Nah. Honestly I spend more time between Twitter, Facebook and my own Blogger Acct/ Website etc. LJ ends up as redundant. The nifty userpics are a neat bit, but really, that's the BIG draw for LJ to me right now, and not worth paying for. :/

Hoping to get two good pics out the door today. Tomorrow will be less than productive (wife is off tomorrow).

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Pool-Boots-Kids-Who-Might-Change-the-Complexion.html

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.

"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
 
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
 
The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.
 
"I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said.
 
Campers remain unsure why they're no longer welcome.
 
"They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything," said camper Simer Burwell.
 
The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.
 
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

While the parents await an apology, the camp is scrambling to find a new place for the kids to beat the summer heat.

Yeah, I've been bad about keeping up with my LJ lately.
Been working a lot.

Not going to GenCon. Need to save the money for other stuff. The smart thing to do is save up for next year and Illuxcon in Nov.

Out of the 35 (turned in to 37) images to do in a month, I have 26 done and I have 8 days left. Of course I did request an extension but never heard back. I dunno if I got canned/ replaced or not.

I'm also in the midst of a couple reviews: one done, one starting tonight (well...the reading part). Courage and Honour by Graham McNeill is a good read, I recommend it. Review over at Flames Rising. I spoke with the author a bit this morning about the review. I tend to occasionally be a harsh mistress when it comes to reviews as I don't believe in sugar-coating what I write. I don't write with "stars in my eyes". While I know a lot of writers, I'm hopefully known as a fair, objective reviewer who "tells it like it is". Graham McNeill is a great guy. He's one of those creatives that pours a lot of heart and soul in to his writing, yet doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve: he wants honest reviews and forthright critique. You can't help but respect that!

There have been some tragedies of late. Some far away, some very near and dear to my heart. My heart goes out to those who have lost someone important in their lives recently. I don't handle death well.

We've had some local weirdness and drama lately as well. I think I may have been at the heart of it or caused it. In D&D terms I tend towards Lawful Stupid, and in doing so, my overwhelming disdain for talking behind someone's back and having to make sure what I say in private is also perfectly clear in public as well...well...I may have really stomped on a friend's feelings. I was a bit TOO honest in a way.

I try to be tactful, and considerate, always. But at some point (in this case) I felt that my tactful words were falling on deaf ears...repeatedly...for months and when I brought it up again and was faced with anger...I fired back with both barrels, as honest and clear as crystal. I dunno. I may have went overboard a little. Thankfully we're still friends. I've since apologised for my excessive force.

I'm supposed to be running a WFRP campaign starting Sunday. May be a short run. I'm starting them at a bit of an odd angle and then seeing where they want to go with it. It's entirely up to them, it's their game, and their story. Of course after the last weird set of emails and all that...all eyes are now on me to put my money where my mouth is. Joy!

My Friday evenings are booked as well, seeing a couple dear friends on a regular schedule now for a bit of Gaming/ Dinner goodness. I know I am very much a creature of habit, and seeing people is something I have to do on a regular basis, else I'll fall back to just staying home. It's too easy to just stay home. I work at home, I live at home, I play at home, I sleep at home...I DO need to get out of the house on occasion before that weird lack of social skills sets in. Maybe it already has (see previous paragraphs).

I'll end this note with an homage to my favorite artist of ALL TIME:


That's right...Tim Bradstreet (swoon).

"Blizzard has announced that they will be dropping LAN support for Starcraft II, citing piracy and quality concerns. Instead, all multiplayer games will be hosted through their new Battle.net service. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this move, but wasn't LAN play how the original Starcraft became popular? Blizzard said, 'More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. ... We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better.'"
http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/1628259/Blizzard-Confirms-No-LAN-Support-For-emStarcraft-2em?from=rss

I'm sorry, but what???
No LAN support?
Only Battle.net?

Wow.

Today is the birthday of a great guy. Mike Wieringo. He passed away in 2007. He is missed. The world is a little darker without him around. Happy Birthday man...where ever you are.

"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life." 

Proclamation by the Government to the German Nation.  Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 1 February 1933



Props to Todd Lockwood for the reminder of this.

WiP I started in Virginia.
another WiP I started one day.
And yet another WiP I did last weekend when I took some time to myself.

Note all are WiPs and none are completed. Unfortunately I'm driven by a number of deadlines and have little time for drawing for ME and what I want to draw. Of course, fan art doesn't pay. Still...I could draw GW stuff all day long and I'd do it for FREE (well...or almost free). I just don't have the chops to make it to THAT level.


Yet.

I'm liquidating a lot of stuff around the house ($$$) and I have a big batch of CBT Novels which I'm about to put on Ebay, but I wanted to toss a line to the peeps online here first.

The Blood of Kerensky Series by Michael Stackpole  $7.50
The Warrior Trilogy my Michael Stackpole   $7.50
The Twilight of the Clans series. $20
The Fed-Com Civil War  $30

I figure that to get these at Half-Price Books you'd pay $3-$3.50 apiece for them
I'll ask $2.50 apiece (as shown above).

If someone wanted all of them, I'd sell em for $2 apiece ($52 for the whole batch).
Shipping will probably be between $5 and $10.

Please feel free to crosspost to the CBT folks everywhere.

==================================================
I did the art direction on this and you won't believe the bullpen of artists I got!
==================================================

The Swords & Wizardry Storefront: http://stores.lulu.com/mythmere

Knockspell Magazine Issue #2 is now on sale at the Swords & Wizardry storefront, http://stores.lulu.com/mythmere. This issue contains dungeon design advice from both Allan Grohe and Philotomy Jurament, an adventure by Gabor Lux, and all kinds of other articles from jousting to monsters and all points in between! The art in this issue is phenomenal: artists include Jim Holloway, Liz Danforth, and others. The cover piece is "Dungeoneer," by Peter Fitzpatrick. Games covered include 0e, 1e, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and other retro-clones. 86 pages.

DURING MAY the prices of Knockspell #2, Spire of Iron and Crystal (module), The S&W/0e Monster Book, and Eldritch Weirdness Compilation Books Three to One are all reduced, because we're in the middle of another lulu sales competition.

Table of Contents:
3 Editor’s Note, Matt Finch
4 Art Director’s Note, Jeff Preston
4 From Kuroth’s Quill, Allan T. Grohe, Jr.
8 The Dungeon as Mythic Underworld, Jason “Philotomy Jurament” Cone
14 The Trouble with Thieves, James Maliszewski
16 WhiteBox Thief (1): The Treasure Seeker, Rob Ragas
17 WhiteBox Thief (2): The “Standard” Thief, Salvatore Macri
18 Core Rules Thief (1): The Skillful Shadow, Salvatore Macri
20 Core Rules Thief (2), James Maliszewski
21 Thieves and Tasks, Akrasia
24 Isles on an Emerald Sea 2, Gabor Lux
31 Retro-Clones: Interviews with the Authors
36 Jousting (Optional Rules), Brendan Falconer
37 Dungeon Oddities, Michael Curtis
45 The Zocchi Experience, Matt Finch
46 The Claws of Ssur-Sparih, James Carl Boney
47 Random City Lair Generator, Sean Wills
48 Random Thieves Guild Generator, Robert Lionheart
51 The Fantasy Marketplace: Looking at Merchants Differently, Michael Shorten
55 Spell Complexity (Optional Rules), Brendan Falconer
57 Thoughts on Arnesonian Alchemy in the Original Dungeon Game, Jason Vasche
60 When is a Spell Book Much More than a Spell Book?, Brendan Falconer
62 Random Pits & Occupants, Mike Davison
63 Magic Swords & Treasure Maps, Jason “Philotomy Jurament” Cone
67 Leprechauns, David (“Sham”) Bowman
69 Why White Box?, Jim Adams
71 Surviving Old-School Dungeons, Sean Ahmed
72 Three Sorcerous Creations, James Carl Boney
77 Magic Items
78 Review: On the Road of Knives, Matt Finch
79 Masterminds & Minions, bat
82 The Bestiary
86 Classified Ads

Tales of Heresy
Edited by Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestley
( Read more... )

Okay, so I have been working a lot...and it looks like it's not about to stop anytime soon.
Three contracts starting now and ending approx July 8th coming out to something like 35 images to get done between now and then.
Have I mentioned that I love my job?

Got a couple reviews submitted to Flames Rising (finally).
Previews here:
Mechanicum by Graham McNeill
Shadowrealm by Paul S. Kemp
Forthcoming reviews:
Dawn of War II by Chris Roberson
Tales of Heresy (anthology)
Heroes of the Space Marines (anthology)

I'll be on the road to MD, DC and VA between Thursday this week and Tuesday next.

Who's going?

New community created:

http://community.livejournal.com/weekly_heroes

 

I'm going to hold off until Spring or most likely Summer. I intend to get a Mac. I've used OSX as well as 9, I can wrangle it well enough to get around and do what I need to as well as do limited troubleshooting (networking issues).

I don't need (NEED) it today, and rushing in to anything like a thousand dollar-ish purchase is a bad idea. I have time, I'll save my pennies till the new OS version comes out, bugs are sorted out, SW is updated and all.

Thanks to EVERYONE who replied.

One of this year's business purchases (funded via tax return) is going to be a laptop.

I need it to do the following:
Run Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign well. (CS3, req's added below)

My first thought is to get a Powerbook or some other version of Mac.

My second thought is to get a Windows-based system.

Please, even if you don't usually pay attention to my posts, I would like input on this from all sectors.

Looted from cartoon_goblin .
I'm pretty sure I've done this before, but...what the hell, I'm all about repeating memes.

-Describe me in one word... just one single word. Positive or negative.

-Leave your word in a comment before looking at what words others have used.

-Then copy and paste the meme to your journal to find out how people will describe you when limited to one word.

I took a half day because I had a lot of errands to run. So the first half, from about 7am to 2pm was this coloration:

My pal envertigo  sucked me in to blip.fm
I'm a sheep.

I listen to music while I work, and variety is good.
Enjoy!

http://blip.fm/profile/TeamPreston/playlist

I realized after submitting for a pin-up art gig...that I have no pin-up girl illustrations as examples.

Not my best work EVER, but for a few hours of work from start to finish, it's about the best I can do.