joe randel's art dump

Today is my son’s first birthday!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

I had to be at work today but that’s okay.  We all did lots of fun things yesterday.  See my daughter was born in October and we go pumpkin picking and have a Halloween party for her every year.  But we where wondering what to do for the little guys day.  Well, it just so happens that we are right in the middle of maple sugar run off (other wise known as sugaring off) so we all jumped in to the van and drove out to a sugar shack/pancake shack for… wait for it… a fat stack of pancakes with 100% pure maple syrup (not that that’s really special since I have some in my fridge).  But in addition to that we also had maple ham, maple sausages, maple baked beans and topped it all off with a nice tall glass of maple syrup.  Okay, so we didn’t actually drink the syrup but I totally could if I wanted to since they had huge jugs of the stuff on the tables but I really wasn’t looking at becoming a diabetic.

Then we had a horse drawn carriage ride and played in the snow.  It was lots of fun and not too cold ether.

Oh, and then just for giggles I made a homemade loaf of maple raisin bread.  Seriously ^_^

I’ll also note here that my son started walking two days before his birthday.  It’s awesome to watch kids learn.  It’s like watching a miracle happen right be for you.  Especially when it’s something they’re working so hard to do.  The only thing that we as adults can link that to would be if we just learned to ride a bike or skate for the first time.  It takes a lot but when you do it you’re super proud of yourself.  That the look he gets on his face…  It makes me all weepy thinking about it.

Okay, that it for now.

Tomorrow’s another day ^_^

How green are you?  Not literally… – _ –

I’d like to think I’m pretty green.  I recycle everything I can and even take home cans and such that I’ve used when I’m out and about to recycle them when I get home.  We take our reusable bags out when we go shopping rather then get plastic bags.  I use public transit instead of drive.  We compost.  But what I really love to get is organic/natural food stuffs.  Whole wheat flower, organic eggs from free range chickens, organic beef, organic fruits and veggies, and on and on and on…  I even drink organic, fair trade hot chocolate every morning.  I love to buy fair trade products and buy locally.  Which means to buy all our produce from the surrounding farmers thus lowering the carbon emissions because my food doesn’t have to travel long distances.  It makes me feel good to know that what I’m putting in my body isn’t filled with chemicals.  I can read all the ingredients in my food and my wife and I actually (well my wife really) bake like crazy so we know that all the stuff in our baking is natural too!

One thing I’ve noticed is that once you start to make/cook your own food rather then eat out or buy it premade in a box that you really notice the salt and/or horrible taste in box food.  Really.  I would take our natural food any day.  Now that’s not to say that we don’t buy crap from time to time or eat out too because we do that too, but we’re really reducing the amount.  And we’re just joined a organic co-op where we can get even more organic food and earth friendly products.  Stuff we can’t get in stores or are hard to find.  Like the garbage bags made of corn fibers.  They break down in like a year rather then 1000 like normal bags.  It’s awesome!  This month is actually our first order with the co-op and we’re very excited.

So I’d like to think I’m pretty green.  A show I like to watch to is called “Living with Ed”.  It has Ed Begley Junior and it’s how he’s crazy green and you get to see what he does to live with out leaving a huge carbon foot print.  It’s great!  You can see earth friendly products and energy saving ideas too.

So there you have it.  Another peek in to my life.  Joe = green ^_^

I like to go to dannychoo.com for my dose of anime/otaku goodness.  I’m not an anime freak or anything.  I can count the amount of anime series I’ve seen on one hand (FLCL and Evangelion.  Started to watch Sky Girls but stopped… does that count?), although I do enjoy studio ghibli films.  Anyway, over at Choo’s site he has a bunch of pictures from Wonder Fest 08 and all the figures they had there and… sigh… Joe wants.

I would love to have some of those figures.  I love cute anime stuff and figures.  It would just rock my socks but I have some issues.  One is that they’re pretty expensive.  I just can’t justify spending money on one no matter how much I want it.  I would feel pretty guilty afterwards .  Two, I like the cute/sexy ones but I would really like to own a naughty one or two, but where would I display it?  At home?  Nope, kids would see it and I’m not sure the wife would care for that.  At work?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  It would just have to sit in a box cuze I couldn’t put it out.  Three, I don’t think you can order the naughty ones from outside Japan.  Not that I’ve seen anyway.  And four… hmmm… okay there isn’t a four, but three’s good enough.

Yeah, so for now (and probably forever) I’ll just have to surf, look and dream.  Maybe one day if I ever travel to Japan I’ll pick one up just because, hey, I’ll never get another chance.

Can anyone in Japan put me up for a few nights? ^_^

I watch Survivor.

There.  I said it.

I’ve watched every year except the first one and every year I say to myself, “Self, I don’t think I’ll watch this year.  They can’t really do anything different.  It’s pretty much the same thing every year now” and yet here I am watching Survivor… again.

I can’t help it.

It just sucks me in.

But you know what.  You know what would make Survivor better?  Uncensored Survivor.  Already I’ve seen blurred boobies and I think that the show could totally draw in more viewers if they showed unblurred boobs and bums.  I honestly believe this.

Oh well.  I recored last nights Survivor and have yet to watch it so NO ONE SAY ANYTHING!

mmmmm Survivor boobies…

I’m sure that most here know that I hail from Canada.  But what most don’t probably know that I’m pretty damn hard core about where I live.
Most of the music I listen to is Canadain like Barenaked Ladies (from waaaayyyy back), Jann Arden, Blue Rodeo, Big Wreck (signer is Canadian), Big Sugar,  Tragically Hip, Staggered Crossing, Hawksley Workman and Wide Mouth Mason.  I don’t watch a lot of TV but I do enjoy Canada’s Worst Driver, Canada’s Worst Handyman and Corner Gas (when I catch it that is).  But there’s more to Canada or being Canadian then just it’s awesome, diverse music scene and tv (yeah baby… cbc ^_^ awesome documentaries) so I’ve made a list of things about Canada or about being Canadian that others might not know and might help you out on your next visit.

– We don’t say “eh” or “aboot” (about) as much as others may think.  Well, not all of us any way.  I’m actually guilty of saying “aboot” sometimes and I my wife uses “eh” but we’re just two people and not a proper statistic of a whole Nation.

– Newfoundland, Toronto and Ottawa are actually pronounced Noofundlan, Trana (or Chrana depending how slack jaw you are) and Odawa.

– A “Two Four” is a 24 case of beer and is usually consumed in great quantities on “May two four weekend”.  A long weekend in May where we celebrate the Queen by camping out when it’s still crazy ass cold out but are usually too drunk to care.

– Butter Tarts are not made of butter but they are the best tarts you’ll ever put in your face.  Trust me.

– Quebec has pies with filling made of just maple sugar.

– Poutine is not some scatological porn site.  It’s fries with gravy and cheese curds.  Possibly the best tasting and worst kind of food you can put in your body.  Yum!  Did I mention it was the best tasting?

– Maple syrup kicks corn syrups ass any day of the year.  No question.

– Beaver Tails aren’t made of beavers so it’s okay to eat them.

– Canadians consider American beer for children or the elderly.

– Lacross, Hockey and Basket Ball are all Canadian invented sports.

– Robertson screwdrivers are considered to be a better (possibly the best) design for screws.  So much that Henry Ford found that they saved considerable amount of time in the construction of the early cars.  It is actually possible to screw a Robertson screw in with one hand with out holding the screw.

– The light bulb was actually invented in Canada by Henry Woodward.  He later sold the patent to Edison who then took credit.

– Tim Hortons is a Canadian institution.  To see if your town meets the THQC (Tim Hortons Quota of Canada) stand at one Tim Hortons and look to see if you can see another down the streen, then your town is okay.

– We actually have two forms of legal tender.  Canadian dollars and Canadian Tire Money.  The difference is one stays in your wallet the other stays in the glove box or kitchen drawer.

– No those aren’t spelling errors.  The “u” is supposed to be there and it’s “zed” not “zee”

and finally

– We don’t really know what Canadian bacon is.  Could you please tell us.

I think that’s a pretty good start.  There is a whole lot more I could write but should get back to work before someone notices.

G’day eh ^_^

So the word on the street is the Japan’s naughty game market (or eroge industry) is taking a big downward spiral. Why? Dojin games. Dojin games are small teams of fan that make games for themselves and those that like what they like. It’s been a growing community in the past 3 years and some groups even get so popular they can make a living of it.

So with Dojin games putting up the big fight against eroge a restructure in taking place right now to save the boobies. It would seem that the first to get “restructured” is the writers. This really sucks if your company generally make the text heavy games for those who like to read while they fap as the writing will now be outsourced from freelancers rather then in studio workers. Really sucks for the writers too although those writers that have made a name for themselves are now publishing novels and the like. Next is to offer better art then the little guys because if you can’t get the writers you want then you might as well have pretty pictures (who reads these days anyway). But all this is putting a twist on the market as well. Since the restructuring people see the eroge market to be unattractive and so the talent is going else where which makes staffing a studio hard to do.

So what happens next? What happens to your favorite ergoe studio (mine is Soft Circle Correges)? Only time will tell I guess but it’s not looking good. What I would guess would need to happen (in my professional option) is to have someone release something different that hasn’t been the same thing that has been released in the last few years and jump start the industry again. Help turn heads in a new direction. But what could that be? It’s hard to predict what the masses will like.

Hopefully things get better. I’m not learning Japanese for my health ya know.