Craig Bayfield's Journal

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Craig Bayfield's Journal

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	2012.04.30 14.17 Acen 2012 Con Report! Normally these things roll off of the tongue a lot easier, but as I sit here close to midnight on Sunday going in to Monday, I cannot help but sit back and feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the whole weekend in full force. Not because we did a lot per-say, but because we did not. Normally when I return from the convention I will look at all of the photographs and piece together our schedule based upon events I know we took part in. It won’t work out this time as our schedule from the outside would seem empty and boring. We worked most of it. Almost all of it. We missed the Dark Hour Shoot, I skipped Lunar shoot. We didn’t stop at the pool party. Didn’t see Johnny Yong Bosch or listen to the VGO. Everything we had either pre-planned or hoped we’d catch did not happen. Besides Anime Hell and the Ah! My Goddess panel, anyway. So, with that said, how can I consider this Acen to be a success? ( Let's find out! ) May do more later. I admit, I want a full gallery of the commissions in here, but... man, editing photos and writing takes a lot out of you.



	2012.02.23 12.03 Rocky IV Watching Rocky IV, which I state to this day is humanities' greatest accomplishment. How awesome is it? Well, as I watch I shall describe: The movie begins with Eye of the Tiger playing. A glove pans in to frame and then jump to another glove. Each turn slowly to reveal the US flag design on the left glove and Soviet Union on the right. THE TWO PUNCH AT ONE ANOTHER... COLLIDE AND EXPLODE. WHILE EYE OF THE TIGER IS PLAYING. We're not even 30 seconds in to this movie and I need to change my pants. Then as with all Rocky movies, we get a repeat of the climax of the previous movie, with Rocky busting Mr. T's face in while wearing American flag boxers. Freeze frame as Rocky leaps triumphantly in the air. Then the final scene from Rocky III plays where Apollo Creed (the man who single-handedly built a rocket and went to the moon) and Rocky have a friendly fight. At this point you can hear the soundtrack kick in. This is a point I need to make right now. This award winning soundtrack is entirely played and composed on a Casio keyboard by a gentleman named Vince DiCola (famous for the animated Transformers movie soundtrack). It's one thing for a composer to write a memorable soundtrack that goes down in history, but the dozens or hundreds of talented musicians never get credit. No, screw that noise. Vince is a one man army. He just needs a 1980's grade Casio and the time to program a drum track and he is solely responsible for every non-Eye Of The Tiger song in this glorious movie. You may think "But Craig, it's awful!!!" I say, it's 80's. You know how like when they time travel to the 50's in Back to the Future it plays Mr. Sandman and all those other 50's hits to let you know what time period it's in. This movie is cementing itself in Cold War era by having THE most 80's soundtrack imaginable. No. Seriously. Listen to this and tell me you're not transported back to the mid-80's. It's genius composing. He has made a timeless soundtrack by grounding it so deep in the (plot relevant) era that a thousand years from now historians will use this movie as an educational resource on teaching the cold war. Back to the movie. After his fight with Apollo, Rocky returns to his home and presents Paulie with A MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT. With the most dramatic entry possible again making sure you don't forget this is the 80s. We're not five minutes in to the movie and the tone of the era, which is plot relevant, is set in stone. Freaking GENIUS. And to continue setting tone, it shows Rocky celebrating his "Almost anniversary" with Adrian. And now the scene shifts to Soviet Russia where the EVIL RUSSIANS are entering the arena of proffessional boxing by sending Dolph Lundgren and his wife Brigitte Nielsen to America to fight Rocky Balboa. The Russians show off how strong Ivan Dragov is by a punching test. He scores 1850PSI of force at punching. That's 15,000 pounds of force. HOLY SHIT. Ivan Dragov. No... SOVIET RUSSIA... it's too damn powerful. But retired boxer Apollo Creed wants to make sure America is not harmed and wants to fight him instead. ---oh and Paulie reprograms the robot to have a husky female voice. But that's not important. This movie is amazing. And so the first "Change" speech happens. If you were to take a shot whenever the word "Change" is used, you would have more alcohol in you than blood. Apollo can't change. He's a warrior, he has to keep fighting. People can't change. (SHHH, this is important! It's what we call a THEME.) So Apollo acts like a prick and talks smack about Russia sucking and Drago being useless. The press mention that he is an amateur fighter going up against a world champion, Apollo just acts more of a prick. Drago says nothing, only his wife (literally named Red Sonja) and his KGB manager. And so... now our story is set-up. The movie can finally begin being the amazing thing that it truly is. Creed vs Drago in Las Vegas. This is the Rocky universe. Drago is an amateur going up against the ex-world champ... and no one had a training montage before hand. Apollo has no chance in hell. Did I mention Drago's theme is basically Unicron's theme? It sound like two notes going back and forth while a steam vent is being unleashed every couple seconds. GLORIOUS! OMINIOUS! It makes you feel pain and terror. Drago stands in the ring, ready to fight when... suddenly... JAMES BROWN. James Brown and his harem of dancers come from the rafters and begin singing Living in America. That's not a joke or exaggeration. That is LITERALLY what happens. Apollo then comes down from the ceiling and enters the ring. Quite justifiably, Ivan robotically tells him "YOU VILL LUUZE" and punches him until he stops living. In that situation, you really can't blame him. Incidentally, this entire fight is directed and scripted to ironically parallel Rocky and Apollo's first fight in Rocky I (what you thought I was just going to be silly, I legitimately like this movie) with Apollo's entrance, quotes and even the shorts that each boxer wears reflecting the fight from the first film. All the circumstances showing that even if Apollo wins the fight, the moral victory (which the entire fight is about) goes to Drago. Even Creed's quotes about not stopping the fight reflect Rocky's in the first film. The whole theme of the movie is that prejudice and hatred beggetting and making the cold war worse. The Russians could not take Creed's insolence and outright ignorant abuse and the Americans could not stand by after their athlete punched one of their own to death in front of the world. At Creed's funeral, Rocky gives a speech where he lays the champion belt on his grace, all while Vince DiCola's soundtrack plays synth piano in a morbid tone. So... in retaliation, Rocky gives up his title and says he will fight Drago in Russia on Christmas. On enemy turf on the most American day of the year. 37 minutes in to the movie and we have the political and emotional motivation for the most thrilling and personal climax in the Rocky franchise. This is not about money, or titles, or pride... it's about international superiority! Adrian of course is incensed. She witnessed a family friend die and now her husband is ready to go forth and die. The two begin the second "Change!" arguement. Even if he won Apollo would still be dead, it wouldn't CHANGE anything. But Rocky is a fighter. He can't CHANGE. But everyone else can CHANGE their thinking. Why can't Rocky?! Theming! So comes our first montage. An In The Air Tonight driving montage potentially the first time that this has been done in a movie. Without a single word we get to see Rocky's mental anguish while we see Creed over all 4 of the movies to date, Adrian as she was in the first movie and then her walking away after their arguement. All while Drago looms in the darkness. In the space of 3 minutes we see the entire road that Rocky has travelled to reach this point, both fighting and in his life... ending with the shot of Apollo falling interspliced with images of Rocky making the same fall. Did I mention that even Ebert admits this movie has the best montages of the series and the movie has the most montages out of every single movie with a ground breaking 3 (excluding the intro montage of the Rocky III fight). So... Rocky flies to Russia to the sounds of Survivor's Burning Heart. Yes, it sounds JUST like Eye of the Tiger but this time with COLD WAR lyrics. "Is it a East vs West, or man against man. Can any nation stand alone?" Oh... Rocky IV. You had me at Hello! Rocky lives in a log cabin in the Russian wilderness with Paulie and Apollo's trainer Duke who... surprisingly appears in all 6 movies... and boy does he beat one of the KGB "Chaffeur"s at chess before telling Rocky that he is going to keep Creed alive through his actions. TRAINING MONTAGE! Look how Rocky braves nature and trains the down-to-roots way while Drago uses advanced Soviet technology and GASP STEROIDS! Also, listen to that music. Makes you feel like you're at the olympics or something. I will also note this is the first time we have extensively watched BOTH fighters training in a montage. Which is really sweet. He returns to the cabin after his extensive training (long enough to grow a beard) to find ADRIAN. She went to cold and barren Russia to see her beloved. She says that she will stick by him, no matter what. SECOND TRAINING MONTAGE. Oh, you thought there was going to be one? Power of love gave him a fucking level up power-up and now HEEEEAAAARTS OOOOOON FIIIIIIRE!!!! Rocky is going for VICTORY. Chopping wood like a son of a bitch. Lifting rocks and occassionally using punching bags. While screaming DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Then he runs up a fucking mountain. Because he is the greatest boxer of them all. While Drago runs up... a treadmill mountain! Because he is also the greatest boxer of them all. ...and so the fight begins with 30 minutes left of the film... and all Rocky movies end the moment the fight does. So, we're in for the greatest fight in all of Rocky history. Hell, all of movie history. Of course, when the fighters enter the ring, all of the Russians are booing Rocky. He is receiving as cold a welcome as Ivan got in Vegas. They bump gloves as Ivan growls "I MUST BREAK YOU." AND DING! The fight begins to a thunderous chant of DRAGO! DRAGO! DRAGO! Drago dominates the early phase, flooring Rocky before the end of the first round. Even the second round has Rocky's face literally used as a punching bag, but with a sudden furious right hook to his face, Drago's face is cut and Rocky turns the tide of the round. The two begin brawling in rage. At the start of the match they were reminded that this was not a sanctioned fight, the rules are dictated by the Russians and they want to see Rocky killed. They are pulled apart and now having sized one another up... The WAR begins and we go in to montage mood as the rounds fly by and the two pummel upon one another By the time the montage is over we're at the final round and the Soviets are screaming Rocky's name. His sheer will and determination to stand up against the mountain of Drago. The Russian manager rushes to the ringside to yell at Ivan for his terrible performance and orders him to win for Mother Russia. Drago chokeslams him and screams I FIGHT FOR ME! I FIGHT TO WIN FOR ME! Now favored by the crowd, Rocky lays in to him with machine gun fire of rapid hooks, smashing in to him as the music builds in to (synthesized) dramatic splendor and Ivan falls to the ground. Across the world people count along with the ref and... ROCKY WINS! ROCKY DEFEATS COMMUNISM! The Russians lift him up as he is cloaked in an American flag and Vince DiCola recreates a MIDI form of the victory music and... then he gives the speech. The most inspirational speech in the history of all universes real and fictional. And that's how the cold war ended.



	2011.08.28 18.35 The gift of fiction My friends. I have often said "I love to listen to people talk about fiction. I could sit and listen for hours", and I wonder how much people believe me. I mean, people have a tendency of saying things to be nice and not mean them. Hell, I'm sure I'm guilty as charged. But not in this case. When people talk to me about fiction, especially their own ideas and stories, I listen. And it sticks. I really adore hearing about it. So, I wanted to thank my friends for sharing everything with me. For talking about their passions with that tone of excitement that can only come from displaying true love for a subject. I thank the few people who have given me spoilers on their upcoming projects. Heck, I even thank those who told me stuff against my will. I may have hated Ultra Magnus' dumb idea for a sitcom, but 5 years later and I still recall the plot of his pilot episode. One of the girls who used to work GNPD, I do not even remember your name, but I remember the fact you were working on a book about an orc unit in Iraq that encounters and battles D'jin. So... though there are countless people to go over, I do want to just say to the world. Chris/Cee-Jay: Your Slayers inspired stories may have gone from rewrite after rewrite based on your perceptions of Cj and his power level or size, but I remember each and every one of them. My favorite was the one with the kangaroo character. Her name escapes me, but she was adorable. Sarah/Sam: I almost have to thank you for my entire damned collection of everything. I have still never read The Dreaming, but I know it's plot intimately from you describing the Fae sections on the phone for me. I still vividly recall Amberleigh's adventures as ambassador (or was she escorting, the finer details fade through the years) and even the real life moments that go with them such as hundred dollar replica swords being thrown at your feet with epic declarations to go with them. I remember your ideas for Sonic fanfiction involving a Sonic 3 adaption with the group following closely behind. Jess/Cooki: You'd be surprised, but I vividly remember Herland, your Scooby Doo adventures and that strange Sailor V story where her boyfriend contracted rabbies. Anything you actively linked to me, I read. You always were an inspired soul and I am proud that I could have RPed with you when I did. Matt/Vortex: Of everyone I am thanking, you were the one who literally gave me everything you ever worked on and cared for my direct opinion on it. For that, I thank you. I read everything with keen interest and fond passion. The best thing you ever wrote, by far, was the story of the girl who was being told by parents and therapist to avoid the girl she was in love with, under the guise that they were against her lesbian relationship. The finale of the story was that she was an imaginary friend, and that "Love is not wrong", if she is happy, it doesn't matter who the partner is. Texy, I really hope you get to write for a living someday. Jon/Wb: Okay, dude. I consider myself blessed that I could read Chip & Walter/Time Trouble, let alone that you care enough about my opinion to let me review the proposed timeline to see my thoughts. To this day I remember every damned thing you sent my way. Ideas you had if they let you write for Archie, translations you did for Disney. You're the reason I know even half as much as I do about Disney and the Duck universe. Not because I wanted to learn for myself, but because you made them so damned interesting I needed to know more to care more about your stuff. Matthias/Terg: Dude, I never was a fan of your Tergcorp stories. Seemed you had more invested in your universe than you ever put on the page, but you know what, I respect the loving shit out of your crazy ass. I've never seen a man so dedicated to a single universe and that's coming from the man who has 60 characters in a 9 year story with his wife. But RP wise? There was no greater partner, back in the day. The stuff you did with Terrornaut, Modesty and Rapidfire was able to keep me awake for a full 48 hours on the sheer need to follow the plot to it's finale. You got me started on RPing in the Sega City universe and we all know where that ended. PSXphile: I have no idea why this popped into my mind, but I'm going over all the stories my friends have shared with me in the past and I thought about the JOKER kilopost written like 10 years ago. Looking back from a modern eye, I wonder if it was based on Persona 2. Vass/TBlood: Same as Terg. I fondly recall all the crazy RPs we did back in the day and all the ones you wrote which I wasn't involved in. Between you, Sam and True Red, I must have read 4 years worth of stories that I had no damned involvement in and yet every storyarc sticks in my mind. Rico: Same with you, dude. Evalcs was one hell of a ride, and I loved reading all your Star Wars themed writings and hearing just how indepth you'd planned all of them. ---and Tricia and Alexis. You two are the two who share fiction with me today. In the present time. Trish, words cannot encapsulate how much the lodgeworld has given me, how much it enriches me to indulge in it day after day and speak about it in nearly every conversation. Sometimes fatiguing, but we care about it equally. TO AN OBSESSIVE DEGREE. To a terrifying degree. Never stop thinking up new things for our crazy cast to do :D And Alexis? Lady GM Sama. Holy shit, you are incredible. Being able to play Mages with you has done so much to my inspiration this past year. You inspire me to be better about something I had already assumed I did more than anyone else, which is absorb the memes in the air around me. You make me want to read, watch and play more just to keep up. I also dearly love both Evil Plan and Sire. Keep writing and I promise I'll keep reading. --- Anyway. I've been typing for 2 hours now. I'm not anxious and stressed anymore. I don't really know why I started. Thank you all. Just. Thank you.



	2011.08.28 18.03 Some random thoughts ( Read more... )



	2011.05.24 17.02 Acen Report! Okay, this is a long one: ( Read more... )



	2011.03.22 00.33 RP Writing meme? Sure! I resolve to never use the same character twice in this meme and give explinations on all characters for those who care. Years writing: Eh, many lots? That's a number in troll. Least favorite character?: I think I'll not fill this one in. I cannot single out a character. Though perhaps Kay wins on merit of being a 13 year old girl. Male or female characters?: I try to work in moderation, of my main characters 3 are guys and 2 are girls. That's about my ratio. Oldest character written?: Lucian King, founder of the KingCorp company which plays a central role to many of the plots in the Lodgeworld universe. He is a master of robotics and after marrying a master geneticist, fathered the prodigy Ethan King. During the golden age of superheroes he took on the persona Proffessor Bling (basically Dr. Eggman) to test his robots. As of modern RP he is in his mid/late 50's, and ignoring the immortal characters is the eldest of the cast. Longest you've written a character?: Character Craig has been fermenting in various forms for 9 years or so. He was originally created as my Mobius Forum World counterpart, where users on the forum would post stories as their username avatar. My username was my real name, so I had to make me. In the Mobius Forum World Craig had a deep involved story integral to the forum and it's fads and fashions. When Tricia and I begun the Lodgeworld, it was actually based partially off of the existing MFW (Sega City for instance is an artifact name) and therefore the Mobius Forum version of Craig was adapted and brought into the Lodgeworld, where his backstory was polished up to change him from The Lackey of the MoFo into a very normal human boy among Goddesses, heroes and spirits, a trait which played a heavy part in my second novel "Normal". Newest character?: Lucas Lane (Brilliant, but insane) the Genius inventor. He was concieved as the GM character for the Genius campeign I am planning. He seems to have traits of a cockney mad hatter mixed with Jack Sparrow. His main invention is a multi-function brass pocket watch which cannot keep time correctly, after a tragedy with a rogue invention, he decided all of his wonders should be kept within the watch to prevent the same thing happening again. Which character of yours would be most likely to... Jump off a bridge?: Alan West. Why, because he no longer factors into the plot. He was a teenager with a speedster ability which allowed him absolute freedom to graffiti the city. When he was arrested they kept him sedated until his abilities were removed. He began a patient/nurse relationship with the onsite nurse of the powered person prison and revealed that his ability made him able to think as fast as he ran and without his ability he processes the world so slow that it feels like seconds are hours to him and that thinking too hard is difficult because he cannot handle concentration for that long. He was let go from the plot after the Facility arc, due to not being interesting. Get drunk and pass out?: Viki McBeal, a criminal psychologist at the powered people prison known as "The Facility". Her job always being a source of great anger for her and a resentment of her boss only fueling the fire, she turns to drink at every occassion she can get. After being paralysed by an encounter with her boss, she has moved in to the lodge with the rest of the main cast and remains the only character able to tell Navi to go fuck herself. She is also chronically depressed since this incident and drinks nigh unstoppably. Kill somebody in a very unorthodox way?: Reynold Sinclair, a scientist in a world of superheroes, who wishes to know what gives people the ability to stretch and summon lightning and is very willing to test their limits while they live. He was first introduced as a powered individual who could take the composition of any structure, chemical or machine and recreate it seamlessly, however it was not long before this gift lead to an obsession that had him manufacturing drugs in order to finance and muscle in as many test subjects as he could. His ultimate goal is to perfect the human body for not only immortality, but to adapt every power possible for human advancement. So far the only results have been blood and gore. Be far too hyper for their own good?: Penny Schultz, the 18 year old psycho telepath who has the emotional development of an 11 year old girl and all the rage and fire of an elder teen who can tell exactly what you think of her tattered dress and will rape your brain for thinking it. During the "Facility" arc, she was introduced as a prisoner of the powered people prison's highest security wing (along with mainstays Isaac and Navi), she was originally arrested when her power manifested in school and she began freaking out, hearing everyone's horrible thoughts about her she was compelled to tear apart the minds of 30 or so students and two teachers. She enjoys dancing and singing while peeling apart people's fears and neurosis. Be murdered?: Amberleigh Andersen, the healing priestess. Daughter of a high priest of the "Blessed" religion of Saygrem, she was raised with the sole intention of summoning an angel into her body and cultivating it with her lifeforce until she died and released it from her coil. Upon discovering this to be part of a plot for the "angels" to take the world of Saygrem for their own, she rebelled against her father and with the help of Tyler Dawn escaped to the Lodgeworld, where she became a nurse and prevailant activist for powered citizen rights (despite not being a powered citizen herself). She was murdered in the first page of my third novel. Be "working" guy/girl?: Lee Cypher, a half-angel from the alien world of Saygrem. Born as an outcast due to his half-angelic nature, he spent two centuries alone wandering the world under the guise of a bard, remaining neutral to the war between the Blessed and Ascendian factions. In my first novel he teamed up with Tyler Dawn to save Amberleigh from the Blessed high priests and escape to Lodgeworld. Due to his care-free attitude and polygamous approach to relationships he would not even understand the problem with his services. Get lost and refuse to ask for directions?: Ken Ellis, surprisingly. Ken is now 42, a reporter for the Sega City Voice and was a smalltime unpowered hero during the golden age of superheroes, known as The Watchdog. During his backstory, when he was young and starting in the business, he was infatuated with the front desk receptionist and the two had a bright sunshiney romance which meant of course she had to die. Since her death Ken has dived into work and become unemotive, cold and stern. He does not like talking to others unless it is under interview or reporting conditions, the only exceptions being his police contact Detective Manning and more recently his adoptive daughter Asia. Ken would never bother asking for directions, he's way too thick headed and stubborn. Plus how scared would you be if a gruff grizzled investigator said "865 Lake Street. Where?!". Have kids?: Due to all of the canon couples having one of Trish's sterile Goddess characters in it, I will default with the Bird/Irvine couple. Irvine is a soldier of fortune who dropped out of college and ended up in the army. For whatever reason he is entirely American but speaks like a foul mouthed Michael Caine, just in the same way Rambo is American but sounds like a gargle factory. He polished his skills in a unit of undesirables who will either excel or die. He doesn't talk about why he left the army, but what is clear is that he ended up as a mercanary in service of Ethan King, where he met fellow mercanary Bird and began a sado-mascohistic relationship too damaged to ever be broken. God I would not want to see how fucked up those kids would be. Star in a horror movie?: Gabriel "John Doe" Sanders. The man is a walking horror and this is why he was killed twice. He wouldn't be the victim, he'd be the killer. The man is a drug addict who was used as a human experiment for a serum to grant normal people superpowers. It had an interesting effect on Gabriel, who after jumping from a mid-level floor of an office building, was rushed into the hospital as a John Doe patient and given blood transfusion. His ability? To absorb the powers, knowledge, memories and skills of people through blood. He went on a rampage, gunning after powered citizens and skilled/knowledgeable people across the city, killing hundreds, injuring more. Only Navi was able to take him down and even then, his spirit lingered and haunted her long enough for her to bring him back... only to remember he is an irredeemable bastard and killed him again. End up in a police station?: Detective McKale, Tricia's partner at the police station and the legal voice of reason and exposition for most RPs which involve him. He does not talk too much about his home life, and simply keeps to his duties on the force and plays a mentor role to Tricia. The two of them have been promoted to the Empowered Citizen Unit designed to tackle crimes involving individuals with super powers. He knew of Tricia's dual identity as Electrawoman long before the information was made public in the Mayor Bling arc. Make the world a better place?: Isaac Romane, or so he claims. Isaac is a powered individual who already has changed the world for the worse a few times. He manifested his power to alter the composition of his body density from intangible to unbreakable. Due to his ability to phase through the walls of any prison, when he was arrested, the city saw it fit to construct a prison for powered individuals which due to it's nature had to break several human rights laws. For 50 years Isaac was hooked up to sedatives designed to keep him from maintaining concentration long enough to use his ability to escape. Understandably, he was enraged when a power removing serum was invented and stripped away his ability so the sedatives were no longer required. After regaining his ability and leading a mass breakout, he rallied as many of the powered people in the city as he could to stage a full scale war against the civillians and EPU forces of the city. However, in recent arcs, he has actually managed to create a powered settlement outside of the city where people can use their abilities in the open without fear of persecution. Since the foundation of the settlement, powered crime in the city has dropped to negligable levels and people agree the world is a better place. So for being a justifiably evil arsehole, he did make the world a better place. Have a torrid gay love affair?: Finally time for Tyler Dawn, the main character from my books. Tyler is basically the Mary Sue version of Craig, and both of them know it. He was born as an imaginary friend back when Craig was being raised in an orphanage and became the personification of his hopes and desires, everything he wished to be for himself. Upon Craig joining the lodgeworld cast, he pulled himself away from Craig's shadow and began carving himself as his own man, afraid of being trapped within his counterpart's shadow. This desire lead him to adventures in the world of Saygrem and to start a relationship with Tricia's character Tamara. Currently he has managed to create a homonculus body to inhabit his spirit in so he will not die when Craig does, however in doing so he sacrificed the comfort and ability that being a spirit granted him. His greatest fears are of death and loneliness. Oh, right, the gay thing. Well, he is REALLY close to Lee. I even wrote a romance scene between the two of them in my third novel at Tricia's request. Relate each word to a character of yours: Love - Tyler "Stressed Bayfield" Dawn Hate - Isaac Romane Money - Ethan King Seduction - Gabriel "John Doe" Sanders Lies - Penny Schultz Tragedy - Viki McBeal Manipulation - Kim Turner Violence - Ruby Chronos Happiness - Lee Cypher Revenge - Lucian King Fear - Sapphire Chronos



	2011.03.12 13.40 This is my life now. (Tuesday night Genius game) (Thursday night Mages game over Skype) You wish you were me. Mood: nerdy



	2011.01.29 13.23 Oh, yeah. This exists. Okay, universe. It's like this. I forgot to cancel my subscription to Livejournal, and so dropped $20 on a journal 4 people read and that I've not updated in months. This will not stand. Plus, thanks to re-reading my NaNo projects, playing Persona 4 and re-reading Pratchett's works and generally inventing new ideas in RP to make Tricia squee (and learning to tabletop new books to make Alexis squee) --- I want to write again. A lot. Looking at my recent IMs, I have my voice back (God, back when I lived on the internet 24/7, I didn't need to FIND my voice. Writing was my voice) and I must use it. Give me a few weeks to find time between 45 hours of being at work per week, 13-15 hours of being on CoD campus (granted, at least 7 hours of that time I could use my laptop constructively) and beating Persona 4/Reading my novels. I WILL START WRITING AGAIN. You wont even believe what I'll write. It'll just be like. Holy shit. Those words coming from your fingers. I want to make love to them. But for now, 9 hours of work.



	2010.10.28 10.42 Bleh Okay, I sucked at keeping up with that meme, I'm not going to lie. That was just abysmal. Ah well... No worries. There is one thing I wont suck at keeping up with and that's National Novel Writing Month, so HAVE AT THEE denizens of the interwebs, bring your A-Game before I am not backing down this year. I actually have a mid-section planed for my story this time. Anywho, as I type right now, I happen to be sitting in College of DuPage's art center, waiting around for Tricia and a friend before we have an epic 6 hour road-trip to Detroit for YoumaCon. Thanks to our hook-ups with cosplay club we're UBERrooming (7 way split) and shall be experiencing sheer awesome. Of course, I will be blogging all the while, because if my LJ is good for no other thing, my con reports are actually fun to write and entertaining to reread. So here's the expected weekend so far: Thursday: - Epic road trip. - Registration. - Hey, I can see Canada from here! - A ROOM WITH 7 PEOPLE! Friday: - Huh, so this is YoumaCon. - Dealers Room - YoumaIdol (Tricia sings Yuki, as Yuki for money) - (other things) Saturday - Strega cosplay! - MOAR PANELS - Dark Hour photoshoot. At midnight. Hell yes. - ...TeamFourStar? Sunday - MOAAAAAAAAAAR PAAAANELS! - Final purchases - Oh shit, we have to drive back and we have work tomorrow. Monday - National Novel Writing Month Tuesday - National Novel Writing Month Wednesday - NaNoWriMo Thursday - NaNo Friday - NaNO! Saturday - NaNOOOOOOO!!!! Sunday > Forever - NaNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



	2010.10.11 20.34 Day 2 - Your Least Favorite Song ( Read more... )



	2010.10.10 12.35 Meme time! Now, Thalia is doing a videogame meme and I wanted to follow suit, but I found all my answers were fairly uninspired, so I decided to throw a curve ball and talk about music. Most of it is Rush, but soon you may learn I am not just a one trick pony. I'm married to a fucking Music Major, do you think she'd allow my continued existance if I only listened to one band?! ( Day 1, Your Favorite Song ) ~~Day 01 - Your favorite song~~ Day 02 - Your least favorite song Day 03 - A song that makes you happy Day 04 - A song that makes you sad Day 05 - A song that reminds you of someone Day 06 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere Day 07 - A song that reminds you of a certain event Day 08 - A song that you know all the words to Day 09 - A song that you can dance to Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep Day 11 - A song from your favorite band Day 12 - A song from a band you hate Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure Day 14 - A song that no one would expect you to love Day 15 - A song that describes you Day 16 - A song that you used to love but now hate Day 17 - A song that you hear often on the radio Day 18 - A song that you wish you heard on the radio Day 19 - A song from your favorite album Day 20 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy Day 22 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad Day 23 - A song that you want to play at your wedding Day 24 - A song that you want to play at your funeral Day 25 - A song that makes you laugh Day 26 - A song that you can play on an instrument Day 27 - A song that you wish you could play Day 28 - A song that makes you feel guilty Day 29 - A song from your childhood Day 30 - Your favorite song at this time last year



	2010.10.03 13.29 Kitty wins! Hey, look. I finally got the video capture to work at a near tolerable rate. Looks like SA2 will have to happen in December, after Cosplay and NaNo projects.



	2010.10.03 00.51 My wife is amazing So, for those who haven't been up to date on my Facebook. Trish and I are full blown crazy awesome with the cosplay this year and have been putting all of our effort and love into a Strega group for YoumaCon this Halloween. This is easy for me, as Takaya. I only have to worry about having some tattoo's done on my arm. Tricia however, needs to cosplay as Jin, which is a butt-fuck messery of Japanese insanity.. Click the link for more details, but pay attention to the sleeves and the fact that normal seams do not work that way. So, today went one on one with the sewing machine. Click for more. You will be rewarded at the end. ( Tricia is awesome and you want to see why. )



	2010.09.20 11.42 Oh, yeah. This thing... Right now I am juggling twelve balls at once, so I'm rarely updating this poor thing. Hopefully the end result will be productive and show for it, though. Trish and I will be attending YoumaCon in Detroit, Michigan this Halloween weekend and shall be wearing our Persona 3 cosplay of Jin and Takaya. We're currently working on making Jin's outfit, but it wont be easy. The sleeves alone come in 20 pieces. Look at your own sleeve and count the number of seams, if you say "one" then you are not wearing a bizarre fucking insane piece of Japanese fashion. Tricia will be. Meanwhile I've been attempting to get my video capture system tuned up enough for me to start posting some Let's Play vids of Sonic. I had a full 40 minute recording of Sonic R which seemed to work until the equiptment fried itself. I'm pushing my limits to make this work, though. Eventually it'll happen. Right now sound seems to be my biggest problem. Take a look at the latest failure. See. Dreadful. Meanwhile, November is coming and I am starting to sketch out the ideas for my new novel "The Eternal Optimism of the Exceedingly Average Craig Bayfield" Given my first three novels were one word affairs, I feel this fourth one deserves a hefty title. Since Trish published Combat Waitress, she's wanted to make our RP universe (still without a real name, spare "Lodgeworld") stories into a full on series collaborating with one another and even linking in to other stories which take place in the MFW. Therefore, in responce, Eternal Optimism will be the chronological first story in my side of the lodgeworld with her first novel Double Act being the first from her side, and first in general. Currently I envision the plot being an updated adaption of my earliest skits and RPs on the Mobius Forum, with Stressed Bayfield's personality and motivations being updated to match his current main character self and the Tricia/Craig relationship retroactively shoehorned in. The best part about this one is that it gets to take ANCIENT RP log from 7/8 years ago and apply it to the modern day fully developed world. For instance a gag plot was a super villain (called Proffessor Bling of all things) invaded a Rush concert and Electrawoman had to team up with Ninja Neil Peart (with drumstick nunchucks) to fight him and his evil robots off. This was a silly RP plot when we were bored and feeling dumb. Now it will be a scene in my novel. Not only that, but Proffessor Bling, the gag character created for that one scene... he's a reoccuring villain who still exists in modern day RP, his schemes even referenced in Combat Waitress and being an instigator in my second novel Normal. You can see why I'm looking forward to this. Unlike previous NaNo projects, where it's been all "serious, serious, character development, serious, serious..." now I get to basically play a comic writer taking some Silver Age stories and making them fit in with modern canon. THIS IS FUN! But for now it is September, so Imma play Birth By Sleep.



	2010.06.12 23.59 No more ACen So, we've had enough typing about this convention already. Let's end this. ( ACen finale! THE MUSICAL! ) The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and had a final look about the dealer's room, picking up the comissions. Alas, reality called us back and by 2pm we were back in Aurora, richer for the experience and with many memories to share. Oh and we've already started prepping cosplay for next year. If this year was the Reality of Haruhi Suzumiya, next year will be The Wonderland of Haruhi Suzumiya. Look out for it.



	2010.06.12 12.34 Breaking the ACen recaps for a few hours to share this. Pokemon fans, please listen.



	2010.06.12 10.32 Yet more ACen recap LAST TIME, ON DRAGON BALL Z KAI! Bayfield and his group of Haruhi cosplayers did stuff and had fun until Chelsea and Alexis had to go home. Undettered, Craig and Tricia bounded on to their next panel. Will they be strong enough to take on the roles of two of the most popular characters in gaming history, and will their hotel room feel empty and lonely without the two good friends they had so much fun with? Find out NOW... ( Read more... ) And with that out of the way, the next entry shall chronicle Denny's and KARAOKE. Karaoke was amazing and is worth a read. There are no videos yet, but both Trish and I got up and it rocked out. Stick around, part six of ACen is coming soon!



	2010.06.11 13.37 Acen part 4 I shall finish this con report. I must succeed. And to do so, I must type more words. Read them as I type them, oh denizens of the internet, and if Goku requires spirit energy--- wait until Mr. Satan orders you to do it. It's more dramatic that way. ( Filler arc ) So, next time... Turnabout Anime Justice. That deserves it's own entry and I need to get to work. ---So tonight I promise to add more to this. If nothing else, you get to see VIDEO of me acting as Cloud Strife. Stick around. NEXT TIME, ON DRAGON BALL Z KAI!!!



	2010.05.21 20.44 Three parts into this Acen recap and I'm still on the first day?! WHAT. Okay, let's move on then. ( Read more... )



	2010.05.19 01.06 Part 2 of EPIC CON REPORT is engaged. Not even Cammy and lolita can counter the creepiness of Salad Fingers ( More con report goodness under cut )



	2010.05.16 23.54 And now it is time for the epic con report. Three days of awesome and win, by far the best convention I've been to since DragonCon 2004, I would even say that thanks to Trish, Alexis and Chelsea, it hit the number 1 spot. I'll post each segment piece by piece so that I can keep a track of my stuff. If you want to see some lulz, go straight to Anime Hell. I found as many of the videos as I could. ( The first morning )* Coming soon: Giardano's "The Reality of Haruhi Suzumiya" ANIME HELL ---be there, or be square.



	2010.05.16 21.56 Prelude to ACEN report This was written on Friday morning. It is a perfect warm-up lead in to the giant con report I am typing up. Photo gallery of 180 pictures is on both LJ and Facebook if you wish to see it before I write the context up. - As I write this, it is the morning of the first day of ACEN. I know, I know, future Craig is posting this on Monday, but trust me, as the present Kitty writes these words, it is 9.56am on the Friday morning, he is wearing his RONFAR outfit and Tricia is curled up in blankets to his side. We'll be hitting the floor in no time, but to pass time while Trishie gets ready for the day, I thought I'd type about how Thursday went... So, at the lodge, Tricia and I were all packed up to go and left at a respectable hour of 8am. Our first stop was due to be le bank to transfer funds, get physical cash and help Trish pay her voice teacher for the final day of college. That didn't go well, TCF opens at 9am and we had to be at college by that point. So--- hopefully that wont cause any problems, right? Right? I don't want to rant about financial shit, especially as it's all worked out where I sit in the future, but to put a long story short. FUUUUUUUUUUUUU--- At 9am, Trish and I went out seperate ways as she had finals and I had to meet with Dani to get to the Hyatt. She picked me up and we went on a mystical journey across the land, from Glen Elyn to Naperville to Bollingbrook to Joliet and then eventually to ACEN. There was a long gap in the middle where Beatrice, Dani and myself finished off all of the remaining cosplay. Saturday (which is the past as of posting, but future as of writing) she will be dressing as Princess Zelda and needed a few things painted, and Bee needed a cape for her From Dusk Til Dawn cosplay finished. Time moved swiftly, though, and by 2pm I was checked in to room 357 of the Hyatt, the first floor of the host hotel? HELL YEAH. I made it my business to KEEP this room for the weekend. I don't have a picture of the view yet, but by the time I post this I will so... LOOK AT THIS! Picture courtesy of THE FUTURE Alas, in my big scramble to reach the room and arrange stuff (mostly involving my bank. But I told you I wouldn't rant about that), I lost track of Dani and crew, which kind of left me in an odd situation of being all alone at the hotel with no cellphone. Because I am one of the four people in the world without a cellphone. This lack of phone was a large vulnerability, as it kept me out of contact with Tricia and our expected guests for the night. Before parting with Dani, however, I did leave a message on Tricia's phone stating the room number, so my assumption was that by staying in the room, I would be able to recieve a call. So I waited. I waited and I waited. Had the day have gone differently (bank stuff) I would have walked to the local cinema and sat in on a screening of Iron Man 2, alas, things were bad and I was needed by the phone. Two things occured to me since this. One: There is an S-Video slot in the 37" TV the rooms are equipt with. I could have utilized that had I have brought my S-Video cable and Justice. Two: The alarmclock has an iPod dock. Very useful. I worked this out about 4 hours into the wait. So, 9pm rolls around and I'm getting antsy, so I literally have the door open and am scanning the hotel floor from my balcony view while running in to check on the hotel phone. Eventually I spot Dani and Julie running around, so I high tail it down and ask to borrow her phone, patching a call through to T- Oh, there she is. She walked in the door literally as soon as I had finished doing this, proving oncemore that serendipity is always on my side. How many cons have I bullshitted without a cellphone and managed to make miraculous feats of great timing like this? I have literally lost count, but I am reminded of that one MCM Expo where I managed to find Ross and Rel, after they failed to meet me at Tottenham Court Road. Here I only had a Hyatt where Trishie had a room number and contacts who knew where I was. There I had an entire damn city to find them in. With Trish in the room, we quickly set up camp and got our group together. Megan had prearranged to stay for the first night and we were hosting our wonderful friends for life Chelsea and Alexis. Megan ended up bringing two guys called Martin with her and also ended up asking for the entire weekend. We adjusted plans accordingly and vegged out for the night. Trish, Alexis and myself were in full on Haruhi-ism mode. They did the Hare Hare Yukai to prepare for Saturday and then we watched the bootleg version of Disappearance, until it cut out 1 hour 40 minutes in. Martin, Martin, Megan and myself spent a lot of time talking about Gundam, Top Gear, TvTropes and Mega Man, all good stuff. We got along with them pretty well. The night disolved quickly, though, and morning came. As I type, Tricia is in the shower. The con is started. We are due to make our epic debut as Lucia (V.2) and Ronfar. Watch out con, there will be fun and there will be photos. - Present Craig here, just adding to this post. The bank stuff was sorted out without incident, no overdraft fees.



	2010.05.04 22.45 So... yeah. I've been busy making cosplay stuff with Trish. Acen is next week. Let's see what our prep has done with the Cosplay Club pre-con photoshoot. Oh my!



	2010.04.11 00.17 Haruhi Disappeared. But she came back Trish and I just spent the last 162 minutes watching The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, with subs and all. Tears were shed. Many of them. Mostly for Yuki, but I admit... even the bossy little bitchgod made me weepy--- and then there was Kyon. I had a lot of fears going in to see this movie. The entire Haruhi book series is written in Kyon's perspective and the anime did a remarkable job of maintaining the narrative, though losing a few cute things along the way. The movie, however, dealt with the fourth novel. The second best book I've ever read. The rest of the novels deal with BIG THINGS happening and amazing circumstances that Kyon finds himself, a normal human, involved in. The fourth one deals with big things in his head, while the world around him is mundane and normal. The entire thing is a giant character building excercize for both the lead character and the ensamble darkhorse character Yuki Nagato. Kyon himself monologues a decent description of the movie's content: "What would you do if you were trapped in hell, constantly wishing to be free. One night, without you knowing and without your permission, an unknown person sweeps you away and drops you off in heaven. Without knowing who and without knowing why and with no way of getting back. Should the person be grateful?" To give answers would be too much, but the book was able to bring together all the key elements of plot up until that point and wrap it around a character triggering moment which would solidify the status quo of the characters all the way up to the final book which will be released this summer. The movie version tries to build on the drama and action elements the best way it can. Firstly it moves one key scene from the middle of the movie to the climax, where it damned well belongs. Not only that, but what was once first person narrative becomes a Evangelion styled journey into the center of the mind where we get symbolic images of what is going on behind the train of thought. And then we get the few seconds of action. Let's just say that a cameo appearance of a character turns from a few second long crowning moment of awesome into a two minute psychotic terrifying --- shudder - One last thing I'll mention is that I remember quite clearly when I watched the movie adaption of Rent, Chris Columbus stated that "Goodbye Love" had to be removed last minute because it's over emotional tone drained audiences so much they didn't care when Mimi was going to die at the end. I'm not sure if this movie walks the same line. There are no less than three moments in the movie where our heartstrings (or those who are emotionally invested into the character you would be a MONSTER not to care about) are pulled right out of our chest and that's before the climatic portion of the movie begins. When we get through the major climax, having dealt with the aforementioned Evangelion interspective and the situation which happens after it, I was drained. I'd cried two times already and my heart was racing from a pretty intense scene. The movie gives you ample time to recover before laying one final heartwrenching scene upon the audience and then just letting the movie trot along to it's final resting place. By the third time I was spent and didn't have anything more to give. It was 2 hours and 45 minutes after all and emotionally intense so fiercely during that final hour. Another point I'd like to make is, much like the book, the climax IS unresolved. Kyon actually spends the last moments of the movie promising to finish when he has time. But that's how it happened in the book, so it's okay. They do go back and finish it all up and Yuki gets a crowning moment of awesome in the process. So have faith, Haru-nyan enthusiasts, she'll be back by fall. Hopefully.



	2010.02.23 10.30 Just finished Case 2 of Miles Edgeworth: AAI. I think it is, so far, inferior in tension and gameplay to it's court-room based predecessors, but storywise it's fun and the characters are quirky. Crowning moment of win thus far: Edgeworth lays the world's biggest lampshade on a common complaint within the Phoenix Wright fandom, the "15 minutes in the future" storyline having Nokia 2200's as the main cell-phone. When Edgeworth is confronted with a rather basic, yet modern, phone (with camera and keyboard) he starts freaking out about how complicated and pointless it is, while Gumshoe rambles about how primative and basic it is (no e-mail/internet) and then laughs at how dumb he is for not keeping up to date. It's this kind of dynamic that makes me happy. It also gives me something to cling onto while playing this game. Edgeworth is not Nick or Polly. He is the most serious straightman in the world and his sidekick is not the snarky voice of unhelpfulness, but witless Gumshoe. It's a different dynamic, and Trucy/Apollo had the best one by FAR. But this one is just so cute and full of moments of cute hilarity. Also Frisky Frisca is awesome, but we knew that since Phoenix Wright 2. Not met Ms. Skye yet, but eagerly awaiting her arrival. PS: Sextacuallar remix of Gumshoe theme is sex.

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