The Mizark Show

Learning To Draw: What Worked For Me

2014-05-12T17:22:00.001-05:00

A close friend of mine is looking to pick up drawing after a long time, and complained on Twitter, that good advice and tutorials online are hard to come by... and I agree. A lot of artists and pseudo-professionals put out things on how to draw and its mostly a mix of bad advice with good intentions.

So to avoid doing that, and to contribute to some of the good advice online, I'm going to just give you my story. This is what worked for me, pick it apart and do some introspection to see what might work for you.

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The Long Winding Path to Communication Design

2013-11-16T13:12:00.001-06:00

I'm nearing the end of my first semester as a Communication Design student at MIAD, and although it has kicked my ass to the moon and back, I've enjoyed it and learned more than I thought possible in this span of time. However, based on my semester here, there seem to be three distinctly different types of students in the program... and perhaps I make for a fourth...

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The Degree Is Not The Point

2013-07-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

This fall I will be attending my third college institution to attain a third degree. This will be my second bachelors level degree, however; usually by the third degree it's at least a Masters... I guess you could say that I'm truly the definition of a "non-traditional student."

While that doesn't bother me, something else does: I have yet to attend a school for a specific program or reason that I went on to finish. But I can't afford to change paths mid-stream this time, and I'm feeling a little trapped and anxious.

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NIN: Came Back To Haunt

2013-06-06T16:54:00.000-05:00

Nine Inch Nails have released an album at almost every pivotal part of my life. Now, perhaps I'm reading into this a little too much (note: I definitely am), but Trent Reznor's knack for releasing new work in-sync with my life events is almost otherworldly and the announcement of NIN's new album, Hesitation Marks, this fall coincides with my move and enrollment in art school. This is a time where I'm more stressed than I have been in years, and, as if he knew I needed something new to comfort my soul, there is Reznor with another album to put on repeat and melt my stress away.

One time obviously doesn't match up so well with the statements above so let me run through the other times that Reznor has worked his magic at big moments in my life.

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Musings: On The Self

2013-01-31T13:09:00.000-06:00

The number three appears all over in Western history and thought. The trinity is a fundamental concept to Christian theology (father, son, holy ghost), our view of time is broken into three parts (past, present, future), philosophers often break their thoughts down into "trichotemy" (Plato, Aquinas, Kant), a musical chord is made up of at least three notes, psychology speaks of three part psyche (id, ego, and superego), and all throughout other fields (art, science, geography, etc), the number 3 holds great significance.

However, perhaps the greatest significance it has, and the reason why this simple number has become so important to us, is that a traditional viewpoint of the self consists of three parts: the body, mind, and soul.

NYE 2012 Reflections

2012-12-31T23:11:00.000-06:00

New Years Eve is always a time of reflection, contemplation, and looking to the future. You're supposed to reflect on the previous year and make resolutions for how to better the next. You're supposed to stay up late and celebrate with those you're closest to and enjoy each others company as you bring in a new year. You're supposed to hug your friends and kiss your loved one as the ball drops and the next year begins.

Although I'm definitely contemplating this past year, I'm not surrounded by friends and I don't have someone to kiss. So, instead of enjoying the night like most of you, I decided to write down some thoughts on this past year to try and start 2013 on a better foot than 2012 is ending.

The 27 Club

2012-12-07T13:10:00.004-06:00

I've never liked birthdays very much. Mine is sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and almost always falls on the last week of school (which, ever since 9th grade has meant Finals Week). However, this month marks the start of my 27th year on this planet.

It's a big year for me because, growing up, I idolized those members of the infamous "27 club"... and since I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, a part of me always said, "if you don't make it by 27, you're never going to." Although I no longer believe that, those echoes still faintly bounce around in my head; barely audible, but there to remind me, in quiet, lonely times, that I still haven't found myself.

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A month with Windows 8

2012-11-29T15:33:00.001-06:00

I jumped on the Windows 8 boat pretty early; launch week in fact. This isn't typical for me. Normally, I wait until the first Service Pack before I get the newest Windows installment, or advise anyone I know to upgrade, but there was something about this radical change for Microsoft's OS that I didn't want to wait to get my hands on.

Maybe it was the prospect of the old, dated, traditional GUI being phased out; maybe it's that I've been a pretty big fan of the Metro design-language since the Zune; or maybe my early-adopter impulses just won out this time... whatever it was, I'm happy with the decision.

So, I figured that with a month down, I would highlight some of the things I like, dislike, and am hoping for in future updates. I mean, having a whole month with this product on a laptop and desktop has given me a pretty wide scope of the new Windows and how it works in work, school, casual, and gaming environments.

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Touch. Every. Screen.

2012-11-12T16:42:00.000-06:00

I was not always in favor of touch screen devices. In fact, I viewed the early stages of this revolution in user interface with some disgust at it's first major inklings.

Part of it had to do with the DS requiring a stylus to be of any real use and, of the early touch games and apps, none using the new touch interfaces in ways that made sense with this new input device. In the phone space, it had to do with fingers covering the viewable area and a lack of muscle memory like we have with buttons (eg: you can't text and drive safely without a physical keyboard, because you have to look down).

However, in the 6+ years that have passed since touchscreens invaded our world, I have gotten so used to touching my viewing area that any devices screen that doesn't respond to my press, flick, or swipe throws off my balance, as if I was unwittingly thrown into a timewarp and ended up back in the early 2000s.
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Nerdgasm: to LTE or not to LTE...

2012-10-29T21:02:00.003-05:00

If you're part of the Android army, today was a big day as Google just announced their new flagship phone today, the Nexus4 by LG, and it is a beautiful slab of a phone. It's got the newest flavor of JellyBean (Android 4.2), wireless charging built in, a beautiful new screen that makes other Android phones look stupid, and the best internal (or external) hardware specs you could ask for in an Android device.

However, there was one tiny little thing that was left out while building this beautiful device: LTE (otherwise known as, 4G).

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Piracy's Natural Evolution

2012-10-24T22:53:00.001-05:00

(This was written for GamesObscura last spring and never published due to the meandering and not really about gaming nature of it. Figured I would throw it here since I did spend the time writing it after all. Enjoy)

With rumors about the next generation of consoles swirling about the internet, it seems like most people are assuming the worst: they will really crack down on used sales and piracy from within the hardware itself. But it won’t work; you know that, I know that, everyone except the executives themselves seems to know it.

The problem they face is larger than the gaming, music, movie, or any venue of their industry. It is a paradigm shift between entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, and it has been gaining steam for decades.

Where I'm from and where I'm going

2012-10-12T01:29:00.000-05:00

I have never had a real firm grasp on what I wanted to do with my life. As a kid, I never had a dream job to aspire towards; my interests were always on the move, and as a fairly hyper little boy, so was I. As I grew up some, I settled on different occupations at different times... a radio personality/producer, a writer and poet, a youth worker, a musician, a cartoonist, a philosopher, and a web-designer.

Unlike many people who swap their dreams in and out, I luckily, got a chance to play with each of mine before setting it down and aspiring for something different.

Going to church "for the Children"

2012-09-17T20:08:00.000-05:00

[I have done several religious posts lately, and just want to state, for the record, that I don't hate the religious... just the bloated, bigoted, and brainwashing institutions they choose to be part of.]

I don't have kids and don't plan on that ever changing, so maybe that makes me painfully unaware of something in this particular situation... but what makes perfectly fine parents turn to the church to help raise a child when they never attended of their own volition?

There has to be something behind it, because I see it happening all too often now that friends and family are adding to the population.

Nerdgasm: Lumia vs ATIV

2012-09-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

Today is a big day for Nokia as they announce their new Lumia devices that, unlike their other phones launched within this very year, will actually see the upcoming Windows Phone 8. They are slick phones with amazing build quality, top of the line cameras, and some fancy features like wireless charging (which I'm still surprised hasn't become a bigger thing. It was a huge selling point for me on the original Palm Pre)... but even though they have a lot going for them, so did their previous launch lineup, and they failed to make much headway in the heavily Android/iOS smartphone market.

To complicate matters even more, just a week or so before this, Samsung announced their new ATIV line. Like it's Android focused Galaxy line, the ATIV will be the moniker for a whole range of devices; but will be a strictly Windows affair. They announced a phone (ATIV S), tablet (ATIV Tab), and two transformer devices (ATIV smart pc and ATIV smart pc pro) at the event, all fairly similar to their existing products, which dominate their respective markets. Nokia, on the other hand, has been in a freefall.

"Do you know Jesus?"

2012-08-11T19:31:00.000-05:00

I never doubted that young "Jesus Freaks" were still out and failing to spread the good word by assaulting unassuming strangers with whatever they just learned from their apologetics crash course; but for the first time in a long while, I was approached by a stranger who asked if I "know Jesus" this week. Perhaps it's because I don't frequent malls or similar public places all that regularly... but it was like a flashback to the days when I was one of young, stupid kids people brushed off when asking the same question.

Having been in his shoes, and having been on the receiving end of Jesus-talks far too often in the past, I did what I always do in that situation: agree with Jesus, disagree with established religion.

Work Observations

2012-07-25T16:54:00.003-05:00

During the school year I work part-time, and summers full-time, for an organization at the school that deals with minority males who are struggling, or, as we call it, "on the fringe"... Some are trying to finish high school, others to get their GED, some are attending the college for their AA or a certificate through the Tech School, and most are trying to find work. The ages span between around 16 to 26, with most falling in the middle of those numbers and not attending for more than a year.

My job here is varied. I take attendance, send out reminders about meetings and events, take and edit photos at events, do all the web-presence stuff, set-up for each event, am kind of an intermediary for the two leaders, am a runner for supplies and info during events, and make sense of all their past and current data. It's that last part that this post is about.

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Visiting old Neighborhoods

2012-05-01T13:51:00.002-05:00

We each have a band or movie or game that has been iconic of a time or place in our lives. As we grow and move and hit hard times we go back to them and see what it has to say in light of our newfound perspective. They seem timeless, eternal, like they are speaking directly to us.

Well, for me, that most influential band has been Blink-182 (maybe you've heard of them). It may seem a little unlikely that a pop-punk band could impact a life in such vivid ways, but the story of their growth, success, breakup, and reuinion has mirrored many things in my own life. And at very crucial times.
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The Struggle towards Game Makery

2012-04-25T12:13:00.001-05:00

I cannot remember a time in my life where gaming wasn't a big deal. Even during high school, and a few times in college, when I tried acting how I thought an adult should act, and be interested in what I thought adults were interested in, I still snuck in game time. Sometimes it was on a DS, other times in a browser window, or on someone else's console at a party, or while at home over breaks.

However, it wasn't until recently that I really got into the indie gaming culture. Until that point, I had mostly stuck to the big names in the industry and mainly played on systems made explicitely for gaming. I had never wanted to make games or join the industry, in fact, the idea of making a game was such a huge, complex, team-based concept, that it had never even slightly appealed to me.

Once I saw individuals making creative, unique, amazing experiences without almost any outside help, funding, or control, however, I got very interested.

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Misconceptions About Disbelief

2012-03-30T03:56:00.003-05:00

I may be wrong about this (which probably isn't a great way to start a blog), but one of the biggest fundamental misconceptions about agnostics and/or atheists, in my experience, is that they have chosen to believe there is no higher being as if they have/had no desire to believe in something beyond themselves or this world, and thus flippantly decided they must not need god. It's a misconception that my father, several relatives, and many of my friends hold without much thought.

And, while that may hold true for some, I find it very hard to believe it's true for anywhere near the majority of freethinkers. In fact, most people I've talked to have admitted that the desire to reach out for something beyond this realm is an almost innate thing to do; no doubt due to where, how, and by whom they were raised. But that just makes it all the more difficult to walk away from.

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Playing Catch Up: Spring Break 2012

2012-03-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Life got hectic this semester. My plans of keeping this up to date got side-tracked by work projects, school assignments, and freelance opportunities.

However, spring break is almost upon us, and with just one more class left between me and that sweet, sweet freedom, I figured it would be a good time to update this with what I've been up to before jumping into a serious post and shocking you with my presence here again.

Down with the Sickness

2012-02-02T16:42:00.002-06:00

Over winter break, we visited my family over in St Louis. It was a pretty chill trip except for the fact that my both cousins kids were sick. Which meant that they, too, were sick. Which mean that, by the time we got back home, we were all sick as well.

Somehow, I think I picked up a little piece of everything that all of them had, because I couldn't kick it for weeks. From the time between Christmas and New Years, I was basically bed-ridden. The following week wasn't a whole lot better. And the week after that, I was feeling better, but had to work enrollment for school and got something new from that. Since then I got mostly better and sick again.

I don't know what the hell is going around, but it is wicked. Everything that I've had has felt like a cold that is out of control. Hopefully I don't catch the flu that's going around or else I may as well drop everything this semester and focus on trying to get better. My immune system is too jacked up to handle this.

And so that's where I've been... the lack of updates, artwork, comics, nerdery, etc is because I've been barely functioning lately and sharing anything I work up the energy to do would mean not having the energy to do the next thing I need to do. Hopefully this will pass soon and I can get back to annoying you all with stuff. Until then, I hope you don't catch this via the internet tubes. (that can happen, right?)

In The Rear View Mirror: Fall Semester 2011

2011-12-16T00:01:00.000-06:00

The end of a semester is always a glorious thing... but this has been quite the busy semester for me. So, before I get to drinking the stress and memories away and jump into a new project for the winter break, I thought I'd document this semester here so I can look back at it someday and scoff:

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Lessons From Tutoring: Week 1

2011-11-09T13:55:00.002-06:00

A couple weeks ago, my school sent out an email asking for tutors. I've never tutored officially, but I saw openings for Art History and Photoshop and decided that talking about things I love with people who need help with those subjects would be a cool source of extra income; especially if I can get them excited about these subjects as my profs did to me.

As of right now, I have only been a tutor for one week, but I'm pretty sure they have taught me far more than I have had the time to teach them.

That isn't a confession of my tutoring failures, because I kick ass. I love the subjects, know the material frontwards and backwards, and come from a family of teachers. It's just that these students have some serious hurdles to jump in terms of learning disabilities and bad habits acquired because of those academic short-comings. And through that they have shown me an ugly truth I was somewhat blind to for years...

...our academic system has failed pretty much all of us.

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Cellphones: Helping You Avoid Eye Contact with Strangers!

2011-10-31T13:55:00.000-05:00

I've been absent from the school scene for a few years prior to this current re-engagement with academia, and in that time technology has shifted radically. Especially in the mobile/cellphone department. This, in large part, was due to the iPhone's release in mid-2007... the summer before my senior year of college.

There are a lot of ways which this has changed my recent school experience: I use a Kindle app on Android/PC for most of my textbooks, when taking pictures I use my phone and not a dedicated camera, instead of lugging a seperate portable gaming system around for the freetime in-between classes and meetings I just use my phone, and perhaps most importantly, it's where I keep short notes, to-do lists, homework assignments, and contact information.

But this is more about another thing that comes along with the school experience: social interaction. And in my experience, technology is really starting to impede upon it.

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Parental Delusions: Allowances

2011-09-25T12:28:00.004-05:00

If I was ever cursed with tiny people who relied on me for years on end, I think there are some things I would definitely do different from my parents. A lot of people have these sorts of things pseudo-planned out in their heads, but there are a few key things that I wish I had been able to experience as a child that I want to make sure my own kids would be exposed to.

Right now, all of these things involve allowance and my nerdy luxeries that my parents deemed immature or worthless at the time (and probably still do) but that have played a huge role in who I am and the person I am today.

There are a few things I would do similar though... so I guess we'll jump into it at that point.

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