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Burnout
General | Posted 3 months agoNo, nevermind. Forget being “burned out.” I’m fucking vaporized. There’s nothing left.
Y’know, art is hard. Really hard. This is probably because I’m actually a talentless hack who struggles to do everything that all other artists do in their sleep, but the end result is I take ten times longer and expend ten times the effort to do what ends up being mediocre at best work while working on an underpowered tablet (and using a barely-functional brain).
But at least I finish things, right?
Pfft, doesn’t end up mattering. Sure I start out inspired, and I might even be happy with the end result. That’s been the case for the last few pics. But each pic takes so much effort and struggle that I end up burning through that inspiration as it’s gradually replaced by frustration at being unable to do what I want to do - little things like SET UP A POSE or draw something resembling good anatomy. I’m really quite bad at this, you see. Eventually it gets to the point that I’m only finishing a pic because someone else “might” enjoy it, so I finish it, and post it.
To silence.
While everything else posted AROUND my art gets input, feedback and praise. But my art? It might as well not even be there for how people just wholesale skip over it and either completely fail to notice it or just ignore it. And I’m talking about in Discord feeds, folks. People SEE my work. I see art that’s getting feedback, I post mine, nothing happens, then eventually more art is posted and THAT gets feedback. Mine is ignored. Sure, I might like my work, but it’s kinda hard to maintain that feeling when NO ONE BOTHERS TO NOTICE.
And here on FA? It’s fucking amazing if anyone even notices I exist. Bluesky is much the same.
Look I know I’m not very diverse in my subject matter lately. There’s a reason for that: First of all, I’m not very inspired to do much else. Second of all I OBVIOUSLY NEED THE PRACTICE. My art is garbage on multiple levels, which I guess is why no one cares about it, even though I feel like it’s better than a lot of stuff that gets FAR more response. My effort has to count for SOMETHING, doesn’t it?
Ehh, apparently not.
I can’t draw right now. There’s no drive. No skill. No reason. I thought the Firelight Series would have been fun, since believe it or not it’s been a long time since I’ve actually drawn Lynceus banging his wife. I thought it would have been a fun treat for me. But it’s… just not. I’m pouring my feelings into my work through my shitty not-skills and I had hoped my drive and passion for what I do would shine through. Apparently it doesn’t, and/or no one cares. Which is valid, no one is truly required to care whether I live or die and I’m not really supposed to be doing art for other people anyway. I’m supposed to be doing it for myself. I know that, it’s what I tell my wife.
But I understand why one has to be reminded of that. You have to draw for your own satisfaction. But is it so damn wrong to want a little affirmation? Especially when everyone ELSE is getting it, even when they’re seemingly putting in far less effort? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? Everything, probably. That’s very on brand for me.
I’m not satisfied with my work because I’m unhappy with my own exponentially increasing failings in art. So what’s left? I’m impatient so practicing on something that isn’t going to turn into a full picture feels like a waste of time. This is hard and I want RESULTS for my effort, dammit. It’s not fun. It’s not relaxing. It’s WORK. I do enough of that already. And let’s not even get started on the fact that GenAI adds a brand new layer of shit on top of the whole situation. I’m never going to touch the use of AI - fuck that - but my already insignificant existence is trivialized even further.
And let’s not even get started on my writing. No one EVER cared about THAT. Why would I feel any desire to REWRITE A 150,000 WORD BOOK when NO ONE IS GOING TO READ IT ANYWAY.
I’m sitting on a fucking desert island showing pictures to the sky. What’s the point? Why bother? Why work to get better when I have zero faith that I actually WILL get better, and when no one’s going to give a shit anyway? And let’s not even get into the nazis in power trying to censor everything they possibly can.
“Just take a break,” people might say. And I guess I will. But the problem there is now I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to DO with myself. Probably just quietly turn into an increasing event horizon of resentfulness about how everyone else’s art is SO AMAZING to other people while mine is just IGNORED.
Whatever. I’ll just try to recover for the next wave of ideas no one will give the slightest shit about. Because I don’t matter, and I never did. I’ll be back at some point, not that anyone will even notice. No one’s even going to read this anyway unless I specifically show it to them.
No one should be this emotionally exhausted at 8 AM. I want to go sleep for a week.
Y’know, art is hard. Really hard. This is probably because I’m actually a talentless hack who struggles to do everything that all other artists do in their sleep, but the end result is I take ten times longer and expend ten times the effort to do what ends up being mediocre at best work while working on an underpowered tablet (and using a barely-functional brain).
But at least I finish things, right?
Pfft, doesn’t end up mattering. Sure I start out inspired, and I might even be happy with the end result. That’s been the case for the last few pics. But each pic takes so much effort and struggle that I end up burning through that inspiration as it’s gradually replaced by frustration at being unable to do what I want to do - little things like SET UP A POSE or draw something resembling good anatomy. I’m really quite bad at this, you see. Eventually it gets to the point that I’m only finishing a pic because someone else “might” enjoy it, so I finish it, and post it.
To silence.
While everything else posted AROUND my art gets input, feedback and praise. But my art? It might as well not even be there for how people just wholesale skip over it and either completely fail to notice it or just ignore it. And I’m talking about in Discord feeds, folks. People SEE my work. I see art that’s getting feedback, I post mine, nothing happens, then eventually more art is posted and THAT gets feedback. Mine is ignored. Sure, I might like my work, but it’s kinda hard to maintain that feeling when NO ONE BOTHERS TO NOTICE.
And here on FA? It’s fucking amazing if anyone even notices I exist. Bluesky is much the same.
Look I know I’m not very diverse in my subject matter lately. There’s a reason for that: First of all, I’m not very inspired to do much else. Second of all I OBVIOUSLY NEED THE PRACTICE. My art is garbage on multiple levels, which I guess is why no one cares about it, even though I feel like it’s better than a lot of stuff that gets FAR more response. My effort has to count for SOMETHING, doesn’t it?
Ehh, apparently not.
I can’t draw right now. There’s no drive. No skill. No reason. I thought the Firelight Series would have been fun, since believe it or not it’s been a long time since I’ve actually drawn Lynceus banging his wife. I thought it would have been a fun treat for me. But it’s… just not. I’m pouring my feelings into my work through my shitty not-skills and I had hoped my drive and passion for what I do would shine through. Apparently it doesn’t, and/or no one cares. Which is valid, no one is truly required to care whether I live or die and I’m not really supposed to be doing art for other people anyway. I’m supposed to be doing it for myself. I know that, it’s what I tell my wife.
But I understand why one has to be reminded of that. You have to draw for your own satisfaction. But is it so damn wrong to want a little affirmation? Especially when everyone ELSE is getting it, even when they’re seemingly putting in far less effort? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? Everything, probably. That’s very on brand for me.
I’m not satisfied with my work because I’m unhappy with my own exponentially increasing failings in art. So what’s left? I’m impatient so practicing on something that isn’t going to turn into a full picture feels like a waste of time. This is hard and I want RESULTS for my effort, dammit. It’s not fun. It’s not relaxing. It’s WORK. I do enough of that already. And let’s not even get started on the fact that GenAI adds a brand new layer of shit on top of the whole situation. I’m never going to touch the use of AI - fuck that - but my already insignificant existence is trivialized even further.
And let’s not even get started on my writing. No one EVER cared about THAT. Why would I feel any desire to REWRITE A 150,000 WORD BOOK when NO ONE IS GOING TO READ IT ANYWAY.
I’m sitting on a fucking desert island showing pictures to the sky. What’s the point? Why bother? Why work to get better when I have zero faith that I actually WILL get better, and when no one’s going to give a shit anyway? And let’s not even get into the nazis in power trying to censor everything they possibly can.
“Just take a break,” people might say. And I guess I will. But the problem there is now I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to DO with myself. Probably just quietly turn into an increasing event horizon of resentfulness about how everyone else’s art is SO AMAZING to other people while mine is just IGNORED.
Whatever. I’ll just try to recover for the next wave of ideas no one will give the slightest shit about. Because I don’t matter, and I never did. I’ll be back at some point, not that anyone will even notice. No one’s even going to read this anyway unless I specifically show it to them.
No one should be this emotionally exhausted at 8 AM. I want to go sleep for a week.
Exhausted
General | Posted 11 months agoI’m so tired. Managed to get the latest pic posted but it’s hard to get excited about it since there’s basically no engagement left on FA anymore. No one is likely to notice or care. I’m going to try to come up with the next pic in the series.
I know I’m supposed to draw for myself and not worry what other people think, but there comes a point where I get to thinking “Well it would be nice if someone gave a damn about things I put so much effort into…” Any answer is nice but some real engagement would be preferable. I’m not exactly thrilled when a week’s worth of labor is met by one-word answers or a meme. Or, as is usually the case, absolute silence. This stuff takes time and effort to do, a little acknowledgement or dialogue would be nice. If I see something another artist does that really impresses me, I try to say so.
That’s why I started up a Bluesky account, and hopefully I will get some actual people instead of just the bots. Expectations aren’t high. If anyone cares, you can find me @lynceusglaciermaw(dot)bsky(dot)social .
At least I get to work from home today. I can at least give myself the time I need to recover from each instance of hideous stupidity I have to deal with each time someone at work makes the decision to not use their own brain for thirty seconds. Seriously, it’s past time for employers to start enforcing SOME kind of required competency level for computer use when hiring. This is ridiculous… computers are required for today’s work and jobs are still hiring as if they aren’t. It’s like hiring for a delivery service and not requiring everyone to have valid driver’s licenses. I’m getting pretty tired of having to show people where the gas pedal is and how to turn the key. I simply do not have time for it because of all the OTHER things I have to do - like fix all the proverbial wrecks when these incompetent “drivers” wreck their gear every other day. Did I mention our department recently lost staff due to budget cuts, and I know for a fact that I’m not getting paid what I should be?
I really want to just go take a nap.
I know I’m supposed to draw for myself and not worry what other people think, but there comes a point where I get to thinking “Well it would be nice if someone gave a damn about things I put so much effort into…” Any answer is nice but some real engagement would be preferable. I’m not exactly thrilled when a week’s worth of labor is met by one-word answers or a meme. Or, as is usually the case, absolute silence. This stuff takes time and effort to do, a little acknowledgement or dialogue would be nice. If I see something another artist does that really impresses me, I try to say so.
That’s why I started up a Bluesky account, and hopefully I will get some actual people instead of just the bots. Expectations aren’t high. If anyone cares, you can find me @lynceusglaciermaw(dot)bsky(dot)social .
At least I get to work from home today. I can at least give myself the time I need to recover from each instance of hideous stupidity I have to deal with each time someone at work makes the decision to not use their own brain for thirty seconds. Seriously, it’s past time for employers to start enforcing SOME kind of required competency level for computer use when hiring. This is ridiculous… computers are required for today’s work and jobs are still hiring as if they aren’t. It’s like hiring for a delivery service and not requiring everyone to have valid driver’s licenses. I’m getting pretty tired of having to show people where the gas pedal is and how to turn the key. I simply do not have time for it because of all the OTHER things I have to do - like fix all the proverbial wrecks when these incompetent “drivers” wreck their gear every other day. Did I mention our department recently lost staff due to budget cuts, and I know for a fact that I’m not getting paid what I should be?
I really want to just go take a nap.
So… I wrote a book.
General | Posted a year agoIt’s a little surreal. I’m not even sure how long I’ve been working on this project, but my first book Khriith Moon is, I believe, complete. Around 400 pages and 150,000 words, it’s basically the largest writing project I’ve ever done. Shame it took me until I was 40 to do something really significant. I did all the art, all the writing, I even made a book cover which I’ll be uploading.
And yes, I said first book. I have plans for another. I don’t really expect anyone to care about this; as Yahtzee Croshaw once said, posting something on the internet is the equivalent of dropping a message in a bottle into an ocean of messages in bottles. :P Wise words for maintaining proper perspective, methinks.
And yes, I said first book. I have plans for another. I don’t really expect anyone to care about this; as Yahtzee Croshaw once said, posting something on the internet is the equivalent of dropping a message in a bottle into an ocean of messages in bottles. :P Wise words for maintaining proper perspective, methinks.
Ask Lynceus!
General | Posted 2 years agoSo I’ve been thinking about ways to help both my drawing and my world building and I realized that maybe the best way is to solicit input and questions from people… that might be a bit self-indulgent but I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t genuinely curious.
So… take a look at my model sheet and whatever other things you like, and see if there’s anything you’re curious about. I’ll see what responses come in and decide what I want to draw responses to.
So… take a look at my model sheet and whatever other things you like, and see if there’s anything you’re curious about. I’ll see what responses come in and decide what I want to draw responses to.
Monster Hunter series incoming!
General | Posted 2 years agoThank you for the response to the Mane Heat series!
So until a stomach bug put a serious brake on my productivity, I had been churning out Monster Hunter-themed pictures in my spare time. I’m going to start posting them shortly and with any luck I’ve still got a few in me. Some of them are supposed to be “if I was a monster” pictures but not all of them. Feel free to chime in if you have any thoughts on who could be paired with who :)
So until a stomach bug put a serious brake on my productivity, I had been churning out Monster Hunter-themed pictures in my spare time. I’m going to start posting them shortly and with any luck I’ve still got a few in me. Some of them are supposed to be “if I was a monster” pictures but not all of them. Feel free to chime in if you have any thoughts on who could be paired with who :)
Hey, updates and SO MUCH ART
General | Posted 2 years agoWell I turned 40 yesterday. I’m not a greymuzzle just yet, but I’m certainly getting there.
But the reason I’m back is simple: SO. MUCH. ART. I’ve been on a hot streak lately and have been drawing up a storm. I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve been making so I’ve decided to put it up. I’ll be uploading pretty steadily until I’m caught up. Apparently getting an iPad, Apple Pencil and Clip Studio was a good idea.
A little preface to what I’m going to upload. My wife has mostly settled on her character design, but she has so many great designs that I decided to join her. I’ve created different iterations of myself to go with her designs… pairing various versions of her with various versions of me :)
But the reason I’m back is simple: SO. MUCH. ART. I’ve been on a hot streak lately and have been drawing up a storm. I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve been making so I’ve decided to put it up. I’ll be uploading pretty steadily until I’m caught up. Apparently getting an iPad, Apple Pencil and Clip Studio was a good idea.
A little preface to what I’m going to upload. My wife has mostly settled on her character design, but she has so many great designs that I decided to join her. I’ve created different iterations of myself to go with her designs… pairing various versions of her with various versions of me :)
Sexbomb Series Progress
General | Posted 5 years agoHey, greetings to those who care! :P
I never actually planned to make the Sexbomb pictures of Colette a series. I just did the first one and realized that there were so many other designs I could do too. I appreciate the fact that people seem to like them enough to fave.
I'm likely going to have to take a break, though; I have an intensive 2-week remote class for IT certification starting tomorrow so I'm going to be literally 9-5 for the next two weeks filling the gaps in what I know so I can get certifications. It'll be hard and draining, so I'll have to temporarily put aside a lot of stuff to get it done.
As always though, I'm hungry for input and opinions. :) I've got at least seven more designs to do. I'm up for suggestions on what scenarios or poses to put Colette in!
I never actually planned to make the Sexbomb pictures of Colette a series. I just did the first one and realized that there were so many other designs I could do too. I appreciate the fact that people seem to like them enough to fave.
I'm likely going to have to take a break, though; I have an intensive 2-week remote class for IT certification starting tomorrow so I'm going to be literally 9-5 for the next two weeks filling the gaps in what I know so I can get certifications. It'll be hard and draining, so I'll have to temporarily put aside a lot of stuff to get it done.
As always though, I'm hungry for input and opinions. :) I've got at least seven more designs to do. I'm up for suggestions on what scenarios or poses to put Colette in!
My art needs - information!
General | Posted 5 years agoBeen thinking a lot about my needs for artwork lately, and most of it seems to boil down to knowing how to do stuff.
I’m noticing that I should in all likelihood use bigger canvas sizes. Seeing far too much pixel. What sizes do you all use?
Also trying to keep my line weights under control, to let the colors take center stage. Last gasps of my “I don’t color anything” stage that needed to die 10 years ago. Also another reason I need to find a better, larger canvas size.
I also need to get better at rendering fur, scales and *cough* body fluids. Since I picked up Clip Studio this has been much easier - I was able to get some hair highlight brushes, for example - you can see them in action on Colette’s model sheet. But I’m pondering what else I should get.
I also pulled the furry 3D models to experiment with sometime for posing in the software - if all goes well I might not need to pick up an Armature Nine digitigrade figure. Maybe.
Shockingly I’ve been feeling surprisingly confident with my work. I’m continuing to ride this wave, trying to temper it against the MUSTFINISHNOW impulse that would probably make me miss things that need fixing.
Anyone got any thoughts? I’m all for any number of tutorials and advice you can pile on, in addition to brush recommendations. Preferably all for Clip Studio, but I’ll take anything!
Finally, I remember an artist who did a sort of furry sexuality model sheet... showing all the details of a character's anatomy as well as their vital statistics. Anyone remember who did that? I was considering doing something like it.
I’m noticing that I should in all likelihood use bigger canvas sizes. Seeing far too much pixel. What sizes do you all use?
Also trying to keep my line weights under control, to let the colors take center stage. Last gasps of my “I don’t color anything” stage that needed to die 10 years ago. Also another reason I need to find a better, larger canvas size.
I also need to get better at rendering fur, scales and *cough* body fluids. Since I picked up Clip Studio this has been much easier - I was able to get some hair highlight brushes, for example - you can see them in action on Colette’s model sheet. But I’m pondering what else I should get.
I also pulled the furry 3D models to experiment with sometime for posing in the software - if all goes well I might not need to pick up an Armature Nine digitigrade figure. Maybe.
Shockingly I’ve been feeling surprisingly confident with my work. I’m continuing to ride this wave, trying to temper it against the MUSTFINISHNOW impulse that would probably make me miss things that need fixing.
Anyone got any thoughts? I’m all for any number of tutorials and advice you can pile on, in addition to brush recommendations. Preferably all for Clip Studio, but I’ll take anything!
Finally, I remember an artist who did a sort of furry sexuality model sheet... showing all the details of a character's anatomy as well as their vital statistics. Anyone remember who did that? I was considering doing something like it.
*staggers back to life*
General | Posted 5 years agoHOLY CRAP IT'S BEEN FOREVER
Um... I don't know if anyone's actually going to CARE that I've been gone so long, but I finally dredged up enough worth to have something to post, so here I am.
Life has changed. Duh. Obvious statement of 2020. I lost my job just like everyone else so now I'm living on the other side of the country - I moved from Oregon to Florida to live with my family. I also broke my elbow right before said move so I spent the entire trip recovering from orthopedic surgery. I still can't fully extend my left arm yet, but I'm in physical therapy. Thankfully it hasn't affected my quality of life.
Plus I just turned 37. *waves lil flag* Whee.
I'm also on Twitter now, glaciermaw.
I finally got back into digital work and discovered that the end result didn't look like dog vomit, so I decided to ride the wave of confidence and rebuild my model sheet. I'll be posting more often, hopefully!
Um... I don't know if anyone's actually going to CARE that I've been gone so long, but I finally dredged up enough worth to have something to post, so here I am.
Life has changed. Duh. Obvious statement of 2020. I lost my job just like everyone else so now I'm living on the other side of the country - I moved from Oregon to Florida to live with my family. I also broke my elbow right before said move so I spent the entire trip recovering from orthopedic surgery. I still can't fully extend my left arm yet, but I'm in physical therapy. Thankfully it hasn't affected my quality of life.
Plus I just turned 37. *waves lil flag* Whee.
I'm also on Twitter now, glaciermaw.
I finally got back into digital work and discovered that the end result didn't look like dog vomit, so I decided to ride the wave of confidence and rebuild my model sheet. I'll be posting more often, hopefully!
Game Maker Studio and getting back into (furry) programming!
General | Posted 9 years agoWell Luna and I have graduated beyond Ren'Py and I've gotten back my programming mojo - here I thought I'd failed to get into programming back in high school.
But GML hasn't been posing much more than minor issues to me now that I've been diving into its code. I guess my background in C++ is paying off... who would have thought? I'm working on a "real" game with Luna, combining match3 mechanics with a sort of romantic visual novel. Basically, if HuniePop was furry and actually had a real story instead of just painfully campy sleaze. :P It's just a warm-up project, and it's completely up to Luna if anyone else will be able to see it. You know how shy she can be about her work.
We've also invested in a copy of Spine to do bone-animated sprites, which Luna has been doing very well at! It's impressive how quickly she took to it.
Long-term plans include two Metroidvania titles to continue the story that this game will be telling. (Yes folks, we've been thinking about this story for years.) By the time we finish with this game, I hopefully will have the experience to put together and work with more complex systems. But for now, I'm not worried; I'm just focusing on what's in front of me. That's likely to be what I do during my layoff this year.
If anyone else out there is fluent in GML, speak up! I might need to consult you for help, if you don't mind. There's plenty of room in the "special thanks to" section of the credits of my games! :P
But GML hasn't been posing much more than minor issues to me now that I've been diving into its code. I guess my background in C++ is paying off... who would have thought? I'm working on a "real" game with Luna, combining match3 mechanics with a sort of romantic visual novel. Basically, if HuniePop was furry and actually had a real story instead of just painfully campy sleaze. :P It's just a warm-up project, and it's completely up to Luna if anyone else will be able to see it. You know how shy she can be about her work.
We've also invested in a copy of Spine to do bone-animated sprites, which Luna has been doing very well at! It's impressive how quickly she took to it.
Long-term plans include two Metroidvania titles to continue the story that this game will be telling. (Yes folks, we've been thinking about this story for years.) By the time we finish with this game, I hopefully will have the experience to put together and work with more complex systems. But for now, I'm not worried; I'm just focusing on what's in front of me. That's likely to be what I do during my layoff this year.
If anyone else out there is fluent in GML, speak up! I might need to consult you for help, if you don't mind. There's plenty of room in the "special thanks to" section of the credits of my games! :P
News and Latest work: Visual novels
General | Posted 10 years agoLuna and I have been very busy working in Ren'Py, a Python code-based visual novel creator. She's working on her story world and I'm helping; we're actually working on two novels, one for each of us. We're focusing on hers first, but I'm doing the writing for mine ahead of time. I am not the most talented programmer you'll find but I do have some background, so Python syntax came pretty naturally to me.
The bad news is that it's unlikely that Luna will be interested in sharing these visual novels with the world. I know my mate, and she is always unsatisfied with her work; even if she someday decides it's worth sharing, she'll decide against it because she thinks she can do better artwise.
So... that's the reason why I haven't been posting anything. I have been drawing off and on, but I doubt there are very many people who actually care about my work enough to really miss my posts.
Luna has redesigned her character rather drastically; she now fits in her story world much better now and likes the character design more. So the dracotigress character you all have seen isn't what she looks like anymore. I don't even know if she's comfortable with me sharing the new design; I'll have to speak to her about it.
In other news, we've been playing a lot of games lately (blame the Steam winter sale...). Nothing exciting, mostly Anno and Civ games.
Anyway, that's the way things have been going lately.
The bad news is that it's unlikely that Luna will be interested in sharing these visual novels with the world. I know my mate, and she is always unsatisfied with her work; even if she someday decides it's worth sharing, she'll decide against it because she thinks she can do better artwise.
So... that's the reason why I haven't been posting anything. I have been drawing off and on, but I doubt there are very many people who actually care about my work enough to really miss my posts.
Luna has redesigned her character rather drastically; she now fits in her story world much better now and likes the character design more. So the dracotigress character you all have seen isn't what she looks like anymore. I don't even know if she's comfortable with me sharing the new design; I'll have to speak to her about it.
In other news, we've been playing a lot of games lately (blame the Steam winter sale...). Nothing exciting, mostly Anno and Civ games.
Anyway, that's the way things have been going lately.
Another birthday...
General | Posted 10 years agoWell I'm 32 as of Saturday, and I feel like things are changing now. I suppose it's a bit coincidental that I got myself a copy of Cities: Skylines with gift card money because it helped me realize what's going on in my life.
You know that point in a city builder game where you're happily chugging along and realize you're losing money? The only thing that fixes the problem is major changes in the way you do things and various sacrifices. No, I can't build that shiny new district or fancy building because I have to tend to the needs of the city that's already there. City builder gamers should know what I mean.
I've reached that point in my actual life. Smartphone bills, medical bills, vet bills, and simple upkeep have seemingly caught up with me. I would really like to upgrade my janky PC right now - not because there's some new game I want to play, but because I feel like my rig is slowly coming apart at the seams! I've started to wonder a bit about my car, and my shoes are falling apart.
Damn, what happened?!
I'm still afloat so far, but I'm starting to wonder if this is just the start of more trouble. I'm going to have to seriously reexamine how I do things... especially since I have that layoff period to always save up for. All you people who actually get a chance to enjoy your tax return? Ha, I envy you. Mine just goes straight into savings.
Don't misunderstand. I'm not exactly desperate (yet). I'm not starving and I get my bills paid. But additional bills start to make me nervous at times... two of which just arrived yesterday.
You know that point in a city builder game where you're happily chugging along and realize you're losing money? The only thing that fixes the problem is major changes in the way you do things and various sacrifices. No, I can't build that shiny new district or fancy building because I have to tend to the needs of the city that's already there. City builder gamers should know what I mean.
I've reached that point in my actual life. Smartphone bills, medical bills, vet bills, and simple upkeep have seemingly caught up with me. I would really like to upgrade my janky PC right now - not because there's some new game I want to play, but because I feel like my rig is slowly coming apart at the seams! I've started to wonder a bit about my car, and my shoes are falling apart.
Damn, what happened?!
I'm still afloat so far, but I'm starting to wonder if this is just the start of more trouble. I'm going to have to seriously reexamine how I do things... especially since I have that layoff period to always save up for. All you people who actually get a chance to enjoy your tax return? Ha, I envy you. Mine just goes straight into savings.
Don't misunderstand. I'm not exactly desperate (yet). I'm not starving and I get my bills paid. But additional bills start to make me nervous at times... two of which just arrived yesterday.
Snap out of gaming hype
General | Posted 10 years agoI just saw a Youtube ad for Halo 5's "Gameplay trailer." Popular culture music, flashy graphics, plenty of explosions...
...And maybe about three seconds of actual gameplay. I'm really not impressed.
Admittedly I lost interest in Halo quite some time ago, but this is only one of countless examples of gaming hype culture that I'm shaking my head at lately. Look everyone, I don't know if any of you have noticed, but AAA game companies haven't been interested in anything but flashy graphics and profits for quite some time. There are always gems in the rough, thankfully, but by and large the major offerings have been little more than preorder bait designed to encourage gamers to buy something before they know if it's actually any good.
Snap out of it, people. Preorder culture needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. The more we preorder games, the more companies will do what they've been doing lately - pushing out terrible products with a promise to "fix" them later. They aren't interested in fixing them! They're too busy polishing the trailers for the NEXT game they're going to use to bait us with.
The (now thankfully cancelled) Deus Ex "Augment your Preorder" crap is the biggest example of this I know of. Increasing preorder rewards the more people preorder? That's just adding a mob mentality to the preorder culture to use gamers themselves to do free advertising for their hype train. That's not meant to benefit you - it was meant to sell more copies before the game launched.
You might think there's nothing wrong with preorder culture. That it doesn't do any harm.
That's basically what they want you to think. Haven't you noticed how many people have been split so strongly on game opinion lately? That's because preordering makes someone invested in a game whether it's good or not. They have a psychological need to validate their decision to preorder, and that manifests in the form of blind defense of the game or system they've preordered. Even once the game comes out and actual reviews come out, regardless of whether it's actually good or not those people who preordered do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they didn't make a bad decision. "No it really is a good game! The critics are wrong!" That my friends is where we get fanboy wars.
Having a bit of damn patience would solve so many problems. All you need to do is resist the trinkets and pointless preorder bonuses game companies have been dangling in front of you. Wait for reviews - reviews written by people like you, who actually care about a GOOD GAME.
Some people say that they preorder to make sure they get a copy of the game. Do you REALLY THINK the game companies would fail to ship enough copies? That's not what preordering is for anymore. In case you haven't noticed, digital preordering is exploding. There are no physical copies for a digital preorder! It is entirely designed to get you to pay for the game before you know if it's worth your money. There is literally no reason to preorder a digital copy of a game, and almost never a reason to preorder a physical one.
Why does all of this matter? The game industry has been in a downward spiral. They know they can get away with this now - they know they can sell you any old shit as long as it's got shiny preorder bonuses and flashy trailers. So that's what they put their effort into, instead of trying to actually make a good game. End result? Games are suffering. It's all about the money, instead of the creation of a good quality piece of interactive entertainment. That's eroding the base of what games are for - FUN.
Withhold your money from companies who aren't interested in making a good game. It's the only way they will be forced into improving their product.
By supporting preorder culture you're buying into this erosion and basically helping to slowly destroy the gaming industry. Well, not destroy - it'll continue to exist. But any spark of quality or love for the medium is steadily being snuffed out. High-level corporate game executives already only see three games in existence - Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Call of Duty. The rest of the game industry literally might as well not exist to them. Why? Because they don't care about games. They're only there to use marketing hype to wring as much money out of the gaming crowd as they can. And that means that playing into their hands like so many have been doing is going to dry up the gaming world into a husk until the only thing that's left are terrible, broken games full of microtransactions, excessive DLC, terrible framerates, bugs and poor quality control. It's already happening.
But hey, at least you'll have your pretty graphics and that preorder bonus skin, right?
A side note about crowdfunding - People, Kickstarter should be treated as a donation box. When I put some money into Descent: Underground, I realized there was a possibility the game wouldn't be completed, or at least wouldn't end up as the game I would want it to be. It's quite true that stretch goal rewards are basically the same as preorder bonuses - and they should be basically ignored for purposes of deciding whether or not you want to donate to a Kickstarter fund. Let's be blunt: People whose Kickstarter campaigns you contribute to OWE YOU NOTHING. Your money is an "I support you" blessing, not buying the product you think the project will produce. Because chances are it won't be the product you visualize. I put money into Descent: Underground because I would like to see a return of an old favorite of mine and see it brought back to life for a new generation. I might not even be able to play it on my computer or might not want to if it becomes as multiplayer-centric as I suspect it'll be. But that's okay. It'll have been made, and that's why I gave them my money.
...And maybe about three seconds of actual gameplay. I'm really not impressed.
Admittedly I lost interest in Halo quite some time ago, but this is only one of countless examples of gaming hype culture that I'm shaking my head at lately. Look everyone, I don't know if any of you have noticed, but AAA game companies haven't been interested in anything but flashy graphics and profits for quite some time. There are always gems in the rough, thankfully, but by and large the major offerings have been little more than preorder bait designed to encourage gamers to buy something before they know if it's actually any good.
Snap out of it, people. Preorder culture needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. The more we preorder games, the more companies will do what they've been doing lately - pushing out terrible products with a promise to "fix" them later. They aren't interested in fixing them! They're too busy polishing the trailers for the NEXT game they're going to use to bait us with.
The (now thankfully cancelled) Deus Ex "Augment your Preorder" crap is the biggest example of this I know of. Increasing preorder rewards the more people preorder? That's just adding a mob mentality to the preorder culture to use gamers themselves to do free advertising for their hype train. That's not meant to benefit you - it was meant to sell more copies before the game launched.
You might think there's nothing wrong with preorder culture. That it doesn't do any harm.
That's basically what they want you to think. Haven't you noticed how many people have been split so strongly on game opinion lately? That's because preordering makes someone invested in a game whether it's good or not. They have a psychological need to validate their decision to preorder, and that manifests in the form of blind defense of the game or system they've preordered. Even once the game comes out and actual reviews come out, regardless of whether it's actually good or not those people who preordered do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they didn't make a bad decision. "No it really is a good game! The critics are wrong!" That my friends is where we get fanboy wars.
Having a bit of damn patience would solve so many problems. All you need to do is resist the trinkets and pointless preorder bonuses game companies have been dangling in front of you. Wait for reviews - reviews written by people like you, who actually care about a GOOD GAME.
Some people say that they preorder to make sure they get a copy of the game. Do you REALLY THINK the game companies would fail to ship enough copies? That's not what preordering is for anymore. In case you haven't noticed, digital preordering is exploding. There are no physical copies for a digital preorder! It is entirely designed to get you to pay for the game before you know if it's worth your money. There is literally no reason to preorder a digital copy of a game, and almost never a reason to preorder a physical one.
Why does all of this matter? The game industry has been in a downward spiral. They know they can get away with this now - they know they can sell you any old shit as long as it's got shiny preorder bonuses and flashy trailers. So that's what they put their effort into, instead of trying to actually make a good game. End result? Games are suffering. It's all about the money, instead of the creation of a good quality piece of interactive entertainment. That's eroding the base of what games are for - FUN.
Withhold your money from companies who aren't interested in making a good game. It's the only way they will be forced into improving their product.
By supporting preorder culture you're buying into this erosion and basically helping to slowly destroy the gaming industry. Well, not destroy - it'll continue to exist. But any spark of quality or love for the medium is steadily being snuffed out. High-level corporate game executives already only see three games in existence - Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Call of Duty. The rest of the game industry literally might as well not exist to them. Why? Because they don't care about games. They're only there to use marketing hype to wring as much money out of the gaming crowd as they can. And that means that playing into their hands like so many have been doing is going to dry up the gaming world into a husk until the only thing that's left are terrible, broken games full of microtransactions, excessive DLC, terrible framerates, bugs and poor quality control. It's already happening.
But hey, at least you'll have your pretty graphics and that preorder bonus skin, right?
A side note about crowdfunding - People, Kickstarter should be treated as a donation box. When I put some money into Descent: Underground, I realized there was a possibility the game wouldn't be completed, or at least wouldn't end up as the game I would want it to be. It's quite true that stretch goal rewards are basically the same as preorder bonuses - and they should be basically ignored for purposes of deciding whether or not you want to donate to a Kickstarter fund. Let's be blunt: People whose Kickstarter campaigns you contribute to OWE YOU NOTHING. Your money is an "I support you" blessing, not buying the product you think the project will produce. Because chances are it won't be the product you visualize. I put money into Descent: Underground because I would like to see a return of an old favorite of mine and see it brought back to life for a new generation. I might not even be able to play it on my computer or might not want to if it becomes as multiplayer-centric as I suspect it'll be. But that's okay. It'll have been made, and that's why I gave them my money.
So... please explain Dark Souls to me.
General | Posted 10 years agoI picked up a used copy of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the Original Sin for my PS3 to see what all the damn fuss was about. I knew I was going into a very, very difficult game; I can accept this - for heaven's sake, I've played La-Mulana. I know difficulty.
For the record, I started as a Warrior.
The first thing I noticed was that THE CONTROLS IN DARK SOULS ABSOLUTELY STINK. I feel like the biggest enemy in the game is the damn controller. The camera control is pretty bad, and the targeting system is TERRIBLE. Unless both the player character AND the camera is pointing at an enemy, the targeting system refuses to lock onto them. I find myself just having to absorb blows with my shield while I simply try to wrestle the camera around to the point where I can just TARGET something.
The death system is fairly clever; I don't mind that. I've gotten the impression that the human effigies are in limited supply, so I haven't used any yet; needless to say I'm down to 50% max health already. It's irritating to lose all my souls on death, but far MORE irritating to lose them permanently when I inevitably die trying to retrieve them. I can always hear the fanboys saying "But that's what makes it a challenge!" Duh. I get that. Luna tells me that it's basically a question of "letting go," but I always feel like asking: WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO?! Why should I have to give up the half-hour or more of progress just because the game threw a cheap shot at me or because the camera wouldn't cooperate?! I've been getting reasonably decent at the block, circling and striking mechanics, but only when the game decides I'm allowed to use the targeting system.
I want to explore this game. I honestly do. I want to play through and see the genius that I've heard is within the game. I'm seeing glimmers of it already - I know it's there! - but I'm honestly growing rather tired of the glaring flaws in the game that I feel like everyone else is lauding as "difficulty." I've always despised artificial difficulty in a game - the idea that a developer simply uses lazy AI programming to give the computer an unfair advantage (like in many RTS games) or terrible game mechanics that could have been built better (like the camera control I mentioned).
I don't see that as good game design. It's selling a bug as a feature, and frankly that makes me groan.
But I guess I just haven't made it over the wall yet. DS veterans, please let me know what I'm missing. I genuinely want to enjoy this game, but I feel like the game's shoddy mechanics suck all the agency out of the game. I moved on to Dishonored (which I had also picked up) and enjoyed it much more because I felt like I had control over the situation, for better or worse.
Throw me a bone, folks...
For the record, I started as a Warrior.
The first thing I noticed was that THE CONTROLS IN DARK SOULS ABSOLUTELY STINK. I feel like the biggest enemy in the game is the damn controller. The camera control is pretty bad, and the targeting system is TERRIBLE. Unless both the player character AND the camera is pointing at an enemy, the targeting system refuses to lock onto them. I find myself just having to absorb blows with my shield while I simply try to wrestle the camera around to the point where I can just TARGET something.
The death system is fairly clever; I don't mind that. I've gotten the impression that the human effigies are in limited supply, so I haven't used any yet; needless to say I'm down to 50% max health already. It's irritating to lose all my souls on death, but far MORE irritating to lose them permanently when I inevitably die trying to retrieve them. I can always hear the fanboys saying "But that's what makes it a challenge!" Duh. I get that. Luna tells me that it's basically a question of "letting go," but I always feel like asking: WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO?! Why should I have to give up the half-hour or more of progress just because the game threw a cheap shot at me or because the camera wouldn't cooperate?! I've been getting reasonably decent at the block, circling and striking mechanics, but only when the game decides I'm allowed to use the targeting system.
I want to explore this game. I honestly do. I want to play through and see the genius that I've heard is within the game. I'm seeing glimmers of it already - I know it's there! - but I'm honestly growing rather tired of the glaring flaws in the game that I feel like everyone else is lauding as "difficulty." I've always despised artificial difficulty in a game - the idea that a developer simply uses lazy AI programming to give the computer an unfair advantage (like in many RTS games) or terrible game mechanics that could have been built better (like the camera control I mentioned).
I don't see that as good game design. It's selling a bug as a feature, and frankly that makes me groan.
But I guess I just haven't made it over the wall yet. DS veterans, please let me know what I'm missing. I genuinely want to enjoy this game, but I feel like the game's shoddy mechanics suck all the agency out of the game. I moved on to Dishonored (which I had also picked up) and enjoyed it much more because I felt like I had control over the situation, for better or worse.
Throw me a bone, folks...
Back to work
General | Posted 10 years agoI dropped off the face of the earth for the last month and a half on my usual annual temp layoff, but I'm back in the lab... for anyone who cares. Spent most of my "vacation" helping Luna with her personal project, and didn't really do anything of my own artwise.
I don't know, I feel like I've had less desire to draw lately. It's like there isn't much to inspire me to attempt to get better. I'm mostly just the tech guy who works on Luna's projects; don't get me wrong, I'm glad to help her. I don't feel like I'm really missing anything. I'm basically just a washed-up artist anyway. It was unlikely I was going to ever get really good anyway.
Am I giving up? Nah. I'm just considering myself on hiatus until I can be arsed to draw again. I don't know how long that'll take, really.
I don't know, I feel like I've had less desire to draw lately. It's like there isn't much to inspire me to attempt to get better. I'm mostly just the tech guy who works on Luna's projects; don't get me wrong, I'm glad to help her. I don't feel like I'm really missing anything. I'm basically just a washed-up artist anyway. It was unlikely I was going to ever get really good anyway.
Am I giving up? Nah. I'm just considering myself on hiatus until I can be arsed to draw again. I don't know how long that'll take, really.
PREPARE FOR DESCENT... once again!
General | Posted 10 years agoAttention Pyro-jockeys! Remember when we all collectively cried when Descent 4 was canned and its code was recycled into making Red Faction?
Remember when we thought the series would never recover from the three-way blood feud between Interplay, Parallax and Volition (at least I thought something like that was happening)?
We can stop crying now... and start revving up our ships again.
https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....nt-underground
Apparently some of the developers working on Star Citizen broke off and decided to revive the best 6DOF game ever made. Quite a list of people they have working on this. They actually got the license to make a REAL Descent game. Don't get me wrong, I liked Miner Wars, but it didn't have the same feel as I remember in Descent.
I plan to contribute to the Kickstarter - and I hope the rest of you Pyro jockeys do too! We've waited far too long for this. It's time to get back in the cockpit!
For those of you who might not be familiar with Descent or 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) games in general, let me say this. Cross a flightsim with a first person shooter and make the game world truly 3D, and you'll have some idea of what it's like to dive into the underground facilities of Descent.
I hope to see others stepping up to fly alongside.
Remember when we thought the series would never recover from the three-way blood feud between Interplay, Parallax and Volition (at least I thought something like that was happening)?
We can stop crying now... and start revving up our ships again.
https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....nt-underground
Apparently some of the developers working on Star Citizen broke off and decided to revive the best 6DOF game ever made. Quite a list of people they have working on this. They actually got the license to make a REAL Descent game. Don't get me wrong, I liked Miner Wars, but it didn't have the same feel as I remember in Descent.
I plan to contribute to the Kickstarter - and I hope the rest of you Pyro jockeys do too! We've waited far too long for this. It's time to get back in the cockpit!
For those of you who might not be familiar with Descent or 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) games in general, let me say this. Cross a flightsim with a first person shooter and make the game world truly 3D, and you'll have some idea of what it's like to dive into the underground facilities of Descent.
I hope to see others stepping up to fly alongside.
Recent life (warning: IT geeking)
General | Posted 11 years agoLuna and I have been doing very well. Gigi, our new dog, has been settling in very nicely and has been cooperative and snuggly. I suppose I should upload a picture of her, eh?
Finally upgraded to smartphones... ended up with iPhone 5c because I couldn't afford anything else. Still not completely sure I'm able to afford it... we'll just have to wait and see how bad the bills are.
Luna has been drawing and creating art (though those iPhone games have been distracting us both >.>), and she's been doing fine. There's a possibility that she might start doing some commissions at some point; if that happens we'll probably create a joint site profile with myself as the caretaker and her hiding behind the curtain where she's most comfortable. Her own personal project still moves forward, and I'm helping.
Work's been great. This year I've been moved from an isolated lab to a new, larger lab at our largest complex (the only location we have other than the main office that has a domain controller!) and I'm basically the sole resident tech there.
Because this was such a big responsibility, I created a monstrosity of a work terminal to support me - being the primary IT bench tech at a location has perks. I cobbled together a dual terminal setup with three monitors for my work - twin Dell Precision 690 "power desktops" (that is, large desktops with server motherboards in them) that I software linked over the network (I can control them both with one single keyboard and mouse). One half does most of my work (Gemini Alpha) and the other half is a dedicated A/V transcoding system, video database, and burner (Gemini Beta). After realizing the agency's entire video database was on one single and very droppable external hard drive, I said "Yeah, we need a dedicated video storage server."
So Gemini was born.
She's probably the most powerful terminal(s) I've ever created (she consumes 1400W of power!). Precision 690 motherboards are equipped with integrated RAID controllers (I'm not actually using them though), eight RAM slots, and two chip sockets. Between her two identical halves, Gemini boasts a total of eight Xeon cores (two cores in each of the four chips, two chips per half), 16 GB of RAM (eight on each side), and four hard drives.
Alpha has two monitors and Beta takes the third. The interesting thing is that I installed XP on Beta and Win7 on Alpha - primarily because of the transcoder. In an agency that uses primarily outdated and donated parts, our transcoder only works in XP. I have Beta permanently connected to a VCR for VHS conversion.
Beta's monitor can also be switched to a video feed from the diagnostic bench on the other end of the room, which itself has a four-port KVM switch. I can keep an eye on any machine on the bench while sitting at my terminal.
Because I decided that such a powerful admin terminal needed some flair, I also customized both of Gemini's halves with a full LCARS interface. While I did enjoy Star Trek a lot while I was younger, I chose this less because of being a fan and more because I find the LCARS system to be an elegant and official-looking interface. Gemini is an important terminal, and needs to look the part. She does talk, but it's not the computer voice from Star Trek; I chose Savant's voice from the old Sierra game Outpost 2. She has a much smoother voice.
The next step? I plan to scavenge a microphone and teach Gemini to respond to voice commands. The LCARS interface software actually already has functionality for that. I'm pretty damn proud of this machine - so much so that I took a picture of her :P
Annnnnyway, hope you all are doing well. The diagnostic bench is trying to get my attention - I've got work to do.
Finally upgraded to smartphones... ended up with iPhone 5c because I couldn't afford anything else. Still not completely sure I'm able to afford it... we'll just have to wait and see how bad the bills are.
Luna has been drawing and creating art (though those iPhone games have been distracting us both >.>), and she's been doing fine. There's a possibility that she might start doing some commissions at some point; if that happens we'll probably create a joint site profile with myself as the caretaker and her hiding behind the curtain where she's most comfortable. Her own personal project still moves forward, and I'm helping.
Work's been great. This year I've been moved from an isolated lab to a new, larger lab at our largest complex (the only location we have other than the main office that has a domain controller!) and I'm basically the sole resident tech there.
Because this was such a big responsibility, I created a monstrosity of a work terminal to support me - being the primary IT bench tech at a location has perks. I cobbled together a dual terminal setup with three monitors for my work - twin Dell Precision 690 "power desktops" (that is, large desktops with server motherboards in them) that I software linked over the network (I can control them both with one single keyboard and mouse). One half does most of my work (Gemini Alpha) and the other half is a dedicated A/V transcoding system, video database, and burner (Gemini Beta). After realizing the agency's entire video database was on one single and very droppable external hard drive, I said "Yeah, we need a dedicated video storage server."
So Gemini was born.
She's probably the most powerful terminal(s) I've ever created (she consumes 1400W of power!). Precision 690 motherboards are equipped with integrated RAID controllers (I'm not actually using them though), eight RAM slots, and two chip sockets. Between her two identical halves, Gemini boasts a total of eight Xeon cores (two cores in each of the four chips, two chips per half), 16 GB of RAM (eight on each side), and four hard drives.
Alpha has two monitors and Beta takes the third. The interesting thing is that I installed XP on Beta and Win7 on Alpha - primarily because of the transcoder. In an agency that uses primarily outdated and donated parts, our transcoder only works in XP. I have Beta permanently connected to a VCR for VHS conversion.
Beta's monitor can also be switched to a video feed from the diagnostic bench on the other end of the room, which itself has a four-port KVM switch. I can keep an eye on any machine on the bench while sitting at my terminal.
Because I decided that such a powerful admin terminal needed some flair, I also customized both of Gemini's halves with a full LCARS interface. While I did enjoy Star Trek a lot while I was younger, I chose this less because of being a fan and more because I find the LCARS system to be an elegant and official-looking interface. Gemini is an important terminal, and needs to look the part. She does talk, but it's not the computer voice from Star Trek; I chose Savant's voice from the old Sierra game Outpost 2. She has a much smoother voice.
The next step? I plan to scavenge a microphone and teach Gemini to respond to voice commands. The LCARS interface software actually already has functionality for that. I'm pretty damn proud of this machine - so much so that I took a picture of her :P
Annnnnyway, hope you all are doing well. The diagnostic bench is trying to get my attention - I've got work to do.
Finally got a dog!
General | Posted 11 years agoWell after jumping through a lot of hoops and having my parents pay the fees as a birthday present (I'm 31 now), Luna and I finally have a little fuzzball running around the apartment. She's a humane society rescue dog named Gigi - an adorable little 11-pound yorkshire terrier/chihuahua mix. She looks like a scraggly little fox with a fawn's coloration.
She's quite a peach, actually. Remarkably well trained and incredibly quiet - she's only ever barked at other dogs (and only if they bark first!) and her reflection. Ideal for apartment living. She's very affectionate (took quite a liking to me in particular), and I'm just in that "don't strain so darn hard on the leash" training phase.
It's nice to have a dog; Luna's been wanting one for quite a while.
In other news, I actually got a bit of interest in my Let's Play channel so I might actually pick that up again... the IT lab at work is finally organized (well... mostly...) and my parents are moving to Florida. My sister-in-law just gave birth to her first baby.... yeesh, a lot's been going on.
With any luck I'll get some art posted. I have been drawing off and on, when I have time...
Work's been entertaining lately. I cobbled together a MONSTER of a terminal, a pair of Dell Precision 690 "power desktops" (read: server motherboards in large desktop cases) and software linked them together across 3 monitors. I call her Gemini. Between her two halves, Gemini boasts four Xeon server-class CPU dual cores (for a total of eight cores) and 16GB of RAM. One half of her is being used as my primary terminal, the other half intended for audiovisual transcoding and data storage. Between three monitors, two huge CPU towers, a printer/scanner and a VCR, my entire setup is about eight feet long on my desk. I've even installed a full LCARS (i.e. Star Trek computer) interface on her and plan to implement voice commands if I can scrounge up a microphone.
Well I suppose I should get back to work. Take care, furs.
She's quite a peach, actually. Remarkably well trained and incredibly quiet - she's only ever barked at other dogs (and only if they bark first!) and her reflection. Ideal for apartment living. She's very affectionate (took quite a liking to me in particular), and I'm just in that "don't strain so darn hard on the leash" training phase.
It's nice to have a dog; Luna's been wanting one for quite a while.
In other news, I actually got a bit of interest in my Let's Play channel so I might actually pick that up again... the IT lab at work is finally organized (well... mostly...) and my parents are moving to Florida. My sister-in-law just gave birth to her first baby.... yeesh, a lot's been going on.
With any luck I'll get some art posted. I have been drawing off and on, when I have time...
Work's been entertaining lately. I cobbled together a MONSTER of a terminal, a pair of Dell Precision 690 "power desktops" (read: server motherboards in large desktop cases) and software linked them together across 3 monitors. I call her Gemini. Between her two halves, Gemini boasts four Xeon server-class CPU dual cores (for a total of eight cores) and 16GB of RAM. One half of her is being used as my primary terminal, the other half intended for audiovisual transcoding and data storage. Between three monitors, two huge CPU towers, a printer/scanner and a VCR, my entire setup is about eight feet long on my desk. I've even installed a full LCARS (i.e. Star Trek computer) interface on her and plan to implement voice commands if I can scrounge up a microphone.
Well I suppose I should get back to work. Take care, furs.
Back in action
General | Posted 11 years agoWell I'm back to work, and so now I should probably have time to be back on FA. I've only got almost nine thousand pictures to go through, but I also have a newly moved IT lab to set back up in a new building. So I don't know how active I'll be :P
Have I been drawing? Yes. But most of it will probably not be posted, as it has to do with my wife's private project that she's not ready to share yet. With any luck, I'll be able to get more art posted; I do have a backlog of pictures that weren't finished from before my layoff.
It's good to be back, furs!
Have I been drawing? Yes. But most of it will probably not be posted, as it has to do with my wife's private project that she's not ready to share yet. With any luck, I'll be able to get more art posted; I do have a backlog of pictures that weren't finished from before my layoff.
It's good to be back, furs!
Drawing juices, male and female
General | Posted 12 years agoWell I'm getting back into coloring, and it's got me thinking. I wouldn't mind seeing as many tutorials as possible on both drawing and coloring juices, male AND female. Anyone have any links?
I suppose I'll Weasyl crosspost...
General | Posted 12 years agohttps://www.weasyl.com/profile/lynceusglaciermaw
Frankly I'm rolling my eyes at everyone who's suddenly jumping ship to run to Weasyl, but I created an account there for crossposting and to keep tabs on the artists I watch who are running away from here. I can't say I know much about webhosting, but I am an IT tech and I can tell you: Hardware fails. And it can take time for new hardware to be put in place.
One power failure once resulted in a 72 hour downtime for my work's e-mail server. And that was just recovering corrupted databases and restarting the servers; no hardware was replaced. So that was an EASY one.
Calm down, people.
Frankly I'm rolling my eyes at everyone who's suddenly jumping ship to run to Weasyl, but I created an account there for crossposting and to keep tabs on the artists I watch who are running away from here. I can't say I know much about webhosting, but I am an IT tech and I can tell you: Hardware fails. And it can take time for new hardware to be put in place.
One power failure once resulted in a 72 hour downtime for my work's e-mail server. And that was just recovering corrupted databases and restarting the servers; no hardware was replaced. So that was an EASY one.
Calm down, people.
Let's Play Plans and Poll
General | Posted 12 years agohttp://www.youtube.com/user/LynceusGlaciermaw
Well to be quite blunt my Let's Play channel has been somewhat of a bust lately. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering the oodles of people also doing the same thing. As Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw put it, "Posting a video on Youtube is like putting a message in a bottle into a sea of other messages in bottles." It's quite true of course! I can't say I'm discouraged, since I still plan to go ahead with my plans (not to mention the fact that it's pretty early), but I just kinda chuckle, roll my eyes and say "Woulda been nice to have *someone* say something to me..."
But enough complaining. I've got a schedule and a new joystick coming in the mail, so I can expand the games I can LP.
Still working on Xargon and trying to be interesting. :P The only other game I know I'm going to LP (probably next) is Descent 2. Here are the others I've been considering:
Commander Keen series
Ancient Empires
Biomenace
Outpost 2 (at least a colony game)
D/Generation
Dead Space
But I have a LOT of games in my Abandonware directory and I want to know. What would you want to see LP'd?
Alien Carnage (aka Halloween Harry)
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Crystal Caves
Secret Agent
Tyrian
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Operation Neptune
Ancient Empires
Comander Keen 1-6 plus Keen Dreams
Radix: Beyond the Void
Math Rescue
Biomenace
Jill of the Jungle
ZZT and Super ZZT (that would... probably not be very interesting...)
Megazeux (same issue...)
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
Jetpack
Hocus Pocus
God of Thunder
Realms of Chaos
Outpost 2
La-Mulana
Hexen
Heretic
Terminal Velocity
Fury3
Inherit the Earth (A furry game!)
Clyde's Adventure
Clyde's Revenge
D/Generation
Highway Hunter
Mystic Towers
One Must Fall 2097
Quake
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Traffic Department 2192
Tubular Worlds
Tron 2.0
Turok 2
I'm actually building this list from memory, so there might be more... let me know if anyone has a particular game they'd like to see LP'd.
Well to be quite blunt my Let's Play channel has been somewhat of a bust lately. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering the oodles of people also doing the same thing. As Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw put it, "Posting a video on Youtube is like putting a message in a bottle into a sea of other messages in bottles." It's quite true of course! I can't say I'm discouraged, since I still plan to go ahead with my plans (not to mention the fact that it's pretty early), but I just kinda chuckle, roll my eyes and say "Woulda been nice to have *someone* say something to me..."
But enough complaining. I've got a schedule and a new joystick coming in the mail, so I can expand the games I can LP.
Still working on Xargon and trying to be interesting. :P The only other game I know I'm going to LP (probably next) is Descent 2. Here are the others I've been considering:
Commander Keen series
Ancient Empires
Biomenace
Outpost 2 (at least a colony game)
D/Generation
Dead Space
But I have a LOT of games in my Abandonware directory and I want to know. What would you want to see LP'd?
Alien Carnage (aka Halloween Harry)
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Crystal Caves
Secret Agent
Tyrian
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Operation Neptune
Ancient Empires
Comander Keen 1-6 plus Keen Dreams
Radix: Beyond the Void
Math Rescue
Biomenace
Jill of the Jungle
ZZT and Super ZZT (that would... probably not be very interesting...)
Megazeux (same issue...)
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
Jetpack
Hocus Pocus
God of Thunder
Realms of Chaos
Outpost 2
La-Mulana
Hexen
Heretic
Terminal Velocity
Fury3
Inherit the Earth (A furry game!)
Clyde's Adventure
Clyde's Revenge
D/Generation
Highway Hunter
Mystic Towers
One Must Fall 2097
Quake
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Traffic Department 2192
Tubular Worlds
Tron 2.0
Turok 2
I'm actually building this list from memory, so there might be more... let me know if anyone has a particular game they'd like to see LP'd.
My Let's Play channel is live!
General | Posted 12 years agoWell, if you're interested in watching the dracat play games, my Let's Play Youtube channel is online. I'll hopefully be recording somewhat regularly, and I'm starting with an old Epic classic from the DOS era. Come on in, let me know how I'm doing.
https://www.youtube.com/user/LynceusGlaciermaw
https://www.youtube.com/user/LynceusGlaciermaw
30 years...
General | Posted 12 years agoToday marks my 30th trip around Sol. Can't say I feel any different, but it's gotten me thinking a bit.
There's a lot going on in my life. Work, the fact that I'm going to be sharing best man duties at my best friend's wedding next year, the changing attitude toward practicality - all of it weighs on my mind. Not unpleasantly - this is what being an adult is, and I understand that. Besides, it's not like I don't have fun. It's just a priority shift. Like the fact that the PS4 is coming out soon, or the development of Star Citizen? I honestly don't find myself caring very much... I'm still a gamer, but new and pretty hardware is not that much of a priority, at least when it first comes out.
I figure this is about the life stage where my parents had my sister and I. My sister is already a mother of two. As for me? Heck, I'm still saving up for a security deposit to get a pet. Dracat kittens still seem a ways off...
So here I am, 30 years old today, sitting in the IT lab at work, surrounded by machines that are the labor of my profession. Am I happy? Heck yes I am. I have a loving wife and a career I enjoy. And as for fun? I was thinking of getting a new joystick and starting to do Let's Plays on Youtube... would anyone watch those? :)
There's a lot going on in my life. Work, the fact that I'm going to be sharing best man duties at my best friend's wedding next year, the changing attitude toward practicality - all of it weighs on my mind. Not unpleasantly - this is what being an adult is, and I understand that. Besides, it's not like I don't have fun. It's just a priority shift. Like the fact that the PS4 is coming out soon, or the development of Star Citizen? I honestly don't find myself caring very much... I'm still a gamer, but new and pretty hardware is not that much of a priority, at least when it first comes out.
I figure this is about the life stage where my parents had my sister and I. My sister is already a mother of two. As for me? Heck, I'm still saving up for a security deposit to get a pet. Dracat kittens still seem a ways off...
So here I am, 30 years old today, sitting in the IT lab at work, surrounded by machines that are the labor of my profession. Am I happy? Heck yes I am. I have a loving wife and a career I enjoy. And as for fun? I was thinking of getting a new joystick and starting to do Let's Plays on Youtube... would anyone watch those? :)
Why doesn't game music get any respect?
General | Posted 12 years agoHave you ever noticed that people have a tendency to think of music that was made for a game as less than "legitimate" music?
Even older titles like many of Square's games had entire orchestras doing their soundtracks (Chrono Cross' title theme Scars of Time still gives me goosebumps!) Nowadays, it's quite normal to get a huge music venue for a big-name title. Bethesda got a choir of 300 people to do the Song of the Dragonborn, the game's title theme. (Rawr to the other people who can sing that!)
An old, forgotten 4-CD prerendered Microsoft rail shooter called Deadly Tide was a magnum opus of music, done by their own Microsoft Orchestra. (That was Windows 95 era!) Look up its music, it's quite stunning. The game wasn't bad either, if you like rail shooters. Told quite a story.
Personally I don't understand why people refuse to accept gaming as a legitimate artistic medium, but that's another topic. (It's also something that's unlikely to change as long as people view games as "a kid thing.") The fact is that game music is often just as impressive and well-written as stuff you hear in movies. And frankly, it's intended for basically the same purpose. It accompanies a story, it changes dynamically to suit the situation, and it is performed by a hell of a lot more than just some tiny synthesizer. Because of the dynamic nature of a game, I believe the music has even more potential for impact than it does in a movie - I still remember the iMUSE dynamic soundtrack system that LucasArts used to make the original X-Wing so pulse-pounding. And frankly, X-Wing's music system sounded pretty awful. But the soundtrack's dynamic nature made it one of my favorite parts of the game - the music reacted to everything I did and everything that happened around me. It has a way of sucking one in quite effectively. I was one hell of an X-wing jockey.
I would love to "catch" someone who doesn't respect game music enjoying a track that they didn't realize came from a game. If nothing else it might open their eyes a bit to the music so many people seem to be missing. It's not an "I told you so" sort of thing, it's more of a "Come enjoy these with me!"
And while I'm here, I wanted to share the gaming music I literally JUST discovered... using the one instrument I can actually play. The VOICE!
http://www.youtube.com/user/SmoothMcGroove
Even older titles like many of Square's games had entire orchestras doing their soundtracks (Chrono Cross' title theme Scars of Time still gives me goosebumps!) Nowadays, it's quite normal to get a huge music venue for a big-name title. Bethesda got a choir of 300 people to do the Song of the Dragonborn, the game's title theme. (Rawr to the other people who can sing that!)
An old, forgotten 4-CD prerendered Microsoft rail shooter called Deadly Tide was a magnum opus of music, done by their own Microsoft Orchestra. (That was Windows 95 era!) Look up its music, it's quite stunning. The game wasn't bad either, if you like rail shooters. Told quite a story.
Personally I don't understand why people refuse to accept gaming as a legitimate artistic medium, but that's another topic. (It's also something that's unlikely to change as long as people view games as "a kid thing.") The fact is that game music is often just as impressive and well-written as stuff you hear in movies. And frankly, it's intended for basically the same purpose. It accompanies a story, it changes dynamically to suit the situation, and it is performed by a hell of a lot more than just some tiny synthesizer. Because of the dynamic nature of a game, I believe the music has even more potential for impact than it does in a movie - I still remember the iMUSE dynamic soundtrack system that LucasArts used to make the original X-Wing so pulse-pounding. And frankly, X-Wing's music system sounded pretty awful. But the soundtrack's dynamic nature made it one of my favorite parts of the game - the music reacted to everything I did and everything that happened around me. It has a way of sucking one in quite effectively. I was one hell of an X-wing jockey.
I would love to "catch" someone who doesn't respect game music enjoying a track that they didn't realize came from a game. If nothing else it might open their eyes a bit to the music so many people seem to be missing. It's not an "I told you so" sort of thing, it's more of a "Come enjoy these with me!"
And while I'm here, I wanted to share the gaming music I literally JUST discovered... using the one instrument I can actually play. The VOICE!
http://www.youtube.com/user/SmoothMcGroove
