[Lunatique]

It's that time of the year again. I was surprised to realize that in 2010 I barely visited Sijun. I know this is because it's the first year where I no longer keep it on my main bookmark toolbar on Firefox, whereas I always had it there in the past. Maybe I'll put it back?

Anyway, these are the past threads:

Last Year
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003


Mine from last year:

1) Get the workshop out there and really help aspiring artists who are passionate and want to learn. Give them the kind of learning experience that I wish I could've had as a young pup.

This is one of the few times in my life where I absolutely NAILED a goal. The workshop was epic, and I'm now about to teach the 5th run of it in mid-January. The first 3 runs completely sold out, and it was so much hard work because I went far above and beyond the call of duty to help the students, to the point of spending up to 8~12 hours on a busy day just answering questions, writing critiques, and updating workshop content. The students were all full of praises and very grateful for the hard work I put into it. The testimonials in the "What You'll Learn" section demonstrates very well how the students felt about the workshop experience.

2) Make some killer Zendrum videos for youtube and really show off the capabilities of this wonderful instrument.

I made two Zendrum videos:

Short performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNnRrgiX60

Mapping and playing technique demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPlItm19ano

I've improved since then, and I'll likely make more videos.


3) Make lots of music. 2010 should be a year where I finally get to dedicate a lot of time to music. I hope nothing unexpected will come up and mess with that. I've been wanting this for so many years and I'm now so close.

It's didn't work out quite as planned since the workshop took up so much of my time, but whenever I had downtime, I really did try to devote them to making music, and I have a few new tracks I've been working on, and I've just finished re-arranging/re-mastering a track, which was a huge improvement compared to the previous version.

4) Go into production on my long-term multimedia novel project. I'm not sure if I'll be in the right mindset for it when the time comes, since I might be too immersed in music to want to do anything else. We'll see.

I did a lot of planning for this, including writing a detailed treatment for the trailer, but somehow I find myself wanting to continue to focus on the music since it's been a deterred dream of mine to focus on music for so many years. I think once I've gotten a whole new batch of new tracks done and replace all the old/unfinished ones on the website, I might feel more inclined to take on this project (which will be very, very demanding).

5) Go vacationing in Japan with Elena and have a great time. I'm actually not as excited about it as I should be since I'm looking forward to living and breathing music with no other distractions (except teaching the workshop), but she's been talking about going to Japan for a while now, and we're not getting any younger.

I ended up not going because I just didn't want to go anywhere and wanted to focus on music. I don't regret it, and it turned out for the best because if I had gone, Elena would not have spent nearly as much time with her cousins, and she also would not have found out about the real estate market there, and we would not have ended up investing in Japan as the result.

6) Find a pair of full-size and IEM headphones that can hold their own against my Klein + Hummel O300D studio monitors in terms of resolution, neutral frequency response, detail, and musicality, and hopefully without costing me an arm and a leg. I'm pretty happy with my Sennheiser HD650 and Westone 3, but they could be better. I know I'm after something that might be physically impossible for headphones to achieve, but I gotta try cuz I'm a PITA like that.

Ooh boy, I really went full out on this one. I bought the Denon AH-D7000, Audeze LCD-2, and Stax 007mkII (with the Stax SRM-717 amp) and tested them extensively. I sold the Denon since it was too colored, although the bass was very satisfying. I kept the other two. I could write pages and pages about this whole experience, but I already did that on head-fi.org. If anyone here is passionate about headphones, you'd already be on head-fi.org and you'd have read my posts already. They're also available in my blog:
Stax 007mkII:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=1042
Audeze LCD-2:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=994
Denon AH-D7000:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=775

While it's impossible to match headphones to speaker monitors, the LCD-2 and Stax 007mkII are two of the finest headphones ever made and are extremely good. They did cost me an arm and a leg, but that's the price you pay for high-end audiophile stuff.

7) Finally upgrade the living room entertainment system sound system to something better. Still not sure if I want to go 5.1 surround or just a good 2.1 setup. I only play games in my studio and I already have a surround setup for that, and surround sound for movies never really felt like something important to us, so maybe just a 2.1 system.7) Finally upgrade the living room entertainment system sound system to something better. Still not sure if I want to go 5.1 surround or just a good 2.1 setup. I only play games in my studio and I already have a surround setup for that, and surround sound for movies never really felt like something important to us, so maybe just a 2.1 system.

I got very close to doing it, but I don't watch stuff in the living room nearly as much as I used to, and Elena just couldn't care less about this stuff, even if she's watching stuff in the living room all the time. So this one got bumped down on the priority list. It'll still happen eventually, but just not as soon as planned.

8 ) Get a life-size humanoid opponent body bag and really put some effort into getting in shape. I don't mind using the exercise machine while watching a DVD, but I think martial arts punches and kicks would relieve tension and stress more, and also improve self-defense skills.

I did:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/blog_pics/2010/exercise_mat.jpg

But I'm not using it nearly as much as I had hoped. Turned out even that kind of action gets boring without a real life opponent. I did improve a lot on my punches and kicks though, and my left arm no longer feels awkward and I can attack with it as smoothly and confidently as with my right arm.


What I learned in 2010:

-As I get older, my drive to fulfill my ambitions become weaker and weaker. I'm now more likely to just do stuff I enjoy instead of suffering through stuff I don't enjoy for the sake of a goal. I don't know how this will affect my trajectory in life in general, but I do know that all the things I'm passionate about are creative endeavors, so no matter what, I'll continue doing what I love, but whether I push myself to make them commercial viable is a whole different question.

-Some accomplishments are only impressive to the world if you achieve them while you're young, and once you start inching towards middle-age, achieving the same goals would not impress anyone anymore, because people expect you to be that good at your age. For example, playing an instrument. A young person kicking ass on an instrument is far more impressive than some balding guy playing the exact same thing on the same instrument.

OTOH, some achievements are respected more when you achieve them later in life, such as writing a great novel. A young person achieving it will always raise eyebrows because most will feel that the person has not lived long enough to have true wisdom and insights, while an older writer will be considered more authoritative due to more life experiences.

It is only because I'm inching towards middle-age that I've begun contemplating these thoughts, and it really makes me feel the gravity of aging. There are goals I had when I was younger that I haven't achieved, and working towards them now will carry less meaning. But as long as it's goals that I really enjoy spending time achieving, then that's all that matters.

-How you choose to make a living and what you enjoy sometimes are best to remain separated. I've always known this, but the older I get, the more it seems true. Each time I try to make a living at something I love, there's always negative ramifications like dealing with the business end of things, clients, compromises, commercial limitations, deadlines...etc, and they ALWAYS end up eroding your original love for it. The most ideal situation will always be creating on your own terms and then make the results available as commercial products (such as writing a novel and then getting it published). If they do well, then you can rely on them to make a living, but if you try to force a living out of doing things you love just to put food on the table, it'll take away the joy. It's better to do something else for a living and keep that love alive. (Or maybe that's just how it feels currently, when I've had the luxury to not have create on demand to make a living.)


Interesting things for me in 2010:

I visited Taiwan after being away for fifteen years. Took lots of photos:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=799

Panasonic Lumix LX5 review:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=914

Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Speaker System review:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=882

IK Multimedia ARC System review:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/wordpress/?p=824


Resolutions for 2011:

1) Continue to focus on music when I have the time and elevate the quality of my work to the next level and replace pretty much everything that's currently on my site with better, newer, improved tracks. Also redesign the music page on my site so it's more streamlined.

2) Create a new workshop since the current one has run its course (after repeated runs). I have a list of topics I'd want to focus on, and it'll be hard narrowing it down to just one. Also, I'm very meticulous and a perfetcionist, so it'll likely take a while to create. The current workshop took me over a year and half to create, so this is really serious hard work.

3) I've gotten some good writing done in 2010--stuff that actually reads back satisfyingly, as opposed to making me cringe. I think this is a sign that I've matured and grown as a writer, and I suspect it's getting close to that time where I concentrate on finishing a novel or screenplay and send it out there to meet publishers/studios.

4) I'd love to spend more time working out, but every single year I fail at this. Will 2011 be any different?

5) If I happen to finish my current batch of music before 2011 ends, I might change my focus the multimedia novel project again.


What are your resolutions for this year?

[Tzan]

Looks like Shizo managed to keep last years resolution



With my diminished work I started putting in more time making a game in Unity.

Instead of looking for a new job, I'll stick with the current architect and work on my game more. I have 2 years of money in the bank.

Will post more images in the WIP when I have trees in the game. Currently reworking how I select things, math heavy RayCasting. But I think I figured it out last night.

[Tomasis]

2011 resolutions:

- make awesome portfolio and get a job as concept artist
- when I wake up, work directly, not move time to evenings and end up working at nights, as it has been in my last years
- churn 100 rolls with Leica M at minimum.
-develop those all films too
- paint oil paintings and other analog things
- enjoy of creative process (I experiment with more different stuffs than painting, like as motion graphics, 3d, filming, graffiti)

2010 was enjoyable year, i started the school and I got the "push" there regarding direction of career, I always think that i didnt worked hard enough under this year and I think so for every year so I enjoy of non thinking instead having high goals

[Sumaleth]

2011:

Finish not one, but two (yes, two!) iPhone games.
Re-learn all the calculus mathematics that I've forgotten (or chosen to not remember?). Turns out that it's useful for writing games.

Those will keep me busy for a while.
_________________
Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

[Tzan]

How are you doing the iPhone work.

Unity has an iPhone addon.

Math is the weak point of all artists I think.

[Sumaleth]

I made my own engine. It was more work, but I thought I'd learn more that way.

Though if I'd known how much more work it was, I might have thought differently. The Unity engine was one that I considered early on. It looks very good.
_________________
Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

[Petri.J]

2011:
1. Make a carrear change from games industry to movie industry. Some small company could be a good bet to learn the basics and get started.
2. Move to UK (dependent on #1)
3. Then apply for a job as a full-time matte painter. (this one might slip to next year)


Sumaleth:
Cool! I also thought of making a game for iPhone, but my matte painting dream won
Also I'm currently working as a technical artist so I can do enough code at work that I don't want to do it at home too

[Max]

Heya everyone! Theres a few things for this year.

- I gotta earn some money, heh. Freelance and halftime job is the idea atm.
- Get my body into good shape. Back problems,..argh, those computers : )
- Care for all those wonderful beings around me (including mosquitoes). Pretty hard sometimes ;D
- Create that amazing psychedelic blockbuster movie of my dream. Okay,...maybe next year...
- zen

Wish all of you a wonderful new year!

[Disst]

I intend to:

Get decent at art within the year.

Get a job.

Finally get my G1.

And maybe go to the gym.