I’ve been using two computers for the past few years. One mainly for general use and another for art. I was using my art computer to draw with my Cintiq on Easter Weekend, and I started to notice the cursor stutter. The computer would freeze for a second or two and then start back up again. This basically made digital drawing impossible. But it didn’t matter if I was drawing, or using a mouse, or typing on the keyboard, it would always happen. Something was causing the computer to just lock up for a moment. I did my best to try and figure it out by looking in the Event Viewer for errors. It seemed like the problem was centralized around a driver issue, but attempts to clear that up resulted in yet more problems. I witnessed more instances of the Blue Screen of Death than I had ever seen since Windows 98. Eventually, the whole thing became unbootable.

I used a live Linux boot disk called BootMed to try and fix things, but nothing worked. I figured there was only one way around this, and that was to start from scratch. So I used BootMed again to access my hard drive and back everything up, which happened with no problem. Then I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Now just try to imagine my frustration when it started locking up again as if I had done nothing.

One big problem in dealing with this stuff is when these errors happen, there could be any number of possible solutions. There is usually some kind of error message or code and when you Google that you get a million results with different solutions, plus a ton of schemey sites trying to get you to pay for some generic solution. It’s next to impossible to uncover an applicable fix.

If reinstalling Windows didn’t work, then it must have been a hardware issue. I was unplugging components left and right. My best guess was that the motherboard was to blame. I decided that whatever the fix was, it must be beyond my capabilities to repair, and that it may be time to look into some replacement parts. But I didn’t give up entirely. I found a few old hard drives in some unused computers lying around, so I plugged one in in to the offending machine, installed Windows onto that, and everything worked fine.

What?! It was the hard drive all along?! Sheesh! Not that I’m complaining but if the hard drive went bad then how come I had no problems backing up?

While all this is happening, I took the opportunity to reformat and reinstall on my other computer as well, which went very smoothly. That’s an old piece of junk but now it’s working better than ever. Talk about polar opposites.

Anyway, after a month of dealing with this nonsense, I’m back in business again, such as it is. Hopefully I can get a little more usage out of these computers before I need to upgrade and/or the zombies show up.

Sayonara.

Art by Jim Lawson

It’s been known for a while now that Paramount is planning a new Ninja Turtles movie, and that Michael Bay’s company would be producing. Now things are gearing up and we’re getting closer to it becoming a reality, so little bits of news have dripped out recently. The whole Internet has gone bonkers over a brief speech that Michael Bay gave at a press even where he said that the Turtles would be “from an alien race”. People are spreading their nerd rage all over the place saying how Michael Bay is changing the origins, that he’s going to ruin Turtles like he did with Transformers, and other such nonsense.

It’s pretty clear, to me at least, that this is being blown way out of proportion and most of these complaints are totally unwarranted. But beyond that, I have to wonder how many of these complaining people have actually read the original TMNT comics? How many of them are actually, you know, fans? I’d wager to say that the majority of these people have not done so, and are, for the most part, only familiar with the original cartoon. You know, the one that changed the origins, changed the characters and added new ones, and changed the entire tone of the story. So it’s funny to me that these people are complaining when they really don’t know what they are talking about. These aren’t TMNT fans, they’re just people who watched a popular cartoon when they were kids.

At any rate, when I first heard the “alien” news, I was puzzled for a moment, but I figured that perhaps this is a roundabout way of explaining that the ooze which mutated the Turtles was created by aliens, because that’s how the story is supposed to go! That was the story from the original comics, and those aspects of the story have never been used in a movie yet. The director of this new film, Jonathan Liebesman (Michael Bay is not directing this film, another fact some idiots have missed), has basically come out and said that the canister of ooze originates from aliens. So, there it is! I’m sure there are other details that can’t be revealed yet and others that are still being worked out, but it all seems plain as day to me. And yet the alien talk continues.

Finally, as far as the comment that Transformers have been ruined and Turtles will be as well, give me a break. Transformers is more popular now than it ever has been. Those Micheal Bay movies might not be to everyone’s taste, but if they were so bad, and if everyone thinks that they are so bad, then why did they make so much money? Why did they keep making money? I understand that just because something is popular, that doesn’t make is any good, but box office numbers don’t lie, and the numbers we’re talking about are way too big to outright dismiss. And even if you don’t like those movies, we’ve still got an awesome cartoon on TV, we’ve got plenty of incredible toys on the shelves and more on the way, and there is still an active fandom that continues to grow. Plus, all of the old stuff you love is still there and hasn’t changed a bit, and nothing that happens in the future will ever change that. All of these points are going to apply to TMNT as well when the new Nickelodeon stuff is released by the end of the year.

But, hey, maybe I am wrong. Maybe this new movie will be all about racist exploding alien turtles. In that case, what would the outcome be? I suppose it would be so bad that it will offend everyone, make no money, and force the cartoon and toy line to be cancelled out of shame. Then, all of your childhood memories will be tainted, and everything that had previously made TMNT so great in the first place will be retroactively erased from history. Though, I suppose if you let all that bad stuff happen then you weren’t actually that big of a fan in the first place, so no big loss for you, right?

I’m hoping for a good movie as much as the next person, and I know that whatever happens will result in more visibility to the franchise, which is ultimately a good thing. But I’ll still be hanging on to all on my cool stuff and good memories, so even if there is a bad movie, it won’t change much for me.

Sayonara.

One year ago, Japan was struck with a series of natural disasters, but in the wake of these terrible events, a powerful spirit of perseverance and support has emerged. This artwork is my small tribute to that great inspirational spirit.

GANBARE!!! by *ninjatron on deviantART

I wanted to draw something that focused on the unbreakable will and positive outlook that has been exhibited in the months since the disasters. Two of the anime world’s most popular and positive characters, Goku and Astro Boy, give the thumbs up to show that inspirational, never give up, can-do attitude.

I have a few other art pieces on my deviantArt account that aren’t up here on SykoGrafix yet, but will be eventually. As I mentioned before, at the moment I’m working heavily on something else that I think will be very exciting.

Sayonara.

Hey, how about this? Two blog posts in 2 days! I haven’t had that much to talk about recently, though I am keeping myself busy with a very interesting project, plus some other developments that I’ll talk about when/if they firm up. But for now I’m taking time out to participate in a great event.

March 1st is Creator Owned day, where artists make new drawings of their created characters and post them on their blogs to share with everyone. This is to bring interest to brand new concepts outside of the the famous characters owned by large corporations.

So, with that in mind, here’s a new quick digital color sketch of the SykoGrafix.com mascot, Cyan.

It has been awhile since I’ve drawn Cyan or the other SykoGirls. I do have some new artwork of them, but I left it alone and haven’t finished it yet. I will get to that eventually, and post some of the other artwork of Cyan, Magenta, and Amber that used to be on the site before I redesigned it.

Now, I very well could have created a new character today, but the truth is, I’m actually already creating new characters almost every day! I’ve got a special plan in mind for all of them, so watch this space for more info when the time comes.

Be sure to draw your own characters, share it on the web, and post to Twitter with the hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay.

Sayonara.

The Transformers Prime animated series has been on for more than a year, now into its second season, and has been without toys for pretty much that entire time. It’s only recently that stuff is coming out based on the show. So the demand has been growing for a good long time. Hasbro had planned a Toys R Us exclusive “First Edition” toy line that was to act as a prelude for the main line, and that was released here in Canada but wound up being cancelled in the US, So these First Edition items have become highly sought after and very difficult to obtain without paying crazy amounts of money. Of course, all this stuff was released after I moved away from any nearby Toys R Us stores, so I’m pretty much out of luck.

But I was able to acquire this:

Here is the Transformers Prime Entertainment Pack. Contains smaller, Deluxe Sized figures of Optimus Prime and Megatron along with 3 mini-figures of the kids and an episode of the show on DVD. Pretty good package to kick off the Prime line.

The robot figures are pretty cool for smaller versions of these characters. They are both fairly complex for their size. Megatron is probably the winner of the bunch just in terms of accuracy to his animated appearance and over all cool factor. Even as a smaller toy, he looks evil and intimidating.

Optimus isn’t bad, but his arms are too long, making the overall proportions look a bit awkward unless you try to hide it with a creative pose. Getting both Optimus and Megatron in one package is a pretty good deal all around. I like that Megatron is a little taller than Optimus.

Jack, Miko, and Raf are a really cool surprise, since, aside from the movie lines, we’ve never really had human characters included at all with actual Transforming toys in the entire history of the brand. They’re just simple figures that can’t move their arms or legs or anything, but it’s a great unexpected addition to the package.

The DVD I don’t really care about because the whole first season will be out on Blu Ray soon.

Transforming them wasn’t as simple as one might expect from smaller toys in a two-pack. There were some small fiddly bits that had to be pegged in just right. Pretty straight forward once I got the hang of it, though there was one oddity. The instructions completely miss the final step with Megatron’s conversion to his spaceship mode. It didn’t show how to deploy the wings. When I first noticed the difference between what the instructions tell you to do and the picture of the vehicle mode printed on the box, I thought maybe something was removed from the toy. But no, it’s all there. You just have to figure it out for yourself.

The kids can’t transform because they are just puny humans.

It’s good getting both of these two together so you can pose them like in the season one finale. Pew pew pew!

I really want the larger First Edition Optimus and Bulkhead, but it’s pretty unlikely I’ll be able to get them easily as those two especially have become hot ticket items. Maybe some day I’ll pay the price but for now I’m happy representing the Prime series with this package, even if it is the only Prime merchandise I get for awhile.

In fact, all my Transformers are still packed away after moving so, honestly, I’m just happy to have anything!

Sayonara.