Craptastic day.

Buh. What a horrible, horrible day at work. Let's see, I broke my expensive earbuds, found out I screwed up ANOTHER order, forgot ENTIRELY about a magazine ad (and, as a result, we're having the same ad run THREE times in a row), neglected to tell the bosses about losing everything in my old work email address. Yeah, that's just great. I feel so... Horrible, basically. And, knowing me, I'm gunna dwell on it and let it all ferment for the next week. I wish I wasn't so hard on myself. But enough of this emo nonesense.

Frank gave me the choice of "falling or fallen". I chose the prior, and he presented me with a sketch of a gut for me to ink and colour. The below is the result of a few hours of work. I kinda like it. Although, it is the first time I've used the dodge and burn tools (pathetic - I know). Regardless, I did a horrible job with the lighting. It should've been more even considering it's (supposed to be) night time. Bah.



I'm really jealous of Frank. He's such a great artist - he can draw *so* much better than I can. I love working on his stuff.

In other news, BSG. Wow. I thought last weeks was good. The atmo attach was the best sci-fi military maneuver I've ever seen. It had me standing up and excited. The Pegasus taking out the basestars was incredible. That was a work of art. And then I saw this week's episode. Not a single shot fired or explosion, and yet *easily* the best BSG to date. The writing was sheer genious, and I really found myself locked in to what each character was thinking and doing. Just... Wow. I think that's what makes BSG so great - It doesn't need the action to make it good. What a fabulous show.

Then there's Lost, which sucks.

Then there's Heroes, which is awesome. Not BSG awesome, but a significant runner-up. I'm really enjoying that one, and can't wait for tonights episode.

This weekend I played +8hrs of BF2142. I had fun 'cuz I played most of it with Frank. Regardless, it leaves me feeling quite unproductive. I need a break from that game now, so I'm trying out KotOR2. I want to get the new Need for Speed, but I can't spend the cash. I've totally blown my budget with the skates and Cardel pass. I don't want to spend anymore money on myself until the new year. With the exception of the Trans-Siberian Christmas Trilogy, of course. Chirstmas music is one of my favourite parts of winter, specifically because of TSO.

I gotta find me a image host. Allbrand does a fabulous job, but I'm needing more bandwidth for some reason. I don't know where are the hits are coming from. Could it be that significant amounts of people are reading this? Probably not. Regardless, should I get just an FTP or an actual image hosting account? Beats me... Maybe I should ask Steve or Eric...

Anyhoo, gunna go play some KotOR. I'm a sucker for a game with good storytelling. Oh Starcraft, how I miss thee and HL2 Ep2 seems so far away yet. *Sigh*
-Cril

PS- I bought the new BNL album from their official site. It cost me $17 for 27 tunes that downloaded within 4 minutes. How sweet is that? I can't wait to go see them live...

Some people are just all show
I don’t mind that if the show is worth watching
But it’s all bark, and not tree
What’s more ironic than a hippie in Versace?
It’s all peace and love and limousines
You’ve got the right message but the wrong intentions
How can you be touchy-feely when you’ve lost touch?
I think its time we had a little intervention with you

Barenaked Ladies - Down to Earth

Afterglow

Mary asked me to draw a "french dude" for our sick French teacher. He's an AWESOME guy, so I sat down for two hours and spat this out. It makes me laugh looking at it. The guy looks like such a sleaze bucket. No offence to any of the french out there... I was trying to be stereotypical :)

In other news... Lost. This week's episode wasn't too bad - It returned a bit of the... Dare I say "charm" back to the show. It was good, but nothing too stellar. Still, it was probably my favourite episode of the past year. I hope things pick up a bit and progress. Knowing that Locke is a "hunter" and that he's going to get Jack & Co. back from the others semi-excites me. I hope we see John open a can of pwnage.

Battlestar, as usual, is excellent. Absolutely perfect. I can't wait for tomorrow night's episode. I'm sure it won't disapoint... But on the other hand, I hope it doesn't end on a cliffhanger where Adama had (pretty much) admitted defeat in the battle over new Caprica. That'd tick me off, 'cuz I'd have to wait *another* week.

As suggested my my brother and sister, I'm looking into this "Heroes" show I've heard of. It might be interesting, I'll report when I actually watch them.

I talked with an "old friend" (I'm not sure if either of those words are appropriate...) last night. It was interesting. I found out that she found someone she likes. I'm so glad for her. I hope it all works out just right.

In other news, I'm going rock climbing tomorrow. That should be fun, eh?
-Cril

Here I am, lost in the light of the moon that comes through my window
Bathed in blue, the walls of my memory divides the thorns from the roses
It's you and the roses

INXS - Afterglow

What an awesome song.

Screw EA

So. In the latest CGW podcast, they received retail boxed copies of BF 2142.

When you open the box, a big slip of paper falls out first, preceeding any discs or manuals. The slip of paper says, essentially, that 2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records "anonymous" information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other "computing habits" in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.

Now, I can live with certain in-game ads (though apparently there will be Dodge truck and Neon ads in the bleak, futuristic world of 2142), but including a lengthy description - outside of even the Eula - seems to indicate even EA knows that this is some shady borderline spyware shit. I don't support it and won't be buying 2142 (for a host of other reasons, too).

That was from here.

Now... I understand ingame ads. When they're done properly, that is. I'm fine with the developers pimping some empty texture space to sponsors for a little $$ on the side. Sure, fine. It makes some games feel more realistic, even. I didn't mind it in games like Underground 2, where you see billboards for the companies you're tricking out your ride with. It's cool, it made sense. No problem.

But spyware? No thanks, EA. I was probably going to fork over a good $50 to buy your model and sound pack that is 2142. I put up with the crappy two heliplanes, horribly wussy mechs, a retarded HOVER tank that doesn't work on water, mediocre infantry weapons, and a generally weak 'futuristic' theme. I tried, and you had me. But you lost me at the part where you decided that because I PAID YOU $50, it was grounds to look over my shoulder. You stepped over the line there. You're a giant, and quite frankly you probably don't care for a single one of your customers. We're all suckers to you for buying the games that really outta be patches. So when I say that I'm not going to spend any money on you and your game, you're not going to care. At all. But I feel like I'm standing up against something that is... How to put it delicately... WRONG. I know this'll never be read by anyone relevant to the issue, and you'll sit comfortably in your comfy executive chair without noticing the loss of $50 from your fat wallet. Or maybe you do, but you simply don't care. That might as well be the case.

There's probably a few others like me. I hope I'm not a lone fanatic with rediculously high morals. I admit - I wanted Battlefield 2142 despite it's flaws. And now I don't.

GG EA.
-Cril

I'm so happy 'cause today
I've found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, but that's okay, 'cause so are you
We've broken our mirrors (We broke our mirrors)
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
'Cause I've found God
Hey, hey, hey...

The Polyphonic Spree

Batman, a dancing lady, cylons, and MORE!!

I did a bit of drawing/painting the other week. I think I need to just doodle a bit more, rather than only drawing for the larger peices. Blah.





I think they're both pretty good. I used references just to get the general composition down, but I pretty much did the rest on my own. I'm pretty pleased, I think (especially the Batman one) is some of my better stuff. I took the reference for that one from the new Batman cartoon series. I've actually been enjoying it a bit, I like that take on the universe. Here's a lil' gif of a few steps of the process. Be grateful - It took me a while to dust of ImageReady and figure out how to do animations again.



Anyhoo, you can get a 1600x1200 version of the finished peice here.

What next... Ohhh! CYLONS! OH BABY THE CYLONS! BSG is back and I'm loving it... Oh, how I've missed the sweet sweet adventures of the Battlestar Galactica and friends. I'm starting to believe that this really is going to be a dark season... The whole first episode(s?) was so... Intense. Especially with the suicide bombing. The whole thing reeked of political messages relevent to what's going on now. Especially the whole thing with Baltar denying the torture. Either way: I LOVE it. So dark, so dramatic, so exciting.

Can't say the same about Lost. It's getting near the same page as Smallville. I'll keep watching it for intrests sake, but really... I've stopped caring. Once again, more questions than answers and they're questions I don't really care to see answered all that much. Bleh. I've stopped watching Smallville altogether though. No point in watching if I can't tear it apart and butcher it with someone.

There's a few good games coming out this month eh? We got some Flight Sim X, Dark Messiah, Splinter Cell, NFS Carbon, and BF2142. Oh, BF2142... I downloaded, installed, and played the demo. I have mixed feelings about it, but I might buy it. If you really want to know what I think, check out my, um... 'review'.

So many games, all so expensive... Am I the only one who thinks $50 is too much for a game? Bah, probably not. I'll end up buying some of them anyways. Prolly BF this month, NFS next month (I've been on a bit of a racing binge lately). We'll see what some reviews say.

And on a differant note... Have you ever had a weird conversation with someone when you tried to get a message across and figure out where they stand on something, only to end it knowing less than you initially did? How very... Surreal perhaps?

Anyways, if this whole post seems rather disjointed, it may because I haven't posted in a month or... Because I'm watching the Colbert Report on the other monitor. I've already corrected a handful of bizarre errors. And I don't feel like going back to fix more except URLs or something. Suck it up.
-Cril

Well, its a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
neath the cover of october skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And Im trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low

Van Morrison - Moondance