World of Awesomer

Axes and Swords

2011-11-24T22:28:00.001-08:00

I've been playing Skyrim. Possibly to an unhealthy degree. It's quite an amazing game. I found these two warriors in my sketchbook and since I'm in that Skyrim mood, I thought it would be fitting to post them up. Drew these in ink and tried some new stuff with the pattern on the girls pants. Nice!

Metro Sexual Dog

2011-10-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

I drew this one in ink and there's a dog with a questionable owner. I like the Staedtler pigment liner pens. I've tried all kinds of pens, but these pens are A) reliable and go over pencil well (a feature that not many pens seem to have) and B) I can actually find them at art stores. There was this other type of pen I used to use (can't remember the name) that was good, but it was impossible to find anywhere and I had to order them online. Not too big of a deal, but when buying a pen online, a generally cheap item, you then have to add on shipping and suddenly you are paying over $15 for a pen. Plus it's easier to just drive over to the art store and pick up some pens when my current pens go dry.

And that's what I've got to say about pens.

From the Pages of My Sketchbook 3

2011-09-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Another wholesome sketchbook page! This one has sketches of various street life that I found pictures of on the webs and used as reference. Actually really fun practice and I'll probably do more. And no, he's not doing what you are thinking to the dog. I just got lazy and didn't draw his legs...

From the Pages of My Sketchbook 2

2011-09-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another recent page from my sketchbook. I once again redesigned some of the super heroes I've been posting previously (like Round Head Man for instance). I wanted to give them a more cartoony and colorful style. I like how they turned out, maybe I'll do something with them. Actually in my previous post I did!

Tacos de Gato

2011-09-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tacos de Gato! This is a scene where a local group of super heroes gather at the local taco joint for lunch. After all, fighting crime all night makes you hungry. Done with ink and prismacolor markers on whatever paper is in my sketchbook. Click the image for a bigger more visible version.

From the Pages of My Sketchbook 1

2011-09-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

Oh hey there blog. I missed you. Here's a recent page from my sketch book of various things. That kid on the skateboard, I always see him outside causing trouble. Although he is getting pretty good doing ollies and kickflips, so I'll give him that. Also! Did you know that the game I've been working on for a while at my day job now has a fancy web page? Yes! Go visit it! www.gothamcityimposters.com I'm really excited about this game and can't wait for when we release it. It's super fun to play and I think the environments and characters look great (yeah, I might be a bit biased since I work on it). I hear you too. "A game without Batman!? How dare they!" But trust me, once you sit down and give it a try, you'll be hooked and you'll forget all about the Batman.

Krud Monster

2011-01-03T17:52:00.000-08:00

The krud monster! First appearing in "Krud" #32 in April of 1997. When Krud throws a criminal into a transportation beam, a scientist, the criminal, and a bit of krud, all get combined to form the krud monster. The mind of the scientist becomes corrupted by the criminals and he seeks to destroy Krud for what he did. An epic battle ensues, but in the end Krud finally destroys the monster by shooting a gas canister blowing him up... or so it seems.

Shifter

2010-12-30T18:55:00.000-08:00

I said I would have something different, so fooled you! Yeah, here's another character. It's been a few months and I had some more characters done, so I might as well post them up.

Shifter first appeared in Krud #15 in 1994. Shifter is an evil shape shifting creature who wants to destroy Krud at all costs. He apparently has no limit to what he can shape shift into. On Krud's first encounter with Shifter, Shifter turns himself into a missile and tries to destroy Krud as he attempts to flee a space station orbiting Earth. Throughout the Krud series Shifter is killed off multiple times, but always returned. In the final appearance of Shifter, once again Krud is battling him in a space station orbiting Earth. Krud manages to disable Shifter by shooting him with a laser rifle which prompts Shifter to set off the self destruct sequence of the station, killing himself in the process. I'm sure he will return though! He was always one of my favorite Krud villains.

Sim: Wanderer of the Planets

2010-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sim first appeared back in 1993 in part one of "Sim: Wanderer of the Planets". Sim is an expert space pilot and soldier. He is sent to planet X-11 to find and destroy an alien. Sim always carries his trusty laser pistol and wears a viking helmet. I honestly don't know why, but yeah, that's what he wears. It gives him that unique look. Later on in 1997 I did another "Sim: Wanderer of the Planets" comic. This version was a more thought out version of the original three part series, fleshing out both Sim as a character and the sci-fi world he lives in.

I think the next update I'll take a break from the characters and post something different, so stay tuned!

Freak Boy from Dimension X

2010-09-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Oh hey there! I've been busy the last couple of weeks, so I wasn't able to update, but I'm not planning any super long breaks like in the past! Okay, let's get back to it! If you haven't been paying attention I have been redrawing a number of comic strip characters from back around when I was in high school. I'll show the new and improved version next to a panel from the original comic they appeared in.

Freak Boy from Dimension X first appeared in 1996 in "The Super Heroes Club" episode #5. Originally from Dimension X. Freak Boy was being pursued by guys with lasers (yeah, that's about all that is explained in the comic) and went through a portal to escape, bringing him to our dimension. When he fell through the portal he landed in front of both Cheese Man and History Man who both labelled him a "freak". He doesn't have any powers, but in Dimension X he was able to fly. Then again, it seems like everybody in Dimension X can fly. It is Dimension X after all.

Round Head Man

2010-09-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Round Head Man originally appeared in 1996 in an unfinished comic titled "A Very Special Round Head Man Christmas". Yeah, that was really the title. It was about Round Head Man trying to stop Santa Claus from breaking into peoples houses, but it didn't get very far since it was unfinished. I can see why I never finished it though. As stories go, it was pretty horrible. Later that year (actually like four days later) I placed Round Head Man in a new comic titled, you guessed it, "Round Head Man". It only lasted for two episodes(and he isn't even in the second episode), but the comic was part of a cross over with the comic "The Super Heroes Club" so he showed up a bit more. And by a bit more I mean like one more page and then he just flies away. He has rocket boots you know. He activates them by pushing the "R" on his chest.

Electro Krud

2010-09-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Electro Krud first appeared back in 1993 in "Krud" #6. Originally posing as the real Krud, Electro Krud attempted to find and kill Switch. He never got that chance though. After Electro Krud destroyed Cyborg Krud's (I know, I know) robot, he inadvertently released the real Krud who then turned around and killed him. At this point it was revealed that Electro Krud was actually an alien being who then merged with Krud giving him new electric powers and the power of flight. I know, hard to swallow. At the time I remember reading the Death of Superman comic books and a lot of the ideas in that I borrowed and sort of adapted to my Krud comics. Probably not as well though. Heh.

Switch

2010-09-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

Switch made his first appearance way back in 1993 in the second "Krud" comic. He is Krud's first major enemy and eventually became Krud's arch-nemesis. Switch first killed Krud with a flame thrower, which turns the krud substance into cement. Five years later, a robot posing as Krud destroys Switch with his laser beam eyes! But wait, it doesn't end there. Switch once again returns, this time inexplicably, but Krud quickly finds him and electrocutes him to death, finally getting rid of him for good.

Some New 3d Art

2010-09-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've just updated my art website with a bunch of new 3d artwork. This art is all from an unreleased game that I worked on at Monolith, but that's really all I can say about it. Ha. Here's a quick image of a rooftop HVAC unit I made and the interior of a coffee shop that I also made. If you head over to my art website you can check out these as well as a bunch of other pieces of new 3d art! I also included SUPER high resolution renders of pretty much all of the new 3d stuff, so if you are interested in the tiny details you can check them out. Yeah!

Cheese Man

2010-08-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the comic strip characters that I'm redrawing from back in my high school days with Cheese Man! As usual I'll show the new and improved version next to a panel from the original comics. Plus a little bit of back story:

Cheese Man made his first appearance in October of 1996 in the comic "The Super Heroes Club". He has no powers or really any special abilities. He actually has nothing to do with cheese either. Cheese Man one day decided to become a super hero and obtained his outfit from a box that appeared out of thin air. Yeah, I'm serious. Then, following a "How to be a Super Hero" guide book, attempted to fight crime, but that didn't work out too well. Eventually he teamed up with a number of other "super" heroes.

Pen and Ink

2010-08-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd change it up a bit from posting all the comic book characters. Today I have some pen and ink drawings I did a little while ago. The first is actually a church from a book I was reading. Sometimes I like to draw what I feel the author was trying to describe. I like to see if I can get down on the paper what I imagined the place looked like from the book. The second image is actually a really rough level design drawing for a game I have been slowly designing. As always, you can click on the images for a bigger version (I still feel like people don't realize this).

Silver Switch

2010-08-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

Silver Switch made his appearance in 1993 in the comic "Krud". Buit by Captain Krud, Silver Switch is a robot who's soul objective is to kill Krud. He's equipped with laser beams that he can shoot from his eyes, a shape shifting arm, and a flame thrower. Krud eventually destroys him by prying off his helmet and blowing up his head!

Captain Krud

2010-08-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Captain Krud made his first appearance back in 1993 in the comic "Krud". Captain Krud didn't last too long though. After creating the robot Silver Switch to battle and kill Krud as well as (at least vaguely hinted at in the comic...) a number of other villains (which Krud destroyed), he was killed by Krud when Krud gained his new flamethrower ability. I'm not actually sure why he was called Captain Krud. He didn't seem to have any Krud powers (the shape shifting blob ability that a number of other characters had). He just seemed like a scientist in a fancy outfit with a "K" on his chest. Although he did shoot energy balls out of his hand. It's all actually pretty hilarious now, but I was only thirteen at the time, so it was pretty awesome.

History Man

2010-08-15T09:46:00.001-07:00

Okay, here's History Man! He made his first appearance in the comic "The Super Heroes Club" back in 1996. Originally I based him on a history teacher I had in high school. For a teacher, he was extremely buff and rather tan (even in the winter). Apparently, during the summer he would work as a life guard. During class he would randomly flex his muscles. It was all quite odd now that I think back to it and I'm not even sure if I learned anything in that class.

Ironing Man

2010-08-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Back in April I posted a bunch of my characters that I had revived from really old comics I made back in high school. I had gone through and redrawn them. I have about fifty different characters that I'm going to redraw. So far I've completed about fifteen, so I still have a ways to go. I thought it would be cool to post the one's that I have redrawn with an image of their original appearance in the old comics. I think it's really cool to compare the old version to the new current version! First off is Ironing Man!

Swords and this guy

2010-08-03T21:05:00.001-07:00

I've been drawing this adventuring guy for a little while now. You might say he is a spiritual successor to an old character. Anyway, here's a few sketches of him... doin' stuff.

More FEAR 2 art!

2010-08-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of art I did from FEAR 2 that I never posted, so I figured I would now. I won't post it all here, because there is a bunch, but I will post a couple. The rest you can see on my art site.

The first is an image of the destroyed highway area I worked on from the FEAR 2 downloadable single player expansion called Reborn.

The next is from the map "Conductor" which was released as DLC in the Armored Front map pack.

Like I said, there's a bunch more at my art site including some props I made for FEAR 2!

OMG!

2010-04-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

There there, it's okay blog. Poor thing, left out in the cold dark internet. No updates, no viewers, nothing. So sad. I'm here now, it will be okay.

Man, so many things have happened. So many things. I won't go into all of them, but yes, we successfully moved. We also had a baby boy. I also got to enjoy the pain of breaking my ankle... I'm still going to physical therapy for that one. Still working at Monolith Productions. And... I think that is all. I've started a garden in my back yard. It will contain flowers now, but later it will also contain vegetables, so if you are hungry, relax!

Ok, I think I should post some new artwork. I'm working on a book. Yes a book. I'm really excited about getting it done, but there is a lot of work to do. It's a book of comic strips from my high school days. It's really just for me. The comics are held in the pages of a number of composition books and man those things are not meant to hold up for multiple years. So, it was time to do something about it. I'm going all out though, creating new art, an awesome cover, and a number of other things that will be pretty cool. Currently I am redrawing all the characters from the various comics and updating them. I have about 50 characters and have finished maybe 15 of them, so yeah, lots of work to do still. Here's some of the characters I've finished so far:

As always I would like to keep this blog updated. That makes me laugh. But really, I will attempt to try. Maybe. Okay internet. Carry on.

Quick update!

2009-06-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick little concept I did for the third level of Hijacker. If you haven't been following (shame!), Hijacker is a shoot 'em up game that I've been working on for a while now (since December... has it been that long?). I've actually gotten a bit done the last few days. I started adding music and sound fx and wow, it sure does make the game a lot more awesome. I am almost finished with level two and now really need to start working on level three. I've also got some of the training level done. I've been thinking of maybe just having a help page instead of a training level though...

In a little over a week I'll be moving to my new house! Very exciting! Although I don't updated this blog as much as I wish I would, I probably won't update until we are all moved in and set up.

Level 2 Boss

2009-05-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy lately. My wife and I are on the verge of buying a house, so I haven't had much time between house hunting and my job to work on the game. I did manage to get the level 2 boss pretty much done. There's still a bit of programming to do, but overall the boss works well and is pretty fun to fight! Level 2 is pretty much done at this point. There's some level design stuff I need to work on to tighten everything up. Then it will be on to level 3!

Here's the concept I had for the boss!

And here's the finished boss in-game!

Level 2 Hijacker screens!

2009-04-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

I've been really working hard on my upcoming game Hijacker. At this point I am close to being finished with level two. I managed to get a lot of cool things in there that at first seemed pretty daunting. I think the coolest thing I got in there are these ships that place turrets in your path. A friend of mine came up with the idea and it works really well in game! After level two I have one more level to work on and then there will be lots of tweaking and polishing! I also will need to create the menu screens and some of the short cinematics that will go inbetween each level. I really want this to be a polished shoot 'em up game when I'm done.

click the screen shots for large versions!

Hijacker Movie!

2009-04-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I just uploaded my very first movie to YouTube and it is for my game Hijacker! I had some trouble recording the video. I must have spent a good three hours testing different software trying to get it to record nice and smooth. Ugh. Finally I settled on Fraps which sort of got the job done. The problem with Fraps was that for some reason it was squishing the movie into the upper left hand corner. Very frustrating. I ended up using another program, Camtasia to crop it to the size I wanted. Camtasia though is not free, but luckily they give you a full feature 30 day trial. Anyway, the video is pretty smooth, but there are some hitches. The game itself though runs very smooth, so try to ignore the little bit of jerkiness. There's also no sound since this is still an early version of the game and I haven't gotten that far yet. Make sure to watch it in High Quality!

FEAR 2 Art

2009-04-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to taking some screen shots from FEAR 2 of areas that I worked on. I will probably take a few more of some other areas that I also worked on, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, here they are, check them out! Click on any of these for a larger version, but if you want a higher resolution, you can find them on my website.

Hijacker!

2009-04-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working really hard on my newest shoot 'em up game, Hijacker! The idea in Hijacker is that you can steal any ship (well, almost any) and use it against the enemy. Basically instead of power-ups there are ships with different weapons, strengths, and special abilities. Level one is pretty much done (there are still some things I will be tweaking). It took me a while to get it all hammered out, but finally I got everything working correctly and it's pretty fun. I've now started working on level two. Level one is on your home planet, level two takes you into space as you chase after the enemy. In space you find that they are building a super weapon, which of course, you must destroy.

Here's a few new screen shots!

click for full size!

FEAR 2 is out!!!

2009-02-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

What are you doing reading this? FEAR 2 is now out in stores! Head out there and get it! The game came out great and I'm really excited that it is finally out in stores. It's available for PC, XBOX 360, and PS3. I worked on FEAR 2 for about three years (I was on it from the very beginning) and it's nice to get to see the final product in stores and out for everyone to check out all our hard work. So get out there and check it out!

FEAR 2 Demo and MORE!

2009-01-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

click for full size hotness

Yes, finally, the FEAR 2: Project Origin demo has arrived! Very exciting times! It's out for XBOX 360, PS3, and the PC. You can also download the demo on Steam. Check it out here: http://www.projectorigincommunity.com/

But wait, that's not all. I have not been sitting idle, biding my time. Oh no, I have not. I am actually working on a new shoot 'em up game. I'm still in the initial stages of development, but it's coming along quite nicely. Once the first level is done I will probably release a demo. For now though, I give you the first screen shot!

click for full size hotness!

If you haven't yet, you can download and try out my previous shoot 'em up game effort, Alien Intent! You can check out screen shots of Alien Intent in one of my old blog posts here: http://worldofawesomer.blogspot.com/2007/08/alien-intent.html

And if it intrigues you enough, you can download it here: http://www.andrewgriffin.net/Games/Alien_Intent.zip

Mugshots

2008-12-10T21:51:00.001-08:00

Ah, well, it's been a little while now. I figured I needed to update this blog again. It seems like that is what happens. I'll update a bunch, then a few months go by with no updates, then I'll update again. Like right now. Anyway, I don't really have anything profound or amazing, just a few drawings of people I did... these are the ones I sort of liked anyway. Lately I've been working on my personal artwork some more, so perhaps I'll have something else later.

As always, click the image for the full size!

Oh yeah, and if you haven't, make sure to check out all the F.E.A.R. 2 videos. They are pretty cool and I've been working on the game for years now! It's nice to see all your hard work starting to be revealed to the public!

A friend from the sanitation department says "Hello!"

2008-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more characters I've come up with. I'm still cultivating my cartoony style. I like where it's headed so far, but I still feel like there are areas that need some more pushing. With these characters I am trying to get more of the character across in their costume. I always felt like my costuming of my characters was pretty weak, so I'm trying to improve that. Anyway! A garbage man, a cave man, and a guy in a jacket!

Click to see the full size version!

From the pages of my sketch book!

2008-09-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while now. I've been really busy at work and busy with life in general, but here are a few new sketches I have done! First I have some character sketches. Lately I've been trying to focus on a cartoony character style. I am starting to finally like where I am going with them. Last is another remake of my Fat Man character. This one actually kind of creeps me out.

Click to see full size image!

Environment concepts

2008-09-02T22:26:00.001-07:00

A friend and I are working on a platform game and I painted up some concepts of a couple of the locations. The character was created by my friend, Andrew Raines, I did the rest.

Click to view full size!

The Battle Wages On!

2008-08-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've been sick now for about a week. It is seriously pissing me off. I hate it. It just won't go away. I had a fever for about three days. Now my chest is congested and I'm hacking up nastiness. My throat is killing me when I cough. It's absolutely no fun. I haven't been this sick for this amount of time in a long time.

Anyway, while I sit here hacking, bored out of my mind, I did some drawing. This is the virus versus the white blood cells.

Click for full size image!

And a frog... uh thing.

Click for full size image!

Oddities from my sketch book

2008-08-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a few select sketches from my sketch book. I did another version of Heart Injection Man, but I think I like the original a bit more.

Click the pictures to view the full size version! You know you want to!

Mooned

2008-08-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Click image to see the full size version!

The Blood Moon Monk! I did this for the current character of the week over at conceptart.org. I didn't actually enter it though. Yeah, so there are some birds outside squawking and I want to kill them right now. I want to leap off my balcony into the tree and kill them with my bare hands. WTF are they squawking about!?

An injection to save the world!

2008-08-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

If there's a terrorist carrying a bomb full of the VX Nerve Agent around, what hero would you want to protect you?

Click image to view full size version!

Heart Injection Man of course! No chemical bombs will ever stop him. With a quick injection of atropine, pralidoxime, and dizepam he'll protect you through it all.

Prismacolor!

2008-08-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I bought some Prismacolor Markers. They are awesome, but I'm not super great with them. I haven't used color on actual paper since college I think, so I need to learn again. They are super fun though. Brings new life to my drawings.

Click on the pictures for bigger versions. How many people actually know you can click on the pictures for bigger versions? Whenever my wife looks at my blog she never clicks on the pictures... so I wonder. Maybe people just think I draw really really small?

The Magician

2008-08-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Here's something I did for Illustration Friday. The topic was "Poof!" I had this image of a kid doing a magic trick in my head so I did that, but I was original going to draw a picture of an empty wallet. Click the picture for the big version!

Also here are a couple of new sketches. Over at ConceptArt.org the character of the week is to draw three Batman villains. I always liked Mr. Freeze, so for fun I just did a sketch of him.

And then there's this:

No touching.

2008-08-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a new one. Click for bigger sexier version.

Quick update: I changed the background from white. I just didn't like the white.

Weird dream...

2008-08-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a strange dream I had last night. I wrote it down as soon as I woke up.

I started on a trail which weaved through a forest. The sun was just starting to set and the sunlight was filtering through the leaves, casting yellow rays on to the gravel path. I was riding a road bike. The trail I was on had a name. It was something like Edwin Golden Trail, I'm not sure.

As I cruised along the trail I came up on an Asian man riding his bike. He was a bit unsteady and had two little boys following him. They were also on bikes, but their bikes were small kids bikes with training wheels. Like their dad, they were also all over the place. I had to slow way down and basically walk my bike past them. As I did this I heard a bike bell ring behind me. I moved to the right as fast as I could. A Park Ranger on a mountain bike (with bell) flew past me on the left. He said something to me, but I don't remember what it was.

Once he passed I figured I should try to keep up with him. I sped up and chased after his mountain bike. The trail curved and went down a small gradual hill. At the bottom of the hill the trail came out of the forest. I was now riding out in a large hilly field. It reminded me of something you would see in Ireland. The clouds overhead were broken and a dark blue gray with beams of light coming through them from the sun. It was quite beautiful.

As I rode down the path, I saw to my left and old church made of stone up on a hill. It had an old wood fence running along side it. The trail curved to the right and I came to a sudden stop. I had ridden into deep sand and was having trouble getting the bike to keep moving. I put the bike into first gear. I recall worrying that the chain would come off. Luckily though, it did not as I forced the bike out of the sand. By this point, the Park Ranger was long gone, but two other bicyclists, one in a spandex biking outfit, the other in black jeans and a black jacket, moved passed me on the left. I didn't want to be the slow one, so I really pushed my bike hard.

It was difficult at first, but I managed to get my bike out of the sand and on it's way. The path returned to being gravel again and I chased after the two bicyclists. Once again the trail headed down a long hill through rolling hills. Everything was glowing a yellow color from the setting sun. As I went down the hill, I noticed that to my left there was a bunch of people standing in a group taking photos of something to my right. They all were using fancy telescoping lenses on their cameras. I turned my head to my right and all I could see that was of any interest was a white church with the sun setting behind it. The church was the type you might see in New England.

At this point I started catching up to the two bicyclists. Ahead of me the trail headed into a small town. The town had a "New England" look to it. Almost like a fishing town. Before the trail reached the town though, it split in two and went around yet another church. This church was made out of a dark brown stone and looked almost castle like. The two bicyclists took the right path, so I decided to go left and beat them.

I made the right choice. I came out ahead of them and headed into the town. I had to slow down to cross a small street. The trail, which was now asphalt, continued into an alleyway. As I went into the alley, the two bikers I had been chasing caught up to me. I asked them if this was where the Edwin Golden Trail continued. They just shrugged.

In the alley you had to climb a small set of stairs. I had to carry my bike up them. Next was a rusted sheet metal wall that blocked off the alley. Here I had to toss my bike over, then use a dumpster (which was next to the wall) to hope over. The bicyclists followed me along silently. They always seemed to be waiting to see what I would do next, as if they had no idea what to do.

Now we were between the metal wall and the side of another building. The only way to go was to climb up this other building. I don't recall the exact details, but somehow we all managed to climb up to the top of the building and on to it's roof (it was a two story building) with our bikes. The top of the building was tar papered. There were old pots and planters, a TV antenna, and some other junk, but no obvious way down. On the other side of the roof was a drop to the exit of the alley. You could see the next street with houses that ran along it. It was a long way down, but it seemed like jumping was the only option.

The two bikers were waiting for me to do something first. I told them that I thought I could jump down. They didn't believe me. At this point I saw a strange looking woman walking out of her house. I waved my arms and called for her. She looked up and flew over to me. Yes, she actually flew, with her wings.

She was strange looking. She was naked and her skin was very pink. Her nipples were very shiny, as if they had plastic wrap tightly stretched over them. She had little red wings on her back that lazily flapped keeping her afloat. Below her knees she did not have feet like a human, but she had red colored feet of a bird.

"What are you doing here?" she asked me. "We are just trying to get down to the trail." I said. She then said something about it being a bad time. I'm not sure what she meant. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye to the right of the woman I noticed a gray gargoyle looking thing. It slowly moved into my view behind the woman. It was not flying, but moving along the ground below us.

Suddenly the strange woman looked surprised. She quickly returned to her house. The gargoyle moved closer to the building we were on. At this point my memory is a bit fuzzy. I lept off the house towards the gargoyle. I started shooting it in the air with a machine gun I suddenly had. I don't know where it came from. I just had it.

I landed on the ground, unscathed, and kept firing. The two bicyclists up on the roof began firing as well. It was very loud and there was smoke and debris everywhere. You could no longer see the gargoyle. Finally, the firing stopped. I turned to the houses which lined the street. Out of one of the top story windows a cartoon head of Rambo popped out. A giant pop-up alert (like what you see in Windows XP) appeared above the Rambo head. It said something about keeping the noise levels down during gun fights. I attempted to click the "X" in the pop-up to close it.

I woke up.

Off to work...

2008-07-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more quick sketches I did. I decided to color two of them for some reason. I like Earwig Man. I may do some more of him doing ordinary things in life. I wonder if people would accept him?

Sometimes, in order to confuse my wife, I like to put a fork in the spoon section of the silverware drawer. I don't think she likes it.

Well, time to say goodbye to work and hello to vacation! I'm gone!

Color Con!

2008-07-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick color concept for that space soldier guy from yesterday. I may or may not bring this to completion, not sure yet, but I figured I could at least post where I'm at.

Get your ass to Mars!

2008-07-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of new sketches. The John Carter ones are from the current topic over at conceptArt.org. Basically every few weeks they have a new character topic and you have to come up with the character. I pretty much never enter, but I like to use the topics. This one especially appealed to me for some reason. You can check out info on John Carter on the wiki. Also a sketch of some dude in futuristic armor stuff, because it's cool.

Here's some Krud for you...

2008-07-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Got some new artwork to post! A concept of a character I came up with in the seventh grade, now reborn! I did this type of thing a while back with the same character, but I always thought that I could do better. This version is a bit better.

Here are some recent sketches from my sketchbook. Some of them are weird, but don't be frightened. Sometimes I just draw weird things.

Time to ROCK!

2007-12-02T14:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, once again. But see, I haven't forgot this blog. So, I'm married now. Yup, that's a pretty huge announcement. The wedding went smoothly. They always say that there will be one thing that just blows up at your wedding, but there wasn't anything that went wrong and the wedding was great! For our honeymoon we went down to Disney World in Florida for ten days. It was awesome! I've never been able to visit Disney World for that much time. We did just about everything, but even with ten days there were still a few things that we didn't have time to do. We will save those for the next time we go.

In recent news I have decided to take up the electric guitar! Yes, I know, nobody thinks I can do it. But to those people I give you the finger! There's this awesome used guitar store in Seattle that I went to. I had a couple of guys from work who play guitar go with me to help me pick out something that was really good. I ended up buying a nice used Les Paul guitar plus a old Celestion amp (it's very vintage). I've had the guitar for about two weeks now and practice about an hour or more everyday. I have these wicked calluses on my finger tips now, it's... wicked. So far I can play "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple (I think it's them) and can sort of play "Back in Black" by AC/DC. I'm also learning how to just play the guitar by learning the power cords and major and minor chords. It's really fun! I really enjoy it. In fact I was a bit worried that I would buy the guitar and amp and then play for a week and then give up because I didn't like it, but I was wrong. It's super fun. I actually find it relaxing too.

Alien Intent DEMO

2007-09-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all of the three people who read my blog! It's been about a month since my last post and I now have a demo of Alien Intent for your enjoyment.

You can download it here: http://www.andrewgriffin.net/Games/Alien_Intent.zip

The demo is a work in progress, so there are still a bunch of bugs (they are listed in the read me). None of the bugs are game breakers though, so you can fully enjoy the first level and its end boss! Controls are listed in the Read me that accompanies the game, but it's pretty easy. Arrow keys move you, space shoots, Z and X fire the missiles and bombs. The game is a horizontal side scrolling shoot 'em up game. It's similar to an R-Type or Gradius game.

Feel free to let me know what you think! :)

Alien Intent!

2007-08-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm at work on a horizontal scrolling shoot-em-up game (shmup)! It will be similar to R-type or Gradius. I'm having a blast working on it. It's a nice break from my actual job to work on sprites and old school graphics instead of 3d. Check out a few screenshots:

I entered my game into a contest for shmups, so you can see my current work in progress by going here: http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/index.php?topic=1320.0

I'm not dead.

2007-06-29T19:41:00.001-07:00

Holy crap! It's been much too long. I'm not dead, as some of you may think, no, I am still alive and kicking. You might be wondering "What happened?" Well, I really just had nothing new to update. I got into this "I can only update with new artwork." mode, however, I never had any new artwork, so I didn't update. It's not like there are a ton of people checking out this blog anyway. I think this post will be read by myself, some accidental web surfer, and... probably myself again. Ha!

It's been a long time since I've updated and many cool things have happened. The number one thing that has happened that has been great is that I am engaged! I'll be getting married on October 27th. It will be awesome! I won't go over everything else, but hopefully I will start updating this blog again. I really want to do some more art, but usually when I get home from work (where I do art all day) the last thing I want to do is more art. We will see.

Six times the justice!

2006-10-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

Decided to take one of the sketches I did for the six gun cowboy and turned it into something final. I think it came out pretty good! I'm pretty happy with it. I think my favorite part might be the cheesy tagline I added in at the last minute! Haha! Click the picture to see the higher resolution version.

Six Gun Cowboy

2006-10-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

Man, I'm having some fun drawing this weekend! I have a bunch of time to do nothing this weekend, with the girlfriend away and all, so I figured I'd spend some of it working on my own artwork. Anyway, here is a sketch of the six gun cowboy. I came up with this idea back in college of this cowboy type character who had six guns, three holstered under each arm. I'll have to dig around my old sketch books to find the old sketches, but here's some new ones I did.

Goblin for Hire!

2006-10-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to do that goblin I did earlier over. This time though, I decided to go with a different look/style. I like how it came out. It's a little odd, but I like it.

Sketches

2006-10-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of sketches and stuff from my sketch book:

Ah, nothing but some random sketches! I'm going to do another version of that goblin I think, but in a different style. Excitement!

Goblin

2006-10-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's like I don't even exist anymore. It's been a while. I have a new piece of art though. It's a Three Eyed Goblin. I was going off of the current Character Art challenge over at conceptart.org. They wanted a full front, side, and three quarters thing, but I didn't want to do all that. Sometimes I feel like they are a little too ridgid. Oh well, it was still pretty fun. Honestly, I'm not super happy with the goblin. I got kinda bored toward the bottom and just quickly finished it up.

So, what has been going on? Lots of good things I suppose. I finally left 24 Hour Fitness. That place is a dump. They kept screwing me over and over with the payments. My credit card that I was using to make automatic payments expired, so I brought them a new card and updated my information... so they said. Three months later they want more money for missed payments. Apparently they hadn't updated the information, so I updated it again. Next month, they are asking more for missed payments. WTF!? Again, they hadn't updated the information. The people that work there are dumb shits.

Anyway, I moved over to Golds Gym. It's SUPER nice. I'm talking little flat panel T.V.s on every cardio machine plus with their own dvd players. There's a movie theater for doing cardio in. The place is super clean and the people are nice. It's awesome! It's a little more money, but in my mind it is absolutley worth every penny. 24 Hour Fitness is like a back alley where you see bums doing drugs and taking a crap. Golds Gym is like a fancy five star hotel. Hot! Oh yeah, I also updated the title banner. The other one was ass, I'll admit it. This one I like better... for now.

More from the Fat Man

2006-08-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, here are the next three episodes of Fat Man. I'll try to get more up faster, but I'm usually really busy everyday so I don't really have much time. Maybe on the next update I'll have something else! Also, I updated the title thingy to have a graphic. I honestly don't really like how it came out, so I'm gonna change it eventually. For now though, it will remain.

Fat Man

2006-08-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

I have a special treat for you all (which I think is like five people... maybe less)! Back in high school and some time after that I created this stick figure super hero guy called Fat Man. I would just make the comics when I was bored. I have 30 of them. Here are the first three. These one's are not that great, but don't worry they get better. I'll post them all up eventually. And yes, they are a bit beat up. The first one has even yellowed it's so old!

His name was Mary.

2006-08-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

The bar was one of those smoke filled dim lit bars that people go to empty the pain that resides in their souls. It had one of those pool tables with the green lamp shaded light hanging overhead. You could barely see the balls. The bar was covered in day old patrons, waiting for their turn to die in their liquid misery. You could almost see the demons hiding in each of the liquor bottles, waiting to do them in. The front door of the place opened with a jingle. In stepped a man. He had a tough face, dark and weathered, and little did the patrons of this shit hole know, he also had a tough attitude and a tough fist to go with it. He entered the bar and headed over to the usual spot, a dim lit booth in the back.

His name was Mary. You might think that Mary is a girls name. Well, you'd be right, but you'd also would be dead. You see, Mary was made fun of back in school growing up and his anger just kept building inside of him. Eventually it all just burst out like a giant popped zit spraying puss everywhere. Nobody makes fun of Mary's name anymore. Mary likes it that way.

In the booth across from Mary sat a small fat man wearing a leather jacket that was one size too small. One side of the jacket seemed to be covered in wet mud. We will call this man Timmy. Infact, let's call him Fat Timmy. It seems stereotypically fitting for him... or maybe it doesn't. Anyway, Fat Timmy was unshaven and looked a little spaced out. Fat Timmy slept in a gutter last night, hence the mud. He smelled awful. Mary looked at Fat Timmy with dark, squinted eyes. Mary didn't care what Fat Timmy did last night. He was there for one thing, the job. The job would pay Mary's rent and that's all Mary cared about. The rent and his action figure collection. Boy did Mary like his action figures, but we won't get into that right now. Fat Timmy cleared his phlem filled throat, hocked a massive wad outwards from the booth, and then pulled a brown envelope out of his coat and slid it across the scum incrusted table.

Mary took the envelope and opened it. Fat Timmy cleared his throat once again "The job is simple. Get it done." With a groan and a pop from Fat Timmy's knee, he climbed out of the booth and waddled off toward the front door. Mary opened the envelope. Inside was a sheet of paper with one word on it. Mary frowned and made a fist with his right hand crumpling the paper. He tossed it to the floor and stood up from the booth. His combat boots crunched something on the floor... probably a roach. "How the hell am I going to find that?" Mary said with his gruff tone. The few patrons in the bar quivered at his bad ass voice. Mary was bad ass, and that scared them. Anyone with the name of Mary had to be bad ass. Mary stepped over the crupled paper residing on the old floor which read "Updates."

-----------------------------

Which brings me to the fact that I haven't updated this blog for quite a while. I don't have an excuse, but maybe Mary will help me out. Haha! It's kinda like this: I work all day at a computer, the last thing I want to do is more work updating this blog when I get home, so yeah, that's my excuse. Hopefully, and I strain "hopefully", I will update this thing a bit more. Maybe I'll even have more on Mary and his action figure collection. We all want to know about that. :)

Darkness is all I see...

2006-07-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Whoa! These updates are getting further and further apart. What's been happening? Well, honestly, we are getting real busy at work and when I get home the last thing I want to do is sit in front of my computer, so I haven't been updating as often. There it is. To make up for it I have a special goody. A flash animation an old friend of mine and I made back in college. It's not the best thing ever, but I still think it's cool. We were actually working on a second episode, which was coming out really bad ass, but we never finished it. Maybe I'll post up the unfinised episode later. I'll have to work on it a bit so it will load right and stuff, but yeah, maybe I'll do that. It would be cool to show it off.

Anyway, I'm getting off track. The flash animation is called "Blindfolded Guy: Serial Noir". It's based on my friends comic strip, which if you are interested, you can read here: Blindfolded Guy Comics. His comic strip is actually one of my favorites and I wish he still created them. It has a sort of dark humor to it which I always enjoyed. Send him an email if you read and like them, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

The picture above is something I quickly drew up for todays update to present the flash animation. So, without wasting any more of your time, here it is! Blindfolded Guy: Serial Noir

Krud!

2006-07-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hello all. It's been a little bit. Whoops. I need to get back to updating this more. I've been busy, so my blog was put on the back burner to simmer a bit. Here I am though, back with new things. The picture above (which can be clicked on for a higher res version) is of a character I created back in 7th grade (1993). I decided to give him more of an updated look. Back in 7th grade and on until the end of high school I used to create tons of comics. I would draw them in composition books. I have a total of five books, four of them are completely filled. After high school I never was able to get to finishing the fifth. Anyway, Krud was a character in one of my main comics that I drew. He is basically a shape shifting (although he can only shape shift his hands) blob who goes around fighting crime and other weird enemies. The last Krud comic I created was in August 1997, so it's been a while since I've drawn him. Over the years I would draw him differently as my art skills increased. It's pretty cool to look from the first Krud comic all the way to the last and see how he evolved. As a special treat, here is the very first Krud comic I drew way back in 1993: Krud #1

The Axe Man!

2006-07-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes, it's been a little bit now. Sorry about that. I've been on vacation and at a wedding. My dad got married down at Disney World, so I was down there having a great time. Lots of fun. Anyway, since I've been back, I decided to create a new piece of art. I had fun making this one. He's some sort of Nord type axe guy or something. I particularly like how is head turned out. I like his expression. Anyway, again this is a more cartoony style then what I normally do, but I like it and I have fun. That's all that matters!

Click on the picture for a higher rez version!

Dance

2006-06-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another one for www.illustrationfriday.com. The topic this time was "dance". The image that popped into my head was two guys in a gun face off. In a way, they are dancing together, so to me it felt appropriate. Click on it for the higher res version.

Jungle

2006-06-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Thought I would do some art. This time the style is pretty far from what I normally do, but it was a nice change. I did this for Illustration Friday. If I was a jungle kid, this is what I'd be doing. Creating this was a lot of fun and I will probably do some more. You can click on it for the high resolution version.

The Middle Lane

2006-06-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

Arrrrgh! No, I am not a pirate, but that is the sound of my frustration with how stupid people are when they drive! It aggrivates me to a level of aggrivation that has an end boss that you need to destroy in order to complete the game. Yes. So I'm driving to work today, as I normally do, and there is one of those middle turn lanes in the road. Up ahead is an intersection with a light that I turn left at to get to where I work. Well this dumb shit who is in front of me goes into the turn lane. I figure he is turning into one of the earlier drive ways where shops and such reside. I keep on driving, I'm basically right next to him now, and he never turns. I'm getting to the intersection, and I need to turn now. The middle lane is actually changing into the white lined turn lane for the turn signal from the solid yellow lined lane. The dumb shit has used the middle lane all the way to the intersection. This is like 1000 ft or more of turn lane usage. Now he is in my way. I thought about flooring it and zipping in front of him. In fact, I wish I had done it. People are so stupid. That is not a lane to drive in! It is a lane to stop and turn in. So, like I said, I need to turn. I turn on my signal, have to brake to get behind this jack ass, and turn in. Well, he decides to make the situation even better. He stops while he waits for the turn signal to go green, but he stops so far back that I now have half of my car hanging into the regular lane. This shit has about two car lengths open in front of him and he will not move up. At this point I am pissed and prepare myself to unleash the sound of my horn. Litterally as I'm about to pound down upon the leathery hide of my steering wheel the light turns green and everybody starts to go. Lucky for him. Although the horn would have basically done nothing. I really wish that my horn would unleash angry swarms of bees on dumb ass drivers or something. Maybe the bees could go forth and let the air out of peoples tires, that would be nice.

Toyota: Our Greedy Friend Part 2

2006-06-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, after waiting for over a week for a part that I was told I would get in a day, I finally was able to pick up the turn signal light for my car. So, today I headed over to the Toyota Dealership. Whenever I park at a car dealership I'm always afraid that when I come out my car will be gone because they sold it. Yeah, I know, it's silly. But I'm always picturing coming back out of the building and seeing a sales person and a customer walking around my car and haggling for prices on it. "Excuse me, how much for this MR2?" The salesman, seeing a quick sale, walks up with a grin. "Well sir, this one is a great buy, kept in good condition, and it's fast! This car is for you!" I guess it's just a fear of mine. Add it to the collection.

Anyway, I got to the dealership and headed inside. I walk up to the parts counter and one of the guys who works there (and had to deal with me a few days ago) looks up. As he looks up his face literally changes from sorta happy to completly unhappy. It actually looks like he wants to walk out into the middle of the road and get hit by a car, like that would be more pleasing then having to get my part. In fact I would have to say that that is how the entire parts department feels. Like everybody hates it there. It is their hell. I know I wouldn't want to work there.

I ask the guy for my part and show him my reciept. He asks me if they called me. "No, but I was supposed to get this part a week ago, then they told me I would get it on Friday, then they told me I would get it yesterday. So, it should be here." He grunts and walks into the back. I wait a minute or two and he returns, empty handed. He opens his mouth to say something, then looks down and grabs a piece of paper from the counter and makes kind of a "Ahh" sound. He once again leaves. At this point I'm wondering what I should do if they don't have my part. Do I get angry? Do I just shrug it off? Should I make a scene? As I contemplate these choices the guy comes back with a box. He hands the box to me. I say thanks and leave. On my way out the cashier (who always seems to be wearing an extra low cut shirt with her goods spilling out... rather large goods) looks at me with a "Did you pay for that?" type of glare. I ignore her. I have my reciept in hand anyway, and step out the door to freedom.

Now that I have my part, it looks like installing it will be more of a challenge then I originally thought. Apparently I may have to remove the inside of the fender cover to get at the turn signal light so I can unbolt it. Hopefully it won't be too challenging, but with cars things that look simple always end up being a huge deal. I originally was just looking for the orange cover that goes over the light, but the part I got is the entire signal assembly. Now I see why it cost $40. The orange lens is glued over the light, so I'll need to replace the whole fixture anyway. Soon though, I will return the car to its original sexiness.

Do Not Refrigerate After Opening

2006-06-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

I made myself a couple of hot dogs today (well, turkey dogs). Once they had found their way into the buns, I opened the fridge and pulled out the ketchup to douse them with the cool red tomato paste that looks similar to partly congeled blood. As I did this I had a realization. The ketchup does not need to be refrigerated. Everyone I know puts the ketchup in the fridge once they buy it from the store. That includes me. But why? No where on the package does it say that it needs to be refrigerated after opening, yet we all put it in the fridge. I'm baffled by this. It makes no sense to me. Somewhere in time we were all taught that the ketchup must be placed in the fridge or it will not be happy. Will it go bad if left out? Will it taste better if warm? Or something worse? I'm not quite sure. It sits on the shelf at the store out in the open air waiting for days on end for a new home. Does it know that it will be placed in a dark and chilling environment? How does it feel once imprisoned, far from it's tropical paradise? Anyway, I find this puzzling. And as much as I would like to leave the ketchup out on the counter after I use it, some part of me, something almost instinctual, makes me place it back in the fridge.

Open 24 Hours

2006-06-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Last night my girlfriend and I headed over to the do it yourself car wash to wash my MR2. It went well and the car is, as the name of the place suggests, looking good for a fifteen year old ride. While we were at the Looking Good carwash (yes, it really is called that), I noticed that the sign for the carwash had "Open 24 Hours" under it. This got me thinking. It's great that it's open forever, but really, who's going to be using the car wash at 3am? I thought about it for a while and then it hit me. Gangsters! Of course, that's the only people I can imagine actually taking advantage of the late night hours of the Looking Good carwash. I just imagine them driving their Cadillac up, popping open the trunk, and hosing out the back of blood and old body parts from that nights "hit". They don't want dead body parts rotting away in the back of their trunk, that wouldn't be very professional.

Toyota: Our Greedy Friend

2006-06-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

As I announced in a previous post, I purchased a used 1991 MR2 Turbo. The car is in great condition, but on the passenger side towards the front it is missing the orange lense that covers the turn signal. This isn't the corner of the car, it's the side of the car, so it's a small maybe six inch orange plastic cover that covers up the blinky light underneath. I decided that, in order to make the car look whole again, I must go to the dealership and order this part. This morning I did that. I headed over to the dealership, which is on my way to work, and went on inside. When I got there I had no idea where to go to order parts. There was this big muscular guy, one of the car salesman, eating a donut when I came in. I kinda pointed at him and said "Hi, maybe you could help me?" He responded with a muffled "Thur, mmm thorry." His mouth was full of half a honey glazed. He quickly swallowed, obviously a bit embarrassed. I told him I was looking for the parts department and he walked me to the back of the show room and lead me right to the counter. I rang the little "I desperately need help" bell and a woman showed up. She went through her computer and found the part I needed. In my head I'm thinking that this part will cost maybe at most twenty dollars. Well, I was in for a surprise. The woman announces to me that the part will cost me FOURTY DOLLARS! Holy crap! Fourty dollars??? Is she insane. I told her how ridiculous that is (I'm sure the part cost ten cents for Toyota to make). She agreed with me and mentioned that there are alot of parts that are odly expensive. Thanks Toyota! You made my day! I ordered the part, paid for it, and left with a tear in my eye and a empty leather case in my pocket.

Down with EB Games!

2006-05-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today the game Hitman: Blood Money comes out. You can check out this review from IGN: Hitman Review. Notice that on the right column it shows that May 30th is the release date. Today is May 30th. I pre-ordered the game from EB Games a few months ago and decided to head over there to pick it up. I had my receipt in hand and walked in. One of the lowly EB employees looks at me as I walk in and mutters in a whiny voice "Can I help you sir?" I walk up to him, pull out the receipt and proclaim "I am here to pick up my copy of Hitman: Blood Money! I have pre-ordered it, here is my receipt!" To that, the dumb ass employee looks up from my receipt and mumbles "Oh, well that isn't out till tomorrow." This puzzles me. It comes out today. I ask him a question "Well, you have them here though, right? I mean I pre-ordered. Might as well give me a copy since I would just be getting it tomorrow anyway." Now he looks worried. In fact, the other employee (this one is wearing a nicer button up shirt) takes notice of my question. The first employee says "Well, yeah, but it's ILLEGAL (he says this part extra loud for some reason) for us to sell you it." It's illegal? What the hell? He's telling me that it's illegal to buy a video game that comes out today (that I PRE-ORDERED!) because he has to get off his fat lazy sweaty hairy ass to go in the back and grab a copy. The other employee steps up to the plate. By the way, I'm extra annoyed at this point. "Sir, the game isn't out till tomorrow."

At this point I look over to the first employee that is probably wishing by now that he hadn't greeted me. He is in the back room area reaching up to get the game. However, he also hears the other nicer dressed employee and retracts said arm from game box. Now I'm extra annoyed +1. "We should have the game in tomorrow, probably sometime after 3pm." WHAT A LIAR!!! THEY HAVE THE GAME! THE DUMB ASS WAS ABOUT TO GRAB IT! GIVE ME THE GAME! I didn't say that. But, I did manage to drop the F-bomb on my way out. "That's fucking stupid! You have the game." The first employee responds "Well, the release date is tomorrow." I am no longer annnoyed. I am angry (which in hindsight may have been taking it too far). I verbally spit back, my cheeks feeling hot "Your website said today was the release date! Why not release stuff when you say it will be released! You know, like movies! They come out on the day they say they will!" Dumb shits! I swear!

The first employee trys so hard "Yeah, well always add a day to game release dates because that's when..." I end it there. "Whatever!" And shove my way out of there. In my mind I knocked over the Xbox display, destroying it's fancy little flat screen monitor, as well as knocking over a display for a game based on the new CARS movie coming out. Of course, that was in my mind. Anyway, when I got home I tried calling the customer service line for EB Games, but they were closed. However, there's always tomorrow. Oh yes, they haven't heard the last of me yet. I think I will try to get the game at Best Buy instead and just get my money back at EB Games. I won't be buying from them anymore. If I was a Hitman, EB Games would be number one on my list.

The Quest of Titans

2006-05-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I downloaded the demo for Titan Quest. In a nutshell it is a Diablo 2 clone. I mean, it is an almost exact clone. The graphics are better and in 3d and it has a Greek setting, but other then that it's Diablo 2. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Not at all. It's been a while since there was anything out that was the mindless fun that is Diablo 2 and this might just fill that void. I played through the demo and completed it. At first I was unimpressed. It was a rip off of my beloved Diablo. As I got farther into the demo I really started to enjoy it. I accepted that it was a clone of Diablo and started having fun. Yes, I do want to be a Spartan warrior! Yes I do want to kill lots of mythological creatures! Yes I do want to chew bubble gum and take names! If you like Diablo then download the demo and give it a shot. Just accept what it is and you'll do fine.

MR2 Turbo

2006-05-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

Ah ha! Finally I have another car! After doing a ton of searching for another car I found it. I bought a 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo. This car is fantastic and I would have to say that it is my favorite out of the cars I have owned. Previously I had an 1991 Isuzu Trooper. Next was a 2004 Acura RSX Type-S. Then a 1992 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. And now the MR2. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed all of my previous cars immensly, but the MR2 is something special. It feels like a full on sports car. It has rear wheel drive, a mid-engine, t-tops, awesome flip up headlights, and no power steering! Yes, that's right, there is no power steering and it's great. I feel like I have been spoiled with powersteering in my previous cars, but I really really enjoy driving without it. Sure, it's harder to turn at low speeds, but the road feedback and handling just feels so much better. My girlfriend and I took the car on two back to back eight hour trips this weekend and the car did awesome. Next up I'm planning to get some new tires on it and then take it autocrossing! Insert really big grin here. With this new car, I think I may have grown a full inch! Click the picture for a nice big version.

Helmet

2006-05-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I bought this really nice full face helmet (it covers your entire head and face, similar to a motorcycle helmet) so I could participate in the sport of autocross. Autocross is basically racing for a best time in a parking lot. The course is laid out with orange cones and you must drive your car as fast as you can through the course. So like I was saying, I got this awesome helmet. In fact, I would have to say it is one of the coolest things I have ever bought. A few weeks ago, as you may know, my car was destroyed by a dumbass who decided to back into it. Now I am carless. I have no use for the helmet. I am not getting rid of it though, oh no. I think I will wear it while I play Gran Turismo 4 on my Playstation 2. This way I can at least sort of experience what it would be like to race with it. Maybe I will wear it when I ride my bicycle, or while I'm working at my computer. You know, to protect me from any head trauma that may occur. I figure I've got to get some use out of this nice helmet while I work on getting another car. That way I won't feel like it was a waste of money, which it isn't, cause it's so cool.

Ikea's New Car

2006-05-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

A new car has just come out from Toyota. It has one of the worst car names: The Yaris. I honestly think that Ikea should be selling it. It sounds like something that Ikea would make, like the Yaris bookself or the Yaris desk. I'm wondering if Ikea had any help with the name. Even the voice in the commercial sounds like it could be someone from Ikea with that accent. I can just imagine one of the Toyota guys walking through Ikea with his family. He's been racking his brain for months trying to come up with a cool name that will help sell Toyota's new car. He spots a nifty looking end table called the Yaris. A lightbulb appears above his head and now we have a new car from Toyota with one of the dumbest names ever. I did some internet research and found out what "Yaris" actually means. Apparently it is a minor greek god, the god of health. Lame! Sounds like furniture to me! I have also learned that this new car is to complement the Scion line of cars and attract todays mainstream youth. Good luck with that.

The Block

2006-05-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I haven't had much to write about the last few days. I feel like I have a bit of writers block. My girlfriend and I managed to fix the problem with the painful seats on our bikes. We ended up buying a couple of new ones. BIG difference! Other then that, not much is really going on. I'm currently looking for a used car to buy. Actually, I'm just looking. It will probably be a little bit before I save up the cash to actually purchase one. I'm looking to buy a nice 1985-1990 sports car. Something rear wheel drive probably like the RX-7 or maybe the Corolla GT-S (the old one with the hatch back). My previous car was damaged by one of the many stupid drivers out there. I honestly cannot believe how some people are allowed to drive. It's INSANE! Particularly when it's my car that I have put lots of money, time, and work into gets backed into by some dumb ass! Arrrgh! No, I don't want to talk about it right now. It just pisses me off. Anyway, I really don't have much to write about, but it looks like I managed to fill up some space. My birthday is Monday, send me something nice.

Let the Pain Begin

2006-04-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend and I bought some bicycles today. We got them from Target, which is awesome because they were only like 80 bucks each. The bikes are nice too, the only problem is the seats. I don't know what they are made out of, but it feels like you are sitting on this ass splitting metal spike. And on a ten mile bike ride it can start to hurt... bad. Currently, as I type this, my ass is very sore. Sitting hurts. We are going to have to buy a couple of replacement seats if we are going to ride some more. The last time I rode a bike it was like five or six years ago. I don't remember it hurting my ass so bad. Perhaps all these years of sitting in an office chair has made my cheeks weak. Or maybe the designer of bicycle seats is a complete idiot. I need some ointment.

The King

2006-04-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

So tonight, I'm watching tv when I see one of those Burger King ads. You know, the ones that have the "Burger King" in them with that plastic face. Well, those ads are creeping me out! There's one where the guy wakes up out of bed and glances out his window. Standing in the middle of his lawn is the Burger King. He's just standing there staring into the window. The guy who just woke up looks puzzled. If that was me, I would be pissing in my pants! Some grinning plastic face king is standing in the middle of my lawn with a burger! A burger! And he's just staring at me with that blank plastic stare. Someone needs to make a horror film with that Burger King dude. That would scare me shitless. I managed to find one of the Burger King commercials at their website, click the one called "I-Beam" (I warn you though, it's creepy): Fear BK!

Sticky fun for Everyone!

2006-04-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

We all remember the Super Soaker. It was the greatest squirt gun advancement of all time. Over the years it has been upgraded, and upgraded, and upgraded. Now though a new upgrade has come along. Apparently water was just not enough. The (say this in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice) Super Soaker Oozinator Blaster from Hasbro not only shoots water like the original Super Soaker, but it now also shoots jizm. Yes, you heard me right. It shoots... well, rather it ejaculates it's sperm onto unexpecting targets. Most likely these targets are kids. Don't believe me? Here, watch the video: Oozinator Video There, see (also notice how the first kid being hit seems to be enjoying it). Wow. When Hasbro designed this gun they had to realize that the "ooze" looked like something else. Even the "pump action" seems oddly familiar. I can just see the slogan: "Hey kids! First jerk off then blow your load on your friends! Sticky fun for everyone!" First the Wii and now this. Again, I hope this comes with tissues.

Wii

2006-04-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

So we finally get to find out what the actual name of Nintendo's next system will be and in my opinion (and it seems like most of the internet) it is pretty stupid. Introducing the Wii. Now, when I first found out about the Wii, I pronounced it "why". I, however, was wrong. It is pronounced "wee". Like wee I am trying to have fun, but can't get past why they named the game system Wii. Perhaps that is why they named it that, because when you say it you automatically sound like you are having fun. Maybe it's a sales gimmick so when people hear other people playing the Wii and saying Wii constantly (most likely with laughter) they will assume that it is fun and will go out and purchase it themselves. Wii also sounds like what you do when you go to the bathroom. Not sure if that is also a selling point. I guess it could be... in some weird way. What I just can't imagine is little kids talking about playing with their Wii. "Mommy, can I please go play with my Wii?" says little Timmy. Mom turns around with a cringe. "What did you just say Timmy? You want to play with your what?" Timmy responds happily "I want to play with my Wii! Please?" Mom stomps down her foot and grounds Timmy for a week for his bad language and sickly desires. Soon every little boy and girl will be playing with their own and other peoples Wii's. Peoples Wii's just sitting, naked, in the living room. A disturbing image indeed. Let's just hope it comes with tissues.

Napkins

2006-04-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

I was at the doctors today with my girlfriend. I was sitting in the waiting room... waiting and then came the call. My phone rang. It's girlish little chime calling stares from the other people waiting. I dragged my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the number on the digital read out. Ah yes, my good friend Nature was calling. I dare not answer the call in the waiting room though. That would be messy. I got up and headed out the door of the waiting room, down the drab hall and found the bathroom. I entered. It was a single room with one toilet and a peculiar metal box on the wall. I of course knew what this was already, but this metal box was labeled in a funny way. Well, funny to me anyway. On the top, imprinted in the metal was the word "Napkins". Instantly I imagined sitting there next to the toilet, feasting on a quarter pounder with cheese, answering the call of nature, and disposing of my used napkins into the available box. Later I mentioned this to my girlfriend. Bad idea. She laughed at me and said something along the lines of "Only a male would think up something like that." Well, I am a male and I thought it up. So there.

World of Awesomer

2006-04-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

And the clouds parted and a beam of light spilt forth. The earth trembled, the trees swayed, and the World of Awesomer was born!

Welcome to the first post. Here I will be posting my observations, rants, videogame reviews, art work, and whatever else I feel like. Amazed? You should be!