http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:zlxq3000&section=today deviantART RSS for by:zlxq3000 en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:37:07 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/28642508/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/28642508/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:52:47 PST
idk

So I recently picked up two new games... Well, one's new, and one's stupidly old and I'm dumb for not owning it sooner, but fuck you. Anyway, they're both from the same franchise, and that franchise isn't Pokemon. SHOCKER! No, these games are Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Brothers Wii-hee!... It always amuses me to hear Mario say the name of that game in the title screen for some reason. But yeah, time to talk about games and such.


SMG was pretty cool. For those who don't know, ie. those who live under rocks (where there isn't internet anyway, so they wouldn't be reading this in the first place), Bowser has somehow obtained crazy space machines, which he uses to lazor Mushroom Castle, then takes it into space on chains with the old battleships from SMB3. So Mario gets the ability to travel through space from some chick who looks a lot like Peach and who is the mother to a bunch of little star things. Mario's gotta go collect stars from various worlds to power the ship's engine so you can fly to the center of the universe to save Peach from Bowser's evil and stop him from conquering the universe.

I really liked the controls for the game. They felt really natural, which isn't a strange thing, since they're the most basic controls one could ask for. All of the levels used the concept of gravity in really interesting ways, and I thought that they were all pretty cool in their own ways. However, I think I've been dealing with too many RPGs (or maybe too many JRPGs specifically) because I found myself kind of hating the story. Sure, it was cool in Mario 64, but it's been the same thing for three whole games now: Peach gets captured, and Mario has to collect stars to save her. There are always 120 total, and collecting the extra ones will unlock something new in every game. However, I've yet to see what collecting the 120 stars in this game has happen, as my research tells me that in order to unlock the secret ultimate final level, you must collect 120 stars as both Mario AND Luigi. Do I have the patience to go through the whole game again as Mario's skinnier little brother? Considering the game only took me, like, four days to collect all 120 stars, I may, but it'll be a while before I pick it up to play it again.

Overall, I'd have to say it's a pretty cool game. The controls were great and the levels were awesome, but the story wasn't fantastic. Then again, it's a Mario game; story doesn't really matter, since it's just there to show off what the console can do. Alright, on to the next game!


New Super Mario Bros. Wii is basically the old DS game brought to the Wii, more or less. The Wiimote is held sideways to act like an old NES controller, but it still has motion controls; there are several levels wherein there are areas where you have to tilt the Wiimote to move a platform or something, and shaking it causes Mario to spin. Again, Peach has been kidnapped, and you have to traverse eight worlds to find her, only this time it's standard 2D platforming adventuretiem. As an added bonus, the Koopalings make their long-awaited return as the world bosses.

I've only played through the single-player mode of this game (no friends to play multi with, haw). It looks, sounds, and acts just like the old DS game from, what, three years ago? However, it feels like an incredibly dumbed-down version of that game; I wound up beating the whole thing with over 80 lives, most of which were obtained in the first two or three worlds. The only places I had any trouble at all were Ludwig's Fortress and Ludwig's Castle, and I only got messed up in the Castle because I was going after a Star Coin while Bob-Ombs were flying at me from all over and killing me (if you've played the level you know where I mean and that it is pretty tough to get through there without getting hit from above by those little bastards). The rest of the game was a breeze, though. I still haven't collected all the Star Coins yet, but I don't have a real burning desire to collect them; apparently all they do is unlock hints in the Castle (although they could do something else that I don't know about, though I don't know what that could be... and if it's the ability to play as Luigi, forget it). They even just GIVE you the secret ninth world after you beat the game (and Bowser's not hard at all; he took me... maybe three tries to beat, only because I wasn't totally paying attention. I mean, props to Nintendo for making Phase 1 of the final boss a throwback to classic Mario, but... I mean, really? Hasn't the "hit the button behind Bowser to blow up the bridge" thing been done... three times before? And escaping him in Phase 2 isn't hard, either, except for the lava that instantly kills you if a pixel of it touches you, which is what led to death #2). Out of all the bosses, only Wendy and Ludwig presented a challenge; the... ]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27728575/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27728575/ Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:05:44 PDT There. Done.

So happy to finally have this thing up on the internet, although now we definitely know it's something on my computer's end (uploaded the site from another computer in the same house just fine); if anyone knows what would cause a Mac to not be able to connect to ftp servers constantly, let me know. It's the same problem that I had a year ago...

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27513997/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27513997/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:05:54 PDT
So they're rebooting yet another horror franchise from the 80's, and they're doing it ALL WRONG.

Personally, I liked the reboot of Halloween that Rob Zombie did. Sure, it was only a two-parter (so far; if you see ads for an unnamed picture labeled as "Rob Zombie's first foray into murder mystery" coming out for September 2010, there's Halloween 3 for ya, and it'll probably suck ass), but he did a pretty decent job making Michael a brutal killer... Well, in the first part, anyway; the second part was set up more to allude to the other movies from the original series (the hospital in 2 and the pumpkinheads in 3 (when what's-her-face is having that weird dream when she's in a glass coffin)) and to show that people in horror movies are fucking idiots who'll pick fights with seven-foot-tall crazy-looking homeless men without thinking, "This fucker could turn my head around backwards on my neck without even trying." And to sort of set up a third part, maybe.

But the franchise that they're bringing back incorrectly is Nightmare on Elm Street.

Normally, I'd be excited by this. However, the first credit I saw on the screen was "Produced by Michael Bay".

Oh god.

I also noticed that Freddy's NOT BEING PLAYED BY ROBERT ENGLUND. Instead the guy who did Rorschach's voice is playing him. This might not be terrible, but it's not like Englund's dead or anything; I'm sure he'd be more than willing to take up the role of his favorite character again. I mean, Freddy and Englund are always going to be the same person to me, and I feel like Haley's portrayal of the character won't stack up to the original.

There's also the way they appear to be portraying Kreuger in the movie. In the trailer, he appears to be somewhat confused about why the townsfolk deem it necessary to chase him into a warehouse and burn him to death, saying he didn't do anything wrong. I seriously hope that this means that he's so insane that he doesn't deem kidnapping and murdering children as being a bad thing; otherwise, they will have COMPLETELY fucked up his character. The original Freddy, in life, was a psychopathic child murderer who only managed to live on after death by making a deal with evil spirits; if they decide to make him an innocent scapegoat for a different person and his only reason for coming back in dreams is vengeance against those who killed him, they will have successfully killed all that Freddy was in the original movies. He also seems a lot more serious, which he was in the first NoES (and the second one, but that one doesn't count since it was less of a NoES movie and more of a way for the cast and crew to admit their homosexuality; if you've ever seen it, you'll understand what I mean), but what made him so memorable was everything after that point, when he was quirky and witty and creative with his kills, using people's biggest fears to kill them in the most ridiculous ways possible while always maintaining a small bit of the element of the warehouse in which he was murdered. This looks like he's just waiting for people to fall asleep, then luring their unconscious minds into his warehouse and killing them. No creativity, no delving into the deepest part of their minds to see what they fear most and then bringing that to life in the most absurd, over-the-top way possible. Just pulling them into his warehouse, chasing them for a while, then stabbing them with his hand-o'-knives, resulting in irl damage.

I also expect Freddy to explode at least once. Otherwise it isn't a Michael Bay film... Why the hell would anyone give Bay rights to this movie? He should really stick to ruining our childhood cartoons with racism and inability to write a story (which I fear will somehow worm their way into this movie, too).

Hmm... I wonder... If Bay's racism makes its way into this movie, and Freddy actually does get creative with his kills, what would be the most racist ways to kill minority characters with their fears? Answer this question, and win... a drawing of it, maybe. I don't know.

Wish I could change the mood thing, but it's being stupid, so it remains at Tired... although I am feeling that way; that'll happen at quarter to three in the morning. I'm freezing...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Art-wise (since there should be some update about art on my devART page, methinks), I'm going to start working on the animation I've been working on since March again. I want to have it done before Halloween weekend, since I plan on going to Oneonta to visit again and I want to show the finished project to Professor Cui (or Jian, to those of you who I don't know exclusively via the internet). It's almost finished, maybe... 70-80% done at this point. I s... ]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27401990/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27401990/ Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:18:58 PDT , but then there's possibly a variation on that game involving riding on chocobos (choco-polo?), which sounds awesome only because anything featuring chocobos is automatically considered awesome by the internet. So keep on the lookout for that; I want to do it sort of like an Awesome cartoon since no one's done one of those in a LONG time, and because the way I wrote up the script for it is a lot like an Egoraptor cartoon (I even threw in a Girlchan reference because it totally fits). If you haven't seen it, check out the trailer here:

[link]

Nothing else on Destructoid really tickled my fancy since I don't have any real consoles :'(... But whatever; I'm still too busy SRing for shiny mudkipz to care about other games right now anyway.

In other junk, I've been finally putting together a website for myself. It only took me, what, three years?... Yeah, I think I was gonna launch my website on my twentieth birthday, but it had a bunch of problems because I didn't know what the hell I was doing... But that's all in the past now. I'm working on a huge web portfolio for myself, NOT done in Flash! What a concept; I'm not working with Flash at all on this site (except for where I NEED it, like, you know, in the 'Animation' part of the portfolio). I've already laid out the whole site in Photoshop, and now I'm Dreamweavering it up (stfu, Shira, I don't remember anything about HTML since I haven't designed a website in a year, so yes, I'm a bitch)... and in doing so, I'm realizing how little I really know about web design. Probably because I was an ass and decided that instead of taking notes and paying attention to my professor, I'd instead do everything my way in Flash, which all wound up being totally fucked up in the end anyway... I am slowly learning, though; by looking at 's website's source (her site is [link] by the way), I managed to figure out how to do a lot of what I want to do with my site (I only borrowed from there because her site does a lot of what I want my site to do).

So that's what I did with my day today... Oh, and I photographed/scanned a TON of old sketches I've been meaning to get on the computer for literally years now, so expect a massive influx of shit from me again (91 files comprised of my best sketches from the past four years). That'll be happening soon, and you guys will be getting more than anyone who goes to my site when it comes online.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27276851/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27276851/ Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:36:45 PDT He's lying to us!
I love this game more than I should, and the fact that the main character has the same name as me... well, that just makes it that much creepier...

Also, layer_embedded#t=26"new 2D Sonic game, anyone?

Not much going on art-wise; I'm busy working on an online portfolio for myself, so that's taking up a lot of my art time. I'll definitely link to it when I'm done with it.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27251969/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27251969/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:22:10 PDT
]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27237555/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/27237555/ Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:50:47 PDT :3

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26724129/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26724129/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:43:02 PDT , because I need to do something.

01. In the beginning
02. Bottle rocket
03. Games
04. Rude awakening
05. Study! Study!
06. I don't understand
07. Thursday
08. Entropy
09. Great
10. Tick tock
11. Asia
12. That didn't just happen...
13. Work
14. Volcano
15. Moving
16. Disappointment
17. Face beaming with joy
18. Love
19. Proof
20. When pigs fly
21. The elements
22. Popcorn
23. The great outdoors
24. Conflict
25. A good book
26. Summer
27. Surprise!
28. Inspiration
29. I won't lose!
30. Popular culture
31. Rain
32. Wishing upon a star
33. Paranoia
34. Belly laugh
35. Guesswork
36. Death
37. Technology
38. When I was young
39. Coffee
40. Waiting
41. Scared stupid
42. Animals
43. Wall
44. Like what you see?
45. Infinity
46. Mud
47. Over and over
48. Prismatic
49. Destiny
50. Tradition
51. Opponents
52. Anachronism
53. Let's dance!
54. Money
55. Big and little
56. Anxiety
57. I hate you!
58. Shoes
59. The big guns
60. Sports
61. Treasure
62. Not a chance
63. Arches
64. Candy
65. Don't stop now!
66. God
67. Frustration
68. Red-orange
69. Laziness
70. Rollerskates
71. Greek lore
72. War
73. A promise
74. Nighttime
75. Ahahahahahaa!!
76. The ocean
77. Parenting
78. Mail
79. Out to the movies
80. Desperate struggle
81. Fire
82. Bonds
83. Insanity
84. Tribute
85. Above the clouds
86. Broken toys
87. Come what may
88. Cookies
89. Negative
90. Golden
91. Until we meet again
92. Business
93. Best friends forever
94. Up-side-down
95. Christmas
96. Vengeance
97. The future
98. Yes!
99. Courage
100.Grand finale

Will do these like Dickman is: in order, one a day (or at least start one a day; I could get busy or start one that's really complicated). Only instead of Megaman, I'll be doing these with a different character or group of characters in each image. Meaning that by the end of this, I should have over 100 characters at least created. It should be an interesting project, and I swear it will be completed.

I'll either start this tomorrow or next Sunday, since I'll be in Oneonta all week next week to visit friends and probably won't have time to do these.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26724042/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26724042/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:35:51 PDT
I may also decide to steal 's 100 Pic Challenge list, only minus the whole Megaman theme thing. However, if I do that, I'll want to have each picture to have a different character in it. Hopefully I'll either be able to come up with new characters or help to introduce characters I've come up with at college that I haven't really shown off.

As far as animation goes, I started working on a project that I spent the last two months of school working on. I'm trying to get as much of it done as I can before I go to Oneonta to visit my friends next week so I can show my professors a more completed work than what I left with. It's only the first part of a story I've come up with, and it also serves as a measure of what I can do as an animator. After I'm done with it, I'll finally swallow my pride and actually go to people to help me with anything I need for the next few parts so that I can actually learn something; there's a LOT about animating that I don't know, and without that knowledge, I don't think I'll ever really be able to succeed as an animator.

So that's what I'm working on. Help me figure out what to paint and/or photograph. I'll do just about anything... painting-wise, at least.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26537999/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26537999/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:40:09 PDT
*is very excited about this*

I'm starting to get back into animation and art again, but I need to practice drawing since I really haven't done that at all this summer. Seriously, I bought a sketchbook back in, like, late May or early June, and I'm only a couple of pages into it. Any suggestions for things I could draw, art I could copy, things like that?

One month 'til HeartGold and SoulSilver come out in Japan; this is the most psyched I've been about anything in a long time...

Video of the intro...

Cannot effing wait...

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26221152/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/26221152/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:16:05 PDT
[link]

Enjoy. I know I did. One of the best shorts by them yet.



I wanna work on animation so bad. But I caaaaaaaaan't...

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25928309/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25928309/ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:25:43 PDT
I think I'm gonna give up on ever working on BI anymore. Sorry, Rusty, but it's dead. No point in continuing it; I just realized the other day that it's been, like, two years since anyone's done anything for it, so why beat a dead horse, right? It was gonna be all epic, too; Zix was gonna actually die. Like, forever. I may do a sort of Awesome-style version of what I had planned for it if anyone wants that, but I doubt anyone even cares enough about it anymore to really want me to spend the time working on something like that.

Instead, I'm going to be focusing more on my other, self-made, original animations. I just got and was watching some of the PPG DVD box set over the weekend, and it's started inspiring me to start animating again. I've even drawn up a rough drawing of a sort of poster thing for a possible short cartoon that I might do featuring Tim Tarkinton fighting Aaron McDoom (although I have no idea what the plot for it would be). I also plan on continuing to work on The Race (people who know me IRL know what I'm talking about); I've got a lot of big plans for that. I'm also going to start working on a series of longer cartoons called "The Adventures of Steve" (guess what those'll be about...). I just wish I could think of something to throw Some Guy into; I feel bad for him, since I haven't done anything with him in a while.

So that's what I've got planned art-wise. Heh, I'm losing my old touch; I'm a lot less vague than I used to be...

Saw Ice Age 3 this weekend, too. It was awkward, as I was the only person there not accompanied by small children. The movie was just okay until about halfway in, when they made a very clever reference to homosexuality. From there it was pretty good, but beforehand, I was just amazed by the animation (especially at the beginning; the first glimpse of Fem-Scrat was incredibly well-done. She has SO MUCH FUR... Animating her must've been a nightmare.). I just really really really hope they don't make a fourth one; I don't know where else they could take Ice Age, but they definitely could take it somewhere else, and it wouldn't be anywhere good...
I'd also wanted to see Up (yes, I still haven't seen it. Shut up.), but after seeing one children's movie wherein I was the only unaccompanied adult, I didn't feel like feeling super-awkward twice in one day. I'll probably go see it sometime soon, or just wait for it to come out on DVD, like every other Pixar movie I've seen.

And that's basically everything going on in my life... Sucks not knowing anyone in the area who isn't my mom's age, but oh well. Such is life... I guess there is one person I know, but I'm not sure where she is, exactly... I should hang out with her sometime; I haven't seen her in, like... months, I guess it's been.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25771343/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25771343/ Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:19:12 PDT
Really, really, REALLY wish I'd seen Up instead.
Hell, I'd rather have watched someone punching babies for two and a half hours.

It was TERRIBLE. Michael Bay just... can't write films, like, at all... So much wrong with that movie... Just don't see it, okay? And if you have, my heart goes out to you.

I'm probably not gonna even go see the third one.

And am I the only one who finds it funny that they made up for killing the only black Autobot in the first movie by creating two insanely stereotypical Autobots who survived the whole movie?...

...Ugh, now I feel like ranting about this movie... Maybe later...

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25661725/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25661725/ Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:57:23 PDT
Some guy on Newgrounds posted this earlier tonight claiming to be . I contacted and (his girlfriend), and they both confirmed that this isn't Daniel, so I've contacted Tom Fulp. Sweet justice shall be done.

I'm such a good guy this week...

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25637145/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25637145/ Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:23:14 PDT
Here's what I'll be helping.

Basically, there's a little girl, an infant, with a rare disorder called Infantile Spasms. There's no known cure, and the treatment costs five grand per injection. So, to help this cause, I'll post the link to the journal here. I'd offer up commissions for this, but I haven't drawn anything halfway decent in over a month, so you'd be better off giving your money to or any of the other artists on the project than you would giving it to me, or even sending the money to the family themselves.

I see too many journals like this, and I never mention them because I don't see any benefit towards myself in doing so. That's gonna change now.

Art'll be soon, hopefully; gonna start drawing again, so I should get my groove back soon.

]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25309634/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25309634/ Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:11:55 PDT
]]> ~zlxq3000 http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25174538/ http://zlxq3000.deviantart.com/journal/25174538/ Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:15:59 PDT
What I want are ideas for Robot Master type enemies. Humanoid (or even semi-humanoid) robots each with distinct weaponry different from the others. It's not for a Megaman tribute game or anything stupid and unoriginal like that, and it has nothing to do with Bored Index; I haven't worked on that in a while, and I'm probably not going to start on it for a long, long time (what I want to do with it is going to require a lot more practice in both animation and drawing, since I haven't been doing much of either in the past month or so).

For this, you can throw whatever you want at me, from a full drawing with specific specs to just a name that I can work with. They can have more than one weapon, and can even copy past Robot Masters; I've got an idea in my head right now of a guy that's kind of like a combination of Drill Man and Crash Man, weapon-wise: has a drill hand that he can launch and turn into a bomb... which now that I think about it is what Drill Man could do anyway... well whatever.

Any and all ideas are welcome, and there's no deadline. If I like your idea, I'll use it as one (or part of one) of the four enemies I plan on using in the second part of one of the animations I'm going to start working on again soon, and you'll be credited for it.

Also, all three of my previous journals are now gone because they were stupid.

Time for me to get serious, mofos.

]]> ~zlxq3000