Ethereality News & Weblog

News:
New concept mood piece for a horror game. Hope you’re not squeamish:

Weblog:
How can you injure your foot to the point of being unable to walk and unable to sleep due to the pain, and not remember how you did it? Well, don’t ask me because I can’t remember how I did it. I’ve had to cancel a lecture at the Art Institute of California (San Francisco) because of this bad foot.

A family friend recommended a Chinese doctor, and I went in to get acupunctured, but it only made my foot worse–the damn thing swelled up and looked like a pig’s foot, but was fine before the acupuncture. The doctor’s attitude didn’t impress us either, with his diatribe about how western medical science is inferior and western doctors don’t know a damn thing about foot injuries (right. Sports stars that make millions a year are all wrong to have western doctors treat their sports injuries), and the fact he made light of the pain I was in, as if he knew better how much pain I was really in and that I was only putting on a show. For who?? What do I have to gain by putting on a show? If I’m in a lot of pain, then I’m in a lot pain–what right did he have to tell me my pain is no big deal?

This doctor also told us not to use ice, and to use Chinese Red Flower Oil on it and heat wrap it. Well, my western medical common sense tells me that you do NOT heat a swollen injury–you ice that sucker until it’s no longer swollen. So, Elena and I decided to go against everything this Chinese doctor said and followed our western medical common sense–we iced my foot for a good half hour, and guess what? The swelling went down, and I actually slept well that night instead of being kept awake by the pain like the previous nights. My foot doesn’t hurt nearly as much now as it did for the past few days after we iced it; so much for the hubris of that Chinese doctor. We promptly cancelled our next appointment with him.

A few days later, we were introduced to another Chinese doctor, who is supposed to be the teacher of the previous doctor. He stuck me with an acupuncture needled on my hip, and worked that sucker hard, trying to find the nerve that connected to my foot. Omigod it hurt like hell the way he twisted and twirled that needle around. Finally he got it and I felt an electric shock in my shin. According to him, what he did was to numb and relax my foot so I can move it more freely and let all the built-up fluids get flushed away and excreted. Well, my hip hurt for two days and my foot didn’t get any better at all. So what did Elena and I do? We decided to ice that sucker some more and ignore what the doctor said. And guess what? It worked. Simply icing my foot for 23~30 minutes every 4 hours or so really worked. A few days later I was able to walk again. Now I’m walking like a normal person again, instead of a wannabe gansta rapper.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that Chinese medicine can be effective for certain things, but it was wrong for that first Chinese doctor to outright belittle western medical science, and it didn’t help either that his teacher’s effort didn’t do a thing for my foot.

…

I came *this* close to bidding on an old Terratec soundcard that’s got the Waldorf Microwave XT PC extension, which is identical to the normal Microwave XT, except you can’t expand it beyond 10 voices like you could with the normal one, and you don’t get those sexy 40+ knobs to play with. I even have a working old PC I had put together in 1998 that’s still working and has ISA slots for the soundcard, but in the end, I decided I’d rather hold out for the normal hardware unit, as the Waldorf allure to me is not just the sound capabilities, it’s also that funky “oh-so-German” industrial design. Seriously, there’s just no comparison between this:

and this:

My dream is to have the lovely bright orange Microwave XT right next the the rare bright yellow Q–they’d make a lovely couple.

I’ve been researching the Dave Smith Poly Evolver recently, and it’s quite a beast. I’m a bit confused as to how few voices it has though–or am I not understanding the concept of that synth? Maybe they way it’s structured doesn’t require more voices for complex sounds? Although it isn’t exactly sexy (it looks a bit like sci-fi B-movie spaceship controls) , it’s still pretty easy on the eyes:

Rumors for Sonar 6 has been making the rounds–I can’t wait to see what the Cakewalk boys have cooked up this time. I long for the day when Sonar’s included arsenal can go head-to-head with Logic–it’ll be a beautiful day because I’d stop feeling that intense jealousy towards Logic users (as I’m too practical to ever buy a Mac. No don’t flame me on this–just agree to disagree).

…

Came across this quote recently, and I thought it was worth repeating here:

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.

To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off…

They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.

- Pearl Buck”

…

I finally finished Dreamfall, and unfortunately, my opinion about it didn’t change much from the last time I wrote about the game. It’s really too bad, since I was totally ready to fall in love with it, yet the long-awaited sequel to The Longest Journey just didn’t sweep me off my feet.

On the other hand, I’ve been having a blast with F.E.A.R. Combat, the free multiplayer Sierra just released. It’s a bit strange to start each respawn with only one firearm, since the concept of a sidearm in addition to the main weapon has been a time-honored tradition for FPS games. Hell, that’s how it is in real life too. I guess they figured the sidearm is next to useless for most situations. Since the other CQB type modes are faster-paced in comparison, the CTF mode in outdoor terrain feels like an interesting mix, as the long-range scope gives it a more realistic military feel, and the terrain itself hides players quite well–almost Ghost Recon-ish.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic’s demo was interesting. I have a soft spot for fantasy FPS, since it’s so rarely done (and almost never done well), and I thought the demo’s FPS melee combat was fun enough to consider purchasing the full game; however, I really hated the first half of it–voice instructions from some invisible mentor is such a tiring cliche, and the dialogue/voice acting was irritating as well–it couldn’t have possibly been any more cliched.

…

Elena and I finally broke down and got a new cellphone. We were holding out until we’re sure where we’ll be moving to next, but life just became too inconvenient without one, and we’d rather face changing phone number later if we move to a different area code. We researched Cingular and T-Mobile and while I liked Cingular’s rollover minutes, Elena preferred the cheaper price and more minutes of T-Mobile (and they both boasted better coverage–hard to tell who’s the delusional one, so I just pretended they’re both lying). Of course, the wife always wins, so we left the store with a Nokia 6103 that’s got a T-Mobile logo on it.

It’s been years since I’ve needed a cellphone (although Elena always had one), and boy, they’ve gotten quite advanced. The last two cellphones I had were all from five years ago, so the technology definitely moved on. I tried making my own custom mp3 ringtone, but found out I’d have to pay $5.99 a month just to be able to upload custom multimedia stuff to the phone. It’s really not worth it IMO. A data cable for connecting to a computer is also ridiculously expensive, and what can you do with it? Just downloading cellphone photos, uploading to do lists, notes, images..etc. I think I’ll just let the phone be a phone and not cause it any identity crisis. Afterall, we got it for free, so it’s not like we paid for all those fancy features. Besides, the phone’s camera is next to useless in low-light situations, which is one of the most common situations you’d want to use a camera (funny how that works, isn’t it?).

News:
New concept art posted:

Weblog:
This Louis Vuitton “Superflat Monogram” ad is absolutely one of the cutest and most charming thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure if LV is actually selling products for young girls, but based on this ad, it would make sense if they did. Although the visual style of the animation is fairly simple, there’s actually quite a bit of complex 3D animation behind it.

…

For those of you that enjoy gawking at playful nubile lasses, these Reon Kadena videos will put a smile on your face. If you ever doubt that God is the most talented artist of us all, then just watch those videos.

There are tons of glamour idols in Japan making photo books and videos, but many have the personality of a plank of wood and the allure of stale bread. Sexiness and charm requires far more than just impressive measurements–at least on video they do. I’ve seen some of the glamour videos of the charmless girls, and they carry themselves with about as much elegance as a twelve-year old girl learning to walk in highheels for the first time–the resulting footages are more comedic than sensual most of the time. I almost feel sorry for the photographers and directors of their products, because directing charmless girls with awkward postures and trying to make them appear either cute, sexy, or elegant, is a frustrating task. I’ve shot sessions with really wooden and boring girls before, so I know how impossible it is–some girls are just not meant to be in front of the camera, no matter how attractive they are. But then again, most consumers of such products don’t care–they are only concerned with what alphabet the girls’ cup sizes are. What’s unique about Reon is that she’s very confident, playful, and bubbly. No wonder she’s so popular–maybe the consumers do care about personality?

Although that link contains just glamour videos showing off Reon’s assets with no nudity (only implied), they’re still not quite work-safe, so watch them at home instead. And if your girlfriend or wife is the jealous type, you should probably watch them alone. I’m lucky that I never have to worry about offending Elena–she drools just as heavily as I do for hot chicks

…

I was surprised to find that Sakamoto Ryuichi has been writing in his blog on and off again. He stopped doing it for a long time–years in fact. It’s interesting that although he’s a world-renowned composer, he writes mostly about human rights, animal rights, environmental issues, politics..etc. He’s always been heavily involved in activism though–that’s going to remain a part of his legacy as a humanitarian genius composer.

News:
I’ve taken the Zbrush plunge, and here’s a little something I did to test it out:

Zbrush is quite amazing for doing detailed organic modeling. It’s by no means perfect, but for time being, it has no real competition out there–something I hope will change very soon, as competition is healthy for innovation and improvement.

Weblog:
Somebody pinch me–Waldorf is back in action! I have long been a big fan of Waldorf synths–those delicious one-of-a-kind filters, and I find their ultra cool “We don’t need our synths to look like slick spaceships–they are industrial strength machines made for music” design sensibility admirable. Dig that sexy techno industrial orange and yellow. *drool* At one point I even corresponded with the then-defunct Waldorf about hooking them up with either a buyer or source of funding in China. I’m so glad the correspondences didn’t lead to fruition, because no Chinese company could ever do Waldorf’s vision justice. I have held off buying any Waldorf products because I knew support would be a problem with the company gone, but now that they’re back on the horse, I could hear my wallet weeping in fear already. I should hold off and see if they’ve got some new and innovative products on the horizon though. I really hope they dive deeper into the VST ocean and continue where they left off, as I’m not too fond of the idea of getting more hardware synths.

…

For those of you who played and loved The Longest Journey years ago, you probably have been keeping up with the development of the sequel, Dreamfall. The game is now out and Gamespot just did a review of it. If you don’t know a thing about any of this, then I’ll just say that The Longest Journey is one of my favorite game of all time–a fantastic and immersive sci-fi/fantasy adventure with a lovable heroine named April Ryan. It’s got one of the best written stories in the medium of video games, contains great voice acting, and the visual design of the world feels cohesive and very immersive. According to the Gamespot review, Dreamfall is just as amazing, except that it’s deemed too short. In fact if you watch the video review, it’s obvious that they feel if the game had just been a few hours longer, it would’ve been a stunning masterpiece. I’m all giddy like a little school boy now. I got to get my paws on it and play, but I’m completely swamped with a bunch of far more urgent things right now. I might not get to play it until months later, after we’ve settled down at a new place and me with a new job.

…

I’m fairly underwhelmed by the whole Origami hype right now. The concept feels flawed to me–it’s too big to have the portability appeal of a PDA, and it’s too underpowered to have the workhorse appeal of a laptop. Even if I received one as a gift, I would probably just turn around and sell it on ebay or something. I wouldn’t know what to do with it, as all the things I’d be interested in doing on a portable computing device are beyond its capabilities.

…

While trying to do a RGB to CMYK conversion for the piece I’ll be sending to Spectrum 13 for printing, I asked the guys at cgtalk for their input, which spawned a heated debate about how Photoshop handles colors in PC and Macs. You can read the thread here.

…

Here’s another wacky news from China that Elena relayed to me during her daily newspaper reading:

A teacher forced students to remain in their seats during the mandatory afternoon nap, and when some students who needed to go to the bathroom couldn’t hold it in anymore, they urinated in empty water bottles. When the teacher found out about it he was furious. The teacher then made the students mix all the urine from everyone together, divide it up into equal portions, and then had the students drink the whole thing. Some of the students couldn’t handle the revolting experience and threw up right there in the classroom. When the students told their parents about what happened, the teacher was immediately fired by the school. Parents of the students are now suing.

News:
Added another new concept piece:

…

My brother Dennis informed me that the piece which got accepted by Spectrum 13 is my Promise Promo piece. I had guessed it would probably be the Scythe Wolf piece, but that one’s seen so much print already, so it’s good they didn’t choose that one. Dennis is now working at LucasArts. He better get me a job there or I’ll disown the little fucker.

…

weblog:
Dalai Llama once said (I’m paraphrasing here) that many people in this world are unhappy because we have this unreasonable belief that we deserve happiness, and that happiness is something owed to us when we were brought into this world. The sooner we realize that no one owes us happiness, and that happiness is not guaranteed nor should it be expected, the sooner we’ll cease to be tormented by the fact that true happiness seems so elusive. I can grasp that concept intellectually, but emotionally, I can’t help but feel that accepting a life without happiness is like knowing you got short-changed at 7-Eleven, but not doing a damn thing about it. The prospect that happiness may possibly elude some of us for our entire lifetime is a scary thought–one so bleak and hopeless. No wonder some people decide it’s better to just end it all. I’m nowhere near that pessimistic, so I can safely say that when my time comes, it’ll not be my own intentional doing. Hell, I’m as greedy as an oil company executive when it comes to life–I want to live for an eternity. If I ever get turned into a vampire, you can bet I won’t be one of those ungrateful little whinny dorks. I’d totally live it up and enjoy my immortality. I might even use it to fight evil and do some good.

Why am I all introspective and talking about happiness? Well, I guess it’s because I’ve been pretty stressed out lately with the upcoming move back to the States, working on new pieces for my portfolio, getting ready to look for a new job..etc. I try to picture my life five years from now and I can’t. I can’t even predict what next year is going to be like, let alone in five years. At this point, I try to keep it simple with short-term goals. For example, move back to the States, find a new job, find a new apartment, get car insurance, get up to speed at the new job, unpack and settle in at the new place, get Elena situated so she could go through daily life without too much trouble (her English skill is still almost non-existent at this point), and then, maybe then, I’ll get to unwind a bit and start to have freetime to do the things I love–compose new music, play my drumset (I miss my drumset so much–it’s been in storage in California for the last five year), shoot some new photography..etc. After I get to unwind for a bit, I’ll start making new short-term goals again–like finishing screenplays, looking for funding for my short film, getting involved in local indy films projects..etc. And if finances allow, I’d love to jump back into playing airsoft again. Damn I miss playing airsoft too. All of my airsoft guns have pretty much deteriorated in the last five years. I didn’t have time to clean them before leaving for China five years ago after the last game I played–they were caked with dirt, mud, and other creepy stuff. A couple of years ago when I went back to get something out of the storage, I took a peek at my airsoft guns and they looked like they had been eaten away by some mysterious growth. It was a horrible sight. All of them were upgraded with high quality gearboxes, springs, projection scopes, tactical flashlights..etc too. That’s more than a thousand dollars down the drain. *sigh*

…

How many of you out there suffer from stiff shoulders and neck? Hiring a masseuse/masseur is so cheap in China, so whenever I get too stressed out, Elena would have one drop by for an hour or so. I’m told that people with desk jobs suffer the most–they are the regular clients. I have a timer on my desk, set to go off every hour–a reminder that I need to get up to stretch and m

(edit: while cutting and pasting a javascript from this entry onto another entry, I think I might’ve accidentally deleted the rest of this entry–thus the abrupt cutoff. The comments now make no sense because some refer to the part that was accidentally deleted. I can’t remember exactly what was in the rest of the entry, but I remember talking about how sitting down all the time is bad for your prostate because you’re constantly putting pressure on it, and I also relayed news from China–probably something negative.

News:
Uploaded a new concept piece:

…

I received Digital Art Masters: Volume 1 today, which contains my work with an accompanying tutorial. It took a while because somehow the package was missent (that’s the word they used on the postal marking) to Thailand. How the hell did they make that mistake? The book is very nice, with great design and print quality. I was quite impressed. Kudos to the folks at 3dtotal.com!

Weblog:
My dreams have been pretty damn interesting lately. I think it’s because I’m only a month away from moving back to the States and looking for a new job, so there’s a lot on my mind. I had one last night that was so complete that it practically requires no editing to be a finished short story. Don’t believe me? Guess I’ll have to tell it to you then.

This is my dream about Neil Gaiman and the Sandman:

(For those of you that don’t know, Neil Gaiman is an author, and The Sandman (whoes name is Morpheus), is a famous comic book series Neil created/wrote for many years.)

————————————————————————–

Neil receives birthday cards from various people wishing him a happy birthday. One card in particular was stunning–a flash animation made collectively by various indy comic book creators. It told a story of the Sandman.

The Sandman was in fact Neil himself, and he’s at his birthday party with all sorts of guests. His lover comes to get him, ready to go on a little getaway vacation. They bid their guests fairwell and travel to the middle east. While walking around, they pass by unfortunate victims of political violence–people getting their heads chopped off at the hand of political adversaries. Morpheus’s lover begs him to put a stop to the violence, and the Sandman says he cannot interfere in mortal affairs whenever his whim strikes–that is not why he was given his immortal powers. The human world must function on its own set of rules, without the interference from immortals at every turn of events.

But when the Sandman come upon a dear mortal friend of his–a war journalist who’s become a captive and is scheduled to be executed, his resolve was shaken. The journalist seems to have made peace with his pending demise–his demeanor calm and composed, ready to step into the afterlife. Morpheus, remembering the many late night chats with his friend by the fire while drinking good wine, decides he could no longer take a neutral stance in human affairs. With a wave of his hand, Morpheus makes himself visible to the mortals and stops time–everyone frozen except for his journalist friend. The journalist was shocked and overjoyed to see the Sandman, but his defective heart gave out with the sudden astonishment. The Sandman reaches out and caught the collapsing body of his friend, and when he lifts his friend’s face, Morpheus was heartbroken to see a horrifyingly distorted laughter, silent and frozen on the journalist’s face. It was a death caused by happiness.

As the Sandman carries his friend’s body away from the makeshift prison, he notices something at the edge of his peripheral–something odd at the other end of the makeshift prison. Morpheus walks to the other end of the building to take a closer look–then it strikes him what is so odd. It is a small group of soldiers hiding in the bushes right next to the building, and the soldiers look nothing like the ones walking aound–they have different uniforms and carry different weapons. They are a squad of American speical forces–specifically Delta operators–just about to strike and rescue the journalist from the enemy’s clutches.

Shaking his head in despair, the Sandman turns to his lover and said quietly, “This is why we are not supposed to interfere with mortal affairs.”

————————————————————————–

Pretty damn cool, eh? Notice how the dream actually contains a fully functioning irony for the ending? That’s what I meant by it being a finished short story without any editing from me. Maybe I should tell it to Neil Gaiman–I’m sure he’d be amused.