Heh… been watching Stuart Ashen's videos on Youtube again. It's amazing that those chinese companies keep coming out with the very same games (For about a decade or less), just repackaged in some different case with images stolen from various sources to represent them. I guess some people apparently love buying that stuff up or they wouldn't be able to keep selling them.

And I still have nightmares about a certain site that earns itself a knockoff controlled by a certain government. It's mascot would be a green Mandarin Duck, and he'd be drinking bottles of Tsingtao beer. And of course the webcomics on that site would be high quality (as it's controlled by that government). However,every webcomic on that sitewould also be praising and promoting said government and ideology while bashing and demonizing all theothers…

And of course the admins there have assassins and cyber tracking experts at the ready in case one of the webcomic artists says something otherwise…

Oh… and that site would be closed to the world and only available in that country (won't stop determined hackers from barging in though).

Man… I think too much. I should go outside and do something. Except that whenever I do those puffy white things try to drown me… or that big ball of fire in the sky tries to fry me. -_-

@Lonnehart - sweetheart

Please, this year, and sooner than later, get thineself a pet.
I recommend a small mammal (cat? guinea pig? rabbit? even a hamster or mouse) – a bird, lizard, or snake would work, too. Fish? meh. decoration.

My RX (and I have no degree, so you know what it's worth): You need to live with someone who doesn't appreciate games. and - yes - the sooner, the better.

a pet rock? *grumble, grumble*

—
you'll all be happy to know: I found some tomato paste. YUSSSSSSSSSSSS

ayesinback wrote:
you'll all be happy to know: I found some tomato paste. YUSSSSSSSSSSSS

I suppose you know a few recipes that use tomato paste? :)

And yes. I probably need a girlfriend. Except that my luck with women has been pretty bad and I tend to keep away from the idea. A small mammal as a pet? Might work. I was thinking of getting myself a pet rabbit myself. I'd like a pet snake, but the only snakes around here are Brown Tree Snakes. The same snakes that nearly ate all of our birds into extinction…

I was just reading TV Tropes (it's freakin' hot outside and I'd rather stay inside) and I find out something about John Shepard from the Mass Effect games… well… the version of him that I play anyways…

He's a “Knight in Sour Armor”

Yep… a Soldier who's a Sole Survivor with the Colonist background. Stomped on all through his life, but he fights on anyway…

Now playing Mass Effect as that character makes me feel depressed…

@Lonne: Get a bunny, then we can swap cute rabbit stories! : )
Actually that's probably not a good reason to get a rabbit. They are really great pets, though, as long as you don't have any valuable antiques or anything that you don't want chewed.

—

I had a really awful dream last night where I was somehow blackmailed/threatened into becoming a hitman of sorts. I kept having to go to people's houses and shoot them. It wasn't actually graphic or anything because most of it was very dark, but it still was not very pleasant. I woke up at the point where I was dangling outside of the window way up on an apartment building to avoid the authorities.

Whenever I have a bad dream, I feel “off” for the rest of the day.

I wonder if Sims count as “pets”… You have to make sure they're fed, housed, have a job so they bring in funding to keep themselves alive, keep them entertained,and ensure that they use the toilet when they're supposed to. And you could punish them by feeding them to the Cowplant… Just kidding. hehehe…

A bunny rabbit would be nice. I could teach it to play ball like I saw that one rabbit doing in the video. And living by myself I could give it lots of attention so that it would never be frightened of me. However, they can be pretty complicated to take care of, or so I hear…

Lonnehart wrote:

A bunny rabbit would be nice. I could teach it to play ball like I saw that one rabbit doing in the video. And living by myself I could give it lots of attention so that it would never be frightened of me. However, they can be pretty complicated to take care of, or so I hear…

And pet it and hug it and rub its fur the wrong way and name it George.

Hopefully I can get some work done as the wife has me drive her hither and yon. NOT. I should just forget doing any work on any comic and content myself with doing laundry and driving the wife aroudn on her endless errands. It is amazing how she can make something take three times as long as it does for me. But then I try to embody the whole “Do what you got to do andmove out”

@Lonne- get an Aussie bunny, care for them isn't complex at all. :)

bravo1102 wrote:
Hopefully I can get some work done as the wife has me drive her hither and yon. NOT. I should just forget doing any work on any comic and content myself with doing laundry and driving the wife aroudn on her endless errands. It is amazing how she can make something take three times as long as it does for me. But then I try to embody the whole “Do what you got to do andmove out”

Aw, but you wouldn't do it if you didn't love her. ;)

——————-

Well, well, well! I've asked some people to do recordings for the Quackcast… Let's see who I get responses from!
I've already got some cool stuff from Gulas and Ayes and Banes have promised big things (without even being asked too!).
SHould be good!

Now to look for my Quackcast guest… doh >_<

——————

OK, will try for Jillyfoo- this one is about artists that use interesting techniques and different media and why.

l have been having way too much far with my tablet.I have put my computer on a shelf and been using the tablet as my sole input. Now to see what I can do with that secret santa comic. (I have been coloring a page for Ice Pick this entire week.)

Wow… they brought back the Cow Plant for The Sims 3. Except this one won't eat certain Sims… those who are good, unlucky, and losers are among those it will spit out or will refuse to eat. Now maybe I can make Sim versions of the Admins and…

no… wait… it probably won't eat them…. after all they're…

I better not repeat that Mass Effect line again… O_O

Also watched some weird Youtube vid where a very fat guy was getting upset about not getting his chicken sandwich. I tell ya… there are some people restaraunts should NEVER serve…

And here's a Mass Effect thought… what if the Renegade ending of Mass Effect 3 featured Renegade Shepard becoming the core of a brand new Human Reaper and ends up replacing Harbinger as the leader of the Reaper fleet…

Lonnehart wrote:
And here's a Mass Effect thought…

This is something I've considered as well. However, I would like to ask you to tone down possible spoilers; there's someone here that I know that's still playing through ME 2.

And I've only just finished Mass Effect 1… I'm REALLY looking forward to buying 2 somewhere cheap and then continueing on with 3 in a year. I especially like the graphics, they're not the best there are but all those Lens Flares really improve it all.

So being the cheapskates that me and my friends are, I decided to help them to brew some wine (crap-quality, but it does the job). Which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that I live country were counting on the weather is like rolling a 100 sided die, most of the time it's fair… but not tonight. In other words, very windy and wet snowfall and I was in my jacket (not a thick one).


Good thing I was wearing my dad's sweater that he gave me during this holiday. Totally dry and kept me warm all the way. If only if my jeans had that same property….

So reading post after post about the minutae of a video game gets me thinking of how superior I am because I don't waste my time that way.

Then I realize that I'm currently obsessing about scratchbuilding the air cleaners of World War II M4 and M4A1 Medium Tanks and the appropriate markings for a Panzergrau Pzkpfw IV Ausf F2. No, my time iswasted on lumps of molded plastic that collect dust. Guess I can point to that shelf full of kits when I'm done as opposed to memories of blowingthings apart in a virtual world. However, I spent the last four years of my service in the Army doing precisely that. I had my fun, got it out of my systemand got paid, video gamesnow leave me cold.

Yeah, I'm a touch envious. But I canrun around the room withmy completed model Halifax B.1 with the open bomb-bay imagining I'm taking out some Naa-zi city.

Did some coloring while Judy had her 2 1/2 hours in physical therapy. So at last I'm not at a loss for what to do. Finished a page and set up all the others.

Heh… video games make us a bit too lazy to use our imaginations as they do the visual representations for us. So you're having a lot more fun playing with your model than I am at blowing up stuff in Mass Effect.

But not all games are about blowing stuff up…

heh… the Sim I'm playing in The Sims 3 just suffered his second death (because loser/unlucky Sims can't die of anything EXCEPT old age). He was killed by one of the rarest causes of death in the game… smacked by a meteor. O_O

And Death still refused to take him and just brought him back to life. Took all the friends that died with him though… O_O

Thinking that videogames are a waste of life is an outdated and terribly flawed opinion.

Videogames these days are often much more than just shooting stuff, especially the “Mass Effect” series. Difficult moral questions are weaved into the fabric of a beautiful world. Some games, like the game “To the Moon” make us face our mortality and challenges us to reach for our dreams. Games like “Deus Ex” show us a glimpse of a future that could be, if we do not mend our ways. The game “Minecraft” allows us to create our own world, not be put down by the boundaries the real world places upon us. The game “Plants vs Zombies” allows us to kill zombies, using plants.

All of these games and many more (perhaps with the exception of “Plants vs Zombies”) enrich our life instead of drain it. As much as I myself enjoy painting miniature tanks, they don't really add much to our life.

Kroatz wrote:
Thinking that videogames are a waste of life is an outdated and terribly flawed opinion.

All of these games and many more (perhaps with the exception of “Plants vs Zombies”) enrich our life instead of drain it. As much as I myself enjoy painting miniature tanks, they don't really add much to our life.

Hense my envy. However since my miniature tanks arerendered by an award winning master modeller they are truly a sight to behold and won awards and stuff.

With its scratchbuilt interior and detailed exterior the equivelent for a gamer would be to completely reprogram the game world and maybe have the everyone transparent so you could see every bit of their insides? In case anyone cares it's an M3 Light Tank (Diesel) USMC mid-1942. Yeah, the antenna broke.



M901 Improved TOW Vehicle Scout section, 1-102 Armor Fort Drum NY 1990.

I guess I'm there with Bravo with a tad of envy toward those who have hours to play games. I do my morning suduko, catch a couple of rounds of snood for the good ol hand-eye coordination, and then go about doing this or that while observing the two in the house who become oblivious to all for hours while playing oblivion.

the thing is, no one really cares a whole lot about the platoons of dust bunnies that crop up when no one pays attention. When those fellows get organized, we're a-doomed - but so far, no one really cares.

just wait - come March, I'll start posting my blow-by-blow gardening activities:
those plants that wintered and those that didn't.
that peculiar mold on the holly;
and the season's most pernicious weed.
oh - and let's not forget the deer repellent (I think it's just puma piss, which always makes me think that if I only had my own puma . . . well, deer wouldn't be the problem any more)

I mostly feel the same way about videogames, because they really take over and when you're playing them, nothing else gets done… Like in the Blind Melon song about reading books “it rips my life away, but it's a great escape”.
I have Grand Theft Auto III on my phone and when I get into it, wow… So I'm taking a break from it for a while.

Still can't wait for Mass Effect 3 later this year!

—————–

Great Models Bravo! Gorgeously realistic paint job! You've got all the dirt and scuffs and corrosion in there. It's really painstaking but it's the most fun part of the paint job in the end, because you're being more arty and interpretive, “colouring outside the lines” and using your brains at the same time to work out just exactly where the scratches, rust and stains would be and what colour they'd be etc…

Like the fact that those M901's are mostly aluminium I think?- it's what a friend told me once, he used to drive them in the army here- and thing like steel being galvanised with zinc is going to have a different look, that sort of thing.

I used to do some model building years and years ago… badly. Never finished, like most kids. Then an art student friend got me into tabletop war-gaming for a little bit. Painting the miniatures and the vehicles was the best part, especially roughing them up to look used and “real”.
After I gave that up I thought I'd use my new model painting skills (plus my more advanced painting skills in general), to tackle the model of the Cutty Sark I had lying around. I planned to do it in my own personal colour scheme though, not like the real ship:



That's the old beasti. I loved doing the verdigised copper plates on the hull and the slightly different look of the verdigris on the brass fittings…
(sitting on an unfinished USS Enterprise aircraft carrier with the nose of a SAAB Viggen in the foreground)

Anyway, roughing up stuff is fun and I use that to inform my comic art in Pinky TA now, making sure the mechs, tanks and ships have rust around the rivets, dirt, scratches and crap all over them :)

Just got an email about the orrientation for my degree. So I would call it official. Sorry if I post anything that sounds too facebook-like. I haven't posted anything about my career change on Facebook because I don't know how to explain it to my former classmates.

Well, it's hot. VERY HOT!!! If I could, I'd trade a few degrees the heat I'm getting here for a few of the winter degrees people in North America are getting. Can't sleep in this weather. Well, I could… but there's a chance I won't ever wake up again. T_T

So instead of blowing stuff up in Mass Effect 2 (third playthrough with Female Paragon Shepard, but with the downloads this time) I'm building houses for The Sims 3 game. Uploaded more than 10 houses on the Sims 3 website (just look up Lonnehart's studio if you want to see them). I'm not going for the luxurious mansions that everyone else seem to want. You know… the kind of houses you'd need a cheat code to buy in the beginning. Instead I've been making houses cheap enough for a beginning Sim to start with (WIHOUT CHEAT CODES!!!).

Maybe it's a good thing “real life” has no cheat code to get you more money instantly. We'd ruin our economy like that…

Lonnehart wrote:
Well, it's hot. VERY HOT!!!

Why thank you, you're not too bad yourself.

Bah. It is winter here but it has been hovering around 70 F (21 C). I've been wearing t-shirts for the past few days. I usually am bundled up in a sweater, thermal clothes, socks, scarf, mittens, and boots by now or at the very least I would have to wear a coat to go outside. It is kinda annoying. Especially after we have had some Texas blizzards in the past few years around this time, but haven't had one flake of snow this season. (For those who don't know, a Texas blizzard is what people in more snowy places would call a nice dusting to a minor inconviencence).

Ohkydokie…
I sent out requests for recordings, got a few replies and got some great stuff back.
Nothing from one replier yet…
And a few others never responded so I've no idea what they're able or not able to do.

So, fair enough, I have to go back to work next week so I can't stay up late on Sunday or Monday putting the soap together, So it'll just have to be done without the missing stuff tonight now (Saturday for me).
It'll be a lot shorter and I'll have to save some of the stuff for next week because those recordings are later on in the narrative than the outstanding requests.

No worries, it'll get done. I'll ask Genejoke to fill in one of the missing bits. He's a good go-to guy! ^_^

I'll have this done yet!

-Woot! Just got another! It's for later in the sequence though so it'll be for next week.

Heh… the Sim I'm controlling just got married. Meet his wife…



And worse… there's a baby on the way and because of her… “state”, the baby will be one as well. Must be nice to know your progeny will not be so ordinary…

Ugh… gotta work tonight. In the rain. Good thing I replaced my boots. Walking around with wet socks on your feet can be painful…

You crazy, crazy man lonne! Time to get back into doing comics again ^_^

————
Well I recorded two separate parts myself for the Quackcast Soap and Genejoke did another! So it can all go in afterall! This will be a looooong one, but worth it because of the special guests!

Still have to put together the rest of the Quackcast though… that's a LOT easier, but still a bit of a job since my internet cut out repeatedly so my interview is all broken up into bits.

Jillyfoo was GREAT though. She is a super webcomic expert, makes my puny knowledge look embarrassing!
If I could pick my replacement, I think it'd be her, she really knows her stuff and the entire scene way better than I thought was possible.
She'll definitely be a return guest for expert topics.

Too bad I didn't turn down my headphones this time… unfortunately her voice has an echo because of it.

Had my ipod with me when Romeo started cleaning himself today, so I got a little bit of a video. He always stops as soon as he realizes I'm watching, though. : )

http://youtu.be/wowoqwUwCOc

That rabbit is so cute. Still wish I had one. I would get one, but the neighborhood dogs would throw a fit. I had one a LONG time ago (I was a teenager at the time). They found their way into my fence and went after it while I was out. My guess is if I got one and kept it indoors they'd find a way to break through my windows to get to it (Resident Evil dog hallway, anyone?).

Another weird Mass Effect thought. I'm tempted to go to their site and suggest a mini DLC game for ME2. The one where you get to control Garrus and play through his adventures on Omega. Well… before what happened “happened”… Might be fun.

And for some odd reason, Omega reminds me of Gotham City only it's much MUCH WORSE…

The tires are flat on one side of the car. Got to stop taking those corners so tight. And wouldn't you know my airpump died? Guess after 15 years it didn't like being used in the snow. You should see the corroded glob my old air pressure gage turned into. So much for wiping it dry after use. Looks like it came off a submerged wreck in the Bermuda triangle.

Bright shiny stuff! New comic starting, going crazy coloring another project and Iroughed outa short piece. Wow.

One gets inspiration in weird places. Just thought about heroes and *BING* idea. Don't know how long it'll be before I do it or what medium to use because it could be drawn or it could be figures.

Lonnehart wrote:
Another weird Mass Effect thought. I'm tempted to go to their site and suggest a mini DLC game for ME2. The one where you get to control Garrus and play through his adventures on Omega. Well… before what happened “happened”… Might be fun.

That's a really brilliant idea actually. I'd love to play that, it'd be fun to be his “Archangel” persona as well as see more of Omega. That place had a lot of potential, it was an interesting environment and I always wanted to do more in it.
Please lobby for that!

————–

Well I went SUPER overboard on the editing this time, doing the soap. Bravo sent in his bit late and I went crazy on it, mixing it with my version of the same piece.
I hope people won't be too irritated by my silliness… I'm worried what I'm doing with the soap is getting to be a bit like those annoying pieces they do on bad FM radio that I've always hated so much, but I'm too close to judge.
I'm starting to think I should hand the project to someone more sensible and experienced.

I'm thinking Banes. That guy bloody well knows his stuff!
I could still organise it, chase people up etc, but he could produce it… He has a real talent.