And So It Goes

It's been many years I maintained this blog, but like Zuma Blitz, it's time to set sail to something new.

During this time back in 2009, I created this blog, in an hopes to join my other friends who were on the blogging platform as well during college, with posts serving as conversation pieces. It has within that same span also become a hub for Zuma Blitz related material, as well as other games I supported, putting my blog on the map.

Now with college long gone, the major games this blog centered on its way out, and my exploration options limited with a fulltime job, my topics I cover is limited to places and events I have time to go to, as well as commentary, and my reach is based on how well it does on search results.

I realize that the amount of people irl who actually knew about the existence of this blog was much less than I hoped to expect, especially post-college, where none of the people who I met would know my username, much less this blog. The audience was intended to be those who found it either from searching for certain topics (by chance alone), or my username from facebook / twitter when trying to find me on other sites. But after I find the majority of people who I know irl that it was intended to reach were skipping right past this and my content was not being factored in either what they know about me or their posts, I realize this has lost its true purpose, and as a result I've decided to retire this blog.

I'd like to thank the readers that have followed and gave me the motivation to continue posting about things.

Render: Stockton in Krita

One of my first in progress drawings for the year is using Krita to recreate a shot from a picture that I recently took. Of course after several attempts I couldn't get it looking how I wanted it to be, so I focused on something smaller instead in order to get this post out. More specifically, the downtown BofA building that's set to close in Jun 2017. I'll try to focus more on recreating the entire picture in the future, but I don't know when.

This took much longer as usual because of having to learn perspective, and the sheer difficulties in allocating time blocks to do these things (In reality it is much busier during my off-time then at work). Since it's hard to have completely free weekends, I have many days where I don't have time to even pick up the stylus, much less plan something out.

I've been thinking of the events that arose earlier this year for weeks, with a lot of theories made on this (a full list on the read more section), and I've come to these conclusions: Regardless of what caused it, it was inevitable, and ultimately there wasn't anything I could've done to change this. It brings a lot of unanswered questions, but it wouldn't matter since I would never be able to ask anyways, and because there are much bigger issues that I need to deal with.

I've probably gone over my head on setting this goal, but I have reached the point where I cannot walk away from this, so I must deliver something, regardless of how I might be judged. I may not have the capabilities to make things that appeal to the thousands on a regular basis (assuming I have enough luck to reach them in the first place), but I have to be timely and ensure that they meet minimum quality standards.

I probably have some leeway here since I can backdate posts and update images server-side but I won't be able to do that once it goes on tumblr/twitter.

Stockton Chinatown Exhibit - Lion Dance Opening

The Lion Dance group on the parade route at the San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum; they were opening their new Stockton Chinatown exhibit, which goes on from January to May; admission was free today but parking is not.

Some other events going on here include Mah Jongg, Tai Chi demonstrations, Arts and Crafts, and Lunch.

There is an article about this event here.

2017 in Art

With a fulltime job, I can spend less of my free time focusing on various programming languages and more on pursuing creative projects. My goal (and new year's resolution) for 2017: Produce as much quality artwork as possible during the year.

The goal is designed to achieve the following things:

• Put a new tablet to use and establish expertise in Krita
• Improve my own drawing skills (from almost nothing)
• Turn text-only concepts into something that is more 'visual' and 'creative'
• Produce an alternative set of sprites for Americana Engine
• Learn Speedpainting
• Get better known out there to the general public
• Get out of the few active followers hole on Twitter

I'll probably put up a dedicated page for this, but for the most part these images need to be present on tumblr / twitter with the proper tags to be effectively visible to the proper audiences*, so I'll put the better ones up there, and include all WIPs and commentaries on this blog.

Things I will probably be working on (will add to later):

• Profile / Cover image
• Hard Drive icons
• Chibis (including paper ones)
• Drawings to explain various posts
• Shadow casting
• Rare pairings
• Beancoons
• Water Effects
• Glow Effects
• UX stuff
• 3D display effects (Wiggle and Split Depth)
• Some things from 2011
• Zuma Blitz closure

Notes:

• I can't be truly motivated unless I base my quantity / quality of work off of someone who's active and who I've knew or seen IRL, so I set my benchmark against Tv's artblog in 2016 (around 170); picking up this speed should allow me to fulfill deadlines on a more timely basis and participate in collabs without holding anyone back*.
• I will probably focus on a variety of topics; the general idea would be to plan ahead substantially to avoid running out of ideas.
• This post will be updated in the future, and this post may include its own image as well.

Heading Into the Unknown

When the walls fell

UPDATE: Update: The question(s) that I was ultimately trying to from the tweet were asked directly on tumblr instead, and was since answered.

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Today marks the end of the first week of a new year - 2017. And today marks the end of a major original-content artblog that I was following for 2+ years, as well as the end of an era where the people I knew from college posted on tumblr on a regular basis. It became empty, filled with posts from people who I could care less about. More importantly, it marked the complete end of new OC content from people I knew IRL who I could get ideas from, which took priority over all other things - it's now completely deserted.

I would be better off explaining my relation to Tv and any commentary on internal things as well as any anon asks that I did / did not send off at some point in the future (I had various ideas from 2013 that I could finally get to now), but I will provide a summary here.