Desk Diary 10-5-2021
It’s been almost a year since my last post. At least this time I managed to post again in -only- a year instead of four like the last break between posts.
So what has kept me so busy for the last year? I mentioned in my last Desk Diary that I had started to do freelance work for a publishing company. Well, shortly after my last post I was brought on as a full employee! I’m now a “production manager” with the extra responsibilities that go with it, which has kept me rather busy. I’m really fortunate, though, I get to work on interesting titles and it is all remote, which lets me keep my night owl lifestyle for the most part.
Even while I was doing freelance for them, the work was regular enough that I was able to treat myself to some nice loot and even expand a couple collections last year. Now with a regular paycheck that has only increased throughout this past year.
Though, it’s not been all good new. One of the cats that I adopted last year has feline asthma. It’s been a bit of a challenge trying to find the best combination of medicine to keep him breathing normally. Right now I have to give him an inhaler everyday and we’re starting on an additional medication to help even more. On the day we took him to the vet to find out what was wrong, there was a massive car accident right in front our house, totaling our car and busting down the front door. It was pretty bad. Thankfully no one was really hurt, but it was over a month before everything was fixed.
Darkborn, my webcomic, has been steadily trucking along with weekly updates even with the new job. However, we are finally nearing the end that I had outlined all those years ago when I started it. The upcoming conclusion of Darkborn has pushed me to try my best to get the next project started. I really want to try and create an animated series—something I’ve mentioned on this blog for years now. Recently I’ve been mulling over the technical aspects, trying to figure out the best method to employ with the fastest turn around without sacrificing too much quality. I’m mostly leaning to 2D “puppet” animation using Moho. I feel drawing the elements I need will be a lot faster than modeling, texturing, and rigging in 3D.
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this project, it’s just been hard to find the time to get it going. I’d like to get it started before Darkborn ends or at the very least have it fully planned out by then. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure I’ll post about it here one way or another.
On the gaming front, it’s been a pretty tame year for me. I just haven’t had a lot of free time. I keep buying games on Steam, only for them to sit there unopened or even installed. I also haven’t spent a lot of time in my goto gaming genre of choice, MMOs. However that may change in November when the expansion for Final Fantasy XIV launches. I still have a small group of friends from that game that I talk to regularly and most of us seem to be planning to play. Sadly, I’ll likely be playing when most of them are sleeping, but we’ll see. I just hope it doesn’t hinder my ability to move forward with my new animation project too much. We all know how that tends to pan out.
As I mentioned above, the new job has allowed me to spoil myself. My toy collection has simply… well, gotten out of hand, but I plan to post about that on its own soon. In the non-toy collection front I have gotten a few items this year.
Early in the year I replaced my aging A50s and my very old Wacom Cintiq. These were much needed replacements.
Despite not having much time for gaming, I did pick up a VR headset. It’s quite an unreal experience. It’s kind of hard to describe if you haven’t tried it for yourself. Sadly I don’t really have a lot of titles to take advantage of it. It’s also rather bulky, so I don’t have it hooked up at all times to just plop on whenever. Hopefully that will change at some point, but it’s a fun thing to mess around with.
Speaking of gaming gear, I did manage to get one of the most desired gaming items of the year, a PS5! Now this is a really nice console. I mostly got it for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake so I could enjoy it in full 4K.
Final Fantasy 7 was one of those games that really had a big influence on me. It introduced me to RPGs and helped get me interested in 3D. I also had hoped I could play through the whole Assassin’s Creed series, so I picked up a few of those that I was missing.
Sadly, I haven’t really had much time to enjoy many of these things. I keep hoping life calms down a little so I can, but it hasn’t as of yet.
My room has gone through a lot of change this year as well. As my toy collection has… exploded I’ve had to rearrange things. To make a little more room I finally replaced my corner desk with a new one.
And thus ends one era of Desk Diaries as a new one begins. It’s been a long journey for sure. A lot has happened over the years on that old brown desk. Hopefully it’s been somewhat interesting to see the evolution over time. As the world begins to get back to some amount of normalcy (fingers crossed) and I settle into my new job, here’s to a better year next year, and many more Desk Diaries.
See you there!
gp
Desk Diary 6-13-2020
Whelp! It’s about time for another Desk Diary—four years from my last Desk Diary (sorry)—It’s 2020! Annnnd the world has gone crazy town. But I’m not interested in focusing on all that. Despite what has been going on—as terrible as it is—things have actually turned around for me in the last several months. A lot of that is due to a new decent paying job, after a decade of “self-employment.” I’ll go into more current happenings towards the end of this post.
One of the main reasons for my lack of posts has been due to learning that I have a hereditary hearing loss condition called Otosclerosis. My ability to hear is slowly (over many years) getting worse and is accompanied by very loud whistles (tinnitus). This started to become noticeable in the middle of 2016, right after my last Desk Diary post. I went to many doctors that year. At first I thought it was just a build up of wax, but when I finally found out the real reason it destroyed me emotionally for some time. Eventually I was put on an anti-depressant. And over time I started to get as used to it as one can.
These days I just pop my wireless headphones on and listen to music or watch Youtube and that helps, along with the meds, but my mood to post anything or even be super social dipped quite a lot and remained that way for a couple years, which is why I didn’t really post anything new. Working and gaming was pretty much all I could manage.
Continuing from the last Desk Diary, here’s a quick recap of the last four year.
2017
Darkborn took up a lot of my spare time in 2017. I setup the site and Patreon and consistently put out a comic page each week.
When I wasn’t working I did hop into an MMO when I could. I returned to FFXIV for the Stormblood expansion. I also bounced between MMOs like Black Desert and Elder Scrolls Online.
For loot, the biggest item I got this year was a graphics card upgrade. I went from my Nvidia GTX 770 to a GTX 1070, which was a much needed upgrade after getting my LG Ultrawide monitor.
Towards the end of this year I really started to regain an old love for Lego, which is likely due to the expanding Lego movie universe with the release of the Ninjago movie around that time. I had to do a lot of extra side work to feed this new addiction.
2018
Around this time my desk was getting rather cluttered with all the new Lego sets and my Dollfie collection. Towards the middle of this year I wasn’t really feeling Darkborn’s progress was going where I wanted, so I put it on a hiatus.
For loot I got my hands on a Nintendo Switch with some games. It was my first new Nintendo console since the Gamecube (not counting my 3DS).
My gaming didn’t stop there. I stepped a bit back in MMO history and played the Battle for Azeroth World of Warcraft expansion, which I didn’t think was as bad as many people claimed.
Towards the end of the year I had reorganized my desk. I was getting more interested in my gaming consoles, so I put them all together with a custom made little shelf my father made for me and added my old TV to the mix.
Not to forget my Dollfie collection, I actually pre-ordered a Dollfie at the end of this year. She would be my first new one since 2013/14. However I had a year to wait for her release.
2019
Darkborn returned in the beginning of 2019 and continues to update till this day. However, my aspirations for creating stories wasn’t completely satiated, so I started to think up ideas for a possible animation project… yet again.
Which leads into my loot choices this year. In the middle of the year I managed to save up enough from extra work to get a new laptop. I hadn’t had a nice laptop for many-a-years. This one is a Thinkpad with a Ryzen 7 processor. It has a full keyboard, with numpad, and a nice big screen. My plan was/is to use this to write my story ideas away from my desk and maybe even work on some animations on it.
However, I really wanted a digital sketchpad for my creative endeavors, so towards the end of that year, with more extra work, I picked up a new Apple iPad Air. Based on the first generation iPad Pro, this one had the ability to use the Apple Pencil. A digital sketchpad with nearly instant on (unlike my Surface Pro), was very appealing to me. For Christmas I also got the overpriced, but still very nice, Apple Keyboard to add to it… giving me two options for writing stories away from my desk… cause options.
Due to a typhoon in Japan that Dollfie pre-order was delayed till 2020.
2020
And here we are! The year of doom… apparently. All the crazy real world happenings aside, towards the end of 2019 I started working for a company doing logo designs and book layouts. A close friend, that was already working with them, helped get me in the door. Since then they’ve been keeping me pretty busy to the point that I haven’t had much time to even touch an MMO or any game. But I’m no longer barely making ends meet, and that’s a pleasant and appreciated change. Something I haven’t had for over a decade. It really helps raise your mood when you can finally afford things you were only able to “window-shop” for years and aren’t struggling week by week.
Though, not everything has been great for me so far this year. During the first several month my dear 14 year old cat became very sick. I had to readjust my sleep schedule (I’m a super night-owl) to get him his meds on time. It was an exciting, but also somber, and grueling first few months of the year between the new work and an ailing cat. He did eventually pass, which was very hard for me to deal with.
However, I eventually adopted a couple (yes, two) new feline friends. I found these brothers online and knew they would be a fun pair to befriend. They are very active, and love to jump around and explore everything, but they’ve brought much needed liveliness to the home. One is very social and cuddly while the other is more aloof.
Oh, and that Dollfie… she did finally ship… eighteen months later. It’s 2B from Nier Automata. She was well worth the wait. I’ll try to make a separate post about her when I get time to take better photos.
So for me personally, things are very much looking up for the most part. Due to my new work I’m able to start getting many of the things I’ve had on my wishlist for some time. For one, I’ve been adding to my collection of toys at a rapid pace. Which is something I’ll write about in its own post soon. I’m also starting to gather funds for a new computer… a rather powerful one. I still haven’t given up on my dream to create an animation of some sort. I may never get to it, but I’ll keep trying. And with things like my iPad, laptop, and, soon™, new computer… my excuses will certainly not be technical ones, only ideas, time, and skill. Besides all that I have many other plans for my workspace and projects, which I hope to write about on this site as they progress.
So this is where things are for now. While my ear issues put a pretty big damper on my mood for a few years, now I’m working, updating Darkborn every week, trying to plan out an animation project, having fun with my new kittens and getting a lot of things I’ve wanted for a long time. I’ll try to post more often, but if current year has taught us anything, things can change rather quickly… and drastically. Here’s hoping it gets better for all of us soon.
Desk Diary 4-9-2016
Annnd... I'm back! So! I had a bit of a long "pause." A... three year pause, in fact. It's amazing how much can change in a couple years, but also how fast time flies by! I'm still working on my next webcomic, but for now here's a little update on some things that happened since my last post.
Over the last couple months I've been redesigning this site, updating it with a new look. I even added a couple new posts and updated some old ones. This is my first new Desk Diary to "officially" kick off the site's reboot. But it wouldn't be a proper "Desk Diary" without some new loot, gadgets and news. I've received a lot things since my last Desk Diary. So let's get to it!
First up is some computer add-ons. During my time in Final Fantasy XIV I really needed to upgrade my graphics card, and so I got a very nice NVidia 770 GTX. It's been a great card ever since. Then, as things go with me it seems, I had to replace yet another monitor. I now have a large 27" LG IPS LED display. I was not super eager to get an LED, but they are pretty much the only choice these days. My past experience with LED displays has left me wanting, especially in the color department. Thankfully times have changed and IPS is much more affordable. IPS LED displays produce much much better colors than the older LED displays. I'm very happy with this one. I also got my Corsair RGB K70 keyboard, which I made a post about.
As I started to become more confident that my webcomic was getting off the ground, one thing I wanted to help me along was a tablet that I could draw on. I have tried to do this on my iPad, but I was never fully happy with the results. I've had my eyes on the new Microsoft Surface Pro for a while and was able to get a refurbished one several months ago. It's a full computer with an i5 processor. I am able to run all my creative programs on it, and with Dropbox, I can work on files between both of my computers. Best of all it also has a Wacom digitizer in it, so I am able to draw on it just about as well as on my Cintiq. I really like this little thing. If I had one complaint it's that I'm very used to the "instant on" of my iPad as well as the long battery life, both things the Surface is lacking in. Who knows though... those iPad Pros are looking pretty interesting.
Last year my computer was starting to die on me. I rarely have had my computers simply just fritz out on me to this extent. The best I can tell is that my motherboard's internal overclocking protection feature was freaking out. I never overclocked my computer, but it kept warning me when I booted up that something was wrong with my overclocking! For a time I was able to bypass it with a little trick and as long as I kept the computer on it was fine. However, every time I had to reboot it was a gamble. Eventually it got to the point it would just refuse to boot almost at all. It was time for a new computer.
With so much thanks to a dear friend, I was able to get a new computer and it's a really nice one. It has an Intel i7 4790K CPU running at 4GHz, 16GB of ram, a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD, and it's all running on an Asus H97 Pro motherboard inside a Corsair Graphite 230T case. Whew! That's a mouthful! I also upgraded to Windows 10. Point is, it's a nice computer and has been running great since I built it!
No new computer is complete without some new software. I wanted to set myself up with the creative programs that I'll use for my webcomic and websites. First thing I installed is the creative staple, PhotoShop. Thankfully, for the not-so-rich like me, Adobe has a nice subscription plan on their Creative Cloud that lets you have the latest Photoshop as well as Lightroom for $10 a month. This is the perfect pair of programs for my needs. I use PhotoShop for most of my design work and Lightroom is great for adjusting my photos for this blog.
Next up is a program I hope to learn and use for my webcomic called Manga Studio EX5. It is a paint program specifically designed for making comics. So far it seems very competent. EX is the "pro" version of Manga Studio that features a way to have all your comic pages in one window so that you can switch between them. This is great for the planning stages and thumbnailing all the pages for a given chapter. I've already started to use this feature to thumbnail my webcomic. It also has a variety of rulers for drawing in perspective. It has nice tools for creating frames to keep your layers organized. Of course, it also has extensive tools for word balloons.
Finally, some time ago I picked up a writing program to help me organize and work on my story ideas, and I can't say enough about how nice it is to have a tool like this. It's called Scriviner and it's a program that is, really, an idea organization tool. It has many ways to add and view data, mainly text and images. You can have a folder for ideas and put images and text in that. You can then organize your story ideas using virtual index cards so that you can move them around. This part alone is wonderful for working out story ideas. When you're ready you can start writing out scenes. It is great for working from big, general, ideas down to more detailed ideas. I've been using this program for some time and it's been a great help!
I'm really excited to get my webcomic going! It's taken me a long time and a lot of fighting with myself, but I'm getting closer!
It's a new year and a I'm ready to get going with all these new tools and plans. I hope you'll join me! Now I just hope I don't get sidetracked again or lost in the abyss of another game. >.<
Desk Diary 4-2-2013
It's been a while since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy with several things. In any event, I have a few items to share that I received over the last few months.
Some time ago I posted about a package I got from a friend and hinted at what was inside. As life goes, I didn't get a chance to show what it was for some time. Since then that same friend has continued to be my enabler and helped me with a few more...
Three more, to be exact.
The mystery item was in fact a Sakuya head from "Shining Blade." One that I mentioned that I wanted since she's from the same series and sculptor as my first two. Here are a few quick photos of her:
She looks amazing! I also got her default wig and I love it. This is the only default wig that I'm actually using. Along with the head and wig, I got her really cool black katana (sword)!
But my friend didn't stop there. Some time later my friend helped me with a nearly complete Melty from "Shinning Hearts." I was floored since she was super popular and hard to get. Here are a few shots of her:
As if that wasn't enough, my friend sent me a "white skin" Lucy head. It's my first white skin Dollfie Dream. I had to order the body as separate parts since they don't sell the white skin bodies as a complete item. I also got her a really neat pastel blue wig and glasses. I still want to get her some eyes and an outfit. I have no photos of her together yet, but soon!
(Sorry for the poor quality phone photos)
I obviously can't thank my friend enough. I'm so spoiled and will forever be indebted.
Finally, I got a New iPad. My first generation iPad was starting to really struggle with newer apps. It has been a really great device and I don't think I could live without a tablet at this point. I had hoped to use my iPad as a digital sketchpad, but the iPad is not really made for that. No stylus I used really worked out too well.
Before getting the new iPad I tried out an Android tablet. I have been using my Android phone for a while and I thought that maybe an Android tablet would be a good upgrade from my old iPad. I got the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. This tablet has a digitizer with a pen. However, in the end, I didn't much care for it. There is a major app deficit on the Android tablets. The pen, while better than my options on the iPad, was not that great either. Maybe in time they will have more apps, but for now... not so much, so I returned it.
Now I have a shiny new iPad! There is not much to really say about it. It has better everything and a very nice Retina display, which is really impressive. The resolution is so high that it makes some images online look pixelated. In either case, I know I'll put this iPad to good use as it helps me with my projects.
Desk Diary 9-10-12
Well, it's been a little over two months since my last desk diary post. I've been pretty busy (gaming) and thus haven't posted much (leveling), but it's time for some updates and, of course, new loot!
First things first, an update on the webcomic project. My friend recently called this my "white whale," but hopefully this won't have such a tragic ending. For the last several months I've been bouncing between two main ideas. Lately I have been thinking of combining many of my favorite aspects of both. I think I'm close. I still want to get this started before the end of the year. That doesn't give me much time. I tend to work well under pressure, so hopefully a deadline will force me to get this project started.
In doll news -many- things have happened, some of which I'll share below. For now I'll say that my desk has suddenly become a little more crowded. I'm -still- waiting for some things I pre-ordered almost a year ago. Volks has been very much slammed this year due to that pre-order event. They are just now starting to ship out the last batch of orders, my stuff included (hopefully). There are already rumors of another pre-order event coming. With the shortage of regular items this year, one has to wonder if things will ever settle with all these events. It also goes to show how much this hobby has grown in popularity over the last couple years.
In gaming news... we'll let's be honest, I've been sucked into a handful of new games that were launched this year, which hasn't helped my productivity. I had mentioned in my 2012 post that the games coming out this year could potentially suck away a lot of my free time, and that prediction has become mostly true. In that post I had mentioned I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic at the time, I had quit that game not long after that post, as have many others. It's going "Free to Play" later this year, nuff said. For a time after that there wasn't really a game distracting me. That is until Tera launched earlier this year. That game has been the main time-sink for me this year. I'm still playing Tera, which I talked about at length in its own post.
Since then the other games that I mentioned in my 2012 post have also been released. I played The Secret World from launch, and while I do like its unique modern-day-mixed-with-horror-films style, it was fairly buggy and a bit unforgiving in its gameplay. While a challenge is nice, sometimes I prefer the more casual stuff. It also had some stiff character animations and a lack of character customization. The combat was decent. Working on finding a "build" that worked for you was interesting as were the unique quests and stories. However, All MMOs need a time to grow and expand, so it's definitely one I may check out again down the road, but for now I have stopped playing it.
Next up, and most recent, is Guild Wars 2. The most hyped MMO of the year. Did it live up to that hype for me? Yes and no. It's a wonderful game and very pretty (not Tera pretty, but still really nice), and it really does break many of the not-so-great and over-used MMO mechanics, but some of what they claimed didn't really pan out. The dynamic quest system, while great overall, doesn't really give that sense of making lasting changes to the world. They restart rather quickly. While this makes sense from a gameplay perspective, it does kinda make the game feel a bit like a theme park, not like a WoW (World of Warcraft) theme park, but a different kind of, and certainly more fun and active, theme park. That doesn't actually bother me at all, though. Heck, Tera is a prime example of the old-style WoW theme park setup. The combat is, at its core, a target based system, but you can attack while moving. Some of the personal missions can be a bit brutal as well. My favorite part of the game is that they encourage you to explore. This aspect is the gem of this game to me. They have added a lot of little hidden areas to the game and even some rather fun and challenging jumping puzzles. Overall, it's a well-polished and well-made game. Since you only have to buy the game once and there is no subscription fee, there is really no reason to not play this game. It's one I'll certainly be playing for some time to come (sucking away more of my free time).
Finally (yes, it does end), a game that was released two years ago this month may be making a comeback and has me eager to try it again. Two years ago Final Fantasy XIV launched with a less than stellar reception. It was so bad that the game suspended its subscription fee for many months. While I didn't completely agree that the game was a total failure as some others, it did have some holes and lack of content. Most of the original team was taken off the project and a new, untested, game director was handed the reigns. Square Enix has been determined to push forward. You have to give them credit. Other MMOs would have buckled and failed under similar circumstances. However, not only has this new team and director attempted to fix a lot of the problems, late last year they stated their plans to take things a step further with a project that would almost completely remake the whole game. This is something that has never been done before and just recently the first signs of this "2.0" version have begun to surface. I'm very interested to see how this pans out. I had a lot of faith in SE when the game was released and I still think they can pull this off. So this is the next MMO that I'm looking forward to trying... again, especially when I learned there will be a new summoner job. I really respect them for working this hard to please their customers. They have taken a lot of polls and kept the players in the loop. I think they deserve a second chance. I know I'll be there opening day. I already have "Legacy" status for supporting the game during this rough period. It should be interesting.
Okay! Now on to the loot. There have been several items that have come my way over the last couple months that I meant to post about but didn't have the time (gaming), so I'm going to post them all here in one go.
First off I bought some new items for my computer. My hard drives have been nearly full for a long time, so I bought a new 3TB hard drive to ease the pain. I also picked up a new keyboard and mouse.
This is the new Logitech G600 gaming mouse. I wasn't sure if I would like this mouse at first. I picked it up on impulse. The mass of button on the side were intimidating at first, but I have to say that it really has grown on me. I've been a "clicker" for most of my computer gaming years until I was "forced" to use the keyboard for combat in Tera. Now this mouse has taken me to the next step with executing commands all from the buttons on the side of the mouse. I don't know if I'll be able to go back.
Since I take a lot of photos for this site I'm always struggling with my lighting. Usually I just deal with whatever light I have, but normal room lights tend to be yellow and I don't always have sunlight. So I finally saved up and got a proper lighting kit. I couldn't afford anything super crazy. I also didn't want to deal with lights that gave off a lot of heat. After much searching I found the Flora light set by Linco. They use florescent light bulbs and have pretty ingenious softboxes.
The softboxes are a sort of umbrella deal. You just pull a string and they open up and snap into place. The diffusing cloth attaches with some Velcro and it's all set. The softbox sits in the grooves in the light base which kinda looks like a flower, hence the set's name. Setup is not too bad, another thing that was important to me. They do take up some room, though, but I can tell they are improving my photos a lot. They seem to be made pretty well. Some parts are plastic, but as long as I'm careful with them I'm sure they will last for some time. They also came with carrying cases. It's a really nice set and I'm glad I got them.
I picked up a new Blu-Ray anime called "Samurai Girls." I haven't finished it yet, but it's a silly haram story with some unique animation styles. I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. It has some cute and funny moments, but some of the over-the-top stuff isn't really my thing. The "fan-service" is nice, though.
As I mentioned above, I've been playing Guild Wars 2. Since I had a feeling it was going to be a good game I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition, which sold out soon after. I'm glad I took the plunge. The box for it is -massive- and contains a lot of nice goodies.
Inside is the massive Rytlock statue and a sizable tin case. Everything about this CE is big.
Inside the tin case is a collection of items. A portfolio with prints, a picture frame, an "Behind the Scenes" artbook, a soundtrack sampler and the game discs.
And last but not least is the Rytlock statue. He is one of the main characters in the story from the Destiny's Edge guild. He is also a Charr, the race that was the main enemy from the previous game. He's quite massive and hefty, fairly well painted and detailed and his Rurik "flaming" sword is pretty cool.
It's a really nice and well-made collector's edition. I'm glad I got it. Now where to put it...
I also got some doll loot. Some I didn't plan on while others were nice surprises. First I got a couple little things from Volks. Some cute hands and another wig cap.
I've been on the lookout for a body for my limited 06 head for many months, but due to the Volks pre-order event from last year, bodies have been in a major short supply and nearly impossible to get. However, I managed to snag a slightly used one from a member on the Dollfie Dreams forum.
This one is a Dollfie Dream Dynamite body, which is different from the standard body due to its larger hips, thighs and other "assets." This means that my third Dollfie Dream is nearly complete.
Of course, no Dollfie Dream is complete without some clothes and accessories. And, of course, if you are going to get clothes for one, why not get some for your other girls as well? Here are some items that I got from Cool Cats. I like Cool Cats because their prices are reasonable and they have nice clothes and stands made for Dollfie Dreams.
Here I got some swimwear, shirts, skirts, stands, shoes a wig and way too many socks. I seem to have a thing for socks. At least my girls will never have cold feet. As always, Cool Cats threw in some free extras too, which is always a nice surprise.
With all these items I realized I was running out of room to store them. I had most of my Dollfie Dream stuff in cardboard boxes. So I thought it was about time to get a new container for their stuff.
Only two years into this doll hobby and I already have a cart for their stuff. I never thought I would get to this point. The funny thing is, as you can see with the extra box and container on the top... I already filled it up.
But wait... there is still one box left.
A friend helped me greatly with these items in a way I could never fully repay.
As you can see there are some interesting items in the box. But there is this odd item...
What ever could it be? You will just have to wait for a future post to find out.
WHEW! Well, that concludes this desk diary. It was quite a long one, but it wasn't six months apart from the last one at least. Still a lot happened in a short couple of months and I'm not done yet. There are still a couple item I'll have to show soon. I also hope to start working on illustrations again for my webcomic.
Desk Diary 6-23-2012
It's been six months since my last desk diary. Several things happened since then, mostly in the last couple months.
First, a couple general updates. The webcomic project I've been trying to get started hasn't moved all that much in the last several months. While I had a fairly workable idea a while ago, as things go, I've changed my mind on a few things. I haven't given up, though. I'm currently trying to come up with fresh ideas.
As you may have seen from recent posts, I had a couple anniversaries with my BJD girls. My first girl has been with me for two years now. My two Dollfie Dreams and floating head haven't seen much attention lately, but in the last few weeks I got a couple of new items for them.
I haven't been paying much attention to Volks events since money has been tight. However, there have been a couple recent events held by Volks called Kyoto 9 and Doll Party 27 that had a lot of great items. They both had great Dollfie Dreams up for lottery. I really like "Shining Blade" Sakuya. She's from the same series as my first two. I would have loved to enter for her, but it's beyond my means right now.
However, they had a plethora of great clothes on offer from the Kyoto 9 collection. Unfortunately, these items are very limited, and while I tried to grab some via the lottery with Kerbey Lane, I was only able to get one item through them. This left me with the only option to take part in the "click war" on the Volks site. This is a first come first serve—he who clicks faster wins—setup. I took a little extra time beforehand to plan a process to get me through the clicks and cart as fast as I could. When the day came I managed to get four out of the five items I wanted in the cart and purchased in less than fifteen seconds. I was pretty pleased. Unfortunately, many were not so lucky. Nearly everything was sold out in less than a minute. It's an unfair system when you consider that lag and browser/computer speeds can really affect the outcome.
Here is Yuri in one of the outfits I was able to get.
I also received a couple random goodies over the last couple months.
First up is a Roku XS. I don't really watch much TV, but I do like to watch Netflix and Crunchyroll. While my PS3 sufficed for Netflix for a while, I didn't have access to Crunchyroll except on my computer and iPad. Enter the Roku XS! I love this little thing, and I do mean little. It fits in the palm of my hand. This little wonder has caused my PS3 to collect dust lately. I certainly recommend these little Roku boxes.
About a month ago I finally caught up with the rest of the world and got a smartphone. It's an HTC Vivid running Android 4.0. I mainly picked this one because it was cheap, but I find myself using it more than my iPad. I still love my iPad and it's great for certain things, but this phone has really helped me become more connected to the social networks.
While I generally like Apple products, I must say that Android is nice for its customization. I changed my launcher to something custom that I like, my lock screen has all the latest tweets, facebook and flickr feeds that I follow right there. I can flip through these posts without even going into the phone. It has a nice camera as well and being connected to all these social networks really makes it convenient to post a quick picture.
Next up is a little treat from a childhood favorite of mine. I was a big Transformer fan growing up. Recently I watched the new series, Transformers Prime, and really enjoyed it. When I found out there was a Wheeljack, I just had to get it! He was one of my favorite characters from the original series. I still have his G1 version from way back when.
It took a couple stores to find him, but eventually I saw one hanging on a shelf.
These new Transformers have really cool designs and are a lot more complex than the old toys. Though, they have a lot more plastic. The instructions are pretty crazy too.
The posability is rather impressive. The old toys almost never even had movable legs, let alone elbow joints. These new ones have ball-joints and hinges all over the place. Luckily, or not, we didn't know better with the older toys.
I love seeing all these old cartoon and toys that I grew up with coming out again with updated stories and designs. While some more hardcore fans may scoff at them, if you actually watch the original shows today you may be surprised at how silly and nonsensical they were. These newer "updated" shows and toys have really grown up.
Hopefully it won't be another six months before I post the next desk diary.
Desk Diary 1-21-2012
There are a couple small updates this time. Last week my dear set of computer speakers finally died on me. I've had them for well over a decade, but it was time to finally replace them.
I tried to hold on to my old Altec Lansing computer speakers for as long as I could. After several years of producing great sound and lasting through many computer upgrades, one of the bottom speakers in a satellite popped out. Eventually the bottom speaker of the second satellite also popped out. While they still worked they had some problems. Still, I continued to use them even after trying to replace them with another set of speakers that just sounded hollow and cheap.
However, last week the second speaker in the right satellite popped out. It was dead. This left me one half-working satellite speaker. It was finally time to replace them.
So I did what I always do... I searched online for a new set.
I decided on the highly regarded Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 set. As you can see in the first photo, the satellites are rather large. I had to move some things around on my desk just to fit them. But the important thing is the sound. While I'm no audiophile, I have to say the positive reviews are correct, for only $150 you really do get a high quality set of computer speakers that sound pretty amazing for their size.
They are 200 watts, which is insane for computer speakers. I haven't moved the volume dial above the 1/3 mark. So it gets plenty loud for me. The bass is also very solid with no distortion and it's nice that the subwoofer has its own volume control on the main satellite. They seem well built. The satellites are made of a thick plastic with metal feet and the subwoofer feels pretty solid with a large back-plate with real wire-based speaker connections. After making a couple adjustments on my soundcard, I'm fairly happy with them. I think they were a worthy upgrade.
Have you ever had something break on you that you didn't want to replace with something newer? Were you happy with the replacement?
The other item I want to mention is that this week the launch date for Tera was announced. After a series of closed beta tests and an open beta, the game will launch in NA on May 1st. As I stated in my last post, I'm really looking forward to this one.
I also recently found out that not only am I getting the new limited DDH-06 head that I also mentioned in my last post (pictured below), but also the limited Natsuki wig (also pictured below). Again, thanks to my close friend. So my third Dollfie Dream may look very much like this picture.
It looks like the next handful of months are shaping up to be pretty interesting. I also have another list of things I plan to post over the next month or so. So keep checking back.
Desk Diary 1-6-2012
Can you believe it's now 2012? This is a year marked with many expectations and there are several things I am looking forward to and have planned. There are a few incoming items from pre-orders I made last year. A couple MMOs are coming out that I'm looking forward to. And I hope to FINALLY get my new webcomic started! Oh, and the world is supposed to end or something...
While I wouldn't say that all my goals were met last year, I did accomplish many things. Most notable was my move to drawing digitally with my Wacom Cintiq, a tool that has improved my illustration work. I bought my second resin BJD that I named Alexis. Then I had the uncanny luck of winning both of the Shining Hearts Dollfie Dreams, which lead to spending a lot of money on doll related items. A couple new figma were added to my slowly growing collection. Later in the year I had to, unexpectedly, replace my old computer monitor with a new 25" LCD.
A couple friends sent gifts for the holidays, one of which you can see hanging on the wall in the above photo. It is the Danny Choo Mirai dakimakura (pillow case)! It was a nice surprise. So I have to thank my friend (again) for sending that to me.
I ended the year off by getting sucked into two new games, Skyrim and Star Wars: The Old Republic. This, of course, caused a large gap in updates to the blog and delayed starting on my webcomic.
Now we have a new year and a chance to try again with new and old goals!
To start the new year off I slowed down my gaming a little so that I could finally take some photos of my two Dollfie Dreams. Before taking photos of them, though, I had some remaining details that I wanted to add first—such as braiding a ribbon for Rika's hair and making little charms for Yuri's gun. Most importantly, though, I put together a setup that will hopefully allow me to take better photos. With several satin-like sheets, some PVC pipe, and many tripods, I've put together a little "photo studio".
I have several items coming in the first half of this year. There are two figmas that I pre-ordered last year still on the way. One is Black Rock Shooter from the the PSP game (which is coming to the US). The other is Black Rock Shooter Blade, which comes with an artbook by the BRS creator, Huke. These should be coming within the first couple months of 2012, but I expect some delays.
I also JUST recently learned that one of my friends has secretly entered and won the lottery for a limited Dollfie Dream head for me! It is the finished makup version of the new DDH-06 head. I wasn't planning to get another Dollfie Dream, but it seems I have an enabler helping me along. So I am now starting to think of items to buy for this new girl coming around April. I can't thank my friend enough.
Careful time management will also be needed this year. Last year was a slow year for games, which is probably why I was able to dedicate my attention to more personal goals and achievements, but this year has many possible gaming distractions. I currently already have Star Wars: The Old Republic on my plate and several single-player games (Skyrim, Arkham City), but later this year there are a couple MMOs coming out that I've been looking forward to.
One small possible gem for me is Tera. While this is likely not everyone's cup of tea, Tera appears to be the spiritual successor to Lineage 2, at least in style and open world environment, which is a game that sucked away many hours of my life. This is slated to come out "this spring".
Then there is The Secret World. I'm still up in the air about this one. I've played Funcom's other two MMOs with mixed feelings, so I'm still not sure what to think about this one, but it looks like it could have potential. This should come out around April.
And of course there is the possibility that Guild Wars 2 could be released this year, the only other game hyped up as much as SW:TOR. I did spend a lot of time in the first Guild Wars, and the things they are bringing with this new title do sound really interesting. And, of course, there is no subscription fee, which is a nice plus.
So as you can see there is already a LOT on my plate for this year. What are your goals for this year? Did you learn anything from last year? Will you do anything different this year? It's important to constantly try to improve your situation or to reach your goals. Keep a todo list and make it a point to check it and modify it. The iPad has become a great assistant for keeping track of my goals and ideas, a notepad could be just as good. Do what you can to keep moving closer to those goals, even if they are small steps. Just don't give up.
My primary personal goal is to get my new webcomic started this year. It has been too long since I've had a comic going and I feel that I need to get a new one started for myself. Keep checking back for updates on my progress.
Desk Diary 9-18-11
This has been a busy month for me, and it is far from over. There are still several things coming up that will be keeping me busy. However, as far as my room and other goals go, I have started to make some changes and progress.
Since I got my Wacom tablet I don't really draw on paper anymore, and thus, I also don't really need my scanner anymore. On top of that, with the recent addition of my girls (dolls), I wanted to change my room around a bit to accommodate them. These two things worked out well for me.
First I packed up the scanner/printer. This freed up space on my desk for my girls. I then removed my little drawing table and added in my second matching bookcase. Yes, I actually have more furniture than can fit in my current little room.
Now I have a lot more shelf space, which quickly filled up with books, manga, games, and DVDs/Blu-Rays. A large chunk of shelf space is now being used for my two resin BJD girls. Overall I think it looks a bit nicer, though I hate all the brown. I still plan to "upgrade" all my furniture little by little, but for now this will do.
I'm still collecting items for the girls. I've been putting the new items in a little bucket as I've been getting them. With all the additional items the bucket is now too full to even close, as you can see.
And I STILL have another small order incoming. Lastly, to finish things off for them (for a while), I plan to order two stands next week that will be used on the now cleared off space on my desk.
I'm pretty happy about these changes. Next month, after all the busy things I have to do this month are over, I hope to really start moving forward with a webcomic. I want to get a webcomic started before the end of this year. I'll keep you posted.
Desk Diary 7-21-2011
There are a couple recent items to mention. First, if you have a keen eye you may notice a different monitor on my desk above. A couple weeks ago my 24" Samsung LCD monitor died on me.
The monitor just went black with no fanfare. At first I thought it may be my video card, but after testing with a spare monitor, I found that wasn't the case. So for a while I was stuck with a small, old, LCD from years ago. It was also only 4:3, and after using a 16:10 (widescreen) monitor for so long, it was hard to go back to. After some online research, I picked up a new 24" Samsung LED LCD monitor. Two days later it was returned. The LED backlight gave a blue tint to the screen and no amount of adjustments could get it to a point I was happy with. Maybe it was a lemon or just a low quality item, but I didn't like it.
Working with pictures everyday, I need a monitor that I am comfortable with. So again, I went online to research a new monitor. This time it was for a regular LCD monitor and not LED. Reviews for an HP 25" 16:9 LCD monitor came up and seemed like a decent choice. It also happened to be on sale at Best Buy. Even more luck would have it that the Best Buy near me was the only one to have it in stock in the area.
In fact, it was the last one in stock! Was it fate? After getting it home and setting it up, I was much more pleased with the screen's colors compared to the LED monitor before it. So this will be a keeper. It's the first HP and gloss screen monitor I have owned.
Last month it was announced that the Dollfie Dreams would arrive from Japan before the original time-frame of August. Volks USA later announced that they received them on July 1st. They still had to go through all the orders before they could be shipped, which took a couple weeks. Yesterday I finally received a shipping notice for my DD Neris! She will be here on Tuesday the 26th. The other one I won, Airy, will arrive about a week later, since she was won through a Volks retailer.
I also picked up some other items. A couple books and a few items from Volks for my incoming Dollfie Dreams. I also have another package coming from Amazon and yet another from Hong Kong. Expect posts for all that soon.
