Sorry to all of my watchers. Real life and jobs have been getting in the way of doing my hobbies, so im sorry that yall havent heard from me in ages. It even took me a while to find how to create a journal again.

Ive been doodling off an on, but no finished pictures in a while, despite me continuing to purchase bigger and better gear to enjoy myself with. Its been hard for me to really get back into drawing as ive been having full time jobs that have really been eating up all of my time. And to those who can do a full time job and still find time to draw, my hats off to you.

As an excuse to why i havent been drawing as much... its work. And i dont mean my job. Drawing is legit work which ive had very little time to do. And what time i have had, i usually fill with video games and drinking. But at the same time i want to draw.

Can i make a commitment? Will i draw more often? Sadly i cant garuntee much. But i do appreciate those of you are are sticking with me. Maybe its because ive always thought so little of my own art. But i just want you all to know that im still here, and that i still draw. Ill try to get my act together and make it more of a priority, but i dont hold a candle to those who have made this their full time job. I do hope that yall continue to enjoy my art. And i apologize in advance if my art starts to become more "weird." Hopefully everyone will still continue to enjoy my work.

Thank you again and keep doing what your doing.

I have been a big fan of buying used windows based tablets instead of purchasing their supper expensive new brethren or a cintiq. Previously i owned a Motion Computing M1400 which was ok. It could draw and work on pictures but it was old, heavy, and really lacked in power.

Well Newegg currently has a deal going for an old thinkpad x61, and while you may be more inclined to get it from ebay for potentially 100 less, keep in mind that newegg offers a replacement policy for this tablet. So if you get a dud, you can easily replace it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ.....82E16834246482

So if your looking for a windows based tablet pc, id highly suggest looking into it. You cant really get any cheaper, it draws excellently, and so long as you dont mind it being used, comes in nice condition. The latch will probly be broke, and you might get a worthless pen with it, but overall the tablet works good. (I did have to use my old tablets pen cuz the one it came with was broken and lacked pressure sensitivity. Ill probly have to purchase a replacement.)

And finally, if any of my friends in the local dallas area need a crappy tablet to draw with. Id be willing to part with my old m1400 for super cheap.

I wanted to participate in this and see how Danza would draw a picture i drew. You all can find more info on the subject here..

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3169502/

And as for Danza, you get a choice between two images.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/7135227/

or

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/5619458/

This will be a bit of a challenge for you due to the cartoony shortcuts i tend to take while drawing, since i draw more abstract shapes that dont actually make any anatomical sense. Sadly, i couldnt find a picture that i really attempted to be anatomically correct. But i would like to better see the anatomy under my abstract drawings.

Alright, time to get the old journal off the front page....

Ok, so yah im gonna get back into drawing more and more. I keep having these super long hiatuses but i really need to keep drawing. I can feel myself getting worse and i gotta get better. Especially if im gonna finish that one picture for Athus.

I think im gonna try a new method for coloring in the future. Im gonna see if i can remove the lines from my work and see if i can make it look good. This will be a big step to learning how to color without lines and fill tools. XD

Maybe if i keep at it i can try at acrylic paints again without completely failing at it. XD

But yah... well ill try and draw more at least untill skyrim comes out... cuz i cant garuntee anything after that. XD

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2813220/

One of my all time favorite artists passed away earlier this week. Athus, you will be incredibly missed.

Check this journal from  vixenification for a chance to win. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2733532/






Hell, im not gonna pass up a chance to have an awesome dragon plush.

Now, there are many things i simply love that exist and i get to experience them. Stuff like computers, video games, and fast food. <----(American.) But many of these things are such day to day things, normal things, expected things, that i often dont appreciate them. Hopefully this never going without will never cease.

But every now and again, i have those luxury items. Something that i dont have to own, but do, and am readily reminded of just how much i love it. These are items that you probably own that are "just you." They fit your lifestyle. Your glad to have it over something similar. Some times that can be specific game systems, accesories, or hardware.

For example, i have this little usb monitor for my desktop that i enjoy. It offers a small extra screen which is nice. I have a headset that i perticularly find nice despite its quirks, and i have shoes that can be rivaled by no competitor.

But the item i wish to brag about today is my Nook Color. And at this point about half the people go "whatever," a small amount will stop reading, and and even smaller will say "tell me more."

But i love this little guy. Everything about him is just perfect. Now, as an ereader, hes not entirely special, but he is by far the best colored screen ereader on the market. Even though its not really an ereader, since it doesnt have e-ink and its actually an android tablet. (Hidden under its pretty ui.)

But thats where the true love comes from this thing. Its an android, its a very, very easily rooted android. In fact its so easy i have a micro sd card with about 3 different roms on it that i can easily wipe and switch to if i pop it in and reboot.

But what makes it good, is that the device was so well designed, it makes one of the most awesome tablets ive had the pleasure of using. Its small, easily fits in my hands. Its light, no strain in holding it. It has a big screen, so its easy to read. And finally, the battery is monstrous. In their attempt to compete with other e-readers who have a battery life of like a year when idle, they did there best to match that. And relatively succeded. Idle, i can get about a week or more from the battery, if not a lot more. In use, screen on, wifi, watching netflix which is cpu intensive, the battery will last about 6-8 hours if not more.

The processor is an underclocked processor which uses little power and clocks at 800mhz, with 512megs of ram. About equal to the original ipad. Has a microsd card slot, and is a lot lighter than an ipad. And its not an ipad.

And as just an ereader, its reader software is actually quite nice compared to everyone else.

But enough selling. The reason as to why im writing a journal about it, is that i recently went through the process of updating the firmware to get more stuff. And more stuff it has. It can now do flash, it can now watch netflix, i can even fuck with it and make it watch hulu. Not to mention install anything i want on it and activate its bluetooth adapter.

Simply, every time i log onto the rooting community websites and look up what cool tricks i can do with my nook, there is always something new. Its a great device, its well designed, and its inexpensive. Hands down one of the best android tablets out there. Especially since im the type who likes to tinker with the OS and such.


Oh, and if you have any interest in the little device, be warned that some of the newer versions of the hardware have some better features, it is a little harder to root... but not really. It roots the exact same way, just sometimes doesnt install new firmware as easily. But its still awesome, and if you are really worried about it, just buy a used one for super cheap. ^^

My birthday was on the 5th, and thus far ive just been enjoying being lazy. Got some nice things, mostly a new car stereo with bluetooh. Cheapest i could find, but whatever. XD

Work is still kicking my ass, and now we have this big walk coming up thats gonna be a pain as we have to have everything picture perfect and in stock... like thats gonna happen when i have people coming in and buying sprinkler parts by the box full each day.

But anyways, shoulda told you guys sooner but no biggie. I should have more stuff to share with you guys soon. Been spending to much time with my brother and not enough in front of my computer... oh well. XD

Im slowly working my way into maybe enjoying brink as a major multiplayer game. I think this is due to map familiarity and strat familiarity.

At any rate. From the get go brink was a bit of a disappointment. From the time the game first boots it felt like a console port. And immediately i had to rebind a lot of the keys to make the game more streamlined. Had to tweak things a bit. Having buttons for buff, self buff, grenade, melee, and lean left and right, sort of gives my left hand a work out. Not to mention crouch, sprint, and jump. Thank god for SMART, else my hand would be a cramped up mess by now.

So yah, the game is obviously not TF2. It takes itself very seriously, so no funny moments, wtf moments, or interesting and fun voice acting. Its all straight and cut and feels like it belongs in a CoD game. The story telling and cut scenes are done in a L4D sort of style, but lacks any fun charm.

The char customization is awesome, as it really lets you define your char, but in the end this makes each char hard to distinguish from each other in the form of their rolls. Not that this matters mind you, as the only real difference between the classes is what buffs they give out. Save for the sentry guns of the engy, and special grenades of the operative.

In the end though, you feel like youve drawn the short straw when it comes to picking a char and playing online as you have to stick with that char through thick and thing. Even though you can change what weapon your carrying, you cant customize the weapons in game, and you def cant customize your chars body type. So if you picked the heavy wielding the Gatling gun, your sorta stuck playing that roll the entire game. Even when you switch classes, you cant switch out to a dif char, so playing a heavy set operative really isnt going to work in your favor.

And fianlly we come down to balance. There are some balance issues with the game in both mechanics and the maps themselves. The weapons seem rather balance save for the lack of bite from the big weapons. Simply, there are a number of maps that can be choked down to a couple of hall ways, and those hall ways are easy to snipe through. Couple this with everyone having the ability to auto regen health behind cover, and a good sniping team will simply own.

Yould think certain abilities could diminish this, but no. The medics "uber" does not last that long and will not let a friendly cover the distance to take out the snipers. A fast operative is easily spotted due to map design, and the smart move system becomes worthless as the enemy team can snipe you before you even vault over the bench your stuck behind. The best option in this situation is to try and spam grenades, but without the skill points put into grenades, they are worthless for damage, and there is a cooldown, so unless your entire team throws them at once, your not gonna get very good explosive coverage. (Save for a grenade launcher heavy type chars can wield, but if no one is heavy, then your boned.)

In the end, certain maps devolve into sniper vs sniper. Luckily most maps offer a plentiful amount of attack options, so its rare to be that bad off. But when a map isnt bad in that sense, its bad in others. One map has you pushing the robot (cart) right past the enemy spawn. This leads to either horrible spawn camping, or a horrible time trying to push the cart. You could call it a choke point, but thats a bit moronic.

Basically, the game tries or an over the top cartoony style, but then plays itself off as a serious game. It tries so hard to be an RPG that it limits your strategic options, and the game favors playing a sniper behind cover way to drastically. Follow this up with poor map design, which i fault to them relying of the smart moves system. In some maps it works awesome, and in others it just feels lazy. Id love to see custom maps made by the community, cuz i think some community involvement in this title would really spice things up and make it more fun and dynamic to play.

In the mean time, ill play brink off and on while ill continue to play TF2 and NS2 like im paid to do it. Frankly, skulks walking up, down, and around walls feels more fast and fluid than SMART. Now i just need to hold an SMG in my mouth while i do it.

The instant revenge..
http://youtu.be/IROUR2K8YpM

The hero came to the rescue quickly, but didnt help much...
http://youtu.be/nfNJQQQp54Y

Some fun battle engie play...
http://youtu.be/8SLhTtOXhvw

Just one big massacre. Just try and count the bodies.... well its at least in the double digits.
http://youtu.be/gqQXWAcScJs


More of these are to come. Im having a blast messing with this stuff. Please view, comment, and like these vids. ^^

So, im very happy to have started my new job, even more happy that im actually getting good hours at this one and not having to worry about bills as much. Sadly, having basically full time hours isnt leaving me with much time to myself. At least im not stuck with overtime. Hopefully this job sticks around for a while longer.

In short.

Got new job.

Work full time hours.

Not much time spent at computer.

Drive to do art decreasing, especially as i feel like im slowly watching my tablet PC die.

Ill see if i feel like drawing after i get up at 5am tomorrow. XP

No not from me. XD

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2142691/

Hey, some times i want free art to. XD

Fuck ya, just bought the game.

Now, i know weve had some good times TF2, but there is someone else. Someone with strategy, teamwork, and fucking aliens.

Lawl :awesomeface:



Alright, so while i wait for this to install, anyone got any good servers i should know about? I know the game is still in beta but ive been excited as hell ever since i saw the game.

If you have no idea what im talking about, check out this guys youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NaturalSelection2HD

And be sure to check out the game,
http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/

Or maybe give the original Natural Selection mod for Half Life a go. (Although i dont like that to much for the same reason i dont like most of the half life mod games.)


Anyways, i probly wont have to much time to play it, but its an awesome game. XD

... to have grown fairly fond of gradient fill backgrounds...

That is all.




Im such a lazy dragon.

Ok so here goes my plan.

Im going to download some sort of messenger program. Probly Pidgin cuz i liked that before. And for the first time in a long time, im going to turn it on, log in and set it to auto launch upon boot.

I will then immediately remove EVERYONE from my friends list.

And start over.

Afterward, i will be much more fickle with my messenger. I will let people add me, but will remove those i dont immediately want to talk to regularly. This isnt intended to be an insult, just a form of managment. Im sure many of your friends list are quite similar, but i cant handle a friends list filled with 200+ people i dont really know.

In the mean time, one of the best ways to contact me is through steam. I still need to go through and remove a good portion of the people on my friends list, but because i play with a lot of them, i think ill keep it full.

GTalk, will now be shortened to only a select few people, since that is the only messenger currently tied to my phone. Friend requests through google talk will be promptly ignored unless expected. (Especially since i use Gtalk for file and desktop sharing.)

Skype will get similar treatment to Gtalk.

Twitter will be kept locked, but this is only due to spam bots. I will accept anyone who appears furry. Sorry if it takes me a long time to accept your follow request, but it doesnt let me do it from my phone.



Now by start over i mean start over. That means everyone. So if your a good friend, and suddenly see me remove you, please dont take it the wrong way. It would take me ages of filtering that i really just dont want to do, so a fresh start is just easier.

And finally, i will probly do similar to what i did for steam. Set the program to silent, and only alert me of online status of select people.

See yall at furry Fiesta Tomorrow. Hehe, i have a feeling this ones gonna be a fun one.

I found a random TF2 video with me in it. So if you want to hear what i sound like beyond playing tf2 with me,, here you go. Listen to me bitch about pyros. XD

http://www.tvclip.biz/video/NTe92x7.....ed-gamers.html

"... wearing the fucking razorback so they can backstab me the fucking bastards...." XD

Ive been getting in a lot of time with this game... and sadly not all of that time has been actually playing the game. For those of you who have the PC version of this game, you might encounter a few... horrendous bugs that you would like stomped. Below are a few links to common bug fixes, as well as some of the most important fixes ive come across. Not to mention a few mods ive thrown in for good measure.

Many of these bug fixes can be found on a load of different websites, which i will link to after a brief description.


Dx9.dll - Fix Stuttering and the Crash after intro bug.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.ph.....-npc-slowdown/
http://segmentnext.com/2010/10/19/f.....freezes-fixes/
Not sure what this DLL actually does. But it fixes the crash to desktop some of use suffered when starting a new game. And it also prevents major FPS drops when large numbers of NPCs are on the screen. This is a must have fix, as any time more than 2-3 npcs are nearby, your computer may have serious fps issues.


Resetting Autosave - Autosave keeps reverting to an old one.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.ph.....#entry16512501
I am personaly having problems with steam overwriting my autosave, with an older one. Nothing pains me more than to crash, restart, and find my autosave to be gone and replaced with a much older one. This link specifically helps keep steam from overwriting your autosave and falloutpref.ini file.


Nvidia Stuttering - For 9 series cards or later.
http://geekmontage.com/texts/fallou.....es-lag-saving/
About a quarter of the way down the page, is info about setting up a profile for New Vegas in the Nvidia Control panel, to change the Power Management setting. This can help with stuttering/fps issues.


Mouse Acceleration - Youll notice this mostly in the main menu.
http://geekmontage.com/texts/fallou.....es-lag-saving/
Basicaly, add the following lines to you falloutpref.ini file under [general].
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0


Websites that list major bug fixes.
http://segmentnext.com/2010/10/19/f.....freezes-fixes/
http://geekmontage.com/texts/fallou.....es-lag-saving/


Fallout 3 Tweak Guide - Help get the most out of the game.
http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html
Since fallout new vegas is basicaly the same engine, many of the tweaks that worked in fallout 3, also work in this game.


Perk Every Level - A mod to gives you a perk every level.
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downlo.....e.php?id=34707
For those that enjoyed having more perks in fallout3.

---

Im sure updates will be coming very soon to fix things like that messed up saves, and the FPS issues.

So earlier today i got my first bad dragon toy. Not caring to much about the time of day, i couldn't wait and immediately unpacked it, cleaned it, and proceeded to enjoy it. ^^

Im amazed at just how much a textured silicone toy matters. I usually prefer my glass or plastic toys, because i like them thin, and prefer pressing them against the favorite parts of my insides. And gel toys lack the firmness to really press them against those parts. (At least when you get a thin gel toy.)

But the texture really lets it rub across those sensitive spots. Especially the barbs at the tip. Im very glad i got the high firmness for it to, cuz that lets me press it much like my glass and plastic toys i enjoy so much.

However, i did have to get it as a small size, as i really cant take big toys very enjoyably. And sadly, i did not account for the extremely thin part between the base and the knot. This sort of forces you to hold it by the knot in order to really use it. And even though its firm silicone, it still bends easily.

In short... i fucking love the texture. No more gel, plastic, or glass toys for me. But at the same time, im gonna refrain from getting toys with knots, cuz i really hate that thin base. I think the next toy i will get will either be a small, or medium tail stretcher. Or one of the many other toys they have. Even the werewolf has a nice thick base to it.

But damn those barbs on the tip are awesome.

So here's the thing. Whenever i get a new watcher message within my control panel, i don't remove it until i check the person who watched me to see if i should watch them back.

Now, i don't really know how long it has been since i've gone through my watches, but i'm currently at 1206 new watchers in my control panel.

Which is odd since i have a total of 1605 people watching me.

Have i really not gone through the people who have watched me since i hit 400 watchers? Or, Have i lost a bunch of people watching me due to my inactivity?

Part of me wants to actually go back and check all the people who are watching me. Part of me says they are just watch-backs from people i watched. Part of me wants to just start removing the messages to see how many of them are "this user is no longer watching you" icons. And the final part just wants to nuke it.




Finally to catch up, im still jobless and searching. Although i havent searched supper hard. Ive been in super lazy, leech dragon mode. Havent even spent that time rethinking things either.... damn you TF2.... and other vidja games.

Watching Legendz for the first time almost got me to draw something... almost. XD

Thanks to all the BirthDay well wishers. Had an odd, food filled day yesterday, and a not so pleasant tummy ache this morning. The great thing about the Tummy Ache, was that i caught shirt.woot.com's current shirt. If your lucky, it might not be sold out yet. XD

Still have plans this weekend, to go out and enjoy myself. In the meantime, im getting my fill of SC2. I got it as an early hatchday present, and ive been playing it all week. If yould like to add me its VashDragon 422.

Also, as a nice thing to happen on my B-Day, finally got a good hit on my dads truck that we are trying to sell. Its in good condition, its just my dad wants to buy a much, much cheaper, more fuel efficient, smaller truck or potentially car. But hopefully that deal will go through over the next few days.

But yah, im gonna keep looking for new work, gonna keep wasting time playing vidja games when i should be drawing, and hopefully get my drink on this saturday. Not to mention, enjoy the First Saturday sale in dallas. Thank you birthday money, maybe i can get some good ram.

Is there such a thing as a disorder, that explains why I have to read whatever i type, aloud, 2-3 times before posting/sending it? I think ive developed it from typoing way to much. Or it could be my inner grammar teacher, making sure I skim the entire thing, to make sure its readable. The few times i dont are usually quick messages, and often have huge errors in them. But even after i correct errors, i still have to read the final draft about 2 times, before ill send it.

On another note, today is my Birthday. I just turned 25. Gonna go drinking this weekend, i hope.

Oh and any sense of productivity, in anything, has gone completely out of me. So i dont know when yall can expect more art from me.

(Id probly make a half decent code/script kiddie. Skimming someones code for errors.... if i knew how to program.)

Im starting a gallery on InkBunny. Please stop by and watch me as I will now start uploading to both FA and IB. And I hope to take full advantage of the services offered on that website.

http://inkbunny.net/VashDragon

Whats the longest, and thus the highest number of unviewed submissions you've ever had?

Im currently up to 5,917 new submissions at the time of writing this jounal.

And fuck the 13,567 journals, i just nuke those anyways.