3/25/2006
Hey, look at that, an update! Crazy! Betcha all thought I was dead, didn't you? Or something like that... Anyway, behold,
in all of it's glory, episode 18! For the time being the update schedule is gonna be a little off (as if you hadn't noticed)
owing to the change of apartment, the actual full time job, and such. Plus, I'm changing artists. This will (theoretically)
be the last comic by the old artist, and hopefully the new artist will be able to crank stuff out a bit faster. Asumming I
every actually get around to bugging her about it... but be that as it may, yeah, changes are afoot. 'Cause I stepped in some
radioactive waste and now my foot is mutating. Anyway, enjoy the new comic. Hopefully there will be more to come sooner
rather than later!
(isn't it cute how he writes like he's actually got a readership)
12/20/2005
It is now the 20th, and there is no new comic up. Boo me. I do apologize, but I highly doubt that there are enough people
out there that actually care enough for a big apologetic post. And even if there were, I still wouldn't do it. So *meh* :P
Hopefully there will be a comic up in the next couple of weeks. My artist is returning to Iowa, so that should make things go
a bit more smoothly. I don't think we managed to get one comic up when she was in Kansas. I should have just taken her advice
and used all the comics she had up as a buffer, instead of actually updating once a week (how dare I!) But, in the meantime, I
did manage to find those pictures from halloween. And here they are:
Here's one of me as The Tick in a trench coat. In the background, you can see B in his Ward Cleaver costume, which
some of you may remember from my post on Oct. 30
Here's a rather risque shot of me gettin' my eat on. I really didn't mean for the costume to be that revealing,
I swear! I even wore a cup!
12/16/2005
My computer is now officially rid of Microsoft in all it's forms! I'm currently running Debian Linux, which is quite
neat, but it can be a severe pain in the arse sometimes. Like, for example, when you want to edit your webpage. But
once I got this neat editor figured out, I discovered that it's much more awesome than anything I ever had for Windows.
And it's all free. Anyway, I apolozige for the lack of comic on the 20th last month, but I hope that the uncharacteristically
frequent updates made up for it. I hope to have on up on the 20th this month, but we'll see what happens. I also
keep forgetting to put a picture of my 'The Tick' costume on the web. I should do that. It was neat. Anyway, I think
I shall leave you all with a few haiku I just composed.
Purple canopies
Picketed pine cone droplings
These make smells for show
Battling hangnails
Prose under cover they weave
Screws through abstraction
Candied shingle want
Unbridled green amonia
What choice does erupt?
-10/30/2005
Aaaah Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I always go a little crazy on the costume front, because
I think it's so much fun. I actually usually have my costumes picked out about a year in advance. For example
next year I'm debating whether to be Swamp Thing,
Cthulhu, or the Joker (y'all can find a picture of
him your own damn selves.) This year, I was The Tick.
I will put pictures up as soon as I get them. My whole family gets into it, really. This year, for example, my
brother and his friends were the X-Men. He was Angel, and his friends were Cyclops and Jean Grey. They actually
went to a costume contest Friday night. See, there's this movie theatre in town that plays movies once they go
out of the regular theatre for less money (I'm sure many of you are familiar with the concept.) Every weekend,
they have a midnight showing of some random movie. This being Halloween weekend, the showed Shaun of the Dead.
They also had a costume contest before the movie, it being Halloween weekend, and all. But yeah, as the X-Men,
they collectively came in third place in the 'originality' category of the contest (this costume contest has three
categories: most original, most scary, and most slutty.) They probably could probably have done better, but my
brother didn't want to wear his wings (understandably), so he went as a very generic gambit. Last night (Saturday)
Em, B, Daniel and I went to this midnight showing dealy. I was The Tick, Em wore a black cloak and a gas mask,
B dressed as Ward Cleaver (the dad from leave it to beaver) and Daniel wore a black cloak and a nice scary mask.
I got a pretty good reaction from people going in to the theatre, so I was feeling pretty confident. So anyway,
they call up the people for the most original
costume first. I go up there, resplendent in blue spandex and awseome antennae, and take my place in line among the
other awesome costumes. To give you an idea, there was a couple who had driven in the hearse, there was a guy
in a Weyland-Yutani jumpsuit with a stuffed facehugger, there was a girl wearing old man hair with a bottle of
Viagra and a fake erection, and about a dozen other people. They went down the line, everybody saying what their
costume was and all - naturally pointing out the people who had come in the hearse, because that wasn't particularly
obvious as they were standing there. When they got to me, I told them who I was, and there was a cheer from the
crowd. I cupped my hands to my mouth, and yelled "SPOOON!!!" at the top of my voice. Further cheering. I got
a nine and three tens (I was gonna track down the girl who gave me a nine and give her a hard time about it, but
I couldn't find her after the movie.) Naturally, I got first place. The next category was the scariest costume.
Out of our group, Daniel went up for that one, with his nasty fangly mask and all. This category didn't have
nearly as much competition: hardly anyone getting above sixes and sevens from the judges. But Daniel had the neat
mask, and made a scary voice, and just generally freaked out the host of the evening (which wasn't hard to do, but
it sure was fun.) He also got a nine and three tens. And then it was time for the sluttiest costume competition.
Friday night, a friend of my brother had won first place in this competition by stripping down to his boxers,
stealing a pirate hat, and calling himself a muff diver. When I went, there were also quite a few slutty costumes.
Most of them painfully so. There were a couple scantily clad females (including a Magenta from Rocky Horror), and
more scantily clad males, including a couple of guys who had tied their shirts up to show their bellies (not always
the pretties of bellies, might I add), a gay cowboy (who called himself the midnight cowboy), and a guy dressed as
a french maid, to name a few. After some urging, we managed to get B to go up there as well (if you'll remember,
he's dressed as Ward Cleaver.) He
marched up to the front, pipe in hand, and when he got there, he turned around, gave a nice smile, and unbuckled
his belt. When it came time for him to tell everyone who he was, he took a puff of his pipe, put his hand around
the guy next to him (the one in the french maid outfit) and said "I'm Ward Cleaver, and I'm feeling frisky!" He
got perfect tens.
-10/28/2005
This month we're trying something a litte different. We're updating every week. I've already got the next
three comics (including the one for oct 28) uploaded, and there should be no trouble getting the next one
up after that. It'll be a little before the 20th in November, so there probably won't be a comic for the
day of the 20th, but there will (should) be one shortly before, so it'll all work out, and as far as I'm
concerned it'll technically be on schedule. And hopefully this will also mean that we'll be able to get
comics up more frequently, as we've both improved at getting them drawn and prettied up and put on the
web in a timely fashion. But we'll see what happens. Until then, enjoy the next few comics. The writing
really starts to pick up (in my opinion)
-9/16/2005
Today, on Legostar Galactica Dušan has
posted a guest strip from us here at Chaotic Neutral. This means that likely a few of the
hundreds of his daily visitors might well find there way over here. To those visitors: Welcome!
above, you'll see a nice fancy portrait of our character Duflan, based on Dušan: aforementioned
creator of Legostar Galactica. We do have the next comic finished (and uploaded, even) but this
nice little coincidence seemed too fitting, so the next comic will be up on Tuesday, to fit our
normal schedule of a new comic on the 20th of every month. The next few comics will be easier to
draw, so Sarah (the artist) should have an easier time getting a few pumped out. I'm hoping there
will be at least two before the comic for the 20th of November, if not more. And, just maybe,
we'll change our schedule to update even more frequently. So, anyway, welcome to the site, please
read our meagre archives. If you like what you see, drop us a line on the tagboard (over there
‹- ) maybe we can get Sarah motivated. Or I could just learn to draw for myself :P
-8/20/2005
We're trying things a little bit differently this month. Today's
comic, as you can see, is a bit smaller than our usual fare (much
to the relief of our dialup viewers, or viewer, as it were.)
Don't worry, though, we still have the same amout of content this
month, we're just spacing it throughout the week. After todays,
there will be a comic on Monday, a comic on Wednesday, and a comic
on Friday, with another coming (or so Sarah says) before the 20th
of next month (which I can only assume means that she will have
the next one ready for the 20th on time...) Anyway, enjoy the
end of this little battle sequence which has taken so long to
conclude. :)
On another note, I have found a very neat little... uh... dealy
online. It's a comic book character creator. You basically
get a template for what your character looks like. I did one
for Salsa, which I display to you here:
(the blue stuff will make sense wednesday)
You can find the webpage here
and see my attempts at the other characters in the comic
here (M),
here (1377) and
here (Duflan), and the
corresponding save files for each character (in case you want
to load them up and play with them)
here (Salsa),
here (M),
here (1377) and
here. Boy, that came out a little
bit dirtier than I meant it...
-7/16/2005
We have now begun production of comics in earnest. I have up through about episode 25 or so
scripted out, and Sarah is in the process of drawing up through episode 8. So, I have changed
the dates on all the comics to reflect their original release so you can all see how lazy we
were about getting comics up. This means that all four previous comics are now posted, and on monday
episode 5 (which is done) will be posted. Ideally, each proceeding comic will go up on the 20th of
each month, though if we start going faster with the comics, then we may update as much as bi-weekly,
or, if we really get going, (*gasp!*) weekly! But we shall see. Anyway, that's all the news
I have for now. Enjoy the comics, 'n stuff...
-5/20/2005
And the second comic is now up. Horray. Notice the difference in the artwork (i.e.
it doesn't suck anymore.) This would be because Sarah took over drawing the comic
at this point. We're both still working on pinning our styles down (her drawing, and
my fiddling with her drawing digitally) but hopefully, one we actually start working
on stuff again, it'll start looking pretty.
Speaking of not being able to work on stuff, though, here's the deal with that.
Sarah and I are trying to earn $5000 each before mid-September so that we can go
live and work in France for 7 months. Exciting, no? Well, it is for us anyway.
But in order to earn this money, Sarah and I are having to work ungodly hours at
factory jobs, so pretty much all of the projects I have on my docket must be put
on hold until September (and once we get to France, we'll only be working 12 hours
a week, so there should be plenty of time to do all kinds of fun things at that
point.) In case any of you are curious (which you're probably not) here is a list
of projects now on hold:
This webcomic (naturally)
The space battle game (was on my old website, I'll probably at least
move what I've already got over here so people can play what little
there is of it)
A networked Java version of Galactic Conquest (also known as Gnulactic
Konquest by Linux users)
Writing the storylines for a video game idea I had involving various hero
myths (and a nifty swordfighting engine)
Other than that, I'll try to work on this webpage some, or at least post the occasional
rant here over the summer, hopefully some interesting or amusing stuff (or at least
stuff worth reading, though I've not been great about that in the past :P) But yeah
that's it. Go home, quit botherin' me!
-4/23/2005
Well, as you can probably tell, I've officially switched over to keenspace. For
now I've got things set up to update on the 20th of each month, starting back
from the beginning. Hopefully as Sarah and I get better about pumping these things
out, we'll switch over to weekly. For the time being, though, we're using the
four we already have to give us a nice little buffer (which will last us until
july, assuming one update a month) in which to start making more comics. Do
check back more regularly than this, however, as these plans may change. Plus, I
might still have interesting or amusing things to rant about. Anyway, the site
is still kinda under construction, so if anybody has any ideas, lemme know on the
tagboard. Yay!
-4/15/2005
Soon I will be graduating. This means that Iowa State will no longer be able to host this glorious website.
*cough* Anyway... yeah, so I applied for an account on keenspace, and in about a week I should have it.
This means two things: firstly, a change of format for the website, putting the comic in more prominence, and
the rant in less. Secondly, it means that the two of you out there (you know who you are) who actually link
to me will have to get up off of your big fat lazy Mexican arse and update the link. (*note* in this case "big
fat mexican arse" is not a racist slur, but a factual description - with the possible exception of the fat
part - of an individual person's arse.) Oh, and it also means that we might have to actually get a new comic up
from time to time, for fear of losing hosting... or something. So, yeah, in a few weeks this site will
have moved to keenspace, and will then transform into some shameless advertisement of myself and my achievements
intended to impress prospective employers, or something.
-3/28/2005
Everybody needs to go check out the Space Battle game again! I got it working much better. You shouldn't
have any trouble running it unless you are not running Java 1.5 (and even then, it Might work.)
But yeah, yay! Everybody go look at it, and please let me know if you have any trouble running it.
-3/6/2005
Last night, well, early this morning (some time around 2:45ish) the phone rings. Sarah and I are both
wondering at this point as to who might be calling at that hour (we were up, but didn't expect many others
to be). Well, as it turns out, it was a friend of ours - for the sake of anonymity let's call him "B."
Now, apparently "B" had gone to a party, and was a little on the tipsy side, lost, and wanted a ride home. When
Sarah asked him were he was, so that we could pick him up, he told us "at a 4-way stop on a main road by
Freddy [Frederiksen Ct.]" Apparently he had tried to stumble home on his own, and got turned around
(very turned around, but we'll get to that later.) Luckily, Sarah had the presence of mind to ask
"B" to tell us the name of the street he was on. "Valley View Road" he said. Well, we look up Valley
View Road on mapquest, and find that it really isn't very close to Freddy at all. We leave to pick him up,
drive out to Valley View Road, and drive north on it for a while (probably a mile, mile and a half) before
we find him lying down beside the stop sign. The road that we had found him on was on the very northern
edge of a housing development (probably a mile and a half across, south-to-north) that was itself a mile
or two north of his starting point. Interesting side note: "B" lives in Friley, which is about a mile
south of Frederiksen Court, where the party was. When questioned as to how he wound up so far off
course, he told us something vague about walking in a ditch and falling down a lot. For those of you who
are familiar with the Ames area, "B" ended up farther north than Wal-Mart. Most impressive drunken stumbling.
We have yet to decide how best to publicly humiliate him for this, so any suggestions are welcome.
For those of you interested in more detail:
This is about where "B" should have gone
This is about where "B" did go (not including any winding, circling, or whatnot that probably
occured, as he was drunk and all)
*note: these are not exact, because mapquest kinda sucks.
-2/11/2005
Awwww, Caesar's sleeping.
That way, he can get up very early in the morning and pester me until I do the same (but without the
catnap.)
-2/8/2005
I have a new hat. (Hey, it beats doing homework...)
-2/7/2005
The telemarketer do not call list is an interesting thing. Now, most people are probably signed up, so
the bulk of the most annoying telemarketers can't call. Then there are the people who aren't signed up.
Sure, maybe a few actually like hearing about the latest long distance deal, or how they can
refinance their mortgage, or that they've been pre-approved. But then there's the rest of us - the only slightly
less freaky people. The people that like to mess with the telemarketers. Now, I would tentatively put
myself somewhere in between the 'likes to mess with telemarketers' group, and the 'more or less apathetic'
group. I like the idea of messing with telemarketers, but most of the time I'm uninspired, so I just garner
what little satisfaction I can from haning up on them (and before you accuse me of being a cruel cruel person
- though I don't know who of you out there would consider one who does such things to be cruel - bear in
mind that I was a telemarketer for a summer, so I have a bit of sympathy. That's why I either hang up
on them or make it interesting.) Lately I've been having fun just confusing them to the point where they
hang up of their own volition. This has been surprisingly easy. The other day, a telemarketer called at
9:00 on the dot (exactly at the same time my alarm went off, even - it was eerie). This was a person trying
to get me a credit card at 'unprecedented low rates' (unprecedented of course was pronounced abysmally).
I was a little annoyed, so I decided to lead her on a bit, see if I could have some fun with it. And lo
behold, when she had the taste of the sale in her mouth, and I could tell she was getting excited,
she had a slight lapse of reason. "Are you eighteen?" she said. Aha! My opportunity! "No" says I. "...Is
there anyone else in your house who is?" she asked, sounding a bit dejected. "Nope" I reply. "Oh. Well,
thanks anyway" she says, immediately followed by a click, before I have time to respond. That was fun.
Then, earlier today, I get a call from a representative of McLeod USA - a phone company. They seemed to know
a disturbing amount about my phone bill. Well, ok, they knew who my current provider is. But still, mildy
scary. Anyway, his first order of business is to establish the fact that McLeod's rates are lower than mine.
He guesses that mine are around 28-30$ a month. "Oh no," I say "mine are much lower!" "Oh" he says, with
that wonderful dejected tone in his voice. "Well, thanks" *click*. I then go to open my phone bill, which
had just arrived in the mail. It was $25.
-2/6/2005 (the wee hours)
Well, the non-network part of the Space Battle game (see above and previous rants) is now officially in
Beta. I would greatly appreciate anyone who wants to go bug hunting. And the more specifically you can
pin down the bug, the better. Namely, it doesn't help too much unless you can reliably recreate the bug.
Also, let me know if you want some more (simple, preferably) features included. I hope to hear some
feedback soon! Thanks all!
-2/5/2005 (somewhat later)
We got a cat today. His name is Caesar. Here is a picture:
-2/5/2005
The more astute of you may have already noticed that I have changed the 'Bounty Hunter' link at the top of
the site to say 'Space Battle.' This is to reflect the tentative name of the project I am currently working
on. At a later date, I'd like to make this project into the Bounty Hunter project idea I had, but it is much
more high level than Space Battle. Those of you who are still interested can find the (unchanged) Bounty
Hunter information here. But go check out Space Battle. It should be
very much cross platform, and it's really coming along quite nicely.
-2/2/2005
So, here is a link to what I have so far for the project I talked about
last friday. If any of you are particularly curious about what the state of things is, feel free to check it
out, but don't be surprised if nothing works for you ('cause it's probably not working for me either). But
mainly I just put it up for my own convinience. And stuff. Now if I could only get that stupid cube to
rotate on a different axis.....
-1/29/2005
Boy is it ever Friday...
I am currently taking a networking class. This means that I learn how to write network code. Yay! In this
class, there is a semester project. Which means by the end of the semester I will have something fun to put
on the website. Yay! Here's a quick breakdown of what my project will be (more or less). Muliplayer asteroids.
Well, ok, so there will be no asteroids involved, but you fly around in the little triangle ship like in
asteroids and blow the crap out of anybody else who's playing, all in the comfort of my website. Yay!
Theoretically, I'll be adding new features to it from time to time, but I guess first I should worry about
getting the initial project written. But yeah, this morning (being as it's still Friday and all) I went and
talked to my professor about it, and I can now officially say that I'll be doing this project. So, short of
me deciding I want to fail this class, this project will be up sometime in the May area of this year. Fun.
In other news, I'm making haggis. Seeing as tuesday was Rabbie Burns' birthday, and I'm not one to celebrate
on a tuesday, I will be making haggis today. It will be fun. And tasty. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that
out there. Later all!
-1/27/2005
Dusan has told me that he checks my site every day in hopes that I update. Well, perhaps hope is too strong
a word, I think 'routine' might be closer to the mark, as I think many of my loyal reader(s?) have given up
hoping that I might update regularly. Well, as I am now in the habbit of actually doing things (namely
homework), rather than just meaning to do them, I am going to set a new goal for myself: a new rant
at least once a week! No such gaurantees on the comic, though, as that requires mainly a time commitment from
Sarah, rather than myself. Anyway, the actual rant will be this friday, 'cause then I'll have something
to say.
-1/13/2005
I now have a webcam. I've been toying with putting a feed up trained on the ferrets, let me know what you
think of that. But regardless, I used it to take pictures of my ferrets, and now, for the first time ever,
pictures on my website! (well, ok, with the exception of the comic....)
Freya:
Beyla:
-11/15/2004
So, I was looking at the customer reviews of Return of The King extended edition on Amazon just a bit ago
(I've got a test tomorrow, so it seemed the best use of my time). I came upon a review that just spoke to
me. I thought I would share it with all of you. So here it is:
LORD OF THE RINGS IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE RETURN OF THE KING WAS THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
EVERYONE SHOULD OWN IT AND IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE LORD OF THE RINGS YOU BETTER START LIKING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE SEEN MOVIES SUCH AS VAN HELSING, HARRY POTTER, MONTY PYTHON (RUN AWAY!!!), SPIDERMAN, AND THE MUMMY
AND THE MUMMY RETURNS AND NONE OF THESE COULD EVER BEAT ANY OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIES. I OWN ALL THREE
OF THE DVDS, BOOKS, POSTERS, A BLANKET, SOUNDTRACKS FOR ALL THREE, BOOKMARKS, AND EVEN POSTAGE STAMPS. IN MY
OPINION, THE RETURN OF THE KING WAS THE BEST OUT OF THE THREE MOVIES AND THE BEST BOOK OUT OF THE THREE BOOKS.
J.R.R.TOLKIEN REALLY IS THE BEST AUTHOR AND PETER JACKSON IS REALLY THE BEST DIRECTOR!! THERE IS A GREAT
CAST IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIES.
BUY THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE RETURN OF THE KING EXTENDED VERSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My favorite part about this review is that it is completely deviod of spelling errors. I find the whole review
rather amazing. Naturally, the fact that the review is entirely comprised of capital letters - with ample
exclamation points - would tend to require a few misspellings, but there are none. With the exception of the
exclamation points, there is even correct punctuation. And then there's the logic behind it. The part that
amused me most was that the writer thought that telling everyone that (s)he sleeps with a lord of the rings
blanket is high praise. Comparing it to (presumably all of?) the other movies that the writer has seen
(especially ranking it more highly than the holy grail) was also an interesting choice. But anyway, I found this
highly amusing, and I hope that you all do as well.
-11/3/2004
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! It rather makes one's brain want to die...
-11/2/2004
Make sure you all go vote today. I, for one, don't particularly want four more years of a president who is
often mistaken for a chimpanzee. Not to mention all the stupid. Please, vote. Make the stupid stop!
-9/21/2004
So, my boss just made the best analogy ever. He likened some programming practice (I didn't really
hear what) to - get this - punching a police officer in the balls in hopes that they will spray you with
mace so you can collect it in a cup and have a cup of mace. Wow. I love my job...
-8/27/2004
Oy. So very much has happened in the past month. And so very little of it would actually be interesting
to those of you who read these rants. Where to even start... Well, I guess the first thing I could talk
about is Freya. I got a ferret!! Yaaay!! And her name is Freya (see Don, I gave my ferret a Norse name,
aren't you proud of me?). She had been left at the animal shelter after her previous owner had been evicted
from their appartment, and failed to pick her up. So we got her, and her (friggin' ginormous) cage for a
$20 adoption fee. Take that, Marshall Farms!! Her name had been Envoy previously (shudder), and her cage
had been lined with wood chippings (which are bad for Ferrets: they cause problems in their sensitive little
resperatory tracts), so Sarah and I ammended both of those misdeeds. She is the sweetest, most mellow ferret
I have ever met. And she's pretty friggin' hilarious to watch and play with. Well, anyway, classes started,
so now I have no free time, and don't get enough sleep, and have no money (my larger loan has yet to come in).
Heh, and then on Monday I get a letter in the mail from 'The Clerk of the District Court'. I had been summoned
to jury duty. In Cedar Rapids. Hah. So, they want me to drive two hours in a car that I don't have (oh,
yeah, my car finally decided to die on me), and miss a day of school and work so that I can get payed $10 (and
$0.29 a mile). I somehow doubt that's gonna happen. Well, anyway, I've updated my rant (take that,
Don), and I don't feel particularly funny or insightful at the moment, so I'ma go play some video games.
-7/27/2004
For today's rant, I'm going to delve deep into the archives of my past. It was two years ago, and I was
taking physics 222 here at ISU. For this class, we had bi-weekly papers we were supposed to write about
the current topic of the class. These papers were to be done in groups of two or three. The first of
these papers covered the topic of simle harmonic oscillation. We were supposed to write this paper to
explain the rules of said topic, and give an example. Well, Em and I decided that the example we should
use in this paper should be something interesting. We decided on Godzilla, 'cause it don't get much
more entertaining than that. Well, we write said paper, we write it very well. In fact, I have posted
this paper here so you can all marvel at its glory.
We both turn the paper in to our respective TA's, who are responsible for grading them. In the next
recitation, we get these papers back. Em recieved full marks on hers. I recieved less than half credit:
two out of five points. It's no fun having a TA with a stick up his arse. I wonder if that undergoes
simple harmonic oscillation...
-7/14/2004
In the vein of Don's latest posting
I have decided to write today's rant about a funny thing that happened to me today. I had just gotten
home, and as I was getting out of the car, I noticed three girls walking down the sidewalk in my general
direction. Now, as some of you may know, my hair is currently what has been described as 'violently
purple'. I'll post pictures when we finish the roll off. Anyway, as I exit the car and walk toward my
house, I notice that these girls are staring at me rather intently. Now, these girls weren't exactly
unattractive, and, although I am very much spoken for, I still enjoy that kind of attention. The last
girl in line even had her hair dyed some weird shade of reddish purple (which, in afterthough, must have
been an attempt at a natural color). Anyway, as these girls approach me, staring intently, the girl
at the front of their little line kind of steps toward me, leans a little bit forward (and at this point
I can see the pointedly vacant look commonly associated with bottle blondes, as she rather obviously was).
She leans forward and says "Your hair is purple!" I was so dumbfounded that all I could think of to
say was "Yes, yes it is." Alas, for my lack of spontaneous wit! I could have say something like
"Dear God! Purple, you say? How could this have happened!?" or "Don't be ridiculous! Nobody has purple
hair!" or "It is? Wow, that would have saved me some trouble at the doctor's. Why does nobody tell me
these things?!" or "Yeah, but you should see the other guy." or "I believe it prefers the term
'Martian-American'." or any number of other scathing retorts. But no, I simply agreed with her
dumbfoundingly mundane observation. Oy. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to do better next time.
-7/12/2004
I seem to have inadvertantly started another project. Some of you may know, I have been working on an
armor vest that I plan on making from a combination of chainmaille and leather scales. Well, I
recently finished the chainmaille part, and about a day later saw this giant bag of leather scraps
at hobby lobby for $6. Not one to pass up a deal like that, I bought it, and since then the majority
of my free time has been devoted to cutting out the scales and sewing them together. It's actually
coming along quite nicely, but it also kidna eats into my 'webcomic making time', especially since
Sarah has been engrossed in this project (by her own free will). And I must say, she's much better at
it than me. I spent a few days trying to come up with the right scale pattern and the right places
for the holes, and last night she sat down, and in half an hour had come up with a better design than
the one I had been working with. Not only was it more standardized and regular, but the scales
acutally cover the stitches on the other scales. I have been put to shame. But anyway, needless to
say, it might be a while before I get the next comic up. Don't like it? Well complain! It might
actually get me to work on it sooner.
-7/6/2004
So, yeah, having the comic up this week didn't work so well. I promise, I've got the next three
comics written, I just need to get Sarah to draw them. Which is difficult, because I think we left
the notebook containing the artwork in Omaha. So now we have to go buy another fancy (and pricey
:P) notebook, and start again from scratch. Evevtually we'll get this down to a science, though.
We'll turn this into a regularly updated comic yet! Probably...
-6/22/2004
Ok, so here's the deal: there won't be a comic up this week, but if all goes according to plan,
episode 3 should be up midway through next week. Sarah is visiting family in Kansas this week, and
so is unable to get the drawings to me, but hopefully she'll have a chance to finish them in Kansas,
and we can scan when we get back this weekend. I do have the next three comics written, and
hopefully we'll be able to get them up in a more regular fashion, but we'll see what happens.
Summer classes suck. I've also been intending to make my website a bit more user friendly, so you
can all look forward to some much needed format changes in the near future.
-6/14/2004
Belive it or not, I've got Episode 2 of Chaotic Neutral posted! Yaay! And I also am pleased to
announce that I have a new artist as well, the lovely and talented Sarah Chapman, who some of you
may know as my girlfriend. But this is a happy little alliance, and, as you can all see, it greatly
improves the quality of the comic. It will also hopefully improve the regularity of the comic. We
would like to make this a weekly event, even, as soon as we get our system down, but this comic took
for friggin' ever to make. But anyway, enough babbling from me, go read the comic!
-6/10/2004
I've made a few little updates in the character bios for Chaotic Neutral. Check them out, tell me
what you think.
-5/2/2004
So, supposedly breeding snakes isn't difficult. You just put the female in the male's cage shortly
after he sheds in the appropriate season (i.e. spring or summer). Well, unfortunately it's not that
easy. See, snakes don't like to eat when they're about to shed, it turns out, so you have to wait
until after they shed to feed them. This is not something Sarah and I took into consideration when
attempting to breed our great plains rat snakes. See, Skippy shed. Naturally, it seemed like the
ideal time to breed them, so we asked our friend Kira (who is keeping both snakes until we get pet
friendly housing) to put the snakes together. We neglected to tell her to seperate them before
Skippy got hungry. The next day, there was only one snake in the cage. One snake that hadn't been
fed in months and just shed. One snake who is very likely no longer hungry. They say that rat
snakes don't tend to do the whole 'cannibalism' thing so much. Well, I guess if you put a rather
malnourished snake in the same cage as another snake about half his size, then that would be one of
those times where they make an exception. Go figure. So we lost our albino rat snake. It was sad.
And expensive. She cost us $300 and a year of careful raising, not to mention any emotional
attatchment that we may have made with the poor animal. We had such big plans about breeding these
snakes together. Rat snakes have not been bred very much because they are very similar to corn
snakes, which already have dozens of beautiful color phases that you can buy (go visit
cornsnake.net to take a look at some of these snakes.
Anyway, back to rat snakes. There are currently only 3 color phases of great plains rat snake (not
counting mixes with corn snakes), the regular ones (like Skippy), the albinos (like Baby), which
usually go for about $300 as babies (and probably would go for more full grown), and the chocholates,
which tend to go for around $500. Interesting phases of rat snakes are also very hard to come by,
in fact, there are only two genetic lines of albino rat snake on the market right now (that means
that all the albino rat snakes that you could buy are decended from one of two wild caught animals).
After Baby was eaten, Sarah looked into calling Dan Soderberg, who is (or was) the owner of one of
the two albino rat snake lines (we got Baby from him) in hopes of getting another albino, hopefully
one of breeding age this time so that we could still have baby snakes this summer. It turns out
that he recently sold all his great plains rat snakes to someone else. Sarah tracked him down, and
told him our sad story, and he offered us a really good deal on a female old enough to breed, and
even offered to throw in a baby chocholate (albiet one born without a tail, but still) for free.
and he offered to sell us a male albino for just $100. It's always nice to find that there
are still good people out there. So, after that slightly traumatic ordeal, it turns out that we
will still have snake babies this summer (though somewhat later than we had hoped, but we're still
happy about it), and we might just have some chocolate albinos in the future, as well. Yaay!
-4/1/2004
School is hard. Sorry I haven't updated my comic in such a friggin' long time, but I promise that
episode 2 is in the works. Unfortunately the shit is beginning to hit the fan as far as this whole
school thing goes. Perhaps the week after next I'll have a little more time for art. But it's
more likely that a new episode won't actually get up until this whole school thing is over and done
with for another year. Bah. I also might be doing these comics in flash starting with episode 3
or so. Horrah! But until then, I'm just gonna work on passing all my classes and stuff and getting
episode 2 done. But, speaking of classes, it seems entirely possible that my sword fighting
simulation project for CS 309 might actually be starting to come together at some point soon here.
It's currently Titled Einvigi, which is Old Norse for duel, or the Norse approximation thereof. But
anyway, yeah, hopefully some time soon I'll actually be able to put something resembling the basis
of a nifty video game up here. Hopefully... But anyway, I've now updated the rant again, which I
haven't done in quite a long time, so yay for me. Perhaps some time soon I might actually even put
up a rant that's even entertaining...
-2/26/2004
Well, I just got my score for my last test in cs 311. Allow me to share some of the statistics for
the class. The test was out of 100 points. The highest score was 71. The lowest was 20.5. The
average score on the test was 39 points, with a standard deviation of about 10.5 points. Now for
the class in general: highest overall grade: 75%, lowest overall grade: 6.6%, average overall grade:
47%. This summer, the course will be taught by a teacher that I have had before and who I know is a
good teacher. I'll just leave it at that.
Sometimes I really wish I were an anthropology major...
-2/20/2004
Sorry guys, but there shan't be a new comic this weekend. I was trying for one, but a combination
of writers' block and other stuff to do kinda slowed me down. But I'll have plenty of empty time in
a car this weekend, driving to and from chicago (mainly as a passenger), so mayhaps I'll get
something done then, and there'll be a comic up next weekend. We'll see what happens. But you can
probably expect these to become more regular as I get the process down, and get better at the art.
Speaking of which, I'm always open to suggestions as to how to improve my art, 'cause there's really
no where to go but up from here. :) Anyway, I hope I get the second episode up soon, and I hope
you all enjoy it.
-2/16/2004
Whew, getting that one episode up was a hell of a lot of work... And now I get to start thinking
about episode 2. At this point, with school going full tilt and all, I'll probably get one comic up
every month or so, perhaps faster when I get this whole 'drawing' thing ironed out a little better.
But each comic will be at least as long as todays, if not longer. Eventually, I do want to do them
in flash, but as I don't yet have flash, I'll just keep doing it the old fashioned way. Oh, and
note to Don: I know we've all been making fun of you a lot, but this first comic is really more
making fun of myself than you, and I can't really see doing anything directed at you at all in there
except the running from booty gag. And you know that's going in there :) But nothing else.
Anyway, back to homework for me, I promise I'll try to make the next comic look prettier.
-2/15/2004
And we have liftoff!!
Yaaay, I finally got the first episode of Chaotic Neutral online!! Horrah! You'll all have to
forgive the art, this is my first time drawing anything that anyone else has to look at, so expect
the art to improve in the future, but I do hope you all enjoy my comedic genius *insert smug,
self-important emoticon here*. Well, there it is, let me know if I messed anything up. Peace out.
-2/12/2004
So, I discovered something mildly disturbing just now. The built-in dictionary in Microsoft Word
doesn't recognize the word 'classism'. It recognizes racism just fine, but even as I type this now
in MSWord to avoid stupid typos, the word classism gets that funny little red underline meaning it
's not in the Microsoft Dictionary. I find that just a tad bit ironic, that Microsoft doesn't
recognize that classism exists... Though perhaps at a somewhat more profound (and paranoid) level,
it's just a bit disturbing. I mean, how difficult is it to make a dictionary with the word
classism in it? As far as I know, it's a perfectly standard word, appearing in pretty much any
other dictionary. Merriam-Webster.com describes it as prejudice or discrimination based on class.
That seems to be a pretty basic word, and if Microsoft really wanted to be all comprehensive and
stuff it would be in there. But then, Microsoft is a terribly large corporation in America, a
country rampant with classism. Just look at Bush's tax cuts, 90% of which go to the top 10% of
the wealth brackets. Haven't we already proven that trickle-down economics don't work? The rich
keep getting fatter and richer, and none of this money that is supposed to trickle down to the
poor people ever actually does. Microsoft is as guilty of that as any other standard rich
American corporation, if not more so due to it's nice little monopoly on computer software that
the government doesn't seem to want to break up. Competition is a good thing! It results in
lower prices and better products! Haven't you people heard of John Keynes? And if Microsoft
really becomes the end all dictionary, and when people type the word 'classism' into MSWord and
it gets the little red underline, do they think that that means that classism isn't a word?
Could Microsoft really make people think that classism doesn't exist? Wouldn't that keep them,
and our current government in their happy Bacchus-like seats of power? But anyway, enough of my
paranoid ranting, I should get ready for class and such. Oh, quick update on my comic: the
first episode is written, drawn, and inked. I just need to scan it, colorize it, and put in the
words and word bubbles, and it will be ready to go online. Yaay!
-2/09/2004 (all of 2 seconds after last post)
Ok, that's odd. It seems that you have to manually hit refresh in each character page to see the
new ones, as well as new rants. If anybody manages to figure this out and actually be able to see
my rant, and also happen to know how to fix this, please let me know so I can do some thing about
it.
-2/09/2004
Ok, I don't have the first comic done quite yet, but I did put up the bios for all the characters.
Go, read, enjoy, critique.
-2/08/2004
So, I actually got around to doing something with this webcomic dealy. First, as you may have
noticed, I named it. I also wrote the dialogue for the first comic on Friday, and spent quite a few
good hours coming up with a rough draft for the art. Now all I have to do is find some nice
non-ruled paper and get another draft on there, scan it, and finish it in photoshop. I'm hoping to
have it up by next weekend at the latest, but we'll see how that goes, 'cause I've got a 5-7 page
paper due Thursday, which also happens to be my birthday, and that's on top of my usual grueling
routine, but I'm really excited about having something done for this, so I'm gonna try to put some
time aside each day for it. So yeah, as usual, use my tagboard for feedback, blah blah, let me know
what you think of the name for the comic, 'cause I'm not entirely sure whether I like it or not yet,
so, yeah, make opinions for me. Anyway, now time to get some of that nasty homework out of the way
so I can have time for the webcomic later. :)
Yaay!
-1/04/2004
OK, here's the deal: I have a new idea for a videogame. I know I've already got two ideas posted on
this website that I've done nothing with for a good long while, but those were both for the benefit
of the video game development class I took last semester. The Bounty Hunter idea was my idea that
I was trying to pitch to the group, but that didn't work so much, though I'm still rather attached
to it and would kinda like to see it be realized eventually, but I want to do my new idea first.
The fairy tale idea (which is now officially called Grimm, for anyone who's interested). That one
is what I ended up working on for this class. That project is currently in hands better equipped to
deal with it's particular difficulties than mine (not that it was ever actually in my hands, I just
kinda did some work on the story), but at any rate, even if I do go to work for that group some more,
there's no good reason for me to keep that section on my webpage, so at some point in the near
future (I hope) it shall be converted into a section on my new project, which I will also be doing
for a class (hopefully), so it will actually get some work done on it (again, hopefully). Now, to
tell all you good folks about my new intended project. I'm calling it Mythos. I rather like the
name, and I don't think that anyone has used it before (though please correct me if I'm wrong).
This project can be more or less split up into two distinct parts at the moment, as far as ideas
and work goes, though I'm sure before it's all brought together into one it'll be split up into many
many more. The first part, that is, the part that I came up with first, is a rough idea of where I
want the story to go. The second part is the fighting engine, which, seeing as I'm a computer
science major rather than an English major (though sometimes I wish I were both, and then some), I
shall be working on for my class this coming semester (again, hopefully). But I think I'll elaborate
on the story side of it first. Now, I don't really have any characters, or even a real plot hashed
out yet, I just know where I want to go with it. I want to explore cultures, but not just cultures,
religions, and not just as dead stories and belief systems, but as if they are real (and I don't
really like using the word if there, because I want this to be some kind of social commentary,
however masked or subtle it may become in the end). I want to deal mainly with little known (and,
in some cases, dead) religions and cultures. A few that I have been looking at are Gaelic, Haitian,
and Aboriginal, though I would like at least one from every continent, so I therefore know that I'm
going to want at least one North American Indian (Apache, Lakota, Navajo etc.), one South American
Indian (Inca, Maya, Aztec, etc.), one Asian, and one African, though I'll probably want more than
seven in the end. I love different cultures, specifically the language and 'mythology' (although I
don't like that word particularly, because it undermines those belief systems (how many devout
Christians do you think would be happy about someone calling The Bible a book of myths?) The
religions that I mentioned before have in common great battles in their past. Gaelic has the
primordial wars between the six races, Haitian is just full of fun stuff like that (Voodoo and
whatnot), and Aboriginal has the battling against the Yowie for Australia when they arrived.
I thought it would be interesting for a video game if all these old stories were coming back to life,
and in Ireland you had Fomorians coming back that had to be battled, and in Haiti (though that will
probably become Africa, as that set of beliefs is mainly derived from African roots) there could be
Zombies and the like, and the Yowie could start fighting to get Australia back, etc. This could
make a very interesting video game, with plenty of action, and none of it involving guns, 'cause
what would be the fun in that? So, to compliment this all, I want to make a kickass sword fighting
engine, which shall be my project next semester, if I can get a group together. I want to put in it
traditional weapons of all these cultures: claymores, the bow and arrow, kitanas, atlatls,
boomerangs, spears, all kinds of really cool stuff that could only come from real life. I'm thinking
of basing the damage system loosely off of the Dagorhir/Belegarth rules, though applied to a video
game world, rather than safety in fighting with foam weapons. Basically, one hit will take off a
limb, or do some fatal damage to your torso. Now I'll probably have to do some adjustments based
on the momentum behind the hit and stuff (I want to factor physics very prominently into it). But
a lot of those details are going to have to be ironed out during the actual coding, 'cause the
medium that will be used will have it's own strengths and weaknesses that will have to be exploited
appropriately. I love this idea for many many reasons that I won't bore you all with in this rant, but I beg
that any of you who have any feedback of any kind whatsoever please let me know. If you hate
something, you can say it anonymously on my tagboard, if you like something, tell me, if you have
an idea for a new culture to use, please tell me, if you have an idea for something that ties all
the cultures together in the plot (which is the number one thing I'm missing in the plot at the
moment) please tell me. If you have a suggestion for some way to do the swordfighting engine,
or even better, some way to work the sword fighting interface, or if you know of a game that has a
really good sword fighting engine or interface, please, tell me. I want your feedback
because I want to do something interesting with this game. Hopefully some time soon I'll have
an entire section on my webpage devoted to it, but until then I think we can make do with the
tagboard for this section of my site, or you could email me, or call me, or im me, or yell at me
from across the room, but please, I want feedback. Thanks, and I hope that I can actually put this
out there someday, and that people will enjoy it.
-11/16/2003
Today's rant was brought to you by Sarah Note from Chase: sorry I haven't ranted in a while, but Sarah sure has a nice long rant for you
guys today. I do actually have something I want to rant about that I'll post later this week. It's
gonna be an idea for a video game that I had today (rather than more complaining). When I put it up
I want feedback from each and every one of you faithfull viewers. But anyway, without further ado,
here's Sarah's rant:
Hello everyone,
Since Chasey dearest hasn't ranted in awhile and I've just finished my third weekend of hell in a row NATS, Ruddigore, and Ruddigore, I thought it might be a good time to update you all on why you should never be music or theater majors. For one thing, there's the incredible amount of effort that goes into getting ready for each show, and the relatively small payoff at the end. Here's my nightly schedule, arrive early find a space and stay there so I don't loose my chair and begin constructing the insane number of pin curls that I had to put into my hair so that I could wear a wig (I used an average of 50-60 bobby pins a night). That was followed by the waist area of a pair of pantyhose stretched over my head to keep the pin curls in place under the wig, and also to keep my hair from getting tangled in the wig. After that I started in on makeup. Now anyone who thinks they know how to put on stage makeup and gets up from the bench looking just a little more made-up than usual doesn't know what they're talking about. First, the make up we use is industrial-grade pancake stuff, second, if you look like anything but a freak after it's all on, noone will be able to see your facial expressions onstage. This means, one shade darker base coat than you would wear in public, eyeliner above and below your eyes, bright lipstick, tons and tons of rouge, drawn on eyebrows, and specifically placed light and dark spots around your eyes and nose. This process also takes quite awhile since the makeup doesn't stay in one place till it's powdered, and you use a brush and sponges to apply it. The brush, of course must be cleaned every time you switch colors if you want to be able to use your different colors again. This is why call for shows is always at least an hour and a half before curtain. But I've almost forgotten the most annoying part of the entire processÉyou see, I had to wear a wig for this show. A wig that was originally too small for my head (especially when you consider the waist-length hair I had to pin curl and fit under it as well). All because the theater people forgot about me just a little bit. The other two bridesmaids with long hair both got to wear hairpieces instead of full wigs. I unfortunately, was the last bridesmaid they considered when they were doing costume design, and by that time it was close to the show and they realized there weren't going to be enough makeup people to do anyone else's hair. So they decided to just slap a wig on me. It was the ugliest hair creation known to man or woman because by this time all the good wigs were being used for other people. Not only did my wig start out too damn small and have to be stretched (wearing it was never a completely pain-free experience) but it was obvious that it had required the least effort to make. There were three huge curls on either side of my face pretty much covering everything but my nose and mouth-I was the sheepdog bridesmaid! The curls were constantly unraveling because it was impossible to keep from getting them snarled on my costume or other things, and every one of my friends and anyone not on the cast (trying to make me feel better about it) has bluntly expressed to me what a horrible hairpiece it was. On a side note, for anyone still considering a theater production even after that description, make friends with the make up people. It was very obvious at even first glance who had friends in the theater department. Their wigs were pieces of art, while mine and two other just plain music major's wigs were either showing big gaps, horribly matched color-wise (platinum blonde on a brunetteÉ), or in my case, just yucky. Now in their defense, I know the theater department is understaffed, but having to deal with that kind of favoritism is still annoying.
The next theater topic I'd like to touch on is the time commitment. Not only were there the 15 hours of rehearsal every week for two months, but the last three weeks have been a complete and utter hell for me to survive. You all know NATS wiped me out for the entire weekend before tech week. Now imagine our performance schedule--3 shows in as many days, that's 2 hours per show, an hour and a half prep time, and a half hour decostuming afterwards. So that puts me at a grand total of 4 hours out of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We're up to 12 hours accounted for both weekends. Then throw in classes and other requirements like an actual meal Fridays and those are gone. I couldn't sleep after the Friday show both weekends, and so to make up for it, slept in till around 3 pm both Saturdays, and since call was 5:30 to 6 there was just enough time to reheat old pizza or other such interesting leftovers, throw on clothing and head out. Sundays, of course, there is also the added church choir requirement that lasts from 9-11:30 am. Call for Ruddigore was, of course 12:30, so again, just enough time to scarf some food before heading out again. The first weekend it wasn't so bad because I was out by 5 on Sunday and could then try to catch up on all my neglected homework that evening. Today however was another story entirelyÉ Today was STRIKE. That word is in capital letters to try to imply what an enormous hassle it is. You see, STRIKE is where the entire cast and a few theater students pitch in to tear down the set. I say a few theater students because even though there are a lot of them, the majority of their numbers are comprised of little freshmen who stand around in clumps with blank cow in headlight eyes watching you work. Which is actually what some of us cast members do as well, although we are more likely to go up to someone who knows what's going on and ask for work (because we actually are sick of being there and want to go home sometime relatively soon). The other thing you need to appreciate, especially those of you that have done a High School strike, is that the sets are constructed differently in HS and College. In HS, most of the walls are frames with painted linen that you just take apart at the hinges and store backstage to be reused in next year's production. You might have one staircase and a platform that need to be taken apart, and those are usually put together with nice simple nails so all you need for deconstruction is a crowbar. College sets are an entirely different animal. For one thing, all walls are thin plywood stapled to frames made of two-by-fours and decorated with Styrofoam and other nifty trimmings that have to be removed as well. A little more difficult to take apart perhaps? Also, any and all frames in the set, including platforms are put together with screws. Lots and lots of screws--screws in the staircases, screws in the corners, screws holding the platforms to the frames, screws holding the platform frames to the floor. Screws fricking everywhere! And, of course, you need a power screwdriver to deal with so many screws, especially the portable power source ones since that many extension cords are just impossible to deal with. So unless you have a screwdriver, you can't really take apart anything major on the set. There are the non structurally essential materials that have to be removed, most people use pry-bars for such things, my vote generally goes to a swift, well-placed kick. It's much more satisfying after being stuck in the theater for 6 hours. Then there's the back drops that have to be gathered up, and all the lights that must be stowed away in their proper place. Of course the light storage area is an interesting place. For one thing, it's up above the back area of the stage. The only way to access it is by one of two ladders. Yes, you heard me, ladders. Now you can't very well carry big honkin 5-15 pound lights up a ladderÉ So they've devised this pulley system. Two people are at the bottom, one attaches the lights to the rope and the other pulls them up to the person at the top opening. Mind you, this top doorway is just a 5X8 opening into blank space. No guard rails or anything else that resembles a safety feature to keep you from plummeting 20 feet to the stage floor below. I happened to work both the bottom and the top areas of this arrangement. I got some wonderful exercise heaving the lights up with the pulley, and also had quite a bit of fun grappling with my fear of heights. It was at least pleasant that the light crew up in the loft got a bit of a break in between the detachment of all the lights. All in all it wasn't too bad, it could have come off a lot quicker with just a little bit of managerial organization but I survived it. So on to my current pet peeve.
Ok, here's the story. My wonderful music history professor seems to be the only person in the music department staff that didn't realize Ruddigore was going on. As an example, last Monday he gave us a listening quiz. Of course with three days worth or performances to prepare for, none of the people in the cast or the pit orchestra had time to prepare for the quiz. This was a good portion of his class. I personally am pretty sure I flunked it. About half-way through this last week, we got a peeved little email from our professor complaining about how abysmally low the test scores were. As a result he actually decided to re-do the test. Now he has already scheduled the chapter test for this coming Wednesday so the only time the quiz can be fit in to the schedule?? You guessed it, Monday, after the second Ruddigore weekend (plus STRIKE and a supposed cast party). Wanna guess what my second score is going to be? Yeah, I thought so. But at least I'll be able to go to the review session for the Ch test on Tuesday now that I don't have a Ruddigore rehearsal that conflicts. All I have to say before I call it a night is that I have around 6 tests this coming week, and a ton of stress to work off, but at least I will have an extra 3 hours every night in which to do so.
Despite any differing opinions I might have as compared to the rest of the cast (If you happen to know and speak to any of them), I think I speak for everyone when I say, Good riddance to Ruddigore and bring on Thanksgiving break!!!
(PS, whew!! I didn't know I had that much complaining stored up in my system!)
-11/4/2003
Today's rant was brought to you by Sarah
Hey Folks, Sarah here, and I just feel like complaining about how crappy my life is at the moment.
Allow me to recap the last few days. Thursday I left Ames and went to Decorah to compete in a singing
contest. That went fairly well except for the fact that my snoogly ookums couldn't go with me and
so I got NO SLEEP Thursday night. So after running on adrenaline and nerves from 8 am till midnight
Friday, I was finally exhausted enough to sleep for a whole 5 hours before getting back in a car and
going to Cedar Rapids to meet Chase. Once I got there, we almost immediately turned around and did
the two hour trip back to Ames. I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon asleep, and with the
exception of my huge theory exam, church choir, and Ruddigore tech rehearsal, that's all I did Sunday
as well. I was still completely exhausted come Monday. To top all that off, my sweetikins is now
hacking up a lung. I feel really bad for him, but with Ruddigore opening night coming up in 3 days
I can't get sick, therefore no kissing, no cuddling, etc etc etc.... So I've gone through the las
t two days exhausted. Now I'm at that unique point of sleep deprivation where I mix up all the
wordezes in sentences, have to rely on Microsoft spell check to make this readable, and have real
issues with my sence of balance (it's on hiatus). I really don't like being this stressed. Would
everyone please remind me never to do this much shit at once ever again please??? And now I'm gonna
go wash my hair since I haven't since about Sunday. Yes I know my hygienic practices suck.
Toodle oos Sarah
-10/29/2003 (the wee hours o' the morn)
Whoopee for all of you, you get two rants today, 'cause today was just very rantable. >:[
So, I was minding my own business, typing up the first of the two rants for the night (which you can
see below), and at that point it was the only rant that I had for the night. Well, then all of the
sudden the music from Winamp starts sputtering, and my entire freaking computer freezes up. Ok, no
big deal, I didn't have anything written yet anyway. I just turn the thing off, no harm done. I
start 'er back up, and ten minutes later the exact same godamn thing happens again!!! GRRRR!!!
Well, since I promised Dusan that I would have a rant up today, by god I unplugged the damn computer,
and took it over to Em's room. These are both people who have characters in my web comic based off
of them, as they were playing rifts with me for that fated campaign. See if you can guess which ones
they are, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, or, rather, not surprised in the least and not
puzzled for a moment. Anyway, I digress. So, we open my computer up, and lo and behold, there's
dust everywhere. I've never seen this much dust anywhere at once. There were even dog hairs in
there (and believe me, husky hairs are big, fluffy, and get everywhere), and this computer hasn't
been in the presence of my dogs for more than a year. So, we take it all apart, every piece, and
clean all of it up with toothpicks, Q-tips, and water. Then, we put it all back together. All of
this probably took a good hour, hour and a half. When we get it all put back together, and plugged
in, it boots up. Yay! But then there's another problem. The stupid thing doesn't see any of my
drives. Well, ok, it sees my floppy drive, but that's it. So we have to take it apart again. And
lo and behold, I've got the wrong cable connected to my hard drive. So we fix that, and boot it up
again, and it sees the drives. Yay. And then guess what? Yup, blue screen of death. The fabled
blue screen of death. Do you know what that means, boys and girls? It means that we get to take
out all the parts that aren't necessary, and boot it back up, and then keep adding parts one at a
time to see which one caused the problem. And guess which one caused the problemÉ NONE OF THEM!!
So after all that wasted time, finally my computer works again (though one of my ram chips seems
to be inoperative now, but I'm not gonna worry about that.) And you know what the kicker is? I
get to open it up and do it all again when my replacement parts come in, 'cause my parents just
gave me money to update my computer. Yaaay! And argh. And all that good stuff. Anyway, go read
the other rant. It's not nearly so whiny, I swear. I'm goin' to bed.
-10/28/2003
So, my Uncle has this website. It's a very respectable website. He has recently received offers
from other websites to pay for ad space on his website. The other day, in his server logs, he
noticed a lot of traffic referred from another website, a geocities website. He goes to check this
out, and lo and behold, when he enters the URL, sees his website. Apparently, the guy that does this
particular geocities website has framed my uncle's website. This means, basically, that the guy made
his page one big frame and put my uncle's website in it. This is similar to the frame that you are
reading the rant from right now. The frame contains the page www.cs.iastate.edu/~ccaster/rant.hml,
though the page you see in your bar is www.cs.iastate.edu/~ccaster. In this manner, people were
looking at my uncle's page, but seeing a geocities url. This was minorly vexing, but simple enough
to fix. My uncle just added a neat little script to the top of his webpage that looks to see if the
page is in a frame. If it is, it then moves the browser to his page in it's entirety. That way
people looking at the geocities page would be moved directly to my uncle's page, and all the links
would work, and everything would be peachy. But, after a little more research, my uncle discovered
that this geocities person had hidden a real page under his frame that could be viewed with a decoder,
which contained many, many links to the foulest of pornography sites. Every link had the word rape
in the title. It really makes your stomach turn to just look through the links. So, my uncle changed
his script a little, so that, instead of redirecting the browser directly back to his page, it
redirected it to this site,
which is the section of the FBI webpage dealing with child pornography. The owner of the geocities
webpage quickly took down the cover pages. This made his pages just blank, as you couldn't see
anything without the proper decoder. My uncle also sent emails to geocities and the three other
webpages like his that had been used as cover pages about what had been going on. As of yet he has
heard nothing back from these sites. Earlier tonight, the geocities site put its cover pages back
up (including my uncle's which links him to fbi.gov). If nothing more is done about this site, he
will contact the FBI directly, and see that the proper actions are taken. From what I've seen of this code, it is a rather rudimentary, albeit clever method of hiding
pornography. Anyone with a decent background in hacking, or anything to do with that could have
thought of ten much more elegant ways to do this. Another factor that tells me that this person is
inexperienced is the fact that the cover sites he used weren't in on the deal. It made it very easy
for my uncle, with only rudimentary computer knowledge (no offence, Uncle Bill) to figure out what
was going on. AND he did something about it. And then there's the fact that he used
geocities. It all rather reeks amateur, and kind of cries out for this kid to be hacked. At the
very least my uncle should change his script in such a way that it links back to his site with the
code cracked, showing it for what it really is. The code itself is easy to crack, as it is included
in the source code of the webpage, which is another indication that this person is an amateur. This
particular piece of 'hacking' would not be illegal at all except for the fact that a link to this
site is given. But the whole situation makes me want to do something more severe. I am quite
tempted to do some vigilante hacking, and get into this kid's website directories and change stuff
there (such as doing that in order to make the site generally viewable), or go even further and hack
his home computer and do some nasty things to him that way. But seeing as the FBI will hopefully
become involved soon, that might not be such a good idea. But, all in all, this whole thing kinda
puts a sour taste in my mouth about humanity. But at least the perpetrator was a fool and therefore
easily caught, and will hopefully be easily put to justice.
-10/16/2003
Some of you may have had me try to convince you of the existence of a bipedal ape in the forests of
North America, i.e. Bigfoot or Sasquatch. I fervently believe this animal exists, and that large
scale scientific studies of such an animal would teach us an amazing amount about where we came from,
especially if the rumors that they actually have a fully developed spoken language are true. I
believe these animals exist because of the vast amount of evidence in the form of hundreds (if not
thousands) of eyewitness reports dating back to the initial exploration of the North American
Continent (and even further back than that, if you count Native American legends), but my believe
is counter to the norm. Sasquatch is something that the American tabloids have made into a joke.
Anyone who believes that these animals exist - especially if they claim to have seen one themselves -
are by and large considered crazy. If you would like to see more information of a scientific fashion
about the north American great ape, take a look at the link on my webpage entitled 'Bigfoot Field
Researchers Organization', it has a lot of high quality scientific information on the subject. But
showing you this link is not the purpose of my rant today. Today I wanted to alert all of you to the
presence of an article on CNN.COM (and if that's not a reputable source, I don't know what is)
about a mystery ape found in Africa. You can find the article itself here,
or alternatively through the BFRO website. This article details evidence found in Africa by
legitimate scientists of a new, as of yet unidentified and unclassified primate. The hard evidence
includes hair and scat samples complete with mitochondrial DNA, as well as some photographs and video
evidence, as well as a skull of the animal. If you find this interesting, there is also another
article here
detailing research and evidence in the favor of the Sumatran Yeti, also known as Orang Pendek. If
Two such specimens of primate (and quite possibly ape), which have much coverage in the local folklore
can have evaded scientist conducting actual rigorous research in the wilderness areas, then perhaps
it is possible that we have overlooked a giant ape in our own forests, of which there is much evidence,
but absolutely no rigorous scientific research. Many of the forests in America are every bit as
remote and unexplored as the vast rainforests of Africa and Sumatra. Just maybe, some day soon, all
of us quacks that believe in Sasquatch will get our vindication.
-10/3/2003
REVENGE!!!!!!!
I want to apologize straight away to those of you who have no clue how Kings of Chaos works, because
if you don't today's rant won't make much sense to you. (Not that anyone actually reads this crap
anyway...) But if you have questions, that's what the tagboard's for, right? Heh, maybe then
somebody other than myself will use it... But I digress. Back to the subject of revenge. Revenge
is sweet. About a week or so ago (last weekend, in fact, I believe), I had attacked a few dozen
people, and stolen large sums of money from them (95k+ gold), which is pretty standard for Kings of
Chaos. Hell, I've had 180k gold stolen from me and I didn't bat an eye. But this one guy...
_-krewsayda-_'s his name, so right away that should tell you something... Anyway, he decided to get
all high and mighty on me, and sabotaged almost all of my defenses. I went from 180,000 or so
defense to around 800 defense. I know what you're thinking, "what a little bastard!", right? Ok,
so maybe it's closer to "gee, I'm kinda hungry", but anyway, yes, he is a little bastard. So I
decided to teach this little bastard a lesson. Now my spy skill was already about 1000 times bigger
than his (which makes it confusing as to how he could sabotage my stuff in the first place..), and
before selling off all the rest of my stuff that he hadn't sabotaged, I got enough money to upgrade
my spy skill one last time. And believe me, that wasn't cheap. I believe it cost me around 700k.
But I'm just so awesome that I didn't have any trouble doing that, even with all my sabotaged weapons
and stuff. I then reassigned all of my soldiers but one to spy duty, and sold all of my weapons and
armor, and bought one knife. I then proceeded to sabotage every damn thing that guy had, and
attacked him with my one soldier with a knife. The attack, by the way, is what actually broke the
weapons after I sabotaged them. Revenge is sweeeeeet. Ok, now I've bragged about my successful
plot. I feel better now. I'll go away and leave you all to do whatever more important things you
have to do.
-9/22/2003
Today's rant was brought to you by Geoffrey
Hoorah!! The primary reason that I have created this webpage has been fulfilled! I have been
immortalized in Lego form!
My plan has almost come full circle. I shall soon be ruling the world. You can all begin
paying your respect to me in the form of shiny presents. I now must spread my lego likeness
across the world, and then begins the subliminal messaging... And the brain-chemicals in the
drinking water... I'm so close now! I just hope that nobody figures out that the me-worshipping
chemicals are triggered by greed and sloth and malice, and counteracted by compassion and logic.
What am I thinking, this is America! They will all be my slaves!! An army of fat lazy
bastards!! I will be unstoppable! And if anyone rebels, I'll just accuse them
of being homosexual... Or terrorists... Or just Islamic. I'll replace the president with a
chimpanzee and no one will notice! THE WORLD SHALL BE MINE!!! All those who oppose me shall be
crushed under the giant fat ass of America!! I'm so awesome...
-9/21/2003
So, I was reading an article on The New York Times website about downloading music earlier. It was
talking about how students aren't understanding how it is morally wrong to download music. Well, in
my opinion that's complete bullshit. I think I'm a pretty moral person, I don't like to do
anything that will hurt anyone else. But there's nothing in my moral code against keeping
myself from being gouged by the record companies. It costs them maybe 2 or 3 dollars to make
a CD, the recording sessions with the band included. And yet they sell them to us for 15 or 20
dollars, , except for the reprinted ones which they only had to pay a few royalties and
production costs, costing them probably a few cents per CD, and those they still sell to us
for ten. If anything, before I went to college and no longer had the money to buy CD's, I was buying
400% more CD's after I discovered Napster and discovered artists that I like through that medium.
The new technologies surrounding file sharing and music downloading have more potential to help
the music industries, and especially the 90% of good musicians nobody knows about than to make them
loose money. When it comes down to it, music trade helps the artists (minus perhaps the triple
platinum ones who get millions upon millions anyway), and takes away perhaps 10% of the billions
the record companies (and triple platinum recording artists) make. Hmm... lets think about this...
it helps the artists who need the money to eat, and makes the unbelievably rich just a little less
so. Sounds like a fair trade off to me.
But this article
says it better than I could. So everybody should go read it, and download music, and boycott the
American recording industry.
-9/19/2003
Avast ye landlubbers!!! Keelhaul yer mateys t' the gangplank and lash yer booty to the
poopdeck!! Yar. A happy talk like a pirate day to all of ye. Yar. It's freaking cold
out there. Yar...
-9/17/2003
Today's rant was brought to you by Mervin
hmm... so I've read up on it a little bit, and found the part of the brain that produces melanin,
the chemical which makes us sleepy. If I cut it out, I'll be able to stay up as long as I want!!!
HAHAHA!!! Take that spider monkeys!!! My brain is my own property!!! I've got a knife right here,
in my hand while simultaneously in the back of my head!!! aaaah, the pain demons are out for my
precious jellies!!! Oh wait, melanin is skin pigment... It's something else that starts with an m...
something with an m and then an l... AH, it's seratonin!!! That's what I've got to cut out of my
head!!! Wait, that doesn't start with an m at all...
-9/15/2003
Well, I was looking around at the New York Times, trying to find something that I could rant
about. I thought about ranting about the whole Iraq thing, or the California Governor stuff,
or maybe all the crap the RIAA is putting music fans through, but I was just too freaking
tired to sort out any coherant thoughts about any of that stuff. So I'll just rant about that.
It's really awful when you get less than 6 or 7 hours of sleep every night during the week, and
then over the weekend get even less. And unless I decide to give up a social life entirely, it
looks as though this trend may continue. Hell, even if I did give up a social life (which I'll
probably have to do to get all my homework done anyway), I still won't be able to get more
than a few hours more sleep. Freaking sleep. I really wish I didn't need to sleep. I'd get so
much more done. There, I've ranted. I feel better. In theory...
-9/14/2003
Hooraay!
OK, I know it seems kind of weird to start out my rant like that, when my last rant was about
death. But I can't help it. I simplified the maintenence of my website about 10 times by
switching everything to frames. It took me for-freaking-ever to get everything worked out,
but I've finally got almost everything fixed up. You'll notice, no doubt, that the frame
that this rant is in (not to mention various other frames) is really small. I'm working on
finding a solution for that, but it might take me a while. If anyone has any suggestions, let
me know. I've now got a tagboard up, so you can give me instant feedback. You can access it
through the link under 'The Me's'. Look down and left. Anyway, I made my website more elegant
on my end, and I'm working on making it nicer for all two of you who actually read this. Use
my tagboard. And please let me know if there are any typos or dead links anywhere in this site
so I can fix them.
-9/12/2003
Johnny Cash died today. I find it very sad that his last great acheivement, his powerful
cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, was nominated for the useless MTV Music Awards
and lost to a song by Justin Timberlake. Justin Timberlake went up to the podium and complained
about the fact that it was a travesty that Johnny Cash didn't win, and then took the award for
himself. Boy, I'll be he feels like an ass now. Johnny Cash wasn't able to attend the awards
because he was battling with the illness that killed him early this morning. This, my friends,
is why I pay as little attention as possible to today's popular music.
