New Toys and Better Movies

For years I have looked up to Wacom and their incredible line of products. I always had the notion that I would someday be able to afford a beautiful Cintique monitor and create my art digitally. Unfortunately(for Wacom), in 2015 Apple released their brand new Pencil that works seamlessly alongside their iPad Pro, and all for half the price of a Cintique of the same size. I was torn between a history of high designer praise and what could easily be the flavor of the week in drawable touchscreens.

Finally, after swaying back and forth deciding on this next big purchase while stalking a few artists on Instagram to hear their opinions, I finally landed on the iPad Pro. Portability, price point, and familiarity all coincided to make it the right choice, and so far it has been!

I'm stoked how my rendition of Mariah Carey's "Glitter" as a movie about the loot boxes in Destiny came out. Presenting, GLIMMER! Starring the charming Cayde-6, voiced by Nathan Fillian.

I used the app Procreate to sketch up this dude and it felt so natural! Apple really got it right with the pencil. So far, this thing has become a perfect companion on flights and I know it will only help my art grow. Can't wait to see what else I can do!

https://mikeoncley.deviantart.com/art/Glimmer-707406633

the original

Hey look! I also posted a time-lapse video to my Instagram.

A post shared by Mike Oncley (@heyoncley) on Oct 4, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

Spell Check Never Graduated

Really?

No guesses?

Not even one?

Unfortunalty no.

Adobe Creative Apps Fundamentals

There are quite a few perks working at CreativeLive.

One instance being the need for people to star in commercials for upcoming workshops. I happen to use the same Adobe applications they are teaching so they asked me to be in this short promo for the classes!

Filmed and edited by the very skilled Mike Folden.

If you want to learn more about Adobe CC I highly suggest watching these classes.

Day 18 - Automated Throw-up Machine

If only it took a couple cosmos to get your cash out.

Here's a look at these poor ATMs that only get to watch its users drink night after night.

Maybe instead of forgetting my pin and going home I could slam a couple Jell-O shots in the card slot and cross my fingers.

Day 11 - A Shot and Battery

It's hard not to drain a battery when you are addicted to its juice!

No wonder everyone is worried about their phones.

Standard Eyes

Yea! Down with standardized testing. I'm not standard and neither are you!


I love everything said by Seth Godin in this video.

"What separates them from people who aren't successful isn't that they succeeded, it's that they failed more than the other people did."

It just makes perfect sense and makes you realize we are looking at things wrong, and until we learn to fail, we can't grow enough to succeed. Also his statement about not taking standardized tests for a living, especially never seeing them again after you take them, is great. It's very obvious that this is how education works but everyone just keeps lining up and spending thousands for information that is available if you just go out and look for it.

I have always pooped on education a bit, ever since I graduated high school and got dropped into mandatory GE classes in college, which I enjoyed referring to as high school 2.0. Their attempt to make a "well-rounded individual" just produced an angry, apathetic student who wanted nothing to do with their schedule.

Thank goodness I am not alone.

Call Me Maybe?

Check out my Society6! I have listed some phone covers for sale, more to come.

If I don't have an art piece available as a phone case that you want, let me know and I'll get it going.
Bauhaus iPhone Case by Mike Oncley | Society6:

Aside from this I have been working hard on Munny dolls and some artwork for some musicians. My blog posts have been a little less frequent lately but don't worry, I am still breathing.

Pad and Quill

One of my Christmas presents this year was an awesome Pad and Quill phone case. Disguised as a Moleskin notebook, it also offers some good screen protection. Unfortunately upon taking my first picture that needed a flash I found its downfall. The flash hits the wooden part of the case and reflects back into the lens creating a foggy snowstorm of a picture. The photo below shows an example with/without the case.

It's a good case disregarding the flash issue. Luckily I'm not a big fan of using the flash to begin with so I'm sticking with it. They make ones for iPads as well if that's your thing.

Padandquill.com

Grandpa braiding big sis' hair. Same shot with & without P&Q case

iGroovie

I finally got the curage to try my luck with the newest iMovie. Finally. Not so bad once I understood it. I might add I'm also using iPhoto after shunning it previously. Hey, it got better.

L 7 Square

Last year I was approached with a proposition to buy a credit card machine so I may charge folks for items me or my band may be selling. It was $300 for the machine(not for keepsies), then $30 monthly for service fees, and then they also took a little cut from each sale. After pondering for a bit and considering, "Well if I sell a shit ton of things then it'll even itself out" I decided to pass. Why can't I just charge people from their cards without all the extra charges? Enter Square.

This is not a commercial for Square, more of a "well looky here" kind of thing.

Square is like if PayPal reached out of your computer and hopped in your pocket. There is a PayPal app for iPhone, but you're still stuck just sending email requests for money like a shy gopher. With Square, it allows you to turn your phone into a credit card scanner and get right in the action..... like a more outgoing gopher, with more friends.

Without doing any research, what I hear about Square is that it's the folks from Twitter who made it and it is boss. You sign up, which involves giving your social (yikes, we'll see if I've been robbed soon) and then right away they ship you a little card reader that you can stick in your iPhones headphone jack. That's right, headphone jack. I don't know how it works but it does. I got to see one in action today. The best part is that the reader is free and there are no processing fees. Just a 2.75% tax on income and that's it. It works just like PayPal and might be giving it a run for its money.....

Sign up if you've been persuaded

Computer 4 Dead

I bought Left 4 Dead a while back and have had endless difficulties being able to play it. Either wrong processor or not enough memory and so on and so forth. Yesterday was its release onto Mac OS X so all of the Steve Jobbers can play too.... except for one of them.

I suppose it is time to face the music and deem my laptop as obsolete in this cruel cruel world, and this time I DID have the right processor and just enough memory! Although, without a proper graphics card, where does that leave me as a wannabe graphic designer? So I suppose declaring my next purchase to be a laptop to benefit my future is a strong and acceptable statement. Plus I'll get to use my old laptop as one of those stay-at-home laptops, you know, the ones that just sit on the desk and are constantly plugged in! You just open it up and treat it like a desktop computer even though it's like "I aint no desktop computer! Why haven't I left this desk in weeks? Do you still love me?"

At least I can still play CS: Source

Craftsquatch

Do you like to sleep, nap or rest your head? Are you a huge nerd, geek, graphic designer or avid Apple user? Then do the damn thing and get your typing fingers on some of these pillows by Craftsquatch.

Awesome name too.

My favorite is the RSS pillow.

Time to fly

So for $200,000 (roughly), you can fly over water. Im in.

Water Powered Jet Pack from toxel.com on Vimeo.

Netherballs

Yesterday my dad and I went to my grandma's place for some homemade tuna sandwiches and the last game of the World Cup on the small screen. While watching Spain and the Netherlands capturing the ball in their backpacks (not sure of the exact rules), me and my dad were wondering what countries filled out the Netherlands so we knew exactly who we were rooting against. My grandma was diligently putting away food products while my dad and I pondered. He decided to look it up on his Google app for his iPhone. Since he has been out of the "Apple loop" for about 5 years, he has decided to make up for it by Google searching everything and ONLY searching by using the voice recognition option.

Dad: What countries count as the Netherlands?

Me: I don't know, I'm awful at geography

Grandma: Im just dumb, I don't know that kind of stuff

Dad: Here, I'll look it up (holds phone to mouth).... Netherlands

Grandma: Hey you guys want any of this cheese? Do you have this at home?

Me: The slices? I liked it, it's better than what we have at home

Dad: What? The mozzarella? 


Grandma: Yea


Dad: Oh we already have mozzarella balls at home, they're really good

Grandma: Oh ok

Me: Yea those are good, never mind then

Dad: Ah shit, it just searched for "Mozzarella Balls Netherlands"

.....

.....

Dad: Hey apparently there was a recall of mozzarella balls in the Netherlands, they were turning blue!

I think that set him back 2 "Apple years."


Here's the article: Mozzarella Balls Netherlands
Or just type in "Mozzarella Balls Netherlands" into google and hit "I'm feeling lucky"

and if you were wondering, the Netherlands consists of Amsterdam, Egypt, Alaska, and Portugal.

Back to the Now?

Even though Doc Brown decided to travel to the year 2015, the hover board got here a little early. Just don't try and ride it.

HOVERBOARD - NILS GUADAGNIN from nils guadagnin on Vimeo.

Dogger

I see all my friends twittering, but I sure do wish my dog could leave tweets to let me know what he's doing…..

oh wait he can.

Check out the PuppyTweets device which hangs from your dogs collar and tweets what he is doing with the help of motion and sound sensors. There are 500 different activities that he can tweet, which don't always match perfectly to what the dog is actually doing, but it's still pretty unique.

Also available soon, for $5, is the BowLingual app for your iPhone. Originally a $100 piece that hung from your dogs collar(Times Best Inventions of 2002), but the Japanese inventors are releasing a new version in the app store. The app records your dogs bark and translates it into 1 of 6 programmed emotions. I guess you either have to know when your dog will bark, or sit there and wait for him to with your app standing by.

Only Doc Brown needs a time machine

I recently wiped my Time Machine and realized how unnecessary it really is.

A Late Night Snack

My friend just got a new 7D and decided to make a short

Outta Tune

I wish I could research as well as these people

Left 4 Evil Dead

It has come to my attention that there has been a great fault in the world of video games tonight. Not that the fault has been done tonight, but the fault has been realized...... by me...... tonight....

During the middle of the wonderful film Evil Dead II, i saw a small group of people that could potentially be used to fight hordes of zombies ie. the evil dead. To my knowledge, with partial help from coworkers and DVD previews, Evil Dead came out with 4 video games a few years back. One where you play as Ash and have a little midget friend and kill zombies and whatever, bottom line is that from what i hear it sucked big time. Along with that fact that no one spoke of it during or after its release made one think as well.

On to my next subject....

A big huge popular awesome fun video game out now is....of course.....Left 4 Dead. The only game that will have it's successful sequel after only 1 year. If you haven't seen or played it it is a lovely story about 4 survivors of a zombie apocalypse trying to get across the city in search for more survivors while saving their own skins simultaneously. What i am wondering, is why these two wonderful plots of Evil Dead and 4 survivors weren't put together before to make the ultimate video game. I know as of now it is way to late to make this switch because the world has already fallen in love with Zoey, Francis, Luis and Bill....but if Sam Raimi knew what could have been done with his characters im sure he would have taken that route. The unique characters are all there, the game aspects of the movie are there too. I mean, you've got your redneck tow truck driver, your redneck tow truck drivers wife, the cute book of the dead expert and then the macho chainsaw wielding Ash. It's a sure thing everyone would want to play as Ash, i mean he's got a friggin chainsaw for a hand! but im sure if every character had their own special skills it would be awesome. And then there is the book of the dead.....maybe have a "find the lost pages of the book" portion of the level. I mean your bosses and "special infected" are all there.....fruit cellar grandma, dead ex girlfriend, dead ex boyfriend, evil trees. It would be PERFECT. I'd love to have THOSE zombies and demons chase me through Riverside. If only i knew a necronomic spell that could open a rift in time and space and send me back to a time where i could influence Sam Raimi and Valve to colab on a video game (cue book of the dead).

L4D

ED2