I've moved back to Utah and school has started up again. The apartment's internet has started working, which is good. Aside from school, I've been working on a freelancing project, so I won't have much to post for a few weeks. I have a few things, but I made a few major changes to my website's coding and I have yet to find what sorts of bugs that has sprung up. I've already fixed enough so that all the old stuff still works, it's just adding new content like this post that will be affected by the changes.

This is a 1-hour speed paint done in Photoshop inspired by Steven Reineke's "Pilatus: Mountain of Dragons." I don't have as much experience using Photoshop as I'd like to have.

Here is a time-lapse video of the image being created.

Some of the better drawings from my sketchbook from last month. Most are from a weekly drawing session in Sacramento that I have been going to.

This was from a project at the web design firm I was working at.

So it's been two months since the last update. The background for section 9 is almost done, though that project has been put on hold due to actual paying jobs. Along with two freelance jobs I picked up, I also got a job at a local web design firm that had recently incorporated. That lasted for three weeks. Then I got laid off. I won't go into detail about it, but I imagine there's at least one Dilbert strip that applies for what happened.

As for the other two projects, one will be completed hopefully sometime in August. The other is a shorter, more local project in which I have to get dome by the end of next week.

The next update will hopefully be not too long after the end of next week after I finish the smaller project and update my portfolio.

So school is out for me, I'm back in California, and I'm looking for a job. I finally got access to the CD's I needed to fix my computer and upgrade back to Windows XP, so things should be running efficiently again. We might finally start seeing updates on the progress meter for the next Sandwich Shop Ninja episode in a week or two.

No interesting search queries for this month, unfortunately. Just the same old stuff from the last few months. Its kinda funny how many people end up here looking for sandwich shops, though.

A year ago I wrote this short story in a creative writing class, and ever since I've felt an itch to get it out in some form or another. For a while I was thinking of animating it, but I think it would work better as a comic. Today I tried getting some character ideas on paper. I first tried the "Sandwich Shop Ninja" style, and that didn't really work the way I wanted it to. Then I tried a more realistic style, and liked it even though I got the arm proportions way off even when I tried correcting one of them.

My final project for my Intro. to Animation class in its infinite-looping glory! The character is Cosmo, the school's mascot.

Time lapse video taken with my digital camera and a home-made intervalometer.

Time lapse video taken with my digital camera and a home-made intervalometer.

Quicktime movies now display properly, so the flour sack animation can be viewed now. My final for the intro to animation class is due Tuesday, so I'll upload it then or when I finish it on Monday. The other two animations for that class will be uploaded after I fix a few frames, which will be Wednesday or Thursday. There's a few other things I want to post, but I probably won't get around to them until finals are over.

I also made a control panel page for the website. It doesn't affect anything you see, but it makes posting and editing much more easier for me.

A jumping flour sack pencil test from my Intro. to Animation class. I used this one in the portfolio I submitted in my application for the animation program at the university I go to.

Finals are coming up real soon, and the portfolio needed to apply for the animation program has been submitted. I am currently modifying the content page to allow Quicktime .mov files to be displayed so that I can upload some of the pencil tests from my Intro. to Animation class.

The search queries for March were a little disappointing. Some semi-interesting ones were "sandw?ch shop" and "designing a sandwich shop." I don't know how the first even worked with those funky characters, and the second has already been discussed.

After some thought, I will be adjusting the advertising on this website. The Project Wonderful ads have been pretty decent, but the Google Adsense ones haven't provided any benefit. The Google Ads will disappear, but I may place more PW ones. 2.45 cents/day is much better than nothing, and it does add up over a long amount of time, but it is only a very small fraction of what it costs to run this site.

I updated the Sandwich Shop Ninja website with a new layout.

I have also added advertising spots on both this page and the Sandwich Shop Ninja one. Although I'd like to have the site ad-free, it still costs money to keep running. I at least have some control over what sites advertise on the Project Wonderful ads, and there are no pop-ups, though I can't check every detail about the sites that advertise here.

I guess the least I can do is upload a few sketches on occasion. I have to get my portfolio presentable for my application to get into the animation program before the 1st of April. The competition is intense, as there are, on average, 200 people applying for a program that only accepts 25 each year.

Best search engine queries of Feburary:

• futuristic things - I keep getting this one at least once every few months. Clearly this site needs more futuristic things, and that will be resolved some time in the future.
• games you step on - what?

I found an interesting competition running on one of the sites I check out every now and then. Basically you take a random name from a generator and create a game based on that. There are no prizes, but seeing the wacky ideas and concepts that everyone comes up with is worth it. I got the randomized video game title "Galactic Kangaroo Fiasco." I'm not sure how far I'll get in programming this before the competition is over, but I'll probably work on it off-and-on throughout the year. The world will see the Galactic Kangaroo Fiasco and learn to fear the creatures of down under. Even when I get free time, the next episode of The Sandwich Shop Ninja will have a higher priority. I seriously need to get that thing done. Here's a brief story concept:

"You return to your home planet Austrialeraan of the Down Underian System for a barbie with your mates, only to find your home planet in ruins! Mad as a cut snake, you grab your trusty boomer- ang, head out of your ship, and begin your search for the fruit loop responsible. You gaze into the great expanse of the outback and pause as a mob of roo's stare right back at you. They know something you don't..."

Various creatures that don't really exist, like a six-legged mountain deer-thing that eats twigs and leaves, a creepy gnomeish thing, and some other thing.

They are my own.

They are not yours.

These hands are small, I know.

Another month has gone by, and I have collected a few more search engine queries that people have entered and somehow referred to my website.

• down to the village with a boomstick in his hand - I know what this would link to, but why would anyone search for this?
• How to design a sandwich shop - This is a good question. How would one go about designing a sandwich shop? Fortunately for that one random person, I can help! The first thing you want to do is find a good available location to start up. The next thing would be supplies. These would be as many sharp utensils you can find. You will need a variety of knives for cutting meat, vegetables, bread, pirates, and other things. You will also want to hire employees. You should only need one ninja. Hiring more than one is usually to your disadvantage as if they work together the "inverse ninja law" comes into effect, decreasing productive output. One way of countering this is to create a rivalry between multiple ninjas, though you may have to hire often as this may end in bloody results. It is also a bad idea to offend the ninja workers union. Any affiliation with pirates will terminate any contracts or agreements that you have made with any hired ninjas along with your life. In conclusion, we have the following steps to success: [ol]
Lease store location.
• Hire a ninja.
• ????
• Profit.
[/ol] ...and there we have it, "how to design a sandwich shop!" Join us next time for "Common Mixups: Mustard Sauce and Mustard Gas!"

Work on the next episode of The Sandwich Shop Ninja has been very slow. I've been spending most of my time between classes doing reading for those classes. This week I get to read a 300 page book for History, to an essay on it, and read a chapter out of two different text books for the same class! Yay! I haven't checked the syllabuses for my other classes yet, but I imagine I have reading from their respective textbooks as well. Just like last week.