State of the Kal: Feb 5 Edition

With the Black Beast of Aaaargh! no longer rearing his ugly head--at least, for now--I'm starting to feel myself again, which means I'm feeling at least partially motivated today. It's not a lot, but it's enough that hopefully I can at least begin to start tackling some of the projects I have lined up for me.

My life's not exactly busy lately, but over the last couple of weeks I've gotten a lot of offers that may actually keep my head spinning for the next few months--which may be part of the reason the BBoA came to visit. In the past I've had a habit of biting off more than I could chew, so when it even feels remotely close to that I sort of freak out a little.

Yeah: I have the stress tolerance of a goldish living in a house with 10 cats. I only have to see the possibility of something going wrong to turn me into a floater.

But, with my depression and anxiety pulling back into their little shells for now, I've got the opportunity to work on some things that hopefully will keep me busy and happy for the next little while, and since I'm pretty excited (albiet nervous) about stuff I've got lined up, I'll do some sharing.

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First, and probably the most relevant to anyone reading this: I got asked to help out with SILC, aka the Sims International Literary Conference. I can't say a lot about it right now since it's in the early planning stages and even I don't know a ton of the details, but basically, the SILC is going to be an online festival for writers in the Sims community to gather and share their work, participate in writing contests, win prizes, etc.

It won't be taking place until this summer (like I said, it's in the early planning stages) but in the meantime I'm working on some promotional stuff for the event, and later on will participate as one of the judges for the contests. I'm really, really excited, because this is an amazing opportunity to meet (hopefully) some great writers, to experience some Sims writing at its best, and to maybe even do some short stories of my own.

So, over the coming months I'll probably talk about it a bit more, but in the meantime, here's a few of the promotional images I cooked up:

For those of you interested in participating, keep your eyes and ears out for more news--though I'll try to keep some news posted on here as well for anyone interested.

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Another thing I got asked to do was to to make a background image for my guilds forums using some of my uber drawing talent. At the moment, my guild is based in the game Warhammer Online, but that's likely to change relatively soon with the release of SW:TOR.

Keeping that in mind, I've gotta whip something together that embraces not only our past games but our future games, and make it awesome enough for a bunch of guys to stand staring at it for the next few months/years. So, basically I'm going to be doing two drawings--one for each side of the forum tables--and also create a matching header image to suit our guild, which is named "Virulent" because we're supposed to be all nasty hardcore like a deadly illness or something.

Considering most of my artwork has been happy-fluffy up to this point, this is going to be a bit of a challenge... But a good challenge. I need to break free of my current artistic trends! Web-design is nothing really new to me, but doing artwork specifically for a site is something I haven't done before... So... I guess I'll have to see how it goes.

Keep your eyes out for sketches and crap being uploaded periodically at a blog near you! (... This one, obviously.)

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So, that's some of the things I have cooking up for the next little bit--on top of applying for my Canadian residency and possibly looking for a job, hopefully at a video game store--so hopefully it turns out to be some nice diversions from the aaarrrrggghh!!! generally permeating my life.

To go on a complete tangent, I'm currently trying to beat Assassin's Creed, but am thinking about skipping to Assassin's Creed II because the first one is a pile of horse-shit when it comes to content diversity--the only thing keeping me playing it is the story... which I can access online any time, so... nnngh. Pry skipping ahead soon.

That, and because Ezio is possible the sexiest man ever to be programmed into a video game. Mrowr.
I mean, look ---------------------->
That with a sexy italian voice... Mmmm.

I've also got one eye fixed on The Sims Medieval, which has been a rather small blip on my radar until recently, when they started revealing more information about the gameplay; I have to say, I'm actually kind of impressed, and sort of want to buy the game. I'm not sure I'll pick it up on release, but I'm very, very tempted. Dragon Age II, though, I am definitely picking up, as well as SW:TOR when it comes out.

I'm also trying to bring myself to play Starcraft II... But... Argh. I am just *so* terrible at RTS games. Instead, I've been playing such gems as Lego Harry Potter (I'm almost done completing every doo-bob in the game, woo!) and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (Predator missles ftw!), which probably give me about as much nerd-cred as watching Desperate Housewives.

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Anyways, that's enough ramblage for now. I hope, if not to get some story written, to get into my game and actually get some more "footage" (aka screenshots) taken for future posts, because hopefully that'll give me the pizzazz I need to get started again.

Until next time... Adios!