Dimension Updates

New Perks on Patreon!

2016-04-06T18:41:00.002-07:00

The Perks & Rewards for Patreon Subscribers just got even BETTER! You can now get monthly stickers, prints, Patron-only live-streams, and more!

Become a Patron today! (Subscribe to Patreon)

I LiveStreamed a Local Event!

2015-08-11T18:45:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share that I livestreamed at AniGames at Silkroad Gallery. Here is the recording if you weren't able to join us live!

About Me

2015-07-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

I first started drawing more or less 'officially' when I was 5 years old. My family was at church together, there was a lady crying as she gave her testimony at the pulpit and I decided to draw her on one of those little yellow notepads. My dad saw my drawing and said it was pretty good. I've been drawing ever since.

I've played video games since I was pretty little, maybe around 4 or 5 years old. We would visit my grandma's house and she had an Atari and a Nintendo that belonged to one of my cousins. We had a ball on those machines!! It was in high school that I decided that I wanted to make games. I saw all of the awesome 3D graphics coming out. I'm a big fan of Mortal Kombat and the character 'Fujin's cape truly amazed me. I wanted to create things like that too.

Going into game design is really a way to level up my art in my mind; to see my creations really come to life with sound, motion, and interactivity! As mentioned in a prior blog post, Scared Away From My Own Dream, I was led on a bit of a goose chase as far as going directly to a game design school from high school. From there I began formulating my own path, but procrastinated as certain fears and concerns about the industry held me back.

Since that blog post, I have been getting a lot of encouragement from groups online, from game devs in the industry, from friends & family, and from gamers as well. With my spirit bolstered I can see my own dreams more clearly again and have a solid idea of where I want top go and how I want to get there.

Thanks to all you readers and followers for all of your continued support on this journey.

Moon Guardians - Two unicorns that guard the moon!

2015-07-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Moon Guardians are two unicorns that guard the moon. From what? Even I'm not quite sure! Perhaps from all forces that would disturb the peaceful tranquility of the night.

The guardians also have an alternate back story. The black unicorn is 'Thunder', traditionally represented as a Pegasus, and the white unicorn is 'Pearl' who is a unicorn in both scenarios. They are mainstays in a story that I may never actually publish, called 'Land', where I am Princess of my own planet. Lol, I know, but hey Tolkien had his own world too!

'Land' started in my childhood as a game that I played with my siblings. As we grew older we drifted away from the game, but I came to a point where I 'gave' the care of my planet to my 'Land' boyfriend, a prince from a neighboring planet within my galaxy. Pearl was mine & Thunder was his and we'd go on joy rides with them surveying the vast beauty of the lands across my world.

In this image, they both take the form of unicorns, symbolically standing in their positions of power as stewards of peace and beauty.

Moon Guardians

Infinity Dragon

2015-07-11T20:03:00.004-07:00

Infinity Dragon is the guardian of the galaxy. He works in balance with 'other' Infinity type dragons to keep the general cosmos in order. Is you're spaceship full of baddies, bent on terrorizing the universe? Sorry, you're toast, or ice, or whichever judgement Infinity dragon is dealing out today. This particular Infinity dragon is the one protecting the milky way, though he has been known to appear in other galaxies on occasion. What intergalactic events could be motivating him to travel?

Infinity Dragon is a part of a series of dragons I started, admittedly, back in high school. They are each elemental or have powers specific to their place and domain. An Infinity-type Dragon is guardian over it's own galaxy, so it follows that there are Infinity Dragons for other galaxies throughout the universe (with different temperaments too). That being said, there aren't literally as many Infinity Dragons as there are galaxies. Some galaxies don't have much activity or inhabitants and thus no Infinity Dragon is born to protect it. In other cases one Infinity Dragon protects two or more galaxies in it's vicinity. In still other cases, Infinity dragons travel to different galaxies throughout the universe, usually for reasons unknown to humans or many other beings, but sometimes to assist other Infinity dragons in battling formidable foes that threaten the balance of that galaxy or broader space.

New Zazzle Store!

2015-06-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

*drumroll*

Cosmic Glider's Dimension is pleased to present the CGD Zazzle Store!!! With Infinity Dragon & Empress Enla as the first two product lines, you can now purchase either of them as a watch, keychain, notebook, or mousepad!

www.zazzle.com/cosmicglider*

Launch Toward My True Dream

2015-06-19T13:19:00.001-07:00

For a while now I've been spending my time regrouping. Last year, my mother lost her battle with breast cancer and it's been such a struggle just trying to move forward, missing her so much. My mom was such a major influence in my life and a support to me in so many ways. It really hurts not having her here in person cheering me on, and it's been a battle trying to stand on my own. It's been everything I can do to stay out of depression and not give up. It's her words of encouragement that she's left me and her wishes for me to get my life going, that's even helped me get this far.

But I know what she would want me to do, and that's to actually go after and reach my dreams. I've been striving to find the strength to keep fighting for my dream, even while I don't feel much like fighting or dreaming, because I know my mom wouldn't want me to give up. I know that I've got to hold on, and that I can't stop trying to achieve it.

I'm going to use my art to get there. I started drawing when I was 5-years old when my father saw me drawing a lady that was crying in church. It was in high school when my dreams evolved and I wanted to see more from my art and desired to see it become more interactive. There are a lot of steps that I still need to take to make the leap to becoming a game designer & building my own studio.

As I learn game design theory, game art, programming theory, and how to build a team, I want to share a glimpse of the art and stories that I've made over the years that will inspire the games that I want to create. I want to continue to develop & share those ideas as I dig my files, business plan, & portfolio out of the boxes that I have remaining in my move from a house to an apartment.

I'm asking for your support in continuing to develop these ideas. In supporting my art you'll boost my focus and motivation, while helping toward the launch of my game company. I've started a Patreon account, which will help me to do what I do best, create! You can also help by purchasing a print or art gift my DevArt, or using my associate link the next time you shop on Amazon.

I thank you so much for taking this journey with me.

My Patreon
My Amazon

Infinity Dragon


Fara

New Rewards on Patreon!

2015-06-18T05:15:00.001-07:00

New tier rewards are now available for supporting me on Patreon. Now you can win a magnet of Fara or Inifinity Dragon, and 8.5"x11" print of Infinity dragon, or a custom drawing of your choice! Please click through, sign-up, & share with your friends!

https://www.patreon.com/cosmicglider?ty=1

Scared Away From My Own Dream

2014-10-30T22:30:00.001-07:00

I've been dreaming of being a game designer since high school. I had been an obsessive fan of Mortal Kombat since I was 7 years old, & started my journey as a Gamer even earlier than that, on my cousins Atari 2600. When Mortal Kombat first moved to 3D, I became enamored w/how awesome it looked to me, & it was at that point that I knew, I wanted to be a game designer. Unfortunately my high school was ill equipped to help & I knew too little to clarify what I wanted. They asked me what career path I wanted to choose, & I told them I wanted to go into 'Video Game Graphics Design', because that was a literal description of what I had fallen in love with, & it seemed to coordinate with my love for drawing & computers.

Going to my regular counselor lead me to a dead end; she didn't know how to help me. She did know of a different counselor on campus, however, that possibly could. By the time I met with the new counselor, I knew a little more about the path I wanted to take. I knew I wanted to go to Academy of Art University & take their Game Art & Design program. When I told the new counselor this, he began looking it up on his computer & talking about it simultaneously. About the point he arrived at the website, he said, he could basically help me as long as the school was accredited. Unfortunately , AAU was having an accreditation battle at the time, & I felt I would have been dishonest if I didn't say anything. The moment I shared this, he covered the monitor with his hands & said, "technically, I can't help you. If I were to help you, I could lose my job." I was mad at him at first but he was able to calm me down as he explained how the school system worked & the restrictions they put on counselors. That helped a little, but the experience left me confused & the thought of going to AAU mostly left my mind.

I continued to build my dreams by reading everything I could find on getting into the industry, the most pivotal being a feature in GamePro called, "Take This Job & love it." I wrote a list of skills I felt I'd need to become a well-rounded game designer, & set off to community college upon graduating high school w/ the intention of either writing my own associates w/ those subjects in mind, or at least taking my liberal arts courses toward going to AAU down the road.

Sometime in my freshman year of college, I joined a mailing list for women in game development. It was such an exciting prospect & I got to read about/meet some amazing women, who regularly shared articles on what women faced in the industry. They also shared their personal stories. One thing that I heard on a regular basis was about sexual harassment. I had never considered that in planning my dream & it brought my thought process to a halt. I didn't want to work my way up the industry, I didn't want to be trapped in a AAA studio full of men who would make my dream job a nightmare.

My plans changed. I began trying to think of ways to start my own studio, but I hadn't even learned to animate or program yet. My community college ambitions became more & more drawn out as I tried to pile more skills on myself & avoid "the traditional route". I ended up pursuing 3 associates degrees & multiple certificates, in a continued but vague effort to "be well-rounded".

It's only recently that I realized...I've actually been avoiding my dream. I know what skills I'm missing and I'm delaying learning them. It was only until GamerGate that I finally realized, the stories of these women had scared me, & caused me to try to work around the one thing that I truly wanted with too little information. It was the story of a AAA dev where I learned that the stories that I read were not the only experiences! As a matter of fact, this woman dev said that the men she worked with were nearly afraid to interact with her so that they wouldn't accidentally offend her! I recently read something from the amazing Roberta Williams of Sierra Online fame, about how she also didn't have these problems.

Why hadn't I heard this before? the irony of this is that the women in the mailing list wondered how to get more women & girls into the industry, & how to prevent fear of entering. I think I've found the answer. Don't speak for every woman; we need to hear more voices & we need to know that these experiences are not across the board. We need to hear the positive stories so that we have a better picture of what the industry is really like & can make our own decisions.

We need to stop feeding the trolls.

As a woman & as a #GamerGate supporter, I know that the harassment being paraded in the mainstream media comes from 3rd party trolls. It's a shame that all gamers, including girl gamers, are being blamed for this & being called misogynists! I had little trouble being actively involved in #GamerGate as an African-American woman & I've met some amazing people. I have been inspired by indie devs that have come forward in support of GG, whose creative freedom I also fight for. It's also my own creative freedom I fight for.

Law enforcement even says not to publicize the harassers, especially not before the investigation is complete! You are giving them exactly what they want by running to every mainstream outlet you can find & telling them how much they scare you. They save these stories like trophies. I can tell you from 1st hand observation, in my occasional contributions to the #GamerGate Harassment Patrol, that you are making it harder to catch them & are encouraging even more trolls & harassers.

If we want these things to stop, we have to start by showing we're not afraid & by doing everything in our power to let them know that what they do is not okay. That means not giving their stupidity a platform. That means using the tools we are provided to stop them in their tracks. Don't refuse to help when GG Harassment Patrol helps find those perpetrating the threats!

I prefer to be brave instead of being afraid, but if I must, I'll fight even while afraid; because I have been playing games for longer than most of these trolls have been alive & I can tell you, they're not going to stop me now!

~Cosmic Glider

https://www.patreon.com/cosmicglider

Ani-Jam, w00t!

2012-01-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

Ani-Jam 2012 was just announced on Facebook, woohoo! It's going to be in the Ernest E. Valdez Exhibit Hall at the Fresno Convention Center, August 17th through the 19th. Ani-Jam is so much fun, and local for me which is an added bonus. It's great being around so many local anime fans (and folks from all over) at once. It's also been great seeing Ani-Jam progress over the years.

I've been going to anime conventions since 2003 and started with ReccaCon at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA. It was fun and really inspired me to try to attend more conventions. The same year, I attended the first Ani-Jam which was packed to the brim and I was so proud of Fresno that day for it's new, successful event. After that I started an event with my local Anime Club called Anime Day which is a campus-wide micro con. Anime Days are still going strong and have definitely grown and evolved into something great that I look forward to attending. I went to Anime Expo in 2006, their 15 year anniversary, and blessed to see CLAMP in person.

Besides daydreaming about Anime Cons, I've been searching/researching Ronin Warriors action figures. I've wanted them for ages and haven't been fortunate enough to get my hands on one yet. I wanted to see how available they are. They are still obtainable but, nowhere near their original price points which, is to be expected. The Rowen figured was the most expensive, running around $140. Someday...someday!

It's been great updating, since it's been ages once again, hehe. Ja ne, and hope to remember to glide back here soon!
~CG

1/13/12

In Development

2010-06-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been ages since there has been an update to CGD but here I am and here it is. I will be working on a new version of Cosmic Glider's Dimension. I will be reworking the layout and links and refocus the purpose of the website.
~CG

6/21/10

Reworking the Site

2004-10-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I'm finally reworking the site using xhtml and style sheets. I am no where near a pro at web-standards, but of what I have learned from the World Wide Web Consortium, and from people that I know that use web-standards, I now have a strong belief in web-standards. Switching to web-standards will mean increased interoperablity (works with multiple web-browsers), and accessiblility (people with visual impairments will still be able to access the informaton on the website). This is only the start as I steadily learn more about standards set for the web by the W3C.
~CG

October 11, 2004

Books and Updates

2003-06-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

Copies of the newest Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling are in stores today. They're fairly hard to come by if you haven't reserved or preordered a copy in advance. I have yet to read it, but at the intensity with which my younger brother is concentrating on the book, it must be a very good read. I'll be cleaning up links and straightening out my plans so that I can put more of my focus on adding content to the site. I may not be moving the site to lycos.co.uk after all. They recently added two atrocious banner ads to every page and they're not very pretty. But I will continue to work on getting this site up to its best and hopefully, my dream of a payed host and domain name will come true...maybe even my own server ^_^. Well, see you all next update.
~CG

June 21, 2003

Switching Hosts

2003-05-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

The site will be moving to http://members.lycos.co.uk soon. There isn't much there right now but you may want to bookmark it now and check there periodically because more, and more stuff will become available over the summer. This new account gives me the 50MBs that the US lycos once offered plus a 15MB e-mail account for you all to be able to send Fan Art, Fiction, etc. I'm mostly going to be working online during the process of the move. However I will link the homepage to the new message board so that you can all communicate with one another. while I'm working. Also, as the site gets slowly closer to being finished, new rules, goodies, and news may appear so keep on the look out for that. Also, I'm going to implement a new system of accepting art. Well, it won't be much different but I'm going to be raising the standards for the art (fiction, etc.) that will be actually displayed on the site. All other works that are not accepted for the actual say may be displayed on the message board freely. The only exception to this new policy will be the art that has already been submitted to me since before this message and any art that will be submitted by the first of June. So if you want your art on the main site without the harsh rules start sending it in now to cosmicglider@lycos.co.uk, do not send your submissions to any other email address on the site or they may get ignored or they may not arrive to my mailbox *some of the accounts have been deleted or I've forgotten about them, etc.* Well, I'll return as regularly as possible with up dates and goodies.
~CG

May 22, 2003

Rearranging

2003-02-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start rearranging a few things since Angelfire no longer allows 50MBs and I still have over 50MBs in plans ~_^. I'm moving all image galleries to yahoo photos. Yahoo Photos gives 30 MBs for images and they make the thumbnails for you so it doesn't take up space on your account. This will be very helpful and I will be able to put a lot more images online. I am also rearranging the unrelated section so that there will only be on gray column on the page and drop boxes for all the different subjects.

Everything will still be accessable while I'm working with it (if it was already accessable). Other things will be working better that weren't very complete before. I've got my brother helping gather information.
~CG

February 1, 2003

Still Working

2002-10-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

December 8, 2002

Well, I'm not going to lie and say that I'm almost done. Now that I seriously consider it, I have a lot of info to research and a bunch of images to collect. To top that off, I'm no where near being done rerouting my links. If you have already been visiting my site diligently, don't give up, you're bound to find new information at least every two weeks, even if it's only an update. Don't give up on me yet.
~CG

December 8, 2002

Adding Sections

2002-10-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I looked the site over an got inspired to pretty much reroute all of my links to make way for my Tolkien Corner. This section isn't for skittish fans that fell asleep halfway through the movie and never picked up the books. This is for fans that have been addicted to the genius of Tolkien for a long time, or have been attracted to his works by the movie and are now diligently reading every copy they can get ~_^. This being said, I hope we can get some real content in this section, something that will continue to inspire you to stay the strong Tolkien fan that you are or are meant to be ^_^.
~CG

August 2, 2002

Almost Done

2002-03-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Almost done! I've updated the news page, Corner of Faith, and adjusted the message board and guestbook. Just a little bit more (mainly on the images) and I'll declare this place officially ready for 'business'! ^_^
~CG

March 28, 2002