Random thoughts on stuff...
Transformers 2: There seems to be a lot of division on this flick, some liking the mindless spectacle of it and others despise it for it's numerous plotholes, lackluster pacing, lame duck sense of humor, racist caricatures and just overall lack of decent storytelling. Me? I liked it. I though it was just like the cartoon: Giant, transforming robots beating the shit out of one another while some poorly thought out plot floated nebulously somewhere in the background, offering a bit of a set up for all the precedings and not getting in the way of the shilling. The Bay flick seems to be treated as some sort of insulting disservice to the original cartoon, but the show I saw in the 80's was little more than a 30 minute toy commercial full of plot holes big enough to drive Optimus Prime through, logical lapses that made "Superfriends" look like "Justice League Unlimited," jokes and humor that fell completely flat and animation that was stiff and robotic, even for a show about robots. Basically, I though the movie, both of them really, were pretty true to the toon. I understand that the Transformers comic and subsequent series like Beast Wars were much better written and overall better products, but who remembers those? The cartoon is what people remember and that seems to be where the movies drew their general feel from. Maybe I just didn't get the appeal of the original toon or understand why the movies are so bad in comparison. Measured against a lot of other movies, yeah, TF2 was bad, but hardly the worse movie ever. For a movie about a toy line, it was pretty solid and as an adaptation of the 80s Transformers series, it seems to have everything, even the flaws...

Dead Celebrities and the Media: Has there ever been a worse time to be famous? These guys just seem to be dropping left and right. The biggest complaint I see, is the so called, "celebrity worship," that apparently has engulfed the media and monopolized news reporting. Living in Oklahoma, the buckle of the "Bible Belt," the usual accusation tossed out is that dead celeb mania distracts from the current wars. I agree with that. My issue is that even before these guys were dropping like flies, I couldn't get any substantial news about either Iraq of Afghanistan out of the papers I read. Hell, the biggest paper in my state just got done with a very public feud with the local Fox TV affiliate here. They actually took out space in their own paper to insult and belittle the station. And I'm supposed to be upset about a article or two on Michael Jackson? Feh! Media in this country goes where the interest, and therefore, ratings, are. Is it stupid? Yes. Does it distract from important news? Again, yes. Does it seek to tantalize and sensationalize for the sake of viewership and trivialize what really matters and may even be capable of expanding the mental prowess and knowledge of the audience. Indeed. Does it really matter as virtually all news media does this regardless of political slant or personal bias as a good number of people wouldn't read, listen to or look at the news if there wasn't some level of sensationalism to entertain, even if it comes at the expense of actual news. No...can't say that it does. The only thing worse than the media's diverted attention is people diverting the media's attention to complain about the media's diverted attention.

2008 was a good year for...
Superhero movies: Iron Man, Hulk, Hellboy, The Dark Knight, The Spirt. Maybe USAmerican comics have become second tier players to Japanese manga, but they continue to dominate the silver screen, (okay, maybe not The Spirit...)
SNES to DS remakes: Dragon Quest 4 and Chrono Trigger kept me busy as far as gaming went this year. My DS continues to see more action than either my X-Box 360 or Wii...
Discounts: Stores going out of business left-and-right gave me the chance to pick up on some nice stuff for cheap, including a HDTV.
Old but new stuff: If you were an old dog doing new tricks, 2008 was your year. AC/DC, Metallica and even Guns and Roses, (okay, Axl with various musicians over the course of 14 years,) turned out new stuff. Clint Eastwood managed to usurp the Dark Knight as my favorite movie of the year with Gran Torino. At 78 years old, Eastwood is still a bad ass, and a fantastic actor. The biggest old dog though, was the Blue Bomber himself, Megaman, going back to his 8-bit roots in the era of Blue-Ray and motion sensors for what was the best game of the year.
Being Different: This was not the year to be the same. Nothing demonstrated that more than the US election where a black man and a woman (who was running for Vice President no less,) vied for voters. Regardless of your opinion on USAmerican politics, the fact that these two were neck-and-neck and ultimately we elected the first black commander and chief shows how far we've come. There's still a path to be taken, but we've come a long way from the days of the Civil Rights movement and Women's Suffrage.

2008 was a bad year for...
The Global Economy: Yarg! What the Hell happened?!?
Anime movies: Okay, there was only one, Speed Racer, but it was soooo bad! That Dragon Ball movie doesn't look too hot either and something tells me the live action Evangelion is never getting out of Development Hell. At least Astro Boy shows some promise.
Comedy: We lost George Carlin and Bernie Mac. The world is suddenly a less funny place.
Wii: Yeah, it sold like hotcakes in 2008, but with Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Smash Bros. out, what's left for the big N's magic money box? Hell, was I the only person bored with Smash after, like, a week? At least downloads should give me a reason to fire this thing up...
Internet Memes: Rick rolling is dead kiddies...
World Peace: Yeah... Not happening...

Here's to 2009 kiddies! And now, just for the Hell of it, my top 5 movies of the year!

5. The Forbidden Kingdom
4. The Wrestler
3. Iron Man
2. The Dark Knight
1. Gran Torino

Edit: Started a blog. [link]

Time to draw the curtain on "Girl Interrupted." I won't be taking any more new entries. It's been a fun series and I got way more entries than I ever thought I would. There are still a few pics to be done, so if you haven't seen your characters, don't worry. If you posted in the journal or noted me, you should see your character(s) soon.
Going to work on a Halloween project, probably fanart as I've done a lot of OC stuff lately. While there's no way I'm going to try to follow last year's big Xmas project, I'll probably do something special for that as well.

EDIT: Series officially over. The last pic is up. I will be taking NO MORE ENTRIES FOR GIRL INTERRUPTED for the time being. Thanks to everyone who offered their characters up for the series.

I've got this really stupid idea, but I'm gonna need some help. Ya see those three pics I just uploaded, that "Girl Interrupted," mess, well I wanna do some more like those, only with different characters, ones I really like and ones I haven't had the chance to draw before or haven't in a while. So here's the skinny, I wanna draw your character. I'm pretty much asking permission to draw your character(s). I'm going to start with characters belonging to my old AVGDiD running crew then move up to some less seen characters who have caught my eye. I may move beyond original characters at some point, but I want to start with those because I find drawing them exciting. In this series most of the pics will be a lot like those already posted, meaning simple or different ties with a emphasis on doing something that's at least a little different, probably dressed down a bit, (undies, PJs or just stuff you'd wear around the house,) and, here's the kicker, NO GAGS! D= If you're a gag snob, seek help, there's a fine line between fetish and obsession, (I keed, I keed.) Seriously, if you absolutely must have a gag in the pic, you may want to seek out another artist. This isn't a contest nor is there anything to win for doing this, I just want permission from other artists who wouldn't mind seeing me draw their characters.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST LINE!!!!

Please don't ask me to draw Misty from Pokemon or Tifa from FF7, cause I AM NOT TAKING REQUESTS! I am asking fellow artists for their permission to draw their characters. Now... I will accept characters from artists who were not at AVGDiD, that isn't an issue, but don't just make up some character and post it here, ("hey showtiem! hr iz mai orjinal charater! She look liek Sakura frm Narutoe but haz prpl hair. Orijinl chrtr pls dnt steel! I totally dn't jus make here up! Rly! Draw wit bear feet plz!" Stuff like that, please no,) but if you've got a character and wouldn't mind seeing her bastardized by mediocre bondage cartoonist, than by all means, let me know and I'll be happy to draw her. Hoping to hear from you out there in internet land.

Due to a couple of pics getting the axe from dA, I've decided to create a web album: [link]
I'm not up for arguing dA's silly ass policies nor do I intend to leave over a couple of deletions. This is just for storage and a chance to show off the stuff that got deleted. Also, some of the somewhat less crappy old stuff from my Yahoo group is there, in case anyone wanted to look at that.
Also, since we're in the summer movie season, try to see, "The Forbidden Kingdom," if you get the chance. It's really good. Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up and it's as awesome as you'd think. I'm sure you'll need something to tide you in between all the Batmans, Iron Mans, Hulks and Indiana Jones that's coming out, and it's a lot better than Speed Racer...