So after 8 months I am updating my journal to say I have a new journal at wordpress.  A fresh start or whatnot.  :) 

I may still just copy and past those journals here, rename this one and redesign it to closer match the design of the other.

But I wanted to say I really appreciate you all.  Your comments, encouragement and friendship has meant a lot to me. 

I hope to still hear from you all in the future on my new site Reality Check Fail.  http://realitycheckfail.wordpress.com/

Coming later tonight will be a blog about just what I have been doing these past 8 months. 

See you there,

- Dan

First, off i would like to point you in the direction of Karen Ellis, who does the fantastic web-comic Planet Karen.  Recently there was a fire in Karen's apartment building destroying most everything she owns and leaving her effectively homeless.   There is a place for donations on her website http://planetkaren.girl-wonder.org/ so please help her out if you can.  I understand times are tough right now, but even a small donation of like $5 - $10 can help her get back on her feet, and help her replace things she needs such as clothes, food, utensils, etc.  

In other news, I've been thinking a lot about getting a pet, but unfortunately I do not have the finances or the means to support an animal right now.   Additionally, the house I live in really isn't in any condition for a dog or an additional cat (my roommates have 2 already).  So taking that into consideration,  I have decided I'm going to start volunteering some of my time to the local No-Kill animal shelter to help take care of some of the homeless animals.  Play with them, take them for walks, maybe help them find good homes, things like that.  There are two in my neck of the woods so i'm going to visit them this week and see what I need to do to volunteer.

Lastly, good news everyone. I came up with a new short story idea finally.  I'll tell you more about it sometime, but not today as I am a bit tired. I've also been drawing more, which also makes me happy.  You can see the pictures on my deviantart site if you want too.

Till then,

- Daniel

Kryptonsite.com has a picture of Serinda Swan in full Zatanna garb.  Pretty spot on if you ask me.  Yes, fishnets are included.  They also list the episode as scheduled to air on March 26th so set your Tivos/VCRs/DVRs/Whatevers.    The blurb under the picture makes reference that this will be Zatanna before she has complete control over her powers, so expect magical shenanagins to ensue.   Lets just hope they get her right.

http://www.kryptonsite.com/tvgzatanna.htm

So I joined Twitter.  If you are on there and want to be my friend let me know.  :)

http://twitter.com/electricv01

As many of you know, I am an aspiring writer. I want to be a published author, and I have many short stories, a novella, and couple of novels in the works. Most of these are unfinished or in-progress works that haven't been touched or worked on in a couple of months. And while I do have some finished works, how many stories do you think I have submitted to be published? One. That’s it. Just a five page short story that was... (sigh) rejected.

So what’s holding me back? What's keeping me from writing, finishing, and submitting my work?
Fear of rejection? Maybe…
Self Doubt? Possibly…
Too much damn City of Heroes? No comment…

The fact of the matter is that… I’m just lazy. Too lazy. So lazy that I don’t call it lazy… I call it writers block. But someone once said there is no such thing as writers block. The human mind has hundreds and hundreds of thoughts and ideas flying through your little head every day… hell every hour even. At least one of those thoughts has potential to become something to write about. So really, there are only four reasons people get “writers block:"

1) The aforementioned laziness.
2) Fear
3) Distractions
4) All of the above

So let’s address these issues:
1) Laziness
The fact of the matter is you have to make your own muse, your own inspiration. If you just sit around (watching TV, or surfing the web, or playing City of Heroes, or whatever) waiting for the idea to magically come to you, I got bad news for you. Ain’t gonna happen. If every writer waited for divine inspiration for a story, then Barnes and Noble wouldn’t exist.

Now I’m not saying that there is no such thing as a muse. Far from it. I’m just saying you can’t count on it.

You have to sit in front of the computer (or typewriter for you old-fashioned types) and write. To quote a movie “A writer writes… always” inspired or not. And if you can’t think of what to write or what should happen next… write something else… like a blog.

2) Fear

Fear can be many things. Here are some common ones:

a. Fear of rejection.
b. Fear the story is going to change from what you originally envisioned it to be.
c. Fear of that you aren’t talented enough
d. Fear of spiders (there could be one on your keyboard)

There are many more, but I won’t get into them because these are the important ones (except for maybe the spider thing). And here is the way to overcome them:

a. Get over yourself, and write! The worst that could happen is you are going to get a note mailed to you that says “No thank you.” You know what you do then? You pick up your shattered ego and send the writing somewhere else. Also don’t be afraid to send the story out just because you aren’t sure where to send it. Your stories are never going to be published if they are sitting in your computer waiting for you to decide which magazine you rather get a rejection letter from this time.

b. Get over yourself, and write! You can always change it back to the way it was if you don’t like it.

c. Get over yourself, and write! Sure there are hundreds of aspiring writers, some of which are much better than you are. But, guess what? They most likely suffer from the same anxiety as you do. If you get off your butt and get it done before they do, then you are more likely to be published then the depressed beatnik genius who sulks in the corner all day. Also the more you write the better and more talented you will become. Just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

d. Rolled up newspaper.

3) Distractions

This one is easy. Turn off the damn TV! Stop playing the damn Video Games! Write, dammit write!

4) All of the above.

If you suffer from a combination of these “writers’ blocks” then I have one final opinion to hand out to you (because these are all just the opinions of someone who can’t take his own advice). You control how you write, how frequently you write, and what you write about. No one else. You! Not your Mom or your Aunt Tilly. You!!! And while you can’t control if anyone gives a damn to buy your work, you can increase your odds that it may happen by writing and submitting as much as you can.

So… why are you still reading this?! Write!

P.S. If you are still reading this, I do recommend you read "On Writing" by Stephen King and "How to write Science Fiction/Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card

I'm back from holiday.  It went by way to fast.  Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you are all well. 

Hi Everyone! 

I just wanted to wish you all a belated Happy Thanksgiving.  :)   I trust you didn't eat to much turkey and pass out for the entire weekend. 

Went and saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno on Friday night.  I really haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a very long time.  Sure some parts were awkward, but they were meant to be. 

Ummm... that's about it for now.  Wow, I'm boring huh?

I saw this on Anime News Network and thought it was really cool and I should share.  ^_^
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: The racing website Crash.net reports that Italian auto maker Fiat is launching a limited-edition run of its new Fiat Nuova 500 cars with an image of Monkey Punch's iconic manga and anime character, the gentleman thief Lupin III. The Nuova 500's predecessor and inspiration, the classic 1957 Fiat 500 "cinquecento," has played a major role in various Lupin III works, such as the Hayao Miyazaki-directed Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro and this year's Lupin III: Green vs Red television movie (pictured at right). The cars will be available starting in the second half of 2009.

I want one!!!

You can find the entire article here.

Wow! 5000 pageviews! That is so amazing to me. Thank you everyone for stopping by. It really means a lot to me.

So it seems I have forgotten how to draw again. Arg! I tried a few times last week to meet my goal of 2 pictures by the 13th, but I ended up just kinda doodling. I got a lil' frustrated on Sunday because this picture I was working on wasn't coming out like I wanted. And I ended up erasing another one completely. I guess I really do need to take those art classes. >_<

I'm thinking I need to maybe just doodle more. Sketching poses and such because I have such problems with anatomy and proportions. I need to learn not to press so hard on the paper with my pencil and above all else I think I need to learn to have more patience with what I am doing.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find any basic, basic, basic, drawing tutorials to hold me over till I can take the classes? Also any pointers or suggestions to help me with the above concerns would be much appreciated. Thanks.