ColdFlameZero

I've gone and done it. I've decided to return to deviantART!!



Not that I left for any particular reason. It's just that a lot of life has happened and blah blah blah I'm a terrible Internet person.

But whatever. What I meant to say is that I have just (literally five minutes ago) opened a new dA account under what will become my official pen name:

ElliotGrey

I have several reasons for coming back under a new name; the chiefest among them is that the words "coldflamezero" burn holes in my eyeballs when I look at them. There's nothing wrong with this account; it's been here since deviantART's infancy and to that end has some kind of grandfather status. (Distant third-great-uncle-twice-removed status, perhaps?) But as I sift through the stuff I did in my mid-to-late teens, I can't help but chuckle. I was a different person then. A lot more optimistic, but no less altruistic. I used to think I could draw.

Well, I do have talents, and lately I've been trying to reawaken and stimulate those latent abilities which have lain dormant within the abyss of my subconscious as I settled in to weather life's hail of cruel and unforgiving arrows (dipped in Greek fire.) Well, I got shot and burned to hell, but like some valiant Spartan who just refuses to die... I ... just refuse to die.

Most recently, I was a truck driver guys. A truck driver, driving truck. But the company I was with were capitalist assholes who refused to pay me for three weeks of work, and also sent me to Colorado in the middle of an ice storm which they neglected to warn me about. Things did not end well. The truck slid out from under me and jackknifed hard enough to total it. Thank God no one else was involved (they narrowly missed me) except me, but the accident kind of had a way of rearranging my priorities: kind of like Captain Sparrow after his little dust-up with the kraken and that Davy Jones' locker business.

My interests have shifted (slightly) but my goal in life in general is the same: no matter what happens, leave something worthwhile behind, whether that something is literature, or art, or music; I dunno, perhaps a little of everything. I've been messing around with Inkscape and the GIMP quite a bit as part of a mad and desperate Ponzi scheme concocted by one of my cousins to sell T-shirts, but also to build my graphic design credentials beyond what I learned in college (which wasn't much.... srsly, why did I even go to college?)

Of course, my primary talents are in literature, and I've still got ideas for novels and such; many of which I originally thought of as my teenage CFZ self. Those ideas never went away fully: over the years they found ways of developing themselves in my head such that, if I were to start right now on some of my projects, I wouldn't even need to write an outline, I could just flow and BAM. But it is difficult to write while working on your graphic design pedigree AND looking for employment AND needing rather desperately to get out of your parent's....  AHEM. That's enough of that. Moving on!

So the point is, I'm ElliotGrey now and anyone who is anyone from back in the day (you know who you are) is welcome to come and post to my new profile page. I'll be catching up on everyone eventually. I'll probably go ahead and re-post those deviations sooner or later. You know, those. They're my only claim to net fame. Better hang on to them. I'll also post anything I come up with that's presentable in a desperate attempt to establish some form of portfolio/resume. Eventually.

I'm also going to say (in case I forget to later) that the Triforce Alchemy Circle and the Song of Healing are for all intents and purposes still under a Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution (CC-SA-BY) license, meaning anyone's free to use them, sing them, tattoo them on your chest or whatever so long as you plug "ColdFlameZero" or (even better) "Elliot Grey" in some manner. (I'm just kidding about the tattoo; if you have the tattoo artist put a CC notice beneath your Triforce Alchemy Circle tattoo people will point and laugh at you. Just send me a pic/link if you do!) These are fanworks anyway and as such fringe on infringement as it is, so you are welcome to fringe upon infringing upon my fringement.

(I am just kidding; I studied copyright laws in college, I know how this works, fanworks are not copyright infringement, but everyone knows that already so why did I even. )

Right now I feel like replaying Metal Gear Solid 2 for the nth time (where n is a non-zero rational integer between one and Snake's headband). That President isn't going to rescue/assassinate himself.

Peace and golden fleece in ancient Greece to all ya'll.


~~CFZ / Elliot Grey


P.S. I'm certain you all already know this, but Skyward Sword happened and I am very happy that it happened to me. It is a case study in characterization; no other game series than Zelda could produce so many abrasive/bizarre characters that you originally hate but end up falling in love with. (i.e. Groose, Fi, Ghirahim, Demise, Peatrice, Impa, etc., etc.) Except for Cawlin, perhaps. I feel no remorse for crushing this kid's spirit. And Batreaux is one of the best characters ever. Period.

Also;
(1) plummeting from the very flight ceiling of the heavens in a face-first nosedive,
(2) pretending you don't have a built-in parachute,
(3) taking only two hearts of damage or so,
(4) is epic win in my book.

Also I stared at the Gate of Time for days on end. I am not kidding.

That pattern on the door.... Could they have...? Did I...? Did AceRacer...? ...Naaaah.


Peace, ya'll.

I MUST SAY THESE WORDS. But reading them is optional, and it is your God-given right to shift focus onto something else besides this hunk of text which has been HTML formatted for your viewing convenience.

But ... wow. Despite my two-year dA hiatus, it seems the legend of ColdFlameZero has been an inspiration to people across the vast reaches of the internet. (Largely my fellow Nintendo fans. )

I guess things tend to creep up on you when you ignore your dA account for two freakin' years.

Last journal I plugged the awesome Shadowyoshi022 and his Lullaby for the night; which, I might add, is a very sweet and meaningful set of lyrics to be sung to Zelda's Lullaby. He was awesome enough to credit my modest attempts at Zelda song lyrics as inspiration for the piece.

But then, something wonderful happened.

As I was sifting through the ol' bones, I noticed I was getting a lot of views on my Song of Healing. As I read through some of the comments I realized a lot of them were coming from YouTube. So I checked it out.

And oh, man....

I found not just one, but two completely unrelated girls who have actually recorded themselves singing my Song of Healing. My Song of Healing. The one I wrote from my head and my keyboard.

And they both sound very cute and lovely.

Go on, check them out:

Song of Healing by Nekokumagoro

Song of Healing by Smarti311

Oh man. I want to go to Germany now. (At least I think they're German, so sorry if I get it wrong, girls! ; )

I can't even describe to you how awesome it makes me feel to hear something I wrote take on that kind of life. (I'd sing them myself but I have zero talent so it's not the same. ) Not only that, but these songs have gotten quite a few YouTube views, and I've very happy for both Nekokumagoro and Smarti311. This is top-notch, professional-quality work, and I hope they go far with it.

And they were both very kind to credit me for the lyrics. Thank you ladies!!


Also, last journal I told ya'll about a Firefox persona that seemed like it was based on my ol' Triforce Alchemy Circle. (Which is also my avatar/icon, of course.)

As it turns out, it wasn't based on my Triforce Alchemy Circle. It was based on one of the best Triforce-related things I've ever seen by AceRacer...

:thumb71667460:

...which, in turn, was based on one by my good buddy Timon1771 ...



... which was based on mine.



I did it in an old version of Fireworks (which of course has been eaten by Photoshop) and it absolutely pales in comparison to the others. I want Aceracer's version on a shirt. If I had money I'd totally get my local T-shirt printing shop to print some up and make a killing.

Of course I'd get his permission first.

Oh yeah, there are several other variations of the Triforce Alchemy Circle on dA; if you search "Triforce Alchemy Circle" you'll find them. I've already coded more href tags than I've typed into a single document since I was doing Web pages for college, and my fingers are lazy.

Oh yeah, and thanks for crediting me, guys. Because some people plagiarize things on the innernets and those people suck. So thanks for not sucking.

Look, guys, I'm not trying to boast or brag here, so don't get me wrong.

I guess I just said all that and coded all those tags to say this:

It feels awesome to be an inspiration for someone. And I want to write so I can continue to inspire others.

That is all. Good day.

Lots of hearts and Rupees to you all!


~CFZ

Two years.

A lot can get weird in two years. Long, sad story short; Radford University turned out to be an awesome college run by the worst assholes you can imagine, and I've come out of my college years with no degree, no job, and no car.

As obvious as this will seem to those who know me; my delusions of being a wildcat freelance web-design guy may have been more than a touch misguided.

I want to write. Forever.

So you could say that college (and subsequent epic failure) was an ultimately positive thing. It's awesome having a more refined sense of purpose in life; at twenty-five years of age. (My birthday was the 19th. ) Hey, it only took me one-third of my expectable lifespan to figure it out.

On the bright side, I've polished my writing skills so much during my down-time that it's not even funny. Most of the short stories I've been working on are sort of in-universe things that only a very few select people have ever seen or would ever understand, but I've had a lot of fun doing them, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get around to sending some of my new-and-improved quality literature your way. However, it shall be under a new dA account, one that can better reflect where I am now as opposed to all of my old musings. As dear to my heart as some of them may be, they're still quite old, and I still can't draw. That, and the words "ColdFlameZero" burn holes in my eyes every time I see them.

Which brings me to an interesting question.... I wonder how many of my old dA buddies are still kicking around the #1 site in the world which is totally better than Facebook? </panderingtothemoderators>

You know who you are! Hit me with a comment on this journal and I'll note you with my new account when I get it all set up and create-ified!*

*Blame the move back to my native-born lands of North Carolina for any and all slips of Southern speech that I may or may not lapse into.


Hoo, two years. Avatar was an amazing movie. Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games ever. Borderlands is awesome. Metriod: Other M is gonna be righteous. New old Pokemon games are out, and as Silver was long my favorite flavor of Pokemon, SoulSilver is pretty cool and Pokewalkers are a very fashionable and trendy accessory than every fashionable dude should be wearing in public. Gorillaz are back and weirder than ever, but it's a likable departure from their older stuff, I guess.

I'm not the only old thing trying to reinvent itself, I guess.

Also, mad props to Shadowyoshi022 for an interesting piece of lyrical inspiration and for reminding me that I just might still be a little bit awesome.

And speaking of people being inspired by my older creations, I was perusing about looking for some Personas to trick out Firefox when I stumbled across a very peculiar-looking Triforce sigil that looked vaguely familiar....



Peace~

Jeez. The End died of old age since I last wrote a dA journal. I've denied him his last wish, but at least I didn't have to chase that bastard all over Russia. And I've managed to not create any time paradoxes, somehow.

Sorry guys, been busy with work and college and a little bitty thing called Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

EPIC.

This is the part where normally I'd feel obligated to rant about how awesome Brawl is, but I think enough high praise has been offered up to the Nintendo gods already, so I'll settle for offering up some higher-than-average praise.

(begin Brawl spoilers)

Sonic and Snake are in it. Yay.

Sheik is in it, the snazzy Twilight Princess Sheik that wasn't. And they've made Zelda actually useful as a fighter now. One of her taunts is her cutely sinister and amazing fireball victory stance from Brawl.

Zero Suit Samus tries waaay too hard to be kinky for some reason, but she's fun to play. AND SHE SAYS WORDS. And the Zero Suit that corresponds to the Dark Suit has a Shinx/Luxio/Luxray color scheme for whatever reason. Lol awsm.

OMG WIND WAKER LINK IS HERE. Well, they call him "Toon Link" because he's also all three Links from the Four Swords series.... He comes in all the Four Swords flavors as well as OMG LttP/LA/Oracles colors and the token Shadow Link, complete with red glowy evil eyes. Toon Link is by far my favorite new character.

WTF an Electroplankton stage. The level is beautiful, but there's no stable ground, so it's more like hell. A beautiful musical hell.

Some previously unknown-to-me legendary Pokemon shows up on Spear Pillar instead of Dialga/Palkia. It has a moon for a head. Someone who is more Pokemon-savvy than me, please clue me in as to what this thing is and why it thought it was a good idea to kill me with some bizarre moon-blade attack.

Boss Battles mode will require patience of biblical proportions. You can die from so many random factors, and you only get ONE LIFE TO LIVE AND NO CONTINUES. Even with Toon Link's awesome down midair attack (which pwnz bosses for breakfast) you will always die from something completely random that you can't avoid. I've attempted this mode like a dozen times already jeez.

Must... complete... trophy... hoarde....



Aside from Brawl, there's another non-productive time snatcher snatching my time lately. It's called Flyff. My name is Kyre, I'm a Level 23 Mercenary on the Clockworks 8-2 server, but unless you tell me you're "so-and-so" from dA I'll probably NOT want to party with you or join your guild. I'm pretty weak and useless right now anyway.

I have my kindred SylvanFury to thank for hooking me on this crack. He's Raem, a Level 30-ish Assist on the same server.

Basically, it's one of those free Korean MMOs that only want you to buy in-game items so it's free to play. You point-and-click, hack-n-slash, and use a skill or two if you feel like it. I happen to have a good server that's not too crowded, so mostly it's pretty laid-back. But it actually feels like a real, legitimate MMO that could rival WoW.

And you get to fly. Fly for fun. On hoverboards and broomsticks and other personal flying thingamadoos. It's pretty awesome, so go play it. And support them by buying stuff if you have real-life currency, which I don't right now.

School and work and Whim still keep me busy. The mostly-pointless doodles continue to flow from my cheaply-bought notepads and mechanical pencils and I might upload a few. I also have a Digital Imaging class which is 50% Flash, and I have a final project coming up, so expect a Flash something OF EPIC GREATNESS to come from me in the weeks to come. I haven't even started, but I've already decided that it will be Zelda-related. w00t!

Ya'll keep it real, stay sharp and keep an eye on your six, cause you never know when rouge cannibal ninjas will attack and try to take your donuts and your Wii. I recommend joining an Elite Space Pirate platoon and getting a degree in reverse-engineering Samus' Morph Ball from the University of Phoenix online. I need scizzors!! Sixty-one!!

P3453!!

Hokay, guys.

BLOG TIME.

Does anyone else find it absolutely ridiculous how hard Wiis are to get this holiday season? I mean, it's bad enough that they're hard to find all year long because of production issues and whatnot, but srsly guys?

The Evil Empire which I'm currently stormtrooping for.... it's pure 3v1l knows no limits. And GameStop isn't much better, offering only 5-game bundle packs that won't ship until after January....

Let's not even talk about eBay, that abomination which turns ordinary schmoes into hustlas overnight....

...Of course I own a Wii. Had it a year. I'm a squealing little Nintendo fanboy so of course, like any good little fanboy, I camped for mine last November. But what irritates me is that.... *cue misty philosophical moment* Nintendo's dream was to create a console that was cheap, accessible, innovative, and awesome. Here, at the holiday season, sacred regardless of your faith or creed, these bastards are capitalizing on the people's demand for this truly great system.

O_O Am I evangelizing? Maybe a bit. But with Virtual Console, Wi-Fi capabilities and games like Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess, the Nintendo Wii just might be the greatest console of all time. To deny that joy to all but the richest of buyers is not only against Miyamoto-san's vision for the console, but a downright crime. It's profiteering! It's madness! IT DRIVES A NON-BLOGGER TO BLOG.

And with that spiel off my proverbial chest, NiGHTS for the Wii is great. The story, somewhere between Narnia and Peter Pan, is strangely charming (you actually have to break NiGHTS out of prison before every stage) and the gameplay feels like old-school Sonic, if Sonic could fly. I'm also relieved to discover after all these years that, while NiGHTS is still technically androgynous, it both looks AND sounds like a "she," so I can now refer to NiGHTS in the female case with some degree of certainty.

Brawl is gonna be awesome. Get yer Wii. Get Brawl. And when it comes out, I'm making it my mission to nab each and every one of your Wii Codes so I can school you all WITH SHEIK. I know, Sheik hasn't been officially announced, but.... well, Sonic looks like he's fun to use. And Pit and Snake and Master Cheif and ZERO SUIT SAMUS and everybody else. I'll prolly use either Classic Controller or Nunchuk....

Oh yeah, and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales IS THE MANLIEST GAME EVER. Even NiGHTS can't compare to the sheer manliness of a lone young Chocobo descending bare-chested into the storybook realms of chaos to wage war upon his adversaries in loosely Final Fantasy-themed minigames that usually involve running in circles. The card battles are fun, and I would love to see a paper version, but no one loves card games anymore so oh well.

SO ANYWAY GUYS of course my exams are over and surprisingly enough I PASSED!! By "passed" I mean C's and D's, but hey, these courses were insane and the wrong classes to begin with so I'm happy that I actually defied all logic, reasoning, and Newtonian physics and actually passed with non-F grades. Next semester is fun art stuff! YAY!!

I'm headed home for teh holidays like some jingle-bellsy car commercial. Home is about six hours and a state away. My folks got me a GPS for Christmas and gave it to me early. IT'S AS IF THEY'RE TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING. Lol j/k, I'm an idiot with directions so I really don't mind using such a dorky crutch. Why does one have to actually have to know how to get somewhere to get there, anyway? That's a screwed-up piece of logic! When I work the kinks out of the Telepod it'll be awesome. JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE. For now, I'm leavin' on Sunday and plan to do much chillin' and hangin' with my peeps, yo, so check it.

YA'LL HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Stay safe, hide your Wii and guard it with your life, and for Jesus' sake go easy on the holiday cheer, or at least get a sober driver, or at least pick out the one among you who is the least hammered and give him the keys, OR JUST STAY HOME. Remember there's a bluish-greenish Suzuki Sidekick out there with me in it and dealing with all the rednecks and their NASCAR fantasies is bad enough.

Peace! Good will toward men!