A couple of days ago, I submitted a slightly modified version of TRANSMOGRIFIERS to the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival 2008. I don't expect it to win, but I can't help fighting with myself in my head over whether I have a good chance of actually being accepted. If over 80 animations were being accepted like the first year, that would be different, but last year there were only 30. Since the number goes down every year, it's most likely that only twenty-something videos will be accepted. Caculating the exact number logarithmically, it shall probably be 27. Of course, it would be very nice if they went back up, right? Onward and Upward and all that, right? See, it's different here on Newgrounds. We don't get hundreds of awesome submissions a day with a few hand picked by the Fulps to be displayed on the site. We get Everything by Everyone.

Will TRANSMOGRIFIERS be accepted? Will it not? How does its animation quality compare to some of the other Flashes that have been accepted in previous years? AAHGH! I can't tell! The styles are too dfiferent! And I won't even know if my Flash made the cut until OCTOBER!

Looking at other previously accepted animations, they're usually quite well animated but not really that funny. A good exception was A Peach for the Teach, which was unexpectedly nicely nightmarish. And the peach was so CUUUUTE!

What I'm saying here is probably going to be controversial, considering the shorts themselves are quite revered. Therefore, I'd like anyone who disagrees with me to respond with why.

Of the two chapters of Valhalla Knights that have been released, I really wasn't impressed. I'm not talking about the animation quality; no, the animation itself is quite satisfactory. I'm referring to everything else.

From what I've seen, literally none of the story is original. A man who became a police officer because his father was killed by criminals, for example, is a trope not even limited to cop dramas (think Batman and Star Wars, for example). The line "It's not always like the movies, you know?" is the type of line that's so overused that I'm surprised it's not just used in parodies. Furthermore, Ken's statements in the first episode don't make any sense. He said smilingly "I like this job", mentioning that there was only one thing that bothered him about it (implied to be his boss), yet right after talking to him, he said "Man I'm done I better start looking for a new job" (sic). Was his boss yelling at him like that really such a bad experience that he didn't want to be a police officer anymore? Even though he was the one who was late? Is that really logical at all?

I'm going to skip over the "magical artifact handed over by dying ancestor" trope for now, because although it is used quite a bit, it can still be done respectably. Now I'm going to focus on the "naked young woman appearing out of nowhere who the protagonist has to take care of" trope. That part might seem interesting or even innovative if you haven't seen Chobits, Kono Mini, Elfen Lied, or... jeez, there was definitely a fourth one I had thought of, but I can't remember it for now. And Kono Mini and Elfen Lied took what was already a trope and subverted it (in pretty much the same way, actually)...

Basically, to sum it up, I don't see why people like the story so much. As a Flash, it's... erm... flashy, but if this were released as an actual film or television series, I really don't think it would be taken seriously. Are Newgrounds viewers not familiar with how much of the story was taken from other sources, or do they just not care? Or is it simply because it's well-animated for an amateur Flash?

I'd really like to see any dissenting opinions posted in comments here, not necessarily for debate purposes, but to help me understand why people like Valhalla Knights so much despite its (to me) lack of narrative merit.

P.S. I love those The Real Legend shorts and thought F E A R and Moonlight were pretty good.

My first Daily Feature in three years! Of course, the daily scores are miserably arbitrary; TRANSMOGRIFIERS is currently at a score of 3.83, which is only 0.02 points higher than OF THE COUCH, a Flash that didn't place at all (and is far inferior, in my opinion). Furthermore, NICHOLAS' WEIRD ADVENTURE 2 had... I believe a 4.12 on the day it got Daily 3rd. Arbitrary, arbitrary, arbitrary.

Oh yeah, and I don't think I've advertised my deviantArt account on Newgrounds yet, so, ah... you'll find it at http://naveryw.deviantart.com (assuming you look there).

I have already completed a good deal of the first episode of ENTHALPY, but I still don't expect it to be out for a while. In fact, I may wish to complete the first two episodes before I release the first one so that it's assured that the series won't be abandoned like McDARNOLD'S appears to be (but isn't).

I'm thinking of making something for the next Sonic Shorts video in the spirit of the "Sonic Says RUN" picture I put on deviantArt. I absolutely love drawing those things.

I recently got the R4 Revolution for the Nintendo DS for the sake of testing my homebrew on the actual hardware. It's quite fantastic to see something I made on an actual Nintendo system, running much more smoothly than on the computer. It really reinforced my feeling that I could quite possibly get this licensed and into stores once I'm finished. 'Course, I need to get a publishing company. As I've said before (I think), I'm looking at O3 Entertainment.

Now, I haven't checked up on SWFZ for a while, since the creator said he wasn't updating until the next version of flash came out. However, looking at it today, it turns out he's giving out the source of SWFZ, which means that I can start programming NWA3! That is... I can do it if I get Flex. Otherwise, the source code is useless. Therefore, I still may not start for a while.

However, that doesn't mean you won't be seeing stuff from me soon. Ramon Osborn sent me the music for TRANSMOGRIFIERS, but unfortunately the vocals I had thought I wanted interfered with the character dialogue, so I'm waiting for him to send me off-vocal music. I think he knows I'm waiting for it...

Also, Torque Game Engine: Awesome. Definitely worth the $150 they're charging for it. I'm working on a 3D third-person-shooter with it. And since the demo it comes with is already very similar to the engine I was planning to use, I don't even have to modify the engine's source code very much! =D

One final thing: I updated the Project Enthalpy website's main page. No, the site's still not up yet, but I colored a comic I did in Photoshop and put that comic up on the splash page. I think I like the black and white version better, though. You may see the black and white one at http://projectenthalpy.com/glooscale.p ng for comparison. Which do YOU like better?

If you're cool, you'll know what my inspiration is.

Portal to Destiny by Nicholas Walstrom

Chell had a brother named Frell who was worried about her because she hadn't come home from Arpertcher Science Facilities all day since he had dropped her off there his morning. So Frell decided that he needed to go to the rescue and save her in case she wasin trouble. He heopped into his car that he drove across over the highways to Arapture Sciennce. On the way he hads to stop the car to get gas because he was out of gas. As he got more gas at a convenience station he said "Boy the price of gas sure is really high these day" and laughed and then he continued to driving and went fasterbecause his sister could still be in danger.

By the time he got to Rapetchure Science the sun was dark and the blowing wind was howling like as though it was wolf. When he wint to open the door to ender the fecility it was abandoned so not body was inside there except for turrets.

"Have you seen my sister Chell?" Frell asked a turret.

"I'm going to shoot you target" said the turret in a highly pitched voice.

"Don't shoot me, I'm just looking for my sister Chell" said Frell.

"Target sighted" said the turret and shot but Frell dodged real quickly fast and the bullet missed and richocheted off the wall and hit the own turret which knocked it fast down onto floor.

"That serves you, right?" said Frell and he kept on going. Into the facility. This time he saw turrets in the cages so he couldn't nock them over. "What do I do" the thought. Then he had idea. He wnt back out of Apetherh Since and got backin his car and went droving to weapon shop and he bought some grenades?

"What are you buting this grenades or?" asked weapon shopkeep.

"I need to do what must be done to I can save my sister Chell I'm worried she's in trouble" said Frell said and he paid for the grenades so then he left the store and got back in his car and drove back to Armature Scientific Ffffffffffffffffacility.

When he got back to the turrets in those cage he through grenade which sploded and the cages blew up into several smitherines so the bad turrets were no more. He picked up a smitherine and thre wit at the camera which was watching him because he didn't want them to seen him.

When Frell got to at the final room he saw Chell and he yelled hi. Chell turned around and saw him an was distracted by Frell so she got hit by Glados missile that missile flew fast through the room with a speed of flying cheetah and it hit her and she was wound.

"Noooooooooo" said Frell.

"Frell you have to stop Glados" she sid with her last breadth. So Frell threw his last grenade at Glados and she screamed as the ball that says the cake ingredients fell out. But Frell didn't know what to do so he listned to how to make the cak. He drove really really rapidly back home and backed a cake and brought it back to Ape Orchard Science Felicity and he fedit into Chell nom nom nomb and she came back to conscientiousness.

"i'VE Saved you sis now lets get us out of here." said Frell.

"Not yet said Chell" we have to stop Glados.

"O. K." sad Frell and tossed last final Grenade at Glados and she was not more. So then Frell drove Chell back house and they had lots od delicious cake.

THE END

...in the opposite of the order in the subject.

Of YouTube
First off, for those of you who are interested, I have two YouTube accounts (three, actually, but I'm going to focus on the main two here). One is NAveryW, which I use to upload things not related to Youtube Poop. The other is WalrusGuy, which has become one of the most popular Youtube Poop accounts in existence (and considered by many to be the most overrated). The walrusguy account on Newgrounds is unrelated.

For those of you who don't know what Youtube Poop is, I'm not going to tell you here. Here's a representative example to initiate you. It'll probably be funnier if you've already seen the Super Mario World episode "Mama Luigi". Note that when I make Youtube Poops, I generally tend to let my humor be more free and spontaneous, and I don't censor myself or leave out jokes that I think might be too corny.

Of the Wii
My Wii Friend Code is 5284-1193-5731, for anyone who wants to fight me in Super Smash Bros. Brawl or, more importantly, SEND ME FRIEND CREDITS FOR METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION! I'll return the favor to anyone who does so. A note to those who want to fight me in Brawl: I'm not the most experienced player. In fact, I've never beat a Smash Bros. game's Classic Mode on anything other than Easy without having to use at least one Continue. That's my skill level for you.

Of Flash 'Toons
I will be starting a "new" series soon that I have been planning for a very, very long time. I say "new" because it will use the same characters (Nicholas, Udesky, Charles, etc.) that I have been using in stories since I was 11. The series will be called Enthalpy because the title will confuse people. And for those who are wondering if I will ever conclude McDarnold's, the answer is yes. In fact, much of the conclusion has been animated for quite some time. I will release one more cartoon with these characters before the first full episode of Enthalpy. This cartoon will be called TRANSMOGRIFIERS. It is almost completed with the exception of the music, which I am waiting on my ol' reliable music companion Ramon Osborn to finish. Actually, I'm guessing he's finished it by now, but I haven't seen him on AIM lately and consequently can't get it from him.

Of Nicholas' Weird Adventure 3D
Many people have asked if there will be a NWA3. Indeed there will be, but the plan was to use the SWFZ engine. Unfortunately, Jono, the creator of the engine, has ceased work on it until the next version of Flash comes out, despite the fact that he had previously decided to release the source to those who would buy it. I am going to wait until this engine is available to start work on the third game.

Anyone who wants to see what the SWFZ engine is capable of will be wowed by what they see here.

Of the Nintendo DS
I have recently gotten into game development for the DS, and am in pre-production of a game based on Enthalpy that I hope to get licensed and sell commercially. The game will be a 2D platformer RPG with elements of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link mixed in with Super Paper Mario mixed in with Metroid/Castlevania mixed in with other stuff. It will have the same type of humor and quirkiness as the NWA games, but will feature more advanced gameplay. Don't expect this to be out for quite a while, though, as I want this to be a commercial-quality game that has a good chance of getting published. O-3 Entertainment looks promising as a publisher, which Newgrounds fans should recognize (but probably won't) as the publisher of Alien Hominid for the Gamecube and PS2.

That's about it for now. Look for TRANSMOGRIFIERS on Newgrounds soon. Or... don't.

I've always been attracted to works of fiction that mess with one's mind, things that seem lighthearted at first but have a dark crux, and things that leave you feeling uneasy after you've seen them. Things like Eraserhead, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Donnie Darko (in the order I thought of them while typing).

So it was of particular interest to me when I found this series of Garfield comic strips from 1989. I've never had particular interest in Garfield, though I used to watch Garfield and Friends when I was in fourth grade while waiting for Pokémon to come on. However, this particular sequential narrative of strips stirred my attention. I've included a picture from it, but if you want to see the whole thing, I have it hosted at a link that I have given at the bottom of this post.

I found out about it from the Onion AV Club's "12 Memorable newspaper comic-strip deaths" article. It is certainly up to interpretation whether Garfield is actually dead/dying, but it does seem to present the disturbing statement that Garfield, now alone and his own existence apparently fading, decides to reject reality so that he can continue to live happily. Indeed, that in itself seems to imply that all subsequent comic strips in the Garfield series are taking place purely within Garfield's imagination.

I never would have expected something so dark and existential from Garfield. Calvin and Hobbes, but not Garfield, a Heathcliff doppelganger who only wants to eat spaghetti and nap.

Well... erm... so, for anyone who's still here... any interpretations of this very deep, philosophical Garfield story? XD After reading it over again, it appears to me personally that Garfield is having a terrifying dream of the inevitable future, and decides to pretend that it will never happen. Of course, there is the irony that being fictional, he can and probably will stay the same age forever and doesn't have to worry about death. You can read he "he's dead" interpretation in the Onion AV Club article I linked to in one of the above paragraphs.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to link to the series of strips that make up the story! You can read the whole thing HERE.

The final episode of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law recently aired, ushering in the end of an era. It was hilarious throughout, and a worthy ending to a good series. It had many great jokes, such as the tea party at the beginning and Phil Ken Sebben still being alive and on the front of the bus, despite being previously cremated. HA HA! Retcon.

Welp, I guess that's it... figured I had to post it. It just seemed kind of right, my first news post being about the final episode of something. You know, in a beginning and an end sort of way... yep...

Also, halfway through season two and onward, HB:AaL was animated in Flash, showing what Flash can truly accomplish. I'd say the animation quality in the final episode was pretty much as good as any traditionally animated show (though still distinctly looks like Flash.)

So, uh... post any Harvey Birdman memories you may have, great quotes from the show... whatever... or don't post. But remember, if you don't reply, you lose. And you're a winner, right?