Holy Crap! A New Journal Comic!

At least I'm being artistic while wasting time?

Stupid drawings.

I realized the other day how much I like my hair. Because I'm artistic and weird, I decided to draw my hair, and the final product was a dumb looking simple cartoon. Long story short, people really like them, so I drew more. And then I realized three things...

1: Drawing other people is harder than you'd think.
It's interesting, because I have ALWAYS gotten requests from friends to draw their cartoon persona. Over the years, I have realized that, while I am good at doodling, drawing another person is no cup of tea. It's not that the drawings don't look good. It's because people, whenever they look at something that is meant to represent them, get extremely critical, whether they realize it or not.

2: The internet has destroyed original ideas.
Think about it for a minute. Any nincompoop who has access to a computer with an internet connection (me) can post any amount of information they want, and this can be seen by anyone else who has a computer and an internet connection. Just about anything you think of has probably been seen somewhere on the internet, whether it be exactly like your idea, or somewhat different. My drawings look similar to an internet meme known as "Poker Face." I have seen it, but honestly I didn't think about the meme once until I had finished my drawing. The whole point of Poker Face is to have a blank expression. I wanted a somewhat dumb, blank expression. I've known about doing simple dots for eyes and a simple line for a mouth for years now, even before the /b/tards made the Poker Face meme. How do you think they thought of it? In short, artists draw from things for inspiration. Plagiarism and inspiration are two separate things.

3: I like finding excuses to waste time and not do homework.
I'm doing it right now.

Off topic from the rest of this post, but if you haven't listened to Linkin Park's "A Thousand Suns" album, you should. I can say with confidence that just about everybody will find at least one song on it they like, if not the whole album. Musically, it's absolutely brilliant. Now, there are always going to be the narrow-minded douchebag types who won't like something for a plethora of stupid reasons, and I hope you aren't one of them.

Painting Red...

--------------------------^Click to Enlarge^---------------------------


So, I received my first Warhammer figure painting commission. It's nothing serious, and I'm not getting paid other than the kid giving me another model I requested in trade for my "uber owsum pante skillz." He wants the trim on the pauldrons (the massive shoulder guards on Space Marines) to be red. As in bright red. Now, I had forgotten how hard red is to paint, colorize with, or really do anything with, other than make things look 20x cooler and go faster.

For my personal models I apply a gold undercoat, as the red I'm using is roughly a 50/50 mixture of red and gold. For the red of the wax on purity seals, I use a maroon color as a base, then paint the normal crimsony red over it. It seems to cover just fine in only a few coats. I discovered, as the above comic states, that apparently on larger surfaces the red doesn't like to cover the dark red and stays slightly muddy dark red. So I had painted one side like this and said "Okay, this is messed up. Well I'll just put a thin coat of white over it."

...That didn't work either, because red is so fickle that unless your white is 100% white, it will still be a somewhat muddy red. So then I put a thin layer of orange over it. The red seemed to like this, and I will be keeping that in mind. Unless, of course, my suspicions are true and once I look at it again with fresh eyes it will be more of a red-orange.

Moral of the story: Don't paint things red, unless you're working up from either pure white, or another warm color like orange. And I'm still unsure as to why my hair turned magenta rather than red last time...

Facebook Friend Purge? Pshh...

Friend Purges. They are not an uncommon occurance. I see at least one post about 'em every month, and I wonder how many unsaid ones have gone underway, and how many I don't know about because I was one of those "unfortunate" souls who did not survive. Now, I have contemplated doing one of these for a while, but haven't actually done it. Now I think I may, but rather than just do it the boring way I figure I can (hopefully) get some kicks out of it.

I wonder, if I was to troll all of my 'friends' on Facebook, how many (of the current 236) would remove me. I mean, I only know maybe a hundred or so in real life, and out of those hundred I don't even talk to all of them.

I will embark upon this quest in a few days (maybe.) But first, since maybe five people and my dog will actually read this, I will post the link to this on Facebook. You know. For kicks. Then after the act has been committed, I will report the results (including any comments made.) I honestly don't quite know what will come from this, and honestly I don't really care.

✠ LET THE PURGATION BEGIN! ✠




-Note: by "trolling" I really just mean posting their name on their wall or something. I may make inappropriate comments about current profile pictures as well.

Warhammer Modelling

I am about to embark upon a quest that may define my whole life. Ok, not really. What I'm really about to do is attempt to do more Space Marine conversion work and sculpting than you can shake a stick at (although why anyone would shake a stick at this is beyond me.) I've only just begun the sculpting aspect of the hobby, but my first attempt, which was sculpting skulls onto the armor, was pretty good for a first time. I'm going to do a few practice tests first before I begin my final projects, but hopefully my art skillz will come through and these will be as awesome as I want them to be.

I'll post pics and such of my progress in later posts.

Annoying sales, invention ideas, and donations.

At the time of my writing this, it is currently almost 2 freakin am. I would like to go to sleep but my mind seems to not want to shut down, so now I'm stuck here, lying in bed awake. Also, I am attempting to write this using my iPod touch, the same iPod touch that I got for free with my MacBook a few years back. My mom recently got herself a MacBook, but hers came with a printer! Yeah I feel gypped.* I mean, all I really got was a portable device that can hold 8 gb of songs (which I am far over) and access the Internet if I find an unlocked wifi signal (or know the password.) By the way, typing on this thing is no walk in the park. Everytime i try to hit the o key I accidentally hit done and my keypad goes away. Also the little onscreen buttons are smaller than my thumbs leadin to awkward misspellings that sometimes the autocorrect is too dumb to actually correct. Instead it will give me some word that isn't even close to what I originally intended. Blahhhhhhhhhh.

Apple needs to come out with something that will help us troubled sleepers to sleep. I don't know what this device would be, but right now I wouldn't mind if it dispensed knock gas. They could call it the iPassthef$&kout. I would buy one. It'd probably be a better investment than releasing a new iPad every six or so months. Then again the consumer sheep will continue to buy each new gen, so they might as well continue doing what works. But seriously, someone needs to invent something to help (force) me to fall asleep.

One more thing: I have no money. You should be a good Samaritan and donate to my cause (unrelated to aforementioned idea) and give me money. If you do, I will be sure to write you a thank-you letter and mail it to you, along with a coconut or other fruit of your choice.

*yes, that is the proper spelling. If you want to know why then JFGI. If you don't know what JFGI means, use urbandictionary. I would link you but I'm not quite sure how to on this thing and I don't really care to try at the moment. Deal with it.

Part Four of the Romance Rant

The final installment (for now.)

Ok, so in this now four-part rant I basically said that romantic relationships are fucked up, and explained why. Usually it's because one or both parties put too high standards on what the relationship should be. It won't be perfect. I've said that a lot.

I've ranted a lot on stupid people and their stupid relationships. I've questioned what "love" is. I've given a cynical definition of romantic love (pt. 2.) I've talked about why relationships fail. Now I'm going to lighten it up and talk about the good I see in them.

Everybody has felt affection towards someone (or something) in this thing called "life." I don't feel like I need to describe these feelings as chances are you already know what I'm talking about. But I will say this: These feelings can be great. Spending time with someone you care about (not just romantic!) is awesome. It makes you feel good.

Spending time with someone you care about deeply who in return cares about you deeply is even more awesome, especially if its more intimate than your other relationships. They can make you feel like a whole new person. They make you feel good.

Unfortunately it's a double edged sword, as I have explained through these walls of text.

The trick is to balance it out. Don't put all your stock in one person. I know I may not be able to say this as I have always been single, but I can say that this is somewhat true. In the end, the majority of people are selfish, some more than others. I'm not saying that everyone thinks "ME! ME! ME!" 24-7, but usually it's more about "ME!" than "YOU!" The only exception I see this in is a pure, true love, and I only know of one of these.

Live life not for that one other person, but for many other people. Sure, you can prioritize certain people over others, as you will get along better with some more than others, but never put all or most of your stock in any one person, as if it fails, which it may, you will be left in ruin. Life is about helping other people fulfill their desires just as much as your own.

Part Three of the Romance Rant

I've ranted, and ranted, and ranted the previous two posts about romance and the fails I see. At the end of numero dos I had 3 reasons for people splitting up. The third was about "Unforgivable acts." I mentioned that what some consider to be "unforgivable" are plain stupid and you should just get over it. Other issues can leave a more painful and permanent mark. Guess what the main issue I'm thinking of is? No, it's not murdering the in-laws (or those to-be). No, I'm talking about cheating.

Cheating, having an affair, fooling around, etc... these are all terms for having a romantic relationship with someone other than your, what I will call, "registered significant other." This probably stems from either being bored with the other person, or just being that type of dirty person (slut, whore, man-whore ... you get it.) Regardless of the reason, it's downright wrong. Here are two scenarios of cheating:

Scenario !: Jane has been dating John for two years now. The initial getting-to-know-you time and red-hot fiery passion is over. Now they're just another couple. Jane meets another guy who she also finds attractive. Rather than just be friends with this person, or run in the opposite direction if she knows she can't control herself, Jane decides that it is a good idea to get intimate with him. Inevitably, John finds out and breaks up with Jane. Hopefully the other guy isn't stupid enough to realize that if she did this to John that the chances of her doing it to him are high.

Scenario 2: John and Jane have a good relationship, but John isn't getting his sexual desires fulfilled. Instead he gets a fuck-buddy. Jane finds out, blahblahblah, you know the rest.

There are obviously variations on this, all of them end up with shattered people. Hurray!

Then you get the couple who breaks up and within weeks one of the two is already dating somebody else. This can either point to the fact that they were cheating before, or at least thought about it. This can be especially true if the already-dating person was the one who broke off the previous relationship.

Now comes for my psychological analysis of people. Brace yourself.

If someone has had one very good relationship that lasted at least a year or two but in the end was severed on bad terms, and that person has several relationships soon after, chances are they're not really looking for a new partner; they're looking for that same person they had spent those years with.

If a couple repeatedly breaks up and gets back together, they may be expecting too much of the other person, putting too much stock into the relationship, or they're just plain stupid.

In short, romantic relationships often fail because one or both parties are putting too high of expectations on their partner. They want the relationship to be perfect (who doesn't,) but they fail to see the very true and somewhat cold reality that it won't be perfect. You have to learn to put up with someone. Obviously there should be limits to what you put up with, but you can't expect this person to live up to your high standards. In fact, you might have to lower yours. Compromise is key.

Read Part Four. I've already said most of what I want to, so hopefully won't be as depressing. :)

Part Two of the Who-Knows-How-Many-Parts Post

Okay, so I may be a little biased. I mean, as I said before, I have never had a romantic relationship. Yeah, this has left me somewhat jaded and cynical, but I believe that at the same time I can see this issue clearly. And as I said before, it's fucked up.

So I covered divorce and how much, or rather, how little stock I put into most marriages. This isn't my fault: This is society's fault for making me this jaded. It seems like all I hear about nowadays is failing relationships (both married and unmarried), but at the same time I keep seeing people barely older than me getting married. I can't help but to laugh at these people's "undying love," because if I've learned anything, its that the chances of that love actually dying are high. Actually, it's gotten me to question what "love" really is? Wikipedia describes love as "Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment." Yeah, I agree with that. But I think now we need a new term for romantic love. I think a good description for this yet unnamed term would be "An emotion of strong affection and personal attachment that blinds one - all hopes of rational thought are destroyed." Maybe the last bit is a bit extreme, but only a bit.

You know how many couples claim that they love each other, only to end up hating each other? You don't have to look far, in fact, just look to music. Almost every album in my collection has at least one song about a broken romantic relationship. Now the "hating each other" may be exaggerated. In fact, I don't think you could truly hate someone unless they did something to you so incredibly cruel that it would take a lifetime to move on. This idea is increased in the fact that love and hate are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

So most couples may not end up hating each other, but obviously they don't "love" each other anymore, otherwise they wouldn't have split. The way I see it, there are a few main reasons why they split.

Reason 1: The relationship wasn't what they thought it would be. They entered with false expectations, usually for the other person.

Reason 2: One or both parties became bored with the other.

Reason 3: One (or both) did something "unforgivable."

I don't feel like I really need to elaborate on the first two reasons. Some people think they can change the other person. Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is unlikely, at least to the degree you'd like. Nobody is perfect; get over it.

Now there is the third reason. Someone did something "unforgivable." The reason I'm putting quotations around "unforgivable" is because honestly, some things that people break up about are just plain stupid. I'm not even going to go into this topic.

Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum is the relationship that would be better off if they broke up, but one (or both) parties are either too stupid or too power-drunk to realize this, but that is a-whole-nother topic.

Read on to part Three when you think you're ready.

Part one of who knows how many I'll write.

I'm going to tackle a serious topic in this. Not to worry, you'll still get your fair amount of sarcastic humor, but the overall tone will be serious.

So, what is this "super serious" topic I'm going to talk/rant/blab about? Relationships, specifically ones in the romantic category. Unless I specifically say otherwise, anytime I use the term "relationship" from here on out, I will be referring to a romantic one. Note: If you're the "TMTDNR" type of person, you can just skip down to the sixth paragraph.

Lets start off with (what's supposed to be) the pinnacle of a romantic relationship: Marriage. Marriage has been around practically forever. Now back in the old days the man made all of the decisions and the woman had no say, so she had to marry him whether she liked him or not. Sucks for her, right? Yeah, but at the same time this usually meant she was less likely to get raped, as the man would want to keep her for himself. Now don't get all into the ages that the girls were wed, because the life expectancy back then was waaaaay less then it is now, and the whole goal was to pop out as many babies as possible. But I digress, let's get to modern marriage.

Okay, so nowadays the average life expectancy is a lot longer, with lots of people who don't die in accidents living to be well into their 80's at least (I'm talking specifically about America.) Now people are marrying later. In 2009, the average age for a first marriage of a man to marry is at 28.4 and the average for women at 26.5. Now, I hate averages, but that's for another rant.

Then you have divorces. Its hard to get the actual divorce rate because they compare the amount of marriages per year to divorces, but the fact remains that divorce is commonplace nowadays. What this means is that all those 20-somethings who were so deeply "in love" with each other no longer share that love. Maybe they got bored with each other. I mean, hell, if they had known that they would be spending the rest of their lives with that other person they probably would have never gotten married in the first place! Or maybe they were just too "different" from each other.

The fact is that marriage is pretty fucked up nowadays. Like, seriously fucked up. So fucked up it grants me permission to use the phrase "fucked up" multiple times, otherwise I probably couldn't accurately describe how fucked up it is. Why is it so fucked up? Don't ask me, I've never married. I've never even had a romantic relationship. But that doesn't mean I can't observe, and observed I have.

I've seen relationships blossom and I've seen relationships crumble. I've seen their birth and their death. I can tell you, I don't like what I see. Well, actually, I do. You see, I've recently started playing a game with myself. It's called "Guess if the Relationship Will Last." It's very rare that I say "yes." In fact, I haven't committed to any straight up 100% "yes" answers. I'm simply too skeptical for this. It's so rare that I see an older couple whose relationship I actually respect. When I do see this, I'm like "Damn. That's what I want," all the while hoping that their relationship actually is that strong. Will I ever get this? I can only hope.

I'm going to stop this one here, because one can only read so much text before they start skipping around. Part two will be up soon. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to rant about in that, just know that it will continue to be sarcastic and cynical. :D

Sorry, no pic for this post.

LOL, the cat has a mustache.

I don't really know why I decided to write this. Maybe it's just due to boredom. Maybe it's because my laptop is overheating and probably giving me cancer. Or maybe I have so much useless ... information ... stored away in the recesses of my mind that the floodgates could not be held back anymore. Regardless of the reasons, and the fact that maybe a grand total of two people will read this, I'm writing it. Heed this warning though: if you are looking for any sort of structure, you won't find it here, for all I bear is mindless dribble.

Well, I'll start off with how I've been spending most of my time the past week. I've been collecting Warhammer 40,000 for around 8 years. That's right, I've been attempting to model and paint the metal and plastic models since the 7th grade. My first army was the Necrons and I have since amassed a 2,500-ish Space Marine army.

For those of you who didn't click any of the links and have no idea what I'm talking about, or for those of you who did click the links and have no idea what I'm talking about, I will very briefly explain what Warhammer 40k is. It's a tabletop game (although we usually end up playing on the floor) in which two (or more) players pit there futuristic armies against each other in all out war. There are various mission types, multiple armies, and a plethora of combinations. Gamers buy boxed sets of the miniatures which must then be assembled, and then painted. Of course, you don't have to paint them, but if you don't all you'll have is a boring lump of grey with a few dots of silver here and there.

So that's that. Now on to other topics, such as my Quest for the Ultimate Job. Ok, it's not really a quest. It's more of me filling out applications and getting nothing back, which is not a good thing because I am very low on cash. It has gotten to the point where I am hoping to work just about anywhere (inb4prostitutionjoke). Hey, if you need a Warhammer army painted, call me! (That was a joke ... unless you seriously have a Warhammer army you would be willing to pay me to paint.)

What else, what else ... oh, I had waffles for breakfast today! Eggo blueberry waffles to be exact. I also had them yesterday, and the day before that ... and the day before that ... and the day before that ... you get the point. I haven't done anything productive pertaining to my animation major, which I probably should do some so as to not lose my touch and to improve ... also I have that homework to do ...

If you made it to this part of this post without skipping or taking a potty break, go ahead and give yourself a gold star. Chances are you "TMTDNR"'d this. I don't blame you. I mean, who has time to read anything, let alone an update on somebodies life, when you can be stumbling, or looking at pictures of cats with funny captions?

New comic

Submissions and Continued Undeadyness

Well, I submitted my Space Toast design to threadless tees and ... they declined it. Maybe if I draw a tree torturing a lumberjack they'd accept, cuz you know, hipsters love trees.

I also submitted that Klayton Skull for Celldweller I did a while back to FiXt. Hopefully this will get submitted. I would love to have a t-shirt with that badass skull on it, and not just because I drew it.

I heard Sum 41's new single "Screaming Bloody Murder," and I cannot wait for this album to be released. It's got a little bit of the Underclass Hero ring to it, which I liked but didn't think it was executed very well, and some of the edginess of Chuck, which is my favorite album of theirs. March 29th, baby!

I've also been working a little bit more on the zombie apocalypse piece. By "a little bit more," I mean I added three more zombies, so now there are six. Plenty more to go.

Zombie Update

Slowly, the army of zombies is amassing. Soon there will be one giant horde.

I'll keep this updated as I go along. I can't promise daily, because I probably won't update it if I only add in one zombie, unless I am super excited about how awesome said zombie is. I have some faint idea in my head of what the final product will look like, so let's hope it's just as jaw-droppingly amazing, if not ball-droppingly wintacular, as I hope it to be.

There's artwork afoot...

So I have been very busy in the land of artwork as of late. I'm currently working on a zombie apocalypse scene. So far, all I have done is an emo zombie. Continue feasting your eyes upon it. Go on. Do it.