xmas time has come and gone; approaching a new year

So I'm recuperating from my surgery, which is totally unfun. I'm bleeding from holes I've never bled before, and proving that men, like women, can bleed for a week without dying.

I'm also kind of worthless at the moment. At least, I mean, I can't really do much. I apparently risk all kinds of things like clots and stuff if I get active, so I pretty much just gotta lay around instead of go out and do cwazy things with my friends. But oh well. I'm having a fun time here at my dad's house; a lot of it revolving around some bonding time with my dad and little brother Anthony.

He's a smart, fun little kid; good lookin' too, just like his Pop and brother ;) lol

Anyway, I had a pretty enjoyable Christmas. My dad and stepmom got me a digital camera (which I love! thanks!) and some rad art stuff (pencils, colored pencils, stencils, sketchbooks, etc); I also spent some time with my mom, who I hadn't seen since Thanksgiving. It was fun to see her and my sister, and good times were had. As always, we talked about things most families have too much shame to talk about lol

I have no shame. :~)

It's been a great end to a pretty craptastic year, and here's hoping that 2009 breaks in just as good and better than 2008 ended.

Oh, here's a picture I drew awhile back of Batman.

life, texas, surgery, and crying batman

So I went to Texas with my friends Brian and Joe over the weekend; it was quite a bit of fun. Just driving around down there is exciting!

Because you could die at any minute; I've never seen worse traffic than I saw in Ft. Worth.

Things I observed:
~No one will yield for you.
~Even if mandated by driving law.
~They'll actually probably just cut you off.
~Don't bother honking, they know you're there--they just do not care at all.

BUT
Fort Worth was also a really fun place; there's something alluring about being somewhere where you don't know anyone at all, and no one knows you. A certain freedom I guess. Plus, we went to Jack-N-the-box! A wondrous place, that I really wish Oklahoma hadn't gotten rid of for whatever reason.

While we were there, we also went to some mall in Fort Worth and to this huge awesome grocery store called Central Market, that had all kinds of awesome foods, foreign and domestic. I left there with a baguette (great), some Japanese ramen noodles (also great), and a bag of British Breakfast tea (amazing).

And yes, we also stopped by a pr0n shop (we don't have those here in Oklahoma), and had many a laugh at the ridiculous video titles and premises.

On the way back from Texas, we stopped off in Lawton to see a mutual friend we met at Izumicon--an OKC anime convention--in November. It was a pretty awesome visit. We went to a mall there, where everyone knew everyone, and we went to the first K-Mart I've seen in Oklahoma for at least five years. We had some great food at a local IHOP (kudos Lawton IHOP employees!).

We also played hide-and-seek, which was great fun, and reminded me of Jon Lajoie's song High as F***. As we get older, we really DO forget how to play, and just enjoy ourselves, it seems.

Then Monday after returning from Winter Break Road Trip 2008, I had surgery to remove a vericose vein from my left testicle, and to widen my urethra. Everything went fine, I wasn't accidently castrated or anything. I am however in quite a bit of pain now (it hurts even to fart) and am currently hoping for my loritab to kick in and take me back to magical drowsy happy land. I'm no longer urinating blood though, which is a relief to be sure.

So now that everyone's all updated and whatnot, today's pic: Crying Batman!



Batman is sad because his parents are deeeaaaaaddddddd.

Anyway, this was my attempt at drawing a more emotional side of Batman than typically seen. It wasn't inspired by anything, really, other than the thought that I bet Batman probably randomly breaks down into tears--someone who dresses like a bat and fights crime can't be that emotionally stable.

I took a pic of my best fake-cry face and used that as a reference; aside from the Batman's lips being a bit big, I'm pretty happy with the end result.

As always, comments both welcome and appreciated!

double team on a friday night

Want some pics? They're coming up after this bit of update on my life: tonight, I saw Shiny Toy Guns at the Diamond Ballroom. I think I preferred one of their opening acts tho: El Paso Hotbutton. This guy, from Norman, Oklahoma, played guitar and drums while singing. And was great! Like, he seriously rocked my mind. I'd recommend giving him a listen, if you like bands like the White Stripes (but not so fucking artsy; I can love artsy, but not if it gets in the way of, ykno, sounding good.



So there's a story for this: I was on a camping trip with some friends, who were coloring in a dinosaur coloring book. Which somehow inspired me to draw Leonardo the Turtle (mirage studios) riding my best attempt to draw a dinosaur without a reference.

I like it.




This is my version of Protoman (Capcom). I was going for like, a grown up realistic version of Protoman. I added the goatee for creepy measure. He kinda looks French, I think, with that scarf. I like this pic, even though it reminds me more of like Kamen Raider or a Power Ranger, which isn't too bad I guess. A bit funnier that way.

a hobby and a poll

I really enjoy making fake album art. This one is for a fake album called Sleeping with the Enemy, by a band name I'd wanted to use a few years ago--The Fourth Floor Echo.

I did this with MSPaint. I would credit whoever the picture belongs to, but I have no idea. My apologies random internet photographer!

Anyway, I think it's 1) cute, 2) funny, and 3) not a bad indie album art.

edit: to save the space of making another new post, I'm editing! huzzah! So, to the right you will find a poll: who would win in a fight, Abe Lincoln, The Flash, or Jesus Christ?

To give myself a justification behind having a poll, I'll draw this awesome struggle with the poll winner, aptly, as the winner.

So vote! One click could change everything.

han solo could kick jack sparrow's ass

This piece is fairly old; now I'm gonna make you read about it!

Wookiees are probably my favorite Star Wars race. They're tall, they're vicious, they're furry. They're like Robin Williams with roid rage. In Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, they even get to be an allegory for slavery.

So here's Chewbacca, the most well-known Wookiee, soul mate of Han Solo (sorry Leia), and a sore loser at Future Chess. Hell, he was pretty much a space pirate to begin with anyway, now he's just got the garb and cutlass to show for it.

[star wars is owned by george lucas, or his people or whoever; satan own's lucas's soul, so he probably owns star wars too]

after a long time gone...

I return.

That's right!

So I'm back, which is great, because I actually have stuff I can post now, and that's awesome.

I've got a nice backlog of art to post up on here in coming weeks.

Some updates on my life: my first college semester is almost over, and I've gotta say, I really regret not taking a break off school before coming here.

Which is why I'm taking one next semester. That, and for my sanity. Screw the repercussions, I find it a neccesity.

So yeah, I'm back, and I'll be back.

You guys rock.

it's been awhile

I've already made a habit of not updating this blog.

My somewhat sincere apologies.


So here's an update: I've recently rented TMNT (XB360) and Bully: Scholarship Edition (XB360). Bully keeps freezing, and it's pissing me off. Damn you Rockstar.

TMNT is a LOT better than some would have you believe. Sure, the AI sucks and the fixed camera causes a few cheap deaths, but it's definitely a game I think any Ninja Turtle fan will enjoy.

It's pretty much Prince of Persia, with a slew of changes:

First off, the camera is now fixed; while this causes some deaths, it prevents a lot more.

Secondly, the free-running mechanics are far more fine-tuned; I had very few deaths due to lag between pressing jump/grab/etc and the character carrying out the command.

Third, there's no more magic dagger to rewind for you, but luckily the checkpoints are close enough you won't have to redo too much when your turtle dies.

Fourth, BIG HEAD MODE! Okay, the cheats you unlock are stupid and lame. The fact that you have to lock each Big Head individually is even more lame. In fact, the only worthwhile cheat MAY be "Halloween Enemies" and that's just because then the boring 4 or 5 repeating enemies dress like ballerinas and stuff.

Fifth, the fighting kind of sucks. It's very simplified. VERY. Two normal attacks, one super/team attack, and the ONE combo? Pressing punch over and over.


In conclusion, TMNT:Prince of Persia::Ultimate Spider-Man:Spider-Man2. It's a more colorful game based on the same gameplay, but while the mechanics are refined, they're also dumbed down. It's still very enjoyable, but likely only for Ninja Turtle fans.

I for one was very excited to scale rooftops as Don or Mikey; while the old-fashioned beat-em-ups of TMNT games of old were fun, I very much enjoyed seeing the Ninja Turtles act, yknow, like ninjas for once.

behind

Yeah, so I haven't posted anything lately.

It doesn't matter. No one reads this.

I do though. So yay for me!


I've made a Gametype for Halo 3 based on the Die Hard action movies. The premise? One person as Bruce Willis must take down everyone else, who are terrorists.

It's working fairly well, although I haven't tested it yet in a game with over four people.

It can be found at my fileshare.

Have at it!

e to the power of love

(click picture to enlarge; window will close unless you right click, open in new window)

Here's a nice pic for you Valentiners out there.

and a bounty was had

So I went to wal-mart tonight, because I support both low prices and sweatshops. And, as the eponymous title would suggest, a bounty was had.

That is, I gots me a Yoda, General Grievous, and Darth Vader.

These figures are frickin' made of win (and likely, the tears of underpaid workers).

Grievous as a character is awesome: badass android, alien, 4 lightsabers, and so on. The Revenge of the Sith did not use him well at all (I mean, c'mon, he had an asthma attack and then Obi-wan pwned him).

Yoda. Yoda's frickin' Yoda. He's a midget. He's also a badass. He'll also steal your food and then hit you with his cane when you get onto him. Case closed.

Vader is cool. That is, Vader as a wicked Sith is cool; I was never a big fan of the walking-humidifier Vader was in the original trilogy. The idea that Vader is a trained, deadly agent of the Sith? Sweet. Very poorly executed in Revenge of the Sith, but sweet nonetheless.

I was also faced with a tough decision: buy Spider-Man 3, a movie that's wondrously hilariously bad, or Hot Fuzz, a movie that's wondrously hilariously good.

I picked Hot Fuzz because, in the end, there are only so many times I can watch a movie to make fun of it before it just becomes depressing.

education: it's all about the games

So my AP Government teacher is what we in the biz like to call "awesome."

He allows, nay, encourages us to bring videogame consoles to school. We skip lunch and play Super Smash Bros Melee, stay after school and play Melee, come earlier and play Melee, et cetera et cetera.

So the head count? We've got a Nintendo, Super Nintendo (mine), Genesis (also mine), a Nintendo 64, and a Gamecube.

Hell, I brought up an AV switchboard just so we wouldn't have to mess with all that cord switching anymore.

I can't say I love Melee. Well, I can but I don't like it. I love it because it's so much fun, but I don't like it because I keep getting my ass handed to me.

And that's not cool.

super mario bros. the lost levels

So I've recently picked back up Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels, thanks to the SNES Super Mario All-Stars cart.

For those not in the know, and those of you who aren't meticulous pop culture junkies, Super Mario Lost Levels is actually the real SMB2. Ever wonder why SMB2 (in America, and non-Japan) didn't have Goombas or Koopas or Bowser? Because that was fake SMB2.

Lost Levels is the real thing, the real sequel, featuring Goombas and Koopas and Bowsers aplenty. Of course, the level design sucks, enemie placement is horrid, and the game overall is terribly difficult; hence, Nintendo of America (or was it NoJapan? I can never remember) felt America was too weaksauce to beat Lost Levels, and gave us a different game entirely.

Now, I love SMB2, because it introduced Birdo to SMB, as well as Shy Guys, and they're hands-down pretty frickin' awesome.

But Lost Levels is like the Contra 3 of Super Mario. Difficult, frustrating, but unbelievably satisfying to see the congratulatory winning screen.

Most people can't beat Lost Levels, and so they just declare it a horrible mutation of SMB1 and move on; but for me, Lost Levels is SMB2, the best version, and the only one that should've been made.

Mostly because it's one of the only games I beat as a child.


That said, I think Nintendo is crazy. You see, the prize for beating Lost Levels is a second play-through, with slightly different worlds and enemies, and an even harder difficulty. That's fine, I'm enjoying the challenge, but the design choices just don't make any sense at this point.

World D-3 has a total of around 8 Hammer Bros, about 30 Bullet Bill cannons, and one power-up. Not to mention semi-random enemy placement and attack patterns. As well, Hammer Bros can somehow glitch to jump-through walls in ways which make my Luigi greener with envy.

As well, there are friggin' flying fish in Bowser's D-4 castle. Flying Friggin' Fish. I guess they're lava fish. Magic lava fish.

I hate Mushroom Kingdom; it's a terrifying place.

There are frickin' flying squid. Flying Frickin' Squid.

What I'm saying here is: Screw the Princess, and just go back to Brooklyn, Mario Brothers.

le debut

There's nothing in this world quite as special as Halo 3.

The smell of the damp, pleasant air coarsing through my nostrals as I blow away the opposing team's VIP with a rocket launcher, which features no recoil, always a plus; the beautiful sun setting, scattering a million shadows across a war-torn wasteland.

Indeed, Halo 3 is a bounty to be had.

And indeed, this bounty was had yesterday night, when I Halo'd it up with some friends online; my personal favorite moment had to be pushing a powercore into the lift on Narrows, watching it shoot across the gap to the other side, and seeing it explode and blow one of those Red bastards apart.

Check out the vid at my bungie.net account: TheMilkman89. I've got some other vids and pics there, with varying degrees of hilarity. Mostly they're inside jokes, but, meh, whatchagondo?

That said, I will likely skip Halo 3 tonight, in the pursuit of playing me some Burnout Paradise, which so far has my vote for Game of the Year 08.