SRM,
Happy B-Day. Hope the weather is better up there, We are sick of snow down here in PDX. Enjoy the holidays.
Bryan & Melissa Blumklotz
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I have been pretty busy immersing myself in the American political circus we call Election 2008. I have not been writing or producing much heraldry lately because of my obsession. I have been sparing you me political and social rants because no one needs to hear me speak out all the time. Besides this blog is primarily about heraldry and the last two entries haven’t lived up to that name. That brings us to today’s entry. Every so often the karma wheel delivers something unexpected to your doorstep, literally. A new friend I made sent me a gift from the College of Arms in London for some spot work I did for him. I wasn’t sure what it would be and it was more than I could hope for: THE ARMORIAL OF HAITI 
This is the kind of book I treasure. Informative, beautiful, and illuminating a spot of history that I would have never considered. And the color plates are astounding. You can see a sample of it here [PDF]. So what did I do to deserve such a treasure? I created a custom avatar with a Ramones theme for, Steve, a guy I just met in an online forum we both frequent. It was a trifle for me to create, it allowed me to learn some new skills using the Illustrator trace function, and I was happy to do if for free. Here is finished work: 
Obviously the value that my client got from it was far beyond the utility it gave me. In exchange I got something that I treasure beyond words to measure. So, what led to this? My brother, also a member of the same forum asked me to create an avatar for him from a specific image:
He wanted it to be heraldry that still had the feel of the above example, this is the result: 
In all, I don’t charge for my work for now, it’s a hobby, a passion. I am having fun with it. To get something in return for it that is just icing on the cake.
So in summation, thank you Steve from London. You just made my day, week, year.
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I don't care whether you are a democrat, republican, independent or some other political affiliation this election cycle, the most important issue this year is health care, period.
I am one of the "lucky" ones that actually has health care coverage through my wife's work while I am back in school. I emphasis the lucky because I really don't feel that lucky at all.
I have watched our coverage shrink while the deductibles paid per visit and the chunk taken out of my wife's paycheck increase. Furthermore, the insurance industry decides what care my wife and I receive instead of our doctors, an industry that looks at its bottom line first and our health a distant last. When did my wife's and my life become a commodity instead of a right? This must end. - I am tired of living in fear of a health care system that will possibly kill or maim me because its cheaper to let me die or disfigure me rather than treat my life as the most important factor.
- I am tired of living in fear that I might get sick and bankrupt my wife and family.
- I am tired of ideologues telling me the market will take care of me, bullshit, the market doesn't care a whit about me.
So, I don't really care about how one candidate suffered and bled for his country or that another claims she represents small town values. I don't care if a candidate was born in Hawaii and raised himself up from nothing or is a scrappy fighter from Scranton.
All I care about is, will you make health care affordable and available to each and every person in this great country of ours.
And if your answer is the private sector needs more time or a small tweak to work, don't go there. Making health care a private sector matter is the wrong answer because at its core the assumption of the private sector is that you can exclude people from the benefit of a product or service. By its definition private sector health care does not care for everyone, it would not be profitable, you have to exclude some to make it work.
So, when all the speeches are done and wrangling is over, take a look at what each campaign says about healthcare and for your own life's sake vote for the ticket that is going to make your healthcare a right again and take away the fear, uncertainty and doubt the current dysfunctional system creates.
That means for me, that Barak has my vote.
Barak, don't disappoint me like the Clinton's did in the 90's because I don't want to hear any more excuses why we, as the riches most powerful country in the world cannot take care of its own people. As Tim Gunn says, "Make it work people!"
Thank you,
Bryan Blumklotz
AKA Saracenus
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"This is my blog. There are many like it but this one is mine. My blog is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my blog is useless. Without my blog I am useless. I must write my blog true..." ~~ Full Metal Jacket
Normally, I will keep politics and faith out of my blog. In this case I just can't. Ben Stein is releasing a "documentary" this month attacking science, more specifically evolutionary science. And everything I have read about how it was made and marketed makes my blood boil. You can get a run down here about the duplicity and stupidity of this production at Expelled Exposed and I want to thank John Wick at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wickedthought for the link to it.
I will not support this film and I will cease to support any project that Ben Stein (or the rest of the ass hats involved in this movie) participate in. I urge everyone to ignore this propaganda film and not give it any financial help what so ever. Let them choke on the cost to make it.
In honor of Ben's willful ignorance and his attempt to link Darwin to the Nazis and eugenics I present to you MC Hawking's - Fuck The Creationists:
If my stance on science and creationism offends you, feel free to walk away from this blog... I don't need your bullshit here anyway.
Bryan Blumklotz
AKA Saracenus
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Well my friends,
I have seen a lot of fear and loathing out there about D&D 4th Edition. But it could be worse. Oh yes, so much worse.
I have traveled to the future, just before the launch of D&D 5e in 2015, and WotC is quite proud that D&D is still using dice on a tabletop instead of jacking into the matrix like so many other RPGs, guess retro is still cool...
I have to say, as is true of all succeeding generations, the kids are dumber than the proceeding one. WotC had to dumb down the dice system again to make it even easier for the little bastards, I fear for our hobby.
At least we can use the damn twelve-sided dice for something again. In Service, Bryan Blumklotz AKA Saracenus
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So, in my methods and madness post I talked about using stock images, modding them, or creating them from whole cloth when creating heraldry for my website Today I am going to talk about my process for modding images (in general terms, this is not a step by step tutorial).
Heraldry for the World of Greyhawk occasionally needs a specific image that my Armorial Gold (AG) library of 12,000 plus .WMF vector format images just doesn't have.
It could be something as simple as removing a stem from a flower, moderately difficult as splitting helms & mantling so that it looks like it sits atop a shield with a 3-D look, or something more complicated like taking a basic spindle and turning it into a more complicated drop spindle (see image below).
The image on the left is the original image from AG. The one right is the complete drop spindle mod. Since I recently upgraded from Illustrator 9.0 to CS3 I picked up an excellent basic reference, Illustrator CS3 Visual Quickstart Guide, which I cannot recommend highly enough. From it I learned how to use the scissor and knife tools to cut the top part of the base image off. I then used the Path|Join command to reconnect the paths. I added the spindle top using the pen and line tools, borrowed the hook from another AG image and finally drew in the thread cutting across the bundled yarn. Then it was a mater of cutting with the scissors and knife tools again to make each group in the layer match up (this was actually the most difficult part because I didn't think through the layers to begin with and I will approach it differently next time). I found the pathfinder tools invaluable to linking disparate elements together (e.g. the black background was actually 4 separate elements with all the cutting and drawing). All in all, I am pleased with the final result. My drop spindle looks like something I would recognize while the other looks like a fat dart to me. Now the base image for my drop spindle is done, I can make some tweaks to it. I plan to have a version with three strands at the top of the thread separating out at the top. This will make a nice holy symbol of Istus, a goddess in the World of Greyhawk fantasy setting. If I am feeling frisky I will try and put up a step by step of what I am doing, but that project will have to be done from the start so I can save the various stages. I hope what I have presented today shows you the work that goes into modding an image. In Service, Bryan Blumklotz AKA Saracenus
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Well last night I had to defrost the self-defrosting refrigerator because the vents to the freezer compartment were frozen solid and my wife's fudge bars were melting, to say I was having a bad night was mild understatement. Here's your visual: food in ice chests, mopping up four plus years of crap from under the beast, wife using her hair dryer to melt solid ice. Ugh.
This morning I am hoping the blocked venting system didn't damage the freezer system, so it was with some joy to receive a notice from dungeon_grrrl that I must support her ""Nicky." Since I know that she enjoys depraved D&D goodness as much as I do , I was sure that Nick Logue was doing something special. She didn't disappoint...
If you loved Paizo's D1 Crown of the Kobold King or Pathfinder 3: The Hook Mountain Massacre, go be infected by the madness that is Nick Logue unleashed at his new imprint Sinister Adventures. If you have never seen Nick's special form of dementia, go there and find the out why D&D stands for Distressed and Disturbed.
If you are of faint of heart and easily offended please don't go there, for he isn't to your taste and I don't need to hear your bitching. Just move along and enjoy your D&D the way you enjoy it, and leave me to mine... MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Enjoy,
Bryan Blumklotz
AKA Saracenus
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So lets get something out of the way. I am not a professional herald. I have no accreditation (If there is such a thing) and I am, at best, a dabbler in the art and science of heraldry. So what do I know of the science?
- I have a growing library of books on the subject (which I read and re-read).
- I visit many different heraldry websites.
- Some basic training from my days in the SCA.
So basically I am self taught and I am sure that I am making tons of mistakes, especially in blazonry. Artistically, that's a different matter. I am doing fantasy heraldry (mostly) for a game world called the World of Greyhawk. Much of what is done on my website is already made long ago by Gary Gygax and some other authors that came after. Some of what I put up there is all me but not much. My tools for the artistic side of things are: - Adobe Designer Premier (Primarily Illustrator, Photoshop, & Dreamweaver).
- A massive heraldry library from Armorial Gold (.WMF stock and modified elements).
- A small library of images I have created whole cloth on my own (.AI and .WMF).
I work in vector format first in Illustrator, sizing, layering, coloring images. If an image needs modification or I have to create one, this is my tool. So far I have freehand drawn most things, but I will probably start using a base image from a open source and trace base images from that for more complicated stuff (I need to create a wasp and a dragonfly soon). Once the image is composed in Illustrator, I send it over to Photoshop in .PSD format (layers intact) for filtering to alter the image (glows, drop shadows, patterns, etc.) or a straight final conversion to .GIF. Once the image is done I am ready to write up the blazon (usually I am researching this in books and online references to make an accurate as possible blazon of the emblazon) and commentary (more research of Greyhawk lore to tie the coat of arms into the game world in a "realistic" way as possible). The commentary is more loose than the blazonry. Once the text and images are ready for publishing I open of Dreamweaver and use one of 3 or 4 templates I have created for my website and put all the elements into a layout and publish it online. I will say the writing commentary is the hardest part, I can bang out images pretty quickly. Tying that image to a history and making plot hooks without hitting the reader over the head with a 2x4 is tough. Anyway, that is what I do and how I do it. I hope this answers any questions you might have. If not, drop a comment and I will do my best to expand on it. Thanks, Bryan Blumklotz AKA Saracenus
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Gary Gygax died on March 4th, 2008. I never met the man and for that I am poorer. Outside of my father, no man had a greater impact upon my life. His creation of the Role-Playing Game market back in the 1970’s forever changed my life. Before Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) I was a shy, bookish kid with few if any friends. I did not relate to my peers and felt nothing but pain trying to interact with them. After I saw D&D played for the first time by my counselors while away at Camp Handcock (a science camp) in the eastern desert of Oregon at the tender age of eleven, I was hooked. When I got back to school in the fall, I met some fellow geeks in the chess club but wanted to try something different. Gary’s game opened up a world of imagination and provided me with a safe place in which to learn how to socialize with people my own age. Don’t get me wrong, I was and still am a geek, but now I am a well socialized geek able to connect to people in a way that I couldn’t before. He also provided me and my friends with hours and hours of fun. For a man who gave me so much I have very little to give back in return. So, I will give his family a small something to show my gratitude, an artistic rendering of the arms of Gary’s most famous character from the early days of D&D, Mordenkainen. On the Pied Piper Publishing message boards in 2005 someone asked Gary what the coat of arms for Mordenkainen were. They had never been published for the World of Greyhawk supplement. He replied with the following: Re: WOG Heraldry: Mordenkainen?
(09/02/05 13:52:53) Mordenkainen: Purpur, two lightningbolts or meeting in a V-shape. Gary I did slightly modify his description, I took the V shape design for the lightening and turned it into a unique heraldic device, a lightening bolt wreath. Without further ado, Mordenkainen’s arms: Blazon: Purple, a lightening bolt wreath gold
I will be posting a special entry on my World of Greyhawk Heraldry website this Thursday in honor of Gary. While this is a tribute, the "charater" I write as for the website has no love for Mordenkainen, so please do not take what "he" writes as a slap at Gary, but a loving write up to a man who indeed created magic. EDIT (3/27/08): Here is the direct link to Mordenkainen's coat of arms ( here) Thank you Gary, Bryan Blumklotz AKA Saracenus
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Hello, My name is Bryan Blumklotz (AKA Saracenus, Saracen, Perithoth)
Well here I am at Live Journal. I am not sure what I am going to use this space for. If I am going to use this space. Perhaps I will blog about my Greyahwk Heraldry (seen here: WoG Heraldry).
Right now I am in finals week for my Micro Econ and Financial Accounting classes and I just celebrated my 41st Birthday. I am going to hang out at NorWesCon next weekend. I think I will make choice after that.
In Service,
Saracenus
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giddy
pissed off
tired
thoughtful