Posted By Phoenix on Apr 13, 2011 | 3 comments

I don’t find a lot of time for myself nowadays between a full time job, traveling a total of 4 hours to and from my job, sleeping, and other human necessities I will not mention. However there are certain websites that I feel I must check out daily (Besides my own awesome site… to make sure it’s spam free that is…), just to keep myself sane and up to date on the latest and the greatest. Some are recent discoveries, but most are sites I’ve followed for years. Click the headlines or images to visit the sites.

1. AnimePaper

An awesome Anime Wallpaper, Scan and Forum community. This is basically where I honed in on my graphics skills. The older members there gave great criticism and produced great works to aspire to. Almost every single one of my wallpapers were once uploaded into that site. I would measure how good my piece was based on the amount of comments and favorites it received. (Of course I’d only seek those of veteran status…)

However nowadays the veteran members all have work lives and aren’t up to date on the latest Animes as they used to be. They rarely visit the site and only once in a blue moon would they comment on a wallpaper or produce a piece of their own. But fear not – once in a while, great walling competitions are held where senior members (including myself) meet up and compete, act as judges, or help out on. If you’re new to the walling scene, I’d take advantage of these events and would definitely join – not for the win, but for the experience. I’ve been on AP since 2005 but the community has been around a year or two before that. I’m considered a senior and veteran member, however I consider the eldest great wallers of AP to be LEGENDS.

The community works around “Papers” which act like currency. New members are allowed 15 free wallpaper downloads every 24 hours but need Papers to download scans. However you MUST contribute to the community even when downloading wallpapers for free, or risk being warned. You do this by simply commenting on the wallpapers you download (it’s nice to let the artist know how you feel) and/or talking on the forums. Do not spam though. You will be banned faster than a banana can split.

Anyone can submit into the Scan/Wallpaper Gallery. Getting in is another story. The submissions are screened by moderators who check and approve your submissions. You should read the guide on what the rules for submissions are and if you’re submitting your first wallpaper, you should check out the SESSION ZERO section for advice/tips/critique first. I used to hang out there and help out new wallers all the time. I was pretty harsh and made a few ppl cry and/or promise to never touch Photoshop again… But I’ve mellowed down now. I’m slightly nicer. I don’t even visit that section anymore… Anyway, if you submit stuff, you will be awarded Papers. However if you don’t make it in, you will be fined -100 papers. Don’t fret, it’s easy to get it back. Just don’t bitch to a moderator because they really don’t want to hear it. That’s why you should read the rules and visit Session Zero. Keep trying. Getting your first accepted work into the gallery is a great feeling.

Finally, as you contribute and age within the community, you go up in rank. This usually means your submitted works are no longer screened by moderators- meaning you have shown a good track record for submitting acceptable things and therefore are given free reign to submit- and scans are cheaper to download. Gallery and Community members get this. Finally, SENIOR members are a sign that you’ve been there forever and scans cost even less. Senior members are usually revered and known by many, so when you get to this stage, congrats- you’ve spent at least 2-3 years in AP. YOU’RE OLD.

2. MiniTokyo

After joining AP, I heard about MT and figured I should join that place as well. It is also an Anime Scan/Wallpaper/Forum Community – but even BIGGER. Most of the people I talk to in MT are AP members and while the community is bigger, I spend less time there chatting. Their old point system allowed 5 free downloads a day, which was pretty sweet. Because I used to submit a wallpaper every month for a year or so, I had racked up plenty of points. Recently they’ve taken away the points setup. All members can download stuff for FREE… Crazy right? They also offer JRock/JPop artists as well as Doujinshi scans, so the galleries are much bigger.

This site does have gallery moderators, however they only screen the stuff AFTER it’s been submitted. You are not fined, only warned when something has been rejected. You CAN make an appeal for it in their forums, if you have good reason to. But yes, the wallpaper galleries are a lot easier to have your work get into. You’d have to be really lazy or really, really bad to have your works rejected from their galleries. Something along the lines of slapping a scan on a black background, adding a lens flare (shudders) and then brushing with the default Photoshop grass brush… But you can’t suck THAT much, can you…?

You can give, but are not required to comment and fave works… You usually get a lot more comments and faves here than on AP, probably because there are more members.

3. Clients From Hell

There’s nothing like relieving stress by laughing at clients you deem to be idiots. (And the entire creative community also agrees, for that matter.)

This site is a compilation of real client/creative quotes that are sent in, just to make you seem smarter. If you’re a creative, you’ve probably encountered this. If you’re a student, planning on becoming a graphic artist, designer, or anything of the arts – this is what you are going to look forward to. Some clients really are that stupid and irritating. Some will downright want to rob you.

Remember this- the more you work for free, the more clients will think artists SHOULD work for free… Freelance doesn’t mean FREE WORK…

“We like quality but as cheap as possible, if that makes sense.”

No it doesn’t. Fuck off.

There’s a reason why Walmart doesn’t sell Gucci, and it’s not just because of their brand name. Gucci items don’t have rogue threads popping out. Wallmart’s merchandise costs 5 cents to make in some third world foreign country. It’s great for buying shit you plan to replace within a year or stuff you will shit out that night, but I doubt you’d wear anything in there to a royal family member’s wedding… Catch my drift?

4. Cracked.com

If you’re here, I assume you’re over the age of 15… Which makes you eligible to read other shit containing R stuff! (I’m joking, go to bed kid…)

No, I’m joking about joking. If you’re under legal age and here, I assume your parents don’t monitor your web browsing. Not that this site has anything majorly bad, but if your parents are anything like Asian parents, they’d be reading your web history or doing some kind of parental control lock on your computer. Which is fine – if you’re 13 and under. I figured you’ve all had sex ed by now or at least know where babies come from…

Then in that case, Cracked.com is your next spot. It features hilarious videos and blog entries on the most random things. I enjoy reading the random topics they write about, accompanied by plenty of pictures, for those of you that are visually motivated. (READ BOOKS YOU LAZY MOVIE-GOERS…)

I can’t believe I don’t have a fifth…

Originally I was going to write about 5 sites you had to visit daily, but between the usual Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social network giants that don’t need mentioning… There wasn’t anything worth mentioning. Unless you’re unemployed or looking for a dog, at which case I’d suggest Craigslist and Puppyfind.com…. I like to look at puppies for sale online, okay? (I’m not unemployed though, but for a few good months, that would be one of my daily visits… Sadly…)

I’d love for you all to visit this site daily, The Forgotten Lair, and even COMMENT on my posts or write on the SHOUTBOX so that I know people are reading and want more. If people started to give feedback more on what I write, I may commit to doing one more often. However if these things are just page fillers that get in your way of grabbing a new icon for your porn forum… Okay fine, but still link back to me. The porn industry is HUGE and getting a piece of that cake would be awesome… And sticky… But mostly awesome! 😀