Down the alleyway they creep, they're all your friends when you can't sleep

Despite just shipping off almost all my savings to Sallie Mae yet again to pay off my student loans, I can safely say this:


Things are, and no doubt I am damning myself to jinx it all by saying but, things are indeed looking up.

It sounds nutty, I know. I dont think I've posted much other than pessimism and sarcasm in this digital tome. But times are currently...gettin good perhaps.

Good news is blowin' in your window
Good news is knockin' on your door
Good news is comin' round the corner
Good news is rollin' round your floor

Now I actually have a legitimate reason to be very optimistic right now.
A few actually.
But I'm going to start with the smallest one and work my way to the biggest one.

first things first, a while ago Zazzle left me a message on the answering machine about a new project. I never got the chance to call them back, mainly because I can no longer make long distance phone calls.
The project was a big secret, and even when they sent me the design template, I still wasn't sure what I was looking at exactly. And for an extra challenge I had only two days to come up with something.
And so I toiled mightily on the template which was over 10,000 pixels tall and near crashed this pc several times.
But it got done. And now I have officially designed a skateboard for skateboard design company: ArtsProjekt.

Clicking on it will take you to its page where you can zoom in on the design if you want and see some other alternative designs I did for other boards.

The next piece of news is that I am getting sponsored. By Tom Fulp of newgrounds.com
Which is pretty neat. It means that when Polypeptide is done, it stays exclusive to his site (and has his site's logo at the beginning) and in return he gives me some free money. I have no idea how much he's giving me. But I know people who've been sponsored by him and he's very generous it seems.
As for polypeptide itself, I continue to slave on it for several hours almost each day. I just finished a tug-of-war-followed-by-a-hearty-punch-to-the-face sequence which came out looking wonderful.

And for the last bit of news of why I'm in a rather good mood: i got hired.

And no by hired I dont mean yet another minimum wage job handing dusty garbage to senile rich people while their snotty children make fun of me.
I mean animation wise, I have been hired. And it's made even better that the person who hired me is someone whom I've admired for several years. I can't and won't say who yet. I am under the impression its meant to be a secret right now. But I feel like I'm on top of the world.
I also feel a bit constipated, but thats due to eating some week old pizza I microwaved. Never again, Red Baron Pizza. Never again.

But yes. After many failed attempts of getting my sorry buttocks into various animation studios and art shows and whatnot, success!






_________________________________________________________
______________________________________
________________________
_____________
_____
_

In sadder news, Eric, whom I wrote about his goodbye party in the last post, has left us. Today, Eric rode his golden mountie steed deep into the fleshy crevices of a truck, and with a wink on his mouth and a smile in his eyes, took off from the ground towards chicago, leaving little behind him but the Canadian flag, two trails of smoke, and the light aroma of calculus. The sun didnt rise and there was much gnashing of teeth as the very ashen ground split in two, thunder cracking, as Eric's fiery visage sped across the clouds leaving the words "I'm Mr.McGroo and I pleugh pleugh pleugh" left boiling and frothing against the starlight pattern of the heavens themselves. Mike standing in the wake of the silver truck, his torn cape billowing in the rancid wind, a single tear cavorting down his face, and hitting the soil, where it will, much like Eric, never be seen on this earth or any other again.
Never to return.
Until maybe this christmas.


Speaking of Mike, a week or so ago he took a quick weekend trip to Orlando to visit our good friend John alias Fatbear alias Kickin' Boot alias Lincoln Town Car Annihilator.
And there, much like usual, they drank a whole lot and then wandered down to the pita pit to get delicious fresh pitas. But they also bought a couple of cigars and smoked them. And someone who was with them took the liberty of snapping a photo.

So here is John (on the left) and Mike (on the right) smoking some big stogies in a crowded little bar in orlando.

YEAH YOU WISH YOU WERE THIS COOL, CRACKA

________
________
________
My music-makin' pal Red Mongoose is going to have a new Album in .rar format ready to launch to the internet in a few days.
I'm gonna link to it here once its out. He was nice enough to use one of my scribblings as an album cover.
Tonight he and I brainstormed ideas on what to call it. He settled on "Parable of a Monstrosity"

I'll link to it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1KJKPADX

And thats it for me this week.
I have probably jinxed myself beyond any natural doubt. And now I'm going to go watch James and the Giant Peach again. Good night all.