Draw a Mario... any Mario!



Still fun though! Now you draw one! (click on the pic to go to drawing app)

Doug

edit: Here are some stuff other people made. Man, now I've seen the other drawings, I suck. Gonna draw something better when I'm at home.

Hello, my .org friends! You probably heard of the VCAs and know there's one week left for nominations. Because there was no release for Senpai Says, I'm wondering how far it can get without being released - obviously it won't, but I heard "only" 20 votes are needed to get into the semis and I don't think people didn't like it when they saw it at a con they attended at. They just don't know it's in that list. So if you have seen it and think it's worth it, vote for it for Best Comedy/Fun/Video/whatever.

Thanks!

Doug

I decided to go with the crowd and post some pictures like half of The Netherlands now does. Why you ask? Because we don't have a lot of snowy days, just a lot of rain and chilly breeze, so these are some rare pictures! So for some of you (yeah, you Canadians wish for this little snow!), these are some usual stuff, but might be fun to see anyway.

I'm not that good in taking pictures, but here are some pictures of the neighborhood I live in!



( More snowy pictures!Collapse )

You can view more pictures here in my Flickr-account.

Doug

Play, Rewind, Record is my AWA Pro video which didn't really do too well. I still like it though and it's in a way different than all the other videos I made because it's really fast-paced.



NO EXCUSES! is the MEP I started back in July and the this is disappointing result (the AMV, not the poster :P ).

Well, have fun!

Doug

It's Thanksgiving this Thursday and even though it's typical American/Canadian and doesn't really gets celebrated outside those countries, I do have a chance to celebrate it. I have a good ex-colleague who's American and he invited me to his Thanksgiving dinner. I don't really have an idea what to expect, except a lot of food (his card said "bring empty tummies" :D ). I don't really want to come empty-handed, so I was thinking of brining a bottle of wine as well as baking a cheesecake, but the cheesecake might be overkill as there will probably lots of food.

So does anybody has suggestions on what to bring? Thanks!

Doug

I have a new job and I started today! I've been doing this stupid call center job for the past few months because I was out of money, but I'm glad I finally found something after writing many mails reacting to part-time ads. That call center job was really terrible and even though I had done that sort of job before, the working place was just crap. There were CRT monitor 10 inches in front of you, no space on the table to lean on (all occupied by the mouse and keyboard), bad chairs and no headsets! Imagine 5 hours long using no headset to call for minimum wage.

I do complain about that job, but I guess it is better than flipping burgers for 8 hours straight. I was so desperate for a real job (because I couldn't do lots of hours and it paid minimum) I was ready to go to ice cream parlors, book stores, computer stores to see if they needed part-timers, but luckily I got a call from this price/product comparison site where I had a job interview 3 weeks ago and I got chosen, as well as another girl, to write/program spiders and crawlers for them (to get scores and reviews from other sites). I was kinda surprised because they said they had many applicants and I was sure there are people who have more knowledge than me.

Pretty cool actually, mostly because they're a start-up company (like 20 people max working), which means that the atmosphere is informal and relax. There's also other benefits like free lunch which is pretty good (just make your own sandwiches, but they have the good stuff), they have a 50" LCD with a X-Box 360 hooked on it and the location is really good. It's in the center of the city, near some great restaurants and near this Italian sandwich shop which makes the best sandwiches for 4 EURO. It's also 2 blocks away from my (uni) fitness center, so now there's no excuse not to go to the gym!

I'm actually wondering when they will turn on the 360! :P

The only problem is that they're not sure how many days per week they're gonna need me. They said their ad said 10 hours (I thought it said 2-3 days), so they're gonna discuss if they can fit me in for 2 days. I need to check out whether I can earn enough like that, but if I can't I need to find a second job, which would suck because of the tax system here.

Ah well, at least I have an income for the coming 6 months!

Doug

Why are the yearly tax refunds so complicated? I haven't asked a refund for 6 years and according to some site who does the calculations I can get a total of 4000 EURO back over those 6 years. But if I look at the forms I get all confused and I always have the feeling I can fill in more stuff than they say. There should be a good site that explains it step by step, but seems like everything tax-related is too confusing to explain on the Internet - that's why people pay other people to do that stuff for them I guess.

Doug

For those who don't know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The aim is to write at least 50.000 words in one month (Novermber). There's this website, http://www.nanowrimo.org/ , where you can register and it keeps track of your writing process and it has a lots of tips and guides, as well as a forum. It's nothing serious, there's no certificate or prize or something, but it is more like a really good excuse to finally start writing.

It sounds like really fun and it was something I wanted to do sinds I heard about it 7 or so years ago, but never came around to do that. There's this one short story I still want to write, so it will either be that or a collection of really short stories. My goal isn't 50.000 either, but 22.500. I will see how much I can do, as to do 50.000 I would expect to be busy for 4 hours a day, which is a bit to much I think. So half of 50k should still be satifying enough for, as well as enough for a short story I think.

So, does anybody has experience with NaNoWriMo (or writing in general) or is also planning to do this? Would be useful to know someone's experience, as well as have somebody who joins along for more motivation.

Doug

I just made a portal for my website, leiseus.net. For those who ever visited that site, it was just a bunch of directories that you could see there. Well, not anymore! It's orange and there are some links to the pages I'm trying to update regularly. Most of the pages were created somewhere this year and here are the stuff you don't know yet:

SSSEEN! is my newest site where me and a group of people share their findings that is video-related that inspires them (see it as collaborative video bookmarking). The idea is that instead of IM-ing people with links, we just post them there, so everybody can enjoy them. It saves time as well! As for now only two people are in there yet, so if you're interested in posting there, PM me and I set up an account if you have good stuff to share. And yeah, the name is inspired from FFFFOUND!

Cityscraping are the pictures I've taken in the US, for those who haven't seen it yet. Yes, it's one year too late, but it's better than nothing.

Mazurada is a site where I put in some art and photoshop stuff I made that doesn't fit in my DeviantArt. I'm planning to get it updated more often once I have my scanner working correctly.

Phony is where I post pictures I made with my crappy mobile phone. I try to update this everyday. As for now there are 40 pictures in the queue, so at least it will be updated each day for one and a half month.

There's also the Journal, which I haven't updated for quite some time (and probably won't in the coming months) and a list of stuff I've done (which is more than I thought).

On last thing I like it mention is the image bookmarking site vi.sualize.us. It's really good stuff: it bookmarks images you come across and if you have FireFox, you just have to right-click on a picture and then save it. Try it, it's wonderful stuff!

Have fun!

Doug

Besides the fact that I need money, I just want to get rid of a lot of stuff here, because it's just been collecting dust. So before I put stuff on the Dutch equivalent of Craiglist, I just wanted if you guys wanted to buy something for me.

Besides the Limited edition strategy guides (FFX-2 and MGS3), and anything Xenogears and Bemani, I'm willing to sell anything for quite cheap (even though I'm not too sure about how much shipping costs), so just say any price and I'll probably be willing to send it to you.

I probably won't be able to sell everything - like vol. 7 of a DVD or some toys, so I might throw in some free stuff if you buy something (or might donate it to the IC v4 Brad?)

Ah well, here's the list:

Toys

Love Hina Again Hinata Apartment Girl figure: Naru
Love Hina Again Hinata Apartment Girl figure: Matoko
Little White Figure
World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game - Heroes of Azeroth Starter Deck


DVDs

mini-DVD: Noir ep. 1 & 2 R1 NTSC SEALED
mini-DVD: Pretear ep. 1 & Panyo Panyo Digi Charact ep. 1 R1 NTSC SEALED
Nana ep. 1-4 R2 PAL SEALED
Great Teacher Onizuka COMPLETE R2 PAL
Argento Soma Limited Edition Boxset ep. 1-5
New Kimugare Orange Road: Summer's Beginning R1 NTSC SEALED
Hello Kitty's Paradise: Pretty Kitty R1 NTSC
Beauty and Warrior R1 NTSC SEALED
Noein: To Your Other Self ep. 11-15 R1 NTSC SEALED
Eureka Seven ep. 35-38 R1 NTSC SEALED
Zaion ~ I Wish You Were Here ~ ep. 1-2 Limited Boxset R1 NTSC
Rahxephon ep. 1-5 R1 NTSC SEALED

Scanners II: The New Order
Barking Dogs Never Bite R3
The Quiet Family R0

The Future of Videogames 2K4 (E3 2003) R0 NTSC


HK DVDs

X ep. 1-4 (Anime Studio)
X ep. 5-8 (Anime Studio)
Laputa


Games

PC: Ray Storm
PC: Grand Theft Auto 2
PSX: LEGO Rock Raiders PAL
PSC: Xenogears (semi-)SEALED
NGC: Viewtiful Joe US NTSC
NGC: Animal Crossing US NTSC
NGC: Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life US NTSC
NGC: Bomberman Generation EU PAL
PS2: Gran Turismo 4 US NTSC SEALED
PS2: Gran Turismo 3 EU PAL
PS2: Sky Odyssey EU PAL
PS2: Final Fantasy X-2 EU PAL Original Version
PS2: .hack Infection (part 1) US NTSC
PS2: .hack Mutation (part 2) US NTSC SEALED
PS2: Prince of Tennis: Smash Hit - Limited Edition with Bonus DVD JAP NTSC
Dreamcast: Metropolis Street Racer PAL
Dreamcast: Shen Mue PAL
X-Box 360: Infinite Undiscovery EUR
X-Box 360: LEGO Indiana Jones & Kung Fu Panda EUR SEALED
NDS: Tetris DS US SEALED
NDS: Cooking Mama US SEALED


Hardware

Nintendo Gamecube Memory Card 251 NEW
Nintendo DS Rumble Pack Black
PS2: Pop'n Music Controller


Books

Strawberry Marshmallow Vol. 5 NEW
Anime Trivia Quizbook - Episode 2
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Limited Edition Guide (with artbook) SEALED
Final Fantasy X-2 Limited Edition Guide (with artbook) SEALED
Xenogears Strategy guide
La Pucelle: Tactics Strategy guide
Soul Calibur II Strategy guide
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Strategy guide
CLAMP Southside Artbook


That's it! Maybe pictures later!

Doug