Have I Ever Mentioned How Gorgeous Zune 4.0 Is?

Words of wisdom from met2art (granted, not about this software, but anyway):

This looks very, very good. And I really don’t care who it’s from. I prefer to attribute excellence to a single product based on its merits, rather than the manufacturer or branding. Microsoft and Apple have had many failures, but also many successes in different areas. Are the tallies balanced? I do not know, nor do I care. But, I do know that to simply assign "win" or "fail" to any product, especially when just a rumor, based solely upon the imprimatur is arrogant and ignorant. For that reason, I find it difficult to accept the supposed awesomeness of the alleged Apple tablet, simply because it’s from Apple.

 

 

The fonts are only screwy in the screenshots because my system is in Chinese. I assure all English-edition Windows users that Zune will turn out to be the most beautiful media player you have used in a long time.

In other news, Microsoft should be releasing download links for Office 2010 Beta on Nov 30 (and ending the Technical Preview program) so Xeo and Sugi can go get it soon.

An Unused Preface to the Prep Boards

I love fantasy. High fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, crackpot theories – as long as it’s bizarre, I’ll read it. Watch it. Whatever. So in Sec 1, when coursework seemed like a big fun chance to do whatever you wanted, I decided that my coursework would be firmly rooted in fantasy. That sentence was not an unfunny joke.

I first had an inkling of what I wanted to do my coursework on during the December holidays last year. Being a LOTR fan, I had read the books, watched the movies, then borrowed more books on the art of the movies. Those were really amazing: to see all that concept art, all those designs and hard work just for one film. Okay, one epic blockbuster film, but one film nevertheless. Anyway, the point is that there were a lot of great character/creature designs done for the LOTR movies – especially since the world Tolkien created was so rich and there was so much source material to work from. Having also recently watched Guillermo del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth – which had several really cool monsters in it – and also read a childrens’ book series I found at the library called The Spiderwick Chronicles, I was more or less set on doing creature or character design because…well, it’s cool.

At first I wanted to try designing things for South-east Asia, or even Singapore – like “A Guide to the Native Faeries of Singapore” or something like that. But then in 2009 I discovered the excellent urban fantasy webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court, which features all kinds of interesting creatures inside a very cool school. That was when I decided to focus on designing for the school. Since coursework would be my last big project in this school, I figured I might as well repay the school for all it’s done for me by infesting it with imaginary monsters. I wanted my coursework to be something juniors would look at when they were bored and hanging around the canteen. I wanted my coursework to be engaging, not just pictures that make you scratch your head and guess at the Meaning of Life when you view them. What’s more engaging than books? A lot of things, actually, but I like books, so there.

I kept wanting to do character design even until two months before coursework was due, because I like drawing people, but in the end I abandoned it because coursework was ultimately still an assignment. And in assignments, you do what gets you marks. Not what you want to do. Though you can certainly try.

In Which I Unknowingly Induce Manic Laughter In A Xeo

me says (copy-pasted convo from another window):

*Me says:
*oh hello
*you are PJ (someone working on the same project)?
*uh
*hello?
*is anyone there?
Pj says:
*uh yes yes i’ve received your email and msg
Me says:
*oh
*oops
Pj says:
*when i’m done i will email it to you?
Me says:
*sorry I might have gone a bit overboard
Pj says:
*hahahaha nah but
Me says:
*heh
*sorry

Xenia says:
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
*OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me says:
*what
Xenia says:
*HAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAH
Me says:
*wht!!!!
Xenia says:
*DNO !!! THE WHOLE CONVO IS CRACKING ME UP
Me says:
*what
*tellme
*wtf
Xenia says:
*’are you there?’ LOL!!!
Me says:
*you sia
*o
*siao
Xenia says:
*no no not ARE YOU THERE
*its
*’hello? is anyone there?’
*LOL
*LOLOLOLOLOL
Me says:
*what
*what?!
*what so funny?
Xenia says:
*IS ANYONE THERE?! that’s like peering into a deserted house and ASKING THAT SAME QUESTIon
*SO CUTE
Me says:
*LOL
*wtf
Xenia says:
*and she sounds so deadpan LOLOLOLOL
*’sorry i might have gone a bit overboard’
*HAHAHAHAHA
Me says:
*thats me doofus
Xenia says:
**cracks up*
*yes I KNOW
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
*SOUNDS SO COMIC!!!
*[you] IS A COMICCCCCC!!
Me says:
*wtf
*i’m a GRAPHIC NOVEL
Xenia says:
*i hope its not very graphic
*LOLOL
*ARGH
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Me says:
*FAIL
Xenia says:
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Me says:
*LAUGHTER FAIL
Xenia says:
*HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHhahahha
*OMG YOU ARE CRACKING ME UP FOR NO GOOD REASON
*NO GOOD REASON AT ALL!!!!!
Me says:
*FAIL
Xenia says:
*STOP BEING A GRAPHIC NOVEL
Me says:
*i should probably change my font to impact
*oh
*i borrowed like
Xenia says:
*no effect on me, i dont read failblog
Me says:
*graphic novels this time
Xenia says:
*…ok
*HAHAHAHAHAH
*HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE?
Me says:
*HELLO? IS THIS XEO’S BRAIN? I HAVE A DELIVERY
*HELLO?
*ANYONE THERE?
Xenia says:
*WHO SAYS THAT ON A MSN CONVO!!! should be be OI!!! TALK TO ME!!!
Me says:
*HELL-OOOO
*Me says (copy-pasted from the other window):

*oh
*i see
*say…
*are you compiling the scripts?
Pj says:
*i only got one script (which is your group’s) so I guess I’ll just add in the extra details?
Me says:
*oh briliant
**brilliant
*can i continue with my edits then
*because I have a lot of things to change in the script
*just that i thought you would be using it so…
Pj says:
*i guess so!
Me says:
*oh great then

A FEW LINES LATER

Me says:
*but i added stuff
*can i post our convo on my blog
Xenia says:
*no >:( you dont do censorship at all
*its embarassing! HUMPF
Me says:
*i’ll remove your na-
*oh wait
Xenia says:
*’say…’ LOL OMG OMGOMG
*OMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
*wth!!! that sounds like archie comics/random manga
Me says:
*!!!!
WHAT
Xenia says:
*!!!! JESSSS!!!!!! why dont u ever use funny english like that when you talk to me
Me says:
*?!
Xenia says:
*like … those kinds of funny phrases that no one uses anymore ! they’re ALMOST ARCHAIC. ’say…’
*HAHAHAHAHAHA
*cute.
*sounds funny!!
Me says:
*NO
*not archaic
Xenia says:
*ok fine not YEt.
Me says:
*yet
*people like you will be the death of the english language
Xenia says:
*i guess…it’s only a matter of time until i start replacing ’shit’ with shingz and WOW! with BOOMZ
*and like, y’know, prings and biginees
Me says:
*i will sever all ties with you
Xenia says:
*h0w ab0uTt nA0o wHeNn iIEx t0rrk___ lYkk dIiS ?
*damn
*i’m losing my touch
*its so SLOW and hard now
Me says:
*AAARGh
*GET IT AWAY
*IT HURTSSS, PRECIOUSSS

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Andúril

Andúril

Originally uploaded by krysjez

Well, it’s finally done. I present to you Andúril, Flame of the West.

Well, it’s my first time trying to actually paint something realistically on a computer. I hope it turned out okay. The cross-guard looks kind of flimsy, and the designs on the blade are sharper than I would have preferred.

It has recently come to my attention that my computer screen displays things really bright as compared to other peoples’ monitors, so if this comes out looking underexposed on your computer, please let me know and I’ll upload an alternate version with a Curves adjustment

Photoshop, Wacom Graphire4 tablet, and almost 5 hours (I think).

WIP – Anduril

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The it looks really bad now that I’m viewing it on my home computer. The computer I used at school has a very saturated & contrasty display, so it looked much better when I was painting it.

So, it’s Andúril, Flame of the West. I should probably get started on an entry for a competition, but…it’s Andúril. How can I not complete it? Did this after we checked AEP scripts this afternoon. I got 79%. Fail. Our teacher says it’s a ‘good’ mark.

Untitled

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HP – invent

In Other News: I have revived my dead tumblelog or tumbleblog or tumblog or however the heck you spell it, at non-plus.tumblr.com, and it will be trying to fulfil what Sigma+ promised but failed to do. I don’t think I’m allowed to use the word “fulfil” that way.

Stop-motion seems to be getting more and more popular lately. Or is it just that I’m viewing more videos nowadays?

Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.

Filmed, edited and directed by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth (matthewrobinson.co.uk and tomwrigglesworth.com)

Music: Hold Me Back by Round Table Knights (roundtableknights.ch)

One Ring To Ping Them All + DirectX Comparison

Hey, Deepest Sender, what gives? You’ve deleted three of my posts already when all I wanted to do was change the category they were in.

So now I have to re-post the stuff it deleted. Here we go:

Selected posts from The Straight Dope, compiled into 1 image.

I will admit that I have only the foggiest idea of what DirectX does. I know you use it in games, and I know that the higher the version number, the better the results. But in my games I never really could tell the difference, mostly because I don’t play graphics-intensive games. (I tried turning on DX10 graphics in DDO, but couldn’t tell there was a difference). Still, the video is pretty nifty.

ScribeFire Fail?

[via Long Zheng]

So I’m trying out ScribeFire, which I last used when it was still known as Performancing. I use the WordPress.com backend and Windows Live Writer (for image-heavy posts) most of the time, but they’re both really slow. While Writer is feature-rich, it’s a bit too heavy for times when I just want to dash off a quick post. The WP.com backend is just…slow, even though I have Turbo (downloads common files to your computer via Google Gears or something) enabled. And I don’t think it’s my connection that’s the problem. So, ScribeFire it is (for now). It’s functional, that’s for sure, but it comes out pretty ugly on my system. Example:

Another thing that sucks is how the Firefox spell checker seems to be active, but I can’t right-click on words to – oh, wait, it seems to have fixed itself.

 

The extension does allow for adding images straight from your computer (you can choose to upload via FTP or the blog’s own API), Flickr and related media from Zemanta. However, I’ve always found Zemanta pretty useless unless you’re a news-focused blogger, so yeah. It seems to be having problems with uploading images. Sigh. I’ve tried three times already, and it gets stuck on "uploading" – which then prevents the entire post from being published. I just added in my API key. Hopefully it’ll work now. Nope. Still broken.

 

Heh heh. So now I’m writing this using Writer. Goodbye, ScribeFire.

On Conceptual Art

All those who have had the misfortune of having to listen to me try to explain my feelings towards conceptual art, read But Where’s The Craftsmanship? by Denis Dutton, on page 32 of today’s Straits Times.

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