MatthewMeyer.net

Today was a pretty nice day. I usually do not look forward to Wednesday, since I have 3 classes in a row, but today was nice. Classes were laid back and easy, the weather was very nice, and I got out of my last class since the teacher is up in New Hampshire or Vermont or one of those hippy states. Unfortunately since I didn’t do any video work tonight, that means I will have to do a bit more over the weekend. Not too bad as long as I space out my other work appropriately.

Remember how I told you my Illustration teacher didn’t like my idea anymore? Well today he changed his mind again, so things are all go again. Weird? Yes, but I’m not going to complain. My Mama Fratelli portrait is nearly done, and I’m getting happier with it, it just needs a few touches on Friday. And since I didn’t have Digital Video tonight, I got to finish my master copy earlier than I expected. That painting… woah boy… I was an idiot when I chose it. I mean, what was I thinking?! It has seven figures! That’s just plain stupid. I bit off way more than I wanted to chew, and it shows. The piece looks okay as a stand alone piece, and I am pleased with it in that aspect, but unfortunately it is not as close a copy as I really would have wanted. It looks nice, just not a very clean reproduction. But thats okay, I know that my painting skills need work, and I did learn a lot from doing this piece. Next time I will choose a less difficult piece, which will give me more time to get the exact details down. I’m just really glad to have one big project down, and some others getting closed to finished.

This weekend I do have a lot of work to do on my advertisement and my video project. If I can knock them out early, I may have time to start a side-project before the next wave of projects hits. I’m really surprised at the ammount of work I have this semester. Not unhappy, just surprised. I planned all these extra projects and am now realizing that I have no hope of actually completing them. I am rambling, I must have said this all before… I guess that means there’s not much more to post. Goodnight!

Well, it’s not quite money for nothing and chicks for free… but I’ve been selling my old, out-dated D&D books on eBay and making a decent amount off of them — about half the price I payed for them, which is not bad for something so old. And with the money I make from selling them, I can buy used video games and DVDs really cheap from eBay, so I can spend my paycheck on more important things, like food. *insert Kool-Aid guy “Oh Yeah!” here*

So today I’ve got a lot of work to do, despite it being my “day off.” I need to run to the bank to deposit my paycheck, withdraw some quarters so I can do my laundry, do my laundry, go the the post office and mail some previously mentioned eBay items, buy some groceries, take my car to the mechanics to fix however many bizarre problems it has right now, and then get home and start my homework. I need to finish my N.C. Wyeth master copy, which I haven’t worked on much since I last mentioned it. That’ll take almost all of the day. When I’m finished, however, I have more work to do… see, yesterday my teacher changed his mind and decided that he didn’t like my idea. He said I can still do it, but how can I be motivated to do an idea that I know the person responsible for my grade doesn’t like? So I’m still going to do it, but I’ve been desperately trying to come up with another idea, so I can have 2 pieces to turn in. Hopefull he’ll like one of them. Also, I should be filming for Digital Video today, since it is my free day, but I really don’t have the time. So I’m going to have to plan some things to film and do them on Thursday before work, and then go to the labs some time this weekend and insert the film into my project. I can’t spend too long on it, though, because my illustrations are due Monday. No due date has been given to the Mama Fratelli portrait, so I think I’m good on that one for now…

I’ve decided to go to Japan this summer, with a little bit of convincing from a friend. I think she just kind of sped up the process, since I probably would’ve ended up deciding to go there anyway. The thing is that I’ve wanted to go to for a really long time, and like I said earlier, college really is the best time to go. If I missed out on it, I don’t think I’d be beating myself up about it later, but it would be a missed opportunity. And I really could use a big and expensive adventure before I head into the life of poverty that is the professional art world.

I thought about tagging something about picking up foreign women and getting “chicks for free” to that last paragraph to tie back into the “money for nothing” in the first post and the title, but that’s just kind of creepy. Not all posts need to tie back to the title, right?

Last night’s game was so awesome. Not only did we get further than I had hoped we would (which has never happened before), but the party managed to successfully navigate a maze dictated by me to them with only minor mistakes. The entire maze! I thought it would at least take this week’s and part of next week’s game… One night, though. Wow. Not only that, it’s the first time someone has gained 3 levels in one night, and decently high levels at that (8, 9, and 10). By 5:30 everyone still had energy because it went so well. Gladiatorial combat, completing a large prison maze, everyone getting at least one level, rescuing a lot of prisoners, finding everyone’s confiscated equipment, and fighting sahuagin on even terms really makes for a great game.

So now here I sit, exhausted as I am every Sunday, in the labs, sort of working on my Mama Fratelli portrait. I don’t like the way it’s going, but I think that’s mostly because of the colors I chose (which are easily changeable). I’ve got a decent amount of work to complete today, but it should be manageable as long as I don’t cheat and play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night again. Now that is also a good game.

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It seems that TrackBack put a link to the Saskatchewan post into Eric’s post about Mateo. Now people who read his post will be able to see links to the post in which I referenced it. Interesting… though it seems to me that it would make sense to reference it both ways instead of one.

Still listening to the muppets… god I love the muppets. I wish they actually had decent DVDs of the Muppet Show, not those dumb “Best of the Muppet Show” ones. Oh well… I went to the bird store today and just had a great time as usual… of course that means I didn’t get any work done today. I’ve really got to get some more work done. Not that I’m in a bad place with school work right now, but if I’m not careful, I could be. And then there are the side projects that I wanted to do that I am currently not doing because I am doing other things… oh well. I will moniter my activity and make sure I work more and waste less time.

In case you haven’t noticed, I posted the final Weasel picture below. It’s got some minor changes, nothing big. But it looks better. I’ve also started to plan my next two projects. One is a digital portrait of Mama Fratelli. The other is an advertisement for a product in which the product is not visible. I will either do that one as an ad for high speed internet, or computers. I’ll post sketches soon.

You’ll notice my posts now have a “TrackBack” link. I’m trying out this feature of Moveable Type… basically it’s a way to network posts that have to do with eachother. I’m setting a TrackBack link between this site and a post on which I commented at EricChapman.net about the stupidity of one person at Ringling who has made things difficult more many people. Let’s see how this works…

I have a sudden urge to see the Muppet Movie. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to a CD of Muppet Show stuff… or maybe it’s because it’s one of the greatest movies of all time.

Jim Henson is one of my biggest heroes. That guy really had things going. Seriously, I consider him a genius. Look at everything that he touched; it’s all excellent. Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Star Wars, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Muppet Babies, just to name a few. This is not just quality programming, this is platinum stuff. I just love everything he did. Not only that, but he really networked well. He worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielburg back before when they were making good stuff. Look at the muppets before he died… who can say anything bad about them? I dunno, I just think that he must have had the most fun doing what he did… a mixture of raw 80 proof imagination, spiced up with humor, and then captured in whatever media it happened to be. Anyway I’ve always liked Henson, but now that I am really looking to move in that direction professionally, he gets on a whole new level of admiration from me.

This post has been brought to you by the letter R and the number Pi.

P.S. My weasel critique didn’t go bad at all. It was a good critique for the whole class actually. When I am finished making changes to the picture, I will post an announcement here and update the link below.

So it seems the groundhog has seen his shadow. Does that mean 6 more weeks of incredibly awesome weather down here while the North freezes their pants off? Let’s hope so… I’m not looking forward to the cookfest of summer in Florida.

I’ve finished the girlweasel. I’m going to turn her in for critique today… let’s hope all goes well, eh? My teacher is known for his very harsh critiques; he’s even made many people cry.

I’m glad this weekend is over… I had projects in all of my classes but one, so I was really busy. And I was up almost all night last night trying to get my stupid weasel to print, with no luck. Morning class was cancelled since the model has bronchitis, so I was able to print my weasel then, but I would have really liked to get the sleep that I missed.

Game went well… sorta… Continue reading to hear more about that (I’ll post it in the extended entry so all you non-geeks don’t have to read it). Read more »