Announcing Gonzogoose Services!

Well, I'm really putting myself out there now, so please HIRE ME! Check out the new flyer below (and if you want to pass some out I'll send you a copy via email)!


Also, I've updated my website with a bunch of new samples, including new lettering and logo samples. And I made some minor, hardly noticeable changes to the navigation and the overall site. So please go check it out!

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Just a Reminder...

I made up a digital flyer to reinforce my search for lettering (and logo design and editing) work:

To be able to pay bills, get some of the much needed dental work done, and have a few presents under the tree I need to make AT MINIMUM $4,500. So if you've got work or know someone who might, PLEASE contact me at gonzogoose @ brantfowler.com

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Lettering Services Offered for Bill/Dental/Christmas Money

I am looking to get some PAID lettering work to pay some bills, get some shopping money, and to get some dental work done, which I need bad at the moment. So if you or someone you know has any work at all I'm available big time right now.

That said, I'm also available for editing and writing.

Email me at gonzogoose @ brantfowler.com and we'll discuss things.

Thanks, and Happy Holidays!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's wishing a very happy turkey day to all you carnivores out there (and a happy cranberry day I guess for all the vegans and vegetarians (though I'm not sure what the difference is). Regardless of your eating preference, have a blessed day with your family and friends, and be sure to consider all the things in your life you are thankful for.

As for me, I am thankful for a small group of friends that have proven to be true friends over the past year or two. You know who you are. And for my family, who I may not always see eye to eye with, but have always been there in one way or another. And for a few others that I care about dearly and wish I could see more. You know who you are as well.

I'm also thankful for being alive and for not having it as bad as I could have it. Even in the worst of times I can see how I have been blessed through the years, and being that this is a day of reflection on those things I'd be remiss not to make reference to them, if not specifically at least by mention.

I'm thankful that for the past year I've been able to do what I love for the most part, and that I know my path even if it's a little hard to get to. I'm thankful that over the past two years I've grown tremendously and things have become much more clear to me.

And finally, last, but not least, to all of you that diligently read my musings and updates from time to time. I appreciate your dedication and interest more than you could know.

May each and every one of you have a wonderful day today, whether it's a holiday where you are or not. And may you all be richly blessed.

And for the rest of you, to quote Bilbo Baggins, "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." If you can make sense of that, I kid, I kid. :) In all seriousness, Happy Thanksgiving! Don't gorge yourselves on pumpkin pie! B-Out

Firefox Vs Internet Explorer

Let me start this post off by apologizing to my Internet Explorer using friends. I use Firefox almost exclusively (there are a couple of things I have to use IE for for work), so I don't typically check my blog in IE. Therefore, I had no idea how monstrous the video box was in IE, nor that you had to scroll a foot to get to the actual blog!

So, for now, I've moved the video box to the footer, but I'll probably move it again and shrink it down, we'll see.

Though, allow me to advertise for a moment, as it were, for the benefits of Firefox. It's nearly identical to IE, but without the bugs, the spam, and the pop-ups. If you are still using IE you should certainly switch to the far superior (and easily customizable) Firefox internet browser. I've tried several, and this one is my favorite. I've been using it for over two years now.

End Advertisement.

Okay, that's all, and I'm off!

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What the Wind Blew In

It's been a busy day. I kind of stayed away from the computer for the most part of the weekend, but today it's been work, lettering, editing, recipe finding, "window shopping" as it were, and other stuff. So it's been a pretty full day.

I finished up a small lettering job on time, so that worked out well. Though I've got two more I've got to finish corrections on before Thanksgiving, so it will be a full week.

I set up some pretty cool interviews for SBC in the coming weeks, so that should be a real treat.

Made some headway on some edits of a script today, more later tonight. Then I've got two more scripts to edit waiting in the wings, possibly three.

No more lettering bites so far. I had to actually turn down one because it just wasn't enough pay for the work involved unfortunately.

Still waiting to hear back from a few people, so we'll see how things go.

Not much TV watching this weekend surprisingly. I did catch The Honeymooners and The Cleaner (must've been Cedric, the Entertainer day), and both were mildly entertaining and humorous.

I played the first video game I've played in many months yesterday, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. I've had the game for a loooong time now, but many things have impeded my progress. First, I didn't have the proper controller for it (it required a specific kind), then months later I got that, then got stuck, and so forth and so on. But I finally made some headway last night and forgot how much fun it was to just get lost in games. So that was fun.

Physically, I am feeling much better as far as the infection goes. I barely even notice what's left of the pain. And even though I currently have a head cold and my throat hurts, for some reason through it I feel very relaxed. And oddly enough, I'm not feeling a lot of stress lately. Must be the holiday feeling in the air as I love this time of year.

Let's see, I'm making a pumpkin dip for Thanksgiving that has taco seasoning and peppers in it, and corn chips to dip in it. So that should be interesting. Never made it before, but I like trying new things.

And I will be moving things around as far as all the Amazon stuff sometime this week as I've gotten a lot of good feedback on it. Thanks, everyone!

Well, I guess that's about all that's going today, more later (including cafepress stores!).

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Lettering Submissions

This past week I have submitted lettering samples to several companies in hopes of gaining some good lettering jobs with some established companies. I've only had about 6 responses so far out of around 15 submissions, but I'm confident something will work in my favor.

I've had a couple of nibbles, so we'll see where things go. Today I just sent off samples to Marvel. I know it's a longshot, but we'll see how it goes.

I'll keep you posted on any concrete offers I get right here. 'Til then...

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Testing a Few Things

You might possibly notice a slight cosmetic change on the blog recently. I am testing out Triggit, which got me to testing out Amazon, so thus the reason for the changes. I've probably gone a little overboard, but we'll see how it works.

Feedback is appreciated. If it's too cluttered or bothersome let me know.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know what was going on with it.

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Poseidon and Children of Men

Late last night before I went to bed I finally got around to watching Poseidon. I had been told by several people that it wasn't any good, so I had avoided it, but last night I was bored and couldn't sleep.

Honestly, I kind of liked it. I think it got a bad rap because people probably compared it to Titanic, which was more of a love story/drama, whereas this film was a suspense action movie at best. So I think the critics and general movie goers were a little unfair on this one.

Was it the greatest movie I've ever seen? Of course not. But the action sequences and suspense were decent enough, and the acting was top notch in my opinion. They could have dug a little deeper into the characters and that would have made it much more appealing, but for what it was I can't complain.

I also watched Children of Men as I ate my dinner since there was nothing else on. It was an okay movie with an interesting concept. It was kind of like a non-sci-fi version of Aeon Flux set in a real world setting in a dystopian near future. So it resonated a little more, and was interesting, but got kind of boring at points.

Aside from that and a little bit of ECW wrestling, that's all the TV yesterday, so you can see I am feeling much better. The bad news is, I've gotten a cold from my mother and brother, so now I can't swallow. Ugh, will it never end? :)

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Lazy Day

First, I am feeling much better as I type this, about at 85%, so that's really good comparatively speaking. Especially since for the better part of the day I was in bed afraid to move it hurt so bad. But things seem to have taken a turn for the better this evening.

That said, since I was in bed and couldn't sleep, it became a movie marathon day for me today, and I had a bunch of stuff on hand to watch oddly enough. So today I watched The Marine, Pulse, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Stealth, and Doom.

Did I mention I love movies?

So, I'm tired and about to turn in, but I'll give a brief review of each.

The Marine: 3.5 of 5
Pretty good movie actually. Much better that Condemned if you ask me, but the acting was still not spectacular. And the music nearly killed the film. There were also some strange beats, but overall I enjoyed the flick. Probably wouldn't watch it again though.

Pulse: 3 of 5
A ghostly horror tale that seemed to be a subtle commentary on the evils of technology in a round about way. That concept has been done better in other films, but the overall story was interesting here. I didn't feel a resolution though, and that bothered me.

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: 3.5 of 5
I thought this film was pretty good actually. I didn't care so much for the lead actor, but I felt that if they were going to continue the franchise that this was a good way to do it, moving it away from the cop infiltrating storyline of the first two. And the surprise at the end was pretty cool.

Stealth: 4 of 5
I really liked this film for what it was. The flying sequences were cool, and the acting was great. The story had some decent twists. Could have been better, but I'd watch this one again.

Doom: 4 of 5
I was really surprised by how good this movie was. I'm even tempted to give it a 4.5, but not quite. The acting was excellent in my opinion, as was the directing and the story. And I loved how toward the end it went first person shooter like the video game. That made the movie for me, even though I've never played the game. This was just a really good movie and I'd definitely watch it again.

And that's all for tonight.

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TV and Movies

So, while I've been laid up I've gotten to watch a lot of TV, which includes a few movies. So since I'm bored at the moment I figured why not talk about them a little.

It's kind of odd that my friend Cary would post on his blog today about watching Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet recently as I myself just watched Aeon Flux the other day and Ultraviolet is up soon. I basically agree with what he said about the former. It was a decent action flick and the story and acting was pretty decent. I never watched the old MTV cartoon, so I didn't have anything to compare it to except for other movies, but it was good for what it was. It had some cool action sequences and so forth as well.

As for Ultraviolet, I didn't have high hopes for it, and after reading Cary's thoughts I still don't. But I'll watch it anyway just once.

I also finally saw Rent last night. I had never seen the play, and I'm not one much for musicals, but the opening number really appealed to me, so I gave it a shot. Turns out it was much more about equality and tolerance than anything else, but for a musical it was a pretty good one. I think they tried to push certain things on the audience, but all in all it had some good messages intertwined and both the singing and acting were really great. I didn't know Taye Diggs and Rosario Dawson could sing like that either! And I'm not normally a huge fan of Dawson, but she was superb in this role. So kudos to her.

Friday Night Lights is a favorite show of mine at the moment, which is strange because I've never been into football. For some reason I just really like the drama of this series, and here in it's second season the show is still hitting on all cylinders for me.

I caught a little bit of Miami Vice the movie as well, and that was really enough for me. In the first few minutes it looked a lot like a million other movies out there. I may finish it, I may not, but I can see why it didn't do great.

Let's see... oh yeah, I finally saw Silent Hill. That was a strange and violent movie. I've never played the game, but the movie was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. A little more violent than I cared for, and some of the acting and direction was just bad, but I've seen worse.

Smallville is getting dogged by a lot of online fans, but I still like the show. It's winding down, and certain relationships are finally showing signs of coming to a close, and I'm ready for Clark to embrace his legacy personally. But while Lana now irritates even me, I'm glad they stretched out the on again/off again romance with her and Clark. This was the first love of his life, the only woman he imagined ever being with long term, and it should have taken this long for him to get past her. With what they have done with her character, too, it not only has made the fans hate her, but it has also made Clark realize this isn't the woman he fell in love with so many years ago. And while he has yet to abandon this failed love, you can see it coming, and it will be that much more glorious when it does happen. If it had ended in season one or two we would have felt terrible for Lana and wondered why, even though we knew it had to happen. But now it just makes much more sense why he would go for Lois.

There are other shows and movies I'm leaving out, but I gotta have something to talk about next time, right?

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On the Upswing

Well, the medicine seems to be working so far on my ailment as I was feeling much better yesterday. Today I'm a little more sore than I was yesterday, but still much better than the day before. So hopefully it's clearing up.

On another note, Scott has been updating the Wannabez blog of late with clips of various pages from our #0 story, so check those out. And speaking of, here's another clip from page 2 he didn't show. You'll have to trust me that the entire scene is very funny in context. I can't wait for it to be out there and available for you guys and gals to pick up!



Lettering work is going ok, though I could certainly use some more paid work right now. I have some medical bills and stuff to take care of, and work is still kind of slow going at the moment. I do have a couple of potential small gigs in the pike, but nowhere near what I need. So if you have something...

Let's see, my cousin's 31st birthday was yesterday. I didn't get to see him, but I left a message for him on his myspace page. If you happen to read this, Jay, hope you had a great one. I won't embarrass you this year with old pics like I did on your 30th. :)

I guess that's it for the upswing. I have a few things on the downswing, but you don't want to hear about those, trust me. So here's to hoping those turn around as well.

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Upside, Inside Out

I was watching something and that old Ricky Martin song "Livin' la Vida Loca" was playing, and so the lyrics kind of mesh with this post's varied topics, so it fits. What can I say?

UPSIDE

Scott has updated the Wannabez blog with a teaser image. And he's been showing me pages recently, and the #0 story is shaping up to be really cool. More updates over there as we have them.

INSIDE

I've got what seems to be a kidney infection or something of the sort the past couple of days, so I'll have to get that checked out. It's at about a 5 or 6 pain wise (well at the moment it's calmed down to about a 2 or 3) out of 10, but it has gotten up to a 7 or 8 very briefly. So that said, I probably won't be online more than I have to for the remainder of the week. I'll get my work done and then I'm off.

And on that note...

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Shake your bon-bon... because I can't! =)

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Falling Back and Running Forward

Did anyone forget to set their clocks back? Luckily for me, I have digital cable, so both my cable boxes and my computer set back automatically. Of course it threw my sleep off a bit, but in a good way.

Speaking of cable, some of the channels changed in my area, so now I have to get used to those all over again.

And speaking of sleep, last night was the first night in weeks I slept eight uninterrupted hours. Woo-hoo! I don't know why last night was different, but that was definitely a welcome change.

Today has been a pretty relaxing day, thankfully.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and man can my family cook! And I love food. And my family of course. :)

So yeah, my life at the moment is not all that exciting, which leaves me little to talk about these days.

I won't be going to the Mid-Ohio con after all, as much as I wanted to. Things just haven't worked out, and Wannabez isn't ready anyway. Hopefully next year will be con year for me. I've yet to make it to anything but a local con years ago.

I watched Wicker Man today, and man was that eerie. A little predictable after a while, but still kind of spooky as it's one of those things that could really happen. Those kind of stories always make the most terrifying ones to me, you know?

Speaking of horror, on Halloween an ECW wrestler named Elijah Burke went on location with the Ghost Hunters and there was one point this big wrestler got scared out of his pants. It was so funny. Click the title of this post to find the video of that scene.

I am getting some lettering samples together to send out to some companies, so I'll keep you all posted on that. Speaking of, I may get to letter a book at a top 4 publisher soon, so we'll see how that goes as well.

Not much else to report in the way of lettering. I'm a page away from finishing up a seven page submission, and I've got a 12 pager to do by Wednesday. Other than that most of it's finishing up stuff and waiting on other stuff at this point. So if you got a (paid) lettering job, I'm your guy!

I guess that's it for now. Have a good night, everyone.

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