Zub Tales

Gonna do a bit of Christmas shopping today I think. It will feel weird.

I have this strange feeling that almost always overcomes me when I go shopping alone… especially grocery shopping. It’s this weird feeling like I’m much younger than I really am and I’m a wee bit lost. I look at products or foods that I want and I get this strange sensation like I need to ask permission to buy it. I’m an adult, almost 30 and yet I sometimes go shopping alone and feel like I’m a kid cutting classes and trying not to get caught or something to that effect. I think the “setting your own hours” freelance thing exaggerates that feeling as well.

I think-double-think like crazy with groceries when I’m alone. I put stuff back a lot or compare sizes and prices like crazy. I get very quiet and reserved. I have no idea why. I’m not an idiot, I know generally what I want to buy, but I hesitate far more. Shopping with other people I never seem to have this problem.

The apartment’s currently quiet and mostly clean. There’s some artwork that needs to be done but I think I’ve got it scheduled out okay with a bit of a crunch coming tonight and tomorrow. There’s some work stress stuff, but I’m trying to be reasonable and understand that the things getting mucked up aren’t my fault and aren’t things I can do anything about. If the time comes that I can change the course of it, then I will. That doesn’t make it all carefree, but it does allow me to get through it better.

A bit tired. Heading out to shop and feel like a lost kid. Later.

Not Me: We’ve started doing a Secret Santa thing on my Dad’s side of the family which reduced the number of gifts by four but this year all my Mom’s family is showing up which adds… four people to buy for.

Zub: Heh, that’s ironic. It’s always easier when people have a past time they love or some hobby you can buy around.

Not Me: Yeah, but these out of the blue people are the ones I’m gonna struggle with because I don’t know them very well.

Zub: Okay, then you must DECIDE upon a fictional past time for them, whether they do it or not. Cousin George now LOVES GOLF, PERIOD.

Not Me: I like it!

Zub: Uncle Marty loves porn, Auntie Helga drinks too much coffee, etc. Get them a similar themed card to go with the gift too.

Not Me: Sweet.

On the personal front, things are up and down.

Have you ever had a Charley Horse so bad in the calf of your leg that you thought it would actually explode and rocket across the room?

Holy God I woke up all groggy and stree—-etched slightly while I was in bed – KABLOOIE! I wonder if my neighbours heard me cursing incredibly loudly and praying for my own demise.

Now I’m limping around my apartment like an idiot trying to get work done. My stomach is upset, my back aches a bit and my calf feels like it’s been through a war zone. Today is officially bleh.

Here’s hoping it gets better.

I told you I’d update and you didn’t believe me 😛

Anyways, Score’s Epic Battles card game is currently available at Blockbuster outlets across the US and all of the artwork in the first set is Udon-ified. Managing and finishing all the artwork for this set proved to be a real brain buster, but the results are quite sharp. It also gave the Udon crew a chance to draw characters from Street Fighter 3, which was quite nice.

Click here for my favorite Street Fighter Epic Battles artwork

Adding to my previous LJ post, here’s how some of the characters actually look on the cards that come in the game:

You can see the complete list of collectible pieces HERE.

Okay, it’s been a month to the day since I updated the ol’ LJ… blast! I even promised artwork last time and never delivered after that first pic.

I promise more artwork to show!

Okay, lets get this started… Arthaus has a new constructible, collectible game called Racer Knights that just came out. Vriens, Dax, Mark Sinclair, Scotty and I designed and colored up a pile of character and car designs for it. Now that the first set is finally out I can show you guys my favorite work from it.

Promo image characters drawn by Joe Vriens, cars drawn by Scott Hepburn, all colors by me.

More artwork to show you guys tomorrow from other projects finally coming out. Promise!

Click here for my favorite RK pics.

Remember when I used to post artwork on this LJ, yeesh… I do… a faint memory now. Instead you guys get lame photos of sandwiches I’ve eaten (or stories of sandwiches taken away by border crossing police), me hyping Exated, me blathering about industry crapola or me telling you how busy I am.

Okay, this week I vow – Less talky and more arty!

I drew for myself today! No, really, I swear it’s true.

Initial gesture drawing.

Tightening up the form and attitude.

Colored.

I think it’s got good attitude. I’m trying to show more life than just a cold standing pose. The turn of her left foot sideways against the ground makes me happy. It should look like attitude rather than a broken ankle, heh. Most of the clothed figures I draw from my head have extremely generic looking clothes, which is something I really want to evolve away from. I’m also pleased that the tightened up version is clear without becoming overly stiff. The pattern on the skirt turned out better than I thought it would. I think, all in all, it’s a step in the right direction.

A pretty good weekend overall… I’m feeling sick and it seems I’ll be fighting off a cold for the next couple days. Enough about that though, two excellent separate lines heard this weekend, here for you, completely out of context:

LINE #1:
Eric Kim: “It’s been so long since I’ve seen a real karate chop like that.”

LINE #2:
Gal: “At least I’m not an ass raping monkey.”

TAH DAH!

I’ll be attending this tomorrow to cheer on Ken, the writer of our Street Fighter comic series:

Triple Threat as seen in The Globe and Mail, no less.

It’s right near the Beguiling and the Bathurst Street Subway station… easy access and it should be a good time all around. If you’re in the greater Toronto area you have no reason not to be there 🙂

Now you know! If you haven’t seen me in a while and want to come by and say “Hi”… that would kick butt.

I’m not one to rant about Microsoft or Windows… generally speaking I’m a pretty happy PC-user.

I went to update my video card drivers from the Nvidia website. I figured I’d keep my drivers up to date to make the maximum use of my spiffy new hardware. The drivers installed okay, or so I thought, though I did have some trouble getting them working at first. Then when I reset my computer, Windows XP told me I’d made major changes to my configuration and that I’d have to Reactivate my copy of Windows over the phone.

I finally got a hold of a live human being and confirmed that yes, by changing my drivers I now had to reactivate Windows and that each time I change my drivers or hardware I will have to call them for a new Activation code. Unlike before, only the original install can be activated over the internet… otherwise ALL Activation must be done via the phone… for EVERY driver or hardware change I make to my machine.

Okay, that’s a little insane.

The strange part is that the woman asked me how many machines this version was installed on… I said “one” (which is the truth but they seemingly had no way of knowing that)and she gave me the Activation number. So why even do it if I can just tell them something and they give me the key anyways? It’s ridiculous, invasive and annoying.

All I did was update my drivers for crying out loud!