(no subject)
Well, it’s been a while since I updated this. Not as long as the time before it, though.
I wrap up the summer session today. I have to admit that I prefer these shorter art classes, but I loathe the lecture ones. Especially since I accidentally chose one that only lasted a month. Too much work due too soon. So I’m steering away from those ones, unless they’re absolutely crucial. The design class was more challenging and interesting from the one I took last year, so it was a big improvement. I even learned some photoshop tricks that I hadn’t figured out. So overall, I have to call it a fun experience. In my other class, the US history one, we (as in my group) made a movie. I have a Web-ready file in my computer, and I’m pondering whether to put it on youtube.com. It’s so bad that it’s funny-bad. But really, I can’t do anything until I resolve my latest computer issues.
Two big things wrong with my PC right now. After I boot up, sometimes my computer forgets Mr. Slave - my slave drive with all my music, school, websites, and design stuff - after it boots up. The boot-up DOS screen shows that it detects both drives. But when WinXP loads, it briefly shows Mr. Slave, then it disappears. This does not happen all the time, but it’s recurrence has increased lately. I think it might be linked to the other problem - Windows Explorer seems to be really slow. It’s not like I have a bunch of files in my master drive (C:\), since all I have there are program files. It’s probably not even using a fourth of the available memory (160 gigs), so I’m baffled at why it’s slowing down. All I can think is that I might’ve picked up a virus or spy ware. So I ran Ad-aware and Spybot and sure enough, it detected a combined tally of 100 spyware agents. That’s what I get for trusting XP’s integrated firewall. So now I’m looking for a new Internet Security suite. There’s this particular one that I just installed in my aunt’s laptop that is pretty cheap, only uses 50 megs, and scored pretty high in PC World. In fact, it outscored Norton Anti-Virus. So that’s something to consider - a program that’s better and cheaper that the brand name.
As far as works, there are two potential gigs that I might get that are pretty big and might be my chance to break out. I heard of the first one two weeks ago, and the other just last Monday. I sent samples to both parties and I’m still waiting for a response. The problem here is that there is a third party between us, and I would much rather deal with my potential employers directly. But I don’t want to rock the boat right now. Although now that I think about it, it would show initiative.
I’m about to wrap up another Marquee Wrestling cover for APW Adrenaline. Between this one and IWF Dirty Deeds, I think I’ve done my best work to date. I applied the techniques I mentioned earlier combined with a couple of different twists. But I guess the common eye won’t catch those differences.
Also, Ian Hamilton’s book, Wrestling’s Sinking Ship, is now available at Amazon. He asked me literally days before deadline to make a cover for it. He had another guy in charge of the graphics, but there were some communication issues and Ian hadn’t hear anything from the graphics guy. So he came to me to do a cover. This happened when I was taking both summer classes, so I didn’t really have that much time to experiment with the front cover. I went with a straight-forward and simple design based on the average wrestling book covers that I’ve seen. I grabbed a royalty-free picture from stock xchng from, what else, a sinking ship, slapped the logo and some other stuff, and sent it to Ian. He told me afterwards that it needed the whole “unofficial, uncensored, and unauthorized” tag in the cover, but I was knee deep with school work to do it. I wish I could have, but I didn’t have time to rethink the layout to fit in that tag. So Ian took care of it and it come out fine. In retrospective, I wish I could’ve chosen a different background color, something gloomy considering the title, and lowered the saturation of the cover photo. To me, it seems too bright considering that the book talks about a company that’s free-falling at glacier-pace. I think it is a striking image, though. I got my comps two-ish weeks ago and finished it earlier this week. It’s a good recap of what has happened in WWE ever since they purchased WCW and ECW went bankrupt. I was expecting something more critical, though. Anyway, yeah I’m happy to have my work on fucking Amazon.com. How awesome is that?! Too bad I didn’t get a crack to design the spine and back cover, but ah well.
Well, I have to get my final project ready to turn it in six hours. So yeah. Haven’t heard from anyone in a while, so I’m starting to wonder who I pissed off to get the silent treatment.
I wrap up the summer session today. I have to admit that I prefer these shorter art classes, but I loathe the lecture ones. Especially since I accidentally chose one that only lasted a month. Too much work due too soon. So I’m steering away from those ones, unless they’re absolutely crucial. The design class was more challenging and interesting from the one I took last year, so it was a big improvement. I even learned some photoshop tricks that I hadn’t figured out. So overall, I have to call it a fun experience. In my other class, the US history one, we (as in my group) made a movie. I have a Web-ready file in my computer, and I’m pondering whether to put it on youtube.com. It’s so bad that it’s funny-bad. But really, I can’t do anything until I resolve my latest computer issues.
Two big things wrong with my PC right now. After I boot up, sometimes my computer forgets Mr. Slave - my slave drive with all my music, school, websites, and design stuff - after it boots up. The boot-up DOS screen shows that it detects both drives. But when WinXP loads, it briefly shows Mr. Slave, then it disappears. This does not happen all the time, but it’s recurrence has increased lately. I think it might be linked to the other problem - Windows Explorer seems to be really slow. It’s not like I have a bunch of files in my master drive (C:\), since all I have there are program files. It’s probably not even using a fourth of the available memory (160 gigs), so I’m baffled at why it’s slowing down. All I can think is that I might’ve picked up a virus or spy ware. So I ran Ad-aware and Spybot and sure enough, it detected a combined tally of 100 spyware agents. That’s what I get for trusting XP’s integrated firewall. So now I’m looking for a new Internet Security suite. There’s this particular one that I just installed in my aunt’s laptop that is pretty cheap, only uses 50 megs, and scored pretty high in PC World. In fact, it outscored Norton Anti-Virus. So that’s something to consider - a program that’s better and cheaper that the brand name.
As far as works, there are two potential gigs that I might get that are pretty big and might be my chance to break out. I heard of the first one two weeks ago, and the other just last Monday. I sent samples to both parties and I’m still waiting for a response. The problem here is that there is a third party between us, and I would much rather deal with my potential employers directly. But I don’t want to rock the boat right now. Although now that I think about it, it would show initiative.
I’m about to wrap up another Marquee Wrestling cover for APW Adrenaline. Between this one and IWF Dirty Deeds, I think I’ve done my best work to date. I applied the techniques I mentioned earlier combined with a couple of different twists. But I guess the common eye won’t catch those differences.
Also, Ian Hamilton’s book, Wrestling’s Sinking Ship, is now available at Amazon. He asked me literally days before deadline to make a cover for it. He had another guy in charge of the graphics, but there were some communication issues and Ian hadn’t hear anything from the graphics guy. So he came to me to do a cover. This happened when I was taking both summer classes, so I didn’t really have that much time to experiment with the front cover. I went with a straight-forward and simple design based on the average wrestling book covers that I’ve seen. I grabbed a royalty-free picture from stock xchng from, what else, a sinking ship, slapped the logo and some other stuff, and sent it to Ian. He told me afterwards that it needed the whole “unofficial, uncensored, and unauthorized” tag in the cover, but I was knee deep with school work to do it. I wish I could have, but I didn’t have time to rethink the layout to fit in that tag. So Ian took care of it and it come out fine. In retrospective, I wish I could’ve chosen a different background color, something gloomy considering the title, and lowered the saturation of the cover photo. To me, it seems too bright considering that the book talks about a company that’s free-falling at glacier-pace. I think it is a striking image, though. I got my comps two-ish weeks ago and finished it earlier this week. It’s a good recap of what has happened in WWE ever since they purchased WCW and ECW went bankrupt. I was expecting something more critical, though. Anyway, yeah I’m happy to have my work on fucking Amazon.com. How awesome is that?! Too bad I didn’t get a crack to design the spine and back cover, but ah well.
Well, I have to get my final project ready to turn it in six hours. So yeah. Haven’t heard from anyone in a while, so I’m starting to wonder who I pissed off to get the silent treatment.