deviantART: by:darkMyke http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:darkMyke&section=today deviantART RSS for by:darkMyke en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:30:51 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png Simple: Merry Christmas! And a nice 2010. http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/29099427/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/29099427/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:44:10 PST
Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!


Again, it's been a while since I last posted something or was really active here on dA. I apologize to everyone who expected some messages, answers or comments from me and didn't get them. In the last few weeks I just didn't feel like spending much time here or anywhere else online, for a couple of reasons.

_____________

Good, let's leave the gloominess behind. I'm looking forward to next few days, which is quite unusual. Christmas was not really a peaceful or wonderful feast the last few years, as it is "supposed to be". Same goes for New Year's Eve. Until last year, this was a dreaded celebration for me - I was either sick, had no one to celebrate with (due to unlucky reasons) or just had a boring evening.
I do like the time of the year and it has its charms (the clear, cold nights, the snow, the warm houses, the hot punches, the hope for "change"...), it just didn't work out.

This year is going to be different, I believe. I think it will be a time to remember... :)
I guess I made my peace with 2009. It's been an interesting year, no doubt.

_________

Creativity is back as well. I don't really care so much about the results at the moment (of course I do, but not that much, probably, as I used to), it's rather the PROCESS of being creative that interests me. Trying out new things is much more fun that way. Some new piece is nearly finished and new ideas are ready for cooking in my kitchen of creativity. Time to get them done, learn new techniques and improve my skills :)

_____

There's been a nice question recently on the dA Polls - how do you think about other people's works? Inspiration or Intimidation? Do you care about them? Do they influence you or your work?

If anyone feels like discussing that, It'd be nice.
Personally, I definitely do feel inspired by other works more than I feel intimidated. Probably because I do have a somewhat..."healthy" self confidence. I do know that I'm far from the level of true masters but still I think I don't feel like a beginner anymore. Good works tend to be intimidating at first but soon I feel the urge to try it myself...step by step, if it's not possible all at once.

_

And one last thing:
Do it like me, sit back and just enjoy the ride. :)
(At least as good as possible...)

]]> ~darkMyke The dancing dA Smiley and other important stuff... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/27504575/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/27504575/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:57:25 PDT


Back to serious business. Summer's over and life at University starts again. Not quite sure what kind of lectures I'm going to take, it's the usual chaos at the beginning of a new semester. Actually organizing the lectures is the one big step to have a successful semester. The second step is taking exams, but that is the easier one (uh, what? Maybe not ;) ).
So, I'm currently learning some pretty cool stuff. If you ever have a lot of men and women (more than only 1 of each) who love each other and want to marry each other, yet you want them to be as happy as possible without too many fights (ex.: Ms. A who is married to Mr. D loves Mr. B more than Ms. C, who is married to Mr. B and Ms. C loves Mr. D more than Mr. B - a really bad situation!) - call me. I know the right way to arrange this.
By the Power of Mathematics!

I'm also going to work as Tutor for Information Theory Students. I'm going to show them the wonderful world of mathematics. More than 30% probably won't survive the trip (and drop out before the semester ends) but I'll do my best to keep as many as possible ;)

Anyone else back to "work"? (yeah, a lot of you, as I know, but I still ask ;P )


Summer's been short again, even though it is really long, actually. Turned 22, had some nice days, some nice trips, some nice anime conventions, some nice gaming parties, some nice dvd nights, some nice meals, some nice experiences, read some nice books and watched some nice movies - and got my hair cut (ah, it's somehow short!)...but for now, it's over again. I like Winter, too, so it's okay.


I haven't done anything...creative, though, for a long time. The reasons are simple: too many thoughts, too many obstacles and too less dedication. Touhou Project just takes so much out of me... :) (these games are among the hardest you'll ever find - if you want a challenge, try them, really).


So, yeah, what a boring journal. But that's what a journal is, most of the time, right? I shall try to keep you updated more regularly again, with less boringness. However, lying in bed, I was rather...bored myself...

]]> ~darkMyke My first tournament, anime conventions and rain... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/26190153/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/26190153/ Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:38:13 PDT Kasu ([link] - It's "my" club for traditional japanese games located in Vienna, I'm currently the vice-chairman there).
Today we had our second Mahjong Tournament and it was FUN! But a lot of work, I can tell you. But I do hope everyone had a good time, we tried our best to make it a successfull tournament.
Personally I'm quite satisfied with the outcome - the same goes for the gaming experience. I placed 7th (out of 20). and played pretty well, even though a tad too stupid sometimes ;) But it's alright, I'm glad the day is over and I'm happy that it went as smoothly as it did! :w00t:

But let's look at the days before that...
Did you ever consider going to an anime convention? Or something similar?
Last Weekend I was at the Maconvention near Linz. It's the second biggest Anime Convention in Austria and did help there by presenting traditional japanese games for "my" club Kasu (yeah, kasu is everywhere - KAAASUUUUU). It was fun!
Highlights include the ride to our hostel on saturday in ~Votaris's rather small car (we were 4 big guys and the lady driving...every curve was a delight and the slope at the end of our cruise a real thrill - CAN WE DO IT? Yes we could...She showed us her driving skills and brought us home safely.)
There were also two bands playing, Trill Dan, a japanese...Rock band and Lolita Complex, an austrian...Rock band. The first concert was fun, but both had real huge problems concerning the sound - one of the downlights of the whole weekend were the technical problems. They led to a lot of delays. Next year they hopefully know how the handle the equipment.
Many good cosplayers there, too. I tell you, many. It seemed to me like more than 50% of the visitors there had some kind of cosplay, some interesting Yoko's, some interesting characters nobody knew (or I didn't know ;) ) and some please-I-can't-see-them-anymore characters. Everyone found something for their tastes, I guess.
The programm was nice and they tried to make it interesting, but the main highlight were the people there, no doubt. Met a lot of old friends and new interesting people. And I won the 3D "contest", as you all surely know :D (see my recent deviation for the entry). The contest only had two entries but still...



Oh, on Thursday I had an interesting experience as well. Went to an open air cinema at the top of the main library in Vienna. You know, during the day it was REALLY hot. 37°C and more. Weather forecast said "yeah, the weather during the night will be fine, most likely". So, off we went to see Monty Python's "Life of Brian". I haven't seen that movie in full length, yet, and as you can imagine, I didn't have the chance to this time, either.
After about the first half of the movie, the sky suddenly went cloudy. Lightnings were visible earlier already but they were far away. Now the closed in on us. The wind (or rather the storm) nearly tilted the projection area (and it would have done so, eventually, if the organizers hadn't reacted soon). Suddenly it started to rain. Heavily, it was quite a downpour. In the whole city the rain and hail did quite some damage (we were lucky not to get into the really heavy hail...). So, after running for some enclosed space we were completely soaked. Completely, some people even started to undress before going outside again.
Nice! Riding home was fun and cold. And that after the hottest day of the year =D (if it wasn't for the money and the fact, that I'll probably never see the ending of the movie, it was a fun evening, though.)

So, remember kids: NEVER trust the weather forecast, not even for the next 2 hours.


...a rather long journal, but it shall be enough for now...

]]> ~darkMyke About Austria, Kangaroos and Bruno... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/25903488/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/25903488/ Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:49:05 PDT Especially for non-Austrians:
What do you think about if you hear about "Austria"?


No need to answer the above question here, you can just answer it for yourself or read through that. But if you want to, I'd love to hear something.

Actually the topic is not really Austria here, anyway...
I saw the Movie "Brüno" a few days ago, by Sascha Baron Cohen. He tries to play a gay austrian fashion...ah, fashion guy (can't really say what he should be) but actually it's quite funny, as an austrian, to see someone fail totally at trying to be austrian. If I saw the film without knowing what he was supposed to be, apart from the german language he's trying to speak (he isn't - his german is so weird, it's actually impossible to understand sometimes, and I never heard something even remotely similar to his favorite swearword "Santzgaut"), I would never guess it should portray a Man from Austria. I expected that he at least tried to fulfill some of the typical cliches but he didn't. Well, interesting.

So...actually the movie is not totally bad or something, some parts are quite shocking because they are just awful and so-over-the-top, others are shocking because the people in front of the camera are just...incredible...

But to sum it up - Austria does not only have Fritzl, Bruno and Mozart, it also has Kangaroos. Not. Quite a collection for Austria, which " is a too small country to do good doping" (citation by one of the heads of the austrian skiing federation after a positive doping result during the olympic games 2006).
And I just wanted to express my feelings toward the movie - actually there are no hard ones, since it seems he just wrote the character portrait and then picked his land of birth at random. It's funny to see Austria in a prominent role in a big Production, though. I just hope everyone is bright enough not to take everything seriously that comes from hollywood ;)


(I also saw Transformers 2 recently, which is quiiiite a fun movie. I just love, love,
love the animations, these robots are animated godly. And Optimus Prime is awesome! <3 )



Now for something completely different. Some updates on life.
Next week there's a 3D contest at an anime convention in Linz, which I take part in. I finished the image...well, I didn't really finish it. Which sucks. I noticed quite a few mistakes or not-that-good textures, the composition is plain bad, I didn't have the time to choose a nice tone mapping and it isn't even rendered properly. Oh well, I hate deadlines...(you shall see the image in due time, though.)

I'm so waiting for the new Dream Theater CD. I ordered it a few days ago, but it still isn't here. Hmmmm...

Eden of the East is a great show...short, crisp, weird, too short in many ways but the opening is fantastic (the Anime is made by Production IG - who, as you'll surely know, also produced the Ghost in the Shell SAC Series, Serei no Moribito and others...they KNOW how to do good stuff) and the main theme is, as usual, thought provoking:
Imagine you'd get 10 000 000 000 Yen (thats 108 300 000 USD or 77 651 107,8 Euro) and a Phone which can make anything happen, as long as you have enough money to pay for it.
WHAT would you do to make the world (or at least one country) a better place?


And right now I'm waiting for some updates about the BIGGEST Super Smash Bros Melee Tournament held in a few years - Genesis. A young, european Boy called Armada is there and kicking some american...pros. He's top 3 already. Amazing...(yeah I sit here for quite some time already and watch the news posted about it...I'm hyped >XD )

]]> ~darkMyke Where do all the messages come from? Oh!... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/25255017/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/25255017/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:22:23 PDT Coming home past midnight, after a nice walk home (haha, I missed the last bus that night by exactly 50 meters), turning on the computer...logging in. Writing a reply...and suddenly noticing that there's a crazy number of messages in the message center. What the...however, it did not happen for the first time. Excitement starts to grow and slowly it dawns upon me...

I received my 5th Daily Deviation yesterday.
Really, I'd have never thought to ever get one again and once again I'm honored and grateful. To all of you who follow my path for quite a while now and to all of you who appreciate the stuff I do. To ^joannastar for featuring it.


...actually, I don't have much more to say. Sometimes you just can't describe how you feel, so I'll just leave it at that. :)

]]> ~darkMyke Lurk, lurk, lurking in the shadows... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/24874400/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/24874400/ Thu, 21 May 2009 13:58:05 PDT

...so, recently I've been thinking a lot. More than usually, even (whoa!). Probably induced by all the stuff I'm doing at the moment, all the stuff I'm hearing about, reading about, the things I'm watching.

Everyone knows Faust and the questions involved. But I really have to mention Code Geass here. Like Death Note, if considered seriously, leaving all the unnecessary plot twists and character relationships outside, the whole concept of the series is really interesting, thought provoking. I recommend it to anyone into Anime, even if Mecha Anime are not your thing. It is way too simple sometimes and does not feel as "real" as Death Note does, but nevertheless, it gets you thinking (but the fanservice gets a bit...annoying).

The other thing I saw recently was Ghost Hound (it was produced by Ryutaro Nakamura, Shirow Masamune, Hiromasa Ogura and Production IG and if you know me and consider that some of these guys made Lain and Ghost in the Shell, you know that this show was a must see). Along with a lecture by Rupert Sheldrake I heard a few weeks ago (about Morphic Resonance and Morphogenetic Fields), it was another show with a lot food for thought. What, you want to know what Morphogenetic Fields are? Well, then....I can't really tell you. It's like a "memory of the universe", everything that is done gets recorded somehow and if it is done again, someday, somewhere, it is easier to do because it was done once already. Like, you study for an exam and your friend learns the same stuff afterwards. Then it should be easier for him to learn, because you already studied the same things before him. yes, it is that weird, and it is not even stopping here - in theory, this theory should apply to everything, even the creation of matter.

And then there are these profound mysteries of Mathematics. Honestly, I feel sad not to be able to tell HOW profound they are but let me tell you - actually they're quite mind blowing. The more you get into it, the less you understand, as it seems. The good thing is, you don't really need to solve them in order to live a good life.




Bah, let's leave that aside now. One question:
Since you've been here on dA, do you think your art has changed in a major way? Or do you still do the same stuff the same way you always did the last few years? (No offense intended here!)



And yeah, I should get on with it and upload some new stuff, I think (if there was some). I really should. Or tell you about the fun stuff I've done in the last few weeks and so on, like watching Pokemon and stuff like that (yeah, really - I was a great player, long years ago >XD ).
But for now this will have to do...

]]> ~darkMyke 4001 - A DeviantArt Odysee... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/23489741/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/23489741/ Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:18:55 PST Day 1581.
Time 21:24.34, Day 61 of the Year 2009. Exactly 59 days since last Report. Nothing unusual happening. Made 4001st Post. Continuing life. Starting new Report to the rest of the world.



Okay, sorry for the introduction, I just felt like doing it after I saw that I made my 4001st comment today. I do spend too much on this website, probably :D

How's everyone doing?
A new semester started here and a lot of new mathematical (and other :D ) adventures are awaiting me. Like Modeltheory, Analytic Number Theory, Brain Modeling, Artificial Intelligence and Automated Reasoning or Counting all sorts of things (called Combinatorics, if you want to sound all pro). Yeah, counting IS hard after all...it takes mathematicians to do it :D
And it's quite a (NP hard, probably - solving it would get you one million Dollar, so try it) hard problem to come up with a nice schedule, when like all of the lectures you want to do happen at exactly the same time, in the same universe and dimension. Which makes it in not *impossible* to attend both, just very unlikely. Still, I have to make my choice, as it seems...unlikely things happen very rarely after all.


January was full of stress while February was quite different. I thought a lot about stuff and things and came up with no solution - seeing problems where there are none, most likely. Nevertheless, I also used the time to be very creative and work on my skills, as I have promised to do. You'll see one result soon. And I was immediately inspired to do something else, something which happened not very often in the last few months. Feels good. After that, there's yet another project to finish, one I thought it would be one of those project to die a long, slow and painful death...but I won't let that happen, it's too good after all <3

Also, Blender's new tools and additions make it even better to work with. And it's so exciting to see how all the new features for 2.5 are implemented. Makes you feel more than a user, actually. I just adore this piece of software, it really shows what people can do in their free time, given enough motivation. Good stuff.

On a side note, I also feel that I'm getting the hang of playing ehm...not that bad Mahjong. Been experimenting and discovering a lot of things recently. Really a fascinating game, as simple as it is.



And there's something else...I've been tagged like...twenty years ago (it's more like one month, but still). Well, let's do it. I'm not going to obey the rules, by the way...only 1 and 2.
1. Post these rules.
2. Each tagged person must post 8 things about their self on their journal.
3. At the end, you have to choose and tag 8 people and post their icons on the same journal.
4. Go to their pages and send a message saying you tagged them.
5. No tag-backs.

Alpha) I love, love science in general. I want to understand how the world works.
Beta) I love pieces of Music which challenge the listener.
Gamma) Marzipan is called Marzipan in english and in german and I love it :D As well as chocolate raisins.
Delta) I love sleep, but sleep too little to celebrate that.
Epsilon) Winter > Spring > Autumn > Summer.
Zeta) I love to see how people develop and grow. Not physically, but in the things they do. Art, Videogames, Mahjong, Maths, whatever.
Eta) I always try to make things perfect. Too much, maybe.
Theta) YES I know the greek alphabet.
Iota) I wonder: what is a Noble Mood. And how does the smiley match it? It's cool, though :D (oops, that was number nine...)

I guess it was a boring tag? Well, if so, just ask another question and I MIGHT answer it. Maybe! Go ahead and try it ;P



Report end. Eating Chocolate. Over and out.

]]> ~darkMyke Welcome to the future - the year 2009! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/22347831/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/22347831/ Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:59:26 PST ...flying cars, houses in the sky, robots who pass the Turing Test, medical revolutions, no more pollution and clean energy sources...


...wait, it's already 2009 and nothing changed? Bah...what's all the fuzz about, then?


New Year's Eve is certainly not among my favorite celebrations but hey, I hope you had a nice one! Much more important is that you have a good year 2009!
It's always good to have a time of the year when you do a little thinking, about the things which happened to you in the last few months, to consider your life and see, if you "like" what happened or if you think you "need to change" something. Or at least try it.

So, what do I think? Hmmm...aaah, whatever, almost everything is great, going fine, only some minor turbulences ahead but they are what I call "life". I need to get around them, I guess.


I do have some plans though, artwise. I seriously want to refine my skills in 3D and this will be a huge project. I'm going to do more "Studies" from now on, Training pieces, and I well need your feedback to get better and learn new things.
Without your support, I wouldn't be here but without your support, I will also stay where I am. Thank you for everything but please keep it up ;)


Well, it's still wonderful to reconsider the times here at dA, though, the site might have some serious problems but on the other hand, it's a magnificent place with great people around, so I'm looking forward to a good year and (despite all of the worldwide crises - optimism is what we need, at least a bit!)...
Wish you all the best for 2009!

The Future is now! :D
(And what about you? Great plans for the new year? Mind to share?)

]]> ~darkMyke Busy? Oh yes... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/21799685/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/21799685/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:17:48 PST

Of course, a new semester at the university and it's almost over again! I was so foolish to believe that I could try to do courses on Biology besides the lectures and courses I do on mathematics.
But let me tell you, maths is like a very jealous lover (or something like that, not that I have too many experiences with that :D ) - she does not let you go, occupies you all the time, wants to be played with and is always in your head. And therefore I can only do some elementary but important lectures on Chemistry, Physics, Statistics (all of them necessary for working in a laboratory next semester) and on Genetics and Molecular Cellbiology. I do the latter ones mostly for, ah, fun...but they are interesting and I'll need them one day, when I try to tackle the big mystery sitting in our own head - the human brain ;P

But well, Maths is not only a jealous, but also a wonderful lover (yeah, I am weird >XD [don't take it too seriously, though ]).
Analysis of Algorithms is FUN!
Eventually we learn methods to bring down the most monstrous beasts of finite and infinite Sums I have faced in my study of advanced mathematics. Or to count the things you have never dreamed of (remember - you can count just about everything...).
Might seem strange to you but honestly, some of the methods we learn there are extremely powerful...
Number Theory is FUN!
Because the Professor is just a cool guy, some sort of "priest of mathematics". You should see him when he speaks of the beauty of mathematical proofs and theorems, it's like he he glows from within with joy...
Forcing is FUN!
But also extremely hard and strange and abstract and...just wow. Cohen, who thought of all that stuff, must have been crazy, honestly. But a genius (like many others in the field of mathematical Logic).



Enough of that stuff - other than that:
Would like to play Mahjong more regularly, especially now that a Tournament is coming up in Vienna. I want to play my best there but without Training it's going to be hard...

Artwise I'm playing a bit with photorealism. Some new piece is already more or less done, I'm just not sure what to do with it - it's a bit of an experimental piece, testing the unbiased rendering engine Indigo - again. But this time with a new kind of setting, you shall see...
I'm quite inspired to do new things at the moment, but again...so little time...

On a side note:
Netbook or Subnotebook (up to a 13 inches display)? Your opinion is asked for! Help me decide...is a netbook enough for your small, daily office needs? Is it too slow or just right for little programming stuff and writing documents in Tex? I guess so but...I'm not sure...


So, that's it for now. Not enough space or time or patience to write about everything but the most important thing is probably, that life is hard, but not bad. I shall be content ;)

]]> ~darkMyke Interviewed! And stuff... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/20303599/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/20303599/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:44:37 PDT
First off I want to say thanks for the feature and the interview @ [link]
Yes, I actually had to answer some questions and I do think it might be an interesting read for someone who is interested in my work...or the background of it. Look here (scroll down a bit...look for "3D Artist of the Week"):
[link]



Hehe, summer is almost over again, I turned 21 a few days ago, the AniNite, the biggest Anime and Manga Convention here in Austria took place this weekend, won a 3D competition at the Maconvention (with my latest piece, link - I even had to say something on the stage, to all of the people there...oh well...but I got nice prices as well, like a Ghots in the SHell II DVD and the complete series of Full Metal Panic...among other things), travelled around a bit, placed 5th in the first international Riichi Mahjong Tournament held in Austria...and enjoyed my holidays ;)
Well, and even though I did almost nothing for the university, I really didn't get bored. Most of the time I was busy with something, even if it was only relaxing after a weekend in Salzburg, Linz or Graz (believe it or not but relaxing after a holiday is sometimes really necessary...especially after the maconvention, where I was working for the Kasu-club [devoted to traditional japanese games - except Go]...).

So, I'm not going to bore you with the details...BUT I have got a new computer. A nice little quadcore, with enough RAM and other good ingredients so that my old one could be replaced, finally. After all, it is now about 2 1/2 years old and it was about time to get something new. Now there shouldn't be a problem anymore with my new scene...

Yep, right, I have started a new project. This year I'm especially slow and I personally can't really say why. I have a lot of ideas and concepts in my mind and I even have MOST of the necessary skills to accomplish the task to realize them. Yet, the motivation is gone sometimes. Well, that's not entirely true - I AM motivated to WORK but I am NOT motivated to think about the work. And that's absolutely necessary when I start a new piece - a good concept, even if it's only a picture in my mind is mandatory. Without such a starting point it surely isn't going to be finished.
Therefore this new project (a huge one, actually...) doesn't have a good start. Although I do think the concept is good and nice, I'm not totally satisfied with the architecture (oh, yes, it's going to be about architecture...). Ahhh, I hate that feeling that something isn't perfect (or as good as I can do - perfection is far beyond my abilities)...
Nevertheless, I'll force myself to go on and work on it, hopefully the project will develop when I'm working enough. Even if it isn't going to be my best one, I shall learn to move on even if I'm not 100% motivated. There's a lot of work to do so I better get going...even now I begin to worry about the phases to come, even if I'm only at the beginning for now.

Still, ranting does not help...I have to accept it ;)


By the way, who else thinks that Super Smash Bros Melee is far superior to Super Smash Bros Brawl? I mean, everyone can play Brawl, you don't really need a lot of skill anymore to get "good". Boring.

]]> ~darkMyke Hello, Holidays... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/19202949/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/19202949/ Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:10:33 PDT
Well, actually, as a busy student, always trying to move forward with his studies, I actually have to take exams during the following weeks, so I can't be totally lazy. However, there are no lectures and therefore I do have some more free time, don't worry.
So, it's been quite an interesting semester, full of mathematical adventures and dramatic plot twists (well, not really but you get the idea).

Now, what happened the last few weeks? As usual, quite a bit. A short summary: played a lot of Mahjong, had a totally awesome lecture (about...well..."shape and void"...but actually it was about something totally different or rather about nothing particular at all. It was an "experiment" with ourselves...for me it was a successfull one and lots of fun.), went to two local Anime Conventions (the AniLite and the Made in Japan - both were nice but nothing spectacular, the first one was really a small one while the second has a lot of potential for the future...I was there explaining mahjong and stuff, so I actually had to "work" while I was there. But again, it was fun!), played Snooker again (after a loooong time), had some exams (which went surprisingly good, everyone freaked out because the questions were so...unexpected but luckily I still managed to get a very decent mark ;) ), one exam was cancelled because the prof became sick (which sucks, especially because you have learned a lot already and wanted to get it over with), watched some football matches on the TV (after all, the European Football championship was held in Austria and Vienna was one of the "Host Cities" were matches were played. It was quite noticeable, with a lot of fans from foreign countries riding the public transport, blocking my way to the university...ah, whatever, it is over again and overall it did not trouble me that much, so...) and did other stuff as well...

Now onto the more exciting things: the plans for summer.
...

If I had some.

But as usual, I have no big plans, there are some conventions coming up (Maconvention on 25th-27th of July, AniNite end of august)...but nothing big, nothing amazing. But I'm happy with that, during summer I'm always lazy and that way I can eventually relax after the busy time of the semester and prepare for another one. There are some things that I want to get done, like getting a new computer (I mean, I have only 1 GB RAM and not even a dual core cpu...how cruel!), polishing up my Riichi Mahjong Skills (there will be small tournament in Summer with international Players...and I'm going to attend. It will be quite interesting to see how "professional amateurs" [even if something like that does not exist] play.), reading lots of books, playing lots of Video Games (Okami! A great game, with nice visuals and a catchy story...and of course, the long awaited Super Smash Bros Brawl! I know the game already, since I have played with friends already but still, to own this game and play it more regularly is something entirely different. Need some serious training to see if the game mechanics are as slow and boring as they seem on the first few games. It's really kinda weird, it seems quite similar to melee in terms of characters and general gameplay but the details are totally new. The game is so slow, it's...when you get back to Melee, it's like a Game at double speed. Damage behaviour and Knockback is so strange as well...and the balancing way off, in some cases, at least they did not make it more balanced than Melee. Just look at Snake...
So yeah, there's a lot to analyze about that game and I actually think that it is not able to get on the same level as its predecessor Melee. We will see...)
and, first off all, getting some art projects done.

I have been really lazy about art lately, but that is also due to a project that I started back in Winter and still haven't finished. It's for a contest on the aforementioned Maconvention ( a good idea to make a 3D contest, by the way) and I fear that I'm not going to be able to finish it to my absolute satisfaction...and that is just awful for me. You'll see the entry soon, I'll upload it here as well (it's more or less finished, I need to render out all of the parts but my computer is working on it, right this very moment). But the rest of my plans won't materialize, I fear...Still, you shall see it soon. And after that I eventually want to start something new, I already have some ideas (I actually have A LOT of ideas) but since this things needs to be finished next week...I never got around to actually make something out of these ideas.


So, there you have it (al... ]]> ~darkMyke Ah, hello... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/18150366/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/18150366/ Sat, 03 May 2008 14:30:01 PDT
Also, at the moment it seems like my account was a bit dead. It certainly isn't, but old journals, no new artworks...well, one could easily believe it was.


My excuse?
Aaah, well. Lots of tons of stuff going on...

University - very time consuming. I knew it would be an intensive semester and, well, it sure is. But I can tell you: it's also quite an interesting one.
Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem is even more fascinating than I thought. The proof is...well, I'd say the work of a genius. In fact you can say that the main idea is the following: given a language in which you can speak about natural numbers, construct a formula that is stating the following: "I can not be proved."
So, if the formula is false, it can be proved but this is impossible since things that you find a proof for are always true. Hence, it must be true - and you have found a formula that is true but for which you can not find a proof. Your system is incomplete.
(Anyone familiar with maths will know that this concept is way too simple...and not correct, as it is written here. But it should do to explain the main concept...)
Amazing, isn't it! :D
Ah, yes, but that is only one of the cool things we do...I'm getting a bit into the philosophy of maths, in a lecture about Constructivism in maths...quite an awkward way to do mathematics, but nevertheless I think one can learn a lot from it.
Recently there was also a mathematical conference in vienna, in which the winners of the Kurt Goedel fellowships presented their research plans (in topics like logic, settheory and their applications). Utterly interesting. Sadly it's hard to talk about that since it really needs some basic knowledge of concepts...but I was really impressed and fascinated. It's not only about the math, it's about...man's logic. I have a feeling that this is about the very foundations of reason. Holy cow...

But besides that...
Actually there are only a few "spectacular" things happening but many "little" ones. Which are nevertheless nice. Would be boring without them ;)
(What am I talking about? Well, going to the cinema [oh, spectacular! "The counterfeiters", an austrian movie that won an Oscar Award this year. It certainly was deserved, as it is an excellent movie with a difficult theme...food for thought], playing Mahjong (really need to play it more), going to a book fair, doing other stuff...really interesting as you see, but I guess that's life. Maybe not like in the movies, with explosions, heroes and beautiful women around every corner but still - I don't want to be in the movies anyway :ahoy: )

(Remember the Lord of the Rings concert? Well, I was a bit disappointed this time, last year it was way better, if you ask me...no real emotions this time. Bah. No inspiration...)


Also, I'm almost finished with a new piece, finally. Although, it is really not very awesome, as you'll see. It's one of those pieces that don't turn out as good as the should. Nevertheless, you'll see it in a few days. As a proof that I'm still around ;)
It was also another one of those training pieces in which I tried to discover new techniques and stuff. I wanted to work with Indigo again, this time a bit more serious. It's quite a nice rendering engine but I'm not sure if I got the hang of it already. Need to experiment more.


"11:15, restate my assumptions: 1. Mathematics is the language of nature. 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature."
(From the movie Pi. Quite interesting one with an amazing soundtrack by Clint Mansell. Really trippy. And although I don't believe that the above statement is absolutely correct, it's still a cool one and since it was 11:15 p.m. when I wrote this...must be a coincidence ;) )

]]> ~darkMyke Stuff... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/17349690/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/17349690/ Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:42:12 PDT It's been a while again, lotsa things happened and I'm not sure where to start nor what to write. So, I guess I'll make it short ;D

I passed the super-difficult Analysis 3 exam (this one went so extremely well, I'm still impressed that I can be that good actually :D ), the interesting Logic exam (went smooth as well) and had another exam this friday. We'll see how it works out but after these three exams I'm feeling like I need a short brake from them. Learning for them was quite intense...(VERY intense...)

A new Semester started. An intense one...with lots of lectures. Actually I chose to do them myself (mostly), so I won't complain. But still, I hope I didn't overdo it. What am I taking?
Functional Analysis, Theoretical computer science, Modeling and Simulations are the ones I ought to take this semester. Fine so far. Now on to the ones I chose myself...
Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem [One of the most astounding results of all sciences, if you ask me, one of the most intriguing theorems humans ever stated. It is eventually time to learn and understand it.]
Basics of Mathematics [About the philosophical / historical / modern thoughts and implications of Mathematics.]
Applications of mathematical Logic [The title makes the point clear, I think. Ever wondered what you might need transfinite Induction for? Non Standard Analysis maybe?]
Introduction to Biochemistry [This one's not for sure yet - but I really do hope I can hear it.]
Holistic Science [No, I don't have a clue what this is about :D But the lecturer seems cool, the title is cool, it sounds fun, so why not!]
Selected Chapters of Higher mathematical Analysis [Yeah...sounds cool...;) ]

Phew, and on top of that I'm also doing a "course" on Zen Meditation. Something that always interested me. And I can tell you, it is definitely a new experience...



So, besides that, what's new? On Wednesday it's here again! The Lord of the Rings Symphony! The soundtrack of the movies played by a real orchester in front of you. Last year it was so extremely awesome, I'm so looking forward to it.

I'm learning to play Mahjong. I've joined a "club" that organizes events on a monthly basis, to learn and play japanese games (real games, not videogames, 'kay? ;) ). And I'm really fascinated by Mahjong, it's quite a cool game. Also, keep in mind, real Mahjong is NOT like the game on the computer...there's also a fun anime about it, called Akagi. It's really...very dramatic >XD

I've got to play Super Smash Bros Brawl a while ago! Don't ask how but it is really cool...another thing I look forward to. BUT we poor PAL- Europeans have to wait for quite a while longer until we eventually get it. Nintendo, I love you, but sometimes you make extremely stupid things that I can't understand. So sit down and get that game here ASAP!
In the meantime I'm playing around with the Virtual Console...Super Metroid is just an awesome game. Even years after it's original release, it still IS GOOD. Can you even believe that? If yes, then that should give you a hint about how good it really is and was at the time it was developed.


Artwise...well, progress has been even slower the last few weeks. My dA account seems near dead, now that I look at it. But actually I have a lot of ideas. The problem is - an animation, even a simple one, with no knowledge of animation and stuff. Eh, it's a REAL challenge. Still, I'm positive that it will be cool. It has to be. Just be patient my friends, will you? I will hopefully be able to put up some previews soon...



SO, that's it for now. Maybe I can keep you updated some more in the future. I'll try. Whatever, it's good to think about your own life from time to time, just to realize that it actually is not that bad, even if you complain all the time :) (actually, the viennese people have the PERFECT word for that: "sudern". It perfectly embodies the concept of the daily anger, the daily frustration that life comes with and that everyone has to complain about to everyone else. )
How are you guys doing, by the way?

]]> ~darkMyke 2008... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/16581371/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/16581371/ Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:52:23 PST
Life's not bad at the moment, last wednesday I had a huge exam (yes, analysis 3...) and while I'm still waiting for the outcome, I feel like it will be good enough. It was the second time I had to take that one since the first time, I was not really prepared for it, I admit it. But that won't happen again, I promise ;) (though, you can learn a lot, even if you miss your goals sometime...how can you appreciate victory, if you never lose? Haha, wise words...)
Still, a lot of other exams are still coming up, just like at the end of every semester. I'm looking forward to the lectures I will be taking soon, though, they do sound interesting!

Despite all the stress, I found a great inspiration lately (to be precise, during new years eve, which was definitely NOT planned like that...but hey, it was a nice, new way to start into the year :D ): the third movie of Ghost in the Shell, Solid State Society.
Amazing movie, go watch it if you haven't already.
It inspired me to try myself on animation for the first time. When the time comes, you shall see what that means, but for now I have to see for myself what I can get done and if I can really reach all the goals I have with that project.
This thing will take some while, even if it will be only around one minute of animation. But let me tell you, that is already a damn load of work.

And, another thing: go and check out Blender if you haven't already. First off, it is getting more and more amazing, with extremely interesting features in the upcoming version. Even though there's no official build yet, you can check out the SVN versions with implementations of Glossy Reflections, Quasi-Monte-Carlo Ambient Occlusion (fast!), APPROXIMATIVE Ambient Occlusion (this is more than amazing and a really surprising new feature) and much more...yes, something like that is one of the main strenghts of Open Source Software - test features as they are developed and use them as soon as they are quite stable. Don't wait for official builds but try and discover the new world of Blender like right now. Great!
Ah, yes, and the second point: its integrated Sequence Editior is extremely good for making all kind of Video effects, for cutting Animations and adding sound effects. Something I have realized just recently...

Luckily there are some holidays coming up so that I can work on that some more...and maybe I can even realize some of my "goals for 2008". Like attending to more classical concerts, meeting some old friends (in progress!) and generally have an even better life. Not that it is bad, but you know...some little things could be changed, which would make a real huge difference...
It's just the will which is the problem, the laziness to leave these little things alone and just live on as usual. But no, that's not what I want to do. Someday I wanted to change them, so, why not do it today?

Ah, yes, optimism. That's me, usually. I'll make sure I won't forget about it ;)

By the way, I got a lot of books for christmas and I eventually realized that Douglas Adams is a fantabtabolous author and not only that...go read his books, if you haven't already :D

]]> ~darkMyke Hohoho... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/16000395/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/16000395/ Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:51:08 PST
Life at the University is as time consuming as ever. I need to take some exams early in the new year, big ones, and I do hope I can learn a good deal of the material during the following weeks. It's all about motivation...on the other hand, some projects for the ongoing semester went pretty smoothly. I have the honor to work together with one of our "geniuses" (I'm definitely not one of them ;) ) and it is actually not a bad thing for getting a good grade. But I have to say, it is looking pretty damn good. If you have ever worked in LaTeX already, you might know that it can produce very fancy looking documents pretty easily.
Also, this semester I have some quite interesting lectures, especially Logic and Complex Analysis. The first one is pretty "fundamental"...after all, everything in science and especially in Mathematics is based on logic. But actually not everyone cares about learning the essentials of the mathematical logic. Its formalisms and quite astounding results. Maybe you know Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem? If not, here it is:
We can not know everything.
Sounds simple, huh? Of course, this is not the correct form of that fundamental theorem and this statement is way too simple...but actually, not that far away from the real result. It has quite some philosophical consequences and is known as one of the most incredible results in mathematics...still, does anyone know it, besides the mathematicians? It's not really as famous as it probably deserves to be...
Ah, and complex Analysis is just beautiful, sometimes. It lets you do things which you'd have never thought to be possible. And yes, it has a lot of applications in the "real world" as well, mainly physics, where you can use its tricks to solve certain problems very easily, but which would be a pain to do them in any other way...


Other than that...eh, not much. I have not written about Metroid Prime 3 yet, have I? Oh well, there's not much to say about it, except - awesome! Not THAT EXTREMELY good as the very first Metroid Prime when it came out but a very worthy end to the epic trilogy. Inspiring (you'll see what I mean) and it definitely brought some fresh ideas into the Metroid Universe. Go and play it!
Ah, and now...Super Mario Galaxy. Another FANTASTIC game. Truly, if anyone ever says that videogames are stupid and brutal, don't believe him. If SMG is a videogame, then videogames are art, though maybe not all of them. As simple as that.

So, what about my own art...? Hm...you know that feeling when you don't have the muse, the motivation to do anything while you're stressed? And when you have the time to do something, you simply can't? Not because you are not inspired but...because of something else. Your ideas block themselves. Neutralize each other, or whatever. Ah, whatever, let's see...


On a side note, I have made a Zazzle Account for selling prints (no, that's not advertisment, I really couldn't care less about the money....it's just that I myself would like to see some of my stuff printe, so, in case you want that too...) - the problem is, somethings not working alright...if anyone has some experience with selling or buying there, mind sharing it?


Oh, Claymore is quite an entertaining anime to watch, by the way. Blood, girls, swords, monsters. It's got everything you ever wanted to see ;)

]]> ~darkMyke Jubiläum!!! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/15345907/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/15345907/ Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:28:30 PDT
It's my third birthday!
Today, three years ago, I decided to join dA. I had just started out with 3D a few weeks before that and before I even started 3D, I mainly made Anime Wallpapers using the GIMP. Haha, that were interesting times...I did not have a clue what I was doing, when I started to take interest in Blender. You know, I never thought about pirating my way into 3D and "getting" something like 3DSMax or something from "somewhere". Therefore I searched for free Software which was capable of doing work in 3D, never really believing that I'd find something.
But somehow I came across Blender and soon everything got started...

So yeah, I owe that fine piece of code a lot.

After I joined dA, you can pretty much follow my development. I started out with those trendy tutorials, making abstract stuff but soon realized that this was nothing for me. Although those "trendwhore" abstract 3D looks pretty nice and shapes, color and composition are often well done, they never fascinated me as much as other pieces of "abstract" art do. Niteangel became one of my main sources of inspiration, for his outstanding, architectural, mechanical pieces. They ultimately defined what I wanted to achieve one day. It became clear, after some time doing 3D, that this would require a lot of effort.
Sometimes I think that people don't really have an idea what it means to do "Computer generated" images. It's not their fault of course, but if they knew, they would certainly appreciate the wondrous things a lot more, which we nowadays see in all kind of movies and films. They probably don't realize that it is NOT the computer, which does the work of creating the image - it is the artist.
Making a piece in 3D the way I do it, and I do believe that certain principles also apply for professional artists, takes time, patience, work, planning. It is not a walk through the park, you need a lot of "skills" and knowledge to make a fine piece of art with the computer. You need to know how lighting and colors work, a good understanding of the object you want to model, the proper tools (programs) and how to use them...it is not different from traditional art.

Haha, do you think that was a rant because I feel like being ignored and not appreciated?

Then you're totally wrong.

In the past three years I was awarded with 4 Daily Deviations (the first being Machinae suggested by my dear friend =Betelgeux which was quite an unbelievable thing...it is still the award I appreciate the most). I have more than 400 people who watch me, more than 20,000 people have seen my site (I just passed that mark a few days ago). I made friends, real friends. Without them, without the support of you all, I guess I'd be nowhere near where I am now. I'm more than happy with what I have achieved, the development I went through. I have learned so much and it always paid off when I got your feedback.

Once again, Thank you!




I guess there's nothing to add.


...well, there's is something else...
I have been asked to make an image of mine available as print. I'm currently looking into that and I'll probably make some other of my pieces available as well. I'm just curious if all works out and they really look good as print...hopefully I can start that experiment soon.

]]> ~darkMyke Wowowow... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/14410335/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/14410335/ Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:51:17 PDT

Thank you so much for yet another DD! Thanks to ^kuschelirmel for suggesting and ^MistressWit for featuring my most recent piece. It is quite unbelievable...

You know, this is my 4th DD. I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do besides being speechless, happy, unable to express the feeling. It is so wonderful yet it is all thanks to you!.
Without you guys here on dA, without my friends, I would not be here, where I am now.

I'll stop with that already - although, to be honest, this is the first time I feel that the DD was "deserved". Don't get me wrong, it's just that out of all my DDs, this is the piece I would personally give the Award to. Sorry if that sounds proud or anything...it's just that I worked so long on Aoide, so hard, that I do believe it is among my very best.


However, there happened much more the last few weeks...
I have been to Dresden from 15th - 20th August. Not visiting the city but merely *Colophonius . You want proof? Here...[link] - see if you can guess who's who!
Either way, it was a wonderful time. Dresden is a really beautiful city and even though it seemed quite a risk for me, to visit a girl I have only met online yet, it turned out to be even better than I expected in my dreams ;)
Also, her family is great - it felt like being at home, only in a different city.


Then...I turned 20. On August 21st. Come on, that's a strange feeling...out of my teenager days, into my "tweens" or however you call that. Luckily, I did not have much time to feel strange since I got great presents (The complete Calvin and Hobbes! Amazing!) and since, beginning on the 24th, there was the Aninite 2007.
It's Austria's biggest Anime Convention and the three days were just great - it's not a really big thing (approx. 3500 visitors overall) but rather "made by fans, for fans". I know quite a few people there and so we had a lot of fun and lots of good cosplayers. Take a look at the site: [link] if you're interested, there are also photos available and stuff.



...oh well, I'm just too emotional to write about all that in detail right now. I'll update this, maybe, but for now it shall be enough...just let me tell you, at the moment, I feel great.

]]> ~darkMyke Summer... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13953471/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13953471/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:51:31 PDT

So, I fixed all my computer problems, my harddrive was the culprit. It sucks to lose all data but it is great if you have a back-up for everything! Therefore, whenever you have the time, make sure to properly save all your data to some extrenal memory device! I tell you, it's definitely worth it! If you only read tiny bits of my journal, then it's best you read that one...

Then, I also "fixed" my problems with summer and holidays. July was nice and in August I have so much to do, I'm sure it won't be boring like it was last year! Not only that, there are also some quite exciting things coming up but I'll tell you about that...next month, probably :D
I'm also glad that I'm using this week, in which I don't have much to do, to learn for an exam on friday (on settheory). Tomorrow, wednesday, I'll go to the Transformers Movie Premiere here in Austria and damn, I'm sooo looking forward to it. I'm sure the movie is only action and effects but what else do you need?! The CG pictures I have seen are very inspiring and extremely detailed. Wonderful!

I also wanted to go to a SSBM Tournament in Oslo, Norway, but that's the only drawback of August - I can't go. It is pretty pricy, sadly, and as it seems the tournament won't be that "Big", which means that the best european players aren't going. So, I'm not going either...;P

Recently I have finished watching the Anime Series Higurashi no naku koro ni. What an extraordinary, adorable title! And the series is just as great - extremely thrilling, a lot of suspense and horror and cute girls. Quite an exotic mix and I'd definitely recommend watching it. Now there's the second season coming up, Higurashi no naku koro ni kai. Oooh, it is so wonderful to type that :D


Hm, and once again I have to tell you - please be patient with me. My new project is in its finishing stages, although there is still plenty to do. I really hope it will come out as good as I expect it to, I'm working on it for such a long time already.
On a side note, not only my image Ekkaia / Essence was featured in a news article called Water in 3D [link] (no, I'm not advertising myself but the article - go check it out ;P ). But, and this is very, very amazing for me, I was invited to write an article for the Blenderart Magazine [link] ! This is extremely cool since that magazine is really popular among Blender users and wow...
...
...well, I couldn't do it. It was quite funny, I got the request on the day my harddrive went mad. I didn't even read the message until one day before the deadline for articles because of that. Therefore, no article from me...still, it might be worth it if you check back in a few days again. Maybe you'll see something familiar on the cover of the next magazine...wow :D


Ah, yes, that's it for now - I need to keep it short since there's something else coming up. I was tagged by ~ami-hikaru ! Hm, let's see...

1.list 4 fandoms u have
I) Anime, especially with philosphical aspects or complex storyline or just general Awesomeness (like Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Ergo Proxy, Elfenlied, Higurashi no naku koro ni ( :D ) ).
II) Videogames - especially Super Smash Bros Melee (suprising, huh?)
III) Books in general - too many to list if I wanted to be more specific...
IV) Science :D - Science is just amazing...

2.have u ever slept in the back of a car?
Hm, yes. Although not for very long...

3. Have you recently dyed your hair/cut it?
No. At the moment it grows and grows...

4.list 4 ppl u look up to the most
Huh? That's difficult...although I do look up to people, who live their life happily and have a good time without forgetting to be thankful or forgetting about the other people around.

5. no que... ]]> ~darkMyke Meh... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13592015/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13592015/ Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:26:44 PDT Ah, well. My Computer is broken. And the summer holidays started. Not a good combination...but let me explain...



First off, I hate the beginning of holidays, especially of such "big" holidays like our summer holidays. Three months (!) more or less at home. It's not like you've got nothing to do, I had an exam just today (wasn't that hard actually) and I've got some others upcoming in the next few weeks but still...
The last weeks were a lot of stress and exhaustion and suddenly you're being thrown out of your daily routines and you're being told: "OUT! GO AWAY! Here's nothing else to do you for you, damnit, go and get a job, have fun, be happy, go on a vacation and just enjoy life!"

Ah, yeah, sounds good huh? Sadly I'm not the guy who can easily leave all the hard work behind and just have fun. I failed to plan anything for the summer (since everything was so stressy the last few weeks) and therefore feel a little empty now - what should I do with the hella lot free time?

Of course, I wanted to get to work and do some new artwork to show you something new (that means, finish my current project, eventually) but NO!
Over the last few weeks (it was a bad time, as it seems) my computer started to make troubles - at first I thought that's just some weird behaviour but it will go away. It didn't. Actually, it got worse up to the point, where my computer is absolutely broken now. It reboots when I start windows up, giving me some nice Hex codes and error adresses but obviously these don't mean a lot to me or help in any way. I re-installed windows but it didn't go away.
Therefore I conclude that it must be some kind of hardware problem. Which is bad. I have got no clue how to resolve that, I'll contact some guys to see if they can do anything but at the moment, I don't really believe so...of course, I'll get that problem fixed, eventually, but for now I can't fulfill my "artistic needs". And you will have to wait even longer until you see something fresh...


Meh, kind of a rant?! I guess I'm not in the best mood...which is kinda ridicolous since these problems are so tinywiny compared to the problems of other people but still, I can't help myself.



But I can tell you, I do feel better now. Just writing about it is sometimes enough to get better with it. And while we're at it...

I've got back into playing Super Smash Bros Melee! In the last few weeks (once again) our little group of Smashers in Vienna grew a lot and there's real competition now. It is a lot of fun to play against players which are at least on your level and obviously you learn everytime you play against them. I even went to Linz (that's a City in Upperaustria, about 200 km from Vienna) over a weekend to meet new guys there and get third in a tournament held there :D
Although I was not really satisfied with the third place, I could have done better but my friends, which were traveling with me, were just better at that time. But I'll be back, for sure. And maybe I'll even show you some videos of myself playing sometime, for the professionals among you, my dear readers :D

Also, when you feel down, grab a good book, sit down and read! That is another extremely good method to make your day...at the moment I'm finishing Dan Simmons second book of the Hyperion Cantos, "The Fall of Hyperion". Quite an interesting sci-fi book, it's a mix of several different themes, written in a very good style. I dare to say that I haven't read anything like it yet. Sometimes it is quite brutal, sometimes a little too romantic and cliche but it is always thrilling and you can't stop reading. Definitely good stuff.



So, once again, such a long journal...my congratulations, if you have read through all of it :D
And be aware, I'll keep you updated...(just forgive me my lack of acticvity in the coming days, I won't have as much acess to the internet without my computer so I'll most likely comment later as usual...) ]]> ~darkMyke Living...and doing stuff... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13026975/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/13026975/ Sun, 20 May 2007 14:33:48 PDT Yeah, exactly that kind of headache. It sucks.


Whatever, now for the important things in life. Like the University. Well, it's going on, slow but steadily. A lot of work keeps me busy and in fact I should work all day and night to keep up with the stuff we're doing but hey - you've got to draw the line somewhere, right?
I'm sure you don't want to hear but I'll tell you anyway - if you ever get a closer insight on modern cryptographic algorithms (or browse Wikipedia, which will work out as well) like DES or AES or stuff like that...it's kind of fun. Quite interesting, actually, because it seems so weird. I can tell you, most of the stuff seems totally arbitrary and random but in the end it all works out and makes hacking not feasible yet. Fascinating...

Also, Manifolds are extremely weird, and I have yet to understand them, but they are quite...wow, as well. "To fully understand the mathematics behind manifolds, it is necessary to know elementary concepts regarding sets and functions, and helpful to have a working knowledge of calculus and topology.", as the Wiki puts it. What an understatement...

Another funny thing are Ordinal- and Cardinalnumbers. This kind of stuff gets really close to the "fundamentals" of Mathematics and you feel like you you can almost see the bottom of the seemingly infinite abyss of Logic. It gets kind of interesting when you have to think about a certain object and have to find out what it actually is - is it a set? Most of you won't know anything else, besides a set (and you definitely won't need anything besides that!) but actually, sets are small even though they may be infinite. Classes, on the other hand, can be REALLY BIG. The (mathematical) Universe can be described with a Class, but not with a Set.
Then you think about a certain theorem - is it actually only one theorem? Or maybe an infinite (which means countable) scheme of theorems? And of course you know that it might be one of those theorems, which can't be proven, due to the Incompleteness of Mathematics...Goedel sei dank!
...

Mathematics can be really cool, you know, but I fear that some of you won't agree with me. What a pity :D



...but yeah, on the other hand, there's not much else to tell. Living on and doing stuff. Not much else besides that at the moment, a little snooker or pool sometimes, some movies...
Well, last tuesday I went to a nice Super Smash Brothers Melee Smashfest at a good friend's house - years after the game came out, something like a "Smashscene" is forming in Austria :D
Sadly I almost stopped playing a long time ago and never trained properly - however, there's still no challenger who could take my second place in Austria yet. And I should get some good training during the holidays, so...I'm awaiting challenges :P

And on June 2nd I'll go to a Blender Training course. Just to see how other people work with Blender and to see if I can learn some new tricks there - and of course, to meet some fellow Blenderheads. If you haven't done yet, make sure to check out the new Blender 2.44, now with SSS and other small but nifty updates.
Once again, Blender <3



One last thing - I knwo that I'm letting you wait for some new stuff. My last two works haven't really met my personal quality standards, so I need some time to get new inspiration and motivation. You shall not be disappointed...

]]> ~darkMyke April,12th http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/12568118/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/12568118/ Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:34:06 PDT
Anyway, just got back from playing a little Pool and felt like writing a bit, so here I am. Actually I wanted to play Snooker but it was like 3-1. It's been a while since I last played Pool and hell, I did horribly. Whatever...

Sooo, tomorrow I'm going to the Lord of the Rings Symphony!
I was pretty lucky to get a card in the end since I waited a little too long and it was also not that inexpensive, even though it is not a really good place. But I'm sure it is worth it. For me, as a Tolkien Lover, fan of classical music and dramatic Soundtracks, this is definitely a must-hear.



Besides that, I've got plenty to do with University. I had (and still have) holidays (till monday) and I was not completely lazy, but still, it seems like I've done nothing the whole time. Rather disappointing. A pretty simple program took me almost two days to complete, since I'm really a total newbie to Java and it was a little weird to get used to the syntax and the concepts. Especially since we had to use a pre-written source of code in which we had to implement our algorithm, leaving the rest of the code untouched.
For now it finally seems to work...

Aikido is going well, too, although I just feel like a complete moron, nothing is as easy or smooth as it looks, when someone experienced is demonstrating it. I can't even remember most of the techniques...as they say, it will really take years to be able to reach a certain level of skill. But hey, I'm patient and always aiming towards perfection :D

I have also, eventually, finished watching Ergo Proxy. Quite an entertaining Anime, so weird at times, and not really easy to follow, at least not until you've got it right. And that's what I like :D

And a last thing - of course I knew about Adam's books and work The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Of course I knew that the Answer to Life, Universe and Everything is 42. But I honestly did not have a clue that it would be the Question, which counts! And, that the books are so amazingly entertaining. I didn't know what I have missed yet, all these weird things going on in the Universe.



Soooo....long and thanks for the fish ;)

]]> ~darkMyke SmashWhee15KWork!?. http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/12145856/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/12145856/ Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:34:29 PDT So, the journal title sums it up...it's been a weird week :D

Back to the University, the new semester started, smashed a glass of water and had to use one whole hour for cleaning up, had my dinner explode in the microwave (with another 1/2 hour of cleaning), passed a pretty difficult exam (with a pretty good mark :D ) only to screw up the next day while presenting my solution on the blackboard, smashed my glasses (they broke while I was cleaning them...) RIGHT before my aforementioned exam started, but got them repared soon (luckily), got my first diploma (well, actually it's only a certificate that I have all the exams of the first year done - but it still feels great!), passed the 15K mark on dA and eventually my course on Aikido started yesterday.

Today I'm tired and I still can't sit comfortably since my butt hurts...you know, that happens when you get thrown around like crazy and fall on your butt everytime...but hey, it was still great :D

Of course I'll also tell you which courses I'm taking this semester - you can not escape!
// Calculus 3, the successor of Calculus 1 and Calculus 2...it's getting harder and harder and this is definitely the climax :D
Will be a LOT of HARD work...especially since we're the first ones to test the new teaching plan. But the cover of the script is great and well worth the money! Take a look at it here: [link]
// An Introduction to Probability theory and Statistics
Well, after doing Measuretheory last semester...this shouldn't be too hard. Rather boring, I guess. But also fun since it's now a lecture for students in the second semester. I'm in the fourth now, so I can show off a little :D
// Algorithms and Data structures
Aactually not a lecture for mathematicians but I still have to do it. Sounds interesting, though, since I'm not really experienced with coding yet and again, I can show off a little with my skills :D
Especially since the math we need there is really simple. The only problem is that there are SOOOO many people doing it. Around 700...O_o
// Algebraic Methods of Computer Science
Now this is for mathematicians. And it sounds quite cool! I just need to mention Cryptography I guess...
// Set Theory 2
Sucessor of Set Theory 1, should be fun...obviously, this is for real freaks and we're only around 9 people in the lecture. But hey, this is about the fundamentials of modern mathematics, the "universal language of maths". It's really, really interesting...

Yeah, this is it...shouldn't be boring...I hope you agree...



Remember about the big project I talked about in my last journal? Well, since it's so "big", I decided to take a little break. I couldn't get into the right flow yet, so I don't want to try too hard and screw everything. I've started something smaller and easier and also quite boring thing...but still, it's something I've always wanted to do. Now its about time :)

While we're at it...Blender 2.43 was released as well. Blender is getting so damn good, I can't even believe it anymore. When I started with it, it was a nifty tool, enough for a hobbyist who's just starting out and probably a little more. Today it is growing quicker than ever and with every new version it takes another impressive step towards the big companies and their products called Maya, 3DSM or Cinema 4D. If Blender's development goes on like that, and there's actually nothing else to expect, then it will become something...incredible. More than freeware. It will become a real competition to the cashcows. Somehow I feel proud to be part of the Blenderwave...I know it's stupid but I can't help it. I do hope that my work can help a little to show what that excellent piece of software is capable of.
Thanks everyone so much who is supporting the coding and the development...you guys are more than awesome!
Blender <3



Oh, and the last thing: ~darkMyke Über die Natur des Kubus... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/11734503/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/11734503/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:17:57 PST
Hm, I wish I could enjoy them a little more. But you know that feeling, when your very existence seems a little sad and tragic, when something is just not right :)

Luckily, there is something to work on. Exams are coming up, some of them being pretty hard ones, projects need to be finished. I only took the exam on Algebra last week, which wasn't as easy as expected as well.
Therefore I can now hack into a bank's security code, which is based on finite Fields, so called Galoisfields, I can tell you that Quantum logic, the logic of quantum mechanical events, is pretty weird (or non-distributive, if that means anything to you) and I can give proof that there's no justice in this world - yes, it is actually called "Arrow's Impossibility Theorem". Algebra was fun, yeah!

I have also started a new project - and what a start it has been. It is merely a start into a new way of working. What that exactly means and what the benfits are - we shall see. But let me tell you, never before did I put so much dedication into the concept of a piece, so much thinking and time. I hope that my skills will be able to keep up with the speed of my thoughts and that the results will come close to what I imagine at the moment.
The weird title of my journal is probably a hint on what to expect - or not.

]]> ~darkMyke Celebrations...and a new year... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/11150027/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/11150027/ Wed, 03 Jan 2007 12:44:18 PST

Well, I had all that... :D
I didn't even tell you yet, but I actually got a Wii for christmas - even though I had already believed there would be no chance to get one it the old year, since everyone went crazy about that new marvel by Nintendo (well, so did I, to be frank).
I can tell you, it is such a joy to play The Twilight Princess - a wonderful game, definitely a challenge for the so-called best game ever, The Ocarina of Time. Okay, maybe it is not really up there, on top of the olymp of videogames, but still, it gets close. Wonderful...

I did not even take my time to test the online features of the Wii yet...well, I guess I don't really need all that stuff, or rather, I'm not used to get online with console O_o

Well, sorry, but now I've got to go...I need to save the world of light along with the kingdom of Hyrule and fulfill my destiny as the hero, remember :D

]]> ~darkMyke Daily life... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10766666/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10766666/ Sat, 18 Nov 2006 12:48:24 PST
But I can't help myself, time is just running like some mad 100 m sprinter. Christmas is already approaching, it still seems far away but I'm sure the remaining time will pass very quickly. Especially since there needs to be a lot of work squeezed into that time...I tell you, our lecture about Differentialequations is ugly. I hope my prof doesn't read this but it's really not funny. To waste such an interesting part of mathematics... >_>
But don't worry, I won't bore you again with all my stuff in the university. It's not that exciting either - only for other freaks like me, maybe ;)

At the beginning of this month, I have "celebrated" my 2nd completed year on deviantArt. A lot of things have happened since my early beginnings here and I was about to write some nice stuff but in the end, I decided to do that some other time. I simply lacked the enthusiasm to think about all what happened. But it's just like that, when I have work to do, I'm always a little bit...well, uncreative. So maybe during the holidays...(less than one month to go...)

I just recently started to like Snooker...the more civilized variation of Pool Billard :D
It's really a tough game, it takes a lot of thinking and concentration as well as practice to get good. I'm just starting out so I'm happy not to make any fouls or something but I'm intrigued...a very fine sport. Only a little tedious for a beginner like me...especially if you come to the end of the game and have to get all that little, colorful balls into these holes in the HUGE table...whew, that takes quite some time for a newbie like me :D

Ah, let's not forget that I discovered the utter beauty of Haggard...they incorporate metal instruments into a classical orchestra and music - just wonderful. I always wonder how many people actually have ever heard about them. Or that kind of music. I'm just totally into it at the moment...

By the way, I'm still optimistic to finish my new work by the end of november...

]]> ~darkMyke Uni... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10455929/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10455929/ Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:04:28 PDT

So, two weeks ago, life at the university started again. With brand new lectures. After getting a lot of the basics done, one can now start to dig a little deeper into mathematics ;)
But only a little...
Anyway, I'm taking these courses this semester:

// Algebra - after taking Linear Algebra during the past year, this one was obvious ;)

// Measure- and Probability theory - I fear this is going to be a little...well, not my thing. It's a lot of work, too.

// Differential equations - definitely interesting. A lot of stuff from Physics comes into play here. Will be even more work, from what I hear, but therefore you learn how to "calculate" waves (Navier Stokes equation), the movement of particles (Schrödinger equation) and the flow of money (Black-Scholes equation)...but these equations are real monsters, I tell you... :D

// Set theory - I do this one out of interest. Even when you start to study maths, you actually never define a Set properly (even though math is using sets almost all the time). When you hear about it, you also learn about a way to produce a contradiction which has no solution if you stick with the "naive" definition of a set. Here we should learn about how it really works...

// Introduction to Information theory - since I consider to specialize on computer-mathematical applications, this one should be a good start.

// A computer project - actually more than only one. We need to do projects in JAVA, LaTeX, Maple and R...hard to judge how much work this actually is. But on the other hand, it should not be too bad.

Well, this is what my life will basically look like during the next few months. Not too bad, huh ;)
Actually it started out with an exam on wednesday last week, which was damn hard. Out of 27, only 7 (including me, although I got a pretty minimal score...) passed the written exam O_o So, the oral exam has to be good if I want to improve that...still, I'm very happy that I can even take the oral exam, especially looking at the overall success and the questions themselves.

Besides that...nothing really new. I have read Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines" which was really an exciting book. As a lover of Ghost in the Shell, I was certainly a little bit surprised that the fictional future is not far away from what Kurzweil predicts. Sure, his arguments may be overly optimistic but still, I personally believe that they are not completely off. And even if they are, the book still is extremely thought provoking.

I'm also going to watch the surely extremely bad DoA movie the next week :D
It is surely going to be fun, since I'm not a DoA fan (I played it for the absolutely first time this september) nor do I have a clue how all these cuties (wait, there were male characters too...I obviously don't mean these) are called but that's why it is going to be fun - I love bad movies and it won't destroy a long fanboyship, like it will for some of the guys I'm going to the cinema with...

Oh, do I need to mention that I'm still waiting for the wii...

BTW, a new work is in the making but is going to take a while longer...

]]> ~darkMyke DD?! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10079857/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/10079857/ Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:53:08 PDT
I got my 3rd DD - feature today.
I'm not even sure how I feel anymore.

See, it makes me speechless, a DD is so special that you basically can't get used to that feeling. I'm more than happy and it means more than a lot to me.
I want to say "Thank you so much" to *Captian-Deschain and @bluespeed9 who made it possible. You two made my day, really.



But there's something that I can't get rid of - the answer if I even deserve that. I got one DD almost exactly one year ago and it felt like it can't get better anymore. The next one in May - it was the ultimate confirmation to me, that my work IS worth the time I use to make it. That people like it and appreciate what I do.

I don't need more than that. That is maybe strange but I think there are other people who need such an experience more than me. I'm set with my work, I know what I can do, I know that I will still get better and I know what I'm doing...others would deserve that, too.


So...what do I want to say? Am I not grateful for today's surprise?
I am and I can't even tell you how much - but somehow I feel bad for others...

Yeah, I'm a baka, definitely ;)
Again, thanks to everyone for all your support, without you I'd be nowhere :ahoy: ]]> ~darkMyke Oh... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/9709796/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/9709796/ Sun, 13 Aug 2006 05:48:38 PDT But it's that time of the year again - summer just makes me all sleepy and lazy and bored. I hate that yet I can't change it...

Nothing really happened lately, therefore I didn't think that it was necessary to update my journal or something. Well, okay, I passed my two exams at the beginning of the summer break (one of them with ease...I wish all of the exams would be like that).
Another thing is that I have my driving license for almost one year now. In Austria you have to do special courses in the driving school and a training with the car within one year after you've obtained the license in order to actually have it...so, yeah, I did the last thing necessary for that last week...

But besides that...

So, yeah, there's nothing really to write about - I just hope that this boring time will end soon and that I'll get a grip on myself! ]]> ~darkMyke Wheee!!! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/9046979/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/9046979/ Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:55:19 PDT
Anyway, today I had my oral Calculus exam. I really, really knew that this one was going to be tough but...I did it!
In the end I was quite surprised by the outcome, after an easy first question the prof started with the harder stuff and wanted to see, how good I am. But it seems that my answers were good enough to get a great mark... and I can tell you, I'm so happy about that :)
Still there are two other exams coming up now, at the end of June, Linear Algebra and C. But these should hopefully be a little easier, especially coding is fun and should be very possible to do!

Quite a lot of stuff happened lately but especially the University was keeping me from being active here. Now, there's the World Cup, too, so, you might have to wait for a little while longer until you see something fresh from me. However, I can tell you, I'm working on something and I want it to be good (just like you, I guess)... ]]> ~darkMyke Unexpected!!! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8681471/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8681471/ Sun, 07 May 2006 07:11:35 PDT

Oh my...what can I say?

Back in september I felt empty and really unmotivated to go on with my work.
Then something happened, that made me feel much easier. I received a DD feature, which was more than I ever expected. It was a dream that came true, made possible by one of the person I know, =Betelgeux, who suggested Machinae and `alyn who featured it.

Guess what, it happened again...and once again, I'm left speechless. After getting a DD I would have never ever expected anything else. I reached more than I thought I ever would but I was fooled yet again.

Thanks so much to ^smashmethod for another DD feature, it came totally unexpected, just like back in september (but then again, I guess that's the nature of a DD).
Hopefully I'll eventually realize that my work is really appreciated and respected and that I should not always worry so much about my stuff - I should simply concentrate on what I can do best and it will be fine. Especially when I'm in such a phase of emptiness - I should keep on working and it will go away - eventually. That's what I will do now!

Oh, as you can see, I'm just so sensitive ;)




I'd also like to announce the revival of the *BlenderCommunity!
The old one died some time ago but =Mandoragon decided to make a new one and here it is. It's still in the early stages but anyway, as a Blender user I invite all other Blender users to show the community some love :)

]]> ~darkMyke Empty... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8322742/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8322742/ Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:08:48 PST

Hey, it's been a while since my last entry but I still don't really feel like writing a new one...
There simply so much to do at the moment. At least easter holidays will begin soon even though I have to learn a lot for my next exam which should be sometime soon after the holidays. I made it through the written Calculus Exam (as one of 18 people who did it...out of 48 O_o ) so it's the oral one that is coming up.

I'm not really motivated to do some new piece at the moment so don't expect something soon. I'm just experimenting a lot with lighting and rendering as well as texturing techniques but this takes some time...as I definitely want to improve my skills in these areas.

]]> ~darkMyke Welcome back... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8027710/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/8027710/ Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:52:05 PST

Holidays are over, let's get back to work...or so it goes for me. Well, as usual, it's hard to get back to daily business after 4 weeks of holidays ;)
I guess I'll be very busy this week with my preparations for the hardest exam yet. But to be honest, it's more our lecturer who makes it that difficult. He's actually quite well known for being a little mean - if you get the point. Heh, still, after the good results of my last exams I'm motivated to show him his way home and hopefully get an okay result again!

The Olympics are over - sadly. I enjoyed watching the competitions the whole day and especially the great results for the austrian athletes. Torino 2006 were the best olympic games for Austria ever.
So, see you again in 2010, at Vancouver - I'm sure we'll have a great time again :)

And I also extremely enjoyed watching the movie Hero. It is simply a wonderful show with stunning visuals and an intense mood and feeling. The fighting scenes were...a little disappointing to me, if I'm honest, but actually I don't really care about them. The rest was just too good...



I wanted to finish my next work before the University starts again but I didn't make it, as you can see...
The main problem will be the render, it is extremely time consuming this time (blurred reflections anyone?) and I fear that I won't be able to render it at the size that I'm usually working with. Oh well, it seems like I'd need a little renderfarm at home :P

]]> ~darkMyke Gold!!!!!!! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7809921/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7809921/ Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:07:24 PST

I'm sorry for the many journals at the moment but Holidays + Olympic Games = a lot to talk about :D
Well, especially because I'm always a little enthusiastic when it comes down to such big events...



OMFG...I'm quite speechless but...Austria just won its third Goldmedal today...three goldmedals and two Bronze medals within a few hours...I thought, the last days were good ones but...I didn't know something like this could happen.

Yeah...Austria is now on the second place overall, with 7 Goldmedals (note the 7 !s in the title :D ), 5 Silvermedals and 3 Bronzemedals...
I'm sorry but...I can't add something to these achievements...

These are the most successfull Wintergames for Austria ever and especially after the suspicious events of Saturday Night with the police roundup in one of the austrian accommodations...but the athletes really, really gave the best, the only answer to that and reacted with amazing performances.
:salute:



Well, now there's something new...you'll see it soon, even though I'm really not happy with the result.
It started out good but then I was not sure where to go anymore - and that's always a bad thing, losing the direction for the image =/

To my great surprise 'Twilight of the Gods' has made it into the "Blender Community Journal", an 'official', monthly Blender magazine, of January. Quite a great honor for me and definitely motivating :)

]]> ~darkMyke Working II... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7602410/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7602410/ Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:21:14 PST
The new year just begun, yet everything's already as it was last year. Back to the University, a lot of work has to be done. Sadly one of our teachers doesn't really know anything about his job and it's hard to follow him during the lectures. So, even more work has to be done at home, one has to learn the stuff mostly by himself. Heh, and it's really not getting easier...=/
Oh well, there are also a few exams coming up. One which isn't really important to me anymore as I already have passed the specific subject since we had three other tests and I already have enough points - at least that. However, the other ones are going to be pretty tough but I'll do my best ;)

Other than that...currently I can't get enough of the the piece of music I have mentioned above - an excellent, classical interpretation of the Super Metroid Theme. Simply wonderful...
Oh, and Advent Children was an awesome movie, really. The story sucks like hell (or is it good?...just tell me if you are a FF VII fan...) but who cares anyway? The CG is outstanding and it was simply a great watch.


Preview


Well, I didn't have the motivation to do much during the last few days but I did finish a VERY small project I did for a friend of mine. Well, it was more like a joke and merely a rather quick piece for me. Nevertheless a great training for organic modelling, and at least she liked it...
Preview


^^;
Yeah, something very different for me...
I have also started something new...as usual, it will take a while until it is finished but I hope it will satisfy me as my last work, Götterdämmerung, did. Then it will definitely be fine...

]]> ~darkMyke Back!... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7351556/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/7351556/ Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:11:43 PST
I also want to officialy thank =Betelgeux for giving me such a wonderful gift. Yes, he was the one who bought me the subscription. Thank you so much!


Oh well, Holidays finally started. I guess I really need them as the life at the University isn't that easy. Some of my friends already gave up and decided to do something else. I'm still there but in order to suceed I have to work pretty hard at the moment. Therefore, there's not much time for anything else. But hey, it is slowly getting better, or at least I try to think that...

That is also the reason for my lack of activity during the last few weeks. I've only checked dA mostly and looked through the new deviations in my watch but never took my time to comment or something. I hope I can change that for the next weeks and spend a little more time here.


Preview


Lately I haven't been very interested in making art myself. I guess I really needed some kind of break as I have worked more than one year "nonstop". Since I have discovered Blender last August I always tried to push myself and made something new, never stopping to relax a little. I guess I'm not that kind of artist who can make wonderful piece after wonderful piece. So, at first I didn't want to realize that but now I finally have. I accepted that and I have to say, it is getting better again.
I have started a big project again, after doing some quick pieces mostly to improve my 2d style and which I'm not going to show around (or at least I don't think I will - they're just not up to my own expectations).
At first I feared that my current WIP isn't going to be a good one but now it is developing and becoming something...or at least I hope so.

So, please bear with me but I always loved it when someone like Nightangel added a preview image to his journal....and now I'll do that, too :D


Preview


And now I wish everyone a
Merry Christmas!
]]> ~darkMyke Celebrating... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6952404/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6952404/ Fri, 04 Nov 2005 09:57:12 PST
Honestly, I'm not really good with celebrating such stuff, as it is not very important to me. But hey, let me tell you, I reached my goals that I actually had back at the time when I joined.
I've always wished for 10 pageviews daily which means 3650 a year. I have passed that by far. And not only that, I'd have never expected to get a Daily Deviation some day. I'd have never expected to get 176 Watches and a piece with nearly 400 favourites.

But today, I've got all that - my dreams became true.
So, I definitely hope for another year like that :)

And now you'll have the pleasure to read 20 things about me as I have been tagged by ~akibara as well as by ~ThanadoS
Oh well, if you really want to know...

[1] I tend to think a lot and therefore will need a lot of time to do this...
[2] I'm a person who seldom shows any "real" emotion - I always stay cool and calm...
[3] I like the winter more than the summer...
[4] If I had a choice between night and day I'd choose the night...
[5] I always enjoy to discuss something with someone...
[6] I hate to decide something if I don't know all that I have to know or if I couldn't think enough about it...
[7] That's why I often hesitate very long before I actually do something...
[8] I'd like to learn martial arts and especially something like Kendo...
[9] I'd like to know more about different cultures and languages...
[10] I'd like to know more about the world in general...
[11] If I'm honest, I'd like to know more about everything...
[12] I like movies and series which make it necessary to think about them...
[13] I'm shy...
[14] Often I don't really like myself...
[15] ...but sometimes I think that I'm actually not that bad at all...
[16] I like maths (and study it!)...
[17] I like to read a lot...
[18] I'm almost unable to sit there and do nothing, I'm always searching for some kind of "challenge"...
[19] I hate to do the same thing over and over again...
[20] I call myself a "chainbraker"...because I won't tag anyone else...

Yeah, that's it... ]]> ~darkMyke Studying... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6781584/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6781584/ Sun, 16 Oct 2005 08:51:37 PDT Listening to... Arkimedes - Fall from above (You can't stop) - A Halo VGM remix
[This is one of the best VideoGameMusic remixes I've ever heard. Found at ocremix.org, a great place for all VGM lovers out there...like me]

Watching... GITS: SAC 2nd GIG
[I luckily got a chance to watch this. I haven't seen all of the episodes yet but I have to say that the 2nd GIG is almost even better than the 1st GIG. The Intro is simply amazing and the overall feeling of the series is really intense. I wish they would make a 3rd GIG someday...]

Yes, my first year at the university started two weeks ago. It is definitely something new and different. It is so different from going to school that it will surely take some time to get used to it. But overall it isn't bad there. I enjoy the liberty you have there and it's good to work with people who are willing to work to suceed with their studies, too. And it is absolutely necessary to work together, I guess if you're alone you won't have a chance there.
But that is a good thing. University is a challenge for me and I do hope that I'm able to take it. But honestly, I would be quite surprised if I didn't make it...

Nevertheless, at the moment I'm too busy with getting into the basics of my studies and that means mathematics. All the stuff we learned in school is almost "useless" here, everything has to be re-thought. So, at least for now it seems to be pretty difficult to understand and appreciate everything but I'm sure that after some time we'll get used to the new notations and then we will be able to really get into the interesting stuff!

That also means that there's not that much time for doing art. After a long day at the university I'm usually not really motivated to do something and therefore it'll surely take some time to finish new projects. The problem is that I often burst with creativity but lack the time to use it properly. I'm rather impatiently at the moment, often starting something new and soon giving up because I feel like it lacks something. I'm not putting enough effort into my work as I'm too tired for that. I want results, quickly, but due to my lack of experience and knowledge that isn't possible. And that's something I have to accept somehow. I'm still working on that even though I already know what's going wrong...

Besides that, I also want to say Thank you for 5000 pageviews!
Again, let me tell you that all of your support is greatly appreciated! Even if I can't reply to your favourites or watches or comments, you should know that they are why I keep on working! ]]> ~darkMyke Dreaming...! http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6483238/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6483238/ Mon, 12 Sep 2005 06:54:14 PDT
I'm still quite speechless and I don't have a clue how I could thank =Betelgeux for suggesting and ^alyn for featuring Machinae.

If I'm honest you made a dream of mine come true. I always saw these great images called "Daily Deviations" and thought that I'd like to be able to do such stunning pieces, even before I became a member of dA. But I also knew that there would be no chance that I'd ever do it. No way...
Until yesterday.

It's really an exciting experience and the best motivation to go on. I finally have to admit it to myself, that you all REALLY appreciate my work. I know it and I'll make sure that my stuff will be even better in the future. I'm going to work even more and I'm sure that my best render still is far ahead in the future. Until then, I'm going to improve my style and knowledge about CG.
Watch out! :) ]]> ~darkMyke G...o... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6351898/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6351898/ Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:02:19 PDT Listening to... Haendel - Sarabande
[...utter beauty...nothing more...nothing less...]

Watching... Sin City
[I just came back from the cinema and I'm still thinking about the movie while I'm writing this. It's hard to describe it but it's just that I have never seen something like that before (oh well, I have seen Elfen Lied already but it's not really comparable). The violence is truly violent. And there's a lot of it, honestly. But...I guess I don't have problems with that as long as it is "aesthetical". I dislike some of the extremely violent scenes simply because they are not necessary to see. Seeing nothing is sometimes better than seeing everthying. But in my eyes the movie is still one of the better ones I have seen yet. Simply because of the (CRAZY!) characters and the dark sides of the humans. And their good character traits, even though there are only a few good people in basin city, as it seems. As I've said, it's hard to describe...but the more I think about it, the more I like the movie......the lack of color and the graphical experiment is amazing and it doesn't have a happy end..........and yes, Nancy is goddamn cute.....]

Besides that, a lot of things happened lately. However, I won't waste your time too much...
First off, I got my driving license. I really did it, somehow. Nothing too special but at least it didn't take too long to get it.
There's also a lot of work to do at my home. We have to prepare our garden and that means dirt and tons of work. The bad side is, that it is always raining here...and let me tell you, it's a pain to work outside during such a bad weather...
I have also got the newest version of Photoshop, CS 2.

Another thing is that I turned 18 on August 21st. That wasn't a big change in my life but I wish I'd have stayed 17 somehow. Being a child isn't a bad thing at all. It is so much easier than being a grown up. Oh well, I guess I can't do anything about it and I'm sure I'll take the upcoming challenges, too.

Artwise...
...don't expect too much in the near future. I feel empty at the moment, not due to my creativity but due to my lack of skill. I have so much ideas and all of them seem to be destroyed by my missing knowledge, about 3D about 2D, about art. But I'm going to try new things, maybe it will turn out to be successful, maybe not. We'll see what the future brings.

And now there's another thing that I want to tell you - Thank you for all your support and 100 watches!
Without some of you my life as an "artist" would be much harder. Without your comments and your kind words, I could not find new motivation sometimes. I can't say that I'm doing art only for myself. One part of art is to show it around (at least in my opinion). To see other people's reactions, their thoughts. I don't need 1000 pageviews a day though...if only a few people see my stuff every day, and if they like my work and if they appreciate all the time I invest to produce them or if they give me feedback so that I can improve it next time...then I'm happy. ]]> ~darkMyke dA... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6120996/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/6120996/ Wed, 03 Aug 2005 09:13:54 PDT Listening to... the relaxing sound of raindrops...and to Dream Theater - Octavarium - The Answer lies within

Watching... Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex, 1st GIG
[This series is definitely worth seeing it. It might be not as amazing as our loved original GITS - Movie but overall the Animation, Music, storyline, everything is well thought and fits to the whole concept of the anime. Of course, there are some flaws, as the story is quite confusing sometimes, it wouldn't hurt to have some more episodes which explain the details of the case. But hey, it's not too much and probably a good reason to re-watch it someday!]

deviantArt
I've been on a short vacation the last few days and honestly - it seems that a major part of deviantArt changed during that time. I was quite surprised when I saw all these Jark - Deviations and all the journals about him being kicked out of the administration of dA.

Well, I have never though about dA actually works and how it is kept on running. Now it is quite obvious that this was a little stupid as I don't have enough informations about Jark's work and stuff. Honestly, many people here are acting like Jark = dA, which I personally can't understand.
Let me clarify, I'm very grateful for creating a place like dA and doing everything to make it bigger and more beautiful. And yes, it is a sad day when one of dA's creators gets kicked out. I'm really not supporting spyed and the way he (and maybe some other administration members as well) is acting. It seems that Jark was removed in a very rude way which is unacceptable and shouldn't be honored.

However, I still don't think that there's a need to be SO upset and angry about his removal. Deleting galleries, stopping to make comments and such, bringing the site to a halt...all of these plans are fine but would a someone like Jark, who loves dA so much really want to see the whole community and all his work stopped or maybe even destroyed if it goes on like that? I'm not sure about that but I personally wouldn't want that, I think. I'd hope that everything would be solved soon and that dA would get back to it's normal state as soon as possible (which I do now) - keeping in mind that there are so many people who know about and appreciate what I've done for the site.

I do hope that dA's administration will make the proper reactions soon. I don't know how the problem could be solved but I do hope that they really try to manage the situation and that they plan to do something to give Jark some kind of excuse or explanation so that the community will see they're serious about that and that they know that they have done something wrong (is that too much of an happy end...?).

So, to sum it up - I'm for Jark and against dA - administration's way of removing him - however, I won't stop visiting dA or I won't delete my stuff or something like that. But nevertheless I have already made a Jark avatar...

Otherwise...
...there's not too much exciting. Driving school's going on, my work on my new stuff is going on, my life is going on. I'm not in a real summer mood at the moment as there's a lot to do because we're currently working on our house, too. The garden needs to be done and stuff like that...but hey, I hope we can finish that soon. ]]> ~darkMyke Going on... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5598963/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5598963/ Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:40:13 PDT Listening to...GITS:SAC OST (Anime freaks will know what that means) - Yoko Kanno - Inner Universe
[One of the best Openings I've ever heard - I love this song]

Watching...War of the Worlds
[Well, to be honest I was quite disappointed by the movie - the effects are surely great but the acting is...well, bad. The story itself was created like 100 years ago by H. G. Wells but today it's not really original anymore. Some more changes could have been made to make it more interesting...]

As you can see I'm trying to get some kind of design into my journals...

It's been already a while since I came back from Spain (more than one week)...time is moving on very quickly...

Next monday I'm starting to learn driving so that I can the driver's licence some time in August or something...I'm already very curious how difficult that will be. I'm sure I'll crash into something >_>

Other than that I'm doing nothing...well, I'm currently finishing a new piece which I have started like one month ago during the hardest time of learning for my final exams. And if I'm honest I can actually feel the lack of inspiration that I had at that time - the image is somehow...boring...no matter what I try to improve it. However, I've spent so much time on it that I just don't want to simply get rid of it. Bleh, you'll see it soon...

I enjoy to play Paper Mario, too. I've bought the game shortly before I went to spain and it's definitely among the best and funniest videogames I've ever played. What makes it so impressive? The Graphics? The Sound?
Nah, definitely not. It's the Nintendo style that makes it so lovely, the story, the hidden jokes they make about themselves. It's a game that makes fun of the whole videogames genre and of itself... ]]> ~darkMyke Preparing... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5354165/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5354165/ Sat, 14 May 2005 07:52:00 PDT This week was again a pretty interesting one. First off, I got the results for my exams that I had the week before. And I have to say, I'm pretty confident with them - I've got the best mark in all four exams and had the best works in my class in English and Maths, two subjects which are very important and special for me :)

Even though I'm REALLY happy about that, I know that the oral exams are approaching and that these will be quite a bit harder. There's still a lot to do but despite that I don't feel stressed at the moment. I actually feel comfortable and relaxed. My creative block that I had for some time is gone and I finally had an idea for my next piece. Expect something totally different than the dirt and the darkness of Machinae...I'm actually looking forward to the finished piece myself, I'm rather curious if it's going to be like I want it to be or not.

But hey, we'll see...and let me thank you again for all the favs and comments on Machinae, they were really important for me and are telling me that I'm not on the completely wrong way! ]]> ~darkMyke Decisive... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5230797/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/5230797/ Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:48:50 PDT
This week started with good news for me - I don't have to go to the military service, so I won't lose a whole year and I can surprisingly start my studies already this year. However, that means that I have to decide what I actually want to do soon.

But before I can do that, I'll have to pass my final exams, beginning this Monday. They consist of 4 tests this week and of 3 oral exams in June. That's why I haven't been too active during the last few weeks, especially outside of dA.
Still, I have a few works in progress and I'm quite happy that I had enough time for recreation, too.

So, wish me good luck...not that I'd need it ;) ]]> ~darkMyke Stressed... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4800407/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4800407/ Sun, 13 Mar 2005 08:44:22 PST That's the reason for my inactivity - here on DA, as well as in doing some new stuff. I've only finished one work. However, I have experimented a lot, too. Especially with modelling and my 3d skills. You'll see a result soon.

So, if anyone actually missed me, please forgive my lack of activity, I hope that will change somehow soon. ]]> ~darkMyke Developing... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4461922/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4461922/ Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:35:47 PST
I had to quote Nightangel here, too, as these words are describing my own feelings about my work. I do whatever I like and whatever I want to create - and I simply don't have a clue about making real art so the quote is very true for me.

Currently I also see my work in a different way than before. Something changed and even though I can't say that I'm totally satisfied with Radiosity and Divinity, there are some things that I'll probably improve in the future, but in general I like these two pieces and I think they are much better than my old ones. Detailed yet simple, as I've said before. It's hard to describe what I really think but I hope that I can show you what I mean with my next few works... :) ]]> ~darkMyke Working... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4327755/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4327755/ Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:06:06 PST Anyway, I'm really working a lot on my skills in both 3d and PS. That takes a lot of time but I think it's necessary to develop my work.
I have a finished (?) one on my HD, I guess I'll upload it sooner or later. Now I'm doing something that's actually not my style. But we'll see if it is worth it or not. I want to make it very fast as I don't want to think about it too much - I just want to do it. Maybe that's the better way to work.

Anyway, otherwise there isn't something new, I have passed 500 pageviews (wow...) but yeah...that's probably nothing special. ]]> ~darkMyke Impressions... http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4011750/ http://darkMyke.deviantart.com/journal/4011750/ Tue, 07 Dec 2004 14:29:16 PST
# is currently Stumped -> you couldn't find a better emoticon to express my current feelings - I'm feeling unsure about my "art" and don't have a clue if it will ever be as good as I want it to be. I always have great plans in my mind but when it comes down to actually realizing them I have to see that I can't do the things that I want to do, my finished projects are always quite different from what I had in my mind. I hate that, to be unable to create all the ideas that pop up in my brain and to actually model or brush them or whatever...
It's hard to accept that I simply don't have the time to learn all the stuff I need for that...

But, since I've joined DA there's a new motivation to go on. I know that I'm a bloody beginner and that I will need a whole long time to be able to realize my dreams. But I've realized that there are people that do like my works. And I have to admit that this feeling is great, to know that someone does really like what you're doing (or at least pretends to do so). Even though I'm not really known here, the very few people that have visited my account and left some comments or favs, they're helping me a lot and are a big motivation to go on.

So, basically, that's all I wanted to say - thanks for the support!

And to finish, the current emoticon of the week/month/whatever __:boogie: -> I love that one ]]> ~darkMyke