Skip navigation.

I got The Shine!

Digital Ramblings of a real-life Homer Simpson

F.E.A.R. Extraction Point Videos

Comic Word Balloons in Photoshop CS

Download the 16.2 MB Captivate Tutorial I've made here:
Comic Layout in Photoshop CS.rar

And on the seventh day...

Phew, just about submitted all articles for the upcoming issue of SKOAR! Most times, I used to think it wasn't that difficult writing, even though I love it, but the last few days have seriously stressed me out. Maybe that's because I took such a long break from work for the expo, that it's now jumped up and bit me on the ass. In any case, at least good old Satan from the forums should be pleased with this issue, I think. Sometimes I hate to think I'm doing a bad thing for the mag, writing so much stuff. Kinda would make the writing style a bit too one-dimensional..or at least that's what I think. Nice to see more works coming in from friends, even though I badly wish one Silly Sardar starts writing again. I guess this is what standing on the shoulders of giants is supposed to feel like. In any case, might as well get back to watching Superman - The Animated Series and hit the hay. Yes, if you haven't guessed yet, I kinda have a idée fixe on The Man of Steel. So sue me!

Widgetize!



Whoa, just noticed this today. Apparently, if you are running a newer version of Opera with support for Widgets, you can get a live update of this blog as a widget by clicking on the link at the bottom right of the screen. Now, I know its not too much, but I just think it looks pretty darn cool, especially when the widget happens to reflect the theme of the blog, and has nice effects including drop shadows and shows the number of read/unread items, all in one neat, little package. Looks really nice, I must say, although it may not have much functionality for such a small blog.

The Simpsons Movie

Good and bad news for The Simpsons fans, including poor moi. During the annual Comic-Con. Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Al Jean showed off some teeny bits of the upcoming Simpsons movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters on July 27, 2007. What could probably be the last season of the Simpsons starts on September 10 on Fox. If the season is again 22 episodes in length, then the show may go out with the 400th episdode, approximately 20 years after the show began in April 1997, as part of the Tracey Ullman show. The new season will include guest stars such as Metallica, Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, Fran Drescher, The White Stripes, Kiefer Sutherland, Richard Lewis, Dr. Phil McGraw, Natalie Portman, Jon Lovitz, Betty White, Harry Hamlin, Eric Idle, and others. Check here for more information on the episodes and the voice cast for Season 18. Whatever happens, it will be a really, really sad day when the final episode of the show airs. Here's some of the movie videos to cheer you up in the face of the bad news.

Infinity: The Quest for Earth

This is by far one of the most impressive things I have ever seen in my life. I suppose it could be a fake, or one of those "concept videos" but if its true, its probably the most revolutionary thing anyone has ever seen. When games tout the amount of free-roaming areas in hundreds of square kilometers, a couple of guys, in their free time, are on an MMO project that has the entire universe spread out before the player, with all the geometry, including planets, moons, and their surfaces all being rendered in real-time. According to Flavien Brebion, the head of the project,

..all the planets have realistic dimensions and scales. If you were to land on a planet and fly at low altitude at airplane speed, it'd take you hours before reaching another continent. You'd never see the same hill or some mountain twice. Then, each major planet can have tens of moons. Each solar system can have many planets, all rotating with realistic, dynamic orbits, allowing you to attend an eclipse or a sunset in real time. Finally, the galaxy will contain millions, if not billions, of these solar systems. All different.

Well, write me off as a chump and throw me in a padded cell, 'coz the demo video, which you can view by clicking on the Play symbol above, is one of the most impressive I've ever seen, with real-time zooming in on the planet surface. What was even more surprising is that the opening info in the video shows off a very average rig, with an Athlon64 3500+, 1GB of RAM and an X800 graphics card. With games breaking the hardware barrier every 3 months, forcing people to upgrade faster than they really want to, its surprising there are people still working on delivering an experience that almost everyone can enjoy. If this comes through, this is probably the MMO that will really hold me, considering how big I am a fan of space-based games, especially RTSes such as Homeworld and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.

Need For Speed: Carbon

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usFree Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Welcome to the latest whore in the EA-NFS franchise, Carbon! Looks like the guys at EA can't do anything beyond taking a regular franchise, merging the last two games in it, add a dash of something new and something blue and present it to the world as if it's a whole new concept! Carbon seems to be following in these exact footsteps, and seems to have combined the Underground series with the cop chases in Most Wanted (looks like the end of daytime racing all over again), and thrown in something called "Canyon Racing". Apparently, its where you take your ride at high speeds on twisting, dangerous canyon roads with the cops hot on your tail. Larry LaPierre of EA had this to say:

We pride ourselves on our ability to reinvent the franchise and continually uncover new and exciting trends in car culture. Canyon Racing is a real test of a driver's skill and we think it provides a fantastic game play opportunity to lean into.

TRANSLATION - "You got money?! Gimme, gimme, gimme!" :ninja: Talk about robbing gamers blind! Oh well, I guess I will end up buying it as usual, considering I am one of those "people that fight to protect the system" but that doesn't mean I can't nag and complain about the whole ordeal, right? Incidentally, the game's name comes from a location in the game, where the action is - Carbon Canyon. And yeah, apparently, there's a new "Autosculpt" technology that allows you to tweak the car in every which way. Whoopee, I can see every "l33t pr0-gam3r" in town spending every waking moment fine-tuning their rides to shave a few microseconds off their lap timings and then bragging about it no end on discussion boards online. Like the world really needs more of these things... And in case you still aren't a believer in EA being the anti-Christ, they are planning to launch the game on the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, GameCube, Wii, DS, GBA, PSP, PC and mobile. No, really, is there any other platform remaining?! These guys' marketing and sales ethics can give Apu's Kwik-E-Mark a run for its money. I can already picture Lameass Larry and his team laughing all the way to the bank and going, "Thank you, come again!" I think I will go take my Thorazine drip now.

Futurama is back!

Good news, everyone! As if the Direct-to-DVD movies wasn't good news enough, Comedy Central is planning to revive Futurama for a 13-episode run! Here's what the official news report had to say:

Three years after Fox canceled the show, Matt Groening's "Futurama" will resume production for a 13-episode run on Comedy Central. The new episodes will be added to the network's library of 72 "Futurama" episodes previously licensed from 20th Century Fox Television. Voice talent Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio will return for the new episodes, which will debut in 2008.

"There is a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience and it is great that we can offer them not just the existing library, but something they've never seen as well," said David Bernath, senior VP, programming, Comedy Central.

"Futurama" marks the third Fox project revived by basic cable in recent years. New episodes of "Greg the Bunny" are being ordered by IFC, and Fox resurrected "Family Guy" after the series found success on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.



Hot diggety, hotdog! I just can't wait to get back to seeing the good old dysfunctional goofballs of the year 3000 back in action, especially Bender and Dr. Zoidberg. I guess this means Fry didn't really get Leela at the end of Season 5's "The Devil's hands are idle playthings." Oh well, he can always try..yet again. Man, its gonna be a welcome change hearing Katey Sagal voice Leela after seeing her as Helen on LOST. As the Brain Balls say, "We demand rolling, followed by bouncing, followed by bouncing of the third type!" Bring it on, Groening!

Superman Returns!

Well, no, I haven't seen the movie yet, duh! But interestingly, Yahoo! Movies has an interesting article on Superman here. Well, I certainly didn't know about George Reeves, but for me, Dean Cain, from Lois and Clark, was the perfect Superman. Witty and humorous, he certainly wasn't mild-mannered in his Clark Kent avatar, obviously, but there was such a chemistry between him and Teri Hatcher. I wonder if anyone here has the Lois and Clark DVDs. After watching the filmmakers do a great job resurrecting the Dark Knight in Batman Begins, I can't wait to see what they've done with Superman Returns. Hopefully, it won't just be a VFX bonanza and have a little something more to make the experience memorable. Incidentally, you might consider me a dolt, but the little light just went off in my head as to how similar Lois and Clark sounds like Lewis and Clark! :idea:

Swap Convention!

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Well, considering how many people are going to be showing up for the expo, its gonna be one HUGE-ASS swap of movies and what-not. For those that are wondering what I have, here's the list of movies and other stuff I have access to. Note that it is by no means a comprehensive list, and I am dead sure that I have left a lot of movies out, and have lent out more stuff than I can care to remember, but its good enough, for starters. Mark the ones you need, and comment on your own list and the ones you have so that we can share stuff easier. The movies list is attached as a .TXT file along with this post. :headbang:
Movies List (right-click and select "Save" to download, or simply click to view the contents of the file
February 2010
S M T W T F S
January 2010March 2010
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27