I was preparing to work this morning when the fire alarm went off in the building.  Smelled nothing burning and didn't hear the sound of rushing water, but I figured it would be best to get out.  I called the non-emergency number for the fire department.  They got there within five minutes (they're good).  I stood outside talking with one of my neighbors in the blistering heat for about half an hour - her kitties were definitely not pleased with the situation, and I can't say that I was, either.

Turns out that the fire alarm malfunctioned.  According to one of my other neighbors, this is fairly common.  In the eight years he's lived in the building, the only alarm that was legit was, coincidentally, when our apartment flooded earlier this year.  The hot (I mean really hunky, but they were probably really warm in their gear) firefighters reassured everyone that it was all okay, and that they'd fix the problem.  (Somehow, I don't think they'd piss off a sweaty fat girl who has a mom-purse and is wearing ghetto jammies.)

In a separate incident, my neighbor's water main valve broke (fortunately in the "off" position; he shut off the water while he was on vacation and was turning it back on), but in order to fix it, they have to shut off the water in the building for an hour.  I was able to get a pitcher of water through the Brita filter, but I feel disgusting (and I really really really don't feel like taking a coffee-pot bath).

At least I can settle back in to working (for now).  Seems like I have plenty of comic fodder for the next week or two after Ota, at least.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to empty the ice maker and bury my head in the ice to cool down.  Hot as balls out.

Also, if you're going to Ota, and you haven't seen the GND plans, take a look at what's going on here.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I was interviewed by sethimothy here (thank youuuu) - I'll interview everyone who responds after Ota.

1) General readers of my livejournal recognize you as an artist; would you consider yourself a "professional artist" though? Why or why not?  I'm a professional - I get money to do artwork as my living. It's not a steady monetary source, but getting cash for something that I enjoy doing is always good.

2)What are some of your favorite shows?  I usually watch my shows when I'm doing artwork; it's good white noise, and I can listen to them to get most of the gags or info. I like the Colbert Report, Mythbusters, Penn & Teller's Bullshit (I have to dig around the net for that), MST3K, and Squidbillies. As far as anime goes, my most recent faves are Mushishi, Magical Lyrical Nanoha (definitely a fresh take on the magical girl genre), and Ghost in the Shell (loved the series, just saw the most recent movie).

3)If you could spend a day with my dog Marcus, what would you and him do together?  YAY PUPPY~ We'd definitely go for walks; I would spoil him silly with treats and belly rubs. I'd also see if he'd like to be brushed. We'd probably end up napping in the sun.

4) If you could have a small garden, and you knew anything could grow in it, what would you plant in it?  Herbs. Definitely herbs; probably some veggies. I'm not good with flowers, and there's nothing like fresh, low-maintenance veggies (like potatoes and squash). Plus, it would remind me of my Grandfather's veggie garden - reminds me of where I came from.

5) What are some of your favorite protagonists who, by virtue, are not traditional heroes?  Sam and Max - they have a very twisted buddy-cop relationship, but they're both very madcap, and no matter how absurd things are, they usually do what's best for everyone. What's best is not necessarily what's right, though. The Bride from Kill Bill is out for revenge - she does terrible, horrible, bloody things, but you find yourself rooting for her the whole way because of the pain that she went through.

DO IT

Got the pieces for my Cooking Mama cosplay yesterday.  I'll probably carry around my DS and a cheap spatula with it.  The aprons have nice deep pockets that I can seal with Velcro.  As you can see in the picture below, Mama's hair is pretty short.  Would do the hair, but I'd rather not wear a wig.  Maybe I can curl my hair up a little bit, but my hair is so long that I think it won't stay in. 

It really is an easy closet cosplay to do - not very many parts to it. 

I was wondering if this would ever happen, and I'm very amused and pleased.

I'm currently working on a new Earthbound piece, since my original is beginning to show its age.  Last year, I did a piece of fanart of Mother 3.

Starmen.net is a fangathering of Mother & Earthbound fans on the Internet.  Sometimes they show some of the memorabilia and stuff that they've gotten, and while I was looking for references for the new piece, I found this picture on the front page.  Look at the bluish poster in the corner!

I'm over the moon.  It's not the main part of the picture, but I'm pleased that someone really liked this piece enough to post a bit of it onto Starmen.net.  XD

Hopefully, the new Earthbound piece will do as well as the Mother 3 piece.

When I work on comic stuff, I listen to NPR (like a dork), watch Conan and Colbert, and sometimes Japanese shows (Gaki no Tsukai is one of my faves - I'm a sucker for manzai teams).  One of my favorite things to watch every now and again is Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.  While I don't agree with what they have to say all of the time, and while Penn himself can act like a gigantic douche, I still enjoy the show.  They present some good arguments against organizations like PETA and serious issues such as the "war" on drugs and being green.  The seventh season premieres on the 25th, and while I don't think I'll be able to find it on the Internet, there's an important episode that I want to see.

On July 9th, the episode is titled "Violent Video Games".  Penn and Teller themselves made a videogame that never got a full release, but you can find it for emulators pretty easily.  (For the curious, it's called Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors.  It features a game called Desert Bus, where you drive a bus across the desert.  It's the most boring thing on the face of the planet, and P&T did it on purpose.  People even do it for charity.) 

I have a feeling that I know what they'll say, and I also have a feeling that a very special person will be a target of investigation.  His name starts with "J" and ends with "ack Thompson".

I'm looking forward to this.

In the meantime, my Otakon work list is moving, which is nice.  Plans are changing a little bit, but I'm confident it will still be a good convention if the payment ever gets there.  Also, I wasn't aware that only the USPS can deliver to PO boxes.  ...so I had to give them money again.  Joy.  Apparently, they located the other letter and are sending it back to me, so at least I know it's not lost anymore.

I sent out the payment for Otakon on June 5th, with confirmation and Priority shipment and everything.  I got a tracking number on it, so I've been tracking its progress.  It should've been there by now, but here's the adventures so far (and this pretty much copy-pasted):

Your item was processed through and left our ZIP Code 20199 facility on June 10, 2009. The item is currently in transit to the destination. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

  Detailed Results:

	Processed through Sort Facility, June 10, 2009, 7:46 pm, ZIP Code 20199
	Processed through Sort Facility, June 06, 2009, 3:54 am, BALTIMORE, MD 21233
	Processed through Sort Facility, June 05, 2009, 11:09 pm, ZIP Code 20199
	Acceptance, June 05, 2009, 4:11 pm

The mailing address is a PO Box, soooo... ...why's it going everywhere?!  It should have been there by now.  If this ends up costing us the table, I will not be happy.  >:(

EDIT: Your item was misrouted. The error has been corrected and every effort is being made to deliver it as soon as possible. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

HAHA OH WOOOOOW    Filed a report, have to rush to do all of the paperwork again and Matt has to run to get another payment.  Seems like there just has been bad luck this year.  Hopefully, something good will come out of all the fuss.

Yes, I'm well aware how much of a butthole I look like when I nerd rage (let's face it, all nerd rage is stupid), but Activision can suck it.  They're apparently suing Double Fine Productions over Brutal Legend.  Then again, Activision tried to pull this crap with the developers behind Scratch so that DJ Hero could come out before it, and that got flipped on them. (Long story short, Activision filed a suit, the original developers counter-sued, claiming that Activision was using their coding without compensation.  Activision had to pay up after being found guilty.)

I'm convinced that Activision has become what EA used to be, ironically.

Poor Tim Shafer.  Poor US.  Lots of gamers have been looking forward to this, and this may mean a delay, or worse - no release.  That would, indeed, be brutal.

EDIT: Shafer's response: pure comedic gold.

Interesting:
- Brutal Legend.  Seriously can't wait for this.  Tim Schafer is love.
- Secret of Monkey Island.  THAT'S RIGHT.  SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND IS BACK.  I cannot contain the excitement that I have for this, though I'm hoping that if this does well, other classic Schafer games like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle will come back.
- Lots of Nintendo franchises.  Mario's got a ton of stuff coming (Super Mario Galaxy 2 - featuring Yoshi in space and weird tongue physics, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, New Super Mario Bros. Wii), new Zelda is on the way for DS (but we knew that already), and Metroid is getting a makeover from Team Ninja (which looks pretty good so far).  Definitely want to see more about Metroid, but I was kind of secretly hoping for a StarFox revamp.
- WarioWare: DIY.  That looks like a lot of fun.  Want!
- Star Wars: The OId Republic.  Count me in, that trailer was great!  As Matt said to me, THAT'S how the SW prequels should have been.
- The Last Guardian.  From the folks behind Ico and Shadows of the Colossus, the heartwarming tale of a boy and his giant bird-rat. 
Want To Hear More:
- Project Natal.  The possibilities are there, but can the control really be defined better than it is?  Seems kind of spastic (GO BRICKOUT GIRL, GO).  Also, is this really as practical and intuitive as they're saying it could be?  I mean, I'm a fatty.  I don't move a lot.  I couldn't see myself playing this for long without collapsing in failure and whining for cake.  Also, a controller gives us a tool to connect ourselves with - a tangible way to connect with our game.  I'm not sure if people would be totally alienated by not having anything in their hands when they play.  (Then again, the geeky side of me is screaming "HOLODECK!  YESSSSS!")
- Specifically, the idea of character interaction with Project Natal - Peter Molyneux's "Milo".  Fascinating.  ...creepy, but still fascinating.  I'm curious as to what kinds of capabilities this would have, and what kinds of things you could do.  (Seeing the demonstrator actually attempting to catch the "goggles" and run her hands through the "water" shows that she's immersed in it.  Astounding.)
- Beatles.  No singing from Sir Paul and Sir Ringo?  Sad.  But Paul calling himself an android is amusing.  Looking forward to three-part harmony.
- Left 4 Dead 2: still haven't really gotten to play the first, but just about anything with zombies, I'm down with.  It's kind of a big f*ck-you to the folks who bought the first game, though, thinking about it, since L4D isn't that old and most of the new content could have been downloadable...
- Mass Effect 2.  Liked the first, even though I haven't come close to finishing it.
- No More Heroes 2.  More Travis Touchdown in our future is a good thing.
- XBox movie sharing-video-conference-thinger.  Now you can MST3K with folks around the world.
- PS3 motion controller.  Prototype is hideous, but the 1 to 1 tracking looks great.  I expected this to be stupid, but I think that this is more practical than Natal, and more accurate than the Wiimote.  I definitely want to see more about this.
- MAG.  Such a great idea, can't wait to see the full product.
Good-To-Hear-But-Not-Interesting-To-Me:
- MGS: Rising.  Oh, a game with Raiden.  That's nice.
- Kingdom Hearts on DS and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers on WiiWare.  Neat.
- Assassin's Creed 2.  The idea of having daVinci as my personal invention monkey is cool.
- PSP Go.  Looks nice, but I'd rather grab a price-dropped PSP, instead.  I am starting to see more titles I want to pick up, though, which is a good thing.
- God Of War III and Uncharted 2.
Boring and/or Just Plain Stupid:
- Iwata's talk of a pulse sensor.  What.  Seems to have very limited applications, and hardly anyone would want to have that strapped to them as they play.
- Tsuda's attack on Wii.  Waggling your body seemed just as silly as waggling a remote, pretentious dipshit.  You look like a greasy douche.
- EA yammering on about their sports games.  Nothing new or different there, though the extensive team customization for Madden seems neat.
- Social networking (Twitter and Facebook) on XBox.  Yeah, I have a device for that.  It's called my computer.  Then again, if you're really into social networking, that's cool.  I just don't see what's so neat about that.
- FFXIV Online.  That's right.  Sony announced it would be an exclusive.  Will it stay that way?  I'm skeptical about that part.  Otherwise, I don't think that that's a big deal.  Seems silly to announce 14 before 13.
- Can we agree that the forced interactions and awkward segueways in ALL of these presentations need to stop?!  Seriously, Microsoft was the worst offender.
- MGS: Peacewalker.  That trailer was waaaaay too long.  Kojima needs an editor.
- FFVII on the PS Store.  ...if you haven't gotten the chance to play it, that's great, but this game has not aged well.  I would've liked an update.  Or, even better: FINAL FANTASY 6.  That would've gotten my attention.

Overall, a solid E3.  There was little that blew me away, but I'm definitely excited about the possibilities.  One thing still bothers me: no price drop for PS3.

This is L'Auberge Chez Francois, and it is a beautiful and amazing place containing a very old, respected, and talented chef and his intelligent and dilligent staff.  I seriously have nothing but the highest praise for this place: I will never forget what a wonderful night we spent there,
( C'est bon. Tres, tres bon. )

After a brisk walk on the terrace, we headed out - a first anniversary that was indeed as memorable as our wedding one year ago.  <3

...one year later, it still feels surreal.  Wonderful, but surreal.  Being married is an incredible adventure, I must say.  Between not living together for the first couple of months of our marriage, to being flooded and gassed, we've managed to terrorize the Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Baltimore, most of VA and DC with the POWER OF LOVE.  THE POWAAAAAAHHHH.  :P

Let me also say that French food is incredible, and that our evening was certainly a memorable (and filling) one.  I'll talk about the specifics tomorrow.

Here's to a year - looking forward to more.  Love you, Matt.  <3