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WD Tokyo

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Speaking of Spring, Pop Japan Travel has posted the itineraries for their Spring tours. This year, they have 2: One that is both Tokyo and Kyoto, and one that is just Tokyo. Once they put up the cost of each trip, I will decide if I am going on one, and when. Both tours have things I want to do. Really, the days that overlap are the things I have done before. The Kyoto tour has the advantage of seeing Kyoto, and a potential side-trip to Osaka. But the Tokyo, has several things I haven't done (like the Bandai museum), plus it offers a better chance of having time to meet up with my penpal again.

No comic update last week, sorry if anyone was anticipating it. I promise I will get an update this week. The next page should only be a couple drawings, so it should be quick to do. I bought some more drawing supplies, which will be nice to have. The only thing I don't really have is a good place to draw.

I've finally begun playing Final Fantasy X (thus the lack of comic update). It is incredible. My biggest fear about it was the voice acting, but they do a good job and it doesn't detract. A couple of the voice actors are really good. Still, I wish there was the option to hear it in Japanese, but Square doesn't seem to ever want to give us that. In the way of gameplay, I think FFX has become my favorite of the new-gen (7+) FFs. They fix a lot of issues I've had with previous FFs. All-in-all an excellent game :)

I am updating from work, so hopefully the update goes ok. I guess if you can read this, than the update was successful ^_^

2004-01-17
I feel good about myself, I resisted the urge to slap someone when they started talking about how they don't "believe" in evolution.  Of course, I really didn't feel like being drawn into a hopeless argument with someone, an otherwise intelligent seeming person, who refuses to distinguish between legitimate science and myth-based pseudo-science. Sigh. Creationists, whatta ya gonna do?  Because their beliefs are not based on a logical and structured deduction through the scientific method, you really can't use logic and fact to argue. And they have plenty of "arguments" so full of logical fallacies, it is ridiculous. I guess if someone gets a particular world view ingrained in their mind, it is too much to ask to change that view.  To me, though, it seems almost like saying "I don't believe the Earth revolves around the sun ... ignoring or brushing aside any empirical evidence to the contrary. Ok, got that off my chest. I feel better now ^_^

2004-01-16
Next page is up, ahead of schedule. Ok, it is behind schedule really, as I missed a couple weeks. But it is ahead of my revised schedule. So I think that means I get employee of the month. Go me!

Between my iPod and iTunes, I am currently in the process of listening to each song in my library at least once (they keep track of how many times you listen to them).  Since iTunes/iPod can use dynamic playlists, I just have one that only plays songs with zero times played.

Of course, I do take breaks from this to listen to my favorites. Currently Ayumi Hamasaki's latest "mini album," Memorial Address,  is getting a lot of play, especially the tracks "Because of You" and "ourselves."  These have become a couple of my favorite songs of Ayu. It helps that the videos for them (which come on a DVD that comes with the CD) have Ayu dressed Goth and some elements are reminiscent of some NIN videos. 

2004-01-15
Bah, need to update more, or something. I know my millions of fans are on the edge of their seats.

In WDT news, I finished inking the drawings for the next page, just gotta scan them in, and put them together.  I think I am going to increase the size of each page (you'll notice the omake was larger). That way I don't have to worry as much about losing detail.

I am currently on the purge portion of my anime binge-n-purge cycle. I recently finished watching RahXephon, a great WTF series (see Eva, Lain, Boogiepop, etc.) that has earned a place on the top 25 favs I am compiling. I also watched Banner of the Stars II, the final series in the Crest/Banner of the Stars anime line. Crest/Banner was already on my list, but BotSII cemented its place. 俺の一番好きなアニメです。I'll write more about it when I get to putting my list up.

Abenobashi is promising to be another great Gainax series. It is a parody anime, very over-the-top and well done. Many, many of the jokes are otaku (anime and game geek) inside jokes, which is probably why I find it so funny :)  Hell, they even make fun of the extended "fight" scenes in DBZ. Lots of fan-service too, which is always a plus.

Well time to get some sleep, before venturing out into the frigid cold tomorrow morn (it has been getting down to -10 to -15 when I go into work in the morning ... we are lucky if it reaches single, positive digits during the day).

2004-01-03
I finished the drawing I was working on, and decided to place it up as omake (contains mild nudity) in place of a comic this week.

2005-01-01
Happy New Year!
あけましたおめでとうございます！

And yes, the date is a joke, which no one but my sister will probably get, if she even reads this.

All-in-all, I think 2003 was a good year for me.  I got to see Japan and Scotland. I shed about 30 pounds and am getting in shape.  I feel overall better about myself than I have in a while.  The main downer for me this year is that I am still single :(  Well, I will work on that this year. Wish me luck. がんばります！

I haven't added page to WDT, but I did put the one's I linked on the forum up on the main site. I haven't started page 8 yet ... I am being lazy about it, it is a linking page to where Akiko's intro story is going, so I guess I just gotta force myself to draw it.  I think starting with page 8, I will be hand inking the drawings before I scan them in - this helps them clean up even better, and is more conducive to later digital painting.

I am almost finished painting the drawing I did in Scotland, and I should get it up this weekend. I just have to finish with the background.

2003-11-30
This will be my last post for a while. I shall be in Scotland for 3 weeks, then back to visit the fam briefly, then very likely off to Scotland again.  I did squeeze in a little time among all the packing to ink and color the original Akiko drawing.  A total of three pages are done and hopefully will be posted (or at least linked to from the forums until I return), so I will be able to keep the one a week schedule for the next 3 weeks.  After that there may be a small break.

2003-11-29
Page 4 is up.  Over the next 3 weeks, it is likely that only 2 more pages will be posted. Lousy work, taking away from my free time :)  But then, I may get a chance to do some drawing over in Scotland.

Came back to Syracuse early, trying to beat the weather. Good thing I did, since it has been brutal here today. Still, it sucked not really being able to see anyone.

I scanned in an hand inked version of the Jonny pic, but instead of posting it, I started to play around with digital painting. So, here is my first attempt at a digitally painted drawing!

2003-11-22
Page three is up.  Page one has been replaced with the new darkened one.  Also, I bought some pens and inked the Jonny pic, will scan it in sometime to see what it looks like.

2003-11-21
Playing around with ways to digitally darken the comics without darkening the background. I think I found a method that both darkens the pencil while making the background whiter. Here is the old Jonny and the new Jonny.  Old page 1 and new page one. Let me know if you like the pseudo-inked versions better.

2003-11-17
Page two is up. Just a cover page, but it was a necessary evil, heh.  I got a PHP script for making the comic easier to update, but I want to play with it a bit before using it.

2003-11-03
World Domination Tokyo begins.  I am going to try to post one page a week. I actually have enough drawings for about 3 or 4 pages, so at least for a month there will be regular updates ^_^;;

I wrote a rather lengthy overview of Disgaea in the entertainment forum.

Time to play a little Disgaea, then get to bed.

2003-11-03
Some spotty site connections today, as my host is working out some glitches from the migration. Hopefully it is all good now.

Here's Jonny.  I think he is Akiko's legal guardian. Haven't thought much beyond the drawings yet, though.

2003-11-02
Well, I broke down and bought an iPod today. I've been thinking about getting one, and finally decided it would be quite nice to have one.  I must say, it really is a great little gadget. I can readily see why they are considered the best mp3 player on the market.

Of course, being an Apple product, it synch's quite nicely with iTunes. So, now I just have to get to work ripping my entire CD collection, and get it stored on my iPod.

2003-11-01
I ended up drawing last night for the first time in ages.  Spent about two hours on this. She is not perfect, but I am still happy with how she turned out.  I haven't done much work on cleaning up the image; just some moiré pattern (paper texture) removal.

2003-10-31
Happy Halloween folks! Hope everyone is having a good time, whatever you may be doing.

I went to see Kill Bill Vol. 1. I really, really enjoyed it, more than I thought I would. I think it is because this week has been hell at work, and really stressful. So seeing a movie full of comically excessive gore and violence was perfect.

On the way back, the radio station was playing the NIN cover of Dead Souls. It is nice to live somewehere with a couple good radio stations.

Well, I am going to go draw or watch something, catch you all later.

2003-10-26
This was a pretty good weekend. Nothing too exciting, but I got a lot done that needed doing.  I finished watching the GTO live action drama. It was quite good, and different enough from the manga/anime that I didn't feel like I was watching the same thing over, just with real people this time around.  The climactic dilemma in particular was quite different from anything in the manga or anime, but it still fit very well.  My only real complaint is that my favorite of the students, Urumi Kanzaki, is not in the series, but then her whole story is a little too complex to fit in with a series that is only 12 one hour episodes. 

Again, the GTO drama demonstrates something that I wish more American dramas would follow - a specific storyline designed to be a specific length of time, instead of draw out season after season.  Just like the 1st season of 24.  X-Files also began that way, but then went astray.  Japan isn't the only nation that airs series that way - so does Britain, and AFAIK most European countries.  It can make for an overall better storyline when you have a definite beginning, middle, and end to a series.

I used the weight room at my apartment complex for the first time yesterday.  I figure mixing some upper body exercises and lifting in with my DDR routine is a good thing. But, man are my muscles sore!

It looks like it is almost 99% certain that I shall be traveling to the UK in December to spend 3 weeks there for work.  The upshot is that I should be home for both Thanksgiving weekend and the weekend of/after Christmas.  Hopefully I will get to see all my friends, at least a little! I miss everyone V(^_^)V

Copyright © 2003 Kevin Andersen