Off Saving the virtual world...
Well, as you may or may not have noticed... I indirectly participated in the LJ Strike BOYCOTT, yesterday. In fact I didn't write anything except for a couple of comments here and there for almost 3 days.
Although I dislike what LJ did... I think a lot of people over-reacted a bit to it. I hate ads, and I think it sucks that they are forcing them on new users... but that is the nature of the internet, the nature of capitolism. The all-mighty ad dollar reigns supreme.
The removal (and I guess subsequent reincluding) of certain topic from the "most popular interests" page was kind of silly, but if you were really interested you could still search for those things. It's not like they were banned or anything. No matter who runs LJ, they will always be money hungry and that will never change. Moving to a different Journal site is not really a viable solution either because as soon as several thousand more people join, they will have to find some way to upgrade their servers in order to handle the increased volume and in order to do that they will have to find some way of PAYING for the upgrades, and that means ads for free accounts or making almost all features available to just paid accounts. Myspace, Insane Journal, and the now defunct Greatest Journal all had ads.
So although I rarely like or agree with the owners of this company, I stay because I have a long history here, and it has been better than the alternatives that I have tried.
So no, the reason I haven't posted in a couple of days is that I have been busy saving the virtual world. I got the game City of Heroes/City of Villains and have been pretty much addicted to it ever since.
I made one of my first Superheroes that I made for the DC tabletop roleplaying game many, many years ago. Of course I had to change his name slightly for the City of Heroes game since ALL the GOOD names for superheroes have already been taken, but the british twist I gave it works fairly well. His orginal name was The Hunter, a zoologist that while on a trip to South America discovered the discarded technology from the Predator in the first Predator movie and had an inventor/ex-military friend retro-design new gadgets from the shoulder cannon and mask that he discovered. The CoH superhero is called The Huntre and looks almost exactly as I drew him originally. He is now at level 7 and is beginning to kick some major ass. I also made one called the Rodshark, but I messed up making him (he was the first one I made), so I will probably delete him and remake him.
I haven't been able to make a supervillain that I really like. Video game versions of Richard from the Looking for Group webcomic, Dr. Clayton Forrester from MST3k, and Boba Fett rip-offs are all in the works, but the only one I have made so far is a huge hulking werewolf beast named Superbeast Grande', but he is only level 2 at the moment.
Other than that, not much happening. Had to work Thursday and Friday, but it wasn't too bad. Still need to get my taxes done, but will have to wait until Monday to do that. I was supposed to go to an Easter dinner tomorrow with my family, but that got cancelled due to my brothers having some minor problems that they had to deal with. I know it sounds kinda bad, but I am half relieved. Although I always love hanging out with my family and having a big dinner, never really been a big fan of Easter.
Now the original Pagan festival of rebirth and new life called Eoster, that I am a fan of. Too bad the christian church stole I mean "adopted" it to be the arbitrary holiday of Christ's resurrection. Ever wonder why there is an "Easter Bunny" and why the symbolism of the holiday includes colored eggs, baby animals, rabbits, and chicks... they were all traditional symbols of new life and part of the pagan festival.
Oh well, I am off to defeat some evil and stop the bad guys. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Eoster weekend.
(My icon just reminded me... I need to make a Darkclaw and maybe a He-man themed superheroes and a Genghis Khan and Hyena themed supervillains.)
Although I dislike what LJ did... I think a lot of people over-reacted a bit to it. I hate ads, and I think it sucks that they are forcing them on new users... but that is the nature of the internet, the nature of capitolism. The all-mighty ad dollar reigns supreme.
The removal (and I guess subsequent reincluding) of certain topic from the "most popular interests" page was kind of silly, but if you were really interested you could still search for those things. It's not like they were banned or anything. No matter who runs LJ, they will always be money hungry and that will never change. Moving to a different Journal site is not really a viable solution either because as soon as several thousand more people join, they will have to find some way to upgrade their servers in order to handle the increased volume and in order to do that they will have to find some way of PAYING for the upgrades, and that means ads for free accounts or making almost all features available to just paid accounts. Myspace, Insane Journal, and the now defunct Greatest Journal all had ads.
So although I rarely like or agree with the owners of this company, I stay because I have a long history here, and it has been better than the alternatives that I have tried.
So no, the reason I haven't posted in a couple of days is that I have been busy saving the virtual world. I got the game City of Heroes/City of Villains and have been pretty much addicted to it ever since.
I made one of my first Superheroes that I made for the DC tabletop roleplaying game many, many years ago. Of course I had to change his name slightly for the City of Heroes game since ALL the GOOD names for superheroes have already been taken, but the british twist I gave it works fairly well. His orginal name was The Hunter, a zoologist that while on a trip to South America discovered the discarded technology from the Predator in the first Predator movie and had an inventor/ex-military friend retro-design new gadgets from the shoulder cannon and mask that he discovered. The CoH superhero is called The Huntre and looks almost exactly as I drew him originally. He is now at level 7 and is beginning to kick some major ass. I also made one called the Rodshark, but I messed up making him (he was the first one I made), so I will probably delete him and remake him.
I haven't been able to make a supervillain that I really like. Video game versions of Richard from the Looking for Group webcomic, Dr. Clayton Forrester from MST3k, and Boba Fett rip-offs are all in the works, but the only one I have made so far is a huge hulking werewolf beast named Superbeast Grande', but he is only level 2 at the moment.
Other than that, not much happening. Had to work Thursday and Friday, but it wasn't too bad. Still need to get my taxes done, but will have to wait until Monday to do that. I was supposed to go to an Easter dinner tomorrow with my family, but that got cancelled due to my brothers having some minor problems that they had to deal with. I know it sounds kinda bad, but I am half relieved. Although I always love hanging out with my family and having a big dinner, never really been a big fan of Easter.
Now the original Pagan festival of rebirth and new life called Eoster, that I am a fan of. Too bad the christian church stole I mean "adopted" it to be the arbitrary holiday of Christ's resurrection. Ever wonder why there is an "Easter Bunny" and why the symbolism of the holiday includes colored eggs, baby animals, rabbits, and chicks... they were all traditional symbols of new life and part of the pagan festival.
Oh well, I am off to defeat some evil and stop the bad guys. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Eoster weekend.
(My icon just reminded me... I need to make a Darkclaw and maybe a He-man themed superheroes and a Genghis Khan and Hyena themed supervillains.)