New Online Portfolio

Finally found a decent free online web portfolio. I Plan on using it until I have what I need to make one from scratch, like I should. The image to the right is the first project I’ve uploaded in it, below is the link to the portfolio.

http://vaughn.carbonmade.com/

Updated my resume with the new link, along with some other old things, such as my old address in Cali. A tough battle ahead, finding a good job during school, god be with me.

I wouldn’t mind having a part time blogging gig for one of the many blogs I frequent. Any of them would suffice, but I think I’d like to write for either Cinematical, /Film or Joblo. So if anyone on staff from any of these sites is reading this… HIRE ME! Help a brotha’ out.*

*No, I’m not Black.

Movie Review: Tekkonkinkreet

Tekkonkinkreet (A+)

I kind of got out of Anime right after High School, I felt I had lost touch with it’s ability to induce that magical feeling, no other genre really was able to do. The last anime movie I had willingly watched, was Steamboy, which I loved. Maybe it’s because I enjoyed it so much that I was just waiting for the right movie to come along, and bring out that long-lost magic. Well, Tekkonkinkreet did it!

I feel I have to talk about the art direction of this movie, it was amazingly beautiful. Simple animation for the characters, and a cel-ish painted 3D environment. It didn’t hurt that this was made by the same studio that brough up The Animatrix (which I loved by the way). The landscapes, city skylines, everything, was so detailed.

The story revolves around 2 orphaned brothers, Black, and White, living on the streets in their beloved Treasure Town. Life here can be both serenely peaceful, yet insanely violent. Both brothers must keep Yakuza from taking over the town, turning it into a large amuzement/tourist city. Evil as it seems, has set it’s sights on the two brothers, who claim Treasure Town as their city.

There is a definite underlying good/evil omnipresent throughout the movie. Unlike most reviews, I really don’t want to say much about the flick, I would greatly urge you to run out and rent it…. now, like right now, go!

~Chris

In Soviet Russia….

OK, so don’t mind the post title, something random that JUST came to mind. If you know the type of joke, feel free to finish it now, I’ll wait………………………..

Okay, cool. Now, school is finally done with, well, this semester anyway. It was pretty interesting, feels like yesterday that it was the first day. 8 week semesters will do that I guess. I took Christian Morality, which could easily be described simply as…Mind Fuck, and Global Perspective. For Global Perspective, I learned under the Dial-Tone known as Mr.Biank. The guy is amazing with History, is really cool… but if you have his class, bring a tape-recorder, and don’t bother to take notes. You’ll be counting sheep and popping Zzz’s before you know it, trust me.

I really only enjoyed the first-half of his class, because it was about the History of Europe from 1945-2000. Being a HUGE European/Cold War/WWII fanatic, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Global Perspective, while being a complete walk in the park, was definitely a deep experience. Really engaging into the depths of Christianity, even talking about Islam and Judaism.

I’m still looking for travel programs, or exchange programs to Europe for next summer, or whenever I can. Most of them are all $5,000 or more, not including room and board fees. I’d like to go to either France, Germany or England. If I end up going to France, I’d love to see what Bayonne is like now, and see if Biarittz beach has changed any, ahhh… good times. If England, I want to check out my old Elementary School, and our old houses, if Germany, I’d love to see the house we lived in, where I was the “Little American Baby”.

If I end up going soon, chances are I won’t come back. I feel being in Newport News, hell in VA I am in a Cultural Vacuum, void of anything spectacular to experience, void of travel capabilities. Which reminds me I still need to try to find German or French language schools in the area, haven’t had any luck yet.

I’ve been told I write as if I’m talking to someone, I think I’m just tired. Hmm… what do you think?

~Vaughn

Blah

Blah, such an apathetic word, don’t you agree? A few people said they needed something to read while at work, good to know what I write is only good for those who are bored :p lol. Here’s some random thoughts.

I really don’t have anything interesting to write about, which sucks. Midterms finally came around, the one for Christian Morality was amazingly easy, it all came down to how well you can write your opinion. So unless you manage to bastardize the English language, you should do just fine, and I did… 100 bitch!  Global Perspective I took tonight, and it was a little tougher, but not near as hard as I thought… shit, maybe studying does work……….no, can’t be.

Hopefully some of these staffing agencies I’m using can find me a better paying job, with more hours, bills suck. I learned I can’t just walk into these places in business casual like I could in Cali; no, I need to put James Bond to fucking shame in the clothes department, just to get a smile out these people, and I did, I looked fucking good.

I want to make a cake, like a heavily chocolaty, coma inducing rich chocolate cake. Like, 2 layers, mix of milk/dark butter-creme icing (you’re getting very hungry right now, aren’t you…).

So my family, mainly my Mom and Brother, are calling me a “Food Snob”. Apparently I tend to put my nose up to crap food, god forbid, right? Sorry if I prefer something homemade to some salt-packed pork rib thing. Ever since I started getting back into cooking again, I’ve been appreciating home-made food, and becoming a facsit ass toward anything that’s not, so they say (I am).

I didn’t know this, but both my Great-Grandfather, and Step-Great-Grandfather on my Mom’s side were both Chefs, apparently one being popular in New York, so that along with my Great-Grandmother being damn near one, my Grandmother plus Mother, I guess it’s in my blood. I think it’s cool, not many guys can cook, and women love men who can cook.

I can’t seem to find any language school in my area, I want to finish learning French. My grandparents help, but I need more. I want to learn German as well… also Korean, Japanese, portuguese and Spanish. One day at a time haha. I actually had a friend begin to help me learn Korean a bit, but that quickly went no-where, I know very basic stuff, like My name is ______, Hello, Goodbye, How are you, etc. Same with German and Spanish, I know basic conversational stuff.

Which reminds me… I want to move to Europe. I want a place in England, France, Germany, Italy… ok, everywhere… who wants to help me save up for them??????

My school is pretty void of single girls, well… almost void of young women completely. It sucks, the only women my age are engaged, or married.

So, I can’t think of anything else, and I hope these little mini-diatribes helped you through your painful workday. Now get back to work before Lumbergh comes by and asks you to work this wekeend.

Corny Video Game Design School Commercials

They go a little something like this…

CORNY GUY ONE
Where do you think this guy should go?

CORNY GUY TWO
I don’t know, how about over there.

CORNY GUY ONE
Great Idea! Man, can you believe we get paid do play video games?

CORNY GUY TWO
I know, I still can’t believe it, and to think MOM thought we couldn’t do anything by playing video games.

Sigh, lol. I think the directors, producers, and even the actors of these painfully lame commercials don’t have a clue about what they’re advertising.

Check out this awesome parody of one of the many stupid commercials.
http://tightengraphics.ytmnd.com/

Movie Review: Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (B)

I knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be like all other Stoner flicks, mainly because it has the names Apatow, and Rogan attached to it.

When not getting high to the tune of Electric Avenue, Dale Denton (Seth Rogan) works as a Process Server, who seems to actually enjoy his job. While delivering a subpoena, Dale witnesses a murder by drug Lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and his corrupt cop sidekick/lover (Rosie Perez). Whilst making the noisiest escape humanly possible, Dale makes the mistake of tossing out his half-spent joint. The joint is found and happens to contain the rare, “Dopest of Dope”, Pineapple Express strain or marijuana, which leads straight back to Dale and his dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco). Let the hilarity ensue.

I have to admit, I wasn’t fully sold on PINEAPPLE EXPRESS as much as I was with THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, KNOCKED UP, and SUPERBAD. This is was because I haven’t really seen a decent Stoner flick, maybe I had my hopes a little… high (sorry), hoping for a decent story to be thrown in there with the usual stoner movie jokes. With PINEAPPLE EXPRESS my hopes were met. No, exceeded. One of the better parts of the movie were the scenes with Red (Danny McBride), who plays Saul’s supplier. He steals almost every scene he is in. I also loved how they made this an 80’s buddy flick.

There are a few things I felt a little cheated on, like why was Bobby Lee in the movie, and not given a single funny line??? I liked the soundtrack, it was nice, it felt real, like it actually went along with the story and the pace of the flick, although the theme from the trailers was completely MIA — damn, two Double Entendres in one post . This was made up with Huey Lewis and the News putting in their cheezy sounding, yet fun theme song. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS didn’t blow me away, unfortunately, it felt like more of the same from Apatow and his crew. With the amount of consistent funny moments, I felt like every funny moment was in one of the many trailers or TV spots. Seriously, the movie and the trailers/tv spots didn’t feel much different. With all its high and low points, this flick is more Apatow crew comedy gold, hopefully they can keep it up and not falter, “cough”DRILLBIT TAYLOR”cough”.

Next week I’ll post up my review of TROPIC THUNDER, which I feel will out do PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.

E3 2008

E3 2008 is finally over, and has been for a couple days now. Overall I’m a little disappointed. On the front lines of the ongoing Console War, no one really took top honors in my opinion. Battling each other with statistics as usual — boring! Granted, they all displayed their upcoming games, as expected (where was Killzone 2, damn you Sony), but not in the way they should have. I mean in your face, like… “Look Microsoft, fuck your system, fuck your games, and fuck Bill Gates”; with the most anticipated titles showing teaser/trailers, not actual gameplay!

I barely saw Nintendo’s presentation, but I heard I didn’t miss much. Microsoft’s showcased Gears of War 2, which was expected, but the later half of the presentation was a joke. Being a Sony fanboy myself, I loved theirs, even though they didn’t do as well as they could have — see above paragraph. What put Sony above the other two, was how they utilized Little Big Planet’s concept of user created content, to make a presentation. Oh my, informative and fun, this made listening to more statistics not want to make me kill myself.

I watched E308 coverage almost entirely on G4, which I have to admit, is getting better. Somehow they managed to get — and keep, attractive hosts, that know what the hell they are talking about, and Olivia Munn is rapidly taking over Morgan Webb’s spot as hottest gaming chick alive. Like I said I was overall disappointed with E3. It isn’t the E3 it used to be, thanks to bitchy people. First of all, why is E3 in July, with Christmas around 5 months away?! Limited entry to only people in the “industry”, I feel like the whole experience has been watered down, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks that.

That’s all for now, later I will do a little post on the games I am exited about and why.

The Dream

I’ve always dreamed of playing for Arsenal one day (keep dreaming I know I know). But, this amazing new video from Nike, directed by Guy Ritchie give you that little hint at what accomplishing that dream might feel like. Even though I hate Manchester United, I thought it was pretty cool how the main character is messed with by Ronaldo. It’s truely amazing, check it out below!!!

Check out the video in higher definition here!

Santiago Canyon Fire

Above is a video of the Santiago Canyon fire from October/November of last year in Irvine, CA. I remember being able to see the glow of these fires from my apartment building, less than a mile away. It’s funny how these events, natural or not, make one feel tiny in this world, just from the sheer force, the full power.

Despite though, the yearly fires, earthquakes and sand-blasting high speed Santa Ana winds, I love California. Call me crazy. but I miss it dearly. I have a lot to say about the state I call my second home, but thats another post.

Urban Star Wars

Browsing my daily routine of Movie sites, I came across this pretty unique set of Star Wars pics, not just any ordinary Star Wars pics, but Urbanized Star Wars pics. Being a die-hard city boy as I am, I am in love with these pics. Below is my favorite of the set, along with the link to the gallery!

I love this one for many reasons, the main one being the utter contrast between the setting and the Imperial Guards, its stunning.

Photographers Website

Better gallery with pics