Thank you DA, now please give it to me permanently.

Ugh, I've been feeling like shit again. When the school year started, I decided to take a look at Health Sciences to see if switching courses was a good idea. In the end I decided to stay in Computer Engineering. It was the less bad option and would benefit me more in the long run.

And why will it benefit me more in the long run? Simple. I get to meet people who will become programmers. Some of these programmers might get to work in video games. This being Portugal, that's highly unlikely, but there's always the chance of them working in other countries. You see, I get contacts in the game industry... maybe...

Yeah, my reason for staying in Computer Engineering has nothing to do with what I will learn. I'm in it simply for the contacts. And to actually finish a course so I can take another one too. Yes, I would love to get into the video game industry, but NOT as a programmer. Artist or designer is my goal.

But even at this one goal of mine, getting contacts, I'm failing miserably. I'm so shy and socially inept that I can't talk to anyone. I'm always scared that I will make myself look bad. This is really crippling, so I finally decided to seek the help of the campus counselor. I'm still waiting for a spot to open for me, but at least I'm already in line.

I knew I should've taken art after 9th grade. You know what I feel when I'm drawing something? A childish glee. Bliss, you might say. When I get a drawing groove going, suddenly everything feels right. I only recently noticed how it not only is fun, but makes me so damn happy. I think I may have achinved Artistic Nirvana.

I actually have been getting some art books lately. Books are not as good as classes, but I gotta do with what I've got.

I wanna make dem characters for dem games damnit!

Well, let's skip to the good stuff, shall we? This is getting depressing, and I don't want to pass any of that to you.

I recently started developing for Mugen. For those who don't know, that's an engine for fighting games. The team behind the engine, Elecbyte, came back in September and they've been updating the engine ever since. I thought this would be a good time to jump it. If all goes well, Mugen should become a better tool for creating full games instead of simply pitting characters from different games against each other. If that's the case I am very likely to start a project that some of you may or may not know about.

So far, I have already learned how to make stages. I just need to make my first one now. I'm still deciding on what to do, searching for sprites I could use, and all that. I want to make stuff entirely from scratch, but right now that is way beyond my skill set.

Speaking of which, because of that I need to work on my spriting skills. Expect to see some sprite work from me in the near future.

And yeah, I'm considering those character competition things. Being the massive Pokémon fan that I am, I am considering joining =Pokemon-League, and if I get Bruce Manley ready in time, I might have him join the *ManlyMens tournament. I probably won't be able to, but I can always hope. And even if I don't get in on tme, Bruce Manley wasn't created with only that in mind and I wouldn've created him even if I never knew about the tournament.