It's silly that I write over and over again about wanting to write different things.

I want to barf and drive for a long time.

Let's travel!

I always want to write something, but I'm not sure wha t.

I'm a little agitated with established styles and nuances

and want to FLYYYYYY HIIIIGHYUMI HAMASAKI

Smoke traps fog eyeballs and wind hit deer down.

DANCE, MAGIC DANCE.

But it's important -- when actively pursuing "different" -- to let it come organically.
Forced change is an ugly shocker; go like it wants to go. Just nudge it,
budge it there and change its trajectory from the start.

Then let it go !

So Breakfast editing has begun! The filming was quick and painless. Or maybe quick and careless. But the point here was to go forward and have fun with it since last time I tried to direct, it was very not fun.

Sometimes everything looks green, sometimes everything looks red, and sometimes shots are just wrong... but... this is my deformed baby and I love her.

Also, I now enjoy embedding images and videos that are too large for this layout.

I always look forward to the Birthmonth film challenge. Maybe not the part about being exhausted at the end of it (and that's with me doing half the work Phil does), but all the rest sums up to an immensely fun and memorable experience.

I love it because it's so freeing. There's no time for self doubt -- if it makes us laugh, it's in. Our concepts are always shaky at the start because it's difficult to weave together all the suggestions, but we plug away at it because we need to get it done. We throw ideas back and forth and somehow mash together a story that makes at least a measure of sense.

When you're collaborating with another person, you are no longer trapped in your own head. There is another mind at work. Because of this, it's much, much harder to engage in toxic amounts of self-criticism.

You also share the response. Whether people love it or hate it, it feels less selfish (if loved) and less personal (if hated).

When you're on your own, people attack you more than your work. And if there are some who like what you do, it'll make the people who dislike it hate you even more. Then they want to convince others they're right, because how could anyone possibly think differently from them?

It's a little disheartening and eventually there's no such thing as a positive response anymore because you're in a no-win situation and you go AUUUUGH, SAVE ME JIMMY BANG

Five years later, Trashimation Theatre: Pokemon still has a tendency to anchor my feelings on my animation pursuits. Anchor is a good word, because it's a sinky/drowny kind of deal.

Not to sound horribly jaded, but, well, you know. I am.

Yes, I'm aware that if we continued that series it would've been very successful.

But never,

never, NEVER would I want to be so enveloped in such a hollow, soulless piece of work.

Of course this is over-thinking and overreacting to one little animation!

But those scribbly little drawings still haunt my eyes when I think of picking up my tablet pen again! Remembering the incessant whining for more of the same, the numerous copycats who bastardized something already junky. It's come to represent everything I generally hate about internet animation and parodies, Youtube culture and any of my old writing.




That said, if you like it, hey thanks! Yay!

From left to right: Chris, Justin, Derek, Richard, Phil

This is just before we set off for Quebec in grade 8. My camera was faulty and all the pictures I took turned out to be blurry.

It makes Richard look like he's an alien here, but he's actually wearing sunglasses.

The Can of Nothing was born on this day. Chris was Dan, I was Majin, Justin was Nana, Richard was Vash and Phil was Magus.

And yes, that is Justin B. Evans.

Ideas bloom in all kindsa directions and flavours, but sometimes they just putt-putt-putt their sickly-butt engines around and then die on the driveway as they're backing out.

You might remember I was working on a brief, animated version of "My Fairy Baldmother", a comic I did last year! It's been moribund for months, but I'm only now ready to pronounce it officially dead. Kinda sad because it wasn't that far from being finished, but it just didn't click for me.

You can peek into the casket if you'd like:

Unfinished/Abandoned Fairy Baldmother (Windows Media Video)

I'll stick this in the Oblivion Bin later; too many updates right now!

This is the grossest-looking thing I've ever eaten. Supposedly dubbed the McGangbang, it consists of a McChicken sandwich... placed INSIDE a Double Cheeseburger. Or in Chris' case, a Double Quarter Pounder.



Here's what it looks like when first assembled. Not too bad right?



Then you take a few bites, and...



...you start to feel like you're eating a cheese-ridden corpse.

It was around this point we heard about Michael Jackson dying.

What a good "Where were you when happened?", huh?

But in all seriousness, rest in peace, King of Pop.

Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the McGangbang based on taste. It was fine and dandy, but it's more fun just for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Better experienced with a friend I think; I'm glad Chris told me about it and was game to try it too. Plus he recorded a microcast to preserve the beautiful memory of the experience.

We also saw UP, which I really enjoyed, and afterwards we discussed the possibility of Ed Asner being Ted Danson because their names sound kinda similar and we don't know who Ed Asner is.

Very rarely, a title comes by that just feels so ridiculously new, different and fun that it leaves a tattoo of digital joy on your gamey heart. Here are some of mine:

Parappa the Rapper (PS1)
Slick with catchy and fun raps and an awesomely quirky cartoon style, Parappa made us all gotta believin'. It was one of the first big music games to hit the west, and the first I ever played. How weird it really was, in the best way possible. It remains the best source for rapping onions in any media. I almost wrote "raping onions"

Super Mario 64 (N64)
Who cares about the game? Just playing with Mario's face was mind-blowing. They could've cut out the rest and just called it Super Mario Face 64.

Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
The first 3D Final Fantasy took hold of the hearts of nerds everywhere with its big blocky hands. Its epic story & score, the now iconic characters with pointy hairstyles, fanciful and useless FMVs... VII had it all. To me, this is where cinematic RPGs began.

Mass Effect (360), Star Wars: KotoR (PC/Xbox), Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
And, to me, these are the absolute pinnacle of cinematic video games to this date.

Earthbound (SNES)
Huh?! A 16-bit era RPG without swords and sorcery? A distinct and endearing approach to sprite graphics? Crazy music and a funky story big on heart and imagination? All in a gigantic, oversized box?! YES!! Maybe Earthbound didn't revolutionize the genre, but it's such a stand-out game to me that reeked of unique.

Wii Sports (WII)
Sure, it's gathering dust now, but that first time, that first Wii experience... and Jude accidentally smacking me with the wiimote during tennis... unforgettable.

Super Mario Bros. (NES)
No way!

Super Bomberman (SNES)
First big four-player console game, hell yes. Explode three of your friends and then yell "BOMBERMAN!" like you would in Bingo. You slut.

Harvest Moon (SNES)
Let's not shoot things, and plant and marry things instead. "WHAT?!" said most people. Then "OKAY!" they said once they tried it and finally knew the joy of owning a virtual cow.

Neverwinter Nights (PC)
I like to call this the gamiest game of all time. Because of the included toolset and the ability to Dungeon Master a game, anything was possible. With a skillful DM, the game changes and flows based on you and your party (who are all real people too!). That's in addition to the beefy single-player campaign already, and then there's all the modules people have made, all the multiplayer servers that can cater to any individual taste, all of... everything. Beautiful!

Rock Band (whatever)
I had very limited experience with Guitar Hero before, so especially with that in mind, this was just a massive bonanza of NEW right outta the box. Phil, Chris and I played it for a good 7 hours straight before needing to stop for food. SAAAAY IT AIN'T SOoOOOOOooOO.

I don't feel like writing anymore, but I'd also consider Pokemon (GB), Quake 2 (PC), E.V.O. (SNES), Super Smash Bros. (N64), and Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) on this list.

Oh, and Smurfs, for the Colecovision.

See us play Rachmaninov's symphony no. 2 (about 35 seconds in)

Phil plays with a lot more emotion than I do. I don't even know what my instrument is; probably some kind of futuristic blowdart weapon.

I was reading through the script for Batman: WYIM 2 the other day and felt a little nostalgic. If you don't remember, we had a bunch of stuff filmed when technical issues and such destroyed all progress and left us with nothing. So we dumped it.

But ever since its death, I've used the script like a good ol' carcass every once in a while. Looking back now, most of it's junky, but there were some little jokes, scenes and one-liners that I liked and was able to use again somehow. Eat Me, a few Inkblort strips, and some upcoming projects have all drawn upon Turdus Migratorious. So rest in peace good friend, but I will continue to pick at your bones as you do so.

In appreciation for WYIM's sacrifice, I'm going to upload some of the scraps of episode 2 we do have left -- the most interesting wad of behind-the-scenes footage we recorded. Keep in mind I said most interesting wad, not actually interesting.

Blinkblot? Bite-sized Brain? Moonie Bonanza?

Toying around with different ideas for the title of the new animated "series" :P Like inkblort, there's no single set of characters. It'll just be one name for me to collect stuff under.

I was planning to have episodes of two shorts each, but I'm not so sure yet. These first two are very different stylistically, and I'm worried it'll be too much of a sucker punch having them back-to-back. So maybe they'll just come out on the same day, but as separate files.



The first one is an animated version of "My Fairy Baldmother", a strip I did a while back. It's not the same word-for-word, but it's shaping up to be good, brief fun :]



Second is "Daisy Seeds" which is considerably darker and less comedy-based than anything I've really done before. I'd describe it as "cartoony mental illness". AAAlllmost chickened out of doing it a couple times, but now I'm determined to see it through.

These will come in February somewhere.

I've yet to start shooting Breakfast, but I need it to warm up a bit since there are outdoor shottts. SNOWT.

Just Words filming commenced yesterday! And finished a couple hours later. I don't want to reveal too much about it, but I will say that my hand is cramped up and I'm feeling somewhat english right now. It's good fun and something kinda different, so hopefully you'll enjoy it.

It's shocking, but yes, that script's epic journey, which began mid-2006, is finally coming to a close. For whatever reason, some projects just seem to need more time in the Canny womb before things happen.

There's another one coming up, which has gone by many names (it involves breakfast and Papas and Chens) -- I wrote it almost exactly a year ago, and am only now getting ready to film it. I guess I needed all that time to decide I wanted to re-write the whole thing anyway, which I seem to love to do. Inefficiency, yes! I'm going to be directing it, so we'll see how that goes. It'll probably somehow transform into Honbon's Revenge HD, except Chris will be Honbon.



The big bad Tin Can Alley came out, eh? And so debuted the green screen! It's green. Did you know that?

It's a very... freeing tool! There's a lot of places we can go with it that we couldn't before. Maybe you'll even start to miss the sight of Phil's house, my house, and various parks. Hahaha.

Here come Star Trek fan films? I think Phil would make an excellent Worf. I will not accept any role other than my hero, Data. And we'll put Chris in a pink-flowery mumu with a flowing wig and straw hat and he'll look exactly like Captain Janeway.

So that was quick. The year I mean. Few more weeks, and kapuumba, we're done.

And... thus far, I've finished one animation altogether. Oops.

Well, you might've guessed back when I started INKBLORT that I felt like doing something different.

But more than that, it was a year of funky brain times and general wandering.

I don't have any plans to stop animating. It's still my favourite medium.

Sometimes things happen, and sometimes they don't.

Play it by ear. Roll with the punches. Don't overthink.

Blink a lot.

And above all else, know that Arthurnomics will always, always be there for you.

Watch Arthurnomics