a meaningful way for long term.

That said, here's some specific thoughts I have about the game:

The Bad:
There's a lot of little features that the game just doesn't have yet, all of which seem like common sense. Things like an automatic junk-selling button, or a easier way to find your own group members. They all add up to the experience of the game. Thankfully there are addons that help for these things, but they can be a hassle to keep updated while all these new patches keep rolling out.
The game also suffers from, like I mentioned earlier, a pretty boring quest system. Its spiced up a little bit occasionally with things that make you laugh or sad, but overall its pretty meh.
City layouts are annoying too. I feel like they made these massive cities and then discovered they don't have much to populate them with. So instead of making a nice convenient space for crafting with a bank and auction house all close together, they're spread all over the large city.
The coordinate crafting system is a money sink. I'm sure it's designed this way on purpose, but its downright annoying sometimes to have your materials all go to something you don't even want just because of a random generated number. At higher levels of crafting this becomes even more likely.
The auction house / commodities exchange needs work. As it stands now, the system is very inefficient. I won't go into details about how things don't work well (there's a number of things) but I'll just mention that they could make things a lot better based on my experience in other games like GW2.

The Good:
As mentioned earlier, I love the way the game play works in terms of combat. You know that when you screw up, its your fault because you didn't interrupt a strong attack or you didn't avoid the damage. A lot of the win/lose scenarios in the game boil down to how well you perform in terms of coordination with your team or how well you use your abilities as a player. Gear plays a role, but its definitely not as important as it is in other games.
The ability to customize your skills and amps (talents) is excellent. You can play around with builds on the fly to your hearts content. We have yet to suffer from an "ideal/meta" build scenario where a class wont succeed if it doesn't have ____ ability. This may come into play later, but I like how it works now.
Dungeons are challenging, but not overly so. I'll simply say that they provide a satisfying level of difficulty provided you're playing with competent people. We've found bosses can be figured out after a few wipes without the need for a guide. Sometimes they can even be figured out on the fly if you're really good. There's also a few different kinds of dungeons (adventures/sim-cores) that are much tamer in terms of difficulty and provide some unique challenges I've never seen in other MMOs. One of them we did recently was like LoL/Dota with creeps and enemy heroes.
The art style. It GUSHES with art style. The game doesn't take itself too seriously, and as a result, there's a lot of room for cute, goofy, gross, and stupid things to happen. And it's scifi! I love scifi. I need more of it in games.
Housing! Every character can have its own house that your friends can visit whenever they like. You can decorate it with all sorts of shit (there's tons of stuff) and there's other perks, too. I mostly just like making my house look cool.

I think that about sums up everything I can think of!
If you are playing or are interested in playing with a furry group, I do believe there is a group here! http://www.furaffinity.net/user/wildstarfurs/

Have a good summer everyone!

Art
Art
Art
Art
Art
Art

I'm a seal.

Hahaha april fools.

For the peeps who are going!

When do you arrive?
My plane lands around 10am on Thursday. I'll be traveling all night from Vancouver.

Where are you staying?
Somewhere in the Hilton. Its quieter! Hopefully our rooms will be set up like last year.

How can I contact you?
I wont have data on my phone, so text is your only option. For those who had my temporary number from last year, you can get rid of it. I'll be using my normal number this year. Unfortunately it's also a Canadian number, so if you plan on texting me often, be prepared for extra charges if you don't have international texting like me. Sorry for the inconvenience but last years sim card adventure was kindof scary and I'd rather not do it again.

Where will you be?
Wandering the con spaces and rooms, mostly. I don't really do con panels nor art so I'll likely just be out and about.

That's about it! Or at least the important stuff. If you have any other questions lemme know.

I got 10k watchers on here now.
Woopeeeeeeee.
*Confetti*

Whaddya want. I aint got nothin for you. Get outta here.

Wow its been a few months since my last journal. Time to move on I guess!

For one, I've opened up accounts at Weasyl and Tumblr for the sake of crossposting art.

For those curious, my Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/profile/morca
and my tumblr: http://spottycheeks.tumblr.com/

I know there isn't much there yet, but I do have goals and reasons for both accounts and I will still be posting my work here as normal.

Tumblr will be used for WIPs and any kind of work that I feel doesn't fit my gallery for whatever reason. I will likely be hiding mature work and linking it offsite if possible (to dropbox or something) assuming I dont keep it all clean. I haven't decided yet.

Weasyl has drawn my attention due to its features and functionalities. It's userbase is smaller, sure - but I've grown to find that I don't care necessarily for views, attention, or money. If I do ever take commissions again, I'll make sure everyone gets a fair chance at it. So no need to follow me or fuss about it if you don't want to make a weasyl account.

Finally, I'm going to FC next year! Attending the ADP as usual. Hope to see some of you there! :]

Sup folks!

It's been a long time since I made a journal, and figured I'd toss an update out there.

It has been 9 years since my graduation from high school (really? has it really been that long?) and I have (unofficially) graduated! I will have a BA in Interaction Design (I say unofficially because I have not received my official notification of graduation yet, nor my piece of paper). For those unfamiliar, Interaction Design encompasses may forms of design including graphic, interface, experience, media, and etc. I've done projects in 3d modeling, film, mobile, web, print, games and probably more.

Before this, I was enrolled in programs including a associates bachelor of science, and mechanical engineering technology. I finished neither of them due to my own shortcomings but certainly learned more about myself by failing.

There were many jobs along the way, too. I believe I've counted at least 6 different employers between school semesters.

What does this mean for you? Nothing! Sorry : ] I just felt like gushing and sharing some news that was important to me because I am told I don't share enough of myself. I now have to look forward to the wonderful world of job applications (oh boy oh boy).

Oh I guess while I'm here I'll also put up an updated commission progress. Sorry its taking a bit longer than I'd have liked! I'm making progress on them.

1)  zantal (Sketching/Revising)
2)  chetchaka
3)  kartonis

.. people when they comment on art on FA.

For those who submitted commission ideas, thank-you! It was quite a challenge to pick the ones that I did. The fact that I STILL have 9 picks is evidence to how successful I think this way of commissioning was. If I take commissions again at a later date, I may do it like this.

I'm going to assume that those who I list here are still okay with their offering, but if you do wish to revise your offering due to financial reasons, do let me know.

For sake of privacy I'm only going to offer the usernames of those chosen here just for their reference and my own. In retrospect I'll probably make use of email/Google forms in the future instead of notes and journals, but hindsight is 20/20.

The selected people are:

1)  velos (done)
2)  evoc (pending)
3)  talash (done 1/2)
4)  faunoiphilia (done)
5)  bazz (done 1/2)
6)  kicks
7)  zantal
8)  chetchaka
9)  kartonis

The order of who would be first was randomized to be fair. I will do my best to have them completed in this order. If there are any of these users who do have some sort of time constraint on their ideas or do not wish to wait as long as it may take to get to yours, let me know and I'll try to work something out. I want to have these pieces done by the end of my school semester (early August) but it is hard to know how long some of these may take.

I will not ask for payment until I am ready to start your piece.
For those who also submitted multiple ideas, I'll let you know which ones I picked when I ask for payment (or if you ask me ahead of time).

Cheers! And thanks again!

See info here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4614348/

I will be closing the submission of ideas on Sunday.
This does not mean you have to pay by Sunday. Just pitch me your ideas/money and I will let you know who I've accepted.

Cheers!

Please read the entirety of this journal. Not doing so will severely reduce your chances of being selected. I do not want to do business with people who do not respect me enough to read my guidelines.

What's going on?!

I have a slow and boring semester of which I suspect I will have some extra free time. I want to use this time to draw, and while I have some ideas of my own, I'd like to extend myself a little to draw for the folks who have shown interest during my 'no-commissions' break.

I am opening for commissions.

How does it work?

This won't be your typical commission run, nor will it be a YCH or auction. I feel like I have come up with a system that is fair for everyone.

Summed up: You come to me with a pitch. Give me your idea and what you feel is fair to pay for it. You can offer me any idea, and you can offer me any value of money. I will only be picking the ones that interest me.

There is a bit of strategy involved in this. You can try to think of an idea that I like and would inspire me, and then roll a low-ball amount of money in hopes that the idea will be enough to be chosen. Or you can toss more money and whatever idea you want in hopes that the amount of money will win out.

To give you a bit of a hand with how to pitch your idea to me, I'll give you a list of some of my more favored themes. This wont guarantee anything because sometimes characters involved can be just as inspiring as the scenario. Sometimes I like to try and explore something new! Don't limit yourself to asking for things that you think I may like. If you want to ask about what I like or don't like before your pitch, do so in this journal for everyone to see.

Interests:
- Armored/Geared Quadrupeds
- Characters that embody personality
- Robots
- Cute/Chibi
- Transformation
- Hypnotism/Seduction
- Dominance/Submission
- Vore (I avoid vore that is "all smiles and love" however. Lust and submission is okay)
- Chubs (Not fat. Just heavy.)(Example: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9911435/ I can be flexible)
- Sizeplay
- Messes
- Light bondage

There are probably others but these are the ones that immediately came to mind.

I will not give an average money offer. That's for you to decide!

I am putting a limitation on the quality of art, however. I will likely refuse to do a painted/rendered piece as they are horribly time consuming. If you must have a pic done in this way, realize it will require a significant amount of 'persuasion' so to speak. (Example of how far I am willing to go with detail http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9626680/ )

These commissions are not limited to any one style either. You can ask for anything from chibis to icons to sketches to flats to whatever. I may even be open to doing a short series of 2-4 pictures (no comics).

IN SUMMARY:

If you want a commission:
- Come up with an idea of something that you want
- Determine what you think is a fair price to pay for it
- Send me a PM with the details (it would help immensely to provide a reference of both characters and preferred style/quality. You may use my work or someone elses.)
- Follow up through notes or other medium if necessary

Depending on what you ask for, method of payment will be dealt with differently. For example: payment for sketches will be up front because there is no step-by-step process involved.

Thank-you for your interest and I look forward to seeing the ideas! I will contact the chosen individuals. Feel free to ask any questions here.

PS: There is no rush to submit your idea right away. I will let the messages compile for a few days.
PPS: You are not limited to just one idea.

I like to share streams sometimes! But the options I know of have some limitations or pain points.


Here's what I know in terms of options:

Join-Me
As some of you may know, Join-me has put a cap on viewing. Only 10 users can watch at a time unless you pay monthly ($13/month if you pay for a year, or $19/month if you pay monthly).

Pros:
- Higher quality resolution
- Uses less computer resources on both ends
- Doesn't require an account to view
- Very little latency

Cons:
- Low viewer limit
- Low framerate (especially when rotating or panning a canvas)

LiveStream
Honestly the inferior option IMO, but it has some benefits.

Pros:
- Allows for many users to view
- Allows for audio
- Higher framerates

Cons:
- Latency
- Hogs computer resources (on both viewer and streamer)
- Mediocre quality video
- Horrendous UI and Chatroom (especially the new layout ew gross)
- Requires logging in to view
- (this might just be me) trouble connecting to Chatroom.

I'm sure there are other streaming sites, but I dont know what they offer. Any opinions at all? Let me know!

I really should have done this sooner, but I was kindof lazy and didn't know what to say.

I still don't know what to say but.. ohwell! I need to bump that old journal out.

This FC can probably be labelled as the best I can remember. I managed to get a decent balance of hanging out with a variety of people (and yet I still find myself wishing I could do better). Part of this was likely because our room unintentionally became a meeting hub of booze. Our drinks were multiplying faster than we could drink them.

ADP went pretty well! I feel pretty stupid about what I said because I was all sorts of drunk, but the panel was run pretty smooth as a whole.

I think next FC I need to try better to make plans so that we spend less time trying to figure out what's going on and who's doing what.

Sorry if you were at the con and you missed me! SHOUT OUTS IF YOU WISH.

Also, as of yesterday, I've been with my fuzzybutt for a year now. <3

I'm goin!

I refuse to do those stupid questions that usually float around for the convention memes, so here's some of my own:

1) What time are you arriving?

I believe I'll be at the con center sometime early Thursday morning around 10:30-11:00.

2) Who are you rooming with?

 Nixx
 Kartonis
 Fumei

Should be good times! <3

3) Where are you staying?

At the Hilton.

4) What specific plans do you have?

Aside from attending the ADP again this year, I don't tend to make specific plans because they're often too hard to keep. Hunger strikes at odd times and social get-togethers often spring up out of nowhere.

5) Do you go to room parties?

Not specifically arranged ones, no. Unless I'm dragged there. Usually I'll be floating around the rooms of people I know and socializing there.

6) Do you drink?

Yep! Though I don't drink just anything. If I can taste the alcohol in the drink I probably wont like it. That said, ciders, beers, and some mixed drinks are fair game. Whiskey, wine, and higher alc % are not.

Now for the questions for those who may not know me and want to say hello/hi and/or get to know me.

7) Are you approachable?

I'd like to think I am, but I could understand how some may perceive me as hard to talk to. I don't usually float around by myself or look for new people to talk to unless I recognize them. For best results, maybe drop a message here so I can at least know (and try to remember) your name. PS: I'm really bad with names. If I see you, or if you see me, I'll at least know why you're approaching me!

8) Will you do something in my sketchbook (paid/request/etc)

One day I hope to learn to draw better in sketchbooks, but right now, I'm pretty uncomfortable with it. Last few times I've tried, I simply ended up erasing everything so.. unless you want eraser smears in your sketchbook, I'd suggest you ask someone else!

9) Can I tag along to your social gatherings/parties/food goings?

This one is always a hard one for me. I don't like to say no but unless you know me/my friends beyond idle small talk, or have been invited, please don't try to invite yourself. Use common courtesy and judgement.

If someone says:
"We were just heading off for food."
You can suggest:
"Hm, I should probably think about getting something to eat too."
And you don't get invited along - don't push the issue. Simple as that.

10) Where can I find you?

Thats another tricky one as I tend to float around everywhere. If you attend the ADP, thats likely the best surefire way to find me. I tend to stick around there after the panel is over to have a chat with folks. Other than that, just keep an eye out! I usually wear badges. I'm also a skinny redhead with a beard. Hard to miss.

And finally,
11) When do you leave?

6 AM Monday morning. That's not going to be a fun morning. I'll try to say my goodbyes Sunday night!

I think that's about it! See you there c:

Now that the excitement of Christmas has calmed and the days for consuming have simmered, its time for the New Year! And you know what that means. It's time to hear all the "this year was the worst yet, lets hope next year is better".

And you know what? I'm gonna pull some crazy magic trick on you and say that its not gonna be better.

You know why?

Because you've already set the stage by thinking this year was bad. I bet you'll say "But I got into a car accident and I don't have a job and I didn't have anyone around for Christmas." Or whatever else. And yeah, those things do kindof suck! I get it. But chances are, I'm going to bet that 99% of you reading this and thinking that have probably had pretty normal year. You just haven't recognized or refuse to acknowledge the good things that happened to you. They're pretty easy to forget in the wake of disaster and woe. Its so easy to just ignore the good and toss it all off like it was a waste.

You know what's hard?

Accepting everything as it happened.
Understanding why it happened.
Not blaming anyone or anything out of spite.
And learning from it.

Learning is the most important gem out of any experience. It isn't just something you do in school. If you just float through life without thinking and learning about how to manage this short time we have, then you're never going to see the good that comes out of every year. Out of every day.

If your resolution is to have a better year next year, make it instead to listen and observe better. Quiet your mind and enjoy what you can because things won't last forever and the years you saw as bad will eventually be the ones that you wish you could go back to. Worship and pursue the good. Listen and learn from the bad.

And before I start rambling on, I wish you all a Happy New Year! Shake that tail~

Slowly.

NO YOU CANT SEE.

Its a secret.

Shhhhhhhhh. Don't tell.

As some of you may know I'm in a program that is all about design.

- CAD (Computer aided design)
- Product design
- Graphic design
- Spacial design
- Industrial design
- Process design

Etc etc etc.

Now I assume that what most people see design to be is probably "Making things look good" or "Coming up with ideas". Yeah. It is those things. But as my courses have gradually been showing me through the process of branching out into so many different fields, experiences, cultures, histories, and whatever else you can probably think up is that design is much like life. It's what you make of it that defines it.

My instructor, in one of the most thinking-intensive courses I've ever taken, is stressing that the idea and the process is the most important part, but he also stresses so many other things at the same time that I've often lost sight of this. There's no right or wrong way of doing things. If you can logically process a conclusion from one step to the next, you're doing it right. This often brings out cliche ideas because what we consider to be logic is often a path tracked many times before so it is naturally imprinted in our brains.

"Jumping fences" as my instructor likes to put it, is where we connect two unrelated things in a manner that makes sense. But this has to be done in a way that isn't arbitrary because we always come to the question of "So what?" or "Why does it matter?". Most times it doesn't matter unless you believe that it does. Someone's always going to pull out the bullshit card on you. I could probably call bullshit on many of the famous designers of today. So what makes them successful?

It's got to be passion and confidence. If you believe what you're doing strong enough and you can justify it, it doesn't matter what other people think.

Why am I writing this? Because sometimes I need to piece together the things I value when my confidence is shaken. Baring your ideas, only to have them critiqued to shreds on the most arbitrary of reasons is crippling mentally. In the end, it doesn't matter what my instructor or any of my peers think. All that matters is that I find my own "box of values" and stick to what I'm good at.

What a funny concept, design is. It really isn't a thing at all. It is almost like the act of bringing values and reason to _______.

PS: Excuse the lack of art. I've been very busy. Things are in the works, however.

Excited! Gonna be playing it on the pre-release (Aug 25th).

I will be playing on Maguuma.

For those who don't know - guesting will not be available at release as it has not been implemented yet. I am sure it will be eventually however. Use that time to get familiar with the game! Theres lots to explore (like the "deposit all collectables button omg my favoritebuttonever")

I'll likely play either a asura engineer and/or a human/charr guardian.

Have fun out there folks! <3

And Nixx is great. :3