Quick Facts
Name: Matt Zeisler
Nicknames: Comter, Neko-chan, the purring dork, Zice
Birthday: March 15th, 1984 (3-15-84)
Religion: None
Favorite Food: Chinese, Japanese, Italian
Favorite Phrase: "tttthhhhbbbbbbttt"
Favorite Colors: Black, White and Yellow
Phobias: Splinters, Spiders
Anime/Otaku
I am an otaku. I first became enthralled with anime when I saw an episode of Trigun at a friend's house. After that I couldn't get enough of anime. This was around the time that anime was starting to come into mainstream media and networks (such as Cartoon Network) were starting to broadcast anime. In short order I discovered AMVs (anime music videos), cosplay, and mangas. I also started making friends with others that were interested in anime and had one friend in particular in college that loaned me many anime DVDs. I stayed up late into the night watching anime instead of studying. Somehow along the way I ended up as a co-host for Keiichi.net Radio, an online anime radio station in Denton, TX.
Three years ago I discovered anime conventions when I went to my first con, A-Kon 17. I enjoyed a few conventions but it wasn't too long until I wanted to work behind the tables and help run a convention. Keri "Enya" Bean was working with Keiichi.net Radio and asked me if I wanted to be the Registration Director for an anime convention that she was starting called San Japan. I must of been drunk to agree to this but now, almost two years and one management change later, and the first San Japan convention, San Japan 1.5, is finally happening in San Antonio, TX on August 8-10, 2008. We'll see how that goes...
Furry
I am a furry. I love to roleplay as an animal with human traits (anthropomorphic) and all of the antics that go along with being a furry. I have been in a fursuit before but I have yet to make one of my own fursona (play on persona). I'm still looking forward to my first furry convention (and if they're anything like anime conventions, I won't be disappointed). I can't really draw and yes, I know it's all in my head but the paper doesn't seem to agree. Comter, my main character, is a black feline with green eyes and a half-moon hole in his left ear and a 10' long tail. Yep, ten feet of tail-y goodness, which he can use like a third paw.
I first happened upon the furry community while I was searching for an image of crap in a heart shape..don't ask, you don't want to know. Anyway, Jolyn (Silverwing) had an image on her website called 'poop.jpg' (an innocent image) and Google found it. I got to looking around and the more I looked the more I became enthralled with these people that called themselves "furs". Here was a group of people that didn't care what the world thought of them, they just knew what made them happy. I gradually got involved with the fandom although it was slow going at first, mainly cause I couldn't draw, which seemed to be one of the major distractions that occupied the fandom's collective time. Then I found out about fursuiting, conventions, meet-ups and roleplaying...and I am a happy fur.
Shirt Printer
I want to be a shirt printer. Ever since I knew that such a profession existed I wanted to be one. My first step was to look around for different markets that I could get in on. My search remained in the background until I happened upon the furry fandom. Here was a wealth of original artists looking for exposure. I asked a few artists for their thoughts and they agreed to print through me if I ever got it going. There is one artist in particular that I'd like to mention, Arphalia. She's a very good artist so it inspired me when she agreed and let me know that I was on the right track with my ideas. After some more searching, I found other markets in the way of up-and-coming bands, school organizations, anime, geeks and websites that would like their own shirts and other such products.
I still needed a name for my endeavors and at first I called it Running Man Productions (mainly cause the limit of my artistic design was a stick figure so I decided to work with what I had). Then I realized that I should appeal to the furry fandom but with some of the anime influence showing through and thus, Kuroneko Printing. Yep, little kuroneko (black cat) sama from Trigun, the first anime that I ever saw. So, recap: market..check, name..check. It was time for a little shirt printing technology research. I researched printing processes and long story short, Cafepress sucks..iron-ons suck..screen-printing is very limited for printing artwork..dye sublimation is good. The sublimation process (chemical process of turning a solid directly into a gas, bypassing the liquid state) is similar to iron-ons except that instead of bonding a paper film to the shirt with the image on the film, just the ink is transfered to the shirt fibers and chemically bonded to them. Problem: A system like this costs upwards of $1,500 - $2000 dollars. So that's the current state of my dream, waiting on money. But I still doodle shirt designs every now and then...
Gamer
I am a gamer. I have tasted the Bawls, I have smelled victory and I have felt the sting of defeat. I have risen from the ashes, anew..and fresh out of bubble gum, TIME TO KICK SOME ASS! I developed a sniper trigger finger playing games like Dark Forces, Quake II, and Tribes. My reasoning and tactical skills were honed on StarCraft and Command and Conquer. Some of the more recent games that I've been playing include Command and Conquer 3, Unreal Tournament 2004, Battlefield 2, Black & White 2, Age of Empires 3 and World of Warcraft (curse you Warcrack!). I will pwn you!
Code Monkey/Programmer
I am a code monkey/programmer. I specifically avoided programming classes in high school (mainly because I didn't like the teacher or his teaching style) and instead set my sights on teaching myself BASIC, TI-BASIC and the Tribes scripting language. Everyday I would walk into math class and pick up my trusty TI-83+ and drift off into programming another formula program or a math textbook guide. When I was at college I collaborated with a math professor on creating a formula guide to go along with the textbook. I still have some coding to do on that, I just haven't gotten back around to it yet (and probably never will).
I dabbled in HTML in the early years but it wasn't until about six years ago that I happened upon PHP in college. Here was a language that I could intersperse with HTML and improve my webpages. I took to PHP quickly and within a few years I could make it bend to whatever I was working on. Then about three years ago I discovered mySQL and CSS. Now I had somewhere to get information from that I could manipulate with PHP. I'll probably never stop learning PHP/mySQL but they provide the foundation for my programming experience. The last year or so has seen the introduction of Javascript and AJAX to my repertoire.
What else could there possibly be?!
I know that was pretty long-winded and most of the individual sections go into even greater detail and show off my body of work. I also maintain an active interest in Silly Putty, Star Trek, Silent Bob, blowguns, Stargate, business card collecting, iPhone, the Cardboard Tube Samurai, Doctor Who and various other things that cross my path. More often than not, smaller interests will merge with larger interests or possibly collaborate with them. I guess I'm sort of like a parfait, with all the layers and fruit and whatnot. Speaking of which I'm hungry so I'm gonna go see what I can find to eat.
(Last updated 2/22/08.)
