The Earth-Toned Pill

Although its been several weeks since my 30th birthday party, its also been a long time since I've posted on here and I figured this would be a fitting 'return' to my blog...

So catie and my mom got the idea a while back to setup a surprise party at my mom's house for my 30th birthday party, which was an especially awesome idea because my parents just finished decorating their amazingly-beautiful new pool!

Catie and I drove out there the day of the party for what I thought was just dinner with immediate family. I was extremely surprised to see in my parents' driveway a bunch of cars I only vaguely recognized, and when we went inside I was surprised to see friends and family from out of town, in addition to those living locally!

It was something that I really wasn't expecting, and it caught me off guard enough to make me tear up. Now when I say I got teary-eyed, you have to understand that not only was I not expecting all this, as I explained to Catie later, I really don't think of myself as someone whom friends would go to such lengths to do something like this for. So for me, this whole thing was kind of a big deal... Another super-cool thing was that I got a bunch of great gifts from family and friends, mostly in the form of book store gift cards! Do you all know me, or do you know me?

Although it rained for a little while that evening, we had so much fun with great food (mom put together a full mexican buffet!), karaoke, and pool time after the rain passed. It was an absolute blast that I will never forget.

I didn't have a chance to do it yet to everyone individually, but I want to take the time now on here to say 'thank you' to all of you that came that day, because I really appreciate it so much from the bottom of my heart.

Today I went to a local Gamestop store in Sanford on my lunch to spend my hard-earned giftcard that I got for doing online surveys. I was thinking about finally getting the Orange Box, because it kills me that nearly everyone I know owns it (including Catie's DAD), but I don't. So when I walked in the door, I made my way past wall upon wall of consoles titles, finally shuffling my way over to their pathetically-small stand of PC games, I was delighted to find one last copy of the Orange Box waiting there just for me.

I grabbed it and walked straight up to the counter to wait behind a grandmother that must have been no older than 60 and her two grandkids who were checking out. The oldest kid, no more than 12 years old, was trying to get granny to buy him Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, part of the infamous series of games that brought you such things as the hot coffee mod. To my total surprise, the first thing the clerk did after picking up the game to ring it up was to look at the kid directly and ask him 'so should I tell her about it or do you want to'. At that moment in my mind, it were as if thousands were madly cheering the entrance of a beloved gladiator into the Colosseum.

After seeing the blank expression on the kid's face, the clerk then went on to bluntly (but respectfully) explain why she might not want to buy this particular game for her grandson. To my irritation, the grandmother tried playing ignorant at first, happy to just let the child have what he wanted because she didn't quite understand. But I was amazed when the clerk persisted and said to her 'maybe you want to talk to mom or dad before you do this?'. By that point, the kid was one long blank expression. I suppose if he were a bit older, he'd actually be pissed off at this guy. But the grandmother did call the mom right there, and after grandma mentioned the magic 'grand theft auto' words to mom, she immediately looked at her grandson and tersely remarked 'she said no way'.

That was the end of that.

But the guy didn't just let the kid walk away defeated and humiliated. He quickly handed it back to the kid and said 'check out a few of the others we have in there and tell me what you think.' Not once did he say or do anything to make the kid or granny feel like crap or want to leave. He simply did what he should have morally and professionally. In the end, the kid walked out with a copy of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. No, it's not GTA, but yes, much more appropriate for him.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of that situation, but I feel horrible now for not commending that guy on how he handled that situation. If only that happened everywhere, every time, it would make a serious difference in how kids interacted with games.

I can also only hope that parents, grandparents, etc, stop buying things for kids when they have no business doing so...

After being inspired by Hideyoshi's amazing AF-014, I decided to embark on something similar. It seemed only natural for me to do some kind of aircraft, because I've always had a love for anything aviation-related, but especially military aviation. I plan to put several hours in this piece, and I'll document the major steps on here as I go.

So to start off, here is what I've got:

Click on the pic for a larger view

I started out by creating a gradient for the sky on the background layer and then laid out the clouds using a standard brush, followed by forming with the smudge tool and motion blur filter.

The initial lineart is just that... Initial. I plan on cleaning it up and adding more details before laying in the flat color layers. Yep, that's right. This one is going all the way. Enough screwing around for me; I want to finally create something digitally (like my traditional-media self portraits) that I can be proud of.

If you have any suggestions or thoughts, let me know!

Hot off the press:

Click on the pic for a larger view

I think I have a total of about 2 hours into this. I didn't do much with the surrounding scenery because I made some technical mistakes early on that would have made that difficult.

Anyway, time for a new project...

I pride myself in being an outwardly-complicated person. I refused to buy a cellphone for the longest time, finally caving in and buying one in 2001 after I got activated by the Guard following September 11th. On the other hand, I love being up on the latest PC hardware developments, and if I can have a more high-end computer than my friend's running all the latest games, then I'm there.

But I drew the line at the iPod.

The simple truth is that I never got on the iPod bandwagon for one simple reason. I didn't want to be considered another card-carrying wannabe-trendy yuppie with an Apple logo sticker in the back window of his Volkswagen, listening to a podcast on his iPod while sipping on a cup of Starbucks. Nothing against great coffee (even though I don't drink it), but I'm just not one for mass market trendiness. In fact, I've always had a weird aversion to both uber-trendy preps and hardcore goths or punks or even [insert your social group here]. Balance is the stuff of the universe, so I guess thats why no one social group ever appealed to me. I guess I was a sort of social outcast among outcasts, or at least an outsider looking in. Enough about that though, back to the subject at hand...

Recently, I started using an iPod for what really was the first time, and I have to tell you that I don't know what the hell I did before I had one. I mean, really. It's clean, it's simple, it's fun, it's quite frankly pure genius. You can do virtually anything on the damn thing that involves digital media, except make phone calls!

Wait a minute, they covered that base already too...

Part of me feels like a moron for not having embraced the light sooner, but another part is chafing at the thought of joining the ranks of 'those people', as R.E. Lee put it. I guess I'm too old now to complain or worry about what's trendy, what's not and how I'm perceived, but truth be told, I do. In the end, I guess all that really matters is that I derive some joy from using the damn thing and damn what others think.

So with that said, screw you guys, I'm going home... (To create a playlist for my iPod so I can bring it to the gym with me and look cool during my workout while I listen to some sweet tunes)

A poem I wrote a few years ago:

Dear son,
I’m writing you today, to let you know what’s on my mind.
I hope this letter that I pen, is helpful to you in time.
My love for you exceeds any that I have ever known,
And I’m sure that that will never change as long as the four winds blow.
Dear son,
I write this letter now with tears up in my eyes,
I hope that I was a great father; I think I was in my mind.
I wanted you to have many things, without a thought at all,
So much that I changed my imperfect ways, just so you would never fall.
Dear son,
I write this letter now, hoping I am good.
Good enough to be a dad, like every father should.
I hope that I have taught you much, in the ways of life.
So that you may get through well, get through without much strife.
Dear son,
I’ll close this letter now, I know it’s getting late.
But please don’t ever forget my love for you,
A love I always treasure,
A gift I hold from fate.

Here is a digital piece I'm currently working on:

Click on the pic for a larger view

This started out with me drawing a bunch of abstact lines and shapes in Photoshop, and quickly evolved into what I would call a worn-out robot that has been sitting in someone's backyard for a couple years.

What do you think?

Central Florida News 13, a local TV station here in Orlando, reported today that over 100 students walked out of class to protest the Orange County School Board's recent decision to swap the school starting times for middle and high schools.

The school board made this decision, much to the anger of many parents and students, because it will save the county nearly $6 million in fuel, labor, maintenance and bus replacement costs when it faces a nearly-insurmountable budget shortfall in the wake of budget cuts.

This is yet another example of the fallout resulting from the implementation of Amendment 1 earlier this year, mainly so home and business owners could receive tax relief in the form of expanded homestead and property tax exemptions. Floridians should not be surprised by these budget cuts, however, as before the vote bloggers and other sources of anti-amendment information were getting the warning word out and telling people what might possibly result:

The political groups against this amendment claim it would cause apocalyptic type service cuts and layoffs in police, fire, rescue, parks, and similar services. (School districts are exempt from most of the tax cuts and caps.) I do not know the validity of this claim. Obviously taxes would be cut, but over the last 7 or so years tax revenues have dramatically increased (nearly doubling in many jurisdictions) and the cuts are relatively minor in comparison to the increases.

As we have found out in central Florida, apocalyptic turned out to be an excellent word. The schools, law enforcement agencies, firefighters and recreational services, to name a few, are all feeling the severe budget-cutting effects resulting from the passing of this amendment.

Send an email to Charlie Crist and thank him for this abomination he so cheerily pushed on the people of Florida. Don't hesitate to also let your local representative know what you think too!

I know I did...