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I just whipped this up yesterday to try out my latest cakewalk.
Everything is done by me. Don't try to understand it.

http://esseb.com/andail/specimen.mp3

Please tell me what you think!

Been practising photoshop colouring on traditional sketches...I think the result is pretty pleasing, if I may say so myself


The sketch behind it:



the sketch to the man portrait:

This sketch isn't as thoroughly shaded, and as a result the coloured version is much rougher.
The second portrait certainly has more expression, although the first might look a bit more "professional".

Please give feedback!

https://www.project-entropia.com/about/Index.ajp

Has anybody tried this? The concept is pretty interesting, although I haven't had the time to check it out yet.

A quick intro: This is a free game; free software, free acount, however the money system in the game is based on real money. The game itself seems to be some sort of 3D roleplaying game with emphasis on social interaction, but also with fighting involved.

Since it's developed by a Swedish company (and played by an awful lot of people) I'm kind of curious.
They even showed it on the news here, so it's perfectly safe to play.

If anybody here has played it, please tell your opinion!

Hey!
I found an internet cafe here in the very holy city of Kajuraho. I've spent around half of my fairly short visit here in India, and I thought I could send you a few lines just so you know I'm still alive, in case any of you wondered where the hell I was and why I haven't taken care of things (like the pick of the month or the ergos or critics moderating or whatever irrelevant duties I might have taken on my shoulders lately).

I will return to this thread with funny pictures, fascinating anecdotes and other peices of edutainment when I come back. (The circumstances of the room I sit in now does not motivate any reduntant essaywriting.)
See you on thursday next week!
                      Your ags globetrotter, Andail

Does anybody know where I can come across some nice background music that has some sort of stoneage theme?
We're gonna do a lecture on heiroglyphs, petropglyphs, runes and similar, and need some ambient track in the background.
So if you have something please help me out.

It was long since I published anything here, but recently I started drawing a sci-fi comics, so I thought I could display the first two pages here.
The plot is already written, so I expect to keep a pretty good pace. So watch out for updates!

http://www.esseb.com/andail/alindrapng1.png
http://www.esseb.com/andail/alindra2.png

Added 5/1:
http://www.esseb.com/andail/alindra3.png

Please give feedback!

Time to write what's happened to me recently.
An endless period of recurrent illnesses, colds and other tiring affections has triggered some sort of skin disease; your humble narrator is now decorated with horrible eczematous rashes all over his once so smooth body.
This has been going on for around a month, resulting in a neverending itch, sleepless nights and minus five points in charisma.
You never think about how much you need sleep until you miss it. One night is okay, two can be endured, but after a while the constant lack of rest really gets to your nerves; not only do you get physically fatigued, but soon depression comes about. I have lost all motivation to do anything, my studies depend on my classmates' willingness to include my name in the group projects they do, and all sort of creative work has lost its meaning.

Last wednesday I had a date which I really couldn't afford to cancel, so already on Monday, I had to come up with a plan.
For three days, it is possible to raise so much willpower that the scratching can be at least minimized or restricted to other parts of the body than the face and the hands - the visible parts.
But it is during the sleep - be it not long periods - that most of the itching takes place. I can tell you, waking up by having scratched your eyelids - the most fragile piece of skin there is - feeling blood on your fingernails and a terrible burning sensation all over your face, that's one of the more anguished forms of awakening I know.

The only solution I could come up with was to tie my hands to the edges of my bed, just as they do with severly mentally ill patients, and probably also in certain sexual games of sadistic nature, and at least know that however good or bad I sleep, I won't be able to scratch.
During the first night I was completely sleepless. Being unable to adjust it, the pillow felt awfully flat, and additionally I could only lie on my back, despite being used to lie on one side, as most people under the age of 60 do.
I was like a zombie the following day in school.

The second night was slightly better, I slept in periods of two hours, waking up by my attempts to break free from the primitive loops that are really easy to escape from when awake, but pretty secure when you just pull and pull like an animal.

The third night was good, I slept the whole night and awoke thoroughly rested, my face more or less free from the rashes.  The date was succesful and I will see her again this week, if my condition is good.

At the moment, it's neither worse or better. I can't party, because the cigarette-smoke is a real killer to my skin. Even alcohol worsens my condition.

On top of it all, a certain foreign student called me today to tell me that she had found out she had scabies, and wanted to tell me that consequently, so could I have. Thank you very much. That would be the only thing I got from her that lasted.
I guess I have to see a doctor.
Life is miserable.

To be continued....

["The Ergo Review"]

I thought this year's Ergos should be held separetly from the Rogers, and before christmas instead of in January, as the Rogers are.
So I'm gonna set December 20:th as a preliminary date. There will be no live ceremony, but a nice webpage presenting the winners.

Along with this site, there will be "The Ergo Review" which will be a compilation of articles and other funny facts and figures, highlights and memorable stuff from the year 2003. Pretty much like big tv-channels have around new years eve or so, looking back at the past year.

If you want to contribute with articles, comics or other stuff, just let me know.
petterlj@yahoo.se

And now to The Ergos.
The Ergos is pretty much like the Rogers, but deal with alternatives awards, with emphasis on humour. There are seven categories, and five nominations will be elected for each category. The nominées will be presented after two weeks from now, and after that voting for one of these nominées will take place.

The categories are:

1. Best quote of the year
Search through some of the IRC-archives (could somebody post links for these?), or just browse the forums. Pick a nice one-liner (or possibly up to three sentences; short is the keyword).
Send in entire quote along with author.

2. Best contribution to a graphical competition/activity
Select your favourite entry to any of the threads in the activity/competition board. Perferably a humourous one.

3. Leetest post
Which post violated the highest amount of forum rules? Which post contained the most caps and exclamation marks? Where could we find most misspells?
Only genuine posts are allowed, not ironically intended.

4. Most annoying delay of a game release
Which postponement of a game release has caused you the most annoyance and anxiety?

5. Most persistant advertising of a game
Who's been the worst pimp? Who's been hyping their game in the most annoying manner?

6. Best Avatar
It's up to you to decide. Who has had the best avatar image over the last year?

7. Most missed member
Members sometimes leave without a trace. Who do you miss the most? The members must not necessarily have left within 2003; they could have vanished earlier but not been really missed until now.

PM your nominations to me before the end of November. Any amount of nominations per category is allowed. The five most popular choices will be published for the final round. If there are not five nominations with multiple votes, I will select which ones will proceed.

Contributions to the Ergo Review should be emailed to
petter@yahoo.se

Reply here if you have questions or suggestions.

[So, to conclude:]

The threads keep getting plentier, as well as shorter, here at the critics lounge (44 pages, compared to chit chat's 36).
Occasionally we have situations where the whole first page has threads replied on "today", which means a thread not answered to within 24 hours or more have been pushed into oblivion.
Many of these threads have less than 5 replies.

People obviously are more interested in publishing than commenting, and the average quality (sorry for being judgemental) of the creations is gradually decreasing.

So....
Publish things that you have put down a fair amount of time on. I'm not gonna say "no bad drawings here", so don't start whining already.
But if you're just about to learn how to draw, try to make at least a couple of attempts on your own before you rush to this forum and publish it.
Ýes, feedback is important, but demanding c&c on your very first mspaint stickman is just a sign of impatience, and a waste of time.
People are not inspired to provide feedback if you haven't put down a lot of efforts yourself.

You can learn just as much by commenting and discussing other people's art, and watch how their creations are improving, and asking how it was done.

So, to conclude:
1. Work just a tad more on your creations. Let them lie around for a while, get back to them and see if you can find ways to improve them yourself. As a thumbrule, wait at least a day before you publish your pictures.
2. Don't start new threads for each picture. If you're affraid to lose attention, you could just add "updated xx/xx" or something in the subject field.
3. Take part in the discussions of other people's art/music etc. Hopefully, it will inspire them to help you out in return.

Thank you

Bored and ill.
I can't keep track of all funny things I've missed out by being sick this whole damn week. Cold, flu, who knows. I sleep like 14 hours a day but wake up feeling just as bloody ill as always.

I sit and watch our national boxing idol, Paulo Roberto, who is going a match against some argentinian, the match is taking place on Å land (a small island-nation between Finland and Sweden) since professional boxing isn't allowed here.

The Swedish commentators are ecstatic as Paulo walks in the arena, the audience is shouting like mad, everything is so wonderfully patriotic and wild, "This is how it should be in Sweden" says one of the commentators with tears in his eyes.

I pour some whiskey in a little glass, to kill some bacteria in my throat. Don't get any ideas, I never drink alone except in rare occasions, that's a thumbrule that separates us party-drinkers from the alcoholists.

Things get funnier, I forget how bored I am. Not because of the whiskey, I only have a few centilitres. Because of everything
The boxing starts.
Maybe I should say that this Paulo has more attitude than you can shake a stick at. He's in TV here, making silly shows and people love him.
He walks into the ring looking like some movie-star, and in the other corner is this 23-years old argentian boy; I imagine he's a countryboy, never been outside Argentina.

The national hymns are being singed by contestors of the swedish edition of some reality-tv, pop-star or similar. Yeah.

I cheer in my loneliness, sipping some whiskey. Get him, mr Argentian, I shout. And he defenitely does.
Paulo is knocked completely unconcious just like 2 minutes into the game, after having recieved more punches than what an ordinary nintendo beat'em-up-game can offer in auto-fire mode.

I raise my glass to the poor but famous Swede.
Salut. loser!
The commentators are complaining on the judge about something, but I have stopped listening.
I put on "All of my love" by Led Zeppelin and cry a bit, like I always do while listening to that song.

I have the little glass of whiskey in my right hand and in my left, the phonenumber to a beautiful girl (whom I will probably never meet again, let alone kiss). These items are my friends tonight.  

There is a guitar solo in the background, accompanied by excited voices from the TV and when I look in that direction I see our Swedish champion being examined by doctors. He looks like shit.
Another glass for the wonderful world of professional boxing.

On Monday I'll go and see a doctor.
And maybe make a phone call.

Yours truly, Andail

[Rules]

Everything is allowed in this thread. If you want to avoid foul language and attacks on your person, look away.
Don't enter the war if you're sensitive about what other say about you.

The concept is simple; there will be an issue to argue about, and any amount of participators are allowed, on either of the sides. Whether you attack the arguments or the people arguing is up to you. Preferably some of both, at least in the beginning.

This thread will run for a week or so. Afterwards we vote who's the best flamer.

Rules
1. You must not let the frustration be expressed in other threads or boards than this.
2. Moderators of this board may participate, but may not use their moderating powers to manipulate or remove opponents' posts.
3. You must not double post. Flooding the thread is no way of winning.
4. Since we must be friends afterwards, don't be too darn personal.

The topic is: "Are there too many newbies on these boards?"

Get annoyed, get tasteless, get on with it!!!!11

Thought I should put up a thread for people to tell their opinion on the matter before starting it on the competitions forum....some people might think it's lame and bad for the community spirit....and yeah this has been proposed before, but what the heck...

Basically, flame wars is about mocking your opponent in a special thread, and when your round is over you shake hands and there are no hard feelings, cause all the frustration is let out under control circomstances.

To see what it could look like, visit:
http://www.i-mockery.net

only that place lacks imagination and wit, prolly because they've been doing it for like ages and nobody really cares anymore...
just don't post anything on their forums, we had a boring forum-war some year ago and it took months before they'd stop pestering our nice and well-mannered boards with their generic geek-insults.

Our competitions would be well organised and carefully supervised by moderators...and only last for some week or so...than we'd vote for the best mockers

any thoughts?

Dunno if this has circulated on the forums before...it's one of those phunny sites worth taking a look at and then hopefully forget

http://www.jedimaster.net

Be sure to watch the original movie before the clones

Life here is getting boring. My travelling nerv is tickeling me once again.

I know that some people from Mittens have invited me to stay some days in different countries, but I wanna go to USA. I might go there already this spring. If not, than plausibly next autumn.

Problem is, the trip alone is pretty expensive. I'll try to work once I get there, but if all fails, I'd need some place to stay, at least in the beginning.
So I thought I should gather possible quarters already. I'm a good guest, I'm easy to satisfy when it comes to accomodation, I don't snore and I can converse about anything.
If you wanna host ol' Andail, ags globetrotter, let me know!
Or if you have other suggestions...just write something

Sorry for flooding you with politics, but lots of things happen today. Moreover, there have been so many crap-threads here lately, so some thought-provoking stuff might just be in place.

Also, this is not an attempt to overshadow the american 9/11 anniversary...Dave started an excellent thread on the subject which I recommend all to read.

Anyway, thirty years ago, this day, chilean president Allende was killed in a military coup, and replaced by the dictator and tyrant Pinochet.

Read more here:
http://www.newsahead.com/NewWNF/ChileCoup.htm

This is the last picture of him alive, he was found dead shortly after.

(He's the little frightened guy to the left. The rest are body-guards. They didn't suffice)

We have lots of refugees here in Sweden from the era of Pinochet's dictatorship, so let's never forget what happened, even though it happened before we were born, and lots of new things have happened that we also need to care about.

This is fucking weird...some sicko stabbed her in her chest last night and this morning she died in hospital.
Anna Lindh was one of the most popular politicians in Sweden, and I personally liked her a lot. She was a national symbol of democracy.

In Sweden we have this really fierce debate going on about the european monitary union - which we will vote about on sunday - and if this is an act against her stance in this issue I really resent how seriously some people take it...
Christ, I hate this....she was really loveable and calm and reasonable...there were no reasons whatsoever  to hate her like that

Firstly, well, yeah, I'm back. This content of this thread has nothing to do with that.
Let's just say I found it pointless to avoid the forums completely. I will come back here more regularly, but certainly not more than a couple of times a week.

I wrote this today because I came to most of the conclusion today, and I wanted to write it down before I start forgetting things.
My message turned out awfully lengthy, so I uploaded it to a doc-file that you can read here:

http://www.esseb.com/andail/happiness.doc
Don't read it if you're in a hurry

I think it's material for a good discussion. It's also pretty private and quite emotional, so if you don't want to revel in my mental hard-core at this late hour, spare it for tomorrow or just write a "welcome back"  post.
Or make a joke about how short time I manage to stay away from the forums. I'll be the first to laugh

* Andail swallows his pride

Allright, I'd like to do my fair share to improve the situation for this forum, which I have loved and care for during the last couple of years.
I hope you can read all this post without drowning in the bitter-sweetness...

So, to start anew; sorry those I offended by my last rash act of wrath, it was unnecessary and didn't really accomplish anything. Singling out a person like that is awkward. I should have known better, being a teacher student and all.

Furthermore, I'll be giving this whole thing a long break; it's gone to my head, like a parent who's failed in raising his child or something.

While I'm away, I hope people will try to remember the good things I did  - alright, that sounded pretty pompous, but I mean it. I think I did some good things back in the days, and I rather have that written on my virtual tombstone than my recent period of angst.

To my friends, although many of my closest friends are taking breaks just like I'm about to do; I'll see you around. You're welcome to stay in my flat in Gbg anytime

PS:
I'm not doing a Y-EE! I will return in not so long time, and I will finish my game as well.
See you all.

There's now a decent list of people you've managed to annoy quite severly, many of which aren't known to be easily offended.

So, for the sake of the forums, I recommend that you change your attitude sligthly, or stop posting.

One thing you could start with is to listen to criticism aimed at you personally without just letting it wash over you as water, followed by some smiley and a "cheers".
You have literally stated that it is pointless to tell you off, because you simply won't change.

Well, I tell you now, change.

I just ordered my new computer.

I don't care much for details, but the general prestanda is

processor: 2 ghz
hard drive: 80gb
memory: 512 mb
graphic: Sparkle FX5200

and then miscellanous minor items

and a 17 inch Samtron monitor (flat)

Total: 9300 sek, which is around 1000 euros, of which the flat monitor makes a good portion, of course.
I think it's pretty cheap, after all.

Since you're all computer guys with great contacts, I suppose you'd concider this mediocre. But still, was it worth it?