tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29781398773118105872024-03-05T04:59:03.258-05:00GHOSTWORKS IN PROGRESSThe blog of Illustrator and Conceptual Artist Jono Hunt.Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-73934527609451605572016-09-08T00:46:00.002-04:002016-09-08T10:39:17.762-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FMS FML F2P: Why living with chronic pain is like a "free to play" video game.</span></div>
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<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/da/93/38/da93389b28dc4d835b2a537e0db95772.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/da/93/38/da93389b28dc4d835b2a537e0db95772.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-03fb0913-0815-aeb1-77d4-699456c7a2d7"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Video games used to be hermetically sealed worlds on disc that never changed: time capsules of the technology and sentiment of the era in which they were created. People, on the other hand, are organic beings that grow from seed and clot into sentient beings that feel and think. We change over time. Feeling and thinking - in other words, the nervous system, with our big brains, allows us to not only create fantasy worlds, but experience them as a form of escapism. There are some experiences that one cannot escape. Chronic pain syndromes and terminal diseases are among them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am an enthusiastic gamer and amateur video game designer. I've suffered with Fibromyalgia syndrome for well over 20 years now, but I've only really known that for half that time. Zoning out while playing video games has always been a great escape for me. Perhaps while in my chosen state of euphoria, I didn't notice my body protesting everything I was doing to it, from the way I was sitting to how long I'd been up, staring into a screen with total disregard for temporal reality. I'd always notice how I felt after a ten hour session with any given Squaresoft game from back in the SNES glory days, and I usually associated this discomfort with the way I was sitting, the junk food I was consuming, the hours staring into the abyss; I never knew I had a life-altering, incurable condition that would only worsen with time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video games have evolved incredibly over the ages, but I'm not sure that the majority of them are an improvement over the steady-state classics of old. Perhaps nostalgia has gotten the better of me. Many games these days have been dubbed "Free to Play". These games are often chided for being "teases" - they suck you in with the free game, often designed to be addictive, but then they limit how much of the game you can experience, that is, unless you pay for it. That's exactly why I draw the comparison between such disparate things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was recently made aware of “spoon theory”, (look it up, lazy! Links are for the weak) which encapsulates the connection between chronic illness and free to play games. In short, a young woman who suffers from Lupus was at a diner with a close friend. The friend eventually blurted out something along the lines of “I don't know how you do it, everyday” in reference to the young woman's Lupus. Desperate for an apt metaphor, the young woman grabbed all the spoons she could, from nearby tables, and shoved them into her concerned friend's hands as she began to explain. The metaphor resides in spoons as energy rations. Every time a person with chronic illness does anything, it costs a spoon. Run out of spoons and you can't play for free; you have to pay through the hoop for any other activities after that, or you don't play at all until the spoons have replenished. The major difference between Game of Spoons (just like Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”; both can be simultaneously soothing and painful) and actual free to play games is that there is no guarantee the spoons will be at the same level after a waiting period. One cannot buy more spoons, like one does in Free to Play games, manifest as tokens. Perhaps the cost of medicine could be considered buying back into the game: a few extra resources to keep playing. Life itself is “free to play” yet it costs Spoonies, as we are affectionately known, dearly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The more generalized term for what Spoonies deal with daily is invisible illness. When one shares their condition with the uninitiated, one often hears “but you don't look sick!”. It is not a compliment. Who wants to appear ill? I wouldn't trade my dignity just to prove a point, though I have, much against my will. Mental disorders fall under the category of invisible illness, and mental disorders often emerge from having a chronic, corporeal syndrome or disease. I chose the term corporeal rather than physical, because separating mental and physical health seems as absurd as dentistry not falling under general health care plans. If you don't have healthy teeth, you are not healthy. Corporeal, to me, encapsulates the entire body, of which the brain is no small part. If the brain isn't working, nor can the body. We are not jellyfish. I suffer from myriad mental illnesses as a result of being subjected to corporeal pain on the daily. The next time someone surmises judgmentally that “it's all in my head”, I should be quick to remind them that my head is an important part of my body. If I'm playing a video game on my computer and it starts lagging, frame rates drop, and graphical glitches start to appear at random, a PC technician would never say “oh, it's just the main processor. Your computer is fine”. The technician might say something to the tune of “your processor has fried some of its transistors. We need to replace it for maximum efficiency”. Sorry, baby. Ain't no brain transplant happening here. Even owning a gaming computer in and of itself is a game: if you don't have the right equipment you can't even play. Even in some purchased games, there is superficial content that can be purchased to give the player some sense of customization, but really, the game underneath is the same. In terms of illness, it's like putting makeup on a bruise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My dear mother also suffers from chronic illness, albeit very different from mine. I introduced spoon theory to her and she had an astounding response. She said “I start every day with no spoons at all. I struggle to get up and get going. By the time I'm up, I've spent a few spoons I didn't know I had. By the time we are having a glass of wine and laughing, I've forgotten I had no spoons at all”. Metaphors are tarnished mirrors. Mom's approach is admirable, but she pays for it later. If she wants to stay up with her sons and keep going, she knows she'll pay for it in spades the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the game of life, we are either active players or non-player characters (NPC). NPC’s are computer controlled entities that flesh out a world, provide atmosphere, information, and often tasks. It basically means the player is in control of their avatar, but NPC’s have routine algorithms. In real life, chronic illness sufferers have a choice: be a voice and an advocate or be a tragic NPC who serves to pad the world of the more efficiently abled. In many games, I've stopped to chat with an NPC who simply repeats his suffering and has no bearing on my mission. In real life, I never want to be that guy. I need to share my pain with the world. I do not want </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anyone</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to feel my pain in solidarity - but if I am an NPC, I have some heavy tasks to assign: gather knowledge and report back with real questions. Find a way to help without condescending. If I need you to just show me funny shit on Facebook to distract me, do it. No pity. If I work with you, give me a god damned minute to sit down if I'm clearly hurting. Telling me to suck it up will either make me cry… or I'll make </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cry. The aggression comes from a dark place: I am in constant pain and you are not. Do not ever try to convince me otherwise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the Game of Life is free to play, then the Game of Spoons is thus: you win, or you die; alone, and painfully. I've never been more serious in my life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is always hope. We Spoonies may never heal completely, but compassion and solidarity is very helpful to a Spoonie. We rant more than most; we rant about real pain and struggle within our catacomb bodies. If you truly care, let us bitch and moan; if it becomes too much to bear, tell us to stop bitching - but do not give us advice, unless you are doctor. Even then, many doctors don't care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my short time in an online Spoonie support group, I have virtually met the best people ever. They get it, which opens us up to other discussions. Imagine having to plan fun based on energy. Imagine planning work around ability, instead of a schedule. I'm luckier than most: my boss gives me the benefit of the doubt without having ever bothered to look up my condition. This is not the case with most people with chronic illness. Pride can be a direct symptom of shame. I'm learning not to be ashamed of my disability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chances are, someone you love suffers from an invisible illness. If they come out as such - chronically ill, give them the benefit of the doubt. If you are condescending, you might lose the most empathetic person you have ever met. Just listen and love, and know that some of the strongest people you know have crippling weaknesses. We're all playing the same game of life. It's free to play. Unfortunately, some of us can afford to play at a higher level than most.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's level the playing field.</span></div>
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</span>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-82257128629590513972014-06-27T16:58:00.000-04:002014-06-27T16:58:10.979-04:00FIBROMYALGIA BLUES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">So yeah,</span></div>
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I suffer from Fibromyalgia (FMS). To the uninitiated, it is a rheumatoid condition that manifests itself as widespread, chronic pain of the muscles, joints and ligaments, as well as what I would say is the worst part of it: the fog. THE FOG!</div>
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DUN DUN DUNNNNNN...</div>
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The "fibro fog" as it is cheesily known, can range from flu-like symptoms (no flu, mind you) to simply being confused, tired, shaky, blurry vision (in my case) and total lack of concentration. I'm in the fog as I write this and my 80+ wpm typing speed has been reduced to about 20, if I'm lucky. Typos abound.</div>
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I'm writing this because I'm actually trying to get the blood flowing through my brain to see if I can conquer THE FOG!</div>
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DUN DUN DUNNNNNN...</div>
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...but seriously, this is a shitty, shitty condition that only middle-aged women and my old chef seem to understand. 90% of FMS sufferers are middle-aged women and the stigma of being a young, otherwise fit male likes to screw with almost every aspect of my life.</div>
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There are no well-documented "fibro attacks" as there are with similar (albeit much worse) conditions like multiple sclerosis, but I seem to experience "fibro attacks" with random frequency. The longest I've lived without an attack in the past ten years is four months. The last attack I had was one month ago. I was on line at the restaurant and it was like a mini-stroke. The left side of my body went numb while the right was shaking in excruciating pain. I worked through it, but as an open kitchen my customers were looking at me like I was Frankenstein's monster. My boss was very understanding, but he seemed embarrassed at the "display". I was given a break during the drama and I went out back and just cried. It wasn't even emotional, nor was it from pain. My body just lost control of itself.</div>
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FMS symptoms are brought out by stress and anxiety, both of which I used to have in spades. I've been pretty zen the past half year, in spite of my condition and various life events that would otherwise put me down. The problem I have is when I get THE FOG! I then get frustrated, stressed out and anxious, creating a vicious circle of cognitive anguish and physical pain.</div>
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I'm a cook at one of the busiest diners in Toronto. I'm a law clerk at one of the busiest firms. I'm trying to renovate my basement. I've had no time nor energy to dedicate to my own projects. I'm way overdue for some new art and design work. When FMS rears its ugly head, it ruins everything. I write this as catharsis and to help inform the ignorant and non-believing that shit is real, homie. Very real and very shitty.</div>
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If you have loved ones who suffer from this, please give them the benefit of the doubt. If you have employees or co-workers who suffer, extend patience and compassion. We are not a bunch of wimps who can't take a little pain. I'm a tough mofo; I carry a lot of scars, but THE FOG! cripples me.</div>
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I'm slowly taking steps in the right direction to better my health (firing my asshole doctor, for one) and trying my best not to use FMS as an excuse. I fight THE FOG! and the pain every day and it always wins.</div>
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One love. Thanks for reading.</div>
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J</div>
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PS: It's also incurable. Fun.</div>
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Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-53442739305738709412014-02-05T13:39:00.001-05:002014-02-05T13:39:47.895-05:00TWO CENTS FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sup, errbuddy?</div>
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There is a fine line between the simply personal and the confessional. As an artist, I constantly ride the fence. Blogs are an interesting medium as they represent the digitization of the journal or daily diary, albeit in a public sphere (even if it's not published, Googly Googs knows what you're thinking... <i>they know</i>...). Blogs represent the temptation to type a constant outpouring of neurosis and insecurity writ large all over the internet. Even established journalists have to park the personal in favour of a broader, more objective journalism, but again, the ease of confession on such a wide scale remains Damoclean for the individual and his thoughts and opinions.</div>
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So what does a fence-rider like myself do about such a glaring spotlight? I perform well under pressure and <i>literally </i>in the spotlight, but any performer adopts a stage persona, even if it is only loosely fictional. The internet provides a pseudo anonymity that allows the inner devil to the forefront of argument, and boy, does that devil like to argue. Everyone gets their 15 minutes; their two cents. Unfortunately for some, that's a constant stream of back-to-back, 15 minute fame sessions and many should have gone broke by now for pitching in their two cents. Hell, if I had a quarter for every time I put in <i>my</i> two cents, I'd have recouped at least ten years of shoddy emotional investment at an alarmingly favourable interest rate!</div>
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I suffer from the anonymous devil inside. I think of myself as reasonable, logical if often passionate; but not blind nor deaf. Anyone with a Burner account knows this dichotomy: Burner accounts allow total anonymity as they are not linked to Gmail or Facebook or Twitter, etc. but the blind passion with which one can rant in forums can lead to an obviousness of character, solidifying the ranter as an actual, human entity on the internet. The beauty of a Burner account is when one is <i>burnt out</i>, so to speak, the account can be deleted forever. Not the "be right back" forever of Twitter and Facebook, but actually gone forever. As long as the browser cookies are set to remember the Burner password, the account will exist. Clearing the cache and refreshing the browser can act as a sort of <i>cleanse </i>for toxic, trolling activity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exhibit A: we've all been on one end or the other</td></tr>
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Many have inadvertently left their indelible mark on the cave walls of the internet. Perhaps a data-mining anthropologist of the future will find my Facebook wall deep in the strata of the digital past and interpret it as an important message left for the citizens of the future. Perhaps other strata will reveal a self-important, cat and sloth worshiping culture glued to their glowing, corporate, deified altars. The galaxy of would-be stars that are every individual on the internet further proves our insignificance in the universe. After all, if everybody is a star, then we are all destined to burn out and fade away anyways. If everyone is special in their own way, then nobody is special at all.<br />
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Here's to expressing our individuality... just like everybody else.</div>
Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-21825071872908894252014-01-31T11:37:00.001-05:002014-02-05T14:26:54.984-05:00LITTLE RED ENVELOPES AND ALL THAT JIAOZE<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>2014: Year of the Horse. More like 4712!</b></div>
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I look the part, but I am about as Chinese as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley in Iron Man III or the plastic restaurant chain). My family has no formal meal the night of; no vegetarian cleanse the day after. This year, my mother had a culturally existential crisis on the matter when a family friend told her nothing short of "you are not Chinese enough; you need to learn your heritage". My mother is almost seventy and her friend is in her forties. </div>
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Tough break, eh? I digress.</div>
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I am throwing a last minute Year of the Horse party at my mother's house for a few friends. It will be as sloppy and informal as it is last-minute. I write this before I've even come up with a menu. All I can think of is that this is a perfect excuse for a party. "Happy New Year" is the rough English equivalent of the only thing I can say in both Cantonese and Mandarin and even then, the Cantonese is my late Grandmother's dialect.</div>
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Relevance? There are a million other things I could be doing today, many of which are far more productive than my feeble attempts at maintaining some kind of sub-culture or family tradition. I may look the part as I have mentioned, but then again I look the part for anything but black; though I have been mistaken for such through the sheer ignorance of my accuser and my choice of attire. Chinese New Year has always been that strange, exotic thing that I embraced as a part of my bloodline. In kindergarten, the teacher asked me to tell the class about it. I just described the glorious spread that used to push the family to the margins of the dining room on Lord Robert's Drive in Scarborough. I've never known the significance, if any.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNE4u3gv-Wazszwib7fGRcnhediHz5LCHeIcYpuJzntzZo9j-GQaYom8w4tbtFpplgBd-fZXoZzTT_AKZ1Qla0YOs2gHayIoUHT216hqhAxSbbg_HIt387CAk3VEuo-CKDRhabFHwgvw/s1600/DSC00075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNE4u3gv-Wazszwib7fGRcnhediHz5LCHeIcYpuJzntzZo9j-GQaYom8w4tbtFpplgBd-fZXoZzTT_AKZ1Qla0YOs2gHayIoUHT216hqhAxSbbg_HIt387CAk3VEuo-CKDRhabFHwgvw/s1600/DSC00075.JPG" height="320" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Chow Kien & Chow York-Ying</td></tr>
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Chinese New Year for me has always been about food, friends and family. China is no longer exotic, with Mandarin paving the way for a new <i>lingua franca</i>. I've been told I was "not Chinese enough" in my own time, albeit by a triad gangster addled by MDMA at a rave. If I choose to throw a party and give away jiaoze (dumplings) and booze instead of cash money in little red envelopes, is it "not Chinese enough"?</div>
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Who cares? Well, I obviously do a mote, or I wouldn't feel the need to write this. It would have been easier to go grab dim sum and then get drunk. It would have been of no significance if I did nothing, or simply joined the guys at the pub like any other Friday.</div>
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Little dumplings and tall cans of beer. That's what the year of the Horse is getting kicked off (har har) with.</div>
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To the glorious diversity of my ridiculous generation.</div>
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J</div>
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Xin Nian Kuai Le! Goong Hey fat Choy!</div>
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PS: I'm allergic to horses...</div>
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Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-41128563367468675492013-02-27T20:45:00.000-05:002013-02-27T20:45:33.690-05:00Black Holes and Revelations (Never Stop Dancing)I was at a memorial recently for my dear great aunt Audrey Isabel Jones, 87. It was not tragic, but it was of course sad. Under the circumstances, it was so good to see family.<br />
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The reverend was a delightfully military-looking old English ex-pat in Niagara named Jeff Davison. I have the utmost respect for this man.<br />
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I am an Athiest. I capitalize the word because it is a title. I firmly believe that there is no god to believe in. All of this means I walked into my Aunt's memorial service with prejudice in my heart. I assumed that a tiny chapel in an old funeral home that was there in Niagara before the vineyards would be run by compassionate if not curmudgeonly Christians with whom I share nothing in common but this earth. I could not have been more wrong.<br />
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Reverend Davison closed the service with a sermon that caused my Physicist brother and lapsed Catholic father and I to make triple-head-turning eye contact with one another. How often does a priest at a funeral bring up how our perception of the laws of nature, math and physics has evolved to our modern understanding and that our thirteen-plus-billion year old universe was obviously big-banged into being by God?<br />
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My father said he can respect any man who is reasonably trying to reconcile a belief in the supernatural with a scientific understanding of nature. I replied that it sounds like he has reconciled.<br />
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Reverend Davison tried, somewhat stumblingly to marry a metaphor about my Aunt Aud's love of dancing with ever-changing landscapes and celestial physics. He pulled it off. He said that if you fall out of time, out of step, you will not be able to follow the rhythm of life. Fear not death for the universe is teeming with life. We are all stardust anyways.<br />
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One day the music will stop, followed by a moment of silence. That silence could be the blink of an eye, or many billions of years. It does not matter, because the music will start again.<br />
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Never stop dancing.<br />
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<br />Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-60435074404232406992011-07-26T20:30:00.002-04:002011-07-27T00:06:43.734-04:00SPECIALIZATION IS FOR INSECTS<i>A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.<br />
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-Robert A. Heinlein</i><br />
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My level design teacher once lamented of the video games industry that his major problem was that companies, while impressed by his vast and varied body of work, just didn't know where to put him. He is a man who has worked as an illustrator for comic books, concept artist for film and games, level designer, 3D modeler, programmer, cook (maybe), and just about any role that could be filled. He is also a military veteran (invaluable consultation knowledge for games - think about it!) and, quite obviously, a teacher. That old saying comes to mind, "a jack of all trades, master of nothing". The thing about my teacher is that he is a <i>master</i> of all trades it seems, and permanent employment has been a struggle for him. I should note that while he has found an excellent and lucrative contract now that classes are finished, it is not in the games industry. I'm not sure if this is the effect of what the old folks like to call a recession, or if it is simply that I have chosen a young, belligerent and exceptionally competitive field. My recent job applications - to every single possible game job in Toronto - have led me to meet some pretty spectacular people and network with some incredible companies, but no fruit has been reachable from the tree. I am only 5'8", but come on! Whining aside, I do wonder how my $30,000+ debt while attending a top Ontario college has prepared me for the games industry other than equipping me with cynicism about not only my own abilities, but the state of the industry and furthermore the economy as a whole. <br />
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I never had to fight a war, but those long days and nights in busy kitchens hardened me and trained me to deal with immediate adversity (and assholes - lots of them). It also taught me that if you're charming enough, you can grab a job that you otherwise had zero experience in before. Not a "fake it 'til you make it" approach, but instead, a sincere approach and a do-or-die attitude that lets the prospective employer know that if they take a chance on you, their time will not have been wasted. It is, of course, a hell of a lot easier to say "Okay, kid. We'll give you a chance" at $10/hour rather than $40-$50k a year. Maybe I got those jobs because I'm a hard worker and a fast learner, or maybe I got those jobs because I happened to walk in and ask to speak to the chef right after someone was fired. Or maybe it was a friend who referred me. Any way about it, I've woven quite the web in terms of networking, but my patience is wearing thinner than my silken strands. <br />
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I really do wonder where this world is going; this world my post-boomer brethren and I have inherited. Will we be engulfed by the sun before I sire children, or will the law-makers blow us all up? Should I learn Mandarin before China takes over? Will 2012 be the next Great Depression, or are we already there? Are any of these inquiries even valid, or am I just whining about my uphill battle? My family and friends and the odd stranger all seem to support that "the economy is fucked" but that just seems like a cop-out in hard times. I've had tougher times than this, but it's easier to crawl out of a hole at 20 than it is at 30. Come what may, I've got to pull up my bootstraps and kick some ass before I get mine kicked. Or I just need to get a job. Any job.<br />
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Thanks for listening.<br />
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JJutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-41230985071088692802011-06-22T13:03:00.004-04:002011-06-22T20:04:33.080-04:00ONLY SOMEWHAT GAME RELATEDI love penny-arcade. I feel a kinship with my Seattleite elder brothers. Especially when I realize that being a nerd can be a badge of honour, as long as said nerd has an open enough mind to A) See what exists outside of his screens and books and B) can laugh at himself. This comic almost single-handedly defines what me and the boys like to call the "Highschool Resident Evil Psilocybin Experience".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/i-JT2ZtNb/0/L/i-JT2ZtNb-L.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 200px;" src="http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/i-JT2ZtNb/0/L/i-JT2ZtNb-L.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Don't worry parents and employers, I was but seventeen, young and not-clean.<br /><br />JJutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-91398380841285131482011-06-22T00:44:00.011-04:002011-06-22T01:07:53.948-04:00GEEK EMOTIONSFirst of all, this is a funny theme for my first post in over a year, but hey, what's a guy to do.<br /><br />I've been hard at work on my graduate thesis project for Game Design at George Brown College. I'm jumping between designing The White Shadow War: Touch Tactics and composing music for it. It all started as a little test to see if I could get the emotion right for the game. I think I may take a stab at the final music myself, or at least hand my compositions off to my highly talented musician friends, but either way, it's a great way to take a break from trying to figure out game mechanics, or write an original story, (or thinking about how the hell I'm going to actually make this thing work without a programmer!). The game itself is highly derivative of classic SRPGs like <i>Final Fantasy tactics</i> or <i>Tactics Ogre: Long Winded Japanese Name Goes Here</i>, but I do feel I will have a unique take on a classic game genre, especially if it does come to fruition on all our brand new, touchy-feely devices. Not only is the game itself obviously "inspired by" but I find that the music is coming out of the woodwork (woodwinds?) as very reminiscent of Nobuo Uematsu or Yatsunori Mitsuda (famed game composers). Having performed and composed Hip Hop for more than a decade now, it becomes incredibly hard to escape those reins when I sit down to make a track, but by studying a completely unique form of music (game music) and by incorporating many different styles and influences, I think in the end I will have something I can be proud of.<br /><br />This post is not about my game music, though later posts will be. While searching for inspiration, I got on the 'tube (<i>YOUR</i> tube) to hear the sounds of classics like <i>Chrono Trigger's 600AD</i> theme. What I found myself listening to was many a talented young musician offering their own renditions and arrangements. Cover songs are a dime a dozen on YouTube, but there a few gems out there that truly deserve praise. It might be game music, it may have been composed with blips and bleeps, but the emotion is there, the mathematically perfect pitch and composition is there and the sheer beauty is there. It takes me back to some the happiest moments of my childhood. I was by no means an introvert, but holing up with <i>Final Fantasy III (6)</i> for hours on end sparked such wonderment and awe that a bunch of pixels and 8-16 bit audio could choke me up. God, am I ever a geek. Anywho, check these geniuses out and judge for yourself:<br /><br /><object style="height: 300px; width: 400px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dGPVMl6IbSc?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dGPVMl6IbSc?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="400" height="300"></object><br /><br><br /><object style="height: 300px; width: 400px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/n710bkFI6jQ?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/n710bkFI6jQ?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="400" height="300"></object><br /><br><br /><object style="height: 300px; width: 400px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cwcHcEK6vL0?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cwcHcEK6vL0?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="400" height="300"></object><br /><br><br />If I can get anywhere <i>near</i> that good, I can die a happy old man if kids one day upload interpretations of <i>WSW:Touch Tactics</i> music on FutureTube, or whatever it will be.Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-312919015769233242010-04-06T14:25:00.007-04:002010-04-06T21:18:10.765-04:002 POSTS AND 1 DAYI hope nobody gets that reference...<br /><br />Anyways, I had to post this, seeing as how I'm about to embark on my first official step towards a career in Game Design at George Brown in Toronto this fall.<br /><br />This is absolutely integral to the way I think and how things are changing all around us:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html">JESSE SCHELL: WHEN GAMES INVADE REAL LIFE</a><br /><br />I found the "School Grading through Experience Points and Levels" particularly awesome.<br /><br />Enjoy<br /><br />JJutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-8743067903478961552010-04-06T10:34:00.005-04:002010-04-06T10:49:27.309-04:00ZOMBIE JESUSJoyeuses Afterpaques, y'all!<br /><br />The aftermath of Easter is upon us, complete with leftover chocolate eggs and rabbits everywhere. I mean everywhere! They're flooding the streets!<br /><br />On another note, my good friend Kevlar, the production genius behind <a href="http://kegaska.ca">Kegaska</a> and <a href="http://gwdcblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/other-stuff-i-do.html">my own album</a> asked me to design a frivolous, funky and slightly retarded-cum-awesome album cover for his latest effort, the Resurrection Mix, AKA: Rise of The Phoenix.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8ov2J_804DIOhGmDzWuZxlRSXGCDwkW0RbzS-POLSppnjU9WfaPR34ugtVABEBP20KZS-Er1AJvSEVfSyzx3JGA6cJV1HN4DeoIOYjsA-Tm9N1F4Mh97YgelZQkqTpHIGYbVYWxBuD0/s1600/ROTF-REZMIX+copy.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8ov2J_804DIOhGmDzWuZxlRSXGCDwkW0RbzS-POLSppnjU9WfaPR34ugtVABEBP20KZS-Er1AJvSEVfSyzx3JGA6cJV1HN4DeoIOYjsA-Tm9N1F4Mh97YgelZQkqTpHIGYbVYWxBuD0/s320/ROTF-REZMIX+copy.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457034185300011826" /></a><br /><br />I was asked to include Zombie Jesus (featured in solid gold in this case), a snowmobile and a Phoenix. I wasn't exactly aiming for high-brow design here, but I think I nailed the concept (no pun intended).<br /><br />Oh god, I'm going to rot in hell.<br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br />J<br /><br />PS: Grab the mix <a href="http://kegaska.ca/">here</a>. It'll rock your face off.Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-38446301648514278082010-02-10T14:01:00.009-05:002010-04-06T10:34:15.404-04:00GOT THE BLUESHola tudos<br /><br />Hot off the Wacom, a new character portrait.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Aama-f-web.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 550px;" src="http://ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Aama-f-web.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />No, it's not a Dark Elf with cornrows. Before Avatar reared its pretty head, I came up with a blue-skinned tribal people fightin' the good fight against a corrupt technocracy on a fantasy planet. I called them the Mansataa. They are not cats.<br /><br />Enjoy<br /><br />JJutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-62749962985483306692010-01-05T20:57:00.007-05:002010-01-05T22:55:13.599-05:00BETTER LATE......Than never.<br /><br />That's what the kids seem to say these days. Anywho... I mentioned in the last post (you know, over 3 months ago) that I was going to discipline myself to draw at least once a week with my tablet. Well... that discipline waned as real life and work waxed. I did use the damn tablet daily, but it seemed for far less artistic endeavors than I originally purchased it for. Enough ballyhoo... onto the point: I have recently been using the tablet for the artistic endeavors I originally purchased it for. (As always, click the image to see a larger version).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Craig-Venter.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 600px;" src="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Craig-Venter.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I was watching a <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_is_on_the_verge_of_creating_synthetic_life.html">TED talk about synthesizing life</a> or something or other and I didn't know what to paint. That's Craig Venter, I guess. This loosened me up for the following:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Psittica-web.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 540px;" src="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Psittica-web.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It's a humanoid sentient Psittaca, a race I made up a while ago based on the Psittacosaur dinosaurs. "Parrot Lizards".<br /><br />The sketch of Craig Venter took less than 45 minutes (I did it on my lunch hour). The Psittaca, however took about 16-20 hours total. The following image represents about 6 hours of work. You can see how much it changed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/PsitticaOLD.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 540px;" src="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/PsitticaOLD.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I have a lot more time on my hands now. No more excuses! All art all the time!<br /><br />Word.<br /><br />JJutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-87899417916540566152009-09-29T13:52:00.009-04:002009-09-29T14:32:34.896-04:00DIGIFUN!<div>Sup yawl...</div><div><br /></div><div>As I said in a previous post, I ordered myself an <a href="http://www.wacom.com/intuos/" target="blank">Intuos 4</a> tablet. It seemed frivolous at first, but considering I found a killer price for it and I barely use my ancient mini tablet (that isn't even manufactured anymore) it was an opportunity I wanted to capitalize on immediately.</div><div><br /></div><div>I promised myself to be more prolific with my illustrations and concepts and not rely on online competitions and freelance to bolster my portfolio, so I assigned myself of a weekly task (<i>at least</i> once a week) of a solid, digital piece, tablet only. That was my only restriction. The idea is to get used to the thing (which is taking no time at all... it feels so natural to me) and bolster my roster with more modern styled concept work. As I get into things, I'll probably assign myself more specific tasks than just painting 3 eyed squids:</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/tripus09.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 582px;" src="http://ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/tripus09.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br><br /><br><div>Well, that starts it for me. This took about an hour, maybe less. It was divided between two lunch breaks at work, but considering how quick it was, I'm fairly proud of it!</div><div><br /></div><div>Check back for more.</div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-29282291172025596602009-09-17T17:27:00.007-04:002009-09-29T14:36:04.516-04:00THE OTHER STUFF I DO...Well, this seems odd after a rant about my desire to enter the professional realm of video games, but I have been accused being a jack-of-all-trades (master of procrastination) many times before.<br /><br />My band, <a href="http://myspace.com/typecastcats" target="blank">typecast</a> (not to be confused with the Filipino Emo band) is about to drop our first album. I joined the band relatively late in its life, as frontman Louis Deering started the group in Montreal about six years ago and the roster has grown and changed numerous times (Lou himself being the only original member).<div><br /></div><div>I sway from the point: I did the album design, which I am proud of dude to the fact that it was done in great haste and minimalism is something very new to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thank the gods for Helvetica.</div><br /><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qzsNVeyA4khnKM0rfUhlaqpWytxpbzZNQuhHdTVtZdaZeb9HOyzdfxa9_Vh1wgNbsflM04MIk5De8QsOvyKAO5KUdl7MIiNDJ-nUcpiGn-DoWMynkv_C0doe98TxOwjtU7wwBmNu76c/s1600-h/TYPECAST_BOOKLET_coverWEB.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qzsNVeyA4khnKM0rfUhlaqpWytxpbzZNQuhHdTVtZdaZeb9HOyzdfxa9_Vh1wgNbsflM04MIk5De8QsOvyKAO5KUdl7MIiNDJ-nUcpiGn-DoWMynkv_C0doe98TxOwjtU7wwBmNu76c/s320/TYPECAST_BOOKLET_coverWEB.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382552991740555154" /></a><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeXU2LGsXchSFTfAK3-TZ7AjBrC-8f854oFklfMUZWZ9wFOVqH0u7hlhX65pgl-5Kel5kbnuVTxUkHDoX-RRYKEMbPCUqFHNj-zLqmsklUmAJMfCUfHl1of1F9DHQg-YipqbiuNU3bTKU/s1600-h/TYPECAST_BOOKLET_insideWEB.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeXU2LGsXchSFTfAK3-TZ7AjBrC-8f854oFklfMUZWZ9wFOVqH0u7hlhX65pgl-5Kel5kbnuVTxUkHDoX-RRYKEMbPCUqFHNj-zLqmsklUmAJMfCUfHl1of1F9DHQg-YipqbiuNU3bTKU/s320/TYPECAST_BOOKLET_insideWEB.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382553381325963538" /></a><br /><div>The album is due for pre-release on September 26th, with a more official release to follow. Enjoy. </div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-8575489035507204992009-09-10T11:20:00.019-04:002009-09-10T17:39:02.778-04:00PANNING FOR PIXELS<div style="text-align: justify;">Anyone who knows me knows my love of video games. I'm such a completionist gamer that I will obsessively finish games that are technically awful and frustrating to play. Maybe I'm just miserly and want to get my $60 worth. Maybe I like the pretty images. I'd prefer to think that I truly appreciate the artistry and hard work that goes into making these things and from personal experience as a graphic designer, I know that thousands of hours of work doesn't always translate well from the original vision. I have always wanted to have a hand at game design, whether under the strictest terms of that title, or simply providing concepts and artwork to develop the final product.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My father always said that you never meet your last love first and likewise while looking for a career; it's never your first job. Not to undermine the values of love and companionship, but building a career around your passions really isn't that different from forging a strong bond with someone. I've been told that you should always take what you do seriously but never so yourself. My expectations of myself wax and wane in a perpetual cycle of artistic lethargy. There is nothing more stifling than having a creative impulse and being unable to implement it. It is the visual artist's equivalent of writer's block. When it comes to professional work, such a moment can well up an incredible amount of stress within the artist because others rely on the work, and if the work is not being done, everyone suffers. All should be entitled to fulfillment at their job, but the problem with being a creative person is that integrity coupled with undying ego makes seeking that fulfillment ever difficult. I recently updated my resume and streamlined my freelance client list as it was nearing three pages with the descriptions attached. I felt enormously proud of amassing such a long list of work, but I felt equally as disappointed in myself that almost none of it reflected the work I actually wanted to do. Feelings of entitlement are cropped concisely by notions of guilt and this self-centered duality stresses my ability to pursue what I truly want to do with my supposed talents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enter the video game. To vaguely describe what I want to do in life, I would say that to be paid to produce images and create fantasy worlds would be a dream come true. There are of course many different avenues to that goal, but I feel that video games have proven time and again (to me at least) that they are the ultimate storytelling vehicle. The level of interaction that comes with the intellectual property of video games in my opinion far surpasses that of film and literature. The latter media on the other hand, deliver tried and tested methods of storytelling steeped in tradition. The video game industry, while growing rapidly, is far from mature, but the potential for high art is incredible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I first left Toronto for Montreal almost seven years ago, I had just graduated from Sheridan College's Illustration program with the notion that I was taking my first steps into an elite world of creativity. To fund my journey I flipped pizza all night and taught children at summer camp all day. The camp program happened to be video game design. Our head counselor had written a simple game engine that could be manipulated to create scrolling shooters or basic platform games a la Super Mario Bros. My job was to help the kids tap their imaginations and create the artwork that would bring the games to life. High art this was not, but to see just how creative <span style="font-style:italic;">anyone </span>could be given the right tools, it further solidified my love for the medium and gave me even more hope for myself as a professional in the games industry. Montreal was a few months away and becoming a video game Mecca in its own right.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I write this, I contemplate my second application to the <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_al-Haram">Masjid al-Haram</a></span> of Mecca Montreal: UbiSoft. This was just a couple of days ago. If I get lucky, or just play my hand properly, I may get what I came here for, almost a decade later. Who knows? If things truly go my way, I may end up back home in Toronto at the fledgling studio that is getting <a href="http://kotaku.com/5308480/ubisoft-toronto-brings-800-jobs-to-ontario">so much press lately</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I feel that I have been panning for creative gold in a stream muddy with corporate sediment for too long now. Approaching thirty years of age is not as daunting as turning twenty-five felt, but in my relative maturity I clamor at something more fulfilling than plain sustenance. It certainly is lovely not to chase clients for cheques nor sign contracts demanding half-loot down, but if I could marry the idea of security and a good dental plan with fulfilling work, I know I would shine like the gold I've been panning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Art will always be my first love, and to her I will return. Video games have taught me that she is everywhere, even in a previously childish medium. Games have grown with me it seems, and my first love can be found thriving within that coveted industry. If my last job is not to be my first as my last love is likewise not supposed to be, I may just be able to break my father's rule and meet both halfway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wish me luck.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">J</div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-60836808224431235662009-09-01T11:49:00.011-04:002009-09-01T15:04:37.282-04:00STAH WAHZ<div>Well, I didn't finish, but I did get this far:</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/StarForge-X.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 455px; height: 632px;" src="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/StarForge-X.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div>I still plan on brushing this one up a bit and finishing all the criteria that the <a href="http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/competitions/6/view_entries.html" target="blank">competition</a> outlined.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm a little disappointed in myself for missing the deadline, considering there was a week long extension, but all guilty feelings were negated when I bought myself an <a href="http://wacom.com/">Intuos 4</a>. Good times.</div><div><br /></div><div>J</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-63167959055539826042009-08-10T15:55:00.011-04:002009-09-02T11:25:38.569-04:00COMICON 2009<div style="text-align: justify;">I've entered <a href="http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/competitions/6/view_entries.html" target="blank">Game Artisans' COMICON 2009 competition.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Being a huge nerd, this contest was irresistible, even if I never finish my entries into these things. I tried my hand at redesigning Ultimate X-Men's Cable last year, but never got past a few sketches and failed Z-Brush attempts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This year I decided to abandon the standard superheroes and delve into Star Wars. I've always wanted to do a Star Wars piece, but didn't want to just draw the classics. I've fallen in the love with the Old Republic lore and joined the dark side, so to speak. <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Revan" target="blank">Darth Revan</a> from the original Knights of the Old Republic was one of the coolest characters to emerge from the Star Wars universe so I felt a re-interpretation was due.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Luckily there are comics about him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's a simple painting/colour test I did recently.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can view my work in progress thread <a href="http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10147" target="blank">here.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://www.ghostworksdesign.ca/other/wipshow/Revan-headsketch.jpg" width="300," height="400," alt="Revan Sketch" border="0" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">J</div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978139877311810587.post-11469980341100625522009-07-22T17:00:00.005-04:002009-08-21T13:14:43.793-04:00FIRSTING OFF...<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; ">Finally set up this blog after it lay dormant for many centuries. All of my work in progress and side projects (and rants) will be published here.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">If you somehow found this blog outside of the main site, I urge you to </span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><a href="http://ghostworksdesign.ca/" target="_top">go have a look.</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Stay tuned for more!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">J</span></div></div>Jutsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13721016213359656874noreply@blogger.com0