My New Obsession

SKYRIM!! AAAAHHH!!

Seriously, I'm hooked. It's amazing. Between school and Skyrim, I have little time for much else. Got me the collector's edition, so I have that lovely statue of that evil world-eating dragon sitting on my desk here in the studio. Hells to the yeah!

Good Day

Here's my schedule for today, thus far.

• 7am- Roll out of bed and chug a glass of orange juice before getting ready to head to campus.
• 8:30am- Debate superhero movies and design with a few members of the Warner Bros. Animation team
• 9am- 2D Design Class, working with line (5 pages of 16 thumbnail sketches each)
• 12pm- Lunch Break! Might try to kidnap Caleb and grab a couple Hot Pockets from the Student Union
• 1pm- Mass Communication, where we go over what happens on Twitter most of the time (Epic)
• 2pm- Take a break, check the tracking on my new Cintiq Tablet I'm having shipped (Eeeee!!!)
• 3pm- Art Forum, we're having an engraver come in and speak this time. I hear she's teaching a class here.
• 4pm- Head to King Hall lobby and sketch a little while I wait for my brother to get off work
• 4:30pm- Go home and enjoy the rest of my night!

Yeah. Good day. Simple, but good.

My 2 Cents: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Nothing like a sleepless night sitting in front of a Photoshop window to get you thinking, right?

2011 is one of those years where the hits keep on coming. And we're all feeling it, I know we are. I've never been one to believe in prophecy or anything, but when you look at all the stuff that's happened in the last year, you do tend to wonder if the End of Days really is up and coming soon. You know, ignore the celebrity deaths for a moment- your Amy Winehouses and Dwayne McDuffies and what have you- and take a glance at the big picture, here. The United States is running out of money. I mean, for the love of God, Apple has more money than the US Government. Congress, President Obama, and several scores of other politicians are trying to figure out where to cut the fat without getting too close to their own wallets, while the CEO of Nintendo (Yes, the video game company) was willing to cut his own salary in half in lieu of an upcoming decline in his company's sales, rather than screw his own employees. On top of this, we have tsunamis and tornadoes and earthquakes just coming out of nowhere all over the world, taking thousands of lives, and there are still nutjobs in Norway and here in the US who still seem to have it in their head that the world can afford to lose a few more and go gun crazy. People are losing their money, their jobs, and their lives, and there isn't a damn soul on this Earth that can explain why, apparently. Well, guess what. I can tell you why. I can tell you why Mother Nature is destroying entire cities, why what was once considered the richest country in the world now has barely a penny to their name, and why Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home.

Because it's been happening since the beginning of civilization.

It looks bad. It is bad. But not a damn thing we're going through is anything new to the world. It may be new to us, to our generation and maybe even the generation before us, but empires rise and fall, storms roll in and out, and people- even famous ones- are mortal. Is it hard? Of course it is! I've had to watch my dad struggle for the last year working two jobs and just barely scraping by enough to support him and his household, while I've known others to sit around with nothing but the breeze in their hair have their whole lives handed to them. Couples have split up, jobs have been lost, people have been hurt. We're all overwhelmed, here, the lot of us. But it's not all bad. Despite all our family's financial struggles in the past, we managed to get up enough cash for one last family vacation. My niece's first family vacation, where we celebrated her second birthday. My best friend is starting his first year of college this year. Another good friend moved into his first apartment this summer. Hell, we even got a puppy!

My point is, there are some big, bad things out there right now. The big and bad kind that, no matter how hard we try, we can't dodge. That's a fact. But you know, cliche as it sounds, it's the little things. The family vacations and the puppies and the second birthdays. That's what we need to keep looking at. They'll be what will tide us over until the storm passes. They're what give us hope.

I think we could all use a bit of that right about now, don't you?

Long Overdue Update Post

I've been overly lazy this summer, and I've been neglecting my social networking responsibilities, unfortunately. Spending most of my time with my family, and doing lots of freelance work here and there. Still, as much as I love a vacation, I'm ready for the school year to resume and for life to get back into full swing.

So, updates. Firstly, for those of you who haven't heard or have been asking, yes, Monica and I split up. It's a long story I really don't care to relate, but let's just say I learned by lesson about getting involved in political discussions with certain people. There was a big mess of a fight and the end was definitely not a cordial one. Still, life goes on as it always must, and I'm happy to say that I've moved on pretty smoothly and easily, no hitches in this giddy-up!

Oh, and we got a puppy! His name is Hurley, he's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever/Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix, meaning that when he grows up I'll be fully capable of investing in a saddle and riding him like a fuzzy, overly-affectionate war horse. He really is such a lovey little boy who loves nothing more than napping in my lap and going for runs with me every day, but he's gonna be a big ol' boy. Six weeks old, his paw is as big as the palm of my hand. Dayum!

My artwork has slowed a bit, but it hasn't stopped. I spent an obscene amount of money on drawing books, sketchbooks, and a few DVDs for inspiration (The entire first seasons of Darkwing Duck and Fairly OddParents. Don't judge me.), and I'm making further strides towards improvement. Admittedly, it's meant that I've had to spend much of my time locked away in my basement studio sitting at my desk where the sun doesn't shine, but I've tried to balance it out as best I can with plenty of outdoors enjoyment. Got myself a nice tan this summer while in Arkansas visiting family. The trip itself was a bit of an emotional one, because, unfortunately, our family are all at points in our lives where we're old enough to start thinking about going our separate ways and getting our own lives, so it's likely that would be our final family vacation together. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

School will be starting soon, and I'm excited to go back. My best friend Caleb has enrolled for his freshman year of college, which will be hard for him, since he's been out of school for more than four years, but I can understand the difficulty and I'll be there to help him through it as much as he's been there for me in my own difficult times.

In the meantime, I have more sketching to do, more updates to make, and a craving for an ice cold Coca-Cola right about now. If you'll excuse me!

Tuneskeez

I just realized how ranty and preachy my blog is getting. I'm ashamed of myself a little.

Only a little. It will still probably be pretty ranty and preachy, I just need to do less ranting and preaching and a little more "check this cool stuff out!"-y. Yes. Yes, I think that will do rather nicely.

Been listening to a lot of remixed, reproduced, or drum-covered music lately. Like, a lot of it. Right now my entire playlist is made up of Remixes, Drum Covers, and music by Hollywood Undead (Their slightly less angry stuff). Most of the music I've found is thanks to YouTube, where I've stumbled across some pretty damn good musicians that I want to share with you.

The first one is Tyler Ward, a rather clean and family friendly dude with a pretty good voice and a great sense of humor who doesn't just cover music, but puts his own little spin on it. My favorite song of his probably is his cover of Black & Yellow (I hate the original), with a close second being the cover of Can't Handle Me (With drums by Cobus Potgieter). You got to respect his ability to take what he does and flex it into just about anything, and the videos look pretty damn professional too.

Next up is James Jeffreys, a former session drummer turned producer who can mix like kuh-razy! He plays drums, keyboard, and the guitar (and that's just what I know about!). He does a pretty epic cover of Love The Way You Lie that just really pounds the feeling home, and I really get a kick  out of it. He also did a pretty sick cover of Timbaland's Carry Out that gets stuck in my head when I hear it, which is impressive. He does a great job of crossing genres, taking music I'm not a huge fan of and making me hit the repeat button.

And last but not least, I mentioned drummer Cobus Potgieter earlier, but didn't tell you much about him. He's a self-taught drummer from South Africa who is just. plain. NUTS. I never thought somebody could make me like the song Fireflies, but he taught me that if Owl City had a semi-competent drummer (and a lyricist who didn't write like he'd been snorting rainbows) I could actually tolerate them. Not that there's anything genuinely wrong with Owl City, they're just not my cup of tea, savvy? But yeah, also check out his take on Mystery of You by Red, that one's pretty catchy, too.

As you can tell, I love music where you take something and put your own spin to it. The mixing of Hip Hop beats with Rock instrumentals and mixed vocals is just something I stand in awe of that never ceases to get my foot tapping. It shows me just how creative some musicians can be, instead of just churning out what they think people will buy.

My 2 Cents: The Next Step

Yesterday, it was announced that the United States had not only finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden, but had killed him. It was a day that will go down in history, and most of us didn't even know until the day was almost over. I uncorked a bottle of champagne, poured a glass, and took the time to relax and savor the end of the hunt.

However, today, my Facebook and Twitter feeds were flooded with commentary regarding last night's events that, at times, left me downright appalled and ashamed. There were people using this single victory as one more thing to rub in the rest of the world's faces, saying things like "Britain can have their dogshit wedding, look how we spent our time." Others were raving about how Bin Laden didn't suffer enough, that he needed to be publicly castrated and drug through the streets by his neck. America is a great country, and finding Bin Laden is undoubtedly a victory we have every right to celebrate. But why should we tarnish that by being petty and cruel? Why should we endeavor to cross that line and bring ourselves down by making ourselves the ignorant, barbaric warmongers so much of the world believes us to be? What's done is done, and now we have the choice of either sitting and squabbling with ourselves over whether he really got what he deserved, or we can turn our attention to the plethora of other problems we as a nation face.

We're still dependent on foreign oil.
Our economy is still barely limping along.
Many of our soldiers have still not made it home.

We still have a lot of work ahead of us, America, and it isn't healthy or fair to dwell on our anger when there is still so much to do. I understand that I, as an individual, lost close to nothing from the September 11 Attacks- I was scared and angry just as everyone else in the country had been, but I lost nothing I couldn't regain with a little focus. And I understand that it's easy for people like me- who were really so far away from the real tragedy- to not understand the overwhelming rage that many Americans may feel right now. All I know is that we have had ten years to grieve, and it will serve us nothing to spend another ten doing the same.

We've proven, once again, what we can do if we stand together and put our minds to something. Now let's really show them.

Sleepy Sleepy Sleepy

My sleep schedule is seriously F'd.

Of course, it's hard to complain about it to my friends, who seem to like to turn it into a big pissing contest about how they sleep less and do more with their day, but that still doesn't exactly help me sleep, now does it? I'm at a point lately where I only sleep every other night, and spend the alternating nights up all night working on my portfolio, art trades, or tutorials. My brain feels like it's melting slowly, and it's aggravating. Especially because my odd sleep cycle has my mother thinking I'm on drugs (I'm serious, she asked me- as if I could afford drugs if I wanted to. Hell, I don't even like taking prescribed medication!). But at least I can say that I'm actually getting some stuff done, and my level of procrastination has gone down at least a little due to all my free time at night.

It's been an odd week- I've been spending a lot of time with my brother lately, which is weird because he and I were never all that close growing up. Truth be told, I wasn't a great older brother when we were kids, I was way too focused on my own issues to bother helping him with his. But now that we're older and in college, I'm doing everything from playing Xbox with him to helping him with his homework. I look back and wish he and I had been like this when we were younger, because I'm enjoying a chance to finally connect with a member of my family- something I haven't done since before my grandmother died. It's a nice change of pace.

The rest of my life is pretty up in the air these days. Doing my best to play catch-up in school, help around the house, and find time to talk to Monica, which is hard to do because of how much she works. We talk a lot less than we used to and it's hard for me, and it seems like the more I try to push things back to the way they were, the farther it gets from it. We're working through it despite the roughness over a 7 hour distance, but I wish our schedules would actually let us at least get a phone call in (though getting her to pick up her phone for anything but texting and Twitter is like pulling teeth- she's worse than my sister sometimes).

It's at the point where I need to start searching for a summer job now, and as much as I don't want to get a job on campus, it may be my only choice with the way the job market has been in Emporia the last few years. There's a small chance I can get hired on as a cook at Bobby D's, working with Caleb, which is nice because I love working in a kitchen and I have experience as a fry cook. So here's crossing some fingers.

Anyway, I guess that's it- another life update from the Rantmaster! Enjoy the last couple of weeks before summer vacation, and take care!