Fisherman

Another project I'll probably never finish... But at least I'm branching out this time. I deliberately tried to exagerate the proportions this time. The character-type is not original (hulking gorilla-like tough guy) but this type of character is original to my work. Oh, and he pilots a zeplin while he's fishing!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I usually avoid literary criticism. But after I discovered this literary "gem" on the shelf of an airport bookstore I couldn't resist. A week later (online library reserve system to the rescue!) I cracked open this little "masterpiece."

Let me preface this by saying I don't normally read zombie/horror fiction. The genre is usually an excuse for gratuitous violence and gore. But the combination of classic literature, and zombies? I just had to take a look.

At first I chuckled. The juxtaposition of Jane Austen and zombies was hilarious. But as I read on, I found myself chuckling a lot less. Although the fate of the ever-annoying Mr. Collins almost seemed appropriate. (That's as close to a spoiler as I'll go.)

The text was about 80% original Austen with only 20% of the text dedicated to Zombies. So the book was mostly the original Pride and Prejudice interrupted by brief interludes of assaults by and/or slaying of zombies. But as I read on I found myself skimming through the zombie parts so I could get back to the "action."

Although I had not previously read Pride and Prejudice, I was thoroughly familiar with the story from the various film interpretations. So on the rare occasions that the action got good, I was never afraid anyone of consequence would come to any real harm, since the original plot was preserved in this book. The zombie victims began to feel like the red-shirt-wearing crew members from Star Trek--new characters introduced only to be killed off a page or less later.

The zombie element also introduced some other problems. The main characters could not be substantially altered, so the addition of their new mighty-zombie-slayer skills often clashed with their established character from the original. Just try imagining Jane Bennet as a vicious zombie-slayer. It doesn't work much better in the book.

In short, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is not a good zombie thriller. Neither is it the original Pride and Prejudice. If you want my advice, read the original. And if you want some zombie-slaying action, look elsewhere. But I'm afraid I don't have any worthy recommendations.

Old Sock News

The Frog is back again! This low-quality test is a page from the alphabet book i'm making for my son. Maybe I'll even get it done by his Birthday...we'll see. I have about five letters done so far.

My Review of K200D SLR Digital Camera & 18-55mm II Lens

Originally submitted at Abes of Maine

The PENTAX K200D, perfect for developing digital SLR users, offers an easy-to-use interface and incorporates award winning PENTAX imaging technology. With 10.2 megapixels, this DSLR features many of the advancements that are incorporated in the PENTAX K20D, including a 2.7 inch LCD monitor, Custom ...

K200D SLR Digital Camera & 18-55mm II Lens

Excellent for hobbyist/semi-pro

By Matt the traveler from Greenville, SC on 11/2/2008

 

5out of 5

Pros: Fast Shutter Speed, Consistent controls, Nice Features and Settings, Rugged, Easy to Use, Excellent in Low Light, Good Battery Life, Great Resolution, Wide ISO range, Good sized screen, Works with old lenses

Best Uses: Outdoors, Portraits, Home, Travel, Pics for Video Slideshows

Describe Yourself: Photo Enthusiast

I have used the K-200 to get shots for video slideshows, as well as during travel. Takes good pictures, even in low-ligt due to high ISO range. Grain is acceptable even at high ISO setting. Accepts old Pentax lenses, but works best if they have auto exposure (manual exposure is a hassle with old lenses).

(legalese)

Eye can see!

I decided that I needed to move ahead sans buttons, and give Mr. Hanes some eyes. Quite the dapper fellow if you ask me.

Mr. Hanes

This is Mr. Hanes. He is my latest weird sock creature. I actually made him over a month ago, but he has no eyes, as I have no buttons. I found socks by the pound, but I am sorely lacking in buttons. Maybe he will never have eyes. I guess that depends if he is destroyed by my son or not before I get some buttons.

The Frog is back

I am playing with the lighting on my frog. I constantly go back
and forth between a more "realistic" ray-traced look (example here) and a cartoony, flat shaded look.

Excuse the lable. This was a screen capture and I didn't notice it until after I had uploaded the image.

Flags of Europe

I've been cleaning out my computer and I ran across this unused animation I did for a video. It's just flags of Europe waving and fading from one to another. I have a higher quality version I may replace this with later, but it is not rendered. Enjoy.

Ending Global Poverty

I don't usually get political on my blog, but this one annoyed me. The following is a letter I wrote to the Editor of our local newspaper. By the way, I forgot to mention that this bill was sponsored by our good friend Barak Obama. Kind of shows you where is priorities lie. (Drat! I forgot to mention Obama in the Editorial!)


Dear Editor:

I have just become aware of a bill passed by the U.S.House of Representatives, the Global Poverty Act (H.R. 1302).The lofty goal of this bill is to reduce world poverty 50% by 2015. Although the goal of reducing world poverty is a noble one,this bill is the wrong way to do it!

This bill is essentially a tax levied by the United Nations directly on U.S. citizens. The money will not be in our control, and it will not be benefitting our nation. The estimated cost of this bill is $845 billion by 2015--that is 0.7% of the national budget!

The bill passed by the House does not even solve the problem it addresses. This bill merely orders the president to find a way to end world poverty. This is absurd! Last I checked, congress was supposed to create legislation, not the president. Assuming this is even a wise course of action (which I doubt), the House should be doing it, not abandoning their responsiblities to the Executive branch.

Our economy is in bad enough shape witout giving hundreds of billions of dollars a year to the UN to spend as it sees fit. We are a compassionate nation, and reducing poverty is worthy goal. But the Global Poverty Act is NOT the way to do it!

I urge you to contact your U.S. Senator and the president and tell them to stop this bill.

I give you, O select few who read my blog, the same admonition: educate yourself and take action.

Joe's Goals

Joe's Goals is a nifty little on-line daily goal tracker. I am one of those people who need a way to make myself accountable, or I get very lazy. I just got an accoutn here, so I don't know how well I'll do at it. I haven't made all my goals public yet, but I added a widget to my sidebar so you can see how well I do in general. You can chart positve and negative habits and it keeps a graph. I only listed on negative habit, because I dont' have too many vices...other than being lazy!

Animation Test

Here's a short animation test I did a while back.

Anti-Spam!

I added a link in my address bar to an anti-spam page. It has a list of randomly generated email addresses, and a circular loop link at the bottom of the page. Theoretically, email address spiders get stuck in a loop filling spam lists with thousands of bogus addresses thus causing consternation to spammers. Don't know if it works, but I like the idea, so now if a haples Spam-Spider comes by my site, WHAM-O!...it probably isn't really that dramatic, though.

New Sock Critter

This is my second sock creature--a Socktosquid

Demented Sock Critter

I found a book at Barnes the other day about making sock animals. It's pretty Cool! Anyway, this weekend I made a Sock Creature. It is a blue-tongued polar rhino. It doesn't have a name yet.
I'll be making more of these guys as I have time and as I find cool old socks.

Christmas Cheer

I made a poor artistic decision, and made this to go alongside our Christmas picture that we're sending out. After spending several hours completing it, I realized it looked terrible next to our picture. So I replaced it with a border that I made in Photoshop in about 10 minutes (and it looked 300% better, too). Sometimes 3D doesn't make it better. But it wasn't a bad image in itself. It reminds me of the early 3D renderings that had real reflections, and blew my mind away as a kid. So here it is for your viewing pleasure. And if I don't blog again before Christmas, have a blessed Holiday, and remember why its called Christmas.

Another New Project....

Yes, another new project. Sadly for Twitchicus the frog (see my last couple of posts) I have come up with another story. This one will hopefully be a graphic novel some day. I shall not reveal too much right now, but here is the sketch of the main character that inspired me to think up the plot. I have had two previous attempts to create animations involving samurai rabbits, and both failed for various reasons--the fact that they had no plot not being the least.

But this time I've got a plot--dozens of index cards full of plot. But what I don't have is time... :( So you may not see much of this lagomorphic Ronin for a while.

I'm afraid NaNoWriMo will not be part of my plans next month. The imminent arrival of my son will keep me very busy in November. I am trying to edit the novel I wrote last november, however. So maybe a few more of you will see that if I get it done.

Lost World

I've been working on an image for a contest on the Hash, Inc. Forums (an animation software forum, not drug related). It includes my latest character, Twychicus the Frog. He is traveling through the land of his ancient forbears.

I'll probably post an update in a day or two. I need to tweak a few more things.

A Frog on a Moped

I had too much time free today (don't tell Ellen, or she'll make me work harder!)

A New Character (again)

Here's another character I've been working on. I've started rigging him so hopefully I'll actually get some animation done with him before too long.

WRAAR!

Here's a mechanized war machine I created a few months back. It was based on a sketch I did years ago. Amazingly, I have actually produced a finished image with it...

A little reward for the three people who read my blog occasionally :)