Hey everyone.

So I went and spent my birthday at my apartment, my parents were away, so I saw them for my birthday last week instead. On the night before I drank with roomies and in remembrance of Carlin, and when I finally shook my hangover at noon, they made me some food and got me a cake. It was sweet of them. Being out of school a month and not having a job and a schedule to adhere to, along with worrying about finances, was making me depressed so I decided to cheer myself up and go shopping. Shane tagged along.

I had stepped on my PSP and cracked the screen the night before and brought it to Gamestop for a replacement, but they told me a damaged screen wasn't part of their replacement plan and I'd have to get into contact with Sony. Thank you Gamestop for freeing me of the delusions I had thinking that the $20 I spent on getting the replacement guarantee was not in vain. Bastards. But it was my own fault for leaving it on the floor for my fat foot to step upon while in a drunken stupor. I'm not mad about the whole thing, though, seeing as how the PSP only would up on a random spot on my bedroom floor because I haven't even played the damn thing in months, and I'm not seeing any games coming out anytime soon where I would be desperate to get it replaced right away. I still have my DS though (which I have also broken before but got promptly replaced) so I picked up some decently priced retro-style titles: Geometry Wars Galaxies and Space Invaders Extreme. They were $20 new each and I have gotten quite some enjoyment out of them and consider them a fine addition to my voluminous DS library. Kirby Squeak Squad, which I got a month earlier, is going back to Gamestop on my next visit due to its lack of both length and replay value. Sorry, Kirby, but I think after 15 years you're starting to show your age.

I picked up the newest Futurama movie, The Beast With A Billion Backs and watched it with Shane (Ink) and Tessa (Tea) as soon as I got back from the mall. Now let me frank, I fucking LOVED the last movie, Bender's Big Score. It was so great to see the cast of the show return in full form so many years after its unjust canceling. I was sucked in by the EXTREMELY well thought out plot and the jokes were fantastic ("I thought you were happy! Your tail is wagging!"). It was my second favorite animated movie of 2007, behind Ratatouille, and I thought it was far superior to the Simpsons Movie. That being said, I thought that Beast,while still good, falls quite short of the bar set by Big Score. Unlike the time-travel plot twists of the last movie, the plot of the new movie seems to plod haphazardly from event to event in a more linear fashion, with the setting seeming to change completely every 22 minutes. Also, the characters' development seemed inconsistent as a different director is in charge of each of these four movies. For example: In Score Fry's motivation, as well as half of the overlying plot, was his great love for Leela, but in Beast this motivation is quickly abandoned in the first five minutes, when Fry introduces his new girlfriend. Plus there is also the death of a major character, and I won't spoil it by saying who it is, which I found quite shocking at first because I thought this meant that s/he was actually killed off, but then I was not shocked when s/he was suddenly brought back to life what I thought was a rather arbitrary manner. It's by no means bad, though. It's a very good movie, and I was happy to see it bring back some characters that didn't quite get much attention in the first movie, like Calculon, Professor Wernstrom, and Hedonism Bot. And some gags were gut-wrenchingly funny, like one scene where Bender is reunited with his long-lost son, only to immediately sacrifice him to the Robot Devil. It was one of the darkest jokes I had seen on the show. All in all, it was a good time, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Okay, one last thing. I finally bought The Orange Box and have systematically been catching up with the saga of Gordan Freeman. I already had Half Life 2, so I guess I can gift that to someone else sometime. Played though Episode 1, and only am still halfway through Episode 2. And god did I love Portal, it's a brilliant game. I only wish it was longer, as I breezed through it in two and a half hours. Team Fortress 2 I completely suck at, having only played a few rounds so far. I barely got any kills, and usually only last for thirty seconds before I get blammed. I guess I just need practice. Anyway, I've had a Steam account for a while, since I had to install it when I got HL2 whether I wanted to or not. Anyway, I'm using it regularly now and could use some friends. You can find me here: [link] Friend me!

George Carlin, 71, died yesterday of heart failure.


Quite a bad thing to happen just before my birthday. Carlin was one of my largest media influences when it came to my overall life outlook. He always had a way of conveying the awful truth in the most direct and often brutal way possible. He, like Bill Hicks before him, helped me learn how to hone my "Bullshit detectors" and awareness of the many social injustices we have to deal with each and every day, be it from large omnipresent organizations like government or religion, or just the individual people we meet on a personal level. But he also helped me to know that I shouldn't be afraid; that I shouldn't let the world get me down; that life should be enjoyed because you only have one. And most importantly, he made me laugh.

George Carlin: 1937-2008

Hey everyone, life's been hectic since school ended. I've submitted inquiries all over the place looking for work for the past week and still have yet to hear back from anyone. I'm still trying to find anything on craigslist and looking at any studios in the NYC area and dishing out resumes and portfolios left and right, in hope that someone'll bite. In the meantime, I am available for any picture commissions.

-----Commission Starting Rates*:-----
*Rates begin with one character pic, minimal/no background, additional characters/backgrounds may cost more, S&H also applies if you want the original. Total rates are negotiable, but cannot go below the starting rate.

$15/Icon
$25/Penciled
$35/Inked
$45/Digital Color
$60/Traditional Color (Prismacolors)

Commissions $25/under are to be paid in full up front, over $25 is $25 up front, with rest of compensation paid upon completion. Checks and Paypal accepted.


Read more about it on my portfolio page: [link]

Well, it's been a hell of a final year at the Kubert School but now I can finally show off the fruits of my labor.

You can watch the video on any of the following:

DeviantART Film (I highly suggest you view it in high quality because standard cuts off some of the frames)
Dailymotion
YouTube (again I recommend clicking on high quality)

I'D APPRECIATE IT TO SEE SOME COMMENTS, TOO! PLUS IF YOU REALLY LIKE IT, SPREAD THE WORD AROUND! YOU JUST MAY SEE MORE!

The cartoon was created, written, storyboarded, drawn, animated, scanned, timed, colored, voiced, and had sound effects done by me.

I also should give special credit to Doug Compton--he's a professional animator who teaches at JKS--he did the music and helped me with a lot of the animation, layout, key poses, and in-betweening, as well as some story ideas as well. This cartoon would have been nowhere near as good as this without his help. I should note Doug has a long list of achievements, like Ice Age, Tiny Toons, and SNL. You should definitely see his website as well.

Also, now that the school year's up and I'm broke, I am taking commissions, starting at $25. Ask me for details.

Saw it yesterday with roomies , , & .

After mechanical genius/billionaire playboy/weapons industry mogul Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is kidnapped by terrorists in Afghanistan and creates a super powered exoskeleton to escape. When he returns to America, he vows to make amends for what he's done in the past by announcing he's shutting down weapons production for his company and goes underground to create a more refined version of his super suit. This causes a power struggle between him and company co-owner Obediah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who does weapons deals under the table with the very same terrorists who kidnapped him. When Stark finds out, he uses his new suit to destroy the weapons himself and sends his assistant/love interest Pepper Potts(Gwyneth Paltrow) to uncover the rest of the shipment files from the company. When she hacks into the company computer, she finds out that it was Obediah who hired the terrorists to kill Stark in the first place, and that he had taken the plans from his original suit to reverse-engineer an entire army of super-suited soldiers. This leads to a dramatic final battle between a new-power-suited Obediah and Iron Man, Iron Man wins, Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) hints at becoming War Machine in the sequel, etc.

The plot and storytelling were pretty good. Downey made an excellent Tony Stark. The movie kinda lacked a good villain, seeing as how, to my knowledge there weren't really any notable villains in the comic. Also, I found it kinda ridiculous that it took Tony Stark months of practice to learn how to use his suit (as well as the cost of his lab and many of his cool cars), while Obediah could master his in five minutes.

It was a good movie, and surprisingly under-hyped for a Marvel comic Movie--I don't think there were any Pepsi or Burger King tie-ins to my knowledge. The only thing I really should tell you about the movie is that if you're one of those types that leave during the credits, you missed possibly the best post-credits surprise you'll ever see in any movie, ever; and you're stupid, and you don't respect movies, so you shouldn't go to see them ever again.