Champ Times

A Beautiful Dream

It's been awhile since I found a comic I generally liked. I hate modern comics. Maybe it's unfair, but the course of 2008-2009 brought so many terrible decisions and darkness to comics that I just gave up. Even the good comics were tainted by connection to terrible stories spotlighted as major events. Any time I hear anything about comics nowadays, I can't help but grimace.

But I did catch one that hit all the right notes - Brave and the Bold #33. If you're looking for something to read, check it out - I'll say nothing more.

On comic news, Young Justice's animated series has been officially announced, and it's got me curious. It's not going to be Young Justice reborn, but, who knows. I'll wait and see on this one.

Other quick links: I'm hoping Monster Hunter Tri becomes our next crew multiplayer game, and here's a great, cute 3D animated short: Meet Meline.

The Beauty of Nature

Even more random notions here! Get your random notions here!

First note is about Puzzles. I've been shopping at the Thrift Shop here, and I love it there. Always seems to be a treasure or two to procure. Previous conquests include old Nintendo player guides, an X-Men: MurderWorld game (and crumpled comic) game in case, Star Trek: Final Unity that I can't get to work right, random books such as "Utopia" or things on bugs, a randomly speaking Pikachu plush, and lots of cheap clothes. The latest thing in intrigue is a 500-piece Puzzle.

Fitting the Puzzle together, I've been pondering how it equates to life in a way. When you begin, you have a blank slate, you're excited, and you have an idea of where to go. You search out the easiest to identify pieces, the extremes, seeking your limits, sizing up the entire playing field. Afterwards, there's a bit of slow-down. Everything looks the same, everything looks impossible to place. This is when things get frustrating. But pieces do start to fit somewhere, and landmarks help guide you slowly but surely. Soon, pieces start to connect, and the picture's details start to become clearer. Pieces that looked random start to clearly belong somewhere. And soon, the puzzle is complete!

I'm kind of in the middle of such, distracted by replaying Pikmin 2, further Animation Mentor studies, and some backyard shenanigans. First, Mom's been buying a lot more decor for the deck now that Spring is in the air, and pondering planning out a new garden layout. Oh, sidenote, it's Mom's birthday! We went to the Teppinyaki Grill over here, which is still in Grand Opening phase, so it's pretty cheap, and their selection is dang good. A new favorite location, like Cici's used to be (Eric and I went there too, and it's still good. Weird thing is, there was a little kid wandering around all by his lonesome, who wouldn't talk to me when I asked where his parents were. We watched over him for a bit, and, luckily, he went to Cici's (in and out, weirdly), and eventually, his mom picked him up there. Weird.)

Okay, blah blah blah. Too much stuff no one but me cares about. Have a random video!

Stu = The Perfect Model

So, my current assignment is to actually get out of the house (gasp!) and sketch people doing things, and then pose the model they gave us - his name is Stu! - to match. I was having so much fun with the sketching, I drew way too much, and then I had too much fun with the posing, that I did more : p And I'm still not satisfied! I'm going out again tomorrow to do more sketches, and hope to find more good times.

Stu posing located here!
Outside sketchings here!

So much Junk

I've been sitting on this pile of DVD boxes for awhile, and don't know what to do. I was thinking of Ebaying em, if anyone out there collects these things? Or something? I could keep em around and use the DVD cases for something - get rid of the cover art and just keep em.

Here are links to the DVDs:
Bottom Layer
Middle Layer
Top Layer

And this is just one tiny section of the mess that is my room. The spring cleaning continues...

So much to cover

Okay, I have a lot to cover! Let's hit this in topics.

Animation Mentor Update - I had my first Live Q&A with my class, and it was great meeting them! I'm going to be learning from Eric Lessard, who's worked for Dreamworks on Shrek, Antz, and the upcoming Lion of Judah, and also on the cinematics on Halo 3! The class is very ecclectic, and we've got students from Denmark, Dubai, Germany, Belarus... It's awesome! This first week will be an easy one - well, after getting the nerve-wracking introduce-yourself-to-the-class session out of the way - and will be pure tech prep and practice!

Game Time! - Got Red Steel 2! So far, the off-screen turning is annoying the crap out of me, but only when I'm going around crushing random things for gold. If only real life was like that... During battle sequences, it's fast paced, full of optional attacks, and a lot of fun. I've heard a lot of peeps use the gun a lot, but I enjoy rushing in and slicing everything up. I also started replaying Cave Story again, and it's still such an amazing game. The best description I've heard of it so far is that, when we think of old retro games, they tend to be better in our heads than when we actually play them - but with Cave Story, it's like getting all the retro feelings, but also with all the gameplay polish and the living worlds of modern day gaming.

How to Train Your Dragon 3D - Now that was an experience! The story is about breaking tradition, about finding a new, better answer to problems, about unity and trust and cooperation over antagonism and pure strength. It was a celebration of the creative and cooperative - in both plot, and background. Chris Sanders had only a year to really polish this movie up from its old, far more chilish mold, and he and his team really took the reins and made this thing into a brilliant masterpiece. It's got elements that made Pokemon popular, with creatively designed and imagination-filled dragon variety, characters that were aged up to appeal to all audiences, a real threat of danger and death, despite zero blood and onscreen victims, and visuals that are just every-so stunning. I can't wait to own this on DVD, and already buying the soundtrack!

The Rapelay Controversy - CNN is shocked. SHOCKED that there are porn games in Japan! To summarize the sitch, CNN has recently covered the 'controversy' over Rapelay, which was banned off Amazon and caused the Ethics board in Japan to police themselves and stop production of it... And that was 2 years ago. I won't speak to freedom of speech in terms of the subject matter of the game, or international standards or whatever. My main concern in this is how... old and disconnected from reality the news seems to be some times, especially in light of the very interesting fact that Japan has one of the lowest rape statistics of any country. Any time I hear about how fiction is the cause of crime, it very much annoys me. It's wrong, in statistics, and in personal responsibility, and the fact that CNN is digging up an oooold story to pull a Fox News and go all '[Blank] is Evil!' is frustrating. That kind of media needs to stop.

That's is for now! Gonna play more Red Steel 2!

It begins once again

2005 was the last sighting of the Art of Babble. It has recently been spotted in... Oh my God! It's here! Run! Aaaaughhh!

Hello, peoples! So, between 2005 and now, I graduated college with a Cum Laude, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, I've been overseas, left the military, started a webcomic, been to the San Diego Comic Con, learned the craft of Screen Printing, helped fix and rent out our old house, played numerous games, watched plenty of movies, read... a book or two... Wow, if this was a movie or something, this would be the worst example of exposition ever.

But who cares about what has passed, we're here to look to the future! To what is to come!

And I've got something big to mention. I'm in Animation Mentor! Animation Mentor is an online college that focuses entirely on character animation, taught by animators working in the industry. Seriously! It's an 18-month long course, six classes, each lasting 12 weeks. It's gonna be some major hard work, especially since I don't have that much animation experience (like, professional-like) at all yet. So, this will be fun!

I'm aiming at three major goals to concentrate on. In no particular order except to be dramatic for the last entry - One will continue to be The City of Reality, a story I want to tell. Two will be Screen Printing, an art I want to learn with potential immediate income. The third is Animation Mentor, which holds promise for the future, in career, contacts, creativity, and craft. Sequential, Textile, and... I can't think of another 'ile' word for Animation. And Awesomile. There we go!

Well, let's see what happens.

Fun Links - The Whole Ever Updating List

Table of Contents
Daily Checks
Collection Sites
Flash Movies
-Games
-Videos
Neat Sites and One-Shots
Quizzles and Tests
Webcomics
-The Cute
-The Epic
-The Random
-The Culture
-The Strange
- The Miscellaneous
Reading and Listening Material
For Argument's Sake

*NOTE* - If you can't view the whole list, resize your window and it should become viewable - The site coding is a bit funky. [more...]

Summaries

An update! Due to much time passed in not writing in this (tho I have been doing a private journal which isn't up here cause it says that you suck, amongst other things), I shall post a quickie.

*nararrator voice* Previously, in the life of Champ:

- I've left the chats because I got bored with them, and the only spark of life I could find myself contributing was hostile. Still AIMing individuals.
- Thanks to rD, I started reading a little. Read Da Vinci Code, Crucible, Number the Stars, and started on Frankenstein, all of which have been great so far.
- Working on the Guitar and Flash tutorials. Flash is done, but can't think of anything to do with em. Guitar is going slowly. I'm not very musically minded.
- I burnt my brownies : (
- Got new GCN games, and all are fun. Harvest Moon is the latest obsession, and very addictive once you learn what you're doing. Batman: Sin Tzu is fun multiplayer, but gets boring after awhile. Bomberman is Bomberman, and can't wait to play 4-player death matches on it. Resident Evil: Code Veronica has a long title. And my lil bro is playing it and has gotten far, but keeps dying.
- Did some charcoal drawings earlier, including a Father's Day gift. Hadn't done anything very artsy since.
- I have too many plush camels. And 4 of them sing!
- Cleaned my room again.
- Gots me a bookshelf, but its already filled up. Need... more...
- Flabber.nl is still a fun site to check out.
- Currently getting back into USC, and sighing at the yucky looking prices. My main concern right now is $1500 for a year of housing, and I have to pay $100 for advance room pay, and $25 just to submit one of the applications! I need to hit Financial Aid much harder this year.
- That's all for now!

*Heartbeat jolts*

I have stuff to talk about! Yay!

My parents have already left to go on a cruise to Mexico. Thus, the three Samson kids and their Grandpa are left to fend for themselves in this cruel, cruel world. So far, the only problem we've faced is the collective lack of cooking skill. We can heat up corn dogs and cheeseburgers just fine tho, so all is kinda well. I see waking up on time for church and to get Eric to school may be a problem too. But nothing we can't deal with.

I've been spending my time doing Flash projects, watching movies and catching up on comics. I can't believe it, but I already seem to have caught up on a year worth of lost comics plus some. I also got my eye exam and will be getting a new set of glasses soon nuff!

Mom also bought a new car, and I put up 5 grand to help on downpayment. Don't think I'm super generous or anything - I probably owe her ten times that much :p Its a red Pacifica - a family car/van/thing. Pretty sleek and lots of little automated features. Think of a daylight, nonlethal, family friendly version of the Batmobile :p

I've been making some big purchases, including a USB device to connect an old harddrive to my laptop, giving me access to my old files, games, archives. I bought a USB hub and a USB TV Card, both of which work nicely.

Bought and played Prince of Persia and Viewtiful Joe - 'Game of the Year'-ish games, but I'm afraid to say neither of them seem worth it. They're more chores to play than anything. Instead, I've spent my time playing Team Fortress Classic and King's Quest 6 - both old games and both still pure awesomeness.

On topics that aren't mine own - Mo is back off to college for a three week long Summer semester, then we may try sprucing up her Linkin Park website. She's got access to meet up with the LP crew backstage for their August concert as well, so she's hyped on that - the girl must have some connections :p. Bleu has been having probs with Dolly's health, and the vet is acting mightly strange, closing on a Saturday without notice. The cost of the operation may set her back a bit too. And all on her birthday thereabouts too. The rest of the crew seem to be up to their usual antics (*cough* Like not commenting on my work *cough*), except for Sol who has disappeared off the face of the planet. Oh! And Fish changed her real name to Robin and will be a teacher in Sweden.

I've been a bit lazy the last few weeks - Up on the schedule and constantly pushed back are: Get enrolled back in USC, contact Veteran Affairs for benefits... I think that's really it for now. I already fixed my room up, and prepped to give my old clothes to the Salvation Army/Philippines.

Thats all. Ciao!

Champ Times: Dead

Yeah yeah, not as if anyones looking at this thing anymore, now that I'm back home and all AIM-able. So blah blah - I'm home!

THE END

James Bond will return

Ze Plane! Ze PLANE!

Days IC (May 15) -- 351
Days Activated (Feb 10) -- 436
Days Left IC (365 Days) -- 14
Days Left Til Out of Work -- 3?

I present to you concrete information presented to us and evaluated by the brass - as near ironclad as information can get nowadays.

1 - We have to leave before May 4th, because the only available flight afterwards is past our Boots On Ground, and the Army ain't up for paying people more than it has to.
2 - The Available flights range from April 30th to May 4th.

Thus, while I don't know exactly what day I'm finally leaving - could be tomorrow, could be three days later (considering previous circumstances, I'm betting my shiny nickel on 3 days)- I'm going home very, very soon!

So, lets say Flight on May 1st - arrive at Atterbury on May 2nd - 5 days of demobilization - and! *drumroll* Back home right in time for Mother's Day. Booya!

Worst Case Scenario: Flight gets cancelled last second and we can't fly out until after our Boots on Ground date. In which case I shall go insane and kill a lot of kitties.

So, there is a chance this is my last entry while I'm in Kuwait! Here! Here!

Days IC (May 15) -- 348
Days Activated (Feb 10) -- 433
Days Left IC (365 Days) -- 17
Days Left Til Out of Work -- 3, once again

I think I've become infected by whatever disease 'She Who Sucks' has, because I have nothing to talk about. I watched some movies, but don't feel like reviewing em. Oh well. Check it - 3 days left of work for the 3rd or 4th time.

Also, was working on the Unit History that needs to be done, and cursed the Great Deleting of '03 for getting rid of my journal and all the dates and times that would have helped me. Once I do finish it, I'll show it off - but I warn you, its in military speak, which is straightforward, subtly self-aggrandizing, and too official to not be boring.

The Entry of Unmitigating Crap

Days IC (May 15) -- 346
Days Activated (Feb 10) -- 431
Days Left IC (365 Days) -- 19
Days Left Til Out of Work -- 7 <---

No big changes. Considering the recent circumstances, I'll say that's a fortunate thing. Well, power is out again, so that sucks. *ponders* Nope, nothing else. Sorry.

*sings* Everything changes, changes...

I miss my Pokemon soundtrack. Gotta redownload that once I'm back home. And 1776. I see that's on DVD now - a definate buy.

Anywho, check this out:

Days IC (May 15) -- 343
Days Activated (Feb 10) -- 428
Days Left IC (365 Days) -- 22
Days Left Til Out of Work -- 10 <---

We'll be working on one day, off the next, so, really, I only have 5-6 real work days to deal with. No biggie, I suppose. I went to Doha today and got some piccies. The Japanese forces, wearing bandanas over their mouths, looked like ninjas. They waved to us when we drived by them. Bought me some Wavebird controllers for $6 each. And pens. Cause I need good pens. Answered someone's prayers by appearing when they were told their vehicle had to be held there for a week because they dispatched late. So we drove them back. I saw lots of camels and sheep. I also put a pistol in the front of my pants to carry it into the building. Felt all ghetto 50s cool at first, but then it kinda chafed. Mailed more camels back home too.

All in all, a fairly normal day.

Light My Fire

Days IC (May 15) -- 341
Days Activated (Feb 10) -- 426
Days Left IC (365 Days) -- 24
Days Left Til Out of Work -- 3, again

Let me tell you about the best job you can possibly get out here in Kuwait. Internet access, no supervision, no internet restriction, free national food, good company... Work consists of waiting for a customer to arrive, then filling out two quick sheets of paper and letting them go - 5 minutes of work every 1-2 hours. The rest of the time, pure relaxation! Helloooo, Heavy Lift 4, the Bus Yard!

Yesterday was probably the first and only time I'll work there, but, if there was ever a day to work there, yesterday was that day. Why is that you ask?

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