School didn't quite work out like I planned. Too many drop ads, couldn't get the classes I wanted for the BA in Chemistry. The schedule for art wasn't going to happen and all the while I was freaking out. So now, same plan as always. Get a job, go to grad school, and if all else fails, I'll join the Air Force as an officer.

I had a lot of plans this past two years since graduation college. Life got in the way of them, but from here on out I really don't have much of a choice but forget the past on move on to the future. Who knows where I'll be or what I'll be doing. In the mean time, I plan on getting a new job, one that gives me decent hours and decent pay. I'm tired of not seeing anyone or missing out on life in general because I'm trying to make money for a purpose that never came. I took this job at the UoP to earn up enough money to move out of Arizona. Now that everyone else but Joey fell out of that idea, there's really no reason for me to stay here, other than wait yet another 3 months to get free tuition for online schooling.

Frankly, I'd rather not spend 3 more minutes in this place. I've had enough.

So here are my choices


quit my job, get degree in digital art in less than a year, but be horribly poor.


keep my job, feel stressed as all hell, and nearly sick from the lack of sleep and food.


I have to make this decision by friday.

IF I HADN'T SCREWED UP MY LI TAGS...

I'd mark off that one item on my list that says "go back to school." Because here I am at MCC just finishing up my first class. What class is that? A drawing class, because somewhere I thought I'd be an aspiring artist. Seeing as how well MIS has carried me since graduating from college a year and a half ago... I thought I'd do something crazy like change career fields.

Of course it doesn't help that I get out of work at midnite, get home at 12:30, and if I'm lucky get to bed by 12:45 only to get up six hours later to go to class. I may not last long and I'm not sure how to go about this.

The problem with being a boat without a rudder is that you'll spin, spin, spin around in the water all the while eating up the most precious resource we have as human beings. Time keeps ticking away and each day I feel like sand is pouring out of a broken hour glass. I look back at how I've spent the time and realize that I didn't do nearly enough as I should have. I didn't experience enough joy to help me through the days when the drudgery of work would null my senses and dull my wits.

I didn't travel when I had the free time. I didn't mingle well enough with people I may have been able to develop close personal relationships with. I just ended up secluded and unfulfilled. When a person gets to that point, no doubt they'll try to do anything to start living life in a different way. I guess that's why I'm here. I'm just trying to educate myself in something new in hopes to make a much needed change.

The trick here is not to pass out. On top of that, I miss my friends and I miss having a brighter future to plan and work for. Let's all hope that this time around I make the right decisions instead of the ones that have lead me to this point. However, I'm left with a big decision. Continue on in this new path with hopes of being able to live through the lack of nurishment and sleep to reach a new life. Or to continue working hard at my job and advance in an already chosen career field. It's a big decision to make, and one that has to be made before I drop a couple hundred bucks on art supplies.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that this blog is now a year old. I know I've been really mopey and self absorbed with my little piece of the internet lately. I don't get a whole lot of chances to share my feelings with the people I know anymore. If I can help it, I'll return this blog to its original purpose. Stupid but entertaining crap. My next photoshop project is "Black Tar Ale." A delightful refreshment that combines the full body flavor of a tasty dark beer with the soul crushing and nerve damaging euophoria of black tar heroin.

ANOTHER SOCIAL FAILURE

I seem to have yet again, failed to make any headway on being a social human being. Everyone knows me as being somewhat anti-social, but it's never been because I wanted to be. I'm just really awful at connecting with people I don't know. Call it shyness or anxiety, but for some reason I just... can't... do it. This is a big problem now as my close circle friends is finally heading off into their own directions. I'll soon be left on my own again.

The biggest problem I have with social interaction involves parties. I keep going to them in hopes that I'll get better at being a social human being. Ever since I was 18, I've fallen into the same pattern of behavior. I end up going into "observer" mode. In the midst of all the noise and the chatter, I'll sit on the side lines and watch others carry on.

I also need to stop drinking beer at parties. While everyone else believes I'm full of shit when I say this but beer just makes me sleepy. Really really sleepy. Imagine if someone shoved two bricks of lead into your skull and expected you to stay awake. After drinking just two beers I simply cannot keep my head up. People claim that alcohol helps to lower your inhibitions while all my life it seems to turn my inhibitions up to 11 and shut me down.

It's sad, because now I'm 24 and severely lacking in skills and experiences needed to be a well-rounded person. I thought 4 1/2 years of college would have helped me break this pattern, but it didn't. I really feel like I let everyone down last night and if that's the case, then I'm really sorry.

BLASPHEMY RELOADED

I've re-edited the picture below to create a more horrific and painful viewing experience. I figure this new version would go along with news that director Steven Spielberg is currently planning to make a new version of "The War of the Worlds(2005)." The budget so far is over 200 million dollars.

While a "War of the Worlds" movie would excite me, this movie will take place in modern times instead of the Victorian age setting of H.G. Wells' original novel. Worse yet, the films lead actor will be none other than L. Ron Hubbard's fluffer boy, Tom Cruise. Despite all that business, my biggest problem with this news happens to be the fact that a modernized version of War of the Worlds was made back in 1996. This new War of the Worlds movie might as well be called "Indepndence Day 2: The War of the Worlds."

Now on to the new picture. It took me a while to think of who to cast for my 2005 remake of Casablanca. Personally, I wanted Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, and Richard Chavez be part of the supporting cast and make the story about them being hunted by a vicious alien in a jungle. Unfortunately that didn't fly by Mr. Bruckheimer, and instead he wanted a modernized version of Casblanca. By orders of Mr. Bruckheimer, this movie will have a snappy cast with stupid cool hip-hop style.

GOOD OLD FASHIONED HOLLYWOOD BLASPHEMY

Every now and then I read a clip of entertainment news that makes me shake my head. Nothing made me shake my head more than reading that the 1960's science fiction classic, "Logan's Run," is being remade for release in 2005. The idea of a remake is just a bit ironic considering the story. "Renew" indeed.

Now don't get me wrong here, not all movie remakes are dissapointing. John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing (1982)" was far superior to the original schlocky 1950's horror film about a plant monster attacking a group of arctic researchers. However, good remakes are practically non-existent. I only need to remind people of the absolute travesty of a remake that was Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes (2001)."

My Father, being 65 years old, has informed me that within my lifetime I will no doubt see all my favorite movies from my child remade five or six times over. While it pains me to think that movies like Dark Crystal or Krull will eventually be remade with updated schnazzy computer generated special effects, I guess it's a reality I will soon have to accept.

I decided to beat Hollywood to the punch. I have created a poster for the ultimate example of movie remake blasphemy. Behold, Casablanca soon to be remade and released in 2005



Oh, a little tip for all you bloggers out there. If you add two br tags to the beginning of your template, it will solve that annoying problem involving the new search bar eating up the top of your page.

WEB DESIGN SUPER FUN PART 2

I'm getting tired of how terrible the blogs are looking these days. Just goddamn awful. So for those of you who've had a blog template made by me in the past, you'll probably get a new one in the mail at some given time in the future. And yes, even if you've chosen to never speak to me again, you'll still receive a new template.

One of these days, if I ever grow the balls, I'll post all the pieces of writing I either omitted or kept as saved drafts. But today is not one of those days, especially since I seem to be sobering up at the moment.

Working 11 hour shifts with no days off since last wed. will make a person post some mean shit on their blogs if they're not careful. Just so this post isn't a complete waste, here's a picture showing one of the silliest and strangest comic book covers I've ever seen.

FINAL COMMENTS ON THE CON

But first...

A little public announcement. I may have shelled out money for my own domain name but I haven't paid a penny for my web hosting. A good friend of mine back east has given me the privilege to host images and other files on his web space account free of charge. That means no remote linking of images on this site, www.zombitorium.com, www.poop-culture.com, or www.falsemetal.com. Otherwise any image you link to might get changed to something offensive or downright nasty. If you want to display a picture you see on here on your own site then send me an email and I'll find a way for you to get the image hosted. Thank you.

AND NOW BACK TO THE CON.

Although it's been nearly 3 weeks since comic-con, I have yet one more post to make about the event. I've been attending the San Diego Comic-Con since 1996 but it wasn't until around 2000 did I start to pay attention to the various conferences in the upstairs portion of the convention center. At these conferences exist the most unique learning opportunities with the respect of creative media.

I've spent nearly all my life watching, reading and playing just about every possible example of creative media. To hear and see creators talk about their particular craft can provide a person a unique perspective that was not attainable by merely absorbing the end result of the creator's labor. For me, every year I come back from the comic-con I grow less critical of creative works than the year before. I realize that even a bad movie, song, cartoon, or comic book sometimes takes an incredible amount of effort to create.

When I was younger, I spent way too much time picking apart movies, music, videogames, and comic books. I pointed out all the parts I felt were wrong, could've done better or parts I felt were just plain awful. And while there are examples of media in this world that are universally bad such as: Joel Schumacher Batman movies, Rob Liefeld comic books, and John Romero videogames, I began to ask myself... "Can I do any better?"

The answer to that ranges from "Well sort of," to "Dear god, I'm just as fucking terrible if not worse." Criticizing someone else's work is a lot easier than creating your own. If you think a script to a movie is piss poor, try and write your own. Do you think that CGI sequence in a movie looks fake? Go grab a copy of 3ds max and let's see how well you can animate a computer generated model to interact with live action footage. Seeing, listening, and absorbing all the information creators of artistic media give out during the comic con causes me to feel as if is someone yelling at my face, "Put-up or shut-up!" Every year the comic-con challenges me to create and reminds me that I have a hell of a lot more work to do.

The most memorable treat this year came in the form of a wonderful old man. Ray Bradbury returned to the comic-con this year to provide a whole new series of interesting and heart-warming stories to a humongous crowd willing to hear them. Ray Bradbury is a man who's very much at the end of his life and wishes to pass on a few last words whenever he has the chance. Mr. Bradbury ended his conference with a small piece of advice for a crowd of young listeners. "Fall in love and stay in love."

BECAUSE I AM LAZY...

here's a nice little picture of Adolf Hitler eating a watermelon.

THE REST OF THE CON

So you've suffered through my long winded and poorly written posts about the days before comic-con and for that I applaud you. I promise that this post will be short and sweet.

HAIR

My author friend, Brandon, has a very unique and recognizable physical characteristic. Brandon has wild and crazy, curly hair. Brandon is quite lucky to be the owner of this characteristic because everytime a young lady crosses his path she almost always makes a comment about how much she loves his hair. So here is "Hair" in all his glory. The first picture is Brandon with our San Diego friend, Allison, who we see every year at the con. The other picture is Mr. Hair waking up the next morning in our very cramped hotel room (cramped only because 6 other people were staying there)at the Holiday Inn on the Bay.

A MAN AND HIS PARKING SPACE

Now that Brandon is thoroughly embarrassed we shall move onto some convention pictures. But first, one more pre-con picture. While walking to the Convention Center I snapped a picture of a homeless man who decided that a parking space would be the best place to stay for the night before. Naturally a scene like this is slightly humorous as someone is using a parking space to park themselves without a car. Unfortunately the humor lasts only for a moment until the reality of the vision inches its way into your mind.

KING OF ZOMBIES

Here we have a nice snapshot of a full-sized replica of the King of the Dead from last year's "Return of the King." With my love of undead armies in movies since 1993, it's understandable that this character was my favorite in all of Tolkien's slightly boring and uninteresting tale. Since this picture was taken at an object behind a Plexiglas case the flash had to be turned off.

FROSTED SNAKES?

The only time I've ever eaten snake was deep fried rattle snake bits back in 1996. The snake was so deep fried that all the flavor of the appetizer existed in the batter. I can only imagine what snake tastes like, and if it tasted terrible then I can also imagine that having some form of sugar coating would help. This parody box was brought to you by the folks who are busy making the new generation of Garbage Pail Kids cards.

NEW STORM/CLONE TROOPER

Star Wars was big at the con. Bigger than any previous year. Lucasfilm has been putting forth the maximum effort in their marketing department in hopes to renew interest in Episode III as well as Star Wars in general. This new trooper design blends the looks of the Clone Troopers from Episode II and the Storm Troopers from the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucasfilm held the largest conference in comic-con history. The new exhibit hall at the far southern end of the convention center (Room H) held 6,500 star wars geeks waiting eagerly for a glimpse of the latest movie. During this conference is when Steve Sansweet and producer Rick McCallum displayed the title for Episode III. In homage to the original title of Return of the Jedi, Episode III's title is now "Revenge of the Sith." For once a title for a Star Wars prequel caused an applause rather than a cacophony of groans. My only regret is that I did not have enough space on this camera to take a picture of the Storm Trooper Elvis.

LIFE SIZE MY ASS

One of the more interesting photo opportunities came to us in the form of a Street Fighter booth. At this booth it was possible to have a picture taken with a "life size" replica of the character, Sagat. Although you can't tell from this picture, but if this replica was "life size" then everything else in the world must have shrank.

ALIENS VS. PREDATOR VS. BAD DIRECTOR

From the man who brought us such wonderful movies as Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Resident Evil, and Soldier comes the latest example of masterpiece cinema. "Aliens Vs. Predator," directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (the S. stands for "shit") will once and for all ruin the classic 1990 Dark Horse comic series. Ever since seeing the alien skull in the spaceship at the end of "Predator 2" have film geeks everywhere fantasized about an Aliens Vs. Predator movie. Dark Horse comics has for years satisfied this fantasy with multiple Aliens, Predator, and Aliens Vs. Preadtor storylines. When the first trailers for "AVP" started to hit theaters, a large level of enthusiasm was generated by the fans of these series. Unfortunately when fans learned that director Paul W.S. Anderson was attached to the project along with the fact that Mr. Anderson planned on making "AVP" PG-13, enthusiasm began to drop rapidly. Despite all that, the display in the food court that you now see a picture of was pretty decent. Those who were involved in making these statues were wise enough to remember Giger's original design for the Alien in which the head is actually translucent.

COPY MACHINE COMEDY

Deep within downtown San Diego lies a very interesting bookstore. The name escapes me at the moment, but it has always been a favored attraction for my good friend, Brian. The bookstore reminds me of a few scenes from the original animation video series "Read or Die," in which a young woman with the ability to manipulate pieces of paper with her mind visits a small, hole in the wall style bookstore. This bookstore, like the bookstore in the animated feature, was very narrow and had books stacked on the stair case leading to the second floor. At the front desk I noticed a machine copied picture depicting the design for the "French Army Knife." While the joke is obvious, I found it rather amusing and picture worthy.

WHAT THE FUCK?

Trying to keep oneself from being malnourished while staying in San Diego can be quite an obstacle for individuals on a tight budget. Obtaining a bite to eat in downtown for less than $12 can prove to be somewhat difficult. The only avenues for cheap food are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made at the hotel room or decently priced food at Ralph's grocery store. I definitely recommend Ralph's tortilla soup. Other than cheap food, Ralph's also had the oddest piece of full frontal nudity I've seen in public view. On the magazine rack there was Spanish magazine with the most peculiar cover. On the cover as seen in the picture there is a fully naked woman standing in front of a naked man. In addition to this, there's a picture in the bottom right corner depicting a Gameboy Advanced connected to a Nintendo Gamecube via a link cable.

/edit: It would appear that the owner of my webhosting is a little peeved that someone else is linking to images off of our shared space. I'm going to give a heads up to everyone and let you know not to link any images off of www.zombitorium.com, or www.falsemetal.com

Well this is one hell of a post. I'll be posting my overall feeling about the con tomorrow, so enjoy the pictures today!

COMIC-CON: PRE CON PART 2

Before any of you readers out there (all 3 of you) complain to me for drawing this out keep in mind that I hardly have any time to make posts. These posts are being made in between pockets of time that contain either extreme boredom or jittery caffeine induced rage.

At the end of the last post our heroes were in extreme peril. The rear right wheel of Nicholas' magical chariot (aka the Saturn) had been sabotaged by San Diego gremlins. The wheel was completely shredded beyond all recognition. Sure one of us could have changed the tire ourselves, but my good friend Brandon wouldn't have any of that. He cautioned that being in the center divide of the highway and traffic zooming past us at an average of 75 mph would greatly hinder any attempt to change the tire without getting killed.

It's a good thing I remembered to bring a cell phone and a AAA card. Within an hour road side assistance was able to change the tire and get us back on the road. AAA also directed us to a nice little Chevron / Auto shop that was able to provide us with a nice, new, non-shredded tire for 60 dollars. Crisis adverted! Disaster no more! The three of us climbed back into Nick's magical chariot and set a course for downtown San Diego.

After a bit of driving around to find a suitable parking space, and by suitable I mean cheap, the three of us headed off into separate directions. Brandon and Nick walked towards the half-mile long convention center on Harbor Drive while I continued along my destination for the cafe in-front of the large dual towered Hilton Hotel. Even though I've been making an annual trip to San Diego for the past 8 years, I had a sudden realization while walking through the downtown Gaslamp district. If I were a gigantic hedonistic fat man, this area of the city would be my paradise. Downtown San Diego contains more restaurants and other odd food related establishments than any other place I've seen in this world. However, it's all too rich for my skinny bones, so I continued along my destination without a care in my mind about obtaining delicious sustenance.

I arrived at the Galileo Cafe which is just north of the convention center across Harbor Drive. Hey are you tired of me establishing the location of landmarks in this story? Because if you're not, I am. There at the cafe I found Allie sitting across from her fiance (who's had that status for as long as I can remember) Jeremy. Upon seeing me approach the cafe, Allie got up out of her chair, ran in my direction, and gave me a long awaited hug. After releasing my rib cage from her locking arms, Allie said to me, "Wow... you've lost a lot of weight." I've grown accustomed to hearing this phrase. Anyone who hasn't seen me in the past 6 months always feels the need to comment about how I'm nothing but skin and bones these days.

Allie is a friend I met through Molly. This means I've known Allie for about 9 years. No matter what happened between Molly and I during those 9 years, Allie and I remained good friends. The last I saw of Allie was 3 years ago in the summer of 2001. Seeing her again reminded me of how much I miss all the other friends I've made in my life that have drifted away to other states.

Later on I learned that Jeremy is an amateur beer brewer. After Having changed locations from Galileo's to a nearby Rock Bottom Brewery, Jeremy had a lot to say about the assortment of microbrewed beers the establishment had to offer. Just from tasting the beer he could repeat back to me each ingredient the beer contained along with a brief synopsis of the brewing process necessary to make that particular beer. Unfortunately neither Jeremy nor Allie could stay any longer in San Diego and would soon have to drive back to Los Angeles.

After walking back to the convention center to meet up with all of my Phoenix friends, we took a few snapshots and parted ways.


So what did I do after Allie and Jeremy departed for Los Angeles? Why I went back to Rock Bottom with all my Phoenix friends for another mug of Rock Bottom Coronado Nut Brown Ale. Hey I was on vacation and that beer is goddamn good.

Stay tuned for more later. Same Bat-time, same bat-channel