It’s kind of amusing. The people living in the apartment across the hall have a role-playing game running almost every Sunday. Gal and I have heard them chatting and heard bits of game speak. Without actually putting my ear right on their door I can’t tell what system they’re playing. I think it’s something modern, but I haven’t heard any terminology from WhiteWolf books or anything… so maybe d20 Modern?

Part of me thinks I should knock and introduce myself as a fellow gamer. Most of me thinks that’s just embarrassing and weird. Mind you, standing in the hallway straining to hear dice rolling and corny dialogue and being entertained by it is pretty weird too.

If I knew what system they were using I’d probably slip them a free book or something, but that could come off as creepy if they received this mysterious package from nowhere.

Heh. I know there’s all sorts of gamers out there but having them across the hall is amusing to me for some reason.

Hold on, I’m gonna eavesdrop again and see if I hear even what kind of dice they’re using or anything:

*heads to the hallway to listen again*

Holy shit, they are playing White Wolf stuff… I just heard the Storyteller ask for a “Manipulation + Socialize” roll. This is so weird…

Up at Newsarama this morning:

The Publishing Gauntlet – Part Three

Find out who our cast of heroes are for the Exalted comic as well as where the first story arc is taking place.

This post isn’t exactly momentous or occasion worthy. Sometimes livejournal is just day to day observations.

Good Morning June.

I think the strange sleep schedule and sheer volume of things going on is making me extra touchy today. I hate feeling this way. I hate being extra irritable or jumpy when I’ve got this much to do. Of course, this tends to happen because I have so much to do. It’s a little vicious cycle.

The “Card Game Project of Doom” continues unabated. Going over images last night I see several that need to be overhauled. Not sure how we’re going to be able to pull that magically out of our butts in time. So frustrating.

If the summer cons go well I am seriously taking a vacation somewhere. Not a day trip or going to friend’s place to get away from work kind of thing. A real “going away somewhere” kind of vacation. I’ve never left Canada/USA and that irritates me. I shouldn’t be 29 and have no experiences outside of this continent for crying out loud. Schedule wise and money wise I don’t think any of my friends could spare the time or afford an autumn vacation to a resort or anywhere out of the way. Going alone somewhere is a little scary, but might be a neat experience nonetheless. It’s hard to figure that out on this little sleep.

The apartment is too quiet.

My computer’s hard drive is emitting the same old high pitched spinning noise. I normally filter it out without even trying but right now it’s piercing and annoying for some reason.

And why does my ankle hurt? *grumble grumble*

Oh crap, now I’m rambling.

Okay, time for some breakfast/lunch/whatever and a shower to hopefully shake my head out of this.

TCAF was a bust business-wise, but pretty good from a “hangout out and meet people” standpoint. I knew going in that the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers books weren’t the kind of fare people were looking for at this show and us not being able to bring in any of the art team accentuated that even more.

Still, meeting more of the Flight crew was quite nice, as was hanging out with the Speak Easy boys and meeting Jeff Smith. Rey and Mal were there as well (read Sharknife!) but I didn’t get to visit with them as much as I would’ve liked.

Today ended up quite awful. Although I had a couple drinks out last night, I woke up disproportionately pained. More than just a hangover headache, my head ended up on fire. Worse of all, I thought I was okay at first and went down to the show today. Within a couple hours I was practically blacking out from a crushing headache and my stomach lurching. I left at about 1:30 and drove very slowly home, then rolled up into a fetal position in bed and felt like I was gonna die. Four hours later I came to and now I’m groggily trying to get things done while feeling a slight and headache and quite disconnected from everything because of the time loss of the nap.

Gonna try and get some serious sleep and then attack tomorrow with much more gusto. I’ll try and post a couple photos from the show tomorrow as well.

As Noi was working up the cover for issue #1 of the Exalted comic for the solicitation info we also talked about a poster or print we could do up for stores and/or sell at the cons. One of the female characters for the print seemed an obvious choice. Noi told me he’d do up a piece for it by the end of the week. I received the pic about an hour ago and I’m more jazzed than ever about the comic.

I e-mailed it to several of the White Wolf staffers to get their take on it. Brian, the Art Director for Exalted, just woke me up at 2am to freak out:

*ring*

Jim: *groggily fumbles with phone* huzuguh?

Brian: DU————–UDE! HOLY FUCK! NOI IS INSANE!

Jim: Yes. Yes he is. Pretty sweet, eh?

Brian: My God, that rules. Okay, sorry for calling so late. Just had to tell you. Go back to bed, crazy boy.

Jim: *sleepy grin* G’night.

When you eventually see it, I think you’ll agree that something special is coming this fall. Okay, back to bed.

Heading to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival here in downtown Toronto. If you can, come down and say hello! I’ll be in the Hacienda lounge where all the discussion panels are being held. It’s also where the booze is… so stop by! If you’re coming by subway, the TCAF show is right around the corner from Bathurst Station. Easy access, free admission… you have no excuse not to be there if you’re in Toronto.

One of the card game projects is finally approaching some semblance of light at the end of tunnel. While finishing off assigning that stuff, managing other projects and all the comic marketing madness I was able to slip in time to do two little spot illos for Dungeon Magazine:

Art behind the cut here

The second part in a series of articles about the creation of the new Exalted comic series is now up at Newsarama:

The Publishing Gauntlet- Part Two

Please give it a read and comment if you can. Pass the link along to friends and other interested parties.

Thanks!

For the first time since around 1999, I’m changing my avatar all over the internet. A little caricature doodle I did of myself tonight turned out sharp and I think it’ll make a fine replacement for the old pouty kid with an aviator cap one:

Gal was 150% correct about Star Wars Episode III. Cornflake and her both told me that Star Wars fans were abused housewives coming back time and time again for another beating because they had deluded themselves that “it would get better this time, honestly.” That this movie would suck just as bad as the first two and that I was a fool.

They were right. The movie was a hair better than the absolute donkey shit that was Matrix Revolutions.

There’s about 15 minutes of really impressive fight scenes surrounded by 2 plus hours of absolute garbage. Every actor in this film is beyond cardboard. I wasn’t expecting deep and meaningful, but seriously, every person who opens their mouth spews something embarrassing. Ewan MacGregor is the only person who retains a shred of personality and even he’s scuba diving in crap for the majority of the film.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching Star Wars fan fiction with a hundred million dollar budget. It was that terrible. The prequel trilogy is three for three on the shit-o-meter.

Whenever I go see a film I have a simple intelligence criterion. I think of myself as someone with average intelligence. If I see something in the moment as I watch a film and dozens of people involved in writing, directing and editing the film didn’t see how stupid something was after months of pouring over each scene, then they could be morons. This film made me feel like a genius.

Spoilers and Bitching Here

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me congrats on the series or posted good things on the various forums.

The first part in a series of articles all about the creation of the comic series is up now at Newsarama:

The Publishing Gauntlet- Part One

Please give it a read and comment if you can. I’m nervously excited as all this stuff gets rolling.