the night is my enemy, and you're the only reason why

Wait, there's more clip posts? Oh, darlings. There are always more clip posts.

First up, this is awesome. Though I'm slightly weirded out that it came up on a general Final Fantasy search (I wanted to know how much infringement of Square Enix' IP we were dealing with. I have no plans to email them, I was mostly just curious). Still pretty, though.

While we're on the topic of Final Fantasy, why do these exist?

And artist Russell Walks has designed an absolutely gorgeous Gallifreyan calendar. He's taking preorders now.

There's a steampunk section for craftster.org! Not all the tutorials are tutorials; some are just "my crafts, let me show you them". Still, there are some good tips here, and even the failures are interesting (like the belt pouch that didn't dye perfectly, because it's the first time she's tried to dye leather; but she wanted an aged look anyway, and I think the splotches actually give it character).

From Miss Malaprop comes news of a potential solution to the problem of oversized "smartphones" that won't make calls consistently--a Bluetooth-enabled mini-phone that takes over the actual call functions. So...let me get this straight--rather than make the candybar-styled touchscreen phones work as phones, they're just...including a miniature cell phone?

It does other things, of course--I like the fact that it can serve as a television remote and a photo shutter, thus enabling users to prop their smartphones up somewhere and snap a shot across the room--but to essentially just add on another device to the device one already has, in order to bring more functionality to the device one already has...I tend to agree with the reviewers: it shouldn't have come to this.

The Laughing Squid blog is pimping Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's "Cthulhu in Love" perfume, sold only through Thinkgeek. It's an intoxicating blend of ritual incense, sea kelp, ancient spice, and chocolate, and it's a wonderful tie-in and introduction to what Black Phoenix does as a parfumerie.

Other mentions leading up to Valentine's Day: a pair of hand-painted Sriracha heels, and the giftable 8-bit rose, forever blooming for your personal Player 2.

Back in 2012, graduate architect Jack Munro developed a new method of making bricks--with cow blood. They're not as strong as traditional clay bricks, but much of the construction in his test area (Egypt) features mud bricks, anyway, and he postulates they're just as strong as the mud versions, plus use less water to make.

From the same site comes interesting news on bricks made from wool, bricks made from fly ash (a by-product of coal power plants), bricks made from paper-making waste, and bricks made from steel mill slag.

There's other interesting tech being developed, though--for instance, an entirely new means of data storage: encoding it into DNA. If this catches on at a possible, forget Johnny Mnemonic's measly ten Gb capacity: about three zettabytes' worth can be encoded in around a cup of cloned DNA strands.

There's someone who goes only by "Major Scaled", who's slowly uploading pop songs originally written in minor keys, that have been digitally re-scaled to feature major key blends. They're odd but definitely informative, to the difference between minor and major scales.

Finally, I give you a sloth flying. Well, mostly a sloth being lifted. But hey. Enjoy either way.

you are the silence in between what I thought and what I said

And another of the clip post variety--I'm building up far too many links and just leaving the tabs open until I get around to mentioning them here. This really needs to stop.

First up is a treat for horror fans--if you're a fan of the genre as a whole, you'll understand the deep frustration involved in feeling like there's been no really good horror films released in a while, just tepid, insipid remakes or sequels, neither doing the originals justice. This may help with that--it's a list of twenty-five under-appreciated films, with various takes on horror as a theme. Some are amusing, some are gory, some are bizarre, a few are outright bleak and nihilistic--but I guarantee you'll find something you'll treasure on that list, if you give them a chance.

My personal recommendations:

• Darkness: Evocative, subtle, unnerving, and it works on more than one level--the over-arching occult trope playing well into the concept of the haunted house, the haunted family, and everyday standard familial disintegration.
• The Woods: Gorgeously filmed period piece about coming of age, with all its myriad horrors--with, of course, grace notes of insanity, haunting, paranoia and the darkness at the heart of old forests.
• $la$herS: Don't let the bargain-basement, reality-TV show concept put you off. While everything about this is low-budget, and there's not one actor you'll recognize, start to finish, the entire film is so damned earnest--and well-done--you really won't care. Add the further unsettling realization that at this point, we're really not far from the future posited in this 2001 film.
• Pontypool: Slow-paced to the point of causing shivers on its own, when this little gem picks up, it picks UP--right into a wall of razorblades and hooks. While that description may seem to imply massive gore, there's really not much; the main strength of this is in its bizarre, surreal linking theme: language, after all, is the virus passed over the airwaves.

While we're on the horror kick, Silent Hill as a concept has now spawned multiple games, mini-games within those games, two feature films, and a host of soundtracks in full release (as well as numerous limited editions). For some reason, one of the most haunting monsters from Silent Hill never had her own action figure...until now.

Personally, I think her head looks too much like a puppy whose features have been rather thoroughly erased, but she's excellently done. Even with the strange puppy symbolism, she remains evocative, disturbing, and compelling.

And still creepy.

(For anyone who's wondering still, this is why the nurses are creepy. This might also help, as well as one of the best fan tributes from the Anime Boston convention in 2007. Note that all of those reference horror games, along with the original action figure mention, but hey, we were talking about horror beforehand anyway.)

Jumping from horror to media in general, have a ten-year retrospective of Firefly. You're welcome.

Oh, so she really is a fake geek girl. Yeah, fine, I can deal with that. But nobody else gets a pass using that term.

Recently, Mr. Allen and I went through an inordinately long Let's Play series for something called "Deadly Premonition" (it starts here if anyone's interested, but I'll warn you now: it goes on for forty-sevenparts, most clocking in at either half an hour or a full hour in length), by a new LPer (to us, anyway) who goes by "supergreatfriend". Mostly, it's a long, rambling, Japanese video game that is oddly paying tribute to Twin Peaks (Twin Peaks having found even greater popularity in Japan than in the US). If you're unclear on the concept of the Let's Play video trope, think of it as watching a friend play video games. You're not actually playing, but you can get enjoyment out of watching someone else play. (Sometimes even if they play badly, and yes, while that video makes me giggle, it also comes with a HEAVY language warning.)

After all that, though, I found I'd actually developed some mild interest in the game, as bizarre as it was, so I went looking for more information. The first thing I tracked down was also the most hysterical, so I am now sharing that review with you, because it's just too funny not to spread around.

Some particularly beautiful lines from that review:

• "The game starts off simple enough: you step into the shoes of FBI Special Agent Francis York, an astute and intelligent man who chooses to only investigate homicides involving red plant seeds. Oh yeah, and he can also tell the future by looking into a cup of coffee. And he talks to invisible, possibly imaginary characters nobody else can see. And he eats raw potatoes, sleeps on a mattress in the middle of a cemetery, and stores giant fish inside his suit. Let me take this opportunity to point out I am not making any of this up."
• "Like any responsible FBI Agent concerned with tree-related justice, Agent York approaches the small town around midnight, driving his muscle car through pouring rain while simultaneously talking on his cellphone, listening to music, looking at a laptop, and smoking a cigarette."
• "A definite lowlight of 'Deadly Premonition', the combat missions require you to walk through countless identical hallways killing countless identical zombies while picking up valuable items such as 'country ham' and 'sugar donuts'. These enemies attack you by either walking backwards and sticking their hand in your mouth, or walking forwards and hugging you until you decide to die."
• "During the murder investigation (and lack thereof), you'll find yourself in very odd situations punctuated by Agent York's equally odd demeanor. This is where the game absolutely shines; the surreal interaction between York and the townsfolk (as well as the interaction between York and himself) can only be described as a work of art. In a town where crimes can be solved by shooting bird nests with shotguns, trees drop severed hands that can be used as doorknobs, and countless giant dogs fall out of the sky at midnight, the choice to behave illogically is simply...logical." 

Ah, yes, Japan. You either understand American culture in totally realistic ways (making me scared of my country), or you miss understanding American culture in a way that's actually breathtakingly surreal (making me scared of Japan, but in awe of your cognitive skills). Never change.

In other news--I don't watch a lot of Jim Sterling's output, mainly because he makes my elitist snobbery look like Rebecca-of-Sunnybrook-Farm-level philanthropy. On occasion, this is a shame, because every once in a while, something rolls across my dash like this, which is a precise diatribe against the sort of gamers who complain about the OTHER sort of gamers, when these additions to "their" games do not change their gameplay in the least.

Towards the end, he also makes a very subtle and brief jibe towards people who fear gay marriage because it will somehow impact their "real" marriages...to which I have to say, first, brilliant, Mr. Sterling, and second, if people protesting this are really so easily swayed from their heterosexuality that they would be influenced by hearing about someone else's marriage...well, maybe they shouldn't be married, honestly. Maybe they should just stay at home wrapped in a blanket with a warm bottle of milk nearby.

Forever.

I'm thinking this is getting officially longish, so let me wrap up with a technological advance first heard on Gizmodo. This is both terrifying and awe-inspiring. Let me explain the precise advance.

A group of scientists a couple of years ago started trying to teach a computer basic comprehension skills by giving it full access to Google Image Search and YouTube. Essentially, what they wanted was a computer who could be told one basic concept--"apple", say--and would access images and videos until it came across a representative fruit. It might not be an apple, precisely--it might be a pear, or a coconut cracked in half on a beach, or seven frantic little sausages wondering how to fix their submarine--but there would be some relationship between "fruit" and "consumable food".

What they got wasn't exactly that, but it was even more amusing. Their computer, when fed any basic concept, would find something reasonably approximating, register the find...then go off and watch Youtube videos of cats.

Totally not kidding. That's what happened.

So, another group of scientists started thinking. If we can teach a computer to associate one thing with another approximate thing...what if we remove the middleman? This is what they did: they created a database comprised of literally millions of media slices--some just various colors all the way up to microfragments of an original moving image. Then they set up a group of experiments. This was their result.

So why is this so cool? Think about the possibilities. In the future, I could plug into one of these machines, and think at the receiver. The receiver would access its database and translate what I sent into understandable data. That data would then be re-translated to a display screen where an image that was somewhat close, but not exact, would display.

Oh, sure, it's not that realistic now, you say, but wait. Wait until someone gets the bright idea to film their nightmares, and then make horror films based on them. This will change the WORLD.

and if you don't have anywhere to go, you go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll

Anyone not living in the current USA might find this tale difficult to believe, but as an American, I can tell you--while it's appalling and wrong, it's also standard operating procedure at this point. After all, we've had people detained for hours at airports for reading Prisoners of Azkaban in line; what's a little terrorist accusation for a comics artist between paranoid, suspicious enemies?

Also, the category changes for the Marketplace are in! I'd list the changes, but there's a ton, so read through the wiki to better make sense of them all.

Also II, this is one of the stranger ads for noodle soup mix out there, but damn, it sold me, and I don't even live in Japan. I am honestly tempted to go to our local Asian market and hunt it down, so I'd say as ads go, that's a very successful one.

Also III, I'm amused by people calling their spokesperson the Asian Robert Downey Jr.

[And also IV: An anonymous friend told me I was wrong on the derivation of the noodle soup--it's Korean!]

This is a lovely thing, but I think it would be a collectible only--actually using it to hold beer would result in alcohol abuse, as it would pour through the rings.

While wandering around the grid tonight, I got a dropdown message I'd never seen before:

"We are sorry, Linden Lab has discovered degraded performance on your connection to the sim you are on. You will need to restart Second Life and log into a new region for the next 30 minutes to an hour. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Really? I was able to port home, the message disappeared, then reappeared, so...I logged out. Strangest thing.

Finally, what do you get when you combine the Powerpuff Girls and Minecraft vidders? Well--at least if you're talking about the three Canadians in the bunch, VintageBeef, Etho and PauseUnpause--you get this. Which is disturbing enough in its own way.

Though I think VintageBeef really does rock that little blue dress.

I've got a heart on my right, one on my left, neither suits my needs

"You can wear it or use it as home decor." The hell you say. (Image NSFW. Text NSFW. Title likely NSFW. Will need to have Adult enabled on the Marketplace to see it anyway.)

Some time ago, I brought up Tony Harris, who aimed a rather high-powered weapon, all things considered, directly at his feet--and shot himself with great accuracy. I know it's been a while, but I felt this was important enough to revisit.

Now at this point, yes, one-third of the men involved in these various misogynistic controversies have apologized (and by that, I mean Dirk Manning, not Harris or Joe Peacock, who trotted out his girls-are-icky speech clear back in July). Which, considering the level of ire, is a good thing. (And that one man has done everything he could to distance himself from the inevitable, and, some would even say, wholly deserved, backlash.)

How'ver, that still leaves Harris, and Peacock, and that specific sector of the male geek population who believes these things are true just because.

First, let's explore some of the divisions. Let's play who's who as a touchstone for this round of dissection:

Which one's the cosplayer, and which one's the 'booth babe'? This one, or this one? The latter actually bills herself as a 'booth babe', but that's partially because she's a professional model for game companies, in addition to being a freelance fashion designer and artist. She also makes her own costumes, which most other models would disdain doing. Like this one, while we're on the topic--which she managed to bring in at under $200, exclusive of wig and sword.

And of course, they're both cosplaying Black Canary:

(from the dolly album, because this is actually the action figure version)

Since that's actually Black Canary's costume, including fishnets, where's the line between sexual titillation and costume accuracy, then?

Or what about this one, versus this? They're both portraying Ivy from Soul Caliber:

(from the dolly album, because Ivy's still pretty much an action figure)

Both Crystal and Belle Chere make their own costumes, too. In Crystal's case, not only did she tear apart and substantially recut the fabric from three separate dresses to make Ivy's lingerie-and-jacket-tails outfit, but she cast the pauldron and the sword. It's not Ivy's usual whipsword, but it was hand-cast by Crystal.

Meanwhile, not only does Belle Chere have one of the most drop-dead perfect Jessica Rabbits on the planet, but she manages to make the Marvel outfit I hate most look decent. And she also made everything you see in the Ivy cosplay, from pauldron to boots, whipsword to dying and cutting her hair.

So what's the dividing line between a "true" geek girl, and a "fake" geek girl, and why does anyone care? Which brings us back neatly to Tony Harris:

Heres the statement I wanna make, based on THE RULE: "Hey! Quasi-Pretty-NOT-Hot-Girl, you are more pathetic than the REAL Nerds, who YOU secretly think are REALLY PATHETIC. But we are onto you. Some of us are aware that you are ever so average on an everyday basis. But you have a couple of things going your way. You are willing to become almost completely Naked in public, and yer either skinny( Well, some or most of you, THINK you are ) or you have Big Boobies. Notice I didnt say GREAT Boobies? You are what I refer to as "CON-HOT". Well not by my estimation, but according to a LOT of average Comic Book Fans who either RARELY speak to, or NEVER speak to girls. Some Virgins, ALL unconfident when it comes to girls, and the ONE thing they all have in common? The are being preyed on by YOU.

That's a direct quote from Harris' Facebook rant which started the second round of misogyny off with a bang. I corrected nothing, and there's more of it, this is just what I thought of as the "best" extract.

Let's break it down.

1. You're not hot. Bitches.
2. You're more pathetic than real nerds...who are also pathetic.
3. We know you all hate us. Bitches.
4. You're not as smart as we are, either.
5. You're all sluts.
6. Did I mention you're not attractive? You're just thin and ugly, or fat with cleavage.
7. All you've got going for you is boobs.
8. "Con-hot" is an insult, by the way.
9. Almost all geeks are virgins, or severely socially malajusted, and they never speak to girls. Because you're all bitches.
10. Just go die somewhere out of view. You can't be trusted, so go away.

So, what does this tell us about Harris, other than he's a jerk? First, that his starting insult out of the bag for anything regarding the female gender is "you're not hot". So in his estimation, either women are trying to hard--and are damn unattractive doing it--or they're absurdly hot, and thus, not "real" geek girls. Where does this leave costumers who make their own costumes, based on characters they love? Bring up Paolo Horstmann, for instance, and we think he's an amazing guy celebrating the characters and design of a game he loves. We see him at conventions, or out shopping, and we think he does amazing stuph for his fandom. Why does this feeling change when gender does?

Let's bring up Yaya Han, and keep it in the game territory, because she's got a drop-dead stunning Lulu from Final Fantasy.

For those who don't know, this is Lulu, in the strappy "Black Mage" outfit she spends a large part of this particular game in:

(from the dolly album)

And this is Yaya Han's handmade cosplay variant:

(from the dolly album)

Were I Ms. Han, I might have tea-dyed the lace, over hand-painting it in pastels, and that belted skirt looks like it would be heavy as hell. Still, detail by detail, she's close to costume-accurate, and more to the point, she not only has fairly close facial features, but she has the curves of the game character, too.

But according to Mr. Harris, and tangentially, Mr. Peacock, they feel like seeing someone like Ms. Han--attractively garbed in a revealing costume, makeup artfully applied, breasts and legs partially hidden, but still exposed...somehow "cheapens" their enjoyment of conventions. This is the part I don't get. Pretty girls tattooed with NVidia product names in short, black satin slip dresses? Okay, they're obviously cheesecake hires. A job's a job, but they don't have any interest in being there, beyond smiling the appropriate amount of times and trying to interest customers in their client's merchandise. Personally, I find nothing inherently offensive in 'showroom models', so to speak. I know there are folks that do, but I think these hires are distinct and separate from the women that Harris and Peacock seem to be going after.

And that, for me, is the main point. This is also going to spin out into at least one more part.

turn out the light, and what are you left with?

I realize it's been some time since my last post to the blog. It's not looking sure that Disney's going to even bid on the City of Heroes software and code, and with them out of the picture, who's left? Of course, in a depressing bit of improper timing, the Titan Network's ongoing debates on Plan Z--the player-funded 'after project' of City of Heroes--have already hit a major snag, as one of their committee members went off and set up her own game site with no one from Titan the wiser. "Hurt feelings" over this duplicitous move is putting it mildly.

And NCSoft's already killed another game--and another game studio.

It seems to be what they do.

In the meantime, there's apparently been a rash of very coordinated thieves--or at least one coordinated thief with a lot of alts. My bet's on more than one, though, because of how frequently it seems to be happening. Flatterbots, panhandling bots, beggar-bots, call them what you will, but what they add up to is even more cynicism and lack of trust on the grid.

Moving to games, Quantic Dreams have put out a new "prototype" video called Kara, that they say isn't tied to any particular game at present. But, considering that Quantic's a game studio, and they have developed games in the past...actually, you know, I don't so much care if it's a game or a movie. I'll take either. It's that beautiful. (Note of warning: some [mild] robotic nudity, and some [again mild] adult concepts, but no bad language, no blood, no spinning weapons.)

Also, Ragnarok Online 2 may be getting a USA server soon. Beyond that, I don't know much, but it would be fun.

Meanwhile, Think Geek has invented...a...thing. It's tentacular, it moves, but it's not a memory stick, so...I'm afraid my mind is contemplating more adult uses for the...err...do they really call it the "Squirming Tentacle"? Really?

Cesar Kuriyama will be putting out his "One Second Everyday" app; it's been fully funded and has eighteen days to go. The "Dancing in Jaffa" documentary, about Pierre Dulane's journey to bring Jewish and Palestinian children together on a neutral dancefloor, will also be fully funded--three days ago, it was at $18,000 of its goal, but it's now well over the asking fund of $35,000. And the "Amazing Capes" Kickstarter is ridiculously well-funded, and will go into production within a couple weeks! Yay for innovation!

And the desire to be superheroes, apparently.

Maskull Lassere is a woodcarver, a sculptor, and a painter, but he's recently come to my attention on Tumblr of all places for the carved bone intersection work. You'll see what I mean when you look at that particular archive, but feel free to look at the rest of his work. If you like those in-between places between the inanimate and the organic, and ponder the potential inner structures of objects, you'll like Lassere's work.

Tardar Sauce, the internet phenomenon named "GrumpyCat" by the masses, has been given the Storyboard treatment. What's that, you ask? Storyboard is this odd, quirky video project where everyday objects--including pets--are overvoiced by small children. It's perplexing, occasionally baffling, and usually very fun.

Two French designers have decided to immortalize their love for retro geekery in the form of a table. A table designed to look like a floppy disc. It's definitely innovative, and witty design, and features a hide-the-whatever pocket in form of a shutter that actually slides, revealing a small space just large enough for most remotes. Perfect.

This may well be the most impressive Minecraft shot--using the default game textures, that is--that I've ever seen. Phenomenal...though I don't think there's enough torches...

And, um...apparently the Daleks are invading. And I do not understand Imgur. That is all.

a vine that can strangle life from a tree

I posted something really, really long yesterday; it's now two parts, the first and the second, for easier mental digestion. But, as this entire controversy dealt with two men, I really should mention him as well.

But first, more comments from the original article:

From "Anonymous" (really, at this point, who's surprised no one wants to tie their reputations to a fairly indefensible position?):

I don't believe that his word choice was meant to demean women, more it was chosen in a colloquial manner to express anger at a certain type of woman. By no means am I defending or condoning the choice, I am simply stating that it is like people choosing to use "faggot" or "retarded" as an insult. While it is wildly incorrect and insensitive, unfortunately, it is how the word has evolved in our society.

Yeah, so...about this.

To a certain extent he's right. Words evolve, meanings change. For example, if I refer to all this insanity as "hysteria", obviously I don't mean the term to refer specifically and solely to a woman so emotionally unbalanced that her desire for sex has taken over what small amount of brain-power she has. (Seriously, that's what it used to mean.)

How'ver, therein reveals the essential problem of oppressive language, doesn't it? If men call women "whore", it's obvious they don't mean she's literally selling herself; they just mean it as an insult, okay?

Which I suppose is fine on the face of it, until we give it any amount of consideration at all. Speaker A may not have meant to use "whore" as a pejorative to describe Speaker B; but its use as an insult means Speaker A means to insult Speaker B. By choosing that word over other words, that word must carry the meaning Speaker A means to convey.

It may not have been what he meant to say, but it's what he did say. Argument null due to logic loop.

(Just for reference, that tends to work the same way with other pejorative terms: "dude, that is so gay" or "stop being a fag"...seriously, most of the offhand insults in American society come down to two states: don't be gay followed by don't be female. In the hierarchy, it goes: straight men; gay men; straight women; lesbians. Because gay men are presumptively lower than straights; but still above straight women because they're still tacitly male.)

From that same poster:

I guess what I'm saying is that while crude and insensitive the meme is not addressing female nerds saying "get the hell out", but rather the imposters that use stereotypical props like black face to degrade us as a whole (once again, not condoning or defending, merely stating).

.....

I.....

What? No, seriously, what? Okay, so first, we're impostors if we're female, originally, but now, it's only those of us who use "stereotypical props" like...WHEN DID BLACKFACE BECOME A PROP?

Another "Anon" speaks up:

"Whore," for me, is anybody - male or female - who tries to portray themselves in some way to get attention. Beautiful, buff, geek-chic, ironic... whores, one and all.

It's good to know your definitions are so internally limiting...and nothing even close to what the word actually means.

But Manning isn't the only one catching heat for this. There's another fellow whose brain dropped out and bounced on the floor earlier. Again, it all started on Facebook. To wit:

"Hey! Quasi-Pretty-NOT-Hot-Girl, you are more pathetic than the REAL Nerds, who YOU secretly think are REALLY PATHETIC. But we are onto you. Some of us are aware that you are ever so average on a daily basis. But you have a couple things going your way. You are willing to become almost completely Naked in public, and yer either skinny( Well, some or most of you, THINK you are ) or you have Big Boobies. Notice I didnt say GREAT Boobies? You are what I refer to as 'CON-HOT'."

Okay, there's so much more to this incoherent rant, but I'm taking this small section for slight dissection.

What he actually means:

1. "You're not as hot as you think you are."
2. "Real nerds are pathetic."
3. "You think we're more pathetic than you are, but YOU'RE the pathetic one."
4. "When you're not in costume, you're barely attractive."
5. "You're a slut because you're wearing almost nothing in public."
6. "You're fat."
7. "You have really large boobs, but they're also not attractive."
8. "Really, you're only hot because you're trapped in a hotel with a bunch of socially awkward fanboys with access to alcohol."

When he woke up this morning, this is really the impression he wanted to leave people with? That anyone who's remotely attractive can't be a geek? That anyone with any shame wouldn't dress like female cosplayers do? That female cosplayers are ugly, and contemptuous of con attendees? Really?

Isn't this like poisoning the water you're planning to drink? Essentially, when Harris' total work output is designed to be read by comics fans, and not all comics fans are male...this could severely cut into his income.

Add to that the absolute gall of the man...Gods alone know which female actually extracted this nugget of hardened bile from him. But his first attack, out of the gate, is pretty much a reminder that (whoever she was), she's failed at the single most important task of all women, everywhere: that of being pretty and sexually available (without, you know, being a "slut") to any potentially interested male.

There's so much wrong in that kind of thinking, I can't even properly break it down without resorting to flailing.

There's a great little article I want to send folks to read, and mostly because the text, while good, is made more impressive by some perfectly targeted graphics. Go for the graphics, stay for the summation, is my opinion.

But just to run down some basic concepts here...would anyone call any of these cosplayers "fake nerds", or just posing for the attention they'll get? What about Miracole Burns? Granted, it takes a bit of panache to carry off costumes like Ms. Marvel's, that are heavy on leg exposure...but she does it. She's done it for a lot of different costume properties--in fact, she's a professional model and makeup artist. But as she herself would mention, she's also an "uber-nerd", so...where's the dividing line between genuine geek, female edition, and poser geek, model edition?

I had every intention of exploring this a bit in this entry, but you know what? I think that deserved an entirely separate entry on its own. So expect more of this ranting to come!

carrion, surrounding, picking on leaves (part II)

(Continued from part I earlier)

Picking up where we left off, a comment from yet another "Anonymous":

The meme states that if all you've done are X and Y, you are not Z. It doesn't say what the requirements for being Z are, because that's irrelevant. Someone who's ONLY done X and Y hasn't done/been anything else that would make them Z.

Huh. Well, going back to the original meme, then, we'd get this:

Dear girls...		So...yes. We are female. Okay. With you so far.
who take pictures in slutty clothing		Well, some of us do that too. Some of us are actually sluts. Also, there are male sluts as well as female sluts now, though I'm fairly sure you're speaking solely about the female ones. Who then take pictures. Of wearing the slutty clothing.
and glasses		Some of us wear glasses, yes. But again, this makes me think you're speaking about women who wear glasses in these photos with the slutty clothing who don't wear glasses normally. Which is weird to me--how do you tell someone doesn't normally wear glasses?
and label the caption "nerd LOL":		Okay. First real complaint. And this, I will say, is frequently my complaint on the blog about people (of either gender) on the internet in general. I call them "LOLpeople", which in its own way, is just as dismissive, but in my case, I'm not basing it on gender of person, or portrayal of social group, but intelligence. (As in, I think people who use phrases like that--"OMG he broke up with me lol"/"nerd LOL"/"ya you look great lol"--are, overall, just not that bright.)
you're not a nerd;		See, do you get to decide that? And even putting my prejudice aside, simply saying "I'm a nerd" automatically means you're not one? How does that work?
you're a whore		I know I'm being literal about this, but seriously, if the woman in question isn't actually exchanging sex for money, SHE'S NOT A WHORE.
who found glasses		I doubt there are any figures on how many whores wear glasses, versus not, and it's not like that was your point anyway. But based on this breakdown, your entire point seems to be partially "hot girls don't wear glasses" with a brief embellishment of "stop pretending you know me". And wau, does that come off as hostile on your part.

(I had to link that last one because her glasses actually SAID "Whore"; it was from Annie Galicia's blog on the Whore Couture Fair in SL.)

But does this really tell us anything we didn't know? It may not have been the intent of Manning to paint things this bleakly; in point of fact, he's done everything since this whole thing blew up to make the point that he doesn't believe the things that this one image portrays, and he's been daunted by the amount of press that's linking his name and misogyny.

Speaking of...here's "Anonymous" again:

Some of us just don't want the stream of abuse we get from some of the people on your side. Having a name/pseudonym on something doesn't change the content of that thing. Attack the stance, not the poster.

Now, in that point specifically--that of attacking the stance, not the poster, or put another way, revile the idea, not the idiot with the idea--I do tend to agree. We are creatures that label, and it's very, very easy for us to connect things in this way. We see John Doe saying something we don't believe in and make the immediate connection that John Doe is wrong wrong wrong and likely evil and might sleep with chickens and could look at internet porn involving squid and marmalade, and do our best to march in with this sense of offended scorn and lay waste to the man named John Doe, and not to what Doe actually put down in print.

But here's the problem inherent in that comment, too--while we want to keep our communications clear, at some point, if someone says something racist, something misogynistic (or misandric), something that, at the end of the day, is designed to incite or offend or ridicule or insult a particular person or group of persons...Well, yes, obviously what was actually said wasn't good, but at least a little ire should be pointed towards the person saying the thing.

To advocate anything less is to diminish our social responsibility in public spaces. And unfortunately, if you paste it on your Facebook wall? You're posting in a public space. There is zero expectation of privacy.

stay wilder than the wind

First up, an occasionally NSFW Tumblr paying tribute to a lot of really, really bad art called Boobs Don't Work That Way. Taken mostly from game and anime sources, it's a hysterical defense of anatomy and female attributes, and the artists who get both wrong. Well worth the occasional perusal, if not actually choosing to follow them.

Also, if you have a pool, and you like coffins (this seems a very niche market, but hey), these people make pool floats with you in mind. You're welcome.

I've never been drawn to the EVE Online experience; I know people that are, but seriously, if I'm going to spend a long time playing a game about cargo deliveries between worlds, I'll set up Starfarers of Catan. Still, that being said, they seem to have one of the best character creators currently available.

There's a bit of good and bad in the next two bits. First the bad: for whatever reasons occur to Hollywood producers, a remake of the Killer Shrews movie has been made. I'm deeply scared by this.

Thankfully, a friend of mine found the Quintek Group's homage to Star Trek for me. Part typography, part stylized alternate credits sequence, all fantastic to watch.

Also, have some carnivorous cakes. You're welcome.

There's a new JIRA on scripted object permissions that I, personally, think sets a bad precedent--namely, and at least in my opinion, the Lindens have gone overboard on what a good "caution" against giving objects account permissions should be:

The text reads:

"The object ****** wants total access to your Linden Dollars account. If you allow access, it can remove funds from your account at any time, or empty your account completely, on an ongoing basis with no additional warnings. It is rare that such a request is legitimate. Do not allow access if you do not fully understand why it wants access".

Users are being frightened by this new message, and many percieve it as a "different thing" to the regular debit permissions dialog.

In addition, the text "It is rare that such a request is legitimate" is completely inaccurate - it's not at all rare, many of us deal with many objects every day which require this permission.

I completely understand the need for transparency regarding debit permissions - it's a dangerous point of access for malicious scripts. However, the dialog should be reworded so it is informative and accurate, rather than trying to frighten users into paying attention.

Now, to me, that particular language is just designed to scare people and make them fearful of rezzing out any object that requires account permissions to use. How'ver, as a friend pointed out, it is extremely difficult in the new official viewer to revoke account permissions once given.

For me personally, that's a) yet another reason not to use the official viewer, and b) perhaps something that the Lindens should also look into--making account permissions easier to revoke.

Finally, Soul Caliber V has released a new DLC, and--it's wedding outfits. Wait, what? An arena fighting game with a higher-than-average percentage of male players of the game in the first place, can now have...wedding attire.

To fight in.

What?

I've found some better-quality pictures, and overwhelmingly I think it's a severely odd design choice for the game, but keep in mind, this is what some of the characters look like normally, so weirdly, the new DLC will give them more clothes to wear. I...guess that's a good thing?

blue ribbons in the apple sky

Interested in the state of the web (spring 2012 edition)? So was the Oatmeal! (He also has editions out for summer 2011 [now with downloadable Tumbeasts!] and winter 2010, if you want to check them out as well and bask in the occasionally fetid glow of net nostalgia.)

(from the Minecrafting album)

Meanwhile, back in Calecraft...

(from the Minecrafting album)

While finishing the final few blocks of the tunnel, and making sure everything worked, Des came up with a four-block variant of the Caledon flag. That's it you see above, by the little temp storage/forge/crafting table section Des had thrown up during building of the sheep pens. (You can also see the pens for lavender and pink sheep to the right of this picture.)

Not all the work, of course, but most of the work on the sheep pens, and the layout of the tree farms, was done by Des. We'd mentioned that sheep persisted in color once dyed, and--with the latest update, sheep could eat grass again--the wool would grow back. I saw a quirky little detail of animal husbandry; Des saw an opportunity for industrial textile production.
]

(from the Minecrafting album)

It's going pretty well, too. It's lit enough by torches that no aggressive mobs spawn near the animals, and things are running pretty well. Above you see the pens for the lavender sheep, and the blue ship. Past this are a selection of tones of green, then a pen that holds cows.

(from the Minecrafting album)

Of course, with any major project, there can be glitches; in the case of mass sheep farming, occasionally there are too many sheep in the pen and they pop up to walk unsteadily along the rail for a bit. Rarely this results in an escape, which is why on occasion you'll find blue, or red, or orange sheep wandering in the wilds.

To the right of this picture you'll see the barn Des built. There are no horses in Minecraft, so on occasion it holds cows, overflow sheep, or pigs, when it doesn't stand empty.

(from the Minecrafting album)

Another view of the barn structure, and--at this point--the new watchtower guarding over the western desert.

Wandering back to the village, we noticed new things had been added.

(from the Minecrafting album)

Like this. The sign says Town Pool! Jump in! And yes, it was raining the day we wandered back.

So I peered in, and found myself feeling in equal measure appalled, confused, and baffled beyond all reason.

(from the Minecrafting album)

This is the so-called "Town Pool".

(from the Minecrafting album)

Just look at all that broken water. What on earth happened? Did a creeper blow up this section, and someone decided to make the best of it? Did someone start to dig out a real pool and gave up? Or dug too far down? Was this the leftover remnant that someone decided to fill in?

How does anyone break water that badly?!?

(from the Minecrafting album)

The village entrance again, with newly positioned flagstones. Well, I say "stones", but they're actually wool blocks.

More later!

standing in line as we march to the drums of the east

"It's very important for bats to avoid dehydration. If you are a bat, and you're watching this video, please drink at least eight spoonfuls of water a day." Okay then.

Also, this time next year, television broadcasters and cable broadcasters will be operating under a new law which will enforce the same volume for commercials as for non-commercial programming. What bothers me is how long it took to get this passed. People have been screaming about the volume on commercials being higher than regular programming for decades, so what gives?

There's a 2011 countdown of films circling around the net; in total, in under six minutes, there are clips from two hundred and thirty films that were either made, produced, or released in 2011. Impressive, and awe-inspiring.

Santarchy! I love that that's now an "official" term for Santa mobs. In a similar vein, find out more about the sarcastic font movement. And maybe make it a Nyan Cat Christmas while you're at it.

An advertising agency in Mozambique figures it can dodge paying licensing fees by not showing the whole face of several comic superheroines, but beyond that, they've come up with an amazing campaign in support of self-checking for breast cancer. Will the dodge work? Will comic companies come down on them anyway? Do we, the viewing public, even care?

Status cats! Including pictorial tribute to the hypertext coffee pot control protocol. There's variations for everything, I suppose.

Could Netflix bring Firefly back from the dead? It wasn't a question I ever thought to ask, but Netflix is now (re) producing Arrested Development as an original show. So suddenly Firefly--and a lot of other shows who have fans, but have been long-cancelled--are starting to be reconsidered.

The Lindens--at least according to Daniel Voyager--has responded (directly on a JIRA! WOOHOO!) that they're both willing and able to evaluate the naming system again. Mr. Voyager thinks this might lead to restoration of the two-name system used in the past. I'm not so sure, but hey, everyone keep their fingers crossed.

In RL news, something being termed a witch's cottage has been discovered at a dig site in Lancashire. More news when they excavate and analyze more of the dig.

Finally, I bring you Nyan Cat eyes! (There's also a video tutorial link on that post at deviantArt.) Knock yourselves out. (She's also got other pretty eye-makeup tutorials. Hint, drop, thud, Mocksoup.)

take the bows from her hair, 'cos she's been waiting twenty years

Want to see the first Pixar film ever? There you go.

And while we're at it, how about one hundred years of East London fashions? Fascinating to watch.

And the first "sick bay" exists in the world--and where is it in the world? Leicester, England, amusingly enough.

Just across the channel, France is having a 'Post-It' war. Hey, it could be worse--this way, the casualties are pride and geek cred alone. (And if you want to find more pictures, searching 'postitwar' on Twitter reveals a ton.)

"IDW: As long as there's even the slightest interest, we'll publish it." Honestly, I don't understand why people are trashing Magic: the Gathering so much these days. I still have all my decks. Hells, in the back room we still have over 500 cards to swap out to make new decks!

Of course, we haven't played in two years...and we stopped buying cards four years ago...But still...

Yeah, okay, fine, it's got serious 'dead game' syndrome. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun while it was active, or that people aren't still playing it now. But the crushing tonnage of rules changes along the way, well, some of us fell to the wayside and found other games.

Like Munchkin. And Fluxx. And Lunch Money.

And Second Life. And Minecraft.

MOVING ON...Henri Beauchamp has repaired yesterday's terrifying glitch! Behold:

Cool VL Viewer v1.26.1.4 (experimental, MESH branch)

People having downloaded former v1.26.1.x versions should update to this new, bugfix release.

New in this release:

• Fixed the bug that prevented to edit sculpted prims in v1.26.1.2 and v1.26.1.3.
• Reimplemented the tree and grass prims selection outline code that had to be disabled in v1.26.1.0.
• Moved the Material combo from the Object tab to the Features tab in the Build floater, where it now belongs together with the physics parameters.
• Added the Link and Unlink buttons to the Build floater, and moved replaced "Use grid" check box in the build floater with a "Snap to grid" check box in the grid options floater.
• Added the "derender" feature (available in the pie menu for objects and avatars). See this thread for details.
• Added free video memory info to the "Show Render Info" display.
• A few fixes to the renderer, backported from LL's v3 viewer.

And thanks must go to Miss Samantha Poindexter, who pointed out the new release to me.

Interested in tattoos? Interested in science. Discover Magazine has something for that. Each picture leads to a larger picture and an explanation as to why that symbol was chosen. There's several pages, and several amazing tattoos.

Tanks disguised as cows? Apparently, it's the wave of the future. I can see both good and bad in this development, actually.

Lastly, I am still in dread of the Twisted Hunt. Not so much for the hunting, which any participant knows is going to be difficult and crazy-making, but because none of the people who do pictures for hunts have reported in. I don't know if they're all simultaneously sick or fed up or what, but with some of the merchants on the list, I want to see their prize before I just blithely pick it up. With over 72,000 inventory items, retrieving and unpacking 240-something cubes just seems hazardous to my SLife.

I'm not gaming for the Survivor tag, I'm not even in the Twisted hunt group. And, sight unseen, I know there are at least some merchants I'm willing to go and tear my hair out searching for their cubes:

0 & 1: DV8
2: Yellow Jester
3: A&M Animations
4: Blue Blood
5: Nightshade
7: Dare Designs
10: Roewenwood
11: Malfean Visions
13: SN@TCH
24: AAA Poses
34: Snow Bound
47: Treasured Cove Sculpts
52: FallnAngel Designs
53: Repulse
57: Stone Misery
63: A Netherworld
68: Favole
70: Rasetsukoku
72: DAARK Textures
74: Jabberwocky
78: Noctis
89: Incendia
90: Damned Good Design
94: Immateria
96: Heartsick
98: Likka House
104: Epic Toys
115: Painfully Divine
116: Girl Not Included
120: Rokumeikan
126: Cummere Mayo Creations
135: Urban Forge
146: The Doll Emporium
148: Montague Noire
170: Julia Collection
181: Zoe's Garden
197: X Factor
205: De Baza

Now, in each of these thirty-nine cases, either I'm in their group (in-world, or subscribe-o), or I've encountered them on hunts before, and like their work, or I know them personally, or they're favorite shops. In many cases, two or more of these categories apply.

I won't say I'm completely unwilling to try new things, though. While those thirty-nine listed above are my absolute limit I'm willing to try without finding pictures of the prizes somewhere, some of the other merchants intrigued me, as well. Those merchants are:

21. Vengeful Threads (I like the name)
23. Gypsy Wares (I want to know if they actually design things like vardos and/or Rom-inspired outfits)
28. The Fooding (The Fooding makes great stuph, and definitely some home-decor options, especially for Hallowe'en, that I want, but for the most part they drift under the radar because I think they're concentrated on food, not decorative pieces)
33. Goth1co (Goth1co's drifted off the radar the past couple of years, but I still have some EGL outfits of theirs in some folder or other)
36. Ezura (Ezura's odd; they're apparently the parent store of the Sugar Garden, whose group I'm in currently, but as far as I can recall, I've never been to Ezura, specifically)
37. United InshCon (I like their work, I have a lot of it as occasional trees/decorative details that show up in Solace Beach decoration; but the builder has a definite draw towards Pandora, and I really don't want to hunt out a cube that's filled with yet another Na'vi tree for the prize)
42. The Delectable Doll (Sherri Zeurra's store didn't make the first round of picks, not because she doesn't do good work, but because so very little of that work looks good on me. It looks great on other people, but most of my shapes just make her stuph look wonky, and I end up hunting it out, trying it on, appreciating the work that went into it...then sighing and throwing it out.)
43. MollyWorld Dwellings (MollyWorld's a heavy maybe because some of her stuph blows me away, and some of her stuph looks like a five-year-old made it, and I never know which it's going to be until I retrieve the hunt object. There's very little consistency to her work.)
66. The Secret Shelf (Secret Shelf is run by a very quirky woman with a superb sense of humor. Searching her place is fun, I nearly always find something to buy while I'm there, and at least once, I spent half an hour dancing on the roof so I could get a camping-only version of her scribe silks. How'ver, note that last word: she mostly makes silks, and I just don't wear silks that often these days.)
73. Trapt (Trapt makes the maybe list because I own some Trapt pieces--some skins, and one set of gloves, and a wonderful set of hakama pants--but I don't go out of my way to shop there. Still, they're a possible without a picture of their prize.)
97. PETRICHOR (It's one of my favorite scents, and one nearly impossible to reproduce in a lab; for the name alone, I'm willing to try them out)
110. Archaic by Grey Mars (The name sounds interesting)
121. Federschneider Millinery (They get points for being a millinery shop in SL)
141. Little Boy Blue (Don't misunderstand me, Tomoyuki Batra does insanely intricate, beautiful, and occasionally breathtaking jewelry work. I highly admire his pieces. How'ver, as with the intricate items built by Mr. Alastair Whybrow, beauty is not sufficient for me to discard the prim count. While I own jewelry pieces of Mr. Batra's, I rarely ever wear them. Porting around as often as I do, that many prims trapped in a neck adornment or a hair ornament would just kill me.)
145. BedlaM (Again, mainly for the name)
147. Leonine Fantasy Avatars & Accessories (The name intrigues me here, too)
151. TigerLily (There's a vague recollection that I got something from this store before)
154. Hysteria (Pretty much, she makes tattoos, and she's not that prolific, but what work she does is very well done)
161. Burren-Built Designs (If I'm remembering accurately, they do hobbit houses. I don't know why they're on the hunt list, but they do good work)

And that's another nineteen, to round out the original thirty-nine. So that makes fifty-eight stores of the 206 that are possible or definite stops. For some hunts, that's an entire hunt on its own!

But of course, what Twisted list would be complete if it didn't include places I would never, ever go to? Top of the list, of course:

6. Grumble (Because I'm still banned. 'Nuff said.)

Followed by:

54. Alexohol (Like Heartsick, Alexohol has a bad habit of hiding things inside other things, or underneath the floor, or pushed up so far into the ceiling the cube itself can't be seen, and who needs the stress? There's good design work that goes into it, and I own some Alexohol pieces, but unless they have a really good prize, they're off the list. Thankfully, Burning Chrome is not on this year's Twisted list, which is good because I'm still bitter about her hiding one year's cube inside a goddamn wall prim.)
56. Battle Angel. (Unfortunately, this late in the game, I just can't wear hair that alphas terribly. Battle Angel's hair is gorgeous, until I put it on, then it alphas terribly.)
58. Aster's Builts (A woman who can't correct the spelling on her own business name after four years is not a woman to be trusted. Plus, hello, she makes wedding flowers! Her shop is largely done in creams, whites, pinks and baby blues! WHY THE HELL is she in the Twisted hunt in the first place?!?)
107. Shitz N Giggles (I'm an admitted elitist, I don't like the name. SN@TCH only makes the cut because she makes clothes and stockings I love, but I still hate that name too.)
108. DRAGONZ CUSTOM CHOPPERZ (I don't own one single motorcycle in my admittedly vast inventory, and I'm not going to start now)
150. Wildz Creations & Pimp Daddy Trivia (This is another business that's been in the Twisted hunt before, and I have never understood why--they make pretty much mainstream wear, beachwear, holiday outfits, and nothing at all dark, gothic, twisted or even unusual)

So, yeah, that's the list so far, of the great, the good, the okay, and the not-a-chance-in-hells. All I know for sure is that, unless circumstances force my hand somehow (hard to imagine), I am not doing the hunt start to finish. In fact, with Grumble's inclusion, I can't. (Which is fine with me. Yeah, I do regret lumping most of her work in with hooker chic, but I don't regret saying she's a better designer than some of her work shows. Everyone has bad days, people. Deal with it.)

I used to have a home, now I don't even have a name

Marc Rossmiller invited you to join him on Google+

No. Die.

Moving on--how about an entire page of great fandom cakes? And man, some of these are amazing. Not a cake wreck in the batch.

More Hurricane Irene news: LordKat, an occasional correspondent through That Guy With the Glasses, lives in Staten Island. This is relevant because for the past couple of days, he pointed his webcam out onto his street. (And no, the film's not shown in reverse; the car near the beginning does back up and out of the street because it was blocked.) From a mild drizzle to Atlantis and rising damp in 48 hours. Impressive in a slightly unnerving way.

So yesterday, I mentioned the whole Alyssa Bereznak fiasco, and there's been a couple new points of interest pop up. First, Dork Tower actually put out a strip commemorating the whole controversy, and there was a link at the end to another article. That's where the real interest for me picks up.

See, apparently, Ms. Bereznak, forgetting she worked as a geek blogger, and that her little 'ew Magic he's so gross' post would turn into the shot heard 'round the geek world, changed her blog entry twice over the course of the next day, trying to make herself sound more like a victim, and Finkel more like a bad date that any thinking woman would have fled from. (Which doesn't really fly, either, because Australia's branch of Gizmodo preserved the entire thing so they could rant about her, too. But--interesting side note--even the Australian version of the article has now been edited to take out her copious links to Finkel's Wiki page, YouTube videos, and personal details she gave out that made him seem like the worst form of predatory stalker. Way to stay classy, Alyssa.)

But it gets better. Forbes Magazine thinks she made that post deliberately, just to get page views. There are now parodies. She's been made into both an online Magic: the Gathering card, and an online meme at once. Buzzfeed gathered up the ten best responses to the article and posted those. The Renaissance Dork got involved. Federico lo Giudice calls the whole thing a witchhunt. Dr. Nerdlove calls it a horror story. MovieBob jumped into the fray. The lady behind GeekGirlDiva included a ton of fun links at the bottom of her rant.

And ultimately--whether or not it was linked to this faux pas of epic proportions--Alyssa Bereznak was terminated from her position at Gizmodo.

I think for me, the story's pretty cut and dried: she's a shallow woman with all the depth of character of a lunch tray, and she went out on a date with someone who, to her, fit whatever criteria for "normal" she holds in her head. Who then revealed his geeky side, after, it must be remembered, she revealed that her brother is a gamer. Finkel's likely side of that conversation: "She has a brother who games. I have a gaming hobby. This could be a fun topic." Bereznak's side...is blurrier, because apparently--at least according to everything she's written--she was either deliberately angling to discover nerdy skeletons in his geek closet, or chose Finkel because she knew he was a gamer, and thought it would be a good article? Or maybe she was really that clueless and vapid.

Either way, as others have pointed out, this then shifts the blame to Gizmodo, for deciding to run with the article--because...again, because why? Why would they deliberately do anything that would tarnish further their reputation with their own readers?

Maybe they thought it would be funny, a bit of fluff to fill the day's quota, a light humor piece that their ardent readers would embrace, inhale, and subsequently discard. What they never sawn coming was the fact that most of the online world would rise up against Berezak, including women gamers (more on that in a bit).

In short, bad decision-making all around, but also, it's definite and final proof that no one is writing in a vacuum--if it's on the net, anyone can read it, react to it, and lay blame for it, pro or con. Me, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, overall. Stand behind what we say, say what we mean, then--"mean" or not--we're taking responsibility for ourselves. Which Ms. Bereznak clearly did not.

Now, getting back to Susan Arendt's apology to Finkel. It contained this line:

Except humiliating someone by name online to make yourself seem cool is disgusting, unfair, and mean.

Which did make me stop and think, involving the various 'name' fiascos that have hit this blog.

I know, 100% know, no doubt whatsoever, that anyone I have ever mentioned on this blog by name--be that "real" name, Second Life name, online handle, business, blog, whatever--I have done so with no intention of seeming "cool", or making myself seem superior, or even in the right, at all. Humiliation has never been my game, though I will freely accept, nay even embrace, the "mean" part of that statement. Put plainly, that's never been the point.

I have wider goals, sure, and some of them, to long-term readers of the Train Wreck, should be obvious by now. I also have more than my fair share of aggrieved pettiness, and that I'll own too. But I've never sought personal gain by mentioning anyone in an entry.

That having been said, especially after I spent four hours yesterday gutting out any mention of Miss Insect on this blog (by her request), I think it's time for an official change of policy.

Unless it is an estate owner (think people like Desmond Shang), a Linden (I refuse to anonymize Linden-made statements), or a maker of things I want people to be able to find (by mention of proper name, business, or blog), I'm going to do my level best to anonymize anyone I feel the need to directly mention. This may mean blurring of faces, changing of names, changing of locations, because frankly? My former insistence on the authenticity of names being important has dissolved completely. Facing the growing-endless hassle from people who've Googled themselves, and then freak out entirely that I actually (ohthehorror, you'veruinedme, I'mabrokenwoman, youFIEND) mention people on whatever entry it happens to be...yeah, I'm done with it.

[Expansion from the Editrix: I'm also not going to anonymize names and comments pulled from the JIRA, and from the forums. You're on your own lookout, there.]

Also, Mr. Dagger designed a new banner that I quite like, but I'm now pondering a change back to sepia tones for the blog. Why? Because it's a sepia banner. And while I could tint it, I like it the way it is.

But that means finding (or making) a new background, possibly altering the layout slightly, et cetera and so forth, and that will take a few days, depending on how busy I am. Still, expect a new look no more than two weeks away.

and how could you dare to become so close?

"Here was a guy who had dedicated a good chunk of his life to mastering Magic, on a date with a girl who can barely play Solitaire." Ah, see, that was your problem, Ms. Bereznak--you were on a date with someone who had life skills, as opposed to you. And possibly a working brain. I understand your distress.

The beauty of being the bigger person (in this case, that person being Jon Finkel) is that your date didn't feel compelled to blab about how horrible going out with someone who didn't even know how to play one card game (let alone several) was. See how that works?

The last line of the article is just as priceless: "Also, for all you world famous nerds out there: Don’t go after two Gawker Media employees and not expect to have a post written about you. We live for this kind of stuff." Yeah, because Gawker Media doesn't have enough bad strikes against it.

Not only that, but she's accusing him of this one geeky, nerdy behavior that she's trying to make sound shameful...on a website devoted to geek culture. Is she that colossally stupid? And apparently she seized on Magic: the Gathering as the symptom of all his ills, forgetting he also likes to converse on other topics, plays poker (he's won a hefty sum in poker matches, but I bet that doesn't impress her, either), and looks like this.

My gods, woman. Rein it in, you need to be kicked in the head. You have zero sympathy.

Finally, a fan page for the rest of us--entirely devoted to women in reasonable armor! Woo!

"neil and i are constantly trying to figure out what our marriage is. all we’ve figured out so far is that it is 100%, definitely, [absolutely] not fucking normal. that’s a nice start." (From Amanda Palmer's latest blog entry.)

Someone who doesn't want to be remembered commented recently:

Already that you have hidden my name is already a form of respect in my humble opinion.
My obsession is not as you think, but I took this as a "gibe" that's why I put myself on the defensive.
Now you can also delete these comments so that you complete my anonymity. Thank you for your understanding.

Yeah...So essentially, thanks for taking four entries out of my blog with your whining. But you're as off the radar as I can positively make you, and, because you seem to want nothing to do with any mention here, I'm doing my best to remove any and all references to you.

You're not welcome. Good gods, there's preserving anonymity, and then there's making utter hash out of any form of coherency...But hey, request was made, I follow request. There should be no further SL linkage of [nationality]'s named persons at this time.

In news from the real world, enjoy some window-dressing pics for Hurricane Irene preparations.

And in SL news, I'm really looking forward to finding these avatars on the Twisted Hunt. But don't mistake me: for the run of the Twisted Hunt, even for those of you whose groups I'm in or whose friends I am: you're all evil bastards and I loathe you all. Just so we're clear.

Just don't be dumb. Being dumb means I bitch to Vasha and Vasha shrugs and I build up more resentment and it's just unhealthy for me. Think of the children. Or something.

I got people underneath my bed

A first glimpse at First Ward, the new Praetorian zone for City of Heroes. It keeps looking impressive--dangerous, feral, destroyed, and intriguing.

(By the way, if you ever wanted to get into City of Heroes, now may be your time--for $1.99, or 1,49€, or £1.29, depending on local equivalents, you can buy in to City of Heroes and get a month of free game play. Keep in mind this offer is for new players, not returning ones; still, it's pretty stellar.)

In other news, Figumate's designer, Yoji Shinkawa, has designed a set of the most twee Metal Gear Solid figures ever made. But this is where the story gets odd--there's a group of cosplayers out there who wanted to make the "sweet" versions their reality. Life is strange; cosplay is stranger.

Meanwhile, back at the Escapist...

dday4you: stay awesome everyone :)


Um. Okay, thanks! Not really sure what that's in relation to, frankly...

Purple Moose: On the ethics of the situation, I am personally of the subjective opinion that the background to this whole Indie Game Fund thing is very shaky and we are a very long, long way from OK. I was extremely wary of this whole thing from the beginning, when the donation was first announced. It seemed to me that sticking a very personal, very heartfelt plea straight in front of a video made under a business contract (albeit one that wasn't being honoured at the time by one of the parties, but I didn't know that then) was muddling things up and bluring what should be very clear lines. I felt that this was a very grey area and could very easily lead to, well, clusterfuck situations like the one we now find ourselves in. It also seemed to me that James was well aware this was a grey area when he started his appeal with something along the lines of "normally I would never do this, but I really don't have anywhere else to turn." So I, personally, while wishing Alison all the best decided I wasn't comfortable donating myself and was going to steer well clear of the whole thing. Call me a heartless bastard if you like, I've been called worse, but that was how I saw things. This may be why the first I heard of this Indie Game Fund was when I came across the front page of this thread.

I also don't think that it's enough to say that 'The Fund is going to be a non-profit organisation, so that's OK.' There are a hell of a lot of questions still unanswered. Right, the Fund itself isn't going to be making any profit, but what about the Indie firms signing up to have their titles published using money from this fund? Are they required to turn over all the profits from this too? Seems a little unfair, after all their hard work and if they end up with a smash hit on their hands, they're not allowed to enjoy any profits from it. Isn't this restriction going to turn a lot of them away? And if they are allowed to keep the profits, well then James might not be making any money directly but I imagine he has a lot of friends in the indie community and does consulting work for a lot of them, and that's one HELL of a conflict of interest right there. Should James be banned from consulting from the firms getting funds from the Fund? Might that not also drive developers away who were looking to benefit from his expertise? Maybe he should consult for free, but then that's one hell on an unfair incentive to work with the fund, he'd have to offer his consulting services to everyone else for free as well, and seeing as he's stated he won't take any money from the fund himself then how would he make a living?

Kopikatsu: To all the people waiting for them to post a new episode on Youtube: They can't. The Escapist still owns the IP, so Extra Credits is dead in the water unless they can somehow get it back.

This was the response:

UnJammerSully: I have no idea why people keep saying that...

...along with embedding the latest episode of Extra Credits. While, yes, we appreciate the sarcasm involved, methinks the point of the previous comment may have been missed. That's okay, though, there's further commentary.

Kopikatsu: That just means Extra Credits is in deep legal shit.

The Escapist owning the IP means that they own Extra Credits. They own everything to do with it.

The fact that the EC crew has moved Extra Credits to Youtube despite The Escapist owning the IP means that they've opened themselves to a legal shitstorm. Basically, they'd better pray that Alex is merciful and doesn't call his lawyers.

Put bluntly.

Ghostkai: Patiently awaiting Mr. Crowshaw to ride in on a flaming tripple-cunted hooker with the lightning-shuriken gun of destiny and end this madness.

With Branston Pickle...

I would apologize, but that was so stunningly, impressively obscene it begged requoting. And thus.

But there was (at least) one comment remaining.

Kopikatsu: I honestly think that Yahtzee will remain aloof and only mention his feelings on the matter in passing after the situation is defused.

Unfortunately, I do too.

Glass Joe the Champ: I'm a bit confused. The videos here are still up, but the new episode on youtube is still called Extra Credits. Who has the right to the IP right now?

I think we're all there. Obviously Extra Credits think they own the IP. The Escapist previously indicated they retained rights to the IP. Simply making more shows using the same name is not an indication of IP ownership, just that they can (until legally ordered to cease) make more shows using the name--in the sense of actual speaking/programming, not legality.

But as of now--the 20th of August--we still don't know who owns IP, and I personally suspect neither does the Extra Credits team.

kyosai7: When you put a project up on Rockethub, you CAN'T put a cap on donations, and you CAN'T end it prematurely. You are REQUIRED to let the deadline come, and then do what you want with the money. EC Expected a good month to build up the funds to help with Allison's injury. They got all they needed and more in SIX HOURS. And the money KEPT COMING. Should they have shut the fund down? Probably, yeah. But they couldn't. Rockethub doesn't allow that. What do you do when you only needed so much, and people are giving you literally 10x the amount, and aren't stopping? That's when the Indie Fund came up, as, as I understand it, EC was just expecting to get their checks from Escapist later on.

It is an intriguing point. Once funded, the fund must entirely close before dispersal of funds raised? Or funds can be assumed to be there and drawn against? Which makes the Escapist's claim of the funds odd, to say the least.

Uszi then asked: Any word on when the emails are being published? Or is that still some unmentioned time in the future.

I want to know that, too. Because as of yesterday, the 19th, the email transcripts still weren't up.

Fiz_The_Toaster: Ok, so they didn't properly read their contract and they went to the internet to let everyone know what happened and what's going on?

Just...COME ON!!

Really? You honestly didn't want a dramatic circus but you guys talked about it on the INTERNET, what did you guys think was gonna happen? Massive amounts of rainbows, glitter, and unicorns of understanding and civility?

*coughs*

(from the media album)

Alas. We move on.

Skylants: When do we get to see those emails?

Still waiting. But in response to that...

TypeSD: When I can put them up.

Um. Still not up. This is bad. But there is another comment from him in response to a tipped word from Matt Wiggins of Loading Ready Run fame.

TypeSD: My take on it

They got a surplus

They proposed the indie game fund

Everyone went along with it. (Seriously, find me an opponent)

Themis Media heard about it

Escapist is struggling with cash.

Logical conclusion is the current storm.

Pretty much, that sums up my understanding of the situation, too, until (and unless) corrected by more meaningful explanations from either side.

Getting down to side points...namely, swag.

evilneko: Ahem. There was no payment for the shirts because the shirts did not cost Escapist a dime.

This is patently untrue. Posit: the Escapist donated prizes they had on hand, that were already in stock (putting aside the Publisher's Club memberships, which are entirely ethereal, hence, 'costing' nothing at the outset, but showing a defined cost after application of the club membership; we're just talking physical goods), thus, as most of us define such, they didn't cost anything additionally to provide.

But that doesn't mean they didn't cost anything. Shirts have to be printed, print houses have to be paid, designers had to design and receive renumeration for their work, and beyond all of that, the shirts had to be made in the first place for the Escapist to buy. None of it came free.

I think it's extraordinarily disingenuous to hold the line at "it cost them nothing". Because it cost them. (At this point, a ton of public opinion, club renewals, and legal fees, but let's set that aside, too.) Just dealing with the shirts, on their own, exclusive of other benefits: they had a cost, and the Escapist expected (not entirely without merit) to be repaid for what they cost.

Therumancer: As far as the latter point goes, I'd still like to hear what Allison has to say about this. James Vs. The Escapist is well and good, but she was still the "face" the money was collected for, even after the goal had been met. As far as I see things, it's her money, people were basically donating money for her medical treatment, and after meeting the goal that money presumably being intended to help her recovery and so on as no other purpose had been stated.

krellen: What if Allison opted to use the money to create a fund to sponsor independent game development?

Excellent point.

FalloutJack: And effectively, because the team discussed and went with the idea as a whole, she did just that.

Game and match.

And as much as I don't want to see a run on the funds...

krellen: If you don't like what Extra Credits is doing with your donation, contact them; Mr. Floyd is willing to get you your money back.

Which, genuine or not, kind of puts this whole thing to bed, dunnit? The fans helped him raise the funds; beyond the cost of Allison's surgery (which has already been done in anticipation of those funds being released), he's willing to give the money back.

This is not the bad guy.

Of course, there's always another side to this particular coin.

grimner: And according to RocketHub terms of service (http://www.rockethub.com/terms_of_use) there are no refunds as a rule:

"We will not reinstate any deducted RocketFuel except in limited circumstances at our sole and absolute discretion after investigation."

Which stands to say that people should be responsible of how and what they donate.

FalloutJack asked TypeSD to drag the mention above to the front of this elongated thread; TypeSD's response?

Buddy, I'm so far ahead of you it's like I've stuck you in a time-dilation field and buggered off through the Stargate.

Hee.

coolkirb tossed this in:


Hee pt. II.

And Sylocat had some pertinent advice for us all: Take a deep breath. Turn off your computer. Go outside. Get some sunshine and enjoy the fresh air (or hear the crickets chirp or whatever, depending on where you live and what time it is). Take a walk around the block or go to a park or something.

The internet will still be here when you get back.

It's so true.

*takes a deep breath and--* Ooh, wait, new info!

antman9000: i just checked the rockethub site, to see if the donations had gone down at all since yesterday, and it has in fact gone up $1,000.

That's...kind of staggering.

But in the background, attacks on Allison Theus had started. They culminated in this startling remark.

rhodo: She evidently wasn't so poor, since she -could- afford a computer, among other things?

I still see the whole thing as fishy. We're not talking a poor homeless individual. We're talking a normal person like me and you, who got the money only because 1) she has boobs; 2)she makes a webcomic.
When I think of all the other people who may REALLY desperately need money for a much worse surgery their whole life may depend upon.... and these people don't get money only because they aren't a female comic book author on the internet... well, I feel pissed.

TypeSD replied: I really don't think "because she's a woman" was in the minds of anyone when they donated. That's just insulting to Extra Credits, Allison herself as well as all the fans who donated.

Ammutseba replied: What kind of computer do you have that could possibly cost the same amount money as an arm surgery?

Carsus Tyrell replied: Cause computers are really expensive and surgery in the US is dirt cheap right? Oh wait...

So basically what you're saying is people in wealthy countries are exempt from help because they're not poor or unfortunate enough? I think I have to echo the sentiments of my fellow Escapist and say don't be a dick. I thought you were just being a bitter cynic with your first post, thank you for confirming it with your second. Also nice dose of misogyny there too, I bet you're a real charmer.

And Andy of Comix Inc replied: SHE WAS GOING TO LOSE HER ARM. When I give blood, is it all going to poor African children with AIDS? When I'm an organ donor, how much of that really goes to "the poor"? Just because it's a charity doesn't mean it can't go to "normal" people. And, keep in mind the current healthcare climate in the United States (i.e., abysmal). To say this was a con is senseless and degrading.

I really don't like you. I give to charities all the time - Child's Play, Red Cross, Beyond Blue, what have you. They help "normal" people who are underprivileged. I'd say saving a young artist's career is a pretty noble cause, with the overflowing money going to help people get into the punishingly cruel entertainment industry. It's not going to starving kids or homeless people, but neither are other charities equally concerning issues. It's like saying it's not worth treating depression because the people with that depression have a roof over their head and access to clean water and food. So? It's still a troubling issue worthy of human action.

LadyRhian replied: And to Rhodo, whence comes all this false concern for the poor over Allison Theus? It's not your decision where other people spend their money, anymore than it is their concern where you spend yours. If you feel that strongly about helping the poor and indigent, go and do it already- start a RocketHub project and solicit donations. Heck, sell your computer and use that money if you feel so strongly about it. But stop the concern-trolling. It's stupid and just makes you look like a jerk of the highest order.

And furthermore, the Rockethub donation fund is still up because they set it to run until 8/31. There *is* no way to close it down until the event has run its course, even if you reached or exceeded your goal for fundraising. It's still up and still open, and you can still make a donation until it ends on 8/31. Stop talking out of your nether regions.

mysecondlife: I find it funny how the rocket hub's money rose about $400 since I checked last night.

It's almost like people want to see the Indie Game Fund happen.

And now we are on the 12th, and we are also on page 83, and that is a good place to stop and go to bed!