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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 14, 2019 4:00:54 GMT
Okay, I finally updated my watercolor album. Took a bit longer this time because I got some actual decent sized paper, which is too big to fit in my scanner, so I had to take pictures using my phone. The fireworks one is obviously a 4th of July thing, although I didn't actually have the chance to do it until a few days after because I didn't have the materials I needed. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I'd never tried it before. The other new one is just another ocean rock thing; I think it's easier when you have more space to work with, although I may have overdone it a little.
And yeah, CTR is really addicting. Especially with that grand prix thing that you have to drum up points for. I do wish it were easier to earn money outside of online matches, though. I don't mind racing online, but it would be cool if I could get more than like 30 wumpa coins per race while I'm doing the CTR challenges and stuff like that.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 10, 2019 17:35:03 GMT
I finally got CTR on Monday. It took me a day or so to unlearn years of Mario Kart (the drifting works quite a bit differently, so I spent a few races repeatedly slamming into walls when trying to go around corners), but it didn't take too long for the hours I poured into the original version to remind me how it works. I can definitely say that they did an excellent job with the remake; the level of detail is amazing, and they did an overall great job of capturing the feel of it. I was a little worried that they were going to try to simplify the mechanics so it could compete more with the Mario Kart games, but they definitely focused more on trying to recreate how it worked the first time around. I'm already starting to remember some of the reasons I preferred it to MK back in the day. Specifically, it feels a bit faster overall (it takes less time to get up to speed when you get slowed down by an obstacle or item) and I think the weapons feel a little more balanced; it takes more skill to use them effectively. It definitely has a higher learning curve, though. I'm familiar with it, and it's still pretty tough. I can imagine how rough it would be for somebody who's never played it before.
Also, I do have a few more things I painted but I haven't had time to scan them yet. Hopefully I can get something up soon.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 6, 2019 15:54:38 GMT
Yeah, I was pleased how that one with the wave turned out. So of course when I tried doing another one it didn't turn out quite as well, but I guess that just means I need practice.
In other news, I had a cookout with family for the 4th, and blew up a bunch of fireworks. Fun stuff. And hopefully I'll be getting CTR soon. Have to see if all my experience playing the original game carries over to the remake or if I have to relearn everything.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 1, 2019 0:28:46 GMT
Yeah, it is extremely addictive. I remember when I first got back in the day I spent waaaaay too much time on it.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 26, 2019 3:00:15 GMT
Yeah, it was a fun game. The team we were rooting for lost, but it was back and forth the whole time, and pretty high-scoring to boot. The final score was 8-7, with like 3 different home runs hit. So as far as games go, it was pretty exciting. I was afraid at first that we were going to go all the way out there and it would either be a blowout (One of the teams was near the top of the league, while the home team was near the bottom, although they'd been improving quite a bit in their few most recent games) or otherwise be a pitcher's duel. But yeah, overall it was fun.
And I got around to buying a larger brush. I can tell that it's going to make painting stuff easier, but I definitely need to adjust to it. I actually found a few examples of painting exercises to practice certain techniques, so I might go through a few of those to get the mechanics down rather than just trying to draw stuff straight away. I'll probably keep drawing stuff regardless though.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 22, 2019 18:12:23 GMT
I've done a few more, yeah. Two more trees and two more attempts at clouds. I have them up in an imgur album here. Painting in watercolor is both easier and more difficult than you'd think. It's really a "broad strokes" kind of painting and adding detail can be pretty squirrelly unless you wait for everything to dry. It's fun to figure it out, though, and it's much cheaper and less of a mess to clean up than using oils would've been. I do need to get some more brushes, though. The ones that came with the set are good, but they're all on the small side, so they don't hold much paint. Which is fine on 6" paper, but if I want to draw anything bigger I'll need bigger brushes.
In other news, last night my family drove up to Kansas City to go to a baseball game, with fireworks after. Which was a lot of fun, although driving 3 hours to get there was a bit much. We ended up getting back at like 3 in the morning. Got my baseball park hotdog though so it's all good.
Have fun with the CTR. I haven't picked it up yet, but I want to soon.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 19, 2019 2:31:40 GMT
You missed out, man. Honestly I think that CTR was actually superior to Mario Kart 64. One of my friends who's a huge Nintendo fanboy even agrees with me; he thinks it was balanced better. Later Mario Kart games actually even took some inspiration from it; getting a boost after making a jump is something that CTR did before Mario Kart used it. In other news, after watching a bunch of this dude's youtube videos (he's basically like a Japanese Bob Ross), I decided to wing it and bought a legit set of watercolor paint (i.e. the stuff that actually comes in tubes and not the small plastic thing with the case that you use in elementary school) and gave it a whirl despite having basically zero artistic painting experience of any kind. I drew two things yesterday. Today I was working, so I didn't have a chance, but I'm going to see what else I can manage tomorrow.
Here are the two pictures I've painted so far. Note: While the images are pretty enormous, the paintings themselves are pretty small since I was too cheap to buy large sheets of watercolor paper. The book I got is just 6" by 6", so that's how big the pictures actually are. In general I'm pretty happy with them, being that they're my first two attempts. You can actually tell what they're supposed to be, so I see this as an absolute win.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 16, 2019 0:47:29 GMT
That reminds me I really need to catch up on the last season of pony episodes. I've fallen pretty far behind. And yeah, CTR seems to be a pretty major upgrade, at least as far as graphics are confirmed. It'll be fun to play that again.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 13, 2019 2:35:30 GMT
Yeah, those pictures don't even do it justice. Like those furnaces are each like 15-20 feet high. And that other thing is the base of a chimney that was like 60 ft tall. Unfortunately the chimney isn't there anymore (it was starting to get unstable, so it had to be demolished to be safe), but it looked really cool while it lasted.
And yeah, CTR looks fun. I killed tons of time in the past with the original version, so I hope it translates well.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 10, 2019 0:34:38 GMT
Hopefully moving up in the job won't be too much of a hassle. I have to go back to work tomorrow too. Bleh. Anyway, here are some pictures of the basement. Yes, it is right out of a horror movie or the SCP Foundation:
As a bit of a palate cleanser from all the horror movie stuff, here's some of the view from the roof:
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 7, 2019 2:22:42 GMT
Well, the vacation is pretty much over at this point; right now I'm in a hotel and we'll hopefully be getting home tomorrow. Yesterday was pretty odd for me, since before we were heading back, we stopped by where we used to live (and where I basically grew up). We lived in an apartment at the top of a building that used to be a vocational technical school, but ultimately ended up housing a branch of the nonprofit organization that my parents were with for years. Long story short, it was a freaking awesome place to grow up in. We lived on the fourth floor, which opened onto a deck on the roof with a few of the NYC skyline as well a good view of a nearby cathedral. The lower floors all had hallways that went around the building in a square, so I used to ride my bike or roller blade or whatever around those. And the basement is enormous and has some massive furnaces from back in the 20's that they had to used to heat it. I used to mess around down there with my friends back in high school. Thing is, within the next year, they're selling the building because the organization has been undergoing some overhauls and financial issues, so it was my last chance to really see the place before they sell it (we don't know who's buying it yet, but chances are it'll either be bought by a university as a satellite campus or be renovated into apartments). I also visited my old elementary school and saw some of my old teachers from almost 20 years ago, which was surreal in a different way. I have some pictures I took of the basement and view of the roof; I'll have to post those later so you can get an idea of what it actually looked like. In other news, I picked up some pretty fun swag while I was on vacation and got to eat a lot of really good (and unhealthy) food, which means I'll basically have to eat salad for a while to make up for it.
Anyway, don't beat yourself up over the job thing. At least you're actually working and making money, which is more than some people can manage. And yeah, I sometimes get the same "you could be doing so much better" thing. It's super annoying.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 3, 2019 21:13:46 GMT
That's okay. I've been pretty busy too. I'll be on the road for a lot of this week though. Not ready for vacation to be over yet.
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Post by japaneseteeth on May 31, 2019 3:47:12 GMT
Thanks. The worst bit of it seems to be over, but I'm still not back to 100% yet. Hope the art thing works out for you.
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Post by japaneseteeth on May 29, 2019 1:08:09 GMT
Picture looks pretty good. Are you planning on coloring it?
As far as the trip goes... the good news is that we got here safely; arrived last night. The bad news is that around the same time I caught some sort of stomach bug and barfed like five times. Things are staying down more today, but my stomach still feels pretty messed up. Hopefully another day or two of rest will help sort that out.
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Post by japaneseteeth on May 27, 2019 1:32:54 GMT
I am now in New Stanton, PA. Didn't get as far today because we stopped in Ohio to visit one of my high school friends. Just had his second kid a month ago and we wanted to see the baby. Will hopefully get to our destination tomorrow night.
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