360, full circle.

Ohhhh yyyeeeaaaahhh!

(Kool-Aid Man style)

I’m back in The United States of New York City.  It’s Spring, people are out, they’ve shed their winter coats, they’re skippin’ and a boppin’ and the city is alive and well.  Two years ago I never thought I’d say this, but I love NYC.  I used to hate this town, but over time, not only has it won me over, but over all the cities I’ve lived in I’d rather be considered a New Yorker than anything else.  This place is the shizzy.  The shizzy to the nizzy to the rizzy in the hizzy on girl named Lizzy.  

You see, when you first move here and you don’t know anyone and you’ve got nothing to do except walk around and wonder why being around all these people all the time makes you feel so lonely, it sucks; but then, you make friends and get involved in whatever scene you choose, and suddenly this city is just pumping.  Pumping and throbbing like a big ol’ dick.  Well, friends, I’m not a gay but I would kiss the tip of that dick with my lips.  Lips to dick.

Now.  Because my girlfriend is completely radical when I got home I found a brand new copy of Mass Effect 2 on my bed.  I’ve gotta say, I’ve been playing it a bit, and it’s absolutely awesome.  They took Mass Effect, a game with such a strong and engrossing narrative it’s like living the next greatest sci-fi saga in realtime, and made it even better.  What happens when you make a great game even better?  I play the ever-loving shit out of it is what!  You get to be Luke Skywalker, Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Adama, or…Flash Gordon?  Yeah.  Flash Gordon.  All of them.  

It’s just a great story.  For those who don’t know, you play Commander Shepard (voiced by a Canadian actor/comedian/improviser named Mark Meer — WTF?) and you essentially have to save the galaxy from super powerful robot aliens that destroyed everything in the galaxy once before, 50,000 years ago.  Sure, there are some cliché names and devices, but it’s kind of like Avatar.  If you can get past the fact that Avatar was Fern Gully meets Dances With Wolves in space, you had a really amazing movie on your hands.  The plot in Mass Effect is constantly thickening.  But it’s ok, because Bioware never let’s it turn into concrete, they just keep it rich and creamy like a cream of mushroom soup.  Homemade, mind you, none of that Campbell’s crap.  It’s just great writing.  I play this game and I constantly say, “Eat it, Halo, you piece of shit game that for some reason a ton of people like but I can’t understand why — oh wait, it’s because everyone is retarded!”  Constantly. I constantly say that.

I’m going to get into Mass Effect 2 later on.  I haven’t played enough yet to write a whole entire post devoted to its awesomeness.  Needless to say, I’m loving all of it so far.

So for now, I’m going to have to end this one right here.  I mainly just wanted to post a few drawings I doodled on the back of scripts during the pilot shoot.  I thought they were weird and I was relieved to know that I could still put lines down on a page that resembled actual things.  I used to draw a lot as a kid, but now not so much.  Anyway, more to come later, but this will have to do for now.

This guy was the first one.  He’s been through some hard times.  I was still getting warmed up.

This guy is super bummed.  Both he and I were listening to Radiohead and just feeling for a bit, ya know?  Straight up feeling.

This guy actually scared me a bit when I finished it.  He’s kind of got a Mr. Burns/Bram Stoker’s Dracula thing going on (yes, I’m aware The Simpsons did that already), but I still was a little startled when I put down the pen.  I mean, he’s screaming.  Probably right at you.