Yeah, I'm still alive, dear reader(s). (Hope you guys DO notice the nice "Twitter Updates" sidebar - at those times it sucks to just follow the RSS feed of that blog ;) ).
Anyone thinking the title of this post implies that I'll plan to blog more often like in the olden days of tweetlessness - don't hold your breath, you may suffocate. I'll try to do more updates here than in the last year - which shouldn't be that hard when looking at the shameful number of 2009 posts - but the peak of my blogging frequency lies far far faaaaaar behind. Damn you, employment!
But alas, it's a new year, even a new decade (yeah I know, the decade does start NEXT year, but no one cares about that ;) ), so I'm willing to use my blog again for drooling about Ladies of Interest ... bragging with my awesome amateur art... geeking around collecting my thoughts and plans for future reference. So when I lay down my astonishingly precise and realistic resolutions in the next paragraphs, you all may come back to me in a year pointing fingers at the guy who didn't even try to accomplish them ;). (To speak the truth, some of my goals are quite important to me and I hope that I'll be able to stick to them - probably won't happen without some serious time management though). So in the order they come to mind - so not at all ordered by priority: Batch's resolutions for 2010 (excerpt):
Keep drawing. I'm not under the illusion that I'll ever be able to compete with professional or semi-professional artists. I'm not that talented at all and I don't *want* it hard enough to put myself in the process of endless practicing. I continue to improve very slowly, but I'm still completly lost in the woods when working without reference. I'm good at copying, I suck at imagining. But: I found some nice tutorial for drawing heads/faces from different angles after some kind of formula which really helps understanding what I'm drawing and bringing me a small step closer to really creative drawing without depending so much on a reference. More details in a future post maybe. There will be opportunities galore with FedCon coming up and lots of drawings to be made.
Get back to miniature painting. Before I went to Berlin, I used to paint miniatures (mostly those Games Workshop Lord of the Rings guys) and I think I wasn't that bad. I really felt I should do that again, so I bought lots of colors and brushes and tools, I de-colored some of my early works (a terrible, terrible Legolas for example) and even primed them - but now that almost everything's ready I feel kinda afraid or intimidated of actually starting to paint again. I may suck hell after almost four years of not-painting and feel deeply disappointed when things don't go smoothly. I'll need to buy the remaining stuff and force myself to spend a complete day for that. Poor Legolas may suffer a fate worse than death but let's face it: He never was the prettiest ;).
Get this homepage thingy working! It's a shame for a studied computer scientist to not have a real self-coded homepage. I have the webspace (thanks to klti), I have the domain, I even have some content (my drawings) - but I can't find the time to think of a concept for some small but nice web appearance. The avoider of final episodes and I will have to brainstorm at some point in the near future.
Software development skill enhancing. Same thing. I start to hate my old Comic-Database-Application. Every time I catalogue the latest additions to my collection with the old and ill-coded system I notice the shortcomings and long for a complete overhaul. But it's pretty hard to find yourself in the mood to continue programming and/or software developing after doing that the whole day at work. But due to the limitations of technologies I have to work with at my job, I think I really have to do an independent software project for myself to preserve and enhance my skills in software development and object oriented programming. So it's not only a question of finally improve the administration of my comic collection but to keep up with my area of expertise. Needs lots of time, though. At least I started to put my requirements and first brainstormings on (digital) paper, so a first specification is on the horizon.
Do more sports! I have to face it: I'm turning 30 and the years of eat-what-you-want-and-do-no-sports-but-still-stay-relatively-slim are over. I gained a few pounds this year and that are a few pounds to much. They have to go. I refuse going to the gym though. I'm absolutely no gym guy and I won't spent my precious time pulling some weights in a sweaty training room. I will try to do some more biking at least after the winter. I'm even desperate enough to think of jogging. And giving up Fast Food ;). I'm open for suggestions.
There are more points left ("girlfriend","less gaming" and the like ;) ) but I think that suffices for now.
Anyone thinking the title of this post implies that I'll plan to blog more often like in the olden days of tweetlessness - don't hold your breath, you may suffocate. I'll try to do more updates here than in the last year - which shouldn't be that hard when looking at the shameful number of 2009 posts - but the peak of my blogging frequency lies far far faaaaaar behind. Damn you, employment!
But alas, it's a new year, even a new decade (yeah I know, the decade does start NEXT year, but no one cares about that ;) ), so I'm willing to use my blog again for
Keep drawing. I'm not under the illusion that I'll ever be able to compete with professional or semi-professional artists. I'm not that talented at all and I don't *want* it hard enough to put myself in the process of endless practicing. I continue to improve very slowly, but I'm still completly lost in the woods when working without reference. I'm good at copying, I suck at imagining. But: I found some nice tutorial for drawing heads/faces from different angles after some kind of formula which really helps understanding what I'm drawing and bringing me a small step closer to really creative drawing without depending so much on a reference. More details in a future post maybe. There will be opportunities galore with FedCon coming up and lots of drawings to be made.
Get back to miniature painting. Before I went to Berlin, I used to paint miniatures (mostly those Games Workshop Lord of the Rings guys) and I think I wasn't that bad. I really felt I should do that again, so I bought lots of colors and brushes and tools, I de-colored some of my early works (a terrible, terrible Legolas for example) and even primed them - but now that almost everything's ready I feel kinda afraid or intimidated of actually starting to paint again. I may suck hell after almost four years of not-painting and feel deeply disappointed when things don't go smoothly. I'll need to buy the remaining stuff and force myself to spend a complete day for that. Poor Legolas may suffer a fate worse than death but let's face it: He never was the prettiest ;).
Get this homepage thingy working! It's a shame for a studied computer scientist to not have a real self-coded homepage. I have the webspace (thanks to klti), I have the domain, I even have some content (my drawings) - but I can't find the time to think of a concept for some small but nice web appearance. The avoider of final episodes and I will have to brainstorm at some point in the near future.
Software development skill enhancing. Same thing. I start to hate my old Comic-Database-Application. Every time I catalogue the latest additions to my collection with the old and ill-coded system I notice the shortcomings and long for a complete overhaul. But it's pretty hard to find yourself in the mood to continue programming and/or software developing after doing that the whole day at work. But due to the limitations of technologies I have to work with at my job, I think I really have to do an independent software project for myself to preserve and enhance my skills in software development and object oriented programming. So it's not only a question of finally improve the administration of my comic collection but to keep up with my area of expertise. Needs lots of time, though. At least I started to put my requirements and first brainstormings on (digital) paper, so a first specification is on the horizon.
Do more sports! I have to face it: I'm turning 30 and the years of eat-what-you-want-and-do-no-sports-but-still-stay-relatively-slim are over. I gained a few pounds this year and that are a few pounds to much. They have to go. I refuse going to the gym though. I'm absolutely no gym guy and I won't spent my precious time pulling some weights in a sweaty training room. I will try to do some more biking at least after the winter. I'm even desperate enough to think of jogging. And giving up Fast Food ;). I'm open for suggestions.
There are more points left ("girlfriend","less gaming" and the like ;) ) but I think that suffices for now.
