Pumpklops

I carved a pumpkin this year!





This is the first pumpkin I've carved in years, and I quite enjoyed it. I've usually done the traditional cut-out jack-o-lantern face, but I thought I'd try actually carving it this year. It took me a little over two hours.

I don't work in the 3rd dimension nearly often enough. I really enjoyed it.

Things The Internet Has Taught Me

#168
The only thing stranger than another culture's comedy is another culture's pornography.

Gunship Lolita

Gunship Lolita
The crown jewel of the Queen's Royal Space Fleet.

NO IT DOES NOT!!!

"The game industry earns more money per year than Hollywood."

This is one of my major pet peeves. It's one of those pieces of information that is passed around as common knowledge, is quoted frequently in the press (usually in the non-gaming press, but still maddingly often in gaming publications, who really should know better), and has been used to justify everything from a game's legitimacy as an art form to higher salaries for voice actors. The thing is, it's not true. Not even close, actually.

I was going to write a whole post tearing the assumption apart, but it seems GrumpyGamer beat me to it by two years. They have a very entertaining and thorough post about it here.

So please, next time you hear someone perpetuating this silly notion, hit them. Hard and fast.

The "J"

I had all these great mental images of the story behind this graffiti. Some kid living on the street, forced into a life of crime to support their jam addiction. Organized crime gangs running jam labs out of warehouses. Police raids on illegal raspberry grow ops. Smugglers crossing the border with hidden caches of pectin in the seats of their car. After school public service announcements where a kid with spiky hair and a leather jacket offers the well-mannered everykid a piece of jelly-slathered toast, goading him with taunts of, "Everybody's doing it! What are you, chicken?", only to have a skateboarding cartoon rabbit (wearing a helmet of course, safety first) show up in the nick of time to offer his sage advice about saying "Scram to Jam!"

Then I realised I was thinking of Smucker's, not Smucklers. What the hell is a Smuckler anyway?

My mother always told me not to let him lick my face...

.. but the truth is, his tentacles were cleaner than a human's mouth.

I just saw Anne Heche

Walking through the city of Vancouver every day, you see a lot of movie and television shoots. Of course, due it being the destination for budget productions, it's rare that you see anything or anyone very interesting. I had yet to see anyone I actually recognised as being famous at any of these film shoots, until this morning I had my first celebrity sighting , Anne "dated Ellen then went batshit loony for a while" Heche. Of course, that's celebrity in the loose "Dancing With The Stars" sense of the word.

I had my camera with me and totally forgot to take any pictures.

Halloween

Halloween is pretty much the awesomest holiday of the year. I mean, it's an entire day to celebrate candy and monsters, and that's it. That's 100% rock & roll. We don't even attempt to justify it by saying we're celebrating the time Jesus defeated Dracula with a pillowcase full of candy corn and those disgusting chewy molasses toffee things that people give out just to spite kids because nobody likes those awful things. Nope, we just celebrate candy and monsters because those things totally kick ass.

For someone who loves Halloween as much as I do, I don't do much to celebrate it. I'll occasionally go to a local haunted house, and I'll buy a bag or two of candy and gorge myself on Tootsie Rolls and Popeye cigarettes (I know, they're candy sticks now, but I still pretend I'm smoking when I eat them) all month, but otherwise, I tend to just bask in the eery glow of the season. I think I'm still bitter I got too tall to trick or treat.

This year's not gonna be much different. I work in the city, but live in a rural area about an hour outside of it, so getting together with friends outside of work can be tricky. Without anyone to celebrate the day with, your options are pretty limited. But I've decided this year to play a bigger part in the Grand Halloween Spirit Economy. I've spent the greater part of my life reaping the benefits of this economy, undoubtedly consuming my body weight in candy many times over at the expense of strangers within walking distance of my house, but this Halloween I'm going to give back. This year, I'm going to be at home, giving out candy. But I'm not just going to give out candy, I'm going to be the guy who gives those costumed buggers candy by the handfuls. When kids pass each other on the street, they will point out my house as the place to trick or treat. They'll leave my house with candy of all shapes, sizes, and flavours, and not a single disgusting chewy molasses toffee thing.

Brand New Camera!

I bought myself a brand new camera today! A very nice Canon Powershot A620. I almost went for the A640, but with the Wii launch, Christmas and the Conceptart.org workshop coming up in the next couple months, I figured the one that was $100 cheaper was the better choice.

When I got home I took some pictures of my dogs to figure out what all the buttons do.









I know, I know, pictures of other people's pets are boring as hell. But look how cute they are! I'll be keeping the camera on me most of the time so hopefully I'll get some interesting photos to post here from time to time. Ones that aren't of my dogs.

Oh, here is my eyeball (dot com)

Millicent Cole

"After restoring herself from the dead in order to discover and punish the man responsible for her murder (she was killed by a deranged traveling hat salesman, but it really was too long and intricate a story to do justice within these parantheses), Millicent Cole was ready to return her eternal slumber. This, however, proved to be more difficult than she had expected. You must understand, the road between this world and the next is not an easy one to follow, and she had forgotten the way."

Chicks Who Draw Chicks

Over at ConceptArt.org, a bunch of the incredibly talented girls are putting together a calendar of pin-up art. You owe it to yourself to check out the great, sexy artwork they've produced. The best pieces will be chosen by a panel of judges to be put into the calendar, which should be released before the end of the year. I'll certainly be getting one!

Check it out!

Everyone get Gigeresque!

Another quick doodle at work while waiting for something to do.

I want to make out with Photoshop's brush engine.

Working hard at hardly working.

Escape

This was my entry for Round 2 of the Last Man Standing Thunderdome over at Conceptart.org.

Alas, I didn't make it to Round 3. I knew I should've used Stretch Armstrong as the toy golem's penis.

I need a stiff drink after that nightmare.

The past exists for me solely as a source of constant amusement.

1995, you were adorable.

Starting

I've started a new blog, because that's what I do best. Start things. Not so good at finishing things, and downright terrible at maintaining things, but I can start things like the best of them. This time around I'm trying to make the upkeep as painless as possible, so I can get more than half a dozen posts before I get bored and start something new.

So what is this thing about? I haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm going to pretty much throw everything at it and see what sticks. I'll post sketches and drawings, my incredibly interesting thoughts and opinions, photos, genius ideas that I'll never get around to doing myself, and anything I find particularly amusing.

Let's get the ball rolling!