Books, BUSINESS, CREATIVE, FIRST STORM MANGA, One Sheet Stories, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH SUPPORT, The Rules of Tech Support, WHATS GOING ON, Writing

Second Storm

I believe that every creative person has, in their head somewhere, their masterpiece. The Big One, the Magnum Opus, that one work that they believe will knock everyone’s socks off and change the world, or at the least, make them rich and/or famous. One concept that we always preached in First Storm Manga was the idea that your Big One should never, ever, be your first project.

Why not? As eager as you may be to unleash your book, song or artwork onto an unsuspecting world, the fact of the matter is that when you undertake your first major project, you are more than likely going to make mistakes. Thus, you should undertake a similar smaller project that you aren’t quite as emotionally invested in, so when things go wrong, you won’t be discouraged from having borked up your masterpiece.

Thus, “The Rules of Tech Support” is actually my second ebook. My first one was “One Sheet Stories” which was a collection of five of my one-page stories. Nobody bought it, and I also encountered a few slip-ups along the way. I tried using a service called Smashwords which ended up not working as well as I had hoped. Their touted ‘Meatgrinder’ conversion program didn’t quite spit out my e-book the way that I wanted it to look, which was frustrating. I did some research and found a spiffy program called eCub that I could use to convert my text properly to e-book format then upload it directly to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

That was just one of the lessons I learned while working on “One Sheet Stories” that I was able to apply to the production of “The Rules of Tech Support.” The process went much smoother because I was doing it the second time around and I didn’t make as many mistakes. Time will tell whether it “The Rules of Tech Support” will be successful or not, but on a technical level, I am happy with the result.

Its not that you can’t strike gold on your first try, but the unfortunate reality is that most folks will not, and who knows, that small project just could be the one that makes it big!

BUSINESS, CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, MUSIC, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, WHATS GOING ON, Writing

Lights Out, Lights On

The blackout is over and it’s back to unusual here on RANDOMIZER9.COM. While SOPA may be down for the count, it certainly hasn’t gone away and so we must stay on our guard to make sure it or some other misguided attempt to regulate the Internet never ever rears its ugly head again. Stay informed, everybody, and a big ‘way to go’ to everyone that participated!

For the entirety of January 18, 2012, I am shutting down RANDOMIZER9.COM in protest against the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These are bills that are currently making their way through the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America.

While my blog is but one of millions that are fighting for your attention on the wild kingdom that is the Internet, I feel that if I can make my few visitors aware of what is going on, then I will have done my part.

My blog is currently a labor of love more than anything else, but I do hope to one day make a living from my other creative endeavors and so the topic of piracy is important to me. While the intentions behind those two proposed laws may have been good, their language is so broad and their methods are so draconian that they cannot be allowed to become law.

I don’t expect everyone reading this message to support this effort, but I hope that you will take the time to read up on the subject and decide for yourself whether we should let control of this crazy new wonderful thing called the Internet fall into the hands of corporations and the government.

Thanks for reading

–Eduardo “Randomizer9” Soliz

www.sopastrike.com

Books, CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, Tablets, TECH, TECH SUPPORT, The Rules of Tech Support, Writing

To Think Different, DO Different

I have been working on my second e-book, titled “The Rules of Tech Support,” for what seems to have been way too long. Now, it isn’t a very long work, and I have already written some of it on my old LiveJournal and on my podcast. For the longest time, though, it sat at about 80% completed. I just couldn’t get any farther; I would sit behind my laptop, fire up Microsoft Word, tap Ctrl-End to get to the end of the document, and…nothing. For months, absolutely no progress.

The project eventually got back on track. It was either because I started working in tech support again, or because I found myself writing in different places. As odd as it sounds, I am convinced that writing in different places or in different ways helps the creative process along. In my case, I found myself taking notes in between calls during work, and even stayed in late at the office one day, spending a whole hour alone just typing away. Somehow being at the office made me think different. Heck, I think that using my tablet instead of my laptop helped.

What I’m trying to say is that you cannot ‘think different’ if you are doing the same thing over and over again. To change my thought processes, I had to change where I was doing my thinking. If nothing else, its a good excuse to hang out at a coffee shop or diner for a few hours.

CONS, CREATIVE, FIRST STORM MANGA, Manga, MEZASU, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, PODCASTS, RANDOMIZER9.COM, STEAMPUNK, Writing

Twelve Mezasu mini-con 2 Observations

As Hannibal would say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Our second Mezasu mini-con is over, and despite feeling really really tired, I’m feeling pretty good about how the whole thing went. Some things I noticed:

The old “can’t have fun when you work at a con” rule isn’t that big of a deal when you see everyone having a good time and have the opportunity to occasionally walk around and talk to people.
I guess it was easier to notice this because this was a smaller event, but serious cosplayers tend to travel in packs…I don’t think I’ve ever just seen just ONE wandering about.
The art auction was a huge bust, I think we need to do a better job of explaining how it works next time. 😦
I believe you should always give your all whether 3, 30 or 300 people show up to your gig, which is fortunate for the 3 people that showed up to my podcasting panel.
I am just not used to hearing my voice amplified; when making announcements or announcing raffle numbers over the PA speakers, I was worried about blowing out the speakers whenever I raised my voice.
From the “beware of what you wish for” department: we asked, prayed and begged for rain, got it…and a brief power outage.
Thanks to Madame Jaqueline’s Apothecary, I now know what a ‘bath bomb’ is and does. Freaky.
I bought an Android mascot figure in a “blind box,” from Bean Pot Toiz but I have yet to actually OPEN it to see which one is in there. The anticipation is eating at me yet I don’t want it to end!!
Considering how many times I was asked “How did you find this place?” I’m glad that we were able to make people aware of the nice facility and folks at Tripoint.
At the same time, how can one not notice a building the size of a grocery store with a YMCA and a coffee shop?
I forgot to pack cough drops and now my voice is a little hoarse. Hopefully it recovers by the time work starts on Monday.
I don’t want to go back to work on Monday…then again, do I ever?

Books, BUSINESS, CREATIVE, One Sheet Stories, RANDOMIZER9.COM, Writing

Sheet Happens

I recently published my first e-book: “One Sheet Stories” on Smashwords.com. It is a collection of five very short stories, each of which fit on a single sheet of paper. I’m not making a big fuss about it yet, I’m waiting for it to be approved for inclusion into their Premium Catalog, which would put it on the iPad Bookstore, Sony Reader, Nook, and lots of other places it will be easier to find.

It was surprisingly easy to do, or at least it was after reading over their style guide a few times to make sure my Word doc survived their affectionately named “Meatgrinder” program. I had fun putting it together and now I can get to work on future books.

I’m also going to work on this website, so if things look weird the next time you drop by, well, that’s just me kicking the tires on some new themes.

ANIME, CREATIVE

Why I Watch Anime

To someone raised on a pop-culture diet of Mickey Mouse, Spider-man and Star Wars, the world of anime is an alien landscape filled with big eyes and its own set of strange rules. When new friends learn that I watch anime, the question of just why I watch it inevitably comes up, assuming they don’t themselves.

I watch anime because it is just so different from American animation.

I enjoy anime’s distinct visuals, ranging from the hyper-stylized look of 80’s action shows like Voltron to the beautiful scenery associated with Studio Ghibli productions. Detractors say “it all looks the same” but the same could also be said about comics and Disney productions. Now, anime does have its own set of visual cues and tropes that have to be learned, but once you learn the ‘rules’ it makes much more sense and becomes more enjoyable.

Secondly, nearly all genres are represented in anime: comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and yes, even fairy tales. As cliché as it sounds, there really is “something for everyone.” I steer more toward science fiction and comedy myself, in my opinion, there isn’t nearly enough sci-fi to be found in western animation and Japanese comedy (animated or otherwise) is just bonkers.

Finally, anime is not confined to being “just for kids.” Mature themes are more prevalent than they are in Western animation. They also don’t feel forced, instead they’re just there. Contrast this to many American cartoons, where characters don’t get injured unless it advances the plot. Powerful, moving stories can be told as just effectively in animation as they are in live-action.

I cite “Grave of the Fireflies” as the best example of this: there are no giant robots, no hyperactive girls or pretty-boys, instead it is the sobering tale of two children trying to survive in World War 2 Japan.

That’s not to say that US animation is bad, mind you. I grew up on the works of Disney, Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera and I enjoy them on their own merits. For what its worth, though, I think animation in the United States is slowly but surely growing up.

For me, at least, US cartoons were the appetizer, and anime is the main course. Interesting visuals, genres that are underrepresented in US animation, and more mature content will keep me watching. The next time that inevitable question arises, I’ll probably reply by asking that person: “Why don’t you watch anime?”

CONS, CREATIVE, E3, FIRST STORM MANGA, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, RANDOM REVIEW, RANDOMIZER9.COM, THE LOLIHOLIX, Writing

RANDOM REVIEW: 2010

The most telling thing that I can say about 2010 is that I spent the last third of it without a full-time job, after getting canned back in August. I’ll be honest, I have nobody but myself to blame for that; a friend asked me if my bosses had been looking for a reason to get rid of me awhile back. I sheepishly replied: “Well, if they were, they didn’t have to look very hard!”

Thus, the whole “what am I going to do with myself” debate I’d been having since 2009 (and heck, probably earlier than that) took on a whole new meaning as I applied for tech writer, tech support, and even editing jobs in an attempt to get away from programming. I am currently scheduled to start a new programming job on the January 24th…well, so much for that.

Of course, sitting behind a desk for 40-something hours a week hating my job was not the only thing I did all year. I also continued to be involved in First Storm Manga, handing out flyers and manga at a couple of anime cons throughout the year and keeping the website humming. We are also going to be hosting our first event, the “Mezasu mini-con” on January 22nd. While I enjoy hanging out with the guys, and it is fun going to events, I’m not sure that I want to be as involved in First Storm next year. I’m just not sure that I’m getting a lot out of it, but I’ll bottle up that angst and save it for a future blog.

Another new ‘side job’ that I picked up was that of Writer/Editor/Voice Guy for video game website Original-Gamer.com. I started out just providing narration for some of their videos but eventually got more involved in the site, editing articles for readability and even writing reviews. Because of that involvement, I was able to attend the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in July, and it completely blew me away. I also had the privilege of attending the “Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy” concert in Houston, and the pleasure of interviewing famed video game music luminaries Nobou Uematsu and Arnie Roth.

Speaking of music, I was invited to join a band called The Loliholix. It turns out they needed a drummer, and I just happened to know how to play drums and have way too much time on my hands. After getting an electric drum kit and an big ol’ honkin’ PA to use as an amp, I was ready to rock. Practicing and hanging out the band was fun, but playing our first big gig at San Japan was awesome. Being part of a show, even if it is a small one, is just incredible. The audience feeds off of your energy and gives more back to you.

All the while, I have continued with my creative endeavors, namely writing. I completed some very short stories, even entering one into a writing contest, and am working with my friend Chris Holm on some comics. I also have some longer works that I hope to finish soon. I am hoping to get my stories, and even some non-fiction, onto the various e-readers and phones and pads that are all the rage these days. Hopefully, I can make a few bucks on the side that way.

As if being a part time musician and writer wasn’t enough, I also read for a part in a short film that my friend Carey Martell is currently working on called “Deathfist Ninja GKaiser.” Now, I won’t be too disappointed if I end up as Man in Suit #6 but having a speaking part and being the first person in the show to get fried by the Big Bad Guy would be cool, too.

All the while, I managed to post to this blog and keep up a somewhat-regular schedule with my podcast: “300 Seconds.” I figure that if I can get out one blog post a week and two podcasts a month on top of all the other stuff I’m doing, then I’m doing alright.

Overall, 2010 was a great year for me. I got to meet a lot of cool people and had a lot of really neat experiences. Sure, it sucked to lose my job, but with the help and support of family and friends (and some creative budgeting) I’m hanging in there, in fact, I already have a job lined up in a few weeks so things are looking up!. I have faith that things will turn around soon and 2011 will rock even harder.

Farewell and Godspeed, 2010. You were one to remember.

CREATIVE, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, RANDOM REVIEW, TECH, Videogames, Writing

Reviewing Musings

Reviewing videogames‭ ‬sounds‭ ‬like a‭ ‬really cool thing to do:‭ ‬you get to play games before they are released,‭ ‬you get to keep them if they are downloadable games,‭ ‬and well,‭ getting to play ‬games‭ ‬without having to pay for them is nice, too.‭ ‬I’m not lucky enough to actually get‭ ‬paid to review games‭ (yet‭!) ‬but‭ writing and editing ‬for original-gamer.com gave‭ ‬me the opportunity to attend E3‭ ‬back in July. Totally worth it.

So yeah, on paper, reviewing‭ ‬games‭ ‬sounds like loads of fun,‭ ‬but in practice,‭ ‬it loses a little bit of its luster.‭ ‬When I’m not playing awesome games like‭ ‬Rock Band‭ ‬3‭ ‬or Kirby’s Epic Yarn‭ ‬I’m struggling through crapfests like Power Gig or enduring kiddie games like EyePet.

Yeah. EyePet. That’s hardcore.

The most direct effect of reviewing games is that it has turned playing games into work (albeit volunteer work). Its a mental thing: instead of playing games because I want to, I now play them because I have to. It gets a little annoying at times when I have a stack of games I need to plow through or when I get asked to play games in genres I don’t particularly enjoy such as fighting or driving. The most aggravating bit about the whole thing that it takes time away from games that I want to play, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The first thing I do when I get assigned a new game to review is I write the review’s introduction. I like to have it done before I even start playing, and in my opinion it should give the reader some context in regards to my relation to the game. Is it something I have been looking forward to, or something I’ve never heard of?

When I play a game for review, I keep my laptop handy so that I can take notes while I’m playing it. That way after I’m done playing the game I just have to flesh out the bullet points I have marked down. I’m not sure if I should be admitting this, but I don’t always finish games I review. Usually its because I don’t expect to see anything new after having played a game for so many hours. Let’s be honest, after a certain point, few games really offer anything surprising in terms of gameplay.

One game that bit that strategy in the pants was Gladiator Begins. I played through about 30 days of the campaign, probably about seventy or eighty nearly-identical fights, figured there was nothing else in the game, and wrote my review. I went back to the game and soon discovered that the levels did start to occasionally change up, and upon seeing the box in a store, I learned that there were even fights against animals. D’oh. It was either my fault for giving up on the game too early or the devs fault for taking too long to open up the game’s interesting parts. Probably a little bit of both, oh well.

Writing reviews is a balancing act. On the one hand, I don’t want to look like a fanboy by gushing praise all over a good game, nor do I want to simply verbally vomit all over a bad one for the sake of being entertaining. Great games have minor flaws that have to be explored, and bad games sometimes have good ideas that were not executed well.

Picking out a numerical score can also be a bit of a headache, because I want my score to reflect what I have written. I still read reviews myself, and I get annoyed just like everyone else when the two don’t jive. I go by what the site says on the “About” page, supposedly we work on the ‘bell curve’ model where the middle point is average. Despite the occasional “10” handed out, nobody’s really perfect.

At the end of the day, though, the site editor is the guy that says what goes up on the site, and while I haven’t always agreed with Oscar, I think he’s doing a good job for the most part. Working with him and the rest of the original-gamer.com crew has been lots of fun.

And now, back to EyePet…whee

CREATIVE, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, TECH, Videogames, WORDS

Why So Serious? WHY NOT?

I’ve been writing opinion pieces, game reviews and doing voice-overs for Original-Gamer.com (and occasionally here) for a few months now, and for what its worth, I always try to play it straight. Well, except the voice-over stuff, unless its something I wrote myself, I don’t have much of a choice there. -shrug-

I play it straight because I don’t believe in pandering to the least common denominator. If gaming is an artform that is just now ‘growing up,’ as some claim, then the people that report on it are probably just a few steps behind. As I said at the end of my second article, The Numbers Game: “if we want others to take games seriously, we must take them seriously ourselves.”

But why aren’t videogames taken seriously? Is it because of their relative youth compared to other artforms such as television and film, or is it because of the immaturity of those that cover it? Granted, this is the internet, but there are very few places where videogames are covered without a wink and a snarky attitude. What the gaming press needs is the equivalent of The Wall Street Journal or Variety, but what we’re getting is Mad Magazine.

Now, I openly admit, I don’t practice what I preach: I crack jokes in my reviews and perhaps I shouldn’t ‘write myself’ into them. The latter, I do because think it is important for the reader to get a sense of where I am coming from. For better or worse, my score will be influenced by whether the game was something I was REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to or was just something that got tossed into my lap. I think it also helps the reader if they are made aware of my biases for or against the game coming in.

Am I impartial? Admittedly not, but let’s be honest, nobody truly is.

In any event, while I am pointing out the problem, I don’t really have a solution. The best that I can hope for is that the ‘serious guys’ get popular enough to, well, be taken seriously. Now, does everybody have to take gaming seriously? Not really, there will always be a place for the snarks and clowns, and if worse comes to worse I can always go back to joking about how much I suck at fighting games.

CREATIVE, WORK

Feeding The Ego

It’s Tuesday morning and I am sitting at my desk just absolutely full of piss and vinegar. I was forced to go home on Monday, using up one of my few days off by the head guy in our department because I came in just a little too sick. Then, I come in today to find the hag who is our second-in-command had my old chair removed, never mind that I can’t get comfortable in the stupid new overpriced “ergonomic” chairs. To top it all off, the idiot sitting next to me keeps on harping about how I made everyone else in the office sick, never mind that he could have sent me home last week when he was in charge, and doesn’t go home himself to recover. Everyone in the office is hacking and coughing, but I have to be the one sent home.

All that combined made me feel about two-foot small, and all I wanted to do for the rest of the day was sit at my desk, fester like a mushroom until quitting time and then unload at home with some good old fashioned videogame violence or Rock Band. I fired up my laptop, put on some headphones, and turned up some Smashmouth, hoping it would drown out the constant cacophony of ringing phones, conferences and meetings that I have to work through. It almost does the job.

As I sat at my desk seething while my PC took forever-and-a-day to download a new security update, I heard a chirp from my cell phone. I picked it up, expecting to see an IM from one of my friends, but instead I saw a Twitter update. Hm, I didn’t know it did that. Neato. The tweet read: “Thanks to randomizer9 for making an ‘unofficial’ San Japan :3 commercial for us. Now featured on our YouTube page”

As I read the screen, I smiled and felt so much better. Putting something before the monkey house that is the Internet is always asking for trouble. As a budding voice-over artist, I wasn’t sure how my latest effort would be received. I have gotten very little feedback from strangers on all the podcasts, blog posts and articles I have thrown to the slippery walls of the Internet so far. Knowing that The Guys In Charge Of San Japan liked it was very encouraging, and gave me a little ego-boost when I really needed it.

I like to think that I have a small ego, but the fact of the matter is that it is still there, and it likes to be thrown a bone every so often. As a computer programmer, I am accustomed to being on the bottom of the totem pole. As odd as it sounds; I actually like it there, because that is where the fun stuff is. I read Dilbert and MyCage and joke about the people in charge just like everyone else, but being constantly stepped on does get old after awhile and I wonder if this is the “epiphany” telling me that I need to get out of Dodge.

But, you know what? That angst can wait until I fire up Borderlands tonight and pump everything that moves full of hot lead or start up Rock Band and cue up some punk songs. I’ll gladly ride this little ego-boost through the rest of my crappy workday and give it another shot tomorrow…after sending some resumes out tonight, of course!

Eduardo Soliz

IT Guy, short story author, podcaster, and furry!

Category Archives: CREATIVE