The House of Fail

So amidst the turmoil of being laid off, I’ve decided to kick the comic off.  I only recently decided on one of the last major hurtles of getting it off the ground, something I had assumed I would just figure out – backgrounds.

I’ve got the first dozen or so strips planned out, as well as an outline of where the strip goes from there.  I’ve got characters designed, versions listed and extras planned.  But the thing I didn’t have was the ‘set’.  Those of you who know me that while I like the creativity associated with the arts I’m strictly a clay/paper artist and things like drawing are far from my wheelhouse.  So the answer?

Google Sketch-up.

I had planned from the beginning to use GIMP or some such to take the ‘green screen’ backgrounds and add bastard graphics I’d create to them.  Then I decided that was a horrible idea due to my drawing ability, and was stuck.  Then I decided on a simple scheme of using different colored backgrounds for different areas in the comic.  That was my working theory until I realized I wouldn’t be able to accomplish half of what I would want to see in the comic.

So began my dilemma.  Through a random happenstance I was directed to Google Sketch-up, a tool I had used years back when it was first released by the googles.  In going back in and screwing around (the happenstance was the TF2 item creation contest) I realized – I could use the green screen technique coupled with designing the backgrounds in Sketch-up.  It’s not a huge stretch for me as part of my misspent youth was designing levels in Unreal Tournament ’99 – UnrealEd (and the other editors I tinkered with over time).  So while 3-D design isn’t my best talent, it’s something I’m vaguely familiar with enough to kick out a few inter-tube landscapes.  And failing getting sketch-up to work, I could just create a few levels in Hammer and then use Gary’s Mod to do the same thing that Sketch-Up would have done.  Hell, I might still do that for some of the later comics that go ‘into’ games.

So the plan is set.  Time to begin the end of the internets.

Just got out of the hospital.  Was there for just under five days.  Couldn’t breath and had a cough.  All is well though.  Well, aside from the fact they don’t really know what happened, or if it’s over with.  Seriously, it’s like the most boring episode of House ever.  Even without the cool CGI explanation.

Ah well, wasn’t so bad as I have Star Trek waiting for me.

And I’m out.  With a little under 2 hours before I have to be at the terminal, I am now in full on ‘I knew I should have packed earlier’ mode.  I’ll be on aim while I’m gone (most likely off set a few hours from all of your normal stomping hours), so look for me.

So I finaly got around to upgrading WP, which of course means a new interface on the backend that I don’t like, and the possibility of breaking things.  Yell at me if something isn’t working, for instance: Twitter feeds.  It hasn’t updated yet, but we’ll see.

Trying out the camcorder I got ages ago – will also serve as the camera for EotI.

I still hold that books on tape are the devil.  Why listen to someone else’s (baring the author reading it) interpretation of of the text emphasis and cadence?  It’s silly.

So while my eyes were closed for repairs a week or two back I downloaded a number of audiobooks.  I wanted to pick up Bruce Campbell reading his books, but he hasn’t laid down the tracks yet.  Instead, I found Lewis Blacks ‘Nothing Sacred’ (a story of his religious experiences), Stephen Colberts ‘I am America: And you can too’ (how to live your life as a true American’), Darkly Dreaming Dexter and the Elenium trilogy by Eddings.

Black and Colbert read their books, and both were amazing.  Mostly because the author read the book, and I love the authors.  I did the same thing months ago with WWZ as read by Max Brooks and cast (Mark Hamil as Wainio?  Badass) and loved it.  So generally, if I’m to get an audiobook it has to be a comedy as read by the author or an actual book done by a cast.  Otherwise I don’t enjoy it for various reasons.

So trying to listen to Darkly Dreaming Dexter was the worst idea ever.  Yes, it’s in first person perspective, but I’m coming into it with Michael C. Hall as the voice of Dexter, and the narrator of the book is not him.  So I have to immediately get over that.  Second, I’ve never actually read the book.  That is probably the biggest mistake I made in thinking I’d be able to enjoy it.  While a good book (of what I’ve listened to), it’s so damn different from the series that unless I’m the one driving the boat (ie reading it) it’s going too slow for me to stay on board.  So I gave up.  I’ll come back to it in time, in printed form.  Trying to listen to it did teach me a lesson – never fucking listen to books of fiction unless you’ve read them first.

The Elenium I’ve read (all three books) an average of 25 times or so.  This is not an exaggeration.  I love Eddings, and was introduced to his work back at the age of 11 or so.  I read the books over and over because they were a series, and each book offered insight that made me want to go all the way back through again to experience the changes the new books wrought.  Hell, ‘Pawn of Prophecy’, the first book of the Belgariad, I’ve read at least 45 times.  But I wouldn’t dare do anything to the Belgariad except read it.  If a movie came out, no matter what, it would suck.  Radio broadcast of a cast performance?  Suck.  Animated feature?  Suck.  Graphic Novel?  …I withhold judgment until I see the first page, but assume Suck.

So going into the audiobook of ‘Diamond Throne’, I was confident I knew the story well enough to enjoy it with even a half-assed narration, and was open to experiencing it in a new format because while I loved it, I did not hold it in the same regard as Eddings previous work.  The narrator was actually fairly good – monotone, didn’t add too much emphasis where I didn’t expect it and pronounced the names by their official pronunciation (which I personally don’t adhere to in all cases).  As such, I’m eager to listen to the rest of the series and Tamuli as well.

I have learned my lessons though.  Audiobooks have their niche with me, however small it may be.  But never in a million years will they be as good a substitute as reading the damn book.  Plus, you might be called a nerd for reading a book (in the classic ‘Revenge of the Nerds’) but you can knock someone unconscious by bludgeoning them with the Yale Shakespeare Complete Works volume, versus just pissing them off by smacking them with your iPod.

Rules: Write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 25 people to tag (unless you’re me, then you have more video games than people to tag)

1. Trees make me happy. Not “oh look, a tree, squeee!” happy, but content when I’m in the forest or around it.
2. Recently I’ve come to realize that I haven’t changed much since high school. I still get bored of easy things fairly easily (which is what lead to point 3), and constantly require a challenge. At work, what with it shutting down and all, I no longer have a large group of projects to work on. In fact, I would say that I have around 25% as much work to do as I did four months ago. It’s important work, sure, but not multi tasking and not having multiple things to jump between that hold my interest is hurting my motivation.
3. I failed Freshman English in high school. Second Semester anyway. First was literature and prose, and was fun. Second was learning how to write essays, something I had learned years before. Rather than pay attention in class, turn in assignments that included “Write a paragraph”, “Write a 5 paragraph essay”, and “write a sentence” I decided to spend the entire time reading. I failed second semester, but started in Honors the next year and stayed there every year after. My senior year I had to skip an elective to retake that damn semester. Thankfully, that teacher taught the year opposite of what my Freshman teacher did – more book readin’.
4. I don’t hate many groups of people, and fewer individuals. I will use that hate of groups of people to determine a new acquaintances intelligence though. If you’re a creationist (Intelligent Design-ian, whatever), FSF fanatic or a vegan, I immediately write you off as hopeless and the first to be culled when I take over the world. Humanity does not need blatant stupidity and purposeful ignorance cluttering up the gene pool. Let me be clear – ignorance is okay, so long as it’s not willful. People that are given facts, evidence, and/or research and blow it off because of some ‘higher’ belief, might as well just put their fingers in their ears and scream ‘la la la la’.
5. My perfect meal is simple and all American. Fincher’s BBQ from Macon, Georgia. A pint of the stuff, some hamburger buns (no sesame seeds. god help you if there are sesame seeds on my buns), an order of their french-fries (like no other) and a frosty cold coke (sugar only, HFCS need not apply. And I know that technically, my all-American meal requires coke to be imported from Mexico).
6. Despite having gone to college and recieved a degree I really just want to open a comic store and live my days in simple geekdom.
7. Despite wanting to open a comic store and live my days in simple geekdom, I really want to go back to school. Not to get another degree. Just to learn, to be in a classroom environment. Though a doctorate in just one or two disciplines would be fine too. I still wax nostalgic about my days in college and how my biggest worries were calculus homework and if the P’Zone was still being sold at Pizza Hut.
8. My mothers side of the family is as red-neck and American as can be. I can trace my lineage back through the Civil War to the mayflower on that side. Even so, I’d be happy to settle down in the great white north of Canada (B.C. only, k thx).
9. I have many hobbies. I start many projects. But I rarely devote time to see any of those hobbies or projects through.
10. While my left eye can see, I’m legally blind in it. This prevents me from enjoying the simple geek things in life, like 3-d glasses.
11. If I were to get into a sport, it’d probably be Curling.
12. Were I to (rather, ‘When I’) become the ruler of the world, I can’t let the resistance movement/rebel alliance learn of my one giant weakness: You can stop me dead in my tracks by asking me a question like “If you were a super hero, what would you want your power to be? Choose one of the following 16 (each of the 16 also mentions a consequence of the power, such as control over fire and ability to set things on fire by touching them, but you can never touch anyone without setting them on fire):” If the list is actually well written, I can sit there and debate it for hours.
13. I miss Hippie. Damn hippies.
14. I think of my money as votes. I use it to buy things I like and things I support. So, for example, when I buy the soundtrack, DVD and iTunes copies of Dr Horrible, it’s because I think that doing so will translate into making more of it.
15. I once declined going to my first strip club my friends in college were making me go to in favor of going home and playing in a video game tournament. My friends were insistent that I go and ‘see some titties’, but I was insistent that I wanted to play in the tourney. I won the argument by leaving them and walking to a bus stop. They ended up driving me home to play in the tournament anyway. I still haven’t gone to a strip club, and I would still pick the tournament over going.
16. One of the happiest memories from my childhood involved catching crab with fishing line, soda can pull tabs and hot dogs.
17. I occasionally use songs to put me in certain mindsets. For example, in college ‘System of a Down – Snowblind’ got me focused minutes before tests and ‘Louis Armstrong – Wonderful World’ made the stress melt during long nights of my Senior Project (and presentation).
18. Even though I haven’t used the ability in years, I still pride myself in being an argumentative jackass that can frustrate people into yelling and leaving a conversation, while I remain calm and amused. Modern internet trolls are rank amatures.
19. I’ve had 4 jobs, never been fired and have only quit 1. The other three (one of which I currently am in) either went out of business or physically couldn’t employ me anymore.
20. Failing numbers 6 and 7, I would love to just stick with a company my entire IT career. If it wasn’t for my current employer bailing on the US, I could have seen myself here for a long while.
21. I’ve been promoted at my current job at least once a year. A total of 5 times. Well, closer to 7 if you include being hired on perm and moving to a new team inside my department. If not for 20, I could have seen myself at the director level within a five years at this pace.
22. I still think I should patent my badass watch/pen holder idea. No matter how much ridicule I got from it, even from geeks geekier than I.
23. While not a huge political activist, or someone in touch with current events 90% of the time, I do hate the fact that most people have no idea the direction this country is taking. I think high school kids should be forced to read Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother”. I love his work for not only being topical, but plausible. We’re not quite at “1984″ levels in this country, but we’re headed that way.
24. I plan on making it rich by creating my own tv show with my old manager from where I currently work.
25. I secretly – no, very openly – want WWZ to happen. Not only will it cull humanity back from critical mass, it will help unite us against a common enemy again (as it did with Nazi’s in Germany). Plus – zombies.

One of the most reocurring topics in our lives must be that of language, and its effects on us as people. We all grew up repeating the mantra of ‘Sticks and Stones’, but a number of us apparently were too retarded* to understand it, leading to the predicament we’re in as adults.

Let me dive right in here and link to two things. The first, is Louis CK saying something very clearly that I support: http://www.last.fm/music/Louis+CK/_/Offensive+Words?autostart

For those that don’t feel like listening, it’s a rant concerning this topic (different than Carlin’s famous rant on swear words). What it boils down to is aknowledging that words evolve. ‘Gay’ hasn’t always meant what the stuck up asshats are trying to defend it as. Used to mean happy. The word is evolving again, simple as that. So let me present to you the next link:

http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/ForEducators/

Take time to examine the posters. Take time to really look at them and understand their meaning.

Let’s start with one that hits close to home. “That’s so Guy that has more video games than friends”? Really? Of course I have more games than friends, everyone should. Board or video, doesn’t matter. Two, why does quantity matter? What happens if I have only one more game than friends? Is that still negative?

On the bigger picture, the three posters seem to indicate ironically that the ones saying the remark are themselves described by the phrase they’re speaking. I posit then that the creators of the posters are trying to deliver the message that if you call something gay, you yourself are gay too.

And for something else to consider, there are three posters under the ones of the kids, with different words. This allows us to figure out a further lexicon. ‘Guy that has more video games than friends’ apparently can be translated this way to mean ‘dyke’. I’m unsure if they mean that dykes don’t have as many friends as they do video games, or if all men are secretly dykes.

All that aside, it’s clear that the faggots that get all butt hurt over usage of words that are evolving don’t understand evolution. Calling something ‘gay’ does not mean that it sucks penis. Nor using it in a negative fashion means that sucking penis is bad, or people that suck penis are bad (in fact, I’m all for penis sucking). Unfortunately, these people are unable to see how gay they are for not understanding this new evolution/meaning of the word ‘gay’.

*(For reference, most all of the direct verbal references I make of groups in this post, with words such as retard, faggot, gay, etc, are all intentional uses of the word to illustrate my point that I hope to make clear. Of course the cunt faggot retards won’t understand it anyway, but whatever.)

Yes, I plan on making my god damn comic.  I’m not just going to post funny things I’ve found on the inter tubes.  I swear.

Just give me time.

Testing RSS functionality. This is only a test. Oh, and a picture for Zerp.

Youve got red on you