Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ninja Mountain 29: Rise of the Replicants

A hell of hot metal and hate powered circuitry breaks loose like an avalanche of mixed metaphors this week on the Mountain. With Jeremy away at Gencon gathering the audio-fruits of the season the remaining Mountaineers do their best to cope with the robot apocalypse sans congenial host, and welcome in our new robot overlords with answers to the following questions:

Via email, Aaron Anderson (afaceart.blogspot.com) asks how we keep as busy with work as we all seem to do.

And for once we come up with some of our own content, and ruthlessly interrogate ourselves like souless killing machines sent from the future about how we learn new skills, programs and techniques whilst juggling all the other activities we're forced to enact by our cold silicon masters.

On the show this week are Patrick, Andy, Socar and Jon, with guest soundbites from Ralph and Anne

Plus a special guest two line appearance from the mighty Kiwi deathmecha Ben Wootten!

http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/NinjaMountain/NinjaMountain029.mp3

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Show notes:
coming soon!

17 comments:

Ninja Mountain said...

Jon - brilliant editing job this week! It's fun being so surprised and entertained by a show I actually kind of participated in. Why, we're almost entertaining! Well done, mate.

-Patrick

Unknown said...

Holy cow!! thanks for putting my blog up there! I gotta tell you guys your podcast is the BEST, not only do you receive really great info on the industry but you guys are extremely funny!

Joe Wilson said...

I’m only part way through the podcast so far, but I wanted to really throw in my support for the idea that the way you get busy is to please your existing clients and get repeat work. On the grander scale, I’m sure my “busy” doesn’t compare to those who are doing it full time (I still have the pesky day job), but for the time I have available to do freelance, I’m kept quite busy, and it’s mostly due to repeat business. I’m fortunate that each client I’ve done business with so far has continued to come back for more. Each client becomes far more than just a new job, it becomes it’s own revenue stream of repeat business.

MuYoung Kim said...

Hi-hi! I must say, Jon, that Robo-Jeremy was a hoot, and I honestly don't know how any of you were able to keep a straight "face" for this one...I know I couldn't :)

It was great to hear from Andy the 2 to 2.5 year curve on business. I must admit, that the majority of what keeps me busy is repeat work and long-term projects with the odd new client sprinkled in.

Now, we just need an episode with Pirates and you'll have had the trifecta of awesome on: Ninja, Robot, and Pirate!

Nicole Cardiff said...

re: CA.org - really? huh. I get a lot more business from passively updating DA than I ever have from occasionally posting work over there. Not entirely sure why, but it's held true for a few years now. It does seem as though the Thunderdome winners on CA usually get significant career mileage out of it, though.

Jan said...

I finally found the time to listen to this and last week's episode!

And they're both very good!
*weirdo mode on*

I listened to them three times yesterday.

PS: what on earth is a "hoover"?

Ralph Horsley said...

Hi Jan,

A 'Hoover' is a vacuum cleaner. the usage comes from the fact that Hoover was one of the first manufacturers and it's name has become synonomous with the product itself. Most people in the UK probably use Hoover over vacuum Cleaner as their favoured word.

Cheers,

Ralph
=====

Ralph Horsley said...

.. to futher expand...

Hoover can be a noun and a verb; a Hoover hoovers the carpet.

Murderous T Stabwell said...

another strong episode, guys!

I have to say that probably the most helpful thing for me to hear this time was to not take EVERY job you get, and instead take your time on a few that really matter. i had been sort of trying to bust into the industry by brute force of quantity, so i think it's time to shift strategies.

i've shied away from concept art since that's not specifically the kind of work i do, but i see there's actually a wide range of jobs posted on there. more golden advice for up and comers!

Unknown said...

Hey guys! Where do I email questions for you to answer on the podcast?

Jon Hodgson said...

You can always email any of the regular hosts via their sites linked in the main body of this week's entry. I would post our email addresses directly, but then we're guaranteed a metric ton of spam.

I also pondered suggesting finding our email addresses was the first test. But we actually like getting your emails...

Jaybird said...

Very entertaining show, Ninjas. I enjoyed the BS session feel of it. Once again, Ralph displayed his keen interviewing skills.

When Jeremy's away, the bots will play!

Jan said...

"Robot Mountain - better than Transformers 2!"

:D

Hathaway said...

I look forward to every podcast, listening to you guys is a great way for those of us in college to not lose sight of the bigger picture :) thanks so much!

Jan said...

Aaa, I forgot to ask this - which book is it that Socar's father wrote about vikings? Or is it a secret? :D

Ryan said...

Thanks for the book suggestion Jon! I immediately went out and bought the China: It's Most Scenic Places book and I love it!

Jon Hodgson said...

Oh ding dong, that's great! Isn't it an awesome book?


And now to collect my generous kick back from Reader's Digest!