PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 38

Yesterday, I speculated on the nature and the need for humanity's imperfection and to follow up I'm going to be putting to "paper" my ideas on sin and its nature to form the basis for my thoughts on Jesus' sacrifice.

Cafe

A quick sketch I drew up last night. This will probably go in the Gremlin World vol. 3 graphic novel which will be out this summer, as Cafe's character information page illustration. The book version will be in color.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 37

Last night's post on metaphysical speculation was actually very enjoyable to write. Today I think I'm going to be focusing on something a little more tangible and down to earth, that is the value of imperfection. I will looking at my theory on why human beings were made to be imperfect and how that fits into God's plan.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 36

Another day, another post. Today I'm going to post about something that I think everyone thinks about every once in a while, I'm going to post about what I think Heaven, or the afterlife, is like.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 35

The final five days of my project.

The past couple of days have given me a lot to think about. For starters, the timing on my blog posts has been out of whack for a few days, which is why I didn't post anything this weekend. Turns out I was actually ahead of schedule by two days. Secondly, I can definitely say now that I'm coming out of this project having made progress on some of the issues that I described a few days ago, but there is still always room to push myself more.

I can say what I want to say now, but I think I need to improve how I take action with my words now. I need to really commit to my opinion and what I want to do. Now that I know where I want to start, I have to continue to follow through with that but also take my improvements to the next level.

FIGUARTS ZERO SUPER SAIYAN SON GOKU

Bandai has finally announced the release information on a figure I've been waiting to get for a while, which also happens to be their first foray into Dragon Ball Figuarts Zeros- Super Saiyan Son Goku from the Frieza Saga.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 34

The past few days have been great, but they've also felt a lot more busy. There's so much to write about lately and trying to get to everything plus work on my art has been kind of a pick-and-choose situation, but it feels good to actually be working on things most of the time. I've got alot of ideas of what I want to do, it's just finding the next starting point that's the challenge.

The Xombi Family

At the behest of one of my usual Gremlin World readers, here's a quick sketch of the Xombi family. Yes, Pepper's last name is officially Xombi. Here's a bit about them:

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 33

With the last few days of my religious postings winding down, I do have to say that this experiment has been a really good thing for me. I definitely feel much more confident about putting my thoughts out there and communicating with others. I'm also much more focused, I think, on both my writing and my art- which I am still a little behind on but I've been learning alot of new tricks for.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 32

The last few days have seen some set backs since I've been having some trouble figuring out what to write and unfortunately, there hasn't been much toy news to report on either to fill the gap. I've been diligently working on some artwork but it really isn't anything I can show off yet, though I'm hoping to have something finished up later on today.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 31

We have finally reached the final 10 days of my posting project.

Religion has many functions in my life, it is the path to the truth I believe in, it is a program of self improvement, it is a moral compass, and it gives me a concrete relationship to the world around me. Through religious teachings I find challenges to constantly better myself and philosophy to meditate on. It also offers me a chance to decompress from the stresses of the world after the week and a place to find solace when I'm distressed.

Not a bad deal for an hour of my time once a week.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 30

Well, this is no good. I finally caught up on my postings just to fall behind two days.

Anyway, today something important happend: I posted a comment on a Yahoo! news article.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 29

And now I'm a day behind again, I knew I shouldn't have started the last post with that.

Today's Gospel was another of those famous Bible stories that almost everyone knows, Jesus and the Adulterous Woman and it functions much like last week's Gospel with the Pharisees acting high-and-mighty and missing the point of Jesus' teachings. However, Jesus is able to turn the tables on his antagonists and uses their human imperfection as a way to outwit them and save the life of the adulterous woman.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 28

Alright! Finally all caught up!

Today was a pretty good day. Yesterday was very productive with three posts made along with a speed painting posted. Today work went pretty well, I had a nice dinner with my family, and I'm looking forward to the weekend.

FIGMA News: Week of March 11, 2013

New toy news post! Today we're looking at the new Figma figures that've been advertised over the past week. Hit the jump for more info!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 27

Today I'm going to just go over some art stuff since I've been hitting the philosophy pretty hard lately. I think I would really like to do a regliously themed piece of art to celebrate Easter, but I'm having some trouble thinking of what I want to do. I'm going to keep thinking on it, for sure, so hopefully I'll have something cool to show for it in a couple weeks.

SPEED ART: Tree

Another painting today. Obviously a tree, I was inspired by the plum and cherry trees around my neighborhood while I was out walking tonight. About 30 minutes again, Photoshop CS3. Hopefully, I'll be able to make these speed paintings regular updates here... afterall, that's the main reason I have a blog! I kind of think I overdid the glow a little... but it's been a long time since I did a non-character piece so this was nice!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 26

Okay, so moving on from the previous topics, today I'm going to look at my ideas when it comes to man being made in God's image. Most people seem to think it's in a literal sense, especially since Jesus was a seemingly ordinary man, but many have said that humans could have a more optimal form. Here's my thoughts on the topic.

SPEED ART: Pai in 30 min.

Today I decided to challenge myself a little and did this quick sketch and painting of Pai Bunny Pinhead from my comic, Gremlin World. You can also view this pic at the Gremlin World website. The illustration took roughly 30 minutes to complete, all in Photoshop CS3.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 25

It has just been brought to my attention (thanks Kam!) that the Catholic Church has a new pope: Pope Francis from Argentina, making him the first pope from Latin America. I eagerly await to learn about our new pontiff's stance on many topics (many of which I outlined in this episode), and pray for his blessing and that he will lead the Catholic Church into a new era and out of the shadow of past sins and transgressions.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 24

It seems like one of the big arguments these days is Religion vs. Science. There are many proponents for both, and traditionally, religion has been used as a way to explain the unknown, while science takes its place when we develop an understanding for the unknown. Personally, I think both are essential to humanity now and going forward and believe science will always be playing catch up to God.

FIGUARTS News: Week of March 11, 2013

Each week moving forward, I will be doing a round up of the news on the figure lines I collect. It won't be as comprehensive as a news site like Tomopop, but it should have some information for those interested. To spice it up, I'll also be posting my impressions of said figures along with links to preorders or stores you can buy them from.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 23

Forgiveness is a primary tenant of the Christian faith, but is also one of the hardest to live up to.

People piss me off on a daily basis and it's not that we aren't allowed to react to the ugly feelings that build up inside, it's just that we shouldn't react in a way that abuses the person who made us upset in the first place. Even if everyone else said they'd deserve it. I'll say it again, this is hard.

GREMLIN WORLD: WORLD 20 PAGE 12

BEHOLD!! The new page of Gremlin World! I see some new faces amongst the legion of The Dark Plum! Looks like they're finally tired of losing.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 22

Today's Gospel was the story of the Prodigal Son, which I'm fairly sure everyone is probably familiar with. To summarize it, the Prodigal Son is about a man who squanders the wealth his father gives him on debauchery and gambling. When he returns to his father's home after he's wasted everything, his father welcomes the man back with a feast. The man's brother, who had obeyed his father and stayed with him, gets upset because he has never had a party thrown for him, but the father tells him to welcome his brother back because he was lost and is now found.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 21

Well, this is a little bit late. Curse you, day light savings time!

So, for those of you who know me, or maybe just those who've been following my blog for a while, you know that I'm a huge toy collector. I have been collecting toys seriously since 2007, and originally I was only going to be buying high priced figures as a way to get me to save money. Well, that plan has pretty much backfired, but I'm getting a serious case of buyer's fatigue right now so I'm hoping I can use this to kind of start fresh and thin the heard.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 20

Half way point, FTW! (I just gave myself a hi-five.)

So, today I'm going to discuss an issue which is a little nearer and dearer to me than some of the other things I've talked about so far. Although I'm a fervent Catholic, not many of the other people that I know are. In fact, many of them aren't religious at all, and I think that this is something worth writing about.

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #3: Busou Renkin

Busou Renkin is Watsuki Nobuhiro's third comic serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, following the iconic hit Rurouni Kenshin - Meiji Kenkaku Romantan and the widely panned (even though I still love it) Gun Blaze West. Watsuki has long been my favorite manga author and while Rurouni Kenshin was an epic drama battle comic, Busou Renkin gave Watsuki a chance to make a comic that was as funny as it was exciting.

BUSOU RENKIN by Nobuhiro Watsuki

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #4: The World God Only Knows

"I can see the ending."

Actually, I can't; but that's a good thing in this case. Today I'm going to do a review of my fourth favorite manga out there, The World God Only Knows (or Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai)

THE WORLD GOD ONLY KNOWS by Tamiki Wakaki

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PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 19

Looking through the news these past few weeks, I couldn't help but notice all the speculation and gossip regarding the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the strange assumption from some corners of the media that without the Pope, the Catholic Church is going to be lost in some Mad Max-style wasteland where only carnage and desolation subsist.

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #5: Prunus Girl

The best thing about my Lent project is that its kept me posting everyday, but as this is an art, comics and animation blog, I think it's time for me to inject some of those topics back into the blog. This week I was originally hoping to be doing a countdown of my five favorite comic book heroes along with fan art of each character but that's hit a bit of a snag so I'll be looking at my five favorite manga instead- not that I have anything against more mainstream comics, I just happen to have access to more manga than Marvel or DC right now and I'll be getting to the guys a little bit later.

Prunus Girl by Matsumoto Tomoki

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 18

Today I'm going to post about love. Love- the core of God's essence and the most powerful force in the universe. And as corny and cliche as that sounds, love does some really awesome things, though there's been some bad stuff done in its name, too.

THE AH-HA SHOW- LISTEN TO IT!!

Coming off my last "Pals with the Big G" post, I just want to give a shout out to my friend Andy and his pod cast show "The Andy and Harrison Show Featuring Harrison and Andy." Or as they like to call it the "Ah-Ha Show.'

The show is a loose format-styled podcast, and is primarily about the real life escapades of the titular duo and their relations with the opposite sex. The show is straight forward, honest and engaging; refusing to shy away even from some truly eyebrow raising details. It is often hilarious, as well for the same reason.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 17

Almost half way through all 40 entries! Still need to make up an entry though.

Today I had lunch with a good friend who does ministry work with his church. Speaking with him was very reaffirming in a way that I don't get to experience too much. The majority of my friends aren't particularly religious, so it's hard to get feed back from peers that are Christian as well. My friend also did well to remind me to stick it out when thing seem tough... God has a plan and when I look for the signs, I'll see them.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 16

Today at church we discussed how God is always with us at all times and in all things. That he is a universal existence.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 15

I didn't get to post last night because I was really tired and ended up trying to rush through my writing, which is not what this project is supposed to be about. So, after some much needed rest, I'm coming back to this blog with a clear head to really contemplate the topic at hand.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 14

Got some rough news today, and I think I'm really going to need to do some praying and soul searching. This is the time to really put my best foot forward and live the life I really want to live. I will be praying for God's good graces and putting 110% into my goals moving forward, I've got some time off of work coming up and I'm going to give it my all to put it to good use!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 13

Okay, going to be real here, I'm a geek (this surprises no one familiar with this blog).