Luis’ Illustrated Blog

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, it looks like I’m going back to work a week early, which is awesome.  I’ve managed to NOT worry about money these last few weeks by avoiding spending any money (aside from bills) and NOT looking at my bank account.  Still, I know I need to start earning, we didn’t have a cushion when I left work.

I WAS enjoying having the time to work on my comic though.  It’s not like I can’t continue working on it once I’m back at work.

I also didn’t make it to figure drawing this week, to my great disappointment. Alesha was REALLY not feeling good and I needed to be home to take care of the kids while she tried to recover and rest.  I had a good time with the kids though. I’m planning on going to figure drawing from now on, even when I’m back at work next week.

BOOKS

Author and Publisher Paul Nowak is about to complete his latest book: Microcapitalism: A Small Business Manifesto.

According to Paul Nowak:

“Microcapitalism is a an economic system based on small property and small government, about keeping productive property - capital - in the hands of as many private citizens as possible.”

The idea of Microcapitalism is not exactly new. Nowak writes:

“Despite the integral nature of microcapitalism, it was not formalized as a socio-economic theory until the early twentieth century, when Hillaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton began to promote the idea as “Distributism,” a counter to socialism and big-business capitalism that were unraveling the backbone of society. “

Something that seems very relevant to us today.

He’s planning on releasing the book for the kindle on April 15th but he wants to also raise the capital to publish it as a physical book. To this end he’s sent out a call of assistance by asking for sponsors and donor at the Microcapitalism page in KICKSTART.

If you’re interested please check out how you can help.  For more information, there is a video at the KICKSTART site as well as a clearer explanation of the book in question.

To read the press release CLICK HERE.

To read an article Paul Nowak wrote on the subject of Microcapitalism, CLICK HERE.

ART

For Part 1 CLICK HERE.

To be continued next week…

VIDEO

I’ve recently come across an Anime about drawing  “Do it yourself Comics” (DIY).  It’s called Comic Party and I really enjoyed watching it.  It’s about a guy who gets manipulated by his crazy friend into writing, creating, publishing and selling his own comic.  It’s really funny and “educational”. It was originally a Manga.  I thought the idea to make a comic or an animated cartoon focused on making comics was a great one. They did a fantastic job of making a very emotional story out of it.

If you ever get a chance to watch this anime, you ought to give it a shot.

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not much to tell. Just plugging away at the scenes I need to finish.

FAMILY

This weekend was a very eventful one.  It began Friday. Alesha and I celebrated five years of marriage.  Well…we technically didn’t celebrate it until Saturday.  We gave each other presents on Friday.  I got her some “hair goop” that she wanted and a book I thought she would enjoy (Here There be Dragons by James A. Owen). She gave me a board game. A very cool one I wanted. It had won the German Game of the Year this year.  Big honor in the board game community.  It’s called Dominion.

Friday, instead of going out for our anniversary, we ended up NOT spending the day together at all.  I got home and went to a Rosary that was being held at my Cousin Carolina’s house. Alesha was planning to go too but Dante decided he reealllly wanted to go to bed for the night.  We kinda didn’t have a choice.  One of us had to stay home with him so Munchkin and I went to the Rosary together.  Munchkin had a blast playing with her cousin Eduardito.  They played pretty hard.  It looked like an awful lot of work to be playing as hard as they were.  I was very happy to see them enjoying themselves as much as they did.  I was really tired myself.  Problem is, when I’m really tired or stressed or emotional, I tend to want to be by myself.  Being around people and attempting to socialize just about kills every ounce of energy I have.  I spent most of the time playing a video game on my DS while listening to conversations other people around me were having.  I tend to isolate myself so much I don’t really have anything relevant to say to anyone about any subjects people bring up at parties so I end up listening and, by default, learning a few things.

Praying the Rosary in a group is very enjoyable to me.  I always feel happier after it’s over.  It always brings home what’s important in life.

We left at about nine o’clock and of course, Munchkin didn’t want to leave.

Saturday was spent, mostly, with the kids, but we had made arrangements with my mom to take care of the kids at four so Alesha and I could go on a date. Our date was a simple dinner and a movie.  It had been a long time since we had eaten Japanese.  I was desperate for some sushi.  I love that stuff. So we went to a Japanese restaurant near us that has a really good reputation.  It was great.   We had a very enjoyable dinner.  We then went to go see the GI Joe movie.  It was a highly entertaining, ridiculously stupid and silly movie.  We had a fantastic time watching it and we had just as much fun laughing at how cheesy it was afterward. I’d so buy that movie when it comes out on DVD.  It’s that lame and fun.

We then picked up the kids, who were asleep by then, but who had just as good a time with my parents as Alesha and I had on our date. After we put them to bed, we opened up a bottle of the wine we always open on our anniversary and watched The Princess Bride in bed until we fell asleep.  It was a great date night.

The next day was Munchkin’s birthday.   The kids must have had a really tiring day the day before because they didn’t wake up at seven on their own the way they usually do.  By a quarter till eight, they were still asleep  and it didn’t seem like they were going to wake up anytime soon. I woke Munchkin up and told her it was her birthday. She acted as though the whole idea was surreal to her. She was given a special birthday breakfast of pancakes with sprinkle on it.  Afterward we all got ready for church.  Alesha and I made the huge mistake of going to a ten o’clock Mass with the kids.  It was a mistake because that was Dante’s nap time.  He was sleepy and cried pretty much the whole time.  Alesha missed most of the Mass because she had to take him out the church. When we got back we put both kids down for a nap.  They had both fallen asleep in the car.

I took this time to go get Munchkin a present.  I had an idea of what I wanted to get her but the store that had what I wanted was closed. I ended up getting her something else. Alesha was desperate for me to get back home.  Dante had woken up crying and there was no consoling him.  I had to stop and get some things Alesha wanted at the store and then I hurried home as fast as I could.  We needed to get to my parents as soon as possible so Alesha could help my mom with the food.  Dante cried the whole way.   We suspect that, since he is teething, it had to do with that.  We had given him something for the pain but it didn’t stop him from crying. He had been crying for about an hour and half when we pulled up to my parent’s house. Then, when Dante saw my dad, he stopped.  We’re still not sure what it was all about.

Munchkin had a blast at her party.  She played with her cousins and had a great time. She opened presents and got lots of nice gifts.  The last gift she got was a plastic princess crown and jewelry.  The party ended around eight.  We really needed to leave so the kids could be put to bed. They had to wake up early to go to daycare the next day.

…figures.

FAMILY

My cousin Tony passed away early Monday morning. He had neuro muscular dystrophy. I want to write more but I can’t…except to say that my one regret is that I wish I would have spent some time with him while he was still alive…but was too much of a coward to do so. I spent no time with him at all, either healthy or sick. Please pray for him and the family. Especially his widow.

BLOGS/PODCASTS

Raul has decided to go multimedia. He now has a blog and a podcast.  You can find them at: http://manvsart.com/. He’s got two episodes up. An intro episode and a second episode.  The second one is darn entertaining and he made me laugh.  Go check it out.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not much new to report.  Had some very complicated scenes to do that really slowed me down. I don’t feel I’m pulling my weight this time around.  Hopefully, by the end of today, I would have gotten enough done to feel better about it all.

BOOKS

My G.K. Chesterton drawing, from a few posts back, got the attention of a much bigger Chesterton fan, Paul Nowak. As well as being a Chesterton enthusiast (and who isn’t, once you start reading his works?) he is also the author of three books, a freelance writer, a fellow board game enthusiast, a philosopher, Christian Apologist and he runs a darn good website. He was good enough to send me two of the books he wrote. Both of which are right up my alley: The Way of the Christian Samurai: Reflections for Servant-Warriors of Christ
and The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut.
I’m a fan of G.K. Chesterton. Some of Chesterton’s books that I’ve read include: Heretics, Orthodoxy, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Everlasting Man, some of his Father Brown Mysteries, and some of his essays from What’s wrong with the world. I highly recommend all of these works.

I read The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut this weekend.  It’s really great.  It’s geared for kids and the stories are really fun.  They’re inspired by some of the writings, thoughts, and real life experiences Chesterton wrote about in this books and articles, as well as some of his biographies.  I found the stories to ring very true to the spirit of Chesterton’s writings. As I read this book, my brain was playing out the stories as if they were animated cartoons.  I’ve always thought Chesterton was a great living cartoon, but reading this book really proved it to me. The book is a great way to introduce Chesterton to kids and even to parents, if they don’t know anything about Chesterton. It’s also a great tribute to the man. It captures that lovable thing about Chesterton that makes you keep coming back for more.

If you want to know more about Chesterton you can learn more about him by going to Paul Nowak’s site.

The other book,  The Way of the Christian Samurai, I haven’t read yet, but I started to.  I really can’t believe no one had ever thought to write about this subject before.   I’m a big fan of the “mythology” of the Samurai.  I’m a fan of Samurai movies (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Lone Wolf and Cub, Lady Snow Blood, etc…) as well as some Samurai literature and Manga (Japanese comics). Though I know that the reality of the Samurai may not have been as glamorized as the mythologized figures they have become, the mythology of the Samurai is something quite fantastic and awesome.  Paul Nowak has taken the Samurai’s code of Bushido and it’s examples and plugged it into Christianity. Suddenly you have two great tastes that taste great together.  Holy Cow!  They fit together so well!  The small taste I got from the small part of the book that I’ve read so far has got me drooling.  As an artist, my imagination is going crazy over the imagery of a Christian Samurai. Urge to draw…rising…

Get these books!

BOARD GAMES

So Andy and I tried out playing Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics (SWAT) with the new variant end game rules we borrowed from other games.  We also tried out some  random map placement  rules that add a small “fog of war” aspect to the game.

Photo from www.boardgamegeek.com

First, the end game rules we used where borrowed from two games. (1) We borrowed the HeroScape rules of ending the game after a certain amount of turns, if the other official end game conditions were not met.  This way, we tried to cut down the play time and keep it to about an hour to an hour and a half.  We failed.  At first we picked 20 turns but it was too long. Once we had hit turn 5 we realized we needed to cut the turns down so we decided to end the game on turn 10.  It took us about 2 hours to play the game. (2) The next rule we borrowed was from the game Manoeuvre.  Turns out  SWAT and Manoeuvre have many things in common.  I don’t own Manoeuvre but I do have the rules for the game on pdf.  From those rules, I borrowed the “controlling enemy territory” victory point conditions, from the game. It worked great and it was a great motivator to not turtle in the game.

Second, the rules for map tile placement, we borrowed from Dungeon Twister. We placed map tiles face down, took turns putting face down buildings and terrain as we set the game up, and as we played the game, (as in Dungeon Twister) we revealed the upside down map tiles and placed the buildings and terrain we had originally place face down on that map tile. We also gave the Recon unit special powers   just to add to the theme and to try to keep the game playing like the video game.  It worked great. If there is one thing I would change, it would be that the placement of buildings when revealed by one player, would be done by the opposing player.  As it was, because we didn’t do that.  The person who got lucky enough to reveal map tiles that had buildings close to their home base, namely me, had a very unfair advantage since I was able to place the buildings near me and therefore ended up with tons of money, which won me the game. Had we done it the other way, the game would have been a much closer match.

Most of our additions really helped make the game even more enjoyable.  Not sure if we’re going to play the game this Friday.  I think Andy got disappointed that I won again.  We might play a game of  Dreamblade.  We’ll see.  It will also depend on how many players we’ll have since I’ve invited another friend of mine over to play with us.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I’m doing Storyboard revisions on Lance’s show this week. All the other storyboard artists on the show were too busy to help, so they asked me to do it. I’m so happy they did because I’m having so much fun doing it. I’m enjoying going to work again. Doing the same thing over and over for sixteen years tends to get old after a while so doing a different job all together tend to be refreshing. I’ve found myself very focused on what I’m doing. Storyboard revisions can be tedious or fun depending on how much creativity your allowed. It’s an interesting challenge because you’re trying to adjust shots or add shots to an existing show so that they run seamlessly into each other. It’s also challenging working out shots from scratch because your trying to find the best way to tell the story or the joke while working out how to put them all together like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s so fun!

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

Urge to role play…rising….

For my birthday, my compadres (my daugher’s Godparents) got me Star Hero, a table top Role Playing Game (RPG) setting book for the HERO System RPG . It’s funny because they got it off my Amazon.com wish list and had no idea what it was for. Star Hero is a book that helps you run a game in any sci fi universe that you come up with. Thing is, getting and reading this book has inadvertently rekindled my table top RPG itch.

What is a table top RPG? The simples way to describe it is, it’s like playing pretend with your friends with rules. Some people like to do Live Action Role Playing (LARP), which is like improve theater, but most people just sit around a table and play it like a board game. Role playing was invented by E. Gary Gygax (who just recently died a few days ago) and Dave Arneson. They were miniatures wargamers. They where the ones who invented the famous (or infamous, depending on who you speak to) Dungeons & Dragons RPG and in doing so, invented RPGs.

When I was in high school my friends introduced me to RPGs through my love of comics. My friends and I played superhero RPGs where we created superheros and played out adventures with them. It was so fun. We had these really involved back stories written up for our characters and it really felt like a giant collaborative story we were all coming up with. It was my first introduction to creative writing and story telling. Since the games took place in our imaginations, they all seemed so much larger than life to me. The system we used to play these games was what is now called the HERO System but at the time was just called Champions .

Getting the Star Hero book really brought back memories. It also made me want to start up a game. Problem with playing RPGs is that they requires a lot of work and a lot of time to play (a minimum of about three hours to play and at least a day to prepare) if you want to get the most out of it. Otherwise you get a lack luster game that feels kinda shallow and dissatisfying. Still, it made me want to play anyway.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

I’ve been playing a play-by-web game of Chase over on the Super Duper games website against someone I don’t know and I’m having a really good time playing it. My opponent is really nice and helpful but he isn’t holding back at all and is just working me over. I really recommend the site, it has all kinds of abstract games you can play. The best part about it is that you can play them on your own time. It’s been a week since the game started and I’ve been making a move a day. It’s great! I get an email whenever it’s my turn, I click on the link in the email, and it sends me straight to the game board on the site so I could make my move. I feel like I’m playing a game without having to spend much time doing it.

Of course, like it always happens to me, I get all obsessive about the game, thinking about it all the time and worrying whether the move I made isn’t going to get me into more trouble. I’m so lame about these things.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Maria wrote:

Well, it’s clear to me that you are really a cartoon interrupted by reality. Those poor guys need a life, too.

Have you given any thought to any number of podcasted novels? My friend Rob Suarez wrote one which I am enjoying, called Murder by Design. His site also has links to the novels he listens to: http://robsuarez.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Maria! I should have written that on your blog but I’ll do you one better and recommend everyone to go to your blog and say happy birthday. Also, I read the post named, Oh! The humanity! it’s really great.

Speaking of great posts, Maria also wrote an article for Rosary Army called The Family that Plays Together… It’s about board games and I love it. Oh, and by the way, when you’re at her site, be sure to pick up one of her books. I just ordered Darknet this Monday. Can’t wait to read it.

Thank you for the book suggestion Maria, I downloaded the first two chapters.

Yelda van Eijk wrote:

Wow, I can so relate to your obsessions-story. I never imagined that another person could have that same ‘issue’, if I may call it like that. My obsessions are throughout the year, not just when I’m very stressed -or maybe I am always stressed :). I used to play Everquest as well (Taoni, halfling druid) and I played Guild Wars for a while. At the moment I am in the middle of my ‘Rome’-obsession. I watch the TV series, I read books about it, I listen to podcasts about it. I try to emerge myself in that world. I don’t have it at work though. Since I work in a photoshop, I can’t help customers while laughing out loud from Fr Roderick’s jokes
It is so great to hear from another person that he also lives ‘inside his head’. I thought it was just me and that it made me very weird. Well, maybe it does. But at least I’m not alone anymore

Thanks for the comment Yelda. My obsessions are throughout the year as well only they go into overdrive when I’m stressed.

Yeah, in Everquest I played a halfling cleric named Sammo. It took over my life. It was awful, I promised myself I’d never play a MMORPG again and so far I’ve kept that promise somewhat intact (although I once played Flyff for about thirty minutes or so.)

As for the Rome HBO show, my wife and I enjoy that show very much as well. We are currently watching Disk 2 of Season 2. Both the show and your comment set off my “Catholicism obsession” so bare with me.

While watching the show, it’s very cool to see how different Roman people behaved in a pre-Christian world. It’s interesting to see how the pursuit of pleasure and power was something that was encouraged. It gives great context to the world Jesus was born into. It also really makes you realize how radical his teachings must have sounded. In a world were helping people who are sick or in need, who aren’t your friends or family, is seen as a sign of weakness, to have Jesus do so, must have been crazy. It also shows how alien the Romans must have looked at the Jews who held to the Commandment, “Though shall not commit adultery”. It seems that, adultery was one of the things the Romans also encouraged. Then, of course, along comes Jesus and shocks both Jews and Romans by raising the bar still higher by saying:

27 You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28 But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. ”

Mathew 5: 27-28 (DOUAY-RHEIMS Bible)

They must have felt as angry, indignant and upset as even our modern society does, where lust is used to sell everything. Above all, they seemed to really love to get revenge for every slight done against them. Then of course Jesus comes along and says:

27 But I say to you that hear: Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you. 28 Bless them that curse you and pray for them that calumniate you. 29 And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. 30 Give to every one that asketh thee: and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. 31 And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner. 32 And if you love them that love you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also love those that love them. 33 And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also do this. 34 And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much. 35 But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest. For he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

 

Luke 6 27-36 (DOUAY-RHEIMS Bible)

They must of thought he was nuts. Hmmm, come to think of it, there are many places in the world today that are trying to rid themselves of these teachings, in order to become more like the Romans.

Writing about this stuff reminds me of a quote from G.K. Chesterton :

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” - ILN, 7/16/10

He also said:

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” - Chapter 5, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910

If you’re obsessed with Rome, I encourage you to read the works of a famous African Roman who had a fascinating Roman life. My uncle August, (A.K.A. St. Augustine of Hippo) . His autobiography, The Confessions is just amazing. He wrote about how he ran away from his mother (who chased after him) as he traveled through out the Roman world, sleeping around with women, and seeking out wisdom from all the famous Philosophers of his day only to find it in the most unlikely place. After finding wisdom, he then wrote about how he saw the Roman world around him. An incident with one of his best friends and his addiction to the blood lust in the Colosseum comes to mind. It’s an amazing book. It’s part theological analysis of the universe and God, and part autobiographical adventure. While I’m on the subject. I also recommend The City of God, which is also by St. Augustine, but this one is his analysis as to why Rome fell (which he lived through). I’ve provided links to the free versions of both books above if you want to read them right away. Just click on the underlined names.

Phew, had to get that off my chest. Sorry. Thanks for baring with me and thanks again for the comments

leah wrote:

Luis, thanks for sharing about your obsessive-thing. I go through phases when I’m really focused on (okay, obsessed with) one thing, too, and I’ll spend all my free time amassing all the info I can get. Until I read your post today, though, I didn’t connect those phases with being under stress, but now I can totally see that. Thanks - that makes a lot of sense for me and is a very helpful insight!

I’m also very introverted and have a hard time coming out of myself in social situations. I find that what I really need to do is focus on developing a genuine interest in other people - each other person is another “self”, another human being with all the dignity and value that entails. Ask them about themselves, see what they are interested in, what their world is like. It can be fascinating and is a great way to get out of the inward-focused interior life I find myself in so often.

Wow, thank you so much for the insight Leah. I think the key word in what you wrote is, “developing a genuine interest in other people”. That is exactly what I need to work on. I’m the most self centered person I know (which shows how interested I am in other people, if I haven’t talked to anyone who is more self centered). Being married and having kids is helping me out with this problem because it’s awfully difficult to stay self centered and still care for them at the same time. Still, it’s a struggle I face everyday. I’ve definitely taken your insight to heart and it’s helped me out a great deal in the last few days. Thank you.

By the way, I’ve been meaning to post this link for some time. It’s an article I read about introverts that really hit home for me. It’s called: Caring for Your Introvert. Take a read and let me know what you think.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

More twelve hour days. I’m really getting burned out. It’s getting difficult to stay focused. I’ve run out of podcasts to listen to and that isn’t helping.

Usually I listen to six to sixteen podcasts a day depending on the their length but since I’ve been working more hours I’ve been listening to around eight to twenty four podcasts a day. The podcasts I listen to just don’t update fast enough to keep up with the amount of hours I listen. I’ve started putting in TV dvds and listening to them as I work. I did this with 30 Rock recently. I hadn’t seen it before, I thought it was a pretty clever show.

Anyway, hope I can keep this up. They’re having me work Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Sheesh!

FAMILY

Friday was Eduardo’s birthday. He’s my daughter’s Godfather (Compadre, in spanish). He celebrated it on Sunday. It was a nice party. He had all his family over and it really looked like he was enjoying himself an awful lot.

After the party had gone on a while, Eduardo took out Ticket to Ride: Europe. He only managed to explain the rules before people had to leave so the game didn’t even get past the first two turns. He then thought that it would be easier to play a game of Texas Hold ‘em. Mostly because he wouldn’t have to explain the rules. I’d brought Modern Art the card game by Reiner Knizia and I managed to convince everyone who stayed to try it out. I personally find this game feels a bit like Texas Hold ‘em without being like poker at all. Here’s the Board Game Geek description of the game:

Buying and selling paintings is a very lucrative business, at least that’s what Hollywood’s led us to believe, and that’s the premise of this game. Five different artists have produced a bunch of paintings, and it’s the player’s task to be both the buyer and the seller, hopefully making a profit in both roles. He does this by putting a painting from his hand up for auction each turn. He gets the money if some other player buys it, but must pay the bank if he buys it for himself. After each round, paintings are valued by the number of paintings of that type that were sold. The broker with the most cash after four rounds is the winner.

Part of the Knizia auction trilogy.

Winner of the 1993 Deutscher Spiele Preis.

There where six people wanting to play but it’s a five player game so I sat out of the game and just played banker (which I did a lousy job at since I’m terrible at math). The game was played by Eduardo, Eduardo’s brother, his brother’s wife, my wife Alesha, and Eduardo’s daughter Carolinita. I think everyone had a good time. The game has you making really tough decisions through out the game. I’m not sure everyone understood all the rules but I think that game was played as good as it could have been. It didn’t help that we were playing on a really, really windy night, outside, with very little light. Eduardo played the game the way I did the first time I played it. He went all out on the auctions he really wanted the “paintings” in. Eduardo’s brother and his wife were playing the game really well. I was really impressed by the smart decisions they were making. I think one of them would have won if it wasn’t for the fact that Eduardo ended up spending all his money on an auction late in the game which gave Carolinita a ton of money since she was the one auctioning off the “paintings”. I think, I did something similar the first time I played. The game ended shortly after that and Carolinita ended up winning by a lot of money. She was very, very happy about that. Eduardo came in dead last, poor guy.

We then played Texas Hold ‘em. Which I like playing, although I find it gets repetitive if you play for too long. I thought I’d be cool and see if I could guess what cards people had by looking at their faces and not even look at my cards. I’d play the game on just “tells” alone (I saw it in a movie once). I lost all my chips. We left a little after that. Not because I lost but because someone reminded me that it was Sunday and I had work the next day. Otherwise I would have stuck around and cried a little more. I had a good time though.

Happy Birthday Eduardo.

MOVIES

Here’s a few trailers that have caught my eye in the last few months.

Batman Dark Knight:

Still not sure if it will be as good or better than Batman Begins but it looks interesting.

Iron man:

I just liked the shot were you see Iron man out running the jets. Too cool. I never read Iron man comics but I’ve read comics with Iron man in them and I think the idea of the character is great. As a kid he never really appealed to me but for some reason he appeals to me quite a bit now.

Prince Caspian :

I don’t know. I didn’t really like the book this movie is based on, all that much (I also didn’t like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book either) but this movie might be good. I didn’t much like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. I thought it came off as emotionally flat in places that it should not have been. So far I’ve only read four Narnia books and the only ones I’ve liked have been skipped as movies. They are: The Magician’s Nephew, and A Horse and his Boy. Personally I think they should have made The Magician’s Nephew the first movie.

I’ve read they’re making a Justice League Movie also but now it’s on hold. Read about it by clicking HERE.

BOOKS

A month or so ago I finished reading Storm Front, a Harry Dresden book by Jim Butcher, and I really liked it. Since the book I have is an anthology of four novels in one, I began reading the next one right after I was done with the first. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through it anytime soon though. It’s longer and I haven’t gotten back to it in a while. At the moment I’m in the mood for something a little different. Then I’ll get back to it. I like the Dresden stories a lot and I think Jim Butcher’s writing style is just really fun. The wacky situations Harry Dresden gets himself in are just great. I highly recommend these books.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Alex wrote:

Luis, I find your story very inspiring, and truly appreciate where you are coming from. You seem like one of the hardest workers, and one more importantly, who will not give up on his dreams. In the same footsteps, I am an aspiring screenwriter with a focus on humor and satire; from the start have longed to write for The Simpsons. It has been a childhood dream, since my beginning days watching, and has followed me to college today. I was wondering if you would have any advice when it comes to getting an internship with The Simpsons, or if you would possibly be willing to talk more about your experience. I do apologize if it seems I am asking a lot, but I am fascinated by your story and your ability to succeed. If anything, please do not mistake me for just another Simpsons freak, I am a passionate and dedicated writer. Feel free to respond to the comment or email me.

Thanks so much, and great work for The Simpsons!

-Alex

Hi Alex,

First I’d like to thank you for the compliments. I really appreciate them. I must say, that the way a lot the things happened to me really felt like pure dumb luck or, since I’m Catholic, they where a bit Providential (and even then, on hindsight, it seems it wasn’t just for my sake these things happened to me. More on that some other time perhaps). If I was to try to do the same thing today, I would not be able to. The studio no longer has an internship for up and coming artists and I’m afraid that it never had one for writers. Most of the new artist that have gotten hired lately have done so through the presentation of a portfolio and then turning in and passing the Layout test they received afterwards. Some artists have worked their way from being receptionists to artists. They did this by befriending artists and learning how to do the work and then taking the Layout test and passing it. So that’s almost like the internship route I took except I wasn’t getting paid for my internship and the person who took this route took five years to make it as an artist.

I’m afraid the writing processes might be a bit trickier to get into. First of all the writers don’t work at the studio I work in. They work at the Fox Studio Lot. Second, I don’t think there’s an easy way to just get hired as a writer on the show except by recommendation (in fact, I think that’s the way it is on all TV shows). That means you not only need to be a really good writer but you also need to have the right connections. I’ve heard it’s very difficult to pull off, but it’s doable.

I spoke to a friend of mine at work, who is trying to get into sitcom writing (not on The Simpsons) and he gave me a rundown of all the things he’s learned so far after reading a lot about it and talking to a lot of writers and producers. You may already know this stuff, but perhaps there are others who don’t. Here’s some helpful tips he’s learned:

• Tape six episodes of TV shows that you like that are currently on the air and study them. Pay close attention to their story structure (take notes on any conventions, variants on conventions or structural innovations), show formulas, humor, etc…

• Get actual scripts for these shows. (On e-bay or Script Shack) Study the writing style, make a list of the type of humor in the show (example: Ironic humor, slapstick…etc.) Note what type of gags are used the most and how the show is structured to pay them off. Label each joke. Invent names for them if necessary.

• Write a spec script for a show that is CURRENTLY ON THE AIR but not on the show that you want to write for. For example, if you want to write for The Simpsons, write a Family Guy spec script. Why? Because producers and writers will be much harsher on someone writing in a universe they know well than one they don’t. They will pay more attention to the writing on a spec script written for a different show than the mistakes you made writing in their’s. (This is also true for artists. It’s not a good idea to put Simpsons characters in your portfolio when trying to get a job on the Simpsons).

• Get an agent. Studios will not read you script without one.

It’s possible you already own these books but I’ll put them here anyway. My friend recommends these books:

The Comic toolbox, by John Vorhaus

Writing Television Sitcoms by Evan Smith

Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer, Mark Shatz

My friend also told me that there is some sort of writers workshop program at Warner Brothers. It’s a program that is very much under the radar and as of the time of this writing it’s the off season for it. Besides there is also a writer’s strike so that also doesn’t help. You might look into it though. It’s possible to get a script writing assistant job from it.

When I worked on the Simpsons Movie, I worked at the Fox Studio Lot for about three months and I saw the Simpsons writers once in a while. I would also see Matt Groening almost at a daily basis because his office was near the place I was working and in order to go to the bathroom I passed by his office. One or two writers ventured into our work place out of curiosity just to see how we did things. They where real modest and very friendly. From the stories I’ve gotten from some directors, I heard they went through as much hell as we did in the movie, if not more. I gathered from things that they said when they came by that there was a definite hierarchy within the writers. Some were part of the “A team” and some the “B team”. Of course, I may very well have misunderstood because I’ve also heard (perhaps from the movie commentary) that there was a group that was having more fun than another group because one group was under the pressure of making the movie story work while the other group sat around having fun coming up with gags and laughing all the time. It’s possible that the “gag group” thought the “story group” was having more fun because they got the “important” job while they sat around feeling like second class citizens. Not having been part of the writing processes, I could only speculate from what I saw and over heard so take this with a grain of salt.

Well Alex, I hope this is in someway helpful.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So, some of us are really starting to feel the effects of the strike. I, thankfully, am not. At least not yet. I was talking to a fellow co-worker and he told me that the crew he’s on has been told to take their time on their scenes. Once they are done they won’t have any more work and might have to go on hiatus. Yikes!

Meanwhile, the show I’m on still has a lot of work to be done on it. As far as making quota…uh…we’re suppose to finish ten scenes a week. I managed to finish four. They were heavy acting scenes. Still, it looks bad. The next scenes I have to do are riot scenes so I don’t think I’m gonna make quota again. Maybe they won’t mind because of the strike. Guess I better make the scenes look good anyway, just in case. Hope the strike is over soon. Our animatic is due the week before Christmas and without writers, who will give us notes on what to revise? Without revisions I don’t have a job next month.

BLOGS/BOARD GAMES

Do you think board games are just for kids!? You know, it never occurred to me that someone would actually think that way. All this time I’ve been writing about board games and I bet a lot of people just skipped that part of my post because they probably thought I was talking about kids stuff. I bet if I was to talk about animated movies or shows they would probably think the same thing.

The reason I came to realize that people might think this way was because I read a blog article called 60 second primer on modern board games, at Yehuda Berlinger’s blog which I really liked and highly recommend because it gives you a quick over view on modern board games and how people might view them.

This is a really great professional blog. (Boy, I’d love to live off my blog. Bet it takes a lot of work though. I think it’s sooo cool that he’s sponsored by board game stores). I found out about this blog because he had linked to me. The strange thing is, the day I found out about the blog. I was listening to a board game podcast called Into the Gamescape - Show 22. It’s a British based podcast with three guys who generally just talk about the games they play and review them. Well, in the episode I was listening to, the Gamescape guys were talking about a game they played called, “It’s Alive!” (this was about 50:23 minutes into the show). It’s basically a card game about putting together a monster out of body parts a la Frankenstein. I remember because the Gamescape guys forced the winner to yell out “It’s Alive!” in order to win the game because it was in the rules. If he hadn’t done it, they were not going to count his win as a win and they were just going to keep playing. Anyway, I listened to that podcast on the way home in my car and when I got home and thought nothing else about it. Once home, I got on the computer and discovered Yehuda’s site. I went into the “About me” page and found that he was also a board game designer. I clicked to see what game he designed and wouldn’t you know it, it was “It’s Alive!”. That was just the weirdest thing.

In any case, I recommend the blog. The other article I really liked was 100+ Ways to Rejuvenate the Games You Already Own. It’s very cool. Lots of ideas as to how to make an old game new. I own a book called “New Rules for Classic games” but this blog article may very well be better than that book.

BOOKS

Speaking of books, my friend Aimee has a book coming out this month. It’s called “Japan Ai: A tall girls adventure in Japan“. In this book she recounts the story of her trip to Japan. It’s done in a similar way as my “Illustrated trip to Italy” but it’s mostly in color, longer, in book form and, of course, in her own personal style. In fact she told me she got the idea after looking at what I did with my trip to Italy (the same way I got the idea from someone else). It took me a week to do mine but it took her quite a bit longer to do hers, and it shows. Click here to go to the official site for a preview. From what I’ve seen, it looks darn funny and lots of fun. I’m gonna pick it up, I think you should too. It looks like a lot of fun.

PODCAST

Rosary Army has got their “That Catholic Show” DVDs out. Now you can take the show and watch it in really good quality on your TV. They make good Christmas gifts too. Go pick one up at the official “That Catholic Show” site and help support them. Yay!

BOARD GAMES

As I’ve stated before in “Comparing the pros and cons of Video games and Board games” one of my all time favorite video games is Sid Meier’s Civilizations II (I haven’t played the new version, Civilizations IV because the game is too big and my computers can’t handle it). I like the game so much that, about four or five years ago when I discovered that there was a board game made based on the computer game, I bought it. In fact, trying to discover more information about the game before I bought it was the way I discovered Board Game Geek (BGG). Back then, I wasn’t into board games as much as I am now. Anyway, once I got the game, I was very surprised at how many bits came in the game. Well over a hundred different bits and things. The other thing that was crazy was the size of the board, 36” by 46”. The rule book had two sets of rules the Standard Rules and the Advanced Rules. The Standard Rule was a very simplified way to play the game it almost seemed like a game of Risk, which if I wanted to play, I’d just play Risk. The Advanced Rule on the other had was a little more like the computer game. The game gives you the option to play three different games at different lengths. The shortest game lasts two to three hours, the medium length lasts three to four and the longest lasts four to six. Those are really long! At the time that I had bought the game though, I had no one to play it with, so it just sat there collecting dust, even though I really wanted to try it out.

The first time I played the game was with my wife Alesha (at the time, she was just my girlfriend). We played the Standard Version and I wasn’t very impressed, we ended up thinking that the next time we’d play the game, we would play the Advanced game. This happened almost three years later after I married Alesha, and we played the game with my brother-in-law. We made a few mistakes that night:

1. We played it late at night when everyone was really tired.

2. Since I hadn’t read the rules in a long time, I was reading them as we went along (This is the worst way to play a board game).

3. I got quite a few rules wrong.

In any case, the game was taking a really long time and the game required a lot of up keeping that we weren’t prepared for. Not only that, but my brother-in-law decided to play a very militant game which slowed the game down even more because the battle rules of the game aren’t very good and because production of technologies slows down so much the game doesn’t move ahead. Needless to say, we didn’t finish the game and it left me with a bad impression. I didn’t touch the game again.

An e-mail conversation I recently had with a friend of mine has lead me to take another look at the game. After having played the Pocket Civ game (as mentioned in Playing too much, sleeping too little) I thought that maybe I could use some of the rules of that game and maybe “plug” them into the Sid Meier’s Civ board game . I thought that if I did that it might play more like the video game. Thinking about it some more I started thinking up a lot of other things I might be able to add to the rule of the game to make if feel more like the video game.

Now, you may be wondering, why bother making the board game play more like the video game if I could just get up and play the video game. The answer is a very much like what I wrote in “Comparing the pros and cons of Video games and Board games” . I want to play the game on a table in the company of family and friends but still enjoy the Sid Meier’s Civ experience. I don’t want to sit in front of a computer screen by myself clicking on the spacebar.

In any case, I took out the game again for the first time in years, opened it up and re-read the rules. (Which I later discovered have been revised for the better. I download the new revised rules from the Sid Meier’s Civ board game website.) After I read them I realized that the game wasn’t as bad as I remembered and it really did seem like the video game. I tested out my house rules anyway and I discovered that they actually made the game move faster. I also found different battle rules on BGG that are better than the ones that come with the game so I’m now going to use those.

All this has actually gotten me exited about playing the game again (both the board game and the video game). It’s really too bad that the game takes so long and the board is so huge. Unless the people I play the game with are big Civ fans, it will be very tricky to get anyone to play it with me. Who knows, maybe with the new house rules, I might be able to convince some people. Now, if only I can find a way to automate the up keeping parts of the game like the computer does. Getting a board game to play like a computer game is very tricky.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Greg: Glad you liked the cartoon. I’m glad you used it on as the podcast picture for the show. I was really flattered.

Mike : Thank you, for the compliment about my cartoons. I’ve heard wonders about your podcasting programs.

Tony Scarfone : I agree with your opinion on the Samus’ translation of Beowulf. That’s the one I read. That’s why I put it on the site. It’s really good. I also noticed you have a podcast. I’m make sure to check it out.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, so much for having fun storyboarding. I finished working on storyboard revisions on one show and I got put on storyboard revisions on another show. Problem is that all the fun stuff has been done already and all I get to do is the grunt work. The shots have been figured out already by the director and he just gives me a bunch of roughs to clean up. This means I, first have to interpret the roughs and second, I have to draw them pretty clean. Problem is that the show is so behind that everything is do yesterday. This means that what ever I get, I have to do as fast as possible and under a ton of pressure. Not only that, but some of the shots I have to “board” are already in layout. This means that the work I’m doing doesn’t have any practical use. The layout artists are working off the rough version of the shots that I’m trying to clean up for the “board”. This does nothing but frustrate me because the director is just as picky over the storyboard shots that are not going to be used by anyone as he is with the ones that are. Why? Because apparently there is one producer left on the show that is not on strike and we have to make the “boards” on the show perfect so he doesn’t make too many changes to it. It’s so impractical. It just feels like a waste of my time to me.

I was put on the show last Thursday and it seems that ever since then, the moment I come to work I get an instant headache. This stinks. I was suppose to start on Lance’s show on Monday and I haven’t which means that I’m going to be behind on all the things he gives me from the very beginning.

MY WEEK

My laptop is just not connecting to the internet anymore and don’t know why. It’s really frustrating. First the wireless router started acting up so we just unplugged it and after I did that and I connected the computer to the land line, it just wouldn’t load the internet pages. It gets the signal but it just won’t load. Has this ever happened to you? If it has, how did you fix it? I tried uninstalling the router program but it’s not even in the computer. I don’t know what to do.

BOARD GAMES

So instead of telling you that I played three games this weekend (Bohnanza, San Juan, and Vegas Showdown), I thought I’d write about how I made my own. No, I didn’t design a game, I just put it together from a pdf I downloaded. The game is Dune, the board game.

If your a fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune books, this is a must have. I’ve been wanting to play this game for a long time. This game plays up to six player and each person plays one faction from the Dune books, The Fremen, the Harkonnen, the Atreides, the Guild, the Bene Gesserit, or the Emperor . The best part is each faction has a bunch of special “powers” that thematically go with the faction and the essence of the books. It’s so cool! There is just too many interesting things about this game to write here. If you want to read more about it, click here.

This game has been out of print for years and it has the reputation of being one of the best games ever. It’s ranked #45 on board game geek. If you were to try to buy in on e-bay it would cost you over a hundred dollars. Fantasy Flight has bought the rights to use the game system but were unable to get the rights to use the Dune License so they’re going to use a different Sci Fi theme. It just won’t be the same.

After having printed out and played the Pocket Civ game, I thought to myself that it would be pretty easy to print out and make another game. Since I felt like doing it again, I needed a game worth making. I’d downloaded the Dune game about a year or two ago and I thought that maybe it was the right time to put it together. So I began trying to figure out how I was going to go about doing it. I had card stock so that wasn’t going to be a big deal. So first I started printing out the cards, the problem was that the cards also had backs to them. When I turned the paper around and printed on the back of the already printed image in order to give the cards a back, I found to my dismay that they didn’t line up. So I thought the only way to do it would be to print the front and back on two different pieces of card stock and glue them together later. I also had lamination paper and after I printed out all the components I started to laminate everything. Once I did that I went to the craft store and bought some glue spray. I then went to the local copy store to use the paper cutter they had there. I was there for about two hours cutting out the cards for the game as well as the actual game board. I put the cards together using the spray on glue and they looked really great. They actually don’t even looked hand made. Next I went home and cut out the rest of the components with some scissors. In all, it took me about five to six hours and I still wasn’t able to finish that day. The next day at work, I used my exacto knife to cut some slits in the “shield wall” pieces and I also finished putting together the “Combat Wheels” of the game with some help from my light table at work. Now all I have to do is go back to the craft store to look for some components that I might be able to use for the armies and the “spice tokens” and the game is ready to play. It was fun to do but it was an quite a lot of work. Can’t wait to play it.

BOOKS/MOVIES

I’ve noticed something. Some of the most influential Science fiction/fantasy books and movies all seem to have a world religion “foundation” to them. For example:

Star Wars, is kinda Buddhist.
Dune, is kinda Muslim.
The Matrix, is sorta Gnostic.
The Lord of the Rings, is very, very, Catholic (it’s Christian but it’s specifically Catholic).

I understand that all religions may seem the same on the surface and therefore people (like Joseph Campbell) have put forth the proposition that they are. Though I disagree with Campbell’s proposition I think he’s right in that these stories do to hit a “mythic” core in us. I heard somewhere that Tolkien thought myths were very similar because it was a way for humanity to recognize Jesus as the Savior even if you’re culture didn’t have a bible because it was written in everyones psyche. (Can you tell I’m Christian?) I find this interesting non the less. I wonder if the next big sci fi/fantasy book/movie will be Hindu or Jewish. Unless there’s already one and I don’t know it.

I proposed this idea to some friends at lunch and they pointed out that Star Trek and Blade Runner don’t fall under this world religion foundation view, though they do have a philosophical ideological foundation. For example:

Star Trek is a bit secular humanistic.
Blade Runner is…well…huh…I guess it’s just asking a bit fat question, so I guess it would be Socratic?

What do you think?

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We didn’t meet our shipping dates and we still have a long way to go. We were suppose to ship Act III last Friday but it turns out we hadn’t even shipped all of Act II yet. I’ve been working twelve hour days all this week, trying to get as much done as possible. We are soooo behind.

BOARD GAMES

Wow! I actually got to play a board game last week. I asked my wife if she wanted to play a board game and she actually said yes. So I went to the game closet and after thinking about what I should get out, I thought maybe she might like BattleLore. BattleLore is a light fantasy wargame that comes with a bunch of miniatures. It uses a game system called the Command and Colors System. It’s a really simple two player game and it can be played in about an hour. If you want to know more about it, click below:

BattleLore Website

BattleLore review from Board Game Geek

Purchase BattleLore (if you buy it through this site, Amazon gives me a small percentage. That goes for all the other things bought through the site.)

My wife had never played before. I showed her how to play and set up the board to the first scenario (the board is modular so you don’t always play the same game everytime). She played the English and I played the French. In this scenario she was at a disadvantage because she had very few strong people in armor and a bunch of lightly armored archers while I had a bunch of heavily armored knights on horse back. The only advantage she had was that she got to have six command cards in her hand while I only got four. After about forty minutes of play it looked like the game was almost over and I was going to win. The winner of this scenario was the first person to destroy four of their opponents units. I had three points and my wife only had one. A turn later my wife tied the game by taking out two of my units after rolling two lucky rolls. In my next turn I attacked trying to win the game but the dice didn’t roll my way. My wife got to battle the unit I used to attack her and she took them out in another lucky roll and she won the game. I couldn’t believe it. I was sooo close to wining and I lost two turns later. Needless to say my wife had a good time and really liked the game. Looks like we’ll be playing it again sometime, which is good because it’s one of my favorite games.

BOOKS

Oh MAN, there’s nothing like reading a good book. I like to read but I often find myself getting bored with a lot of books I pick up. That’s why it’s great to find a book that I just can’t wait to get back to. I’ve been reading Jim Butcher’s Wizard for Hire and it’s just that type of book. Technically the book is a compilation of three of his Dresden novels, Storm Front, Fool Moon, and Grave Peril. I’m reading Storm Front right now and I’m having a blast with it. The books are a cross between Sam Spade mysteries and Harry Potter. They’re about a private detective who happens to be a real Wizard and his job is to investigate supernatural mysteries. For example, one of the mysteries he has to deal with in Storm Front after the cops call him in for help is figuring out who used black magic to murder a mob boss’ bodyguard, and an expensive hired escort by making their hearts explode out of their chest while in the middle of sexual intercourse. (Yeah, this one isn’t for the kiddies). Problem is that the White council of Wizards thinks it was him. It’s really great. Mostly because of the character of Harry Dresden, the protagonist. He’s such a sarcastic and very humorous character. You just enjoy seeing the world through his eyes and his world is really interesting. I can’t recommend these books enough. I’ll let you know if I feel the same way after I’m done reading them all.

CATHOLICISM (Answering Comments)

Warning: The following is about Catholicism. If you could care less about this stuff, please feel free to skip it.

Before I even begin, a quick word about the Society of Pius X. I must retract my statement from “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A ‘TRADITIONAL’ CATHOLIC?” where I wrote, “…this person is actually not a Roman Catholic at all but belongs to the schismatic sect of the Society of Pius X.” The truth is, he is. The ideas put forth by the Society of Pius X, in no way condemns them in the eyes of the Church. The Society of Pius X is an excommunicated (no longer in “communion” with the Church and no longer able to partake of the Sacraments) group of priests. This means the excommunication effects the priests and the priests alone and doesn’t effect the laity in their congregation. The reason the Society got excommunicated was not because of the beliefs they hold but because they began ordaining priests without permission of the Vatican (something that they are quick to admit to and defend in their site).

Bill asked me a question again under my post, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A ‘TRADITIONAL’ CATHOLIC?” It went like this:

Well I asked my co-worker what a traditional Catholic is and his answer matches with your first speculation. He believes that the Church has (and I’m only paraphrasing) has changed the dogma and that it no longer holds the true beliefs that it once has. Again I was curious…in what way has it changed where the meaning has been altered? It is true that mass is no longer conducted in Latin and the priest is not speaking with his back facing towards the people. And there are certain issues (which I can’t remember because I’m too tired and lazy) where the Church has redefined to reflect the changes of the times( or was it something else?).

Well he did answer my question regarding to that, but I forgot what it was…DUH! I’ll ask him again and bring a notepad…

By “…his answer matches with your first speculation.” I take you to mean that he is from the Society of Pius X.

Okay, so the answer to your question about what meanings in the dogmas have been altered is, “none”. Of course, the Society of Pius X doesn’t see it that way. I’ve decided that the best way to show what they believe is to link you to their FAQs pages. It’ll basically tell you what you wanted to know. The FAQs page is full of accusations mostly against Vatican II. Just as a disclaimer though, after having read through some of the things written there, I noticed that Vatican II teaching is grossly misrepresented and therefore sounds like the worst thing in the universe. I don’t think this is a deliberate misrepresentation. I think they honestly see Vatican II this way. It looks to me that they hate Vatican II so much, their willing to find nothing good in it at all and in so doing, will always go out of their way to find something wrong out of sheer prejudice.

I also noticed that the language they use to represent themselves is political in nature. The term conservative is used in a few places. It’s been my experience that when you read or hear a Catholic use terms like conservative or liberal to represent themselves it usually means that they are coming from a political place first and a religious place second. Usually this means that what they say doesn’t actually represent the faith they hold so much as the system of thought they use to interpret it. Catholicism is neither conservative nor liberal it’s Catholic. I hope I’m misunderstanding the way they’re using the term.

I also find it odd that they are so anti-protestant. This coming from a group of priests who refuse to humble themselves to Church discipline (no matter how unjust). Saint Padre Pio went through something similarly unjust but was humble and obedient enough to endure it in spite of the souls that would suffer for it and now he’s a Canonized Saint. It saddens me to see people who obviously love their Catholicism, willfully refusing Church discipline and by doing so separating themselves from the Church. Then turning around and proclaiming themselves the only holders of the True Faith. Ironically these actions call to mind a famous person who did the same thing five hundred years ago, namely Martin Luther. I can see the good they’re trying to do but, in trying to fight what they perceive is protestantism in the Church, have they become yet another type of neo-protestant?

I hope this makes some sense to you Bill because it sure as heck makes no sense to me. This stuff is just way to confusing. I personally have very mixed feeling about the Society. I see a lot of good in them as well as bad. Let me know what you get out of it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.