Rage Vent

Well if I needed any other incentive to gtfo of my current occupational sinkhole then this has been a banner week. One write up that multiple (dozen or more) people were guilty of doing and I was the only one written up. On top of that they have the nerve to boot me from their velvety lounges to an auxiliary campus with no real warning. I've never been the least bit of scolded for Christ's sake. I've had a few counselling sessions or unofficial, "Hey, this is what's going on..." meetings with the honchos, but nothing to even hint at a negative perception (mine or theirs) at what I do. This was my first write up ever with these people (3 years unblemished) and in a matter of a week the shit hit the fan.

Options:

1) Maintain current assignment/transfer

2) Seek alternative/similar assignment

3) Go back to school *shudder*

4) Seek alternative field of employment

This is a difficult decision to make and I won't take it lightly but I needed to formulate my thoughts and just expressing a less than detailed version of the past transpiration of events has cooled my temper for the time being. Whatever I chose I think I'll be more available for creative purposes or I may shift my energies to health issues (could still stand to lose some more weight/exercise more).

Any-who...more OCs will be up within May/June for sure, the idea to post everything in a wiki for shared creation has really helped. I have 2 finished and 2-3 on their way, plus a few original works I've been putting off.

Also planning on catching up on reading a lot this summer so I can dismiss some of this obscene stack that's erected itself beside my bed/behind my door. Speaking of, be sure to check out ebay when I do, lots of odds and ends will be there from everything i go through this summer (link to follow).

Frustrated with DA's pic limit

DeviantArt's 1000 pic per search limit has finally pissed me off more than I can idly sit by and stomach. I was looking for a VERY unique combination of very common words and phrases and kept hitting the limit with nothing to show for it. I browsed the forums innocently enough looking for one that met my needs at the time and found a few similar 'request-style' threads in GenChat. Well I get somewhere around 12 hours of asshats that really needed to troll-skulk on back to 4chan and another 2-3 decent, helpful sentiments.

Anyway if anyone happens to come across this, I'm still on the lookout (until you see "Tempest"'s bio posted).

I'm looking to redesign/revamp a Dungeons & Dragon's Longtooth Shifter. My DM(s) and I are in agreement that it wouldn't fit to be a lazy [artistically] dog-head. So we've compromised with a humanoid appearance and cannine features.

Repeat: NO 'blantant/lazy' dog head

By our reckoning, shifters are said to be lycanthropes with more feral features than their were-* cousins. They're also permanently in this state without the monthly recovery period.

i.e. teeth, eyes, body hair, *slightly* exaggerated features ( skull, muscles, etc), but distinctively humanoid--otherwise it'd just be a gnoll.

Major Update!

F.M.L.
...
that is all...

Forthcoming Creations

No, I do not realize how long its been since I updated this thing. I have uncovered a few projects I've done in previous years and finally acquired a document camera in order to post them up on DevART.

Development on my DnD OCs is finally nearing fruition, just trying to add a few details and role-playing elements to them, expect to see backstories, etc on each of them soon: Artificer, Barbarian, Bard, and Swordmage.

Toying around with World of Warcraft and League of Legends. Scrambling to finish a few other OCs and designs.

To [Blogg]er Is Human...Rebuttle

I still only upkeep a few sites at a time, one less so now that MySpace seems to be fizzling out next to the bright and polished facebook. Still don't expect too many pics of me. I have a very nice smile in my opinion, but I can't pose for it. It either occurs naturally or not at all--school pictures growing up were pale imitations. Will still check it occassionally for contact information and upkeep.

DeviantArt has quite a few online acquaintances and page-following buddies of mine, but I can finish or publish any form of an artistic piece so rarely that I'm VERY behind with them.

I black, delete, or report spam almost any other social networking site other than facebook and myspace. We've not been out of school long enough nor far enough away from town to join class reunion sites. Still only a sporadic lurker in the rare-enough forum scroll.

My work schedule keeps tabs or claws on me for the most part of any weekday. Otherwise I try to balance my weekends between family, friends, and self-isolation.

My social life has somewhat death-rattled in that I am now going out and meeting new people (single and otherwise) on the occassion I'm invited to them.

Still not satisfied with my life for the most part--at least in some aspects. Thought I would be so much further ahead than I am now its sad and it's making me want to move forward. Fear and comfort and aparthy and weighing my down. Drastic personal-life actions may need to take place. :P

To [Blogg]er Is Human...

I have a few sites I keep updated on. I'm not a camwhore who posts hundreds or thousands of photos on the internet. In fact until recently I had in the neighborhood of 20 tagged images from 3 whole years of college facebooking to my name.

I get easily frustrated with the ads, spam, and load times some people program in to their myspace pages so I keep it around for little more than an additional way to contact me (for some people, its the only).

DeviantArt has quite a few online acquaintances and page-following buddies of mine, but I can finish or publish any form of an artistic piece so rarely that I'm VERY behind with them.

Too many so-called friends are joining social networking or class reunion sites that I've just stopped deleting them and am actively blocking them from my regular email account(s).

I am not a forum troll, though I lurk occasionally in one or two as interests momentarily spike for whatever reason.

I keep no consistent schedule of social activities except for a weekly game with a few friends on Sunday afternoon.

My work schedule keeps tabs or claws on me for the most part of any weekday.

My social life, not that is was ever thriving, is shrivelled to the point of pruning.

Is this what life is as you grow up? It seems the more I try to hang on to any one thing the more others suffer. The variety of things that I attempt overrides and nullifies many well-meant intentions. If so I'm not entirely sure I want to go through with it. I must find some semblance of balance, some...middle ground if I want to get out of this phase with any sanity or innocence left.

Stumbling Further Down A Nerdy Rabbit Hole

So its no surprise to me or anyone else I know, but I'm a nerd, geek, a semi-tech savvy delver into all things cast off from the rigorous judge-me-nows of society. As further evidence of this I submit one of my more recent excursions in to that-which-spawns-conventions, Dungeons & Dragons.

[Ok, no more hyphenated descriptions, lol]

I've always known about it. Whether the normees out there want to admit it or know, they have too. It's typically seen as people playing it in their basement or backyards in full fantasy-spoof regalia and keeping a strict sense of pseudo-parliamentarian procedures to simply tell a story. Said situation is more closely tied to LARPers (Live Action Role Playing).

I'm taking about the improvisational (only one person the DungeonMaster aka author truly knows what's going to happen) experience of getting together with friends periodically and just experience a different, animated twist on a story whether you prefer reading, movies, video games, etc. Artists of whatever discipline bring their own unique experiences and descriptors to a story. If you remember the "Choose your own adventure" storybooks, its similar to those except you get input from multiple people and absolutely anything can and will happen in these games. You could take just the exact same 3 people, present them with 3 successive, recurring fights (3 fights, same situation every time) and they can very easily come out completely different.

DnD (D&D, AD&D, or ADnD) utilizes a d20 (20-sided dice or a icosahedron) system that adds the random effect or 'life-element' to the game since nothing is ideal or perfect in life. But more than that is an outlet for creative juices to flow. I, myself, am very dedicated to the creation and speculation part of an idea, but I typically lack follow-through to complete one. This gives me an arena where not only myself, but others have/had similar problems and can offer constructive criticism when needed or merely a wall to bounce around ideas. And yes, some of my friends who play are taking/encouraging me to attend a convention in the future to see what they're like.

I won't even try though would wish luck to anyone trying to find all the DnD references throughout pop culture. Any fantasy game (video or otherwise) is loosely based on it, Futurama dedicated an entire movie to it (Bender's Game). And many Hollywood celebrities admit to having/still playing the game. Most shocking of them is Vin Diesel (see YouTube for many different interviews about this).

I am currently on my first character and look forward to developing him as he levels up through the campaign my friends and I are done. No details as I'm still hammering our names, background, etc for a sketch, but I will tell you he is currently a lvl 2 Dwarven Bard.

Frustrational Inspiration

Warning: Vent
Well I'm sure most of you are more in to this cyber-lifestyle that has taken the country by storm more so than I. Yes, I'm of the current generation and yes, I partake in it to my own satisfaction, but I'm not an over obcessive addict (I hope.) Anyway on jumping accounts and just getting updates, checking emails, and general fuck-it activities this late night/early morning I see quite a few of my old friends (male and female) updating with weddings, births, and all the general "how my life is going" mumblings that make people like me, still woking on our life, pissed off and upset. I'm not frustrated enough [yet] to research, document, bookmark, dog-ear, or publish a manifesto, but I'm damn near close. I'm completely aware that most of it is my fault, I'm a self-proclaimed late bloomer. I had my whole identify crisis and pseudo-rebellion phase in college and maybe bleeding over a little into now, rather than most of my friends who had it in middle or high school. I already have a semi-permanent job and apartment, etc but things WILL and MUST change this year if I want to make any more variations later on.

1) Health/Physique

I WILL exercise more. I will document and keep a journal going of exactly what I do and my alledged progress (Dr's office for scale at start?) including various body measurements

2) Occupational

I hate my current job. I WILL strive to find a new, less stressful way to do it or I WILL look for another one at my earliest inkling of a forthcoming break.

3) Relational/Experience

I WILL swallow my fear/pride/ineptness and ask more girls out. I am willing to go back to a church for the off-chance to meet a single girl, but more likely I will look for them more at the eventuality of taking masters level courses. I also want to experience more in life so I will try to go out with my friends and their spouses in another effort to meet people.

4) Educational

I WILL look out for myself and try to differentiate what Masters program(s) I would like to go into and isolate what, is any other, minors I should finish up accordingly.


***This is a very rough draft, if I get infuriated from life or something specific I will copy-paste this and expand it to a full blown manifesto and cite my progress.

Time Travel Destination

First random idea or question of my blog! Came up in a conversation with a few buddies of mine:

If you had to choose, would you go forwards or backwards in time and why? (for the record a random one-shot trip)

I'd have to say forwards. I am a fan of history and enjoy studying and speculating as to what happened, why and all that; but I am just as interested in the possibilities of the future. I'm intriqued by the assumtion of aliens, space travel, etc. In my own humble opinion the human race has become stagnant for the most part in the 21st century. In the 20th we invented, evolved, and damn-near perfected flight, automotive, computers, etc. Now that we've gotten those you see how little has changed in say...the last 25 years.

Ok I need to work on length and depth of articles but its a WIP.

Beer Before Wicker...

Alright, been slacking off, but apparently that's true to form for any of you that know me. This is one of those lovely nights of communal drinking that are so few and far between now-a-days that something memorable always happens. This one was the christening of my old buddy's first house. A bachelor pad to say the least, but it is a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 car garage, with a den, livingroom, media room, and more hole-in-the-wall closets than I have ever seen. Unlike many of our get togethers this one was just a 'come and drink' sort of shindig and we were well afforded the courtesy of our own 2 hour drive to get there. I'm still unable to tolerate beer unless forced to, but I am becoming partical to the Rum and Coke or similar variant. And two of my buddies know exactly how much to mix them well.

Anyway, we got there about 4pm and were already well into the reserves by 7 and it was obvious we were going to run dry shortly unless we paced ourself or got more. Well a *new* friend of mine was knocking them back a bit more than I and suggested we "just head on over to the Wicker Store and get some more."

"What, and pick up some chairs and a cabinet while were there?" lol.

Also had my first made-from-scratch mojito. I liked it and wish Seth many good things as he goes to get a TABC liscense later this year to bartend.