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Passing of Dave Trampier
Posted 11 years agoSome of those that follow Goblinscomics may already know this, but I just found out Dave Trampier passed away, and it kinda drew me back a -long- ways through my childhood, and wanted to pass it along.
Many may not know who Dave Trampier was, and to be honest, I wasn't really aware of his name until I read of his passing, but his works were ever present in my mental iconography of fantasy and fantasy gaming growing up. He did the cover of the original 1st AD&D Player's Handbook - you know the one, with the giant red demon/goblin statue and the thieves stealing the eyes?
He also created the wonderful comic series Wormy, in Dragon Magazine, that ran for about a decade, one of the first comics I'm aware of that took the monster's POV, but with more than a dash of Pogo thrown in, humor, and brilliant artwork.
Due to an argument with TSR over publishing Wormy in a collected form, he dropped completely out of the fantasy gaming scene around 1988 and wasn't heard from until his recent passing, though articles state he was planning to attend his first convention this year.
Just wanted to share the website I found compiling Wormy, and hope people take a read that missed it, or came late to the RPG hobby, and get inspired.
https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home
Many may not know who Dave Trampier was, and to be honest, I wasn't really aware of his name until I read of his passing, but his works were ever present in my mental iconography of fantasy and fantasy gaming growing up. He did the cover of the original 1st AD&D Player's Handbook - you know the one, with the giant red demon/goblin statue and the thieves stealing the eyes?
He also created the wonderful comic series Wormy, in Dragon Magazine, that ran for about a decade, one of the first comics I'm aware of that took the monster's POV, but with more than a dash of Pogo thrown in, humor, and brilliant artwork.
Due to an argument with TSR over publishing Wormy in a collected form, he dropped completely out of the fantasy gaming scene around 1988 and wasn't heard from until his recent passing, though articles state he was planning to attend his first convention this year.
Just wanted to share the website I found compiling Wormy, and hope people take a read that missed it, or came late to the RPG hobby, and get inspired.
https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home
Blip
Posted 16 years agohttp://blip.fm/Seriayne
Music search and DJ'ing site. Don't need to upload, just search, blip with comment, fav other people's choices, etc. :>
Music search and DJ'ing site. Don't need to upload, just search, blip with comment, fav other people's choices, etc. :>
Insect Mind Control to whole new levels?! o.O
Posted 17 years agoOh dear! I don't know about the article's claim of 'love' but this makes the whole fungus forcing ants to climb up to sunlight, or parasitic worms that force their host snails to advertize to birds to eat them ... seem simple by comparison.
http://io9.com/5015317/a-parasite-t.....ve-in-its-host
http://io9.com/5015317/a-parasite-t.....ve-in-its-host
Boy - Joey (Animated music video featuring fox n crows.)
Posted 17 years agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWuY.....eature=related
Semi-surreal, I thought it was cute, and the music's not half bad either :)
Semi-surreal, I thought it was cute, and the music's not half bad either :)
*D'aww!!* Darling Mayfly Video
Posted 17 years agoFor some reason Vodaphone did this wonderful commercial (that never mentions their product even) featuring a Mayfly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0gdQ03RbUQ
I dinna feel quite so bad about our poor short-lifespan insecties now :>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0gdQ03RbUQ
I dinna feel quite so bad about our poor short-lifespan insecties now :>
Um Ew? Windows in your Cow?
Posted 17 years agohttp://www.odditycentral.com/pics/r.....inner-cow.html
There seems to be enough anecdotal confirmation/evidence that these aren't photoshopped. Done for medical, farm research, but I can see some of the weirder people around here using this as a point of departure for some -really- strange art.
Reminds me though, of the 'heart plugs' from the Dino De Laurentis version of Dune.
There seems to be enough anecdotal confirmation/evidence that these aren't photoshopped. Done for medical, farm research, but I can see some of the weirder people around here using this as a point of departure for some -really- strange art.
Reminds me though, of the 'heart plugs' from the Dino De Laurentis version of Dune.
Animals-Insects Morph Site
Posted 17 years agoMamsets and Ismals - some interesting photoshop pieces I found while looking for just a plain old rhinocerous beetle.
http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gall.....play=photoshop
http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gall.....play=photoshop
Gary Gygax passed away.
Posted 17 years agoGary Gygax passed away today.
A complicated character who co-authored the original TSR Dungeons and Dragons, an outgrowth of the miniatures game Chainmail.
Criticisms aside, and there are quite a few, Mr. Gygax has had an indirect effect, I'd say, on just about everyone's lives who plays videogames, looks at furry art, mucks, or has seen a fantasy film on the big screen.
It was his grab-bag of everyone else's concepts of fantasy, Isaac Asimov, Tolkein, Lovecraft, Fritz Lieber, et al, that got chucked into the idea of Roleplaying as a passtime outside the field of acting before an audience. You hung out with a few friends (parent's basement and Mtn. Dew jokes aside), and immersed yourself in a collective imaginary world. And you didn't have to play just human, though your choices were pretty limited in those days - elves, dwarves, halflings, half this, half orc, half that.
Along come home computers, and Lord British and Infocom are putting out games that seem to bear a passing resemblence in theme to the ol' dungeon crawl. Others jump on the bandwagon and pretty soon everyone and their brother is putting out RPG's, both paper and pen and beyond the CRT. Star Wars comes out, and TSR (Gygax et al) puts out Star Frontiers to break Roleplaying into the genre. Others follow suit, with varying degress of success, but in the early 80's, more gamers probably knew Star Frontiers than Other Suns (one of the first furry heavy scifi RPG's), or my personal fav, Traveller.
A side-growth of the whole text based computer adventure broke from Zork and went directly into the development of MUD's, then broke into MUCKs and MUSHs. See where I'm going with this? FurryMUCK becomes one of the early, premier roleplaying outlets for people imagining themselves to be something other than just human - indeed, distancing themselves quickly into a myriad of attempts to be anything but. Furry art is already out there, but there's a virtual explosion of it when Roleplaying gets tossed into the bag. Nearly everyone wants to see their -characters-, their avatars, their other selves, on paper, in pixels, or any other media they can get their hands on.
Come the 21'st century, early gamers have grown up, added their influences into pop culture, sometimes very subtly, sometimes not so much. Peter Jackson played AD&D. I'm not sure his Lord of the Rings would have been what it is, nor would, I think, New Line/Hollywood, et al, have even attempted such a venture at all, had not a few people remembered their Mtn. Dew and coffee table adventures and thought, this could be awesome.
Modern MMORPG's (World of Warcraft, for instance) can trace their ultimate origins, in many cases, to the trends put in motion by the pamphlets, the Blue or Red boxed sets, and early hardbound editions of Dungeons and Dragons, courtesy of Gygax's creative energies.
The connections I've laid out may be tenuous, but they're real - they happened. Very likely, without a Gary Gygax, the whole concept of gaming, of communication, of roleplaying, and even of furry art ... would be vastly different ... if they existed at all by this time in our history.
I'll thank and remember Mr. Gygax for that.
A complicated character who co-authored the original TSR Dungeons and Dragons, an outgrowth of the miniatures game Chainmail.
Criticisms aside, and there are quite a few, Mr. Gygax has had an indirect effect, I'd say, on just about everyone's lives who plays videogames, looks at furry art, mucks, or has seen a fantasy film on the big screen.
It was his grab-bag of everyone else's concepts of fantasy, Isaac Asimov, Tolkein, Lovecraft, Fritz Lieber, et al, that got chucked into the idea of Roleplaying as a passtime outside the field of acting before an audience. You hung out with a few friends (parent's basement and Mtn. Dew jokes aside), and immersed yourself in a collective imaginary world. And you didn't have to play just human, though your choices were pretty limited in those days - elves, dwarves, halflings, half this, half orc, half that.
Along come home computers, and Lord British and Infocom are putting out games that seem to bear a passing resemblence in theme to the ol' dungeon crawl. Others jump on the bandwagon and pretty soon everyone and their brother is putting out RPG's, both paper and pen and beyond the CRT. Star Wars comes out, and TSR (Gygax et al) puts out Star Frontiers to break Roleplaying into the genre. Others follow suit, with varying degress of success, but in the early 80's, more gamers probably knew Star Frontiers than Other Suns (one of the first furry heavy scifi RPG's), or my personal fav, Traveller.
A side-growth of the whole text based computer adventure broke from Zork and went directly into the development of MUD's, then broke into MUCKs and MUSHs. See where I'm going with this? FurryMUCK becomes one of the early, premier roleplaying outlets for people imagining themselves to be something other than just human - indeed, distancing themselves quickly into a myriad of attempts to be anything but. Furry art is already out there, but there's a virtual explosion of it when Roleplaying gets tossed into the bag. Nearly everyone wants to see their -characters-, their avatars, their other selves, on paper, in pixels, or any other media they can get their hands on.
Come the 21'st century, early gamers have grown up, added their influences into pop culture, sometimes very subtly, sometimes not so much. Peter Jackson played AD&D. I'm not sure his Lord of the Rings would have been what it is, nor would, I think, New Line/Hollywood, et al, have even attempted such a venture at all, had not a few people remembered their Mtn. Dew and coffee table adventures and thought, this could be awesome.
Modern MMORPG's (World of Warcraft, for instance) can trace their ultimate origins, in many cases, to the trends put in motion by the pamphlets, the Blue or Red boxed sets, and early hardbound editions of Dungeons and Dragons, courtesy of Gygax's creative energies.
The connections I've laid out may be tenuous, but they're real - they happened. Very likely, without a Gary Gygax, the whole concept of gaming, of communication, of roleplaying, and even of furry art ... would be vastly different ... if they existed at all by this time in our history.
I'll thank and remember Mr. Gygax for that.
Watch! Iss Cute!
Posted 18 years agohttp://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/catfish
Just sumfing I founded and really really enjoyed.
Short - just make sure you watch through the credits for the punchline(s).
No other news other than winter must be fading, as I'm getting the itch to start gardening again, recovering and/or replanting the front yard planters at the very least.
May take a few months before I tackle the back yard - s'daunting. Needs to be mowed just to find and define the edges of the 'garden' back there. Luckily peach trees and grape vines seem impervious to neglect.
The jade plant however, may need to be excised as seems hellbent on taking over its corner of the yard, and in a few years time, challenging the already out of control yucca 'trees' to a strangle-fest.
*ponders the above video*
No, no, I -wont- attempt to put in a garden pond ... nonono ... must not be tempted! High Maintenance ... Expensive ... Dead Koi ... Green Slime ... Arrrghhh!
Just sumfing I founded and really really enjoyed.
Short - just make sure you watch through the credits for the punchline(s).
No other news other than winter must be fading, as I'm getting the itch to start gardening again, recovering and/or replanting the front yard planters at the very least.
May take a few months before I tackle the back yard - s'daunting. Needs to be mowed just to find and define the edges of the 'garden' back there. Luckily peach trees and grape vines seem impervious to neglect.
The jade plant however, may need to be excised as seems hellbent on taking over its corner of the yard, and in a few years time, challenging the already out of control yucca 'trees' to a strangle-fest.
*ponders the above video*
No, no, I -wont- attempt to put in a garden pond ... nonono ... must not be tempted! High Maintenance ... Expensive ... Dead Koi ... Green Slime ... Arrrghhh!
Sleepy but Waking
Posted 18 years agoSlowly coming out of my wintery lethargy - something I've started to recognize in myself - annually I get a series of cases of flu/cold/sorethroat/pneumonia shortly after Thanksgiving, and everything becomes a bleary - bleahfest for a couple months. Though arguably, my 'hibernation' began a bit earlier this year.
Anyways, sketching again, even if my artwork's taken a step back.
Neat things:
http://www.tangoland.com/
Worth visiting just for the entry animation. Artwork Lab and Characters are worthy too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfre.....von_Richthofen
Red Baron's wartime history was weirder than I thought, considering when he was finally shot down, a .333 round pierced his lung and heart. He still managed to land his plane, and lived long enough for the Australian soliders who retrieved him from its cockpit to say his last word, "Kaput". He racked up around 80 confirmed victories, only 20 of which were while piloting the Tri Fokker D1 that's become the iconic 'Red Baron' plane.
Recent Musical Pleasure:
You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate, 1975
Anyways, sketching again, even if my artwork's taken a step back.
Neat things:
http://www.tangoland.com/
Worth visiting just for the entry animation. Artwork Lab and Characters are worthy too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfre.....von_Richthofen
Red Baron's wartime history was weirder than I thought, considering when he was finally shot down, a .333 round pierced his lung and heart. He still managed to land his plane, and lived long enough for the Australian soliders who retrieved him from its cockpit to say his last word, "Kaput". He racked up around 80 confirmed victories, only 20 of which were while piloting the Tri Fokker D1 that's become the iconic 'Red Baron' plane.
Recent Musical Pleasure:
You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate, 1975
Piercings?! Noooooo!! (Fixed Post)
Posted 18 years ago*sorries, someone startled me and I hit enter before writing the entry out ... Bleah*
Top 10 Physically Modified People
http://www.deputy-dog.com/?p=97
Scary thing is, I know the #1 gentleman. o.O Used to come to our house parties before he moved up the coast a couple states, and still comes to the California furry cons. Really nice guy.
Despite being too squeamish and having a VERY low pain thresh-hold, (I've gone into shock/passed out over little things, like stomach cramps or being bit by a cat), I've always found body modifications a rather fascinating element of our culture and cultures past.
From my anthropology classes back in college, it was pointed out that many so called 'primitive' cultures would pierce/tatto/scarify their skin as proof that they were 'civilized'. Animals, for the most, don't modify their bodies for the sake of standing out, differentiating themselves from one another. Humans do.
I find it odd that mainstream western culture is so squeamish about it, while at the same time, mascara (yeah, I know, its temporary), hair dyes, and ear piercings (for women at least) are commonly held as 'acceptable'.
Top 10 Physically Modified People
http://www.deputy-dog.com/?p=97
Scary thing is, I know the #1 gentleman. o.O Used to come to our house parties before he moved up the coast a couple states, and still comes to the California furry cons. Really nice guy.
Despite being too squeamish and having a VERY low pain thresh-hold, (I've gone into shock/passed out over little things, like stomach cramps or being bit by a cat), I've always found body modifications a rather fascinating element of our culture and cultures past.
From my anthropology classes back in college, it was pointed out that many so called 'primitive' cultures would pierce/tatto/scarify their skin as proof that they were 'civilized'. Animals, for the most, don't modify their bodies for the sake of standing out, differentiating themselves from one another. Humans do.
I find it odd that mainstream western culture is so squeamish about it, while at the same time, mascara (yeah, I know, its temporary), hair dyes, and ear piercings (for women at least) are commonly held as 'acceptable'.
Where's MY Photoshop Hero?!
Posted 18 years agoBack from FAU ...
Posted 18 years agoBack from Newark, New Jersey, and an good mini-vacation break from routine, work, etc.
It was a cozy little con, with its ups and downs.
Pro's: It was small enough that you could get everywhere pretty easily, even using the stairwells. There were about 300 or so people - so it was small enough you'd ruin into the same people over again, and weren't always constantly in a sea of strangers. The dealers rooms were pretty good, relatively busy if small. Good artists generally all around. The other hotel guests I ran into were curious and friendly and seemed to get a kick out of the convention going on around them.
Food at hotel cafe, (Starlight Cafe) was pretty good, and the portions were a bit on the overly generous side. Ran into some pretty nice furs (Roc_Wolf, Mejeep and Dreamwolf - and others - I am -TERRIBLE- with names though >.<), and got to attend a much appreciated nude life drawing class - fast gesture poses (10 second), followed by 5 minute poses and 15 minute poses ... Its been years (and in another millenia) since I'd taken similar classes so it was good to work out some of the rust of shading/flesh/mass rendering.
Got lucky on Saturday night and had a local drive us around NJ, Union City, Elizabeth, Neward etc. to see some of the historical sites (Some beautiful architecture, churches, old office buildings, gorgeous 2 and 3 story houses - and everywhere was -GREEN- swamped in trees bushes, grass, etc.), eat off convention site, and get some fresh air. $700 is a bit for airfare to travel to a little con just to hang out and visit with people I don't know, but - it was worth it - if for nothing else than the atmosphere gets me to draw like crazy, constantly - despite the semi-intimidating state of being surrounded by tonnes of excellent, and often much better artists.
Cons: The hotel. It fronted directly on a highway that looped ridiculously around the airport and environs in a dizzying number of on and offramps without intersections. It was fenced around in all other directions - so you had to have a car, and preferably one driven by a local (Traffic seemed crazy to me, and I'm used to LA/Orange County traffic on a daily basis), to leave for any reason.
All the vending machines were 'out of order' by saturday morning - not usually a big deal, except for the inaccessibility of any store or restaurant off property. There was a little general goods kiosk on the ground floor (bought scotch tape and a toothbrush/toothpaste combo for $5 ... apiece). Rooms had free internet, but the hotel 'internet' room had dollar slots on the computer faces for internet access.
The ATM machine on site ran out of cash on Sunday morning - right as I was getting around to buying stuff from the dealer's room, so I didn't patronize the artists I wanted to as much as I'd originally intended.
The restaurant served good food but was incredibly slow - despite usually having maybe 5-6 tables (and not FC tables of fifteen furs ... these were like 2-4 people max) occupied at a given time, and multiple waiters/waitresses etc. They provided the convention with little coupons good for simple food combos (listed burger and fries), but at what, on the face of it, looked like a $2-3 increase on their base menues. The coupons failed to mention that drinks were included - AND that the coupons were meant to give the restaurant staff time to prepare the food - You were expected to drop off the coupons 10 minutes in advance, then come back later and it'd be ready for you.
At one point I had a frustrated hotel manager pressuring me and another random fur I was talking to to find the owner of a motorcycle blocking the hotel's vans. Not sure if the cycle was related to the con or not, but - wasn't sure why he expected me to know who owned it or what I was supposed to do about it, not being on staff, having just flown in from Orange County California. He found me again a bit later, angry, saying something like "I'm trying to be accomodating to YOU PEOPLE but if you don't find the owner of that motorcycle, we're having it towed!"
Um ... okay? WE people? (Wanted to point out we're not all on some vast furry rolodex, don't all know each other, don't all like watermelon and fried chicken and sing spirituals either - wait, different stereotyped people - but ... I try to be accomodating to HIS people too I guess .... )
So the 'coupons' were the source of much derision, confusion and 'the hotel is ripping us off!' humor.
On Saturday, two furs in the hotel lounge were commenting loudly about the 'funky smell' in the air and eluding to 'unwashed furs' as the cause of the funk - Nevermind, New Jersey jokes aside, the hotel was conveniently located directly between an Airport and a very noisesome WaterWaste reclaimation plant.
As to the con itself - The conbook needed a rundown (glossary style) of what the panels -were-, instead of only the sheet schedule, and a rundown of the people who were on -some- of the panels. Even if there wasn't enough time for it to make the final conbook printing, an insert sheet of what all the panels were would have worked. My mate was also expected to be on a panel or two, without being informed WHAT panels or WHEN he was assigned to, so he just served the one he actually knew about before coming to the convention.
As an FA con, it lacked any kind of programming that made it ... well, FA related. It was kinda a non-distinct small furry con. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but programming related to the site/site community would have been nice.
Things missed from larger cons: Computer/ Internet room, Artists Alley, Art Lounge, Media Room. The con suite, at least, was there, but wasn't open anywhere near enough (most cons run con suites 24 hours ... or maybe 20 or so, with a few hours set aside for general organization in the wee hours). No place in the con was open past 1 or 2 am.
Computer/Internet's a bit of an investment in cheap computers/arrangements with the hotel/and a techie to set up the machines with simple services (mucking/browsing) - so for a first and small con, that's understandable - but its an internet community at the same time >.O - so ... maybe next year?
Artists Alley/Art Lounge - These should have been there - one should have been 24 hours - fill the thing with butcher paper and crayons if that's all you can manage, but a space needs to be set aside for drawing if your con's about artists. Artist's alley, maybe less so, as I've always seen it as more of an addendum to the dealer's room, but still would have been nice.
They coulda used a video/media room - I guess the con suite was intended to serve that purpose, but watching local cable's more of a break from the con itself (and rightly so) than what a media room really is meant to do - and with all the vast collections of anime, furry themed media, talking animal movies, cartoons, CGI out there, someone could have at least thrown together a few tapes and a schedule.
The dance - DJ'd dances were friday during the day and a little into the night - the live entertainers saturday - Probably should have been reversed, or the DJ'd dances put late Saturday night - when the con's at its fullest, after the dealer rooms are closed and most of the panels are over - Some of the alternative artist/guest musicians weren't exactly danceable material (I may be getting older, but that has NOTHING to do with my cat-strangling sound assessment of the Zhazha Ghabortionists and the Back AlleyMcbeals - one of the three live bands.).
Bleah, a little more longwinded than I'd intended.
All in all, had fun regardless of the above critique, and wish them well with next year's con.
It was a cozy little con, with its ups and downs.
Pro's: It was small enough that you could get everywhere pretty easily, even using the stairwells. There were about 300 or so people - so it was small enough you'd ruin into the same people over again, and weren't always constantly in a sea of strangers. The dealers rooms were pretty good, relatively busy if small. Good artists generally all around. The other hotel guests I ran into were curious and friendly and seemed to get a kick out of the convention going on around them.
Food at hotel cafe, (Starlight Cafe) was pretty good, and the portions were a bit on the overly generous side. Ran into some pretty nice furs (Roc_Wolf, Mejeep and Dreamwolf - and others - I am -TERRIBLE- with names though >.<), and got to attend a much appreciated nude life drawing class - fast gesture poses (10 second), followed by 5 minute poses and 15 minute poses ... Its been years (and in another millenia) since I'd taken similar classes so it was good to work out some of the rust of shading/flesh/mass rendering.
Got lucky on Saturday night and had a local drive us around NJ, Union City, Elizabeth, Neward etc. to see some of the historical sites (Some beautiful architecture, churches, old office buildings, gorgeous 2 and 3 story houses - and everywhere was -GREEN- swamped in trees bushes, grass, etc.), eat off convention site, and get some fresh air. $700 is a bit for airfare to travel to a little con just to hang out and visit with people I don't know, but - it was worth it - if for nothing else than the atmosphere gets me to draw like crazy, constantly - despite the semi-intimidating state of being surrounded by tonnes of excellent, and often much better artists.
Cons: The hotel. It fronted directly on a highway that looped ridiculously around the airport and environs in a dizzying number of on and offramps without intersections. It was fenced around in all other directions - so you had to have a car, and preferably one driven by a local (Traffic seemed crazy to me, and I'm used to LA/Orange County traffic on a daily basis), to leave for any reason.
All the vending machines were 'out of order' by saturday morning - not usually a big deal, except for the inaccessibility of any store or restaurant off property. There was a little general goods kiosk on the ground floor (bought scotch tape and a toothbrush/toothpaste combo for $5 ... apiece). Rooms had free internet, but the hotel 'internet' room had dollar slots on the computer faces for internet access.
The ATM machine on site ran out of cash on Sunday morning - right as I was getting around to buying stuff from the dealer's room, so I didn't patronize the artists I wanted to as much as I'd originally intended.
The restaurant served good food but was incredibly slow - despite usually having maybe 5-6 tables (and not FC tables of fifteen furs ... these were like 2-4 people max) occupied at a given time, and multiple waiters/waitresses etc. They provided the convention with little coupons good for simple food combos (listed burger and fries), but at what, on the face of it, looked like a $2-3 increase on their base menues. The coupons failed to mention that drinks were included - AND that the coupons were meant to give the restaurant staff time to prepare the food - You were expected to drop off the coupons 10 minutes in advance, then come back later and it'd be ready for you.
At one point I had a frustrated hotel manager pressuring me and another random fur I was talking to to find the owner of a motorcycle blocking the hotel's vans. Not sure if the cycle was related to the con or not, but - wasn't sure why he expected me to know who owned it or what I was supposed to do about it, not being on staff, having just flown in from Orange County California. He found me again a bit later, angry, saying something like "I'm trying to be accomodating to YOU PEOPLE but if you don't find the owner of that motorcycle, we're having it towed!"
Um ... okay? WE people? (Wanted to point out we're not all on some vast furry rolodex, don't all know each other, don't all like watermelon and fried chicken and sing spirituals either - wait, different stereotyped people - but ... I try to be accomodating to HIS people too I guess .... )
So the 'coupons' were the source of much derision, confusion and 'the hotel is ripping us off!' humor.
On Saturday, two furs in the hotel lounge were commenting loudly about the 'funky smell' in the air and eluding to 'unwashed furs' as the cause of the funk - Nevermind, New Jersey jokes aside, the hotel was conveniently located directly between an Airport and a very noisesome WaterWaste reclaimation plant.
As to the con itself - The conbook needed a rundown (glossary style) of what the panels -were-, instead of only the sheet schedule, and a rundown of the people who were on -some- of the panels. Even if there wasn't enough time for it to make the final conbook printing, an insert sheet of what all the panels were would have worked. My mate was also expected to be on a panel or two, without being informed WHAT panels or WHEN he was assigned to, so he just served the one he actually knew about before coming to the convention.
As an FA con, it lacked any kind of programming that made it ... well, FA related. It was kinda a non-distinct small furry con. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but programming related to the site/site community would have been nice.
Things missed from larger cons: Computer/ Internet room, Artists Alley, Art Lounge, Media Room. The con suite, at least, was there, but wasn't open anywhere near enough (most cons run con suites 24 hours ... or maybe 20 or so, with a few hours set aside for general organization in the wee hours). No place in the con was open past 1 or 2 am.
Computer/Internet's a bit of an investment in cheap computers/arrangements with the hotel/and a techie to set up the machines with simple services (mucking/browsing) - so for a first and small con, that's understandable - but its an internet community at the same time >.O - so ... maybe next year?
Artists Alley/Art Lounge - These should have been there - one should have been 24 hours - fill the thing with butcher paper and crayons if that's all you can manage, but a space needs to be set aside for drawing if your con's about artists. Artist's alley, maybe less so, as I've always seen it as more of an addendum to the dealer's room, but still would have been nice.
They coulda used a video/media room - I guess the con suite was intended to serve that purpose, but watching local cable's more of a break from the con itself (and rightly so) than what a media room really is meant to do - and with all the vast collections of anime, furry themed media, talking animal movies, cartoons, CGI out there, someone could have at least thrown together a few tapes and a schedule.
The dance - DJ'd dances were friday during the day and a little into the night - the live entertainers saturday - Probably should have been reversed, or the DJ'd dances put late Saturday night - when the con's at its fullest, after the dealer rooms are closed and most of the panels are over - Some of the alternative artist/guest musicians weren't exactly danceable material (I may be getting older, but that has NOTHING to do with my cat-strangling sound assessment of the Zhazha Ghabortionists and the Back AlleyMcbeals - one of the three live bands.).
Bleah, a little more longwinded than I'd intended.
All in all, had fun regardless of the above critique, and wish them well with next year's con.
Going to FAU?
Posted 18 years agoAnyone else going to FA United? I'll be there. Mate's got some panels and stuff, but I'm going with a more or less open schedule to get away from the house and job etc. for a few days.
Be my first time flying in ages - nervous about that. My first time in New Jersey, though don't think I'll get outta the convention hotel much while I'm there.
Be my first time flying in ages - nervous about that. My first time in New Jersey, though don't think I'll get outta the convention hotel much while I'm there.
More Bugs among the stars.
Posted 18 years agoWell, we've had Cancer and Scorpio for some time as far as constellations, but there's also the Antennae Galaxies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennae_Galaxies
Illustrating what happens when a pair of galaxies 'splash' through each other, slowly congealing to create a supergalaxy.
The long thin tails though - like gas trailing off from space.
If you were from a world on one of the tails, your nightsky view would probably be pretty spectacular - but a society that got FTL in time might be moved to outpace the escape velocity of their strand, colonize the core galaxies ASAP, or suffer (eventually - ie. millions of years), an early version of the Heath Death of the universe.
Even without FTL, the survival of a species would eventually consider slower than light generation 'lifeboats' to get back toward the warmer clusters of stars. In the long-view of survival of a species, no cost becomes too high for its societies. There'd be many, many stories that could be told of such struggles, drama resulting from such an endeavor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennae_Galaxies
Illustrating what happens when a pair of galaxies 'splash' through each other, slowly congealing to create a supergalaxy.
The long thin tails though - like gas trailing off from space.
If you were from a world on one of the tails, your nightsky view would probably be pretty spectacular - but a society that got FTL in time might be moved to outpace the escape velocity of their strand, colonize the core galaxies ASAP, or suffer (eventually - ie. millions of years), an early version of the Heath Death of the universe.
Even without FTL, the survival of a species would eventually consider slower than light generation 'lifeboats' to get back toward the warmer clusters of stars. In the long-view of survival of a species, no cost becomes too high for its societies. There'd be many, many stories that could be told of such struggles, drama resulting from such an endeavor.
You Are What You Eat ... ?!
Posted 18 years agoHadda birthday today.
*oog*
Well, just got back from Red Lobster, after eating lotsa crab and shrimp and lobster ... (well, shared, halvsies with my mate - who doesn't know how to get meat out of crablegs ... Hadta show 'im.). Love me some crustaceans, but generally only eat crab et al about once a year, twice if I'm feeling splurgy. Partly also because I'm the only person in the house that really, REALLY likes seafood, and one of the few that will eat it period.
Sooo, anyways, since all of the above things are arthropods, technically bugs wot live in the sea ... I'm at least part bug now >.O
*Well, personally I think I'm still 99.99999% feline (mood behavior, tastes), though I've never et one, so there goes that theory.*
Neat presents. Changa and Sy got me a 22 inch flatscreen, LCD monitor, and a kinda nifty (but too neat to actually use) Ratatouille art-kit. I'm stoked - didn't ask for anything (never do anymore) so kinda blew me away :>
*oog*
Well, just got back from Red Lobster, after eating lotsa crab and shrimp and lobster ... (well, shared, halvsies with my mate - who doesn't know how to get meat out of crablegs ... Hadta show 'im.). Love me some crustaceans, but generally only eat crab et al about once a year, twice if I'm feeling splurgy. Partly also because I'm the only person in the house that really, REALLY likes seafood, and one of the few that will eat it period.
Sooo, anyways, since all of the above things are arthropods, technically bugs wot live in the sea ... I'm at least part bug now >.O
*Well, personally I think I'm still 99.99999% feline (mood behavior, tastes), though I've never et one, so there goes that theory.*
Neat presents. Changa and Sy got me a 22 inch flatscreen, LCD monitor, and a kinda nifty (but too neat to actually use) Ratatouille art-kit. I'm stoked - didn't ask for anything (never do anymore) so kinda blew me away :>
Buuuugs iiiin Spaaaace!
Posted 18 years agoSee, bugs really WILL be in space in colonies before we are - only, from Earth, not as alien inaders!
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/lif.....e_in_a_box.php
Though, I'm pretty sure there've been some NASA colonial insect studies before now, these guys are pretty much guaranteed a 1 way trip, and Bigelow is hoping they'll be there for -years-, self sustaining in a minimal environment.
*Bill Plimpton's 'Mutant Aliens', anyone?*
One thing about arthropods in Zero-G - all that crud about supporting one's weight over a certain scale goes (almost) out the window. Circulation of oxygen via largely passive systems is still a problem - there's also the problem that buggies will still have mass, regardless of weight, so stopping after getting a good speed down a lift tube will still make for splashy-crunchy bugs if they're over a certain size.
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/lif.....e_in_a_box.php
Though, I'm pretty sure there've been some NASA colonial insect studies before now, these guys are pretty much guaranteed a 1 way trip, and Bigelow is hoping they'll be there for -years-, self sustaining in a minimal environment.
*Bill Plimpton's 'Mutant Aliens', anyone?*
One thing about arthropods in Zero-G - all that crud about supporting one's weight over a certain scale goes (almost) out the window. Circulation of oxygen via largely passive systems is still a problem - there's also the problem that buggies will still have mass, regardless of weight, so stopping after getting a good speed down a lift tube will still make for splashy-crunchy bugs if they're over a certain size.
Neat Things
Posted 18 years agoOld and New - Mostly old, unless it slipped under your radar:
Movies: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
- Gangsters, Bushido, Forest Whitaker, awesome soundtrack - Full of all the weird quirky stuff that made Dead Man almost work (Another really good film, starring Johnny Depp - but the sound on all the versions, DVD or VHS I've seen so far is horrible, grating, and can't seem to decide whether to whisper dialog or blare guitar riffs at 'eleven' ... )
Hobos
When bein' homeless is coool. Well, okay, not really, but wiki Hobos sometime - there's a lotta neat little trivia about them - secret waysigns, famous authors, books, ex-hobos (such as Woody "This land is your land" Guthrie, and even one who ran for US Senate in Utah), Hobo Stew (aka Mulligan Stew, Stone or Nail Soup) using primarily vegetables, ketchup or tomato soup, and browned hamburger. In Iowa, there's a Hobo museum and cemetary, and every summer there's a Hobo Convention.
Underwater Lakes
Or brine pools. Not a lotta stuff on these on the web yet - you gotta poke around. You'll really have to get Blue Planet to get the whole 'oh effing WOW factor' - but basically these are areas of super high salinity on the ocean floor that when you come across them in a submarine, appear to be lakes underwater, complete with waves and reflective surfaces. These things function as oasis well beyond the reach of any light from the surface where evolution has 'found a way'. Crabs, bloodworms, fish, plankon all have adapted to a lightless, but methane rich environment around the 'shores' of these lakes.
Like the bizarro 'alien' life around deep sea thermal vents, no one was expecting to find such thriving biomes under all that pressure - and indeed, several feet away from the shores of these 'lakes', you're back on the surface of the moon for all the activity there is. How'd these colonists (crabs/worms/corals etc.) adapt to such bizarre locales when they're so far removed from the safety zone their cousins find anywhere near comfortable? We've only scratched the surface of the science of these little hotspots of life - lots to learn, but it gives one clear hope that if -familiar- life can adapt to such extreme environments, if even single celled organisms can arise from a biological 'stew', the universe might be teaming with life ... at least everywhere there's a fluid medium to move about in.
****
Back's better - starting to draw again to spite it, but healing is slow - Just when its almost gone it seems to want to flare up again, or some stupid activity at work or at home, aggravates it all over again.
Movies: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
- Gangsters, Bushido, Forest Whitaker, awesome soundtrack - Full of all the weird quirky stuff that made Dead Man almost work (Another really good film, starring Johnny Depp - but the sound on all the versions, DVD or VHS I've seen so far is horrible, grating, and can't seem to decide whether to whisper dialog or blare guitar riffs at 'eleven' ... )
Hobos
When bein' homeless is coool. Well, okay, not really, but wiki Hobos sometime - there's a lotta neat little trivia about them - secret waysigns, famous authors, books, ex-hobos (such as Woody "This land is your land" Guthrie, and even one who ran for US Senate in Utah), Hobo Stew (aka Mulligan Stew, Stone or Nail Soup) using primarily vegetables, ketchup or tomato soup, and browned hamburger. In Iowa, there's a Hobo museum and cemetary, and every summer there's a Hobo Convention.
Underwater Lakes
Or brine pools. Not a lotta stuff on these on the web yet - you gotta poke around. You'll really have to get Blue Planet to get the whole 'oh effing WOW factor' - but basically these are areas of super high salinity on the ocean floor that when you come across them in a submarine, appear to be lakes underwater, complete with waves and reflective surfaces. These things function as oasis well beyond the reach of any light from the surface where evolution has 'found a way'. Crabs, bloodworms, fish, plankon all have adapted to a lightless, but methane rich environment around the 'shores' of these lakes.
Like the bizarro 'alien' life around deep sea thermal vents, no one was expecting to find such thriving biomes under all that pressure - and indeed, several feet away from the shores of these 'lakes', you're back on the surface of the moon for all the activity there is. How'd these colonists (crabs/worms/corals etc.) adapt to such bizarre locales when they're so far removed from the safety zone their cousins find anywhere near comfortable? We've only scratched the surface of the science of these little hotspots of life - lots to learn, but it gives one clear hope that if -familiar- life can adapt to such extreme environments, if even single celled organisms can arise from a biological 'stew', the universe might be teaming with life ... at least everywhere there's a fluid medium to move about in.
****
Back's better - starting to draw again to spite it, but healing is slow - Just when its almost gone it seems to want to flare up again, or some stupid activity at work or at home, aggravates it all over again.
Like ... OW! >.<
Posted 18 years agoBeen suffering from a mysterious back muscle pain (right beneath my right shoulderblade, midback) for just about 2 weeks now.
Only thing I can think is I stressed it in a collision with a doorjamb and didn't even notice the pain for a few days. But gods, I notice it now! Its not so bad in the mornings, but gradually throughout the day it becomes agonizing.
Sitting still makes it hurt.
Moving repetatively/stretching makes it hurt.
Randon moving about - Doesn't hurt as much (but still hurts).
Thursday night (6-21-07) about the time I was getting downright irrational about the pain, I finally went to the doctors, got a shot that hurt enough to make me forget the pain, and perscribed 3x the amount of ibuprofin I'd been taking, along with Robaxin twice a day as a muscle relaxant? It kinda works, but not perfectly (took about 2 days for the shot to wear off and the pain to return). Stuff makes me a little loopy, forgetful (moreso than usual), and you can't drive after taking it. Bleah!
Its distracting to say the least, and I either sleep, or watch TV, to lessen the experience - videogames don't even quite do it for me in the meantime.
I just hope to god its healing, whatever the hell it is - I normally have a pretty low pain threshold/tolerance to begin with (I've gone into shock over the stupidest of injuries - but usually more than a papercut's worth of bleeding does it to me more than anything), so I can't imagine how people suffering -really- nasty physical pain can handle it day in day out. Yeeghods.
Anyways, just fyi, so my sudden lack of output at least has a name behind it. I'll try to resume practicing/etc. when I can, muddle through as best I can - make art my distraction - but the thought of suddenly having pain -influence- the nature of what I draw kinda bothers me too.
List of Famous Insects
Posted 18 years agoThough was never my intention to go quite so far with the bug drawings, its been kinda fun, actually, and I'll keep with it for awhile yet (as I have a tonne of unused ideas that are still waiting for a) my skill to improve enough to do them justice and b) the spare TIME to do them justice. Mostly so I won't necessarily have to go back and -redo- the same pieces that should have been cooler the first time around.
*takes deep breath*
Anyways, was thinking of doing a few more famous insect tribute pieces and wanted to compile a list of 'em from movies, books, folklore, wherever . There's a boatload of secondary characters who are bugs as supporting cast in anything involving smaller morphic characters or just aliens (American Tail, Titan AE - both by Don Bluth and Mulan's Lucky Cricket for instance), but there's enough main insecty sorts out there to compile a decent list.
Also, there's a fair amount of movies where bugs are tossed in as the 'swarming/horror element' (MIB, The Mummy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Creepshow), or even the main badguy of the film. (Them, Starship Troopers, Swarm, Mansquito - a wonderful howler any MST3King group of people would LOVE to tear apart.), and countless other B film horror/T&A films too numerous to go into that I haven't had the priviledge to eat popcorn to.
Thing is, if you want insects as NOT the badguy/negative aspect characters, you generally turn to animation, at least in film.
So far, off the top of my head, in animated movies featuring major insecty characters there's:
The Ant Bully (Haven't seen)
Antz
Arthur and the Invisibles (Haven't seen)
Beast Wars (Waspinator - okay, he's a ROBOT bug, but still)
The Bee Movie (not out yet)
A Bugs Life
Hoppity Goes to Town
James and the Giant Peach
The Phantom Tollbooth (Chuck Jones' version of the Humbug is very cute)
Pinoccio (Jiminy Cricket)
Note, in animated shorts, CG, Traditional or otherwise, the list gets prohibitive - I think partly because insects can be easily 'tooned' and oversimplified, compared to more familiar things like people or animals humans have a closer association/fascination with. But situationally, once an insect is sentient, the possibilities for situation comedy/cool things to do skyrocket because you can mess with scale, surreal 'kitchen or backyard jungle' settings, plays the insects normal behavior. Old Warner Brothers, Disney, and MGM cartoons are classic examples, but other short films, like Joe's Apartment.
In fiction, besides the folktale Anansi of African lore (well, he/she's a spider, but I'll include arachnids and land-crustaceans into the whole concept of bugs), the lazy grasshopper vs. the industrious ant of fables, and countless children's books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar anyone?), I'm having less success coming up with pop cultural insect characters in books. Even Jiminy Cricket from Pinoccio gets short shrift in literature, as in the original version, the ungrateful wooden puppet squashes him for meddling pretty early on. Still, there are a few literary bugs that come to mind:
Archie - The Cockroach from, and author of, Archie and Mehitabel (wonderful, philosophical/funny read).
The Humbug - Phantom Tollbooth (A bit different than the Jones version, in text, as well as in Fifer's scribbly drawings of him)
Woggle-bug - from the OZ series.
Music, to me, is even harder to find insect references, beyond the one about the rubber plant, and Oingo Boingo's Insects.
Anyone got any other obvious or obscure ones I probably overlooked?
*takes deep breath*
Anyways, was thinking of doing a few more famous insect tribute pieces and wanted to compile a list of 'em from movies, books, folklore, wherever . There's a boatload of secondary characters who are bugs as supporting cast in anything involving smaller morphic characters or just aliens (American Tail, Titan AE - both by Don Bluth and Mulan's Lucky Cricket for instance), but there's enough main insecty sorts out there to compile a decent list.
Also, there's a fair amount of movies where bugs are tossed in as the 'swarming/horror element' (MIB, The Mummy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Creepshow), or even the main badguy of the film. (Them, Starship Troopers, Swarm, Mansquito - a wonderful howler any MST3King group of people would LOVE to tear apart.), and countless other B film horror/T&A films too numerous to go into that I haven't had the priviledge to eat popcorn to.
Thing is, if you want insects as NOT the badguy/negative aspect characters, you generally turn to animation, at least in film.
So far, off the top of my head, in animated movies featuring major insecty characters there's:
The Ant Bully (Haven't seen)
Antz
Arthur and the Invisibles (Haven't seen)
Beast Wars (Waspinator - okay, he's a ROBOT bug, but still)
The Bee Movie (not out yet)
A Bugs Life
Hoppity Goes to Town
James and the Giant Peach
The Phantom Tollbooth (Chuck Jones' version of the Humbug is very cute)
Pinoccio (Jiminy Cricket)
Note, in animated shorts, CG, Traditional or otherwise, the list gets prohibitive - I think partly because insects can be easily 'tooned' and oversimplified, compared to more familiar things like people or animals humans have a closer association/fascination with. But situationally, once an insect is sentient, the possibilities for situation comedy/cool things to do skyrocket because you can mess with scale, surreal 'kitchen or backyard jungle' settings, plays the insects normal behavior. Old Warner Brothers, Disney, and MGM cartoons are classic examples, but other short films, like Joe's Apartment.
In fiction, besides the folktale Anansi of African lore (well, he/she's a spider, but I'll include arachnids and land-crustaceans into the whole concept of bugs), the lazy grasshopper vs. the industrious ant of fables, and countless children's books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar anyone?), I'm having less success coming up with pop cultural insect characters in books. Even Jiminy Cricket from Pinoccio gets short shrift in literature, as in the original version, the ungrateful wooden puppet squashes him for meddling pretty early on. Still, there are a few literary bugs that come to mind:
Archie - The Cockroach from, and author of, Archie and Mehitabel (wonderful, philosophical/funny read).
The Humbug - Phantom Tollbooth (A bit different than the Jones version, in text, as well as in Fifer's scribbly drawings of him)
Woggle-bug - from the OZ series.
Music, to me, is even harder to find insect references, beyond the one about the rubber plant, and Oingo Boingo's Insects.
Anyone got any other obvious or obscure ones I probably overlooked?
Third Night of Nightmares
Posted 18 years agoBackground: Been having a helluva week so far - three nights of memorable nightmares, last night's a doozy stemming from missing my own goals of doing at least -something- artwise that isn't total crud every day. Sunday and Monday felt so bad though, that I didn't sketch at all - monday went back at least and colored a piece, posted it, but tuesday was a total null - so I tend to get a little self conscious when I miss my own goals (And a good grinding in of 'excuse or no excuse, there's no excuse'. Not sure where that comes from, but its there.)
***
Wednesday Night:
Imagine waking up in the middle of an art class final, with a half scribbled piece of 'refrigerator art', at a tech college (I went to Cal Poly Pomona RL ... lots of engineers and ag folks there - I was the only art major in the class in the dream). Teach said I could still pass if I finished the piece while the critique was going on.
Dream kept changing the rules as it went on as, for some reason, my instructions originally said 'self portrait' and I was for some reason, prisma-crayoning myself as a cheetah(?!), when the assignment was -REALLY- to express our greatest personal fears. (A bit personal I think for an art teacher to assign, I thought, but oh well).
Then the dimensions and media for the project changed too, instead of being 18 by 24 inches, it became 18 by 24 -feet-, and I was still sketching furiously while walking down a hallway full of these multi-story masterpieces all around me, listening to people who were doing this for their elective wax on and on about color technique, expressionism, compositional balance, etc.
I think at this point, I wanted to scoop out my eyes with a melon baller rather than experience any more the dream and somehow forced myself to wake up - and found myself on the futon in my little private study instead of in bed ... and it was 3am.
***
Tuesday night I'd literally collapsed upon getting home from work - screw dinner, screw video games, screw art and folded in on myself.
Monday night, I'd gotten to bed early, but managed nightmares of having a weird security job (I rarely touch guns if I can help it ... they make me nervous) in an alien 'Main Street USA' that included Diagon-Alley, and a Sacks 5th Avenue. Kid kept bouncing his soccerball on my store's plate glass window, so I magically embedded him in quicksand up to his ankles and surrounded him with a moat of molten lava until he swore not to do it anymore. While having said powers might not constitute a nightmare for some, I generally don't like the concept of -trapping- people and forcing them to be afraid of me. Worse yet were a peer group of 'beautiful people' (OC-yuppie-valley-beverly hills kids) that afterwards accepted me as 'cool' and one of them.
Sunday night, I'd gotten 90 minutes sleep total because my brain wouldn't turn -off-. Snoring and hypersensitive -everything- had me isolate myself back in my study about 4 in the morning to get what little sleep I could before waking up at 6am. 90 minutes sleep with vivid nightmares of arguing with my mate during a strange vacation across a deserted 1960's United States.
***
My week and a half long 'hyper learning state' brain dance though seems to be slowly winding down - I'm in some respects going to miss it, if it is fading, as there were some manic moments that were inspired, artwise, but I could do with more regular sleep >.<
***
Wednesday Night:
Imagine waking up in the middle of an art class final, with a half scribbled piece of 'refrigerator art', at a tech college (I went to Cal Poly Pomona RL ... lots of engineers and ag folks there - I was the only art major in the class in the dream). Teach said I could still pass if I finished the piece while the critique was going on.
Dream kept changing the rules as it went on as, for some reason, my instructions originally said 'self portrait' and I was for some reason, prisma-crayoning myself as a cheetah(?!), when the assignment was -REALLY- to express our greatest personal fears. (A bit personal I think for an art teacher to assign, I thought, but oh well).
Then the dimensions and media for the project changed too, instead of being 18 by 24 inches, it became 18 by 24 -feet-, and I was still sketching furiously while walking down a hallway full of these multi-story masterpieces all around me, listening to people who were doing this for their elective wax on and on about color technique, expressionism, compositional balance, etc.
I think at this point, I wanted to scoop out my eyes with a melon baller rather than experience any more the dream and somehow forced myself to wake up - and found myself on the futon in my little private study instead of in bed ... and it was 3am.
***
Tuesday night I'd literally collapsed upon getting home from work - screw dinner, screw video games, screw art and folded in on myself.
Monday night, I'd gotten to bed early, but managed nightmares of having a weird security job (I rarely touch guns if I can help it ... they make me nervous) in an alien 'Main Street USA' that included Diagon-Alley, and a Sacks 5th Avenue. Kid kept bouncing his soccerball on my store's plate glass window, so I magically embedded him in quicksand up to his ankles and surrounded him with a moat of molten lava until he swore not to do it anymore. While having said powers might not constitute a nightmare for some, I generally don't like the concept of -trapping- people and forcing them to be afraid of me. Worse yet were a peer group of 'beautiful people' (OC-yuppie-valley-beverly hills kids) that afterwards accepted me as 'cool' and one of them.
Sunday night, I'd gotten 90 minutes sleep total because my brain wouldn't turn -off-. Snoring and hypersensitive -everything- had me isolate myself back in my study about 4 in the morning to get what little sleep I could before waking up at 6am. 90 minutes sleep with vivid nightmares of arguing with my mate during a strange vacation across a deserted 1960's United States.
***
My week and a half long 'hyper learning state' brain dance though seems to be slowly winding down - I'm in some respects going to miss it, if it is fading, as there were some manic moments that were inspired, artwise, but I could do with more regular sleep >.<
Music for a Post Holocaust RP?
Posted 18 years agoBeen poking around with Dark Tower concept themes for an alternate parallel universe to my furry Mage game, and was wondering what music people think of for such settings that involve:
> The quiet after the radiation storms are over
> The gallows humor of Fallout/like settings (laugh to keep from dying)
> Potential hope in a "World Gone Mad"
When I think of movies, Mad Max series comes to the top of the list, with The Quiet Earth, Logan's Run, and some zombie flicks (Army of Darkness) thrown in, but their -music- didn't seem to fit for Roleplaying.
I like a lotta the Atomic Pop romance songs of the cold war era, and of course Louie Armstrong, Sinatra (can't usually handle him outside the genre of post holocaust for some reason). Vangellis (especially the Bladerunner soundtrack) has a nice techie-eerie ring to it too.
So, advice, recommendations?
Anyone fans of Dark Tower, Fallout or even Morrow Project, The End, or Gamma World and have suggested music tracks?
> The quiet after the radiation storms are over
> The gallows humor of Fallout/like settings (laugh to keep from dying)
> Potential hope in a "World Gone Mad"
When I think of movies, Mad Max series comes to the top of the list, with The Quiet Earth, Logan's Run, and some zombie flicks (Army of Darkness) thrown in, but their -music- didn't seem to fit for Roleplaying.
I like a lotta the Atomic Pop romance songs of the cold war era, and of course Louie Armstrong, Sinatra (can't usually handle him outside the genre of post holocaust for some reason). Vangellis (especially the Bladerunner soundtrack) has a nice techie-eerie ring to it too.
So, advice, recommendations?
Anyone fans of Dark Tower, Fallout or even Morrow Project, The End, or Gamma World and have suggested music tracks?
Wildlife IN the Prancing Skiltaire?
Posted 18 years agoSo ... was mucking midnight or so and our cat, Patches, comes around doing the "I've killed something, come and see!" yowl.
Problem is, our cat knows the routine, but not, perhaps, all the details of the process, as she invariably just gets us to follow her to the living room, regardless of where her 'prize' may be lying, or cowering in fear of the fanged, clawed terror, somewhere else in the house.
She'd caught several mice, rats, and even brought in birds, baby and otherwise, to 'share' in this manner, but she's never been consistant where she's left stuff. Once, last year, she caught a mouse, left him -fully- intact, and plunked him in our bathtub since everyone was asleep. We captured and released the little guy into a wild, fenced off pond place teaming with bunnies and ducks a few miles down the road, in Anaheim proper.
When I finally found what she'd been yelling about this time, we found a very terrified, apparently uninjured young possum, just big enough to be away from momma, but still pretty little - hiding behind the toilet in the master bedroom's bath. There's no real easy way to get there, and no real -reason- for a possom to wander that far in from the cat-door at the house, and is also the opposite direction from the cat-food.
My only guess is that Patches, finding him sneaking into the house to raid her food dish, carried him as -far- away from her food as she could without actually taking him back outside, then 'alerted the authorities'.
Beady eyes, glittering, ears trembling like tiny radar dish, constantly jittering back and forth - Possoms aren't the prettiest creatures in the world, but this was drop dead cute - and seeing as he wasn't hissing like most possoms I've encountered, or baring his teeth, the terrified orphaned waif imagery was heartbreaking.
First - put on clothes (as I'd just shed them before the discovery for bed). Don't want to catch bitey-scared wild animals in the nude, and didn't particularly fancy a trip to the hospital to test me, and/or the possom for rabies.
Second - nudge him around from the toilet toward a waiting laundry basket with the handle of a plunger. Wasn't sure how to corral him into basket tho, as the geography of the cabinets, toilet, etc. made for lots of possible gaps for quick possoms to squirp through. Luckily he crawled atop a toilet-brush holder and I picked up the whole arrangement and managed to set him down in the laundry basket before he realized he could let go.
Third - cover the arrangement with a towel and take him outside, well -away- from the cat door at the back. Could just picture Patches going and bringing him right back in, with that "You didn't finish him yet!".
I still don't know what goes through our little cats head sometimes - she utterly massacres most of the animals she finds in the house, or outside, and we find -organs- more often than other parts or a whole dead animal, but every now and then, she merely seems to -transport- creatures from point A to point B ... apparently for -OUR- entertainment.
She does very much like playing with us, so maybe Patches just thought it was -our- turn to bat the wildlife around.
Problem is, our cat knows the routine, but not, perhaps, all the details of the process, as she invariably just gets us to follow her to the living room, regardless of where her 'prize' may be lying, or cowering in fear of the fanged, clawed terror, somewhere else in the house.
She'd caught several mice, rats, and even brought in birds, baby and otherwise, to 'share' in this manner, but she's never been consistant where she's left stuff. Once, last year, she caught a mouse, left him -fully- intact, and plunked him in our bathtub since everyone was asleep. We captured and released the little guy into a wild, fenced off pond place teaming with bunnies and ducks a few miles down the road, in Anaheim proper.
When I finally found what she'd been yelling about this time, we found a very terrified, apparently uninjured young possum, just big enough to be away from momma, but still pretty little - hiding behind the toilet in the master bedroom's bath. There's no real easy way to get there, and no real -reason- for a possom to wander that far in from the cat-door at the house, and is also the opposite direction from the cat-food.
My only guess is that Patches, finding him sneaking into the house to raid her food dish, carried him as -far- away from her food as she could without actually taking him back outside, then 'alerted the authorities'.
Beady eyes, glittering, ears trembling like tiny radar dish, constantly jittering back and forth - Possoms aren't the prettiest creatures in the world, but this was drop dead cute - and seeing as he wasn't hissing like most possoms I've encountered, or baring his teeth, the terrified orphaned waif imagery was heartbreaking.
First - put on clothes (as I'd just shed them before the discovery for bed). Don't want to catch bitey-scared wild animals in the nude, and didn't particularly fancy a trip to the hospital to test me, and/or the possom for rabies.
Second - nudge him around from the toilet toward a waiting laundry basket with the handle of a plunger. Wasn't sure how to corral him into basket tho, as the geography of the cabinets, toilet, etc. made for lots of possible gaps for quick possoms to squirp through. Luckily he crawled atop a toilet-brush holder and I picked up the whole arrangement and managed to set him down in the laundry basket before he realized he could let go.
Third - cover the arrangement with a towel and take him outside, well -away- from the cat door at the back. Could just picture Patches going and bringing him right back in, with that "You didn't finish him yet!".
I still don't know what goes through our little cats head sometimes - she utterly massacres most of the animals she finds in the house, or outside, and we find -organs- more often than other parts or a whole dead animal, but every now and then, she merely seems to -transport- creatures from point A to point B ... apparently for -OUR- entertainment.
She does very much like playing with us, so maybe Patches just thought it was -our- turn to bat the wildlife around.
Mourning Doves
Posted 18 years agoRandom Daily Thought.
I work on the 3rd floor of a shingle covered open interior courtyard office building., door on the balcony walkway.
There's always a pair of mourning doves in the trees, the kind that their wings whistle when they fly. Well they just landed on the railing, both of them, took a bit of a look at me through the glass doors, heads bobbing and all ... while I'm sketching birds in my sketchbook.
Kinda neat to have visitors :>
I work on the 3rd floor of a shingle covered open interior courtyard office building., door on the balcony walkway.
There's always a pair of mourning doves in the trees, the kind that their wings whistle when they fly. Well they just landed on the railing, both of them, took a bit of a look at me through the glass doors, heads bobbing and all ... while I'm sketching birds in my sketchbook.
Kinda neat to have visitors :>
Califur's Over ...
Posted 18 years agoAnd my fingers are tired ...
Lots of drawing, sketching, inking ... didn't attend any of the programming - just mingled, slept and drew ridiculous numbers of doodles, sketches and scannable pieces - got my fingers and the side of my hand a nice graphite grey numerous times as a result.
Going to toss up a few of the semi-raw pencils between posting finished colored pieces as I get them out - got enough material to last me a couple weeks of posts if I use just the okay through decent stuff, so pretty pleased with myself.
Lots of drawing, sketching, inking ... didn't attend any of the programming - just mingled, slept and drew ridiculous numbers of doodles, sketches and scannable pieces - got my fingers and the side of my hand a nice graphite grey numerous times as a result.
Going to toss up a few of the semi-raw pencils between posting finished colored pieces as I get them out - got enough material to last me a couple weeks of posts if I use just the okay through decent stuff, so pretty pleased with myself.
