So today will almost certainly be my last blog entry for a good couple of weeks, as I'm going on holiday.
The plan is basically that tomorrow and Friday morning I'm going to do some room re-arrangement for when I'm away. While I'm gone my landlord will do the final bit of the decorating, so I'm going to more the furniture around and put some more stuff out in the shed so it's out of the way for him.
I'll also probably stick a bunch of stuff in the kitchen and in the bathroom as he won't be touching them. Well, as I understand it he won't be touching them - knowing how his plans change at the drop of hat anything could happen.
I'll also pack, which will be more complicated that you might imagine. See, my holiday proper is in two parts. The first bit I'm spending with my dad. It's his birthday and I've not really seen him much this year, so I'll be staying with him for a few days.
The second part of the holiday I'm basically booked into a hotel and I'm going to do two things - walk and watch DVDs. The first is pretty obvious - I can use the opportunity of not working to go on some reasonable sized walks and hopefully I won't lapse with the diet, so I'm kinda hoping to return a good few pounds lighter than I went.
The second part is to have a great big push of watching anime and other DVDs so that, upon my return, I can whack most, if not all of them on e-bay.
I then return home and there's the weekend and the Monday for me to catch up on all the domestic stuff before I'm back to work. I'm unsure at this stage whether I'll have the energy to re-arrange my room when I get back. I'm guessing probably not and I'll basically wait until the following weekend before I really start back with the sorting out.
There is also another potential problem there in that we'll be well into Autumn and the weather could start to play a big factor. My big fear is that we have another super-damp and cold autumn and winter and I get lazy and don't sell the stuff I need to. This is a fear because then there's a good chance of it getting wet and then going mouldy. And cold and damp is also not kind to electrical components, of which there are quite a few in the boxes currently out in the shed.
But anyway - I'll see you on the other side.
Showing posts with label walling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walling. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Friday, 5 June 2009
behind
I'm so fricking behind with everything.
Just before I went on holiday I bought a couple of new artbooks - the first in months - but now I've kinda realised that I need to scan them. And I've not scanned any of last months magazines at all. Heck, as I was taking the staples out I also realised I'd hardly even looked at those mags :/. And in the next week or two I'll be getting this months mags as well.
I've also gotten sick to death of the great big pile of old & imported mangas I was always planning to scan but have never gotten around to. Plus, I bought two calendars in a sale so I should scan them as well.
And speaking of magazines I've gotten way behind reading my magazines. I buy two each month - White Dwarf (which is for games workshop) and Empire (films) - and I've several recent issues of each still to read.
Part of the reason for that is that I've been really into manga just recently. I've been buying it like it's going out of fashion and so have been focused on reading all this lovely new manga. But that means I don't have time to read anything else.
The other thing I'm way behind on is my websites. Ever since I began doing my websites I've operated a policy of "building up" material. What I tend to do is write loads of reviews and make walls etc over a period of months and then have a big session making updates for the site.
I then roll these updates out on a weekly basis. The idea is that while the updates are rolling out I can be working on more new stuff and so (in theory) the cycle continues.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen in practice is that I work on the new material but then fail to have a new session of making website updates before I've run out of the old ones. The main reason for that is that making the website updates is kinda painful.
For one thing it's very confusing - I end up working across loads of different folders, trying to photoshop stuff here and copy-paste text there. Plus you're not just talking about the actual pages themselves - the front page and all the menus always need updating as well. It can be really slow progress.
The other stumbling block is scanning stuff. As mentioned, I can get way behind and of course for my reviews I like to have scans of the DVD covers, etc, so if I've not done any scanning I don't have them and so can't do the updates.
Of course the other issue is walling.
Generally speaking I try not to just upload reviews, but mix walls and psds in there as well.
Well unfortunately, just recently, I've been utterly uninterested in walling. It's kinda weird actually - a few months back I went through a huge burst of creativity making vectors especially, but then suddenly it sort of died.
The same thing happened with my writing - I had a huge burst of creativity and then *bam* I totally lost the desire to do it.
I mean, it's not that I don't have ideas and stuff, it's just the whole motivation to actually sit down and do stuff appears to have dried up. Hence why I'm so behind.
I think I'm going to take a few long weekends and try to do a bit of catching up. Well, if I can stretch to them - my recent 2 week extravaganza has left me a bit bereft of holiday days.
Oh, and my cold finally seems to be abating. The thing I can't work out about it was that it came on Sunday morning. Normally I get colds within 24 hours of contact with an infected person. However, that would mean I picked it up sometime on Saturday, but on Saturday I literally did not leave my bed-sit and didn't speak to anyone (I relaxed and watched all the telly I'd recorded while away).
The only possible source of germs where the landlords kids/grandkids, but as I say I didn't actually come into contact with them or even open the door. Very odd.
Just before I went on holiday I bought a couple of new artbooks - the first in months - but now I've kinda realised that I need to scan them. And I've not scanned any of last months magazines at all. Heck, as I was taking the staples out I also realised I'd hardly even looked at those mags :/. And in the next week or two I'll be getting this months mags as well.
I've also gotten sick to death of the great big pile of old & imported mangas I was always planning to scan but have never gotten around to. Plus, I bought two calendars in a sale so I should scan them as well.
And speaking of magazines I've gotten way behind reading my magazines. I buy two each month - White Dwarf (which is for games workshop) and Empire (films) - and I've several recent issues of each still to read.
Part of the reason for that is that I've been really into manga just recently. I've been buying it like it's going out of fashion and so have been focused on reading all this lovely new manga. But that means I don't have time to read anything else.
The other thing I'm way behind on is my websites. Ever since I began doing my websites I've operated a policy of "building up" material. What I tend to do is write loads of reviews and make walls etc over a period of months and then have a big session making updates for the site.
I then roll these updates out on a weekly basis. The idea is that while the updates are rolling out I can be working on more new stuff and so (in theory) the cycle continues.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen in practice is that I work on the new material but then fail to have a new session of making website updates before I've run out of the old ones. The main reason for that is that making the website updates is kinda painful.
For one thing it's very confusing - I end up working across loads of different folders, trying to photoshop stuff here and copy-paste text there. Plus you're not just talking about the actual pages themselves - the front page and all the menus always need updating as well. It can be really slow progress.
The other stumbling block is scanning stuff. As mentioned, I can get way behind and of course for my reviews I like to have scans of the DVD covers, etc, so if I've not done any scanning I don't have them and so can't do the updates.
Of course the other issue is walling.
Generally speaking I try not to just upload reviews, but mix walls and psds in there as well.
Well unfortunately, just recently, I've been utterly uninterested in walling. It's kinda weird actually - a few months back I went through a huge burst of creativity making vectors especially, but then suddenly it sort of died.
The same thing happened with my writing - I had a huge burst of creativity and then *bam* I totally lost the desire to do it.
I mean, it's not that I don't have ideas and stuff, it's just the whole motivation to actually sit down and do stuff appears to have dried up. Hence why I'm so behind.
I think I'm going to take a few long weekends and try to do a bit of catching up. Well, if I can stretch to them - my recent 2 week extravaganza has left me a bit bereft of holiday days.
Oh, and my cold finally seems to be abating. The thing I can't work out about it was that it came on Sunday morning. Normally I get colds within 24 hours of contact with an infected person. However, that would mean I picked it up sometime on Saturday, but on Saturday I literally did not leave my bed-sit and didn't speak to anyone (I relaxed and watched all the telly I'd recorded while away).
The only possible source of germs where the landlords kids/grandkids, but as I say I didn't actually come into contact with them or even open the door. Very odd.
Friday, 20 February 2009
free and easy
It looks like this weekend I'm going to have a lot of spare time in the sense that there's nothing I've got to do.
Hopefully that means I'll have some time to sort out various odds and sods I've got kicking about. Examples are things like getting a couple of walls and vectors finished that are 'nearly there' and making some more updates for my websites.
Speaking of websites I had a request the other day to pull my finger out and get scan-city moving. Only problem there is I need to pay for some extra webspace for what I've got planned and, more importantly, I need to get a much newer version of photoshop. Both of these mean I need to get a replacement credit card - I chopped them all up when I was having my severe financial troubles last year.
I should also really get watching some anime DVDs (not least of all so I can sell them e-bay, speaking of money troubles :/). stuff has started to fall out of my shelves again where they're so overloaded.
It's been quite a good week on the anime front from one point of view. Funimation has been announcing new licenses like crazy (presumably at comicon, or a similar event in American). Early in the week these include Dragonaut the Resonance, Bamboo Blade, the Aegis of Uruk (but both series) and blassreiter.
These put me in something of a quandary. Dragonaut and Bamboo Blade I'll definitely pick up (eek - more money) and Blassreiter I'm pretty okay just to leave as having watched it online. However, Aegis of Uruk was really quite good and I'd quite like to be ablse to sit down and watch it properly on the telly.
See this is the problem with downloads for me. They'll never be quite as good as DVDs. I just prefer to watch DVDs... but I've already seen (and, more importantly, paid for) the first part of Aegis of Uruk. I dunno. I'll have to think about it.
What I wil definitely be getting is Seto No Hanayome. This was one of the funniest shows I've seen in ages and I've been eagerly waiting to see if someone would pick i tup. Of less interest is El Cazador de la Bruja. Basically it was by the same people that did Noir and Madlax. Not seen Madlax, but Noir was poor in my opionion, and Bruja didn't seem to stray much from the same basic formula.
That's on top of a few other really good shows I want coming on sale like Baccano and Clannad... I thought the anime industry in the west was meant to be in terminal freefall :/.
And talking about anime, I've spent the evenings this week scanning animedia and animage (both of which had a surprisingly good scan count - I thought this month was goign to be a total duffer), and I watched some new anime shows:
And on top of that I need a new PC monitor!
Hopefully that means I'll have some time to sort out various odds and sods I've got kicking about. Examples are things like getting a couple of walls and vectors finished that are 'nearly there' and making some more updates for my websites.
Speaking of websites I had a request the other day to pull my finger out and get scan-city moving. Only problem there is I need to pay for some extra webspace for what I've got planned and, more importantly, I need to get a much newer version of photoshop. Both of these mean I need to get a replacement credit card - I chopped them all up when I was having my severe financial troubles last year.
I should also really get watching some anime DVDs (not least of all so I can sell them e-bay, speaking of money troubles :/). stuff has started to fall out of my shelves again where they're so overloaded.
It's been quite a good week on the anime front from one point of view. Funimation has been announcing new licenses like crazy (presumably at comicon, or a similar event in American). Early in the week these include Dragonaut the Resonance, Bamboo Blade, the Aegis of Uruk (but both series) and blassreiter.
These put me in something of a quandary. Dragonaut and Bamboo Blade I'll definitely pick up (eek - more money) and Blassreiter I'm pretty okay just to leave as having watched it online. However, Aegis of Uruk was really quite good and I'd quite like to be ablse to sit down and watch it properly on the telly.
See this is the problem with downloads for me. They'll never be quite as good as DVDs. I just prefer to watch DVDs... but I've already seen (and, more importantly, paid for) the first part of Aegis of Uruk. I dunno. I'll have to think about it.
What I wil definitely be getting is Seto No Hanayome. This was one of the funniest shows I've seen in ages and I've been eagerly waiting to see if someone would pick i tup. Of less interest is El Cazador de la Bruja. Basically it was by the same people that did Noir and Madlax. Not seen Madlax, but Noir was poor in my opionion, and Bruja didn't seem to stray much from the same basic formula.
That's on top of a few other really good shows I want coming on sale like Baccano and Clannad... I thought the anime industry in the west was meant to be in terminal freefall :/.
And talking about anime, I've spent the evenings this week scanning animedia and animage (both of which had a surprisingly good scan count - I thought this month was goign to be a total duffer), and I watched some new anime shows:
- Sora Kake Girl was kinda good actually. It's definitely not a show I would describe as new or innovative, but I dunno, it seemed to have a certain charm to it. Plus it had jiggle and jiggle can count for a lot, although the character designs are a little unusual, but not in an un-appealing way. Dunno, maybe I'm going a bit soft.
- Asu no Yoichi might also be more confirmation that I'm goign soft. As far as I can make out the title actually translates as "Samurai Harem" or similar. To say it's therefore wearing its heart on its sleave is therefore something of an understatement - it's all there in the title. But do you know what, it's actually pretty good. And I think I know why - the main chracter isn't a douche bag. He's nice and kind but also tough and a good fighter. You can kinda see why the girls might like him. Plus it's agot a lot of good gags in it and - you guessed it - more jiggle. Did I mention jiggle can count for a lot?
And on top of that I need a new PC monitor!
Monday, 10 November 2008
oversleep-age
Well, that was odd.
On Sunday morning I massively over-slept. By my reckoning I was asleep for a good two hours over when my alarm should have gone off.
I say should have gone off because it didn't. My main stereo has an alarm on it and I use that. It's a bit like a clock radio. Unfortunately, it was my cock up that caused it - turns out I knocked a button when I was shifting some boxes around and didn't realise, so the alarm didn't go off.
Anyway, it meant I didn't get up until very late. It also kinda poxed my day up - it was a bit like I was in a daze all day. Plus I had a terrible time getting to sleep last night.
That's one of the troubles with lay-ins - they mess your body-clock up and mean you're not tired when it comes to bed time, so you don't get as much sleep and your routine's a bit out of kilter. So I'm a bit muggy headed this morning too.
Anyway, one thing I did get done is a lot of scanning this weekend. I did all of last month's mags (which is good as I've just received e-mails saying the next ones are on the way :/).
I also watched a bunch of anime shows while I scanned:
It's just as good, if not slightly better than the first season. The reason is that there's a slight tonal shift from the stories covered in the first season. The first season I would primarily characterise as being humorous first, serious second, whereas in the second season this is reversed.
I'll definitely be doing a review of it later.
Oh, and speaking of reviews - I've poxed up my website update schedule. I could blame the oversleeping thing, but the truth is I've just ballsed it up.
Mainly this is because I've kinda been waiting on finishing some wallpapers. As I think I mentioned the other week I've done several character vectors, but haven't quite completed the wallpapers, so updates to my site have therefore gone the shape of the pear.
Thinking about it I may actually put updates on proper hiatus until the New Year. That will give me a little more breathing room and I can also take the opportunity to watch some more stuff and build up a new stock of reviews as well as the wallpapers.
On Sunday morning I massively over-slept. By my reckoning I was asleep for a good two hours over when my alarm should have gone off.
I say should have gone off because it didn't. My main stereo has an alarm on it and I use that. It's a bit like a clock radio. Unfortunately, it was my cock up that caused it - turns out I knocked a button when I was shifting some boxes around and didn't realise, so the alarm didn't go off.
Anyway, it meant I didn't get up until very late. It also kinda poxed my day up - it was a bit like I was in a daze all day. Plus I had a terrible time getting to sleep last night.
That's one of the troubles with lay-ins - they mess your body-clock up and mean you're not tired when it comes to bed time, so you don't get as much sleep and your routine's a bit out of kilter. So I'm a bit muggy headed this morning too.
Anyway, one thing I did get done is a lot of scanning this weekend. I did all of last month's mags (which is good as I've just received e-mails saying the next ones are on the way :/).
I also watched a bunch of anime shows while I scanned:
- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - very good. I watched one more of this show and I still think it's very good - one of the best shows of the season, in fact.
- Kyouran Kazoku Nikki - okay. This really didn't do anything for me and I just watched 2 episodes. Whilst I wouldn't say it was actively bad, as such, it just didn't really appeal. The premise was part of the problem in that it seemed so utterly contrived and daft. I also have to say I wasn't at all keen on the art-style.
- Ryoko's Case File - good. I quite enjoyed this, though the animation seemed a little cheap. It's a supernatural/cop type show and it's one of those where you've kinda seen it before, but it's entertaining nevertheless and there's a good dynamic between the lead characters (a sort of will-they-won't-they thing).
- Mission-E - good. I just watched the one episode of this, more to confirm if it was still any good. It's technically a sequel to a series called Code-E which I quite liked (though I don't think it ever sparked much general interest). It's essentially a sci-fi show. Interestingly, the sequel isn't a direct sequel - some time seems to have elapsed between the two shows. I enjoyed this first episode, so both are the potential purchase list, if it ever gets licensed that it.
- Hidamari Sketch x 365 - good. Another sequel (to Hidamari Sketch), so again I just watched the one episode. It was good. It's sort of a slice of life show, but it's got an odd, surreal humour slant to it as well. Interestingly, this sequel is unusual too, in that it actually takes place in parallel with the original show.
It's just as good, if not slightly better than the first season. The reason is that there's a slight tonal shift from the stories covered in the first season. The first season I would primarily characterise as being humorous first, serious second, whereas in the second season this is reversed.
I'll definitely be doing a review of it later.
Oh, and speaking of reviews - I've poxed up my website update schedule. I could blame the oversleeping thing, but the truth is I've just ballsed it up.
Mainly this is because I've kinda been waiting on finishing some wallpapers. As I think I mentioned the other week I've done several character vectors, but haven't quite completed the wallpapers, so updates to my site have therefore gone the shape of the pear.
Thinking about it I may actually put updates on proper hiatus until the New Year. That will give me a little more breathing room and I can also take the opportunity to watch some more stuff and build up a new stock of reviews as well as the wallpapers.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
lost in the extras
See what I did there with the title? It's because I've been wading into the Lost S4 extras. Clever, huh?
Anyway, bad puns aside, 'wading' is definitely the right term to use - there's loads of them, far more than there have been for previous seasons, I'm sure. For example, there are only 14 episodes, but about half of them have commentaries, whereas in previous seasons where there were twenty-odd episodes and only about a quarter of them had commentaries.
Also, there are two entire disks of other bonus stuff, which ranges from the standard (bloopers, deleted scenes, filming stuff and interviews) to the more interesting, like a documentary expose of the Oceanic Six (the description of which makes more sense once you've watched the show) and an hour-long thing on the flash-forwards.
It's loads of stuff and it should keep me busy for a good while.
I'm guessing this is the upside to having the shorter seasons. Plus there was the whole writers strike thing, so I imagine there was more spare resources to work on extras stuff than usual.
Unfortunately I've got really behind with other stuff. I've recently realised that the new megami is about to come out (and the other mags will be close behind) and I've not really got anywhere with scanning last months mags - all I've done is the posters from megami, everything else is untouched.
I really need to get my arse in gear so I don't end up with a backlog.
Luckily I do have next monday off (I've got the dentists in the morning) so I may take the opportunity to make a good chunk of the backlog disappear. It should also give me a chance to finish off last season's anime shows and maybe even tackle some of the autumn season's stuff.
Plus there's something of a let-up coming with all these TV shows I've been watching - most are coming to the end of their runs, so, assuming nothing else comes along, that should ease up some of the pressure.
Bizarrely, I've actually been doing quite a lot of vectoring recently and am literally on the cusp of finishing about 4 walls. All I really need to do is make the backgrounds, which, with me not really having any artistic talent is always a tricky part, but at least it means I won't be stalled due to half-finished vectors like I normally am.
Anyway, bad puns aside, 'wading' is definitely the right term to use - there's loads of them, far more than there have been for previous seasons, I'm sure. For example, there are only 14 episodes, but about half of them have commentaries, whereas in previous seasons where there were twenty-odd episodes and only about a quarter of them had commentaries.
Also, there are two entire disks of other bonus stuff, which ranges from the standard (bloopers, deleted scenes, filming stuff and interviews) to the more interesting, like a documentary expose of the Oceanic Six (the description of which makes more sense once you've watched the show) and an hour-long thing on the flash-forwards.
It's loads of stuff and it should keep me busy for a good while.
I'm guessing this is the upside to having the shorter seasons. Plus there was the whole writers strike thing, so I imagine there was more spare resources to work on extras stuff than usual.
Unfortunately I've got really behind with other stuff. I've recently realised that the new megami is about to come out (and the other mags will be close behind) and I've not really got anywhere with scanning last months mags - all I've done is the posters from megami, everything else is untouched.
I really need to get my arse in gear so I don't end up with a backlog.
Luckily I do have next monday off (I've got the dentists in the morning) so I may take the opportunity to make a good chunk of the backlog disappear. It should also give me a chance to finish off last season's anime shows and maybe even tackle some of the autumn season's stuff.
Plus there's something of a let-up coming with all these TV shows I've been watching - most are coming to the end of their runs, so, assuming nothing else comes along, that should ease up some of the pressure.
Bizarrely, I've actually been doing quite a lot of vectoring recently and am literally on the cusp of finishing about 4 walls. All I really need to do is make the backgrounds, which, with me not really having any artistic talent is always a tricky part, but at least it means I won't be stalled due to half-finished vectors like I normally am.
Friday, 17 October 2008
tiring
I think this week I've been continuing on with the whole being a bit tired from last week.
I was gallivanting around all over the shop last week, so it's hardly surprising, I guess. I have done a few things - most notably I've been working on a new wallpaper. It's nothing hugely complicated or clever - I'm basically just vectoring out a to love-ru scan - but it's been nice to work on a wall proper again. Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish it this weekend.
I've also been reading a Terry Pratchett book called 'Thud!'. I started reading it on the train goign up and coming back from the thing last Friday (I like to read on the train, but reading manga gets you funny looks).
It's a pretty good one - there have been a few of his recently that haven't quite hit the spot, but this one was good. The only sort of down-side to it is that it's another Sam Vimes and City Watch book. Which isn't to say I don't like his Sam Vimes and the Watch books - I liked this one - but I've been wishing he'd focus a bit more on some other stuff. A lot of the recent books seem to be all about the watch.
One of the problems of this is that Sam hates magic, so some Pratchett's best characters (the witches and wizards) are deliberately side-lined, if not excluded all together.
Still, this one was good and I decided to go ahead and buy the other more recent ones I'd been holding back on... though not until I make a significant dent in my pile of unread books.
Did a little scanning last night and watch one of the shows I have left over from the last season. I also have one I watched last week that I forgot to mention on the old blog:
I was gallivanting around all over the shop last week, so it's hardly surprising, I guess. I have done a few things - most notably I've been working on a new wallpaper. It's nothing hugely complicated or clever - I'm basically just vectoring out a to love-ru scan - but it's been nice to work on a wall proper again. Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish it this weekend.
I've also been reading a Terry Pratchett book called 'Thud!'. I started reading it on the train goign up and coming back from the thing last Friday (I like to read on the train, but reading manga gets you funny looks).
It's a pretty good one - there have been a few of his recently that haven't quite hit the spot, but this one was good. The only sort of down-side to it is that it's another Sam Vimes and City Watch book. Which isn't to say I don't like his Sam Vimes and the Watch books - I liked this one - but I've been wishing he'd focus a bit more on some other stuff. A lot of the recent books seem to be all about the watch.
One of the problems of this is that Sam hates magic, so some Pratchett's best characters (the witches and wizards) are deliberately side-lined, if not excluded all together.
Still, this one was good and I decided to go ahead and buy the other more recent ones I'd been holding back on... though not until I make a significant dent in my pile of unread books.
Did a little scanning last night and watch one of the shows I have left over from the last season. I also have one I watched last week that I forgot to mention on the old blog:
- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - very good. I really wasn't expecting much of this - the images I'd seen for it in the magazines had all suggested it a fan-service heavy rom-com, but it turned out it was a bit more than that. The idea is that the girl in it is a school 'idol', but really she's a nerdy otaku and the male lead accidentally finds this out. Now that could have gone either way, but for the most part it's actually quite good, although there's a couple of elements I'm not sure about. But it's certainly better than I was expecting.
- MahÅ Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora - awesome. Now this one was also a bit of a surprise. I'd seen some images from it and I was really not looking forward to it because of the style. It has almost photo-realistic backgrounds - I'm not sure f that's just because they've been painted that way or they've processed actual photos. Now, I'm really not a big fan of animation laid over the top of photos, but once I'd kinda adjusted to the style what was revealed was a lovely story underneath. If I was to say it had a sort of studio Ghibli feel to it I think you'll know what I mean.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
i hate when that happens
I think I mentioned a little while back that I was starting to feel the old walling bug gripping me again.
I've been working on a Soul Eater wall after I found the series to me quite enjoyable the other week. It seemed to have some reasonable scans that I got some ideas for.
I've not really been experiencing wallers block--it's not so much that I've been stuck for ideas, it's more like the ideas I've been having have been way beyond my ability. Previously I'd probably have launched into them anyway, struggled for months and than been disappointed with the outcome.
Recently I've just been not starting.
But anyway, I saw some SE scans, got some ideas and started. I actually started with a simple one where I was basically just recreating the scan, just to get into the swing of things.
And someone's beaten me to the punch :(.
Basically, this wall by halcyontwilight is what I've been working on.
I mean, mine's different, but I've been doing the same idea--recreated the scan.
It kinda takes the momentum out of me continuing. I mean, one of the reasons I've often picked unpopular series to wall is because I basically know that no-one else will use the scan before me.
I'm not actually a very talented artist and have only a few skills when it comes to photoshop, so I'm very slow. That makes walling popular series dangerous, as there's a good chance someone will use the scan first.
Of course that doesn't stop me using it; it's just I always like to feel there's something exclusive or individual about my walls. I mean, heck, they're never actually any good, so at the least they can be unique on some level.
Ah well, I'll guess I'll finish it, but it's just annoying. Especially when the other person did such a good job :/.
I've been working on a Soul Eater wall after I found the series to me quite enjoyable the other week. It seemed to have some reasonable scans that I got some ideas for.
I've not really been experiencing wallers block--it's not so much that I've been stuck for ideas, it's more like the ideas I've been having have been way beyond my ability. Previously I'd probably have launched into them anyway, struggled for months and than been disappointed with the outcome.
Recently I've just been not starting.
But anyway, I saw some SE scans, got some ideas and started. I actually started with a simple one where I was basically just recreating the scan, just to get into the swing of things.
And someone's beaten me to the punch :(.
Basically, this wall by halcyontwilight is what I've been working on.
I mean, mine's different, but I've been doing the same idea--recreated the scan.
It kinda takes the momentum out of me continuing. I mean, one of the reasons I've often picked unpopular series to wall is because I basically know that no-one else will use the scan before me.
I'm not actually a very talented artist and have only a few skills when it comes to photoshop, so I'm very slow. That makes walling popular series dangerous, as there's a good chance someone will use the scan first.
Of course that doesn't stop me using it; it's just I always like to feel there's something exclusive or individual about my walls. I mean, heck, they're never actually any good, so at the least they can be unique on some level.
Ah well, I'll guess I'll finish it, but it's just annoying. Especially when the other person did such a good job :/.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
self-pimpage: chika
Thought I'd do some shameless self-promotional type pimpage today :p.
This last w/end I uploaded a new vector of the main chika from Dragonaut - The Resonance. Can't remember her name for some reason, but you can dl a psd or jpg of the vector here.
You can also grab a png version over at AP here if that format suits you better.
I used the girl in two walls, which you can dl here. The walls aren't exactly spectacular, I have to admit. The planet became weirdly oversaturated with too bright colours. I did a version without it, but that's ended up looking a little plain, unfortunately.
I was working on some site updates over the w/end actually, although they were reviews, rather than walls or vectors.
I'm trying to get a bit more back into walling, etc (more on that later), but I've got 6 reviews set up as updates, plus one more left from the last batch.
Here's a weird statistic for you - once all those seven are up I will have a total of 60 reviews up on my site. That seems pretty impressive... well, to me at least :).
This last w/end I uploaded a new vector of the main chika from Dragonaut - The Resonance. Can't remember her name for some reason, but you can dl a psd or jpg of the vector here.
You can also grab a png version over at AP here if that format suits you better.
I used the girl in two walls, which you can dl here. The walls aren't exactly spectacular, I have to admit. The planet became weirdly oversaturated with too bright colours. I did a version without it, but that's ended up looking a little plain, unfortunately.
I was working on some site updates over the w/end actually, although they were reviews, rather than walls or vectors.
I'm trying to get a bit more back into walling, etc (more on that later), but I've got 6 reviews set up as updates, plus one more left from the last batch.
Here's a weird statistic for you - once all those seven are up I will have a total of 60 reviews up on my site. That seems pretty impressive... well, to me at least :).
Friday, 19 September 2008
choices, choices
I've no particular plans for the weekend, but a lot of options.
The only thing I do have to do is clean my bedsit and do a bunch of ironing. Otherwise I can do whatever.
There's certainly some scanning to do--newtype et al turned up at the beginning of the week, plus there's all the artbooks that need seeing to, as always. It never ends, scanning. I mean only the other day I was trawling through otaku.co.uk looking for new artbooks and I found about a dozen or so I'd like--I've not even cleared the 15 or so that I've got debound and waiting to go and I'm already planning my next purchases :/.
In the old days I would have just bought them there and then, but I think I'm learning a bit more discipline. Chopping up your credit cards has that effect on you using them :/.
Loads of anime to watch too, especially with the new season rapidly approaching. I think there's something like a dozen shows from this last season that I need to peruse--that's a good few hours there and would tie up well with the scanning.
Plus there's also all the anime I've bought. I really need to get into those piles so I can get e-baying again and generate some more 'bonus cash'.
Then there's all these reviews I've got written. I've got about 7 reviews stacked up and ready to go. By my reckoning that should take trismugistus.com the best part of the way to christmas alone.
Then there's my old scans - I should process them, get scan-city.org on track, as it's a total waste of money having it sat there doing nothing at all :/.
Plus on that front I think I might have caught a bit of a walling bug again--I've certainly got a good few projects in mind. My big stickler on walling has actually been vectoring. After that blog a while back where I was saying I really love it, the flip-side is I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which means it takes me bloody ages to finish a vector.
Which reminds me, I've been thinking about getting photoshop cs3. Well, actually I've been thinking about getting the full adobe "image product", which means photoshop, illustrate (which is for doing proper vectors) and some other programs. It's the best part of £1,000, though :/.
Plus I should finish off the Company of Heroes expansion. I should really tackle some more games, actually. Again, partly so I can e-bay some of them, but also because the chrimbalo season is approaching and there's quite a few new games I have on pre-order. Plus of course gaming is fun :).
The only thing I do have to do is clean my bedsit and do a bunch of ironing. Otherwise I can do whatever.
There's certainly some scanning to do--newtype et al turned up at the beginning of the week, plus there's all the artbooks that need seeing to, as always. It never ends, scanning. I mean only the other day I was trawling through otaku.co.uk looking for new artbooks and I found about a dozen or so I'd like--I've not even cleared the 15 or so that I've got debound and waiting to go and I'm already planning my next purchases :/.
In the old days I would have just bought them there and then, but I think I'm learning a bit more discipline. Chopping up your credit cards has that effect on you using them :/.
Loads of anime to watch too, especially with the new season rapidly approaching. I think there's something like a dozen shows from this last season that I need to peruse--that's a good few hours there and would tie up well with the scanning.
Plus there's also all the anime I've bought. I really need to get into those piles so I can get e-baying again and generate some more 'bonus cash'.
Then there's all these reviews I've got written. I've got about 7 reviews stacked up and ready to go. By my reckoning that should take trismugistus.com the best part of the way to christmas alone.
Then there's my old scans - I should process them, get scan-city.org on track, as it's a total waste of money having it sat there doing nothing at all :/.
Plus on that front I think I might have caught a bit of a walling bug again--I've certainly got a good few projects in mind. My big stickler on walling has actually been vectoring. After that blog a while back where I was saying I really love it, the flip-side is I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which means it takes me bloody ages to finish a vector.
Which reminds me, I've been thinking about getting photoshop cs3. Well, actually I've been thinking about getting the full adobe "image product", which means photoshop, illustrate (which is for doing proper vectors) and some other programs. It's the best part of £1,000, though :/.
Plus I should finish off the Company of Heroes expansion. I should really tackle some more games, actually. Again, partly so I can e-bay some of them, but also because the chrimbalo season is approaching and there's quite a few new games I have on pre-order. Plus of course gaming is fun :).
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
suddenly, from out of nowhere... next week
Wow - it's been a week since I last posted an entry on the old blogo. Here's why:
Thursday was absolutely manic at work. There was a sudden decision to bid for something and I was roped in to do the legwork. Really, this was an impossible task, because the PQQ in question was some 40-50 pages in length. There would have been no way I could have done it if it hadn't been for an interesting discovery.
The PQQ was a direct copy (and I mean literally copy-and-paste) of an old PQQ we'd done for another contract. I won't go into details, but basically I was able to rip all the answers out, dust them down and re-use them. It still meant we had about 6 hours to do an entire 40-odd page PQQ, but it meant it got done.
Friday through Monday I was on holiday (more on that later), but since I only do the bloggage at work, that meant no posts.
Then yesterday, Tuesday, we went to Warminister to meet some guys from a company we may be teaming with on another opportunity. Meeting went well, but it did mean we were basically out of the office all day, so no post.
---
So, about the weekend.
It kinda went well, but on the other hand I didn't really get done what I really wanted to, namely the implementation of the new version of scan-city. This wasn't really for any other reason than I couldn't be arsed--I could have got it done, but instead I did other stuff :/.
Some of the highlights for the other stuff:
Watched Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi. It wasn't awful, like I was dreading, but then equally it wasn't anything special. I mean, it was basically just more of the same, but this time focusing a little more on some of the other characters. There was no real progress with Aoi and Kaoru's relationship and it ended in that typical "maintaing the status quo is best" ending you (unfortunately) get in these shows. Look for a review of both this and the main series in future.
I also cracked into GUNxSWORD. It's one of those shows that I've collected and have left sat on the shelf unwatched for years. I seem to remember watching the first DVD at some point before, but I never got any further. Why I'm not sure, as it's really good. Perhaps it's because the start is quite slow--the 'big' plot doesn't really kick in until the second/third disk, which is kinda late. Character design is by my fave guy, Takahiro Kimura. Animation is uniformly very good, which is almost a surprise in and of itself for a Gonzo show. Quite a few extras on the disks to boot.
The only real problem I'm having is with the subtitles--they're really quick and can be a little difficult to result. I'll have to re-watch in dub I think, which is no great shakes as it's got a 5.1 mix. Another one I'll be reviewing in future, I think.
My site update this w/end was a wall of LuLu I did a while ago. It's been on mt for ages and has become my second most popular wall on there. I also uploaded it to AP, where it's been fairly well received--it is quite old, after all. I also uploaded a png version of the LuLu vector to AP, which is actually a site update in a couple of weeks (in psd and jpg formats).
Lastly on the walling front, I uploaded one version of my dragonaut wall to mt. That's not proven so popular, but I was kinda expecting that. It's a fairly plain wall, for one thing (there's another version with a planet behind her, but I can't claim to be entirely happy with how that turned out, tbh). But also, dragonaut wasn't a brilliant series from what I saw of it and I know it wasn't very popular. Also, the chara designs are a little, well... extreme, shall we say? They aren't to everybody's tastes anyway.
I'm feeling a bit of a walling bug at the moment--this is again where I lament my doing too many hobbies, as it'll probably have passed before I get back up to speed on things I've given more priority like scan-city :/.
The new megami turned up on Monday, so I'll get that scanned. I didn't do any of the scanning I was hoping too over the w/end either :(. What the heck was I doing? Well, actually I was playing a bit of life catchup. You know I've been banging on about a lack of cash and needing a debt-consolidation loan? Well that all came through and so I spent a lot of the w/end getting in all the essentials I've been doing without--like electricity (the meter had dropped to less than £5.00!) and petrol (I'd been running on vapours the last week) and cleaning products (my bathroom has not been cleaned in weeks and mould is starting to grow :/), and it all sucked up a lot of time, but I'm pretty much sorted now.
Plus, last night I got two new artbooks through. Geass Rebellions, which is absolutely beautiful. I'm going to buy a second one of those for when I trash this one for scans. And Mine Blue, which has got some lovely stuff in, but it's only about A5 size--not sure if it's worth scanning it, tbh. I've got the Nia artbook on the way too.
Thursday was absolutely manic at work. There was a sudden decision to bid for something and I was roped in to do the legwork. Really, this was an impossible task, because the PQQ in question was some 40-50 pages in length. There would have been no way I could have done it if it hadn't been for an interesting discovery.
The PQQ was a direct copy (and I mean literally copy-and-paste) of an old PQQ we'd done for another contract. I won't go into details, but basically I was able to rip all the answers out, dust them down and re-use them. It still meant we had about 6 hours to do an entire 40-odd page PQQ, but it meant it got done.
Friday through Monday I was on holiday (more on that later), but since I only do the bloggage at work, that meant no posts.
Then yesterday, Tuesday, we went to Warminister to meet some guys from a company we may be teaming with on another opportunity. Meeting went well, but it did mean we were basically out of the office all day, so no post.
---
So, about the weekend.
It kinda went well, but on the other hand I didn't really get done what I really wanted to, namely the implementation of the new version of scan-city. This wasn't really for any other reason than I couldn't be arsed--I could have got it done, but instead I did other stuff :/.
Some of the highlights for the other stuff:
Watched Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi. It wasn't awful, like I was dreading, but then equally it wasn't anything special. I mean, it was basically just more of the same, but this time focusing a little more on some of the other characters. There was no real progress with Aoi and Kaoru's relationship and it ended in that typical "maintaing the status quo is best" ending you (unfortunately) get in these shows. Look for a review of both this and the main series in future.
I also cracked into GUNxSWORD. It's one of those shows that I've collected and have left sat on the shelf unwatched for years. I seem to remember watching the first DVD at some point before, but I never got any further. Why I'm not sure, as it's really good. Perhaps it's because the start is quite slow--the 'big' plot doesn't really kick in until the second/third disk, which is kinda late. Character design is by my fave guy, Takahiro Kimura. Animation is uniformly very good, which is almost a surprise in and of itself for a Gonzo show. Quite a few extras on the disks to boot.
The only real problem I'm having is with the subtitles--they're really quick and can be a little difficult to result. I'll have to re-watch in dub I think, which is no great shakes as it's got a 5.1 mix. Another one I'll be reviewing in future, I think.
My site update this w/end was a wall of LuLu I did a while ago. It's been on mt for ages and has become my second most popular wall on there. I also uploaded it to AP, where it's been fairly well received--it is quite old, after all. I also uploaded a png version of the LuLu vector to AP, which is actually a site update in a couple of weeks (in psd and jpg formats).
Lastly on the walling front, I uploaded one version of my dragonaut wall to mt. That's not proven so popular, but I was kinda expecting that. It's a fairly plain wall, for one thing (there's another version with a planet behind her, but I can't claim to be entirely happy with how that turned out, tbh). But also, dragonaut wasn't a brilliant series from what I saw of it and I know it wasn't very popular. Also, the chara designs are a little, well... extreme, shall we say? They aren't to everybody's tastes anyway.
I'm feeling a bit of a walling bug at the moment--this is again where I lament my doing too many hobbies, as it'll probably have passed before I get back up to speed on things I've given more priority like scan-city :/.
The new megami turned up on Monday, so I'll get that scanned. I didn't do any of the scanning I was hoping too over the w/end either :(. What the heck was I doing? Well, actually I was playing a bit of life catchup. You know I've been banging on about a lack of cash and needing a debt-consolidation loan? Well that all came through and so I spent a lot of the w/end getting in all the essentials I've been doing without--like electricity (the meter had dropped to less than £5.00!) and petrol (I'd been running on vapours the last week) and cleaning products (my bathroom has not been cleaned in weeks and mould is starting to grow :/), and it all sucked up a lot of time, but I'm pretty much sorted now.
Plus, last night I got two new artbooks through. Geass Rebellions, which is absolutely beautiful. I'm going to buy a second one of those for when I trash this one for scans. And Mine Blue, which has got some lovely stuff in, but it's only about A5 size--not sure if it's worth scanning it, tbh. I've got the Nia artbook on the way too.
Thursday, 15 May 2008
New material
Been working on some new material for my sites - mainly trismugistus.com. It's been a long time since I posted any updates, but I've at least started writing some reviews.
I guess there's a couple of walls near completion too, but I've kinda gone off walling at the mo. I've also gone off scanning - I've got a pile of 8 art books to scan (with a bunch more on the way) and of course this month's Japanese mags to scan. To some extent I guess both are kinda backlash effects from what happened with me throwing my stroppy fit over at AP.
But tbh, it really feels like I've had too much on my plate to really keep going with some of my projects and hobbies.
The main problem has been I've had too much to watch. I've a terrible habit of buying far too many DVDs for me to be able to actually watch before I buy the next load. I mean, I must have so many DVDs that I need to watch that I bet if I started watching now and did nothing else I wouldn't get finished before the end of the year.
Now that might sound great, but it costs an absolute fortune. And since I've been struggling a bit, financially, I've been trying to unlock this money by determinedly ploughing through stuff and then selling on the non-keepers on e-bay.
It's surprising how much time e-bay eats up. It's a lot better than it used to be putting auctions on, but you still have all the time it takes to photograph the item, crop the photo, weigh and calculate postage and write the bid. And then there's the time it takes to parcel things up and of course the hours stood in the queue in the post office.
And all that's capped off by there having been quite a lot of good shows on normal TV during winter and spring. Hopefully during summer these will tail off like they normally do and I can really get the job done.
I should also get writing again - I've been having one of those spurts of getting lots of ideas again, but I've lacked the motivation to actually start writing. And of course I need to finish the novel, Man in the Loop.
I guess there's a couple of walls near completion too, but I've kinda gone off walling at the mo. I've also gone off scanning - I've got a pile of 8 art books to scan (with a bunch more on the way) and of course this month's Japanese mags to scan. To some extent I guess both are kinda backlash effects from what happened with me throwing my stroppy fit over at AP.
But tbh, it really feels like I've had too much on my plate to really keep going with some of my projects and hobbies.
The main problem has been I've had too much to watch. I've a terrible habit of buying far too many DVDs for me to be able to actually watch before I buy the next load. I mean, I must have so many DVDs that I need to watch that I bet if I started watching now and did nothing else I wouldn't get finished before the end of the year.
Now that might sound great, but it costs an absolute fortune. And since I've been struggling a bit, financially, I've been trying to unlock this money by determinedly ploughing through stuff and then selling on the non-keepers on e-bay.
It's surprising how much time e-bay eats up. It's a lot better than it used to be putting auctions on, but you still have all the time it takes to photograph the item, crop the photo, weigh and calculate postage and write the bid. And then there's the time it takes to parcel things up and of course the hours stood in the queue in the post office.
And all that's capped off by there having been quite a lot of good shows on normal TV during winter and spring. Hopefully during summer these will tail off like they normally do and I can really get the job done.
I should also get writing again - I've been having one of those spurts of getting lots of ideas again, but I've lacked the motivation to actually start writing. And of course I need to finish the novel, Man in the Loop.
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