I just saw Avatar this evening, in IMAX 3D.

My first thought when the film ended was that there are no words to describe how beautiful this film was.

My second thought was that this was the first time in my entire life that I had been ready and willing to turn around and immediately lay down the money to go in and see it again.

This movie has topped everything and anything I have ever seen. It was absolutely gorgeous. You would think that they took cameras down to an alien planet and started filming. I make computer animations for a living, and I honestly could not see that anything in that world, the environments, scenery, plants, animals, or characters, were computer generated.

And by beautiful, I'm not just talking visuals. The story itself is just as stunning. If you only hear a synopsis, you have no idea what you're in for. My mother, a professional novelist, was absolutely blown away. The premise may have been done before, but the individual details, the story itself, is amazingly new, and completely breathtaking. The pacing was set PERFECTLY. It didn't go too fast, and there wasn't a single scene that dragged on or seemed superfluous. Everything had a point, and felt just right.

Honestly, this is by far the best movie I have ever seen. I wish that I could write, animate, draw, even DREAM something like this. And who knows? Some day, I just might be in on the next one

Webcomics are a great thing. You can find great art and good jokes around all over the place. But the one webcomic that brought me into the whole genre, UserFriendly, has just lost me as a viewer. It's been a great comic, and loads of laughs over the years, but it's fallen to the same thing that's ruined others. You see, the latest arc is apparently about the fact that one of the older characters has just gotten cancer.

Joke-a-day comics are great, though over time, a lot of them wind up evolving into plot-lines. That makes sense, because there's only so many single-comic jokes you can do before you start running out of inspiration. To quote another cartoonist, "How many ways can Garfield swat a spider before it gets boring?" Even my comic's done that. What you need to do, though, is make sure that those plots are still in the spirit of the strip: still intending to be funny. An individual joke for most comics, and stringing them together to make plots along the way.

The problem comes when that joke-a-day comic suddenly tries to go into "serious" matters, and that can often mean the death of a good strip. After all, the readers don't read the comic to see something serious and depressing, they read to see something funny and be entertained by the characters they like. Strips can still discuss something serious once in a while, like the "Calvin and Hobbes" strip where they find a dead bird, but pulling a comic into a whole arc where one character learns that he is dying can destroy the whole spirit of the comic.

So, goodbye UserFriendly. You had a great run, and you were one of my favorites for a very long time, but it looks like it's time we part ways.

Hey folks! I'm opening up for commissions once more! No slot limit on these, so if you want something from me, now's your chance!

The price scale goes like this. It's $10 for a pic of one or two people with a simple BG (color gradients, no real details needed, etc). After those first two, it's $5 more a person, and it's $5 more for a more detailed background as well.

I work quickly, especially if you want something really cool ;D Send me an email, a note, or just post here if you want something!

UPDATE: Well, my queue is now empty, so no wait time to get in, if you want one!

Current list:
1: - Complete
2: - Complete

Well, faithful viewers, it has finally come to pass. The Draken Chronicles have finally been uploaded in full, and the series is finally complete. I put a huge amount of effort into these stories, and I'm glad that people here will finally be able to enjoy them And for those who enjoyed them, another series will start up soon! It'll come in one story at a time, this time, instead of these huge floods I hope some of you are looking forward to that as much as I am!

~Dash

EDIT: At the request of readers, I've edited Books VI and VII. The change has been pretty big, so go look 'em over again!

Hey folks! Quick note: Thanks to AIM for some reason deciding that it hates my screen name - but just that one screen name, all others work fine o_o? - I have acquired myself a new one! I am now "DashFeathers" on AIM, for when you need to reach me!