My biggest problem right now is tension: neck, shoulder, back. Time was I used to spend my days sitting at a computer, but now I spend at least 8 hours a day on my feet, walking. Not just standing, but walking.

I've been working a retail job at a place called Storables for the last four weeks, and that means lots and lots of walking around and making sure customers are happy, satisfied, and appreciated. What it means for me, however, is that I'm constantly tense.

First, there's the physical aspect of standing and walking for long periods of time (an atypical activity for me). Second, there's the emotional aspect of wanting to do well at this new job, dealing with customers' problems (and disdain if you can't solve them), and fretting over the fact that I'm a 32-year-old college graduate working a job that barely (and I mean barely, skating by a hairsbreadth on the skin of my teeth with no room for error) pays the bills.

Have you ever worked a full-time job while working freelance and job hunting? And keep a healthy marriage? The first casualty was my social life. Little to none, excepting the occasional visit from the honorable King Sheep, or when a friend graciously offers to buy me lunch or coffee.

To those friends: thank you.

Yes, tension is my enemy. I know I should stretch more or exercise more or eat more iron or protein or calcium or Monk's Hood or something, but what I really want is fewer stressors.

I've been popping in to video game company offices and expressing my desire to work. No doubt, some of them may explore this website and find this blog. I certainly hope so, because there's something I've realized in my time of being unemployed and ungainfully employed.

I'd rather be happy than rich.

This may seem like common sense to some of you folks out there, but it was something that I'd forgotten in my years of working in Redmond. I don't need oodles of money to blow on a car or a plasma screen wall or a condo on top of the Space Needle. What I need is to care about what I do.

I care about entertainment.

So please everyone send me good vibes, waves, prayers, and everything else so that I can fulfill my destiny and start entertaining the world.

Two days late, and I'm finally ready to post the rest of my experience at the first annual Redmond Digital Arts Festival.

I started out at 9am again, attending a Zbrush tutorial by the (please wait while the votes are tallied) unanimously talented Kenny Lammers, Technical Art Director at Microsoft Game Studios. He walked us through a program that allows you to sculpt 3D objects in real time, paint textures on them, and edge loop them to create a nice low-poly model that can be exported to Maya for rigging and animation.

He basically did everything I learned to do last quarter at LWTC only backwards. And more effectively. And COOLER. I giggled loudly (sorry, Kenny) several times during the presentation because it was just too exciting. I also got to enjoy a short walk and chat with new MSGS concept artist Collin Foran.

I should take this moment to let everyone know that every single person I got to interact with during the presentations and workshops were among the coolest and most interesting people I've met in Redmond. Definitely my kind of people. Which is another reason I need to get into the industry ASAP; to retain my sanity.

After the lunch break, I was back at Digipen for probably the best class I've gotten into for free. The title was "Game Art," but the content was really more like "How to Format Character and Environment Design in the Game Industry." I learned more about how concept artists work during those three hours than I have over the last two years of lurking on ConceptArt and reading ImagineFX.

Ironically, the key mantra to having a killer portfolio of concept art is "show your work." Anyone who's ever heard my loathing tirade against math homework is laughing right now. When I was young, I was a math whiz. It was incredibly hard for me to show the work because it seemed so obvious to me that writing it out was sort of like asking me to write out how to walk. Duh, you just do it.

Now I have to show my work again. The good news is that I'm excited about this prospect. I love to show my work when I'm drawing, egomaniac that I am. I just didn't know that's what they wanted.

So, as I get ready to hit the sack, I'll leave you all with the five things that Ben Cammarano says are the most important things art directors are looking for in employees:

1. Be trustworthy. Nobody likes a liar or a cheat.
2. Be committed. It's a tough job and they want to make sure you'll be there rain or shine.
3. Be passionate. If you don't love what you're doing, then you won't do your best.
4. Show you can finish a job. Quitters and lazyboys need not apply.
5. Be a team player. No one ever created, programmed, and distributed a successful game by themselves.

So if you're trying to bust into the industry like I am, follow these simple directives.

That's all.

I just got back from the first annual Redmond Digital Arts Festival today, and what an experience!

First up was a 9am presentation by Ben Cammarano, Art Director of the Microsoft Game Studio, who talked at length about portfolios and what yours should look like if you ever want to get a job in games. Following that, he was gracious enough to sit down with a select few of us for one-on-one reviews of our portfolios.

I definitely have work to do. He flipped through my binder pretty quickly, pausing mostly to comment on the good use of depth in my landscapes (irony!), but I was left with the feeling that my work was largely unremarkable.

Getting a critique from one of the main men in game art is something you don't take lightly, and I know that I have things to work on. See, I know that I've got skills, but I've been having trouble focusing my creativity. Thankfully, Ben's critique really gave me a direction to travel with my art.

That direction is to work on value and composition. And action. And more creativity. Color is on the back shelf until I can bust out of my shell and start showing art directors what I'm really capable of.

Next on the program was a digital painting class at DigiPen. I learned some new techniques with Photoshop from Peter Moehrle, one of the men behind Ice Age 2 and Lilo and Stitch. It was tres cool, and I can't wait to put some of these new skills to work.

All-in-all, it's been a great day (despite the fact that I'm sniffling and coughing like the walking plague), and there's more fun tomorrow. So, I wish you all a happy evening, and leave you with this little game my wife and I played during the Vice Presidential Debate.
I added phrases at the bottom that I thought she used too often. For the record, I wish I had one of these cards for Biden too, because neither one of them really impressed me.