PK: SWARM SWAG

Insect swag! Because we introduced air combat, and insects are in the air. Hey I thought it was a good idea.

PM: APEX SECURITY

New security officer enemy for Parallel Mafia.

PK: VALENTINE'S DAY

The King and Queen of Hearts inspired our new Valentine's Day swag for Parallel Kingdom. I didn't plan on making them look like a bitter married couple, but I'm single this Valentine's Day, maybe it was subconscious.

PK: AGE FIVE

It's a new Age for our flagship game Parallel Kingdom, which means a major overhaul and the addition of fantastic new features, including an entire sky world with new items, enemies and airships. The ships have cannons with a wide variety of projectiles and upgrades available; and the skills menu has been completely redone with larger, more detailed art.

INFLUENCES: GEORGE TAKEI

I was going through old photos and found this picture from a few years back of me with George Takei. I met him when I was still in college at UW-Madison, and he was doing an HRC-sponsored speaking tour, primarily addressing LGBT rights and talking about his experience growing up in a Japanese internment camp. It was a very good, sometimes heartbreaking, but ultimately very hopeful and inspiring talk.

The funny thing is that everyone was asking him questions about civil rights or Star Trek... and I was the only one to ask him about his role in Mulan. He didn't even seem to remember it at first, and then after a few seconds, in his very low, low voice he said "Oh that's right, I was the fat ghost. Heh heh heh." A delightful moment I will cherish as long as I live.

I admire him for several reasons. I am a huge fan of Star Trek, and it's helped shaped my humanistic values in such profound ways I could probably devote a very long essay to it; he's been an absolutely wonderful advocate for equal rights, and because he was on the original show I found that his example made it easier to talk to older people about social issues such as marriage equality; and when I met him in person, he was so incredibly nice, it really made me proud to be a fan. I am very happy to see that he has enjoyed quite a bit of social media popularity as of late (some people think he might be the king of facebook). George is a great guy and has a lot of really important and interesting things to say. We're all lucky to have him, and I feel blessed to have gotten to meet him in person.

PM: CYBER KNIGHT

Old meets new as we introduce some futuristic knight swag into Parallel Mafia. Kyle made a Mecha Dragon to compliment my knight, check it out on the Parallel Mafia update post!

PK COSMIC CHAMPION

Went with some time/space sorcery action for this round of Parallel Kingdom swag.

PM: RESISTANCE SWAG

I may have watched a few 80's action movies to get in the mood for drawing this swag for Parallel Mafia.

PK: APOCALYPSE SWAG

Although we were fairly certain that claims of the 2012 apocalypse were unfounded, we decided to go ahead and celebrate the end of the world in Parallel Kingdom.

PM STEAMPUNK

We had so much fun doing steampunk swag for Parallel Kingdom, we decided to bring it into Parallel Mafia as well!

PK CHRISTMAS

Christmas time again in Parallel Kingdom. Be merry and bright or whatever. I seriously have the worst cold right now. Ho ho ho!

PM CHRISTMAS

Celebrating our first Christmas in Parallel Mafia!

AMAZ!NG ADVENTURE 2012

VERY proud to have had the opportunity to work with JREF once again on a fun t-shirt design project. This time it was to celebrate the Amazing Adventure, a seven day cruise to the Mayan Riviera. The design plays with pop culture memes concerning the apocalypse supposedly predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar. I hope everyone involved had a ton of fun. It pains me that I was not able to participate. Here's to next year!

Skeptic writer and all around decent guy, Ben Radford.

And for an additional treat, the man himself has been wearing the hoodie with the design I made for last year's TAM:

PK: WILD WEST SWAG

Confession: I enjoyed the contemporary Wild Wild West movie adaptation starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek and Kenneth Branagh. Don't judge me. Or do, I don't much care either way. In any case, here is the wild west swag I made for Parallel Kingdom players.

PM: SWAGGIN' SWAG

A bit redundant but you get the idea. Some stylish new swag for Parallel Mafia players to look sharp in.

PK: STEAMPUNK SWAG

We held a vote in the forums to let the players choose the look of this batch of virtual goods, and the most popular suggestion was steampunk. The balloons are neat because it's the first time a flag decoration will be floating above the banner, instead of being a standard flag pole. It should spice up the game's aesthetic and I can't wait to see them on the game map.

PM: RAT MUTANTS AND TOXIC SWAG

New enemies and items introduced for Parallel Mafia.

'YOU SHALL NOT OCTOPASS' WOOT SHIRT AVAILABLE AGAIN!

It seems shirt.woot has reactivated ALL previous derby winners. That means my "You Shalt Not Octopass" design is available again! Click here if you want to buy.

PK: LANTERNS AND ADVENTURER SWAG

Added a new lantern feature for players to explore dungeons, and as always, swag!

PM HALLOWEEN 2012

Celebrating our first Halloween in Parallel Mafia!

PK HALLOWEEN 2012

Our company was founded in October, so we take Halloween quite seriously. This year we had plenty of new items, monsters and challenges released over two updates. I love Halloween and the horror genre so it's always fun to draw spooky things; and since I also love mythology, I was extra excited that the programmers decided to focus on an ancient Egyptian theme this year.

PK ADVISOR PORTRAITS

I was asked to design the look of three of our recurring characters, who had been described in journal entries but not visually depicted yet; based on rough outlines of their personalities and abilities. Our talented UI designer Joe Horan created the frames and icons for the in-game portraits.

PM: MAFIA HQ

We wanted to provide our Parallel Mafia players with some feminine swag options, so I made them a flapper dress and headdress. A feature added for this update was HQ destruction; players can now destroy floating cities known as HQ's. My co-worker Justin, our resident 3D expert, had created the original model. I got to take the model and (utilizing my working knowledge of Autodesk Maya), rearrange his buildings, and then add smoke and debris effects later in Photoshop. I think I enjoyed wrecking his city just a little too much.

PK: AMETHYST DECORATIONS

Our Parallel Kingdom players have been able to decorate the interiors and exteriors of their cabins with furniture and objects themed to each of the gem types available in the game. We recently added a new gem, amethyst, which meant I had to create a new unique furniture and decorations set to go along with it.

PM: PYRO SWAG

Some fire-themed items for Parallel Mafia.

SKEPTIC INK NETWORK LOGO

I had the pleasure of designing a banner logo and promotional images for the new Skeptic Ink blog network.

The figure represents Hypatia, a Greek philosopher and the first historically noted woman in mathematics. Hypatia taught mathematics, astronomy and philosophy in Alexandria during a time of social and political unrest, and was murdered by a Christian mob after tensions between various religious groups and political leaders boiled over. In a modern context she has come to represent the conflicts between science/reason, and religious fanaticism. A movie starring Rachel Weisz called Agora dramatizes the events leading up to her murder (although it contains a fair bit of artistic license, it is still a good watch and available for streaming on Netflix). The lighthouse in the logo is, of course, the Lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the great wonders of the world and an obvious symbol for guidance and enlightenment.

I was drawn to this project partly because there has been a lot of nasty Internet drama going on for quite a while in some on-line skeptic circles, and this new blog network presents an opportunity for fresh perspectives. I don't expect to agree with every author or article at Skeptic Ink, and as some might have noticed, I have been working on art projects with progressive people of faith to oppose anti-LGBT discrimination. As a result of continuously positive interactions with religious people (as well as negative ones with atheists), I've been much more interested in building bridges between religious and non-religious people who share humanistic ideals such as equality for all people and concern for the environment.

But that's the point of an endeavor such as this blog network: to challenge and debate orthodox ideas. Skeptic Ink Network (also known by its cleverly irreverent acronym, SIN) has a clear discussion policy that prohibits discrimination, personal attacks and insults. Conversations surrounding religious and paranormal beliefs in our society are important, and robust debate is healthy. I look forward to reading, and wish them all the best!

FIGHTING REAL MONSTERS WITH DPM

Here's me rocking the great shirt from Dance Party Massacre:

20% of the profit for these orders went to Minnesotans United for All Families, to help fight against anti-gay discrimination. I'm proud to support fairness and equality for all Americans.

You should also check out DPM's other designs, which are inspired by the horror genre. As a fan of horror films myself, I really love that!

PK: NORSE SWAG II

Part 2 of our Norse-themed swag for Parallel Kingdom. This time I got to design a brand new dragon. I based its shape on the dragons that sometimes adorned the front of Viking ships. It can generate molten gold puddles and encase the player in solid gold shells. I was also asked to design a new exterior decoration players can purchase and place on the game map, and I decided to make a rune stone.

INFLUENCES: LGBT STUDIES AT UW-MADISON

A friend asked what my LGBT Studies courses at UW-Madison entailed, and this information might be useful to others so I'm posting it here. Basically it's fifteen credits of Women's Studies courses that focus on queer issues, including a mandatory intro course and a capstone course. I was particularly interested in the biology behind sexual differentiation and sexual orientation, and how these differences have been dealt with (whether celebrated or outlawed) in religious, scientific and legal institutions. I took great interest in the differences and interactions between biological sex, and gender as a social construct. I am however not very interested in the type of social theories that aren't attached to scientific or historical data and primarily take the form of cultural criticism. This includes some forms of postmodernism, queer theory and gender feminism. My professors had academic underpinnings in empirical science and history, so I didn't really get subjected to too many of the theories I personally find to be ancillary and somewhat specious (although I did eventually encounter that later in grad school, in some art theory courses, oddly enough).

Additionally, I feel it's necessary to point out the sad reality that in much on-line discourse regarding feminism and queer issues, conversations devolve into insults and flame wars. I have encountered many people who sympathize with issues surrounding women's and LGBT rights, but have been turned off to feminism because they encountered nastiness on-line coming from self-described feminist bloggers and their readers. In light of this, it bears pointing out that students were most definitely allowed to question and disagree in our Women's Studies classes. I feel very sad for people who witness divisive, angry tactics on-line under the guise of "feminism" and assume this in any way characterizes the highly professional way in which all Women's Studies courses at UW-Madison were conducted.

Outside of the actual requirements for the LGBT Studies certificate, I took other relevant social science and humanities courses including human sexuality, sociology, social psychology, psychology, anthropology and art history. Additionally, race/culture and gender/sexuality can intersect in interesting ways so queer issues naturally popped up in courses like Chicana/o, African and Native American Studies.

There are a few notable professors I worked with. I'm posting these here as recommendations for professors students should feel free to seek out. These include:

JOHN DELAMATER
- Teaches courses on human sexuality and social psychology.
- Co-authored the textbook used in human sexuality courses, which is generally regarded as very progressive and thorough.

JOE ELDER
- Teaches intro to LGBT studies. Also a prominent local supporter of gay rights, and he marches with the Quakers in the Madison Pride parade.

MARIAMNE H. WHATLEY
- Mariamne was a pioneer who helped establish the LGBT Studies certificate program. As I recall, she was the chair of the department during my career there.
- The courses I took with her focused more on biology, psychology and medicine, while still turning a critical eye toward scientific and medical institutions.

ANNE ENKE
- Specializes in history of gender and sexuality.
- She taught the courses I took that had more theoretical components, including concepts such as dominant privilege.

(Really there were a lot of wonderful professors I had the privilege of studying under, but these few deal more directly with sex and gender).

Here's a list of the actual classes I took with short summaries:

INTRO TO LGBT STUDIES
This is the one everyone starts with, it's taught by Professor Joe Elder and is a general overview of LGBT topics. Students get a reader with excerpts from several different books. We discussed how to define terminology; how to approach gender and sexuality in history and across cultures and the various academic perils that entails; we examined evidence of same-sex historical figures and attitudes (including John Boswell's claim that homosexuality was tolerated in the early Christian church), and the different ways some cultures have accomodated gender and sexual diversity, including third genders, the Hijra of India, and Two-Spirit people in Native American cultures; and we learned about the foundations of the modern gay rights movement, including the rebellion at Stonewall and the establishment of the first Gay-Straight Alliance.

LITERATURE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Was pretty much a standard lit course, except the books had LGBT themes, including Regeneration by Pat Barker, which explored masculinity during wartime; and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, an autobiographical novel by Audre Lorde. We also read the short story Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, which was timely because the movie was just about to come out. The movie was fantastic and while it had to embellish the story quite a bit to fill out the running time, I felt everything the screenwriters added made perfect sense, particularly the relationship between Heath Ledger's character's daughter who exhibits much of the same social anxiety as her father.

GENDER OUTLAWS/SEXUAL DISCOURSE, CULTURAL CONTEXT
These were two Women's Studies courses taught by Anne Enke that focused on American history, and how gender and sexuality were framed in certain time periods, as well as how sexual minorities were "Othered" by social norms and ideologies. Sadly my memory from several years ago is not very specific and these courses dealt with somewhat similar themes so I've combined them here. We examined a variety of interesting themes. One was WWII, and how the suddenly homosocial environments and disruption of traditional family life led to social changes such as women entering the workforce, and an increase in the ways gays and lesbians could meet each other and form relationships and gay-centered spaces. We studied gender (as distinct from biological sex) and the ways in which it is socially constructed. One of the books we read was called Female Masculinity, which argued that there is a female masculinity independent of male masculinity. We also explored trangender issues and read Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg. We explored the umbrella term "transgender", its implications and complexities, and who can reasonably be described as fitting under it (while colloquially many people seem to use it interchangeably with "transsexual", as an umbrella concept meaning "transgressing prevailing gender norms", it can arguably be described as applying to drag queens/kings, intersex people, and heterosexual cross-dressers - essentially anyone considered "gender outlaws" when positioned against mainstream society's gender roles and expectations - in this same sense I came to view homosexuality itself as a form of gender transgression, which solidified my view that those interested in gay equality should be natural political allies to trans people as well). Feinberg also stopped by the feminist coffee shop here in Madison (where many textbooks for sociology courses at UW-Madison are sold) and gave a talk, and I got to meet hir and have hir sign my copy of hir book. (Feinberg prefers gender-neutral pronouns).

LGBTI HEALTH
This was taught by Mariamne Whatley and was more science and medicine based, although there was still a prominent element of social critique. For example, we discussed reproduction and sexual differentiation in the developing human fetus, first as an overview of the scientific facts, but also how that narrative is colored by social norms and biases when it is retold. A simple example would be how some science textbooks depict the sperm as a speedy, aggressive "masculine" entity; and the egg as passive, waiting, "feminine" (even though these are single cells with no gender identity other than what we impose on them). We discussed scientific evidence for sexual orientation and its origins, as well as the biased ways in which these are often approached (for example, too many scientists have asked "what causes homosexuality" as if heterosexuality is an automatic default that requires no explanation itself; whereas the correct, objective question should be "what causes sexual orientation and why are there different orientations?") We looked at the ways in which science and medicine had been misused to pathologize homosexuality and oppress gay people, including the invention of so-called "gay bowel syndrome", efforts to "cure" homosexuality, and the eventual removal of it as a mental illness from the American Psychological Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. We talked about intersex conditions, and had a visit from Alice Dreger, an expert in this field (also the first person I ever heard describe herself as an atheist) . We discussed the ethics of "correcting" benign intersex conditions at birth. We also discussed transsexuals, hormone therapies and surgeries and their effectiveness (generally, M to F, the surgery is great but the hormones not so much; and vice versa for F to M), as well as what special needs transsexual patients require that doctors and other health care providers need to be aware of (many of the people in this class were medical students).

That's it for now, if I think of more, or dig some more of my old textbooks out of storage, I will add them here. Keep in mind this describes my own experience when I received my certificate in 2006. Since then, some professors may have shuffled around or retired, and generally the courses rotate through different topics each semester. If you choose to pursue the LGBT Studies certificate, you will have a unique experience, partially determined by what topics are available to study along with your personal interests and leanings. Either way, I am confident it will be well worth the time and effort for anyone who chooses to pursue it! :)

PM: FALLOUT SWAG

A gas mask and some nuclear powered knuckles for Parallel Mafia.