It's a new year.

It's the new year, 2011. Welcome to it.

Our project that we've been busting on is over (well, phase one is over. Phase two starts Monday...). It was super successful, though. In all, we did 32 designs for a pitch meeting. There were other artists submitting as well, for a total of 70 or 80 designs. Of those, 35 were to be chosen to move forward.

We found out that 23 of ours made it to final. Which is amazing. It's about 400% better than I expected, actually. The best part is there's a bonus for chosen pieces, so we will be getting way more than expected. It actually makes the whole thing worth it. If I could do a couple of rush jobs like this a year, I would only have to work 6-10 weeks a year and end up making as much as my income was a couple years ago...

But that's not going to happen, I guess. I should appreciate the flukes when they happen...

Other than that I've been doing some sketches and designs for a new client. It's kind of fun stuff, but I've had a bit of trouble coming up with the ideas I need. It's just a bit too vague and open. I should take that as an excuse to do some fun, amazing stuff. But instead I flounder a bit trying to figure out what's right...

So that's what I was doing on Friday. After work we had Adam come over. I made Sloppy Joes and we celebrated the New Year in an understated fashion. Just the 3 of us, playing Rock Band and eating sloppy joes. We ended up staying up to late, even for New Years Eve. We weren't really doing anything; Adam brought over Epic Mickey and played a bit of it for us. It seemed really not very cool.

Then we played a bunch of Rock Band until our throats couldn't stand it. After that, i played Nier while they watched. I had just gotten Nier in the mail from Goozex, just because it seemed intriguing. It looks terrible, from trailers, and opinions are wildly spit over the game. Those who didn't like it, really hated it. And those who liked it, love it and shower it with praise.

It (the reception, not the game) reminds me of Demon's Souls. And I was in the "I love it" camp, so I figured maybe this was out-there enough to win me over. Since I got it from Goozex I've got nothing to lose. And so far... it's not bad. Well, it kind of is, but I kind of like it. I can see it going two ways: either I'm going to appreciate it more and more until I think it's pretty great (ala Fable 2 and 3) or I'm going to get sick of real fast.

When Adam was playing Epic Mickey, I also started up a new game of Civ V. I went with Japan again, but this time started my Civ much later in the timeline, skipping all the primitive stuff. I'm glad I did it once, but I doubt I'd do it again. Things go so much faster when you have the tech to travel faster and fight more effectively.

I woke up kind of late, but Lindsay was still sleeping. So I grabbed my computer and played my Civ game in bed... for like 3 hours... Lindsay got up really late. But it was awesome. My game is going really well, even though I'm playing on a harder difficulty. This is my second Civ game ever, but I do understand what I'm doing a lot more, which helps a ton.

I"m still playing in a really militaristic way, because I like turn-based combat. But I also don't feel like I know what's going on enough to go for a cultural or political victory. Besides,, I just like fighting and moving my army around the map...

When we DID finally get moving, we headed to Home Depot and picked up about 2 big metal shelving units, 8 plastic tubs and a bunch of cardboard boxes... It's time to take care of the basement. We came home and spent 5 hours or so just cleaning the basement, and it's starting to show some promise. We've got to get the upstairs cleared out because we're re-finishing the floors, but the basement's got to happen first. Or at least be partially started first. So that worked out pretty well, and It's a big relief to have the tools to store the crap we have, instead of just pushing it around a bunch, like we normally do.

After we called it a night, I played Nier for a little while longer. I'm thinking I might get sick of it before I learn to love it. But it's still good enough that I'm not sending off. Yet.