Moonhawk Studios Presents Homepage » Salient Ramblings

What’s this all abyout then, eh?

sfallen — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:39:07 +0000

Hi everyone! I know it has been a while since you’ve heard from me blog and show wise but I wanted to let you know that I am in fact alive and well. I am currently in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada helping to commerate the Royal Canadian Navy’s 100th birthday with a TON of other foreign ships as part of the International Fleet Review. If you happen to be in the area and want to check out what’s going down info can be found here: http://halifaxifr.ca/en/Home/tabid/61/Default.aspx

Halifax is a beautiful city and I recommend it as a place to visit. =) But aside from that, I’ve been busy here on my ship and I was grateful to have some time off finally! I am disappointed that I am going to miss the 4th of July but it’ll work out in the end. I am looking forward to taking some leave when I get home! So hope to get back on the air in the next few weeks.

There and back again (1 Comment)

sfallen — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:23:40 +0000

For now, I am home again. I disappeared for a bit to my ship for a deployment that was canceled due to technical difficulties. But unfortunately, I’m set to head back again again for only a little bit. So much has happened in the world since my last blog entry like- the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill in the Gulf, South Korea finding evidence of North Korea sinking their ship, volcanic ash spewing up into the atmosphere and grounding flights, finals, and the power steering fluid high pressure line on my Toyota spewing smoke and fluids onto my exhaust manifold this morning when I pulled into the parking lot at work…

So yes, I am alive. I am still very much in the process of unpacking; wrapping up the last stretch of my college classes; readjusting my work/sleep schedule again; and just spending time with my family. I still have a lot to do for Salient but at least I have the new podcast update posted. =)

Moving on up

sfallen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:54:49 +0000

I apologise for my lack of posting the past few weeks. I recently bought a house and am subsequently occupied by everything that comes along with being a homeowner in addition to being a mother, sailor, college student and comic artist/writer/shader. Meaning, I have to prioritize even further. I still have to shade the new SC page and do my chemistry homework. >> I haven’t forgotten about you guys! I’m just slightly behind on all my projects but I’m slowly trying to get caught up.

A few nerdgasms never hurt anybody..

sfallen — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:28 +0000

Our show with Chris K. or PSN Stores was incredibly unique in the way we conducted the interview, in fact, it was more of a round table discussion about the “Move”; the impeding trend of home 3D tvs (in fact, they were just talking about them being on sale for $1700 on the radio); among many many other entertainment sessions.

Last week went to the other side of the video game spectrum with James Newton of “Nintendo Life”. I was unfortunately unable to participate fully due to packing my seabag and it seems as if I may have an chance to participate in this week’s show but, I’m not holding my breath. I’ll say something when I can. But I was surprised that the discussion with James touched on Metroid, the show graphic in a way was prophetic since I just did that for fun since Samus is one of my favorite video game Heroines.

Anyway, we return this week to interviewing a fellow sci-fi webcomic artist, writer, creator, Jim Francis of “Outsider“. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, I strongly recommend it!

Balancing Acts: Life, Family, and the Internet

sfallen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:41:00 +0000

I was actually able to join in the broadcast late again this past week due to a variety of circumstances- my schedule shifted due to the fact that I have to report in to my new ship about a month sooner than I had initially been told. For the longest time, my involvement in the internets and more recently in the past several years has been a gigantic balancing act between work, college, my family, my friends, and my internet commitments. It is usually fairly obvious which will win out at any given point but in the matter of my family and friends they are more willing to compromise with me so I can be involved with my webcomics. In fact, one of my good friend’s was asking me the other day about webcomic hosting so I hope to see some awesome things out her boyfriend on the internet soon. =) But, I digress, I have been blessed with people that understand and for the most part support my decisions regardless of how crazy they might sound at the time.

When I decided to audition for a paying voice acting part for an H game company, my husband didn’t lecture me or try to talk me out of it- we went out and he talked me into buying an $80 headset to get a better quality sound. When I wanted a tablet to learn how to digitally color, he went out and bought me a $200 Intuos Wacom tablet for my birthday. If I want to go to a convention to work an art table for 3 days he takes Vic so I can work without the munchkin running around. So I do count myself as extremely lucky to have someone who understands me and supports me in EVERYTHING that I do. The biggest change in my life that he supported me through was my decision to enlist in the Navy.

We’ve been through a lot this past year with my extended stay in boot camp due to stress fractures and my very long “A” and “C” schools, but it has made me re-examine the time I spend online versus the time I try to spend with my family. I have actually spent more time with my family this year than actively online in my chat rooms and forums. I’ve been trying to spend as much time with them as possible since I have no way of knowing when I will get called up to ship off to some ship floating in the ocean somewhere. I hope to keep the trend up since I want to be involved with my family but this hurts some other things in my life, like time spent with my friends or my time networking and collaborating online.

I think it’s evident from the number of shows that I have been able to participate in when my work schedule has aligned that I have been able to spend some evenings (figuratively) working alongside Mike or talking to Keith about our ongoing projects or actually completing some of my own pending tasks like shading the Salient page or working on “Waking Into Reality”. I can only hope that when I go underway I can work on some of my pending writing projects since I won’t have very many other distractions other than work, my online college courses, and working out to occupy my time.

I am definitely leveling up my Time Management skill this year but I really hope to continue to actively be a part of all aspects of my life and hobbies without having to sacrifice too much of one or another.

With a dash of sleeping beauty for good measure

sfallen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:16:54 +0000

Once again, it was a pleasure to be able to be able to participate in the show. Jamie of Picatrix was very fun to talk to even though I got off on a tangent about the concept of romance in mainstream comics targeted for Men. I also enjoyed finally getting all the way through the archives of Picatrix last night at about the 4 hour mark of the broadcast (which is really the post-show chat).

I think we did a fair good amount of gushing over “Picatrix” last night as we complimented Jamie on the good flow of her panels, the clarity of the action, the overall good quality of the art and the unification of the several themes in the manga with the website design. Primarily, it is a fantasy romance manga done in a traditional shoujo style despite this, the main audience of “Picatrix” is 65% MALE. It makes me wonder if that’s due to the comic community being predominantly male or if more men are starting to become more comfortable about admitting that they enjoy reading about pretty girls in short skirts having romantic hiccups?

If we really think about it, Spider has his own little Harem with MJ, Black Cat, and Gwen Stacey. The Green Lantern Corps has to deal with the Star Sapphire Corps, (and Hal has to figure out if he wants to deal with Carol or try for something with Cowgirl). Jean Grey (pick a version of her you like) has Logan and Scott fighting over her. OH or think about Rogue and Gambit’s physical intimacy issues and you’ll see that romance, although not always the headliner is in fact an integral part of some our favorite mainstream comics.

So back to “Picatrix”, what I look forward to finding out is what really happened to Winnie when Nina pushed her off the roof of Azrael’s castle and if she’ll stick to her promise and stay with Azrael even if they figure out a way home. Then there’s that notion of a growing love octagon with Eric, Hector, Sam, and Adam. If you are feeling really frisky, you might consider Spring as a possible contender for Winnie’s heart but that’s probably more the stuff of doujin.

Katsucon 16

sfallen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:55:51 +0000

I’m back home after a busy weekend of crazy con goodness. When I get Photoshop installed again, I’m hoping to get a mini-strip up about my adventures on Guest Security. It was wonderful to see all of my con friends, of course, shadowing Yunmao Ayakawa I didn’t really expect most of them to really notice me. But to be fair, it has been a couple of years since I’ve been to Katsucon and I wish I had gotten a chance to talk to the following people more but Yunmao fanboy protection obviously consumed my con free time but a quick shout out to the following people: Eirik Blackwolf of Chisuji (I miss talking to you!) ; Kara Dennison of Conscrew (I wish I had more time to talk to you, I still owe you a picture of Emmy!); Robert Aldrich author of the “Crossworld” novels (I totally only saw you ONCE the entire con); Steve Yun webmaster of Roboteck.com (I’m sorry I didn’t actually get to talk to you when you ran into me the 2nd time in the Green Room); and mecha artist, Newton Ewell (I was glad I finally got to catch up and chat with you in the Green Room!). I still miss seeing, Steve Bennett at American conventions but he is rocking out with his lovely wife in Iwakuni, Japan with the MCCS. =)

Yunmao is a very awesome and sweet person to work with and I think of her as “my little sister wearing a short skirt” which definitely helped me in keeping extra vigilant on escorting her ALL OVER THE CONVENTION. She was absolutely adorable in her maid uniform, her Mari Makinami plug suit and in her regular clothes. I kept thinking of things to say to her in what little Japanese I know and just decided to not embarrass myself and just say it in English. ^^; I know the guys here at MSP would be amused to know I almost got an official Nihon Maid Association certificate of participation in Yunmao’s workshop which covered the basic level 3 maid etiquette with her seal of approval. I don’t think I can put something like that on my resume alongside my Navy training, I can see it now in an eval brag sheet “Godwin, what’s a Nihon Maid? And why are you certified and Maid etiquette?” Nooo thank you! But it was a great turn out.

I was really happy that I got to see the Masquerade and the concert (more specifically, Unicorn Table) for the first time in several years because I was with my beloved guest. =) I was only disappointed that I didn’t sell more pieces but 4 of my 5 scratchboards sold and I decided to give that one to Yunmao. I felt like a complete fangirl but I wanted to give her something different for a Valentine and I didn’t have anything else besides my 4 “H” pieces. I wouldn’t have felt right giving her a picture of a topless girl so Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask it was! (If someone wants to buy a framed print with the original inks you can e-mail me! )

All and all it was a great convention weekend for me! I was working the entire time but I had a blast!

What are you talking about, I didn’t botch my saving throw?!

sfallen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:28:23 +0000

I joined in the “Nahast” broadcast a little late yesterday but I thought we had a rather good discussion with Alejandro on the well thought out and strong portrayal of his female characters and of course, the roleplaying background of the comic. I have a fairly strong roleplaying background having started building my characters from my dad’s 2nd edition D&D books and of course, “Superheroes Unlimited”, “Ninjas and Superspies”, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. I didn’t actually start characters until high school when my older friends told me about “Vampire: The Masquerade” which led to “Werewolf: The Apocalypse” and “Mage: The Ascension” so I eventually was pulled into the role of “Storyteller” or “Game Master”.
The joy of roleplaying is the ability to use a guideline of someone else’s world to springboard yourself and your buddies into a living embodiment of a byproduct of your imagination- a great story can carry the weakest player if you as the GM can improvise. So with this sort of concept in mind, creating a roleplay game concept into a comic does make a great deal of sense. You would have done all the world building, developed your system of magic and archetypes and your special character NPCs so all you would need to focus on is just “playing your character”. Would you roll your dice in order to determine the outcome of your chance encounters to make the comic more unpredictable with a chance of failure? Or would you simply just write your story in an ideal world scenario without a worry of interference?
Of course, I didn’t think to ask these questions in the interview, instead I focused on the meaning of the glyph in the background of the page. Lol. I can blame a migraine and an aching wrist for my mental hiccups. And I blame the 2 weeks of uncharacteristically large amounts of snow for my desire to have mugs of hot chocolate. I cannot assume responsibility for the things that Mike says on air. That’s allllll him. ;p
But I think we had fun with the interview and getting some deeper perspective on how to turn a failed contest entry into something even greater. =)

Holy snowballs, Batman!

sfallen — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:24:47 +0000

So not only is my area getting hit with record high amounts of snow- my computers here at the house are freaking spazzing. There is a a “cute” rogue anti-virus virus screwing up my desktop and my laptop is in surgery right now.Nick did build a new box but aside from getting the basics up… it’s a work in progress. The weather is also jacking up the shift rotation so this week is all kinds of fail. There is nothing like a 30 minute drive taking THREE HOURS because nothing is plowed. I jumped out of the roomie’s truck and found myself almost thigh deep in snow wearing a thin Navy service uniform and dress shoes and have to create a walkway to get to the parking lot of the apartment building and then up to the damn door. We have 3 ft snow drifts everywhere and I spent 3 hours digging out the truck to only be called up and told that we’re now on-call status.

Gah, I kinda miss the days where I was able to stay home when it snowed. >> I’ll keep ya’ll posted as to what the heck is going on.

“Popping a cherry”

sfallen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:51:32 +0000

So I finally got to join in the fun of a Talk Shoe live show failure! Aside from the technical difficulties, it was really fun to be a part of the Studio webcast on Skype for the first time. I am actually really thrilled by the announcement Mac made, well, both of them actually.

First up, Keith has agreed to draw “The Lavenders” and I am totally digging his initial character designs. No word on when that comic is relaunching but most likely once we get what we call a “buffer” we’ll probably set a date for the debut.

Secondly, there is supposed to be a new Starship Moonhawk page in the works so we’ll be seeing an update sometime soon. The new Sailent page is in the queue for the relaunch on April 1, 2010 so all around we have good news.

Katie Sweet was a great guest and a wonderful support for sticking around for the hour and a half it took for us to get technology to not fail and get the actual show to launch. I also hear that it was an unprecedented how since we had all of the crew together on the show. =D I am really looking forward to my work schedule aligning with the planets again so I can hopefully participate in the show again soon. I most likely won’t be on the horn for the Feb. 10th show since my husband and I are doing an early Valentine’s day dinner date.

ALSO KATSUCON IS FEB 12-14. I will be kicking around so if anyone is a listener and going, if you see me, please feel free to say “hi”. Hopefully, I won’t be too busy working as a con staffer.