Cultivated Nonsense

Limbo

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:00:13 -0400

Nothing much is happening around these parts that's of note. It's kinda like I'm in limbo, just waiting for it to hit this weekend so I can head out to the state fair and give summer the proper goodbye. However there's a couple of random things that are worth mentioning.

First up, I got an extra GB of memory for my laptop. I was having some problems in City of Heroes with my existing 1GB and checked to see how much memory various things were using and it totalled up to something like 1.8GB. Which explains why I was having so many performance issues... So I went over to crucial and picked up a 2GB kit for $40. I got it last night and installed it. Everything is running MUCH smoother now, so that worked out.

Another thing was an expansion in my world of tea. I've been drinking green tea for a while now and I've been happy with that, however, I decided to branch out a bit. So In my latest tea order I picked up a sample of Earl Grey (for Wassy as I don't really enjoy black tea) and some Oolong to try out, as well as a wild strawberry herbal tea that I had last night. The strawberry herbal tea was quite nice. And it seems I can brew a good cup of black tea too as that went over REALLY well.

And a quick one: I tried Sushi for the first time last night. Very tasty although it took me a few bites to get used to it. I think there will be more Sushi in the future.

Is it the weekend yet?

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Geeky Weekend

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:36:33 -0400

I had a really nice weekend this week, although it was tragically much too short.

Friday was very nice. It was the first time in a while my friends and I were able to get onto City of Heroes (and Teamspeak) to hang out for an evening. We played the game, and also watched the Olympic opening ceremony while we were doing it, which is always entertaining. This is becoming a bit of a tradition, watching the opening ceremony of the games while poking fun at all of the pageantry and the horrible outfits some of the nations had. And President Bush looking as bored as I have ever seen anyone look.

Saturday I was planning on going out with my friends to watch The Dark Knight again, but that got pushed back to Sunday which was really no problem. So I ended up lounging around for a while and playing Final Fantasy XII. I've already completed it but I'm trying to play though with a guide to complete more of the side quests and stuff I missed. It's a very good game. I also worked up the ambition to clean, and I managed to pretty much complete cleaning in my bedroom. For now. There's just a couple of things I need to tidy up still, but for the most part, the bedroom is finally clean. I celebrated this feat by playing some more City of Heroes with my friends while watching the Olympics (Swimming, men's gymnastics (blah!) and beach volleyball (yay!)).

Sunday, as mentioned I went out with my friends to watch The Dark Knight again which was still totally awesome. I could watch that movie over and over again and not get tired of it. I really hope it's able to knock Titanic off as highest grossing movie of all time, however it's looking like they're slowing down a bit. Oh well. It's not just a good superhero movie, it's a good movie period. After that we went back to their place and finished watching Full Metal Alchemist which is a very awesome anime series that I highly recommend to anybody. After that, more Olympics watching. I may have a Michael Phelps related rant coming up if I have the time to type it up later.

Unfortunetly, the worst part of the weekened is the inevitable end. Boo.

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It's Done! It's Done! It's Done!!!

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:15:53 -0400

Remember that piece of artwork that I mentioned I was having done a few posts back? Well, it has been completed and I'm very very happy with the result. Wassy has outdone herself with this one.

First Contact

Yep, it's another piece of art of my favorite City of Heroes character, Frost Magus. The way I figure it, you can't have enough! But this time it also includes my main City of Villains character, Dark Frost. Boring story time!

Dark Frost and Frost Magus are the same person, sort of. Dark Frost is a version of Frost Magus from an alternate dimension that was thrown down the path of evil when one important change happened in the timeline of her dimension that didn't happen in the hero Frost's. They both got their powers through a magical spell that backfired, however the difference was that Dark Frost's parents were killed in the accident while Frost Magus' survived. The loss of her parents gradually destabilized Dark Frost and she became cynical and selfish, only caring about herself in an uncaring world, so she thought. She turned to a life of crime to get by. Meanwhile, the hero Frost was using her powers for good.

Dark Frost was eventually sucked into the dimension where the hero Frost resided due to a lab equipment malfunction during an experiment. Not wanting to let the public know about what happened (because otherwise they would have to admit their research is pulling random people from other dimensions into their own...not a very popular thing you can imagine) they threw her into jail and tried to coverup what happened. Eventually Dark Frost escaped with help from Arachnos and ended up in the Rogue Islands, increased her power and proved that she was in fact one of the Destined Ones. All of that last bit is part of the City of Villains storyline.

While she was in the Rogue Islands though, she found out about the existance of the hero Frost. The more she learned, the more resentful and angry she got. Here's another her that got all the good breaks...all the breaks that she (Dark Frost) deserved to have. After she achieved the height of her power she decided that she was strong enough to strike out to Paragon City and meet up with the woman who had (in her view) stolen her real life.

And thats where this piece comes in. After getting Dark Frost to level 50 in game, I thought it would be very cool if there would be a Frost/Dark Frost piece...a sorta good vs evil type thing. I talked to Wassy who agreed to take on the project and off we went. Through discussion, this scene emerged. Dark Frost has planned out this meeting so she's confident that it's happening on her terms, so she appears relaxed on the wall. But she's ready to spring into action if things start going all unpredictable. She had just called out to Frost, making her presence known and Frost is whipping around trying to locate the source of that strangely familiar voice. And her shock is total when it ends up being her own face looking back at her.

I can't say enough good things about how this piece turned out. It's exactly what I was looking for when I thought that a combined piece would be cool, and in fact it exceeded my expectations when I got the final colored version last night (late last night or I would have posted this then). It looks so awesome, like it was a full page ripped straight from a comic book and all of the layers of meaning that I wanted in there are there. It tells a very important piece of the story of these two characters that can't happen in the game and it's also suggestive of a large scale battle soon to come.

I don't even know where to start. All the little details of this piece make it awesome. I especially like the subtle details of the shading in Frost's face and the way her hand is posed. And Dark Frost turned out amazing as well. And the background setting. And the lighting. And the little touches of detail. And the...well...everything. I'm in a very gushy mood right now, I just love it! I can't wait until I get the print. I need to figure out where I'm going to put the print first...I'm running out of wall space here.

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Very Excited

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:46:22 -0400

I'm in a very excited mood right now. A couple weeks ago...or maybe it was a month. I've lost track of time since then, I had approached my friend Wassy about doing a commission for me. The basic premise is that I have two characters in City of Heroes (well more than two, but these are the only two that matter here), one a hero and the other a villain. The villain is an alternate reality version of the hero that got all the hard breaks making her a little crazy and moving her down a different path. So through a discussion with my friend, it was decided that the villain would be hunting the hero and this piece would be the exact moment where the hero learns of the villains existance (by being confronted by her near a park)

My excitement level has grown over the time since this was hashed out as she gradually had time to start working on the poses and the detailed penciles for both characters individually. But last night she did the background and put it all together and my excitement level shot through the roof. She nailed exactly what I wanted the piece to be. I was grinning like an idiot for at least a half hour after I opened the e-mail attachment.

I don't want to show it because it's still a work in progress and all that, but you can bet I'll show it off here when it's all done. Which shouldn't be too much longer now...

Wheee!

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New (And Expanded) Arts Report

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:21:41 -0400

Flowy Frost

As Wassy mentioned in the comment to my last article, I did leave out something which I should have mentioned. In my defense...certain parts of the weekend felt like they were actually weeks long...one part of that being Sunday. So by the time I got around to writing my post, this seemed like it was ancient history. In any case, here we go.

For a while I had wanted to get a better quality print of one of my favorite pieces of art that I have, Flowy Frost. I really love this piece and it really means a lot to me because it was quite possibly the best gift I have ever been given. I had been going through a very rough couple days which ended in a near nervous breakdown and It was a total surprise. It was also responsible for helping to bring me back to reality. I'll always have a special place for her.

Anyway, the print I had wasn't the best quality and Wassy had recently found a good quality print shop to take care of this stuff. So I decided I wanted a new Flowy Frost print, something that was a little larger and better quality than my other print which happened to come from Staples.

So friday, my 11x14 print was delivered to me and I feel in love with it all over again. The print came out really nicely and I was actually able to find an 11x14 frame that was the exact same style as my 8.5x11 frame that I had been using for it. And along with the Flowy Frost print came another very nice surprise:

Ink Frost

Yep, that's my favorite art subject, Frost (My favorite character in the City of Heroes MMO game) in an ink 6x9 mini portrait, as seen through the eyes of my friends not so great scanner. The original piece looks better in person. And based upon what I had been going through for the past couple days (which I don't really want to go into here) I really, really appreciate the timing of this one. Wassy is one of those people who have the gift of giving very nice gifts at exactly the right time to help somebody feel better. And I can't really put into words exactly how much this piece means to me.

If you want to check out more of Wassy's work, you can head on over to www.wassyart.com

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Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whi-- Er...Wine?

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:16:33 -0400

Time for a weekend update post! This weekend started with me in the mood for some relaxation after some events that happened on Friday, but the weekend delivered...at least Saturday did. My friend Wassy has been having some really good results from her site and had been getting a bunch of commission requests. Which is good and bad. Good because her little business is starting to actually go somewhere. Bad because it keeps pushing back a piece that I wanted to have done that's all City of Heroes related.

But because of that for our weekly get-together we ended up just hanging out at their place while I played some City of Heroes with Jay and she did her artwork stuff. I must say, she has a fine system for playing games while laying down on the couch and I must figure out how to do this at my place. It's very comfortable. The evening was capped off by a little wine and some fruit and cheese type snaking which ended up being very good. All nice and relaxing (and productive for her at the same time)

Sunday though I was in the mood for something productive. So I decided that I was going to finish the de-cluttering project that I had started a while agot and totally failed with. I attacked the mess in my bedroom which resulted in 5 bags of garbage for the trash guy to take away this morning, along with a whole lot of cardboard. I've got a ton of computer related items which I'm never going to use. I'm at a premium for space anyway, so I really need to either chuck it or sell it. Most of this stuff is in the "chuck it' area unfortunetly. I manged to get a good way into it and as soon as I get home today I'm going to continue the process. Well, after I exercise. I really need to get rid of some stuff that I NEVER use. Like my old Sega Game Gear, for example.

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Finally Friday

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:51:27 -0400

The first full week back at work after you've been on vacation is...not fun. But I'm very glad I made it to friday. Not much actual stuff to report this week as I've gotten really heavily back into City of Heroes again and I've been playing pretty much all my spare time to get one of my villain characters up to level 50 so that I can explore some of the new content that came in with the last update. That happened Wednesday night so now I'm laying back a little bit and recharging.

Watershed

Opeth

Wednesday was also the day of the new Opeth album, Watershed. Well, it was technically released on Tuesday, but I didn't listen to it until Wednesday evening because Wassy and I had planned on hearing it for the first time together.

All in all it's a very solid effort. I doesn't top Ghost Reveries for me, but I think it's tied for second place with Blackwater Park. And it keeps getting more and more of a hold on me every time I play it again. The only song I really don't get is "The Lotus Eaters" because it's a little...strange. The rest of the disc though is just top notch. I'm really glad this release didn't dissapoint because I was looking forward to it a lot.

It's kinda strange hearing Opeth on CD though, since at the Albany prognation show I was within 5 feet of them when they walked past the meet and greet line. It's the same with Dream Theater and Three now. It's weird hearing people you've stood next to and exchanged a few words with playing music on a CD on your iPod. It just makes them feel more...real.

Anyway, I hope I'm able to make it through to the end of today all right. A bunch of bad storms swept through the area overnight and kept waking me up. That was combined with a couple of bad dreams, so I'm operating on very little sleep right now. And I have a headache. Blah!

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Farewell Paragon City

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:28:30 -0400

Farewell Talos Island

I just did something hard. Well...by "did" I mean "announced my attention to do" and by "hard" I mean "hard in that emotional attachment sort of way".

I started circulating the word that I'm going to let my City of Heroes account expire to the various online friends I've acquired over the past few years. It was a tough decision only due to the emotional attachment I have to the game and it's community. I honestly really wasn't playing much of it, nor do I have the free time with school starting again even if I wanted to play.

And since I'm trying to cut down on monthly recurring expenses at the moment, paying $15 a month for a service I only use once a week on average isn't worth it. These things a small taken separately, but put together...they add up. I also axed my Gametap account for similar reasons. I am going to miss playing Sam and Max though.

Ah well. It was a good run.

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A Long Overdue Update

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:40:42 -0400

I figure I should post some updates on the happenings of this week since I've been fairly quiet recently. I've been sick with a cold, so I haven't had the energy to update things.

There's no updates on what's wrong with my desktop. Things are pretty much as they were when I last reported it. Still dead. I've been trying to clear enough space on my MacBook Pro to install windows XP and City of Heroes so I could at least get my fix in. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to clear enough space due to my music and videos. But more on that later.

Tuesday night, Wassy came over to my place in a continuing series of visits where I corrupt her musical tastes. This time it was Symphony X and some Spock's Beard. She really liked Symphony X. It's kinda too bad they're not going to be playing around here relatively close on their tour since they're pretty good live. But at least they're releasing a new album, next or the week after I believe. I'll have to check.

As she was leaving, we were talking about my computer and the fact that they had an external hard drive they weren't using came up, which is a temporary answer to my prayers here. So I made arrangements to swing by their place the next night after my class to pick it up.

Class was...incredibly boring. We ended up watching half a video of moon stuff and then, for some reason, a documentary on lightning strikes which really doesn't have much of anything to do with the moon, so I'm not sure why she showed it. We did, however, convince her to give us the first (take home) test last night and having it due the week after next still. And since she gave us the test tonight, we no longer even have to show up for class on Monday because all she was going to do was hand out the test. Any time I don't have to rush home from work and run around trying to get to class on time is a plus in my book.

I stopped by my friends place and picked up the drive, went home and got to work. It took a little longer than I was hoping but I now have Windows XP and City of Heroes installed on the MacBook.

Now to get all of my keybinds reconstructed...

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QotD: My Daily Dose

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:02:35 -0400

What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.

Wow, this one might take a while...

Usually the first destination of the day is my City of Heroes group's forums, X-Syndicate. Then after that I usually pop over to the City of Heroes official forums to see what's going on. Next it's woot.com to see if they have any cheap stuff that I might be interested in buying. Usually not though, but I keep checking...

After that it's off to Google Reader to check out all of the news feeds from all of the sites I'm interested in. At that point I usually branch off and visit anything that seems interesting.

Lately I've been browsing fish related forums as well, the Tropical Fish Forums being my favorite site that I've found. I usually stop by Newsvine which is the best place on the net that I've found for news. I usually end up over at PvP Online at some point during the day which is a webcomic that I like reading. Oh, and I usually pay a visit to the Mike Portnoy Forums. Mike's the drummer for Dream Theater (my favorite band if you haven't been keeping score) and I use that to keep up to date on what's going on with my favorite bands and such. New album next month!

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