Thursday, September 26, 2013

Epic Breakfast

 I'm busy making a few animations.  I'm also working on a short movie.  Animating is a lot of work!  For now here is my latest composition:


Epic Breakfast
By: JameDawg

When asked what was the best breakfast when visiting Earth; I responded:  A Can O' Whoop Ass, Epic Xix, and a side of Win Juice.

To my surprise it was what was for breakfast the next day.

Maybe I should have taken the stranger's question a bit more seriously.

-


"Epic Breakfast" By: JameDawg
"Epic Breakfast" By: JameDawg




"Epic Breakfast" By: JameDawg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

You may find other sizes as well as my other pictures on my Flickr feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/

Friday, September 13, 2013

The Lord and Lady.

"Lord and Lady"
By: JameDawg

I stepped into the park once again. Looking for that secret path. My mind quiet. My senses acute. The city faded slowly. First, the smells of fuel and industry, gave way to water, greenery, and dirt. Then, the sounds faded, the birdsongs rang louder, and the rush of the water overtook all reminisce of the city.

I was close. I could sense it on a level not quite understood by the smartest of modern man, much less myself. The trees seemed to smile, pointing me in the right direction.

There it was. The Weeping Willow. An ancient healing tree, I had found in the past. Its heavy green leaves beckoned me closer. I approached my old friend and extended my hand to its skin. Its rough cool bark sparked with the healing energy that was an intimate part of the tree. The symbiotic exchange of energy cleansed me once again. It was nourished by that which I was trying to remove from me, and I by that which it gave to me. My eyes closed in a relaxing ecstasy of life.

The wind kissed my body. The ground gave way. Then I saw them smile to me. The Lord and the Lady. I had crossed. For the moment. And in a moment the dream would fade away.

- - -

The above was inspired by the picture I created below.  The other pictures are my attempt at a purely compositional study. They were taken a few months ago.

I have been working on some longer projects as of late. I may give a glimpse of those from time to time.


"Lord and Lady" - By: JameDawg
"Lord and Lady" By: JameDawg
Compositional Study 1 - By: JameDawg
"Compositional Study 1" By: JameDawg

Compositional Study 2 - By: JameDawg
"Compositional Study 2" - By: JameDawg

"Lord and Lady", "Compositional Study 1", and "Compositional Study 2" By: JameDawg are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

You may find other sizes as well as my other pictures on my Flickr feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/


Monday, August 26, 2013

Earth Picture

As part of an upcoming project I've been studying a lot of different things.  This picture is the culmination of one of those studies.

Earth V1 By: JameDawg
Earth V1 By: JameDawg

Earth V1 By: JameDawg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

You may find other sizes as well as my other pictures on my Flickr feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/

Sunday, August 11, 2013

"The Umbrella" and some unrelated pictures.


As part of the short lived writer's group, I still have a couple of unpolished micro-fiction stories.  I figured I'd publish another one.  I believe the assigned subject for this piece was anything and I randomly chose "The Umbrella". 

I also have two more pictures.  The "Splash on the Rocks" is a higher quality picture.  The "City AlphaV1" is a version of a future project and an Alpha, so, take it for what it is.

I'm currently working on a small personal project.  A gift to a family member.  Outside of that project I'm working on a bigger project, a short film.  It is very complex, considering how short it is.  I guess it can be when you have no budget and are largely working with open source programs, but, I don't mind.

I'm also working on at least one composition, which will be posted once it's finished and doing some testing on visual effects inside of video.  Yup, I'm busy playing in my Digital Playground.

------

The Umbrella
By:  JameDawg

The elevator door opened and out stepped a woman with an umbrella. "Excuse me," she said. "You seem strong to me. Could you help me fix my umbrella?"

I do like to be helpful, so I said, "Why sure. Let me take a look." Sure enough, it was jammed and very difficult to open. I fiddled with it and eventually forced it open. Poking my eye with one of the spokes in the process.

"Are you ok?" the woman asked.

With one eye closed, I said "I'm fine," and chuckled at my carelessness.

"Thank you for fixing it," she said, closing it back up.

At that moment a dog, that I had not noticed in the entryway with its owner, peed on my shoe. I rolled my eyes and swore at it.

"I'm soooo sorry," said the owner.

"It's no big deal," I said. But secretly I was plotting the dog's demise.

"I better get something to clean that up," said the owner, looking at the puddle on the floor.

As she walked toward her apartment I couldn't help but think that the majority of the urine wound up on my shoe anyhow.

The elevator took an excruciatingly long time to arrive at my floor. One of the elevators was out-of-order, and another was locked on a floor, probably being used to move furniture. That left a single elevator for general use.

I went to sit on the bench and wait. As I did so, I slipped on the urine and fell bumping my head on the bench and putting both my knee and my hand in the dog urine.

"Oh, my! Are you ok?" asked the owner with a rag in her hand.

I gingerly arose and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." I wiped my hand on a dry part of my pants and felt a ping-pong sized welt on my forehead. The elevator bell dinged, signaling its arrival.

"You go ahead," the owner said reaching down to clean up her dog's mess.

I got into the empty elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. The doors closed. I immediately noticed a foul oder in the elevator a cross between vomit and feces. I looked down and wretched a little, recognizing I was standing in a pile of what appeared to be bile.

"Shit," I said aloud. But, I knew my ride to the lobby would be short.

The elevator wiggled and bumped up and down. I braced my hands on the rail, looking up at the lights that were blinking in and out of existence. Then the elevator stopped. I fiddled in the darkness, suddenly realizing I had forgotten my cell phone at home. I began to panic a bit. How long will I be stuck here? It was warming quite fast in the elevator with the fan going out. The smell of the bile-like substance was also begining to choke me.

I reached for the emergency phone in the elevator. I found the door to the phone, but it was difficult to open. I pulled hard and bashed my knuckles as the phone door flew open.

"OUCH!" I yelped. I felt around for the phone and through my tactile discovery, realized that the phone was not a phone in the traditional sense. It was a speaker with a button. I tried to push the small plastic shaped button. It provided much resistance. I had to push quite hard and it hurt my finger as I pushed.

An operator answered, "Ajax elevator emergency, how may I help you," said a crackly voice.

"Yeah, I'm stuck on the elevator," I said giving her my address and my approximate floor location.

"Hello...., Ajax elevator emergency, are you there?" said the box.

I suddenly realized I had to hold the painful button down to talk to this lady. I pressed the button, wincing a bit, and recited the information again.

"Ok, someone wi...." the speaker cut out.

"Hello!?" I said, pushing hard on the button. There was no response. The box was dead. I was panicky, sweaty, and in not-a-little pain. I began to pace, contemplating the imagined penalty for smoking in the elevator. My legs began to fell rubbery and I moved to a corner to sit, rest, and wait for help.

I slid down and sat on the floor and felt a sharp pain in my behind. I apparently sat on a pin of some kind and it was deep in my butt. I grimaced once more and a tear came to my eye as I slowly arouse. Contemplating my options for a moment I grabbed the pin and pulled it out of my posterior. The time flowed slower then molasses in the winter. But eventually the elevator shook and the lights came on.

The elevator drifted to the first floor, but, the doors did not open. A few, slow minutes later, the doors were forced open by men in yellow suits. The firemen had rescued me from the hot, sticky box. Just as I was about to thank them, one of them said to me, "that's what you get for jumping on the elevator."

I stopped in my tracks, both pissed and dumbfounded (as I did not jump on the elevator), I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Probably a good thing. I expressed my displeasurable experience to a passing neighbor when a voice behind me, from a man sitting on the bench, said, "Ahh, quit your babying."

Barely able to contain my anger, I approached the man leaned to his ear and as comely as I could said, "I just had a bad experience, thanks for making it a bit worse, asshole," and walked away.

I pushed the pull that opened the exit door and it did not respond right away. After smashing my face into the closed door, I took another try at it. This time it was successful. I was running quite late for my appointment, so I continued on.

I exited the building and stepped off the curb, into a puddle and immediately got hit by a car.

As I laid on the ground in pain, I felt the world fade. Just before I passed out, I realized, it's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors.

 ---

"Shot on the Rocks" - By: JameDawg
"Shot on the Rocks" - By: JameDawg




"City AlphaV1" - By: JameDawg
"City AlphaV1" - By: JameDawg  



The above works including the story are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

You can find more pictures on my Flickr feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Two of my newest.

Here are two of my higher quality renders I recently completed:

"Wine Glass" - By: JameDawg
"Wine Glass" - By: JameDawg

"To Do" - By: JameDawg
"To Do" - By: JameDawg
You can find other sizes on my Fliker feed:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/

Today I decided to upload some partially finished, rather unpolished works to Flickr.

They were mostly experimental or done on a whim for a friend (that's how the horn happened).  The extremely small versions were posted to my Flickr feed just for kicks.  I thought I'd upload a few sizes that would likely be more useful.  I'll license the larger versions of the experimental ones as CC 0.

I'll be uploading a few fun pictures I made and showcasing two of my high quality pictures in my next post.  


You will find my Flikr feed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/

In case your curious about the CC licensing, read all about it here:   http://creativecommons.org/

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Wave to Saturn.

I've been working on more pictures of late.  I'll post up a few.  Mostly they are quite raw.  I'm doing a lot of research at the moment for some upcoming projects. 
 __



Here is a rather raw photo for the "Wave at Saturn" event that happened on July 19.  That's when the satellite by Saturn was imaging the Earth.  I thought since the Earth would only be 1 and 1/2 pixels wide in the image, that I should bring Saturn closer as I waved.  This is the photo I wound up publishing:


I created a different (slightly more polished) version for a banner:


Here is "Space Dragon":



You may find other sizes for this work as well as some of my other pictures on my Flikr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/


Thursday, July 04, 2013

A short story and a 4th of July inspired pic

The previous post was an assignment I did from a short lived writer's group.  The subject was "Ah ... Spring".  We tried to keep the assignments around about a page and weren't particularly concerned with perfection.  It was about putting ink to paper (or pixels to screen?).  Also, we were simply given a subject and no direction on how to manifest it.  That example, of course, was some loose, unpolished, poetry.

The next subject was "Just around the next corner" and is a non-fiction account of an event that happened to me (and is also somewhat unpolished).

The picture is unrelated and is from duel inspiration.  It is my friend's birthday, and he likes redheads.  Thus, I created a redheaded woman.  And, it is the 4th of July which is Independence Day here in the United States of America and thus the fireworks in the background.  It was put together quick, yet, I like it very much. 



Just Around the Next Corner

By: JameDawg

"Just around the next corner lies something better," I thought as I picked up my destroyed belongings. The flood had virtually completely obliterated all my possessions. I looked around my old home in disbelief, picking up the shards of memories that remained. Judging from the water lines on the walls, it had gotten at least twelve feet high in my apartment. Shaking my head, I looked around, wondering if anything was worth salvaging. I was not a rich man, in fact I was living in what could be called “the ghetto” of my small town, if small towns could be considered to have a ghetto. “At least it wasn't a house,” I thought, trying to find positivity in the annihilation.

I found my computer, stacked precariously on some books on the upper shelf of a closet, it appeared dry. A smile came over my face, “at least one thing of value can be salvaged,” I thought. I resigned to leave the rest of my drowned life in the the apartment. As ultimately, it would be his landlord's responsibility to clean it up. I walked outside, put my computer in my car and looked around. The decimation of the city was utterly amazing. Now I know I said it was a small town, because, a population of 50,000 is small to many, but, not particularly small to me, and it's certainly large enough to be in amazement looking at the destruction a deluge and a fire causes. It can be overwhelming, yet reality doesn't allow for long pauses. It was quite odd. In a city where a convenience store was less then five minutes away, no matter where you were, there was nothing of value anywhere. In fact, I was wondering where I was going to poop, as I kinda had to go.

A horn honked. I looked up. It was a Salvation Army vehicle. I approached the vehicle and the people greeted me warmly, they offered me canned water and a hot meal. They also informed me where I could find the nearest outhouse. I will never forget that. The Red Cross came out in force a few days later, and they were clearly funded for disaster, but, the Salvation Army was on the scene day one, when the help was needed most.

The help that followed was immense. An anonymous donor created a fund, called “The Angle Fund”, of which I received some help from. People world-wide from my company sent clothing. Most amazing of all, my company paid me for the time that I was displaced, as if I was working. The also sent employees to help each other and paid everyone for their time. It was truly amazing to see, and gave me hope for humanity, that I often lose sight of.

But for me, it gave me a chance to start again. It was truly a good start and made me wonder what was around the next corner.

---



 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Ah .... Spring

Like a phoenix from the ashes, Gaia's sleep is ended
her rebirth achieved
the dead branches are alive
once more with the bearing of the leaves

the return of life, to the land that slept in the cocoon of winter
is transformed once more
From the womb of Earth
the Green of Spring is birthed

reminders of a cheerful infant
are evident in the bird songs
as brown gives way to green
and cold gives way to warmth

Spring is the time to remove the death of winter,
To prepare for the summer,
To sew new beginnings to achieve before the next sleep

For out of death, out of winter, comes new life
It is the promise of the Great Cycle evident in every season

Summer is the prime of life
Fall is the ending
Winter is the death
but ahhh Spring is the promise that we shall be born again

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Wow, sometimes real life can get busy.

I've been real busy in my life.  As such expect to see a content shift in this blog and my "story" blog.  Although you will still see some pictures that I create, you will likely see less.  My story blog will instead have more frequent add ons to the story with less frequent pictures.

As for on this one?  Well, this is still my "everything" blog.  Expect to see short stories, articles on computers, articles on games, articles on mind building, and yes, a few pictures, just to name a few subjects.

Likely also is some occasional talk about Rocksmith, DC Universe, and perhaps a few more choice games.  As well as an occasional diversion into movies.

Up soon is a short story from my personal archives and probably one or two computing articles as well.

Also, we are hosting a carnival in my building around Junish (hmm, I wonder if that is an appropriate spelling of a make-believe word), so, I'd love to hear any ideas for cheap carnival type games.

Meanwhile, I got to get back to my happily hectic life, but, I will try to post the short story before next week.

Rock On!

-JameDawg

Friday, February 08, 2013

Ice Bike and next up

Well, I've been a bit ill and my "real life" got me a bit busy.  I've been goofing around with a bunch of little things having to do with audio and playing a couple of new games as well as taking a few out of mothballs.  I'll probably blog about that stuff soon.

The next installment for The Crossroads of Legends on The Adventure Chronicles is on my calendar for next week.  However, it will likely be pushed back at least one week, as it is a bit behind schedule.  I've also got significant challenges for the picture after that as it is an imaginary city in an imaginary land.  That's tougher than I thought, but, I'll get it done.

I was inspired the other day to create the following picture.  It was inspired by a few things.  First, I have more than a few biker friends, and second it's winter around these parts.  I figured a picture of an ice sculptured motorcycle would be pretty cool.

While I can't make an ice sculpture in the real world, I can make one digitally.  I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out.  But, it's not bad.

So, without further adieu...

"Ice Bike" by JameDawg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
 You may find other sizes for this work (uploaded in 1080p HD) as well as some of my other pictures on my Flikr stream:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg

You may find my "story only" blog at:  The Adventure Chronicles

Hope your day is excellent!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Crossroads of Legend - Chapter 2 - The Death of A Father

There was a knock at the tent. The Leanora's mother answered. The man (a barbarian fighter of some renown) is apologetic and confers the news of her husband's death. He looked over to Leanora.

“Child, I'm sorry to inform you of your father's death.”
Leanora was dumbfounded. She barley knew her father, but, he had always returned from his battles. Sure he had wounds and scars, but, he always returned.

“I promised him I would deliver the news, and conduct his will.”

“His will?” asked the mother.

“Yes,” the man continued. “he asked that I give you this treasure,” he pointed, “and give his daughter this treasure,” he pointed again.

Two small chests were there. The first, for the mother contained various coins and objects, the value of which would keep her out of poverty for her life. The second chest contained some armor, a sword, and a small amount of coins and various objects.

Leanora looked at the treasure. She picked up the sword and it mesmerized her.

"A Father's Legacy" By: JameDawg
 
“A beauty, eh?” The man asked.

“Yes, it is beautiful.” Leanora replied.

“That sword was not meant to be sold, nor stay at home,” said the man. “Your father meant for you to follow in his footsteps. I promised to prepare you if you were willing.”

Leanora looked at the man with seriousness, “I am,” she said, without hesitation.

The man's name was Tarik The Bold. He was from a different, allied tribe. He completed her training. Leanora was a good student. This time she was taking it quite serious. She really did want to walk in her father's footsteps.

Within less then a month Tarik said, “That is all you need to know for now. Now it is up to you to find your place. I hear there are some caverns nearby. Perhaps you can go to Aldehuela [a small “civilized” village nearby] and pick up some companions to explore with you. I suggest you find a healer. A mage could be useful too. Of course a rouge as well. Even if they are often unsavory, they can help out a lot when exploring. One more thing, your father had that chest piece made special for you. I don't really know all the details, but, I know he went through a lot of trouble to make sure these things got to you. I leave you now, to your destiny.” and with that he left the village.

 "A Father's Legacy" by JameDawg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

You can find other sizes at "A Father's Legacy" on Flickr



You may find the "story only" version of my blog at The Adventure Chronicles



Saturday, January 26, 2013

Organic Creativity

One of the main reasons I started The Adventure Chronicles was to give a tiny bit of focus to my creative side.  I have what I like to refer to as "Organic Creativity".  Some people, including many of my friends, refer to this as ADD (or ADHD).  While that's the technical name most simply would say, "You lack focus".

Maybe that's somewhat true.  My moments of true focus are indeed fleeting.  However, as a side-effect, I often engage my "Organic Creativity".  I was working on posting something for Rocksmith.  I started playing the game, and I was messing around with the sound on my computer.  I wound up engineering and writing a few tunes (not the guitar type either, lol).

My ability to come up with lyrics is pretty solid.  My ability to create a good beat isn't bad either.  My ability to rap is so-so, and my singing generally is not good (doesn't stop me from singing at the top of my lungs occasionally though). 

I do want to post my new song(s).  I feel the beat is very good, and the lyrics are solid.  However, generally I'm a one man operation, so I had to sing/rap the song myself.  In order to tell the story I'm going to post it, probably as a video.  But, I wish I could sing a bit better (or at least find a cheap autotune that works on my windows system, not that I encourage autotune).  However, I'm thinking I may post the beat (without the vocals) separately, as I feel the beat is quite good.

After I constructed it (and a few more), I brought my keyboard out of mothballs and started playing around ("Organic Creativity", lol).  I'm probably going to be constructing quite a few more beats.  That puts the Rocksmith post kinda on the back-burner for now.

The next installment of The Adventure Chronicles is on my calender for upload on Monday the 28th.  I have the story and picture made.  But, I have to go through each for the final draft yet.  I think the story will be fine, and the picture will need some minor post processing, so, I'll probably make my (self-imposed) deadline.  If not I shouldn't be much more then a day or two late.

I'm kinda looking around for the best place to upload my music to.  I need one that can hold both CC work and that which is copyrighted (just in case) and they have to be linkable to my blog.  I've looked at a few places, I haven't settled on one yet.  Linkable video sites and likable picture sites are actually a bit easier to choose.

I have an idea for the video for my new song.  The song is called "Dragon Slayer".  I may rerecord parts of the performance, not sure yet.  I'll have to make a few more pics for the vid too.  It likely will be a moving picture video, not an animation or performance video.

My "Organic Creativity" is calling......

Monday, January 21, 2013

Welcome to the Jungle

As you can see, the last post regarding my ongoing chronicle was posted well ahead of schedule.  The next composition is coming together with some alacrity as well.

But, I've been thinking about the other stuff I'm going to post here in my "everything" blog (as opposed to The Adventure Chronicles which is more of my "story" blog).

So, I do play some counsel games on the PS3.  Currently, my top rotation is Battlefield 3, Call of Duty Black Ops II, and Rocksmith.  I also include DC Universe Online some months, and other titles not really worth mentioning.

I'm not particularly skilled in Black Ops II or Battlefield 3.  I'd say I'm better than average, but, comparing my stats with those on my friends list, I'd have to admit I'm below average.  I'm better at Battlefield 3 than Black Ops II, but, I can't stop myself from playing Black Ops II more often.  I may or may not post a vid or two featuring these two games, but, I really have to post one on Rocksmith.  I'll probably come back to the other three games from time-to-time in other posts.

Rocksmith is, hands down, the best way I've found to learn guitar for me.  You hook a real guitar into the PS3 and play it, very similarly (at it's most basic level) like guitar hero or rock band.  It impressed me so much I actually started looking for other titles by Ubisoft.  Not that hard, on average a gamer probably owns a few of these games.  I was on the fence about getting into the Assassin's Creed games and decided to buy the first one, pushed over the edge by how impressed I was by Rocksmith.

Not to mention I let my nephews play it.  The youngest had never picked up a guitar (as far as I know) and he was playing decently in under an hour.  I had a similar experience.

I tried to learn guitar briefly when I was younger.  It didn't work out.  I took some lessons and gave up in under a month.  I bought a guitar, when I got a bit older, got some books and a video.  Tried to play.  Didn't really work.  Main reason:  Learning the guitar was too dry and the learning curve was rough. 

I played guitar hero, rock band, etc.  Mostly at friend's houses and mostly as a band set up.  It was fun enough, and many people found/find it a lot of fun, but, I was not overly interested in it.

Then I saw Rocksmith.  I thought "Wow".  They had a demo running in a local store, I gave it a whirl and was mesmerized.  I realized I could finally learn to play.  Which was cool.  Because, my guitar was sitting in my closet for around 10 years, maybe more. 

I dusted it off and loaded the game and, no joke, was playing a tune in less then 30 minutes.  Not with awesome perfection, but, it was further than I got in all the other time trying to learn it combined.

The game has lots of nuances that really make it fun and a good learning tool.  I plan to post a vid or two and spend some more time talking about it.

I'm also probably going to do a short animation or two that may or may not be related to my story. 

Probably some pictures that are not related to "The Adventure Chronicles" at all, as well. 

But, the next section of "The Adventure Chronicles" is ready for post production, and I'll probably be posting it soon.  I have quite a bit of the story and the composition notes for the next few pics, so, they may pop out quicker than expected.

You can expect some conversations about my two regular RPGs as well.  I'm running one, which is a "Modern D20" / "D&D 3.5" semi-hybrid.  I'm playing in the other, a game I'm rather new to, but is quickly growing on me called Rifts.  But more about that another time.....

It's likely that I'll publish some of the articles I've written too, and some of the short stories.  No real plan there.

In the short term... Expect the next installment of "The Adventure Chronicles" and some stuff on Rocksmith.

Hope your day is ROCKEN!

-JameDawg


Monday, January 14, 2013

The Adventures Chronicles - The Crossroads of Legend - Meet Leanora

Leanora's life was simple and carefree. She lived in the forest with her tribe, The Arbaro, and more specifically her mother. She spent her youth learning the ways of the tribe. When her father returned from adventuring from time-to-time, he would educate her in the art of combat.

She was a natural in that department. But, she didn't really focus on it. She loved her tribe. She learned to make things from the forest, and how to hunt. Although womanly duties generally included making things, usually it was the males who did the hunting. However, it was the norm, not a requirement. Besides, she could keep up with any of the males her age, and she excelled at combat, even if she didn't take the training very seriously.

She was born with a natural wanderlust. But, she never ventured more than a few hours away from the village, ok, perhaps a half day. Actually, she knew how far she could go and be back before sunset.

Her life was uncomplicated and happy, until ….

Leanora Near The Arbaro Village  
"Leanora Near The Arbaro Village" by JameDawg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

You can find other sizes at Leanora Near The Arbaro Village on flickr



You may find the "story only" version of my blog at The Adventure Chronicles




Thursday, January 10, 2013

To tide you over...and what's to come

I'm going to be posting a collection of short stories called "The Adventure Chronicle".  It will be kind of like a graphic novel, I guess.  More like a few pictures and a through story (and maybe some animation), rather than "comic" book.  I'm putting the final touches on the first picture now, and composing the second one.  I intend to post one to two pictures, along with the associated chapter, about once or twice a month.  However, some compositions take longer than others and real life sometimes interferes with things.  So, I may not maintain that schedule.

The first composition is scheduled to be uploaded on the 21st.

However, I thought I'd pull an earlier work of mine from mothballs and post it for your enjoyment.  This is an improvement on a composition I previously created that was for my mom for mother's day.  Perhaps I'll give her this improved version this year.

I believe I uploaded this to flickr in 1920 x 1080 HD, but, I'm not positive.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamedawg/8366109593/

This composition is licensed by me (JameDawg) under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/




Sunday, January 06, 2013

In the begining.....

I created this blog to talk about and display the things I like.  That, and as a place to display my digital art in an organized fashion.  It's not really intended to be a "professional" blog.  Really, it's more about having a centrally located spot to talk about and sometimes display the things I like.

What kinds of things are those?

Well, I'm a gamer, and I do like that stuff.  I like games of all kinds.  Not just video games.  I like card games, table top roll playing games, and most other games as well.  In fact, when you see me use the acronym RPG (roll playing game) it is far more likely that I'm referring to a table top game then a video game (unless the context suggests different).  Amongst my favorite games are poker, first person shooters, turn based strategy games, and many different table top roll playing games.  I've been playing table top roll playing games since around 1985.  I've been playing games on electronic devices (not including early handhelds, really talking about early video game systems and computers here) since I can remember (easily since the mid to late 70's early 80's.  I can't really pinpoint the exact date of my first "video game", but I remember it quite well.) 

I also write stories, occasional non-fiction and some technical articles, I've even been known to write a poem or two.  My favorite genre is fantasy.  I also enjoy modern and futuristic elements mixed with superheros and gods.  I enjoy contemplating fantastic powers and how people would use them for good or ill.  Then bringing them to life on screen, page, or as an element of an RPG.  Even when I'm contemplating SciFi genre, I usually do so with an eye for the fantastic over the realistic (a focus on "fantasy" powers, such as, magic, psionics, superhero abilities, or gods.  But science and super-science do have their places). 
  
I have a heavy interest in computers/computing and making things safer, easier, and less expensive in those departments. I love open-source, and working with computer graphics, and have a bit of an obsession with computer security.  My expertise is in solving software problems, but, I've been known to delve into a small amount of hardware too. I love to find new inexpensive ways to solve problems.  I have schooling in programming (though I don't do a lot of programming these days), and have been working with computers

Politically I'm going to try to keep the blog low key.  That being said, I believe in trying to bring people together and like a thoughtful discussion on political topics revolving around computers, open-source, security, and civil rights (especially digital rights) and intellectual property licensing.

I also do digital art.  Besides writing (which I consider a digital art form, for the most part), I also do some audio work, 2D/3D art, picture work, and even some minor movie work.  It's my intent for the bulk of the blog to incorporate my public work.

I have a heavy respect for intellectual property rights in regard to dissemination of works over the internet.  I try to use common sense and go beyond "the law" in regards to this.  If you see something posted here that has no licensing information, consider it copyrighted by me.  However, I intend to license the bulk of it under some sort of Creative Commons license (I typically do so).  

It is my honest intention to post only items to which I own the copyright to, are licensed for my use, or used in a "fair use" way.  I also usually go above and beyond in attributions.  The nature of the digital age can sometimes lead to errors in these efforts.  So, please contact me if you think I've posted your intellectual property without the appropriate license to do so.  I assure you, if I did so, it was an accident.  Please let me know and I will make the proper attribution, or remove it, whatever you like. 

Well, that's the jist of my intent for the blog.  I'm sure I left something out, I usually do.  I truly hope you enjoy it.