Electric Hand

design manifesto - teaser 02

2010-03-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

another teaser coming at you from the graphic design manifesto assignment. turns out this hasn't officially been assigned. so for the same class i have another project going that has to do with a really old david lynch movie.

Most Vision Award

2010-03-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yes my school had an graphic design on campus awards and i walked away with the award for most vision. I have had the most compliments in a day i can handle.

I feel bad my parents weren't there - it didn't occur to me to invite them 'till it was too late. oh bother.

Zao Web Design Preview

2010-03-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

A teaser preview for everyone out there!! My latest work on a site for one of my top top ultimate favourite bands of all time - the mighty zao. This is for a dreamweaver class I have a mountain of stuff to do for - that in flash class have really been stretching me out.

I hope to kill this project off by the end of the day.

I'm starting to learn from this project so far - that complicated amounts of slices without a set grid is dangerously difficult.

In regards to Liberate:

The zine is ready for print - im practically sitting on it - waiting for the right day and time to assemble it - im still hoping to possibly get some material from outside sources!

so keep unplugged.

contact me with any ideas or projects you may want to see come to life! Or entries for the zine.

Liberate Zine Cover

2010-03-26T10:17:00.001-07:00

The spring summer release of Liberate will be titled: Reborn. I plan to do aside with numbering issues and just giving them titles.

If you want the most updated in the works copy of the zine in a pdf format send me an email request - I'll try and get back to you as soon as possible.

The zine launch hasn't found a home yet - but those who are hoping to come out to it - sign up on either facebook - or send me an email.

This Is Propaganda

2010-03-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

A weird little video i put together. I plan to publish more onto youtube with a new account.

Graphic Design Manifesto

2010-03-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

A little Teaser of a project that is currently in the works. It's a graphic design manifesto and I probably have enough content at the moment to settle down and start carving it out professionally.

joh-nny-fuck-in-depp

2010-03-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Project done for a course called "Visiting Designers" - It's a culture magazine that's supposed to cover all angles of culture from punk rock, to easy listening, to r & b. The cover is supposed to be a teaser for the magazine's launch party and make everyone desperately want to read it.

The real fucking question is:
what are you thinking about?
Because sometimes i wonder if we’re thinking about the right things.
No - not that kind of you shouldnt be thinking about naughty things!
doctrine - thinking about sex and
really fucked up shit s is completely fucking naturally human.

i’m wondering about the
non-natural thinking though
the thinking that’s outside of. because i have a theory that if you haven’t said or thought johnny depp at all and stayed inside a bomb shelter for the past i don’t know six the first bombs hit poor innocent japan - i have a theory that coming out of the bomb shelter i’d instantly be hearing you shoving together the syllables like a fucking zombie joh-nny-fuck-ing-depp-awe-some. no really some really old people might not know who johnny depp. now steve mcqueen there’s an actor. back to my point! im sure if you haven’t said it or thought it for yourself yet- someone in your vicinity said it, or maybe you opened the paper to the whatever page and there is his name, than you text a friend and they tell you about alice in wonderland - johnny depps in it? That thinking which is forced upon us day in day out is not natural thinking!!! its what outside forces have made you think about - your environment, your social circle, your outside culture. I’ll try and cut this short - i’d much be rather thinking about artists and what they have to say - and their stories. why is music and movies the only art form - everybody enjoys on a collective scale? Why don’t we hear about every fuckign where we go - more about poets and writers and visual artists and maybe even graphic designers who flipped off coca cola and pepsi both in the same day decided to flood the culture with poetry he was up stoned all night reading.
I can admit we’ve made some progress with the sudden book-pop-culture, and hey everyone knows stephen king - and well thats cause the movies. but i don’t remember ever in the mainstream a following of book and movie series until recently. is this a new step? a step forward? Is this Peter Jackson’s fault? I like to think yes, yes and yes, maybe soon there will be cult followings of books without the movie combo on a so called mainstream scale to the point kids are lining up in toronto from all over the fucking world for the one big gala event where douglas coupland comes out for a signing and speaking venue ie spoken word gig for the release of his next book - generation whatever about how us - you - and - me were the generation that changed things.

yea .. itd probably be taken over by commercialism and thought enforcement - like like tim burton on johnny depp in a hollywood orgy.

but yea - could we be the generation that changed things? I like that!

instead of being told - we will like these movies and we will enjoy this music. and yes we have a variety - and if you do the math like -

6 different options of 6 different options - you have 36 different types of individuals you could be in this society and still look like individuals when seen in crowds

my facebook is pimped out with my favorite shit - like david bazan@ and 7-seconds% and fuck the facts# and the refused^ - and maybe ill be a little angsty. man - fuck greenday. - what if we turned off the television, stopped going to the movies, stopped all that shit and started just hanging out with each other. What if we everyone in this room***** right fucking now threw down - and played the biggest fuckign match of dungeons and dragons IN RECORDED HISTORY, ** or made a band together that was going to sound galactic****, or made a skate crew and filmed it on vhs* and made copies for all your friends, what if you organized shows in your shitty 500 dollar-right-to-exist-comfortably apartment and gave all the door money to the homeless, what if you took your grandpa mountain climbing in norway, created a zine that only you and 12 friends understood - and you called it inside joke, what if you went and vandalized government property. what if you joined fucking boy scouts to help teach children how awesome it is to live in the woods and skin a fucking rabbit, while simultaneously weeding out the entire sqaudron of other scout leaders, hunting down the pedophiles so you could take an axe an chop them into little tiny pieces and have an art attack? what if you and your friends took up QUILTING? *** what if you played basketball from right after school till your tired fucking arms fall off and you pass out in a huff? what if what if what if what if what if- i dont know. you have the ideas youre the ones, youre generation that will change the entire fucking world - right fucking upside down, left - right what the fuck if ever man? what if? what if? what if? what if you stopped thinking of johnny fuckign depp?
homework: the next time you happen to see johnny depp - think about johnny depp - fantasize about johnny depp - whisper his name quietly as you gently cum - next time you hear about him - think about this article - remember youre the generation that will change the world - why because we already have - its already happened
**now the edition war debate could follow thereafter ***This would be pretty fucking hipster, it could catch on
*broken bones BITCH ****planet uranus BITCH *****if youre not in a room where the fuck are you? how am i talking to you?

2010-03-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, i was suddenly made aware yesterday through email - i have the chance to display art in a show tonight. I look forward to it.

I framed some images that have been important to me and have put them up with price tags. I'm pretty much selling my soul here. Tonight itself will be an experiment in finding out if my art can actually grow legs and bring in revenue for myself for further artistic endeavours, such as my upcoming zine launch. I'm not exactly money hungry I'm just completely fucking broke. Hey maybe I can up the number of press runs for the zine when it comes.

For the zine itself I have some good ideas developing - it's going to image wise carry a vibe of smoking cigarettes. yes. cigarettes. I have an interesting story i wrote out the other day. i submitted it to a site the other day so its on the internet somewhere nifty and sapphic if you can figure out that conundrum.i also hope to do some interviews with a band and possibly someone very unique and interesting. I'm going to jam as much poetry, random lyrics, stories, manifestos, swearing and sexual imagery I can into a 12 or 16 page zine without it looking too dense.

HERE IS THE ARTIST STATEMENT I'LL BE POSTING TONIGHT:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

as an artist i have come to be merely a vessel for a passion i can't fully control. i believe in many contradictions while i search for my own meaning in life.

i believe in the spirit that art should become a threat again and in most contexts not be recognized as art.

my resume kind of looks like this: through high school i did a lot of more personal art and focused on creating a plethora of flash videos this coming from me drawing up comics for a character super stick man. Years later i had my first art show blah blah blah at the velvet elvis. i did many spoken word gigs. i have done art and layout for a couple band's releases also doing graphic design work for a brochure - violence against women awareness month. I produced a couple zines back in the day, which I'm getting back into. i used to be the main dancer for the band Planet Uranus. I threw together an art experience for them when they played with a very talented band, Mahogany Frog from winnipeg. I just got back into school for graphic design and recently am fighting through second year.

i seek to create my own industry. I will be heading a project of a quarterly zine, being launched in early april, feel free to inquire about that. I want to produce full books and work with other people's writing presented in a graphical experience that supports their vision. I want to push my art to new levels of experimentation.

i'd rather drown in passion than die of thirst on her shores.

i am also a huge fan of hardcore music.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ANYHOW:

I feel really really fucking good about trying to get back into art and writing and poetry and hopefully let this help and not hinder my journey into the world of graphic design.

This blog will probably be the main docking area, corner of the internet for any announcements and displays of my work for the time being, until that shadowy future tense when I will finally be happy with a design for my own beautiful web presence.

i am a multiverse

2010-03-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

I couldn't recover the exact passage from one of my anarchy journals. The words express how I currently process the meaning of recent events. Events that I see becoming reflection of my own struggle spiritually and philosophically.

I have begun to recognize how strong and how real the many different conflicting sides are within me. I have begun to realize I don't believe or think in one thing, that I ultimately view myself not as one person with one way of thinking - rather a counsel of many different thinkers. They all have different approaches to thought, some rational, some emotional, some shallow, some (in my own eyes) rather profound.

The article itself spoke how as an egoist, they don't bow to any one ideology because they cannot account for the hundreds of different opinions they have, and a hundred different voices they know lay within their mind.

My therapist marks that what I'm doing currently gives me a greater advantage in being able to think critically. I am able to have a better look at both sides of an argument - and possibly enter into the thirds, and fourths and fifths. The grey areas so to speak. Having this critical thinking is fairly foundational in gaining and seeking a clearer picture on things.

These recent events for some could have been enough for them to dive right into blind faith and blind belief in the ideologies that, as of late have been invading my life. Many people fall into the trap of feeling they owe some kind of allegiance to whatever point of view at certain times in their life become apparently so true. They're quick to abandon all other paths for that one path that so clearly must be the Truth, with a big capital T. They don't realize that their mind has ultimately concocted the invasion of this ideology into their life. They also don't realize there could be greater truth found in trying to figure out why it is your mind concocted this invasion. What does your mind see in this ideology? What does that part of your mind really want out of it?

It may be a mere side effect of being raised in the one-god-system of western humanity to feel you must leap and bound towards this capital t truth while slaying all other minor truths. This attitude ironically has found it's way into the practices of atheists who claim to be great practitioners of critical thinking. Thus they work all their selves around this capital t truth of the non-existance of a judeo christian god. I can't wait until the great abolition of god from all minds. This spook has created terrible believers and now is creating terrible non believers.

I really wish there were times where me speaking of the different sides of myself hadn't devolved into the great religion debate. I'd rather be discussing the possibility of us ourselves being gods, or the possibility of multiple dimensions that would shatter mere mortal minds, i'd rather be discussing why sometimes you start thinking about a certain thing and the next you know someone's talking about it. Why do coincidences act like gravity, or like echoes off walls? I know it's partially our own mind applying meaning to situations and categorizing reality into neat little boxes.

I'd much rather have community centres - where you go in to discuss how you feel about being an artist of passion in a capitalist society. How reading a spawn comic sparked a memory of some gnostic text. Labels are so fucking condemning that when someone admits they believe a few or so outright contradictions it doesn't make sense to anyone. You walk into a debate between acquaintances and you're forced to declare what side of the fence you're on.

I've got to stop running into christians because they continually make me feel like i have to be an atheist as a knee-jerk-reaction, and i hate listening to them chatter on how there is this god of theirs and I should come back to being a christian. I don't really want to choose either side, not because they're wrong - but because I think we could reach better conclusions not even talking about our theistic inklings.

There's people who can argue ON an ON about how a tree just happens or a tree was put there by god. Well I'm going to experience both sides of the argument by climbing the fucking thing.

And if you think im trying to conclude that I believe in both sides, you've completely misunderstood me. I have a faith in belief that there's something beyond these two paths. I feel there's something greater to be aimed at. I don't know what it is - so don't ask me. I believe and feel a lot of things I can't exactly explain.

Snippets 01

2010-02-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

This is just like the time I got bumped out of applied math and science because being the only one answering questions out of a class of idiots implies intelligence. however such correlation is ludicrous bullshit. it merely implies i was surrounded by idiots.

now this is interesting. i walk down to the local hasty market and grab a bottle of coke from the back. i walk up to the till followed by a lady with a bottle of pepsi. i ask her if she's just getting the pop - just in case her transaction will take less time than mine. i am planning to grab smokes. so i impulse buy a pepperoni stick at the same time. cash through with a pack of du maurier. she cashes through with a pack of dumaurier light, a bottle of pepsi and a chocalate bar. weird?

i understand why that dead fuck hid in the woods for the years before, well he was a dead fucker. what's his face in that book catcher in the rye - it was pretty hardcore for some people who liked shooting celebrities. that dead fucker hid because there was bigger and better book coming out for wanna be socio paths: fight club. i fucking love that book and when i hunt down my john lennon - i'll be carrying that in my inside pocket.

back when i was washing dishes in some fucked up italian restaurant where communication was a crude mixture of yelling and god-knows-what-else i'd hide in the shitter and read whole chapters of it.

Escaping The Photoshop & Cementing a Style

2010-01-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

Sometimes images just don't escape Photoshop.

You know exactly what I mean and I have been guilty of this. They're ugly and disgusting and only similar words can do best to describe them.

Escaping Photoshop to me is the first step in escaping your medium To me escaping your medium is imperative to good execution of whatever concept you're trying to convey. Sometimes the problem lies in a lack of said concept, but other times it's pure lack of skill.

Always, always though concept is what makes any execution shine.

Just check out this page here on Web Urbanist where the artist melds together concept and execution to define completely mind blowing non realities.

Concept is where every great design has it's foundation. Back in the seventies and eighties the design team known as Hipgnosis rammed their metaphorical phallus in everyone's face using their almost scizophrenically genius concepts. They dominated rock and roll album covers with a photoshop that was more involving and intensive then your friend burning you a copy off some torrent site.

There's a lot of bad photoshop out there, heck look at the banner above you.

The above tree and stereo-castle was something I was proud of. Two or three years later and I'm looking at the something cheesy and plagued with obvious dodge and burns.

Image on the left was a sketch that I pulled into the photoshop and started applying all kinds of textures. It looks rather terrible. The image on the right is my attempt at something http://souljunk.com type art.

I don't remember what the point of this thread is really.

I'm trying my best to cement a style in a digital age using digital mediums.

I like more organic things - but everything has a need for some polish.

Concept and composition.

blah

Fucking Epic

2010-01-04T23:43:00.000-08:00

I've been firing my way through Robert Jordan's third book of his most epic saga: The Wheel of Time.

I just finished reading Chapter 36 which randomly brings us back to the main character Rand Al' Thor. Rand is the Dragon Reborn, destined to fight the last battle against the Dark One. To be the saviour of man and womankind. You get the idea right?

A woman leads a small squad of about ten horsemen up to our main hero here who is camping away. She announces her intentions of camping the night with him and where they're going etc. He immediately decapitates her with one fell swoop. Literally wielding a sword made of fire he kills all of them without so much as an inch of effort.

He literally murders like 10 or 11 people without asking any questions.

He then arranges the bodies so they're bowing towards him and rubs his dragon reborn-ness all up in their faces.

I'm sure if I read between the lines, something she says makes him realize she's completely bullshitting or whatever. but holy shit this was shockingly awesome.

This is totally fourth edition material.

Dragging the body that is my only real hobby

2010-01-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not a person who sticks to plans or can make regular appointments with people other than doctors and scheduled classes. This sucks when it comes to trying to apply one's self to role playing.

What got me into D&D is whatever got me into fantasy.

People who get into smoking after quitting usually pick up a drag here and there, then they're having the occasional cigarette to themselves - next they're buying a small pack and are back to smoking by a weeks end.

Same can be said with my interests in fantasy. I wasn't into it for the longest time than suddenly it's all I ever do.

It started out very robin hood for me. In early high school I wrote stories of the lone warrior rising up against a tyrant. I wrote a good novel and half with the classic cliche of a real world being sucked into some fantastical parallel dimension. I didn't know but I was throwing in the cliched magical mentor stereotype. I was probably following sword-in-the-stone patterns mind you rather than Lord Of The Rings.

By the end of high school, I had done a successful book report on the Hobbit, the movies were coming out and I was chewing on the written trilogy. Friends who had a family-thing going of reading all of the Wheel of Time, pulled me into the series.

Now I have a shelf filled with Conan and other thin pulp styled paperbacks ranging from mostly seventies to the eighties. I'm trying to get through the Wheel of Time for the second time before starting the final few books. I have read the Silmarillion twice now I think.

There's an active community of fantasy lovers around me in my area - but still haven't grabbed up an active game.

I had a good two hourish session I was planning on dropping in - but now I have class this semester. I was playing 4th, a Dragonborn Cleric.

I would love to hook up some first edition, the books are so compelling.

But then the body that is my hobby continues to drag across the ground.

This is the woe of many a gamer, not having a consistent campaign. While others boast twenty - thirty years of game.

Oh bother.

Saturnus

2009-12-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

A video blog detailing what wondrous items I received for Christmas.

Cartoony Minimalism

2009-12-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

The best way to follow an exceptionally lame post about such boring topic as shadows I might as well go ahead in my search for blog fame by insulting someone or possibly a whole (sub)culture. Recently there was produced a line of shoes for D&D. Instead of something looking completley bad ass, they decided that the best route was something completely lame. They say you're not a star wars fan until you have livid hate for one of the films, and my hate lays upon the terribly ugly Clone Wars. Spawn as well has been blasphemed with this similar mess, the adventures of spawn.

It’s merely a matter of taste, and where better to house one’s tastes than extremist elitism. I’ll just go out and say it: I have a apprehension or strong dislike towards anime or manga or whatever bullshit you want to name it. Sure there’s been a few keepers out there, but I dare not name them and suck us into some tangent – let us focus on the point. I hate the style and not just strictly anime but more some of the terrible siblings I loosely and possibly incorrectly blame for creating. Any style that has some bug eyed, cutesy cartoon child-appealing minimalism needs to be stripped, raped and strangled, and not exactly in that order and more so with some metaphorical paint brush that will turn this disneyfied ass hattery into something that destroys retinas, minds possibly souls and most hopefully trends, codes, conventions and norms.

As stated its merely a matter of taste. From a point of studying graphic design, everything has its place, its seat – everything has its season. As I learn and make more mistakes and drive my foot mouthward, I can admit this “cartoony minimalism” can be used and done. In context this can be done well. There is a different approach for whatever idea is being executed. Whatever you’re selling, whatever you’re depicting it deserves the proper approach that evokes and speaks the core of that idea.

I was inspired to write this very rant from my emotional response to a thread on some forum depicting a version of this cartoony minimalism. I didn’t run in and start insulting everyone because that’s poor form. In hindsight I don’t have too many insults left over except to the style in and of itself.

Sometimes cartoony minimalism, it works! The images do show certain levels of expression, emotion and interest. Being used for a web comics which is the intention, it can work! In this medium, it can work really well. Penny arcade has been doing some really well done and really well executed “web comics” that really are escaping their medium. Their execution of cartoony minimalism works really really well, so well it escapes its’ medium. That is good execution, that is well placement. That is how graphic solutions should be done.

All in all I hate this direction and hope to no longer see people produce this work and use it to represent D&D. I hope to look and critique further into how D&D is presented to the world, and I feel someone in the marketing department has been making some terrible mistakes, or at least one: the goblin stompers.

What do you think of Cartoony Minimalism? Do you like this? Do you like D&D being represented by this?

The Further Adventures of Brax & Bruticus

2009-12-27T09:44:00.001-08:00

I'm running a friend through Keep On The Shadowfell, he's running two characters and I'm running some NPC backup for him. I'll go into further detail in the future. Here's a video blog. It is broken into two parts because of its length which I'll try to cut down with future videos.

The Shadowed Edge

2009-12-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

The final project of the semester came down to a five day hell of creating a website. I literally stopped to take short naps over a weekend and a couple days. I quickly learned how my profession as a graphic designer can have it's challenges when crossing between mediums. This case being from print to web.

A big difference between web and print is that of gradients. In print we're told and I agree that gradients are a big taboo thing. Maybe there's some room for argument that they can be done tastefully. Usually the result is something that looks like a those god-awful-club-cards. Gradients in print don't work usually because they lack an organic feel.

When you move to web though - gradients are tool of the trade. Web is rarely organic. They're used to really give a presence to text, a sort of depth to imagery and design. Really, what gradients do is a good job of polishing a web design off. Giving it that finished look.

Check this website, link given to me from a teacher. It has great tips about the cleaning off and finishing of a web design:

http://psd.tutsplus.com/designing-tutorials/elements-of-great-web-design-the-polish/

One thing I've noticed in design regardless of the medium - whether its an print ad, a web page, or an illustration is the shadowed edge.

A shadowed edge works in taking away a flat feeling from the design. It works in giving a good feeling of depth and somewhat a feeling of warmth. That little glow. It also works in bringing the attention, drawing the eye into the piece. It's a very directive tool.

Here on the right is a couple stages in on a design, the final product not really showcasing the shadowed edge. I didn't really do it too strongly, but the shadowed edge is there.

When it comes to print though it's entering that taboo I mentioned earlier: the gradient. In this medium I think it works because its an actual mock-element of an organic thing (shadows) and the focus isn't on the gradient. It's pushing the eye away from itself entirely.

When it comes to the shadowed edge though - how far is too far?

When has the design world become too saturated and a new direction is needed?

Please take a look at http://dndcraft.com/ It actually has a lot of cool stuff and a community of excellent artists.

This site looks good, it looks excellent in fact. In being a D&D website it stands out even more as many D&D related sites are poorly designed.

Looking at it though the question haunts me, is this overkill? Has the shadowed edge been overdone? Something seems almost glitchy about it - though it follows a lot of the so-called-rules of thumb that are laid out in properly approaching a web design.

I would really pull back a bit. Don't get me wrong - it looks damn good. It's an A + project.

The question I would love to explore is how far is too far?

As a designer and anyone else who likes to put together things with a bit more of a professional appeal what are your feelings on the shadowed edge?

Have you seen too much of it? Does it have its place?

It all starts somewhere, right?

2009-12-20T18:09:00.001-08:00

I'm fairly new to D&D, and roleplaying games in general. This is when you compare me with the majority of those who have been in the hobby, at least 10 plus years. Some people have been at it since it's conception. I can't measure myself against such level of experience and immersion in the hobby.

This can be intimidating at times for some but really it can be looked at as welcoming in other ways. If a hobby can garner such following, it must have some nugget of gold just waiting to be discovered. This niche culture and this niche game really is that: a nugget of gold. I'm glad to be in such a position of exploring and learning about the hobby. D&D to me has such a rich depth to it way beyond any realm of personal expectation.

I don't know where the final push came from that nudged me into the hobby I knew nothing about. It was a compounding of elements of course that drew my curiousity. I was curious towards the hobby from a young age. Not to enter any tangents or reveal anything too personal, it was demonized in it's portrayal to me. The views left over from the eighties still poke their little heads out once in a while. My cousin played it and this was told to me in a negative way. The negative portrayal only created a deeper curiousity for such a mysterious hobby that could supposedly ruin people's lives.

Mystery really is the word of the day for discussing my interest in the game known as Dungeons & Dragons. I knew nothing about it, but enough that made me want to know more.

In high school I borrowed and still have this AD&D computer game which is based in the Dark Sun setting. It installed, launched and ran through DOS and was terribly hard complicated and confusing. I also saw and enjoyed the Dungeons & Dragons movie in theatres, which supposedly was a terrible portrayal of the game. It was an adventurous movie from my recollection and its an adventurous game, so maybe the details weren't exactly right.

I also looked on with curiousity at this mysterious red box my one friend had. Of course we never played it because "it takes too long to figure out/it's too complicated" etc. If you're interested and want to get a taste of the hobby don't let the fear of complication hold you back. It may take a little investment of time, but the complication really isn't there when you get the gist of it. There's online communities everywhere who love to talk and teach the many elements of the game. Game systems can be found for free online. The reward you can reap from the hobby is ten-fold compared to a little tinkering over the rules.

Of course a level of interest in fantasy itself of course drew me into the game as well. Everybody who had a little interest in this direction hopped on the Lord of the Rings franchise. I think I got the trilogy (the books themselves) for christmas. I had recently read the Hobbit and did a book report for school on it. I also was pushing my way through the mammoth saga that is the Wheel of Time. A couple other books that don't need mentioning were on my shelf as well. About ten years later and the majority of my shelf is taken up by fantasy itself. I fell in love with Kull and Conan and anything R.E. Howard had to offer. I finally found my way through the Silmarillion which stands as something, to me, greater than the Lord of the Rings itself.

Fast-forward in history, its about two or three weeks before the official release of Fourth Edition. I of course was completely oblivious to this. I just knew it as D&D with no numbers attached.

As I wave hands left and right at all the little things that drew me towards the hobby - it all centered back on Dark Sun. Something I look forward to playing one day. I found in my local comic shop's bargain bin a Dark Sun adventure. I grabbed the thing up for like less than five bucks and brought it home. It was Marauders of Nibenay. I read the thing cover to cover and was hooked. It was in a durable flipbook style built with heavy cardstock. It read like a choose-your-own-adventure, but still had so much room for what I saw as self-development of the story. I'll save the rest of my observations for its own proper blog post concerning the adventure. The thing I'd like to stress is it was aesthetically pleasing format wise. Like I said about the flipbooks - they were durable. I find this is something lacking in current development of the new edition. The go-to adventure for introducing the new edition is falling apart on my shelf as we speak. It's made of flimsy glossy stock - magazine paper at best. Moving to the next part of my personal introduction to D&D, and scathing of presentation: where's the basic box?

I then stuck my head into that place that has a certain level of intimidation to it called a game shop. I asked about the basic game. I don't know where I heard of it - but I knew about basic games and D&D had basic games, so where's the basic game? The shop of course didn't know exactly what I was looking for - they asked if I was looking for some new edition I knew nothing about and offered for me to come in for a drop-in night. This offer was eventually taken up of course with some initial frustration and eventual pleasure. (more to be told in future posts)

I ordered off mighty-amazon the basic game that was released under 3.5 and the player's kit. I received these two boxes by some deliveryman and I like a kid at christmas tore into them.

If I could recall my initial thoughts to the paperback PHB I now owned, or my first experiences handling dice that don't have six sides I would love to relate them. I however can't exactly remember. I remember though the basic game. I played this out with my fiancee and she hated it. I think in hindsight I'd like to lay some hate on that experience as well. I basically dragged her through this game that was set up for four to five people and a thrilling DM. I had no idea how a game was properly run and how to make it fun. I think I had two characters and she had two as well. I had fun I know in my own little way. I think I still had the glow of that Dark Sun adventure in my mind and what this game could be. It was really - I guess now looking at in hindsight a total grind, a total drag. Getting used to the system was hard for me, and maybe this is why they don't have basic games. I think they should though - but make it cohesive and thrilling and grabbing. I'll give you more words with no real meaning - but I guess I'm trying to say - make a fun basic game that gives the idea of the game and not a total panorama. A total panorama is too "complicated/confusing" - it should have a set up for "playing with only one other person?" in big bold letters. It should have "Want a quick pick-up game?" attitude. Whatever happened that fateful evening between my fiancée, the basic game and I didn't bring a new fan to the hobby. So hire some market executives for a couple months - get some focus groups that have no idea what the game is!! I don't know. I guess the point I'd like to stress and with this blog is just that - how marketable is this nugget of gold?

After the basic game experience and getting my hands eventually on that new fandangled edition I knew nothing about I played a couple 3.5 sessions and I've ghosted forums and I've read books and made characters and even played all by my lonesome. I learned all about these weird edition wars that were going on (and still are) and how passionate people were about the hobby. About how deep the pool can get.

At the moment I am now reading through all the rules from first edition, which is redrawing the game for me with new perspectives and ideas.

I hope to keep dropping in on a 4E game at a game shop and get back into DM sessions soloing a friend through the go-to-intro adventure for Fourth Edition: Keep on the Shadowfell.

I might get some 3.5 action out of some other friend who has an interesting campaign set up he’s been working on.

I don't know how well with this long rambled post if I drew a good enough picture of my descent in the dungeons and the dragons - but a real curiousity drove me further in. It's this curiousity I hope to cater to with this blog and hopefully through my intermediate noob-dom bring myself a deeper understanding of the game and get others involved. The length of this entry may detract from that intention - but its my first post. I'll flesh and smooth things out as I go along.