Busy Little Bee - PreCon Prep and Job Possibilities

Things have been a bit on the crazy side around here! I've had a lot to get done and not a lot of time to do it in. Last Friday, October 30th, I passed the last of my bartending certification exams and am now a full fledged Mixologist!



Meanwhile, looking through job postings, I also have a bit of volunteer work I'm doing with some friends of mine this weekend at NekoCon. I'll be a American Guest Liaison making sure the two guests I'm looking after get to their panels and have everything they need to be at their best.


I'm a little sad that the damage to my car didn't get fixed yet, but what can you do when people don't return your calls? Well, it's the first thing I'll take care of when I get back aside from looking forward to starting a new job.

Forgot to Share a bit of Fun

Put this up a couple days ago.

Thought I'd share the Engineer gentleman's duel.

How things are truly solved out on the battlefield!




Also: Had to get my dork on a bit today....

As much of a Captain American fan I am, I had to get it, also because if I had to pick sides, this would be where I stand. That, and it looks so retro.

Under the Weather; Thankfully I Bought my Umbrella

Those of you that were used to the frequent uploads of art while I was working on the TF2 paper children might be wondering why the sudden stop? Well, I have to beg your apology then. First, the excitement and hectic schedule of the Professional Bartending Institute left me no time to do anything but eat, sleep, and breathe bartending. Sadly, in my breathing bartending, I learned not too long ago that my professor, thanks to some previous students, had come down with a serious cold and caught it myself.

Having not moved far beyond the family couch and when I try only managing to make my condition worse, not much beyond coughing, sneezing and nibbling on the occasional piece of bread when my tummy and I are friends seems to be all I've been able to do. My mom also says whatever crud is in my chest is loosening up and she can hear it in my coughing. I figure it's pretty much impossible to miss with all the coughing I've been doing for the past week or so.

Not much to speak up art wise save for the occasional half finished doodle. I'll keep resting up, and I've had a few ideas for pictures I'd like to do in pastel (which I haven't worked with in years) and colored pencil. Plus, in all this time I've been sitting here, I'm finally catching up all the comics I've been meaning to read. I'm a little sad I haven't gotten a chance to pick up Captain America: Reborn #4 yet. Hopefully I my mom can pick it up for me tomorrow.

My mother and I are slowly but surely getting through everything to put in its proper place. I'm so looking forward to finally having my office and studio back up and functioning properly. There's a lot of old art I don't want any more, but I don't want to get rid of it either.

Also, tonight on History Channel they're talking about Thor on Clash of the Gods. I'm looking forward to 11pm EST.

Warming the Heart though Time

Checked my emailed this evening and spotted this from Kodak. I couldn't help but smile.

Love and Laughter

I found this picture of my parents in a box of old photos. It so perfectly captures their relationship then, as newlyweds, and throughout their 50 plus years marriage - love, laughter and joy in being with each other. I can only assume another family member took the shot, perhaps one of my Dad's brothers, shortly after my father's discharge from the army in 1946, at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, NY.

Anybody that knows me knows that I'm a nut for the 1940s, and those two, so happy together and having spent their lives together is a beautiful, real life fairy tale. That photo certainly deserves the recognition.

Classes are in and Spirits are High

So Beginning Yesterday, I began taking the course to bartend. Now, anyone that knows me certainly is giving me funny looks right now. I by no means like alcohol, but I love people and love to talk, so why not.

Besides, I have equipment to buy and the Holiday season is coming. Plus, I by no means mind working on holidays.

I've learned a TON. Yesterday we covered Cream Drinks and today the crazy world of Shooters.

I'm headed off to the bowling alley to watch my brother. In the meantime, I have flash cards of all these drinks and Liqueurs to make.

The Shooters are a bit tricker since they're so many and I've gotten in the habit of working with the Cream based drinks. I'm not too worried though, it's just remembering that it's 2 oz. instead of 3 oz. It's just a matter of getting the hang of it, and that'll happen with practice.


Though, I have to say, I kind of want to try making myself a B-53. Sounds pretty tastie, and it looks really pretty, too. If I had everything, I'd totally do it, but I think I'm short 1 ingredient.

Well I'll be... The folks at Valve are always at it.

Of course, just when I have to remove the Windows partition from my Mac, there's posts on the Team Fortress 2 Blog about future updates. Something called the 'Guard Dog'.



Now, I've heard some folks thinking it's a new class which I think would be pretty cute. Animals in the service are extremely important. However, After much Engineer-style cursing, ranting, and pondering I've come to a decision that I really don't think they'd make a new class without finishing work on the updates for the existing ones.

Game design wise, there's no reason to do something like that when there are so many gaps in the other classes that haven't gotten updates yet. (CoughcoughEngineercoughcough) These classes are currently very underpowered and are easily steam rolled by a lot of the changes made to the classes that have gotten some weapon updates.

Now, personally, I think it's a weapon, plain and simple. It's got to something like the Razor Back for the Sniper. Now, if I was going to assign it to any class, it would be the Engineer - A proximity alarm that would replace something like the teleporter. Or maybe a Proximity/land mine for the Demoman or Solider to replace the Sticky Bomb or rocket launcher.

After all it's a patent for something. I don't think Saxton Hale would need review to patent a new class. The Announcer, maybe, but not Saxton Hale.

Snow Leopard - Really Just a kitty in the snow?

So, up until now, I've been hearing all this buzz about 10.6 since I have a Mac. With any new tech-thing, I take it with a grain of salt especially if it's from Apple. I know they LOVE to put their spin and polish on things. Thus I figured, if I'm going to upgrade, since I fall into that lovely bunch that qualifies for the $29 upgrade, is it really worth it.

Especially since my first opinion of the new OS X incarnation was this:

"WTF?! Why do I have snow on my head?"

So, at the suggestion of a fellow Mac user over at Studio Revolver sent me over to Gizmodo to read up on the reality of the new kid on the block, and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased.

I thought it was just going to have a bunch of pointless toys which could be compared to a Nokia cell phone from '99 covered in rhinestones from the dollar store. I was happily mistaken. Here's a condensed list of the basket of goodies. And, even without the streamlining on the back end, there's some stuff in there, espeically with Quicktime X, that look like pure awesome. My only major 'quibble' is the fact that I'll probably have to actually switch to AIM for Mac since it's geared more towards the intel-based machines and Final Draft 7 might act up a tad.

Outside of that, it's all systems go for my machine. Though I've lost my XP Pro partition for the moment to free up space so my poor machine won't crash every time it so much as thinks about opening Photoshop or Illustrator, I think that the switch to Snow Leopard for me will be a good thing. Slipping down the OS I feel is always a good thing and something that tends to piss me off with Windows.

Anybody actually curious to see about it, here's the full article. Now, for most, who I know are Windows users out there, I'll simply leave this and this here.

Personally I'm neither a Mac of PC. I use what I use to get the most out of it. Now if you excuse me, I need to continue counting my pennies to save up for RAM and a new HD.

Dragon*Con - not a 'Con' But an Experience

Wow. Just wow...

I thought I'd been to large cons before. Those were NOTHING in comparison. I've always wanted to go to D*C but it certainly went well beyond what I thought Dragon*Con would be by any stretch of my imagination. My friends and I stayed at the Marriot and even though it was the party hotel, I think I want to stay there again.

Being that I'm moving from my apartment in Savannah, GA, I really regret that I didn't have a sketch book with me or a sample of my work to show folks. However, thanks to Digital Portfolio I did at least have my cards and what not to hand out.

Now, a week out from the con, I have to say to anyone and everyone just one thing - If you have the chance to go, DO SO! I was worried that I wouldn't feel like I'd get my money's worth considering what I usually do at cons, but trust me, Dragon*Con was priceless.

I met a lot of great people, even if I did come home with a viral stow away, and got a lot of good information from fellow artists. The folks at Studio Revolver and Gaijin Studios were awesome! Plus, Steve Scott and Nathan Massengill were awesome too.

I'm looking forward to having my own table for next year!

In the meanwhile, I'll be Climbing the Mount with Cpt. Kirk. You should too.

ONWARD!

Doing some switching around and reformatting for my website.

From here on, I'll be using this for my blog space instead of my old as dirt LJ.

Will be posting about Dragon*Con once my mind as stopped reeling from the trip. Talk about a life changing experience!