PolarClock is Cool.

Hey guys! It's worth a try- It's a free and very fun to watch screensaver from Pixelbreaker. Totally custom to your tastes, and easy to use, why not try the circular calender for yourself for free and everything?

http://blog.pixelbreaker.com/polarclock/

Have a great weekend,

-Zenek

Sorry 4 Another Comic-Based Post...

But I hope some of you will get a kick out of this: Bet you didn't know that I wrote a pair of guest comics for online comic "Creature Cantina"!


http://www.creaturecantina.com/


It's not a big shocker that I'm a Star Wars fan, and particularly the alien residents of that galaxy far, far away. The Cantina scene from Star Wars: A New Hope was one of my all-time favorite movie scenes, and this site does a great job lampooning the iconic scene from an American classic.

^(Ketwol)

See the two comics I wrote below, and I hope you like 'em!

http://www.creaturecantina.com/thecantina/year07.html

From here, click on the links for "9-17-08" and "3-07-07" for my ventures into Star Wars hilarity! One you'll get if you know your Star Wars aliens, and the other's pretty self explanitory.
Enjoy and see you mid-week!

-Zenek

Asirra:Killing Bots with Kitties!

Hey everyone! I wanted to give our regular readers a bit of a head's up about a certain feature I hope to have installed onto the main site that will prevent bots from spamming the forums.

This is Asirra, a free CAPTCHA created by Microsoft for just such an instance. It uses a very simple method of bot-stopping action which is also very easy for a human to use! (I KNOW you know that person who asks you to read the blob of swirly mixed numbers & letters CATCHA's)

To bypass the Asirra program as a human user, you must select all of the photos of Cats, and NOT DOGS. Bots just see photo-files, and humans can clearly see which images are kitties and which are puppies. Killing evil bots with baby animals is the wave of the future! Plans for the duckling launcher and turtle cannon are pending, thanks.

Be sure to read more about Asirra here, and if you want you can try it out for yourself!

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/asirra/default.aspx

Have a wonderful weekend, and I can't wait to get Asirra up and running! Oh! Nearly forgot the best part! Asirra uses the photos of animals who need to be adopted, thus raising awareness for the animals who need a home. Maybe our little Rare-Shrine will save at least one pet? Who knows, but that's still pretty awesome. :P

Rock on, everyone!

-Zenek

Alligator Strips are Good!

About Monday? Being completely honest here, I forgot. :( Best I can do is give my complete sorries to all. I'll make it up to you today though!

For some reason, for the past few months I've been wanting to try more and more "exotic" foods. Being lactose intolerant SUCKS and with the way the global food market is set up, MANY processed food contains some milk/lactose derived product. Now I admit to being a sugar-addict, and that all of my teeth are sweet teeth, but I've had the most pulling cravings for meat...

I'm not talking any meat here, although I really like chicken, turkey and beef, but I want to try more unusual animals for lunch. For example, many years ago I went an hour South of home to Saint Augustine, FL. It's the oldest town in America you know! ;) Anyhoo, I stopped by this nice outdoor eatery and had a nice plate of fried alligator strips and french fries. It was pretty nice, and they actually DO taste like chicken!

I'm SO tempted to order something online just to satisfy the carnivore in me so I can get back to scarfing apple pie, giant chewy nerds (Try them, they're awesome!) and oreos. Doing some research, I've found ways to order meat from the following animals:

Rabbit, Turtle, Zebra, Ostrich, Emu, Emo*, Eland, Llama, Black Bear, Buffalo, Deer, Iguana, Python, Rattlesnake, Shark, Yak, Kangaroo, and for a paultry $3,000 you can order 10 lbs. of Lion Chops!

SIMBA- It's what's for dinner.

Still can't decide if I'm even GOING to order some unorthodox animal flesh, but I'm kinda leaning toward the duck, goose, deer, and ostrich area. Hmm... Wish me luck that I'll find a nice addition to my daily grind of chicken-chicken-chicken-chicken... "Eh? I'm out of chicken? ... I guess I'll buy some turkey now."

For more info on this sort of thing, check out these sites. It's pretty cool stuff!

http://www.exoticmeats.com/home.aspx

http://www.fossilfarms.com/

http://www.1-800-exoticmeats.com/

MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMm..... Siiiiiiimbaaaaa.... *Drools*

-Zenek

*But I hear they taste disturbing...

National Free Comic Book Day!

Being a huge fan of all things gaming, it's kind of a pain when you take a step back and realize that this art is more than likely the most corporate of all artforms. If we DO get a freebie, (especially for a console), it's more than likely rubbish unfortunately. Wouldn't it be nice to get a piece of entertainment and art for... FREE?

(Hope I can get a copy of this one, this'll probably be the most popular thing at the give-aways!)

I've gotten into comics in the past few years, and I'm finally going to be able to take advantage of National Free Comic Book Day! It's always the first Saturday of May, and I've had to work through the past several of those. Unfortunately for me, that usually means all the "good" stuff's been snagged ahead of time. Bummer. In addition to the newest issues of Thunderbolts & Dark Avengers, I'll probably walk out of the local dusty-arse comic shop with a bag full of goodies.

(Best Spiderman series, EVER.)

One of the cooler things I got last year was a copy of Atomic Robo, it's a cool and funny story involving a super-hero robot from some obscure publisher. Looks like I'll have a chance to get another free one this year too! I'm going to try to nab the free Avengers, Star Wars Clone Wars, and hopefully find something new I might wanna keep reading. That's the fun with Free Comic Book Day, you might find something you never knew existed and really enjoy it!

(Gonna snag this one tomorrow. Dinosaurs & Robots go together like jellybeans and soda. I can't be the only sugar-addict here, eh?)

I'm a regular at my local shop, so they're probably going to toss something cool at me this year as they have before. ;) Wish me luck, and you should really look into your local comic shop to see if FCBD is being properly celebrated there. I never thought that Dark Avengers would be SO GOOOOOOD....

(Love my Thunderbolts, HATE Moon Knight. If Venom & Krew wanna kill off MK, I'm cool with that. :D )

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Things I notice...

I can't help but ponder the many great mysteries of the universe in my daily life, and here's a handfull of "Things" that make me wonder:

Why are so very few foods blue?

Unless you count food-colored food like Kool-Aid and "Blue-Raspberry" flavored food (Raspberries aren't blue, people!), not many foods are sky-colored. All a part of God's plan I suppose...

On my high-protien diet, I noticed that my Cliff Bar of the day was labeled as "Chocolate Brownie" Duh. How many brownies have YOU eaten that AREN'T CHOCOLATE RELATED?

Regarding Microsoft's control over potentially offensive GamerTags, someone on Kotaku stated that "Heterosexuality is a popular assumption. Homosexuality is considered an alternative. A straight male doesn't have to go out of his way to let women know that he is straight. "

http://kotaku.com/5232808/how-not-to-address-homosexuality-in-gaming

Why the Hell would a gay person have a need to go out of his/her/it's way to let anyone know it's gay- ON AN ONLINE CONSOLE?! If it's labeled by Microsoft offensive for someone to write something in their profile about their sexual preferences, that's perfectly fine. It's not a dating service, not a soapbox, and not everyone accepts homosexuality. Get over it.

If Microsoft went about banning people for openly being what they physically ARE, like Asian, wheel chair bound, or really tall, that would be an unforgiveable abomination. People choose their food, clothing, sexuality and Pokemon like so many other things in life. Speaking of that...

Why have Pokemon gone more and more geometric over the years?

I loved designs like Kingler, Nidoking and Pinsir, but since the Jewled Game Boy Advance editions I've noticed that creatures like Groudon, Sharpedo and Banette are too "Shapely". I really thought it was cool to have monster-like MONSTERS to beat the crap out of other monsters. I don't hate the new pokemon or anything, Shedinja's REALLY cool! (No, I'm serious!) It's just been bugging me that the Pokemon series has been in need of an overhaul of the entire set-up for a LONG TIME NOW.

Why haven't you downloaded Banjo-Tooie for Xbox Live? :P I did!

See you all on Friday, and look below to see if I've gotten the Dragonfly Lawn Care cards up...

Dragonfly Lawn Care

Hey everyone! If it feels like this post is rushed, it kinda is... I've been SO BUSY lately, and I'm pretty frazzled. :( On the upside, it's not becuase I'm not getting work! I do freelance graphic design work, and I snagged a deal with a local lawn care service to do their advertising. I went ahead and worked with the client and went through several stages of business card transformation. See how I progressed from concept-card to final product! (It might help if you read upward from the bottom photo, and keep in mind that there are many other color combos I've made for most of these card variants, so if you feel the need for more, let me know!)

This one's the final kut. My client picked the deep green (with my help) to back up the idea it's a lawn-tending service, and the dragon fly really pops off the card. He wanted simple, and he got it. Pretty nice though, eh? When they arrive in the mail, I'll have to show them off! :)

This was near the end of the process, and a major change happened at this point. Why? I forget, but I aim to please! It was down to the Deep Blue color above and the final fresh-cut-grass green that made the final product. Looks nice colorwise, eh?

After some consideration, the client wanted me to loose the lines and make the dragonfly smaller, and make the company title bigger. Not too bad, and he's starting to choose some colors that tickle his fancy. Cool!

This was a bit of a leap to a much closer to done card. The color choice was a real pull for the client, as he LOVED the primary yellow for the bug. I liked the cross-lines and font styles and colors I played with too. I made so many color versions of this design... But this one was most important to progressing the card I'd say.

Do you know how tough it is to find a half-way decent image of a dragonfly to use? No? Get on it then. This was one of a bunch of odd-ball concept cards I threw together to get an idea of what the client wanted. No color, it's all about placement, imagery and text size/style. Other than explaining that to the client, the most important thing I got was: "No plant!" :P

Yep, one of the things that the Mighty Zenek is, is a free-lance Graphic Designer.
Anyone need me to make something pretty for their buisiness? Eh?

Go, Gregg- GO!

HEY! If you thought I was off lolly-gagging about last Wed, you're WRONG. I was on Pinata Island pain-stakingly re-creating the London Marathon in a realistic simulation for Gregg (the Bonboon) Mayles. After I set up a Purple Paradise with all purple (or mostly purple) Pinatas and plant-life, I had Gregg run the 26 Pinometer Marathon, and see for yourself what happens!

Early morning before the marathon with Gregg Bonboon getting to the starting line. Zenek the Purple Pieenna and Biohazard3 the Plum (Undead- See bolts in neck) Cinnamonkey wait at the finishline, and it seems like Zenek's resting his eyes...

Looks like Gregg's ready for his big run through the Purple Paradise!

Run, Gregg, Past all those Purple Posers!

Don't worry, Gregg! It's just a small detour! Keep at it!

Good 'ol Zenek's cheering on for our Hero! Where the heck's Biohazard3 going?

Lookit Gregg go!!!

The entire Island's cheering for him now!

Gregg for the win!!!

And after a LONG DAY of running, Gregg gets his 1st place ribbon of AWESOMENESS while all of his friends cheer for him! YAY!

Best of Luck on Sunday! I'm cheering for you man! ;) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

PS. PLEASE click on all of the Photos to view them in a much larger ratio. I worked hard to get good ones, and Pinatas don't like to work with the Photographer... :P

Trying to Gain Pounds, Lost 5 Today!

Hey guys! Some of you might know that I’m not the heaviest person on the internet. At 130-ish pounds, I’d love to gain some serious weight again, something like the 170ish pounds I was back in high school. I think I’ll try a new diet high in protein, maybe that’ll help. . . I went and bought a selection of Cliff Bars last week, and I’ll eat one a day to try to gain some heft. Hey, 20% of your daily NEEDS of protein’s not too shabby! Plus, they actually taste good! By the way, I’m lactose intolerant, and it’s a real treat to have chocolate that’s not been made with milk. I’ve tried the Maple Nut kind for dinner tonight with some raisins, and my expectations were blown away! AWESOME FLAVOR. Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal/Raisin/Walnut types are just as great, while the White Chocolate Macadamian Nut landed in the pretty good ranking… I’ll let you all know if my hairy arse gets any wider because of this diet guys! Wish me luck! (Oh yeah, an American who’s not fat already- Hur-hur-hur! Digestive issues suck, Clif Bars don’t.)

How’d I loose five pounds then? I donated them to Mr. Gregg Mayles’ favorite charity for the 26 mile marathon he’ll be running on April 26th. I had to do a Dollar to Pounds converter to measure out 5 pounds from my Paypal account. I gave more than half of what I had though! I couldn’t give the whole 9 bucks as Ebay has seller fees I need to pay off. What’s even better is that every dollar I donated is MATCHED by Microsoft! How cool is that?! It’s like I’ve given them about 14 dollars, almost sorta. Right, the charity is Wishes 4 Kids, and they do some great stuff for sick kiddos in the UK and I think the mission’s completely rockin’. I couldn’t think of anything better than having the man behind the cartoon honey bear do his part to sweat to make kids happy. God bless Gregg, Rare, Microsoft and all who donate to the event for making the Zenek-Purple Run a fun & profitable one for kids who could use a wish granted.

http://www.wishes4kids.co.uk/

Zenek Purple? Yep. Gregg & His Krew’s flying my royal colors this year as opposed to construction worker orange. That’s like icing on the cake, man! Do yourself and some special child a favor and donate a little something on Gregg’s site below. You know you want to, friend. J Keep Cool Everyone!

http://www.justgiving.com/averypurplemarathon

PS. See any other cool donators on that list? (Trick question! THEY ARE ALL COOL.)

PPS. I REALLY wanted The Blog of Zen to be Purple from the first post, but I can't twist Blogger's rigid system to allow it. Lame. :(