I'm back out of the hospital, and if I'm lucky, I might even visit the internet again sometime soon. Thanks for all the get-well cards.

In between real-life obligations, moving, and jobs and whatnot, I decided to start drawing again, and last night, to my surprise, I somehow ended up "gaining a level" while racking up "experience points" in drawing, while sitting at my desk. I don't know how to explain it, but somewhere between the 20th and 50th or so sketches, I just noticed that I'd started drawing a lot better than I used to. So, this being the way things are, it got me thinking...

With the way the job economy is right now, I'm trying to do everything I can to keep earning a little extra money on the side to help with rent and bills and stuff, considering I have my own little place now. If you'd be interested in buying a sketched/painted/inked commission off of little ol' Me sometime, leave a comment on down there at the bottom of this post, and let me know. I'd like to get an idea of what kinds of commissions I'd be expecting to take up, and, ultimately, whether it'll be worth the effort to drag out all those painting and drawing supplies again. If things look good, I'll just make a basic post with prices, types of commissions, and instructions for requests and payment.

Examples! Here are two of my favorite sketches of Fred out of the countless pieces I whipped up last night:



''Prostate Exam''


''GNARLY!''




Even though all I really have to show of the other day's labors is on ruled paper and in pencil, I assure you that any commissions I take will definitely be otherwise. Thanks in advance.

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I've been falling for a while, but I'm about to grab onto something really big.

..I promise.

I have Left 4 Dead for both Xbox 360 and PC, if anyone ever wants to play.

My gamertag on Xbox Live is FredrykVPhox, but my friends list is currently full, so don't bother trying to add me just yet.

As for my Steam ID, just look up the email address fredryk@tampabay.rr.com, and my id should show up.

Just leave a comment for this post containing your gamertag or steamID, or both. I'll leave comments on this post screened, so you don't have to worry anyone people seeing it but me.

You're rarely ever going to hear me rant about politics on here. I think arguing about politics on the internet is just plain stupid. Still, I feel like I should at least let all of you know--in a fair, balanced fashion--how I feel about the election.

.

First, I'll go ahead and say that I'm not very politically educated, and even as I am a registered voter, I'm registered non-partisan.

Now, I want to say something about Obama.

I think he's a really, really smart guy. He has a lot of charisma, and he knows how to speak well. He looks and sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders, and seems like he knows what's going on.

That's how he looks to me. As far as anything certain, I have no clue, whatsoever. And I seriously doubt anyone else does.

About fifteen or twenty people I know that voted for Obama, I asked them why, just out of curiosity. Most answered with something like, "Oh, he's just got this aura about him, man. I have this vibe that makes me think he's what this country needs."

Others answered with, "I voted for him because the republicans have been screwing everything up, and I hate republicans," or something like, "I voted for Obama because he's going to save our country, I just know it."

When I asked them what they thought about his policies, I got a lot of mixed answers. As it turned out, after a few more questions, less than five of them even knew what any of his policies were, and the ones that did know, only mentioned the one or two they were concerned about. Almost all of them honestly just voted for him because they looked at and listened to the guy, and liked his presentational value.

So, as far as being the "holy savior" of the USA and all this other shit that everyone's bouncing off the walls about, I'm not so sure about that, but I'm not going to say that I think he's going to destroy the world. I don't know what he's going to do. How many people out there really do?

Yeah, I'll admit that Bush has screwed up a lot of stuff, but in a way, I'm going to be happy when he gets out of office, because I am so sick and tired of everyone around me blaming all of their problems on the guy. Gas prices go up, and it's Bush's fault. Someone gets taxed a few extra dollars on their McDonalds paycheck, and it's because of Adolph Bush and his band of ruthless republicans. Even as the right really has screwed up a lot of stuff here recently, thus giving up all of the house and senate majorities to the left, I still get sick listening to everyone blaming all of their problems on the president, as if he's the only person in our government right now with power to make decisions.

Does anyone remember the system of checks and balances we have? I never hear anyone bitching about congress, or the senate, or anyone other than Bush, whenever they hear about a bill that's been passed into law that they don't like.

Anyway, I have one more thing to say, and this goes out to anyone that likes guns, owns guns, or has any interest in purchasing guns in the near future:

You'd better do it fast.



H.R. 6257: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008


If you remember reading about HR1022, here's something very similar, and as the government now sits with an entirely democratic majority, chances are that HR6257 is going to be passed into effect really soon.

I've already bought all of the assault rifles and high-capacity magazines that I can afford, and the more I look on the internet at websites like Cheaper Than Dirt, the less and less of these particular items they have in stock. Everyone else knows it's coming, so I figured I should let as many other people know about it, as well.

Good luck! :D

One night, we were cruising down 3rd Avenue South (a really ghetto part of town) and stopped at the shell station to get some gas, and we ended up shelling out $20 and getting this blinged-out classy timepiece.



I think this sends a great message. A really great, sociological message.

A lot of you probably don't know this kid, and honestly, I really didn't know him too well, either, but he liked me, so I figured I'd post this for all his friends who may want some extra stuff to download that's related to him, for his memory's sake.

I hung out with Rukus a few times at a few cons. We got drunk and messed up together at every one, and had a lot of good times together with mutual friends.

Unfortunately, several days ago, he was found dead in his apartment, having decided on his own to end his life. I don't really have much to say or offer about it. Suicide is an awful choice.

Khyber linked me to this decent picture of Rukus, so I figured I'd post it here for you guys. I don't know who took the picture, but they did a damn good job, but if they're mad at me for posting it here, too bad. It needs to be here. If not (this is what I'm assuming), then as I said, thanks for taking a great shot:




..At MFM 2005, Rukus helped me film a short movie that was really fucking funny, especially because of the amazingly funny character he did such a stellar job portraying in it.



If you never got a chance to see this little short flick we did, go ahead and check it out. He spent a lot of time rehearsing with me for the lines and stuff, and you'll find Kilcodo, Khyber, and me in there, too.


Ciao, Rukus. Kiddo, wherever you are now, at least you don't have to deal with any of that faggoty furry-drama bullshit anymore.

Here's a list of [almost] all the guns we own. Some of them we haven't even shot yet. We're probably going to the crater off of Lakeshore sometime this weekend to sight some of them in.

The neat thing about the STG-556 =and the FN FS2000, they each have an EOtech 512 scope on them. If you've ever played Call of Duty 4, they're the exact same thing as that really snazzy scope on some of the weapons in singleplayer, the one that projects a red, holographic circular target shape with a dot in the middle, instead of just a red dot. It's definitely an awesome scope, and surprisingly accurate.

Oh, check out the quality of this fricking webcam!

This is actually from the webcam's stream, 1024x768 @ 20 fps.



Click!

Aside from today being my birthday, everything else is running pretty smoothly. As a surprise gift, I have acquired a Gateway 7811FX laptop. ....WOW.

This thing is awesome as hell, and once I get all my basic peripherals reinstalled and get everything set up to program my video games and make my cartoons again, I'll be getting ready to install Crysis on it.


Best birthday, EVER.

Two days until my birthday, on the night I begin drawing the first frame of my cartoon, my laptop dies. I'm on my PSP right now, but it'll all be taken care of by Friday. (Goodbye, HP Pavilion, Hellllooo Acer Aspire One!!)

Oh, more art stuff, as in a movie poster---

Sorry for the completely unnecessary expletive in the subject bar, but HOLY SHIT, BIONIC COMMANDO: REARMED IS AWESOME.

Seriously... Ever since the original NES Bionic Commando came out back in the late 80's, it's been my favorite video game of all time. I even bought a dedicated cabinet of the arcade version, coin slots and all.

My hip is doing a lot better. I can walk on both legs now. Thanks to everybody that sent get-well LJ comments, ahyurk.

Other than lying in bed and groaning, I'm constantly struggling with more content towards my cartoon, but I can at least say that it's still steadily coming together.

In other news, I set up a Skype account on my PSP.. I had no idea they put such a thing on a handheld gaming console. I just want to use it to talk to people like on Ventrilo or Teamspeak, or whatever, not the money-costing telephone service. How the hell does this thing work, anyway?

Surprisingly, my nickname on Skype is simply " FredrykPhox "

Hey, everybody, this is Ryan, Fred's roommate.

Fred was in a forklift accident earlier today, and is going to be off of his feet for a little while. He is requesting that I update his livejournal to let everyone know he's okay, and he'll probably try to get on Stickam later on tonight (around 11 or 12, CST), more than likely to explain everything himself, since I hate all this LJ crap.

Anyhow, he's groaning for me to go get him some Nehi or some shit, so everyone have a lovely afternoon.

I have that "OMG ITS FREDRYK" chatroom thing up and running on Stickam.com again, if anyone ever feels like dropping by to philosophize or something. If you need help finding it, go here.

If the channel isn't up, then I'm probably not around, or I'm on a Live thing. The Live stickam streams are more focused on the user hosting them, with just 6 slots, but the quality of the audio and video is much better. If you want to see if that's up and running, then just go to http://www.stickam.com/fredryk.

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New artwork!


"HIGH SEVEN" by Me.

I have that "OMG ITS FREDRYK" chatroom thing up and running on Stickam.com again, if anyone ever feels like dropping by to philosophize or something. If you need help finding it, go here.

If the channel isn't up, then I'm probably not around, or I'm on a Live thing. The Live stickam streams are more focused on the user hosting them, with just 6 slots, but the quality of the audio and video is much better. If you want to see if that's up and running, then just go to http://www.stickam.com/fredryk.





New artwork!
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"HIGH SEVEN" by Me.