'Bout time I got this updated!!! Redid the Links page to remove comics I no longer read, add new ones, and correct broken links wherever I found them.
Also, I now (finally) have a con report on Conifur 2002! Also with some pictures of myself at the con, courtesy of Rocky Raccoon and a digital camera!
HUZZAH!!! Final Furtasy Chapter 9 is out!!! And it's a big one. I'll try to be working a bit more on it than I have been. Finally I got it finished...so on to the next chapter! Grah! =^.^=
Not much else to speak of...Sorry 'bout that. Oh well. Chapter Nine! (points to Chapter Nine)
I seem to be making more apologies than content updates lately...
Not only am I still in classes at O.C. (I'll be transferring in the fall...to the University of Washington!!!), I also have a near-full-time job at Jack-in-the-Box. Naturally, this has a tremendous effect on my free time. Even so, I bring double updates! No Final Furtasy VI yet...Me sowwy 'bout dis. But I do have a new idea up: Final Fantasy XVII. A sketch of what it might look like in the future...if I'm lucky. It seems to me, that once I get the plot a bit more fleshed out, it'd actually make a good basis for a comic strip, in the tradition of RPG World, Adventurers, and 8-Bit Theater. Perhaps in time...
Also, I've been wearing my tail around town, including to classes, and this attracted the attention of the college newspaper, The Olympian. They did an article (after interviewing me) and I scanned and posted it on my Furry Page. Yarf! =^.^=
Apologies and new stuff!
I've been hard at work in classes, which is why I have been so lax with the updates. However, the fruits of my animation class are now on the Pictures page! Also, a new chapter of Final Furtasy VI has been...MiSTed! Sorry, but Chapter 9 of the main story will be up sometime soon. What with all my classes, plus job-hunting, plus a term paper...I simply haven't had the time. But Spring Break is coming up...and I'll MAKE the time. Also the links page has been updated.
And now for something completely different...
I've created an entirely new story, based on a game called Uplink (of which more information is available at Introversion Software); it's in my writings section... Also I have a progress update on Chapter Nine: I have half of it completely written, and the other half roughly written! Unfortunately the part that's finished is the latter half. That's simply because the events of that portion, were events I've been thinking about more, so they flow more easily. Goodie/Teaser/Spoiler: the part I'm talking about, is the escape down the Lete River and the encounter with Ultros the octopus.
I apologize for not having updated in so long. I'm still working on Chapter 9. I have some new artwork up, at least. I'm really proud of the way I shaded this. I'm taking an animation class now, hopefully it'll help me with character design and such. I HAVE to get a job, because now I have a monthly bill--not only for this website, but also to my parents for the small "extra IP address" fee the cable ISP charges. Don't worry--I will find one. I'm sure you've noticed that the Quote of the Day isn't exactly daily anymore... I'm going to make an effort to get one up at least every two days, hopefully much closer to daily. -sigh- Times are tough. But at least they aren't tougher! Things could always be worse, things could always be better. It's important to just live with what you have.
Another update to the Links page; some more comic strips. Also, you may have noticed that there are no longer any banners on all but the main page. This is because I finally went ahead and purchased (well, it's a monthly charge, but it's a blessing that the first month is free because I'm in a small amount of financial trouble--nothing to worry about, though) an upgrade to my hosting service yesterday. Now, I have more space (like I ever used even half of the space I had!) and more importantly, a bigger maximum filesize. I'll be able to host that little movie from high school Internet class on my own site, instead of linking back to the high school's copy of the file! But most importantly, there are NO MORE BANNER ADS! Woot! I may at some times post large media files for various reasons, but unlike most of the rest of my site, such things will not be permanent. Because of bandwidth charges, I'll probably end up removing any such files (with the exception of my movie, and possibly a few other things later on) as soon as the purpose for which I posted them is served; plus or minus a week.
Why did I switch to a non-free hosting package? Due to the decreasing income from banner ads, freeservers.com had decided to cut the free hosting package deal. In other words, it's still free, paid for by banners, but you get less. It wouldn't have affected me as much as some others; only one file was over the new 256KB limit (the old one was 512KB) and I wasn't even close to the new space limit of 12MB, much less the old one of 20MB. But it was other, little things: like not having FTP access anymore, remote file linking being active if I accepted, NO MORE STUPID BANNER ADS, things like that. I may (repeat, MAY) put up a guestbook or something like that. I'll also have to remind myself to re-check the Acceptable Use Policy to make sure they haven't changed it so I'm inadvertantly violating it or anything.
Another point you may have noticed is that I haven't been posting much new artwork, story chapters, or other writings lately. Well, let me give you YALE (Yet Another Lame Excuse): Not only have I been busy with college classwork and such, whenever I get free time nowadays, I either play video games (Boo! Bad human!) or practice sketching. Said sketching being a serious attempt to improve my drawing ability so that I will be able to produce much better quality artwork. Three projects are in the works (as far as non-school items go): A secret single-drawing art project, a secret type of fan-work that is one of many being collaborated on as a Christmas present for an artist (no name, it's secret yet!), and of course, Chapter Nine of Final Furtasy VI. I'll let a bit of the plot slip for those of you who have played the game: Chapter Nine, as I have planned it, shall run from the arrival at the Returners' Base (where we left off in Chapter Eight) to the party split on the Lete River (Choose a scenario...kupo!). A little bit about my intentions for the story: My original intent for the story was as a project to improve my writing/storytelling skill. So far, so good. The way things are going, I'm trying to balance a few things in the story: 1)Adherence to the original plot. Not the whole sequence of events, the general plot. 2)Emotions. Angst, joy, comedy; they're all present. But too much or too little of any one, and it's not just deviating from the original game, it makes it feel less of a story and more like just words. I don't like putting Terra through the pain of half-memory, but it's essential that she have realistic emotions given the situation she's in. For some reason, I seem to "feel" the characters as portrayed in my story, more so than the agglomerations of 16-bit sprites and dialogue seen in the original game. 3)Detail/pace. I've been told that at some points, the events seem to happen too fast; characters make uncharacteristically snap decisions. This is caused by my too-close adherance to the events in the original Final Fantasy 6 game. I'm trying to provide more background for certain rationales, and this may, in fact, involve revising completed chapters slightly. I really don't want to take anything OUT unless it's really bad; if anything I'd be putting clarifying details or dialogue in. The reason I don't want to remove anything unless I really have to is that I'd like to think Final Furtasy VI will stand as a sort of history of how my writing skill develops over the course of its writing. Nevertheless, I do want it to be a story that stands alone, even if it means revising early chapters. I'm also trying to provide more detail. Not so much background information that it spoils the story (for those who haven't played the game, of course), but rather detail enough that you can picture the setting and the people even if you haven't played the game.
Good grief, I think this may be the longest news item I've ever written! Anyways, that's a little bit of background info on Final Furtasy VI and its development, as well as the joyous message of no more banner ads! Yay! }=D
New picture of me on the Furry Page. It's my con badge from Confur 2001! I also wrote up a con report, go see it here. Also, I have updated the links page, fixing broken links and adding a few new comics. Yay!
And another chapter of FF6 is posted! Chapter Eight, with Cameo #2 (Roger of CRFH), a fourth party member, and Martial Arts Action! Writings page, go see it, you know the rest. }=)
YES!!! The (very)long-awaited seventh installment of Final Furtasy VI is finished! It contains the first Minor Character Cameo™, Brisbane of Unlike Minerva as the Shadow Character Exposition Guy (who wasn't really in the game; Edgar told the party the [considerably shorter] story of Shadow.). In case you've forgotten, it's accessed by the Writings page. Go ye forth and read.
Yes, you heard right, it's my FIRST COMIC EVER!!! Well, fan-comic actually. I finally got with it and drew a gag I'd thought up for Umlaut House. Granted, the panels don't exactly fit the way they're supposed to, but hey, it's my first attempt, I think I did well considering. And I saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with my brother this last Saturday. It was a blast! Extreme funny, but I wouldn't want to discuss it around easily offended folks. (That and I'm too lazy to type up a movie review for it--heck! I just finished a fancomic, cut me some slack! };) Anyways, the UH fancomic is posted in my Pictures section. Newtch.
Yet another late-night update, and again no Chapter Seven. I've been really busy lately with relatives coming over and all. But the good news is, another pic! I've left the Kitkala pics in the "New" section of the main page, because it hasn't really been that long since they were posted. This one took me an hour to draw, half an hour to ink, about two hours to color...and about two hours for scanning and printing. Yeesh! I know the times because I was on a deadline. It's actually one of three pictures used in a birthday card for my dad. The other finished picture looks cool (one picture semi-transparently on top of the third) but the characters are so small there's not much detail. This one has less to do with the birthday message, but I like the detail so I pulled it and renamed it "Newtch." If you question my knowledge of English in the naming of that image, you haven't seen any Kevin Smith movies. Next week: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! Snoogens!
Woohoo! Not one, but TWO new pics! Actually, they're two different colorings of the same Kitkala drawing. I like the blue-dress one better; I'm more proud of the shading on that one. But I still wanted to do one where the dress's pattern was remeniscent of a White Mage robe. }=) Anyways, consider this then a TRIPLE update, because I also have the latest chapter of MiSTed Final Furtasy VI! I know, I know, you're really waiting for Chapter 7 of the real thing. I'm working on it, trust me! It's going to have the first Minor Character Cameo Appearance(patent not pending, and never will be). No, I won't say who. You'll just have to wait! Mwa ha ha ha ha! So anyway, go read the MiSTing of Chapter 4: Castle of the Sands, and view the goodness that is my new pictures. Go! Go ye forth!
I am now happier! I got an evaluation version of Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7, and I like it so much I'm going to buy it so I can use it for all my image needs! It'll put me out $99, but it's definitely worth it--much more so than Adobe Photoshop's awful $600 price tag. Anyway, I drew a picture of Kitkala, and put the uncolored version up on my pictures page. Go and see it whilst waiting for me to finish coloring it. I've been experimenting with different styles (especially faces) to try to find what works best for me. Kitkala's face on this picture was inspired by the realistic-looking animal faces on OzFoxes' Faux Pas. Expect more art and writing from me soon. How soon? Well, let's put it this way: I haven't been getting much done lately, not because I haven't been putting out enough effort to draw and write, but because I haven't been putting such effort out often enough. }=)
I am now happy! I learned (pretty much) a new (albeit slow) graphics software package, made a birthday card for my stepsister, and updated my website with some actual content! The data I had on my hard disk when the meltdown occurred is still, sadly, lost forever. But I'm working on re-writing Chapter 7 and the Flying Toasters scripts I had on it. The Quotez are gone for good, I'm afraid... But anyway, this summer I was planning to really kick it into high gear with drawing and writing. One thing I forgot though: I need a job!!! So most of my time is spent out pounding the pavement (no not literally!) for a job, while still having time to come home and write a bit. If only real life were like The Sims in one important way: three different solid job offers a day online, guaranteed. But such is not the case, and I must live in reality. Most of the time, anyway...};) At any rate, I'm rambling on too much, so just please check out the new pictures, 'k? Thanks.
I was very sad for a few days. My hard drive died with almost no warning. There were a few crashes and surface-scan-necessary deals, but even if I had noticed the signs, it didn't do me much good. I had only ever backed up very little of my hard drive. But you know what? The really important stuff--the irreplaceable stuff--is where backing up might not have done me much good anyway. These files that were lost were my Quotez backlog (I had gotten it really big! :( ) and Chapter 7 of Final Furtasy VI. So expect delays in getting that chapter out, and maybe a few skipped Quotes of the Day to get the backlog full again. To compensate, I'll try and write some more stuff (when I lose text it always gives me a block until I can get started again) and MiSTings for all of you. But let it be known that I got a NEW hard drive (ten fewer gigabytes so it'd be cheaper, but that makes little difference when I was only using the first five in the first place, and it was a 30gig!) and upgraded my RAM, TRIPLING the available memory for running programs. Once I get the upstairs scanner working (wishful thinking!) and find an inexpensive (not cheap, but not Adobe Photoshop exhorbitant, either.) graphics package, you should be seeing some new art from me. If I draw enough, I may try getting an account on the VCL. No, I can't give you a link because it's uncensored, and I have this little agreement with the nice folks at freeservers.com, who wouldn't DREAM of cutting off my service because I'm a nice guy and follow the Terms Of Service Agreement. (Please?)
Well, finals finished with no bad results--the bad stuff came from not enough doing of homework during the term. Not that I didn't have the time because I was slacking off: I had PLENTY of time, I was just a bit lackadaisical about getting the homework done. That all changed around Spring Break, but it was too late to pull my grades up to where I want them. Next year, I'll have a balance between schoolwork and fun. Honest.
In any event, I finally got my computer hooked up to the family Internet connection yesterday, so now I'm taking the opportunity to make a late-night update, bringing you Chapter 3 of MiSTed Final Furtasy 6! More hilarity ensues.
I feel prepared for my final final (not a typo, meaning the last final of this college year), so I wrote ANOTHER chapter of Final Furtasy VI. Reason? I thought it would be irresponsible of me to waste time on video games on the last day of my finals. Like it's any less irresponsible to spend the same time doing something creative but totally unrelated to school... Anyway, Final Furtasy VI moves into Chapter Six now, with a little more of Edgar's backstory, and Terra feeling more comfortable about magic. I really enjoy writing...
Some of you may be worried that with all this updating, I'm not studying for finals enough. Rest assured, I DO have my priorities straight, and I'm doing fine. This update brings a long-overdue revamp to the Links page. I can just hear you yelling "Finally!!!" Now just about every online comic I read is linked to there, among other things. Also, Sobe joins us in the third installment of the MiSTing of Final Furtasy VI.
Yes! Another update! I have MiSTed the Prologue and Chapter 1 of FFVI! Sarcastic commentary on plot holes is fun! And I promise, a much-needed update is coming soon to my Links page!
What? Another update so soon? Yes, I finished Final Furtasy VI Chapter 5! And I told you it would take me less time! ...What? You say it took nearly a month? But it only took me a single day to actually write it! }=) Seriously, though, I found myself with some free time, and decided it was time to get in gear and do chapter five. But wow, what a cliffhanger! (If you've played the game, you know what's going to happen, but...well...you can imagine the suspense!)
Finally finished coloring my portrait! You've seen the thumbnail on the main page, but have you clicked it to see it in all its full-size glory? Well, not actually full-size: The original drawing, when completely scanned and touched-up, weighed in at an astounding 53 megabytes as a bitmap. Reducing it directly to JPEG would have brought it down only to a little over one megabyte. So, after colorization was complete, I reduced the size to a width of 1024 pixels, with locked proportions. This was STILL too big pixelwise for the main page, so I decided to make a thumbnail, for the first time. The thumbnail is a straight-up reduction in size to 10% of the original. So to imagine how big the original was, put 100 of the thumbnails in a 10x10 grid. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? (Okay, I'll stop this digression.) In any event, it is the picture I had been talking about earlier. It's on my Pictures page, my Furry page, and clicking the thumbnail on the main page will take you to the larger version also. Is it not nifty?
On another note, my VR-birthday (the anniversary of the day my character on FurryMUCK was created) is coming up, on May 9!
Made a new page, the Sketches page, to hold all those pictures I made while bored that are nice, but not good enough to finalize and post on the Pictures page. For starters, I put in four sketches I did while bored of statistics. Multiple Regression and ANOVA tables... Also scanned in and touched up my newest artwork...colorization is coming!
I have posted a picture on my pictures page. The first drawing (or anything else) that I colored using Photoshop! Joy! I learned a lot...which I'll be using when coloring my next pic, which I haven't gotten back graded, yet. I think that that (the one I haven't scanned yet, not the rusty thing) is my best work to date, so you're in for a treat when I get it colored to satisfaction.
Yes! I finally finished off Chapter Four of Final Furtasy VI! Fans (if there are any) rejoice! I know I may have mentioned that Kefka would make his appearance in this chapter, but, well, he sort of did! It just got so long that I thought I'd call it a chapter and use Kefka's theme for the background of the next chapter. }=) Don't worry, in all probability I'll get it done much faster than this one! (Actually, the writing itself doesn't take me that long--it's getting around to it that eats up weeks--or months--of my schedule. I am in college, after all--I have to go to class, too!)
Back from Spring Break, I bring you tidings of great stuff! New to my writings page is a song written by my brother, Sobe. The Salmon Song. My most major update, however, is a TOTALLY NEW SECTION! Yes, I've finally mustered up the courage to post some of my drawings that I have made. Currently only two are up, but expect more in the future!
Whew! Finally finished off Time Trav'ler Guy! It looks a lot better, now. Matches the original song much more closely. And, the surprise! Another American Pie spoof, this one based on FurryMUCK! Like Time Trav'ler Guy, Anthropomorph Ode contains a lot of in-jokes, but it's still funny, IMHO. Chapter Four coming soon, honest! And I'll also be updating my links page soon.
Some of you may be wondering about my history. For the others, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to accept that my new Character Description is all I have for this update. More will come soon, I promise! I'm working on making "Time Trav'ler Guy" more complete, and Final Furtasy VI Chapter 4. I'm also...no, I won't spoil it. But fans of my lyrics shall rejoice ye merrily soon.
I uploaded a favicon.ico file. Those of you with Internet Explorer (or Exploder}:) should see a tri-tailed fox icon in the location bar, and Favorites menu (if you were nice enough to bookmark my site!). Those of you without IE, please note! I am NOT snubbing you, it's just that I wanted to add this functionality to my webpage, and it turns out only IE has it. So it is. Wondering how I did it? Well, I found this icon editing program at favicon.com, but it wouldn't work for some reason. So I downloaded the whole thing to run on my computer rather than in Java, and edited a fox icon from a Theme Pack I downloaded somewhere. Gave it two more tails, and voila!
Just switched some music backgrounds around, most notably the ones on the Final Furtasy VI main page and my furry page.
Finally! Chapter Three is up! I bet some of you have been waiting for that! In any event, it's called The Treasure Hunter, and it's up today! Sorry for the lack of update lately. I've been involved with other things. And I also put up my brother's drawing of me on the front page; it's been posted on the furry page for some time, but I only just now remembered I needed to give it fame on the front page.
Yippee Skippy! A new year, a new millenium (or not, if you're not a 'purist') and a new picture! I had my birthday on the 3rd, so I am now 18! @wheee!! Allan Ecker was kind enough to draw me a birthday picture; it's on the front page.
I have calculated the Number of the Beast. No, not 666, but 6^6^6, as defined by Robert Heinlein in his novel by the same name. If you have no clue why, go and read the book. It's great, and the number comes up early so you won't have to read through the whole thing just to get the reference. (But it's fun to do so! Read it!) It's on my writings page, although it's technically a calculation done with a small Java application that I made for just that purpose. Go to it, if you dare...
New picture! This one by Timberbram of the Class Menagerie discussion board. It goes with a story by Askre of the same board; the story is a crossover between a few characters of the comic, and a few characters (including me, of course!) from the forum. It's a good read! Upcoming: Chapter 3 of FFVI, and a special project: The MSTing of Final Furtasy VI! Yes, I will be doing a Mystery Science Theater parody of my own story! I'm gonna wait till I've got more of the regular story up before I start doing the sarcastic commentary, though. Fun!
Term papers...those two words that are the bane of any college student. Even when going through such trials, I still manage to keep my page maintained. Plus, I even uploaded the newest chapter of Final Furtasy VI--Memories Lost. On my Writings page. Go. Read. Enjoy.
Augh! I had intended to continue updating the Quotez over Thanksgiving break, but it just didn't happen. So to make up for that, I've posted another song, the Twelve Days of FurryMuck. It's on my writings page. I'm back now, though!
A new picture up, this one of my Ultima Form. Drawn by Allan Ecker (a.k.a. Volair of FurryMUCK and Umlaut House fame), it is good. If you haven't seen it...Wait a minute, I put it on my main page, so you have seen it. Never mind then.
Finally got Chapter One of Final Furtasy VI up. Go read it, it's good! If you have any comments, praise, constructive criticism, etc. feel free to email me (no flames please!!!). Also bolded the text on my Furry page to make it easier to read, like I did on my Chrono Trigger FAQ.
I put up my Furry Code (on the Furry page, of course) and made a slight modification to the Final Furtasy VI Prologue. Chapter One coming soon, I promise!
Yay! I went to Conifur Northwest 2000 last weekend and, although by the time I got there a lot of stuff had already ended, I had fun and registered for next year! I got a T-shirt (of course) and have put up a picture of my Con Badge on my Furry page. Also changed the midis around a bit (you may have already noticed the different music the main page plays! Don't worry, the Moogle Theme is still available, on my FFVI story page!), adding a new music file.
Home for the weekend! I've scanned and posted on my Furry page, a picture my brother drew of me. That's pretty much it.
At last! I wrote and put up the first part (Prologue) to my newest and biggest self-induced writing project, Final Furtasy VI, a furry novelization of Final Fantasy VI. It's on a page accessed through the Writings page, but it's a page of its own, since I believe that it will be much longer than any other project I've attempted, not to mention the fact that I'll be putting it up in chapters. Oh, and Flying Toasters is in the works! I've got a few scripts sketched out, and Scott--I mean, Sobe--'s working on the art. Be patient, and ye shall be rewarded. In the meantime, check out Final Furtasy VI!
Put up a new song lyric: Who Am I?, to the tune of Terra's theme. It's on the Writings page.
Finally got up the Furry page! Converted my Hobbies page into the Links page (which is what it really was anyway) and added some comics to it--more are on the way. Took out my School page and put in a link to PLU's website instead. BTW, if you're wondering where the pics and sounds that were the main draw of that page are now, they're on my 'Hy00man' page. }=) In any event, I've also moved the Quotez to my writings page. I'm working on a Furry novelization of Final Fantasy 6 (3 for those of you who never knew the Japanese numbering) and will post chapters of it as I get them done. I've also found out that my brother is EXTRAORDINARY at drawing, and will put up some pictures of me from him as soon as I can.
And yes, Flying Toasters is in the works! Scott's working on the characters, and I've GOT to get to work making scripts for the strips. I don't want to make any promises, but we should have a hefty backlog by the end of Winter Break 2000-2001, and just might start posting by January.
I've started making my Quotez (nearly) daily (After all, it is the 'Quote of the Day'!) and for those of you who don't know, the previous Quotez are off of my 'FUN' page. Major revision in the works for that especially! Also, I've taken down that nearly-a-year-old photograph of me, from my senior pictures, in favor of a great picture from Persimmon! Somebody finally drew me! Woohoo!
Whoo! School has started and it's off to college for me! Yeah! This means, of course, that I'll be having a lot less periods when I can update my page, but when I do, I'll be able to do some major updates. Not much to say really. Changed the background music on some pages, added a new song lyric, and, of course, updated THIS page. Anyway, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, it might give you false hopes for my page, but my brother and I are working on making an online comic strip. I know, I know, there're dozens of those out there nowadays, but still it'd be something enjoyable (and funny!) for the two of us to work on. A challenge, too, as we're working from two different cities. Flying Toasters will probably debut sometime before Spring 2001.
I put up a new Writings and Song Lyrics page, moved some stuff around, and hope to have major update soon, along with more stuff for the writings page. Oh, yeah, and my site is now 50% less vain.
I have deleted a bunch of no-longer-needed stuff, decided NOT to put up a Family-and-friends page, and in general just modified my page to reflect a new sense of personal-info paranoia that seems to be catching. Now my site is 100% viewer-friendly (I hope!)!
I'm baaack!!! I've gotten settled in my new domain, and am just getting started with expanding my page and hopefully putting some more stuff on soon! Since this is no longer a school-sponsored page (i.e. I don't have to work for a grade on this) I am debating whether or not to actually put up a page about my family and friends; even though in the event I do, I won't be putting up any personal information, it's still not really something I want to broadcast--yet.
I hope to see many more hits over the summer, and I will be putting a Furry page up soon!
If you have no idea what the heck I'm talking about when I say Furry, head here for a site with some good info, a HUGE amount of links, and a good explanation of what Furry is.
More updates coming soon! (I hope.) }=)