Yep, finally hit the big 2-1. Woot. I did what any typical, just-turned-21-year-old would do. I went and got HAMMERED. I turned 21 on the 30th of January, which was a Wednesday. I didn't plan on doing much, but my friends insisted otherwise. They picked me up and we went to a MN Wild game, and then bar-hopping afterwards. Thursday morning class sucked. I had a party that weekend at my place where the same shenanigans happened all over again. Lots of drinking without much recollection of what happened.

Enough about my cohorts though. 2008 also marks not only a new year, but the 1st of 3 more semesters at the University of St. Thomas. I can't wait. It went by a lot faster than I thought, and even though I'm not quite there yet, I feel as I've got one foot through the door. College has been a lot of fun though. I've met a lot of people and actually learned quite a bit.

My work situation, well, I'm still at DQ/OJ doing my routine thing 4 days a week. I cut back right now because of school. However, I did get my first business venture off the ground. We're still in the startup stages but we're going good. It's called Northern Lights Projects, and right now, we are doing photography and videography. We mostly do automotive related stuff, but we are open to anything. Once the site is up, I'll be sure to post a link here, as well as samples of our work.

In other automotive related news, guess what? My car still doesn't run. Yes, it has been down for 6 months now. I guess I'm operating under the "slowly but surely" framework. Soon though...hopefully...maybe? It's been a long road but the good news is, my motor is assembled, and the chassis is ready to go. Just need to deal with the transmission and the new turbo setup and the Fullmetal will be back on the road.

While working on my car, and friends' cars, I happened onto a new hobby, motorcycles. More specifically, sport bikes. I picked one up recently, but as the weather is less than ideal up here in MN this time of year, it sits there waiting for warm weather so I can pick it up. It's a 2006 GSXR-1000. I've got some big plans for it this year and I'm really excited to be getting into bikes.

Another interest of mine that has been taking off is tattooing. I've gotten two already this year, bringing the total to 4 pieces on my body. The last two, one being a Master Chief tattoo and the other being Laharl, are considerably more detailed and bigger than my other two. Most of the drawings I've been doing are now for future tattoos. I've been drawing up some half-sleeve designs that I hope to get done later this year. I've found a good shop and a good artist to take care of me. Alex's style syncs with my ideas so the work turns out great. It's a lot of fun and I love getting new ink.

Looks like I didn't really keep my promise of staying active. I will try this time though. I guess we will see. I see I'm almost up to 4k hits. I have no idea how, but thanks to those that drop in and visit my page. Amidst all the great artists here, it's really something that my lowly page gets that many hits. I guess I have been here awhile though, so even my page can reach into the thousands of hits.

Till next time,

-Kaiyin

Wow, it's been a long time since I've stopped back here...so much to go through. Just realized that I have more than 3,000 page views so THANK YOU to everyone that has come and visited my neglected page (it said my age was still 19...I'm almost 21 now!). Also thank you to everyone that has favorited (making up words...oh yeah!) my work. I feel special.

School starts next week for me (whoopty-freakin-doo!). I just want to be done with college. A year and a half seems much too long to finish up. I just want to start working so I can pay the bills and fund my car hobby. I'm already working 40-hour weeks between my two jobs and it's going to be real tough once school starts, especially since my car is in a non-running state. I really am not looking forward to another year of school.

Work has been...well, work. Two jobs split between 7-days with a combined pay of $16/hr. Wooooo.....not really. DQ, is DQ. Not much going on there except everyone's leaving for school out of state, except me and the managers. GameStop has been more of burden than a blessing. Yes, I'm slowly moving up the corporate ladder, however I spend most of my paycheck back at the store which is not good. Bills, car insurance, and the car itself add up while I'm slowly paying off one of the 10 games I have on reserve (Blue Dragon comes out on wednesday and I am SO EXCITED!). In the year that I've worked there, my collection has probably tripled and I've added a Nintendo Wii, DS-Lite, and a XBox 360 to my entertainment system. Not good...

Since I'm spending money where I shouldn't, aka, not on my car, that means, you guessed it, I am car-less! My car is sitting at DB Performance with the motor half pulled apart for two reasons; 1) they are too busy with other projects to work on mine, and 2) I am too broke to pay for everything getting done. Oh, the car is still drivable. It's just after getting my butt handed to me in Chicago, I decided to go overboard and build the living day-lights out of my car. So I am car-less having to bum rides to work and pretty soon school to try and pay for everything. Oh, and it doesn't help that I recently started a big, weekly car meet here in MN that I can't attend because I can't drive my car...how's that for a regional leader. Any who, that website for the car meet is [link] for those interested.

Drawing and other related stuff...well that's the main reason I haven't been here in so long, I haven' drawn anything or written anything in a LONG time. I've had a few photoshoots for cars but those photos are being published elsewhere and I've made a few videos that are floating around the web, mostly car related. Still a die-hard Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist fan. I have the flannel tattooed on my left shoulder now as well as a few things on my right arm. I started playing Disgaea and have Disgaea 2 as well (still sealed!) and I liked the stories so much I picked up the mangas for both series and am looking for the anime. I actually ended up sketching the main character Laharl the other night and it turned out pretty good so I'll be posting that in a few moments. I've been keeping up on Samurai Deeper Kyo, Black Cat, King of Hell, and Fruits Basket as well so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied instead of reading up on my marketing text. haha

Anyways, it's good to be back. I'll try and stay active because I went through my sketch book and noticed a bunch of un-finished works and I want to finish them up. I'll also go through the hundreds of pictures I've taken and see if any can be touched up enough to be added here as well.

Till next time!

Wow! 2007 is here! More on that later though as this is to look back on 2006, and what a year that was.

First, school. I started my second year at the University of St. Thomas here in Minnesota. I've grown to like the school more and more. I'm still taking general classes but I've begun the long journey to get my two degrees in business and Japanese. I met a lot of people this past semester which is making school much more enjoyable and I'm getting more of a taste of "college life". I spent much more time at school than at home. I was really active in the school's anime club as well as a school car club. I don't think I have been so active in school before! From cosplaying at school events to organizing weekly get togethers, it was a blast and I have gained many new friends and fun memories.

Business Ventures and Work. I also don't think I've been so busy with work! In addition to my job as a shift leader at a local DQ/Orange Julius, I started a now part-time job working at EB Games. On top of that, I am working on launching two new business ventures headed by me and a friend. Between my two jobs, school, clubs, and two ventures, I've been one busy guy! But, I hope that it all pays off. At my two jobs, I can't be thankful enough that I have great people to work with. It doesn't feel like work at all! At EB Games, my manager is going to getting his own store and wants to take some of the staff (including me) with him to the new store. With my two ventures, progress is slow, but steady. For Northern Lights Project, the website should be up by the end of this month. We have finished two feature articles already and our first major trip planned for 07. It will be a great chance to get the name out and get some really sweet future feature cars. Alchemy Designs is going good too. We are going to start on a second project car and are currently designing two more cars; one to be started in 07 and one to be started in 08. Business is looking good!

My car. Well, I ended up not selling my IS300 and I am glad that I didn't. It has been quite a journey, and there is still a long road ahead for it, but I think I (as well as the car) can tough it out. Oh! The car received its nickname finally, the Fullmetal IS300. I picked this one. I seem to have a thing for red cars, and this car's red reminded me of Ed's coat. But, the car behaves like him too. It has a short fuse (or maybe the driver does haha), and likes to let lose and flex its power. I learned a lot from this car this past year and gained a lot of experience working on it. Also, the car has forged many new connections and friendships with people across the country and even a few over seas. The car is undergoing a few big changes for the new year and the new season. I hope everything comes together. A big thanks to: Boost Factory, BoostLogic, High End Performance, Adrenaline Motorsports, RS Motors, Lexotic Concepts, Phil, De, Chuck, Ben, Jon, IS300.NET, SupraForums, Lexus of Wayzata, all of my friends, and of course my parents.

Drawing. Well, I never have much to say here. 2006 didn't seem very productive for me here, but I think I got better (I hope). I want to get back into color, but not on the computer so much. I might start using paints, or colored pencils, or something! For 06, I worked a lot on getting things to look more "realistic". Actually, accurate would be a better term to use. I think I got better at having the characters look like themselves, but I still retained my own style of doing it. Pencil was big and I did a few in pen/marker, but no color this year. I did a lot less of Inuyasha, which I'm sad of. I wanted to draw more for that series, but got sucked up in a bunch of others. I really drew a lot of Fullmetal Alchemist. I really got into that series. I just love the character designs, and their personalities! I get a different feel from that series compared to others. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I love it and drew more fanart for that series in a short period of time than any other I've drawn.

Well, that's it for 2006. I hope for 2007 to be just as good, if not better. I think a good way to end this would be with some "2007 Goals", sort of a resolutions list:

-Finish my 3rd semester of school just as well as my first two and get my Japanese minor.
-Continue loving work at DQ/OJ and EB Games.
-Get the NLP website up and running as well as Alchemy's website.
-Keeping up on the payments of my IS300 haha.
-Take home a few trophies with the Fullmetal.
-Do some colored pieces.
-Draw more Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Once again, thanks for the support of all the DA'ers that comment, fav, and watch me. Without you all, I'd lose interest in drawing the characters I love. And thanks to all the artists that I look up to to keep me striving to hopefully get better; DeviKuro, Klamsi, NimbustheDragon, HappyChild, ALMS, patches365, and all the others I forgot to mention.

Oh, and one more to that list: Figure out had to add DA icons here so I can list my friends and artists I look up to!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! A little time off, some great home cooked food, what's there to complain about? With Thanksgiving past, it's only a few more weeks until finals and then winter break and a much needed month off of school.

My online magazine, Northern Lights Project is well underway. Me and my business partner are still getting the website up and running but we have a couple of feature cars lined up already. It's very exciting for us and we look forward to seeing how it will do in the months to come.

When the NLP idea came to light, it gave birth to another new venture that me and my business partner are going to start. We are going to have a design firm that will design and build show cars, race cars, etc. for various clientel. We have already made numerous connections to different distributors to get parts. Although it's still in the beginning stages of planning, we look to putting this project in motion early next year. The name? Alchemy Designs. Named not because of a fascination for Fullmetal Alchemist (partly so), but for a fundamental similarity. In order to obtain, something of equal value must be given in exchange. Time and money are given in order to create a one-of-a-kind automobile. Armed with a good knowledge of the aftermarket industry and good sense of design and taste, Alchemy Designs strives to leave its mark on the tuning industry.

I guess that's enough about my business prospects. I'm still working at the same job as well as starting a seasonal job at EB Games. I can't complain. Both jobs have great people to work with and are very fun. It's busy time though. We've been selling like crazy at EB Games. My cousin was lucky enough to get a Nintendo Wii and now I want one but there is no way I'll be able to get one. haha

School has been winding down too. First semester is almost done! Japanese and History are going well but I can't say the same about Micro-Economics. TOUGH class! I'm passing though which is what counts and maintaining my 3.85 GPA. WHOO!

Let's see, cars and drawings...My Lexus is coming along well but it is up for sale. I'm trying to move onto another project and have to give up my prized IS300. Good news is the owner of the car I'm trying to buy wants my IS so we might end up just trading cars which would work out great! It'll be sad to see the IS go, but hopefully this new car will be able to pick up were the IS left off.

Anime/Manga/Drawing wise, I've been doing more of everything. I've gotten really deep into Fullmetal Alchemist. There's a lot about that series that I would like to touch on but I'll leave that for it's own separate journal. I've been reading more of the series than watching it though. But, it's peaked my interest in drawing and making me strive to be a lot better than I was. I've shown some of my newer sketches to my cousin and his friends who are graphic arts majors and they think I should consider doing something with drawing too. I might consider it after getting my degrees in Business, Japanese, and English but I still have lots of improvement to make.

Besides FMA, I've been keeping up to date on my other series. I read Black Cat vol. 5, King of Hell vol. 14, Samurai Deeper Kyo vol. 20, finished up Kenshin, and am trying to find more Peacemaker Kurogane. I also watched and finished a series called Last Exile. It was very good! Definately give it a try.

That's a good place to wrap it up right now. I've got to give some shout-outs though before I leave. Thanks to everyone that stops by and looks at my work and leaves comments! Big thanks to my good friend Charlie for helping me get these businesses going. Thanks to all my friends for making life fun. Oh, and I can't forget my first fan Sam! Thanks for making me feel like all of the artists I look up to. Keep up at drawing and you'll be better than me in no time man!

Well, jeez, it certainly has been awhile since I have stopped by here. I have a lot of deviations and messages to go through!

I'll try and summarize everything that has happened since my last entry as fast as I can (this will be a challenge), so here goes:

I started school a couple days ago. I'm officially a sophomore at the University of St. Thomas in MN. Woohoo! My first year went well and I made a lot of friends. I really liked it. During the spring and summer I went to a lot of shows and races, polishing my skills and getting ready to bring a new car out to the public.

Speaking of which, I ended up selling both my Honda Civic and my beloved Nissan 240sx to fund this new project. After selling the Civic, I put the money down on a 2003 Lexus IS300 for a daily driver. Well, after seeing a few other IS300s and talking to some industry people, I decided to build mine to showcase my skills and MN's tuning capabilities. Soon thereafter, I put my Nissan up for sale to continue to fund this never ending project.

After the first round of modifications, I brought the IS300 out to Chicago for Hot Import Nights: Nightshift event and received a lot of attention and did exceptionally well in the Mild Lexus category. Since then, I have been going to local shows and race events and taking home trophies. Now the car is in it's second exterior makeover, and this winter it will go through another engine overhaul with bigger horsepower numbers as the aim. There are many people to thank, but that will come in the article about my IS300 coming up.

As far as anime, manga, and drawing, I have some new favorites to go with my long list of old favorites. I managed to finish up the US version of the Kenshin manga. I liked the ending and have some Kenshin artwork drawn up for it. A new manga that I stumbled across that I really like is the series King of Hell. I have all the current volumes and absolutely love the story. Not to mention the main character, Majeh, is exceptionally cute and hot tempered (just how I like 'em). I also started reading and watching Peacemaker Kurogane. Set around the same time as Kenshin (a little before actually, during the year of Genji), it focuses on a young boy, Tetsunosuke Ichimura who joins the Shinsengumi. I really like the story and the characters. I already have a sketch of the cute Tetsu in full uniform. I actually became so involved in the anime, I have forever branded myself as a Shinsengumi follower with a Makota tatoo on my right arm! I'll post some pictures at the artist's request. I'm still keeping up on all of my old favorites. It's never enough is it?

Anyways, that's pretty much my life up until now. Nothing too special or crazy. I hope to be launching a new site of my own soon with my friends. We will be launching a new e-magazine that showcases cars from Minnesota and the surrounding states. We have done a few shoots of some future feature cars that I'll be posting here to start. Also, next summer I should be heading to Japan for a couple of weeks for a nice vacation. I also noticed, I'm frightfully close to 3,000 hits. Where did those come from!?! And to those that I haven't talked to in awhile, I'll be making my rounds to all of your pages. Sorry! Anyways, it's nice to be back!