Well...  I love games, and I love metal.  And my digital video class this quarter has gotten me into video editing for fun.  So...  Put 2 and 2 and 2 together...  I've been making some videos for the hell of it in my spare time! :D  I've done two so far, but I plan to do more in the future when time permits.  So in the meantime, check'em out:

Combat Racing is Godzilla

Jak, Daxter, and Deicide

Next order of business...  After two long months, I've finally made an update to my Roommates comic!!!  It's only one scene, but the reason behind this on the comic's homepage, and I don't really feel like repeating myself again. :P  So, you can check it out here.

And I think that's it for now...  Oh yeah, today's Ash Wednesday.  I hate Lent.  My parents want the family to give up video games for Lent, but that's not gonna happen with me.  No chance in hell, even if it freezes over.  Did I mention that I hate Lent? :evil:

Well, I've completed my latest piece of artwork. Behold...

Terror of the Wasteland

The description I've written for this one takes the cake. Check it out! :D

Hope you all enjoy. :D

New year, new stuff I've been drawing! :D Check out my latest piece: Mechanic and the Machine.

Enjoy! :D

Well, here I am, sitting here with my computer, less than an hour left of the year 2006...  It's time to look back at what went on this year.  Because let me tell you, even though this year has gone by faster than I an keep track of, a hell of a lot has happened for me.  So, I've come up with a sort of "End of the year awards" thingy to do. :P

One of the most important things that's happened this year is that I realized that I have artistic talent.  Not only that, but I'm actually trying to get somewhere in my life with that now!  I've known that I want to get into the game industry, but I'm sure now that I want to go into the artistic side of things there.  No programming for me, thank you very much! :P

And now, for some silly awards...

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Okay, for this award, there's gonna be two different categories.  One will include albums that came out in the past year.  The other will encompass albums that I bought this year, regardless of how long ago they were released. :D

2006 BEST NEW ALBUM:  The Crusade by Trivium.  There were a lot of albums that came out this year that I really liked.  But the winner hands down is Trivium's new album.  I've had this album for less than a week, and it is simply amazing.  I highly recommend it to anyone who listens to metal, especially if you like old-school Metallica-style stuff.

Runner Up:  Karmacode by Lacuna Coil.  When I picked this album up several months ago, it totally took me by surprise.  This is probably one of my most listened-to CDs this year.  I didn't doubt that this album would be disappointing at all (I saw the band at Ozzfest and enjoyed their performance), but I was still shocked by this masterful album from this Italian metal band.

2006 ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Demanufacture/Archetype by Fear Factory.  Oh my god.  Fear Factory.  What a band.  And these two albums by them have probably had the biggest impact on my musical tastes this year.  If you believe that people have souls, then you can say that I have sold mine to these industrial metal gods among mortals.  Since I first checked out Archetype from the library back in April, I have bought every single CD they have from Concrete to Transgressions, bought a shirt and wristband from their webstore, and traveled over 200 miles to see their only stop in my State on their latest tour.  This band has hit me hard this year.  Even harder than In Flames hit me last year, and that's saying something.  I cannot possibly pick a favorite between these two records, so they have come to tie for Album of the Year. :P

CONCERT OF THE YEAR

Okay, another split-category.  This time, I'll be comparing the shows I went to that were club or arena shows, and then the big festivals I went to.

INDOOR CONCERT SHOW OF THE YEAR: Machines at War tour (Fear Factory, Suffocation, Hypocrisy, and Decapitated).  Okay.  The fact that Fear Factory was here was enough.  You know why.  But the other bands at this show were amazing in their own rights.  This was the most brutal concert that I have been to to date, and it is the first I've been to where I actually enjoyed seeing every one of the bands that were performing.  And even though I had to leave before Fear Factory was done with their set, they kicked my ass so hard that my ears were ringing for four days!!! :P  

Runner Up: Come Clarity tour (In Flames, Trivium, Devildriver, and Zao).  Early February, a friend and I went to see In Flames in a little music hall in Colombus, Ohio.  The show was simply amazing.  I was singing along and jumping around to every song I could, and I think I almost fell over on the guy behind me a couple of times. :P  Simply amazing.  Trivium and Devildriver also put on superb shows, so the $25 ticket was well worth it.

OUTDOOR CONCERT SHOW OF THE YEAR:  Ozzfest '06.  Ozzfest!!!  Yeah!!!  The main stage this year was enough to get me to go.  System of a Down, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Hatebreed, Lacuna Coil, and Dragonforce.  I thouroughly enjoyed every one of these shows, and even worked myself into exhaustion for Hatebreed and Disturbed.  This will be a very tough lineup to top, but I can't wait for next year's Ozzfest. :D

Runner Up:  X-fest 2006.  This is only the runner-up show because it's the only other outdoor concert I went to this year.  Sadly, this show was disappointing.  Avenged Sevenfold was there, and that's who I went to see.  I was also interested in seeing Staind.  Avenged Sevenfold kicked ass.  Unfortunately, they weren't the headliners.  Staind was.  And Staind was, unfortunately, kinda disappointing.  I like their music, but they don't put on much of a live show... :(  This show is gonna have to pull some really awesome bands out of it's ass next year if they hope to get me to show up for a sixth year.

GAME OF THE YEAR

I've decided to make this category open to any games that I got this year, since I didn't really go out and buy a whole lot.  So, without further delay...

2006 GAME OF THE YEAR:  Jak X: Combat Racing.  Oh my.  Fear Factory dominated me on the musical front.  This game ruled the gaming front.  Jak X is probably one of the most addicting games I have ever played.  It's like Burnout with guns!!! :P  Since I got it about mid-September, I've dropped nearly 100 hours into this game, and I've only recently started playing it online. :P  This game also got me into the Jak & Daxter series, and made be drop $60 on the other three games. :P

Runner Up:  Guitar Hero 2.  Last year, Guitar Hero kicked ass.  This year, the second game takes everything that made the first awesome, and does it better.  More songs, more metal, and two player co-op!!! :D

And with that, I've managed to eat up enough time for the clock to hit midnight.  HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D  Now that I'm done looking back on the year that was, it's time to start enjoying the new one.  I'm gonna go eat Chex Mix, drink Mike's Hard Iced Tea and Cherry Pepsi, listen to heavy metal, and play Jak X and Guitar Hero 2 until I pass out!  Cheers! :D

Well, the holidays are over.  Here's what I got as gifts:





And here's the stuff I went out and bought because I really wanted it but didn't get it:























And...  That's everything worth noting. :P

Ooh, I also got a wireless bridge to hook up to my PS2!!!  Now I can play online without having to drag the machine up from the basement and hook it into the router! :D:D:D

Hold on, I'm still trying to get a grip on the idea here...

SWEET JEEZUS, I'M 20 YEARS OLD NOW!!!  It seems like I just turned 19 not too long ago...  I swear, time is speeding up on me...  1986 seems like it was forever ago! :P

Anyways, it's my birthday today, and that means it's time for the annual trip to the local Japanese steakhouse for dinner...  At least, as soon as we can get the whole family in one place long enough to accomplish that.  In the meantime, the local Ryan's buffet will do. :D

Oh, there's also exactly two weeks until Christmas, for those of you keeping score...  Damn!  Two weeks till Christmas!!!  I got me some shopping to do!  I swear, time is speeding up... :P

So yesterday was my two year anniversary of being here on Gamespot.  Damn...  Two years...  Have I really been here for that long?  Man, 2004 seems like it was forever ago... :P  Anyways, this completely slipped my mind yesterday, so I figured I'd better make up for it today. :P  Here's to another two years!

Well, time for the second concert of the week. This time, I went to see Disturbed on their Music as a Weapon tour. Oh my god, it was AMAZING!!! They put on an incredible show. Even better than their Ozzfest performance this summer (which was the first time I've seen them). Along with Disturbed on the tour, I also saw Nonpoint, Flyleaf, and Stone Sour. The first two bands, Nonpoint and Flyleaf, were okay. Nonpoint moreso than Flyleaf. Flyleaf just got annoying to listen to after so many of their songs. I can only take so much of listening to the chick that does their vocals... Anyways, Stone Sour was up next. Holy damn, they were awesome! Their show was when the night really got going for me. After all, I did go to see them too as well as Disturbed. :P It's just so wierd to see Corey Taylor up on stage with that band. Why? Because, for those of you who may not know, Corey Taylor is the voice of Slipknot as well as Stone Sour. I saw on that stage a man with long blonde hair wearing normal attire. But I heard a man in a coverall jumpsuit with a leather mask and much darker hair. Damn... There's no mistaking it. He is the voice of Slipknot, even when he isn't performing with them. Which reminds me... Next year, when the nine piece band from Iowa gets back together and hits the road again, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I see them when they stomp through Ohio.

And then there was Disturbed... Oh man... What a phenomenal show!!! Their Ozzfest show this summer was something, but this was something else. In regards to their album material, they were all over the place. I can't remember the exact order everything went in (too busy going nuts ;) ), but I can tell you that from The Sickness album, they did "Voices", "The Game", "Stupify", and "Down with the Sickness". From Believe, they did "Prayer", "Liberate", "Remember", and "Intoxication". From 10,000 Fists, they did the title track, "Just Stop", "Guarded" (I've discovered that you can circle headbang/windmill to this song :D ), "Deify", "Stricken", and "Sons of Plunder", which was a nice surprise since I really like that song and wasn't expecting them to play it. :) Aside from playing these songs in their entirety, they also did a few things where they strung several different songs together. This included "Pain Redefined", "Droppin' Plates", "Meaning of Life", and "Devour". I think that's it... I'm probably forgetting something, but hell... What a show... It wasn't quite as amazingly awesome as the Fear Factory show I just saw earlier this week, though. I can tell that because my ears aren't ringing anywhere nearly as bad as they were after that event... :P This show now gets to fight it out with the In Flames show I saw earlier this year for "Second best concert I went to this year". :P

Hm... Oh yeah! My friend and I came up with a system to rate concerts we go to from now on, too. After we finish watching a band, we give them a score of between 1 and 4 devil horns. So, here's how tonight's bands fared...

Nonpoint: 2
Flyleaf: 1&1/2
Stone Sour: 4
Disturbed: 4

Oh, and I've also decided that I want to grow my hair out nice and loooong now so that I can windmill when I go to metal concerts in the future. For those of you who are unfamiliar with windmilling, it's when you spin your head around your neck really fast and your hair flies around in a big circle. It looks really cool when all four guys in a death metal band are doing it at once. :D Yeah... I wanna do that... :P

EDIT: Well, it seems my forgetfulness has gotten to me again... :P It totally spaced my mind while writing this, but Disturbed also played "Overburdened" from the 10,000 Fists album. And the best part of it was... They had a pyrotechnics show! :D Man, I haven't seen fire at a concert since I saw Creed about five years or so ago! It was awesome! And since they played that song fairly early in their show, the fire made appearances in later songs in their set. :D

Oh my f***ing god!!! And then some!!! Last night! November 19! Fear Factory!!! Cleveland, Ohio!!! Me!!! There!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

...

Sorry, my brain has kind of turned to mush now... :P

In case you didn't gather from the above comments, I went and saw Fear Factory last night. :D Oh god, what a show! Hands down THE best show I have been to this year. Yes, even better than In Flames back in February, and that was one hell of an amazing show. So anyways, I hauled my ass 200 miles from Kettering to Cleveland (because that's the closest they were coming to me on this tour), and literally had my ass handed to me for several hours. Before Fear Factory came on, I got to see Decapitated, Hypocrisy, and Suffocation take the stage. They all put on great shows. Especially Hypocrisy and Suffocation. I'm definitely gonna have to go out and pick up some stuff by those bands. They were awesome! And Decapitated's vocalist reminded my a lot of Nathan Explosion from Metalocalypse... :P This was definitely the most musically brutal concert I have ever gone to.

But then Fear Factory came on... And I just lost it. I managed to get up close to the stage (about one person or so away from the railing), and the show just blew my mind. I've probably spent the better part of the past week wondering what song Fear Factory would open with, since they've got so many good songs to open a show with. What they did took me totally by surprise: The opening song was "Crash Test" from Soul of a New Machine. That really got the place going. After that, they went into "Martyr", and then "Leechmaster". I don't remember the order of the next two songs after that, but they were "Scapegoat" and "Self Immolation". After touching on Soul of a New Machine, they took a quick visit to the Demanufacture album to play the title track and "Hunter-Killer". They played "Hunter-Killer". That made me so happy, I don't know how exactly to describe it. :P After that, they played "Shock" and "Edgecrusher" from the Obsolete album. Then, it was "540,000 Degrees Farenheit" and "Moment of Impact" from their latest album, Transgressions. Then they got into the Archetype stuff. "Slave Labor" and "Cyberwaste" kicked my ass. Then, a quick trip to the Digimortal album with "Linchpin". And then... And then... Well, I don't know what they did after that... Why? I had to f***ing leave! :( That's right, I had to bug out of the show before it was over. Why? Because, it was after midnight, and Fear Factory was still on stage (they didn't go on until around 11:15pm). In order to be sure that I didn't end up falling asleep on the highway and crashing on my way home, my dad came up to Cleveland with me so he could drive home after I was done. Well, I didn't expect the show to go on as late as it did, and the road trip was a good 3 & 1/2 to 4 hours long, so... Yeah... You get the idea... :( So, I bugged out from my prime spot up by the stage, bought a shirt on the way out, and went home... Disappointed in more ways then one. One, I didn't get to see Fear Factory's set through to the end. Two, I didn't get to see them perform "Archetype"... And that's the part that saddens me the most. "Archetype" has got to be my single most absolute favorite song by the band, and probably the song I was most looking forward to hearing live... And I didn't get to hear it... :cry:

Well, despite having to leave early and not getting to hear my absolute favorite Fear Factory song, the show was amazing beyond words. It was worth the $25 ticket many times over. I got to see the band that I have fanatically obsessed over since April this year, I got to see three other kick-ass bands, and I got a new shirt. :D And next time Fear Factory comes to the state of Ohio, I'm gonna haul my ass out to see them for sure. And I'm gonna make sure that I get to stay for the entire show. :)

Coming Saturday... Music as a Weapon!!! Disturbed and Stone Sour!!! Yes, Nano's going to two concerts in one week!!! I wonder if my ears will have stopped ringing by Saturday...? :P

More drawing from Nano! :D Surprisingly, there's nothing gruesome about this one, even though it's another song-inspired piece. I give you... Timelessness.