TKs Games

I started a new blog called TKs games where I'll be posting most of my gaming related stuff. I will also review stuff, too. Yay for things.

Illustrator Blues and Greens

OK, so here's the first sort of illustration I've made that I'm going to continue working on. I know what you're thinking--gee, Tori, that looks like a 5 year old drew that. I know I know, and I agree. However, I'm doing this mostly to learn how to use Illustrator because I think it could be a great tool to develop my website with. So, at least for now, check this out.

P.S. any Illustrator Pros out there who see this and have some great tips for me, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Learning to Draw

I'm trying to learn illustrator right now and it is kicking my butt. Adobe makes wonderful products but they are insanely user-unfriendly. Yucky, homes! But I shall prevail. Unless I don't.

Conan 2

So I've been playing Age of Conan a bit and it is rather fun. However, it suffers, as all MMO's do from the old just killed that overlord quest that I've been working on forever and he just respawned ten seconds later. I just end up feeling like the world isn't changing around me. So, when I get to feeling like that, I take a little break. However, I will be back and I just wanted to throw up some screenshots that I have been taking. It's weird-now that games are really starting to look so good, the screenshots sometimes almost taking on a slightly artistic look. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy. And as always, leave me some feedback. I'll probably eventually do a best of gallery sometime in the future. Cheers!

Mass Effect

So I'm playing Mass Effect for the PC right now and I'm completely blown away. The graphics are great--the loading isn't too bad because it appears to be using the streaming tech developed for consoles--load crappy textures first, then the hi-rez. I do wish there was a force-load button in the console (maybe there is) that would force-rez all the high textures in the area. But anway, the voice acting and the story so far are just stellar. Truly stellar. For the first time I actually feel like I am controlling a movie. I wasn't a big fan of Kotor (though I do generally love Bioware products -- Baldur's Gate anyone)? So anyway, I'm gonna gush about the game more later because right now I just want to play some more. But, I thought I'd upload a few choice screenies that I've taken. Of my character and other cool stuff. I didn't realize how generic of a military-lookin dude I ended up making, although in my defense the nose and eye options aren't too shattering. However, the fact that your character really does end up looking pretty fantastic when you are done is a testament to the handling of the engine. Anyway, here are a few pics and now I'll shut up and play.

So I've been doing a buttload of voiceovers at work lately, and I'm really enjoying them, so I've decided that I'm gonna see if there are any other venues that I can do voice work for. It's all about collaboration, y'all!

Conan Zazzle

I've now started a new venture: Zazzle, where I will be putting up designs, clothes, bumper stickers, all that stuff and see if I've got a knack for that kind of thing. You know, see if I can let my creativity somehow fashion me a living at some point.

I've also started an online game called Age of Conan which is superbly fun and very addictive. I've joined a guild called Knights of Malta through the good will of my bud Nate. I also am currently playing a Barbarian on the Cimmeria server and am only level 19 right now. I have an unfortunate desire to finish every quest that I see, so that ends up taking me a little extra time. I'm hoping to be able to start helping to plan our city layout soon. Cheers, folks!

-TK

Dimensional Understanding

So I was having a discussion with the boys tonight about dimensional things--like what does a fifth dimension mean or whatever. I had an intellectual breakthrough for myself tonight. So, as mathematical/physics theory has it right now, something will exist in all the dimensions. However, it occurred to me that a being that was able to perceive a higher dimension should then be able to perceive things much easier in lower dimensions than vice versa. For example, if a higher being were able to navigate time, it could much more easily observe another being that did not have that power. The lower being could only perceive the higher being when their time axis intersected. If the higher being could also see through time, then it could perceive the lesser being without being noticed.

Basically all I'm saying is that humans right now have senses that were made for survival in the third dimension and although we are aware of time and can observe it's passing, there's nothing we can do about it. But if we could navigate it, it would vastly change our perceptions.

I'm gonna stew on this a bit and see if I can explain it better in the future.

-TK

Depths of Peril

I just started playing this game called Depths of Peril which I tried completely randomly. I was just looking at a list of awardwinning indie games and this one popped up and I tried the demo. I am currently ridiculously addicted to it. Yikes. It plays similarly to Dialbo, except it adds this whole political/strategy side to it that results in truly frantic gameplay. Check it out. I overwhelmingly reccomend it. Also, support your indie developers. If you like it, throw them some cash. Yay! Cheers.

-TK

Football (Soccer)

We finally won our first game of the season 7-3. We played a bunch of young bucks too, so I was quite proud. I'm still huffing and puffing all 25 pounds overweight of me, but I'm throwing in a few extra seconds every week. So hopefully those 25 pounds will start shrinkin.

Heaven forbid I do a little extra work during the week to make those substitutions last a little bit longer. It's so damn weird--I think that I have really good passes and ball control, but as soon as I get up near the net, they all just disappear. Very poop-esque. Clearly all mental, much as my vocal performance crapouts. As long as I keep realizing that, though, I should be able to work through the situations. Overcome, y'all. A bunch more practice would really help, too. Well, off to the sleepy times, folks. It's way too late. Cheers.

-TK

Website Woes

So even though I have it stated on my website that I suck at websiting, I'd just like to reiterate that I suck at it. However, I'm doing some reading and just trying to understand how everything works and all that jazz. The beautification process may take a while, but, well...there you go. I'm working on it.

-TK

Web Site

I decided that I would start my own site...devoted to myself. That sounds pretty darn vane, but I intend it as more of a promotions thing: getting my music, photography, art, etc out there. Who knows maybe I'll figure out how to make a living off of it at some point. Like I said: who knows? But I think I needed to make one. The myspace junk is kind of limited and it's so littered with adds...bwah!

Anyway, I hope you check it out. It is going to be www.torikamal.com

Peace out homes. I hope to get some of it up by Wednesday.
Cheers.

-TK

Mos Def

I just saw Mos Def on the Chappelle show so I think I'm gonna get his album. Nice flow, very lyrical.

-TK

New Music

I can't stand it man. I'm so eagerly awaiting the Ours album to come out but I have to wait until March. All the tracks I've heard off it so far are just amazing. I hate waiting for music to come out.

I've been working on some of my own stuff, too. I'll post it sometime soon when it's done enough not be thoroughly embarassed by.

-TK

Fixing Iraq

OK, so I've been thinking and I've decided that if I were elected president, here's what I would do to fix Iraq and begin damage control on our severely obliterated foreign policy and image.

Oh yeah, but they way, it is spelled foriegn policy, not foreign police.

So first off, we apologize to the world; "Sorry that we've been money-grubbing dicks. We apologize for all of the nasty shady and destructive crap that we've done." Next, we need to pony up to Iraq, "Sorry about that, we went there for oil and didn't know what we were doing and now we realy don't know what we are doing. It's a mess and we don't know how to fix it."


We then announce that we are beginning to pull out all of our troops in Iraq and they will all be gone within six months. Turn to the UN and say, "OK, sorry we were Dicks and just do what we want. How do we fix Iraq? We need your help and this needs to get done in six months.

All right, cool, now let's stop being one of the most in-debt countries in the world and get our deficit gone. Yep, there's theories about how that could harm us. Go and eat it. When has in-debtedness been good?

Sweet, now let's get social security and health care under control. Before I got married, my wife worked for Target and their regular family practice visit copay was $45. That's balls-out wrong.

Here's another interesting point I found out. An extremely conservative estimate of the cost of the War in Iraq is 1.5 trillion as of last month. That number doesn't include any of the hidden factors that really are currently being incurred and will continue to incurr which would actually balloon that figure.

If we had spent that 1.5 trillion on renewable energy research, we could just wave at the oil companies lots of middle east politics and say, "It's not been fun, but we've kicked our addiction." While 1.5 trillion would fix our problem, it would really have gotten us at the very least pretty damn close.

So, there's that to consider anyway.

-TK

More Politics

I don't consider myself a democrat. I would generally consider myself a liberal, though I do have some conservative views as well. I would also like to point out that the republicans threw up a good candidate (they won't, but it is possible that they could) that I would consider voting for him/her. I'm partial to democrats right now because they appear to be less insane. I will vote for the candidate who appears to be least insane, regardless of party lines.

-TK

My Political Rantings

So, here's an interesting fact, folks. Did you know that credit card company MBNA was the number one contributer to Bush's campaign? Did you know that MBNA WROTE!!!! the new Bankruptcy legistlation? Does that sound like a conflict of interest?

Is it interesting that we are currently sitting at by far the highest amount of national debt that we've ever had? Guess what? Dick and Bush don't have to worry about figuring out how to pay back this ridiculous debt accrued because they can't be in the white house anymore (I guess technically Dick could be, but let's not even consider that).

So...they created a massive maniacal mess and get to walk right out. Oh, by the way, if you're against the war, you're with the terrorists. At one point in time, Bin Laden was an ally that we armed against the Russians in Afghanistan. Our government has basically employed an arm and abandon policy in the Middle East for decades. Hmmm...I wonder why they hate us so much?

OK, I will absolutley give you that most of the leaders in the Middle East are just as crazy as Dick and Bush. Just as amoral. Just as tyrannical. Just as terroristic.

So, anyway, they get to walk away from that incredible mess....and then guess what? All those corporations that they have been feeding--oil companies are currently posting the highest earnings in history and the government still furnishes them with incredible subsidies. What?

OK, I keep losing track of my main point because I'm writing myself into further rages.
So, Dick, Bush and the rest of their appendages get to walk away from this mess (oh, this is good, too, let me add that Dick is currently hard at work trying to set up another sweet war with Iran) and, hmmm, would you be surprised if suddenly Dick was back at Haliburton--reparing these countries that we have blasted to hell?? I wonder what other teats Dick and Bush will be suckling upon once they're done in the White House?

I apoligize for the sensational writing. I will point out, however that everything up there is factual except for the future ponderings. I would never normally pay attention to a writer that is sensational because their views are probably very skewed. I don't expect you to listen to me either, but I would like to point out that this is a rant. Very cathartic I might add, though the frustration will probably not leave me for years.

Thanks for listening. We all need to unload from time to time.

-TK

New Music

I just picked up two CD's. People in Planes and Explosions in the Sky. I just checked them out while I was browsing at Down in the Valley. I'm really diggin People in Planes. Explosions in the Sky I haven't delved into as much yet, but is very promising.

What I like about PIP is that they take some cool little tangents in theirs songs that aren't predictable, but still work. Makes it so much more interesting. I haven't bought any new music in a long time, so this was nice. Check em out. Let me know what you think.

-TK

Mawwage

So,
In case you all haven't heard yet....I is getting married. To a woman. Cool, huh? I am marrying Sara-Bridgett Moore on May 18 aboard the Anastasia Riverboat on the St. Croix River.

We are landing at the wedding site after skydiving from the Gorman cesna airplane. I am a little nervous about this since we only have taken the 6-hour course that allows you to dive without the instructor for the first time. But so far the training has gone very well and we feel that it shouldn't be too bad because of we miss the ship, we'll hit water instead of asphalt parking lot or a tree or something. We bought a couple of those extendy hooks that you see at pools so they can fish us out in case we miss.

After that, we will fly off to Hawaii where we will bungee-jump into a deep moss-filled crater. There will be two sleeping bags, food, gear and the makings for a camp fire below. We will then begin to explore the small cave-system that begins in an opening of the southwest side of the crater.

I am very excited and as you can tell, we are very extreme people and thought that we would begin our lives as man and woman the way we met: in an extreme situation.

God Bless and much love.

-TK

P.S. Some statements above may not reflect properly into reality.

Food

I hate cooking almost as much as Bush! (George). So, in an effort to remedy this painful ordeal and remarkably, to save myself money, I have just enrolled in the Nutrasytem food delivery thingy. They delivery me food--breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and I give them money.

I am very interested to see how this turns out.

-TK