Companies that can’t be bothered to respond to employment inquiries because they’re too busy making sequels to games we all hate can continue to bite me. If you haven’t responded because you’re in the process of renovating a new penthouse office specifically for me, I’ll let it slide. Still, you could e-mail me regardless.

The above image is, by far, the least sexiest image ever posted on this site. Even beating out the time I posted a bunch of boxes (which, by the way, feature some royally screwed up measurements.  Every time I think seriously about going into a science field I remember that I have the math skills of a crushed walnut and curl up into a fetal position with my little solar calculator). You haven’t seen the last of these random people and there are certainly a lot more. The page calls for a moving, living crowd which in my head is fantastic but in practice has me reaching for my safety calculator. It’ll work out.

For Daisy, everyday is a long day.

Still messing around with ideas. Not completely sold on the pose, but I’m purposely avoiding flattery so no Love Hina-esque, no-one-stands-like-that poses. At least, not for this page.

When I scan the image it looks completely different digitally. I’m looking at the drawn image and thinking, “yeah, that’s about right.” Then I scan it and it’s like I’ve been smote by the god of proportion and scaling. Still, it gives me a chance to play with some tweaking ideas. The above is such a case. I also wanted to see what she’d look like with black hair. Did I ever decide on that? I can’t remember, but I’m leaning that way now. The direction on her dress is a little off, too. Gotta fix that.

I’m also debating on giving her stripy stockings…or maybe something with more of a sun and moon motif. She seems like a sun and moon sort of person. Her shoes…no idea. Something simple that don’t match in the slightest, I’m thinking. Need to reference those.

While sitting in school traffic this morning I was hit with a bit of inspiration. It ma not look like much, in fact it’s downright awful, but it’s the (re)start of something quite beautiful. Costume, proportions, pose…they all need work, but it’s something which is quite a bit more than the nothing I began with.

Now I’m off to make Rachel a lovey-lovey dinner and swing by Kinkos to pick up my latest batch of portfolios to send out and have totally ignored. I know the industry’s in a bit of a safe zone funk, but what better time to make a modest killing (light maiming?) in a niche market by hiring someone like, I don’t know, me for your not-even-remotely mainstream titles? Think about it, won’t you?

UPDATE: Doing the math on how much each portfolio costs to send out, I’ve decided that I’m through with this, “would you like to see my portfolio?” crap. As much as it’s costing me, you jokers should at least have the decency to respond with a “not a chance” or “thanks for the inquiry; if you don’t hear back from us within 6 months you apparently suck.” Better still, hire me and I’ll be the one to send out those replies.

I need to go play some Soul Calibur. I have the sudden urge to pummel pirates, ninjas, and little girls. It’s not an urge I get often, but it is why I’m not allowed to walk within 10 feet of a girl scout troupe.

Not quite finished, but my head was really beginning to hurt so I figured I’d upload what I had so far before drilling a hole into my skull to release the evil spirits. I mean, take some Advil.

Soul Calibur 4 came out and, now that I’ve had a week to mess around with it, I can honestly say, “woo.” I’m having a blast with it, so don’t let the lack of exclamation marks fool you. The character creation is obscenely addictive, so much so that I haven’t really practiced too much with any of the characters, save Tira.

My previous favorite, Ivy, has reverted to the level of slow technicality that frightened me in the first Soul Calibur. That being said, I need to unlearn what I have learned. Speaking of Yoda, he’s not nearly has game breaking as the legion of whining idiots claim he is (mind you, these are the same people that compare SC4 to the DoA series, without ever actually having played DoA) (but I digress). The apprentice, however, is absolutely horrible and vicious and he can just go straight to hell for all I care. Evil jerk.

Then there’s Tira, who was just sort of creepy in SC3 but here she’s outright insane…again, reminding me of how Ivy was in the first SC. Where as Ivy is quite sensible (save for her fashion sense) in SC4, Tira is totally out of her mind and downright chaotic evil, were this D&D and I wanted to sound like even more of a nerd than I already do. She also really bugs Aaron, so that’s an automatic reason to master her right there.

I have no real complaints aside from typical Jason-flavored cynicism, but I do wish I could get online. I’m in the process of attempting to ditch Clearwire but so far I’ve had little success. If nothing else, I’ll bite the bullet and pay the penalty fine for leaving. Maybe I can sell some blood. Or somebody else’s blood…

Last but not least, I’m off to Kinko’s tomorrow to place an order for more portfolios and prints. I sent a huge batch out earlier in the week so go me. I have yet to hear back from anybody but they’re probably too busy playing SC4 to check their mail. Yeah, I will keep telling myself that.

Now, Advil.

UPDATE: Receive a portfolio back in the mail today. Apparently Toys for Bob (of COURSE it was Toys for Bob) moved and their forwarding service expired. The post office was kind enough to give me the correct address but send it back to me first. That doesn’t annoy me. What does annoy me is that my package was not sent out Priority like I had asked, unless they lowered the price to $2.36 and called it First Class Mail now. I paid for Priority. Just a little annoying.

Inspired by a suggestion from Rachel (more of a dare, really).Two more days. Or midnight tomorrow. This is worse than Christmas eve.

It feels a little odd not having the stress and pressure of completing the portfolio weighing on my shoulders. I find myself at a bit of a loss at what to do with all of this extra time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m in the clear and have landed a job, nor am I done printing and sending out portfolios (hardly!), but all of the creative work is done and now…I’m not sure what to do.

Yesterday I did some doodling which I wasn’t at all pleased with. It lacked focus, most likely due to what was discussed in the previous paragraph. Today I sat down and did some Daisy studies, just to get back in the swing of things. They’re not perfect, but they do make me feel a bit better. Perhaps now I can pick up the eVOL Corp again. It’s not like I don’t have it planned out or anything.

Three more days. There might be a midnight release, but seeing as how I work the next day I’m not to sure I’ll go for that. Instead, I may head into my day job incredibly early so I can get off early afternoon and immerse myself in the tale of swords and souls, eternally told.

Seven more days until I’m beating Arcade mode over and over to unlock characters. Seven more days until I’m creating characters based loosely on my WoW characters. Seven more days until Aaron rings me out and claims it was an accident. Seven more days.

This is going to be the longest seven days of my gaming career.

Three more portfolios went out, by the way. I have to go back to Kinko’s for additional prints. That should kill four our five days right there.

So fear of the unknown and intimidation has prevented me from sending out any more resumes which, I know, I know, is stupid. That’s what they want to do. I need to just be guerrilla about all this and circumvent the obnoxious lack of mailing addresses and elitist HR rabble.

So I’ve begun work on a new list. I have some pretty insane developers on there (ie: companies that will probably use the portfolio to smash bugs and/or fans), but if I catch the right person at the right time, who knows? And it’s not like I’m sending these out to random companies. I mean, I’m not limiting myself by my personal tastes. Having said that, it’s not like I can’t find things to like about certain games. We’re talking about a man who thought Bullet Witch was actually pretty fun. I don’t think I’m making sense…but why let that stop me?

There is one developer I fear, though. Toys for Bob. Toys for Bob was founded by the gentlemen who gave the world (the world) Star Control. It’s not that I fear the company, nor is it that I’m ignorant of what they currently develop, but can you imagine me in an interview there?

Toys: “So, Mister Plott, can I call you Jason?”
Me: “You can call me Death Lord 999.”
Toys: “Right. What is it that you’re expecting out of a job with us?”
Me: “A true sequel to Star Control 2.”
Toys, Chuckling Slightly: “Yeah, we get that a lot. But seriously, what…”
Me: “What did happen to the Androsynth, by the way?”
Toys: “You…you shouldn’t ask about the Androsynth.”
Me: “I know, but the Orz obviously must have done something, right? Didn’t they have an Ark ship or something, how…”
Toys: “Don’t ask about the Androsynth.”
Me: “But I…”
Toys, Turning Red: “Silly camper! Now we must dance! DANCE!”

Cripes, even my fantasies turn into fanboy drivel. I don’t think that would happen, but I can’t help thinking how cool that would be if it did.

Anyway, the image above celebrates my victory of Ninja Gaiden 2. I’ve battled some obnoxious bosses in my gaming career, but really, the second to the last boss was just…irritating. I said some unkind words to my TV, for which I apologize.

Now, I’m off to address these portfolios.

It’s Angol, my level 30-something priest sporting her fancy new Robes of Doan. I had an idea, fleshed it out with a little reference, patched WoW on the art computer to take pics of my in-game character, and spent some time in front of a mirror. And she’s still not done. Even so, I’m pleased with the direction. I must have been drawing pretty light because for once my scanner didn’t pick up nearly as many stray lines as it usually does. In fact, it barely picked up the darker lines. Even boosting the contrast by 90% barely made a difference. I don’t think my scanner’s going, but I’ll keep an eye on it just in case.

So it’s about 11 days until Soul Calibur IV comes out and I’m trying not to freak out. I was a little disappointed to discover that the classes from SC3 won’t be returning in the custom fighter mode and that the bonus characters are mainly clones of other fighters, but I can’t say I was totally surprised. Having said that, there seems to be a pretty in depth attribute system affiliated with the custom mode so the custom characters should be a bit more than just clones. Plus I could easily see Namco releasing little class packs over Live and PSN (for a fee, of course). Have you seen their Ace Combat and Idol Master pages? Loaded with (expensive) downloadable content.

On somewhat of a same note, I want to look forward to Fallout 3. I saw “want to” because it’s hard not to be skeptical after seeing the game in demoed. Of course, it didn’t help that they had Dippy the Wonder Dork showing the game off in the E3 video. I was half expecting him to scream little high-pitched “Eeeeees” every time blood was spilled on screen. Plus the late 50s early 60s vibe seems off. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid idea and Fallout 1 and 2 pulled it off just fine. But in 3 it feels sort of forced…as if it wasn’t researched or no one on the team has ever seen a MST3K short explaining how to appreciate your parents, stay clean, or avoid communism.

Yeah, yeah, you’ve seen this image already, I know. But look! It’s different! Slightly. I wanted to add some more dimension to the unraveling…I’m not done. I think I may go back and do the same to her hair.

On a different note, I’m going to get better about checking my e-mail. Aside from future-job possibilities, I may also miss out on important projects like one Dave shot my way. The answer, by the way, is “heck yeah, I’m interested.”

Now I’m going to either level a priest or slice through demons and ninjas. Decisions, decisions.