Luis’ Illustrated Blog

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wednesday was very exciting. I was asked to join a story meeting with my director, the head director of the show and the two writers who co-wrote the current script of the show we’re working on. It was really amazing. I was asked to join in when they were discussing ACT 4 of the show, which is what I was assigned.

I found it very interesting as the writers went over the script picking out bit of the script that they had specific visions for. They also told us reasons why they put certain things in, so that we could understand their intentions better.  It was also great to ask them what they meant in sections we were unclear about.

It was almost like a listening to a DVD commentary, only, we got to construct the show based on the commentary. I hope I get to do it again.

ART

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

I settled on a final look for the snake monster this week:

On the page above, I drew the top right drawing first and made my way down the page. I thought the first drawing was too “handsome”. A bit generic. Looked a bit like Martian Manhunter.  Also, the features were too evenly spaced out and it didn’t look snake like enough.

The second drawing down was better but the face was too big and I wanted it to be more bunched up in the front of the head.  It thought perhaps the size of the eyes were contributing to all the “real estate” the face was taking up.  So I tried again.

The third drawing, I liked a lot and I even thought I’d finally found what I was looking for. So  much so that I drew a few more versions of it on the left hand side of the page. As I did this, I realized he was still too “handsome”.  Too human. I still wanted more of a snake look. So I tried one more time.

I drew the final face at the bottom of the page.  I made the eyes even smaller and spread them far apart, like a snake.  It was exactly what I wanted.  It’s not pretty, just weird.

Having finally nailed down what I wanted everything to look like, I decided to start thumbnailing the composition I wanted for my style guide/test.  But before I write directly about what I did, I will point out that I’ve decided to take away one of the monsters I had originally written.  In the story outline, I had written in a Stone Elemental. It was a place holder monster I’d put in so I could have one monster for each Sorcerer.  I had been planning to replace that monster with a more “Lovecraftian” monster. Something with a lot of tentacles. I decided to not go with that idea for two reasons.

1. I’m lazy and I just didn’t want to spend anymore time designing monsters.
2. I liked the Winged Apes so much, I thought I could use two of them instead of just one.

So there are still three monsters, they just aren’t the original ones that I wrote in the outline. Okay, so here’s the page I drew my thumbnails on:

Remember what I said two weeks ago about what I was going for with the composition?   I was trying to make Rob small against something big in order to make him look vulnerable and at the same time I wanted to make the Sorcerers look menacing too?  Well, I came up with some shape placements I thought  might do the trick.  If you notice on the page above, the first drawing on the top of the page is basically just shapes.  This was an idea I had gotten in the middle of the work day. In order to remember it, I quickly put the shapes down on paper. This was really all I needed to do to see if it was going to work.

The second sketch was drawn later as a slight variation of the shot above but I didn’t continue with it because I wasn’t happy at all with what it looked like.

The final sketch at the bottom of the page I drew by taking the shape masses from the first sketch and  refining them into actual characters.  The monsters are a unit and the Sorcerers are treated as a unit too.  I also tried to tell an individual story with every character.  Some of the poses need a little work and there still needs to be some adjusting with the space relationships, but it’s pretty much what I’m going to go with.

The next thing I wanted to do was to figure out the tonal values within the drawing. To achieve this, I took some tracing paper and a black Prismacolor pencil, and began to add tone. I decided not to be too precious about drawing perfectly within the lines, so it’s a bit messy and rough.

(PRO TIP: Prismacolor pencil is erasable on tracing paper. Many development guys in the industry draw their development tonal drawings on tracing paper and then color copy the final on regular paper.)

The idea is to add a different value to the foreground, middle ground and background elements.  The values I was using would be restricted to, dark, mid tone and light. Only using those three colors helps simply the process and allows you to see the tones as a whole.  It really doesn’t matter which values go to which “ground”. You can just as easily choose the background to be the darkest value as the lightest.  As long as it makes the picture clear and gets across the feel you want the drawing to have.

My first thought was to let the foreground have the mid tone.  I decided to make the background the darkest and the middle ground the lightest so that the main character popped out more.   At the time, I didn’t really like it all that much:

Part of the problem was that the sky and the buildings are kinda TWO backgrounds and they were throwing me off. I also didn’t like the idea of making all the buildings so dark.

I tried again. This time I decided to make the foreground the darkest and the background sky the mid tone, while keeping the background buildings and middle ground characters the lightest.  This didn’t look good to me at all.  I added a little bit of shadows on the monsters to attempt to balance it all, but it just looked odd. (possibly because I was so sloppy with it):

I was getting frustrated.  Decided to refocus and try to keep in mind two basic things:

1. My center of interest had to be the place of highest contrast. In this case, the place where the darkest dark and the lightest light would meet.
2. Try adding a definite light source.

Okay, so I obviously my center of interest was Rob. He either had to be the darkest dark surrounded by the lightest light or the lightest light surrounded the darkest dark (as I had in the first sketch)…or both. I decided to try a combination of both. He would have both black and white in different areas of his body:

My thinking was, just because a ground plane is dominated by a tone, it doesn’t mean that other lighter or darker tones don’t have a place within it as long those values don’t dominate that ground plane. SO, I chose to make Robs pants the darkest dark, and I also darkened his upper body as the cast shadows of the monsters fell on him. The rest of Rob would therefore be in light creating and interesting play of contrasting black and white tones.  This meant that the light source would come from the upper left corner of the drawing.

Since Rob was the darkest dark, the background behind him needed to be the lightest light to make him pop out.  Now I had the middle ground dominated by the darkest dark of the drawing and the background would be dominated by the lightest.  Still, there would be SOME light on Rob himself to make him pop out a bit more.  The foreground ended up with the mid tone.  This seemed to work.

To add to visual interest, and to lead the eye around the drawing a bit more, I also decided that the flying winged ape would be darker than the other.  This will make you “read” him but I’ll make sure he’s not placed against too light a background. Also, I decided that the farthest Sorcerer on the right with his arms crossed would be darker than the other two. That way, you will read him.  I’ll just make sure that his darker parts aren’t as dark as Rob’s. This will make a triangular composition of dark areas. Hopefully, doing this will make your eyes travel around the picture.

Another thing I needed to make sure I did was to chose ONE tone out of the three to be dominant. That ONE tone needs to cover 50% or more of the drawing.  Then I had to pick another tone to be the second most dominant. Doing this adds visual interest.

I seemed to have accidentally made the dark tone the most dominant followed closely by the lightest tone. Still, I think the light and dark tones are almost too balanced in my thumbnail. Also, I don’t think I did a good enough job differentiating the values. The darks almost look like the same value as the mid tones. This kinda messes up the point of doing a tonal pass.  I shouldn’t have been so sloppy.  That’s what I get for being impatient.

Seeing all the thumbnails here on the blog has allowed me to take a good look at them all and now I think I had it right the first time with the FIRST tonal pass. As dynamic as the lighting is on the last one, it covers Rob and the monsters too much in darkness.  I kinda want them to be a little more visible. Perhaps having the buildings be dark wouldn’t be so bad after all.

What do you think?

CATHOLICISM

It’s not secret I’m Catholic and love my faith. One of the more sensational aspects of Catholicism comes in the guise of exorcisms.  The subject seems to fascinate people quite a bit and has been the theme of many passed and future movies. Because they’ve been so sensationalized in movies, exorcisms seem like fantasy. Yet, for Catholic exorcists, they are a very serious business.

Below, you will find an audio interview with an Exorcist.  I found the interview fascinating and thought I’d share it.  But first, a little bit of what Wikipedia says about the priest you will be listening to:

Malachi Brendan Martin Ph.D. (July 23, 1921 – July 27, 1999) was a Catholic priest, theologian, writer on the Catholic Church, and professor at the Vatican’s Pontifical Biblical Institute. He held three doctorates^[1][2] and was the sole author of sixteen books covering religious and geopolitical topics, which were published in eight languages. He wrote additional books under pen names and in collaboration with others. He was a controversial commentator on the Vatican and other matters involving the Church.^[3] Martin spoke at least ten languages^[4][5] including Irish, English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew and Modern Arabic, and also knew classical languages like Latin, Classical Greek, Aramaic and Classical Arabic. He lived in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, France, and the United States and traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East.^[1]

Fr. Malachi seems to be a very controversial figure within the Church AND without (after all, he’s an Exorcist). Never the less, I found the interview interesting. The interview begins with Fr. Malachi talking about the Devil, Hell, Evil, then turns to Satanism and the nature of sin, which leads him to the topic of Exorcism.

In this interview, when speaking about the movie THE EXORCIST, Fr. Malachi basically says the movie version was laughable, the real thing is far worse. Enjoy:

For the rest of the interview CLICK HERE.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Working late for two days straight again this week.  Need to make up the hours because I’m going to be missing a day of work to take care of the kids for a day.  My work load isn’t too crazy but the scenes I need to do are pretty complicated.  I’m working on a new crew right now. I’m helping out for the week. I’m not sure what happens afterward.  Hopefully I get put on a new crew.  Right now, the show I’m helping out on, is a show from last season.  This is their last week to ship everything.  I’m feeling the pressure.

FAMILY

Big day for Carolina’s family last Saturday.  Angelita, Carolina’s youngest daughter, did her First Communion.  We were all very happy for her.  Afterward we gathered at their house and had a First Communion party.  Munchkin had a fantastic time.  She had so much fun that when it was time to go, she left crying.

Meanwhile Dante and Alesha had to stay home.  Dante had a fever late last week.  He wasn’t doing very well at all.  Still, in spite of the fact that he was burning up, he insisted on sitting down to eat.  He also wanted to walk around and play.  He wanted so much to do what he always does, but the poor boy found himself not being able to do much.  By the end of the week, he was back to normal.  He just needed to spend at least one weekend at home without going out anywhere.

CATHOLICISM

I went to get my lunch on Monday from the kitchen at work.  As I was walking back to my desk I overheard a conversation at a  table in the kitchen from my fellow co-workers talking about the whole Obama/Notre Dame thing. Of course, most of the people I work with are on Obama’s side of the debate; and of course, they saw it as a purely political thing.  “Conservative Catholics” vs. “Liberal Catholics”. Their conversation was also the typical anti-Catholic prejudice, you hear everywhere.  “Those Catholics don’t know what they’re doing, they have it all wrong, they’re holding on to ancient things that don’t mean anything”…etc.   It ruined my lunch.  All I heard was a couple of sentences but it got me sooo steamed up it just ruined my lunch.  I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I would say to them and how I would say it.  How “I would SHOW THEM”.  How my arguments would make them look foolish.  How I would show how much smarter and more intellectual my view was.  How arrogant, heartless and mean an angry Catholic could be…which is, of course, the reason I couldn’t do it and didn’t do it.  I was too angry to say anything that wouldn’t have done more harm than good. It wouldn’t have been a conversion about the topic at hand so much as an exercise in arrogance and pride on my part.

I wondered though, if I HAD said something in a calm, collected, and charitable way, if they would have seen it as a political argument rather than a logical one anyway.  I wonder how much I would be able to say to them that wouldn’t have sounded as if I was politically “Conservative” instead of just Catholic.  Why is it that if you live your faith as it is taught by the Church  you are automatically “a close minded, ultra conservative, right winger”? Why is it that being unfaithful to your Church and faith is celebrated as being “progressive” and open minded? Yes, I understand that there are political Conservatives that are Catholics. I also understand that there are political Liberals that are Catholics. Yet, that really shouldn’t be the issue.  The issue should really be about whether you are a FAITHFUL Catholic or not. You shouldn’t put you parties or political views ahead of the dogmas of your faith.  If you do, it only goes to show which one of the two is your REAL Religion.  In the end, it just  made me sad.

MOVIES

I  used to like Star Wars more than Star Trek.  I thought that Star Wars, in general, was a bit more fun and Star Trek was a bit to “hard sci-fi” to be as fun.  Then George Lucas released his  Star Wars prequels and pretty much ruined the fun of Star Wars by making three movies that never actually captured the fun of the original three.

Along comes the new Star Trek movie and does to Star Trek what Lucas couldn’t pull off with Star Wars. It updates the Star Trek franchise, makes it fun, captures the essence of what made the original Star Trek work (the characters), takes away the dryness of Star Trek, adds some action and makes it cool to like Star Trek.  Yes, the intellectual parts and the hard science, that made Star Trek truly geeky, are missing, but what we get in it’s place is a good fun time.  Hopefully, some of the intellectual stuff will make an appearance in the next movies, for now, I’m happy with what they gave us.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

Haven’t written about games in a while so I just thought I’d write about a board game that will become a video game and some video games that have become board games.

• Dungeon Twister

Andy and I played a game of Dungeon Twister last Friday.  He beat me, but I think the game would have kept going. On hindsight I think we messed up a rule that would have changed the way we saw the last move of the game.

Andy really likes the game. He’s liked it ever since we played it for the first time months ago.  It’s a dungeon crawl-ish chess game with a modular board whose parts twist around. There is no luck in the game.  It’s all tactics and strategy. Here’s the Description of the game:

Dungeon Twister is a 2-player high level strategy game where 2 teams of adventurers with various powers are trapped in a dungeon. The board is composed of 8 rooms that can be moved and rotated by the players. Each turn, a player is able to spend actions to move around the dungeon, pick up and use items, battle with the opponents team, or turn and move the rooms of the dungeon.

The goal is to reach 5 victory points. Points are collected by moving adventurers out of the dungeon or by killing an opponent’s adventurer. Treasures are disseminated across the whole dungeon and will bring the adventurers well-needed powers.

Each player has the same characters, each with different powers. Some run fast, some fight or disarm traps. The cleric heals, magician burns everything in sight and the goblin is so weak that the simple fact of getting him out will bring you two victory points.

Combat and actions are managed via cards. To move, fight, heal or turn a room, you must manage action points obtained by playing cards. Those cards are not drawn but selected from a set of cards by both players. Both players have access to the same panel of cards at the beginning of the game so the game is really about managing the resources and adapting to the changing environment.

It has recently  been announced that a new version of the game is coming out called: Dungeon Twister 2: Prison. This version of the game will actually be different and yet will still play the same as the original and it will be “backwards compatible” with the original. It will be coming out in December. The interesting part is that the game will also be released for Xbox live through Hydravision at the same time.

• Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics

A few years back, when the first Advance Wars game came out for the GBA, I bought it and totally fell in love with it.  I played that game once for an entire night.  I started playing it at around 7 or 8 pm, looked up after some hours had gone by and discovered the sun was rising.  It was just such a fun game.   I didn’t buy the new ones that came out after that, Mostly because (like the Street fighter games) the new games where pretty much, more of the same and I hadn’t (and still haven’t) unlocked all the maps in the game I have, and the original allowed you to make your own maps as well.  Theoretically I can keep playing the game without needing to buy a new one.  Besides, I haven’t played the game in a few years.

Just found out from the Purple Pawn website that someone has made a free print and play version of the game called Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics.  They put it up on BGG  and I downloaded the pdf.  It looks great. They made the maps modular so you can create your own scenarios and everything. I’m so going to print it out.  I just need the figure out how “fancy” I want to make my version. I’m sure Andy will be up for a game. I just hope the game doesn’t take too long to play.

Above is a screenshot of what the original video game looks like.  Below is the board game version.

Just looking at the picture make me want to play it.  It looks so fun.

• FITS

From the mind of Reiner Knizia comes FITS.  It’s Tetris the board game. It sounds great.  He really came up with a great way to translate the game into a tabletop game.

FITS (Fill In The Spaces) is essentially a multi-player Tetris . Each player has an inclined board on which they place different polyominoes - like Blokus pieces, with three, four, or five squares. Cards are drawn from a pile to tell the players which piece to take. The pieces may be rotated and reversed before they slide down the inclined area to dock to other gaming pieces, but unlike Tetris cannot be slid horizontally once dropped. Scoring is based on quantity and configuration of squares left uncovered.

Unlike original Tetris there is no time pressure but like Tetris there is no player interaction as every player is engaged with his own board.

This game is now on my Wishlist under “Must have”.  Definitely looks like a game most people will want to play if I was to bring it out.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I feel like I’m not getting enough work done.  I’m working like crazy but it feels like I’m not getting anything done.  I don’t know why that is.  Maybe it’s because the scenes I’m doing are complicated or maybe it’s because half the stuff I’m doing is on the computer and the other half is on paper.  There is also the fact that some of the scenes I’m working on need to be printed out on paper so that I can work on them; only it’s a big pain to do so and I end up spending a lot of time printing the stuff out and trying to get the size of the artwork to work the way I want.

Been staying late the last few days to make up the hours I didn’t work last Friday.  More on that below.

FAMILY

Last Thursday, Alesha stayed home with Munchkin because she came down with some sort of stomach flu.  Munchkin spent the whole day laying down, taking in liquids, watching cartoons,  and going to the poddy.  She seemed to be doing better by the end of the day so Friday morning we woke her and Dante up to go to daycare.  I gave her morning sippy cup of Pediasure (doctor prescribed) and we left the house.  Five minutes letter, we heard a gooshy splat sound coming from the back seat.  Alesha said, “Oh no.”  We both turned around only to see that Munchkin had vomited her Pediasure all over herself.  As we stared, she then proceeded to projectile vomit the rest of it all over the back seat of the car. Needless to say, we turned the car around and I told Alesha I was going to stay home with Munchkin this time.

After rushing to clean up the back of the car, Alesha was on her way.  Meanwhile I got Munchkin comfortable, and put the blankets and coats she had puked on (that where in the back seat and protected the car from the puke) in the washing machine. Munchkin, once again, spent the day laying down, taking in liquids and watching cartoons, although she DID sleep for a veeerrry long time at midday.

By Saturday, she was definitely better. The day before, she could hardly get up.  Saturday, she was walking around happily.  Alesha and I had a lot to do during the weekend so we asked my mom if she would mind taking care of the kids for the day.  She told us she would love to.  Alesha went over to Munchkin and asked:

So off we went.  I ran errands all day while the kids had a blast with my mom. It was a very eventful couple of days.

CATHOLICISM

One of the errands I need to do this Saturday was to go to Confession.  It had been about four months and I really needed it. The church I went to had some fairly long lines.  I hate that.  I’m always afraid that I won’t get a turn.  On the other hand, long lines are a good thing.  It means people care enough, and know enough to go and take advantage of the Sacrament of Confession; which I always see as a reflection of the spiritual health of the parish. Still, I don’t like the long lines.

The most interesting part about Confession this time around was my penance.  The priest told me to take out my Bible, open it up to Psalm 51, read it to myself at first, then read it out loud and pray it to God.  He told me, praying the Psalms out loud was a very Jewish way of praying them. I don’t know if that’s true but I did as I was asked, and I must say, it’s a very moving way to pray a Psalm.  Not only that, but Psalm 51 is an amazingly appropriate Psalm to pray as penace.  Though I didn’t know it before I read it, I didn’t realize I was already familiar with it (or at least parts of it).  The Psalm is one of the Psalms, always read in the Liturgy of the Hours.  It was one of those, “Ah ha! So that’s where it’s from” moments for me. I might read that Psalm from now on after Confession, even if I’m not asked to.

SOME THOUGHTS

Been sending e-mails back and forth with my friend Raul (see the bottom of last weeks post). He’s been sending me copies of the pitchbibles of the shows he’s been pitching around the animation studios. I must say, I’m very impressed with them.  Not only with the fun ideas he has, but the amount of work he puts into them.  Everyone of his pitchbibles has the outline of a complete episode plus a few quick hooks for other episodes.  They also have drawings of the main characters and a history of each.

This has got me thinking, what have I done that is anywhere near as complete as those? NOTHING! I have a ton of ideas of my own.  I keep a book near my bed where both Alesha and I have written out germs of ideas or even written out slightly more fleshed out concepts.  For some ideas, I have small doodles, for some I have tried designing the characters;  others, I have even gone so far as to try to write the outline, but none of those ideas have been done to completion. Even the ones I have done the outlines for I have had to re-edit some story flaws, only to find myself get stuck somehow on how to fix them and they end up being left incomplete.  I mean, wasn’t I suppose to be working on a webcomic.  Well, where the heck is it?

Seeing Raul’s out put is very inspiring.  It’s made me want to come up with even more ideas of my own. Not necessarily to sell as kids cartoons like he’s doing, but just fun ideas for stories that I think would be cool to write.  In fact, on the way home on Tuesday, I came up with four that I haven’t seen anyone do before (I googled them and they don’t exist).  I immediately wrote them down in my “idea book” when I got home, but will they go anywhere?

Also, I’ve been thinking of maybe doing some freelance drawings for some role playing game magazines as well.  Just to do something different. But in order to do that, I would need to draw something in the style of what they’re looking for as a portfolio piece. I’ve been meaning to get to that, but I haven’t done it.  Why?  Why is it, that when I get home, the last thing I want to do is draw?  I just want to relax.  I don’t want to keep working.  Not only that but I when I have any free time where I can actually do something creative, I don’t.  It seems like, I like the idea of drawing and writing all these creative things, but I don’t actually like doing them.  Yet I get all excited about them when I think about them and I can’t wait to get started on them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have to somehow find a way to discipline myself into completing SOMETHING or I’ll spend the rest of my life wishing I had.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

OH NO! I’m so sorry everyone.  I blew it. I didn’t know that the show everyone helped out on, came on last weekend.

Lucky for us, you can watch the show from the Fox site or on Hulu, in case you missed it. The part you guys will be looking for, starts about a minute into the show after the credits.  It turned out really good. In the end, there were so many suggestions (from inside and outside the studio) that not all could be included. Hopefully you will get to see yours.

(EDIT: Do to the fact that some people aren’t able to watch the show from the above sources, I’m putting in this really shaky version of the show.  It isn’t the greatest but it shows the clips. They start at 3:35.)

If you’re looking this show, it’s called: How the test was won.

RANDOM THING

I IMDBed myself earlier this week.  I was listening to a podcast where they were conducting an interview with an actor and they asked him is he was on IMDB.  This got me wondering is I was on IMDB; so I went to the site and typed out my name.  There were a few Luis Escobar’s and, at first, I couldn’t find myself, but sure enough, there I was.  It was really very odd.  Someone somewhere has bothered to take note of what I’ve worked on and has put it in the database.  That’s just so strange to me. The site says I’ve worked on only 13 shows during my 16 years on the show.  That doesn’t seem right.  Especially since I work on at least two shows a season and I help out on a show or two in between shows. A bit inaccurate I would say, but at least you can see some of the shows I’ve worked on.

Anyway, it was really odd to find myself on the site.

CATHOLICISM

(Haven’t written about this subject in a while.)

It’s Lent.  I’m hoping to have a “better” Lent than I had last year.  Last year, I don’t remember what I did, but it sure didn’t feel like Lent and I don’t think I got anything out of it. A few Lents ago, I would get into this things where I would fast really hard during Lent.  I would eat very little and it would really be painful.  I wouldn’t even give up my fast on Sundays (though I would ease up on it a bit). I was often told by my family that I was being a bit too hard on myself.  On the one hand, doing this really made you feel like it was Lent. It felt like was really going through something and I did a lot of praying to get through it; not only that, but when Easter came, it was the greatest thing ever and you really felt it.  On the other hand, I was sooo angry and grouchy all the time because I was so hungry all the time.   I would snap at people and I was generally in a lousy mood; which is, of course, not the point of the thing.   Also, the last Lent I fasted this way, it felt really routine. I wasn’t getting much out of it but a slight discomfort. It didn’t really help me pray much and it was kinda, like I said, routine.   The next year I didn’t do it and tried something else that failed miserably.

This year, I’m doing something a little more spiritually positive.  For my alms giving this year, I’ll be giving some money to some charities as well as some to SQPN. Since I try to pray a Rosary everyday as well as use the Praystation Portable Podcast to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, I thought for my prayer time, I’d read a book.  I thought I’d try to finish reading the book Christianity for Modern Pagans, by Peter Kreeft.  It’s an annotated version of Blaise Pascal’s Pensées which Kreeft edited, outlined and explains.   Blaise Pascal is awesome and Kreeft commentary is just fantastic.  It’s a fun, deep, meaningful read that leaves me thinking for hours. Usually after I’ve stop reading, I feel as if I’ve just come out of deep meditative prayer.

Last but not least, for my fasting/abstinence Lent thing, I’m going to abstain from playing any video games.  I thought I should maybe abstain from playing board games but that would be like saying I would abstain from vacations during Lent.  In the same way that I don’t go on vacations all the time and therefore It wouldn’t be that big a deal to abstain from vacations, I don’t play board games enough for it to be worth my time.  On the other hand, I play my Gameboy DS everyday.  It’s really the only way I get any board gaming in.  I own three games on my DS that are digital board games: (1)Club House Games (which has 20 traditional board games playable on it), (2) a Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 card game video game (which I love and I will write about some other time) (3) Yu-Gi-Oh! DungeonDice Monsters video game (which is merely okay but interesting. It’s the video game version of a failed dice game Konami put out in 1994.) and I have  two games that are not  board game video games but play like board games: (1) Advance Wars and (2) Civilizations Revolution.  I play these games a lot and I never go anywhere without a Gameboy in my pocket, ready to come out whenever I have a bit of free time to play for a few minutes, until now; and boy do I feel naked.  Also, since I’ve given up video games, this means no PS2 or Xbox either, so I can’t play some of the board game-ish games that I own on them either (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Culdcept…etc).  I must say, it hurts quite a bit more than I thought it would.  I didn’t really think it would effect me that way it has; which is exactly what I wanted.  Now I’m really looking forward to Easter.  I understand that, I really should be looking forward to Easter for the REAL reason Easter is important, namely, the resurrection, and the Salvation of the world, but the abstinence thing, really makes it a little more emotionally tangible and a little less abstract for me. I suppose that’s the whole point of this spiritual exercise.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I haven’t heard anything yet about getting back to work, but that’s mostly because I haven’t called in to see how things are going. I’m thinking of doing that sometime next week if I don’t heard anything from them.

Meanwhile, I checked my e-mail and I received an invite to go to a preview party, at Universal Studios, for the new Simpsons Ride this Friday. At least we get a small reward for having killed ourselves working on that thing. Can’t wait. I’ll let you know what I think.

FAMILY

For Mother’s Day, my family got together for dinner at our house. We ordered Tai food and pretty much talked and laughed a lot. One of our conversations was about the Indiana Jones movies. We then started talking about how silly and ridiculous Temple of Doom was. I got up and put the movie on, since I own the DVD. By the time we were done with dinner, we were all sitting around the TV watching the movie, making fun of how lame it was, and just having a great time watching it. It was a good fun evening.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

So I decided to go on Board Game Geek to play a game of Tigris & Euphrates using their Play-by-web version of the game on the site. I was doing fairly well for about five turns and then I just got my butt kicked. I ended the game tide for third place out of four people which isn’t very good but I had a blast. In fact, I had such a good time that I immediately joined two more games after the the last one was over.

Tigris & Euphrates is a game designed by Reiner Knizia and it’s by far, one of the most counterintuitive games you’ll ever learn. It’s fun and very very cut throat but it’s difficult to explain and learn. I played it against a free computer program and learned to play it using that before I bought it. It took me three games before I understood what I was doing and then it took me two more before I could even begin to figure out what strategies to use to even have a chance at winning. The first time I played it live, I discovered how crazy cut throat the game really was. The last time I played it was with my brother, his wife Deborah, and my wife Alesha. Alesha got mad at me during that game because I made a move that really messed her up big time. I haven’t played the game with her since. I didn’t really know she’d react that way. Now I’m playing that game online with complete strangers and were really beating each other up in the game and we’re fine with it. Go figure.

CATHOLICISM/BOARD GAMES

So I was reading up on some board game news at the Board game news website and I read a really interesting article about a new board game coming out, from Ragnar Brothers, called Monastery. It’s a 2-4 player game and it lasts 90 minutes. According to the article players:

…experience two days of monastic life. Within each day are three rounds of tile placement and scoring (divided between study and toil), three service rounds (Matins, Sext and Vespers), and a night round.

Wow, how cool is that? To win the game:

…players must collect the letters of the abbey’s motto ‘Libera Nos Quaesumus Ab Omnibus Malis Amen’. The letters become progressively more expensive and players must decide whether to buy letters or recruit extra monks.

As far as I can tell, with my ridiculously bad understanding of Latin, the motto means something like, ‘Liberate us so we could be completely free from evil, amen.’ (if I got this wrong, please feel free to correct me). Wow, religious Latin in my board game.

From the articles I’ve read so far on this game (one on Board game news and the other on BGG), it sounds really pretty darn cool. It looks like there is a lot to it and the theme of being a monk is remarkably well represented in the game:

You start the game with one monk in the Abbey, and monks move about to construct tiles, study, toil, use icons (in the advanced game), or pray. The plastic monk figures are designed to tip forward in prayer, which scores you the value of the tile and takes the monk out of service until it returns to the Abbey. Most of these activities score points for a player, and those points can retrieve letters or additional monks from the “letter grid.”

What other game can you think of where praying is a positive, point giving benefit? I hope it comes out in the U.S., I’d love to buy myself a copy.

MY WEEK

I’ve been fighting with the Munchkin all week, to get her to eat. I sit her down and feed her but she refuses to chew and swallow her food. She just packs the food in her cheeks like a hamster. I’ve tried tricking her by offering her yogurt or even a snow cone while she has food in her mouth, so she could swallow it, but she’s found a way to swallow the yogurt and ice without swallowing the actual food. It’s real frustrating. She only wants snacks treats and milk but not real food. It’s such a pain.

SPONSORS

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So last Friday the crew got an unpleasant surprise. We were all told that Friday, April 25^th was going to be everyones last day. We’re all going on hiatus again. Just as we thought, thing were returning to normal, we all get the boot all over again. Why?

Well, it seems that the contract for the voice actors on the show has expired and new contracts need to be negotiated. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Screen Actors Guild. This is purely a Simpsons thing. The voice actors on the show have been negotiating their contract for the last two and a half weeks so far. The thing is, we can’t go on with any of the show until this is settled. Ever since the writer’s strike happened, we haven’t really gotten a chance to catch up to the schedule we needed to get to. This means that we don’t have any surplus of shows with voices already recorded, and so we have no work.

Overall, this is bad news. Whenever the negotiations are done, we all still have to wait until a month afterwards to be called back into work since the shows need to have time to be storyboarded. So if the negotiations take a month, we’re going to be out for at least two. If the negotiations take a two months, we’re going to be out for three..etc. Not only that, but if for some reason, when the Screen Actors Guild starts negotiating actor’s contracts in a month or so, and if they decide (God forbid) to go on strike for whatever reason, the Simpsons voice actors will also go on strike. Which would, of course, effect us all over again.

Man, what lousy bunch of months to be working in this studio. I don’t think I’ve ever been through anything like this in the last sixteen years I’ve been working here.

I wasn’t prepared for this situation. My savings haven’t had a chance to recuperate from the last break. There are a few circumstances that at least make this situation a bit better than last time. One is that my wife is working which means that we have a little bit of income coming in. This will help out a lot, but unfortunately, what she makes, is not nearly enough to pay all our bills. After all, she is only working part time. The second good circumstance is the fact that, since this is only effecting the Simpsons show, I could potentially find work at another show if I need to. Problem with that is, I might get a pay cut if I move to another show.

In any case, I’m back to worrying all over again. I suppose I just need to roll with the punches and feel my way through this one. I have options this time around, I just need to make the right decisions. Change is always scary.

MOVIES

So Alesha really wanted to see the Expelled movie I wrote about two weeks ago. She was really intrigued by the idea of the movie and wanted to see what it had to say. So we went to see it this weekend. It wasn’t what I thought it would be and I enjoyed the movie. To my surprise, it was NOT about Creationism, it was actually about Intelligent Design Theory (as I’ve stated in my post two weeks ago, they are not the same thing and this movie shows the clear difference). I learned a few things from it as well. My wife and I became an instant fan of the scientist in France that was interviewed because he was so darn smart and witty. My wife looovved it. She agreed with just about all it had to say. I personally didn’t, but I liked in non the less. I would recommend you watch it, because it opens up very interesting discussions topics.

Having said that, I will say that it was a very emotionally manipulative movie and I, for one, was distracted by that. It was difficult for me to try to find the structure of the argumentation being put forth. Mainly do to my awareness of the negative and positive imagery (with accompanying music) that was placed on the screen, that was there in order to get an emotional reaction to what was being said. It was annoying me greatly. This is a trick also used in Michael Moore documentaries and it annoyed me in them also.

I thought that the movie could have benefited greatly from some more clear evidence outside the personal testimony of the “victims”, since often times a victim of an apparent injustice believes themselves victimized for one a reason but in truth there might not have been an injustice at all. I thought the movie could have provided more evidence in each person’s case so that there would be no doubt as to why they were treated the way they were.

In the end, the movie had the potential to change my mind on the whole idea of teaching Intelligent Design in schools, but it failed. I personally think that the scientific data clearly points to an intelligent designer. I believe that this designer is God. I’ve read plenty of books by great thinkers that have come to these conclusions through out the centuries, some using science to prove their point while others used pure reason and common experience. Non of these brilliant people (Socrates, Aristotle, Aquinas, Anselm, John Duns Scotus, Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis…etc) thought that their conclusions where scientific but they did believe them to be true. The Intelligent Design theory, seems to just want to point out that the universe seems to be intelligently designed, but wants to leave out the “by what or who?” question unanswered (just like the theory of Evolution). That seems kinda of a silly thing to do since the only answer to the question is either “Aliens did it,” or “God did it”. Since natural science is far to limited to be able to deal with the Supernatural it can never give the answer, I would like to hear, namely, “God”.

Once upon a time, most scientists believed in God (perhaps they still do). Many of these scientists (if not the majority of these scientists) were priests. These scientist saw intelligent design in nature and it often propelled them to investigated further into nature in order to see how God created things and what laws He had written into nature. The thing about these scientists, is that they never pretended to conclude that their belief in God was a scientific conclusion but rather a logical one based on common sense. Why must it be different now? Why must Intelligent Design be a scientific theory rather than a logical one based on common sense?

CATHOLICISM

So the Pope came to visit and I was excited. Unfortunately I made the mistake of going to the regular TV news channels to give me info on what was going on. Instead of getting news all I got is complaining and criticism of the Pope, and he hadn’t even landed yet. I wanted the news not Pope bashing. After about a day of this, I just went to the EWTN website and watched the visit through their eyes. It was a relief to be able to watch the visit without having to filter through all the negativity. I liked that they went out of their way to actually discuss what the Pope was saying rather than spin it into something bad or complain about what he didn’t say.

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

Alright, so do you remember that copyright bill I wrote about in my last post? Well on Monday I got this e-mail from the group that was keeping an eye out for it. This is how it went:

 

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

 

Today the House and Senate sent us draft copies of the new Orphan Works Act of 2008. They haven’t officially released it yet, but we’ve been told the Senate will do so this week. A quick analysis confirms our worst fears and our early warnings. If these proposals are enacted into law, all the work you have ever done or will do could be orphaned and exposed to commercial infringement from the moment you create it.

 

You’ve probably already heard Mark Simon’s webcast interview with Brad Holland. If not, please listen to it at:

http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html. <http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html>

 

Then forget the spin you’ve heard from backers of this bill. This radical proposal, now pending before Congress, could cost you your past and future copyrights.

 

The Illustrators’ Partnership is currently working with our attorney - in concert with the other 12 groups in the American Society of Illustrators Partnership to have our voices – and yours - heard in Congress. We’ll keep you posted regarding how you can do your part.

 

Please forward this information to every creative person and group you know. Mr. Holland and Mr. Simon have given their permission for this audio file to be copied and transferred and replayed.

 

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185

 

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com

Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

Today I got this one:

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

 

The Orphan Works Act of 2008 will be officially released momentarily.

 

The language in the draft confirms our warnings. If this bill passes, you’ll be forced to clear all your secondary licensing rights through at least two government certified databases – or risk orphaning your art.

 

Despite its masquerade as the “last resort” to search for a rights owner, these databases will likely become the only source many users will rely on for finding a rights owner. Reason: it will give users the legal right to infringe any copyright not in the databases.

 

We’re working with our attorney now to prepare opposition letters.

 

We have contracted CapWiz, a service that will allow you to send these letters to Congress with a push of the button.

 

CapWiz will also provide us with “digital stickers” that anyone else - organizations, individual artists, blogs, etc. - can put on their sites that create a direct link to the command center to write their Congressman and Senators to defeat this radical change to U.S. Copyright law

 

Please stay tuned and we’ll tell you in a day or so what you can do to register your opposition.

 

For additional background on Orphan Works, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185

 

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com

Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

Sounds bad. It’ll be time to do something soon. Better get ready. I’ll keep you posted.

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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.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not at work yet. I’m still going back the 25th and I’m going to be working on Lance’s show again. We still have to finish it after we get the rewrites.

CATHOLICISM

So I heard (surprisingly enough in a board game podcast) that the pope pardoned the Knights Templar, so I decided to do a little research. Turns out that I’m still not sure what actually happened. There are a lot of different takes on the story and I’m not sure which one is accurate. The only thing that I know for sure is that a document was found in the Vatican Secret Achieves that deals with either the entire order of the Knights Templar or with just five individuals getting pardoned. In any case, I think it’s really interesting.

These are the four sources I read that talk about the story:

cephasministry.com - this one just has some information.

rumormillnews.com - this one rebuts the cephasministry.com information.

news.bbc.co.uk - this one gives you an unbiased overview of the story.

cnn.com - this one give even more good information but slants the story in a slighly negative light near the end.
BOARD GAMES

So since Alesha beat me twice playing Dreamblade last week I thought I’d try another game this week. That way I might be able to win a game. The game I chose was BattleLore. The last time Alesha and I played this game, Alesha beat me. So we sat down to play the game while the kids where asleep in the afternoon. It took about an hour to play the game and Alesha beat me again. It was a close game but she won again. What the heck is going on? I can’t seem to win a game against her.

It was my birthday this Wednesday, and my wife has told me she ordered Ingenious for me. Ingenious is boardgame I had in my BGG wishlist and she saw it there so she decided to get it for me. Below I’ve put a video from The Obsessed Board Gamers. It review the game and also explains it. It made me laugh. I’ve watched a few of their videos and I really like that they love board games but they don’t take them so seriously that they can’t fun of them, which they do in every review, it’s great and funny.

MY WEEK

Speaking of birthdays, my parents gave me a birthday dinner on Wednesday. They bought Pupusas and other other El Salvadorean dishes. My cousin Carolina brought refried beans and my brother’s wife Deborah baked me a yummy chocolate cake. We had fun, too bad it was a Wednesday night because everyone had to got home early since it was a work day.

By the way I’m now 33.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that we’re all done drawing the scenes for show eight. The only thing left to do is it “time” the scenes in exposure sheets and send them off to Korea so that it can get “in-betweened”, “cleaned up”, and colored. So we’re very happy about that. Now I’ve found myself in the fortunate position of having nothing to do. No other shows needs help so I actually get to sit around and read, write, play on my computer, play on my gameboy, or generally goof around for the next couple of days. Next week I’ll be working on Lance’s new show, show sixteen. The “animatic” (first pencil test version of the show) for that show is due the week before Christmas. So we’ve got a bit of time.

The bad news is that the Hollywood writer’s strike begins today. Depending how long it takes to be resolved, we might not have any work. If the strike continues till the end of the year, then our “animatic” deadline is pretty much pointless since we do the “animatic” for them to be able to rewrite anything that isn’t working on the show before we finalize it. There really won’t be anywhere for an artist to go since all the studios will be effected. Many writers in the industry won’t be very effected by the strike since they receive residuals from shows they’ve written. We artists, on the other hand, don’t. I’ve got mortgage payments and bills to pay. We had to buy a new car recently because of the car accident my wife had four weeks ago and we pretty much tapped a lot of our emergency money for that. All the paychecks I get every week pretty much go straight to the bills. We don’t really get to save much of anything, so the strike is really going to be scary for us. Especially since we have a baby on the way. What if the strike lasts until our baby is born?

Lets hope everyone’s greed gets sated quickly.

BOARD GAMES

I can’t believe I got to play board games again this week. This is the third week in a row. I’m sooo happy, yay! My brother and his wife came over and we played three boardgames. I’m in the process of trying to play all the games I have that I haven’t been able to. I have a few games that I’ve had for a year or so that I haven’t been able to play yet. Well, three of those games we managed to play this weekend so that means I have nine left to play.

The first game we played was Loot. Loot is a pirate card game that’s designed by Reiner Knizia. It’s about trying to collect as many valuable merchant ship cards as you can by attacking them with your pirate ship cards. It’s a fun short game. It takes about twenty minutes to play. Everyone liked playing it. It really forces the player to think ahead and make tough decisions. My brother’s wife Deborah won the game.

The second game we played was The Bridges of Shangri-La, which is a game about taking over cities with students that get trained in opposing cities. It’s really fun and really cut throat. My wife doesn’t like cut throat games so she didn’t like it much but my brother, Deborah and I liked it. I think it’s a great game. It really requires you to think a lot. Lots of keeping tabs on what everyone else is doing in order to protect yourself while you plan to do your moves. Deborah won that game also.

The third game we were going to play was Tichu but my wife wasn’t feeling well so she had to sit out. Since we needed four people to play Tichu because it requires you to have two teams of two people, we decided to play China instead. China is a game where you collect points by putting villages and ambassadors in ancient Chinese provinces. It’s a very deep game for a game that seems so simple. It isn’t very cut throat and it’s very family friendly but like I said, it’s very deep. My brother didn’t like that you didn’t get tons of points quickly like in the board game Ticket to Ride. I don’t think he understood much of the depth in the game. Maybe if he plays it again he’ll understand it better. In any case, Deborah won that game also. We were all big losers that day. Deborah apparently is just as wiz at grasping board game strategies really quickly. Who knew.

CATHOLICISM

Happy Feast of all Saints.

So I went to Confession (a.k.a Sacrament of Reconciliation, Sacrament of penance) this week. I really don’t like going to Confession. Not because it’s such a horrible Sacrament or anything but because it forces me to own up to the bad things I’ve done. It bursts my “I’m a good person” bubble and shows me, I could do better. Everyone could do better. Mother Teresa of Calcutta went to Confession daily?…Weekly? I forgot, but she went often. I usually try to go once a month, just to keep my actions in check and to get the Grace for going to Confession. I’ve fallen way short of this. It had been about four months since I did it last and I felt it. For me, not going at least once a month is like not taking a shower for two or three weeks. It just makes me feel a bit grimy. Still, it took a huge effort for me to get off my butt and go. I just don’t like doing it. It hurts my pride. I’ve realized that the more prideful I am, the harder it is for me to go. The humbler I am, the easier (in theory. I haven’t had a easy time yet. I guess I’ve yet to be so humble). Of course, once it’s done and over with, it’s like the weight of the world lifts off me and I’m so full of joy I’m about ready to explode.

I once heard somewhere that Confession is like the direct opposite of sinning. When you sin, you tend to want to do it, you feel good doing it, and you feel bad after. Confession, on the other hand, you don’t want to do it, you feel bad doing it, and you feel awesome after. I’d much rather go to Confession.

PODCASTS
Speaking of Confession. Rosary Army has a great “That Catholic Show” episode on it. For those of you who don’t know what “That Catholic Show” is, it’s a little five minute or so, web video show explaining Catholicism in a very goofy and entertaining way. It’s a great show, check it out.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

So, finally we get someone responding to the “traditional” Catholics in the comments section. I’m going to quote the things he directly wrote to me about but if you want to see the rest of what he wrote, go to the comments section of What in the world is a “traditional Catholic”?. He wrote to me correcting me in some things. str1977 wrote:

Mel Gibson is affiliated with the “Society of Saint Peter”, a group that didn’t join the SSPX when the broke from Rome (or broke with them when broke from Rome).

The issue can never be about more or less dogmatic (unless it is liberally used as an insult). The SSPX complains that Vaticanum II and later developments has compromised earlier teachings. The anti-dogmatist is still dogmatic when he expounded that there shall be no dogma.

The SSPX by the way dispute that the events of 1988 constitute a schism and therefore claim to be loyal and subject to the Holy See. They certainly do not dispute that Benedict XVI is the Pope. Some traditionalists however do, either claiming that the Holy See is vacant or that someone else (usually the leader of their sect) is Pope.

Hi, str1977

Thank you for correcting me, I appreciate any feed back on things I write that may not be correct. Can you do me a favor and write down the source of your information about Mel Gibson belonging to the Fraternity of St. Peter? Obviously if I had done the same with my information I wouldn’t have made my mistake.

Also, forgive me if my “less or more dogmatic” comment seemed like an insult to you. I didn’t mean my statement as an insult. I have a tendency to exaggerate to get my points across quicker (maybe you’ve noticed this from looking at the cartoons on the site). In this case, I was using the cultural bias against the word dogma to make my point quickly. I know that perhaps there are a lot of people reading this blog that might view Catholics who are trying to be faithful to all the doctrines and dogmas of the Church in a negative light. Some of these people might perceive faithful Catholics as brainwashed intolerant hypocrites. And yet, what happens when you show them a group of people who think these same faithful Catholics are brainwashed, over tolerant, hippies? I just thought, perhaps incorrectly, that I might be able to present this information in words they might be able to grasp quickly, even though the statement would be inaccurate.

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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.

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