Spinning Wheels
Another life update. Man, more than one a month? I must be mad prolific!
Poor Fox is on four months living on my couch now. The good news is that it looks like she's going to close on the tiki themed condo place that she thought she was going to lose... for about five grand less than what they wanted for it. I'm guessing the cash buyer turned out to be a rental investor and thus was ineligible for the place. With a little luck, she'll be moving into the new place by the end of the month.
Mind you, we're still getting along pretty well and there has been no headbutting at all. This genuinely surprises me since I'm kind of an introvert grump and such. But Fox respects my space and keeps to herself but is also happy to socialize when we both feel like it. Still, she's probably anxious to have her own space. Couch surfing gets old pretty quick.
Streaming has been going well even though I've had trouble doing art. It would seem that folks are wiling to throw tips at me just because I'm entertaining. I've appreciated it as it's helped me pay for auto repairs, computer repairs, and bought a new phone for Uriel.
One of the amusing parts about game streaming is that the comment I hear the most is that I make it look easy. It's actually hard to keep an entertaining banter going while playing a game and keeping up with what people are saying in the chat window. I tell people that the trick with banter is to try and point out cool things in the game that some people might not have noticed, explain what you're doing but don't overly explain like the viewer is stupid, and know when to laugh at yourself. Anyone can be insulting and crude, but true entertainment is often setting yourself up as the fall guy and give folks someone to laugh at.
Drinking helps too. Folks are amused that I can make a string of headshots after drinking several glasses of absinthe. And they tipped well enough that I was able to fix my car.
The only time I honestly can say I regret having a popular stream is when people come to me and ask me how to get similar results, when what they're really asking me is to stream for/with them so they can make money. When I finished Kitties last year I got a flood of email asking me if I could do a similar marathon for them in a week. Aaaugh.
On an artist front, I ended up with a really unique honor. Artists are familiar with those wooden posing mannequins out there that you use for reference. Well, a fellow thought that they had limited movement and range so he designed the Armature Nine: http://store.digitaldouble.net/collections/a9
The Armatures may look like yet another weird posing mannequin, but the creator put out a dare asking people to submit photos of people in poses (that aren't double jointed or deformed) and he's shown that the A9 can make the same pose. It's been a really great art tool.
The unique honor of this factors in as one of their first custom models ended up being a reference for a character of mine. I didn't commission it, but Fox asked my permission if she could make an armature of a character of mine, a nameless cat that I call Three but everyone she meets gives her their own name. For Fox's story, she calls her Artemis. The Armature is here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16205557/ and I think she's one of the first digitigrade posing dolls in existence. He'll be offering more generic anthro models soon, but for now we have this.
Only disappointment is that you can always tell when someone has a fetish when you show it and they make remarks about how the ears/tail/feet aren't detailed enough. Sigh.
And finally, I happened across an announcement saying that the OKC bombing happened twenty years ago. It isn't that specific event that catches my mind but it's sort of a time landmark that reminds me that I've now been living on my own for twenty years. I moved out about three or four days before the bombing so that's my mental milestone.
Mom said I'd be back. I very quietly visited last year just to see what time had done to my old hometown, and the result was that I was very happy I never had to go back.
And in about two weeks I'll celebrate eighteen years of marriage. That's pretty darn awesome too.
Poor Fox is on four months living on my couch now. The good news is that it looks like she's going to close on the tiki themed condo place that she thought she was going to lose... for about five grand less than what they wanted for it. I'm guessing the cash buyer turned out to be a rental investor and thus was ineligible for the place. With a little luck, she'll be moving into the new place by the end of the month.
Mind you, we're still getting along pretty well and there has been no headbutting at all. This genuinely surprises me since I'm kind of an introvert grump and such. But Fox respects my space and keeps to herself but is also happy to socialize when we both feel like it. Still, she's probably anxious to have her own space. Couch surfing gets old pretty quick.
Streaming has been going well even though I've had trouble doing art. It would seem that folks are wiling to throw tips at me just because I'm entertaining. I've appreciated it as it's helped me pay for auto repairs, computer repairs, and bought a new phone for Uriel.
One of the amusing parts about game streaming is that the comment I hear the most is that I make it look easy. It's actually hard to keep an entertaining banter going while playing a game and keeping up with what people are saying in the chat window. I tell people that the trick with banter is to try and point out cool things in the game that some people might not have noticed, explain what you're doing but don't overly explain like the viewer is stupid, and know when to laugh at yourself. Anyone can be insulting and crude, but true entertainment is often setting yourself up as the fall guy and give folks someone to laugh at.
Drinking helps too. Folks are amused that I can make a string of headshots after drinking several glasses of absinthe. And they tipped well enough that I was able to fix my car.
The only time I honestly can say I regret having a popular stream is when people come to me and ask me how to get similar results, when what they're really asking me is to stream for/with them so they can make money. When I finished Kitties last year I got a flood of email asking me if I could do a similar marathon for them in a week. Aaaugh.
On an artist front, I ended up with a really unique honor. Artists are familiar with those wooden posing mannequins out there that you use for reference. Well, a fellow thought that they had limited movement and range so he designed the Armature Nine: http://store.digitaldouble.net/collections/a9
The Armatures may look like yet another weird posing mannequin, but the creator put out a dare asking people to submit photos of people in poses (that aren't double jointed or deformed) and he's shown that the A9 can make the same pose. It's been a really great art tool.
The unique honor of this factors in as one of their first custom models ended up being a reference for a character of mine. I didn't commission it, but Fox asked my permission if she could make an armature of a character of mine, a nameless cat that I call Three but everyone she meets gives her their own name. For Fox's story, she calls her Artemis. The Armature is here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16205557/ and I think she's one of the first digitigrade posing dolls in existence. He'll be offering more generic anthro models soon, but for now we have this.
Only disappointment is that you can always tell when someone has a fetish when you show it and they make remarks about how the ears/tail/feet aren't detailed enough. Sigh.
And finally, I happened across an announcement saying that the OKC bombing happened twenty years ago. It isn't that specific event that catches my mind but it's sort of a time landmark that reminds me that I've now been living on my own for twenty years. I moved out about three or four days before the bombing so that's my mental milestone.
Mom said I'd be back. I very quietly visited last year just to see what time had done to my old hometown, and the result was that I was very happy I never had to go back.
And in about two weeks I'll celebrate eighteen years of marriage. That's pretty darn awesome too.