Kiey's Sketchbook Journal

New Comic Idea Approaches

2008-09-15T02:59:52Z

(This is pretty neat, seems I can have a cool little thumbnail link to my deviantArt images in LJ.)

Karen 09142008 by ~Kiey on deviant ART

Anyway, working on a new comic idea. Not a webcomic persay, but more along the lines of a short graphic novel kind of thing. Got a lot of ideas for stuff after reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics." I definitely understand comics a lot better, and now how some ideas how to put that into good use. I'm currently trying to read his other book "Making Comics," but haven't had a chance to get much into due to Grad school work, and by Grad school work I mean playing the game of Life, going to the board game store with the Professor, and reading Tarzan of the Apes, also doing a little flash animation as well.

I'm hoping I can have the comic done by the end of '08. That may be a lofty goal, but its going to be somewhere between 20-50 pages so I don't think it will be. Well maybe if it leans more toward the later one. I'm not going to say much on it, since I'm not sure its possible to explain correctly (at least I've had some trouble the few people I have told about it,) but I will say that it's all based around Karen up there in the image, and I've basically been refering to it as the "Video game store girl comic." So that may give you an idea as to what to expect.

The sky here is different

2008-08-28T00:48:29Z

There is something seriously different about the sky here in Rochester. I don't know what it is, but it's very different from it looks in NJ, and even in Syracuse I don't remember it being like this either. It's especially cool at sunset. Tonight it was really cool so I took some pictures.

I'll try an take some more pictures of other cool sunsets and cool whatnots.

Moving

2008-08-22T00:02:49Z

Moving up to grad school tomorrow. Not looking forward to unloading everything and unpacking. I realize now that I have way too much stuff, but a lot of it is stuff I need (electronics, books, computer/console stuff, etc.) I really hope there is an elevator.

But anyway I'm sitting in my room kind of bored since everything is packed. I have no desktop, or TV, so I'm just sort of stuck here on my laptop typing. I might try drawing some, I probably should, but who knows if I'll end up doing it.

Anyway, sorry for this post. I really have nothing better to do.

Driving all over the place

2008-08-13T20:41:17Z

Seems like I've been driving all over the place lately. 3 hours to Hartford for Connecticon, another 3 to Baltimore for Otakon, and then 6 hours to Rochester. Good thing I got new tires before all this.

I'm still up in Rochester, but I managed to get myself an apartment, which was the whole point of the trip. I have a bedroom in a 2 bedroom. I wasn't really big on the idea of having to share a place (especially considering that there are 2 people living in the other room,) but I get my own bathroom, its really close to campus, and everything is covered in the rent. So if my roommates turn out to be cool, great. If they don't, then oh well. It's a good enough deal that it doesn't matter.

Then I have to drive back up here next Friday to move in. My poor car.

And FYI Bawls Guarana Cherry is weak. Tastes kind of like Cherry Ramune.

Also FYI DogTown is awesome. Grated Parmesan and Bruschetta on a hot dog? Brilliant!

Connecticon 08

2008-08-05T21:52:56Z

I wrote a post over at One Gamer's Opinion about Connecticon this year, but I wanted to post some pictures here anyway since they don't really go in my flickr and don't really fit there.

Like every year at Connecticon (for at least the last three,) I got one of my favorite artist's aidosaur to draw me something. Asked her to draw me Toph from Avatar, which she managed to do without reference. The outfit isn't right, but I like it more then the actual one.

While I was at the con I also picked up a figure of Yuki Nagato from the Meloncholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. It's one of the super poseable ones, and came with a ton of extra hands, an extra face, two books for her to hold, as well as a chair and a stand. Unfortunately I somehow lost the bag with all the extra stuff in it somewhere between my hotel and home on Sunday.

Anyway, I put her on the (infamous) Tachikoma I got at Otakon last year. I think it works real well.

Aside from all that I finally got to meet casual_kitten who I've been talking to online for about 5 years or so. So it was great to finally meet her, unfortunately she was so busy drawing commissions at her table for me to get one myself. Oh well.

And I should also mention that on Friday I found out that I was accepted into Grad school. So I'll be starting that in less then a month, and between now and then I have to find an apartment and move into it. Should be an interesting month to say the least.

Been a while

2008-06-26T13:11:28Z

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. It's been busy the last (almost) two months. Taking a summer class up in Newark, so taking the train twice a week. Which isn't so bad in the morning, but I usually end up catching the 6pm home, and there are some many people its ridiculous.

In other news my C drive died Saturday morning. I got a replacement for it Tuesday, but my Windows XP CD is apparently beyond repair. It loads it, but then doesn't think its a Windows CD.... it's weird. So I went out to Best Buy that night and bought a copy of Vista, and I have to say I'm really liking it so far. It was probably the easiest Windows install I've ever done.

While it was installing I watched the new Futurama movie, Beast with a Million Backs. It was good. Not as good as the first one, but I think that's because it seemed more like a really long episode then a movie. It's also kind of weird...

I also bought a camera on Newegg since they were having some sort of crazy sale. I'm hoping to take some pictures with it (obviously its a camera.) I've started to notice that day to day sometimes I see some cool stuff that would make a great picture, but then I don't have a camera with me. So my hope is to start getting pictures of that stuff... so far I always seem to forget it on days I see cool stuff.

Today was lame

2008-05-05T01:21:04Z

My grandmother died today, which obviously sucked. She's been sort of on her last legs for a while now so it was pretty much expected. I was there when it finally happened, which I hoped I wouldn't be since it was all very awkward. Anyway, funeral is on Wednesday, and I have a final exam Thursday... joy.

Katsucon '08

2008-02-19T03:01:01Z

Got back from Katsucon '08 early Sunday. I got there Thursday and got to play a lot of Smash Bros. Brawl in the game room, since my friend Shawn brought the game to the con. He let them borrow it during the day while we manned his table, but at night we got to play a whole lot of it. Thursday night we stayed at this little hotel across from the Chinese Embassy, which of course led to many jokes.

Friday mostly hung out at Shawn's table, but also bought a bunch of the Sanctuary books I found in the dealer's room. Also went to a panel, which was the late night at Katsucon panel hosted by Rym and Scott over at GeekNights. It was definitely a very awesome panel, and was worth stopping playing Brawl to go see. They had Greg Ayers and Steve Bennett as guests, and both were great to listen to, and hilarious.

Saturday was more booth sitting, got an awesome Lupin the 3rd Jigan figure, and also picked up volume 2 of the Lucky Star manga, Japanese version. I'm figuring I'm going to try translating it in order to learn to read some Japanese finally. I figure its a smart way to go about it, but it seems that I'm going to need a Japanese to English dictionary or something since online versions don't seem to be useful enough. The tricky part I've discovered so far is picking out the words, since unlike english they aren't spaced, and also Kanji seem like they are going to kill me since there are so many.

I also went to another GeekNights' panel, this one was Anime You Should See, which was interesting. It was a lot like what it would have been like on the podcast normally, except with an audience. I'm not sure there is all that much I can really say about it except that it was good.

Played some more Smash Bros. Brawl that night, but this time it was with some more webcomic people like Jaime and Rob of Erfworld, David of Snafu Comics (who was also staying with us,) and Chris Herms who does a comic on Snafu I think and is now also drawing Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic. We made him play with Sonic one round for obvious reasons. I'll probably talk more about Brawl on 1GO whenever I get around to writing a post for it.

I took the Black Hat book with me, but only sold one copy of it. Which is better then selling none, but I realize now it may not have been the audience for it yet at a con.

Hitchhiker's Guide

2008-02-08T14:53:11Z

A while back (around Christmas,) I was at a book store and found the a book that is all the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's books in one big collection. Having never read any of them I picked it up since it was like $20, and I've always wanted to read them. Now yesterday at work I read all of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (slow day at work.) And I have to say that it is both brilliant and completely ridiculous. I can see why so many people like it. I'm looking forward now to reading the other books now. I have to say though that I was surprised how short the book is, its only like 143 pages within this big collection.

I also read the first Haruhi Suzumiya book (light novel?) this week. It seems to be almost verbatim the "Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" episodes from the anime, I think there were 6 of them. Not that that's a bad thing at all, since now if I read the other books I know most of what I read will be stuff I haven't seen before/didn't know about.

There are a couple other Japanese things I want to read like the Baccano! books, and the Lucky Star and Sketchbook mangas. But unfortunately for me they haven't been released here, and seems unlikely they will, in addition to the fact that I can't read Japanese. Well I guess I can always get them and just force myself to learn it while I read.

Meme thing

2008-02-02T01:18:42Z

Got this from one of my favorite Italians, jibrillehilbert. So you can blame this all on her I guess, put it after the break so the post is not ridiculously long.

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A.

5) Favorite vegetable?
A.

6) What was the last book you read?
A.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A.

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A.

9) Worst Habit?
A.

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A.

11) What is your favorite sport?
A.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A.

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A.

16) Do you have any pets?
A.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A.

18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm...careful!)
A.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A.

23) Ever been arrested?
A.

24) Bottle or can soda?
A.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A.

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
A.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A.

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A.

30) Do you swear a lot?
A.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A.

35) Do you believe in God?
A.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A.

Did I mention I was having surgery?

2008-01-19T15:18:22Z

I forget if I mentioned this, but I had this bump on my neck. Which they think was a sebaceous cyst. Key word there is had since yesterday I had it removed in a little out patient surgery yesterday morning. It wasn't too bad since they put me under general anesthesia. Got home early afternoon, and slept most of the day, but I feel pretty much back to normal now, aside from the large band aid on my neck at least.

So I'm sort of laid up for the weekend at least, so I'm trying to mostly decide what to do to pass the time.

First First Edition pics

2008-01-17T01:40:28Z

I got the first copy of the Black Hat book in the mail today, and I have to say that it looks beautiful, and so professional looking. You'd never know it was done through some online service. I have to fix a couple things before I actually sell it, like I goofed up and put the page numbers on the wrong side of the page, and I also need to figure out how to get a UPC put onto the back of the book. But it should be available soon, like maybe tonight. At least by the weekend.

Here are some pics I took of the book.

Longest blog post ever

2008-01-14T04:57:51Z

I just finished an essay for my One Gamer's Opinion blog. I've been working on it since January 2nd, and it ended up being 4182 words. Which is ridiculous, but I'm really happy with it. It's all about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, which seems like an odd game to write such a long essay about, but I managed to find a lot there worth talking about.

Also ordered a copy of my book to make sure everything turned out how I want it to before I start selling for real.

Book Cover Question

2008-01-08T19:12:25Z

The cover illustration for Black Hat book 1 is done (you can check it out here.) So I'm trying to get the cover for the book designed, how it will appear with book title and what not. And wanted to get people's opinions as to which version they prefer, or if I should try doing something else to it. Change something, add something, etc.

So here are the two versions I've come up with:
Version 1

Version 2

So please provide feedback.

Glasses are freaking expensive

2007-12-31T01:58:31Z

I went to get new glasses today at Lenscrafters, and got-damn are glasses expensive. It cost me almost $400 for new frames and lenses, and that's after my 30% off for being a AAA member. That's just ridiculous, ridiculous! And I have to wait a week or so to get them because they had to special order my lenses... whee.

Used my Christmas gift cards friday, bought some books (DMZ volume 1, Tezuka's MW, and Batman: the Dark Knight Returns,) also picked up Uncharted for PS3, The Simpsons movie, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip DVD set with my Best Buy cards. DMZ is a really good comic, I really need to pick up the other volumes when I have some money. Batman: DKR is probably the second best superhero comic ever... after Watchman. I actually managed to finish Uncharted as well this weekend. It didn't feel short, but it is very good. Great story, and characters.

Hmm I think that's all I have to say right now. Maybe I'll do a new year's resolution post sometime Tuesday.

Quick Rundown of New Stuff

2007-12-16T05:14:05Z

Figured I'd just quickly mention stuff rather then bore with details.
-Bump on neck has gotten much smaller, seeing doctor again in a few weeks, and likely will schedule a surgery then... fun.
-The New York Anime Fest was ok, I went only Friday since I felt I had seen everything that day, probably should have gone just Saturday. But I did pick up some cool stuff, so thats good at least.
-Finished Assassin's Creed, its better then average but less then great. It certainly seems like the second game could be really awesome.
-Found a new artist for Wanwamar, looking forward to seeing him draw actual comics. So far from the sketches he's done it should be really interesting.
-Hopefully I'll have the Black Hat book ready to go for Katsucon in Feb.
-I kinda have an idea for a non Q2N comic/story that I guess I should draw, but I doubt I'll time to do it.
-I'm really happy with how my new blog is going, if only more people would read it... oh well. If I keep it up, and its good it should get readers eventually.

So in other news...

2007-11-27T14:27:57Z

It's been an interesting week to say the least. Thanksgiving was had at a buffet in the dark, due to the country club losing power and not having a backup generator. Had my 5-year High School Reunion Friday night... it was more fun then I thought it would be, and pretty strange to see people I hadn't seen in 5 years. LAN party at my friend's on Saturday (along with much Rock Band playing Friday and Saturday,) which taught me that we really can't LAN as much as we used to.

But I guess the big thing is this bump on my neck. See I've had this little bump on my neck for about 9 months or so, but it was small, didn't hurt, it was just sort of there. Then about Wednesday it seemed to get a lot bigger, and began to hurt a little, and I thus became a little concerned. By Sunday it was bigger still, and had moved to the base of my neck. So went to the Hospital they said it was a sebacious cyst, gave me antibiotics and painkillers, and told me to go to a plastic surgeon in a few days to get it drained or possibly removed. Then yesterday went to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, who seemed to know exactly what it was right away (inflamated/infected thyroid thing) tried to drain it, got a little of it (gawd that needle hurt.) And going to see him again in two weeks, plus he gave me more meds. He plans to wait for it to shrink and become less inflamed before removing it, which he doesn't think will be until "after the holiday," so he said. So that's something I have to look forward to... -_-

Well at least I'm going to the New York Anime Festival next week. That should be fun.

New Site/Project

2007-11-11T17:06:18Z

One night before falling asleep I came up with a great website name, and not wanting to have it go to waste I purchased it and setup a website around it. Which seems stupid, but I'm really liking the site and what I'm doing with it.

The site is called One Gamer's Opinion ( http://www.onegamersopinion.com ) and it is a video game blog, but no like Joystiq or Kotaku. I'm not going to report news, or write the typical reviews or previews. Rather I'm trying to look deeper into video games, and write about them in a more critical or analytical way. So far I think it's going well, still tweaking some things, but feedback is always appreciated.

So if you like video games, you should check it out.

Oh so many games...

2007-10-14T17:28:36Z

It's been one of those weeks full of games. Tuesday was Portal, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, and the final version of Team Fortress 2. Wednesday was Puzzle Quest for XBLA. Thursday was Everyday Shooter on the PS3, and then I got Bleach for the Wii on Friday.

Portal is very awesome. It was far more then what I was expecting, and yet also what I was expecting. I haven't played much of Ep 2, but it looks cool so far. TF2 is also awesome, but I played a ton of the beta.

It took me about 20 minutes to see how cool Puzzle Quest one. Granted you are for the most part just playing Bejeweled, but there is so much more built around it that it makes it pretty cool and interesting.

Everyday Shooter is just fun, pure and simple. It's hard, but the fun-ness of it along with the just feel and visual of it makes it a great experience.

The Bleach game for the Wii is fairly simple it terms of a fighting game, not that that's a bad thing. The game is fun to play, and I think that it will be a lot of fun to play with other people (as the Wii tends to be.) But I do kind of wish that there was some more depth to it. Though there are 32 characters, so that might provide enough depth.

Looking for an artist again.

2007-10-03T03:28:26Z

I'm looking for an artist again, as the title of the post says, for a new webcomic in the Q2N world. Calling it Q2N: Red Eye.

I'd write up a more in depth explanation thing about it, but I'm tired and feeling lazy. So if anyone is interested comment, and I'll post a description of it.... eventually.

I need vacation days...

2007-09-23T21:01:42Z

Hey it hasn't been a ridiculous amount of time since I last made a post. I really need to update the banner and some other things on my LJ page...

I came up with a great story idea (in the Q2N world) and I want to make it into another comic, but I don't really have to time for something like this. Hopefully I can find myself an artist to work with me on that. If you or anyone you know might be interested head over to my deviantArt page. I post more about it there.

It seems that the new TV season sort of starts tonight with new Family Guy (I assume American Dad as well.) But I have to say that I'm really not interested in any of the new TV shows, they generally seem to be rather lame. I think I'm mostly going to stick to what I already watch (How I Met Your Mother, The Office, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, Avatar, Simpsons.)

Although I did download the pilot for Big Bang Theory on a whim since they were giving it away for free on iTunes. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be considering its about geeks falling over a hot female neighbor. First surprise was that the theme song is by the Barenaked Ladies, and thus very good, and not a song from them I've heard before. But even after that it proved to generally be fairly amusing. So I might watch a few more episodes, it certainly helps that it follows How I Met Your Mother.

The Kiey Repor......t

2007-09-11T13:18:05Z

Played lots of Warhawk and Call of Duty 4 over the weekend. Mostly Warhawk, which is a really awesome game. Flying with the sixaxis is surprisingly fun and intuitive.

I also finally started to continue to write Rondo (about time I know.) I plan to start writing during my lunch break at work, so I should be able to get a lot more writing done in regards to Rondo and other Q2N stuff.

Bioshock GotY?

2007-09-05T13:10:03Z

Finished Bioshock last night, and I can say without a doubt right now that this is the best game I've played all year. By a long stretch too. However, if its the best game of the year has yet to be seen, but the bar is certainly set high for Mass Effect and the other games on the way. I intend to write an essay on the game to sort of piece together some things about the story, and also explore it some more.

Also I picked up a Playstation 3 on Saturday. It's been worth the money so far.

Some videogame things

2007-08-30T03:27:50Z

Firstly Bioshock is amazing. If you have a 360 or PC that is good enough, you owe it to yourself to play this game. I think it may be the best game I've ever played. I'll have to get back to you on it once I finish it.

Last night I got an email informing me that I'm in the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer BETA. I've been pretty much playing it non stop since I got home from work to now. Its awesome. Its sort of like a combination between Battlefield 2 and Counter Strike. It's got the BF2 type ranking system where as you do things it gives you points, and the points increase your military ranking and that opens up new weapons and whatnot. There are some classes which decide your weapons, and general abilities, much like BF2, but then you can make your own which is very cool. But its much like CS with how the levels are laid out.

This weekend I'm planning to pick up a Playstation 3, I want to get one before they stop selling the 60 GB version since that one is the last one with hardware backwards compatibility. The new ones have software that does it instead, and apparently it doesn't work as well or on all the old games. I'm planning on just getting Warhawk, and a controller with it, and then buying a couple of the downloadable games since there aren't any retail games that interest me that much right now.

Combat Card

2007-08-25T17:16:12Z

COMBAT CARDS 2.1

to fight kiey
enter your username below

CREATE YOUR CARD