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[Basic rules:]

The last contest really was a great topic, I was looking forward to more entries. 

This time 'round, I'll just steal Anym's rules listing:
Basic rules:

    * A theme for the competition will be given by the host (that would be me in this case)
    * Participants are required to create a comic (sequential art, i.e. at least two panels, otherwise it's a cartoon, not a comic) adhering to that theme
    * Participants are free to use any techinique for creating that comic
    * Each competition will last half a month
    * The host of each competition will decide on the winner who will also host the next competition
________________________________________

Noticing that the date is beginning to require quite a few 6's, I thought I'd pick a theme reflecting time in a sinister way.
 
The theme this time around is Diabolical Anachronisms:
Anachronism:  The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.

Feel free to interpret the diabolical aspect to imply whatever you like whether it be decidedly devilish or merely mischievous.

As the subject states, this one'll be going for around two weeks, ending at roughly midnight on Friday the 16th.

I haven't checked some of the more ridiculous flash animation websites in awhile.
On a whim, checked Weebl's stuff to find . . .
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.
Go love it! Now!

Arguments about religion and politics come up every once in awhile (if awhile = / < 1 day).  However, not too much on the genetic front.  Human cloning and manipulation seem to have many opponents, that of animals less so.  It seems to be for primarily religious reasons that people object (i.e. scientists "playing god"). 

Noted this article today:
Taiwanese Scientists Create Pigs that Glow in the Dark

First response? Honestly, "Awesome! Last year ended with a hypnotizing bank-robber, this year we've got glowing mutants!"  Thinking about it for a bit longer (attention span strained to 6 seconds), I became a little more cynical.  The article mentions practical usage, but exactly how useful is making an entire friggin' pig glow (other than night-light use, of course)? 

While I can see justification for this experiment (maybe), I'm extremely displeased with many of the just-for-kicks genetic manipulations I've read about in the past couple years: Turtles with long tails, mice with additional mouths, purple-haired dogs.  If we have some use in mind that's going to be practical for saving or extending human life, I'm all for it.  If we're producing nothing more than side-effects and subjecting creatures to experimentation for lab work's own sake, I begin to wonder why mankind considers itself a basically moral being. 

[Edit: Nevermind.  Glowing fuckin' Pigs! ]

Regardless of some of the quirks that came with the departure from glorious sprites and animation to the somewhat tepid 3D, the last Broken Sword game was a damned good game.  In particular, it filled the gap nicely after the lack of adventure games recently. 

THQ's announced Broken Sword: Angel of Death.  There's a small announcement at 1up.com with a link to the newly-started website with trailer (no gameplay revealed, sorry).  It looks to the be the last of the series, but I consider it substantially better news than having Sleeping Dragon be the last. 

The most exciting news I've heard in.. hours.  The world has a near supervillain.
Fear Hypno-Robber Link

I can't wait until vigilantes break out their garish outfits and bring great justice.

I've been trying to find a game for awhile, one that I used to own but got rid of after some frustration with beginning it.  It was based off the Alien(s) movies and was primarily an adventure game (I believe it had some action or strategy elements).  The company name is Cryo and I'm thinking it was released (or initiated by) Broderbund. 

I've finally managed to track down the name: Aliens: A comic book adventure.  I've yet to find it on any abandonware site or for sale anywhere.  In fact, any site claiming to have information about it or a review that I've come across has no info or is 404. 

What I'm wondering is whether anyone else has tried the game, particularly enough to endorse or mock it derisively.  I'd like to try and find it second-hand or something but want to know if it's worth playing or if my memory serves me and it actually does, in fact, suck.

A law was introduced some time ago in Greece banning electronic gambling machines.  Unfortunately, the lawmakers agreed that they were unable to differentiate absolutely between arcade coin-op machines and electronic gambling.  The law, unfortunately, was written so broadly that various fines have been charged to consumers using a variety of gaming equipment .  Public-access to games was discouraged as well.  This Article has some mention of the law, though in a hyper-reactive way.  The law itself wasn't intended to accomplish what the article purports but is broad enough to essentially place even PC games in private homes under suspicion, merely because of the technological ignorance of the legislators.   Thankfully, here it was ruled unconstitutional and there remains only to repeal the law or re-write and institute it in a more precise form.   These legislators were of approximately the same level of ignorance & supposition as the US's own beloved Senator O. Hatch.

[Edit:People should look at the dates on things before they start new threads..  damn. I'd like to play it off as bringing it back up for discussion, but I have to admit blatant oversight. ]

Sort of a cross between playing with dolls, stop-motion animation and choose-your own adventure.  There's a few things to try, some more.. umm..  special than others.  *shudder*

Perhaps inspired by Snake's soul-bearing thread, I decided to garner some input about something very much affecting my life at the moment.

For those who only read the first couple of sentences of a post; my sister's being abused by her husband.  The first phone call about it scared the hell out of me.  I was utterly sympathetic until she started muttering things that sounded like something from a crappy TV drama (Lifetime channel here, dunno about international equivalents).  She makes excuses for him, says she brings it upon herself, says she doesn't know how she can make it on her own, says she doesn't want anyone to physically do anything about it - that it's under control, but it keeps happening. 

I bluntly encouraged her to leave him (or technically, to kick him the f__k out and ship his ass back to Florida).  I offered her many alternatives as far as placed to go: There are organizations that can provide financial, legal, and boarding support.  I told her she could go back to my parents' place, stay with me, and I even have some friends offering the same (so that she'd be someplace untraceable by him, just in case she had something further to fear).

This issue was very personal since my ex-wife's first husband was a major (think sociopathic here) spouse-abuser.  She's still got wounds (physical and mental) that'll never heal. 

My instinct, my emotion tells me to beat the sh_t out of him until he's incapacitated.  However, I've never struck someone in anger in my life.  Physically and experience-wise, I wouldn't stand much of a chance.  Fortunately, the logical part of my mind informs me that even if I did succeed, I'd probably end up in prison - accomplishing nothing but a little vengeance (and a good heaping stockpile of irony to boot). 

I'm not sure how the law works in other countries, and some US states may differ but at least here, even if I called the police and she had a gaping head wound and bruises, they couldn't do anything unless she pressed charges - if they showed up at her place at all.  All that would accomplish would be to make the abuse potentially more life-threatening.  She doesn't seem to want advice or alternatives but nothing more than a sympathetic ear, but how long can you stay sympathetic to a person in quicksand who ignores the ropes you keep throwing them and continues bemoaning their fate?  I probably sound harsh but I'm immensely pissed off at him and very frustrated with her.

We're in the 2000's now.  Haven't we seen/heard enough educational programming, enough "serious issue episodes" of sit-coms, enough made-for-tv movies that everybody realizes they've got a choice? If nothing else, don't they realize they're mimicking the characters portrayed in situation after situation that they're eventually able to escape from?

If you've got any decent advice, unique insights, experiences, education about this issue from other places, or just want to join in shaking your head - please reply.  And I don't mean to say that only women are abused..  I'm well aware that kids of all ages and some men are abused (physically or mentally).  I've had close encounters with those sorts of things as well.   Currently, I'm just frustrated that a full-grown, intelligent, capable adult feels so helpless and doesn't/can't/won't do a damned thing about it.

[modified topic title so it wouldn't act as an inflamatory attention-getter as much]

Jeez, I'm normally the technical advisor at work and home so this just feels wrong.  However, since we've a number of audio gurus here and some knowledgeable about computer hardware, I thought I'd give 'er a go:

Within the past 48 hours, I've started receiving a noise over my headphones.  The noise repeats approximately every 10 seconds and comes in louder than all other audio.  Here are a few things I've done to try and resolve it:

- checked to see if it's white noise I didn't previously notice by lowering all volume controls.
- unplugged any unnecessary electronics in the area in case of interference.
- checked connections.  I've got an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and normally use the front panel with decent Sennheiser full-ear-enclosing headphones.  I tried the speaker out connections on the card as well. 
- switched headphones (tried 2 other sets, in fact), the noise is the same but less clear
- muted each channel (i.e. CD Audio, MIDI, Wave), it appears to be on the Wave channel.
- lowered sample conversion in WinXP's audio panel (unlikely to fix, but WTH at this point, right?)
- checked for any changes in electronics or their connections that might've happened within the last couple days, don't come up with anything.

So, anyone have any ideas? Sorry for the crap recording (above link) but trying to record audio off of speakers with a mic is difficult, particularly trying to avoid feedback. The sound's basically the same but with no white noise and slightly lower in pitch.  Next thing to try is onboard sound (which I disabled before clean install for the Audigy) and I'm dreading that - it's crap.

After that MS-Paint thread brought Paint.NET to my attention, I decided to give it a try.Ã,  I did find that it has a few things above MS-Paint but not enough to award a kick-ass designation.Ã,  MS-Paint actually does some things quite a bit better.Ã, 

Anyway, for a work-in-progress for work, I did a picture of one of the Lucasfilm security badges, trying for a 16 - 32 color type design.Ã,  The top made me miss Photoshop terribly and I (admittedly) got a little lazy on it. I had a bitch of a time trying to figure out what I wanted my palette to be and how to represent gold (I know I've done gold better at some point).


Ã,  General pointers and tips would be nice but in particular on how to make the gold more realistic and the whole thing a tad more metallic.

Well, knowing how often people 'round here jump at free stuff, I thought I'd mention (for those who haven't heard) that Anarchy Online is doing a play free promotion.  Specifically, the download of the full game and online play for the next year is free.  This doesn't include any of the add-ons but they're available for download and 7-day free trial.  I haven't played the game but have heard mostly good things about it.  I don't want to get in a habit of paying for online gaming but I think I'll check this one out. 

Anyone interested can surf to here.  Except for Boyd, he can go here.

I'd heard something like this before.. now updated a bit:

Here is a hypothetical situation that poses an important ethical test.
Please give the question serious thought before answering.

You are an AP photographer in Florida... in Miami, to be exact. You are
surrounded by complete chaos and huge masses of water, the result of a
Force 5 hurricane that has brought on severe floods. Though used to
witnessing disasters from your work, you are overwhelmed by one of the most hopeless situations you have ever seen: houses float by, bodies disappear under water and mud. Nature's awesome power has never seemed so destructive. Suddenly you see a man in the water, fighting for his life, trying not to be drowned by the masses of water and mud. As the torrent brings him ever nearer to you, you realize that the man looks familiar. Suddenly, just as the raging waters are about to sweep him right by you and take him away forever, you realize who it is: It's George W. Bush!

You have two options. You can save him. Or you can take the most
important photo of your life. You can save the life of the President of
the United States, or you can shoot a once-in-history photo capturing the death of one of the world's most powerful men. You can be invited to the Oval Office or win a Pulitzer Prize.

And here's the question (please give an honest answer):

Would you select color film, or go with the simplicity of classic black
and white?


[Credit where it's due, this was posted by John Shirley on his forums, credited to Jean Fong]

Well, this subject comes about shortly after I heard Incubus's new single, "Megalomaniac."  I checked out the video on-line and it occurs to me: How often do new songs or videos actually try to have some sort of meaning or make a statement (whether or not you agree with 'em)?  The song/video in this example are about as subtle as throwing spotted-owls in a woodchipper.

Anyway, after most of the asinine crap I've heard on the radio and recalling the last few videos I watched (I'm a tad out of touch, I last watched MTV when the Tool-Sober vid was new) I stopped expecting anything dramatic.  This video's style reminded me of some of Trap's more demented animutations, which explains why I'm posting this topic here.  

So, any thoughts? Seen/heard anything good recently? Anything controversial (goin' for a little less obvious than Manson here), anything that made you think?  Anything that pissed you off?  Bonus question: Non-US AGSers, what's the video/band-promotion scene like where you are?

[Resolution: 125x125 or smaller]

For some reason I got picked.  Unfortunately I am in a !#%@ mood and had a dozen @#%!# things go wrong today.  Too many @#$% @#%!'s have eaten away at my !@#$.  

So, your topic this time around is things that piss you the !#%!# off.  It can be pet-peeves, irritating things in general - anything from zombies gnawing on your nethers to sickeningly cute things like rabbits & kittens.  The easier it is to tell why it pisses you off, the better.  

Resolution: 125x125 or smaller
Colors: 16 or less (not counting transparency)

And no, not giving you 9 days like the generous Kaaz.  You get a standard week.  7 days (not counting today).  

Thank you for your support.

Edit: Let's keep it civil.  So, if you're going to portray something specific (A person, a country, an organization, etc.) try and make a pic of what they do or how they act that irritates you and let's leave out specific names.

Every once in a while you come across a newspaper or webpage that has headlines that seem to compliment each other a bit.  Here's one from today's MSN front page:

The following is an e-mail I received (my ex-in-law : was nice enough to chain-letter me with this).  I am not the author and it does not contain my opinion.
"DON'T BUY IT [referring to new US Postage Stamp]
Phil: How ironic is this??!!  They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?  

USPS New Stamp


This one is impossible to believe.  Scroll down for the text.
If there is only one thing you forward today.....let it be this!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm
Flight 103!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World
Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine
barracks in Lebanon!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American
Embassies in Africa!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were
lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the
EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class
holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp
when purchasing your stamps at the post office.    
To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know.  "  

Oh, yeah.  Crap like this makes me really proud to be American.  Thankfully, not all of the populous is this ignorant.  
The following points are me ranting about the stupidity of this mass e-mail:
1) Irony?  No, it's not, sorry.
2) Don't believe in Christ? Nope, wrong again.  Most muslim sects believe in Christ and many even believe he was a great prophet and the forerunner to Muhammad.  
3) Getting their own Christmas stamp? A) It's for the holiday "Eid" you bloody fool, not Christmas B) There have been Christmas stamps for decades, many of which actually have to do with the birth of Christ.  I have received countless letters that have Christian emblems, statements, etc. on them.  It's not like they're honoring a Muslim holiday and not yours.  Hell, there have been Chanukah stamps for some time.
4) Remember what now?  Damning all Muslims for things done by certain sects would be like damning all of Christianity for the Crusades, Witch-Hunts & Inquisition.   Let every person (or at least every group under the same paster/priest) be responsible for their own actions.

Sorry for the long post, just thought some of you might be interested.  For those who might misinterpret my words (usually by not reading the whole damned post) - I am not saying anything anti-Christian or Anti-semitic by the above.  What I am saying is that this person is giving a bad name to Muslims, Christians, Americans & Patriotic Americans and encouraging the spread of idiocy.  If I could trace the e-mail back (which I will try) and find the he lives in the area, I'm going to corner him and bitch at him a bit.  

I have three reasons for posting 1) to correct a bit of ignorance 2) to get your guys' take on this and 3) to see about feedback I can send back to the author.  

Later.. if the thread bores anyone, just let it sink into oblivion.

Link explains it all:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/11/26/master.term.reut/index.html

For those too lazy to click: Apparently someone saw some bit of hardware and griped about how discriminatory and racist the Master/Slave designation was.  So, LA county is strongly encouraging hardware manufacturers to change Master/Slave designations.  As to what they'll change it TO?  Your guess is as good as mine.  As someone else said, they could do Primary/Secondary but that would be offensive to school-age kids.    They could try Host and Parasite but we might offend leeches.  

So, it's official.  CA elected Arnold and now this issue.  It's time to get the hell outta here before the idiots completely take over - we already were above our moron-quota.  Something must've happened to tip the scales.

Argh.  For the 1 or 2 members of this forum that don't frequent the somethingawful site, I give a small bit of advice:

Please don't download Bryce and/or Poser, use the default settings and simply throw stuff around until it "looks cool."  If you must do this in order to learn the program, don't feel compelled to share.

Link posted on Somethingawful.com:
http://www.alrig.com/

It's a pet-peeve of mine when people don't have any sense of originality, no skill, no sense of composition and take the lazy way out by using programs like Bryce & Poser to compensate.  Yes, I know.  Bryce and Poser can be excellent tools in the right hands but there really ought to be an exam given before you can download them.  

Just wanted to blather about new employment.  I get to work for LucasDigital/Industrial Light & Magic.  Granted, it's only a security position but getting to work for one of my favorite companies is still wonderful.  The pay's nice too (An average of $16.30 / hour).   Of course, the hours suck..  suck pretty hard..  60 hours a week.