Since the start of my new identity design, I have also been working on a new website. Today, the last settings for linking the site to my domain have taken effect, and the launch is official. So, without further ado, I invite you to go on over to...

Using the previously mentioned design, I have created my new business card. This is the front of the card.



And this is the back. It's been way too long since I had decent cards printed, and now I'm needing them too. Now I just hope they look like this when I get them from the printers. Wish me luck.

This news just in: Bonuspoints has quit the WoW habit and is free to spend his time on bigger and better things. Here's what he had to say...

Anyways, I canceled my WoW account this week and I feel as though a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders. This isn’t to say I didn’t like the game, but more that I just didn’t have the time to enjoy it. I had thought about quitting for a few months now, but the realization that I had spent more time leveling a new priest to level 32 than I had playing Team Fortress 2 was the nail in the MMO-coffin for me. So much of WoW is grinding up to the point where you can start having fun; so little of it actually being fun in and of itself. It’s like working a really awful, tedious job for a really good discount at a sister store: it’s nice at times, but the tradeoff just isn’t worth it.

As part of a new initiative to generate a professional image for myself as an artist, I have begun design work for a few things along those lines. This particular image is a vector (the second I've ever done actually) of an anime eye which will serve as an element for my new business cards.

I am offering it here for download as a wallpaper in large format. I love the small filesize of vector images! Any feedback on this is of course welcome, and when the business cards are ready I'll post some photos of those as well.

The opening reception for my art show at the Caffé Phoenix went very well last night. I was very happy to see so many people attend that I actually know. I was also happy to see a number of people come that I did not know, as well as a few pleasantly surprising pop-ins from folks I had not seen in a while.



The above photos are a couple of quick snapshots of the new work. I'll be taking better photos of the new paintings soon and posting them for you to enjoy (presumably). Until then you'll have to go down to the Phoenix to seem them!

And now for the candid shots of unsuspecting patrons from the reception. Photos are courtesy of the lovely Nikki, and probably the reason why I seem to be in so many of them. Sorry about that.



Shawn, Gwenyfar, and Austin being very supportive and probably rather tired at this point. I know I was.



James, my mother Eva, and some four-eyed nerd. No idea where he came from.



The lovely Wendy, wearing a very awesome top, and that guy again. Why does he keep monopolizing the camera shots?



Hiroshi-san, Georgia, that weirdo, and Tenney. It's always nice to have the support of your colleagues, eh? And that's all folks. There were a couple other shots that didn't turn out, so that's the most of it. I'm just happy Nikki took the liberty of operating the camera, since I was too busy yackin away.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to support us. Your presence means a great deal to me, and I very much appreciate it!

Update: Just discovered the little write up in Currents. I would like to thank Isabel Heblich for putting that together. You can view it online here.

One of the things I love most about the internet is the ability to connect with people. People that you haven't talked to for a long time, and who live far away. Getting email way back when was wonderful, and since then websites have crept up that make finding old acquaintances and friends even easier. The most useful of these is of course myspace.

A little while ago I got a friend request from Odiyan. And no, that's not somebody at Odiyan specifically, but the place itself. I was very happy to see that the folks there have finally decided to put a profile up on myspace for it. The intention clearly being not simply to reconnect with previous volunteers such as myself, but also to connect with potential future volunteers.

Either way, I was happy to see some newer photos, and to find a few of the people that are still there on myspace as well. I may not like a lot of things about myspace itself, but when it comes to networking it's really hard to beat.

An exhibition of my new work will be on display at Caffé Phoenix, beginning February 17 and running until the end of March. The Caffé Phoenix is located downtown Wilmington, on Front Street. Here is a google map.

The opening reception will take place on Thursday, February 21, at 7 pm. Snacks will be available, and the restaurant itself will be open for business. So come join us for some new artwork, and grab a snack, dinner, or a drink at Wilmington's most pleasant bar from Joel Finsel.

I know that this somewhat silly little blog of mine doesn't get that many visitors. And I'm okay with that. Still, I'd like to believe that there is a small band of regulars that lurk around my posts and actually enjoy reading this junk. Though sometimes I do wonder why I actually write this stuff at all.

Initially, I started the blog for myself as well as Nikki to post on. The intention was to keep our friends and family somewhat updated on our artistic endeavors since most of them live far away from us. Or is it that we live far away from them? In either case, that was the original idea. Now it's been over a year, so yes I kind of missed the blog's one year anniversary, and I really doubt whether any of our friends and family visit this thing at all. That and it's turned a bit into my blog, as Nikki doesn't post much anymore.

These days it seems that it's mostly strangers from all over the world that come here. Most of them stay for a very short time, if at all. Nevertheless, my trusty Statcounter indicates that there are two or three people out there that seem to visit mentisworks a lot. This is where I would like to extend a warm thank you for your support, albeit somewhat invisible.

Thank you very much, to the mysterious die-hard from the UK who's returning visits are approaching the 200 mark. Also, a big thanks to another long-time fan from the Ukraine (you're not far from my home country!). Finally, welcome and thank you to the most recent regular from Michigan. I hope that you all are finding something useful in these pages, and feel free to drop me a line anytime.

We appreciate everyone's support, and hope that mentisworks will continue to grow, prosper, and provide something of interest in the crowded intrawebz of 2008.

As I browsed through my traffic stats today I noticed that a lot of people were coming over here from 1UP. This is a little odd, because I wasn't aware of any recent links from there. Well, it would appear I was wrong. During the weeks when my connection was down, I seem to have gotten a little nod from Scott Sharkey and Darren Gladstone for my mediocre and weird little demo called Copic Fighter.

The 2008 iteration of 1UP's 101 Free Games lists Copic Fighter in the shooter category. No screenie, but it does get one awesome little description:

The pen is mightier than--what the hell is this game even about? You're a sharpie shooting irate eyeballs? Man, don't ask. Just shoot. Kind of a work in progress, though. At present you'll probably play through it in about two minutes. Just long enough to draw weird looks and impossible questions from anyone looking on.

As a part of my ongoing efforts to promote my art, I am now on Creative Wilmington. Though not a new year's resolution per se, I did make a decision to push the artwork this year a bit harder. Having a Creative Wilmington account and making use of their services should help in this endeavor.

In addition, I am getting ready for a show mid February, which is quite soon. I shall be posting the details on that very soon, and it's actually already up on Creative Wilmington's calendar as well as the WHQR Cultural Calendar. So stay tuned for that post here as well.

In may we'll be schlepping our art stuffs to Animazement, as we finally got our Artist Alley table reserved. I'm pretty excited about that, but it does mean a good bit of additional work needs to be done. Prints need to be made, and so on and so forth. Not to mention we've got to get some costumes ready for this year! Should be a lot of fun though.

This holiday season I was very fortunate to receive a Wii. Much as many others out there, I had been wanting this amazing little unit ever since it came out. The fact that it's the most affordable of all three next-gen systems does make it more appealing, though it's high demand means that you're lucky to find one anywhere. Especially for Christmas. Now that the holidays are behind us, we can only hope that supply will begin to catch up with the demand.

I have read and heard many wonderful stories about the Wii of course. Yet I must say, that nothing really compares to trying it out first hand. When it comes to the exciting new control method that is the Wii Remote, playing is believing. Though right now our library is limited, with three titles including the obligatory Wii Sports, as well as Wii Play and Cooking Mama, it suffices in generating excitement about this new technology.


We must have spend pretty much all of Christmas day playing the Wii, and that's just with the first two games as we got Cooking Mama more recently. The first thing I noticed is just how strange it felt to be moving this much while playing a game! Sure I've played my share of Guitar Hero and DDR, but this is rather different. These are not rhythm games, so it's a new experience all together. Some of Wii Sports is fairly leisurely, but other parts of it, such as Tennis, Baseball, and Boxing are much more physically intense. At one point after three rounds of Boxing I started to actually break a sweat. Awesome.

The original idea was to set up the Wii on Christmas Eve and subject the rest of my family to its hypnotic powers, but it just didn't happen. I pleaded, but my family just wasn't into it at all. Plus it was late and everybody was tired. Oh well. So I yet have to convince them of just how great this piece of equipment really is. Since the move,there hasn't been any time to arrange a get-together, but I hope to remedy this in the coming months.


So yes, the Wii is excellent for getting you more physically engaged with its games, and yes it is also fairly intuitive to pick up thanks to the Wii Remote controller. However, I find there is one other aspect of this console that makes it smarter than other consoles. Beyond playing games, the main menu on the Wii is arranged into "channels." Two channels in particular caught my interest. Aside from your Mii Channel, Photo Channel, and the Shop Channel you also have a Forecast Channel and a News Channel. The latter both get the most current information off the net, and I found myself spending a bit of time with both.


When you access these channels, you have the capability of spinning the globe by holding and the dragging on the map next to your particular news or weather item on screen. This essentially provides several functions. For one, as the article or weather item fades away, you are left with an interactive globe which is just fun for a quick geography lesson (and even a little star gazing!). Consequently you can check the weather in most other places in the world, which is in fact of particular interest to me. And finally, when in the News Channel, you can see various articles placed on the globe to read wherever you're looking. So if I'm spinning the globe towards Asia, and I see some articles piled up in Japan, I get curious as to what's going on over there and generally read some of them.


Yes, these are all very simple devices, and you can certainly access all of that information and more online. Still, this intuitive visual model of information around the world brings the element of curiosity into play the way that using Google does not. I suspect that this may be particularly useful for a younger audience. Perhaps it will help to make Wii users around the world more informed as to what's going on globally. I don't know, but I think the potential is there. Besides, one can always hope.

Ultimately, I am very much a fan of the Wii. I think it has opened the door for a multitude of applications that are unconventional and innovative which we have but only glimpsed the beginning of. Is the Wii going to save the world? No not really. Will it help to make the world a better place? Well, maybe. Is it going to revolutionize the future of electronic gaming? Absolutely.