Yearly "Don't Worry, I'm Still Alive" Reassurance

It has again been too long since I've posted here. Well, I can safely say that I'm not dead, I don't want to go on the cart, and I feel happy. Actually, I've sorta betrayed Blogger for Tumblr. So if you want more outta me, or asking me any random question you can think of, check that out. That and my Reblog Tumblr.

Regarding my piano antics, I'm still not apologizing over anything, but I feel the need to bring it up, having been piano-less for about a year ...okay, that's not entirely true. I still play - I'd go insane if I didn't - but I'm away from my good ol' 88-keys, and temporarily left with 16 less keys and no sustain pedal. They'll be back. I'll make sure they come back... or else!

Now let's see, there's has to be something I can show...... AH, indeed there are. Take this little piece here, where Tumblr asked me "Robots or Dinosaurs?" and I responded with this:

Or this cute one, which was a blast work on!

There are plenty others I'm either working on, or just aren't ready to be shown quite yet. However, on top of everything else, the first entry of the graphic novel I've been working on has been completed! "A Tiger's Last Song - Episode I: Wolves of Gondwana" is now available on Google eBooks and printed versions on Amazon! Thank you so much to those who have supported us. This is an awesome journey to be on, and we still have a long way to go. For more info and updates, please visit our Main Website and like us on Facebook!

"A Tiger's Last Song - Episode I: Wolves of Gondwana" now LIVE on Kickstarter!

Yes folks, we are back on our feet, and stronger than ever, with 19% on Day 1! From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you very much for your support, and the awesome start you've given us. ...But it's not over yet! We still have a ways to go till we reach our goal for Episode I, and beyond that, we would love to be able to fund the entire 4-episode story as originally intended. So as much as I've said this before in many previous blog posts, I can't really be blamed for not stressing this enough:

Please share ATLS with your friends, check out our New Kickstarter Page, our Official Page, and Like us on Facebook for regular updates from the ATLS Team. Also be sure to check out our video from our first attempt:

"A Tiger's Last Song" Back From Extinction!

Yup. On May 11th, our graphic novel "A Tiger's Last Song" returns to Kickstarter! Like I said previously, we are aiming lower. Significantly lower than the $80,000 we were asking for in our first attempt. Now that we have decided to release the book episodically, "ATLS - Episode I: Wolves of Gondwana" will instead be  shooting for $10,000. However, should we reach our $80,000 stretch goal, we will release the full 4-episode book as originally intended.

So stay tuned, check out our Official Site, and "Like" us on Facebook for regular updates from the team!

Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary XXV

     Welp, that one day of the year that always reminds me that I'm mortal happened. The fact that I just turned a quarter-century old doesn't help much either. Oh well. I had a nice little birthday week. For one, I got myself the new Tomb Raider game on Launch day. The game itself didn't freeze, but Lara did while salvaging her kill. Dead guy seems to bee enjoying it. ...Didn't quite expect her tomb raiding to go as far as necrophilia :P

     Other than this little snafu, HOLY CRAP, THIS GAME IS AMAZING! It's as if the old TR had a hot steaming threesome with Uncharted and Arkham Asylum, and raised their love child on Skull Island! There are things I like about Uncharted better, such as the script, and secondary characters, but it's all worth playing for Lara herself, especially the island the game takes place in. It is so detailed, and beautifully destroyed. It took me a couple days to beat, and I'm already on my second playthrough, while still looking for all the extra goodies.

     Regarding the "A Tiger's Last Song" Kickstarter, yes, it didn't go through, and we didn't grasp many pledges for several reasons. The main reason probably being the $80,000 goal. It's a big, but not an unreasonable goal for a graphic novel of this scale. It needs a lot of man hours, equipment, licesnsing, printing... plus taxes and Kickstarter's 5% claim that needs to be taken into consideration. But fret not, we won't give up. We believe in this project way too much to simply give it up. We will be re-launching the project. Only this time, we'll be doing "A Tiger's Last Song" episodically, allowing us to significantly reduce our budget. We expect to come back in less than a month. In the meantime, check out the ATLS Official Page and Facebook page. Thank you so much for your support

A Tiger's Last Song - Holiday Update

Here's this Christmas card thingy I put together for friends, family, and supporters of our graphic novel project "A Tiger's Last Song." It was put up on the ATLS Facebook Page a while ago, and I even decorated the page itself for the winter season. I'm a little late putting this image up on my blog... but what can I say? I've been enjoying my Christmas, and have been on crunch mode making new material before we launch our Kickstarter page on February 1st.

I'm WAY excited to be working on this. It's one thing to get out of college and find a job in your field - just for the work. I'm just very fortunate to have a possible opportunity to be doing something that has my enthusiasm and confidence through the roof. In which case, I can't stress this enough: Pwetty pweeeease check us out and 'like' us on Facebook, and spread the word to your friends!! ................with a chewwy on top?

...And to all, a happy new year!! :)

Update - The Final Apology

A lot of you guys probably found me under my YouTube pseudonym "FountainKeeper," and followed me for songs I just happened to magically figure out how to play on the piano. I'm truly thankful for the followings I have received. I would very much love to get back into playing more Blind Guardian, Muppets, and other video game and anime music. But throughout this whole year, I've been apologizing and apologizing for not posting any new videos. This has likely annoyed you, and it sure has been annoying me. Therefore, as of now, the apologies end here.

I've just been busy trying to shape my life - Finishing college, finding work, making this graphic novel Kickstarter project happen, the works. I still play piano. In fact it's been keeping me sane. So you can rest assured I'm not dead, and that I'll one day return gloriously. It may just be some time before I'm back in the game However, I will still update you on the graphic novel, or if I have a new piece of other art to show :)

You may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog from ElephantSpank to The Skaploony Bin. While E.S. is the anagram for my name, not a lot of people might catch onto that. I'll be changing my DeviantArt name as well, once I get around to making a premium account.

Lastly, I have a new Tumblr page. It was meant as a backup blog, after Blogger had been acting up on me at the time. Guess it doesn't hurt to expand :-P

A Tiger's Last Song

I am excited to finally announce the graphic novel project that I will be working on for my good friend Kevin Smelt called "A Tiger's Last Song." We will be launching our Kickstarter page on February 1st, 2013. For more details, please check out the Facebook page, and by golly, SPREAD THE WORD!!! :)

Update 05-15-2012

Where the hell are my new piano vids?
Remember when I said I'd be able to work on those 100th and 101st videos in May? Well, May's half-over, and I still haven't gotten to them. And honestly, I don't know when I will. At least I didn't exactly promise I'd have those videos by May. Then I'd be in a whole world of trouble :P ...But I do still intend on doing them this Summer. I've just gotten myself into a small bind, is all. I just had my graduation ceremony, and I have only one more semester of College to go over the Summer, then I'm FREE!! WOOOO!!

Art
You're probably going to kill me for this, but instead of taking the time to make those videos, I've been arting. I've been digitally painting something I've wanted to get done for a while, but school wouldn't give me the time to do. There's still a lot I want to do with it, but I'm pretty impressed with what I've done so far. I'll post it when I'm finished, and may even start a DeviantArt acct afterward.

Live Streaming Sites
I have signed up for different live streaming sites, just to try them out, like Livestream and JustinTV. Only which one do I want to try out first? Last year I did it on UStream, and that went well. I was thinking of going over to JustinTV, but now that I have my iPad, I see you have to pay for the app. Not only am I concerned for viewers, but I would like to read the chats right in front of me for a change, instead of turning my head and squinting my eyes, reading what's under the laptop's built-in webcam. And the reviews for the JTV app aren't as good as others. Is $5 worth the risk? Which do you use?

Kid Icarus: Uprising
As far as gaming goes, not much has happened, except for beating Kid Icarus: Uprising. I LOVED it. There has been some bashing on the controls, but honestly, I didn't have too much of a problem with them. Actually, the thing that scared me before playing the game was the voice acting, especially coming from Thanatos, having heard him in the 3D Anime feature. He sounded like something that would come out of 4-Kids. I shiver just mentioning the vile company. But even he was entertaining in the game. In fact, the entirety of the nonstop dialogue was probably the best part about the game, and that's kinda rare.
Since I pre-ordered the game, it came with a free copy of the 3D version of the original NES game I remember playing when I was a toddler. Not only did it add extra visuals to the game, it did away with the blasted password system and gave us a save feature! It would have been cool if they had left the passwords in to jump to a further level for kicks, but I'm not really complaining. After all, I had never beaten the game until just last month.

Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses
I also attended the Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert in Seattle. It was pretty great, and some of the performances were more powerful than that of the CD that came with the Skyward Sword preorder. My favorite piece had to be the A Link to the Past movement, especially the Ending Credits theme, which nearly brought a tear to me eye. My only real gripe with the event was that we were jipped out of two medleys that were played at Vancouver, on top of all the same songs that were played here. The song everyone was expecting to hear in the Majora's Mask Medley, the Song of Healing wasn't played because it was in the random Ocarina song medley, which wasn't in our setlist. That was a rather lame move on their part, but nonetheless, I'm really glad I went to this masterpiece.

A Song of Ice and Fire
I just finished audio-reading "A Clash of Kings." I'm a little irked with some of the changes they made in the TV adaptation, compared to how close the first season followed the book. I just think they could have taken a bit more time with it, or even extended the show by a couple episodes if it meant pleasing fans. But at this point, it's becoming less bothersome. As long as it's still good, and even if George Martin is okay with it, I'm still watching. Now onto "A Storm of Swords." I already know of some of the serious shit that happens in that book :D

Update: Okay, I take back every nay-say I said about Season 2. Those last two episodes were amazing!!

Tex Murphy Kickstarter
Looking for something to dump your wallet into? Well one thing I am super-excited for is the Kickstarter revival attempt for Tex Murphy, of which I have just now backed. If you haven't played these games, I highly suggest you check them out - at least the latter three. They're all on gog.com (I still have the original CDs, myself). They were some of my favorite PC adventure games back in the 90's..... Wait, what am I saying "were" for? They still ARE! I replayed them fairly recently, and wound up just as entertained as I was back in elementary school, and I was pretty damn entertained. I'll probably replay them again once I'm finally finished with College, and may even do a song from it.

Lastly, err.... yeah.... Avengers..... F#$%ING SEE IT!! ..............That is all :)

Update 03-11-2012

It's been a little while since I've updated anything, aside from making a new Christmas piano video, and made a little meme thingy. I'm on my last big semester of college, with one more class to take in the Summer, so I'm hoping my activity will increase sometime around May. Then I will finally be able to get around to doing my 100th and 101st piano videos that I've been planning since forever, and doing more artwork that I'm actually more motivated to do.... Make better things to stick in my portfolio, and whatnot.

I'll also be announcing more live piano-chat sessions. Only this time on JustinTV, instead of UStream, just to try things out.

In my last update, I said I'd been listening to audiobooks while I work. I've finished "Howl's Moving Castle" and "A Game of Thrones." Now I'm on "A Clash of Kings." Gotta get through it as much as possible before GoT Season 2 starts - in less than a month. EEEEEEE!!! :D

I've gotten a little gaming down. I beat "Skyward Sword," "Portal 2," and "Super Mario 3D Land," been playing "Mario Kart 7," and only just recently started "Arkham Asylum." I also have my copy of "Kid Icarus: Uprising" pre-ordered. I sure as hell hope it's good, I've waited just about my entire life for a new installment.

Lastly, I'll be attending Seattle's "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" Concert on March 26th. I expect my 3DS to be bombarded with Street Pass Mii's :P

A Little Update

It's been a long while since I've updated this blog, so I figured I'd give a bit of an update. For those who know me from my Fountainkeeper channel on YouTube, I know I have not been recording my piano playing nearly as much as I used to. I do not make a living off of music. Currently, I'm a senior at the DigiPen Institute of Technology, going for my BFA in Digital Art and Animation. This is my real time consumer. Although I am extremely busy with schoolwork, I still find time to play piano. I have not stopped, and I've made sure by doing my live UStream shows that I have not fallen off the map.

Last month, I made an announcement video saying that I have set up a second channel (ElephantSpank), and put a couple songs up on it. I did not promise that videos would be more frequent. I initially made it for lower-quality piano vids, or whenever I visited my parents' place with their old acoustic piano. But mainly, it will be my dump channel for whatever the hell I feel like posting :)

As for my fountainkeeper channel, I will be deleting my two announcement videos later. I don't want my channel to be cluttered with announcement videos. I'll probably archive them over to ElephantSpank. I have recently recorded "Inner Universe" from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, so you'll be seeing that soon. I've also further practiced and fixed the mistakes I made on the Zelda theme I posted on the ES channel. I am redoing it as my own little celebration for Zelda's 25th Anniversary.
___

As far as my life goes, yes, school is a grueling, torturous, painful experience, but I'm still having fun.
One of the things I miss doing because of the schoolwork is reading. I haven't read a book for myself since the Deathly Hallows came out, or when I listened to the audiobook of "The Lovely Bones" back in 2008. So for these past few months, I've started picking up audiobooks from the library, and listening to them while I work. So far I've listened to "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," and Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" and "American Gods." I hear there's an HBO series of AG coming out. Can't wait for that :). Speaking of HBO, I also picked up "A Game of Thrones," which I'll get to, once I finish "Howl's Moving Castle."

As for playing video games, erm.... Hell, I'll just list the ones I beat this past year:
Metroid: Other M - AKA: "The baby... the baby... the F**KING BABY!!!" }: (
Secret of Monkey Island 1 and 2
Tales from Monkey Island
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Portal (Still have yet to play P2)
Half-Life 2 (and Episodes 1 and 2)
Broken Sword 2 and 3
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (for my 30-some-oddth time)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (and Master Quest)

Live Piano Sessions

From time to time, I will be doing live piano chat sessions on UStream. My first one will be on Friday May 6, from 4-7pm PST. Metalheads who subscribed to me on YouTube, don't miss out on the first song!!

My UStream Channel
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fountainkeeper-s-piano

Welcome to my blog!

I don't know exactly what I am going to post here yet (except for maybe my piano videos or artwork), but I've decided to make a Blogspot account for the hell of it. Let's see how this turns out :D