Tomorrow is open sparring at my dojang (Korean word for martial arts gym, kind of like dojo to all the kempo people). All a part of gearing up for the Chang Moo Kwan International Grand Championship this month. I am looking forward to competing, but not in sparring. I will be doing forms. My oldest son will be doing forms and sparring. November 11, the Fargo Civic Center. This is really a once in a lifetime thing, both the Grand Championship being held in America, and getting to be at an event with the Grandmasters and the Great Grandmaster from the Kukkiwon in Korea. Needless to say I am really jazzed to be a part of this competition. I do not plan on a trophy, just stepping in the door registered and ready to compete will be my goal.

The last week I have languished under the flu, destroying my current update schedule for Kentou Underground. This wekened will be update #4, it is inked, flat layered, and touched up. All that remains is the final color and it’ll be up.

On an unrealted note, why do two sequals to two of my favorite games have to be released so close to one another? I mean Neverwinter Nights 2 (warning, Flash), I have to get that, that’ s atotal no-brainer. Then why do they also taunt me (and my limited, very limited, okay, near-non-existant budget) with Team Fortress 2? Why? Dang you game developers. Dang yer hide to Hades. But before you go there, gimme my games!

I need to say this: The Modern World is killing my childhood loves. From Transformers going live-action ang GI Joe turning their toys into human-faced robots, it seems that the modern marketting system is conspiring to devour my youth one anime-mass-market–inspired concept at a time.

That leaves the video games I loved left to sully. Metal gear has survived the taint and made into a fantastic franchise. That goodness the Final Fantasy series is sacrosanct… or so I thought. Then I was reading the review at Gamspot.

What your character and your party do then is to a large extent determined by gambits. The gambit system is based on artificial intelligence commands that you set for each character (you can even set your own). Gambits consist of two options: a target and an action. For example, if you set a gambit for Balthier that starts with “Foe: party leader’s target” and ends with “attack,” then Balthier will attack any enemy that you have the leader attack.

I went pale and strained to hold in my hate. Let me explain: every FF game has some linear moments. However, those moments are broken by glorious random encounters that let you wallow in the turn-based goodness the way golden sunlight will part storm clouds to reveal azure sky to tired eyes. Those moments saved the game from constant tedium by allowing you the player to make decisions on your own before jumping back onto the story-line train tracks.

Now we just set up the game to play itself. I wan’t use the … tactile description proposed by Penny Arcade, but I will say this is a massive let-down and yet another blow to a cherished childhood franchise.

However, the game is getting some good reviews. One on Eurogamer even called it the best of the franchise. So, here is me giving FFXII one chance, ONE, to preserve my inner child.

I am staring down the barrel of a triple whammy this weekend, starting today. First, an 8 hour work day and the possibility of 4-8 hours extra on Saturday. Thank god I took yesterday off or I’d be in bad, bad shape.

Second,  I have been working so hard on my new site the actual comic has fallen behind. I need to storyboard, pencil, ink, and color a new page by hopefully Monday night to be back on schedule.

Third, a minor revamp to the comic site is in order. I wanna try out sidebar nav bars instead of top-mounted. So, that’s not yet done. Add to that adding new avatars and stuff, maybe even a new theme, to my forums.

Arg, no rest for the somewhat wicked and majorly tired.

Hi there, my name is Jeremy, you can call me Big J. I am starting down a strange new road in life, the road of the webcomic writer. My first comic is Kentou Underground. originally planned as a black and white comic I quickly reaslized color was much more my gig. And much more time consuming.

I work a menial manual labor job. It doesn’t require a name tag or the use of cooking utensils, just tons of my time and lots of my energy. Ever wonder how many wires your dirtbike needs to run? Unfortunately, I have a pretty good idea. And how difficult the little whosits are to plug, splice, and strip.

I am also a full-time dad, with a lovely wife and 3 boys. Add to that my constant participation in my Tae Kwon Do school (I attend 4 classes a week, 2 for TKD, & 2 for Kumdo, the art of the sword) and my writing for my Friday Night Game (d20 3.5 ftw!!) and you can see how my life gets busy.

I’m worn out just reading what I just wrote. So… what am I doing starting my own blog, a new website for my comic, new webspace, and a forums??? I must either be very motivated (LAUGH! suuure) or be suffering from a yet-undiscovered brain parasite. So, until the little wanker claws its way out of my cortex, I’ll keep hacking away at this in complete denial of sleep and good sense.

To anyone reading this, welcome, and hope you can handle my sleep deprived rants.