@my rival - I'm really sorry to read that. sincerely hope you have a good Plan B.

—

so this is rant/moan/rave/and - all righty: “share”. I confess: I've taken to badgering DDers.

It's true.

what may be worse - they let me get away with it. ohsuchasorrystate.

So Listen - just write a script for the radio play and you may save many several innocent DDers from badgering.

Get it? It's YOUR fault now.
H
Czarina

Don't know why… but maybe this song will cheer people up…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBDGTP0B0Y4
Now back to playing Mass Effect 2. I swear… ever since I downloaded that Firepower Pack for the game that heavy pistol has been my heavy weapon for most of the game. I'm barely using Shepard's biotic powers unless it's in conjunction with that gun. Even with the male Soldier Shepard I've been defaulting to that pistol. I guess the laser sight just makes it that much cooler than the other guns (which use crosshairs). :)

That pistol eats up ammo too quick. But it's good, yeah.

I woke up with a bad headache today, but still went to work anyway… Then I missed my train station on the way to work, so I had to go to the next stop and take one the other way.
I wasn't late though… But I didn't mind too much if I was. Which I wasn't.

Then at work I realise I forgot to put a belt on this morning!
That's not sooo bad, my trousetrs fit well so I don't actually need one, but it just looks better and the shirt I'm wearing is a bit short so the belt helps it stay tucked in… which is how I discovered I'd forgotten it. :)

Now to tuck in my shirt again. -_-

My life has become all kinds of crazy of late, hence my activity here reducing. Seem to be going from one family related drama to the next.
On the plus side my latest diet and fitness drive is working, I'm shedding weight at the moment.

ozoneocean wrote:
That pistol eats up ammo too quick. But it's good, yeah.

Then you're not shooting enemies in the right place. It's true that I run out of ammo for it on missions, but not as much as I expected. On NORMAL difficulty most enemies fall with one or two headshots.

Too bad teabag shots don't count as I'd prefer to shoot there (it'd make enemies fall faster… most of the time). Sometimes I can be so disturbing while playing video games that I scare myself…
Finally put the $5 down that I need at minimum for a Mass Effect 3 reservation. Too bad I reserved too late… I would've reserved the Collectors Edition. Not that I would've wanted it anyway. I'd go get it if it had a model of the Normandy SR-2 though… I love that ship. :)

I am grateful that ayesinback has realized she can badger DDers just so long as she isn't badgering me. In fact, she hasn't. There's this 2012 script thing and my mailbox is empty. I haven't been asked anything. This is good because now I have no excuse not to work on my comic.

I'm right in the middle of all the blue-screen photography which I decided to finish before building the next big set. However one of the problems with doing a blue screen shot is that the elements are photographed seperately and only composited when putting the panels together in Photoshop. So this requires me to shoot a lot of unconnected images and loose track of everything. After all it's shots of people shooting at each other and reaction shots and running around. So it's all in the imagination until everything is done which leads me to not want to shoot it. Makes me wish I had an assistant director who could do this stuff while I procrastinate on doing any promotion of the comic.

As I was reading about sexual interest between unrelated step-siblings I noticed that the time was 13:37. I'm not sure how to feel about it…

bravo1102 wrote:
I am grateful that ayesinback has realized she can badger DDers just so long as she isn't badgering me. In fact, she hasn't. There's this 2012 script thing and my mailbox is empty. I haven't been asked anything.

that just means you haven't been looking hard enough. stage 1 is very subtle… but good luck with your comics! …i should do that too…

I'm cleaning my closet today for the first time in…well, ever. I've lived in the same house all my life, and in the same room for most of it. I can't believe the sheer volume of stuffI've managed to accumulate. I'm a little terrified of what I might find in there. If I don't post again, I've probably been eaten by some horrible dust monster.

I just found my ceinture flche, though, which is great - just in time for Le Festival du Voyageur!

On Thursday my new (old) bookcase is getting delivered, so by the end of the week my room will look beautiful.

Edit: So…tired…
How can cleaning such a tiny space be so exhausting?

All done! A pretty successful closet-cleaning, I think. I filled three big bags with garbage, and another with clothes I don't want. The next project is to find places in the basement for all the stuff that I don't want that isn't garbage.

The worst thing I found was this envelope where I had put a tooth I lost. The tooth fairy forgot to come the night I lost it so I took that as proof that she didn't exist and kept the tooth. But when I found the envelope it had come open and there was no tooth in it. So I was terrified the whole time I was cleaning that I would find an old tooth. Ick.

Some other interesting things I found: a viking hat, an Einstein wig, a very tiny hat made of burlap, my collection of pez dispensers.

*sigh*

Well… the IDE drive I was using as my system drive just died. I've also spent the last few hours reinstalling Windows XP as well. It'll be a while before the hard drive prices go down (unless they've gone down already). So right now all I have is this SATA 150 GB hard drive that's keeping my computer going. It has two more years on it, so I shouldn't have to worry too much, though.

Unless the power company's generators go on the fritz and puts out a giant power surge that kills my computer… burns down my house… and forces the President to declare Guam a disaster area due to all the electrical fires resulting from the surge…

And they still want to implement a rate increase despite the fact that their service has improved little… with the only improvements being in the disconnections department…

Well… back to my computer restoration process. Nice thing about reinstalling everything is that the years of junk I accumulate on my computer unknowingly are gone and my computer can access the drive faster. Usually…

Oh… and some pop music… like the comment on the page says, though… when the “fake” music sounds better than the actual stuff, you've smacked the bottom of the bottomless barrel…

Hippie Van wrote:
I just found my ceinture flche, though, which is great - just in time for Le Festival du Voyageur!

I of course had no idea what that is… so I had to look it up. What pretty sashes!
I think this clip from the world renowned Canadian comedy troupe Kids In The Hall is approriate to celebrate that with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJTNOxV4Qg

^_^ …where were their heads?

——————–

Heeeeeat wave here. It's hot, it's nasty. I dun like it.
Oh, The latest Quackcast is up! I finally did it. Bane's editing to DD soap number 5 is lovely, so are all the extra bits he added!
This week I talk about SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, DMCA, Copyright in general and editatorialise like mad…
I don't think anyone will listen, but at least I finished it. :(

I'll listen, when I find the time.
My brother in law is off to the police station to be charged with GBH and false imprisonment, it's been a stressful few days as we've had wim with us while he's on bail. He's bricking it now after learning they ARE charging him as his solicitor was convinced they would drop all charges.

The wife will probably be let go when she is able to get back to work. So she'll lose her health care benefits and the cost of all her doctors will force her and I into bankruptcy if not worse. That's what I have to look forward to in the next few months.

I hate when I envision the worst possible outcome of something and it turns out to be prophecy.It doesn't helpthat I know precisely why her employer sees fit to let her go and not someone else and that I can't tell anyone because it's too unsavory. People are dicks, that's a given but precisely how they fulfill their destiny as selfish little dicks who don't kow what is in their own interest and throw critical thinking out the windowfor whatfeels good.

Know what would make me feel good? Blowing off some rounds on the range.

That's one of the best things about this country, the NHS. Also isn't there some laws protecting her job? unless of course it is done as some form of breach of contract or misconduct.

@Hippie Van - congrats on your closet clean-out. I always get a little pick-me-up after cleaning out “deadwood”. But couldn't find that tooth, ey? Maybe the fairy was only delayed, Ms I-Gots-Me-Proof :P
@Genejoke - hope the family soap dwindles down soon - does not sound fun. (ok - Czarina will delay Your badgering)

@bravo - you may well be right, but as illogical as it might be, expend energy on the positive. if your prophecies “come true” then isn't it to your benefit to try to prophesy a future you would like to have?

—

right now I'm trying to
prophesizemyself out of the start of a cold - such miserable things. And that means drowning it and That means in and out of the bathroom all day.
*this is when I revisit my fantasy of having my own personal bathroom*

ayesinback wrote:

@bravo - you may well be right, but as illogical as it might be, expend energy on the positive. if your prophecies “come true” then isn't it to your benefit to try to prophesy a future you would like to have?

The closest life has been letting me get is foretelling myability to cope with all the negative things in my life, and just how good I am at being positive that I'll survive and that this too shall pass.

You know Genejoke reading what your bro-in-law is putting you through reminds me of my two convicted criminal brothers-in-law.

Since my wife works for a law firm that represents unions in their dealings with management what her boss is telling her about letting her go despite seniority is incredibly hypocritical. She has discussed it with representatives of the firm's biggest clients who say it is somehting that if she were a union member would be actionable. Now how can an attorney go to court and represent employees in cases against employers who do this and win settlements and then turn around and do it to his own employee? If I represented a union and heard my attorney treated his employees precisely how I was objecting to an employer treating my union members would I want said lawyer to still represent my union in court? Obviously what he says to me doesn't represent his own feelings on the matter because he doesn't live by what he tells me he'll fight for on my behalf.

And of course being a good attorney he can talk for hours about this rationalizing and dissembling about everything and not saying anything worth believing. Who is he trying to convince my wife or himself? What I hear doesn't convince me but I'm not allowed to say anything no matter how much I wish I could point to the emperor as having no clothes.

You know what they say about Lawyers Bravo… Even Lawyers say that about lawyers.

————-

I love my brain.
Just when something is really starting to hang over my head and really grind me down, it comes up with simply brilliant solutions!
At least in this one instance.

I love my brain.

@ayes: Hrm, I didfind some five dollars in change!

I also feel your pain with the bathroom. We only have one very small bathroom. It's not so bad now with only three of us, but when we were a family of five(with four girls), trying to get it to yourself in the morning was almost impossible.

@ozone: I love KITH. : )
That's a song that every little Canadian learns, too. I remember it being used to teach us the names of body parts in French. Of course I didn't realise until a couple years later, when my French vocabulary was better, that it's about plucking the feathers of a bird(a lark, I think, in English).

wow… I wake uppfeeling sore all over. Doesn't help that when I woke up I found myself half out of bed with my head on the floor… and a bit of head pain. Luckily it's nothing an icepick won't fix…

Ugh… even though I live alone family issues hit me. I almost had enough of it once,but then I just did what I did to cool myself down. Anger just isn't me, y'know?

*sigh* oh, well…
At least my computer recovery went well. Now let's hope something else doesn't break… especially the hard drive. I'm down to this last one. If the prices on the things don't drop soon I'll just get one at the inflated price anyway. The drive in my computer has a year left in it…

And Valentines day… I'm absolutely dreading it. It's that time of year when I feel very depressed… well… more than usual. And it gets worse at work… I have to be on the lookout for parked vehicles that are rocking so I can tell the occupants to rock their vehicle someplace else, only to get the reply from the female that “he's rocking my world”…

So I just beat Super Mario Bros. 3, and I didn't use the save/load feature on the emulator untill the last world. Woa, I just managed to finish it… my childhood is now complete!

gullas wrote:
So I just beat Super Mario Bros. 3, and I didn't use the save/load feature on the emulator untill the last world. Woa, I just managed to finish it… my childhood is now complete!

Ever tried that Japanese only version of Super Mario Brothers 2 that was never brought to the U.S. because the creators considered it WAY TOO HARD for Americans to play? I've played it, and I'm not kidding when I say that thing was VERY HARD…

There was one stage that had only those spring platforms and you mostly died missing them…

have to help set up an art show at my school for this club that was disbanded due to neglect (shakes angry fist at the ex-president who thought it would be smart not to check his frickin' email like i told him to). and i was requested to submit a piece myself… the show is this monday so this all needs to be done by the opening. hahahahahaha, ah so disorginized, never letting this person run anything ever again. well hopefully it'll be a success.

Sorry i haven't been around to fill your guys' day with gloom. It's just that my password was her name. and i avoided a lot of websites that i had like that. Just so i didn't have to think about her…Out of site, out of mind.

seventy2 wrote:
Sorry i haven't been around to fill your guys' day with gloom. It's just that my password was her name. and i avoided a lot of websites that i had like that. Just so i didn't have to think about her…Out of site, out of mind.

this is why the ability to change passwords is a grand thing. anywho welcome back, have a cookies, and cheer up when you can

@Hippie.
I love that song too. I must learn to sing it one of these days!

@Seventy two
Roku is right- change thy password! Maybe to opensesame? ^_^
Welcome back!

————–

It's Australia Day! Happy Australia day everyone!

————–

As an artist, I like to be humble. I know my failings and faults. But occasionally the towering childish arrogance at what skill I DO have rears its very ugly head.
This was one such time. Oh yes…

The super successful webcomic phenomenon that is Scott Kurtz commented on his comic today about the use of layers in his work, using lots and lots of layers and how he works with Mike Krahulik who also uses lots of layers, but can't stand lots of layers so he always flattens his work afterwards, and how he needed some bits from the foreground of Mike's work but couldn't get it because it was flattened.
Well you can see their stuff here if you're not aware of it already-
Here: http://www.pvponline.com/ and here: http://www.trenchescomic.com/

LAYERS? Let alone LOTS of layers? FOR THAT? O_o

Colour me incredulous.
Aside from the fact it's all horribly derivative, it's good simplistic work by design, so you should not NEED a complex process to make it. Ever. Four would be pretty much the outside, excessive, indulgent maximum.
Even for my art, which is orders of magnitude above that in complexity and design, I only use about 6 layers on average (sometimes a bit more depending on need), and I could easily simplify that down.

But what gets me is that Scott describes how he wanted to grab some of Mike's art from another layer.
Have a look at that stuff.
Why would any artist bother? It's not Caravagio man, just recreate it, it would take 5 minutes max. This is simple, simple, simple stuff- not just because it looks that way, but because it's designed to be that way on purpose.

–
OK, end of my arrogant rant. They're both genius webcomic businessmen and I respect their success.
Their work is simple on purpose, its engagingly stylised, and very appealing to people, even if it's not exactly to my tastes, but talking about the process as if it's complicated or hard just prickles me.

It's kinda weird how some people need to use overly complex procedures to do something simple. Such as making coffee. I usually just use simple measurements to make my own brew. But I've seen some people who do things like first make a general measurement of the coffee grounds needed, refine that measurement, then repeat it for each of the required spoons of coffee grounds they need for the coffee maker, then make sure the decanter is completey clean before determining which type of water is needed for the brew, then accurately measuring the amount of water needed for the brew, then adding it into the coffee maker. Then they decide how long to wait 'til the coffee is done….

I think you get the picture…

I use tons of layers. Why? For the simple reason that if I want to tweak or change something it's really easy if it's all on different layers. In my case it's no OCD, it is a total lack of confidence in my ability to get it right the first three dozen times and always having seperate layers available so I can go back and fiddle with stuff.

And guess what? The tiny number of panels I did flatten and then accidently deleted the non-flattened file were the ones I had to go back and edit! So there I was editing the hard way on a flattened image and superimposing new layers as opposed to simply fixing the offending layer.

It works both ways. I see multiple layers as the easy way to edit and flattened images as the hard way.

That was the way I was taught. Keep everything seperate so you can edit everything individually without messing up anything else. And I hate masking. Just can't stand it. Lots of bad memories from my airbrushing days.

This page sums up my current feelings….

@Lonnehart, no I haven't but I think it was released along with a SNES bundle as “the lost levels” if I'm not mistaken….

@Ozone I agree about layers required for making that art, but in the past I've suffered for not using enough layers, or worse still using a lot and not naming them. regardless i always save a PSD file with layers and a seperate flattened file. mistakes do happen though.