So Wazzup?

I'm quite busy at the moment. People who think artists have an easier time than geophysicists and microbiologists should enroll in art school, but here's what I'm engaged in for the time being:

1) I'm reading an interesting e-book, "Creation Compromises" from the staff at Apologetics Press. It deals mostly with newfangled creation schemes like the Gap Theory, Progressive Creationism and Theistic Evolutionism from a presuppositionalist perspective. And it's free! Any Christian worth his salt over the controversial matter of creation should check out this written work, but be warned: there is quite a smattering of Arminianism at the very beginning.

2) I'm going over the old ground in my electronic copy of Joseph R. Faranaccio's book "Faith with Reason: Why Christianity is True" and while I'm finding it quite helpful, I must admit that the old evidentialist frrame of mind still gets in the way of my meager understanding of presuppositionalism. However, a recent reader reply on Answers in Genesis sparked this little thought on my part: Why do some Christians who normally hold to presuppositionalism suddenly turn into rampant evidentialists when matters concerning creation are presented on the discussion table? Think about it.

3) I've also been checking out some works by the Japanese artist Yoji Shinkawa. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is best known as the character and technical artist/designer behind the Konami games "Metal Gear Solid" and "Zone of the Enders". In fact, if you head on over to Peter Pike's official website and check out the cover art for his next novel "Ghost Shadows", you can tell that I've incorporated Shinkawa's fluid chiaroscuro lighting techniques into my realistic drawings (in fact it was Shinkawa's work that got my ball rolling on realistic art).

4) Fandom galore! While downloading resource packs for use in Game Maker 5.3, I found out that one of them contained various MIDI files from assorted games, movies and songs. Around more than a third of the tunes were old-school BGM tracks from the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series on Genesis, from the first game up to Sonic & Knuckles, and there were some tracks from Donkey Kong Country (which I didn't get to play), Final Fantasy 3 and 5 and even a midi rendition of Roxette's "Almost Unreal" (I was wondering what it was doing there, but then again "Almost Unreal" was a major hit in Europe). I had the time of my life jamming to the Azure Hill race track BGM from Sonic 3 and the infamous classic melody of Starlight Zone from Sonic 1.

5) I've been playing an online Flash game, "Ultimate Sonic" by menace.ch. It used sprites from the GBA game "Sonic Advance 2" and, needless to say, I was impressed by the detailed animation, which led me to search out the sprites myself (I've had a fruitful search, mind you...). That aside, the game also featured a hidden end theme: if you manage to unlock Amy Rose (the pink hedgehog with a HUGE crush on Sonic) and beat the game with her, you get to hear the first stanza of the Team Rose theme song "Follow Me" from the game "Sonic Heroes". Result? Up till now I couldn't get the song out of my head. It's just so darned CUTE, and the fact that Kay Hanley has a very good upbeat singing voice doesn't help matters any. Not only did it beat out the Pop n' Twinbee song "Twin Memories" by a mile, it also inspired the remodeling of a character design, which you can check out here.

6) I discovered a Japanese fanart page dedicated exclusively to Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah, sure, it contained the usual drawings and stuff, but it also had an...interesting hidden gallery. I left the website thinking "Why didn't I think of turning Sonic into a real person?" Man, these Japanese cartoons are stranger than I thought...

7) Exclusive "BabelVania" production update! New levels are now available! In addition to the "Cavern Underneath the Soil", "Decrepit Watchtower", "'Scientific' Laboratory" and "The Temple of Salt", we now have the "Ivory Clock Tower" and "Corridor of Denial". New dialogues and characters available too! And finally, let's not forget the 30+ SHORT SWORD CLONES! The only problem is that...uh...I...don't...have...Macromedia Flash.

Oh, you didn't know I was making up a "game" called BabelVania? ;-)

You Gotta Have White Hair!

I got whiff of a recent trend in the Konami game, Castlevania. Unless you haven't heard by now, a majority of the new heroes have white hair. The artist Ayame Kojima must have a flair for hot punks with silvery white locks. But I also picked up another common thread. Ever notice how in the games wherein the heroes have white hair, Dracula (or some other penultimate enemy) surely got defeated? By "surely" I mean they kicked his butt hard and good, and effectively returned Vlad to his 100 years' slumber.

If so, then I have a brand new theory: the secret to the efficiency of a Vampire Hunter lies in his hair color! Think about it. Of all the heroes in the Akumajou Dracula universe, who were the ones who managed to put Drac down for the count for _good_? The guys with white hair, of course! Alucard (Nocturne in the Moonlight version), Nathan Graves (greyish hair, but close), Juste Belmont, Soma Cruz...that's four games with four guys who had the potential to become ridiculously broken, overpowered AND handsome to boot (I would've listed Hector, but Curse of Darkness isn't out yet). Who else could run around carrying the entire US armory in their cloaks without so much as even showing signs of fatigue? And when they fought through their games, they finished it real good, while in comparison their non-white haired counterparts did poorly! Why? Because they had white hair while their other compatriots didn't!

I mean, just think for a second. At some point in the Dracula novel, Jonathan Harker's hair turns white from despair. Later, after he and Quincey Morris dealt the finishing blows on Vlad, only one of them survived the final battle. Guess who it was. ;-)

And besides, consider the following:

1) Is this why Trevor Belmont had to rely on three (THREE! Do you know how much three is!?) Partner Spirits just to get through Transylvania and defeat the Count?

2) Is this why Simon got afflicted with a horrible curse and had to fight Dracula TWICE just to get rid of it?

3) Is this why Christopher didn't kill the Count outright on his first adventure (no pun intended), leading to the kidnapping of his son Soleiyu?

4) Is this why Richter Belmont got brainwashed by Shaft 5 years after he initially schooled the Count, turning him into a bad guy?

5) Is this why both Hugh Baldwin and Maxim Kischine weren't chosen to wield the Vampire Killer, and subsequently got twisted to serve the purposes of the Dark Side (TM) out of sheer jealousy?

6) Is this why neither the Genesis game "Bloodlines" nor the N64 games were even marginally successful compared to the other blockbusters?

7) Is this why Dracula had to steal Cornell's powers of lycanthropy in exchange for the release of the hapless werewolf's human sister?

8) Is this why Koji Igarashi thought of removing Sonia Belmont's game from the series' official timeline?

9) Is this why Julius Belmont lost his memory after sealing the Demon Castle in the sun and had to wait 30 long years for a white-haired exchange student to foil Graham Jones' plans and destroy the castle's chaotic essence?

10) Is this why Leon Belmont NEVER got to fight Matthias as the final boss?

11) Is this why Nathan Graves wasn't _too_ powerful in his GBA debut (remember, he had greyish hair)?

And lastly:

12) Is this why Dracula rises every 100 years??

If my assumptions are correct, then by all means...I'll force myself to forget about proper cranial ventilation, let my hair grow out until the end of the year and bleach it a snowy white. Then I'll gladly plunk myself into a coffin for a good, long rest until the year 2106 comes along or some cultist nutcase decides to disturb my beauty sleep.