Hey there folks, made a new community, so feel free to join!  holycrappixels  is a community dedicated to the apprectiation of great digital art and also to the self improvement of digital artists through knowledge-sharing and critiques!

Hope to see you there!

 It's been nearly a year!

New stuff for those who don't know already:

Twitter Account: DJEchelon
New "Professional" Blog: invisiblemoose.blogspot.com
New DeviantArt Account: rougespark.deviantart.com

I'll try to post the more personal stuff here.  Not too much though, the walls have ears and such.

Just came home and hammered this out. 


Huh.

Crossposted (hopefully) to ontd_politcal
 

( A Open Letter Regarding the Financial Crisis  )

Actually, the first thing she said was "You're joking right?"

Ah well, at least I didn't have to tackle her into the surf.  I would have hated to find the ring in the sand in the moonlight...

I'm so fucking happy right now... and Carrie can't stop spazzing over it all.  We have no clue where or when we'll be having the ceremony, but we'll figure it out!


BTW we went to Hilton Head for the occasion, which was really fun, although a word of warning: They charge you there just to get on to the island. 

As a follow up to the last post, I've decided to create a community to catalog and recognize modern-day heroes.  Not surprisingly, I named it modern_heroes.  I look forward to sharing hero tales with you there!  /plug

Alright, I realize the title is cheezy as all hell, but I'm serious.  

I agree with this guy, I think we need more teams like this.  If this years' weather is any indication, we're in for a rough ride in the future, and the more volunteer groups like this we have ready to respond immediately to fill the gap before the bigger, more capable aid agencies can set up to take over.  Why the hell are we romanticizing Meathead Texas Oil Drillers when we have real heroes who have literally dedicated their entire lives to being there for complete strangers?  This is the kind of shit which needs advocates, in a big way.  I want to see solar panel manufacturers and bio-fuel companies sponsoring these guys.  I want to be able to buy fair-trade organic merchandise that promotes this stuff.  Why on earth are we obsessing over goddamn Britney when we could be holding up this kind of behavior as a symbol of American can-do and selfless sacrifice? 

Maybe I'm biased.  My folks are both volunteers on the local fire and rescue teams.  My mother is the chief of the ambulance squad.  To me the concept of committing yourself completely to help someone you've never met and may never meet again is one of the highest ideals one can hold themselves to.  This world is changing fast, and we're going to need folks like this guy, now more than ever.  To put it in a really corny way. We need the Sky Captains of charity.  We need the Rescue Heroes of disaster response.  Not just here in the states either.  Everywhere. 

As one last note: He's doing this all with his own money and donations.  Check out his site, and then ask yourself whether you want to encourage this kind of pro-social behavior, or whether you want to go back to only fantasizing about superheroes?

I just found this site through a article on TED.com's blog.  It showcases some of the truly ingenious inventions either being developed or employed throughout Africa.  To me this is really quite inspirational. Here's a group of people who are living in some of the toughest circumstances in the world, with governments and economies which may as well be DOA, but still the invent, adapt, and reclaim ways to make their world better.  http://www.afrigadget.com/   By the way, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before here.  If I have then consider this a post-whoreage.  I've started recording all the random ideas I get for solving  problems in another journal: ideastogo.  Right now I have four complete idea posts with a crap-ton more on the way.  I'd love to get some feedback  *nudge*.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/18/bush.offshore/index.html

Dear President Bush,
  Please go to the nearest gas station, pick up a pump nozzle, put it in your mouth, pull the trigger and kindly choke and die.

Regards,
  The Planet Earth.

Five Question Interview Meme Time.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

Here's my session with the ever present neo_prodigy.  Enjoy!

1. Now that you've graduated from art school hell, do you think it was worth the money, the time and the energy?
    In retrospect, yes i think it was. Perhaps not due much to the actual curriculum material I was exposed to, but instead to the culture itself. The fact that we knew we weren't being given a fair shake led me to believe firmly that we could do better, which led me to aggressively push myself outside of the curriculum. Before I went to AIA, my approach and attitude to art was at best hazy. Ironically, being at a shitty school crystallized my drive to be better than I think going to a top-flight art school would have.

2. You're far more political than I knew you to be. Which is cool. What are your ideologies and beliefs. Straight Democrat or a little something else?
    Admittedly I'm registered as a Democrat, but I'd like to think I'm thinking a few steps ahead of the party bloc. To that effect, I would say I tend to be more of a progressive than a progressive-leaning centrist. In all honesty I think I've calmed down a bit. I don't fantasize about doing violent things to conservative figureheads anymore, and try to focus on solutions which are fundamentally progressive, but aimed at helping anyone and everyone. I'm very concerned about our future, and while I'm not planning on having any offspring anytime soon, I worry greatly about the world we'll be giving the next generation, and to some extent, the world that they will give their kids.

3. Have you found steady work in the field since graduating?
    Surprisingly, yes. There was a period there of around three months where I hadn't found anything, and I felt quite useless. However, in December last year I got snatched up by GoodEgg Studios, a small startup trying to make it big in the kid's virtual world market. Apparently, six months later, I'm considered one of their "superstars." I have my doubts as to my celestial place in the work environment, but the work is fairly rewarding and I don't have too many nervous breakdowns on the whole. Right now I'm officially a freelancer, although they have been making the noises that they want me permanently on the team for some time now. We'll see.

4. Ever plan to move out of Atlanta?
    In the grand scheme of things, yes. I am still at my core a harbor boy, and living in a city like Atlanta just doesn't cure that itch. In addition, I don't think I can really pursue my ambitions in the animation industry from here. The mass exodus of animation jobs from the West Coast might be coming, but I'm not sure I want to wait around for it. This isn't to say I'm chomping at the bit to move to LA, quite the contrary. I would be open to moving to the West Coast, but it would have to be in a less hectic locale, perhaps Portland, or San Diego. At this point I'm biding my time until after my current job launches their product.

5. You're originally from Maine. Was it a culture shock relocating below the Mason Dixon line?
    Very much so. Before moving down South for college, I had traveled a bit and spent a few days in large cities (New York, Boston, Tokyo), but actually trying to accept Atlanta as my new home was quite a shock. Just the traffic itself was a shock. In Maine, traffic considered to be "heavy" is what the traffic we look forward to around midnight or later. There's simply just not that many people driving. Adjusting to the "urban mindset" was also a fairly big challenge, and I think still is a big challenge for me. As far as the shift in political mindsets, that was also a big hit, but admittedly one I had been preparing myself for. Ironically I think I managed to find one of the most radically different mindsets in Carrie's family, which has been a huge struggle for both of us, given our views.

Huh? Work?